arms on board, amounting to several muskets and four pairs of pistols.
The steward was a faithful mulatto man, who had sailed with me several
voyages. To him I communicated my suspicions, and directed him to be
constantly on the alert: and should any further difficulty with the
crew occur, to repair immediately to my state room and arm himself.
His usual birth was in the steerage, but I further directed that he
should, on the following morning, clear out and occupy one in the
cabin near my own. The second mate occupied a small state room opening
into the passage which led from the steerage to the cabin. I called
him from the deck, gave him a pair of loaded pistols, with orders to
keep them in his birth; and, during his night watches on deck, never
to go forward of the mainmast, but to continue as constantly as
possible near the cabin companion-way, and call me upon the slightest
occasion. After this, I laid down in my bed, ordering that I should be
called at four o'clock, for the morning watch. Only a few minutes had
elapsed, when I heard three or four knocks under the counter of the
ship, which is that part of the stern immediately under the
cabin-windows. In a minute or two they were distinctly repeated. I
arose--opened the cabin-window and called. The mate answered!--I gave
him the end of a rope to assist him up, and never shall I forget the
flood of gratitude which my delighted soul poured forth to that Being
who had restored him to me uninjured. His story was soon told. He had
gone forward upon being ordered by me, after the calling of all hands
and had barely reached the forecastle, when he was seized by the two
foreigners, and before he could utter more than one cry, which was
drowned in the roaring of the winds and waves, was thrown over the
bow. He was a powerful man and an excellent swimmer. The top-sails of
the ship were clewed down to reef, and her way, of course,
considerably lessened--and in an instant, he found the end of a rope,
which was accidentally towing overboard, within his grasp, by which
he dragged in the dead water or eddy, that is created under the stern
of a vessel while sailing, particularly if she is full built and
deeply laden, as was the case with this. By a desperate effort, he
caught one of the rudder chains, which was very low, and drew himself
by it upon the step or jog of the rudder where he had sufficient
presence of mind to remain without calling out, until the light had
ceased to shine through the cabin-windows, when he concluded that the
search for him was over. He then made the signal to me.
No being in the ship, but myself, was apprised of his safety, for the
gale had increased and completely drowned the sounds of the knocking,
opening the window, &c. before they could reach the quarter deck; and
there was no one in the cabin but ourselves, the steward having
retired to his birth in the steerage. It was at once resolved that the
second mate only should be informed of his existence. He immediately
betook himself to a large vacant state room, and, for the remainder of
the passage, all his wants were attended to by me. Even the steward
was allowed to enter the cabin as rarely as possible.
Nothing of note occurred during the remainder of the voyage, which was
prosperous. It seemed that the foreigners had only been actuated by
revenge in the violence they had committed; for nothing further was
attempted by them. In due season we took a pilot in the channel, and,
in a day or two, entered the port of Liverpool. As soon as the proper
arrangements were made, we commenced warping the ship into dock, and
while engaged in this operation, the Mate appeared on deck, went
forward, and attended to his duties as usual! A scene occurred which
is beyond description: every feature of it is as vivid in my
recollection as though it occurred but yesterday, and will be to my
latest breath. The warp dropped from the paralysed hands of the
horror-stricken sailors, and had it not been taken up by some boatmen
on board, I should have been compelled to anchor again and procure
assistance from the shore. Not a word was uttered; but the two guilty
wretches staggered to the mainmast, where they remained petrified with
horror, until the officer, who had been sent for, approached to take
them into custody. They then seemed in a measure to be recalled to a
sense of their appalling predicament, and uttered the most piercing
expressions of lamentation and despair.
They were soon tried, and upon the testimony of the mate capitally
convicted and executed.
TOM CRINGLE'S LOG.
We had refitted, and been four days at sea, on our voyage to Jamaica,
when the gun-room officers gave our mess a blow out.
