CHAPTER NINETEEN.
WE ASSIST IN THE CAPTURE OF A FRENCH FRIGATE.
For the next three days I was so busy looking after the thousand-and-onethings requiring attention just before a ship goes to sea, that Iscarcely had time to sleep, much less to get my meals; but on the fourthmorning I was able to report myself as ready for sea, when the admiralgave me my written instructions and ordered me to sail forthwith. Weaccordingly got under weigh about noon, with a strong sea-breezeblowing; made a short stretch over toward the Quarantine Ground; tackedas soon as we could weather Port Royal Point; passed between Rackum andGun Cays; and went flying down through the East Channel at the rate offull thirteen knots, with our topgallant-sail stowed. (Courtenay, Iought to have mentioned, sailed on the previous day.) Eight bells inthe afternoon watch saw us drawing well up abreast of Morant Point; andhalf an hour later Mr Woodford, the master's mate, who was doing dutyas master, took his departure, and we had fairly entered upon ourcruise.
To merely say that I was delighted with my new command would veryinadequately express my feelings; I was _enchanted_ with her; she workedlike a top, and sailed like a witch; she was as stiff as a church; andso weatherly, notwithstanding her exceedingly light draught, thatWoodford declared he would be puzzled how to correctly estimate her lee-way. And last, though not least, she was a superb sea-boat, and dry asa bone--save for the spray which flew in over her weather cat-head--notwithstanding her extraordinary speed. The men, too, were inecstasies with her, slapping the rail with their hands and cryingenthusiastically, "Go it, old gal!" as she plunged easily into the shortchoppy sea and sent the spray and foam hissing and whirling many afathom away to leeward and astern of her. Then, too, I had a fairlygood crew, amounting to eighty-six, all told fore and aft, thoughseveral of them were fresh from the hospital. The two midshipmen withwhich the admiral had supplied me were quiet, gentlemanly lads, agedfourteen and thirteen respectively; Woodford, the master's mate, was aman of about twenty-five, and a first-rate navigator; Sanderson wasagain with me as doctor; my old friends Fidd, Tompion, and Pottleoccupied the same position on board the _Dolphin_ that they had held onboard the _Foam_; and I had, in addition, a very respectable young manto perform the duty of purser, and a very handy man--a Swede--ascarpenter.
As I walked the deck that evening chatting gaily with Woodford andSanderson I felt, it must be confessed, intensely proud of my position.And was not the feeling pardonable? There was I, a lad who had still tosee his eighteenth birthday, intrusted with the absolute command of avessel so powerful and with so numerous a crew that many a poor hard-working third lieutenant would have looked upon it as promotion had hebeen placed in my shoes, and with the destinies of nearly a hundred ofmy fellow-beings in my hands. And to this responsible position I hadattained not through the influence of powerful friends--for of such Ihad none--but solely, as I could not help feeling, through good conductand my own unaided exertions, with, of course, the blessing of God,about which, I am ashamed to say, I thought far too little in thosedays. And yet I could not see that I had done anything veryextraordinary; I had simply striven with all my might to do my dutyfaithfully and to the best of my ability, keeping my new motto, "ForLove and Honour," ever before my eyes, and lo! my reward had alreadycome to me, as come it must and will to all who are diligent andfaithful. And if I had succeeded so well in the past, with the limitedadvantages which I then possessed, "what," I asked myself, "may I notachieve with my present means?" I felt that there was scarcely anythingI might not dare and do; and my pulses throbbed and the blood coursed ina quicker tide through my veins as I told myself that I was now indeedfairly on the highway toward the achievement of that twofold object towhich I had dedicated my life.
Shortly after taking our departure from Morant Point, as alreadyrecorded, the wind headed us, and the schooner "broke off" until she washeading about north-east, close-hauled. Notwithstanding this, and thefact that we had run into a very nasty choppy sea, the log showed thatthe _Dolphin_ was going through the water at the rate of eleven knots.We stood on in the same direction until midnight, when, having broughtthe high rocky islet of Navaza far enough on our weather quarter to goto windward of it on the other tack, we hove about, standing to thesouthward and eastward for the remainder of the night. Daylight nextmorning found us with Point a Gravois broad on our weather bow anddistant about twenty miles. This was most gratifying, as it showed usthat we had beaten clear across the Windward Channel against a freshhead-wind in about fourteen hours--a passage almost if not quiteunexampled in point of celerity.
