IN COMMAND OF DOLPHIN.--SENT TO WARN SHIPS.--CHASED.--CAPTURED BY
CHERMENTE.--CARRIED TO SAINT DOMINGO.--FIND OLD FRIENDS IN MISFORTUNE.--
ON OUR PAROLE.--TOM REMAINS WITH ME.
Pretty well worn out with fatigue, which the duties of the ship
entailed, as soon as we had made all snug I turned into my berth, hoping
to get some sleep. Scarcely, however, had I closed my eyes and
forgotten for the moment all sublunary matters, than I felt some one
tugging at my shoulder, and on looking up I saw a midshipman standing at
my bedside.
"Sir," said he, "the admiral wishes to see you up at the Penn
immediately."
"I wish he didn't, though," I thought to myself. "Couldn't he let a
poor careworn wretch have a few hours' quiet sleep after knocking about
for so many weeks at sea, and having been in the clutches of Yellow
Jack?" I didn't say this, though.
"Very well," I answered, jumping up and putting on my coat with a yawn
which nearly gave me the lock-jaw. "I'll be up there forthwith."
The Penn, it must be understood, is the name given to the residence
usually occupied by the head commander-in-chief on the station. It is
beautifully situated on an elevated spot above the city of Kingston,
overlooking the noble harbour of Port Royal.
Ordering a boat to be manned, I pulled on shore, and climbed up to the
Penn.
"I'm glad to see you back, Hurry," said Sir Peter kindly. "I know your
zeal for the service, and I have more work for you. You know of the war
with France. I must send you off at once to sea in quest of the
cruising ships to give them notice of the event, and to direct them
forthwith to return into port. In the first place you will look out for
the `Druid' at the east end of the island, and give her notice of the
war, and then you will proceed to the Saint Domingo coast, where you
will find, probably, the greater number of merchantmen. How soon can
you be ready?"
Of course I replied, "At once," wondering what craft I was to go in.
"Very well," said Sir Peter; "I expected as much of you. You will take
command of the `Dolphin' schooner. She is now in the harbour. I am not
quite certain in what condition you will find her. However, there is no
other disposable craft. Fit her for sea as fast as possible. Take
three or four hands with you; I cannot spare you more. Let your two
followers you spoke to me about, be of the number. Here is an order by
which you can obtain all the aid you require from the dockyard people
and others. Good-bye; I hope to see you back shortly."
With these words I parted from the admiral. It was now three o'clock in
the morning. Hurrying on board the flag-ship, I got hold of Grampus and
Rockets with their bags, and accompanied by them and a couple of more
hands and a boy, I called for my own traps and bedding on board the
Camel, and then went alongside the Dolphin tender. She looked certainly
in a very hopeless condition. She had her lower-masts standing, but was
entirely unrigged, without stores or sails, or even ballast on board,
while her bottom was covered with grass a foot at least in length.
Still I knew that not a moment was to be lost; the service I was
required to perform was of the greatest importance, and I was not to be
deterred by difficulties. I unmoored her immediately, got her alongside
the dockyard wharf, and began taking some ballast which I found there on
board before anyone was up. Then I sent Grampus to rouse up the
authorities, whose aid I required. Fortunately the sudden outbreak of
war kept people on the alert, so that I had less difficulty in getting
assistance than would have otherwise been the case.
Soon after daybreak the deck of the Dolphin presented a scene of
ant-like industry. Gangs of negroes were hurrying backwards and
forwards with coils of rope and spars and sails; others were rolling
down kegs of water, and others casks of beef and pork and biscuit, and
packages of other comestibles, while the riggers were at work getting
the rigging over the mast-heads, setting it up, bending on sails, and my
own people were below, stowing away the various articles as they came on
board. I made a list of essentials, and took good care to see that they
came on board and were stowed where they were to be found, or very
likely I should have gone to sea without them. I saw to everything
myself, or sent Grampus to ascertain that people were losing no time in
executing my orders. I left nothing to chance. I met with no little
grumbling from some of the slow-going officials.
"What a hurry you are in, sir!" said one or two of them, who dared not,
however, openly disobey my authority.
"Yes, my friend," I answered, laughing, "that's natural to me; and just
now I am in as great a hurry as I ever was in my life; so be smart, if
you please, and keep your people moving."
