TOUGH YARNS.
Tough yarns—The sea-serpent—The fair-wind sellers of Bremen—Mermen
and mermaidens—Capture of Spanish schooner with mulatto
laundresses on board—Boat attack on, and capture of the French
privateer _Salamandre_—Outbreak of malignant scurvy—Novel method
of treatment—French women dressed as men—A voyage of discovery.
We generally had about seventy men in the sick list, and were at anchor
nearly four months—half the crew doing nothing and the other half helping
them. They generally amused themselves by dancing, singing, or telling
tough yarns. I was much entertained by hearing some of them relate the
following stories, which they declared were true.
“My brother,” said one of these galley-benchmen, “belonged to the
_Unicorn_, of Shields, which traded to Archangel in the White Sea. I
suppose,” said he, “it is called the White Sea because there is much snow
on the shore, which throws a kind of white reflection on the water. Well,
the ship had anchored about a mile from the town, when my brother, who had
the middle watch, saw something like the ship’s buoy close to the vessel.
At first he took little notice of it until it raised itself about three
feet out of the water and opened a mouth wide enough to swallow a Yankee
flour-barrel. He was very much afeared, for he was only a young chap
without much experience. He immediately jumped down to the chief mate’s
cabin and told him what he had seen. They both went on deck, the mate
armed with a loaded pistol and my brother with a cutlass. By this time the
serpent—for it was a sea-serpent—had twisted itself round the bowsprit of
the vessel, and was about twenty feet long. Its eyes were about the size
of the scuppers and shined like the morning star.” “Why, Bill,” said one
of the listeners, “clap a stopper on that yarn; those sarpents are only
seen on the coast of Ameriky, and nobody but Yankees ever seed them.”
“Avast, Bob,” replied the narrator, “don’t be too hasty; it is as true as
the mainstay is moused, for I never knew Jack tell a lie (meaning his
brother), and now I’ll fill and stand on. The boatswain, hearing the
noise, came on deck. The mate pointed to the monster, and told him to get
an axe. The beast had bristled up like an American porcupine and was ready
to dart at them when the mate got abaft the foremast and fired at its
head, which he missed, but struck it in the neck. The animal, finding
itself wounded, darted with its jaws wider than a large shark’s at the
boatswain, who was the nearest. Luckily for him, the mate was ready to
fire his pistol again. The ball struck its lower jaw and broke it. It then
made a stern-board, but before it could reach the bows the boatswain gave
it a stroke with the axe which nearly gullyteened it; you know, shipmates,
what that is. Why, mayhap you don’t; so I’ll tell you. It’s a kind of
gallows that cuts off Frenchmen’s heads. But I must heave-to a bit and
overhaul my reckoning, for I almost forget. Did ever any of you see a
port-go-chaire?” “We never heard of such a port,” said some of his
auditors; “you’re humbugging us.” “I have been to America, the West and
East Ingees, but I never heard of such a port,” said another. “Why, you
lubbers,” said the story-teller, “if you go to France, you’ll see
thousands of them. It’s what they drive the coaches under into their
yards.” I was inclined to correct the word, but I thought it better not to
interrupt them. “Where did I leave off?” “Come, Bill, heave ahead and save
tide; your yarn is as long as the stream cable; they’ll be piping to grog
presently,” said one of his impatient listeners. “Well,” said Bill, “to
make short a long story, I left off where the boatswain cut off the head
of the sea-serpent. By this time all hands were on deck; they threw a rope
over the beast and secured it to the cable-bits, but not before they had
got several raps over their shins, as it kept twisting about for almost an
hour afterwards. Next morning, said my brother, the magistrates having
heard of it, came on board to know all about it, as no one in the town had
ever seen such a serpent. A man with a cocked scraper offered to buy it,
but the mate wanted to stuff it and carry it to England. The captain who
had come off with the magistrates said it could not remain on board, as it
would bring on an infection. At last it was agreed that if four dollars
were given to the ship’s crew, he might have it. The money was paid to the
mate, and the serpent towed on shore, and before they sailed Jack saw it
in a large room, stuffed and the head spliced on, among a great many more
comical-looking animals. And if any of you go there,” added he, “you may
see all for nothing.” The boatswain’s mates now piped for supper, and the
party left the galley-bench.
