CHAPTER VII.
_FORECASTLE TALK, A NEW ENEMY, A CHASE, THE STORM. THE ACTION. THEFORTUNES OF THE FIGHT. SCENE ON BOARD THE ENEMY. THE TRICK. FEARFULENCOUNTER. SINGULAR DISCOVERY. FANNY A PRISONER. A PEEP AT THECAMPBELLS’ FIRE-SIDE. THE PARENTS AT HOME._
|Let us see how this mode of disposing of the case of the prisoner wasreceived by the inhabitants of the forecastle, the rough and hardy menbefore the mast. Terrence Moony had come to be a sort of leader as itwere among the crew, in all manner of opinion and judgment. Firstly,because he appeared to be peculiarly gifted with the ‘gab,’ as theysay of a talkative man at sea, and secondly, because he was a jolly,free-hearted, whole-souled sort of a man. Terrence was very ready withhis opinions on every occasion, being in no way loth to express themfreely, and more especially at such a time and on such an occasion asthe present. He always stood up for the captain, though for the matterof that, there was no man of the crew but would do the same. But thenTerrence Moony was particularly sensitive on this point, and was sure totake up the most distant allusion that could possibly be made to reflectupon him.
‘Now who but our captain could have done that?’ asked Terrenceconfidently, referring to the freeing of the Englishman, ‘jist tellme that; and thin ain’t that British man another man altogether, eversince, intirely. Arrah, it’s the captain of us that’s under holy kapin’.
‘Hark ye, brother,’ said an old tar in reply to Terrence, and, by way ofexpressing an opinion, ‘whatever my friends may say for or against me,and whatever may be my other good points, they can’t say I’m much of ascholar, but for all that I think I know something about human nature,and damme if I wouldn’t trust this big Englishman with a match besidethe magazine, if it had as many openings as a Chinese junk has windows.’
‘Well--’ said another very quietly, ‘I did think that captain Channingwas a little hasty when he found out--’
‘Hey? What the divil did ye say?’ put in Terrence Moony fiercely, ‘thecaptain to blame,’ and he clenched a fist the size of a small infant’shead; ‘where’s the man that will say that?’
‘Avast there, brother,’ said the offender, ‘I say I _did_ think him alittle hasty at first, but then you see the result is all right, and nodoubt the captain was within soundings all the while.’
‘To be sure he was,’ said Terrence, cooling his ire somewhat slowly.
‘I have seen as fine a seaman as this Englishman,’ said a third, whiptup to the end of a yard on board a British man of war, at the signal ofa gun, but he didn’t come down _reformed_ this man is, because why,d’ye see, he come down stiff and dead, and the next hour fed the sharksalongside. Now it seems to me that the best punishment must be that sortwhich brings a man into the port of repentance, and not such as willknock a hole in his bottom, and sink him before he gets in sight of it.’
‘That’s jist the talk, now,’ said Terrence Moony. ‘What’s the use ofhanging a man? thin he’s no use at all, nather to himself nor any bodyelse. Arrah, it’s a mighty miserable use to put a man to.’
‘Who’d have thought that the young man, our commander God bless him,’said an old weather-beaten mariner, would have had the mercy anddiscrimination to have done this piece of work. I’ve sailed upon the seaeight and thirty years, and I never saw a thing handsomer done on theocean.’
Terrence here clapped his hands with delight. He had a perfectinfatuation, a sort of _monomania_ relative to Captain Channing, and thefaithful fellow would have deemed it an enviable lot to have laid downhis life for him at any moment.
‘Aain’t he a jewel, thin?’ said Terrence.
‘Look ye, messmates, did it ever occur to any of ye that our captain isa _Pirate_, after all,’ said the old seaman.
‘Hey? What’s that?’ said Terrence, ‘do you want me to kill you intirely,Mr. Bolt, or why the divil are ye calling the captain names?’
‘I don’t mean to cast any reflections upon Captain Channing. No, he’s acaptain to live and die under; that all will agree To. But, supposing,mess-mates, a British man-of-war should come down from Boston harbor,here-a-way, and run us aboard and take the pretty little Constance,as she would do? I can tell you, brothers. Captain Channing would bedangling from the yard arm of that same man-of-war an hour afterwards asa _Pirate!_’
‘How the deuce can you make that out?’ asked one of the first speakers.‘Ain’t the Colonies honestly at war with the English? and have we beencruising against any other nation but them? To be sure, we rummaged thatbit of a prison there at Havana, you know, but we didn’t do any harm.A prison’s a prison, and a ship’s a ship; it can’t be piracy to storm aprison-house, dy’e see.’
‘True, brother, but didn’t our Captain ship in the brig Constance assecond?’ asked the other speaker; ‘and ain’t he captain of her nowby his own making, and ain’t the brig his? Can you tell what all thissignifies? It looks to me like what a court-martial would call piracy,that’s all.’
‘Perhaps so; but we ain’t going for to be taken, you see,’ said a newspeaker, ‘and that makes all the difference in the world’ This remarkwas received with a hearty laugh by all and the conversation tookanother turn.
‘Let’s drop this subject, messmates; it’s no use talking about it,’ saidanother. ‘Come, whose turn is it to spin a yarn?’
‘Aye, whose turn is it?’ asked several voices at the same time.
‘Come, Brace,’ said one or two of the men, ‘it’s yours, so just come toan anchor alongside here on this chest, and pay out.’
‘Ay, ay, my hearties. Avast there, Terrence Moony with your blarney,while I spin a yarn, do you hear, boy?’
‘Ay, ay, brother, go ahead,’ said Terrence, good naturedly.
Bolling a monstrous quid of tobacco about his mouth for a few minutes,he who was to speak, at length settled it quietly in one side of hischeek, plugging it well down with his tongue, then lounging into an easyattitude, he began:
‘It may be that there is some of you as have sailed up there to theNortherd, where it is so cold that a man don’t dare to stand still for amoment for fear that he shall be frozen to death. No? Well, I have then,and it’s about one of them cruises that I’m going to tell you. You see,we were up there knocking about for some good reason, but for what Idon’t know, as our captain sailed with sealed orders, and a foremastman is not very often enlightened by a look at the log of the captain’smind.
