gag him with a wet nipper. Away with him! I say,’ and the master
was dragged off the deck. Farmer then turned to the petty officers,
‘Shipmates, we must speedily decide. What say you, Oates?’
“‘She is yet four or five miles off; let us crack on studding-sails
alow and aloft, and my life for it we run her hull down by dark.’
“‘The Mermaid has the heels of us, going free,’ replied Farmer, ‘and
could spare us the t’galln’t-sails. Should we make sail, ’twill only
arouse suspicion. Your advice, Jennings.’
“‘We could always fore-reach and weather upon the Mermaid on a
bow-line,’ answered the man addressed; ‘so why not haul to the wind
on the starboard tack, go between the islands, and make for the first
port?’
“‘Yes,’ said Farmer with a sneer, ‘and there are two cruisers now in
sight in-shore of us; we know the Magician and the Zephyr are somewhere
in the neighbourhood; it certainly would be wise to run into their
jaws. Speak, shipmate,’ turning to the coxswain, ‘what’s to be done?’
“‘We might get close in-shore, abandon the frigate, and take to the
boats,’ replied the coxswain.
“‘And going without compensation in our hands,’ rejoined Farmer, ‘be
delivered up as mutineers, or confined in dungeons as prisoners of war!
We have no further time for argument; men, will you obey my orders, or
shall I here abandon you to your fate?’
“‘Every man will obey,’ was shouted by the crew, ‘either to fight or
fly!’
“‘’Tis well,’ replied Farmer. ‘Brace the yards up, and let her come to
the wind on the larboard tack; afterguard, rig the whip and wash the
decks down. Topmen, away aloft; keep snugly to leeward,--see that all
your studding-sail gear is properly rove, and have every thing ready
for shaking out a reef and setting the royals. Boatswain’s mates, send
a gang below to bring the hammocks up; and, quarter-masters, to your
stations in stowing them. Call the gunner’s crew, and tell them to go
round the quarters and see everything in its place. Signal-man! bend
the colours at the peak, and have our number ready to show at the main.
Main-top there!--stand by to hoist the pennant, and mind it blows out
clear. Be smart, my lads: one lubberly act would make them suspect that
Captain P---- was not on board, or that his cat had lost its tails.’
“In a few minutes every man was at his appointed station, and the duty
was carrying on with as much alacrity and attention as if nothing had
happened. The Mermaid, a two-and-thirty gun frigate, was nearing them
fast, and the cruisers in-shore were stretching out from the land to
join her.
“‘The frigate is speaking to us with his bunting, sir,’ exclaimed the
signal-man; ‘she is showing her distinguishing pennants.’
“Farmer clapped his hands in ecstacy. ‘By Heaven! it never struck
me Captain P---- was the senior captain. Hoist the ensign and
pennant;--bear a hand with the number, and see that the flags blow
clear!’ He directed his glass to the Mermaid, and looked intently for
a minute or two. ‘She sees it:--haul down! And now, my lad, make the
Mermaid’s signal to make all sail in chase to the north-east: bend on
the preparatory flag at the main and her pennants at the mizen, and
have all ready abaft to telegraph;--it will amuse the fools and keep
them from being too familiar. Is the signal hoisted?’
“‘Ay, ay, sir,’ replied the signal-man, ‘there it flies in as many
colours as a dying dolphin;--and there goes the answering pennant at
the frigate’s main; haul down, my boys.’
“The moody gloom left Farmer’s brow, as he saw by the Mermaid’s
manœuvring that his signal had been obeyed. He then bore up again to
the westward, telegraphed that he was going in chase, crowded his
canvass on every spar that would spread a cloth, and soon had a clear
horizon all around him.
“But though Farmer had determined to run for the Spanish main, yet he
was not sufficiently acquainted with the coast to know the appearance
of the land. Mr. Southcott, therefore, was brought on deck, and partly
through compulsion and partly through a desire of getting clear of the
mutineers, he carried the ship off La Guayra, where she was ultimately
surrendered to the Spanish authorities, Farmer declaring that they had
turned their officers adrift in the jolly-boat, though the real fact
was very soon afterwards explained to the Spaniards. The master, the
gunner, the carpenter and two midshipmen of those saved were sent to
prison; but the mutineers received twenty-five dollars a man, a great
many of them became double traitors by entering for the frigate under
the Spanish flag, and Farmer was appointed second captain. The first
captain’s name, I’m told, was Gallows,[1] so that his junior must have
been pretty often reminded of it.
