by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER XV.
CRUISING.
Before sailing, the yellow band was painted out, for the pirates whoescaped would probably carry the news of what had happened over thewhole archipelago. Ten men were put on board each of the prizes, and the_Tigress_ sailed up through the islands and escorted them to Smyrna,where the pasha, after hearing an account of their capture, at once gavepermission for them to be sold as prizes, and as the news of the retreatof the French had given a considerable impetus to trade, they fetchedgood prices. As soon as this was arranged, the _Tigress_ sailed awayagain. For some months they cruised among the islands, putting intoevery little bay and inlet, boarding every craft found there, andsearching her thoroughly to see if there was any property belonging toplundered vessels on board.
Once or twice she came upon two or three large craft together, and hadsome hard fighting before she captured or sank them; but, as a rule, thecrews rowed ashore as soon as they saw the real nature of the new-comer.Some thirty craft were sent as prizes into Smyrna or Rhodes, and theresold, as many more were sunk or burned. They had, in no case, foundspoil at all equal to that which had been captured at Astropalaia, butthe total was nevertheless considerable. Once or twice they wereattacked by boats when anchored in quiet bays, but as a vigilant watchwas always kept they beat off their assailants with heavy loss. The rigof the brig was frequently altered. Sometimes she was turned into aschooner with yards on her foremast, sometimes into a fore-and-aftcraft; and as the time went on and captures became fewer and fewer, itwas evident that she had established a thorough scare throughout thearchipelago, and that for the time the pirates had taken to peacefulavocations, and were indeed completely crippled by the loss of so largea number of their craft.
The _Tigress_ had but one awkward incident during the voyage. The daywas bright and clear. The two Turks had been, as was their custom,squatting together on the deck, smoking their pipes. Wilkinson and Edgarwere pacing together up and down, when the latter said:
"Look at these two native craft; they have both let their lateen sailsrun down. I am sure I don't know why; there is not a cloud in the sky,except that little white one over there."
They were passing the Turks at the moment, and Edgar said to one ofthem:
"The two craft over there have just let their sails run down. What canthat mean?"
The Turk leapt to his feet with a quickness very unusual to him.
"It is a white squall!" he shouted. "Down with every stitch of canvas,sir. Quick, for your lives! the squall will be upon us in five minutes."
It was Wilkinson's first experience of the terribly sudden squall of theLevant, but he had heard of them and knew their danger, and he shoutedat the top of his voice:
"All hands take in sail! Quick, lads, for your lives!"
The boatswain's whistle rang loudly in the air, and he repeated theorder at the top of his voice. The men on deck, who had been engaged onvarious small jobs since they came up from dinner, looked astounded atthe order, but without hesitation ran up the ratlines at the top oftheir speed, while the watch below looked equally surprised as theyglanced upwards and around at the deep blue of the sky.
"Quick, quick!" the Turk exclaimed. "Let go all sheets and halliards!"
Wilkinson shouted, "Do the sails up anyhow, men."
Although the sky was unchanged they could see the light cloud Edgar hadnoticed advancing towards them at an extraordinary rate of speed, whilea white line on the sea kept pace with it.
"Hard up with the helm--hard up!" Wilkinson shouted. "Hold on a momentwith those head sails; that will do, that will do. Let go the halliards;down staysails and jib."
The sailors, now conscious of the coming danger, worked desperately. Thelight upper sails were secured, the courses had been clewed up, but thetopsails were still but half-lashed when Wilkinson shouted again:
"Down for your lives! Down on the weather side; slip down by theback-stays. You men to leeward, hold on--all hold on," he shouted a fewseconds later.
There was a dull roaring sound, rising to a shriek as the squall struckthe vessel.
Most of the men had gained the deck in safety, but many of those comingdown by the ratlines were still some distance from the deck. It was wellfor them that they were on the weather side; had they been to leewardthey would have been torn from their grasp, whereas they were nowpinned to the rigging. Two sounds like the explosion of cannon wereheard. The main and foretopsails both blew out of their gaskets, belliedfor an instant, and then burst from the bolt-ropes and flew away, andwere speedily lost to sight. So great was the pressure that the brig wasdriven bodily down until the water was almost level with the rail at thebow, and it looked for a moment as if she would go down by the head.