The increased motion and rushing of the vessel through the water, the
groaning of the masts, the howling of the gale, and the frequent
trampling of the watch on deck, were prophetic of wet jackets to some
of us; still, midshipman-like, we were as happy as a good dinner and
some wine could make us, until the old gunner shoved his weather
beaten phiz and bald pate in at the door. "Beg pardon Mr. Splinter,
but if you will spare Mr. Cringle on the forecastle an hour, until the
moon rises."--("Spare," quotha, "is his majesty's officer a joint
stool?")--"Why, Mr. Kennedy, why? here, man, take a glass of grog." "I
thank you sir." "It is coming on a roughish night, sir; the running
ships should be crossing us hereabouts; indeed, more than once I
thought there was a strange sail close aboard of us, the scud is
flying so low, and in such white flakes; and none of us have an eye
like Mr. Cringle, unless it be John Crow, and he is all but frozen."
"Well, Tom, I suppose you will go."--Anglice, from a first lieutenant
to a mid--
"Brush instanter."
Having changed my uniform for shag trowsers, pea-jacket and a
south-west cap, I went forward and took my station, in no pleasant
humor, on the stowed jib, with my arm around the stay. I had been half
an hour there, the weather was getting worse, the rain was beating in
my face, and the spray from the stern was splashing over me, as it
roared through the waste of sparkling and hissing waters. I turned my
back to the weather for a moment to press my hands on my straining
eyes. When I opened them, I saw the gunner's gaunt and high-featured
visage thrust anxiously forward; his profile looked as if rubbed over
with phosphorus, and his whole person as if we had been playing at
snap dragon. "What has come over you Mr. Kennedy? who's burning the
blue light now?" "A wiser man than I must tell you that; look forward
Mr. Cringle--look there; what do your books say to that?"
I looked forth, and saw at the extreme end of the jib-boom, what I
have read of, certainly, but never expected to see, a pale, greenish,
glow-worm colored flame, of the size and shape of the frosted glass
shade over the swinging lamp in the gun-room. It drew out and
flattened as the vessel pitched and rose again, and as she sheered
about, it wavered round the point that seemed to attract it, like a
soap suds bubble blown from a tobacco-pipe, before it is shaken into
the air; at the core it was comparatively bright, but faded into a
halo. It shed a baleful and ominous light on the surrounding objects;
the group of sailors on the forecastle looked like spectres, and they
shrunk together, and whispered when it began to roll slowly along the
spar where the boatswain was sitting at my feet. At this instant
something slid down the stay, and a cold clammy hand passed around my
neck. I was within an ace of losing my hold and tumbling
overboard.--"Heaven have mercy on me what's that?" "It's that
sky-larking son of a gun, Jem Sparkle's monkey, sir. You Jem, you'll
never rest till that brute is made shark's bait of." But Jacko
vanished up the stay again, chuckling and grinning in the ghastly
radiance, as if he had been 'the spirit of the Lamp.' The light was
still there, but a cloud of mist, like a burst of vapor from a steam
boiler, came down upon the gale and flew past, when it disappeared. I
followed the white mass as it sailed down the wind; it did not, as it
appeared to me, vanish in the darkness, but seemed to remain in sight
to leeward, as if checked by a sudden flaw; yet none of our sails were
taken aback. A thought flashed on me. I peered still more intensely
into the night. I was not certain.--"A sail, broad on the lee bow."
The captain answered from the quarter-deck--"Thank you, Mr. Cringle.
How shall we steer?" "Keep her away a couple of points, sir, steady."
"Steady," sung the man at the helm; and a slow melancholy cadence,
although a familiar sound to me, now moaned through the rushing wind,
and smote upon my heart as if it had been the wailing of a spirit. I
turned to the boatswain, who was now standing beside me, "is that you
or Davy steering, Mr. Nipper? if you had not been there bodily at my
side, I could have sworn that was your voice." When the gunner made
the same remark, it started the poor fellow; he tried to take it as a
joke, but could not. "There may be a laced hammock with a shot in it,
for some of us ere morning."
At this moment, to my dismay, the object we were chasing
shortened,--gradually fell abeam of us, and finally disappeared.
"The flying Dutchman." "I can't see her at all now."--"She will be a
fore and aft rigged vessel that has tacked, sir." And sure enough,
after a few seconds, I saw the white object lengthened and drew out
again abaft our beam. "The chase has tacked, sir; put the helm down,
or she will go to windward of us." We tacked also, and time it was we
did so, for the rising moon now showed us a large schooner with a
crowd of sail. We edged down on her, when finding her manoeuvre
detected, she brailed up her flat sails and bore up before the wind.
