Fun little story, and enjoyed the historical flavor. I imagine the Pelican is experienced enough to avoid cannon-armed warships, but would readily prey upon lifeboats full of largely weaponless men and likely the smaller merchant vessels that also lacked cannon. I was kind of expecting to read of her ejecting the somewhat crushed remains of the lifeboats and perhaps the clothing of the men as a gastric pellet, though if this had been a gigantic duck instead, I would imagine the wooden boats ground up to fibers in the powerful gizzard and passed through the digestive system. Of course, in a world of gigantic boat eating pelicans, Venice may have never became a great maritime power, not to mention ocean exploration in general. But perhaps the giant Pelicans are a recent development, perhaps the work of Turkish sorcerers as revenge on the Christian infidels after their devastating defeat at Lepanto! Thanks for sharing!

Nice story. I like how you describe how cramped up the space inside the pelican is with all the prey in it ^^