[1] I have since ascertained that it was Don Raymond de Chalas.
“Admiral Harvey, on hearing of all the circumstances, sent a flag of
truce to demand the frigate and the mutineers; but though the Spaniards
were made acquainted with the horrible murders that had been committed
when the ship was taken possession of, yet they not only refused to
deliver her up, but actually put six more guns aboard of her, making
altogether forty-four, and with a crew of nearly four hundred men, she
was fitted out and made a voyage to San Domingo, very narrowly escaping
the British cruisers who were all on the alert to pick her up.”
“And this, your honour,” said my chaperon, “is old Hughes’s story, and
that’s the ship there it’s all about.”
I had been deeply interested in his narrative, which he related with
peculiar feeling, and some parts were almost dramatised by his singular
gestures and manner. “And what became of the boatswain’s wife?” I
inquired.
“Fanny Martin, sir?” he replied; “why I think she left La Guayra in a
neutral, and so got to Halifax, but I arn’t quite sure.”
“And now, then,” said I, “for some account of her recapture. Can you
tell me how it happened, and what the picture before us is actually
designed to represent?”
“Why no, your honour, I can’t do that exactly,” rejoined he, “seeing
as I knows but little about it; but there’s a messmate of mine yonder
who was on that station at the time, and can give you the particulars;
but he’s a dry soul, your honour, and mayhap would like a taste of the
spirit-room, if your honour has no objections; ’twill loose his tongue
a bit, and give it freer play.”
“One word for my friend and two for myself,” thought I; but sensible
that “freshening the nip” would prevent too much chafing, I readily
consented, and the old blades _piped_ to grog with a _gusto_ that can
only be acquired by long habit.
We were soon seated in a comfortable room overlooking the Thames. It
was nearly high-water, and the middle of summer; a delightful breeze
tempered the heat, the green fields looked beautifully below and
opposite to us, whilst the vessels were rapidly passing and chequering
the scene with their white sails. The steamers, too, were swiftly
cutting through the yielding element, and the whole presented a
spectacle of commercial wealth that can be witnessed on no other river
in the world. I own I feel a very great pride in contemplating the
glory and the gratitude of my country; and when I see her gallant tars
who have braved the war of elements and battled the enemies of England,
snugly enjoying their _old age_ in their _berths_, chewing their
_pigtail_ with a knowing _quid pro quo_, and occasionally cheering the
heart with the balsam that maketh it glad, I cannot help exclaiming,
“nobly should a grateful country be served, and thus be rewarded her
brave defenders!” Besides, within the small compass of this beautiful
place, we can meet with practical information from every part of the
globe. Talk of your geographies! here are the living _pages_ that wait
on Time,--men that have breakfasted on a whale with the Esquimaux,
dined on an elephant with the Hottentots, and supped upon a snake
sixty feet long with the Red Indians;--men who have bearded the lions,
shook paws with the tiger, and rode races on alligators. They have
seen the holy city, visited the ancient capitol of the world, and have
passed over the identical spot where Jonah was swallowed by the whale.
Greenwich Hospital is a very storehouse for knowledge,--a perfect
College, in which the old tars take their _degrees_ as natural as when
running down a trade-wind,--have their _senior wranglers_, their M.A.
for master-at-arms, their B.A. for boatswain’s-assistant, enjoy good
fellowship over a glass of grog, and are staunch supporters of _cannon_
law.
We found several of these well filled volumes--_damme-quart-hos_--already
ranged in the room before our arrival, and, like our old friend
Colburn, they were mighty busy in _puffing_ off their works, as if
trying to hide the authors under a cloud of smoke.
“Ay, ay,” exclaimed a crojack-eyed old blade, “them there pursers’
accounts of prize-money showed but a poor figure in the foremast-man’s
log, whatever they did in the skipper’s journal. They used to sift it
through a hatchway grating,--all that went down was for the officers,
and all that stayed above came to the tarry jackets.”