The following evening I found another set on the bench. Their tales were
rather marvellous. The captain of the waist of the starboard watch was the
teller. He began by asking the others if they had ever been in the Baltic,
to which they answered in the negative. “It is now,” said he, “five years
since I sailed in the _Mary_, of Newcastle, to Bremen. We had been lying
there a fortnight, taking in hemp and iron, when two old, ugly women came
on board in a small boat paddled by themselves. They had with them two
small leather bags full of wind. They went to the chief mate, for the
captain was on shore, and asked him if he would buy a fair wind, and
pointed to their bags. ‘How long will it last?’ asked the mate. ‘Two
days,’ said the hags; ‘but if you want it for four, we will to-morrow
bring you off a larger sack.’ ‘And what do you ask for it?’ said he. ‘Oh,
only eight dollars,’ replied they.”
I must inform my reader that the greater number of the sons of the sea,
although fearless of the enemy and of the weather, however stormy, are
superstitious and have implicit faith in ghost-stories, mermaids, witches
and sea-monsters, as well as in the flying Dutch ship off the Cape of Good
Hope. This rough son of the north was a hardy sailor, but he had his share
of credulity. He told them the captain was on shore, but if they would
come off in the morning, as they were to sail the following afternoon, it
might be settled. The weather at this time was anything but fair, which
made him the readier to enter into the witches’ bargain. Here I must first
inform my reader that these women are exceedingly cunning, and can not
only scan the mind of the person they deal with, but can also, from keen
observation, calculate on the wind and weather for the next twenty-four
hours, and, as what they prognosticate generally proves true, they
frequently meet with ready customers. Next morning the captain came on
board, and shortly afterwards was followed by the hoary fair-wind sellers.
After some consultation with the mate, the captain gave four dollars for a
bag of fair wind for three days from the time he was to sail.
“The wind,” continued the captain of the waist, “remained foul until four
o’clock next day, when it veered round and became favourable. The
believing captain and mate thought they had made a good bargain. The bag
was to be untied after three hours.” I reflected on this narrative, and
was astonished to find that people who are Englishmen, and who, generally
speaking, imagine themselves the most free from superstition and the most
intellectual of any nation, should be so easily deceived and cheated by a
set of old women.
It was now the turn of another to spin his yarn. He began by entreating
his shipmates not to disbelieve what he was going to say, for it was about
mermen and mermaids. He did not see it himself, but it had been told him
two years before by his uncle, who was mate of a ship that traded to the
North Sea. “The ship,” said he, “was the _John and Thomas_, named after
the owner’s two brothers, and bound to Stockholm for flax and iron. One
day they were becalmed near the Island of Oland, and let go the anchor in
twelve-fathoms water, when soon afterwards they saw, as they supposed, two
men swimming towards the ship. They soon after came alongside, and made
signs for a rope to be thrown to them. On their getting on deck the crew
found they were mermen. One of them, who appeared to be about twenty-six
years old, told the captain he had let go his anchor through his kitchen
chimney, and begged him to weigh it again, as it had knocked down the
kitchen-grate and spoilt his dinner. ‘It has happened very unfortunately,’
said he, ‘for we have some friends from the coast of Jutland, who have
come to attend the christening of our infant.’ Whilst he was speaking four
young mermaidens appeared close to the ship’s side, making signs for the
mermen on board to join them. The sailors wished them to come on board,
and threw them ropes for that purpose; but they were too shy. The mermen
requested the captain to give them some matches to light their fire, and a
few candles. This being complied with, they shook hands with him and the
mate, and jumping overboard, rejoined the females, swam round the ship
three times, singing some kind of song, and disappeared. The wind becoming
favourable, the crew got the anchor up, on which, when catheaded, they
found part of the chimney and the fire-tongs astride on one of the
flukes!”
When this improbable tale was told, I asked them if they believed it to be
true. “Yes,” said two of them, “we do, because we have had shipmates who
lived with some of the mermaidens for several years and had children; but
as for their having combs and glasses, that’s all nonsense. One of the
children was sent to London to be educated, but not liking so many
double-tailed monsters, as he called the men, nor their manner of living,
he crept down to the Thames, and in a few hours rejoined his parents.”
