Steel Belt; or, The Three Masted Goleta. A Tale of Boston Bay

by J. H. Ingraham

  Among those vessels that got the first fanning of the breeze and stood harborward, was the double decked frigate or razee, already al luded to as having been becalmed a mile below the Spanish caravel. Her lofty royals first felt the upper current of moving air before the surface of the water was disturbed by a flaw, and slowly and majestically she began to advance: she had, therefore, made considerable progress, when the three masted schooner which lay so much farther in,caught the breeze. This vessel had not been noticed from the frigate, as several coasters and the low shoulder of an island lay in the range, and it seemed from her manoeuvering to be the object of the schooner to keep in this range even after the moon had risen, and she was in motion again. If the honest coast skippers had been surprised at her outlandish rig, they were not less astonished and confounded at her rate of sailing after the wind rose. She seemed to walk the water! The breeze that moved them along heavily at two knots, sent her three or three and a half. She seemed to want but a cap full of wind to make her dance over the water like a whaleman's skiff. She soon came up with the Polly Ann, and as the vessels were crowded thickly together and the passage was narrow, she went so near that Captain Eben Pinkham trembled so that he let fall Bunker Hill upon the plank and came very near shooting his son and heir `Josh' through the head; as it was he made a seive of his fore-sail and was knocked over on his back by the concussion. When he got to his feet the `pirate,' as he swore she was, was fifty fathom ahead of him leaving a white track of foam behind.

  `You'd better scamper and git out o' my way,' said the militia hero on seeing this favorable state of things; and taking up Bunker Hill he put it to his shoulder and aimed at the vessel in bravado; fully satisfied that the report of his double-barrel had saved his load of lumber, and perhaps his own and his son Josh's neck from the hands of the `darn'd pirate;' such being the complimentary and graceful appeleation which Captain Pinkham bestowed upon the enemy.

  `I guess he wont want to come no nigher the Polly Ann arter this,' said this worthy and brave man as he looked after his retreating fear-inspirer.

  He then turned to seek the ocngratulations of his son Josh and those of a bottled nose Kennebec fisherman who composed his whole crew, and who felt safe and happy under the protection of so brave a man, when he was struck with astonishment on beholding his vessel almost under the shadow of the triple tower of canvass that rose high above the lofty decks of the frigate. The next moment the stately structure surged past her decks looking down upon the sloop's topsail yard, leaving the sloop as she passed rocking in her wake as a child's chip boat would have done in her own.

  CHAPTER II.

  The Return to Port—The Goleta discovered— The end of the Cruise—Suspicious Movements on the water.

  The razee marched onward with a stately advance amid the fleet of lesser craft, which, one after another, fell into her wake. She was clad in canvass from deck to truck, and towered into the skies above the humble sails around like a huge tower of snow piled terrace on terrace. At the same distance ahead of her as at first starting, the strange schooner kept her course. The fast sailing frigate had passed every thing else, but did not gain upon this vessel, which was now plainly seen from the deck of the former, the coasting vessels which had intercepted the view having been one after another left astern.

  Two bells in the first watch had just been struck. The frigate was about two miles below the castle and five from the town, and the Spanish bazel a little less than half a mile right ahead. The wind was from the South, and both vessels were running with it free on the larboard quarter. The decks of the frigate shone brightly in the moonlight, save where the black shadow of the sails would fall across it, and the brightest spaces were crossed and netted with the gold pencil-like shadows of the rigging intercepting the moon beams. The usual watch was increased by large numbers of the crew grouped on gun carriages and the forecastle, and crowding the forward hammock nettings, watching the advance of the noble vessel into harbour; for she had been long absent and in the return to port the rigid discipline of other time was in some degree relaxed. Many a weather beaten face was turned eagerly and earnestly in the direction of the dome-crowned queen of New England, sending up her hundred glittering spires like fingers heaven-pointed. A cheerful yet suppressed murmur and laughter broke the usual gravity of the forward part of the ship, while aft the officers were no less elated with the prospect of a speedy termination to their voyage, the anticipation of a happy meeting with friends, and the enjoyment once more of social pleasures. The middies were in high spirits in the prospect of liberty and larks, and were as merry as school boys let out of school for a half holiday. Smiles and good humor and kindly feeling characterized all on board from the captain, arrayed in his shore uniform, to the gigantic African cook who was shaving his ebony chin in a bit of broken mirror preparatory to paying a shore visit to his expectant Phillis.

