CHASED BY A PIRATE
Appointed captain in the 50th Regiment—Embark for Jamaica—A terrible
storm and a drunken captain—Return to port—Sail again with another
captain—Ship chased by a pirate—Jamaica once more
IN April, 1821, I again attended the Commander-in-Chief’s Military
Secretary’s levée. Sir Henry Torrens was still in office, and when I
told him of my anxiety to be employed he asked me where I would like to
serve. I said, “Jamaica above all other parts of the world”; he then
directed me to write to him to that effect. I did so next day, and three
weeks afterwards had the pleasure of seeing myself appointed captain of
a company in the 50th Regiment, and I soon received an official letter
advising me to join the depot of the regiment in the Isle of Wight,
which I did in the month of July following. I remained doing duty there
for nearly twelve months, and it was during that period that I had a
severe attack of inflammation of the eyes, which induced me to appeal to
Lord Palmerston for the second, and last time, for my pension. We
embarked for Jamaica in the hired ship _Echo_, but were detained by
contrary winds in Cowes harbour for a fortnight. The captain had his
wife on board during our detention, and we were so much pleased with his
manner and polite attentions that we invited him to become our guest
during the voyage (for in those days officers so embarked provided their
own messing), and all went on well until a fine fair wind enabled us to
sail: the captain then landed his wife, and from that hour and for ten
days after he was never sober.
During this time the mate took charge, but in a few days we were met by
a fearful gale right against us, and every hour and day it became worse
and worse. Our captain still remained beastly drunk and most
troublesome, every now and then throwing handfuls of silver, and some
gold, amongst the soldiers on deck, allowing them to scramble for it,
and when spoken to by any of us, swearing and damning and calling out
that we were all going to Davy Jones’s locker together.
The gale at last increased to a hurricane; the captain then became so
troublesome that the senior officers present (Captain Powell and I) went
officially to our commanding officer, Colonel P——, and advised him to
confine the captain to his cabin, and to order the mate to take the ship
back to port, as the sailors were already done up and grumbling. Colonel
P—— was a good and kind man, but without energy or resolution, and he
declined to interfere or to take any such responsibility on himself. We
urged and urged our request, as the lives of all were in danger, but
still finding Colonel P—— would not do anything, we insisted on having
his leave to act, so that we might ourselves carry out his orders. He
then said, “Well, boys, just do as you like.” We then at once forced the
captain off the deck into his cabin, and told him he must consider
himself under arrest. He got very violent, and swore he would not be
kept a prisoner by any one. Then we got him down again and placed two
sentries in his cabin, with orders not to suffer him to go on deck. We
next went to the mate and told him that his captain was a prisoner for
habitual drunkenness and neglect of duty, and that he (the mate) should
at once take the ship into port. This the honest sailor refused to do;
he could not, he said, act without his captain’s orders, that he would
be dismissed by the owners and ruined if he did so. We reported
accordingly to Colonel P——, who at once declined further responsibility.
The gale continued without any visible change; many of our sails were
blown away, the weather became very thick and dirty, our sailors were
done up and discontented to a man, yet the mate would do nothing. He
confessed the crew were overworked, but that he could not help it, and
dared not go back. In this state we got through another day and night,
and next morning found ourselves at daylight all but on shore on the
island of Alderney, with only enough sea room to clear the rocks ahead
of us, on which we must have been wrecked, had not the morning’s dawn
happily come in time to save us.
When clear in the open sea, we again urged the mate to bear away for the
nearest harbour, but he still refused, urging his former reasons. We
then begged him to parade the whole crew on the quarter-deck, that we
might know their opinions. This he did, and the gallant fellows to a man
declared they could not possibly work any longer, and urged us, for the
safety of all, to put up in some harbour. For days we had made no
observations, but being satisfied it was the island of Alderney we saw
that morning the mate had no doubt of our whereabouts. We now went to
Colonel P—— (who seldom left his cabin, for he had his wife and a young
lady, Miss C——, with him), and we urged or rather insisted upon his
signing a written order which we had prepared, directing the mate at
once to take the ship back to the nearest port, telling Colonel P—— at
the same time the danger we had escaped, and the result of our parade of
the crew. As before, he resisted for some time all responsibility, but
at last we got him to sign the order. Then followed difficulties with
the mate, and it was not until we threatened to put a sentry over him
that he consented, and gave the order to bear away and steer for Torbay.
At four on the same evening land was reported ahead, and by sunset we
were close in, and hoisted a signal of distress, which soon brought us a
pilot boat, which boarded us and at once took us safely to anchor,
thankful for our escape from destruction.
I now recommended Colonel P—— to report all that had occurred to us to
the different authorities in London, and to state the necessity which
obliged him to take all the responsibility and to act as he did. Poor
man! he became more than ever confused, and said that he would be ruined
and brought to a court-martial. I tried all I could to convince him, and
he asked me to write the reports in his name, and said that he would
sign them if I did so. I dispatched them at once, for fear of his
altering his mind, and he soon received an answer approving of all he
had done, and thanking him for his most able and judicious conduct.
On the same day the owners came down from London, bringing another
captain with them. It was then found that the ship had suffered much,
and carpenters and shipwrights were sent from the dockyard at Plymouth
to examine and repair her. The owners were so pleased with the
assistance which the soldiers gave the sailors during the gale, that
they made the former a present of two tons of potatoes. It took more
than a fortnight before the _Echo_ was again reported fit for sea.
During that time we amused ourselves landing and making excursions daily
to different parts of the country, and in this interval Colonel P—— had
a second letter, saying that our application for additional allowances
for our losses during the storm was under favourable consideration; this
enabled us to replenish our sea-stock, and to make due provision for our
future comfort. We sailed again with a fair breeze, and in due course
reached Madeira, where we remained for some days, landing frequently and
enjoying ourselves much in that gay town.