That is the way I managed. I did not swear or abuse them, but if I
found anyone slow I pulled out the admiral's order and said that the
work must be done faster.
"Impossible, sir!" answered another official to one of my demands; "it
cannot be done. In two or three days we may get the matter settled for
you."
"Impossible! In two or three days do you say?" I exclaimed, looking
fixedly at him. "In two or three hours you mean. Impossible,--I don't
understand that word, nor does Sir Peter, depend on that. If the things
are not on board in three hours I shall report you. I don't want to be
severe, my friend, but I am in earnest."
The gentleman understood me, and within the time specified the stores
were on board.
In spite of all I could do, however, I could only get a mainsail,
foresail, fore-staysail, and jib. I had no topsails and no square sail.
Thus, should I be chased by an enemy, I should be, I felt, like a bird
with clipped wings, I should have very little chance of escaping. I got
some of the weeds scraped off the vessel's bottom, but still there were
more than enough remaining. Such good speed did I make, that before
three o'clock in the afternoon of that very day I was ready for sea, or,
rather, I was in such a condition that I could put to sea, though the
urgent necessity of the case alone warranted me in so doing.
"Well, sir," observed Grampus, with the familiarity of an old shipmate,
"if we comes to meet with Harry Cane in our cruise, it's like enough
that we shall be nowhere."
Just before we got under weigh, Captain Lambert, of his Majesty's ship
Niger, came on board. He shrugged his shoulders when he saw the
condition I was in.
"The admiral ordered me to get to sea as fast as I could," I remarked;
"I'm doing my best to obey him."
"That you are, Mr Hurry," he answered. "You've done very well--very
well indeed, I say. I wish you to keep a look-out for me off Saint
Domingo, and bring me any information you may have picked up. I am
under orders to sail to-morrow morning to cruise off that island with my
own ship, and with the `Bristol' and `Lowestoffe,' and I shall have my
tender with me. You will know the squadron by one of the three ships
having a poop, and from our being accompanied by a schooner. Now good
luck to you. I will not detain you."
"Thank you, sir," said I; "depend on it I will not disappoint you."
With a light breeze we stood out of the magnificent harbour of Port
Royal, leaving a fleet of merchantmen, which the news of the war with
France prevented from putting to sea. I certainly was not given to be
much influenced by outward circumstances, but I did not feel at all in
my usual spirits, and could not help fancying that some calamity was
going to occur to me. These sensations and ideas probably arose both
from my being overworked and from the unsatisfactory way in which my
vessel was fitted out; added to this, I knew that the seas would be
swarming with the enemy's privateers, both Americans and French, and
that I could neither fight nor run away. I considered over the latter
circumstance, and bethought me that, if I fell in with any enemy, I
would, at all events, endeavour to escape by stratagem. My men would, I
knew, support me. Nol Grampus and Rockets I was sure I could trust, and
the others I had chosen because they were sharp clever fellows, and up
to anything.
It was not till the 3rd of September that I weathered the east end of
the island of Jamaica. I cruised off Morant Point for some time,
keeping a very bright look-out for the Druid. She was nowhere to be
seen. Sir Peter had directed me not to lose much time in looking for
her. She might have chased an enemy for leagues away and not be back to
her cruising ground for days. Perhaps she might have taken some prizes
and returned to Port Royal. As I began to lose all hope of seeing her
before nightfall, the wind came fair for me to proceed through the
windward passage. I accordingly put up my helm, made all the sail I
could, and stood for the island of Heneago.
On the evening of the 6th I made Cape Tiberoon, on the west end of the
island of Saint Domingo, without having fallen in with any vessels, and
about eight o'clock the same evening I passed the Navasa, and carried a
fine breeze till the following morning, when I brought Donna Maria to
bear east at the distance of two or three leagues. I had not liked the
look of the weather for some hours.
"What do you think of it?" said I to Grampus, as I saw the clouds
gathering thickly around us from all directions, while the sea assumed a
peculiarly dark, leaden, ominous colour.
"Why, sir, Mr Hurry, do you see, to my mind, the wider berth we give
the land the better," he replied, giving his usual hitch to his
trowsers. "There's what they calls in these parts a whirlwind or old
Harry Cane coming on, or my name is not Nol Grampus."