During the time we were at anchor at this place I was ordered, with four
seamen and two marines, to take the command of a block-house on the
Presqu’ Isle to watch the movements of the enemy, whose advanced post was
about four miles on the other side the isthmus, as well as to make signals
to the commodore whenever strange ships appeared near the land. I remained
a month, shooting guanas and gulls and other birds, catching groupers,
snappers and sometimes rock-fish, living principally on salt junk,
midshipman’s coffee (burnt biscuit ground to a powder), picking calelu (a
kind of wild spinach), when we could find it, snuffing up a large portion
of pure sea-breeze, and sleeping like the sheet anchor. Oh, reader, I
blush to inform you that I was envied by the greater part of the mids of
the squadron who loved doing nothing. The life I now led was too
independent to last much longer; my month expired, when I gave up my
Robinson Crusoe government to a master’s mate belonging to a ship which
had come in to refit. We at length up-anchored, as the mids declared if we
remained longer the captain feared we should ground on the beef-bones we
threw overboard daily! Three days after sailing we captured a Spanish
schooner from Cuba, bound to Port-au-Paix, with nine French washerwomen on
board with a quantity of clothes. We presumed, with some reason, these
copper-faced damsels—for they were all mulattos, and some of them
handsome—had taken French leave of their customers, or possibly they were
going on a voyage of discovery to find out whether the water of St.
Domingo was softer for washing linen than that of Cuba. We did not ask
them many questions on the subject, and as the vessel was nearly new, and
about seventy tons, we put a mid and five men on board her and sent the
ladies for a change of air to Jamaica.
We had been cruising between Cuba and Cape François a fortnight, when we
saw a roguish-looking black schooner about nine miles to the westward of
the cape, close to a small inlet. We tacked and stood to sea, to make her
imagine we had not discovered her. At dusk we stood in again, and at ten
we armed the barge and large cutter. The fifth lieutenant, who was a great
promoter of radical moisture (_i.e._, grog), was in the barge. I had, with
another mid, the command of the cutter. We muffled our oars and pulled
quietly in shore. About midnight we found the vessel near the inlet, where
she had anchored. We then gave way for our quarter. She soon discovered
us, and hailed in French. Not receiving an answer, she fired a volley of
musketry at us. The strokesman of my boat fell shot in the brain, and two
others were seriously wounded in the arm and leg. We had three marines,
two additional seamen and my volunteer messmate in our boat. This last had
smuggled himself in without the first lieutenant’s leave. We cheered and
stretched out. The killed and wounded were placed in the bottom of the
boat, and the extra men took their oars. The barge was nearly alongside of
her, and we boarded at the same time, she on the starboard quarter and we
on the larboard side. The marines kept up a constant discharge of their
muskets, and fired with much effect on the foremost of the enemy. We soon
gained her deck, and found about twenty-five of her crew ready to oppose
us abaft her mainmast. The man who appeared to be the captain waved his
cutlass and encouraged his men to attack us; at the same time he sprang
forward, and about twelve followed him, when the conflict became general.
I was knocked down on my knees. I fired one of my pistols, which took
effect in my opponent’s left leg, and before he could raise his arm to cut
me down with a tomahawk, the coxswain of my boat, who had kept close to
me, shot him in the head, and he fell partly on me. I soon recovered and
regained my legs. I had received a severe contusion on the left shoulder.