This was our best point of sailing, and we cracked on, the captain
rubbing his hands--"It's my turn to be the big un this time." Although
blowing a strong north-wester, it was now clear moonlight, and we
hammered away from our bow guns, but whenever a shot told amongst the
rigging, the injury was repaired as if by magic. It was evident we had
repeatedly hulled her, from the glimmering white streaks across her
counter and along her stern, occasioned by the splintering of the
timber, but it seemed to produce no effect.
At length we drew well upon her quarter. She continued all black hull
and white sail, not a soul to be seen on deck, except a dark object
which we took for the man at the helm. "What schooner is that?" No
answer. "Heave to, or I'll sink you." Still all silent. "Serjeant
Armstrong, do you think you can pick off that chap at the wheel?" The
mariner jumped on the forecastle, and levelled his piece, when a
musket-shot from the schooner crushed through his skull, and he fell
dead. The old skipper's blood was up. "Forecastle there! Mr. Nipper,
clap a canister of grape over the round shot in the bow gun, give it
to him." "Ay, ay, sir!" gleefully rejoined the boatswain, forgetting
the augury, and everything else, in the excitement of the moment. In a
twinkling the square foresail--topgallant--royal and studding-sail
haulyards, were let go on board the schooner, as if to round to. "Rake
him, sir, or give him the stern. He has not surrendered. I know their
game. Give him your broadside, sir, or he is off to windward of you,
like a shot. No, no, we have him now; heave to Mr. Splinter, heave
to!" We did so, and that so suddenly, that the studding sail booms
snapped like pipe shanks short off by the irons. Notwithstanding, we
had shot two hundred yards to the leeward, before we could lay our
maintopsail to the mast. I ran to windward. The schooner's yards and
rigging were now black with men, clustering like bees swarming, her
square sails were being close furled, her fore and aft sails set, and
away she was, dead to windward of us. "So much for undervaluing our
American friends," grumbled Mr. Splinter.
We made all sail in chase, blazing away to little purpose; we had no
chance on a bowline, and when our 'Amigo' had satisfied himself of his
superiority by one or two short tacks, he deliberately took a reef in
his mainsail, hauled down his flying jib and gaff-topsail, triced up
the bunt of his foresail, and fired his long thirty-two at us. The
shot came in our third aftermost port on the starboard side, and
dismounted the carronade, smashing the slide and wounding three men.
The second missed, and as it was madness to remain to be peppered,
probably winged, whilst every one of ours fell short, we reluctantly
kept away on our course, having the gratification of hearing a clear
well blown bugle on board the schooner play up "Yankee Doodle." As the
brig fell off, our long gun was run out to have a parting crack at
her, when the third and last shot from the schooner struck the sill of
the midship port, and made the white splinters fly from the solid oak
like bright silver sparks in the moonlight. A sharp, piercing cry rose
in the air--my soul identified that death-shriek with the voice that I
had heard, and I saw the man who was standing with the lanyard of the
lock in his hand drop heavily across the breech, and discharge the gun
in his fall. Thereupon a blood-red glare shot up in the cold blue sky,
as if a volcano had burst forth from beneath the mighty deep, followed
by a roar, and a scattering crash, and a mingling of unearthly cries
and groans, and a concussion of the air and the water as if our whole
broadside had been fired at once.--Then a solitary splash here, and a
dip there, and short sharp yells, and low choking bubbling moans, as
the hissing fragments of the noble vessel we had seen, fell into the
sea, and the last of her gallant crew vanished forever beneath that
pale broad moon. We were alone; and once more all was dark, wild and
stormy. Fearfully had that ball sped fired by a dead man's hand. But
what is it that clings, black and doubled, across the fatal cannon,
dripping and heavy, and choking the scuppers with clotting gore, and
swaying to and fro with the motion of the vessel, like a bloody
fleece? "Who is it that was hit at the gun there?" "Mr. Nipper, the
boatswain, sir, the last shot has cut him in two."
LOSS OF THE NAUTILUS, SLOOP OF WAR,
ON A ROCK IN THE ARCHIPELAGO.
A misunderstanding having originated between the Court of Great
Britain, and the Ottoman Porte, a powerful squadron was ordered to
proceed to Constantinople, for the purpose of enforcing compliance
with rational propositions. The object, however, proved abortive; and
the expedition terminated in a way which did not enhance the
reputation of these islands in the eyes of the Turks.
