"The Voyage of the Dark Horse" is the title I was going to give to my story.

It starts out in 1811, a young man getting off a merchant vessel, being met by his uncle's family and taken to the family's plantation.

While there, the uncle, who is "minding" the plantation on behalf of his deceased brother until this nephew can take over, learns of his nephew's desire to buy an old brig, fix it up, and become his own merchantman. The uncle travels with him to view the vessel, goes over his nephew's plans for it and for making money, and finances the purchase.

The protagonist outfits, provisions and man's the ship, and starts out making a healthy profit. He modifies it to A) be able to travel faster/closer to the wind and B) carry heavier armament to defend against pirates.

When the war breaks out, he becomes a privateer, operating out of Baltimore. One of the tasks he's given is to transport gunpowder and flints to New Orleans, escorting two unarmed cargo vessels, as well.

As they approach New Orleans, they encounter three British Man O'War's. The Dark Horse escapes the encounter by ducking into an early morning fog bank.

When the ship emerges from the fog bank, it nearly collides with another vessel, a four master. The crew is shocked to see that the name of the ship is "The Lady Washington". To the north sails a relic from the Revolution, The U.S.S. Constitution. So distracted are they by the sight of these vessels, that they nearly collide with the U.S. Coast Guard cutter escorting them. Sounding collision and reversing her engines at the last minute, the cutter manages to avoid the collision. The captain is a bit put out with the radar operator for not foreseeing the Dark Horse sooner.

Yes, the ship has sailed into the year 2014, and encountered a "Freedom Flotilla", sailing from Ft McHenry down to New Orleans in commemoration of the two respective battles.
The Coast Guard escort, later replaced by regular Naval escort, is necessary due to jihadist promises to sink the Constitution.

The rest of the story continues with the realization that these are not simply re-enactors, as on the other vessels of the flotilla (the fully armed cannon kind of gave that away), and until the Navy can figure out what to do about it, the Dark Horse is incorporated into the fleet. On the journey, the fleet stops at various naval bases along the coast, and the crew get a chance to see what became of the nation, including the stunning sight of Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.

One of the cutter's crewmen, being a history buff, has begun doing research on the Dark Horse. He learns of the ship's desertion. The result of that desertion was that the two escort vessels were sunk; which didn't ultimately matter because Jackson got his gun powder and flints from Lafitte. But, considering the successful record of the ship against pirates, he can't figure out why the captain of the Dark Horse chose to run.

During a celebration, the now comradely crews of the Dark Horse and cutter exchange flags. The next day, the jihadist make good on their threat as the fleet puts to sea, attacking with speedboats out of nowhere.

The cutter does her best to fend them off, and the navy sends planes and ships to the rescue, but not before one of the speedboats tries to ram the cutter. The captain of the Dark Horse, already alert, manages to intercept the speedboat, ramming it just off-course of the cutter. He then turns his ship close to the wind,and fires on another boat heading to ram the Constitution, destroying it.

Then the Dark Horse raises all sail and races away from the fleet... into the approaching fog bank, disappearing utterly.

The Coast Guard officer, during his leave, goes down to New Orleans and does some record research, and diving. He finds the wreckage of the Dark Horse, with one body aboard at the wheel... draped in a 50-star flag.
The powder and flints Jackson got from Lafitte, he learns, were actually from the two cargo vessels that got through while the Dark Horse took on the 3 British warships.
And the captain ran away the "first" time... because in order to finance the purchase, his uncle had mortgaged the plantation. If the ship were lost, his uncle would have been ruined.

Anyway, that's the outline I had of the story; I've left out a few details. But I just don't know enough to write a decent yarn out of it, especially by September.


(and yes, in spirit this is a sequel to "The Final Countdown" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdHNfpYx...)