‘But the king had ordered the ship to go there, and I was a pressed manon board so I was there too. And there we were three hundred as finefellows as you ever set eyes on, or as ever ran up a rattlin, freezingour fingers and toes every watch, and half the time the ship was shut inentirely by the ice; and in this way we remained seven or eight days, Iremember, fitted into the ice as close as our carpenter could lay in aplank, nothing to be seen for miles in any direction but one longand almost endless field of ice, with once in a while a walrus, or asea-horse out of the water and laying sleeping by the small crevicesthat were formed here and here in the neighborhood of the ship.
‘Well, one day it came on to blow big guns, and such a cracking andsnapping among the frozen rigging you never listened to; and the waterseemed to be in a perfect rage beneath the ice, as if it did not relishvery well living under hatches. Well, this lasted through one wholenight and day, during which time I thought, we should have chafed all topieces; but the captain said that we sat so snugly in the ice, that itwas all that saved us, while I could not but wish that we might havea little more room, if only to float free of the ice and its cursedchafin.
‘Well, the next night we were knocked about till daylight, when we foundthat the ice had broken up, and that we were going before the gale at atremendous rate, and mostly free of ice. On, on, we went, until at lastwe approached another field, we could not avoid it, so we sought thesafest place where we might lay the ship to ride out the storm, whichwas now in full blast.
‘Well, we got in and anchored to the solid ice and in the course of afew hours the heft of the storm began to go down, and t
he sea grew morequiet, and we were like to have a chance to get some rest for the firsttime for more than forty-eight hours, when one of the look-outs fromaloft hailed the deck:
‘“Ship ho!”
‘You may well suppose such a hail thrilled to our very hearts, for wehad not seen a sail save those of our own ship for more than two months;and the cry from aloft was echoed by every man in the ship, and thosejust ready to turn in hurried on deck to get a sight at the stranger,many but half dressed in their eagerness.
‘Where away?’ demanded the officer of the deck.
‘Just off the larboard quarter, sir,’ said the look-out.
‘All eyes were tinned to the point, and sure enough, there lay aboutthree miles to leeward of us, a ship apparently fastened in the ice,and unable to make the least headway. No sails in sight, and her mastslooked more like the branches of a tree than good honest standingrigging.
‘Our captain set his signals to working as soon as he could, to try togain some intelligence from the stranger, but no notice was taken of thesignals, and at length the captain fired a gun or two in order to wakethem up, but there was no answering signal from the stranger, and atlength, the captain, getting out of all patience, ordered a gun to beshotted and fired into her, if indeed we could reach her where she lay.
‘The gun was discharged, and the iron skipped along the ice, nowthrowing a shower of ice in the air, now gliding along smoothly, butall the while with the speed of light, until it dashed plump into thestranger’s side, scattering the splinters as it had done the ice before.All eyes now strained upon the skip, but not a sign of life was evincedon board of her. No answer was returned either to our shot or thesignals. One or two of the officers thought they could make out thefigure of a man, or rather that part of him which might be seen abovethe waist of the ship. But he was motionless, and made no signal, ifindeed he was a man at all.
‘Well, we turned in, and it was determined by the captain to send anexpedition over the ice the next day to the _deaf and dumb_ ship. It wasperilous work, and there was no great anxiety expressed among the mento undertake it, because, do you see, the ice was liable to separateand change its position every minute, and there was every chance thatwe might be separated from the ship, and perhaps forever. However, thecaptain detached about twenty men, among whom he placed me, and sent usoff under the third Luff to see what we could make out of the stranger.It took us nearly three hours to go the distance to the ship, for wehad a good many large cracks or openings in the ice to go round, but atlength we got near to the ship, when the Luff still seeing no signs oflife, began to suspect that there was some piece of treachery about tobe played upon us, and therefore halted the men, and dividing theminto two parts, resolved to board the stranger on both the larboard andstarboard side at the same time.
‘We boarded her,’ continued Brace, pausing for a moment to roll his quidto the opposite cheek, as he changed his position.
‘Well, well,’ said several anxious voices at once, ‘what then?’
‘Well, as I was saying, we boarded her starboard and larboard, and whatdo you think was the first thing that met our eyes? I’ll tell you. Yousee the waist was so deep that we could not see the deck until we goton board, and the quarter being raised but a little above the deck, thatwas hidden too. Well, as we jumped upon deck, there sat the helmsmanat the wheel, stark and stiff, his eyes fixed on vacancy, but his handsstill clasping the tiller. Down in the waist there sat a couple ofseamen upon a coil of rope, hard as marble, and forward, just by thestep of the foremast, crouched a dog as stiff as death. We went up tothem, and handled them, but they were like blocks of marble, _frozen todeath._
‘Down in the captain’s cabin sat him whom the Luff said must havebeen the captain. He held a pen in his hand, and by his side stood acandlestick, the candle burnt out. He had apparently just commencedto make an entry in the log when overtaken by, and benumbed with theintense cold. The last date under his pen, and which he seemed to havemade as the last act of his life, was just one year previous to thatvery one on which we boarded him!
The log said that the crew had exhausted their fire-wood on board, andthat some parts of the vessel had been already cut up to supply themwith fuel, which we could see fast enough, and that the cold was almostinsufferable, and that at that time the ship was bound by the ice.We found some of the crew in their berths as stiff and hard as theircompanions on deck.
‘All told the fearful story that they had been overtaken by an extremedegree of cold, which from the various positions and attitudes in whichthey were found, hard and rigid, mast have been very sudden. Every thingon board that ship that had formerly been animate or inanimate, wasstruck with the chill, and was more like a rock than a piece of ice, sofirm was everything bound up in frozen chains. It was a horrid sight,messmates, that ship. I’ve seen some hard things in my day, but thefrozen crew on board that ship in the ice was the worst.’