“You’re right there, Jem,” said a veteran boatswain’s-mate, whose
voice was not unlike a gale of wind sighing to a kitchen fire through
the hollow of a chimney-pot, “perfectly right; and then they make out
the prize-list much in the same way as the nigger accounted for his
pig. D’ye see, his master gave him three dollars to go to market and
buy a pig; but the black rascal came back drunk, without his money
and without his cargo. ‘Holla!’ said his master, ‘how came you drunk,
sir? and where’s the pig?’ ‘Ah, massa,’ says the nigger, ‘me nebber
drunk, but giddy wid long chase.’ ‘Where’s the dollars I gave you?’
asked the master. ‘Me gie ’em to buy pig,’ said the black. ‘What,
three dollars?’ cried the master. ‘Tan littly bit, massa, me telle
you. First me gib dollar for pig’ ‘Well, that’s only one dollar,’ said
the master. ‘Tan littly bit,’ puzzled the nigger; ‘den me hab pig for
dollar,--dat two dollar, massa; den de pig run away, and gib dollar
for catch a pig--dat tree dollar, massa. Den him dam pig run in a bush
like a debbil, and nebber see him no more noder time.’ So it was with
the prize-money; there was dollar for Jack, and Jack for dollar; and if
Jack ran away, he lost all, and was made to look _dolor_-ous into the
bargain, if ever they cocht him again. My best sarvice to your honour,
and hope no offence.” He lifted his pewter to his lips, and took a most
persevering draught to qualify the toast.
“Jack Maberly,” said my worthy conductor, addressing the last speaker,
“the gentleman wants to hear a little about the recapture of the
Harmoine, and Bill Jennings is just agoing to tell his honour the
long and the short of it, if you’ll be good enough to keep silence
fore-and-aft.”
“I wull, I wull, messmate,” replied the old boatswain’s-mate.
Bill Jennings, the very _beau ideal_ of a main-topman in long togs,
applied his muzzle to the grog, as he said, “to clear his throat
of scupper-nails;” and having swallowed almost enough to float a
jolly-boat, after sundry hems and divers sluings to make sure of his
stowage, gave the following account of
The Recapture of the Hermione.
“As for them there cutting outs, (he began) why I’ve had a pretty good
share on ’em in my time, seeing as how I’ve been with some of them
there fire-eating chaps as would cut out the devil himself from under a
heavy fire, if so be as his reverence warn’t moored with chains. To my
thinking, there’s more to rouse the nat-ral spirit of man in boarding
than in laying at long shots and hitting each other spitefully; for
if a fellow does work an eyelet hole in your canvass where it arn’t
wanted, you have the chance of damaging some of his spars in return,
and that’s what I calls fair play. Bekase, messmates, setting a case
as this here--it’s cut for cut, and damn all favours. Now at long shot
you never can tell who hits you, and that’s what I call a sort of
incendiary act; but at close quarters you can always tell who lends
you a rap, and you can pay him agin; and if he falls, then you can
stand his friend and take care of him. But nevertheless, messmates,--as
many on you knows,--that same cutting out is sharp work for the eyes,
as the monkey said when he hugged the cat, particularly where the
boarding-nettings are triced up and the enemy is prepared for you; but
there warn’t a ship on the West Ingee station but would have gladly
undertaken the recapture of the Harmoine, bekase the whole affair had
been a disgraceful consarn, and had placed the cha-rackter of a British
tar like a yankee schooner jammed betwixt two winds,--nobody knew which
way she’d tend. Well, messmates, the job fell to the Surprise, 28, an
old French 24, called the Unity when she was taken by the Inconstant,
in the beginning of the year 96. Howsomever, messmates, she kept up
both names, as it were; for never was there a ship with more unity
among the men, and she surprised the Spaniards by the daring impudence
they displayed. The Harmoine had made a run or two from San Domingo,
and in September, 99, our admiral, ould Sir Hyde Parker, received
intelligence that she was going to make another trip to Havana, and
the Surprise was sent to cruise off Cape Saint Romar to intercept her.
The whole of the little frigate’s complement was 197, men and boys,
but there warn’t so many as that on board, and with this force Captain
Hamilton was to attack a ship carrying 44 guns, and having nearly 400
men;--but they didn’t calculate odds in them days. Well, d’ye see, she
got upon her station about the middle of October, and kept a sharp
look-out, dodging off and on, but keeping at a fair distance, so that
the prize might not be afraid of leaving port. Well, day after day
they watched, but nothing hove in sight bigger than a land-crab; so
what does the captain do, but being tired of waiting, he cuts out some
vessels from under the island of Amber, to keep the men from getting
idle, and then runs off of Porto Cabello, and there sure enough lay the
Harmoine all ataunt-o, every stick on end, sails bent, t’-gallant yards
crossed, and a whacking large Spanish ensign and pennant flying;--but
mark me, messmates, she was moored head and starn betwixt two heavy
batteries, the smallest of which could have blowed the little frigate
out of the water, and cut her up like junk.
