The Log of a Privateersman

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER THREE.

  OUR FIRST SUCCESS.

  "That settles the matter for good and all!" exclaimed the skipper, nowin rare good-humour, as he pointed to the Indiaman's stern. "Up withyour helm, my man," to the man at the wheel; "let her go broad off. Wewill pass under the Indiaman's stern, and board her from to leeward.Away aloft there and let fall the topsail, some of you. Mr Lovell, youwill take twenty men--I don't suppose there are above forty Frenchmenaboard that craft--and board by the main and mizzen chains as we touch.You will have to be smart about it, as I do not want to remainalongside, grinding the schooner's side to pieces, a moment longer thanis absolutely necessary. Take the ship; and, as soon as you havesecured possession and driven the prize crew below, haul your wind,keeping us between you and the lugger. The moment that you and yourparty are aboard I shall haul off; and you may leave me to deal withthat fellow to windward. You will make the best of your way toWeymouth, of course. See that your men freshen the priming of theirpistols at once; and then station them, half by the main rigging, andhalf by the fore, ready to jump at the word."

  "Ay, ay, sir!" responded Lovell, as he hastened away to select histwenty men. The topsail was by this time sheeted home, and the men weremast-heading the yard. The skipper sprang upon the rail, steadyinghimself by the weather main swifter, to con our schooner alongside; andI, in obedience to an order from him, went forward and gave the word forthose who were not of the boarding-party to arm themselves with muskets,and pick off any of the Frenchmen who might show their heads above therail.

  It took us less than ten minutes to close with the Indiaman; and as weranged up on her lee quarter and swept alongside a party of some ten ora dozen jabbering and gesticulating Frenchmen jumped up on her poop andsaluted us with an irregular fire of musketry, which, however, did noharm; and upon our people returning the fire three of the Frenchmenfell, while the rest tumbled off the poop in such a desperate hurry thatour fellows were fairly convulsed with laughter. The skipper conned usalongside in such a masterly style that I do not believe the hulls ofthe two vessels actually touched at all--at least, I was unconscious ofany shock--yet we were close enough for the two boarding-parties tospring with ease and certainty from our rigging into the Indiaman'schannels; and the next moment, as they tumbled in over the ship's rail,our helm was eased up, and the vessels sheered apart, without havingcarried away so much as a rope-yarn. There was a tremendous scuffle onthe Indiaman's deck for perhaps half a minute, with a great popping ofpistols, the sound of heavy blows, cheers from our lads, loudexecrations on the part of the Frenchmen, a shriek or two of pain atsome well-directed cut or thrust, then a rush forward, during which weremained some twenty fathoms to leeward of the Indiaman, ready to sheeralongside again and render assistance if necessary; and then Lovellsprang up on the poop and hailed that he had secured possession of theship, and would haul his wind as soon as he could get in the studding-sails. Thereupon our helm was put hard up, and we wore short round,bracing sharp up on the starboard tack to intercept the lugger, whichcraft was now foaming along under all the canvas that she could spread.

  She was a big lump of a craft, of her class, measuring, according to myestimation, fully a hundred and fifty tons; and she appeared to be veryfast. It was light enough by this time, what with the increasingdaylight and the clearing away of the fog, for us to see that shemounted four guns--probably six-pounders--of a side, and there wassomething very like a long nine-pounder covered over by a tarpaulin,between her fore and mainmasts. She was well to windward of us, andpresently crossed our bows at a distance of about a mile. We, ofcourse, at once tacked, and, letting the schooner go along clean full,so as to head off the lugger, set our topgallant-sail and small gaff-topsail.

  We rapidly neared each other, the _Dolphin_ gradually edging away as thelugger fore-reached upon us, until only half a mile of water divided thetwo craft. Then we saw that her people were busy with the mysteriousobject between her masts, and presently, sure enough, a long nine-pounder, mounted upon a pivot, stood revealed. Five minutes later theytried a shot at us from this same piece--the ball from which struck thewater some five fathoms astern of us,--and at the same time hoisted theFrench tricolour. We responded by running our ensign up to the gaff,but reserved our fire for a while, the skipper having as yet had noopportunity of finding out our lads' capabilities with the guns. Atlength, however, having edged up to within a quarter of a mile of thelugger, and having conclusively demonstrated our superiority of sailing,Captain Winter gave orders that our larboard broadside should becarefully levelled and trained upon the lugger's mainmast; and whilethis was being done she fired her starboard broadside at us, one of theshot from which passed through our mainsail, while another struck ourfore-topmast about a foot above the topsail-halliard sheave-hole,bringing down the upper part of the spar and the topgallant-sail.

