“For the first week or so I was very sea-sick and unable to leave my
hammock, but after that I began to recover. Captain Duck, who was a most
humane and considerate gentleman, sent frequent inquiries after me, and
told the officers that I was to be allowed plenty of time to gain my
strength. These inquiries were always made by a lad who was under the
captain's immediate protection. His name was William Mariner, and being
of an adventurous disposition he had gained his parents' consent to make
the voyage. Of all those that sailed with us he and I only survived to
reach England and tell the story of that fateful venture, and I have
heard that Mr. Mariner wrote a book giving an account of the awful
calamity that befel our ship, but that few people credited the strange
story of his adventures.{*}
* This was “Mariner's Tonga Islands,” published by John
Murray, Albemarle Street, London, in 1818. Seventeen of the
privateer's crew escaped the massacre.
“Before going any further I will tell in a few words the nature of
our mission to such far-off seas. The _Port-au-Prince_ had a double
commission. She was what was termed a private ship-of-war, or privateer,
and England being then at war with Spain, she had been fitted out to
cruise within certain latitudes in the Atlantic for prizes. If not very
successful she was to double Cape Horn and proceed to the South Seas in
search of whales, unless she met the _Lucy_, when they were to try the
coast of South America for prizes. She was very well armed, and her crew
were all men who had seen much service in the king's ships; many of them
were old South-Seamen, expert in the whale-fishery. There was, besides
Captain Duck, a regular whaling-master, William Brown. This gentleman
was of a very quarrelsome temper, and long before we were out of the
Channel began to show it, greatly to our misery. Captain Duck, on the
other hand, was always very good to the men. He was a brave and gallant
seaman, very stern and exacting when duty demanded it, but always full
of good feeling and humanity to those under his command. He had formerly
commanded a privateer in the Mediterranean, and had taken many rich
prizes, and his owner, who thought very highly of him, had fitted out
the _Port-au-Prince_, specially for him to command.
“In about a month I was looked upon as being quite a smart boy, and
Captain Duck would often smile encouragingly at me, and to show his
appreciation of my good conduct permitted young Mr. Mariner, who was
a brave and handsome lad, to bring me into his cabin occasionally, and
instruct me in reading and writing.
“We had a very stormy passage to the River Plate, where we began to look
out for prizes, but without success; so, after waiting off the coast
many weeks, and seeing nothing but two large ships of war, which were
too heavily armed for us to engage, we stood southward to double Cape
Horn. This was accomplished on the 18th of June, and three days later we
sailed northward into the Pacific.
“Ten days after doubling the Cape we fell in with a South Sea whaler--I
think her name was the _Vincent_, Captain Patrick Joy--and on that day
there came about a collision between Captain Duck and Mr. Brown, the
whaling-master. 'Twas this quarrel, arising out of the obstinacy and
pride of Mr. Brown, which caused our future dreadful disaster, as will
be seen later on. The _Vincent_ signalled that she wanted us to send
a boat; and highly pleased I was when young Mr. Mariner spoke to the
gunner and asked leave for me to go in the boat with himself and Captain
Duck. As soon as we got on board our captain was taken below by the
master of the ship, but only remained a few minutes. When he returned
on deck he seemed much pleased, and, ordering us back into the boat,
was just about to descend himself when a harpooner belonging to the
_Vincent_ begged permission to speak to him.
“'Why, Turner, is it you, indeed?' and Captain Duck shook the man's hand
warmly, and asked him how he had fared since he had last seen him.
“'Well, sir, I thank you,' answered the harpooner; 'but will you have me
on board your ship, sir? You know me well, sir, and Captain Joy says he
is willing to let me go and serve under my old captain again. Indeed,
sir,' he added, 'I have it set in my mind that I shall again have the
honour to board some more Spanish prizes with you; and I would rather
kill a murdering Spaniard or Portugal than a honest whale. I am with
you, sir, heart and soul, and will be proud to serve under you again;
and Captain Joy won't stand in my way.'