The lieutenant had shot the captain, and the marines had knocked down nine
men. The rest now called for quarter and threw down their arms. She proved
to be the French privateer _Salamandre_, of twelve long brass six-pounders
and forty-eight men. She had also on board nine English seamen, the crew
of a Liverpool brig, who informed us they had been captured in the Turk’s
Island passage three days before. The privateer’s loss was eleven killed
and seven severely wounded, ours three men killed and five wounded. On our
drawing off from the shore, a small battery opened its fire on us and
wounded the boat-keeper of the barge. We discharged the guns of the
privateer at it, and as it did not annoy us a second time, we supposed our
shot had rather alarmed their faculties and probably subdued their
courage. By 3 A.M. we rejoined the ship. Our mates gave us three hearty
cheers, which we returned. We soon got the wounded of our men on deck and
the prisoners out. I was ordered to go as prize-master, taking fourteen
men with me, and carry her to Cape St. Nicholas mole, where I arrived the
same evening. I found myself stiff for some days afterwards and my
shoulder painful, but in a short time I was quite myself again. After
remaining idle and half-dead with _ennui_ for three weeks, the ship
arrived, bringing in with her an American brig laden with flour. False
papers were found on board her, and she was shortly afterwards condemned
as a lawful prize. The captain of her, who was a regular-built Bostonian,
declared we were nothing “but a parcel of British sarpents and robbers,
and it was a tarnation shame that the United States suffered it. But,”
said he, “I calculate that in two years we shall have some three-deckers,
and then I have a notion you will not dare to stop American vessels
without being called to account for it.”
The yellow fever had now taken its departure, but in consequence of the
scanty supply of fresh provisions and vegetables, it was succeeded by a
malignant scurvy, and one hundred and forty of the seamen were obliged to
keep their beds. Their legs, hands, feet and gums became almost black, and
swollen to twice their natural size. Some we sent to the hospital, which
was miserably fitted up, for it was only a temporary one, and several died
on being removed. As the cases were increasing, the commodore ordered us
to Donna Maria Bay, near the west end of St. Domingo, where the natives
were friendly disposed towards us. The day after we arrived there, having
taken on board all our sick that could be removed from the hospital with
safety. Immediately, on anchoring, by the advice of the surgeon, we sent a
party on shore with spades to dig holes in the softest soil they could
find for the purpose of putting the worst scurvy subjects into them. The
officer on shore made the concerted signal that the pits were dug. Twenty
men, who looked like bloated monsters, were removed on shore, and buried
in them up to their chins. Some of the boys were sent with the sufferers
to keep flies and insects from their faces. It was ridiculous enough to
see twenty men’s heads stuck out of the ground. The patients were kept in
fresh earth for two hours, and then put into their hammocks under a large
tent. On the fourth day they were so much benefited by that treatment and
living on oranges, shaddocks, and other anti-scorbutic fruits, that they
were able to go on board again. At this place I rambled with some of my
messmates through orange and lime groves of some leagues in extent, as
well as through several cocoa plantations. We were at liberty to take as
much fruit as we chose, and sent off several boats filled with oranges and
limes, as well as a vast quantity of yams, sweet potatoes, cocoanuts and
cocoas, besides fresh calelu (wild spinach), which is considered a fine
anti-scorbutic. We found some arrowroot, which was also of great service.
In one of our rambles we met a party on mules going to the town of Donna
Maria, which was not far distant. It consisted of two young
mustiphena-coloured men, an elderly mulatto woman, with an infant on her
lap, and a black manservant. They saluted us in passing, when we remarked
that the men had delicate European features, and that the infant was
white.
A short time afterwards we stumbled on a burying-ground, and seated on one
of the graves we found the two persons we had taken for men, the eldest of
whom was suckling the infant. They proved to be the wife of the Governor
of Donna Maria, who was a native of France, and her sister. The old woman
was the nurse, and the black man their factotum. They spoke French, which
some of our party understood, and we spent a very agreeable half-hour in
their company. After having given us an invitation to their house, they
bade us adieu and proceeded on their journey. I afterwards found it was a
common custom for the better class of females in this island to ride and
dress like men when they made any distant journey, as the greater part of
the island is too mountainous to admit of travelling in carriages.
One of the lieutenants, who was fond of voyages of discovery, had
permission to take one of the cutters to survey a deep inlet about three
miles from where we anchored. He asked me if I should like to be one of
the party. I thankfully said yes. “Well,” said he, “to-morrow morning at
daylight I intend going round the Cape Donna Maria (which has the shape of
the mysterious helmet of Otranto), and exploring a river which runs into a
large lagoon, and we shall be away most likely two days. I shall find
prog, but don’t forget your great coat and drawing apparatus.”
