The Log of a Privateersman Page 6

  CHAPTER SIX.

  WE ARE COMPELLED TO ABANDON OUR PREY.

  We lowered our two cutters and the gig, and then, picking out my fortymen, and arming them with a cutlass and a brace of pistols apiece, Ishoved off to take possession of our prize. There was a rather nasty,short, choppy sea running; but, fortunately, we were to windward, andonly had to run down before it. As we neared the frigate it becameincreasingly apparent to us that she was an exceedingly fine andhandsome ship; her tonnage, according to my estimate, being not farshort of nine hundred tons. She had been knocked about a good deal moreseverely than I had anticipated; and as we drew still nearer I wasastonished to perceive that some of her scuppers were running blood.

  It took us about half an hour to pull down to her; and when we wentalongside, under her lee, we met with no opposition whatever inboarding, somewhat to my surprise, I must confess, for, as a matter offact, I did not believe that they had really surrendered, the haulingdown of their colours being, in my opinion, only a ruse to get us withinreach of their guns. In this, however, as it turned out, I wasmistaken, and did the commanding officer an injustice.

  We clambered up the frigate's lofty side without let or hindrance; andwhen I sprang, sword in hand, down upon her deck, I was met by a merelad, his beardless face deadly pale, his head bound up in a blood-soddenbandage, and his right arm hanging helpless--and broken--by his side.With his left hand he tendered to me his sword, in silence, and then,turning away, burst into tears.

  And as I looked around me I could well understand the cause of the pooryoung fellow's emotion. It was not only that this fine, handsome ship--brand-new, as it turned out, and only commissioned a few dayspreviously--was a perfect wreck aloft, but the dead and wounded werelying about her decks, especially in the vicinity of the stump of theforemast, in heaps. Her bulwarks were shot through and through; herwheel was smashed to pieces; and there were long scorings fore-and-afther decks, showing the paths that our eighteen-pound shot had ploughedup in their destructive passage. But even this was not the worst of it;for when I turned to the young officer and tried to soothe him by theutterance of some platitude having reference to "the fortune of war", heinformed me that, although he had that morning been the ship's juniorlieutenant, he was now the senior surviving officer; the captain and theother lieutenants being among the killed.

  "And to think," he ejaculated bitterly, "that we should have beencompelled to strike to such an insignificant craft as that!" pointing tothe schooner. "But," he added, "you did not fight fair; you never gaveus a chance. Had you but once fairly come within range of our guns wewould have blown you out of the water!"

  "Precisely!" I agreed; "we were well aware of that, monsieur, and,therefore, we preferred to fight you at a respectful distance. Andnow," I continued, "as I have relieved you of your command, let me begyou to lose no time in going below to the surgeon to get your hurtsattended to; I am sure that France can ill afford to lose so brave a manas yourself."

  The poor fellow smiled wanly at my clumsy compliment, and with a bowturned away to follow my suggestion; while I went to work to get theprisoners disarmed and secured below. This was managed withoutdifficulty; the French appearing to be too utterly downcast and broken-spirited to dream of resisting us after having hauled down theircolours; and I was not surprised at this when I shortly afterwardslearned that, out of a crew numbering two hundred and eighty-four, shehad lost no less than seven officers and sixty-three men killed, andeighty-eight officers and men wounded. It was astonishing; the more sowhen I came to reflect that all this loss and damage had been inflictedby one gun! But then it was to be remembered that the unfortunatefrigate had been under the fire of that one gun for close upon fivehours; the dusk of the short winter's day closing down upon us shortlyafter we had boarded our prize--the name of which, by the way, was the_Musette_.

  Having secured our prisoners, I fired the three blank cartridges agreedupon as a signal, when the _Dolphin_ ran down and sent the end of ahawser aboard for the purpose of taking us in tow. She also put verynearly her whole crew aboard, retaining merely enough hands to work her,in order that we might have as much strength as possible for the purposeof rigging up jury-masts.

  We had been in tow of the schooner but half an hour when Captain Wintercame aboard in a boat to say that we were rather too heavy for him tomanage, the breeze having been steadily freshening all day and raising asea that caused the schooner to strain to an alarming extent with soheavy a craft as the frigate hanging on to her. We therefore went towork to get some sail upon the prize forthwith, and, having routed out amain-staysail, we set it. We found that, in the strong breeze thenblowing, even this small amount of canvas was sufficient to place thefrigate under command; we therefore cast off from the _Dolphin_, andthat craft thereupon shortened sail to her boom-foresail and fore-staysail, so that she might not run away from us. But even under thatshort canvas she was able to sail round and round us.