Sir Thomas Louis, commander of the squadron sent to the Dardanelles,
having charged Captain Palmer with dispatches of the utmost importance
for England, the Nautilus got under weigh at daylight on the third of
January 1807. A fresh breeze from N. E. carried her rapidly out of the
Hellespont, passing the celebrated castles in the Dardanelles, which
so severely galled the British. Soon afterwards she passed the island
of Tenedos, off the north end of which, two vessels of war were seen
at anchor; they hoisted Turkish colours, and in return the Nautilus
showed those of Britain.--In the course of this day, many of the other
islands abounding in the Greek Archipelago came in sight, and in the
evening the ship approached the island of Negropont, lying in 38 30
north latitude, and 24 8 east longitude; but now the navigation became
more intricate, from the increasing number of islands, and from the
narrow entrance between Negropont and the island of Andros.
The wind still continued to blow fresh, and as night was approaching,
with the appearance of being dark and squally, the pilot, who was a
Greek, wished to lie to until morning, which was done accordingly; and
at daylight the vessel again proceeded. His course was shaped for the
island of Falconera, in a track which has been so elegantly described
by Falconer, in a poem as far surpassing the uncouth productions of
modern times, as the Ionian temples surpassed those flimsy structures
contributing to render the fame of the originals eternal. This island,
and that of Anti Milo, were made in the evening, the latter distant
fourteen or sixteen miles from the more extensive island of Milo,
which could not then be seen, from the thickness and haziness of the
weather.
The pilot never having been beyond the present position of the
Nautilus, and declaring his ignorance of the further bearings, now
relinquished his charge, which was resumed by the captain. All
possible attention was paid to the navigation, and Captain Palmer,
after seeing Falconera so plainly, and anxious to fulfil his mission
with the greatest expedition, resolved to stand on during the night.
He was confident of clearing the Archipelago by morning, and himself
pricked the course from the chart which was to be steered by the
vessel. This he pointed out to his coxswain, George Smith, of whose
ability he entertained a high opinion. Then he ordered his bed to be
prepared, not having had his clothes off for the three preceding
nights, and having scarce had any sleep from the time of leaving the
Dardanelles.
A night of extreme darkness followed, with vivid lightning constantly
flashing in the horizon; but this circumstance served to inspire the
captain with a greater degree of confidence; for being enabled by it
to see so much further at intervals, he thought, that should the ship
approach any land, the danger would be discovered in sufficient time
to be avoided.
The wind continued still increasing; and though the ship carried but
little sail, she went at the rate of nine miles an hour, being
assisted by a lofty following sea, which with the brightness of the
lightning, made the night particularly awful. At half past two in the
morning, high land was distinguished, which, those who saw it supposed
to be the island of Cerigotto, and thence thought all safe, and that
every danger had been left behind. The ship's course was altered to
pass the island, and she continued on her course until half past four,
at the changing of the watch, when the man on the look-out exclaimed,
breakers ahead! and immediately the vessel struck with a most
tremendous crash. Such was the violence of the shock, that people were
thrown from their beds, and, on coming upon deck, were obliged to
cling to the cordage. All was now confusion and alarm; the crew
hurried on deck, which they had scarce time to do when the ladders
below gave way, and indeed left many persons struggling in the water,
which already rushed into the under part of the ship. The captain it
appeared had not gone to bed, and immediately came on deck when the
Nautilus struck; there having examined her situation, he immediately
went round, accompanied by his second lieutenant, Mr. Nesbit, and
endeavored to quiet the apprehensions of the people. He then returned
to his cabin, and burnt his papers and private signals. Meantime every
sea lifted up the ship, and then dashed her with irresistible force on
the rocks; and in a short time, the crew were obliged to resort to the
rigging, where they remained an hour, exposed to the surges
incessantly breaking over them. There they broke out into the most
lamentable exclamations, for their parents, children and kindred, and
the distresses they themselves endured. The weather was so dark and
hazy, that the rocks could be seen only at a very small distance, and
in two minutes afterwards the ship had struck.