  Gallantly the returning frigate bowled up the harbour which seemed to open its arms and then gradually to enclose in the embrace of its arms the two years wanderer. Nets of golden oranges, huge branches of bananas, and festoons of fragrant pine apples, which were hung in different parts of the frigate, showed that her last departure was from the West Indies, and that she was not many days thence.

  A party of young officers off duty were standing near the larboard gangway, some of them upon the hammock nettings, watching the lights in the distant city, and pointing out to each other familiar places; for the bright moon revealed every object with remarkable distinctness.

  Opposite this group, on the starboard side of the deck, a little further aft, stood the captain, his first lieutenant and the quarter-master— the latter a respectful step to leeward of his commanding officer. He managed to listen and con the ship at the same time. They were talking about bringing the frigate to anchor, and the best ground to be chosen for it after they got up to town. In the mizzen rigging, just above them, stood a young lieutenant with the quarter-master's spy glass to his eyes looking out ahead. His face was suddenly animated. The goleta was a couple of points to windward and plainly visible from the quarter deck. He had been watching her for some moments, being surprised at her ability to keep her distance ahead of the frigate which usually walked by every thing. The rest on board, save some of the sailors who were also observing the stranger keep ahead with no little surprise, seemed too much taken up with the familiar shores, the city and the idea of going on shore to notice her. To this young officer she seemed to be only a schooner as her three masts ranged, and the light was not strong enough at the distance she was off, for him to distinguish the lateen rig from the ordinary sails of a schooner. But while he looked it became necessary for her to fall off four or five points suddenly where the channel took a sharp turn, just below the castle, which she was now most up with. This change in her course brought her three quarters to, and to his surprise he saw that the supposed schooner had three masts far apart, and that she was remarkably long in the hull. The change in her position also brought the beams of the moon more broadly upon her canvass and he was astonished to trace the outlines of the sharp triangular lateen sail.

  `Faith! The secret of that long legged fellow's speed is out,' he said with a rounder oath than it becomes us to chronicle, or became the quarter deck of a frigate.

  `How? what is it, Winckley?' demanded the captain, stopping his conversation and looking at the young officer inquiringly.— `What have you discovered?'

  `A lateen schooner running a race into Boston harbor with the tightest frigate in Uncle Sam's navy, and beating her at that. I never expected to meet with a lateen out of sight of the Pan of Matanzas!'

  The officers attention was now drawn to the vessel; and as the frigate rapidly neared her after she had taken the angle in the channel and running for awhile nearly broadside to, they easily made her out to be a large class Spanish baxel.

  `This is a strange craft to see in a Yankee port,' observed the captain. `I suppose she has taken a run with a cargo of oranges and pine apples. We
are but nine days from Havana and if she had as quick a passage it will turn out a good venture!' Thus saying the captain, after glancing up the harbor, turned to his lieutenant and resumed his conversations and instructions.

  The frigate now gallantly passed the Castle, which then presented to the eve snow-white walls and green parapets, and for the rest of the way all on board were too busy to heed the goleta, though her class had been discovered by other groups both amidship and on the forecastle, and given rise to no little curiosity as to her business in those seas.

  The goleta was at length lost amid the numerous vessels at anchor in the broad basin of the harbor, and soon after the frigate drew in among them and taking in sail after sail, at length dropped her anchor in the stream opposite the India pier.