One of the jibs was run up, but only to be blown away before it wassheeted home. Another was tried, the sheet being kept very slack. Thisheld, her head lifted, and in a minute the _Tigress_ was flying alongdead before the wind. The storm-jib was brought up, hooked on, andhoisted. This, being of very heavy canvas, could be trusted, and as soonas it was set the other was hauled down.
"Thank God, that is over!" Wilkinson said, "and we have not lost ahand."
By this time all the men had gained the deck.
"How long will this last?" Edgar shouted in one of the Turks' ears.
"Perhaps one hour; perhaps four."
"Let us have a look at the chart," Wilkinson said. "When we last lookedthere was a group of rocks ten miles ahead, and at the rate we are goingthe _Tigress_ will be smashed into matchwood if she keeps on this coursefor long."
Edgar nodded.
"We must get trysails on the main and foremast," Wilkinson went on, "andmanage to lay her course a couple of points to the west. I wish we hadthose upper spars down on deck, but it is of no use talking of thatnow."
Wilkinson went down to the sail-room with the boatswain and four seamento bring up the two heaviest and strongest of the triangular sails.
"We must sheet them home before we hoist them," he said, as theyreturned on deck. "We should never be able to haul the sheets in whenthe sails once fill."
Twenty men went aft with them and commenced the task. The fore-trysailwas bent to some of the mast-hoops, and the sheet fastened to a cavel onthe port side.
"Port your helm a little, my man," Wilkinson said. "That will do, justenough to keep the wind on the starboard quarter. Keep her at that, keepher at that." Edgar had the sail ready to hoist. "Slacken the tack alittle. Now, half a dozen of you tail on here, and get ready to haul itdown as soon as the sail is up to its full height and the halliardssecured. Now, lads, tail on to the halliards. Away with her."
The sailors ran forward with the rope, but as the sail rose the strainwas so great that once or twice they were brought to a standstill. Atlast the boatswain shouted:
"That is enough. Come back a little, but keep a firm grip of it. That isright!" he shouted, as he twisted the slack of the rope over the cleet."Now, lads, down with the tack; down with it! Belay!"
The main-trysail was hoisted as successfully. Small as were the sails,and slight the angle with the wind, the pressure brought the ship downnearly to her covering-board. Wilkinson and the boatswain took theirplaces by the wheel.
"Keep her full, lads, but not a bit more. She will do at that. By Jove,Blagrove," he said, as Edgar came aft and glanced at the compass, "thatwas a narrow squeak! If you hadn't noticed those native craft lowertheir sails and called our attention to it, we should have turned turtleas sure as fate. We have got her snug now. If we were right as to ourposition at noon we shall clear those rocks nicely."
"I don't think we can have been far wrong, by the position of theislands. At the same time I will go up to the foretop," Edgar said; "Ishall be able to make them out some distance away, for, if you remember,two of them are thirty or forty feet above the water."
"Mind how you go," Wilkinson said. "You had better take one of the menup with you; you can hold each other on then."
Edgar went forward and told one
of the best of the hands to go aloftwith him.
"All right, your honour!"
"It will be a tight job, but I daresay we can do it. Get a couple oflines seven or eight feet long; we will fasten them under our arms, andif a puff comes harder than usual we can twist the end round a shroud orratline."
In a couple of minutes both were roped and ready to mount. It was hardwork, and several times they had to use the rope to prevent their beingtorn from their hold. But at last they reached the top, and fastenedthemselves securely there. The scene was a singular one. Overhead was acloudless sky, somewhat paler in tint than it had been before the squallburst. Below was a white mass of foam, which, from the height on whichthey stood, seemed almost pressed level by the force of the wind. Ondeck they had been drenched with the sheets of spray torn off the headsof the waves as soon as they began to lift themselves, but here theywere above this, and there was nothing to prevent their looking round inall directions.
