The captain, having thus sorrowfully and reluctantly abandoned all hope
of finding the missing boats, at once became keenly anxious to reach
Port Royal with all possible expedition, in order that the painful
business of our trial by court-martial for the loss of the frigate might
be got over without delay. We therefore carried on night and day; and
so smartly did the little schooner step out, that on the seventh day
after bearing up we found ourselves at daybreak within sight of Turk's
Island, running in for the Windward Passage before the rather languid
trade wind. Most of the people were by this time getting about once
more, so that, with our own men and the _Wyvern_ party, our decks looked
rather crowded; and as we went below to breakfast the captain remarked
upon it, expressing his satisfaction that the time was so near at hand
when we could exchange our cramped quarters aboard the schooner for the
more roomy ones to be found in the Kingston hotels or the houses of the
hospitable Jamaica planters.
We were still dawdling over breakfast in the close, stuffy little cabin
of the schooner, when Lindsay, who was looking out for me, poked his
head through the open skylight to report that there were two sail
ahead--a ship and a brigantine--hove-to in somewhat suspicious
proximity; and that Captain Tucker--who had been aloft to get a better
view of the strangers--declared his belief that the brigantine was none
other than the piratical craft the crew of which had pillaged and
destroyed the _Wyvern_.
"How do they bear, Mr Lindsay?" demanded the captain.
"Straight ahead, sir," answered Lindsay.
"And how far distant?" was the next question.
"About ten miles, sir," replied Lindsay.
"And what are we going at the present moment?" asked the captain.
Lindsay withdrew his head from the skylight to glance over the rail, and
then replaced it again to answer, "A bare five, sir, I should say; the
wind seems to be growing more scant. Shall I heave the log, sir?"
"No, thank you," answered the captain; "I have no doubt your judgment is
nearly enough correct for all practical purposes, Mr Lindsay. Let a
hand be sent aloft to keep an eye on the strangers, and tell him to
report anything unusual that he may see. I shall be on deck myself in a
few minutes."
Excusing myself, I slipped up on deck to have a look at the two craft,
the upper canvas of which was visible above the horizon directly ahead
of us. As Lindsay had said, the one was a full-rigged ship, while the
other was a fine big brigantine; both were hove-to, and in such close
proximity that the merest tyro might shrewdly guess at what was going on
there just beyond the horizon. But, to make assurance doubly sure, I
took the ship's glass, and went up on the topgallant yard, from whence I
was able to obtain a full view of them. It was as I had expected; boats
were passing rapidly to and fro between the two craft, those which left
the ship being heavily laden, while those which left the brigantine were
light.
I was still aloft, working away with the telescope, when the captain
emerged from the companion-way, and at once catching sight of me,
hailed--
"Well, Mr Courtenay, what do you make of them?"
"It is undoubtedly a case of piracy, sir," I replied. "The brigantine
is rifling the ship, and the latter has all the appearance of a British
West Indiaman."
"Whew!" I heard the skipper whistle, as he walked to the rail and
looked thoughtfully down at the foam bubbles that were gliding past our
bends. "If she is an Indiaman she will have passengers aboard her," he
remarked to the doctor, who at that moment joined him.
The doctor seemed to acquiesce, although he spoke in so low a tone that
I could not catch his words. The two stood talking together for a few
minutes, and then the captain hailed me again.
"What do you judge our distance from those two craft to be, Mr
Courtenay?" he asked.
"A good eight miles, sir, I should say," answered I.
"Thank you, Mr Courtenay; you may come down, sir," returned the
skipper, which I took to be a hint that he wanted me. I accordingly
slung the glass over my shoulder, swung myself off the yard on to the
backstay, and so descended to the deck.
"Did you notice whether they seemed to have more wind than we have?"
inquired the captain, as I joined him.
"Pretty much the same, sir, I should think," answered I. "It looks as
though it would fall calm before long."