From Madeira we soon got into the trade winds, and had delightful
sailing, without any extraordinary occurrence, till we got off the
island of St. Christopher, when one morning the captain came and roused
us all from our beds, saying we were being chased by a pirate. This was
startling news, for we had heard that these seas were full of pirates,
and that they seldom showed mercy to any one. Our ladies and soldiers’
wives began crying and moaning at once, for they expected nothing less
than our utter destruction. Most of us hurried on deck in our
night-dresses, and there saw a clipper brig bearing down upon us under
all sail, about fifteen miles distant. Our captain still trusted that
she might be a man-of-war, but when she fired a gun there was no doubt
of her being a pirate. We returned in great excitement to our cabins and
dressed with all dispatch. I then, as the next senior officer, went to
Colonel P—— to report our situation, and to request his orders as to
what we ought to do, and begged him to come up at once. His wife got
alarmed, and he merely said he could do nothing; but at last told me,
“Just do as you like.” I returned on deck and consulted with the
captain, who observed that it was useless to attempt to run away, as the
stranger was gaining fast upon us, and had fired another gun to bring us
to. Although we had about ten officers on board and about two hundred
soldiers, all these were recruits, and we had not one stand of arms
belonging to the troops nor to the ship. However, we decided to make
some appearance, and ordered the soldiers to dress in their red coats
and caps, to remain ready below, but not to move, till ordered on deck.
Meantime the captain furled every sail, except his three top-sails, and
with these and his colours flying he continued running easily before the
wind. We could clearly see with our glasses the well-known pirates’
flag, blue with a white death’s-head, flying from the fore top-mast head
and the decks crowded with men. Captain Fraser determined to continue
our course till the pirate was all but on board of us, then to bring our
ship sharp round to the wind, and our men to run up and show themselves
in line under our bulwarks, with the officers flourishing their swords,
to show we were all ready for action, expecting by this sudden manœuvre
that the pirate would be right aboard or alongside of us before he had
time to take in his crowd of sails, and, if so, that we might then have
a chance of grappling and boarding him, when our numbers might give us
some advantage; but we were no sooner round and brought to the wind than
our adversary, as if by magic, had all his extra sails down, and was
round to the wind as soon as we were, showing a splendid broadside of
nine guns and a crew of no less than eighty men.
We were now within a few hundred yards of each other, and expected every
minute a shot amongst us. Nothing was done for about ten minutes; the
pirate then lowered his boat, and sent her fully manned to board us. Our
captain said she must come to our leeside, and that our only chance was
to secure them. This we agreed to do, and at once to dress one of their
men in one of our sailor’s clothes and to hang him up at our peak, so as
to make the pirate believe that his men had taken possession of our
ship. This was a desperate resolution, but as we expected no quarter
from them we had no choice but to make the most of our perilous
situation. Just as the boat came under our stern a signal of recall was
made from the pirate, and the boat at once returned to the brig. We
continued to look with additional anxiety, expecting every moment to see
the boat come back, but for another ten minutes nothing was done, and
our captain then ordered our ship to bear away and continue our course,
so as to see what the pirate would do, and whether he would fire and
bring us up again. But he thought better of it and allowed us to
continue our course in peace, seeing no doubt that we were only troops
and that he could not expect much booty from us. During the whole of
this time Colonel P—— never left his cabin. His wife was crying and
sobbing the whole time, and all his endeavours were to comfort her. Of
the officers then present, only General Gallaway and myself are now
living, and on that occasion Gallaway proved himself to be a promising
young soldier, for he volunteered to lead the first boarders, should we
succeed in grappling with the pirate.
We reached Port Royal in Jamaica a week afterwards, and at once reported
our adventures to the admiral, Sir Edward Owen, and from the description
our captain gave of the pirate our naval officers knew him well, and had
often given him chase in vain. Two or three men-of-war were now sent to
look for him, but returned in a few days without seeing him. Dozens of
pirates, of various classes, were at this time cruising in these seas,
and had made many captures, plundering and burning their prizes, and
barbarously ill-treating and murdering their victims. We had a large
naval force on the Jamaica station at this time, and they captured many
of these lawless pirates, who were at once tried, and in every instance
found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. I attended some of the trials
and saw many of these daring fellows, who were plucky to the last, for
they did not deny but actually gloried in their calling. They were men
of all nations, but principally Italians and Spaniards. We landed on the
following day at Kingston, and our different detachments of officers and
men joined their respective regiments, viz., the 33rd, 50th, and 92nd.
The English mail which left England after us arrived at Port Royal some
time before we did, and Colonel P—— found a letter waiting for him from
the Secretary of War authorizing him to draw £80 as compensation for
lost sea-stock during the gale already recorded. He therefore called a
meeting of the officers who arrived in the _Echo_, and on our assembling
read the letter, and proposed dividing the money amongst us, claiming
three shares for himself—that is, for himself, his wife, and Miss C——. I
said, “No, colonel; you only subscribed one share of our additional
expenses, and you may remember that when we agreed to purchase extra
provisions at Torbay we, the officers, declined to allow Mrs. P—— or
Miss C—— to contribute one shilling to that expense.” On this he got
very angry and said, “Well, Captain Anderson, I’ll bring you to a
court-martial for attempting to obtain money under false pretences.” I
answered, “Very well, sir; I believe you signed these letters.” He was
thus settled, and most completely put about, and then said, “By G——! I
think you are right”; so ended our dispute, and the money was divided
share and share alike to each of us.
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