"Heave-to, cap'en! heave-to! I ain't a thundering big enemy from whom
you've any cause to run," I heard him shouting out. "Just look round,
and maybe you'll see somebody you won't be sorry to see, I've a notion."
My uncle, hearing Jerry's voice, turned his head, and instantly catching
sight of me, came running along with both his arms outstretched, his
countenance beaming all over like a landscape lighted up by sunshine. I
was somewhat fearful lest he should fall, but I caught him, and we shook
hands for a minute at least, his voice almost choking as he exclaimed,
"I am glad! I am glad! Bless my heart, how glad I am! And your wife,
Will? You'll soon make her all to rights. Not that she is ill, but
that she's been pining for you, poor lass; but no wonder: it's a way the
women have. Glad I hadn't a wife until I was able to live on shore and
look after her. Come along! come along!" and he took my arm, almost
again falling in his eagerness to get over the ground, which here and
there was soft and sandy, and full of holes in other places.
"Please, Mr Kelson, as I was a-telling of your nevvy, it won't do just
to come down on the lass like a thunder-clap, or it may send her over on
her beam-ends," said Jerry as he ranged up alongside, puffing and
blowing with his exertions. "Just you stop and talk to him when we get
near the house, and let me go ahead and I'll break the matter gently,
like a soft summer shower, so that they'll be all to rights and ready
for him when he comes."
Jerry, I guessed, wanted to undertake the matter himself, suspecting
that my uncle would, notwithstanding his good intentions, blurt out the
truth too suddenly.
I therefore answered for him, that we would wait till Jerry had gone to
the house and summoned us, though I had to exert no small amount of
resolution to stop short of the door when we got in sight of it.
Jerry ran on at first, but went more deliberately as he approached the
door, when, knocking, he was admitted.
He must be spinning a tremendous long yarn, I thought, for it seemed to
me as if he had kept us half an hour, though I believe it was only two
or three minutes, when at length he appeared and beckoned.
"Come along, Will! come along, my boy!" cried my uncle, keeping hold of
my arm; but, no longer able to restrain my impatience, I sprang forward
and, brushing past old Jerry, rushed into the house.
There was my Margaret, with Aunt Bretta by her side to support her; but
she needed no support except my arm. After a little time, though still
clinging with her arms round my neck, she allowed me to embrace my good
aunt. My uncle soon joined us, and Old Jerry poked his head in at the
door, saying with a knowing nod, "All right, I see there's been no `high
strikes.' I shall be one too many if I stop. Good-day, ladies;
good-day, friends all. I'll look in to-morrow, or maybe the next
evening; but I shall have plenty of work in the harbour, taking off
people to see the prize and the ship which captured her."
"Stop, Jerry, stop!" cried my uncle; "have a glass of grog before you
go?"
"No, thankee, cap'en," answered Jerry. "I must keep a clear head on my
shoulders. If I once takes a taste, maybe I shall want another as I
pass the Blue Posteses."
Uncle Kelson did not press the point, and the old man took his
departure.
Of course it required a long time to tell all that had happened to me,
but I need not describe those happy days on shore. My dear wife would
scarcely allow me for a moment to be out of her sight. She once asked
the question, "Must you go back?"
"I have given my word that I would," I answered. I knew full well what
her heart wished, though she had too much regard for my honour even to
hint at the possibility of my breaking my word.
Aunt Bretta and Uncle Kelson were of the same way of thinking; but old
Jerry, who paid us a visit the second evening according to his promise,
looked at the matter in a very different light.
"Now, Will, I've been thinking over this here business of yours every
day since I first clapped eyes on you, and I've made up my mind that as
they had no right to press you aboard that 'ere frigate, you have every
right to make yourself scarce. I've got the whole affair cut and dry.
There's a friend of mine who is as true as steel. He's got a light
cart, and we intend to bundle you in soon after dark, and drive away,
maybe to Chichester, and maybe to some country place where you can lie
snug till the frigate has sailed, and the hue and cry after you is over.