Thus far Brace had told a true story, melancholy and strange as itmay seem, and he had told it too with a degree of intelligence and inlanguage that showed him to be a well-informed man for his station inlife in those days. But then he could not let the matter rest here; hemust add what they call at sea and among the crew a ‘clincher’ to hisstory, or else it would lack one important ingredient, and would behardly considered complete by his messmates. So after taking a turn ortwo with his quid of tobacco, he continued his story.
‘Well, messmates, there wasn’t much aboard that we cared for, being aswe were, so far from home; but I thought to myself that I should liketo carry away the dog, just to show the ship’s company when we got backthat what we had said was no gammon, but all true. So I asked the Luffif I might take away the dog to show the crew, and he gave me leave;so I shouldered him, and no light load was he either; he was a large,full-bred Newfoundland, but I carried him all the way to the shipmyself, and when I got him on board he was a matter of no smallcuriosity, I can tell you, being a sort of sample of what we had foundon board the stranger.
‘Well, I carried the dog down into our mess below to talk over the thingthat night with the crew, and at last we turned in, after hearing a fewyarns, and lay quiet enough till nearly midnight, when a low, tremblingmoan awoke me from sleep.
‘I started up, for it sounded most horribly, and I looked round; butfinding the rest all asleep I thought I had dreamed it, and so laiddown again, but hardly had I done so when it was repeated, and this timelouder than before; I started up up again, but could not tell what hadcaused it, until by chance my eyes rested upon the carcass of the dogwhich lay just beside the big ship’s coppers where fire was constantlykept, and messmates, what do you think I saw? I’ll tell you. TheNewfoundland critter was _moving_. I jumped up in less than no time, anddamme if we didn’t have him _thawed out_ so before daylight, that thecaptain sent down a middy to stop the noise below decks, the hungryscamp barked so loud.’
‘Look here, Brace,’ said one, ‘that’s palarver.’
‘No, no,’ said Brace, ‘all true, honor bright, messmates.’
‘Do you mean really to say that that ere dog come to life again?’ askedanother of the crew.
‘To be sure I do: there’s nothing very wonderful in that.’
‘Well,’ added Terrence Moony, ‘you had the consolation of saving _afellow crathur’s_ life eny way. Troth, and sich an act is’nt to besneezed at, so give us your flipper, messmate.’
‘Your yarn is all very well, Brace,’ said one of his messmates, ‘butthat dog part _is_ rather a _dose_.’
‘Never you mind that,’ said Brace, ‘and now I think of it, Marling, it’syour turn next.’
‘Yes, yes, it’s your turn next,’ said half a dozen voices at once.
‘For the matter of that I believe you’re all right,’ said Marling goodnaturedly, ‘avast there.’
And after rolling his quid about his mouth for a few minutes, andhesitating for a moment, said:
‘I say, messmates, you must let me off with a song; fact is, I can’tthink of a
ny yarn just now, how will that do?’
‘Oh yes, a song, a song, give us a song,’ they all cried together.
‘Well then, here goes a song to old hoary Neptune.
MARLING’S SONG.
```Ho, ye--ho Messmates, we’ll sing
```The glories of Neptune, the ocean king,
```He reigns o’er the waters, the wide sea’s his home,
```Ho ye--ho, in his kingdom we roam.=
```He spreads a blue carpet all over the sea,
```O’er which our bark walks daintily--
```Though down at the bottom the old monarch hails,
```He blows the fresh wind plump into our sails.=
```Landsmen who live on the dull, tame shore,
```Love their homes, but ours we love more:
```Oh! a ship and salt water, messmates, for me--
```There’s nothing on earth like the open sea.=
```Landsmen are green boys, I have a notion
```They don’t know the fun that’s had on the ocean;
```But contented they live in one spot all their lives,
```Like honey bees, messmates, they stick to their hives.=
```What though we have storms? They’ve earthquakes on shore,
```And though we have troubles, they surely have more;
```We gather rare food ‘mong the isles of the sea.
```When the tropical fruit grows, there boys, are we.=
```Ah! give us the ocean; nought but the sea
```Is a fit home, messmates, for hearts that are free.
```=Ho, boys ho! then let us all sing
```To the glory of Neptune, the ocean’s king.=
This song being original with Marling, and sang to a popular air ofthe day, was hailed with great applause by his comrades to whom hewas obliged to sing it again and again before they would be satisfied.Terrence Moony swore ‘by the powers of mud that it bate everythingintirely.’
‘And did you make all that up yerself?’ asked Terrence.
‘It’s mine, such as it is, Terrence, my boy.’
‘Thin you’re a gintilman intirely, for is’nt it thim as bees the authorsof poetry? Arrah, and hav’nt we a gintilmen in our mess?’
But to the reader, let Marling’s verses show that the forecastle is notentirely devoid of taste, and that many a hardy son of the ocean carrieswithin him a fund of wit, aye, and genius too, that only needs theoccasion to call it forth.
As if by common consent, all now turned upon Terrence Moony and chargedhim with the heinous offence of not having spun one yarn since thecommencement of the voyage. Terrence had no faculty for story telling,and therefore rather fidgeted under the sallies and jokes of hismessmates. But at length his eyes brightened up, and his features werereally handsome with the look of intelligence and enthasiasm that litthem up as he said: ‘I hav’nt any turn that way you see, friends, butthere’s a bit of a circumstance happinid to meself not long ago, I’lltell yes.’
And Terrence related in his own peculiar way, the kindness that Capt.Channing had shown his dying mother. He had never mentioned thus indetail before, though his messmates knew that the captain had onceserved Terrence by some needed charity. You should have seen the tearsstart from the eyes of those rough sea-dogs as Terrence told his talewith a feeling that could not be mistaken. It showed that the forecastlecovered up as truly kind and sensitive hearts as did the quarter-deck.
There was no open applause after Terrence’s tale, but it produced itseffect, and one or two rough but honest slaps upon the shoulder showedhim that the mess wished him to understand that he was altogether aparticularly clever fellow, these very blows being designed to expressthe indelible character of their regard.
As to Captain Channing, there was a vote taken on the spot that therenever was such another, though it hardly needed this fresh proof ofgoodness in their commander to incite them to such a declaration,inasmuch as they had long entertained this feeling toward him; and theymight well do so, for their every comfort was cared for, and their goodconstantly considered by him who commanded them. How easy a matter it isto gain the affection and regard of those dependant upon us, by treatingthem as we ourselves would wish to be treated in a like situation. Thereis a golden rule touching this point.