I was too much afraid that Nol was right, and accordingly stood off the
land under all sail, keeping a look-out, however, on the signs of the
weather, so as to take in our canvas in time before the gale came on. I
had not, notwithstanding this, made good much more than a league when it
fell a dead calm. The sails flapped idly against the masts, and the
little vessel rolled from side to side, moved by the long, slow, heaving
undulations which rolled in from the offing.
"I'm not quite certain that you are right, Grampus, as to the coming
whirlwind, but we will shorten sail, at all events," I observed.
"Beg pardon, Mr Hurry, sir; but just do you follow an old seaman's
advice, and take all the canvas off her," he answered with earnestness.
"It's doing her no good just now, and we haven't another suit of sails
if we lose them. When the wind does come, it is on one before a man has
time to turn round and save the teeth being whisked out of his mouth.
Come, my lads, be smart, and hand the canvas," he added, calling to
Rockets and the other men.
I was soon very glad that I was not above taking an old seaman's advice.
Scarcely ten minutes had passed, during which time the calm had been
more profound than ever, when, as suddenly as Grampus had foretold, the
whole ocean around us seemed covered with a sheet of seething foam, and
the whirlwind, in all the majesty of its strength, struck the vessel,
pressing her down till her bulwarks touched the water, and I thought she
would have gone over altogether. I sprang to the helm and put it up,
while Grampus hoisted the fore-staysail just a foot or so above the
deck. Even then the canvas was nearly blown out of the bolt-ropes; so
far she felt its power, however, and, her head spinning round as if she
had been a straw, away we drove before the hurricane. Where were we
driving to was the question. I anxiously consulted the chart. We were
in that deep bay in the island of Saint Domingo, with Cape Donna Maria
to the southward, and Cape Saint Nicholas to the north, and I saw that a
slight variation in the course of the gale might hurl us on the coast,
where the chance of our escaping with our lives would be small indeed.
Happily the wind at present came out of the bay, or I believe my
ill-found little schooner would have gone to the bottom, as did many a
noble ship about that time. The sea, even as it was, soon became lashed
into furious billows, which broke around us in masses of foam, which
went flying away over the troubled surface of the ocean, covering us as
would a heavy fall of snow. Grampus and I stood at the helm, keeping
the little vessel as well as we could directly before the gale, but we
tumbled about terrifically, and more than once I caught him casting
anxious glances over his shoulder astern, as if he expected some of the
seas, which came roaring up after us, to break over our decks.
"What do you think of it, Grampus?" said I.
"Why, Mr Hurry, sir, I don't like the look of things," he answered.
"If one of them seas was to fall aboard of us, it would wash every soul
of us off the deck, and maybe send the craft in a moment to the bottom.
Still, I don't see as how there is anything we can do more than we are
doing. If the schooner was to spring a leak just now, and that's not
unlikely, we should be still worse off, so we may be content with things
as they are."
I admired Nol's philosophy, though I kept an anxious look-out on the
larboard bow, dreading every instant to catch a sight of the shore, past
which I knew we should have a narrow shave, even should we be fortunate
enough to escape being driven against it. The coolest man on board was
Tom Rockets. He kept walking the deck with his hands in his pockets,
ready enough, I saw, for action, but certainly not as if a fierce
hurricane was raging around him. Now and then he had to pull out his
hands to lay hold of the bulwarks as the craft gave a lively roll, or
plunged down into the trough of a sea; but as soon as she grew
comparatively steady, he began walking away as before.
On we drove. The dreaded coast did not appear. Still I could scarcely
hope that we had passed it. The wind began to shift about at last.
Grampus said that it was the termination of the hurricane. Still it
might play us a scurvy trick before it was over, and drive us on some
inhospitable shore. I began now to look for further signs of the ending
of the storm. It got round to the northward, and on we drove till we
caught sight of the coast. It was a most unwelcome sight, though, for
should the little craft once get within the power of the breakers, which
were dashing furiously against it, I could not hope that a single man on
board would escape with his life. Even Tom Rockets began to think that
the state of things was not so pleasant as it might be. I saw that he
had taken his hands out of his pockets, and was holding on with the rest
of the people. Away we drove--the threatening shore every minute
growing more and more distinct.
"What prospect is there, think you, Grampus, of the hurricane coming to
an end?" said I. For from want of anything else to be done I was
obliged to keep my tongue going.
