When I went on deck at midnight I found that there was no occasion to
set the studding-sails, for the breeze had freshened to more than half a
gale, and the little hooker was staggering along before it and a
fast-rising sea at a tremendous pace--considering the drag--with her
royal clewed up and furled, and the gaff-topsail hauled down. Even thus
she was being greatly over-driven; so, as there was no need for _too
much_ hurry, and as the sky astern had a hard, windy look, I took in the
topgallant-sail, and hauled down and stowed the mainsail, letting her go
along easily and comfortably for the remainder of the night. I had half
a mind to further relieve her by getting the drag inboard, but did not
like to do so without first consulting Ryan--since the thing was of his
contrivance--so, as the matter was by no means sufficiently urgent to
justify me in disturbing him, I let it remain, and very glad was I
afterwards that I had done so; for when I went on deck again at seven
bells, there, away about a point on our weather quarter, gleamed in the
bright morning sunshine the white upper sails of a large craft that had
been sighted at daybreak and that was now coming up to us fast. Ryan
was already on deck, having been called immediately that the stranger
was made out, and was in a state of high glee at the success of his
stratagem, for he informed me that he had been up on the topsail-yard,
and had pretty well satisfied himself, both by the look of the craft and
the course she was steering, that she was a slaver running in upon the
coast to pick up a cargo.
It now became a nice question with us whether we should reveal our true
character as soon as the stranger should have approached within reach of
our guns, or whether we should try to follow her in, and, lying in wait
for her, seize her as she came out with her cargo on board. We were
still at a considerable distance from the coast--some twelve hundred
miles--and that fact inclined us strongly to make short work of her by
showing our colours and bringing her to as soon as she should come
abreast of us; while, on the other hand, there was the chance that by
following her in we might fall in with something more valuable than
herself.
We were still weighing the pros and the cons of this important question,
when the look-out aloft--for Ryan had only half-an-hour previously
determined to have a look-out maintained from the topgallant-yard
between the hours of sunrise and sunset--the look-out, I say, reported a
sail broad on our starboard bow, standing to the northward on a taut
bowline, and under a heavy press of sail. She was as yet invisible from
the deck; my superior officer and I therefore with one accord made a
dash for our telescopes, and, having secured them, hastened forward and
made our way up the fore-rigging to the topsail-yard, on to which we
swung ourselves at the same moment. From this elevated view-point the
upper half of the stranger's topmasts and all above were just visible
clear of the horizon; and, bringing our glasses to bear upon her, we
made her out to be a barque-rigged vessel under single-reefed topsails,
courses, jib, fore and main-topmast-staysails, and spanker; her yards,
which were pretty nearly square on to us, showed a quite unusual amount
of spread for a merchant vessel, and the rapidity with which she altered
her bearings and forged athwart our forefoot was conclusive evidence
that she was a remarkably speedy craft. For a moment it occurred to us
that she might possibly be a cruiser belonging to one or another of the
nations who had undertaken to share with Great Britain the noble task of
suppressing the inhuman slave-traffic; but a very little reflection
sufficed to disabuse our minds of this idea, for no cruiser would have
been carrying so heavy a press of canvas as she was showing, in the
teeth of what had by this time become almost a gale, unless she were in
chase of something, and, had she been, we must have seen it. Besides,
although everything looked trim and ship-shape enough so far as her
spars, sails, and rigging were concerned, there were evidences even
there of a certain lack of discipline and order that would hardly have
been tolerated on board a man-o'-war of _any_ nation, although most of
the foreigners were a great deal more free and easy in that respect than
ourselves. The conclusion at which we ultimately arrived, therefore,
was that she was a slaver with her cargo on board, and "carrying-on" to
make a quick passage.
But, fast as she was travelling, we were going through the water still
faster, despite our drag, for we were carrying the wind almost square
over our taffrail, and Ryan, in order the more thoroughly to hoodwink
the craft astern, had double-reefed and set our big mainsail, as though
we had been somewhat suspicious of her character, and anxious to keep
her at as great a distance as possible; we were therefore foaming along
at a speed of fully eight knots, and rising the stranger ahead so
rapidly, that when she crossed our hawse she was not more than eight
miles distant, and we had a clear view of her from our topsail-yard.
She now hoisted Spanish colours; and we, not to be outdone in
politeness, did the same, as also did the craft astern of us, each of
us, I suppose, accepting the exhibition of bunting on board the others
for just what it was worth.
