The Battle of the Sand Bars
When that estimable private gentleman, Mr. William Rhett, of Charles
Town, had received a commission from the Governor to go forth on his own
responsibility and meet the dreaded pirate, the news of whose
depredations had thrown the good citizens into such a fever of
apprehension, he took possession, in the name of the law, of two large
sloops, the _Henry_ and the _Sea-Nymph_, which were in the harbor, and
at his own expense he manned them with well-armed crews, and put on
board of each of them eight small cannon. When everything was ready, Mr.
Rhett was in command of a very formidable force for those waters, and if
he had been ready to sail a few days sooner, he would have had an
opportunity of giving his men some practice in fighting pirates before
they met the particular and more important sea-robber whom they had set
out to encounter. Just as his vessel was ready to sail, Mr. Rhett
received news that a pirate ship had captured two or three merchantmen
just outside the harbor, and he put out to sea with all possible haste
and cruised up and down the coast for some time, but he did not find
this most recent depredator, who had departed very promptly when he
heard that armed ships were coming out of the harbor.
Now Mr. Rhett, who was no more of a sailor than Stede Bonnet had been
when he first began his seafaring life, boldly made his way up the coast
to the mouth of Cape Fear River, where he had been told the pirate
vessel was lying. When he reached his destination, Mr. Rhett found that
it would not be an easy thing to ascend the river, for the reason that
the pilots he had brought with him knew nothing about the waters of that
part of the coast, and although the two ships made their way very
cautiously, it was not long after they had entered the river before they
got out of the channel, and it being low tide, both of them ran aground
upon sand bars.
This was a very annoying accident, but it was not disastrous, for the
sailing masters who commanded the sloops knew very well that when the
tide rose, their vessels would float again. But it prevented Mr. Rhett
from going on and making an immediate attack upon the pirate vessel, the
topmasts of which could be plainly seen behind a high headland some
distance up the river.
Of course Bonnet, or Captain Thomas, as he now chose to be called, soon
became aware of the fact that two good-sized vessels were lying aground
near the mouth of the river, and having a very natural curiosity to see
what sort of craft they were, he waited until nightfall and then sent
three armed boats to make observations. When these boats returned to the
_Royal James_ and reported that the grounded vessels were not
well-loaded trading craft, but large sloops full of men and armed with
cannon, Bonnet (for we prefer to call him by his old name) had good
reason to fold his arms, knit his brows, and strut up and down the deck.
He was sure that the armed vessels came from Charles Town, and there was
no reason to doubt that if the Governor of South Carolina had sent two
ships against him the matter was a very serious one. He was penned up in
the river, he had only one fighting vessel to contend against two, and
if he could not succeed in getting out to sea before he should be
attacked by the Charles Town ships, there would be but little chance of
his continuing in his present line of business. If the _Royal James_ had
been ready to sail, there is no doubt that Bonnet would have taken his
chance of finding the channel in the dark, and would have sailed away
that night without regard to the cannonading which might have been
directed against him from the two stranded vessels.
But as it was impossible to get ready to sail, Bonnet went to work with
the greatest energy to get ready to fight. He knew that when the tide
rose there would be two armed sloops afloat, and that there would be a
regular naval battle on the quiet waters of Cape Fear River. All night
his men worked to clear the decks and get everything in order for the
coming combat, and all night Mr. Rhett and his crews kept a sharp watch
for any unexpected move of the enemy, while they loaded their guns,
their pistols, and their cannon, and put everything in order for action.
Very early in the morning the wide-awake crews of the South Carolina
vessels, which were now afloat and at anchor, saw that the topmasts of
the pirate craft were beginning to move above the distant headland, and
very soon Bonnet's ship came out into view, under full sail, and as she
veered around they saw that she was coming toward them. Up went the
anchors and up went the sails of the _Henry_ and the _Sea-Nymph_, and
the naval battle between the retired army officer who had almost learned
to be a sailor, and the private gentleman from South Carolina, who knew
nothing whatever about managing ships, was about to begin.
It was plain to the South Carolinians that the great object of the
pirate captain was to get out to sea just as soon as he could, and that
he was coming down the river, not because he wished to make an
immediate attack upon them, but because he hoped to slip by them and
get away. Of course they could follow him upon the ocean and fight him
if their vessels were fast enough, but once out of the river with plenty
of sea-room, he would have twenty chances of escape where now he had
one.
But Mr. Rhett did not intend that the pirates should play him this
little trick; he wanted to fight the dastardly wretches in the river,
where they could not get away, and he had no idea of letting them sneak
out to sea. Consequently as the _Royal James_, under full sail, was
making her way down the river, keeping as far as possible from her two
enemies, Mr. Rhett ordered his ships to bear down upon her so as to cut
off her retreat and force her toward the opposite shore of the river.
This manoeuvre was performed with great success. The two Charles Town
sloops sailed so boldly and swiftly toward the _Royal James_ that the
latter was obliged to hug the shore, and the first thing the pirates
knew they were stuck fast and tight upon a sand bar. Three minutes
afterward the _Henry_ ran upon a sand bar, and there being enough of
these obstructions in that river to satisfy any ordinary demand, the
_Sea-Nymph_ very soon grounded herself upon another of them. But
unfortunately she took up her permanent position at a considerable
distance from her consort.