"There are the rocks, sir," the top-man said, after they had been sometwenty minutes in their position, "over the lee bow, about two pointsoff our course."
"I see them now," Edgar said. "I thought we should have made them out bythe white foam round them, but it is white everywhere."
He shouted down to the deck, but it was some time before he could makehis voice heard above the roar of the squall. He pointed aft when atlast one looked up. The sailor ran aft to the helm, and calledWilkinson's attention to Edgar. The latter pointed in the direction ofthe rocks. Wilkinson waved his hand, and Edgar, then leaving the sailoron watch, made his way down to the deck.
"We shall go within half a mile of them," he said, when he joined hiscomrade.
"It is lucky that we looked at the chart as soon as we did," Wilkinsonshouted back, "for even with this rag of sail I should not have liked tobring her nearer to the wind than we are now."
"I don't think it is blowing quite as hard as it was," Edgar said. "Icertainly got down more easily than I went up."
"I was thinking so myself, Blagrove, though there is not muchdifference. I don't care, now that we are clear of those rocks, how longit keeps on. Directly we pass them we can keep her off the wind again,and there is nothing in our course then for over forty miles, and thenit is only a small island with deep water all round. I have just beentaking another look at the chart."
By another hour the strength of the wind had considerably abated, thefore-staysail was reefed and hoisted, and before sunset sail was on heragain, and the hands were aloft preparing to get up fresh topsails.
At the end of six months, on their going into Rhodes they found that asmall gun-boat had arrived with orders from Sir Sidney Smith for them torejoin him.
"You have done exceedingly well," the latter said in his letter. "Thepashas both of Smyrna and Rhodes have written to me expressing theiradmiration at the work that you have accomplished, and indeed yourreport of the number of pirate vessels taken or destroyed speaks foritself."
They were not sorry at the receipt of the order. During the past monththey had only made two or three captures, and these were craft of smallsize, and they were well content to give up their independent life, andreturn to regular duty. A week later they made out the _Tigre_ lying offthe Damietta mouth of the Nile. The man-of-war signalled to them toanchor near her. As soon as they did so Wilkinson went on board.
"I am glad to see you back, Mr. Wilkinson," Sir Sidney said cordially."You have fully justified my confidence in your energy and discretion.The pashas write to me saying that piracy seems to be completelysuppressed, and that it is two months since either of them received acomplaint of a vessel being chased or missing. Therefore, as I wantedyou here, where we have not half enough ships for the work, I thought itas well to recall you. Your craft seems," he went on, as he surveyed the_Tigress_ through his glass, "a good deal lower in the water than shewas?"
"Yes, sir, she is down nearly two feet and a half. I reported to youthat we gained a considerable amount of booty at Astropalaia, and ofcourse we have added gradually to that, but never had anything like sogood a haul. The hold up to the level of the main deck is full."
"Full of what, Mr. Wilkinson?"
"Miscellaneous cargo, sir--dried fruit, Manchester goods, and Easterngoods of all sorts. I have not taken an exact inventory of them, sir,for we were generally pressed for time, and I thought that the thingswere less likely to be damaged if I did not open the bales. I really donot know exactly what we have got, but there is certainly a good deal ofsilk and a quantity of embroidered things."
"That sounds well, anyhow," Sir Sidney said, smiling, "but I am afraidthat it will not turn out so well for you personally as it ought to do.You see the craft herself was a prize of the _Tigre_, and her officersand crew are still borne on our books; therefore, although you weredetached on altogether independent work, you still rank as a tender ofthe _Tigre_, and we all share with you, and indeed all your names havebeen sent in on the list of those entitled to share in the prizes thatwe have made here. As these have been generally laden partly withammunition and partly with luxuries for the use of the army, they werefor the most part valuable, and up to this time we calculate that a sumof fifty or sixty thousand pounds will be shared."
"We quite understood, sir, that we should share with the _Tigre_ in allthat we captured. It would have been too bad if, in addition to our luckin having an independent cruise on board the _Tigress_, we were to getan advantage over our comrades in the way of prize-money. We have, as Itold you in my last report, received twelve thousand five hundredpounds, the result of the sale of the thirty-two craft we sent intoSmyrna and Rhodes. It is in gold, and I thought that it would be betterfor you to send off a boat for it than for me to bring it myself now.What are we to do with the cargo, sir?"