  The Frenchmen's cheers at this success were still floating down to us,when, having personally supervised the levelling and training of ourguns, I gave the order to fire. Sharp at the word, our broadside rangout; and as the smoke blew over us and away to leeward the lugger'smainmast was seen to suddenly double up, as it were, in the middle, theupper portion toppling over to leeward and carrying the sail with itinto the water, while the foresail began to flap furiously in the wind,the sheet having been shot away.

  "Hurrah, men! capitally done!" shouted the skipper; "you have her now,"as the lugger, under her mizzen only, shot up into the wind, plungingheavily. "Ready about! and stand by to rake her with your starboardbroadside as we cross her stern. Helm's a-lee! Load your port gunsagain as smartly as you please, my lads. Topsail haul! Stand by, thestarboard battery, and give it her as your guns are brought to bear!Away aloft there, a couple of hands, and clear the wreck of thetopgallant-mast!"

  The _Dolphin_, tacking as fast as the men could haul round the yards,without losing headway for an instant, went round like a top, and inless than half a minute was crossing the lugger's stern. There wastremendous confusion on board, her crew, to the number of some thirty orforty, rushing about her decks,--as we could now plainly see,--apparently undecided what to do next. At the proper moment ourstarboard broadside was fired, and the great white, jagged patch thatinstantly afterwards appeared in the lugger's transom showed that prettynearly, if not quite all, the shot had taken effect.

  "Well aimed, men!" cried the skipper in an ecstasy of delight. "That isthe way to bring them to their senses. Ready about again! And stand byto give them your port broadside. Helm's a-lee!"

  Round swept the _Dolphin_ again, and presently we were once morecrossing the stern of the lugger, the confusion on board being, as itseemed, greater than ever. We were by this time within a quarter of amile of our antagonist, and again our broadside, discharged at preciselythe right moment, told with terrible effect on board the lugger, notonly raking her from stem to stern, but also bringing down her fore andmizzen-masts. And all this time they had not replied to our fire with asingle gun.

  Standing on for a distance of about a cable's length, the _Dolphin_again tacked, this time fetching far enough to windward to have enabledus to cross the lugger's bows had we desired to do so. Instead of that,however, Captain Winter gave orders to keep away and pass close underher stern, the starboard broadside being all ready to pour into her ifneed were. Captain Winter's orders were, however, not to fire until hegave the word. Reaching along on an easy bowline, we were soon on thelugger's starboard quarter, and within biscuit-toss of the vessel, whenthe skipper ordered the topsail to be laid aback, and as, withdiminished way, we drifted fair athwart the lugger's stern, in aposition admirably adapted for raking her from end to end, he spranginto the starboard main rigging, and hailed in French, asking whetherthey surrendered. A man, who looked like the captain, standing near thedeserted wheel, looked at us intently for a few seconds, and then,observing that we were all ready to give him our starboard broadside,answered in the affirmative; whereupon our people, several of whom had asmattering of French, ga
ve three hearty cheers as they dropped thelanyards of their locks to the deck, and laid down their rammers,sponges, and hand-spikes.

  "Take the starboard cutter, Mr Bowen, and ten men, and go on board totake possession," said the skipper. "Cut away the wreckage as soon asyou have secured the crew below, and then send the boat back with acouple of hands, and be ready to receive a tow-line from us. We shallhave to take you in tow, as I see that the Indiaman is now on a wind;and I have no fancy for leaving either her or you to make your way intoport unprotected. As soon as you are fast to us, set your men to workto get up jury-masts, if you find that there are any spars aboardsuitable for the purpose. There is a fine breeze blowing now, and if wehave luck we ought to get into harbour to-night, prizes and all."

  "Ay, ay, sir," answered I. "The carpenter had better come with us, hadhe not? I expect we shall want his help in rigging our jury-masts."

  "Yes, certainly," assented the skipper; "take him by all means."

  "Thank you, sir," said I as I turned away. "Now then," I continued,"ten of you into the starboard cutter, lads, as quick as you like. Andtake your cutlasses and pistols with you. Come along, Chips, my man;get your tools, and tumble them into the boat."