  During the whole of that night we stood to the northward and eastward;and all night long, too, we were hard at work, watch and watch, gettingup jury spars; the result of our labours being that, by daybreak nextmorning, we had got a very serviceable jury foremast in place, enablingus to set a fore-staysail, and also a main-topsail in place of aforesail. With this head sail we were also enabled to give the frigateher close-reefed mizzen-topsail and spanker; with which canvas we beganto move through the water at quite a respectable pace--that is to sayabout four knots per hour. This, however, was not all; for thecarpenter had been hard at work all through the night preparing a juryfore-topmast and jib-boom; while we had got a spare main-yard swungaloft and slung; by mid-day, therefore, we were enabled to set a fore-topsail, jib, and mainsail, which further increased our speed. By fourbells in the afternoon watch the island of Jersey was in sight, broadupon our lee bow, some six miles distant; and at eight bells we tackedship, being anxious not to draw too close in with the French coast inour then disabled condition.

  As the sun went down that night the weather manifested a tendency toimprove, and by midnight the wind had softened down to a gentle breezethat barely gave us steerage-way through the water. Finally it diedaway altogether, and when the sun rose next morning, clear and bright,the _Dolphin_ and ourselves were boxing the compass, not half a cable'slength apart. This in itself was rather provoking, as we wereexceedingly anxious to get our prize into port, and off our hands; butthe delay was as nothing compared with the disagreeable circumstancethat there were three exceedingly suspicious-looking sails in sight,about ten miles to the westward of us, apparently consorts, for we couldsee a good deal of signalling going on between them, of which we couldmake nothing.

  They were a ship, a brig, and a large lugger, and the cut of theircanvas left us little room to doubt that they were French. Of course itwas quite possible that they might all three be perfectly harmlessmerchantmen, but there was a certain smart, knowing look about thememinently suggestive of the privateersman, and if that was theircharacter there could be no doubt whatever that we should find them veryobjectionable and dangerous neighbours immediately that a breezehappened to spring up. So little did Captain Winter like theirappearance that, immediately after breakfast--the calm seeming likely tocontinue for some few hours--he ordered his own gig to be lowered, andwent away in her to get a nearer look at them. There was not muchdanger in this course, as the gig was a beautifully light, splendidlymodelled, fast-pulling boat, exactly suited for such a service, and notin the least likely to be overtaken by any boat such as either of thethree vessels in sight might be expected to carry. I did not,therefore, greatly concern myself with the skipper's movements, but gavemy whole attention to the getting of additional jury spars aloft, inorder that, if possible, the frigate might be brought into somethinglike fighting order by the time that the breeze should come.

  We were busy pointing a new main-topmast when the boatswain, who was inthe top, hailed the deck to say that the lugger and brig had rigged outtheir sweeps, and were heading in ou
r direction, while the ship hadlowered her boats and sent them ahead to tow. I went up into themizzen-topmast cross-trees, taking my glass with me, and soon discoveredthat the report was only too correct; for when I reached my perch allthree craft were heading straight for us, the lugger churning up thewater with her sweeps and coming along at quite a smart pace, the brigfollowing close behind, and the ship, in tow of her own boats, bringingup the rear. This effectually disposed of the theory that they mightpossibly be merchantmen; they were far too heavily-manned to be anythingbut privateers or men-o'-war, and it was perfectly clear that they werefully bent upon paying us a visit.

  It afterwards appeared that Captain Winter did not suspect this newdevelopment until some time after the strangers had got into motion;then, observing that all three vessels kept their heads persistentlypointed in our direction, and that he appeared to be nearing them muchfaster than at first, an inkling of the truth dawned upon him, and heordered his crew to pull easy, that they might reserve their strengthfor a spurt in case of need. Nevertheless, he continued to pull towardthem until he had arrived within gun-shot of the lugger--the crew ofwhich at once opened fire upon him--when, having ascertained the forceof the squadron, he returned with all speed to us, having meanwhile madeup his mind how to act.

