Captain Kujira guided Jack and Li Ling down to the Killer Whale’s gun deck. The wooden beams were blackened with soot and the tang of burnt gunpowder hung permanently in the air. An impressive array of cannon lined both sides of the ship, their muzzles protruding into the bars of sunlight that flooded in through the open portholes. The pirate crew, with their muscular torsos bare and grime-streaked, obediently awaited the captain’s order to commence firing.

‘Heaven and Earth won us the battle against the Sea Samurai,’ Captain Kujira said smugly, patting the first two cannon of the starboard row.

Jack gave him a quizzical look.

‘This here is Earth,’ he explained, admiring the long iron barrel of the first cannon with a bore the size of a man’s fist. ‘And this is Heaven.’ Roughly a third longer with a calibre twice as large, the second gun looked as formidable and destructive as any European 24-pounder culverin. The two types of artillery repeated themselves in pairs down the length of the ship.

‘But this one’s my pride and joy,’ announced Captain Kujira, approaching a mammoth gun facing out of the bow. ‘Crouching Tiger. This beast will hull anything, even an atake-bune!’

Jack and Li Ling were awed by the sheer dimensions of the weapon. Mounted upon a reinforced carriage, its barrel was broad and stout as a temple column and dominated the gun deck. Piled beside it was iron shot the size of small boulders and Jack had little doubt that a direct hit at the waterline from one of these would sink any vessel.

‘We captured these weapons from a Korean battleship,’ Captain Kujira went on. ‘Such firepower gives us an advantage over the Sea Samurai. You see, they still fight as if they’re on land. Their standard tactics are to launch a salvo of arrows, then approach close enough to board and battle hand-to-hand. But we favour bombardment, keeping our enemy at bay until they’re too damaged and weak to fight back. Such long-distance artillery skills, however, require practice.’

He peered out through a porthole.

‘Good, our target’s gone far enough. Starboard battery to your stations!’

The pirates broke into well-drilled activity. The barrels were cleaned with a dry rammer, then charged with gunpowder. Once packed down, a second round of powder was put into the chamber. Then a wad of paper was inserted and rammed home. The barrel was swabbed out before a cannonball was gently rolled into place. But not all the guns were loaded with round shot. The pirate crew nearest Jack lifted a heavy iron-tipped arrow with thick leather flights into the muzzle of their cannon.