At this time the lightning had ceased, but the darkness of the night
was such, that the people could not see the length of the ship from
them; their only hope rested in the falling of the main-mast, which
they trusted would reach a small rock, which was discovered very near
them. Accordingly, about half an hour before day-break, the main-mast
gave way, providentially falling towards the rock, and by means of it
they were enabled to gain the land.
The struggles and confusion to which this incident gave birth, can
better be conceived than described; some of the crew were drowned, one
man had his arm broke, and many were cruelly lacerated; but Captain
Palmer refused to quit his station, while any individual remained on
board; and not until the whole of his people had gained the rock did
he endeavor to save himself. At that time, in consequence of remaining
by the wreck, he had received considerable personal injury, and must
infallibly have perished, had not some of the seamen ventured through
a tremendous sea to his assistance. The boats were staved in pieces;
several of the people endeavored to haul in the jolly-boat, which they
were incapable of accomplishing.
The hull of the vessel being interposed, sheltered the shipwrecked
crew a long time from the beating of the surf; but as she broke up,
their situation became more perilous every moment, and they soon found
that they should be obliged to abandon the small portion of the rock,
which they had reached, and wade to another apparently somewhat
larger. The first lieutenant, by watching the breaking of the seas,
had got safely thither, and it was resolved by the rest to follow his
example. Scarce was this resolution formed, and attempted to be put
into execution, when the people encountered an immense quantity of
loose spars, which were immediately washed into the channel which
they had to pass; but necessity would admit of no alternative. Many in
crossing between the two rocks were severely wounded; and they
suffered more in this undertaking than in gaining the first rock from
the ship. The loss of their shoes was now felt in particular, for the
sharp rocks tore their feet in a dreadful manner, and the legs of some
were covered with blood.
Daylight beginning to appear, disclosed the horrors by which those
unfortunate men were surrounded. The sea was covered with the wreck of
their ill fated ship, many of their unhappy comrades were seen
floating away on spars and timbers; and the dead and dying were
mingled together without a possibility of the survivors affording
assistance to any that might still be rescued. Two short hours had
been productive of all this misery, the ship destroyed and her crew
reduced to a situation of despair. Their wild and affrighted looks
indicated the sensations by which they were agitated; but on being
recalled to a sense of their real condition, they saw that they had
nothing left but resignation to the will of heaven.
The shipwrecked mariners now discovered that they were cast away on a
coral rock almost level with the water, about three or four hundred
yards long, and two hundred broad.--They were at least twelve miles
from the nearest islands, which were afterwards found to be those of
Cerigotto and Pera, on the north end of Candia, about thirty miles
distant. At this time it was reported, that a small boat, with several
men, had escaped; and although the fact was true, the uncertainty of
her fate induced those on the rock to confide in being relieved by any
vessel accidentally passing in sight of a signal of distress they had
hoisted on a long pole; the neighboring islands being too distant.
The weather had been extremely cold, and the day preceding the
shipwreck ice had lain on the deck; now, to resist its inclemency, a
fire was made, by means of a knife and a flint preserved in the pocket
of one of the sailors; and with much difficulty, some damp powder,
from a small barrel washed on shore, was kindled. A kind of tent was
next made, with pieces of old canvass, boards, and such things as
could be got about the wreck, and the people were thus enabled to dry
the few clothes they had saved. But they passed a long and comfortless
night, though partly consoled with the hope of their fire being
descried in the dark, and taken for a signal of distress. Nor was this
hope altogether disappointed.
When the ship first struck, a small whale-boat was hanging over the
quarter, into which, an officer, George Smith the coxswain, and nine
men, immediately got, and, lowering themselves into the water, happily
escaped. After rowing three or four leagues against a very high sea,
and the wind blowing hard, they reached the small island of Pera. This
proved to be scarce a mile in circuit, and containing nothing but a
few sheep and goats, belonging to the inhabitants of Cerigo, who come
in the summer months to carry away their young. They could find no
fresh water, except a small residue from rain in the hole of a rock,
and that was barely sufficient though most sparingly used. During the
night, having observed the fire above mentioned, the party began to
conjecture that some of their shipmates might have been saved, for
until then they had deemed their destruction inevitable.--The coxswain
impressed with this opinion, proposed again hazarding themselves in
the boat for their relief, and, although some feeble objections were
offered against it, he continued resolute to his purpose, and
persuaded four others to accompany him.