THE BLACK SCHOONER.
Long ere the mate's story was concluded, the dense fog--chilly,
white, and drenching--had shrouded the dreary isle of Baccalao, and
the voices of the penguins alone indicated its locality; but they
became fainter, until we lost the sound altogether as we ran further
to the north.
Now a furious snow-storm came on; thick and fast the white flakes
fell ceaselessly aslant through a dark-grey sky upon the winter sea
(for in that region there is _no_ spring), covering the rigging, the
decks, and storm-jackets of the watch, who shrank to leeward, while
the wind, which blew keenly from the N.N.E., and thermometer, which
had sunk very low, made me begin to reflect that there were more
unpleasant places in the world than the counting-room of Mr. Uriah
Skrew.
This snow-storm continued for three or four days, during which the
whole seamanship of Hartly, Reeves, and Hans Peterkin was required to
prevent the _Leda_ being driven upon a lee shore. By chart and
soundings they were constantly at work, to keep her off a land which
was veiled in obscurity, for the wind was dead and strong against us;
and frequently through the blinding snow, and grey hazy drift to
leeward, we could hear the sullen booming of breakers, as they rolled
in foam that froze upon the granite rocks and islets about Cape
Freels.
This foul weather lasted for several days, and weary of beating
fruitlessly to windward, when the storm abated, and the sky became
again blue and serene, we found ourselves under easy sail, at the
rate of four knots an hour or so, passing the Twillingate Isles,
which lie between the Bay of Exploits and the vast Bay of Notre Dame.
They were covered with snow, and are desolate, bleak, and little
known, as on that part of the coast there are only about one hundred
and fifty inhabitants--poor people--who, after fishing for cod and
salmon in summer, quit their wigwams in winter to live in the
sheltered woods, or sail south towards St. John. And now we began to
get ready our boats and guns, and with telescopes to sweep the
snow-clad shore for seals, and the open sea for ice-floes.
It was about the hour of six; the sun had just set, and the western
sky was all a-blaze with fiery-coloured light, which tinged with
roseate hues the waves that rolled upon the bleak and snow-clad
shore. Captain Hartly took the wheel, and Reeves stood anxiously
close by the binnacle, for we had to weather a long, sharp, and lofty
promontory which abutted like a wall of rock into the ocean, and
round which there eddied a swift and dangerous current. The wind,
though now off the land, was too light to enable us to make headway
against the stream.
On the brig we had but little "way," and a general exclamation of
satisfaction rose from the hitherto silent crew, when the _Leda_
_shaved_--as they phrased it--past the promontory, and we saw a deep
cove of blue water opening beyond it; but lo!
There lay at anchor a schooner--a long, low, sharply prowed and
rakish-like craft--with her hull painted black as jet could be, and
with a number of rough-looking fellows crowding along her gunwale.
We were not three hundred yards apart.
"Reeves, take the wheel," cried Hartly, in an excited voice. "The
glass, Cuffy, the spy-glass!" he added with sharp energy, snatching
from the hands of Snowball the telescope which usually hung on two
hooks in the companion; "a row of ugly dogs they are that man her.
By Heaven, she is the _Black Schooner_!"
"The _Black Schooner_!" we all exclaimed with something of dismay in
our varying tones; and I felt, that with Paul Reeves's grim legend
about Captain Kidd fresh in our memory, we had some cause for alarm
in meeting with this robber ship upon those solitary seas.
"Are you sure, Hartly?" I asked.
"Not a doubt of it! see, Reeves--she is a two-topsail schooner!"
"What does that mean?" said I.
"A brig without tops, in fact."
A kind of growling cheer, mingled with wild and insolent halloing,
rose from her crew on beholding us suddenly come round the abrupt
promontory, from the brow of which a fringe of gigantic icicles
overhung the sea. A commotion was instantly observable on deck; a
man in authority sprang up the companion-ladder, and we heard him in
a loud and clear voice ordering sail to be instantly made on the
schooner as we altered our course.
"Man the windlass-bars--up anchor--rouse it to the catheads with a
will, my boys! Shake out everything fore and aft--every stitch that
will draw. Stand by the jib and flying-jib halliards," he shouted.
After a pause, during which we heard the clanking of the windlass
pauls, as her anchor was started, and would soon be a-cockbill, and
dangling by its ring, we heard his voice again.
"Up with the jib and flying-jib now--sheets to starboard! Heave and
away--presto! my Jack Spaniards. Stand by topgallant and topsail
sheets and halliards. Bear a hand, you French devils! Well done, my
Kentucky rowdies!"