Ryan and I had by this time pretty well made up our minds as to the
character of both our neighbours; and as the stranger astern--a large
brig--was now barely half-a-mile distant from us, and drawing rapidly up
on our starboard quarter, it was necessary to make up our minds without
delay as to the course to be pursued; the question being whether we
should meddle at all with the brig, and thus run the risk of exciting
the barque's suspicions, or whether we should devote our whole energies
to the pursuit of the latter. I was all for letting the brig go, for we
knew, by the course she was steering, that she had no slaves on board,
and the chances were even that we should find nothing else on board her
sufficiently compromising to secure her condemnation by the Mixed
Commission. Ryan, on the other hand, could not make up his mind to let
the chance go by of making two prizes instead of one.
"`A bird in hand is worth two in the bush, Harry, me bhoy,'" he remarked
to me as we stood together near the binnacle, watching the approach of
the brig, which was now foaming along not a quarter of a mile away from
us; "and I look upon that brig as being quite as much in our hand as
though you and I stood upon her quarter-deck, with all her crew safe
under hatches. Steady there!" he continued, to the man at the tiller;
"mind your weather-helm, my man, or you'll be having that mainsail
jibing over, and I need not tell you what _that_ means in a breeze like
this. Don't meet her quite so sharply; if she seems inclined to take a
sheer to starboard, let her go; I will take care that the brig does not
run over us. Just look at her," he went on, turning again to me, "isn't
she a beauty? Why, she's almost as handsome, and as big too, as the
_Mercedes_! D'ye mean to tell me that such a hull as that would ever be
employed in the humdrum trade of carrying palm-oil? Why, it would be
nothing short of a waste of skilful modelling! No, _sorr_, she was
built for a slaver, and a slaver she is, or I'll eat this hat of mine,
puggaree and all, for breakfast!"
"I grant all that you say," admitted I, "but if she has nothing
incriminating on board her, what then? We shall only be wasting our
time by boarding her, while we shall certainly give the alarm to the
barque yonder, and, as likely as not, lose her for our pains."
Ryan took a good long look at the barque, that was now about two points
before our larboard beam, and some six miles distant, thrashing along in
a style that did one's heart good to see, and plunging into the heavy
head-sea, against which she was beating until her foresail was dark with
wet half-way up the weather-leech, and the spray was flying clean over
her, and drifting away like smoke to leeward. Then he turned and looked
at the brig on our opposite quarter.
"It's risky," he remarked to me through his set teeth, "but, by the
powers, I'll chance it! If we happen to be mistaken, why, I'll make the
skipper a handsome apology; if he's a true man, that ought to satisfy
him. Mr Bartlett"--to the boatswain--"cast off that drag and get it
inboard over the port-rail with as little fuss as may be, so that if
those fellows in the brig are watching us they may not know what we're
about; I want to keep that conthrivance a saycret as long as I can. Be
as smart as you like about it. Mr Dugdale, I want twenty men to arm
themselves forthwith, and then creep into the waist under the lee of the
starboard bulwarks, taking care that they are not seen; pick me out the
best men in the ship, if you please. Ah, here is Gowland, the very man
I wanted to see! Mr Gowland, you see that brig--" and as I turned away
to muster the men, and see that they were properly armed, he drew
Gowland away to the other side of the deck, and began to communicate
something to him in a very rapid, earnest manner.
By the time that the drag had been got inboard and stowed away, I had
picked out the required men, and had contrived to get them by twos and
threes under the starboard bulwarks without--so far as I knew--being
seen by those on board the brig, watching the roll of the schooner and
giving the word for the men to pass up through the scuttle and make a
crouching run for it as the schooner rolled to port and hid her deck
from the brig. That craft had by this time overhauled us, and was far
enough ahead to permit of our reading her name--the _Conquistador_, of
Havana--upon her stern; while our helmsman, taking Ryan's hint, had
steered so wildly, that he had sheered the schooner almost to within
biscuit-toss of her neighbour. Meanwhile, now that the drag was no
longer impeding us, we were gradually lessening the small space of water
that separated us from the brig, and we could see that the schooner and
her movements were exciting much curiosity and speculation, if not
actual suspicion, in the minds of three men who stood right aft on her
monkey-poop, intently watching us.
"Go for'ard and hail them," said Ryan to me; "I want to get a little
closer if I can without unduly exciting their suspicions. You can
affect to be deaf if you like; perhaps that will give us a chance."
I took the speaking-trumpet in my hand and, clambering leisurely into
the fore-rigging, hailed in Spanish--
"Ho, the brig ahoy! what brig is that?"
