ranged up on her lee quarter and swept alongside a party of some ten or
a dozen jabbering and gesticulating Frenchmen jumped up on her poop and
saluted us with an irregular fire of musketry, which, however, did no
harm; and upon our people returning the fire three of the Frenchmen
fell, while the rest tumbled off the poop in such a desperate hurry that
our fellows were fairly convulsed with laughter. The skipper conned us
alongside in such a masterly style that I do not believe the hulls of
the two vessels actually touched at all--at least, I was unconscious of
any shock--yet we were close enough for the two boarding-parties to
spring with ease and certainty from our rigging into the Indiaman's
channels; and the next moment, as they tumbled in over the ship's rail,
our helm was eased up, and the vessels sheered apart, without having
carried away so much as a rope-yarn. There was a tremendous scuffle on
the Indiaman's deck for perhaps half a minute, with a great popping of
pistols, the sound of heavy blows, cheers from our lads, loud
execrations on the part of the Frenchmen, a shriek or two of pain at
some well-directed cut or thrust, then a rush forward, during which we
remained some twenty fathoms to leeward of the Indiaman, ready to sheer
alongside again and render assistance if necessary; and then Lovell
sprang up on the poop and hailed that he had secured possession of the
ship, and would haul his wind as soon as he could get in the studding-
sails. Thereupon our helm was put hard up, and we wore short round,
bracing sharp up on the starboard tack to intercept the lugger, which
craft was now foaming along under all the canvas that she could spread.
She was a big lump of a craft, of her class, measuring, according to my
estimation, fully a hundred and fifty tons; and she appeared to be very
fast. It was light enough by this time, what with the increasing
daylight and the clearing away of the fog, for us to see that she
mounted four guns--probably six-pounders--of a side, and there was
something very like a long nine-pounder covered over by a tarpaulin,
between her fore and mainmasts. She was well to windward of us, and
presently crossed our bows at a distance of about a mile. We, of
course, at once tacked, and, letting the schooner go along clean full,
so as to head off the lugger, set our topgallant-sail and small gaff-
topsail.
We rapidly neared each other, the _Dolphin_ gradually edging away as the
lugger fore-reached upon us, until only half a mile of water divided the
two craft. Then we saw that her people were busy with the mysterious
object between her masts, and presently, sure enough, a long nine-
pounder, mounted upon a pivot, stood revealed. Five minutes later they
tried a shot at us from this same piece--the ball from which struck the
water some five fathoms astern of us,--and at the same time hoisted the
French tricolour. We responded by running our ensign up to the gaff,
but reserved our fire for a while, the skipper having as yet had no
opportunity of finding out our lads' capabilities with the guns. At
length, however, having edged up to within a quarter of a mile of the
lugger, and having conclusively demonstrated our superiority of sailing,
Captain Winter gave orders that our larboard broadside should be
carefully levelled and trained upon the lugger's mainmast; and while
this was being done she fired her starboard broadside at us, one of the
shot from which passed through our mainsail, while another struck our
fore-topmast about a foot above the topsail-halliard sheave-hole,
bringing down the upper part of the spar and the topgallant-sail.
The Frenchmen's cheers at this success were still floating down to us,
when, having personally supervised the levelling and training of our
guns, I gave the order to fire. Sharp at the word, our broadside rang
out; and as the smoke blew over us and away to leeward the lugger's
mainmast was seen to suddenly double up, as it were, in the middle, the
upper portion toppling over to leeward and carrying the sail with it
into the water, while the foresail began to flap furiously in the wind,
the sheet having been shot away.
"Hurrah, men! capitally done!" shouted the skipper; "you have her now,"
as the lugger, under her mizzen only, shot up into the wind, plunging
heavily. "Ready about! and stand by to rake her with your starboard
broadside as we cross her stern. Helm's a-lee! Load your port guns
again as smartly as you please, my lads. Topsail haul! Stand by, the
starboard battery, and give it her as your guns are brought to bear!
Away aloft there, a couple of hands, and clear the wreck of the
topgallant-mast!"