"It's all as smooth as oil. There'll only be one man less aboard, as
there would be if a shot was to take your head off; so it can't make any
odds to the captain and officers. And let me tell you, you'll have a
different set over you; for Mr Morris the first lieutenant, has got his
promotion, Mr Lake is too badly wounded to allow him to return on board
for some time, and the captain is sure to get a better ship; so you
don't know what double-fisted fellows you'll get in their places.
"Follow my advice, Will; escape from all the tyranny and floggings, for
what you can tell, that are in store for you. Run, and be a free man."
"No, no, Mr Vincent; the advice you give is well meant, but I dare not
even ask my husband to do as you propose," answered Margaret in a firm
voice, though she looked very sad as she spoke. "He would not be a
happy man if he broke his word, and he has given that word to return.
Even I can say, `Go back to your duty.'"
"So do I," said Uncle Kelson, "though, if he had not given his word, I
don't know what I might have advised."
"We can all pray for him," said Aunt Bretta, "and I trust that we shall
see him again before long, when he is free and can with a clean
conscience remain with us."
"I thank you, Jerry, for your good wishes," I put in. "It cannot be,
you see. I wish I could get away from the ship; but until I am paid
off, and properly discharged, though I was pressed, I am bound to
remain; so if you care for me, do not say anything more on the subject."
"Well, well, if it must be, so it must," answered Jerry with a deep
sigh. "Some people's notions ain't like other people's notions, that's
all I've got to say; and now I think it's time for me to be tripping my
anchor."
"No, no, not until you have wetted your whistle," said Uncle Kelson,
beginning to mix a glass of grog.
The old man's eyes glistened as he resumed his seat, replacing his hat
under the chair; and putting his hand out to take the tumbler which my
uncle pushed towards him across the table, and sipping it slowly, he
looked up and said:
"I forgot to tell you that Sir Edward Pellew, as we must now call him
since he got the sword laid across his shoulders by the king, has been
appointed to the command of the _Arethusa_, a fine new frigate which
will make a name for herself, if I mistake not, as the old one did. You
remember her, cap'en, don't you! It was her they writ the song about,"
and he began singing:--
"Come all ye jolly sailors bold
Whose hearts are cast in honour's mould,
While English glory I unfold:
Huzza! to the _Arethusa_;
She is a frigate tight and brave
As ever stemmed the dashing wave,
Her men are staunch to their fav'rite launch.
And when the foe shall meet our fire,
Sooner than strike, we'll all expire
On board of the _Arethusa_!
"'Twas with the spring fleet she went out,
The English Channel to cruise about,
When four French sail, in show so stout,
Bore down on the _Arethusa_.
The famed _Belle Poule_ straight ahead did lie,
The _Arethusa_ seemed to fly,
Not a sheet or a tack or a brace did she slack,
Though the Frenchman laughed and thought it stuff,
But they knew not the handful of men how tough
On board of the _Arethusa_!
"On deck five hundred men did dance,
The stoutest they could find in France;
We with two hundred did advance,
On board of the _Arethusa_!
Our captain hail'd the Frenchman, `Ho!'
The Frenchman then cried out `Hullo!'
`Bear down, d'ye see, to our Admiral's lee.'
`No, no,' says the Frenchman; `that can't be.'
`Then I must lug you along with me,'
Says the saucy _Arethusa_!
"The fight was off the Frenchman's land.
We forced them back upon their strand,
For we fought till not a stick would stand
Of the gallant _Arethusa_.
And now we've driven the foe ashore,
Never to fight with Britons more,
Let each fill a glass to his fav'rite lass,
A health to our captain and officers true,
And all who belong to the jovial crew
On board of the _Arethusa_!"
"I mind," continued Jerry after another sip at his grog, "that she
carried thirty-two guns, and was commanded by Captain Marshall. It was
in the year 1778, just before the last war broke out. We hadn't come to
loggerheads with the mounseers, though we knew pretty well that it
wouldn't be long before we were that. We and two other frigates sailed
down Channel with a fleet of twenty sail of the line under Admiral
Keppel.
"When off the Lizard, on the 17th of June, we made out two frigates and
a schooner to the southward. On seeing them, and guessing that they
were French, the Admiral ordered us and the _Milford_ to go in chase.