“This being corroborated by Mr. Joy, Captain Duck told the man to put
his things into the boat, and in a few minutes we were rowing back to
the _Port-au-Prince_. Presently I heard our captain telling young Mr.
Mariner that he had heard from Captain Joy that there were two Spanish
ships lying at Conception, and he had resolved to go thither and cut
them out--especially as one had thirty-three thousand dollars on board.
As soon as we were on board, the harpooner from the _Vincent_ told us
that the news about the two ships was correct, and that we would have no
trouble in cutting them out; for he knew the place well, and there were
no guns mounted there. He also told us something about himself, which I
here set down as showing his adventurous nature.
“Five years before he had sailed from London in a South Seaman, the
_Sweet Dolly_, which had made a very successful voyage, for the ship
was filled with whale oil in less than a year. The _Sweet Dolly_, on her
return to England, fell in with the _Vincent_, and Turner, giving her
captain instructions to pay certain money to his sweetheart, who
lived in Bristol, shipped on board the _Vincent_. She, too, was
very successful, and was going home a full ship when she met the
_Port-au-Prince_. 'And now, lads,' said he to us, 'I will make another
haul, for we are sure to take these two ships at Conception, and more
besides; and I shall take my lass to church in a carriage.' Little did
he know how soon he was to meet his fate!
“And now as to the quarrel I have spoken of between our good captain and
Mr. Brown, the whaling-master. It seems that as soon as the matter of
the two Spanish ships at Conception was mentioned to Mr. Brown he became
very obstinate--and then, with many intemperate expressions and oaths,
flatly refused to give up the good prospects of a whaling voyage for the
sake of capturing a dozen prizes. Upon this Captain Duck reminded him
that he, being only whaling-master, had nought to do with the matter;
that it was his duty to aid in making the voyage a success, but that if
they failed to get any prizes in the course of a month or so, then he
(Captain Duck) would make all possible haste to get upon the whaling
ground. Instead of receiving this in a sensible manner, Mr. Brown only
became the more rude, and the upshot of it was that Captain Duck lost
his temper, and, seizing a cutlass, presented it at Mr. Brown's breast.
“'Go to your cabin, sir, and remain there,' he said. 'I will deal
quickly with the man who dares use mutinous language to me.' And then he
ordered Mr. Tobias Williams, our officer of marines, to keep Mr. Brown
in close custody. He seemed very much excited and angry--and very justly
so; but half an hour afterwards, when Mr. Brown sent for him to express
his sorrow for his rudeness, he forgave him most readily, and drank wine
with him, saying that 'twas a pity that two shipmates should quarrel
when in but a little time one might lose the number of his mess by a
Spanish bullet.
“A week later we arrived off Quinquina, an island in Conception Bay, and
anchored at nightfall. About midnight the boats were manned and armed,
and proceeded towards Conception, pulling with muffled oars. I was in
the boat with Mr. James Parker, the first lieutenant, who had with him
twenty-six seamen and marines. The other boats were commanded by Mr.
Brown, the whaling-master, Mr. Williams, the officer of marines, and Mr.
Peter Russel, the second lieutenant. The night was dark, but calm, which
latter was unfortunate, as the _Port-au-Prince_ could not follow the
boats and cover the cutting-out party, as had been intended by Captain
Duck. After an hour's rowing we got up unobserved to the first ship,
and Mr. Parker, followed by Turner and the rest of his boat's crew,
succeeded in getting on board and capturing the crew without alarming
the other ships, which lay about a quarter of a mile away. After cutting
her cables she was taken in tow by Mr. Russel's boat, and the other
three set out for the second ship. We had just got within half a cable's
length of her when Turner, again assuring Mr. Parker that there were no
batteries on shore, took out one of his pistols to look at the priming.
He was steering at the time, and by some woeful mishap the pistol went
off.
“'Never mind, lads,' said Mr. Parker; 'I'll lay you alongside in another
minute or two.' And with that we gave a cheer and bent to the oars.
“But before we had gone a hundred yards we knew that we were discovered
from the shore, for two batteries immediately opened out upon us.