I do not know why it is, but it is a well known fact, that sailors arenotorious for story-telling, or as they term it, for spinning yarns.They are driven to it in part for recreation, as there is no duty somonotonous than that of a foremast man aboard ship. Confined within thenarrow limits of the vessel, he sees but few faces and those perhapshe is associated with for months, without once landing. Thus theinhabitants of the forecastle, seldom possessing books, are thrown muchupon their own resources for amusement during such time as they may findtheir own. Story-telling is a very natural as well as fascinating modeof amusement; and this they universally adopt, on all occasions. I havesometimes heard landsmen remark that the nicely told stories put inprint as coming from seamen while spinning a yarn to their messmates,were all moonshine; that foremast men could not talk like that. Thisis a mistake--the constant habit renders them very perfect, and I havelistened through a whole watch to as well a told story from one of thecrew of a merchantship, as I have ever read; told too with a degree ofrefinement entirely unlooked for. Thus the crew of the Constance werenow engaged, and we cannot refrain from transcribing one more yarn thatwas spun in the forecastle on this occasion. The song seemed to haveinspired them all, and they were vociferous, among themselves foranother yarn immediately.
‘Come, Jennings, it’s your turn, there’s no mistake about that,’ saidtwo or three of the men to one of their companions, sitting by thechest.
‘Ay, ay, messmates, wait a bit till I overhaul my reckoning.’
‘That’s it, a yarn from Jennings, a yarn from Jennings!’ they all cried.
Jennings was a real specimen of a yankee; tall, muscular, and goodlooking, with a large degree of intelligence shining from his features.
Like his race, generally, he was up to making money, and the high offerof the British captain in the way of wages had tempted his cupidityso far, as to induce him to ship for what he believed to be a simpletrading voyage to the West Indies.
‘Well messmates, you have been talking about the salt sea; I’m goingto spin you a yarn about the land, that will be a new wrinkle, so heregoes. But let me just tell you at the beginning that it’s no _dog_story, but a matter of fact.
‘Most of you come from the same parts as myself, but I don’t think youhave heard this story, being’s it occurred many miles back to the westend of the town of Boston, and near by where I was born. You see Iwas born on the Hadley flats in Massachusetts, just by a bend of theConnecticut, though I soon came to the sea-side after I got to be oldenough to leave home, and soon took a fancy to the ocean, which I havefollowed ever since. I wasn’t so young when I left home, but that Iremember the only spot in all the earth where I want to lay my hulkafter the cruise of life is up, it is the neighborhood of the greenmeadows, and the curving bends of the Connecticut, which runs smoothlyover the very foot of Mount Tom and Mount Holyoke. It was not far fromthis spot that I was born. Just above us and near to the base ofthese two highest mountains in the state, there lived a tribe ofIndians--friends of the settlers, and with whom they associated likebrothers.
‘I have wandered, when a boy, among their lodges--have climbed up thesteep paths of the mountains, and strolled among the groves and fieldsthat skirt the banks of the river, and, messmates, I have sometimeswondered in my dreams, if we can be happier in heaven than I was then,and if paradise can be a milder or more desirable place than that.
‘Well, messmates, you see it’s a story about this tribe of Indians thatI’m going to tell you about, or rather about one of them. The old Chiefof the tribe had two children only, both girls, and as clean-limbed andpretty as a roe-buck from the hills; they were the pride of the old mansheart, and, indeed, of the whole tribe.
‘The oldest one was called Kelm
ond, which meant, in their dialect, ‘TheMountain Child’ They called her so because she was born in one of theirlodges on the side of that eminence, Holyoke, which looks down upon thevalley of the Connecticut, as you could, messmates, upon the deck of thebrig, when yer up at the top-mast head. Her sister was called Komeoke,which means in their language, ‘The Fair’ They always name their womenin this way, with some soft and pretty-like name.
‘Well, the oldest was the prettiest and the gentlest creature you eversaw, and there wasn’t a warrior in the whole tribe who would not havehad her for his wife, if he could have got her. But somehow or other,she loved to pass her days in the woods tying wild flowers and lying bythe bright clear brooks that spring up in thousands on the hill-sidesand in the groves, and she never listened: to any of them wild lovesongs and tokens of affection.
‘Her sister was a very pretty girl, and if one hadn’t seen the eldest,he truly might have thought the youngest one the prettiest creature hehad ever seen, though her sort of beauty was altogether of a differentkind. She was all, every inch, Indian, bold, fearless, and more likea man than a female. They loved each other with all the fervor ofaffection that their girlish hearts could feel, even though theirdispositions were so very different.
‘In our village, if I may so call the dozen houses that made up theplace; around the block house, there was stopping a young Englishman whohad come there with his gun and hounds and a single servant man, for thepurpose of hunting for mere sport. He was a fine, handsome looking man,belonging to some great family in England, and was about twenty-twoyears old. He hadn’t been with us but a few weeks, before, in someof his wanderings he met with Kelmond, the oldest of the chiefs twohandsome children. I don’t think there ever was a man who had a betterway of making himself agreeable, messmates, a sort of winning way, justlike our captain. I mean a sort of faculty of getting everybody’s goodgraces. Well, he wasn’t long in making himself acquainted with thebeautiful Indian girl, and they used often to meet by themselves in thewoods, and the Englishman won her heart completely. The way I foundit out was by following him one day to see where he could go to soregularly every day, and I soon understood the scent. Well, it wasplain that for some reason that he didn’t want any one to knew aboutthe business, so when I hinted about it, do you see, he told me to saynothing about the thing, and gave me a dollar to keep mum, while hestill went regularly every day to the place where they met and sat forhours together.