"I must think that over, Mr. Wilkinson. You have not lost many hands, Ihope, while you were away?"
"No, sir, we have not done any very hard fighting. We had two men shotin the attack of the pirates' hold at Astropalaia, and more than halfthe crew have been wounded more or less seriously, but fortunately allgot over it."
"That is very satisfactory, Mr. Wilkinson. In giving me a full report ofyour work, give a list of the casualties in each case. Some of thepeople at the Admiralty seem to have an idea that the credit of anyaffair depends largely on the size of the butcher's bill, whereas, inpoint of fact, it should be exactly the other way, for not unfrequentlyheavy loss means that measures were badly taken by the officers incommand, whereas a light one shows that the arrangements were allexcellent, and the work carried out without a hitch. I shall be glad ifyou and Mr. Blagrove will dine with me. It is not very regular for youboth to leave the ship together, but there are no signs whatever ofchange of wind, and one can reckon with some certainty here upon theweather for at any rate twenty-four hours in advance. If you should seeany change before you come off, or any fall in the glass, Mr. Blagrovemust stay on board."
Wilkinson now joined his comrades, who were gathered a short distanceaway waiting until he had finished his talk with Sir Sidney. "Come downbelow, Wilkinson, and give us the news. We heard that you had taken someprizes from the pirates; we want to hear all about it. Is Blagrove allright?"
They were soon gathered in the cockpit. "I have not much time to stay,"Wilkinson said, "and, before I tell you my story, I want to hear yournews, for beyond a few rumours current at Smyrna and Rhodes, we reallyknow hardly anything of what has taken place since we left you at Acre."
"We have had rather a dull time," one of them said; "the only excitementwas a fight between the Turks, aided by our boats, and the French. Whenwe returned here, we found that instead of being fifteen thousandstrong, as promised, the Turks on board their transports under MustaphaPasha were but five thousand strong, which was raised to seven thousandby the two thousand we brought with us from Acre. On the 15th of Julythey landed, attacked the redoubt and castle of Aboukir with greatpluck, and carried it by assault. A week later, we heard that Bonapartewas at Ramanieh, and had no doubt that the Turks
would soon have him onthem. Sir Sidney tried hard to get them to erect a strong line of worksacross the spit of ground on which the fort stands.
"Had they done so they could, with the assistance of our boats and theirown gun-boats, have maintained their ground. The chief set to work atonce to endeavour to get things into shape. The Chiflick regiment, thatwe had brought with us from Acre, was posted in the village at the endof the spit. The Turkish gun-boats were ordered to take their placesdirectly the assault began on each side of the isthmus, so as to sweepit with their fire, but when that time came the beggars would not move,and did not arrive until it was all over.
"The Turks in the village were attacked several times, but made amagnificent defence. We helped them with our guns as much as we could,but could render them very little assistance. At last we saw that anattack was to be made in earnest; peremptory orders were sent to theTurkish gun-boats to go in and take up their stations, and our boats allwent in to the west side of the spit. Nothing could be worse than thearrangements of the Turks. They had sent very little provisions and nextto no water on shore, and their troops were nearly half-mad with thirst,and more than half-mutinous. However, they moved forward to the village,and they there repulsed three attacks made by the French columns.Probably no more attacks would have been made, if it had not been fortheir beastly custom of cutting off the heads of the fallen. Lots ofthem ran out of the village to do this, and this so infuriated theFrench that they came on again with such a rush that they entered thevillage with the flying Turks.
"The confusion was terrible, and the Turks were driven out. The spit ofsand was covered with fugitives, hundreds threw themselves into thewater and swam out to us. The castle, which, as you know, is a littlebit of a place, was crowded almost to suffocation, and thousands couldnot get in. The fire of our boat guns kept the French back for a time,and when at last the Turkish gun-boats got into position, they had tofall back and make advances against the castle in a regular way.Unfortunately Mustapha Pasha had been taken in the village, and thegarrison had no one to command them, still they resisted for two days,and then surrendered, being almost mad with thirst, for, although wespared as much water as we could, it was impossible for us to findsufficient for six or seven thousand extra men.