The _Dolphin_, tacking as fast as the men could haul round the yards,
without losing headway for an instant, went round like a top, and in
less than half a minute was crossing the lugger's stern. There was
tremendous confusion on board, her crew, to the number of some thirty or
forty, rushing about her decks,--as we could now plainly see,--
apparently undecided what to do next. At the proper moment our
starboard broadside was fired, and the great white, jagged patch that
instantly afterwards appeared in the lugger's transom showed that pretty
nearly, if not quite all, the shot had taken effect.
"Well aimed, men!" cried the skipper in an ecstasy of delight. "That is
the way to bring them to their senses. Ready about again! And stand by
to give them your port broadside. Helm's a-lee!"
Round swept the _Dolphin_ again, and presently we were once more
crossing the stern of the lugger, the confusion on board being, as it
seemed, greater than ever. We were by this time within a quarter of a
mile of our antagonist, and again our broadside, discharged at precisely
the right moment, told with terrible effect on board the lugger, not
only raking her from stem to stern, but also bringing down her fore and
mizzen-masts. And all this time they had not replied to our fire with a
single gun.
Standing on for a distance of about a cable's length, the _Dolphin_
again tacked, this time fetching far enough to windward to have enabled
us to cross the lugger's bows had we desired to do so. Instead of that,
however, Captain Winter gave orders to keep away and pass close under
her stern, the starboard broadside being all ready to pour into her if
need were. Captain Winter's orders were, however, not to fire until he
gave the word. Reaching along on an easy bowline, we were soon on the
lugger's starboard quarter, and within biscuit-toss of the vessel, when
the skipper ordered the topsail to be laid aback, and as, with
diminished way, we drifted fair athwart the lugger's stern, in a
position admirably adapted for raking her from end to end, he sprang
into the starboard main rigging, and hailed in French, asking whether
they surrendered. A man, who looked like the captain, standing near the
deserted wheel, looked at us intently for a few seconds, and then,
observing that we were all ready to give him our starboard broadside,
answered in the affirmative; whereupon our people, several of whom had a
smattering of French, gave three hearty cheers as they dropped the
lanyards of their locks to the deck, and laid down their rammers,
sponges, and hand-spikes.
"Take the starboard cutter, Mr Bowen, and ten men, and go on board to
take possession," said the skipper. "Cut away the wreckage as soon as
you have secured the crew below, and then send the boat back with a
couple of hands, and be ready to receive a tow-line from us. We shall
have to take you in tow, as I see that the Indiaman is now on a wind;
and I have no fancy for leaving either her or you to make your way into
port unprotected. As soon as you are fast to us, set your men to work
to get up jury-masts, if you find that there are any spars aboard
suitable for the purpose. There is a fine breeze blowing now, and if we
have luck we ought to get into harbour to-night, prizes and all."
"Ay, ay, sir," answered I. "The carpenter had better come with us, had
he not? I expect we shall want his help in rigging our jury-masts."
"Yes, certainly," assented the skipper; "take him by all means."
"Thank you, sir," said I as I turned away. "Now then," I continued,
"ten of you into the starboard cutter, lads, as quick as you like. And
take your cutlasses and pistols with you. Come along, Chips, my man;
get your tools, and tumble them into the boat."
Ten minutes later we were on board the lugger, which proved to be the
_Belle Jeannette_, of Saint Malo, and a very fine craft she was, as we
saw, when we stood upon her broad, roomy deck. She mounted nine guns,
eight of them being long sixes, while the ninth was the long nine-
pounder between the fore and mainmast. I was astonished to see what
havoc our shot had wrought, the deck and bulwarks being broadly streaked
and splashed with blood, while each gun had its own little group of two
or three killed and wounded lying about it. All three of her masts had
been shot away, as already stated; and, in addition to this, her stern
transom was regularly torn to pieces, one of the jagged and splintered
holes being quite large enough for me to have passed through it had I
been so minded. Three spokes of the wheel had been shot away, and it
was a wonder to me, as I marked the path of our shot along the torn and
splintered deck, that the whole concern had not been destroyed. The
companion was badly damaged and started; and as for the cabin skylight,
there was very little of it left.