‘I don’t know anything about the stories he used to tell the girl,or what he promised her, but the rascal deceived her, I know so much.Randolph, that was the Englishman’s name, had lived in great cities,where there is all kinds of vice and evil practised, as you and I know,messmates, perhaps he didn’t think the thing so much of a crime as someothers would look upon it; but that’s no matter, he betrayed her andforsook her soon afterwards, and I was not long in discovering this,for though I was a boy, I knew some things that the Englishman thoughtI didn’t, and when I saw that he began to leave the clearing by adifferent path, I understood the whole affair and told him so in secret;he offered me money, but I refused it, and told him that an Indian neverforgave an injury, and that he would have to suffer for it. I told himthat if she did not revenge herself, there were an hundred knives thatwould do it for her, aye, and find him, hide where he would. But yousee, he didn’t mind me at all, and still staid thereabouts.
‘Well, time passed on, and one day I was out with my gun for some gameand happened to be very near the place where Randolph and Kelmond usedto meet, and coming up to it suddenly, I found the Indian girl upon thespot, and crying as I had never seen an Indian before, for they’re astern race, you know, messmates; well, I could not but offer her all theconsolation I knew how to do, and, you see, she knew where I camefrom, and so asked me about Randolph’s health, and the like, but neverreproached him for all his deception, not a word. ‘Twould have madeyou blubber right out to have seen that poor, brokenhearted girl askingafter him who had betrayed her, with all the warmth of an affection thatcould never die. There’s something queer, messmates, about a woman’slove; I never sailed much in those latitudes, but I’ve seen thosethat have, and I can say, on my own account, that I never could findsoundings myself, throw the lead as often as I would. So it was withthis beautiful Indian girl; her heart was still the same towards him whohad rendered her cruise for life one of perfect misery.
‘Well, from that hour the wild flower of the mountains withered andfaded like a broken reed, until the suspicion of her sister Komeoke wasaroused, and she at length told her all her misery. She heard it withouta word of revenge, and did all her kind heart could suggest, to make herdear sister as comfortable as she might. Well, a few days from thetime she told her secret to her sister, the poor, beautiful, butbroken-hearted girl, like a ship without a compass, messmates, losther mind, they say; at any rate she climbed to the very highest part ofHolyoke, where a long, sharp rock extends out from the hill-side, andlooks off towards the valley, and threw herself off from the immenseheight upon the rocks and stones below. Her father found her body thenext day all mangled and torn to pieces. Her sister, too, looked uponher dead body, and then uttered the deep, horrid curse of her tribe uponhim who had caused this ruin. She did not shed a single tear, so a redwarrior told me afterwards, but her spirit was awake--she was arousedand the Indian blood was at work in her veins.
‘Before another sun had gone down, messmates, Randolph fell near thedoor of the house where he stopped, pierced to the heart by a poisonedarrow, and a few moments after, the sister of Kelmond sought his sideand told him, why that arrow was sent--told him that he would appearbefore the Indian’s God with Kelmond, that he would be banished intothe dirty, muggy swamps that evil ones inhabit, while the good wereroving the happy hunting grounds of the blessed. Well, messmates,Randolph died of that fatal wound, and I, for one, am free to say hedid not deserve to live. The sister was revenged, and Komeoke became thewife of a great brave.
‘’Twas soon after this that I left the neighborhood, and came to Bostonand shipped to sea; but I have seen people from the settlement who saythat the story didn’t end here, for that on any clear moonlight nightthe form of the Indian girl is seen at midnight upon that lofty rock,that many and often are the sacrifices made by the tribe for her spirit,but still it appears nightly on the rock.
‘There, messmates, is my true yarn about the Indian Maiden of Holyoke.’
Fortune is a fickle goddess, and she now threatened to desert Fanny inthe greatest need. The little fleet was fast approaching the shores ofCape Cod when the look-out shouted the usual announcement of a vessel insight. All on board the Constance, as well as the prizes, the barqueand the ship, knew the precarious nature of their present situation,for they were now coming upon a coast that literally swarmed with thecruisers of the enemy. Every precaution had been taken that prudencecould suggest to strengthen the little armament, but eight fighting mento a vessel, be she ever so well armed, could not avail much againsta regular man-of-war of the smallest class with her full complement ofmen. This they knew full well, and no effort that ingenuity could devisewas left untried to render every thing available that might favor themin case of attack. The arms were all double loaded, and every thingthat vigilance could do was done. At the cry we have announced, from thelook-out, every one was on the alert. It was morning, and the wind beingfresh and fair, all had hoped to anchor that night in the quiet littleharbor of Lynn, where the crew had ascertained that the captain woulddrop his land tackle. It was a clear, cold day, and the chill winds ofnorthern winter were doubly felt by those on board the Constance, andthe prizes who had so lately left the milder latitudes of the South.
The strange sail proved to be a brig of about the same tonnage as theConstance, and evidently a vessel in the commission of the king, wearingthe British ensign at the gaff. She stood boldly for the Constance, whomher people appeared to have discovered at about the same time that shewas seen by the Americans, and soon fired a gun of defiance. Lovell,seeing the i
mpending danger, sheered up to within hailing distance ofthe brig, when Fanny ordered him and also Herbert to separate fromeach other, but to stand in for their port without noticing the king’svessel, saying that it was of no use to risk the loss of their prizes,and that she would get out of the trouble in some way, or at any ratedraw off the attention of the enemy from the barque until they shouldescape.
Lovell was in dilemma,--he did not dare to disobey order’s for example’ssake, nor even to question the propriety of the order for a singlemoment, and there was no course left him but to obey it, which he didwith great reluctance, and yet with a full confidence that Fanny wouldmanage all for the best.
The barque and ship therefore stood on their course for port, whileFanny ordering the helm up, put the brig before the wind with thehope of outsailing the cruiser. The enemy had already got within suchdistance as to render her strength manifest, and also to show herclearly what her enemy was. The brig proved to be the Dolphin, oftwelve guns and about fifty men. She was short of her full complement,having detailed a number of her men by order of the admiral, for one ofthe larger ships upon the station.
The captain of the Dolphin, seeing the vessels separated, saw that hemust select one as a mark for his ambition, and that he could not getthe three in such a position as to render their capture a matter ofprobability. Some little time was lost in making selection, but at lasthe decided that the Constance was the most worthy of his honors, and sogave her chase forthwith.
