The Log of a Privateersman Page 7

  CHAPTER SEVEN.

  OUR ATTACK UPON ABERVRACH HARBOUR.

  The unwounded prisoners were quickly secured below;--the wounded on bothsides being as quickly transferred to the _Dolphin_, in order that theymight the more conveniently be attended to by our worthy surgeon; afterwhich the prize was placed in charge of our second mate--a Portland mannamed John Comben--and we made sail in company.

  The brig was at this time about a mile distant on our lee quarter, whilethe ship was about a mile and a half distant, just open of the brig'sstern. Captain Winter stood looking wistfully at the two vessels for along time; but at length turned away and said regretfully:

  "I am afraid we shall have to be content with what we have got, George.If there was only one of them, and I wouldn't care very much which ofthem it was, I would tackle her unhesitatingly; but the two of themtogether are rather too big a mouthful for us. So make sail and let usget back to Weymouth as quickly as we can; if another Frenchman were toheave in sight while those two are so close to us we might find it ahard matter to take care of ourselves, to say nothing of the lugger."

  The brig and the ship clung persistently to our skirts the whole of thatday, although we gradually drew away from them; but during the night welost sight of them, and late the next evening we arrived in Weymouthharbour without further adventure.

  Our prize--the _Cerf_, of Saint Brieuc--proved to be a very fine vessel,and quite worth the taking; still the prize-money accruing from hercapture did not amount to very much, and Captain Winter came to theconclusion that, with so many vessels of our own nationality alreadyswarming in the Channel, that locality could no longer be regarded as avery profitable cruising-ground. He therefore determined, with MrWhite's full approval, to prosecute operations further afield; tryingthe Atlantic first of all, and afterwards--if that did not yieldsatisfactory results--pushing right across as far as the West Indies.This decision arrived at, we pressed forward our preparations with allspeed, and a week later were once more ready for sea.

  We sailed early on a Saturday morning with a moderate breeze at west;and, having cleared the Bill of Portland, stretched away for the Frenchcoast, close-hauled on the starboard tack, making the land nearAbervrach Harbour shortly after mid-day on the following Monday. Westood in to within a mile of the land, and then tacked. We were aboutten miles off shore when our look-out reported a large sail on ourweather beam, coming down under studding-sails, and it being my watch ondeck I went up on to the topsail yard to have a better look at her.

  She was about ten miles dead to windward of us at this time, and wassteering a course to take her between us and the land. She wasevidently a merchantman of about six hundred tons burden or thereabout,floating pretty deep in the water, and had all the appearance of beingFrench. Having completed my observations, I went down and reported tothe skipper, who immediately gave orders to tack ship that we might geta nearer view of her. This was done, and when we got round it was foundthat the stranger bore broad on our weather-bow. We happened to beunder easy sail at the time, and Captain Winter at first decided not toincrease our spread of canvas, hoping by this means to impress ourneighbour with the belief that we were in nowise concerning ourselvesabout him. But it would not do; he clearly distrusted us, for we wereno sooner round than he edged away toward the land, making for Abervrachharbour; and an hour later we had the mortification of seeing thecraft--by this time determinable as a barque--enter the harbour andanchor under the guns of one of the two batteries that guarded itsentrance. We hoisted French colours, and steered as though we, too,were about to enter the harbour; but the skipper was altogether too waryto venture inside, so when by observation we had ascertained all that wecould about the place without exposing the schooner to the fire ofeither of the batteries, we tacked and stood off shore again as thoughworking along the coast. This was about six bells in the afternoonwatch, and as the breeze was light and the flood-tide against us, wemade very little progress, and of that little we wasted as much as wethought we dared without exciting suspicion; our object being to remainin the neighbourhood until after dark, and then attempt a cutting-outexpedition.

  The harbour was a snug enough place, and excellently adapted for thepurpose of sheltering shipping from the attack of an enemy; the entrancebeing guarded by two six-gun batteries--one on each headland--mountingthirty-two pounders, the combined fire of both batteries effectuallycommanding the entrance. These two batteries were apparently all thatwe had to fear; but they were quite enough, nay, more than enough, forthey were capable of sinking a much bigger craft than the _Dolphin_ inless than ten minutes. It was these batteries, therefore, that we hadto reckon with in the first place; and, after talking the matter quietlyover in the cabin, it was ultimately decided that, as soon as it wasdark enough to conceal our movements, the canvas should be taken off theschooner, and she should be allowed to drive, under bare poles, alongthe coast back to the eastward until once more abreast of the harbourentrance, when the anchor was to be let go. Then a sharp look-out wasto be kept for the barque, and if there were no signs of her making anattempt to slip out to sea again before two o'clock in the morning, theboats were to be lowered, and the skipper and I, with all the hands thatcould be spared, were to pull in, surprise the batteries, spike theguns, and then dash aboard the barque and bring her out.