The crew--the few of them who could still stand, that is to say--had
thrown down their arms and gone forward on to the forecastle upon
hearing their skipper state that he surrendered, and there we found them
when we boarded our prize. The skipper himself--a rather fine-looking
man, some thirty-five years of age, with piercing black eyes, curly
black hair and beard, and large gold ear-rings in his ears--had, of
course, remained aft; and when I sprang over the bulwarks, in on deck,
he advanced toward me, and handing me his sheathed sword, remarked
rather bitterly:
"Accept my sword, monsieur, and with it my congratulations upon your
good fortune in having secured two such valuable prizes. The Indiaman
herself is not to be despised, but I was a fool not to let her go when I
saw that her capture was inevitable. I believe we could have escaped
you had we hauled our wind when we first made you out; but, as it is, I
have lost not only my prize but also my ship and the chest of specie
which we took the precaution of removing from the Indiaman last night.
You are certain to find it, as it is lying beneath the table in my
cabin, so I may as well make a virtue of necessity and tell you of it at
once. Perhaps, under the circumstances, monsieur will be generous
enough to be content with the treasure, and allow me to retain my
lugger, which represents all that I possess in the world?"
"And thus restore to you the power to inflict further injury upon our
commerce? I am afraid not, monsieur," answered I. "Had you been a mere
harmless trader, it might possibly have been different; but, as it is,
the proposal is--pardon me for saying so--preposterous."
"As monsieur pleases, of course. But it will be my ruin," remarked the
man gloomily. "With monsieur's permission, then, I will retire to my
cabin." And he turned away as though to go below.
"Pardon me, monsieur," said I, hastily interposing between him and the
companion; "I am afraid that my duty necessitates my requesting that
monsieur will be so obliging as to remain on deck for the present."
"Then take that, curse you!" ejaculated he, whipping a big, ugly knife
out of his bosom, and striking savagely at my heart with it.
Fortunately the sudden glitter in his eyes warned me, and I succeeded in
catching his upraised arm in my left hand, with which I gripped his
wrist so strongly that he was perforce obliged to drop the knife to the
deck or submit to have his wrist broken. Kicking the weapon overboard,
through an open port close at hand, I called to one of my men to clap a
lashing round the hands and feet of my antagonist, and then went forward
to superintend the securing of the remainder of our prisoners. There
were only fourteen of them uninjured, or whose wounds were so slight as
to leave them capable of doing any mischief, and these we drove down
into the hold, where, finding plenty of irons, we effectually secured
them.
By the time that this was done, the wreck of the masts cut away, and the
sails--which had been towing overboard--secured, the _Dolphin_ was ready
to pass a towrope on board us. This we at once took, securing the end
to the windlass bitts, when the schooner filled away, with the lugger in
tow, and stood after the Indiaman, which was by this time a couple of
miles to windward of us, heading to the northward on an easy bowline, on
the starboard tack. Russell, the _Dolphin's_ surgeon, came aboard us
about the same time as the tow-line, and while he busied himself in
attending to the hurts of the Frenchmen, we went to work to rig up a set
of jury-masts--suitable spars for which we were lucky enough to find
aboard the lugger--and, by dint of hard work, we contrived to get three
spars on end,--securely lashed to the stumps of the masts, and well
stayed,--by dinner-time, and by four bells that same afternoon we had
the lugger under her own canvas once more, when we cast adrift from the
_Dolphin_, it being found that, even under jury-masts, the _Belle
Jeannette_ was quite capable of holding her own with the Indiaman in the
moderate weather then prevailing. Long before this, however, I had
found an opportunity to go below and have a look at the treasure-chest,
which I had found in the position indicated by the French skipper. It
was an unexpectedly bulky affair; so much so, indeed, that I thought the
safest place for it would be down in the _Dolphin's_ run, and there it
was soon safely stowed, after I had gone on board the schooner to report
to Captain Winter the great value of our prize. It afterwards turned
out that this chest contained no less than thirty thousand pounds in
specie; so I was right in considering it worth taking care of.
CHAPTER FOUR.
ANOTHER FIGHT, AND ANOTHER PRIZE.