However, we soon got aboard and captured the ship; but we were so close
to the batteries that by the time we had cut her cables the ship was
hulled in twenty places. Some of us were then sent back to the boats to
tow her out of fire. I was in the boat with Turner, who was cheering the
men to greater exertions in towing, when I heard a dreadful sound and
felt something splash over me that I knew was not salt water, and saw
Turner fall upon his face. Almost at the same moment another heavy shot
struck the boat amidships at the water-line, and she at once began to
fill, but the other boat came alongside and picked us up, including poor
Turner.
“Finding that the calm still continued, and that many of our party were
wounded, Mr. Parker called to us in the boat to come round on the port
side, where the remaining boat was lying.
“'We'll stick to her a bit yet,' he called out, and then he sent some of
our men up aloft to loose and set some sails. As soon as this was done
he ordered every one back into the boats, and went to the helm himself,
telling us that if a breeze sprang up and the sails wanted trimming he
would call for us to come up again.
“All this time the ship was being hulled repeatedly, and we were
in great concern--not for ourselves, as we were now all but out of
danger--but for our gallant Mr. Parker, who seemed bent on getting away
with the prize. The first thing we did after our boat was under shelter
was to get a light and look at poor Turner; and the sight was a terrible
one to me. The shot had carried away his lower jaw, his left arm as far
as the elbow (for he was stooping when he looked at the priming of his
pistol), and his right hand. The fleshy part of his thigh was also gone.
The poor fellow could not do more than mutely look his dreadful anguish,
and yet I could see he was perfectly conscious of all that was going on
around him.
“For nearly a quarter of an hour we continued like this, feeling every
shot that struck the ship. Every now and then one of us would clamber
up the side to see after Mr. Parker, who would angrily order him back to
his boat. At last Mr. Cresswell, our gunner, called out that the prize
was sinking, and we saw that she was beginning to feel the effect of the
water that was pouring into her, for she had been struck in many places
between wind and water. At the same time Mr. Parker called out for four
hands to come on deck as he had found the treasure, which was in the
main cabin, packed in boxes. These were quickly taken out and placed
in the boats, and then Mr. Parker liberated the crew of the prize, and
ordered them into one of her boats to save themselves. We then shoved
off and pulled after the first prize, but were met by Mr. Russel, who
had had to abandon her on account of the calm and the close fire of
another battery.
“'Never mind,' said Mr. Parker, with a laugh, 'if we can't bring them
to Captain Duck the Spaniards won't get further use of them. I have set
fire to mine.'
“'And I to mine,' said Mr. Russel.
“So this was our first engagement, and little did I relish it. We got
back to the _Port-au-Prince_ at daylight, and just as we came alongside
we saw the first of the prizes blow up. Our first care was to lift the
mutilated but still breathing body of poor Turner carefully on deck.
Unable to utter more than a dreadful groaning sound, his eyes seemed
filled with a longing to speak to Captain Duck, who bent over him with a
pitying face.
“'Poor fellow,' said the captain to Mr. Russel, 'he wants to say
something and cannot.' Then bending over him again, he asked him if the
order he had on board in his (Captain Duck's) care was to be sent to
Bristol. A feeble nod of the head was his answer, and in a few minutes
he was gone. I was glad to learn afterwards that when he joined the
_Port-au-Prince_ he had an order on the owners of the _Vincent_ for
quite a large sum of money, and this he had given to Captain Duck,
telling him that he wished it to be sent to a young woman named Mary
Agnew, whose address in Bristol he wrote on the back and whom he had
hoped to marry when he returned from this last voyage. Our captain
afterwards sent the order home by the _Clinton_, South Seaman. (I
learned afterwards from Mr. Bent that the poor woman received it
safely.)