One of the most exciting things that can well be conceived of, is achase at sea. The mariner never fails to wish for more wind, forgettingapparently that the same force that propels his own vessel, also aidsthat of his enemy; and when the two vessels are of about the sametonnage, their increase of speed as it regards the force of the wind,must be nearly, if not exactly in the same ratio. There was a very freshbreeze blowing at the time, and yet Fanny did not cease to wish formore.
The two vessels had thus tested their sailing qualities for nearly threehours, when it was plainly manifest that the enemy being better ableto handle his sails with promptness, had far the advantage of theConstance, and that he was fast gaining upon her. The breeze hadincreased to a hard blow, and Fanny had been obliged to furl sail aftersail until the brig was now leaping forwardlike an arrow, before thewind, under close reefed topsails, jib, and mainsail, while the Dolphin,being able to shorten sail at any moment, was more venturesome, and sailheld on, and thus came up hand over hand with the Constance.
It was now evident that there was no escape, or at least withoutfighting first, and Fanny determined she would do so, although shehad but eight men to oppose to fifty. The sea now ran so high thatfortunately it rendered boarding a matter entirely out of the question.Fanny’s quick wit understood this full well, and she hoped that it mightpossibly prove to be her safety by enabling her to fight at a distance,where her eight men could work to some advantage over the heavy gunamidships.
The wind blew a gale, and the Constance was now flying over the sea withonly a double reefed topsail to steady her course and give her steerage.The Dolphin came on at a scarcely less fearful speed, and running underalmost bare poles; but finding that his enemy was now increasing hisdistance, the captain of the Dolphin shook out a reef from his only sailthat was spread, and soon gained again on the Constance. Fanny wasnot long in ascertaining that the advantage she had possessed overher former enemies was equally the case on the present occasion; foralthough the Dolphin carried twelve guns, yet none of them were of equalcalibre to the Constance’s gun amidships, and at the present distancewere actually of no use at all.
It was a fearful sight to see those two vessels dashing on through theboisterous and tempestuous ocean, regardless of the warring elements,and apparently only intent upon the destruction of each other. Almostany other officer in his majesty’s service would have sought rather tolook to the safety of his own vessel in such a tempest as now reigned;but the captain of the Dolphin was one who did not give up an objectso lightly. He prided himself on his seamanship, and while he madeeverything snug, yet he kept an eye upon the chase, determined not tolose sight of her, if possible to avoid it. At intervals, as an aimmight be had, the Dolphin kept up a fire upon the Constance, but withlittle or no effect, while the crew of the American brig fired onlyat such times as they were pretty sure of their aim, and thus they hadalready done fearful execution upon the hull and rigging of the Dolphin.It required two men at the helm of the Constance, thus leaving Fannybut six of the crew to manage the vessel, and serve the gun amidship. Inthis dilemma, Fanny felt severely the want of more men, and had herselfbeen laboring at all light matters about the deck for some time. Atthis moment in which the fact was forcing itself strongly upon her mind,there appeared upon deck the burly form of the pardoned Englishman, whohad been permitted to go below by his own request, that he might nottake part against his own countrymen.
‘Captain Channing,’ said he, ‘I cannot fight against my king, but ifyou will order these two men away from the wheel, I will serve youfaithfully.’
This was an important station, and Fanny accepted the generous offerwith thanks, from the man whose life she had so lately saved, and heassumed the station assigned him, obeying implicitly the wishes ofFanny. This was no slight aid to her, and leaving the management of thehelm to him, she oversaw the management of the piece herself.
If Lovell could have seen her there, with that noble scorn of dangerbeaming from her face as she watched the rise and swell of the sea toget an aim at the Dolphin, and applying the match with her own hands; ifhe had seen her then, her head bared to the raging elements, yet coollygiving her orders to men, he would have thought her inspired fromHeaven. The long tom under the management of the crew of the Constancehad already done fatal execution on board the enemy; by singular goodfortune scarcely a shot was thrown away, and this fearful accuracyastonished even the Captain of the Dolphin who though he kept up aconstant firing, yet did but little injury to the chase in the distanceat which they were from each other.
‘Now’ do I wish I had a score of men on board her, Brace,’ said Fannyto him who was now her mate, ‘in order that we might take yonder brig; wecould do it, sir, if she would but hold on for us till the storm shouldabate, if we had that number of men,’ and Fanny’s eyes sparkled at thethought of ‘another prize’.
‘He don’t like this gun, sir, for see, Captain Channing, he’s sheeringoff as far as he dares to with the wind and storm from the North West.’
‘True--hard-a-port,sir,’ said Fanny to her faithful helmsman, ‘we arejust at the right distance for our convenience and must keep it, Mr.Brace.’
‘So it strikes me, sir,’ said the mate pointing the gun.
Thus the Constance actually began to assume the position of pursuer,while the Dolphin was endeavoring to get out of the reach of thedestructive long tom. Fanny realty began to feel the pride of a victor,notwithstanding the dangers that still surrounded the fearful raging ofthe storm.
Let us see what passed on board the Dolphin.
‘Mr. Millman,’ said the commander of the king’s vessel to his secondofficer, ‘keep her away a point or two; that cursed single gun of therebel will sink us if we don’t get out of its reach. A little more, sir,steady, so, she’ll bear that--keep her so--that’s well.’
‘Three of my best men killed, and a dozen in the surgeon’s hands bythese damned splinters and iron shot,’ mused the captain half aloud,‘who could have foretold all this? Halloa, there, who’s hurt now?’ saidthe captain to an officer who approached to report the effect ofthe last shot from the Constance which had struck the Dolphin justamidships.
‘A couple of the best berths are emptied for the cruise, sir, andthere’s a trough across the main deck two inches deep, all by a singleball!’
This was the second shot that had been reported to him; five of his bestmen gone, and the surgeon’s ward filled with the wounded.
‘The devil take this pirate of a rebel,’ said the commander of theDolphin; ‘who
ever knew shot to take-effect this way with such a sea on,and in such a cursed tempest?’