The strangers separated, the _Milford_ frigate and _Hector_, a
seventy-four, following the other ship, which turned out to be the
_Licorne_, and took her; while the _Albert_ cutter pursued the schooner,
and captured her by boarding after a sharp struggle. We meantime alone
followed the other stranger, which was the French forty gun frigate
_Belle Poule_.
"On getting within hailing distance, our captain, in the politest manner
possible, invited the French captain to sail back with him to the
English fleet.
"`No, no,' answered the French skipper, `that it cannot be, seeing I am
bound elsewhere.'
"`Then, mounseer, I must obey orders and make you come with me,' says
our captain just as politely as before, and without further ado he
ordered the crew of the foremost main-deck gun to fire a shot across the
French ship's bows. It was the first shot fired during the war. We in
return got the Frenchman's whole broadside crashing aboard us.
"We then began pounding away at each other as close as we could get. It
seemed wonderful to me that we were not both of us blown out of the
water. Our men were falling pretty thickly, some killed and many more
wounded, while our sails and rigging were getting much cut up.
"You see the enemy had twenty guns on a side to our sixteen, but we
tossed ours in and out so sharply that we made up for the difference.
For two mortal hours we kept blazing away, getting almost as much as we
gave, till scarcely a stick could stand aboard us; but our captain was
not the man to give in, and while he could he kept at it. At last, our
rigging and canvas being cut to pieces, and our masts ready to fall, so
that we could not make sail, the _Belle Poule_ having had enough of it,
shot ahead, and succeeded in getting under the land where we were unable
to follow her.
"The song says that we drove her ashore; but though we did no exactly do
that, we knocked her well about, and she had forty-eight men and
officers killed and fifty wounded. As it was, as I have said, the first
action in the old war, it was more talked about than many others. We
lost our captain, not from his being killed, but from his getting a
bigger ship, and Captain Everitt was appointed in his stead.
"The old _Arethusa_, after this, continued a Channel cruiser. We had
pretty sharp work at different times, chasing the enemy, and capturing
their merchantmen, and cutting-out vessels from their harbours; but we
had no action like the one the song was wrote about.
"At last, in the March of the next year, when some fifty leagues or more
off Brest, we made out a French frigate inshore of us. Instead of
standing bravely out to fight the saucy _Arethusa_, she squared away her
yards and ran for that port. We made all sail in chase, hoping to come
up with her before she could get into harbour. We were gaining on her,
and were expecting that we should have another fight like that with the
_Belle Poule_, when, as we came in sight of the outer roads of Brest,
what should we see but a thumping seventy-four, which, guessing what we
were, slipping her cable, stood out under all sail to catch us.
"We might have tackled the seventy-four alone, with a good breeze; but
we well knew that if we did not up stick and cut, we should either be
knocked to pieces or be sent to the bottom; so our captain, as in duty
bound, ordered us to brace up the yards and try to make the best of our
way out of danger. We might have done so had there been a strong breeze
blowing, but we could not beat the ship off shore as fast as we wanted.
"Night came down upon us, and a very dark night it was. We could not
see the land, but we knew it was under our lee, when presently thump
goes the ship ashore. Our captain did his best to get her off, but all
our attempts were of no use. The saucy _Arethusa_ was hard and fast on
the rocks.
"The word was given to lower the boats. I was one of the first cutter's
crew. We had got her into the water, and the master, as good a seaman
as ever stepped, came with us, and two young midshipmites.
"`We'll not be made prisoners if we can help it, lads,' said the master.
`Here, lower down these two casks of bread, and this breaker of water.'
"We had no time to get more, and we hoped the other boats would follow
our example, but they would have to be sharp about it. We got round
from under the lee of the ship, against which the surf was already
breaking heavily, and pulled away to the windward out to sea. You may
be sure we pulled as men do who are pulling for their lives and liberty.
If we had been a minute later, we shouldn't have done it. No other
boats that we could see followed us. Next morning we were twenty miles
off shore.
