OFF USHANT.
Join the Channel fleet off Ushant—Capture the French frigate
_Gentille_, also a twenty-four-gun ship five days later—Fleet
returns to Portsmouth—Prize-money—To sea again in charge of a
convoy—Transport with two hundred Hessian troops on board founders
off Cape Finisterre—Suddenly ordered to West Indies—Fight between
a negro and a shark at Port Royal, Jamaica—Dignity balls—Collision
with H.M.S. _Sampson_—Outbreak of yellow fever—Ordered to
sea—Capture two French ships and two privateers.
We were now destined to make one of the Channel fleet, which we joined off
the Island of Ushant, consisting of thirty-six sail of the line and seven
frigates.
At daylight on the 6th of October, 1794, our signal was made to chase
three suspicious vessels in the S.W. On nearing them we made the private
signal, which they did not answer. We beat to quarters, and as they were
under the same sail as when we first saw them, we neared them fast, and
when within gunshot the nearest yawed and gave us a broadside, running up
a French ensign, as did the other two. The shot fell short of us; we
opened our main-deck guns and brought down her mizzen top-mast. The other
two fired from time to time at us with little effect. They did not support
their companion as they ought to have done. In a short time we were nearly
alongside the one we had engaged, and gave her another broadside which she
returned, and struck her colours. She proved the _Gentille_, of forty-four
guns and three hundred and eighty men. The other two, also French frigates
of the same size, made all sail to the southwards. The enemy had eight men
killed and fifteen wounded; we had four men wounded. We soon exchanged the
prisoners; put the second lieutenant, a master’s mate, three midshipmen
and fifty men on board her, and sent her to Portsmouth. We immediately
made sail in chase of the others, but as they had gained a considerable
distance from us during the time we were exchanging the prisoners, there
was little chance, without a change of wind, of overtaking them. In the
middle watch we lost sight of them, and the day after rejoined the fleet.
In five days afterwards we were again in chase of a ship, and after a
severe tug of fourteen hours we captured her. She proved a French
twenty-four-gun ship, with one hundred and sixty-five men. We also sent
her into Portsmouth. After having cruised off and on near Ushant for about
eight weeks, we were ordered to Portsmouth, where we arrived shortly
afterwards and completed our stores for six months. Before sailing we
received some prize-money, which produced, from stem to stern, little
wisdom, much fun, and more folly. We were again ready for sea, and
received orders to repair off Plymouth and join part of the Channel fleet
and a convoy consisting of more than two hundred sail, bound to different
parts of the world. In a few days we joined the rest of the fleet off Cape
Finisterre, where some of the convoy parted company. The day following a
most tremendous gale sprung up from the S.W., and in the night a transport
with two hundred Hessian troops on board went down on our weather beam.
The shrieks of the poor fellows were distinctly heard. As it was
impossible to render them any assistance, every soul on board her
perished. In the morning the convoy were much dispersed; the gale
continuing, they were ordered to leave the fleet for their destinations.
After the gale abated the signal was made for our captain. An hour
afterwards he came back looking as black as a thundercloud. As soon as he
reached the quarter-deck he stamped with rage, and when it had nearly
subsided he informed the officers that we were to proceed to the West
Indies without delay. This was an unexpected shock to many of the officers
as well as himself, as they had left some of their clothes behind;
however, there was no remedy for this mishap. As for myself, I anticipated
a merry meeting with the many copper-coloured dignity ladies I formerly
knew, provided the land-crabs had not feasted on their delicate persons.
In the afternoon we gave a long, lingering look at the fleet, and parted
company with two other seventy-fours who were in the same scrape. Our
noble captain did not get rid of his angry looks for some days, and
actually wept at what he termed the treacherous conduct of the Admiralty.
We understood afterwards that he was under an engagement of marriage to
the sister of a nobleman, which was to have taken place in three months.
Nothing worth notice occurred during the passage, except the visit from
Neptune and his wife, and the shaving and ducking all his new
acquaintances, who were rather numerous. We saw several tropical birds,
which the sailors call boatswains, in consequence of their having one long
feather for a tail, which they term a marlin-spike—an iron instrument
sharp at one end and knobbed at the other, used in splicing ropes, etc.