  He discovered that the lugger mounted six six-pounders; the brig showedfive ports of a side, but the weight of her metal he could notascertain, since her guns were run in and her ports closed; and the shipmounted sixteen guns, apparently nine-pounders. Now this was a forcealtogether too strong for us to cope with, even had we not been hamperedwith a prize to look after; for, unlike the case of the frigate, theforce was distributed among three vessels instead of being concentratedon board of one only; and while Captain Winter was always ready to trustsomething to the chapter of accidents, and to risk a good deal upon thechance that a lucky shot might seriously disable a single antagonist, itbecame a different matter altogether when there were three craft tocontend with. He, therefore, reluctantly came to the conclusion thatour prize must be sacrificed in order to ensure our own safety. Hetherefore pulled straight to the _Dolphin_, and ordering the whole ofher boats to be lowered and manned, sent them alongside the frigate,coming on board himself to superintend the operations upon which he haddecided.

  His first act was to order the whole of the frigate's boats to bestripped of their oars, rowlocks, and bottom-boards, and when this wasdone they were lowered, and the prisoners, wounded as well as sound,sent down into them; when, as soon as he had satisfied himself that thewhole of the Frenchmen were out of the ship, the frigate's boats weretowed about a mile away and cast adrift. Meanwhile, in obedience toinstructions, I had collected all the inflammable material that I couldlay hands upon, and had set the ship on fire in four places, with theresult that when the _Dolphin's_ boats returned alongside our prize totake us off, she was well alight, with the smoke pouring in dense cloudsup through every opening in the deck. It took us but a short time toleave her, and the moment that we were once more on board the schoonerthe sweeps were manned and the vessel put upon a northerly course, thisdirection having been chosen in consequence of the discovery that alight air had sprung up and was coming down from the northward andeastward, which would place us dead to windward of our formidableantagonists by the time that it reached us.

  At the moment when the _Dolphin_ began to move, the lugger was someseven miles away, bearing due west, the brig being about half a mileastern of her, and the ship perhaps a mile astern of the brig. Veryshortly afterwards the flames burst up through the frigate's mainhatchway, and half an hour later she was blazing from stem to stern; sothat, although we had lost her, there was no chance of her again fallinginto the hands of the French.

  The breeze was a long time in finding its way down to us; so long,indeed, that after waiting a full half-hour, with the cat's-paws playingupon the water within biscuit-toss of us, the helm was ported and theschooner headed straight for the fringe of delicate blue that marked thedividing line where the calm and the wind were contending together forthe mastery. This was reached in about a quarter of an hour, when,after a feeble preliminary rustling, our canvas filled, the sweeps werelaid in, and we began to move through the water at a speed of some twoand a half knots per hour, heading up nearly due north, while the luggerand the brig at the same time kept away, in the hope apparently ofintercepting us, and the ship despatched two of her boats to the rescueof their helpless compatriots adrift in the frigate's boats.

  The lugger, which was a very fine and evidently very fast vessel of herclass, was making desperate efforts to close with us, with such successthat at the end of another half-hour it became evident that, unless thelight and fickle breeze freshened somewhat in the interim, anothercouple of hours would see her within gun-shot of us. This, however,gave us no concern whatever, for we were far more than a match for heralone, and although the brig also was doing her best, we were bothdrawing away from her so steadily that we of the _Dolphin_ quitereckoned upon being able in due time to fight and take the lugger beforeher consort could come up to her assistance.

  Six bells in the forenoon watch had just struck when the frigate blew upwith a dull, heavy boom, not nearly so loud as I had expected to hear,but the concussion was terrific, causing the schooner to quiver to herkeel, while its effect upon the languid breeze was such as to completelykill it for three or four minutes. At the end of that time it camecreeping stealthily along the water again, and about half an hour laterit reached the lugger, which immediately laid in her sweeps and hauledclose to the wind in pursuit of us. We were at this time under allplain sail, to our royal and flying-jib, creeping along at a speed ofabout four and a half knots, the lugger being about a point abaft ourlee beam and two miles distant from us, but looking up about half apoint higher than ourselves, in her eagerness to close with us. By noonit had become apparent that we had the advantage in point of speed, sothat it lay with us to make good our escape, or not, as we pleased. Wehad, however, lost one valuable prize, through the inopportuneappearance of the lugger and her consorts, and were by no means disposedto go off empty-handed, if we could help it. We therefore quietly andunostentatiously checked our sheets and weather braces just sufficientlyto permit the wind to all but spill out of our canvas, thus deadeningour way somewhat; and the men then went to dinner.

