The full moon washed the salty decks with light, making redundant the lamp that swung from an overhead spar, casting its feeble rays erratically over the deck.  Able Seaman Henry Wilkes took another swig of rum and replaced the flask in his pocket.  Captain Blackheart was strict about his men drinking on duty, but he was safe in his bed and Henry needed something to warm his bones against the chill of the damp sea air. 

It was a perfect night.  The sea was calm and the rolling swell seemed to be gently rocking the ship to sleep, whilst the waves lapped a soothing lullaby against the wooden hull.  Henry leaned against the great wheel and watched the silver moonbeams dancing on the tops of the waves.  He enjoyed night watch; he could be alone with his thoughts, the sea and the stars.  Lately, there had been some trouble with the night watch.  Three men had recently fallen overboard on calm, stormless nights.  There was talk about ghosts and the crew preferred to face the lash than volunteer for night watch.  But Henry had stepped forward calmly.  He did not believe in ghosts.  He guessed, shrewdly, at night terrors caused by strange shadows, sounds and imagination.  Henry took pride in his own lack of imagination.   

Which is why he knew that the figure he now saw, at the far end of the deck, was not a figment of his imagination.  It looked as if something had climbed over the prow and was now approaching him.  Henry screwed up his eyes and peered into the night.  The silvery moonlight and the roll of the ship created strange, distorting shadows and it took him a moment to perceive that the shape was human.  It was the figure of a woman - tall, at least ten feet high, with long flowing hair and she walked with the rolling, swaggering gait of an experienced sailor.  If he didn't know better he would have sworn that the ship's figurehead had come to life and was walking towards him.   

As she drew nearer he could see that it was indeed the ship's figurehead.  She was naked from the waist up, as he was used to seeing her, but, from the waist down, she was dressed in a sailor's canvas trousers and long leather boots with folded down tops.  From a distance she looked human but, as the moonlight fell full on her face, he could see the cracked paint peeling away from the wood and, as she walked, she creaked like the boards of the ship.  She joined him at the wheel house, towering above him. 

 “Good evening matey,” she said in a deep, hearty voice, “Have you got a drop of rum about you?”  Henry handed her the flask and she took a hearty swig.  “Aah, that does you good.” she proclaimed, wiping her mouth with the back of her wooden hand.  She gazed out over the silver-tipped waves.  “Beautiful night, ain't it, matey?”  Henry agreed that it was a beautiful night.  The figurehead looked at him in approval.  “You´re a lot steadier than those other lubbers.  A person only has to say 'hello' to them and they're jumping overboard like frightened rats.”  She chuckled at the memory.

“What´s your name, matey?”  she asked.  Henry told her.  “Well, Henry Wilkes,” she boomed, slapping him on the back “You´re alright, and I guess you deserve to be left in peace.  Time to get back to work anyway.  Thanks for the rum, matey.”  She turned around, swaggered back down the heaving deck, clambered over the prow and disappeared.

 Henry stood there, thoughtfully, for a few minutes.  Then he lashed the wheel, grabbed the lamp and ran to the front of the ship.  Leaning over, he shone the beam onto the face of the figurehead.  There she was as she had always been - wooden, paint cracked and peeling and motionless.  Henry walked slowly back to the wheel, rubbing his beard thoughtfully.  Back at his position he pulled the flask of rum from his pocket and uncorked it.  He was just about to take a swig when he stopped, looked at it thoughtfully and looked again towards the prow of the ship.  He gazed out at the sea, and raised his arm as if to fling the flask into the dark, silent depths.  He paused, then put the flask back into his pocket and shrugged.  He unlashed the wheel of the ship and resumed his quiet scrutiny of the waves.