"I thought as how it was going to break but just now, Mr Hurry," he
answered, casting his eye all round the horizon. "It seems,
howsomedever, to have breezed up again, and if it don't shift before
long, there's little chance of the schooner's living, or any of us
either for that matter, many hours more."
"We must meet our fate, then, like men, and Christians too, I hope," I
answered, looking at him. "We have done all that men can do, I
believe."
"Yes, sir, that we have," he replied. "We can do no more, and it isn't
the first time Nol Grampus has had to look Death in the face, so I hopes
that I shall not shrink from him. Come he will, I know, some day,
sooner or later; and it matters little, as far as I can see, if he comes
to-day or to-morrow."
"Not if we put our trust in One who is able and willing to save our
souls alive," I observed. "That makes all the difference whether death
should be feared or welcomed. It is not what we suffer in this world
that we should dread, but what we may deserve to suffer in the next; in
the same way it is not what we enjoy here, but what we may be able to
enjoy through all eternity, that we should long for."
"Very true, sir--very true, Mr Hurry," replied Grampus; "but the worst
is, that we don't think of these things till just at such moments as the
present, when the flood has done, and the tide of life is fast ebbing
away."
Thus we talked on for some time. I felt really with my old friend Nol,
that though there we all stood in health and strength, we might soon be
removed to behold the glories of the eternal world.
Suddenly Nol looked up. Holding his hand to the wind, and casting his
eye on the compass--
"I thought so, sir," he exclaimed. "There's a shift of wind. It has
backed round again into the eastward."
Such was providentially the case. I took the bearings of the land. We
might now hope to drive on clear of it. The sea was, however, getting
higher and higher, but the Dolphin proved to be as tight as a cork and
as buoyant, and I began to get rid of all my dread of her foundering,
provided her masts and rigging did not give way.
Considering the manner in which she was fitted out, however, I did not
feel quite easy on that score. Still nothing more could be done, so we
had, as best we could, to wait events. At length there was a lull. I
expected that it would breeze up again.
"The gale has worn itself out, to my mind, Mr Hurry," observed Grampus,
after a careful survey of the sky and sea.
"I am sure I hope so," I answered; "I was getting somewhat tired of it,
and so I suspect was the schooner. Sound the well, and see what water
she has made."
He sounded the well, and reported three feet.
"I thought so. Rig the pumps, and let us try and get her clear while we
can."
All hands pumped away with a will, and soon got her free of water, when
the sea went, as it soon did, gradually down. It showed me that the
leak had been caused by the way the little vessel had strained herself,
and that probably, had she been exposed much longer to the fury of the
hurricane, she would have foundered. By night the gale had sufficiently
abated to enable me to set a reefed foresail, and once more to haul up
on my course. I made but little progress during the night and following
day. I was standing along the coast, towards the evening of the next
day, with the wind from the northward, when I discovered in-shore of me
what I took to be the masts of a vessel just appearing out of the water.
I conjectured that she had been sunk in the hurricane of the previous
day, and on the possibility that some of the crew might still be
clinging to her rigging, although I was on a lee-shore, I resolved to
bear down on her. I pointed her out to Grampus, and asked his opinion.
"No doubt about it, sir," he answered. "There may be some danger to us,
I'll allow, especially if it was to breeze up again, but where's the man
worthy of the name who refuses to run some danger for the sake of
helping his fellow-men in distress? To my mind, sir, let us do what's
right, and never mind the consequences."
I've often since thought of the excellence of some of old Grampus'
remarks.
"Up with the helm, then! Ease away the main and head sheets!" I sang
out. "We'll run down and have a look at the wreck."