"I am afraid not; no such luck," remarked the skipper, cocking his
weather eye skyward and carefully studying the aspect of the heavens.
"I fervently wish it would; then we could nab that fellow beautifully
with the boats."
"Might we not try, sir, as it is?" inquired I eagerly. "We have enough
people--that is, counting the _Wyvern's_ men, who, I have no doubt,
would all volunteer," I hastened to add, as my eye fell upon three or
four of those whom we had taken out of the launch, and who, what with
starvation and their still unhealed wounds, looked more fit for a
hospital than for boat duty.
"Thank you, Mr Courtenay," answered the skipper, with a smile,
evidently reading my unspoken thoughts. "No, I am afraid it would not
do. In the first place, I question whether we really _have_ sufficient
men to justify such an attempt; and, in the next place, if we had, it
would still be desirable, in my opinion, to defer the attempt until we
are much nearer. At present nobody can tell what we are. The schooner
is such a small affair that I am in hopes the brigantine will take no
notice of us until we are within striking distance of her; while, if I
were to send the boats away, she would probably make off at once. No;
it is rather trying to the patience to remain idly aboard here, drifting
along at this snail's pace, but I am convinced that it is the correct
thing to do. Perhaps, if we show only a few men about the decks, the
brigantine may be tempted to tackle us."
"Ah! if only she would, sir!" I ejaculated, with such intensity of
feeling that the captain laughed.
"Why, I declare you are developing into a regular fire-eater!" he
exclaimed.
"Think of the passengers, sir, some of them women, most likely!" I
said.
"I _am_ thinking of them, sir!" answered the captain through his
clenched teeth, and with a sudden glitter in his eye that foreboded evil
to the brigantine's people, should we be fortunate enough to get within
striking distance of them.
I turned away and walked forward to where I saw Black Peter, the whilom
servant of the midshipmen's mess aboard the _Althea_. He was one of
those whom we had found still alive in the launch, and he had picked up
wonderfully since then, having become almost his old self again. He was
lounging on the forecastle near the port cat-head, with his bare, brawny
arms crossed on the rail as he gazed ahead at the two craft, with which
we were slowly closing.
"Peter," said I, "get the grindstone ready. And Green, get the
cutlasses up on deck and give them a thorough good sharpening. We may
want them by and by."
"Ay, ay, sir," answered Green, with a grin, as he shambled away to get
the weapon, while Peter bestirred himself with alacrity to prepare the
grindstone for its work by drawing a bucket of water and pouring it into
the trough. A few minutes later Peter, his eyes gleaming with
excitement and every one of his ivories bared in a broad grin of
delight, was whirling the handle round at a furious speed, as Green and
another hand stood on either side of the stone, each pressing a bare
blade to its fiercely buzzing disc.
We continued to drift along at an exasperatingly slow pace before the
languid breeze until we had arrived within about four miles of the two
craft, when the skipper gave orders to clear the decks and cast loose
the guns; but he instructed me that the galley fire was not to be
extinguished and the magazine opened until the last moment. Apparently
he had his doubts as to the probability of the brigantine attacking us.
And, if so, his doubts were soon confirmed; for when we had reduced the
distance by another mile the lookout aloft reported that the brigantine
was filling away; and in another minute or two she turned her stern to
us, rigged out her studding-sail booms, and went off before the wind,
setting her studding-sails as she went.
"Ah!" ejaculated the captain, "it is as I feared! She smells a rat, and
does not mean to wait for us! Hoist out the gig at once, Mr Courtenay,
and pull for your life to that ship; too probably it is a case of the
_Wyvern_ over again, and if there are any people left aboard her they
must be saved. Let the men go fully armed, but do not take more than
the boat's proper complement, as you are not likely to have any fighting
to do, while you may want all the room in the boat that you can spare."