The weather had been clearing all day, and when, about six bells that
afternoon, we made the high land of Portland, the sky was without a
cloud, the atmosphere clear and bright, and the sun was shining as
brilliantly as though it had been midsummer, quite taking the keen edge
off the frosty air. There was not a vessel in sight in any direction,
which was rather a relief to us; for, situated as we were then, it would
have been difficult to say whether the sight of a friend or of an enemy
would have excited the most uneasiness in our breasts. A friend would
almost certainly have been a man-o'-war; and although our papers were
nominally a protection of our crew against impressment, we were fully
aware that, as a matter of fact, they were nothing of the sort, the
captains of our men-o'-war impressing almost as freely from a privateer
as from an ordinary merchantman. Now, our men were, so far as we had
had an opportunity of proving them, first-rate fellows, with scarcely a
single exception, we were therefore most anxious not to lose any of
them; and were consequently the reverse of desirous to meet with one of
our own ships of war. On the other hand, we were by this time so close
in with the English coast that, if we happened to encounter an enemy, it
would certainly be a prowling privateer--like ourselves--heavily enough
armed and manned to admit of their venturing, without much risk, over to
our side of the Channel, on the look-out for homeward-bound British
ships. To encounter such a customer as this would mean plenty of hard
knocks, without very much profit, and with just the chance of losing one
or the other of our prizes. We were, therefore, heartily thankful to
find a clear horizon all round us when the fog cleared away. We were
destined, however, to have another bout with a Frenchman before long, as
will presently appear.
We had made the high land of Portland about half an hour when the sounds
of distant firing were faintly borne to our ears; and shortly afterwards
two craft, a cutter and a brig--the latter evidently in chase of the
former--hove into view, broad on our weather-bow. The firing was not
very heavy, it is true, but it was briskly maintained; and as they came
sweeping rapidly down toward us it became apparent that the two craft
were exchanging shots from their bow and stern-chasers respectively.
The cutter was flying the British ensign, while the brig sported the
tricolour; and, the two vessels being dead before the wind, the brig
carrying studding-sails on both sides, the Frenchman seemed to be
getting rather the best of it, overhauling the cutter slowly but surely.
As soon as this was seen, the _Dolphin_ hove-to and put ten more men on
board the _Belle Jeannette_, with orders to me to close with the
Indiaman, and to clear for action, both which orders I obeyed without
loss of time. And, while doing so, the _Dolphin_ and ourselves hoisted
British colours, as a hint to the brig that if she dared to meddle with
us we were quite ready for her. The cutter and the brig happened to be
steering a course that would bring them close aboard of our little
squadron, and when the Frenchman saw the colour of our bunting he began
at once to shorten sail by taking in his studding-sails, preparatory, as
we supposed, to hauling his wind out of so perilous a neighbourhood.
But in supposing thus we were mistaken; the fellow evidently at once hit
off our respective characters to a T; he saw that the lugger--under
jury-masts and bearing other unmistakable signs of having been very
recently in action--was a prize; no doubt judged the Indiaman to be a
recapture; and--perhaps believing that, with these two prizes, the
schooner would be very short-handed--quickly made up his mind that
either of the three would be more valuable than the cutter to him. At
all events he shortened sail in a most determined and workmanlike
manner, threw open all his ports, and, slightly shifting his helm, made
as though he would slip in between the _Dolphin_ and the Indiaman.
Captain Winter, however, would not have it so; as the Frenchman luffed,
the _Dolphin_ edged away, until both vessels were heading well in for
the West Bay, athwart the Indiaman's hawse, and running upon lines so
rapidly converging that, within ten minutes of the declaration of the
Frenchman's intentions, the brig and the schooner were within biscuit-
toss of each other. The brig mounted six guns of a side against the
_Dolphin's_ five; but this disparity was altogether too trifling a
matter for our skipper to take any notice of, and accordingly, when the
two vessels had neared each other to within about twenty fathoms, the
Frenchmen showing signs of an intention to run the schooner on board,
Captain Winter poured in his starboard broadside, and at the same time
edged away just sufficiently to keep a few fathoms of water between
himself and the brig. The broadside was promptly returned, and in
another minute the two vessels were at it, hammer and tongs, yard-arm to
yard-arm, and running almost dead away before the wind.