"The _Conquistador_, of Havana," was the reply. "What schooner is
that?"
I turned to one of the men who was standing near me and asked, in the
most natural manner in the world, "What did he say?"
"The _Conkistee_--something, of Hawaner, it sounded like to me, sir,"
answered the man.
"What did you say?" I yelled at the brig, raising the trumpet again to
my mouth.
"The _Con-quist-a-dor_, of Havana. What schooner is that?"
I assumed the most utter look of bewilderment I could upon the spur of
the moment, and then, waving my arm impatiently at our helmsman to sheer
still closer alongside the brig, whose quarter was now fair abreast of
our fore-rigging, repeated my question--
"_What_ did you say?"
My interlocutor, who was evidently the skipper of the brig, stamped on
the deck with vexation as he raised his hands to his mouth, and yelled
at the top of his voice--
"The _Con-quist-a-dor_, of Havana! Do not sheer so close to me, if you
please, senor. You will be foul of me if you do not look out!"
"That will do, Mr Dugdale," shouted Ryan in English, to the evident
astonishment and consternation of the brig's people, "we can manage now.
Stand by to jump aboard with me. I shall want you to act as
interpreter, for the deuce a word do I understand of their confounded
lingo."
And as he spoke he waved his hand to the helmsman, while at the same
moment Gowland, who stood close by, hauled down the Spanish and ran up
the British ensign to our peak. There was a shout of dismay from those
on board the brig, and a quick trampling of feet as her crew rushed to
their stations and hurriedly threw the coiled-up braces, halliards, and
sheets off the pins with some confused notion of doing something to
evade us even at the last moment. But they were altogether too late;
Somers, the quarter-master, who had seen what was afoot, and had
gradually worked his way aft, sprang to the tiller, and jamming it over
to port, sheered us very cleverly alongside the brig in the wake of her
main-rigging, into which Ryan and I instantly leaped, followed by our
twenty armed men. The surprise was so sudden and so complete that there
was no time for resistance, even had the Spaniards been disposed to
offer any, and in another moment we had reached the brig's deck and she
was in our possession, the schooner instantly sheering off again to a
short distance in order that the two craft might not do any damage to
each other.
Having taken so very decisive a step as to board and carry the brig,
there was now of course nothing for us but to go through with the affair
in the same high-handed fashion. I therefore demanded at once to see
the ship's papers; and after many indignant protests they were produced
and flung down upon the cabin table for our inspection. These fully
established the identity of the brig; and as an examination of her hold
revealed that she was fitted with a slave-deck, large coppers for the
preparation of food for the unfortunate blacks her captain hoped to
secure, a stock of water, and farina ample enough to meet the wants of a
large "cargo," and an abundance of slave-irons, we were fully justified
in taking possession of her, which we did forthwith. Half-an-hour
sufficed for us to secure our capture and put a prize-crew on board
under Gowland's command, and we then parted company; the brig to stand
on for an hour as she was going--so as not to needlessly alarm the
barque--and then to haul up and shape a course for Sierra Leone, while
we at once hauled our wind in pursuit of our new quarry, which bore by
this time well upon our port-quarter--as we had hitherto been going--
with her topsails just showing above the horizon.
We had no sooner trimmed sail in chase of the barque than we found, to
our unspeakable gratification, that we were still far enough to windward
to lay well up for her, she being at the commencement of the chase not
more than a point and a half upon our weather bow, while, from the
superiority of our rig, we were able to look quite that much higher than
she did. The question now was whether, in the strong wind and heavy sea
that we had to contend against, we could hold our own with a craft so
much more powerful than ourselves.