I kept my glass anxiously turned towards the object I had discovered, in
the hopes of seeing some people clinging on to the rigging. As we drew
near, I found that only a single mast appeared above water, as well as
her bowsprit, and that she had all her canvas set. Not a human being
could be seen in any part of the rigging. I got close up to her. She
was a sloop of about seventy tons. She had evidently been caught
totally unprepared by the hurricane, and every soul on board had been
hurried into eternity. Finding that there would be no use in waiting
longer near the spot, for there was not the slightest probability that
anyone was floating on any part of the wreck in the neighbourhood, I
again hauled my wind, and stood to the northward. At ten o'clock at
night a fresh gale sprang up, which compelled me once more to bring-to
under a reefed foresail. I am thus particular in narrating details of
events which led to a most disastrous result. Truly we cannot tell what
a day may bring forth. I had fallen in with no merchantmen, which would
have been a most suspicious circumstance, had I not supposed that they
might have been lost in the hurricane, or run into port for shelter,
otherwise I should have supposed that they had fallen into the power of
the cruisers of the enemy. On the 8th I passed Cape Nichola Mole, and
on the 9th made the island of Heneago, bearing nor'-nor'-east, four
leagues. At eight o'clock in the evening I tacked, and stood off-shore,
with a fine breeze, with the intention of passing in the morning between
Heneago and the little Corcases, for the purpose of speaking his
Majesty's frigate Aeolus, stationed in that passage, and bearing her the
information that the war had broken out. At five o'clock of the morning
of the 10th, the wind shifting round to the eastward, I tacked, and
stood to the northward, through the Corcases. At daybreak Tom Rockets
was sent aloft to keep a look-out for any sail which might be in sight.
Soon afterwards he hailed the deck to say that he made out two sail on
the lee bow, just appearing above the horizon. I went aloft with my
glass and soon discovered four altogether, one much smaller than the
others. She was a schooner, the other three were ships. I had little
doubt that it was a squadron, composed of the Bristol, Lowestoffe, and
Niger, with her tender, which were to sail the day after me, and which I
expected to fall in with in this neighbourhood. They were still too
far-off to make out exactly what they were. I came down, however, with
my mind perfectly at ease, and went to breakfast. Grampus, who had
charge of the deck while I was below, watched them narrowly, and did not
differ with me as to their character. I therefore stood towards them,
as I was anxious to communicate with them without delay. My orders
directed me to speak all cruisers, and besides, as it may be supposed, I
was eager to get the duty I had been sent on accomplished, and to return
again to Port Royal.
When I came on deck again, I found that we had drawn considerably nearer
the strangers. I scrutinised them again and again. One of them had a
high poop, and I remembered Captain Lambert's remark to me the day I
sailed, that this was one of the marks by which I should know his
squadron. I thus stood on boldly towards them. As we drew nearer, I
saw Grampus eyeing them narrowly. The expression of his countenance
showed me that he had considerable doubt on his mind as to their true
character. We had now got within three miles of them.
"What do you think of them, Grampus?" said I, as I took the glass which
I had just before handed to him.
"I don't like their looks, sir," he answered. "That headmost frigate is
English--so I take it from the look of her hull and the cut of her
canvas--but the others I can't make out by no manner of means. I don't
think the `Bristol' or the `Lowestoffe' are among them."
I had come to the same conclusion that Grampus had; but I wished to
confirm my own opinion by his. We stood on for five minutes longer. My
suspicions of the character of the strangers increased.
"We are running into the lion's jaws, I suspect!" I exclaimed; whereat
Grampus and Rockets opened their eyes to know what I meant. "Hoist our
colours, and let us learn what they are without further delay."
Scarcely had we run our ensign up to the peak than up went the French
flag at that of the headmost frigate which at the same time fired a
warning gun at us.
"Up with the helm! Ease off the main-sheets! Keep her away!" I
exclaimed.
The orders were quickly obeyed, and away we flew with a strong breeze
directly before the wind. I had two very good reasons for endeavouring
to escape by keeping before the wind. In the first place, a
fore-and-aft vessel has generally a great advantage over a square-rigged
ship on that point of sailing, and I might otherwise have drawn the
enemy's squadron towards the station of the Aeolus. As she was so much
inferior in strength to it, she would easily have fallen into their
power, especially as, not being aware that war had broken out, she would
have been taken by surprise.
As soon as I put up my helm and kept away, the headmost of the strangers
crowded all sail in chase, making signals to the rest of the squadron to
follow her--undoubtedly not to allow me any prospect of escaping. She
fired two or three shot, but she was still too far-off to hit me. All
the other vessels hoisted French colours, and any lingering hope I might
have retained, that after all I might have been mistaken, and that the
strangers were English, now vanished. Still my principle has always
been never to give in while life remains, and so I resolved to hold on
till I got completely under the enemy's guns, and then, when I found
that there was a strong probability of my being sunk, to haul down my
colours, but not till then. I had heard of a small vessel escaping even
from under the very guns of a big enemy, and I intended not to throw
such a chance away. I called my crew aft.