“On the following day we sailed into Conception Bay to give the
batteries a taste of our metal. We went close in and then hove in stays
and sent four or five shots right into the battery, but their guns were
too heavy for us to do more, and with two men wounded we stood out of
range again. After this we disguised the ship like an American, and went
boldly into Coquimbo Roads. Here we were boarded by a party of gaily
dressed gentlemen who came to trade with the supposed American. They
brought with them nearly $3,000, and were deeply mortified to learn that
the ship was an English privateer and they were our prisoners. One of
them, however--Don Mario--took the matter very jocosely, and ate and
drank and made merry, telling Mr. Mariner and Captain Duck that his
entertainment was well paid for. Later on in the day more merchants came
off, carrying much money, all of which they surrendered. Meanwhile
four boats, well manned and armed, had gone ashore and captured some
warehouses about a mile from the town. From these we obtained a great
quantity of wine and some pigs of copper. Finding that the town was too
well defended to be taken, we ransomed our prisoners, and Captain Duck
having presented Don Mario with a cheese, in token of the good temper he
had shown under his misfortune, we set sail again.
“It would take too long to tell of all that befel us during the next ten
weeks or so, except that we harried every Spanish settlement along the
coast, fired at every fort we saw, and took many prizes. As we were
too shorthanded to man these, we took out all their stores, arms, and
powder, and sank them right under the guns of a Spanish frigate at
Arica, firing at her meanwhile with much merriment. While we were thus
engaged a boat came alongside with six Englishmen in her. She belonged
to the _Minerva_, a London South Seaman, bound to Port Jackson, and
those in her were Captain Obed Cottle, his first and second mates, and
three seamen. The remainder of the _Minerva's_ crew, they stated, had
mutinied, and after some bloodshed had permitted these six to leave in
one of the boats. When they left the _Minerva_ the mutineers ran up
a black flag and announced their intention of turning the ship into a
pirate. Captain Duck made them welcome, and they proved useful additions
to our ship's company.
“On the 20th of September we fell in with our looked-for consort the
_Lucy_, privateer of London, Captain Ferguson, belonging to the same
owner as did the _Port-au-Prince_, and this gentleman and our good
captain agreed to go shares in such plunder as the ships got in company.
The following day, therefore, we anchored off Chinca and took that
place, but were but poorly rewarded, as there were only two hundred
dollars in the Governor's house. However, there was some excellent wine,
of which we took twenty hogsheads on board, and we told the Governor to
keep his money.
“And now comes the story of our fight with a very big ship, of which I
have so often told you, Mr. Denison. On the 6th of October, the _Lucy_
being-ahead (and both our ships off Paita), she took a king's tender
laden with provisions, so the prisoners told Captain Ferguson, for the
Spanish frigate _Astraea_ then lying at anchor in Paita Roads. It had
been our intent to capture the town, but the frigate's presence there
put that out of the question for the time being. But we were willing to
fight her outside, away from the batteries, and word to that effect
was sent ashore, challenging her to come out and tackle us. She carried
sixty guns, and was commanded by a Frenchman of great bravery. As soon
as he received Captain Duck's challenge he got under way, and sailed out
to meet the _Lucy_ and _Port-au-Prince_. In half an hour we commenced a
close action with the Spanish ship, and almost at the first shot I was
stunned by a splinter which nearly put out my left eye. But young Mr.
Mariner told me all that followed after I was carried below.
“The frigate's decks were crowded with men, for in addition to the
ship's company she had on board nearly three hundred soldiers, who kept
up a continuous but ineffective musketry fire. They and the Spanish
sailors cursed us continually as they fired, and our crew returned the
compliment, for many of our men could swear very well in Spanish. After
fighting us for about an hour she bore up for the land, we sticking
close to her and meaning to board; but at two o'clock our mizzen topmast
was shot away, and falling athwart of our mainyard prevented us from
bracing about. Then before we could get clear of this, the Spaniard
came to the wind and sent a broadside that shot away our mizzen and main
topmast and fore topsail yards, and played sad havoc with our braces and
bowlines. In this condition, and being now almost under the guns of the
forts, we had to discontinue the fight, and with the _Lucy_, haul off.
The _Astraea_, too, had suffered much, and was glad to get back into
Paita as quick as she could. We had several men badly wounded, among
whom was our captain; and one poor boy, named Tommy Leach, was cut in
halves by grape-shot. We made a second attempt to capture her two days
later, but were again beaten off.