We were by this time moving so slowly that it was unnecessary to heave-
to in order to hoist out the gig. No time, therefore, was lost in
getting her into the water, and within five minutes of the issuing of
the order by the captain we were afloat and away from the schooner, with
the men--a picked crew, consisting of the strongest and smartest men in
the ship--bending their backs as they drove the beautifully modelled
boat at racing speed through the water.
We had barely got away, however, before I detected light wreaths of
smoke curling up between the masts of the distant ship; and at the same
moment I observed that although her mainyards were still braced aback
she seemed to be no longer hove-to, for, as I watched, her bows fell off
until she was nearly before the wind, and she went drifting slowly away
to leeward, sometimes heading in one direction and sometimes in another,
yawing about all over the place, with a difference of fully four points
on either side of the general direction in which she was driving. This
was most exasperating, as although she was drifting slowly she was still
drifting, and that, too, in the same general direction that we were
steering, thus prolonging the time that must necessarily elapse ere we
could overtake her, while it would greatly increase the expenditure of
energy on the part of the oarsmen to enable us to get alongside.
"Give way with a will, men," I cried. "The rascals have not only set
fire to the ship, but they have also cast loose her wheel, so that she
is now running away from us to leeward. The harder you pull the sooner
shall we catch her, and the better chance will there be for us to put
out the fire. And remember, for aught that we know, her crew may be
lying there upon her deck, bound hand and foot, utterly helpless, to
roast alive, unless we can get alongside in time to save them!"
This appeal was not without effect upon the men; hard as they had been
pulling, they now put out every available ounce of strength they
possessed, their brawny muscles standing out like ropes upon their bare
arms, while the perspiration literally poured off them, and the stout
ash blades bent like wands, as they all but lifted the gig clean out of
the water at every stroke. We tore along over the low, oil-like ridges
of the swell at the speed of the dolphin, leaving the schooner as though
she were at anchor; yet to my eager impatience our headlong pace seemed
to be little better than a crawl, for the light wreaths of smoke that I
had seen winding lazily upward from the ship's hull and twining about
her spars increased in volume with startling rapidity, while it
momentarily grew darker in colour, until, within ten minutes of its
first appearance, it had become a dense cloud of dun-coloured smoke,
completely enveloping the ship, in the heart of which long, forking
tongues of flickering flame presently appeared. They had apparently set
fire to the poor old barkie in at least half a dozen places, and she was
burning like match-wood.
"Pull, men, pull!" I cried, "or we shall be too late; she is well
alight even now, and in another quarter of an hour she will be a blazing
furnace if she goes on at her present rate. Heaven above! if there are
people aboard her what must their feelings be now?"
A groan of sympathy burst from the men in response to this ejaculation
of mine, and they tugged at the oars with a strength and energy that
filled me with amazement. We were coming up with the ship hand over
hand; but, fast as the boat flew, the fire grew still faster, and
presently I saw the flames climbing aloft by way of the well-tarred
shrouds until they reached the sails, when there arose a sudden blaze of
flame among the spars, and in two or three minutes every shred of canvas
had been consumed, and the crawling tongues of fire were circling about
the masts and yards, feebly at first, but steadily increasing until they
were all ablaze. Meanwhile the ship, deprived of her canvas, gradually
fell broadside-on to the wind, and from that position as gradually
drifted round until she lay bows-on to us. By this time we were within
three-quarters of a mile of her, and now that she was no longer driven
to leeward by her sails, we neared her rapidly. But my heart sank
within me as I watched her, for the destruction of her sails, which I
had at first thought a fortunate circumstance,--inasmuch as she no
longer blew away from us,--I now recognised as a dreadful happening;
for, stationary as she now lay on the water, the light draught of wind
had full power to fan the fire that raged aboard her, and by the time
that we drew up under her bows and hooked on to her bobstay, she was a
roaring mass of flames from stem to stern.