‘Keep her away another point, Mr. Millman,’ said the captain to hissecond. ‘The rascal will murder the whole crew at this rate, and I notable to strike a single blow.’
‘I’m afraid she wont bear another point, sir,’ ventured the Lieutenant;‘she strains fearfully as it is, sir.’
‘Then keep her as she is, sir, if you can,’ growled the captain, ‘andthe d------d rascal don’t sink us before the night sets in.’
There was indeed a fearful accuracy to the shot from the Constance, andthere was that singular good luck (if we may call that good luck whichsacrifices human life) attending every discharge that sometimes followsthe throws of a gambler, who for a time seems sure of every game andhigh numbers--thus was it from the shot from the American brig. Nearlyevery one told with fearful accuracy upon the deck of that Dolphin. Itlooked almost like a miracle that gunnery could be so accurate in such asea, but so it was, and fatally so.
The captain of the Dolphin foamed and raged like the very tempest abouthim at this unaccountable state of things, until at length he walked upto Mr. Millman who was at the helm, and said: ‘Mr. Millman, we must pulldown that article,’ pointing to the English flag that was flapping andcracking like the report of a pistol, at the main; ‘the brig alreadyleaks from one of those cursed shot. And besides in such a storm.’
‘_Strike_, sir?’ asked the Lieutenant in astonishment.
‘For a while only.’
‘Ah! I see, sir; a ruse, that is all, I suppose.’
‘Mr. Millman,’ continued the captain, ‘they can’t board, would to Godthey might try that,’ said he, clenching his fist.
‘The night will soon set in, sir.’
‘True, we can take our own course then.’
The necessary orders were given, and the proud flag of old England wasagain humbly lowered to the simple pine tree,-which still floated fromthe main of the Constance, she ceased her fire, and all the care of hercrew was devoted to keeping the brig safe till the storm should abate.
Intense darkness soon shut victor and prize from each other’s sight,while the storm still raged its wild fury until nearly morning, when itgradually subsided. The morning broke clear and cold, and Fanny couldsee her late antagonist some three miles to windward of the Constance,and at that distance she could easily see the crippled condition of herspars.
‘Did he know,’ said she to Mr. Brace, ‘that he would find but about halfa dozen men to contend with, we should yet have him down upon us seekingfor close quarters; but I think he has had quite enough of us and thatiron piece amidships there, will make him keep well away, if he can.’
This was hardly said on board the brig, when the yards of the Dolphinwere squared, her sails all set, and in a few minutes she was cuttingthe water swiftly towards where the Constance lay.
‘Ah! Mr. Brace, the enemy are coming down lor another brush,’ saidFanny, ‘and there goes St. George’s flag again, or I’ve not got my eyes;the fellow has seen with his glass how weak we are on board here.’
‘True, sir, the fellow is in earnest this time, and we shall soonhave him at close quarters. It will be all up with us then, CaptainChanning.’
‘Step down and superintend that gun, Mr. Breed; we will keep him off aslong as possible, sir.’
All sail was also crowded upon the Constance to endeavor to escape thedreaded close quarters, which must render the victory certain to theenemy. She skipped lightly off under the influence of the fresh breeze,and her enemy gained but slowly upon her, while the long tom was againdoing execution upon the Dolphin’s deck. Ill fared it now with theshort-handed crew of the Constance, who were not able properly totrim their own sails to take advantage of the wind; and though Fannyendeavored to cut up the rigging of her enemy and thus retard his speed,yet the long tom, singular enough, that had done such wonderful deedsduring the storm, now that it was comparatively calm proved far lessefficient, though as we have said, the shot did do some execution uponthe Dolphin’s deck. Soon the shot from the enemy’s smaller metal, beganto tell upon the Constance’s rigging, and her sailing was consequentlymuch retarded, while the Dolphin fast neared her.
‘Mr. Brace,’ said Fanny, calling the mate to her, ‘we shall soon be atclose quarters with the enemy. Now I have no idea of giving up the brigeven to the large number we have to contend with yonder, without sellingour right and title at a handsome advance on the cost.’
‘I’m ready and willing, sir, to do all a pair of hands can do,’ said thewilling mate.
‘I know it, sir,’ was the reply. ‘I have a plan by which we shall beenabled to diminish the number of our enemies, at least, if not to ridourselves entirely of them--possibly we may drive them off by it if itshould succeed completely.’
‘What will you have done, sir.’
‘Have these six carronades all brought aft just here at the rise of thequarter deck, range them in a line pointing forward, so that they shallcompletely sweep the deck.
‘Load them with slugs and bullets, and with a couple of small shot ineach, and be sure they are well charged; load them to the muzzle, sir.Hang across the deck just in front of them a large strip of canvass thatshall hide them completely from sight; be sure that you rig it so thatit can be dropped at a moment’s warning, be careful, sir.’
‘I understand, sir,’ said Mr. Brace.
‘Be lively now, there’s not a minute to lose.’
‘Ay, ay, sir.’
While this order was executing, the Dolphin fast neared the Constance,everything she could make draw in her crippled state being well managed;and Fanny could see by the course her captain was steering that heintended to lay the vessels along side, yard arm. This spurred her on tothe execution of her plan, and she called out to the mate; ‘All readythere, Mr. Brace?’
‘Ay, ay, sir.’
The course of the Constance was altered, and tacking boldly she stooddirectly for the Dolphin, until she fouled on her starboard quarter,running her bowsprit across the enemy’s deck. In a moment the captainof the king’s vessel was seen boarding the Constance by the bowsprit,followed by nearly two score of his crew, armed with boarding pikes andcutlasses. As soon as the two vessels had become entangled together,Fanny sprang down behind the canvass that had just been erected, andwhere the small crew of the brig were already gathered, and hidden fromthe enemy.
The captain and crew of the Dolphin sprang at once on to the forecastleof the Constance, but there they paused, for there was no visible enemyto contend with, and fearing some secret attack, they gathered closelytogether, as if for greater security, but thus unwittingly heighteningtheir own danger.