"Our marines saved the castle the first day, Colonel Douglas landing andtaking command and restoring order, for the Turks were fighting fiercelyamong themselves when we got in, and during the night he managed to sendoff about a thousand of them to their ships. The whole business wasbrought about owing to Mustapha Pasha not acting in accordance with theadvice that Sir Sidney had sent him to act against either Damietta orRosetta, as our ships would station themselves in the Bay of Aboukir,and so threaten Alexandria that the French would not care to weakentheir force there by sending any considerable number of men to actagainst the Turks. There, that is all that has happened. Now let us hearyour yarn."
Wilkinson gave a brief account of the trip of the _Tigress_.
"You see," he said, "we have not done much fighting; indeed, with theexception of the first scrimmage at Astropalaia we can scarcely havesaid to have had anything worth calling fighting at all. We picked up alot of small piratical craft, destroyed the majority of them, and soldthe others at Smyrna or Rhodes. We got altogether twelve thousand fivehundred for them, and as, of course, that will be shared by the _Tigre_,we have done pretty well our share in the way of earning prize-money forthe ship. More, indeed, for the _Tigre's_ share of the prizes that youhave taken here won't come to more than fifteen or twenty thousand atthe outside. Besides that, we have got some booty on board the_Tigress_, but what it is worth I have no idea, for we simply bundledthe things down below without opening anything. Still, no doubt it willbe enough to give you a few pounds a head."
As soon as he could get away Wilkinson returned to the brig. Thatevening, at the admiral's table, he gave a much more detailed account oftheir doings than he had done in his reports. When he had finished, SirSidney Smith said:
"That attack upon the pirates' hold was extremely well managed, Mr.Wilkinson, and does you and Mr. Blagrove great credit. You were verybrief in your account of it, and only said that a considerable amount ofbooty, which had evidently been taken from plundered ships, was foundconcealed, and that the more valuable portion was shipped on the_Tigress_. I will come on board in the morning, and you can have a fewof those bales brought up on to the main deck, and we can see what is inthem."
A dozen bales were opened the next day; two contained European goods,the rest Eastern manufactures, silks and embroideries, Turkish, Syrian,and Persian carpets and rugs.
"That is enough!" Sir Sidney said. "Now, can you roughly give me an ideawhat proportion of European goods, dried fruits, and what we may callgenerally Eastern goods, you have?"
"There are about twenty tons of fruit, sir, thirty tons of Europeanbales, and fifty or sixty tons of Eastern goods. Of these, I should saythat two-thirds are carpets and rugs, we could pretty well tell thesefrom the others by the size and feel of the bales; the rest are, judgingfrom the few we opened, cloth for female garments--muslin, silks,scarves, sashes, and embroidered goods.
"It is extraordinary how so great a collection could have been made."
"There have been a great many vessels employed in the making of it, sir,and we may say that we have here the pick from at least a hundred,perhaps several times that number, of captured craft of several sizes.No doubt the pirates would, in all cases, put aside goods of this kind,for although of no use to themselves, and no doubt very difficult tosell, they would store them away under the idea that some time or otheran opportunity would occur of turning them into money."
"Well, there is no doubt that you have an extremely rich prize. I shouldbe afraid to give even an approximate calculation of what all this isworth. Some of our East-Indiamen bring very valuable cargoes home; but Ishould doubt whether any one ship ever carried as much costlymerchandise as you have stored here. I will think over how they had bestbe got to England. The things will require careful handling, for if theywere consigned to an ordinary prize agent they might be sold anyhow andfor half their value."
On the following day the two midshipmen were signalled to come on boardthe _Tigre_.
