Blackwater Cove

There is a passage in the admiralty records of the colonial maritime authority that describes Blackwater Cove as "a harbour of significant natural advantages and entirely inadequate moral character." The writer intended this as a condemnation. The people of Blackwater Cove had it printed on a broadsheet and posted outside the harbormaster's office, where a framed copy has hung ever since.

Geography

Blackwater Cove takes its name from the peculiar quality of the water in the inner harbor, which runs visibly darker than the open sea outside, the result of tannic acid leaching from dense mangrove forests combined with the depth and shadowing of the surrounding headlands. On overcast days, the harbor looks nearly black. At night, it doesn't look like anything at all, which historically has been useful.

The cove itself is a near-perfect natural harbor: deep water to the headlands, a narrow entrance limiting approach to single file, high ground on both flanks giving defenders effective command of anyone attempting to enter without invitation.

History

The original settlement was not a town but a camp, a temporary anchorage used by Spanish treasure fleet navigators who discovered the cove's value as hurricane shelter. The camp became semi-permanent, attracted people with reasons to prefer semi-permanent camps over proper towns, and the pattern established itself early. By the early seventeenth century, Blackwater Cove had acquired the basic infrastructure of a working port: a chandlery, a sailmaker, two taverns, and a physician of disputed qualifications.

Three colonial expeditions were mounted over the seventeenth century to establish formal authority. All three found the harbor more difficult to approach than anticipated, the population less cooperative than hoped, and the return on investment insufficient to justify a fourth attempt.

The Town

The Black Lantern Tavern is the oldest, largest, and most reliably open establishment in the Cove, a sprawling, multi-story structure that has been added to in at least six different architectural styles over three centuries. Its locked cabinet of documents behind the barkeep's counter the current proprietor will neither confirm nor deny exists.

The Market runs along the harborfront road on non-sailing days, with vendors selling goods of origins that are not discussed and quality that is generally quite good. The Fortress on the eastern headland is the meeting place of the Cove Council, the informal governing body whose two non-negotiable rules are: no violence against Cove residents within the harbor, and no informing to the colonial authorities about other residents' activities.