  Our little ruse had its desired effect, the lugger having closed up towithin a mile by the time that the men were ready to turn to again; andas the schooner had long ago been cleared for action, the galley firewas now extinguished, and the crew went to the guns in readiness for thecoming struggle. At the same time our helm was eased up a trifle, andwe began to edge down upon our antagonist.

  Just about this time the brig caught the first of the breeze, and atonce crowded sail in chase. It was therefore time for us to set aboutour work in earnest, if we did not desire to have her to reckon with aswell as the lugger. Nevertheless, we still withheld our fire; theskipper being determined not to begin until he could make short work ofit.

  "Mr Bowen," said he to me, when we were within about half a mile of thelugger, "I want to take that fellow with as little damage as possible tohis spars and rigging, because if they happen to be much cut up we mayfind ourselves so seriously hampered as to have some difficulty ingetting away from the other two. Be good enough, therefore, to go roundthe deck, and direct the men to aim with the utmost care at the ports,so that our shot may sweep her decks and drive her men from their guns,after which it will be an easy matter to run alongside and carry herwith a rush. I expect her people are already so tired with their longspell at the sweeps that they will not have much stomach for a hand-to-hand fight. Ha! there she opens fire! So it is time to show ourcolours."

  And he proceeded to bend on and hoist the ensign with his own hands,while I turned away to carry out his instructions.

  The single shot that the lugger had fired flew fair between our masts,cutting our lee topsail brace. The damage, however, was repaired inless than five
minutes by a hand who sprang aloft and neatly spliced andre-rove the brace. Meanwhile our lads had carefully levelled andpointed their guns, and now only awaited the word to fire. This sooncame from the skipper, whereupon the five guns in our larboard broadsiderang out together, five neat holes in the lugger's bulwarks testifyingto the accuracy with which they had been aimed. The lugger almostinstantly replied with her starboard broadside, and again the shot wenthumming over us, but this time without doing any damage. They probablyhad no very keen desire to engage us single-handed, but were anxious tocripple us and so give time for the brig to close to their support; butin their anxiety to do this they had pointed their guns so high that theshot had flown over us altogether.

  Our lads were quite wide-awake enough to understand the importance ofmaking short work of the lugger. They therefore handled their guns verysmartly, giving the enemy two broadsides in exchange for their one, andwe were now close enough to observe that the second of these twobroadsides had dismounted one of the lugger's guns.

  "Hurrah, lads!" exclaimed the skipper; "look alive and load again. Ifyou are smart we shall just have time to give another broadside, andboard in the smoke. Stand by, fore and aft, with your grappling-irons,and heave as we touch. I will lead the boarders myself, Mr Bowen; sobe good enough to take charge of the ship--"

  He was interrupted by another broadside from the lugger, which this timecrashed in through the bulwarks, and I immediately felt that I was hurt,a sharp, stinging, burning pain just above my left elbow indicating thelocality of the injury. It proved to be a mere trifle, however, a largesplinter having been driven into the flesh. I quickly pulled it out,and hurriedly bound up the wound with my pocket handkerchief, and as Iwas doing so Captain Winter gave the word to the helmsman to "Up helm,and run her aboard!"

  "I see that you are hurt, Mr Bowen," said he, turning to me. "Nothingvery serious, I hope?"

  "A mere scratch, sir, I thank you," replied I. "Nothing worth speakingabout."

  "So much the better," answered the skipper. "Are you ready, there, withthe guns? Then fire as we touch, and then follow me everybody but thesail-trimmers. Fire!"

  The two vessels collided with considerably more violence than I hadanticipated, so much so, indeed, that the shock sent me reeling to thedeck, whereby I just escaped being shot through the head by the volleyof musketry with which the Frenchmen greeted our arrival; at the samemoment our broadside again crashed through and through the lugger'sbulwarks; and with a hearty cheer on our side, and a terrific hullabalooon the part of the French, our lads leapt aboard the lugger, and, takingno denial, succeeded in clearing her decks after an obstinate fight ofabout a minute, during which several rather severe hurts were given andreceived on both sides.