"I have been thinking your matter over, gentlemen," Sir Sidney saidwhen they had entered his cabin. "I have power to appoint a prize agentin England. As a matter of fact I have not done so. Coming out here, asI did, on a diplomatic mission, I had no thought of taking prizes. Thosewe have picked up here I simply sent to the agent at Gibraltar, which,by the way, is one of the very worst places one can send them to, as thevessels are sold at ridiculous prices. Ordinarily Malta would be theport we should have sent them to from here, but as it is still in thepossession of the French, Gibraltar is the only port in theMediterranean. Of course they might be sent to England; but there is thedifficulty of detaching men and officers, and the risk of their beingcaptured by French privateers, so that practically we are driven toGibraltar.
"Of course the prize court will have the disposal of the cargo, but Iwill write to the head of the court, who is a personal friend of mine,asking him to intrust the sale of the Eastern goods to your father, Mr.Blagrove, saying that as he has been for years engaged in trade in theEast, and must therefore be acquainted with the value of these things,is in the habit of sending Egyptian silks and so on to London for sale,he must know the channels in which they could be best disposed of. Ofcourse the dried fruits and the English goods could be sold by thecourt, but it would never do to throw such a quantity of Eastern goodson the market at once. Among the prizes that have been taken is a smartbrig of about the same size as the _Tigress_. She was caught making forAlexandria with powder and ball for the French army. Fortunately for usher captain was not a first-class navigator, and so missed his mark byabout ten miles, and found himself, to his consternation and oursatisfaction, close under our guns.
"I was going to send her to Gibraltar to be sold. I do not think thatwe can do better than buy her to c
arry home your cargo. I will call acourt of four officers to put on her the price they consider it probablethat she will fetch, which, I should say, if she were sold at Gibraltar,would not be over eight or nine hundred pounds. You, Mr. Blagrove, canbuy her in the name of your father, and I will take your bill at threemonths upon him. Then there is the question of the crew. As to theofficers, I can send you home, Mr. Wilkinson, with despatches. I havenot had an opportunity of forwarding any for some weeks now; and to you,Mr. Blagrove, I can give three months' leave on urgent private business.As to men, we have small craft coming over here constantly from Sicilywith fruit and fresh provisions, and I have no doubt that, with theoffer of good wages, you would be able to pick up ten or twelve menwithout much difficulty.
"On board our ships there are, I should say, at least twenty men whohave been invalided by boards of doctors as being unfit for service,either from the effects of wounds or climate, and this would be a goodopportunity for sending them home. Many of them are still fit for easywork, and would, at any rate, counterbalance your Italian crew. Ofcourse I should formally take a passage for them in Mr. Blagrove's ship.The prize mounts six guns, but I would advise you to keep well out ofthe way of French privateers. Of course the final result of the sale ofthe merchandise would have to be paid by your father, Mr. Blagrove, intothe prize court for division among those entitled to it.
"With the ship, as your father's property, the case is different; thatis his private venture. He will, of course, charge freight on themerchandise, and he will get two or three pounds a head for taking theinvalids home. As he will certainly get double the price the brig wouldfetch at Gibraltar, that and the freight would a good deal more thanclear all expenses, and he will of course have the usual prize-agent'scommission on the sales he effects. What do you think of that plan?"
Both the midshipmen were highly pleased with the proposal, and thankedtheir commander very heartily for his kindness. A board of officersassembled on the following day and assessed the value of the French brigat L850, and Edgar formally bought her in his father's name for thatsum, and drew a bill upon him for payment in three months.
He had several times heard from him since he had entered on board the_Tigre_, and in the first letter Mr. Blagrove gave a hearty approval ofthe course that he had adopted, and said that a year or two at sea wouldgive him a thorough knowledge of ships and be a considerable advantageto him in their business. The receipt of Edgar's first letter, and of aheavy budget containing the account of his doings in Egypt from the dayon which he was left behind to that on which he sailed, had been animmense relief to them all, for hitherto they had been in absoluteignorance of what had taken place. His father, however, thought that hehad, even according to his own account, run a very needless risk intaking part in the rising at Cairo, although he saw that, having for thetime become so thoroughly associated with the Arabs, it would have beendifficult for him to avoid acting with them when there was danger in sodoing.