Meanwhile, having sent a hand aloft to take a look round, and having
thus ascertained that there was nothing else in sight to interfere with
us, I came to the conclusion that the Indiaman might very well take care
of herself for half an hour or so; and, accordingly, we in the lugger at
once bore up to support the schooner. Up to the time of encountering
the Frenchman we had been sailing about a quarter of a mile to leeward
of the Indiaman, while the _Dolphin_ had been jogging along about the
same distance to windward of the big ship; our positions, therefore,
were such that we in the lugger had only to put up our helm a couple of
spokes or so to enable us to converge upon the two combatants, which we
did. By the time of our arrival upon the scene the fight was raging so
hotly, and both craft were so completely enveloped in smoke that neither
party was aware of our presence; I therefore steered so as to just shave
clear of the _Dolphin's_ stern; and, having done so, our men
deliberately fired each of the four long sixes in our larboard broadside
slap into the stern of the brig, raking her fore-and-aft. Then, passing
out clear of her, we tacked the instant that we had room, and, passing
close under her stern again, gave her in like fashion the contents of
our starboard broadside. This time the Frenchmen were ready for us, and
returned our fire with their two stern-chasers, both shot passing
through our mainsail without doing any further damage. Again we tacked;
and this time I gave orders to put in a charge of grape on top of each
round shot, which we rattled into the stern of the Frenchman at a
distance of not more than three or four fathoms. Our shot must have
wrought terrible execution; for after each discharge we could hear the
shrieks and groans of the wounded even through the crash of the two
other vessels' broadsides. This time they only gave us one gun in
exchange for our four, the shot passing in through our port bulwarks and
out through the starboard, killing a man on its way. Our shot, however,
had killed the brig's helmsman, and almost immediately afterwards the
vessel broached-to, her foremast going over the bows as she did so.
This was enough for them; they received another broadside from the
_Dolphin_, and then, just as we were in stays, preparatory to passing
athwart their stern and raking them again, a man ran aft and hauled down
their flag, at the same time crying out that they surrendered.
The firing on both sides at once ceased, the smoke drifted away to
leeward, and we were able to see around us once more, as well as to note
the condition of the combatants after our brief but spirited engagement.
The cutter had seized the opportunity to make good her escape, and was
now more than two miles to leeward, running before the wind to the
westward on her original course. The brig--which proved to be the
_Etoile du Nord_, of Dunkirk--had, as already stated, lost her foremast,
her bulwarks were riddled with shot-holes, and her rigging badly cut up.
The _Dolphin_ also had suffered severely from the fire of her
antagonist, her starboard bulwarks being almost destroyed, her rigging
showing a good many loose ropes'-ends floating in the wind, and her
main-boom so severely wounded that it parted in two when her helm was
put down to bring her to the wind and heave her to. As for us, the
damage that we had received from the brig's fire was so trifling as to
be not worth mentioning.
I knew, of course, that after so determined a fight the services of our
surgeon would be in urgent request on board both the principal
combatants; so, as he was aboard the lugger, I ran down close under the
_Dolphin's_ lee and, having hove-to, lowered a boat and put the medico
on board the schooner, going with him myself to see whether I could be
of any service. The deck of the schooner bore eloquent testimony to the
sharpness of the recent conflict, several dead and wounded men lying
about the guns in little pools of blood, while the torn and splintered
woodwork that met one's view on every side was grimly suggestive of the
pandemonium that had raged there a few minutes previously. Captain
Winter was one of the wounded, a splinter having torn a large piece of
skin from his forehead, laying bare the skull over his right eye; but
the gallant old fellow had replaced the skin as well as he could, lashed
up the wound with his silk neckerchief, using his pocket handkerchief
under it as a pad, and was attending to his duty as coolly as though he
had escaped untouched. He instructed me to go on board the brig with
ten men, to take possession, leaving the carpenter in charge of the
lugger, and at the same time signalled the Indiaman--which had hove-to
some two miles to windward--to close.
The new prize was, as may be supposed, terribly knocked about; out of a
crew of eighty-six men and boys she had no less than nineteen killed--
the captain among them--and forty-three wounded; while, in addition to
the damage which had been noticeable before going on board her, I found
that two of her guns had been dismounted, most probably by the lugger's
raking broadsides. Fortunately, her hull was quite uninjured, the whole
of the damage done being to the upper works. Our first task was to
clear away the wreck of the foremast, the skipper hailing me soon after
I had boarded to say that he intended the Indiaman to take us in tow.
The wreck was soon cut away, and just as it was falling dark we got our
tow-line aboard the Indiaman, and proceeded, the uninjured Frenchmen
having meanwhile requested permission to attend to their wounded fellow-
prisoners and make them comfortable below.