"We felt very downcast at the thoughts that we had lost our little
frigate, but were thankful to have got away from a French prison. We
learned afterwards that the captain, fearing for the lives of his
people, sent the other boats at once to the shore, and establishing a
communication, managed to land the whole crew, who were forthwith made
prisoners. It was fortunate that we had the biscuit and water, or we
should have been starved to death; for it was a week or more before we
fell in with an English homeward-bound West Indiaman, when we had not a
gill of liquid left, and not a biscuit a-piece. I learned the value of
water at that time, but I have always held to the opinion that a little
good rum mixed with it adds greatly to its taste," and Jerry winked at
my uncle with one eye, and with the other looked at his tumbler, which
was empty.
Uncle Kelson mixed him another glass.
"Ladies both," he said, looking round at my aunt and Margaret, "here's
to your health, and may Will be with you a free man before many months
are over. Maybe you haven't heard of the ghost we had on board the old
_Cornwall_, some years before the time I am speaking of? If you
haven't, I'll tell you about it. Did you ever have a ghost aboard any
ship you sailed in, cap'en? Maybe not. They don't seem to show
themselves now-a-days, as they used to do.
"Dick Carcass was the boatswain of the old _Cornwall_ when I served
aboard her. He was a tall spare man with high shoulders and a peculiar
walk, so that it was impossible to mistake him meet him where you might.
He was also a prime seaman, and had a mouth that could whistle the
winds out of conceit. If he did use a rope's-end on the backs of the
boys sometimes, it was all for their own good. We were bound out one
winter time to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It isn't the pleasantest time of
the year to be sailing across the North Atlantic. We had had a pretty
long passage, with westerly gales, which kept all hands employed. The
boatswain was seldom off deck, and a rough life he had of it.
"At last, what with the hard work he had to do, and having been in
hospital too before we sailed, he fell sick, and one night the doctor
came out of his cabin and told us he was dead. Now our captain was a
kind-hearted man; and as he expected to be in port in two or three days,
instead of sewing the boatswain up in a hammock and lowering him
overboard, he gave notice that he should keep him to give him decent
Christian burial on shore, and let the parson pray over him, for, d'ye
see, we had none aboard. To pay him every respect, a sentry was placed
at the door of his cabin in the cockpit. He had been dead three or four
days, and we had expected to get into port in two or three at the
furthest; so as the wind continued foul, and might hold in the same
quarter a week longer, the captain, thinking the bo'sun wouldn't keep
much longer, at last determined to have him buried the next morning.
That night I had just gone below, and was passing close to the sentry,
when he asked me if I couldn't make his lantern burn brighter. He was a
chum of mine, d'ye see. I took it down from the hook where it was
hanging, and was trying to snuff it, when all of a sudden the door of
Mr Carcass's cabin opened with a bang like a clap of thunder, and, as
I'm a living man, I heard the bo'sun's voice, for you may be sure I knew
it well, shout out:--
"`Sentry, give us a light, will ye!'
"Somehow or other--maybe I nipped the wick too hard--the candle went
out, and down fell the lantern. I did not stop to pick it up, nor did
the sentry who got the start of me, and off we set, scampering away like
rats with a terrier at their tails, till we gained the upper step of the
cockpit ladder. We then stopped and listened. There were steps
thundering along the deck. They came to the very foot of the ladder.
Presently we heard something mounting them slowly. The sentry moved on.
So did I, but looking round I saw as surely as I sit here, the head of
old Dick Carcass's ghost rising slowly above the deck.
"We did not stop to see more of him, but walked away for'ard. Again we
stopped, when there he was, standing on the deck--eight feet high he
looked at least--rubbing his eyes, which glared out at us like balls of
fire.
"We made for the fore-ladder, and there thought to get out of its way by
moving aft as fast as our legs could carry us. Presently, as I looked
over my shoulder, I saw the ghost come up the ladder on to the
forecastle. The men there saw him too, for they scuttled away on either
side, and left him to walk alone. For five minutes or more he kept
pacing up and down the deck, just as he was accustomed to do when he was
alive. By this time the men were crowding aft, the sentry among them,
when the lieutenant of the watch, thinking maybe there was going to be a
mutiny, or something of that sort, sings out and axes what we were
about.
"`Sir,' answers the sentry, who was bold enough now; `there's the ghost
of Mr Carcass a walking the fo'c'stle.'