It was my intention to work close along the whole of the southern coastof Saint Domingo on our eastward passage; and this we did, looking infirst behind the island of a-Vache, where we were lucky enough to descrya French privateer brigantine snugly anchored under the shelter of asmall battery. As there is nothing like making hay whilst the sunshines, we at once headed straight for the anchorage, and, trusting tothe extreme roguishness of our own appearance to put our enemies offtheir guard, began to shorten sail in a somewhat slovenly fashion, asthough we were about to bring up. Then, passing under the stern of ourquarry we luffed up into the wind, shot alongside the craft, hove ourgrappling-irons into her rigging, and, whilst our boarders were stillbusy driving her astonished crew below, cut her cable and dragged her aquarter of a mile to sea before the people in the battery woke up andfully realised what we were about. By that time, however, we were infull possession of our prize, and were able to make sail upon her; andalthough the shot from the battery flew about our ears pretty thicklyfor the next ten minutes, we actually succeeded in getting out of rangewithout once being struck; and so completely had we surprised the Frenchcrew that not one of our men received so much as a scratch.
The _Julie_, for such proved to be the name of our prize, though small,turned out to be of considerable value; for she was pretty nearly fullof a rich but heterogeneous assortment of goods which I shrewdlysuspected had been taken out of ships which were subsequently scuttledor burnt; we therefore put one of the mids with half a dozen hands onboard her, and sent her into Port Royal, where, as we afterwardslearned, she safely arrived next morning.
This little slice of good fortune, coming as it did at the very outsetof our cruise, was peculiarly gratifying to me, not so much on accountof either the honour or the profit likely to accrue to me personallyfrom the transaction, but because it put the crew into good spirits, andinfused into them, especially the strangers among them, an amount ofconfidence in me which my extremely youthful appearance would perhapshave otherwise failed to command.
We devoted an entire week to our projected examination of the SaintDomingo coast, making four more captures during that time; but they allproved to be of so little value that they were set on fire anddestroyed. Then, having worked our way as far east as Saona, westretched across the Mona Passage; looked into the various bays andcreeks on the south coast of Porto Rico without success, and finallyfound ourselves, on our sixteenth day out, with the island of VirginGorda and the Herman reefs under our lee as we stood to the northwardand eastward to weather the Virgin group.
It was about noon when--having stretched off the land some twenty milesor so, we were about to bear up and take a look at the northern shoresof those islands whose southern coastline we had just so rigorouslyoverhauled--the lookout aloft hailed to say that he thought he heardfiring somewhere to windward. I was walking the deck at the timechatting with young Marchmont, one of the two mids sent on board by theadmiral, and, upon this report being made, the lad volunteered to goaloft and investigate. A couple of minutes later the active youngsterwas on the royal-yard, peering out eagerly ahead and to windward, withone hand shading his eyes to ward off the glare of the sun. He remainedthus for perhaps three or four minutes, when I saw him assume a moreeager look, and presently he turned round and hailed:
"On deck there! there certainly _is_ firing going on somewhere in ourneighbourhood, sir, for I have just heard it most distinctly; and amoment before I sp
oke I thought I caught sight of something like asmoke-wreath gleaming in the sun away yonder, broad on our weather bow.Ha! there it goes again! Did you not hear it, sir?"
"No," I replied; "the wash of the water under our bows and alongsidemakes too much noise down here. But that will do; you can come downagain, Mr Marchmont. If, as you believe, there is firing going on towindward of us we shall soon know more about it, for, of course, I shallnot now bear up until I have satisfied myself as to the matter."
The men forward became at once upon the _qui vive_, as I could see bythe animated countenances of the messmen, and the eagerness with whichthey exchanged remarks as they went to the galley for the dinner whichthe cook was then serving out; as also by the nimble manner in which therelief lookout aloft shinned up the ratlines. He was one of thekeenest-sighted men we had on board; and instead of seating himself, asusual, on the topsail-yard, he continued his upward progress until hereached the royal-yard, upon which he perched himself as easily as if hehad been in an arm-chair, steadying his body by bracing his back againstthe few inches of the slender royal-mast which rose above the yard. Hehad not been settled more than ten minutes before he hailed to reportthat he heard the firing distinctly, and had also caught sight of alight wreath of smoke about four points on the weather bow. This was sofar satisfactory, inasmuch as there could now be no longer any doubt asto the firing; the next thing was to find out its nature, whether it wasin broadsides or by single guns, and how often it occurred. So I hailedhim to report every time he heard anything. Presently he hailed again:
"Another gun, sir!"
I took the time. Not quite a minute had elapsed when he again reported:
"Another gun, sir, but not so loud this time. I think it was a lighterpiece than the last."
It was nearly five minutes before the next report was made, so Iconcluded that it must be a running fight--a chase, in fact--which wasgoing forward.