“It was a beautiful evening, when the saucy Surprise stood close in to
reckoniter;--there was a fine breeze and smooth water, and the craft
worked like a top. They could see the sodgers at the batteries and the
men on board the enemy all at their quarters, and the gun-boats were
pulling out to take up convenient positions; though there warn’t a man
among ’em believed the ship could be taken, yet they knew damned well
the Englishmen would try.
“Well, next day Captain Hamilton hove-to, just without range of shot,
and challenged the Harmoine to come out; but she took no notice of it,
and so the Surprise made sail, stood into the mouth of the harbour,
and fired at her. The batteries opened their palaver; but the little
ship hauled off without a shot touching her, and the lazy lubberly
Spaniards, more than two to one in men and metal, didn’t dare to show
their yellow rag outside the port. So the ship’s company, fore-and-aft,
wondered what the captain would be at, and they grinned like so many
cat-heads to think they couldn’t get a fair slap at her. But the
captain was up in the main-top with a round jacket on,--stretched
out at full length with his glass resting on the top-brim, and most
earnestly overhauling their consarns in-shore, so that an old woman
couldn’t stir out of doors, nor a rat move on the Harmoine’s decks
without his seeing it. The master was up in the fore-top upon the same
lay, and they kept hailing each other about different consarns till
they made every thing out as plain as the grog-blossoms on Darby’s nose
there. [The individual alluded to gave a chuckle something between
a grunt and a laugh, and applied his fingers to an enormous red
proboscis, that certainly seemed the tell-tale of a besetting sin.]
Well, d’ye mind, they kept at this all day long, dodging about and
in-and-out, like a dog in a fair, till the men got quite tantalized and
jaundiced at seeing so much of the yellow bunting,--for the enemy had
hoisted it every where out of bravado.
“Now, messmates, when I was a youngster, I used to--could read a
bit, and I remembers reading some’ut about the _conginuality_ of
minds;--that is, suppose setting a case, messmates, just this here.
Darby there and I, without speaking to each other, both lifts the quart
pots to drink his honour’s health for sarving out the stuff,--[he
raised the quart pot, which by the by was empty, and looking into it,
conveyed a hint that it required replenishing]--why then, messmates,
(he continued) we should both have the same thoughts arising from the
same feelings. [Darby’s mug was empty too, so I ordered them to be
filled again.] So, d’ye see, messmates, the crews of the boats got busy
about their gear and placed the oars and boat-hooks, the rudders and
tillers all in their proper places, ready for a moment’s sarvice. The
captain twigged ’em at it, but he never said nothing till the next day
but one, when he orders the hammocks to be opened to air and spread out
over the boats, and he stands off-and-on till about noon, when he makes
a long stretch out from the land, and the men thought he was going to
give it up. So, d’ye see, they pipes to dinner, and after that they
sarves the grog out, of course;--your honour’s health; and, messmates,
yours, all of you,--[he took a long draught];--but at two bells,
instead of calling the watch, the hands were turned up and all ordered
aft on to the quarter-deck, where the captain was standing as upright
as a fathom of smoke in a calm, and the master was bent down like a
yard of pump-water measured from the spout, and looking over a chart of
the harbour, as busy as the devil in a gale of wind.
“Well, every soul fore-and-aft mustered in the twinkling of a
hand-spike, and they all crowded together as if they’d been stowed
with a jack-screw for a long voyage; and then the captain up and tells
’em that he meant to head the boats himself and cut the Harmoine out,
if they would do their duty like men and back him. My eyes, if there
warn’t a cheer then, there never was one before nor since; and the
lads, to seal the bargain, gived one another a grip of the fist that
would have squeezed a lemon as dry as a biscuit.
“So, you see, the murder was out, and every man betwixt the cabin
windows and the figure-head volunteered to the duty; but the captain
said he wouldn’t take more than one hundred, including officers and
marines; he was sorry to leave any behind, as he believed them to
be all brave fellows, but some must stay to work the ship, and, if
necessary, bring her into action.