  The deep mouthed bells in the city towers were ringing out the good old fashioned hour of nine o'clock—a sort of social curfew for regulating the hours of all well disposed citizens, when the frigate came to with her anchor once more grasping the ground to whih its iron flukes had so long been a stranger. The sails were furled, the yards squared, the port watch set, the captain and one or two of his officers had gone ashore, as well as all who had got leave, and ten o'clock struck from half a dozen turrets, iron tongue answering to tongue from one extent of the reposing city to another.— The lieutenant of the watch was pacing up and down the deck; three or four of the older midshipmen were standing aft upon the quarter deck, gazing towards the town and conversing in animated voices about the joys of tomorrow. Groups of tars were forward listening to long yarns to beguile the time, or leaning over the hammock netting, watching the moving lights ashore and listening to the sounds that came off to their ears. All were impatient for the morning; every bosom throbbed with joyful anticipation. There was, however, one exception to the general happiness which pervaded the frigate. But in the satisfaction that made each heart full there was no room to cast a thought upon the wretchedness of others.'

  The lieutenant of the watch had been pacing up and down the lofty deck with a short quick impatient step like a man to whom time lags and who would haster its flight by the rapidity of its own motion. He was suddenly stopped by hearing his name called by a midshipman, who was standing upon the quarter davits, upon which he had sprung a moment or two before.

  `Roswell! Look here!'

  `What is it, Dalton?'

  `Come here and see for yourself!'

  The office approached him and stepping upon a gun carriage, looked over the bulwarks in the direction whither the young man's eyes were turned.

  `I see nothing but some scores of small craft anchored about us!' answered he. `You are always discovering sea-serpents, Dalton,' he added with a smile.

  `There are plenty of craft at anchor and one that is not at anchor. That one I called you to look at. I have been watching her the last five minutes! She is now hid by that brig. Watch the brig's bows closely and you will see the craft I mean, poke her sharp nose out beyond it in a moment! There! Now do you see her?' he demanded with animation.

  `Yes; I see a vessel moving beyond the brig?'

  `And do you see nothing extraordinary in that, nor in her? Do you not see now that she shows half her length that she is the goleta? '

  `What goleta?'

  `The three masted schooner that run into harbor ahead of us, and keeping just her diso tance to a fathom, and not two thirds of her canvass set!'

  `I was below writing a letter for home, you know, when we came into port. I did not see her! But sure enough, Dalton, that is a regular West Indian caravel! a three masted lateen! I see her plainly enough now!'

  `Well, she came into port at the same time we did, only showing us her saucy heels. I lost sight of her, just before we came to anchor, among the other vessels, for you must know I am positive I saw that self-same craft at anchor in Havana, up by the Reglas, the evening before we sailed!'

  `Another of your sea-serpents, Dalton? It is impossible, though there is no doubt she is from Cuba. We have made the passage in nine days from anchor up to anchor down, an unparalleled passage—and there is no Spaniard that could sail with us at such odds!'

  `I could swear to her!'

  `So you swore the Coffee Key was a sea-serpent. You were positive you saw it lift its head and lash its tail!'

  `No more of that an' thou lovest me?' said the lively young middy, coloring. `What I now say is true!'

  `Well it is possible. But you have doubtless mistaken some other goleta for this. Yet if any craft could sail it should be that! She is built like a greyhound. How she hugs the water, and yet how lightly her bows and stern sit above it. And her masts rake with the most dare devil look, just as a spirited race-horse throws back his slender ears! You may be correct, Dalton! Yet it is odd she should have been in Havana the night before we sailed, and to-night be anchored within fifty fathom of our stern!'

  `She is not anchored. Do you not see she is steadily moving, though very slowly!'

  `I now see that she is. I thought it was an apparent motion, caused by the brig this side of her dragging her anchor. She surely moves and yet without any perceptible means!'