An interval of perhaps a minute passed, when I distinctly caught thesound of a faint _boom_! and at the same moment the hail came down:
"Another gun, sir--a heavier one than the last; and sail ho! threepoints on the weather bow."
"That will do," I replied; "you need not report the firing any further,but keep a sharp lookout for another sail. What is the one in sightlike?"
"I can hardly tell at this distance, sir; the heads of her royals areonly just showing above the horizon, but they don't appear to be of anygreat size."
Some four minutes later a second sail was reported, as I had expected;the lookout now expressing an opinion that the new-comer was probably afrigate, whilst the smaller craft, the leader in the race, was either aship-sloop or a brig. My other midshipman, a lad named Boyne, was nowon deck, having relieved Marchmont at noon, and this youngster, who hadtaken the precaution to bring his telescope on deck with him, nowstarted forward and, with the agility of a monkey, soon placed himselfalongside the lookout. He immediately raised the telescope to his eye,but we were by this time jumping into a short but lumpy sea, which madethe motion aloft very considerable; moreover, the position was not onevery favourable for observation, so he was rather a long time bringinghis glass to bear. At length, however, with the assistance of thelookout, he managed to get both craft, one after the other, into hisfield of vision, and after a good long look he reported:
"We are raising the strangers very fast, sir; I can see the royals andhalf-way down the topgallant-sails of both. They are running deadbefore the wind, with royal studding-sails set on both sides; theleading ship is a brig, apparently British, and the one in chase seemsto be a frigate."
"Thank you, Mr Boyne," I replied. "Just stay there a little longer, ifyou please; keep your eye on the strangers and report anythingnoteworthy which you may see."
"Ay, ay, sir!" was the answer, and to work the lad again went with histelescope most industriously.
We could now hear the firing quite distinctly on deck, but of coursewere unable to see anything, though we expected to catch the gleam ofcanvas on the horizon very shortly.
Presently young Boyne hailed again:
"The big fellow is overhauling the little one very fast, sir!"
"No doubt. How does the frigate bear now, Mr Boyne?"
"About three points on our weather bow, sir."
"Thank you! Keep her away a point,"--to the helmsman. "Mr Pottle,take a small pull upon the weather-braces, if you please, and give heranother foot or two of the main sheet."
"Ay, ay, sir," answered Pottle. "Lay aft here, you sea-dogs, and checkthe weather-braces. Royal-yard there! hold on tight, we are going totake a pull upon the weather-braces. Are you all ready there? Nowthen, lads, steady, not too much; you've rather overdone it. Ease offan inch or two of that royal-brace; haul taut to leeward, well there,belay! Lee to'gallant-brace haul taut; topsail and fore-braces, wellthere, belay of all. Forecastle there! ease up that flying-jib sheet.What do you mean, you know-nothings, by flattening the sail like that?So, that's better, belay!" And so the old fellow went on, making theround of the decks and trimming every sail until it drew to the utmostadvantage.
At length, as the schooner rose upon the crest of a sea, the gleam ofthe sun upon white canvas was caught for a moment and instantly reportedby a dozen eager voices from the forecastle. It then bore two and ahalf points good upon the weather bow. I again hailed the royal-yard:
"Royal-yard there! can you make out how the strangers are steering, MrBoyne? We are heading north-east and by north."
"Ay, ay, sir; if that is the case the vessels ahead are steering aboutwest-south-west."
"That will do, Mr Boyne; you may come down, sir! Clear for action, MrPottle, if you please, and then let the crew go to quarters."
"Ay, ay, sir. Clear for action, Mr Fidd!"
"_Twee, twee, twee-e-e, tweetle, weetle, tee, tee, tee-e_!" piped theboatswain, following up his shrill music with the hoarse bellow of:
"All hands clear for action. Now then, old stew-pan,"--to thecook--"dowse your galley-fire, my hearty, and stow away all your bestchiney down in the run. Tumble up there, you bull-dogs, tumble up!"