  The night happened to be dark, with an overcast sky and a thick drizzleof rain; it was therefore excellently adapted for our purpose, andhaving arrived within about a mile and a half of the land, the firstpart of our programme was carried out by furling everything and allowingthe schooner to drive up the coast until a deeper blackness in theshadow that indicated the land revealed that we were off the harbour'smouth. Here the anchor was let go; and as every precaution had beentaken to prevent any light from showing on board the schooner, we hadgood reason for hoping that our presence in that particular spot wasunsuspected. An anchor watch was set, with instructions to keep a sharplook-out and at once report to the skipper anything of an unusual orsuspicious character, when all hands turned in for the purpose ofsecuring as much rest as possible prior to the execution of theimportant task that we had set ourselves.

  Nothing having occurred during the earlier part of the night, all handswere called at four bells in the middle watch, a cup of hot coffee and abiscuit was served out to each man, and then those who were to go awayin the boats were told off and armed; after which the skipper made ashort speech, explaining the nature of the service upon which we wereabout to engage, and how it was proposed to execute it, after which theboats were got into the water, and we pulled away with muffled oars forthe shore.

  It had been arranged that the skipper should tackle the battery on theeastern side of the harbour mouth, while I was to deal with the one onthe western headland; and as it was deemed possible that, despite allour efforts to mislead those on shore, our appearance during theafternoon might have awakened a sufficient amount of uneasiness to causea watch to be set for us, it was further arranged that a landing shouldbe effected, if possible, on the outside beach; since if we wereexpected, we should almost certainly be looked for somewhere along themore sheltered shore inside the harbour.

  Our expedition numbered sixty men, all told--thirty in each division,--and upon shoving off from the schooner the two divisions at onceseparated, the skipper bearing away to the eastward, while I hauled upfor a point about half a mile, as nearly as I could guess, to thewestward of the western battery.

  The night was even thicker and darker than it had been when we broughtthe schooner to an anchor off the harbour's mouth; there was a cold,dismal rain persistently falling, and the breeze, having freshened upconsiderably, was now sweeping over the sea with a dreary, wintry,moaning sound that distinctly accentuated the discomfort of oursituation, while it had knocked up a sea that threatened to render ourlanding a work of very considerable difficulty and danger. This becameincreasingly apparent as we drew closer in with the land, the roar ofthe surf upon the rocky beach and the ghostly white gle
am and flash ofthe fringe of breakers exciting within me a feeling of very livelyapprehension as to the safety of the boats. We pulled cautiously in towithin about fifty fathoms of the beach, and then turned the boatsround, bows on to the sea, while we looked anxiously about for asuitable spot at which to beach them, allowing them to drift shorewardmeanwhile; but it soon became evident that, if we desired to landoutside the harbour's mouth, it would be necessary for us to seek a morefavourable spot for the purpose, the surf being so heavy and the shoreso thickly cumbered with rocks, just where we were, that any attempt atbeaching the boats would only result in their destruction, and possiblythe loss of several lives. We therefore hauled off again a shortdistance, and directed our search somewhat further westward, when, aftertraversing the line of beach for somewhere about half a mile, we foundourselves in a sort of miniature harbour, about fifteen fathoms wide,formed by a projecting reef of rocks, under the lee of which weforthwith effected a landing without the slightest difficulty. I lefttwo men in each boat, to take care of them and keep them afloat, andthen, having satisfied myself as well as I could that our ammunition hadbeen kept dry and in serviceable condition, I led the rest of my partyup the steep, slippery face of the low cliffs beyond the beach. Abreathless scramble of some three or four minutes carried us to the top;and all that remained was for us to follow the edge of the cliff to theeastward, when we should in due time find ourselves at the battery whichwas the primary object of our attack.

  The result of our procedure amply demonstrated the wisdom of theskipper's arrangements; for when we reached the battery--which we didrather sooner than I had expected--we found it absolutely unguarded atthe rear, the sentinels, three in number, being so posted as to watchthe harbour entrance only. Where the rest of the garrison were we couldnot at the moment discover, but, feeling certain that they weresomewhere close at hand, it became necessary to proceed with the utmostcaution; I therefore formed up my little band under the shelter and inthe deep shadow of a projecting angle, and, enjoining upon them the mostabsolute silence, entered the battery alone for the purpose ofreconnoitring.