The captain of marines also shot an albatross or man-of-war bird, so
called from its manner of skimming through the air after other birds,
which the seamen compare to sailing. It measured seven feet from pinion to
pinion. On the fifth week of our separation from the fleet we made the
Island of San Domingo, and on the day after anchored with the squadron in
Cape St. Nicholas mole. We found here the _Sampson_, of sixty-four guns,
the _Magicienne_ and the _Thorn_, and some transports. This mole, or
harbour, is formed by the high land of the island on the right hand going
in, and on the left by a peninsula, joined by a narrow sandy isthmus to
the island at the head of the mole. It is strongly fortified. The harbour
is a fine one, and would contain the whole British fleet. The town has a
common appearance and has nothing remarkable in it. We remained here three
weeks, at the end of which period we ran down to Jamaica, and anchored off
Port Royal. This town is built on a small peninsula, joined to the island
by a long, narrow neck of sand called the Palisades. Here all unfortunate
whites who depart this life become feasts for crabs of all descriptions,
as it is the place of burial for the town and men-of-war. This isthmus is
the dam which secures the harbour of Kingston from the inroads of the sea.
The houses of this town are generally not more than a single storey high,
constructed of wood with overhanging shingled roofs, and verandahs in
front, which prevent the sun entering the rooms.
[Illustration: PLYMOUTH HARBOUR. [_Frith, Reigate._]
One evening, being on shore at Port Royal, seated on a bench, I overheard
a grey, woolly-headed black man relate the following story. I will give it
in good English. In the year 1788, said he, the harbour of Port Royal was
much troubled by a very large shark, which drove all the fish out to sea
and distressed a number of fishermen. Every attempt had been made to catch
him, but without success. He at length became so constant a visitor that
they named him “Port Royal Tom.” At last, continued old Sambo, for that
was the narrator’s name, a young friend of mine, who was a very strong,
courageous fisherman, said if the magistrates of the town would give him a
doubloon, he would engage the shark and try to kill him in single combat.
The magistrates consented, and two mornings after, before the sea-breeze
set in, the dorsal fin of “Port Royal Tom” was discovered. The black
fisherman, nothing dismayed, paddled out to the middle of the harbour
where the shark was playing about; he plunged into the water armed with a
pointed carving knife. The monster immediately made towards him, and when
he turned on his side (which providentially sharks are obliged to do to
seize their prey, their mouths being placed so much underneath) the
fisherman, with great quickness and presence of mind, dived, and stabbed
him in the bowels. The shark, in agony, gave a horrid splash with his
tail, and disappeared for a short time. He then rose again and attempted
to seize the man a second time, but the latter once more dived and gave
him his death-blow; he then regained his canoe almost exhausted. The shark
soon after turned on his side, discolouring the water with his blood. Four
men in a canoe threw a rope over his tail and towed him on shore, where
all the town came to meet the courageous fisherman, with the magistrates
at their head, who presented him with his well-merited reward and his
liberty. The shark was dissected and the skeleton sent to Spanish Town,
where a few years afterwards it fell to pieces for want of care. This
unfortunate town has been twice destroyed by an earthquake; the ruins on a
clear day may be seen in three-fathom water.
We had been refitting and amusing ourselves on shore by dancing at dignity
balls given by the upper-class copper-coloured washerwomen, who are the
quintessence of perfection in affectation, when we were obliged to bid
adieu to these interesting copper and coal-skinned ladies, as the ship was
reported ready for sea, and the following morning we weighed and stood out
of the harbour. As we passed the point we saw handkerchiefs without number
waved by our dear, motley-coloured damsels as a farewell. We beat up to
St. Domingo and anchored in Cape St. Nicholas mole, where we found the
_Leviathan_, _Raisonable_, _Sampson_, and several frigates. We remained a
week, and sailed with the above-named ships on a cruise round the island.
On the third night after sailing, which was very dark with a fiery
sea-breeze, the _Sampson_ (sixty-four) ran on board of us. She came with
such force that she, by the shock, carried away her fore-mast, bowsprit,
main-top mast and figure-head. She fortunately struck us abaft the main
channels; had she done so amidships, it would have meant the destruction
of both ships and of about a thousand lives. Her larboard bumpkin
dismounted the eighteen-pounder in the foremost lieutenant’s cabin in the
wardroom, and in falling clear she swept away both quarter galleries from
the side, one of which was fitted up as a library for the first
lieutenant, who lost all his books. Some of the mids who loved him were
wicked enough to say that it was a punishment inflicted on him for
mastheading them so often. I say nothing!
