Several hours after leaving port, the SS Raven sped into open waters, the lookout calling out that they had a tail gaining on them. Nestlee, at the ships helm, barked orders to his crew as the prototype ship tried to outrun not one, but five unidentified vessels.
"Blackbird!" Called out Nestlee. "We may need your gauntlets! Get ready to punch cannonballs out of the air!" Blackbird nodded and donned his gauntlets. As the SS Raven sped across the water, two smaller ships appeared on either side of them. Both fired a volley of cannonballs at the SS Raven. However, the prototype ship was far more agile than the smaller-proven vessels. Nestlee managed to keep majority of the cannonballs from slamming into the ship while Blackbird parried the cannonballs into the sea.
As Nestlee took stock of the situation, he knew they'd never out run so many ships, not unless he made a reckless decision. "ALL HANDS! WE'RE STORM RIDING! MAN YOUR POSITIONS!" Yelled out the twinkish-captain. Sailors got Gale, Ryowolf, and the Bishop below deck. Meanwhile, the sailors and Blackbird assisted Nestlee as he steered the SS Raven straight towards a violent storm brewing over the open ocean. Pulling a series of levers, switches, and sprockets, the SS Raven pulled ahead of their unknown enemies, heading for a massive squall. The once calm water became choppy, then extreme violent. Nestlee, Blackbird, and the crew did everything they could to keep from being launched overboard.
Putting on his pioneer goggles, Nestlee navigated the ship into the first wall of the storm... only to emerge on the other side to find this squall to be the mother of all storms. Water spouts spun violent on the water's surface, while a massive maelstrom threaten to plunge any unlucky vessel down to Davey Jones' locker. Lightning ripped across the sky as the small prototype ship gunned it with the current. The hull of the ship creaked and groaned, Nestlee yelled as he locked the rudder hard right. He kept the SS Raven just out of the maelstrom's reach. However, the fifth ship had now entered the storm. It was a massive ship. At least 4 stories tall, and several hundred cannons, all perfectly aimed to launch a full volley at the SS Raven.
With a thunderous boom of all 397 left-facing cannons, a furious volley of cannonballs ripped across the stormy skies and splashed all around the SS Raven, with ten of them making successful punches through the prototype ship's hull. A few crew members rushed to patch the holes while Nestlee pulled away from the Maelstrom's current. However, before the small ship could get away... a large harpoon with a chain-link line punched into the hull of SS Raven, and began reeling them back toward the maelstrom. "BLACKBIRD! PUNCH OUT THAT HARPOON OR WE'RE DEAD!" Yelled out Nestlee, trying to keep the ship from being towed backward.
Blackbird rushed below deck and located the harpoon. He began punching it with all is might, loosening its grip. However, even if Blackbird did break it loose, the SS Raven had lost too much speed... or had it? Nestlee pulled a level, revealing controls for a some kind of sterling reciprocal engine. As he throttled forward, twin sterling engines began to drive two propellers below the ship. the more pressure those two engines built up, the greater the driving force the propellers had. "C'mon...C'MON!" Yelled out Nestlee as this game of oceanic tug-of-war began to turn in their favor. Sails were great, so long as the wind was in your favor... but in a storm, winds rapidly change direction, putting the massive ship at a huge disadvantage.
Between Nestlee's sterling engines and Blackbird's efforts to break the harpoon loose, the chain-link line snapped under the strain. The SS Raven shot like a cannonball loaded with too much gun powder across the rough seas. However, rather than a face of fear, Nestlee's eyes were alive with excitement. "SO LONG, CHOWDER BAIT!" He yelled out laughing as the SS Raven vanished out of view through the backside of the storm, escaping capture for the time being.