At four o’clock the following morning we left the ship, and after pulling
for two hours we entered the river, which was narrow and enclosed between
two thickly-wooded hills. The noise of our oars startled a vast number of
large and small birds, which made a horrible screaming. I fired at one of
the large ones and broke its wing; it fell ahead of the boat, and we
picked it up. It was twice the size of a gull, a dark brown colour on the
back, a dirty white underneath, long, reddish legs, and rather a long,
pointed bill; it was shaped like a heron. We had been rowing about an hour
when we entered the lagoon, which was about a mile long and three-quarters
of a mile wide. The country to some extent was low, and covered with
mangrove trees, whose branches take root when they touch the ground, and
one tree forms a number of irregular arches. Those nearest the water are
covered with a profusion of small oysters, which are taken by the natives
and pickled with spice and vinegar, and sold in small jars. They are
considered good eating. We observed several large ants’ nests formed on
the branches of these trees; they were about the size of a bushel measure.
The insect is half an inch in length; its bite is severe, but not very
venomous. We could only make good our landing at one spot, covered with
long, coarse grass, which the natives twist into ropes for the rigging of
their canoes, and the finest of it they clean, stain with different
colours, and fabricate into hammocks, which are made like a net with large
meshes.
I had strolled from the boat with one of the men, when he called out,
“There goes a large water-snake! Take care, sir!” It came close to me,
when I made a stroke at it with my hanger. I struck it on the body, but
not sufficiently, for before I had time to give it another blow, it had
wound into a kind of jungle, and I lost sight of it. It was about five
feet long, speckled yellow and black; its tongue, which it kept in
continual motion, was forked; its eyes were small, and not projecting.
Finding myself in company with gentry of this description, I retraced my
steps to the boat, where I found the whole party with their hands and
mouths in full activity. I soon was as well employed as themselves. The
lieutenant told me whilst we were at dinner that one of the men had found
some alligators’ eggs; two of them were broken and the young ones alive.
They were about half-a-foot long, of a dirty brown. The eggs were oblong,
and larger than a swan’s, of a brownish-white colour.
The evening was now drawing on, when we pulled the boat to the middle of
the lagoon and let go the grapnel for the night. One of the boat’s crew,
who sung in the style of Incledon, entertained us with several sea songs
until we fell asleep, which was not, however, very refreshing, in
consequence of the multitudes of mosquitoes. I positively believe some of
us lost two ounces of our best blood. About three o’clock in the morning,
the man who had the watch pulled me by the arm and pointed to something
dark floating near the boat. I awoke the lieutenant, who, after yawning
and rubbing his eyes, for he had taken an extra strong north-wester the
evening before to make himself sleep sound, took up his fowling-piece; but
he might as well have fired at the best bower anchor—the swan-shot with
which it was loaded glanced from the object at an angle of twenty-five
degrees. We weighed the grapnel, and were soon in pursuit, when we saw two
other black-looking objects. We steadily gave chase to the first, the
lieutenant, myself and the coxswain firing at and frequently striking it,
but without any visible effect. At length it landed, when we found it was
an alligator about fifteen feet long. It soon ploughed up the mud in which
it buried itself; our musket-balls were unavailing. The other two had also
landed. On turning the boat round, we saw another, and as he was with his
head towards us, we had a better chance. We stretched out, and when within
a few yards of him, let fly our muskets at his head. One of the balls
struck him in the left eye, which stunned him, and he lay insensible on
the water until we reached him. We threw a rope round him and towed him
astern, after having given him another ball in the throat, which
despatched him. He was a young one, nine feet four inches long. After
rowing round the lake in search of fresh adventures, and finding none, we
amused ourselves by cutting off several branches of the mangrove trees
strung with oysters, and being tired of rowing where there was so little
novelty, we turned the boat’s nose towards the river, on reaching which we
again startled numerous flocks of screaming birds, five of which we shot;
but as they were only noddies and boobies, we did not take the trouble to
pick them up. At 4 P.M. we joined the ship, with our prizes, the
alligators, their eggs, the heron, and the oysters. The doctor, who was
something of a naturalist, asked for the alligator we had shot, one of the
young ones, and the bird, and shortly afterwards he had them stuffed. We
had now but five slight scurvy cases, and had only buried three seamen and
one marine, who died two days after our anchoring. The boats were employed
nearly two days in bringing up oranges, limes and yams, besides other
fruit.