"My men," said I, "I won't ask you to stick to me to the last, because I
know you will. Those ships astern are enemies: we'll do our best to
escape from them, and if we are taken and the chance is given us, we'll
endeavour to heave our captors into the water, and to re-take the
schooner, won't we?"
"Yes, sir, that we will," answered Grampus. "I speak for the rest,
because I know their minds, and you are just the man to do the thing if
it is to be done."
I told the people that I was gratified at the good opinion they had
formed of me, and sent them back to their stations. I did not like the
look of things. The chances of escaping were very small, and the
prospects of a French prison in the climate of the West Indies was
anything but pleasant.
The breeze freshened, and we went tearing away through the smooth blue
sea, sending up the white sparkling foam on either side of our bows, and
leaving a long line of white astern; but I now sadly felt the want of a
square-sail and topsails. Had I possessed them to set, I fancied that I
could easily have kept ahead of my pursuers. My glass was seldom off
them, while I also kept it sweeping round ahead in the hopes, though
they were not very sanguine, of discovering the British squadron, for
which I had at first mistaken the enemy. On we flew, but the sharp line
of the horizon on every side was unbroken by the slightest dot or line
which might indicate an approaching sail. I watched the enemy. It was
soon too evident that they were coming up with us at a speed which sadly
lessened our prospects of escape. Still we kept beyond the range of
their guns. Unless, however, fortune changed in our favour, this could
not long be the case. Gradually I saw the chance of getting away
diminishing, and the conviction forced itself on me that we should all
be soon prisoners of war. I called Grampus to me; he was of the same
opinion.
"Well, then," said I with a sigh, "our first duty is to destroy all the
letters and despatches with which I have been entrusted. Bring them up
at once."
Grampus dived below, and returned with the despatches delivered to me by
Sir Peter Parker, as well as with some thirty or forty letters from the
merchants of Jamaica, addressed to the masters of their privateers
cruising off the island, with none of which I had hitherto fallen in. I
tied the whole of the documents up in a piece of canvas, with a shot in
it ready to heave overboard when the last ray of hope had disappeared.
I stamped with rage as I saw my enemies overtaking me; I could not help
it. My men, too, eyed them as if they felt that if they had been on
board a ship in any way able to cope with such opponents, they would
speedily have given a good account of them. I scarcely knew what to
wish for. A tornado was the only thing just then likely to serve me.
It might have sent the schooner to the bottom, but if she weathered it,
I hoped that I had a chance of escaping from the big ships, which were
very likely to be widely scattered before it.
The sky, however, gave no indication of any change of the sort. Grampus
and Tom I saw pulling very long faces at each other, as much as to say,
"It's all up with us." They were too right. On came the headmost ship
with the Dolphin hand over hand, the flag of France flaunting proudly at
her peak. A shot from one of her bow guns was a significant notice to
me to heave-to. I did so with a very bad grace, and as I put down my
helm, I could not help wishing that France and all Frenchmen were swept
away into the ocean.
"They always have been, and always will be, an unmitigated nuisance to
old England!" I exclaimed, as I took a turn on the deck, while my
little craft lay bobbing away slowly at our big opponent, which, having
also hove-to, was lowering a boat to board us. Then I took up the
bundle of letters and hove them overboard, when down they sank, probably
to find a tomb in the stomach of some hungry shark.
"At all events, Messieurs Crapauds, you will not be much the wiser for
what is in them," I exclaimed with a feeling of no little bitterness.
If I did not feel inclined exactly to cut my own throat, I certainly had
a very strong wish to knock the fellows on the head whom I saw pulling
towards me. It did not take me many minutes to pack up my own wardrobe.
My people, as is usual, put on all the clothes they possessed, one over
the other, and then we all stood ready to receive our most unwelcome
visitors.
Their boat was soon alongside, and a well-dressed, gentlemanly-looking
officer jumped on board, and announced to me in English that I was a
prize to the French frigate Chermente of thirty-two guns, Captain
McNamara, an Irishman in the French service.
"It is the fortune of war," he observed. "You did your best to escape
us when you found out that we were not your friends. You and your
people will come on board my ship; the schooner may be useful to us."
I could only bow to this polite speech, and say that I was ready to
attend him on board his ship. The French seamen, however, did not seem
inclined to treat us with much ceremony, and several who came on board
rummaged about in every direction to pick up whatever they could find.
