"Raise tacks and sheets! clew up mainsail and foresail! Let fly
topgallant-sheets!"
The wind having fallen, the ship soon lost her way, and we pulled up
alongside. A light gleamed through the entrance port, and ready hands,
coming down, quickly assisted us up on deck, while the boat was secured,
for none of us had much strength left to help ourselves.
Nettleship, Tom, and I were at once conducted to the upper deck, where
we found the gallant commander of the _Hector_, Captain Bouchier, to
whom Nettleship at once gave a brief account of what had happened.
"We have reason to be thankful that we escaped the gale, Drury," said
the captain, turning to an officer in a captain's uniform standing near
him. "We should to a certainty have shared the fate of many others."
Captain Bouchier made this remark, I found, in consequence of the
unseaworthy condition of his ship. To enable her to perform the voyage,
before she sailed from Jamaica she had had twenty-two of her guns taken
out of her, and her masts replaced by others of smaller dimensions. Her
crew amounted in all to scarcely three hundred men, many of whom were
invalids, and others French and American prisoners, who had volunteered
to assist in working the ship.
As soon as Nettleship had finished his account, the captain directed
that we should be taken below, and hammocks slung for us.
"I would advise you to turn in, young gentlemen, as soon as you have had
some food," he said, as we were leaving.
He also ordered that our boat's crew should be well looked after. The
surgeon, who was summoned, went to attend to them, and to prevent them
from being overfed, or overdosed with grog, which to a certainty they
would otherwise have been by the seamen of the ship. As I was going
down to the orlop deck, Larry came aft, supported by two men, with his
fiddle-case under his arm.
"Och, Mr Terence," he said, "I'm mighty glad to find ourselves safe
aboard a big ship again, and to see you all right. It is more than I
thought to do since our own went down with all her brave boys, barrin'
ourselves."
The doctor, finding that we did not require much of his assistance,
attended to Larry and the other men, who appeared far more knocked up
than we were, and they were at once sent to their hammocks. We were
ushered into the gun-room by the master's mate, who accompanied us.
Here we found a number of midshipmen seated at a table, employed in
various ways. They greeted us warmly, and were all eager to know our
adventures, which we told them while discussing the meal placed before
us. Scarcely, however, had I finished eating, when my head dropped on
the table, and there I should have sat, had not one of the
assistant-surgeons aroused me and advised me to turn in. I slept on, as
did Nettleship and Tom, till the hammocks were piped up next morning,
and, if left alone, should not have awoke for hours afterwards.
We all three, though still weak, felt pretty well able to get about, and
were in reality in a better state than many of the officers and men, who
were suffering from the effect of the West Indian climate. I never saw
so pale and haggard a crew. We were treated with the greatest kindness
by our new messmates, and Nettleship was asked into the ward-room, to
give a further account of what had happened to us. We had indeed ample
reason to be thankful for our preservation, when so many on board our
own and other ships had perished.
In a couple of days we were as well as ever, and, as many of the mates
and midshipmen were too ill to do duty, we were directed to take their
places. Larry, as usual, made himself at home with his fiddle, and soon
set the seamen and French prisoners jigging away, as he had done on
board other ships.
We were standing on with all the canvas the battered old _Hector_ could
carry, with the wind from the southward, when the look-out aloft
announced two sail away to leeward. One of the lieutenants, with his
telescope on his back, immediately went to the main-topmast cross-trees
to have a look at them.
"As far as I can make out, they are two frigates, sir, coming up before
the wind," he said to the captain when he came down.
"Are they English or French?" asked the captain. "According to my
judgment, sir, they are French," was the answer.
The captain took a few turns on deck, and then again sent aloft. The
lieutenant, on his return, pronounced his opinion more decidedly that
they were French, and both large frigates. The captain on this ordered
the drum to beat to quarters, and the usual preparations were made for
battle. Evening was approaching, and it might be well on in the night
before the enemy could be up to us.
Although the _Hector_ was a 74-gun ship, she in reality only carried
fifty-two guns, and, from her battered condition, was not fit to cope
even with a single frigate. Still our brave captain determined to
struggle to the last. She being a heavy sailer, the two frigates came
rapidly up with us, and there was no doubt from their appearance that
they were enemies, although we could not as yet see their ensigns. All
doubt on that score was dissipated, when, in a short time, French flags
were run up at their peaks. The prisoners were accordingly ordered
below and placed under sentries, while the captain went along the decks
encouraging the men. They received him with cheerful countenances as he
appeared, promising to do their best to beat the enemy. I asked
Nettleship what he thought would be the result of the contest.
"Heaven only knows!" he answered; "but there's one thing, I'm certain
that our fellows will fight to the last. I never saw a crew, though so
many of them are sick, more resolute or full of pluck."
The leading frigate, now coming up on our starboard quarter, opened
fire, and we, luffing up, returned it with our aftermost guns. She then
ranged up abeam, while her consort placed herself on our larboard
quarter, so that we could not luff up again without being raked by the
other. We, however, could fight our starboard broadside, and
occasionally could bring some of our larboard guns to bear on the enemy
on that side. We could now see that each frigate mounted forty guns,
their decks being crowded with men; indeed, they together mustered more
than double our complement. These were fearful odds, but Captain
Bouchier and his crew seemed in no way daunted. The men ran the guns in
and out as fast as they could load them, but the enemy's shot came
crashing aboard, committing fearful havoc in all parts of the ship. The
French must have known, from our smaller masts and spars, that we were
likely to be short-handed, and also soon discovered the small number of
guns we carried.
Though I saw numbers struck down around me, I never for one instant
thought of myself or expected to be killed. The surgeons below soon had
their hands full, as one poor fellow after another was carried down to
the cockpit. The dead were left where they fell, for all were too busy
to remove them. The enemy generally fired at our hull rather than at
our spars.