I shinned up the bobstay and so got on to her bowsprit, and from there
made my way into her head; but I could go no farther, for the fore part
of her deck was a sheet of fire, upon which no living thing could exist
for more than a few seconds of unspeakable torment, and even where I
stood the heat was all but unendurable. I could not see very far aft
for the flames and smoke. Her fore-scuttle was open, and a pillar of
flame roared out of it as from a chimney on fire; and some ten feet
abaft it was her foremast, ablaze from the deck to the truck; and
immediately abaft it again was the blazing framework of what had shortly
before been a deck-house. Beyond that I could see nothing. One thing
was quite certain, and that was that if there were living people still
aboard her--which I could not believe possible--they must be aft, and it
was there that we must seek them. So I scrambled down into the gig
again, and ordered the men to back off and pull round under the ship's
stern.
They lost no time in obeying my order; and it was well for us all that
they exhibited so much alacrity, for as we swept round and gave way an
ominous cracking and rending sound was heard aboard the ship, and a
moment later her blazing foremast toppled over and fell with a crash
into the sea, missing the gig by a bare boathook's length.
"Look out for the other masts; they'll be comin' down too in a jiffy!"
sang out one of the men; and they all pulled for their lives. But the
alarm was a false one, the main and mizzen masts standing for full ten
minutes longer.
But when we got under the ship's stern it became perfectly clear that no
living thing could be aboard her, for she was even more fiercely ablaze
aft than she was for'ard, the whole of her, from the mainmast to the
taffrail, being a veritable furnace of roaring flame, with tongues and
jets of fire leaping from her cabin windows and from every port and
scuttle. It was impossible to board her in this direction; it would
have simply been an act of suicide to have attempted it; even her
outside planking, right down to the water's edge, was so hot that it was
unbearable to the touch; and it was beyond all doubt that if those
fiends in the brigantine had left the crew, or any portion of them, on
board, the unhappy creatures must have perished long ere we had reached
the ill-fated craft. I therefore took a note of her name,--the
_Kingston Trader_ of Bristol,--and reluctantly gave the word to haul off
to a safe distance to wait until the schooner should run down and pick
us up.
This occurred about a quarter of an hour later, and the moment that the
gig was fairly clear of the water we crowded sail after the brigantine;
but, fast as the schooner was, the pirate craft easily ran away from us,
and by sunset had vanished below the horizon.
Nothing further of importance happened to us until our arrival at Port
Royal, which occurred on the evening of the following day, when we just
saved the last of the sea breeze into the harbour. The captain went
ashore and reported himself that same night, dining with the admiral
afterwards; but I did not go ashore until late the next day, as there
was a great deal of business that I had to attend to. Captain Harrison
was of course most anxious that our trial by court-martial for the loss
of the frigate should take place as speedily as possible, because he
could not hope for another command until that was over; and it happened
by a quite exceptional piece of luck that there were enough ships in the
harbour to allow of its being held at once. It was consequently
arranged to take place on board the flag-ship, on the fourth day
following our arrival. It was, of course, only a formal affair, the
loss of the frigate being due to causes quite beyond our control,--
unless, indeed, we had chosen to run from the two French ships instead
of fighting them,--so it was soon over, and before noon we were all
honourably acquitted, and our side-arms returned to us with much
congratulatory handshaking on the part of the officers present. Captain
Harrison, the doctor, Lindsay, and I were invited to dine with the
admiral at his Pen that evening, and we accordingly drove out with the
last of the daylight, arriving at the house just as the sun was setting
over Hunt Bay. The admiral was the very soul of hospitality, and we
were therefore a large party, several officers from Up Park Camp and a
sprinkling of civilians being present "to take off the salt flavour"
likely to prevail from a too exclusive gathering of the naval element,
as our host laughingly put it.
Somewhat to my surprise, I found myself the lion of the evening, Captain
Harrison having most generously made the utmost of my exploit in
capturing the French schooner and my subsequent search for the frigate's
boats; and so many compliments were paid me that, being still young and
comparatively modest, I had much difficulty in maintaining my self-
possession and making suitable replies.