With a heavy heart I left the Dolphin, and was soon transferred to the
deck of the French frigate. The squadron to which I had become a prize
consisted of the Dedaigneuse and Chermente, both of thirty-two guns, the
Active of twenty-eight, and the Providence privateer, which with the
Active they had taken the day before. I cannot say much for the
discipline of the French frigate; for it appeared to me that the crew
were very much inclined to be insubordinate, in consequence of which the
officers had to exercise a considerable amount of severity in keeping
them under necessary discipline.
It was a bitter pill I was compelled to swallow. For ten long years I
had been serving my country incessantly as midshipman and master's mate,
and now at the very moment when I felt sure that I was about to emerge
from the subordinate rank of a petty officer, and to obtain my
commission as a lieutenant, no longer to be subject to the midnight
calls of quartermasters and the unnumbered snubs which patient
midshipmen from their superiors take, I found all my hopes of my
promotion dashed to the ground, and myself an unhappy prisoner of war.
I had, however, plenty of companions to share my misfortune; on board
the two French frigates were most of the officers and crew of the
Active, as well as of the privateer. Scarcely had I stepped on board
than who should I see walking the deck in melancholy mood but my old
friend and messmate Delisle, and by his side was Paddy O'Driscoll. How
changed had soon become the light-hearted, jovial midshipman! The
feeling of captivity was weighing heavily on his spirits. Indeed, what
is there more galling to an officer than to see the ship to which he
lately belonged in the hands of his enemies, and himself compelled to
submit to any commands they may choose to issue? They both, as they
turned in their walk, started at seeing me; for of course they did not
know that I was on board the vessel just captured. They came forward
and shook hands warmly.
"I cannot welcome you on board this craft, my dear Hurry," said Delisle,
"though under other circumstances I should have been truly glad to fall
in with you."
"Bad luck to the day when we fell into the power of the Frenchmen!"
exclaimed O'Driscoll. "And to think that an Irishman, or the son of an
Irishman maybe, should be their captain makes matters worse. I'm
ashamed of my countryman, that I am, except that to be sure he has
behaved like a gentleman to us since we came on board, and so have all
his officers."
"What more could we expect?" said I. "He did but his duty in capturing
us: perhaps before long the tables may be turned, you know. There's a
larger squadron of our ships not far-off, and I don't give up all hopes
that these ships may fall in with them."
My two friends pricked up their ears at what I told them, though I
myself was very far from sanguine about the two squadrons meeting.
Should they meet I had no doubt which would prove victorious. We of
course did not express our hopes to our captors, but we kept a constant
look-out for the British squadron. Not a sail, however, appeared, our
hopes of obtaining our freedom grew less and less, and on the 11th of
the month sunk to zero when we entered the harbour of Cape Francois. We
found there the French frigate Concorde and the late British frigate
Minerva which she had captured. There were also several sail of French
Saint Domingo ships. In my hurry and annoyance on quitting the Dolphin
I discovered that I had left behind me my chest of clothes. They were
not of any great value, though, as I much wanted them, they were so to
me. I therefore requested Captain McNamara to send for them. He at
once politely complied with my wish, but the midshipman he sent soon
returned with the unpleasant information that the chest was in the
cabin, but was empty. It appeared that after the Chermente's boat had
left the Dolphin, the people of the Dedaigneuse had boarded her, and
plundered her of everything of value. When Captain McNamara heard of
this, he instantly sent on board that ship, and endeavoured to recover
my property; but all his trouble was in vain. The French seamen were
far too knowing to give up anything they had once got possession of, and
after a good deal of trouble I was finally compelled to be content with
my loss, as I saw that there was no probability of recovering my
property.
On the 14th my brother-officers lately belonging to the Active and I
were politely informed that we were to be conducted on shore to give our
parole that we would not attempt to make our escape. After a short
consultation, we all agreed that, although to get away from the lion's
jaws into which we had fallen was not altogether impossible, it was very
unlikely that we should succeed, and that by not giving our parole we
should be subject to a vast deal of annoyance, it was wiser at once to
give it, and to wait patiently till we were exchanged. Constant
confinement in a prison in the West Indies, or on board a guard-ship in
harbour, it was suggested was very likely to release us; but it would be
into another world, to which we had just then no inclination to go if we
could help it. We were received on shore by a guard of ill-favoured
blacks--"regular blackguards," as O'Driscoll observed--between whom we
were conducted to the residence of his Excellency Governor D'Argu. We
were kept waiting for some time in a balcony which ran round the house,
subject to the inspection and remarks of a number of black and brown
urchins, who made us feel some of the bitters of captivity by jeering
and pointing at us, while we had not even the power to drive them away.