It was no very long job to prepare the schooner for action, and intwenty minutes everything was ready--the magazine opened, powder andshot passed up on deck, the guns cast loose and loaded, the pikes cutadrift from the main-boom, arms served out to the crew, and every man athis appointed station. By this time the lower yards of the brig hadrisen level with the horizon, whilst the upper half of the frigate'stopsails could be seen from the deck. The firing, meanwhile, had goneon pretty deliberately, and it was now possible to see from our deck,with the aid of a telescope, that the sails of both pursuer and pursuedwere suffering pretty extensively from the effects of the cannonade. Itwas evident that each was firing high, the frigate trying to wing thebrig and so arrest her flight, whilst the brig was equally anxious tomaim her big antagonist's spars, by which means only could she hope toeffect her escape. So far the brig appeared to be getting rather thebest of it, for though her canvas showed the daylight through it inseveral places, her spars and running gear still remained uninjured, andevery sail was drawing to the utmost advantage, whilst the frigate hadlost her fore royal-mast, which, with its sail, was hanging down overthe topgallant-sail and topsail, and the main-topmast studding-sail tackwas cut and the sail streaming out loose and flapping furiously in thewind; these little casualties being sufficient to enable the brig tohold her own, for the time being at least, in the unequal race. Toencourage the plucky little vessel, by showing her that help was athand, we now fired a gun and hoisted our colours, allowing the ensign tostream as far out to leeward as possible, in the act of running it up tothe gaff-end, in order that those on board her might catch a glimpse ofit before it was hidden by our canvas. Approaching each other as wewere, nearly end on, we rose each other very rapidly; and at length wein the _Dolphin_ had the satisfaction of seeing the frigate, the vesselmost distant from us, fairly hull-up. She had by this time cleared awaythe wreck of her fore
royal-mast, had spliced her studding-sail tack,and was in the very act of setting the sail again when the brig's twostern-chasers spoke out simultaneously, and next moment down toppled thefrigate's fore and main-topgallant-masts with all attached, thetopgallant studding-sail booms snapping off like carrots at the sametime, and there the noble craft was in a pretty mess. A ringing cheer,which those on board the brig might almost have heard, went up from ourlads at this sight, followed by a hoarse murmur of:
"Lookout! now Johnny Crapeau has lost his temper, and the brig is goingto get _loco_ in 'arnest!" as the frigate put her helm down and firedher whole broadside at the flying craft. There was not so very muchdamage done, after all, so far as the brig was concerned. Her peak-halliards were cut and she temporarily lost the use of her main trysail,and we could see a rope's-end or two streaming out here and there in thewind; but that was all, excepting that her canvas showed a few extraeyelet-holes. With the frigate, however, it was different; by yieldingto his feeling of exasperation, as he had, her skipper had been betrayedinto a very unseamanlike act, in luffing his ship with all her studding-sails upon her, and the result was that he lost the remainder of hisbooms in an instant, and found himself in a worse pickle than ever.
By this time the brig had passed far enough to leeward of us to be ableto clearly distinguish the colour of our bunting; and seeing also thatwe were indisputably holding our luff so as to close with the frigate,she accepted us as a friend, notwithstanding our decidedly rakishappearance, and at once coolly began to shorten sail, evidently nowdetermined, with our aid, to try conclusions with her big antagonist.It was about time for us to do the same; we accordingly clewed up andfurled our royal and topgallant-sail, hauled down and stowed the gaff-topsail and main-topmast staysail, brailed in the foresail, and tricedup the tack of the mainsail; which left the schooner in condition to beworked by less than a dozen hands. By the time that this had beenaccomplished, the running gear hauled taut, rope's-ends coiled down, andeverything made ship-shape on board us, we had arrived within a distanceof something like two miles of the frigate, at which juncture she fireda shot at us from her bow gun, possibly as a hint to us not to interferewith her. The shot fell short several yards.
"Umph!" remarked Woodford from his post at the helm, "nothing veryterrific about that! A twelve-pounder, apparently, and a shockinglypoor aim. Our thirty-two will make the Johnnies open their eyes withastonishment, I expect."
"Yes," said I; "we ought to be able to reach her from here, so I'll let`Long Tom' return their compliment. Forward, there! are you ready withthe pivot gun?"
"All ready, sir," was the reply.
"Then just give the frigate a taste of your quality. We will keep awaya couple of points so that you may have a fair chance; and see if youcan't make the shot tell."
"Ay, ay, sir; if I don't make the splinters fly you may stop my grog forthe next month," answered Collins, the captain of the gun, who happenedto be a bit of a favourite with me, and was a trifle free in hislanguage in consequence.
The gun was carefully levelled; and, when they were all ready, Woodfordgently put the helm up; the schooner gradually fell off from the wind,and presently there was a deafening explosion, accompanied by a jarringconcussion which shook the schooner from stem to stern; and as the smokedrove away to leeward we saw a jet of spray a dozen feet high shoot intothe air as the ball struck the crest of a wave, and in another instant awhite patch of naked wood appeared exactly in the centre of a port-sill,showing where the shot had hulled the frigate.
"Good! if that hasn't crippled one of their guns I'm a Dutchman,"ejaculated Woodford, letting the schooner come up "full and by" oncemore.