We had of course taken the precaution to get down a couple of reefs in
our topsail, and the same in the foresail, as well as to haul down the
squaresail and get the bonnet off the jib before leaving the
_Conquistador_, but it was not until we had hauled our wind and put the
schooner on a taut bowline, that we were able to realise how hard it was
actually blowing. Up to then the wind had seemed no more to us than a
brisk, pleasant breeze, while the schooner rode the long, creaming
surges lightly as a gull. _Now_, however, we had to doff our straw hats
in a hurry to save them from being blown away, and to don close-fitting
cloth caps instead, as well as our oil-skins, while it was positively
hard work to cross the deck against the wind. As for the schooner, she
behaved like a mad thing, careening to her gunwale as she soared to the
crest of a wave and cleft its foaming summit in a blinding deluge of
spray that swept her decks from the weather cat-head right aft to the
companion, and plunging next moment into the trough with a strong roll
to windward, and a very bedlam of yells and shrieks aloft as the gale
swept between her straining masts and rigging. She shuddered as if
terrified at every headlong plunge that she took, while the milk-white
spume brimmed to the level of her figure-head, and roared away from her
bows in a whole acre of boiling, glistening foam. The creaking and
groaning of her timbers and bulkheads raised such a din that a novice
would have been quite justified in fearing that the little hooker was
rapidly straining herself to pieces, while more than one crash of
crockery below, faintly heard through the other multitudinous sounds,
told us that the wild antics of the barkie were making a very pretty
general average among our domestic utensils. But, with all her creaking
and groaning, the schooner now proved herself to be a truly superb
sea-boat, scarcely shipping so much as a bucketful of green water,
despite the merciless manner in which we were driving her; and the way
in which she surmounted sea after sea, turning up her streaming
weather-bow to receive its buffet, and gaily "shaking her feathers"
after every plunge, was enough to make a sailor's heart leap with pride
and exultation that was not to be lessened even by the awe-inspiring
spectacle of the mountains of water that in continuous procession soared
up from beneath her keel and went roaring away to leeward with foaming
crests that towered to the height of the cross-trees.
Our first anxiety, of course, was to ascertain whether we were gaining
upon the chase, or whether she was maintaining her distance from us; as
soon, therefore, as we had secured our morning altitude of the sun for
the determination of the longitude, we measured as accurately as we
could the angle subtended by that portion of the barque's main-mast
which showed above the horizon. The task was one of very considerable
difficulty owing to the violent motion of the two craft, and when we had
done our best we were by no means satisfied with the result, but we
thought it might possibly be some help to us; so when we had at length
agreed upon the actual value of the angle, we clamped our instruments,
and, taking them below, stowed them carefully away in our bunks, where
there was not much danger of their coming to harm through the frantic
plunging of the schooner, our purpose of course being to compare the
angle then obtained with another to be measured an hour or two later.
If the second angle should prove to be greater than the first, it would
show that we had gained on the chase; if, on the contrary, it should
prove to be less, it would show that the chase had increased her
distance from us. It was shortly before noon when we again brought our
sextants on deck, opinion being meanwhile strongly divided as to whether
or not we were gaining; some asserting positively that we were, while
others as stoutly maintained that we were not. But even our sextants
failed to settle the question, for if there was any difference at all in
the angle, it was too minute for detection, and we were left in almost
the same state of suspense as before. The only relief afforded us was
the assurance that we were practically holding our own with the barque,
and that unless the weather grew still worse than it was, we stood a
fairly good chance of catching her eventually. One thing was certain;
light as our draught of water was, and small as was the schooner's area
of lateral resistance compared with that of the barque, we were slowly
but certainly eating our way out upon her weather quarter, her main and
foremasts having been visible to leeward of her mizenmast when the chase
commenced, while now they just showed clear of each other to windward,
thus conclusively demonstrating that we were gaining the weather-gauge
of her, despite the heavy sea. This was certainly a most comforting
reflection, and greatly helped to console us for the otherwise slow
progress that we were making in the chase. Ryan seemed to be the most
disappointed man among us all; he was very impetuous and hot-headed; he
liked to do everything on the instant and with a rush; and upon the
discovery that we were not gaining perceptibly, he muttered something
about giving the schooner more canvas. Luckily, before giving the order
he paused long enough to allow the fact to be borne in upon him that the
masts were already whipping and bending like fishing-rods, and the gear
taxed to its utmost capacity of resistance; and being, despite the
characteristics above-mentioned, a reasonably prudent and careful
officer, the sight restrained him, and he forbore to attempt anything so
risky as the further over-driving of the already greatly over-driven
craft.
