In Captain J. Ward’s

My Lyfe Amonge The Pyrates, there is frequent mention of Captain Ward’s own ship. This of course to lend credence and reality to so much fantastical element, but also to forge a legend in and of itself. 

Julia knew full well that if she ever wished to utilize her book as a method of recruitment there would need to be some things to prove her claims as the author – and the foremost among those things was the ship itself. Though in the book, Hope’s Song bears no name ( just as Captain Ward holds no actual description ) there are a few notable things about her that would be difficult to replicate. 

The figurehead of the ship is mentioned as having been carved with skill to match Michelangelo – and indeed, the angel that cuts the Song’s path through the waves looks as though it might have been taken from St. Peter’s Basilica, with detailed drapery shrouding the androgynous form, and wings arching back into the hull of the ship, impossibly long and serving as detail along the wood. The eyes stare unseeingly ahead, a sword held at the ready in one hand and another outstretched and clasping on to an equally ornate lantern. In later years, when Julia changes ships, the Song’s angel is transferred with great care and affixed to Angel’s Mercy, seeming to be the reason for the ship’s name. 

Below decks, everything is painted white and teal, with unnecessarily ornate detailing throughout that is repaired by artists aboard and ashore as needed when the ship takes on damage – due to varying styles over the years, those details have a unique quality to them that cannot be replicated – and while the book notates some of the contributors, there is enough information granted to make it clear that what has been withheld can also be verified if necessary, by the legitimate guilds involved in crafting the ship’s interior. 

When Julia had to retire the Song, she approached those guilds again and had the Mercy done up again, and pieces drawn out of the Song to set into the Mercy and keep those lost stories alive. For the details themselves are paintings and carvings dictating adventures not yet immortalized by books, stories that may only ever be told by the wood of Captain Ward’s ship, and serve as a visual account for the Song and the Mercy’s travels.