8 October 2027
Friday. Asked tonight’s crew how many escape rooms they had done. None. Asked last night’s crew. None. It seems my ship is where people come to learn.
I did not build a galleon to be a school. I built it to be feared. Yet the beginners keep coming, and the management keeps sending them, because they say my ship is fair: everything a prisoner needs is out where they can see it, and the trick is putting it together.
I would like it known that in plain sight is how I hide everything. It is the bold way. The cowardly pirate buries his treasure; the bold one leaves it on the table and dares you. My prisoners have taken the dare rather too often.
One crew of first-timers told me they had come to my ship to practise before trying my island shanty. Practise! As if I were the warm-up act.
Scarface says the beginners always leave smiling. I said that is the problem. He said that is the point. We are not speaking at present.
— Captain Calico Jack, Terror of the Seas (all of them)
