Part 33 (1/2)
”Captain Paul,” asked the Judge, ”are you, in conscience, satisfied that you used no more force than was necessary to preserve discipline on your shi+p?”
”May it please the hty seaman, ”it became imperative to strike the mutinous sailor, Maxwell
Whenever it beco officer to hit a seaman, it is also necessary to strike with a weapon I may say that the necessity to strike carries with it the necessity to kill, or to completely disable the mutineer I had two brace of loaded pistols in my belt, and could easily have shot hi pin in preference, because I hoped that Ihim But the result proved otherwise I trust that the Honorable Court and the jury will take due account of the fact that, though a ounce balls, necessarily fatal weapons, I used a belaying pin, which, though dangerous, is not necessarily a fatal weapon”
The judge smiled and Captain Paul was acquitted
The famous Lord Nelson once said: ”A naval officer, unlike a military commander, can have no fixed plans He must always be ready for _the_ chance It may come to-morrow, or next week, or next year, or never; but he must be _always ready_!” Nunquam non Paratus (Never unprepared)
Paul Jones kept a copy of this ; always on the _qui vive_; always prepared And--because he was always prepared--he accomplished ould seem to be the impossible
Shortly placed in command of a sloop-of-war, the _Alfred_ (one of the four vessels which constituted the Aainst Fort Nassau, New Providence Island, in the Bahamas, which was a complete and absolute failure On the way ho Island, his boat was chased by the twenty-gun sloop-of-war _Glasgow_ The long shot kicked up a lot of spray around the fleet Aot away and sailed into Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, with sails full of holes and stern-posts peppered with lead But he was created a Captain; placed in couns and one hundred and sevenand adventure With hiro boys--Cato and Scipio--who followed hih the many vicissitudes of the Revolutionary War
The seas traversed by the _Providence_ were full of English cruisers--superior in size to the saucy American--but inferior in alertness and resources of her commander and her crew She captured sixteen vessels--of which eight were sent to port and eight were destroyed at sea Twice she was chased by British frigates, and, on one of these occasions, narrowly escaped capture
As the little sloop was running into one of the ate bore down upon her frouns spoke and said ”Heave to!”
But Captain Jones had heard this call before, and kept on upon his course
”She's got me,” said he ”But, as the breeze is fresh I o your tackle iive the command!”
The helm was now put hard-up and the _Providence_ crept into the wind
Closer and closer cauns sputtered--and a shot ricochetted near the lean prow of the _Providence_ But the sloop kept on
Suddenly--just as the brig drew alongside--Paul Jones swung his rudder over, wore around in the wind, and ran dead to leeward
”Watch her sniffle!” cried the gallant Captain, as the brig _chug-chugged_ on the dancing waves, and, endeavoring to box short about, came up into the wind But fortune favored the Alishe rubber ball, while her Captain said things that cannot be printed
When in this condition, Jones ran his boat within half gun-shot, gave her a dose of iron froet squared aas pounding off before the wind, which was the sloop's best point of sailing
”Well,” said the crafty John Paul, his face wreathed in sate had si around under easy hel her sails as the wind bore, I could not have distanced her much in the alteration of the course, and she must have coet out of range
”I do not take toaway I did the best that I could, but there was ood or bad puff of wind foils all kinds of skill one way or the other--and this ti to ard--I thought that I would ware shi+p and see if the Britisher wouldn't get taken aback The old saying that 'Discretion is the better part of valor' ed to 'Impudence is--or may be, sometimes--the better part of discretion'”
Two kinds of news greeted the slippery sailor when he arrived in port
One was a letter fro his coress The other--an epistle fro the ed by an expedition of British and Tories (Virginians who sided with England in the war) under Lord Duns had all been burned; his wharf demolished; his livestock killed; and every one of his able-bodied slaves of both sexes had been carried off to Ja crops; cut down his fruit trees; in short, nothing was left of his once prosperous and valuable plantation but the bare ground
”This is part of the fortunes of war,” said Jones ”I accept the extreme animosity displayed by Lord Dunmore as a compliment to the sincerity of my attachment to the cause of liberty”
Bold words, well spoken by a bold man!
”But,” continued the able sailor, ”I roes The plantation was to thee Their existence was a species of grown-up childhood, not slavery Now they are torn away and carried off to die under the pestilence and lash of Jamaica cane-fields; and the price of their poor bodies will swell the pockets of English slave-traders For this cruelty to those innocent, harmless people, I hope so”