"`The ghost of Mr Carcass be hanged! he is quiet enough in his cabin,
poor man. What are all you fools thinking about?' says the lieutenant.
`Be off for'ard with you.'
"`He is there, sir! he is there! It is the bo'sun's ghost,' we all sung
out, one after the other, none of us feeling inclined to go near him.
"`Blockheads!' cried the lieutenant, beginning to get angry.
"`It is him, sir; it is him,' cried others. `He's got on the hat and
monkey jacket he always wears.'
"The lieutenant now became very angry, and ordering us out of the way,
boldly steps forward. When, however, he gets abreast of the barge, he
stops, for there he sees as clearly as we did the bo'sun's tall figure
pacing the deck, with his hands behind his back, looking for all the
world just as he had done when he was alive.
"Now the lieutenant was as brave a man as ever stepped, but he did not
like it, that was clear; still he felt that go on he must, and so on he
went until he got up to the foremast, and then he sings out slowly, as
if his words did not come up readily to his mouth:--
"`Mr Car-car-car-cass, is that you?'
"`Sir!' said the ghost, turning round and coming aft.
"`Mr Car-car-car-cass, is that you?' again sings out the lieutenant.
"`Sir!' answers the boatswain, and he came nearer.
"The lieutenant stepped back, so did we, all the whole watch tumbling
over on each other. Still facing for'ard, the gallant lieutenant kept
retreating, and the ghost kept coming on slowly, as ghosts always do,
I'm told, though I can't say as I've had much experience with those sort
of gentry. At last the ghost sings out:--
"`Pardon me, Mr Pringle, what's the matter? have all the people gone
mad?'
"`Who are you?' asked the lieutenant.
"`I am Richard Carcass, bo'sun of this here ship, to the best of my
knowledge, and was never anybody else, sir.'
"`What! ain't you dead?' says the lieutenant.
"`Not that I knows on,' answers the ghost. `I was alive when it struck
eight bells in the middle watch, and its now only just gone two. I take
it it is the morning watch, for I heard it strike just before that
stupid sentry put out his light, and for some reason or other I couldn't
make out, took to his heels.'
"`Why, the doctor said you were dead,' says the lieutenant.
"`The doctor, then, doesn't know a dead bo'sun from a live one,'
answered Mr Carcass.
"`Well, I wish you'd let him see you, and hear what he's got to say on
the subject;' and he ordered the midshipman of the watch to call the
doctor, who came on deck, grumbling not a little at being roused out
from his berth. When he saw the bo'sun he seemed mighty pleased, and
taking him by the hand told us all that he was as alive as ever he was,
and advised him to turn in again and get some sleep, as the night was
cold, and he was on the sick list.
"Well, ladies, that was the only ghost I ever saw. He was not dead
either, but had been in a sort of trance, and when he heard two bells
strike, not knowing how many days had passed since he had gone to sleep,
he called for a light, but not getting it, he dressed in the dark and
came on deck, thinking he ought to be there."
Jerry spun other yarns before he took his leave. He was once, he
declared, on board a trader bound out from Ireland to the West Indies
with butter and cheese, "The _Jane and Mary_, that was her name," he
continued. "We were off the coast of Saint Domingo, almost becalmed,
when we made out a couple of suspicious--looking craft sweeping off
towards us. That they were pirates we had no doubt. At that time those
sort of gentry used to cut the throats of every man on board if there
was the slightest resistance.
"Our skipper, Captain Dillon, was a determined fellow, and had proved
himself a good seaman during the passage.
"`Lads,' he sang out, `do you wish to be taken and hove overboard to
feed the sharks, or will you try to save the ship if those scoundrels
come up to us? I'll promise you we'll beat them if they venture
aboard.'
"We all answered that we were ready to stick by him, for I believe there
was not one of us that did not think we should be dead men before the
day was an hour older. The mates promised also to fight to the last.
"`Be smart then, my lads, get up some of the cargo from the hold.' We
soon had a dozen butter casks hoisted up, knocked in their ends, and
payed the decks, and sides, and ropes, and every part of the ship over
with the butter. We chucked our shoes below, and got the cutlasses,
boarding pikes, and pistols ready. In a few minutes the deck was so
slippery, that a man, unless without his shoes, could not stand upon it.