In less than three minutes the swelling of the jib and other
head-sails, as well as the motion of the schooner when her bows fell
round, proved that she was under weigh. These orders, which were
obeyed with skilful alacrity, seemed to indicate alike the mixed
character of her crew and the hostility of their intentions.
"Ready a gun there forward! sheet home and hoist away, topsails and
topgallant sails!"
This alarming order, uttered in a loud voice, rang distinctly upon
the clear frosty air, and, on the other hand, Captain Hartly was not
slow in his preparations to avoid her.
"By Jove!" he exclaimed, "this is the very craft we have heard so
much about, and for the capture of which the Governor offers 500_l_.
I have no wish to be caught by these fellows--see, they are shaking
out a couple of reefs in her fore and aft mainsail already! Hands
make all sail--Reeves, set everything that will draw--square away the
after yards."
"Ay, ay, sir," said Reeves, jumping about and setting all the men to
the yards, braces, and halliards; "port the smallest bit--keep her
full--so--steady!"
"Maldito los Inglesos renegades!" ("Curse the English runaways!")
cried a Spaniard, shaking his clenched hands at us over her starboard
bow.
"Caramba!" cried another.
"Sangbleu!" added a Frenchman, "stop hare--lie to--or it vill be ze
vorser for you."
"Will it, you rascally thief!" shouted Hartly, as his eyes flashed
and his cheek glowed with excitement: "Manly, look alive, my lad!
load all the double-barrelled rifles in the cabin. Snowball, get up
the kegs of powder and slugs. We shall not be overhauled by a pirate
without having a skirmish first."
"Luckily for us the wind is off the land, and it freshens too," said
Reeves: "we shall beat her when running before the wind; but she
would come up with us hand over hand on a taut bowline. It was on a
wind she overtook the Bristol clipper."
In the red glow of the winter sunset, we saw the foam flying on each
side of her sharp bows as the breeze freshened, and she rolled
heavily from side to side; while the _Leda_, being square-rigged, had
a greater spread of canvas, and caught more of the wind: thus,
notwithstanding that our dangerous pursuer was built for sailing
fast, as Paul Reeves foretold, she was no match for us, when running
right before the wind.
Our crew, half of whom were only poor seal-fishers, became very much
excited; but inspired by the example of Hartly, Reeves, and myself,
they proceeded to load all the sealing guns and muskets, lest the
schooner might lower her boats to overtake us and attempt to board.
The stern and confident order to get "ready a gun," was repeated more
than once before we got beyond hearing; but as no gun was ever fired,
we believed this to be a mere bravado to frighten us into shortening
sail, till she might run alongside and board us, when a ruinous scene
of plunder, if not of bloodshed, would be sure to ensue.
"She sails with the speed of an arrow," said I, while carefully
loading and capping my rifle.
"This _Black Schooner_ was one of the craft employed in protecting
the French fishery of Miquelon, on the south side of the island,"
said Hartly; "but her crew mutinied, shipped some runaways of all
countries and colours, and turned slavers. These rascals have
committed several outrages hereabouts by sea and land, but have
always escaped our cruisers, as she alternately shows a British,
French, and Yankee ensign, and runs all kinds of paint-strokes along
her bends."
On, on, we bore; and on, on, she came after us, with the still
freshening breeze, the foam flying before her bows and ours; but ere
long we were evidently half a mile apart.
She was a handsome clipper-like craft of about two hundred tons'
burthen, coppered to the bends; her lower masts were long and heavy,
so as to carry fore and aft sails of immense spread upon a wind, with
a square sail, top and topgallant sail aloft.
"Massa Hartly--Massa Captain--look out!" exclaimed Cuffy Snowball,
who had armed himself with a musket, and stood in soldier-fashion at
"the ready," grinning over the taffrail at the rolling schooner.
"Look out for what?" said Hans Peterkin.
"Something make you all look white as de debbil."
"What do you mean by _white_," asked the carpenter, "when we all know
the devil is black?"
"In my country him white, sare," replied Cuffy, angrily.
"Then," said Hartly, to keep up the spirits of his crew by jesting,
"what colour do you think he is, Cuffy?"
"I tink him _blue_," replied the prudent negro; and then he added
with a yell, "dere come something will make you look blue too, Massa!"
As he spoke, a puff of white smoke rose from the bow of the _Black
Schooner_; the report of a musket rang in the air, and a conical
rifle-ball whistled past the ear of Hartly, and sank with a heavy
_thud_ into the mainmast.