  I gained the inside without difficulty--the gate having been carelesslyleft unfastened--and at once found myself in a semicircular court-yardformed by the gun platform of the battery and the sod revetment whichsurrounded it. The platform was about eight feet high, and wasapparently case-mated, for immediately in front of me, as I entered, wasa door and two windows, through the latter of which streamed into theblackness of the night the feeble rays of a barrack lantern. Pyramidalpiles of round shot were stacked here and there about the gravelledcourt-yard; and upon approaching one of these and passing my hand overthe shot, I came to the conclusion that the five guns which I dimly madeout as shapeless masses of blackness upon the platform were thirty-twopounders. The three sentries, wrapped in their greatcoats, stoodmotionless, one in the centre and one at each extremity of the platform,facing to seaward, but I judged from their listless attitudes that theywere anything but on the alert. Access to the platform was obtained bytwo broad flights of stone steps, one at either extremity.

  It was the work of but two or three minutes for me to ascertain theseparticulars, having done which I returned to my men, gave them mostcareful instructions how to proceed, and then led them into the battery,where, while the main body silently divided and stole round, in theshadow of the platform, to the guard-room door, about which they rangedthemselves, I and two others, whom I had especially picked for thepurpose, drew off our boots, and, in our stockinged feet, crept,silently as shadows, up on to the gun platform, where each of uscrouched behind a gun waiting for a signal which I had arranged to give.I selected as my victim the sentinel who mounted guard in the middle ofthe platform, because he was the most difficult man to approach, theother two being posted close to the head of the two flights of stonesteps, and I knew that by the time that I had reached him my men wouldbe quite ready.

  The fellow stood close to the middle gun, on its lee side, and appearedto be sheltering himself as well as he could from the wind and the rainby crouching close to its carriage. His back was toward me. Itherefore had no difficulty whatever in approaching him, which I did ina crouching attitude until I was near enough to touch the flappingskirts of his coat. Then, drawing myself up to my full height andtaking a deep breath, I coughed loudly as a signal to my two men, at thesame instant clapping one hand over the sentinel's mouth and seizing hismusket in the other as I drove my knee into the small of his back andbore him irresistibly to the ground.

  "Utter no sound if you value your life!" I hissed in his ear, inFrench; and whether it was that my caution was effective, or that thepoor fellow was too utterly surprised and astounded to speak, certain itis that he lay perfectly quiet, with my knee on his breast and my handclutching his throat, while I carefully laid down the musket and drew agag and some line from my pocket wherewith to secure him. A subduedscuffling to my right and left, scarcely audible above the rush of thewind and the roar of the breakers on the outside beach, told me that theother two sentinels were being similarly dealt with; but there was nooutcry whatever, and in less than five minutes we had all three of themsecurely gagged, and bound hand and foot.

  The next thing was to secure the remainder of the garrison, and this wedid without any difficulty, simply flinging open the guard-room door anddashing in, cutlass and pistol in hand, upon the sleeping soldiers, andseizing the muskets that stood neatly ranged in a rack along one of thewalls. There was a terrific outcry and jabber among the astonishedFrenchmen for a minute or two, with some show of a disposition toresist; but I pointed out to them that there were only thirty of them totwenty-six of us, that we were armed while they were not, and that wewere not in the humour to put up with any nonsense whatever; which, withthe resolute attitude of our men, had the effect of very speedilyreducing them to subjection.

  I had brought a hammer and a handful of nails with me, and my nextbusiness was to spike the guns. This occupied but a very few minutes,and when it was done I returned to the guard-room with the intention ofwithdrawing my men. As I glanced round the room, however, I caughtsight of a small bunch of keys hanging against the wall, and, thinkingthat these might possibly belong to the magazine, the spirit of mischiefsuggested to me the propriety of destroying the battery altogether,instead of merely temporarily disabling it; so I took down the keys,and, lighting another lantern, of which there were several, I proceededto investigate.