At a word from Fanny, while they were in this position, the canvasssheet was dropped and the matches were applied to the six cannon at thesame moment! The havoc was tremendous! At least two thirds of the enemywho had boarded the brig were killed on the spot, while of the restscarcely one remained without a wound. The one taking discharge from thesix cannon loaded to the muzzle with powder and shot made most fearfulhavoc, indeed! Such of the enemy as could keep their feet, seeing somany of their comrades dead and dying about them, rushed precipitatelyback to the deck of their own vessel, but observing the weakness of theConstance’s crew, renewed the attack and carried the deck in a hand tohand contest.
Fanny’s pistol had taken the life of one of the enemy, and the other waspresented to the breast of the Captain of the Dolphin, whose sword wasalso upraised to strike her, when both paused in astonishment, gazing atone another. Fanny’s arm which held the pistol sunk by her side, and thesword of her enemy fell harmless! ‘Fanny Campbell!’
‘Captain Burnet!’
Exclaimed each, uttering the other’s name.
The astonishment of both was complete.--Fanny’s presence of mind did notfor a moment desert her, but approaching the Captain of the Dolphin, shesaid:
‘For Heaven’s sake, do not recognize me as a female.’
‘But can
I believe my eyes?’ asked Burnet in astonishment.
‘They need not deceive you,’ said Fanny.
‘And are you captain here,’ he asked.
‘I was until you came on board,’ said Fanny gallantly giving up hersword to the victor.
‘But--but--’ said Burnet, hesitating.
‘I will explain all when we are alone,’ said Fanny.
She was conducted to the private cabin of Captain Burnet, and a prizecrew of four only, placed in the Constance, while the prisoners were allreleased, and most of them taken on board the Dolphin. These prisoners,from the necessary severity of their confinement, were unable to work,and indeed scarcely able to walk. Thus the four men placed on board theConstance, with two of the prisoners who were found to be able to work,under the charge of the mate of the Dolphin, formed all the crew thatcould be spared. Burnet could not afford a larger number, for his lateencounter had cost him more than two thirds of his whole complement ofmen. He had but ten seamen left to work his own vessel, and as they wereso near to port he doubted not that the brig would be easily worked intoharbor. He therefore made sail and left her to follow him to Boston.
Scarcely had the Dolphin dropped her prize so far astern as to fairlylose sight of her, before the bark and ship, having changed their courseand returned to see how the Constance had rode out the storm, hove insight. They were not long in ascertaining the state of affairs, and inmaking themselves masters of the brig again! Lovell learned the detailsof the whole affair from the Englishman whom Fanny had pardoned. Theevidence of the dreadful slaughter upon the Constance’s forecastlewas still visible, and was viewed with feelings of no slight degree ofinterest by Lovell and Herbert.--The former feared much for Fanny, andindeed was half crazed with regret; but there was no other course forthem to take but to steer their course for Lynn harbor, which all threeof the vessels did, Lovell and Herbert having heavy hearts within themfor victors to carry; and the former would gladly have relinguished allto have clasped Fanny again safely in his arms.
Thus was the thread of our eventful tale spun on the wide waters at sea,while on land and in the little hamlet of High Bock, Lynn, the friendsand relations of Fanny Campbell, except her parents, had never ceasedto speculate and wonder as to the true cause of her absence. Her parentsmaintaining a profound secrecy upon the subject, threw a strongerdegree of mystery about the matter, that kept the good old women andthe gossips generally of the village in fidgets. Indeed, Mr. and Mrs.Campbell themselves did not hesitate to express a feeling of fear anddread lest some ill had befallen her, yet pretending that they reallydid not know where she had gone, for this was the express wish of Fannyand the promise gained from her parents that they would not reveal hersecret was religiously kept when she left her home. One or two knowingthe fact of William Lovell’s imprisonment, had shrewdly surmised thather absence related in some way to the affair; but in what particularway, no one knew.
‘I have daily forebodings that poor Fanny will never see her homeagain,’ said her mother to her consort one evening when both sat quietlywith the bible open before them, and from whence they had as usual beenreading aloud,’ previous to retiring to rest for the night.
‘Let us trust in Heaven, wife, it’s a holy cause she is engaged in, butI too have my fears for her safety.’
‘Poor child, she did not even tell us how she was to make the voyage,’said the mother,--‘unprotected though of course.’
‘Well wife, I would trust Fanny where I wouldn’t like to an elderand more experienced head. She’s a strange girl, and beside her bookknowledge, has a good idea of common things. I have great faith in herjudgment, or I should never have consented for her to leave us, althoughshe was so urgent and determined about the matter.’
‘Heaven protect her!’ ejaculated the mother, with uplifted eyes.
‘Amen,’ added the father fervently.
‘It would be a romantic story if she should succeed,’ said the mother,her countenance brightening up with fresh hope, not that there was theleast reason in it save, her own thoughts.
‘Ay, as good a plot as the Bay Province ever furnished for a novel, evenin the old Indian times,’ said the father.
‘It is two months since she left us,’ said the mother.
‘Yes, and before the expiration of another week, we may possibly hope tohear from her at least.’
‘She set the time for her return at three months, I remember.’
‘Which will be a short time after all,’ continued the father, ‘even hadshe a vessel solely at her command. But you see, she must pass some timeon the island at any rate, and then whether she proves successful orotherwise, she must wait for some vessel bound to Boston from that port.
‘There are many chances against her,’ sighed the old man seriously, ashe raked the coals together on the hearth.
‘Oh! it was a wild undertaking,’ said Fanny’s mother, as much dejectednow as she was a few moments before elated, and for just as good areason as before stated and no other.
‘That remains to be seen, wife.’
‘You say this to comfort me who feel so timid--that’s all, Henry.’
‘I don’t know,’ said the husband seriously and partly to himself, ‘but Istill have great faith in Fanny.’
‘Heaven grant it true faith.’
‘Amen,’ again said the father.
And after the usual prayer to the throne of grace, in which Fanny’s namewas often and fervently mentioned, the good old couple retired to theirhumble cot to rest after their day’s labor, and were soon wrapped inthe quiet and refreshing sleep that industry and frugality ensure to thehumble.
Fanny Campbell, The Female Pirate Captain: A Tale of The Revolution Page 7