  Ten minutes later we were on board the lugger, which proved to be the_Belle Jeannette_, of Saint Malo, and a very fine craft she was, as wesaw, when we stood upon her broad, roomy deck. She mounted nine guns,eight of them being long sixes, while the ninth was the long nine-pounder between the fore and mainmast. I was astonished to see whathavoc our shot had wrought, the deck and bulwarks being broadly streakedand splashed with blood, while each gun had its own little group of twoor three killed and wounded lying about it. All three of her masts hadbeen shot away, as already stated; and, in addition to this, her sterntransom was regularly torn to pieces, one of the jagged and splinteredholes being quite large enough for me to have passed through it had Ibeen so minded. Three spokes of the wheel had been shot away, and itwas a wonder to me, as I marked the path of our shot along the torn andsplintered deck, that the whole concern had not been destroyed. Thecompanion was badly damaged and started; and as for the cabin skylight,there was very little of it left.

  The crew--the few of them who could still stand, that is to say--hadthrown down their arms and gone forward on to the forecastle uponhearing their skipper state that he surrendered, and there we found themwhen we boarded our prize. The skipper himself--a rather fine-lookingman, some thirty-five years of age, with piercing black eyes, curlyblack hair and beard, and large gold ear-rings in his ears--had, ofcourse, remained aft; and when I sprang over the bulwarks, in on deck,he advanced toward me, and handing me his sheathed sword, remarkedrather bitterly:

  "Accept my sword, monsieur, and with it my congratulations upon yourgood fortune in having secured two such valuable prizes. The Indiamanherself is not to be despised, but I was a fool not to let her go when Isaw that her capture was inevitable. I believe we could have escapedyou had we hauled our wind when we first made you out; but, as it is, Ihave lost not only my prize but also my ship and the chest of speciewhich we took the precaution of removing from the Indiaman last night.You are certain to find it, as it is lying beneath the table in mycabin, so I may as well make a virtue of necessity and tell you of it atonce. Perhaps, under the circumstances, monsieur will be generousenough to be content with the treasure, and allow me to retain mylugger, which represents all that I possess in the world?"

  "And thus restore to you the power to inflict further injury upon ourcommerce? I am afraid not, monsieur," answered I. "Had you been a mereharmless trader, it might possibly have been different; but, as it is,the proposal is--pardon me for saying so--preposterous."

  "As monsieur pleases, of course. But it will be my ruin," remarked theman gloomily. "With monsieur's permission, then, I will retire to mycabin." And he turned away as though to go below.

  "Pardon me, monsieur," said I, hastily interposing between him and thecompanion; "I am afraid that my duty necessitates my requesting thatmonsieur will be so obliging as to remain on deck for the present."

  "Then take that, curse you!" ejaculated he, whipping a big, ugly knifeout of his bosom, and striking savagely at my heart with it.Fortunately the sudden glitter in his eyes warned me, and I succeeded incatching his upraised arm in my left hand, with which I gripped hiswrist so strongly that he was perforce obliged to drop the knife to thedeck or submit to have his wrist broken. Kicking the weapon overboard,through an open port close at hand, I called to one of my men to clap alashing round the hands and feet of my antagonist, and then went forwardto superintend the securing of the remainder of our prisoners. Therewere only fourteen of them uninjured, or whose wounds were so slight asto leave them capable of doing any mischief, and these we drove downinto the hold, where, finding plenty of irons, we effectually securedthem.

  By the time that this was done, the wreck of the masts cut away, and thesails--which had been towing overboard--secured, the _Dolphin_ was readyto pass a towrope on board us. This we at once took, securing the endto the windlass bitts, when the schooner filled away, with the lugger intow, and stood after the Indiaman, which was by this time a couple ofmiles to windward of us, heading to the northward on an easy bowline, onthe starboard tack. Russell, the _Dolphin's_ surgeon, came aboard usabout the same time as the tow-line, and while he busied himself inattending to the hurts of the Frenchmen, we went to work to rig up a setof jury-masts--suitable spars for which we were lucky enough to findaboard the lugger--and, by dint of hard work, we contrived to get threespars on end,--securely lashed to the stumps of the masts, and wellstayed,--by dinner-time, and by four bells that same afternoon we hadthe lugger under her own canvas once more, when we cast adrift from the_Dolphin_, it being found that, even under jury-masts, the _BelleJeannette_ was quite capable of holding her own with the Indiaman in themoderate weather then prevailing. Long before this, however, I hadfound an opportunity to go below and have a look at the treasure-chest,which I had found in the position indicated by the French skipper. Itwas an unexpectedly bulky affair; so much so, indeed, that I thought thesafest place for it would be down in the _Dolphin's_ run, and there itwas soon safely stowed, after I had gone on board the schooner to reportto Captain Winter the great value of our prize. It afterwards turnedout that this chest contained no less than thirty thousand pounds inspecie; so I was right in considering it worth taking care of.