  It was as I had anticipated. The keys were those of the magazine andthe store-room, and, entering the former, I soon found that there was anample stock of powder, in kegs and made up into cartridges, to wreck theentire structure. There was also a coil of slow match, a piece of whichI cut off, and, taking it outside, lighted it for the purpose ofascertaining the rate at which it burnt. This was soon done, whereuponI cut off enough to burn for about twenty minutes, opened the kegs ofpowder, and emptying one of them in a heap in the middle of the floor,buried one end of the slow match in the pile, taking the other endoutside. I then returned to the guard-room and marched the prisoners,surrounded by my own men, outside the battery, when, having assuredmyself that all hands were safe, I informed the Frenchmen that I wasabout to blow up the battery, and recommended them to run for theirlives, at the same time directing my own men to let them go. TheFrenchmen needed no second bidding. Away they went down the slope likestartled deer, tumbling over each other in their anxiety to escape fromthe effects of the anticipated explosion, to the great delight andamusement of our people, and in less than a minute they had vanished inthe darkness. The Frenchmen thus disposed of, I ordered my own men tomake the best of their way down to the boats, there to wait for me, andthen re-entered the battery. It had been arranged between the skipperand myself that each of us should, after taking our respectivebatteries, display a lantern or light of some sort, on the parapet, as asignal to the other. And my first act, therefore, upon returning to thebattery, was to light a lantern and place it where it could be seen fromthe other batter
y, and at the same time be shielded from the wind andthe rain. While doing this I noted with satisfaction that the captain'ssignal was already displayed; so, comforted with the assurance that bothbatteries were now rendered harmless, I descended to the court-yard,and, with some difficulty, succeeded in igniting the slow match. Iwaited only long enough to make quite sure that it was burning allright, and then made a bolt of it for my life, overtaking my men just asthey reached the beach. We found the boats all right, and perfectlysafe, but the men in charge growing very uneasy, as the tide was risingfast over the reef of rocks that sheltered the little cove in which theywere lying, and a very nasty, awkward sea was beginning to roll in,occasioning the boat-keepers a great deal of trouble and anxiety intheir endeavours to prevent the boats being stove. "All is well thatends well", however, the boats had thus far escaped, and we lost no timein tumbling into them and shoving off. Just as we did so a terrificglare lit up the sky for an instant, accompanied by a violent concussionof the rocks upon which some of us were standing, and followed by adeep, thunderous boom. Our battery had blown up, and presently, abovethe seething roar of the sea and the moaning of the wind, we caught thecrashing sound of the falling fragments of masonry and earth, and thethud of the heavy guns dislodged from their resting-places upon thedemolished platform.

  Meanwhile the wind and the sea had both been steadily increasing untilit had grown to be what sailors expressively term "a regularly dirtynight", and we were no sooner clear of our sheltering reef of rocks thanwe were struck by a comber that pretty nearly half-filled the boat thatI happened to be in, the other boat, which was astern of us, faringlittle or no better. The men, however, bent to their oars with a will,and in about ten minutes, by keeping the boats stem-on to the sea, weforced our way out through the broken water and were enabled to head forthe harbour, toward which, wet to the skin, and half-dead with the coldof the piercing bitter wind, we made the best of our way. Just insidethe harbour entrance, and about mid-channel, we fell in with theskipper's two boats, which had arrived a few minutes earlier, and werelying upon their oars, waiting for us. Thus reunited, the skipper and Ibriefly exchanged details of the result of our respective efforts, afterwhich we gave way in line abreast for the spot where we expected to findthe barque. We pulled for a quarter of an hour but failed to discoverher, although the skipper and I were equally confident that we must beclose to the spot where we had seen her at anchor. Then, after a briefconsultation, it was agreed that the boats should separate and searchfor her, a pistol-shot from the lucky boat being the signal arranged tonotify that the search had been successful. This plan, or rather thefirst part of it, was at once put into execution, each boat pulling awayin a different direction from the others; but although we diligentlysearched in every likely direction, frequently encountering one oranother of the other boats, the barque was nowhere to be found, and, notto needlessly spin out this adventure, it may suffice to say that wefruitlessly hunted all over the harbour until daylight, when it becameevident that in some mysterious manner the vessel had contrived to giveus the slip and make good her escape. It had probably occurred duringthe time that the skipper and I had been busy with the batteries; butthe most curious part of it all was that Comben, our second mate, leftin charge of the schooner, declared that, although he had never relaxedhis vigilance for an instant, from the time of our leaving until ourreturn on board, neither he nor any of the men who shared his watch withhim had seen anything whatever of the craft. We thus had an arduous,dangerous, and most trying night's work for nothing; for with the escapeof the barque our work upon the batteries became absolutely useless tous. So, in no very good-humour, we all shifted into dry clothing,weighed our anchor, shaping a course to the northward and westward, andthen went to breakfast.