At length an officer came into the balcony and asked us into a large
room, furnished only with mats, a few chairs, and some marble tables, on
which stood some red earthenware jars, full of water, and some decanters
of claret, looking very cool and pleasant. The great man was seated at
a table at one end of the room. He received us, I thought, at first
very grumpily. He did not understand English, but I recognised the
polite officer who had boarded the Dolphin when I was captured, and who
appeared to be there in the capacity of an interpreter. The governor
enquired our respective ranks. I fully expected to be classed among the
midshipmen, and to receive my pay and treatment accordingly; but I
fortunately had in my pocket the appointment given me by Sir Peter
Parker as acting-lieutenant of the Camel. I bethought me of exhibiting
it, and, much to my satisfaction, it was acknowledged, and I was told
that I should be treated in all respects as a lieutenant, especially as
I had been in command of a vessel when captured. I was surprised indeed
to find a considerable sense of justice in all the proceedings of our
captors at this time. Perhaps the bitter feeling they afterwards
entertained for the English, when they had sustained numberless defeats,
had not then sprung up. My friend, the second captain of the Chermente,
having explained to us the alternative to which we should be subject if
we refused to pledge our words of honour, told us that we should be at
liberty to go on shore whenever we liked, and to walk about within a
distance of a mile from the shore. Some of us complained of the
narrowness of the circle to which we were confined. The governor looked
quietly up, and remarked that we might consider ourselves fortunate that
it was no narrower. The observation was interpreted for our benefit,
and no further remark was made on the subject. We all went through the
ceremony required of us, and then, without loss of time, were once more
marched down to the boats and conveyed on board the Chermente, where all
the rest of the prisoners were collected. Most of the men were sent
away in a cartel. Nol Grampus parted from me with great reluctance, but
when Tom Rockets was told he must go, he turned round towards me and
exclaimed--
"Mr Hurry, sir, do you want to part with me? I've sailed with you
since I was a boy, and, come foul weather or fair, if I have my will
I'll follow you still. Just tell these mounseers that you want a
servant to tend on you, and that you can't do without me, and then maybe
they'll let me stay."
I tried to persuade Tom that it would be better for him to go away, but
all I could say would not turn him from his purpose, and so I made his
wishes known to the governor. To my surprise, he was allowed to remain
in the capacity of my servant, on my pledging my word that he would not
attempt to escape. I afterwards found that a considerable number of
seamen were detained by the French, to be exchanged afterwards when more
Frenchmen were taken prisoners. On the outbreak of the war on this
station, at all events, the French had, I believe, the advantage in that
respect. Afterwards, however, it was all the other way, and we English
had more prisoners than we could well look after.
We spent a week on board the Chermente while, I suppose, our captors
were considering what was to be done with us. Now I must say that,
though I have no love for the French, or French manners or customs or
ideas, still I should be very ungrateful if I did not acknowledge the
kindness and attention we all received from Captain McNamara and his
officers. O'Driscoll said it all arose from his father being an
Irishman. However, as his officers were not Irishmen, I am inclined to
believe that a portion of the nation are capable of great courtesy and
kindness, and I am not at all disposed to utter a sweeping condemnation
against them, like an old master in the service whom I once knew. My
worthy messmate was taken prisoner and kept in France some eight or ten
years or more. When at last he was released, and an officer was wanted
for some special purpose who spoke French well, he was applied to, it
being supposed that by that time he would have acquired a perfect
knowledge of the language. "What!" he exclaimed, with an indignant
expression, "do you suppose that I would so far forget what was due to
my nation and my profession as to go and learn the humbugging ugly
language of the enemies of my country? No, indeed, I did my best not to
learn a word, and I am proud to say that I know as little of French now
as when I was first taken prisoner." Though I may have laughed at my
worthy friend's want of worldly wisdom, I could never help admiring his
sturdy, uncompromising patriotism.