  `That is what surprises me! Before I called to you she was astern of the brig. At first I thought she was at anchor; but I soon discovered that she was creeping almost impert ceptibly up against the ebb tide and withouusing any visible impelling powyr. Her sails being all furled and on deck I was not a little surprised!'

  `You have reason to be! What can it mean? See how she has left the brig and is yet moving steadily and noiselessly on!'

  `These Spaniards are always doing things unlike anybody else. What in the deuce can he want creeping about among the fleet this way!'

  `Perhaps he wants to change his anchoring ground!'

  `Then why dont he do it with his boat ahead? And how do you explain this motion? '

  `It puzzles me I must confess. If I was in a Spanish port or any foreign harbor, I should tell that chap to keep his distance. Here there is no danger, He is only manoeuvring like all these Spanish vessels. They do every thing secret and with a mystery, confound them! Keep your eye on him, Dalton, and see if you can make out where his fins are!'

  Thus speaking the lieutenant sprung from the gun to reply to some question put to him by the purser. The middy continued to watch the goleta with no little curiosity. Slowly, yet with a steady onward motion, she opposed the current which had began to ebb, and each moment drew nearer and nearer under the stern of the frigate. At length her motion ceased when within about pistol shot, and she became stationary within a few fathoms of the bows of the Polly Ann, which she had a moment before passed as she lay at anchor. But her bold commander overcome with the military achievements of the day had turned in and was asleep upon his laurels, leaving the vessel to take care of herself. An anchor fast hold upon the mud was Captain Eben Pinkham's harbor watch.

  Dalton surveyed the mysterious vessel a few moments, and satisfied that she did not now move, and that, so far as he could see, she had not dropped anchor, he was not a little confounded. A faintly formed superstisious feeling gathered about his heart, and bold as he was, he could not but confess that he experienced something like fear. He was about to call to the group of young officers who were laughing and talking on the opposite side of the deck looking towards the town, when Roswell came aft and got upon the gun again.

  `Ah, she has dropped her mud-hook, Dalton, ' he said on seeing her nearly in the same position in which he had last seen her.

  `Not she! It is my opinion she is sailing on the devil's back; and he carries her about where she chooses. She has ceased to move and yet has let fall no anchor. The devil has stopped to take breath!'

  This was said half-soberly half-laughingly.

  `She can't have grounded, for she must have ten fathom under her keel. Your devil, Dalton, must be a long-legged child to touch the bottom. But jesting aside, this is a very curious and strange affair. Did you discover how she worked her way up so far.'

  `Not I unless,
as I say, she came on Belzebub's back!'

  `If we were lying in Havana, and I should see such manoeuvering I would send a boat on board of her! How the deuce she moved along without any sweeps or sails puzzles me. Ah, I have it. She must have had a line out ahead and been drawing herself forward steadily by that?'

  `But where could she have it fastened?'

  `That is the difficulty. I am still in the dark. I will get my glass and take a look upon her decks!'

  `I have not seen a soul moving!'

  `I will take survey of her in-board! Here is the spy-glass! I shall have to go two thirds of the way up to the top to be able to take a bird's eye view—her sides are built up and lean in so?'

  `What do you discover?'

  `A clean deck—rigging neatly coiled—latteen yards snugly stowed, and every thing as fine as a feather. She is a beautiful craft. Too neat for a Spaniard, yet she looks Spanish altogether!'

  `Do you see any one on board!'

  `Not a soul. Yes! I see above the bulwarks the cap of a man walking on the starboard side of the deck. Forward in shadow I think there are half a dozen men lying down; but it is so dark there and the moonlight glitters so upon the water—for the goleta lies right in the moon's wake, that I can't well make them out! She has two boats, of the same slender elegant model of herself, amidships! '

  The remarks of the lieutenant of the watch drew the attention of the remaining officers upon the quarter deck to the goleta, which now lay quiet and motionless upon the water, her dark and beautiful proportions finely releived against the silvery back ground of the moonlit wave.