After dinner, and while the rest of us were chatting and smoking over
our wine, the admiral, apologising for being obliged to temporarily
absent himself, withdrew, taking Captain Harrison with him. They were
absent for nearly an hour, and when they returned there was noticeable
in the skipper's manner a subdued but joyous exultation that told of
good news. I did not, however, learn what it was until we had left the
Pen and were driving back to our hotel in Kingston by the dazzling
silver radiance of a tropical full moon. And, prior to that, the
admiral had said to me, as I bade him good-night--
"Come and see me in my office to-morrow about noon, Mr Courtenay; I
want to have a talk to you."
As soon as we were clear of the Pen grounds and fairly on our road to
Kingston, the skipper said to me--
"Mr Courtenay, do you happen to have noticed that fine frigate, the
_Minerva_, lying just inshore of the flag-ship?"
"Yes, sir, I have," said I. "She is a beauty, and is said to be a
wonderful sailer, especially on a taut bowline. I heard yesterday that
her captain is ashore, down with yellow fever."
"Very true," answered the skipper. "The poor fellow died this morning,
and the admiral has been pleased to give the command of her to me."
"I congratulate you with all my heart, sir," said I. "I thought I could
read good news in your face this evening when you returned to the
dining-room. She is a magnificent vessel, and I sincerely hope that you
will have abundant opportunity to distinguish yourself in her. And I
hope, sir, that you will take me with you."
"Thank you, Courtenay, thank you!" exclaimed the skipper, evidently
touched by the sincerity of my congratulations; "if we can only manage
to fall in with the enemy frequently enough, never fear but I will
distinguish myself--if I live. As to taking you with me, I would do so
with the greatest pleasure, and as a matter of course, were I permitted
to have my own way; but I believe, from what the admiral let drop to me
to-night, that he has his own plans for you, and, if so, you may rest
assured that they will be far more to your advantage than would be your
accompanying me to the _Minerva_. Let me see--how much longer have you
to serve before you are eligible for examination?"
"Only four days more, sir," I answered, with a laugh; "then I shall go
up as early as possible."
"Only four days more?" exclaimed the skipper in surprise; "I thought it
was more like two months!"
"Only four days, I assure you, sir," repeated I.
"Um! well, I suppose you know best," was the answer, given in a musing
tone, to which was presently added, "So much the better! So much the
better!"
"May I ask, sir, whether that remark has any reference to me?" I
inquired.
"Certainly, Courtenay, certainly; there cannot be any possible objection
to your asking, but I am not bound to answer, am I?" replied the
skipper, with a laugh. "No," he continued, "I must not tell you
anything, except that I have reason to believe that the admiral is very
much pleased with your behaviour, and that he contemplates marking his
approval in a manner which, I am sure, will be very pleasing to
yourself."
And that was all I could get out of the gallant captain; but it was
sufficient to cause me to pass a sleepless night of pleasurable
speculation.
Prompt to the second I presented myself at the admiral's office next
morning, and was at once shown into the great man's presence.
"Morning, Mr Courtenay!" exclaimed he, as I entered. "Bring yourself
to an anchor for a minute or two, will ye, until I have signed these
papers; then I shall be free to have a talk to you. Jenkins, clear away
a chair for Mr Courtenay."
The orderly sergeant reverently removed a pile of books and papers from
a chair, dusted it, and placed it near an open window, and I amused
myself by looking out upon the busy scene in the harbour, while the
admiral proceeded to scrawl his signature upon document after document.
"There!" he exclaimed, with a sigh of relief, as he signed the last one
and pushed it away from him, "thank goodness that job is finished! Now,
Mr Courtenay--by the way, Captain Harrison told me last night that he
believed you would soon be eligible for your examination. Is that so?"
"Yes, sir," answered I; "I shall have served my full time in three days
more."
"Three days!" exclaimed the admiral. "Is that all?"