"Very good indeed, Collins," I shouted. "Load again, my fine fellow, asquickly as possible. Sail trimmers, ready about! Mr Boyne, see thatthe muzzles of your larboard broadside guns are well elevated, and fireas they are brought to bear. Take steady aim, lads, and do not throwaway a single shot if you can help it. Ha! he is going to rake us!Down with your helm, Woodford. Helm's a-lee! Ease up your jib-sheets,forward, there! Round in upon the main-sheet, smartly, men. Let drawthe fore-sheet; braces let go and haul!"
The schooner--what a beauty she was!--worked like a top, and was roundon the other tack, presenting her broadside to the frigate, when thelatter launched the whole contents of her larboard battery at us.Almost at the same moment we fired the four eighteens in our larboardbattery at her; and then, before we had time to note the damage done, ifany, her shot came screaming about our ears. There was a crash on boardthe schooner, but only one; it was caused by a shot passing through ourweather bulwarks and striking a ring-bolt in the deck, after which itbounded high in the air and went overboard to leeward. There were acouple of holes in our beautiful mainsail, and one in the flying-jib;but beyond that we were uninjured. One of the men in the larboardbattery had his cheek slightly lacerated by a splinter, but with thattrifling exception none of us were any the worse. The frigate, however,did not escape quite so easily. When we again looked at her it was seenthat we had knocked away her jib-boom close to the cap, and had cut awayher flying-jib halliards and stay, with the result that the sail wastowing under her forefoot; her fore-topsail tye had also been cut, andthe yard was down on the cap, rendering their plight worse than ever.This loss of head sail occurring at a moment when, having partiallyluffed to fire at us, the wind was well on her starboard quarter, thefrigate now showed symptoms of flying up into the wind altogether; andalthough it was evident, from the sluggish way in which she did so, thatthe tendency was being strongly counteracted by her helm, I soon sawthat her crew were powerless, and that fly into the wind she _would_, inspite of them.
"Ready about again, lads!" cried I. "Now, Mr Marchmont, it is yourturn. By the time that we are fairly round the frigate's stern will beturned directly toward you, offering an excellent mark. Let us see howmany of your shot you can send in through her cabin windows, will you?"
"Ay, ay, sir, we'll do our best," answered the lad, in high glee; andthen I saw him pass rapidly from one captain of a gun to another, andheard him mention distinctly, in his excitement, something about"bottles of grog."
The men grinned, turned their quids, hitched up the waistbands of theirbreeches; squinted along the sights of their guns; looked at thefrigate, as though measuring her distance, and then adjusted theelevation of their pieces with evidently the nicest judgment and thevery best of intentions.
Watching the frigate carefully, the helm was put down at just the rightmoment; and as our topsail swept round and was bracedup--_bang_!--_bang_!--_bang_!--_bang_! roared our eighteens, awayskipped the shot, and crash went all four of them slap into the stern ofthe disabled Frenchman, playing the very mischief with the gilt-ginger-bread work with which that part of the ship was profusely decorated. Arattling broadside from the brig now drew our attention to her, and wesaw that she was standing toward us, close-hauled on the larboard tack,under topsails and topgallant-sails; and that she also had takenadvantage of the frigate's helpless situation to rake her mosthandsomely.
The Frenchman, meanwhile, having got himself into what Courtenay wouldhave termed "the centre of a hobble," was very busily doing his best toget out of it again--and in a very seamanlike way, too, notwithstandinghis former mistake--by clewing up and furling everything abaft hismainmast and so trimming his yards as to cause the frigate to gatherstern-way and gradually pay off again. This, however, was a work ofsome little time, hampered as the ship was with wreck forward; andbefore it was done we had passed to windward of her, receiving in sodoing the fire of but seven of her sixteen larboard broadside guns, towhich we replied effectively with our starboard battery. Having reachedfar enough to weather her on our next tack we went about, and, crossingher bows, fired our larboard battery and our thirty-two pounder into heragain, raking her severely and, best of all, bringing her fore-topmastdown by the run. She had by this time paid off sufficiently to havegathered head-way, and her crew actually managed to get her before thewind; but it was
only for a few minutes, she soon broached to again; andbeing by this time almost entirely bereft of head sail--her foresailalone remaining--there she hung, in the wind's eye, helpless, andpractically at our mercy. The _Dolphin_ was at once placed in anadvantageous position on the frigate's starboard bow, and kept there byher topsail being laid aback, whilst the brig took up a correspondingposition on the enemy's starboard quarter; and we then both opened araking fire upon her so effectually that ten minutes later she hauleddown her colours and surrendered.
The Rover's Secret: A Tale of the Pirate Cays and Lagoons of Cuba Page 19