Part 37 (1/2)

As soon as Nettles.h.i.+p had finished his account, the captain directed that we should be taken below, and hammocks slung for us.

”I would advise you to turn in, young gentlemen, as soon as you have had some food,” he said, as we were leaving.

He also ordered that our boat's crew should be well looked after. The surgeon, who was summoned, went to attend to them, and to prevent them from being overfed, or overdosed with grog, which to a certainty they would otherwise have been by the seamen of the s.h.i.+p. As I was going down to the orlop deck, Larry came aft, supported by two men, with his fiddle-case under his arm.

”Och, Mr Terence,” he said, ”I'm mighty glad to find ourselves safe aboard a big s.h.i.+p again, and to see you all right. It is more than I thought to do since our own went down with all her brave boys, barrin'

ourselves.”

The doctor, finding that we did not require much of his a.s.sistance, attended to Larry and the other men, who appeared far more knocked up than we were, and they were at once sent to their hammocks. We were ushered into the gun-room by the master's mate, who accompanied us.

Here we found a number of mids.h.i.+pmen seated at a table, employed in various ways. They greeted us warmly, and were all eager to know our adventures, which we told them while discussing the meal placed before us. Scarcely, however, had I finished eating, when my head dropped on the table, and there I should have sat, had not one of the a.s.sistant-surgeons aroused me and advised me to turn in. I slept on, as did Nettles.h.i.+p and Tom, till the hammocks were piped up next morning, and, if left alone, should not have awoke for hours afterwards.

We all three, though still weak, felt pretty well able to get about, and were in reality in a better state than many of the officers and men, who were suffering from the effect of the West Indian climate. I never saw so pale and haggard a crew. We were treated with the greatest kindness by our new messmates, and Nettles.h.i.+p was asked into the ward-room, to give a further account of what had happened to us. We had indeed ample reason to be thankful for our preservation, when so many on board our own and other s.h.i.+ps had perished.

In a couple of days we were as well as ever, and, as many of the mates and mids.h.i.+pmen were too ill to do duty, we were directed to take their places. Larry, as usual, made himself at home with his fiddle, and soon set the seamen and French prisoners jigging away, as he had done on board other s.h.i.+ps.

We were standing on with all the canvas the battered old _Hector_ could carry, with the wind from the southward, when the look-out aloft announced two sail away to leeward. One of the lieutenants, with his telescope on his back, immediately went to the main-topmast cross-trees to have a look at them.

”As far as I can make out, they are two frigates, sir, coming up before the wind,” he said to the captain when he came down.

”Are they English or French?” asked the captain. ”According to my judgment, sir, they are French,” was the answer.

The captain took a few turns on deck, and then again sent aloft. The lieutenant, on his return, p.r.o.nounced his opinion more decidedly that they were French, and both large frigates. The captain on this ordered the drum to beat to quarters, and the usual preparations were made for battle. Evening was approaching, and it might be well on in the night before the enemy could be up to us.

Although the _Hector_ was a 74-gun s.h.i.+p, she in reality only carried fifty-two guns, and, from her battered condition, was not fit to cope even with a single frigate. Still our brave captain determined to struggle to the last. She being a heavy sailer, the two frigates came rapidly up with us, and there was no doubt from their appearance that they were enemies, although we could not as yet see their ensigns. All doubt on that score was dissipated, when, in a short time, French flags were run up at their peaks. The prisoners were accordingly ordered below and placed under sentries, while the captain went along the decks encouraging the men. They received him with cheerful countenances as he appeared, promising to do their best to beat the enemy. I asked Nettles.h.i.+p what he thought would be the result of the contest.

”Heaven only knows!” he answered; ”but there's one thing, I'm certain that our fellows will fight to the last. I never saw a crew, though so many of them are sick, more resolute or full of pluck.”

The leading frigate, now coming up on our starboard quarter, opened fire, and we, luffing up, returned it with our aftermost guns. She then ranged up abeam, while her consort placed herself on our larboard quarter, so that we could not luff up again without being raked by the other. We, however, could fight our starboard broadside, and occasionally could bring some of our larboard guns to bear on the enemy on that side. We could now see that each frigate mounted forty guns, their decks being crowded with men; indeed, they together mustered more than double our complement. These were fearful odds, but Captain Bouchier and his crew seemed in no way daunted. The men ran the guns in and out as fast as they could load them, but the enemy's shot came cras.h.i.+ng aboard, committing fearful havoc in all parts of the s.h.i.+p. The French must have known, from our smaller masts and spars, that we were likely to be short-handed, and also soon discovered the small number of guns we carried.

Though I saw numbers struck down around me, I never for one instant thought of myself or expected to be killed. The surgeons below soon had their hands full, as one poor fellow after another was carried down to the c.o.c.kpit. The dead were left where they fell, for all were too busy to remove them. The enemy generally fired at our hull rather than at our spars.

I was standing near Nettles.h.i.+p, when I heard him exclaim--

”Here comes one of them alongside us.”

I looked out of a port, and there saw the frigate on the starboard beam dropping so close that I could distinguish the countenances of the people on her deck.

Presently the voice of the captain sounded loud and clear--

”Boarders! repel boarders!”

Our crew, leaving the guns on the starboard side, seized their weapons; some stood armed with cutla.s.ses and pistols, others with pikes, at the place where the Frenchmen were likely to try and gain a footing on our deck. Our larboard guns were still replying to the fire of the frigate on that quarter; but she now making sail, ranged up alongside, receiving, however, a heavy fire from our guns as she did so. A large body of her men, with the soldiers, stood on the forecastle, ready to leap aboard.

”You must drive those fellows back,” cried Nettles.h.i.+p. ”Come on, my lads,” he shouted to such of the men as were near him, among whom was Larry. Tom also, who saw what we were about, quickly joined us.

Just as the first Frenchman sprang on to our deck, Nettles.h.i.+p's sword cut him down. Others, however, followed, but our men fought desperately. Though the enemy came rus.h.i.+ng on board, not an inch of ground did they gain.

Presently, a big fellow--the boatswain, apparently, from his dress-- joined his s.h.i.+pmates, and attacked Nettles.h.i.+p. I saw another close behind him, aiming a pistol at his head. I sprang forward and knocked it up just as it exploded, and the next moment dealt the Frenchman a blow on his sword arm, which saved Nettles.h.i.+p's life. The fellow whose pistol I had knocked up, however, had his cutla.s.s uplifted to strike me down, when Larry, who was by my side, parried the blow with his cutla.s.s, and, though he got a severe wound, he brought the man to the deck by a blow which he gave the next moment. Others of our crew now coming to our a.s.sistance, we drove back the enemy, who had nearly gained a footing.

The fight all the time was going on fiercely on the starboard side, and we could not tell whether the Frenchmen were getting the best of it.