Here now were the vessels which were to conduct this memorable
sea-fight, all three fast in the sand and unable to move, and their
predicament was made the worse by the fact that it would be five hours
before the tide would rise high enough for any one of them to float. The
positions of the three vessels were very peculiar and awkward; the
_Henry_ and the _Royal James_ were lying so near to each other that Mr.
Rhett could have shot Major Bonnet with a pistol if the latter gentleman
had given him the chance, and the _Sea-Nymph_ was so far away that she
was entirely out of the fight, and her crew could do nothing but stand
and watch what was going on between the other two vessels.
But although they could not get any nearer each other, nor get away from
each other, the pirates and Mr. Rhett's crew had no idea of postponing
the battle until they should be afloat and able to fight in the ordinary
fashion of ships; they immediately began to fire at each other with
pistols, muskets, and cannon, and the din and roar was something that
must have astonished the birds and beasts and fishes of that quiet
region.
As the tide continued to run out of the river, and its waters became
more and more shallow, the two contending vessels began to careen over
to one side, and, unfortunately for the _Henry_, they both careened in
the same direction, and in such a manner that the deck of the _Royal
James_ was inclined away from the _Henry_, while the deck of the latter
leaned toward her pirate foe. This gave a great advantage to Bonnet and
his crew, for they were in a great measure protected by the hull of
their vessel, whereas the whole deck of the _Henry_ was exposed to the
fire of the pirates. But Mr. Rhett and his South Carolinians were all
brave men, and they blazed away with their muskets and pistols at the
pirates whenever they could see a head above the rail of the _Royal
James_, while with their cannon they kept firing at the pirate's hull.
For five long hours the fight continued, but the cannon carried by the
two vessels must have been of very small calibre, for if they had been
firing at such short range and for such a length of time with modern
guns, they must have shattered each other into kindling wood. But
neither vessel seems to have been seriously injured, and although there
were a good many men killed on both sides, the combat was kept up with
great determination and fury. At one time it seemed almost certain that
Bonnet would get the better of Mr. Rhett, and he ordered his black flag
waved contemptuously in the air while his men shouted to the South
Carolinians to come over and call upon them, but the South Carolina boys
answered these taunts with cheers and fired away more furiously than
ever.
The tide was now coming in, and everybody on board the two fighting
vessels knew very well that the first one of them which should float
would have a great advantage over the other, and would probably be the
conqueror. In came the tide, and still the cannons roared and the
muskets cracked, while the hearts of the pirates and the South
Carolinians almost stood still as they each watched the other vessel to
see if she showed any signs of floating.
At last such signs were seen; the _Henry_ was further from the shore
than the _Royal James_, and she first felt the influence of the rising
waters. Her masts began to straighten, and at last her deck was level,
and she floated clear of the bottom while her antagonist still lay
careened over on her side. Now the pirates saw there was no chance for
them; in a very short time the other Carolina sloop would be afloat, and
then the two vessels would bear down upon them and utterly destroy both
them and their vessel. Consequently upon the _Royal James_ there was a
general disposition to surrender and to make the best terms they could,
for it would be a great deal better to submit and run the chance of a
trial than to keep up the fight against enemies so much superior both in
numbers and ships, who would soon be upon them.
But Bonnet would not listen to one word of surrender. Rather than give
up the fight he declared he would set fire to the powder magazine of
the _Royal James_ and blow himself, his ship, and his men high up into
the air. Although he had not a sailor's skill, he possessed a soldier's
soul, and in spite of his being a dastardly and cruel pirate he was a
brave man. But Bonnet was only one, and his crew numbered dozens, and
notwithstanding his furiously dissenting voice it was determined to
surrender, and when Mr. Rhett sailed up to the _Royal James_, intending
to board her if the pirates still showed resistance, he found them ready
to submit to terms and to yield themselves his prisoners.
Thus ended the great sea-fight between the private gentlemen, and thus
ended Stede Bonnet's career. He and his men were taken to Charles Town,
where most of the pirate crew were tried and executed. The green-hand
pirate, who had wrought more devastation along the American coast than
many a skilled sea-robber, was held in custody to await his trial, and
it seems very strange that there should have been a public sentiment in
Charles Town which induced the officials to treat this pirate with a
certain degree of respect simply from the fact that his station in life
had been that of a gentleman. He was a much more black-hearted scoundrel
than any of his men, but they were executed as soon as possible while
his trial was postponed and he was allowed privileges which would never
have been accorded a common pirate. In consequence of this leniency he
escaped and had to be retaken by Mr. Rhett. It was so long before he was
tried that sympathy for his misfortunes arose among some of the
tender-hearted citizens of Charles Town whose houses he would have
pillaged and whose families he would have murdered if the exigencies of
piracy had rendered such action desirable.
Finding that other people were trying to save his life, Bonnet came down
from his high horse and tried to save it himself by writing piteous
letters to the Governor, begging for mercy. But the Governor of South
Carolina had no notion of sparing a pirate who had deliberately put
himself under the protection of the law in order that he might better
pursue his lawless and wicked career, and the green hand, with the black
heart, was finally hung on the same spot where his companions had been
executed.