The _Sampson_ was towed to Jamaica by the _Success_ frigate to repair her
damages, and a fortnight afterwards we followed. The heroes of the cockpit
declared the commodore was ashamed of our appearance. As we had only
galleries on one side, we looked like a pig with one ear.
We anchored at Port Royal in the afternoon, and before the sails were
furled we were surrounded by a number of boats and canoes filled with
dignity and first and second-class dingy damsels, some of them squalling
songs of their own composition in compliment to the ship and officers,
accompanied by several banjos. When the ropes were coiled down they were
admitted on board, when they began dancing round the quarter-deck and
making love to the officers for their washing. Having accomplished the
purpose of their visit, they departed, promising that we should “hab ebery
ting berry clean by Saturday ebening, and dat he lib in hope for see massa
at him house berry soon.”
The carpenters from the dockyard soon repaired the quarter galleries, and
made good all other defects, when that fatal scourge, the yellow fever,
made its appearance among the ship’s company. The schoolmaster, a clever,
intelligent young man, who had been educated at Christ’s Hospital, was the
first victim. This was quite sufficient to alarm the nerves of our gallant
captain, who never joined the ship afterwards; he, having obtained
permission from the admiral to return to England by a lugger going with
despatches, took French leave of the whole of us—that is, no leave at all.
In a few days afterwards Captain B. joined us as acting-captain. He was a
young, active, and smart officer. The yellow fever was now making
lamentable havoc among the crew. Six were either carried to the hospital
or buried daily. After losing fifty-two men, one of the lieutenants, the
captain’s clerk, and four mids, the captain requested the admiral’s
permission to go to sea, for, although we had more than thirty cases of
the fever on board, the surgeon thought the pure sea-breeze might be the
means of preserving their lives. Alas! he was fatally mistaken, for nearly
the whole of them were thrown over the standing part of the fore-sheet
before we returned from our cruise. We were one hundred and sixty short of
our complement of men, besides having about fifty more in their hammocks,
but the captain wished to persevere in keeping the sea. We had been from
Jamaica three weeks, cruising on the south side of St. Domingo, when we
captured a French brig of war of fourteen guns and one hundred and
twenty-five men, and two days afterwards a large schooner privateer of one
long eighteen-pounder on a traverse, and six eighteen-pounder carronades,
with seventy-eight men. We now had nearly two hundred prisoners on board,
and thought it prudent to retrace our steps to Port Royal, when on the
following morning we fell in with two more schooner-rigged privateers. The
first we captured mounted a long brass twelve-pounder and two
six-pounders, with sixty-eight men. The other during the time we were
exchanging prisoners had got considerably to windward of us. Fortunately
towards the evening it fell calm, when we manned and armed three of the
boats. I had command of the six-oared cutter with eight seamen and three
marines. In the launch were the lieutenant, a mid, and eighteen men, and
in the other cutter as many as my boat held. We were two hours on our oars
before we got within musket-shot of her. She had several times fired at us
from her long gun charged with grape-shot, but without effect. We cheered
and gave way, when her last charge knocked down the coxswain of the cutter
I was in, who died a few hours afterwards, being shot in the head. The
lieutenant and one man were slightly wounded in the launch. We were soon
under the depression of her gun and alongside, when, on boarding her, one
half of her motley crew ran below. The captain and the remainder made a
show of resistance, when we ordered the marines to present. As soon as
they saw we had possession of her decks and were advancing with our
pistols cocked and our cutlasses upraised, they threw down their arms and
surrendered. She proved a French privateer with a long six-pounder on a
traverse and eight one-pound swivels, with fifty-two men. We took her in
tow and soon regained the ship. We made all sail for Port Royal with our
four prizes, and on our arrival next morning astonished our black and
yellow-faced acquaintances, who, as before, came off with boats and banjos
to welcome our return, not a little by our success. The following morning
we sent fifty men to the hospital. We had buried during the cruise
forty-three seamen, besides two mids and another of the lieutenants. The
most healthy were the first attacked, and generally died on the third day.
Out of the five hundred and sixty men we brought from England, we had only
now two hundred to do the duty of the ship.