Not so with the skipper of the barque. It was, of course, impossible
for us to know whether he had observed the capture of the
_Conquistador_--we hoped and believed not; but, however that may have
been, it was certain that he had been keeping his eyes sufficiently open
to promptly become aware of the fact that the schooner had altered her
course and was standing after him under a very heavy press of sail, and
if our surmises as to his character were anywhere near the truth, that
circumstance alone would be quite sufficient to fully arouse his
easily-awakened apprehensions and to urge him to keep us at arm's-length
at all risks. Be that as it may, we had just made it noon when the
quarter-master called our attention to the fact that the barque's people
had loosed their main-topgallant-sail and were sheeting it home over the
double-reefed topsail. It was an imprudent thing to do, however, for
the sail had scarcely been set ten minutes when the topgallant-mast went
over the side, snapped short off by the cap. Her skipper instantly
availed himself of the pretext afforded by this accident to bear away
three or four points while clearing the wreck, his object doubtless
being to determine beyond all question whether we really were after him
or not; and if this was his purpose, we did not leave him long in doubt
upon the point, our own helm being put up the instant that we saw what
he was about. Realising, by this move on our part, the true state of
affairs, he now squared dead away before the wind, shook out all his
reefs, and set his fore-topgallant-sail, as well as topmast and lower
studding-sails. This was piling on the canvas with a vengeance, but
Ryan was not the man to be bluffed by any such move as that; every glass
we had was now levelled at the barque, and no sooner were her people
seen in the rigging than away went our own, and so much smarter were our
people than those belonging to the barque, that our own studding-sails
were set and dragging like cart-horses while theirs were still being
sent aloft. This experiment was tried for about half-an-hour, by which
time it became evident that the schooner was fully as good off the wind
as was the barque, if not a trifle better; she seemed to fairly _fly_,
while at times, when the breeze happened to freshen a trifle, it really
seemed as though she would be lifted out of the water altogether; and I
am quite persuaded that but for the preventers we had rigged for the
purpose of relieving the masts when she was rolling so heavily during
the preceding calm--and which still remained aloft and were doing
splendid service--we must have lost both our sticks and been reduced to
a sheer hulk long before the half-hour had expired.
I have said that we were doing quite as well as, if not a trifle better
than, the barque; for while we held our own with her, so that she was
unable to appreciably alter her bearing from us, we were steadily edging
up toward her, our gain in this respect being so great that ere the next
manoeuvre was attempted we had risen her high enough to get a momentary
glimpse of the whole length of her rail when she floated up on the crest
of a sea. It was clear, therefore, that the barque had gained nothing
by running off the wind; on the contrary, we had neared her fully a
mile; her skipper, therefore, having given the unsuccessful experiment a
fair trial, suddenly took in all his studding-sails again, reduced his
canvas once more to a couple of reefs, and braced sharp up to the wind,
as before. But here again we had the advantage of him through the
superior smartness of our own crew, for he no sooner began to shorten
sail than we did the same, handling our canvas so quickly that we were
ready nearly five minutes before him, the result being that we had
gained another half-mile upon him and had placed ourselves a good
quarter of a mile upon his weather quarter by the time that he had
sweated up his top sail-halliards. We now felt that, barring accidents,
the barque was ours; she could escape us neither to leeward nor to
windward. Instead, therefore, of continuing to jam the schooner as
close into the wind's eye as she would sail, with the object of
weathering out on the barque, we pointed the little vixen's jib-boom
fair and square at the chase, checked the sheets and braces a few inches
fore and aft, and put her along for all that she was worth.
It is astonishing to note the advantageous effect that is produced upon
the sailing of a ship when it becomes possible to check the sheets and
braces even a few paltry inches; it was distinctly noticeable in the
case of the schooner; her movements were perceptibly freer and easier,
she no longer drove her keen cut-water into the heart of the seas,
receiving their blows upon the rounding of her weather bow with a force
sufficient to shake her from stem to stern and almost to stop her way
for an appreciable instant of time; she now slid smoothly up the breast
of the wave, taking its stroke fairly in the wake of the fore-rigging,
where it had little or no retarding effect upon her, surmounted its
crest with a long, easy roll, and then sank with equal smoothness down
into the trough, along which she sped lightly and swiftly as a petrel.
It added a good half-a-knot to her speed.
It was soon apparent that even this comparatively trifling advantage on
our part had not escaped the notice of our wary friend the skipper of
the barque; it suggested to him yet one more experiment, and he was not
slow to make it, keeping his ship away about a point and a half and
checking his braces accordingly. This proved very much more
satisfactory so far as he was concerned; for by four bells in the
afternoon watch we had lost sight of the barque's hull again, and it was
unmistakably evident that she was increasing her distance from us. We
held on, however, straight after her, as before; for although it was
undeniable that she was now drawing away from us, it was but slowly; it
would take her a good many hours to run us out of sight at that rate,
and we felt pretty confident that when the weather moderated--which we
hoped would be before long, as the glass indicated a slight rising
tendency--we should have her at our mercy. Meanwhile, however, we felt
that we must not count our chickens before they were hatched; for there
would be nearly an hour and a half of darkness between sunset and
moonrise, and in that time our crafty friend would be pretty certain to
attempt some new trickery if there seemed a ghost of a chance of its
proving successful.