We were all ready, with our cutlasses at our sides and the pikes handy,
to give the scoundrels a warm reception. Meantime the _Jane and Mary_
did her best, as far as the breeze would help her, to keep moving
through the water.
"The pirates crept up, and kept firing away at us, one on one quarter
and one on the other.
"We answered them with the few guns we carried, though each of them had
nearly twice as many as we had, while their decks were crowded with men.
Presently they ranged up alongside, and both boarded together, a score
or more villainous-looking rascals leaping down on our decks, expecting
to gain an easy victory; but they never made a greater mistake in their
lives, and it was the last most of them had the chance of making. The
moment their feet touched our deck, over they fell flat on their faces,
while we with our cutlasses, rushing in among them, killed every
mother's son of their number. Others following, shouting, shrieking,
and swearing, met the same fate; when the rest of the pirates, seeing
what was happening, though not knowing the cause, but fancying, I
suppose, that we had bewitched them, sheered off, and the breeze
freshening we stood away, leaving the two feluccas far astern. Forty
men lay dead on our decks, and not one of us was hurt.
"`Heave the carcases overboard, and swab up the decks,' cried our
skipper, as coolly as if nothing had happened.
"We had a pretty job to clean the ship afterwards, but we didn't mind
the trouble, seeing that we had saved our lives, and the skipper was
well content to lose the dozen casks of batter which had served us so
good a turn.
"That skipper of ours had no small amount of humour in his composition,
though it was somewhat of a grim character. Before we hove the bodies
overboard, he ordered us to cut off the heads of those who had fallen,
forty in number, and to pickle them in the empty butter casks, lest, as
he said, his account of the transaction might be disbelieved by the good
people of Jamaica.
"We arrived safely in Kingston harbour, where the merchants and a lot of
other persons came on board. Many of our visitors, when they heard the
skipper describe the way we had beaten off the pirates, looked
incredulous.
"`Seeing is believing,' says he, and he ordered the casks which had been
kept on deck to be opened. It was mightily amusing to watch the way our
visitors looked at each other, when our skipper forthwith produced the
gory heads, among which was that of the captain of one of the piratical
craft and that of the first mate of the other.
"Some of them started back with horror, as well they might, for the
heads looked dreadful enough as they were pulled out in succession.
"`There's the whole score,' says the skipper, as we arranged them along
each side of the quarter-deck. `Now, gentlemen, what have you got to
say about my veracity?'
"After that, you may be sure the captain's word was never doubted. The
heads were then hove overboard, and it was said that Old Tom, the big
shark which used to cruise about between Port Royal and Kingston, got
the best part of them for his supper. I'm pretty sure he did, because
for many a day after that he was not seen, and some thought he had died
of indigestion by swallowing those pirates' heads. Howsomdever, he
wasn't dead after all, as poor Bob Rattan, an old messmate of mine,
found out to his cost. Just about two months had gone by, and Bob one
evening was trying to swim from his ship to the shore, when Old Tom
caught, him by the leg and hauled him to the bottom. His head was
washed ashore three days afterwards, bitten clean off, a certain proof
that Old Tom had swallowed the pirates' heads, and not finding them
agree with him, had left poor Bob's alone.
"Taking in a cargo of sugar we sailed homewards; but I can tell you,
till we were well clear of the West Indies we didn't feel comfortable,
lest we should fall in again with the pirates, when, as we had no butter
aboard to grease our decks, the chances were, we knew, that in revenge
they would have cut all our throats and sent the ship to the bottom.
"You see, ladies, that a man may go through no end of dangers, and yet
come scot free out of them. So I hope will our friend here, and have
many a yarn to spin, and that I may be present to hear them, although I
don't think he'll beat mine; and now, as it's getting late, I'll wish
you good evening;" and Jerry, taking his hat from under the chair, shook
hands with all round.
"You won't take my advice then, Will?" he whispered, as he came to me.
"Well, well, it's a pity. Good-night, lad, good-night, I'll see you
aboard the _Nymph_;" and he hurried away across the common towards the
beach where he had left his boat, intending to pass the night under her,
as was his general custom in the summer.