“Next morning Mr. Brown and Captain Duck had more angry words. And then
two parties began to form, one in favour of whaling, and the other in
favour of taking prizes. However, Captain Duck said he would go first
to the Galapagos and refit before anything else was done. We anchored at
James Island on the 16th, and found there three ships, the _Britannia_
and _British Tar_ of London, and the American ship _Neutrality_. From
Captain Folger, of the _Neutrality_, which had just arrived from Paita,
we learnt that the _Astraea_ had had her fore-topmast shot away, thirty
hands killed, and one hundred and twenty wounded. Monsieur de Vaudrieul,
her commander, told Captain Folger that his cowardly Spanish officers
wished him to strike before he fired the last broadside at our ship, and
only that we could not board him he would have done so.
“We returned to the coast after this, and captured many prizes. One
of these, the Spanish brig _Santa Isidora_ was placed in charge of Mr.
Parker, who, with ten hands, was ordered to take her to Port Jackson.
Then the same week--the _Lucy_ having parted company with us--we took
the corbeta _Santa Anna_. She was a fine, new vessel and a fast sailer,
and well armed. She had a prize crew put on board under the command of a
gentleman adventurer of our company, Mr. Chas. Maclaren, who was ordered
to follow Mr. Parker's prize to Port Jackson. Whether they ever reached
this place I cannot say. I know I never heard of the corbeta again, but
did hear that the _Santa Isidora_ was captured by the natives of the
Paumotu Islands and all hands massacred.
“During the time that we lay at the Galapagos, our kind and brave
captain continued to get worse from his wound (he had been struck by a
falling spar during an engagement with the _Astraea_, which had injured
him internally), and at last it was evident to us all that his days
were numbered. And then, too, his ardent and courageous spirit fretted
greatly because of some news we had heard from the _O'Caen_, an armed
American whaler, which on the 7th of August anchored near us. This
was that a Spanish sloop-of-war was at anchor at a little port on the
mainland, only a few days' sail from our anchorage. She was on her
way to Callao from the northern ports of North America and Mexico, and
carried tribute from the different Governors on those coasts. Much of
this tribute was in furs, sealskins, and other valuable commodities, and
she also had on board 170,000 dollars in money. Her crew were all very
sick, and she was leaking badly, having been ashore at San Diego. The
captain of this vessel had sent for assistance to Acapulco by a small
trading vessel, and the master of the _O'Caen_ said we could take
her easily. She would have proved a rich prize to us, and our captain
fretted greatly at his illness, for he was quite unable to do more than
speak in a whisper.
“Four days afterwards I was sent to watch by his bedside by the gunner,
and scarcely had I seated myself by him when he put his hand on mine,
and I saw he was trying to speak. I was about to leave him to call
assistance, but he held my hand with his dying strength.
“'John,' he said, in a little, thin voice, 'quick, listen to me.... Tell
Mr. Brown... make for the Spanish sloop. But I fear he is a shuffler....
but... a rich prize..., God bless you, my lad.'
“And with this the grip of his hand relaxed, and his eyes closed in
death. For some minutes I permitted my tears to flow uninterruptedly,
then went on deck and reported our dear captain's end to the gunner, as
well as his last words. Mr. Brown was then on shore, but soon came off;
and that evening our worthy and lamented commander was borne to his
lonely grave on the island, amid tears of unfeigned grief by every one
present.
“At daylight next morning Mr. Brown, upon whom the command now devolved,
ordered us with very unwarrantable and harsh language to get the ship
ready for sea.
“'Sir,' said the gunner, 'to-day is Sunday, and the men are not yet over
the loss of the captain.'
“But this only brought forth a very violent explosion from Mr. Brown,
who called him a mutineer, and added that he intended to sail that day
for the whaling ground; that the Spanish sloop might rot at her moorings
for all he cared; and finally that he was master now, and would brook no
interference.
“So amid the gloomy looks and muttered discontent of the men the anchor
was weighed, and the _Port-au-Prince_ stood out of the harbour to meet
with her final and terrible disaster.”