On the 22nd of July 1847, HMS _Waterwitch_, with HMS _Rapid_ in company,
captured the Brazilian brigantine _Romeo Primero_, which was
subsequently given in charge to Lieutenant W.G. Mansfield, RN, and four
seamen, to be conveyed to Saint Helena for adjudication. Owing to
adverse winds, and the unmanageable qualities of the prize, the officer
in command found it necessary to alter his destination, and to bear up
for Sierra Leone.
On the 11th of August, about midday, two of the crew being engaged
aloft, and the others in the bunks, where the arms were stowed, the
lieutenant being at the moment pulling a rope which had been recently
spliced, was murderously assailed from behind by one of the prisoners,
with an axe used for chopping firewood. There were four of them who
were during the daytime allowed the liberty of the vessel. At the same
moment, the other three prisoners furiously attacked the sailors in the
bunks, who, from the unexpected nature of the assault, were driven from
their post wounded and unarmed. Lieutenant Mansfield, laying hold of a
piece of firewood, gallantly but unequally contended with a Brazilian
armed with a cutlass. In the course of a desperate struggle, the
officer received no fewer than nine wounds, more or less severe; a
greatcoat which he wore being, under Providence, the means of saving him
from instant death. The two sailors who had been occupied in the
shrouds, having reached the deck, of course unarmed, the lieutenant,
nearly exhausted by profuse haemorrhage, made a violent effort to join
them, in which he fortunately proved successful, though in his progress
one of the prisoners discharged at him a marine's musket, the contents
of which took effect, inflicting a most dangerous wound in his head, and
bringing him for an instant to the deck. Having succeeded in recovering
his feet and gaining his men, he encouraged them to rush aft upon their
armed antagonists--a piece of service which three of their number
performed in the most daring manner; the fourth seaman (since dead)
being _hors de combat_ from his wounds, and the lieutenant himself
fainting at the instant from loss of blood. The intrepidity of the
three British tars rendered them more than a match for their armed
antagonists, whom they speedily overpowered, one of the prisoners
leaping overboard and perishing in the waves. Believing their officer
to be killed, the seamen, in the excitement of the moment, were about to
hurl the surviving prisoners over the gangway, when Lieutenant
Mansfield, partially reviving, ordered them to be imprisoned, that their
wounds should be washed, and that they should be reserved to be dealt
with by the authorities at Sierra Leone.
On the 1st of September the _Romeo Primero_, the scene of this bloody
encounter, entered the port. Lieutenant Mansfield, who, since the day
of the conflict, had scarcely been able to stir hand or foot, was
promptly conveyed to sick-quarters, and for many days his life was
entirely despaired of by his medical attendants. The gallant little
crew, all wounded, were also looked after in the best manner which skill
and sympathy could suggest; but two were soon beyond the reach of human
succour,--one dying of the direct consequences of his wounds, and the
second of fever induced by them. After a fortnight of extreme danger on
shore, Lieutenant Mansfield showed symptoms of recovery, and in the same
year received the rank of commander.