“Well, the men were picked out, the muskets, pistols, tommyhawks,
and cutlashes got ready, and long hook-ropes coiled away in the
starn-sheets of each boat, and clinched to the ring in the bottom; the
oars and rullocks were muffled and well greased, so that not a sound
might be heard louder than the sigh of a periwinkle.
“The sun set soon after six o’clock, and as soon as twilight came
on,--which in them latitudes, when the sun is on the equator, and it
was very near it then, comes on in a few minutes,--the ship was hove
in stays and stood in-shore, with a pleasant breeze and a stern-swell
setting after her. About eight o’clock the wind died away, the yards
were laid square, and the boats hoisted out, whilst those on the
quarters were lowered, and all were soon manned for the expedition
and shoved off. Whilst they’re pulling in-shore, messmates, I’ll just
elucidate Captain Hamilton’s plan of attack.
“Now, mind me, this here paper of ’bacca shall be one battery, and this
here ’bacca-box shall be the other battery, and this here shut-knife
shall be the Harmoine,--the laniard sarving for one cable out of the
hawse-hole, and this piece of marline for the other cable out of the
gun-room port;--[he arranged the articles on the table.] Now the boats
were to pull in, and the boarding parties had each a different place
to board at. As soon as they got upon deck, the boats with their
respective crews were to cut the cables and then go a-head to tow;
whilst four of the boarders were instantly to shin aloft to loose the
fore-topsail and two to loose the mizen-topsail, which, if possible,
were to be sheeted home to catch the breeze coming off the land.
The Surprise was to come in close to the harbour’s mouth to act as
circumstances required.
“The boats kept close together, but didn’t make any quick head-way,
as the captain meant to get in about midnight, when he expected the
Spaniards would have their eyes buttoned up, and their ears plugged
with their nightcaps, like the hawse-holes in blue water.
“Well, d’ye see, it was just about eight bells when the mast-heads of
the Harmoine showed above the dark mass of land, and the light rigging
looked like a fine spider’s web traced on the silvery sky; and there
too fluttered the yellow rag, that was soon to be humbled under the
saucy pennant of St. George. On pulled the boats, and except the ripple
of the oars and the hissing of the foam in their wakes, silence slept
deep and still, disturbed only by the moan of the sea as it broke upon
the rocky shore.
“Suddenly there was a flash, and before the report could be heard,
grape-shot were jumping about the boats and splashing up the water
like a shoal of flying-fish at play. This firing was from a couple of
guard-boats, each mounting a twelve-pounder; and if it did no other
mischief, it aroused Jack Spaniard, who it appears was up and rigged
like a sentry-box; and before a cat could lick her ear, flames of fire
seemed to be bursting from the dark rocks, like lightning from a black
thunder-cloud: it was the frigate, speaking with her main-deck and
fokstle guns.
“Finding that the enemy were prepared, the captain had less delicacy in
alarming them out of their sleep, and so the boats’ crews gave three
tremendous cheers. Mayhap, your honour never heard the cheers on going
into action, when the voice of man goes from heart to heart and stirs
up all that is brave and noble in the human breast; it invigorates and
strengthens every timber in a fellow’s frame, and is to the weak or
mild, what mother’s milk is to the infant.
“Well, they gave three British cheers as would have stirred up the
blood of an anchor-stock, if it had any, and on they dashed, stretching
to their oars with a good-will and making the water brilliant with
their track as they pulled for the devoted frigate, then about
three-quarters of a mile distant, which kept sending forth the red
flames from the muzzles of her guns as the boats gallantly approached.
“Captain Hamilton boarded on the starboard bow, and with the gunner
and eight or ten men cleared the fokstle. The doctor boarded on the
larboard bow, and with his party joined the captain; and the other
boats having discharged their men, the whole of the boarders attacked
the quarter-deck, where the Spanish officers had collected and fought
with desperation. And now mind the downright impudence of the thing;
for whilst they were fighting for possession on deck, the sails were
loosed aloft, the cables were cut, and the boats were towing the
ship out of the harbour; and the craft, as if she knew she warn’t
honestly come by, was walking off from the land like seven bells
half-struck;--if that warn’t going the rig, then blow me if I know what
is.