Part 4 (1/2)
”Precisely!” I agreed; ”ell aware of that, ht you at a respectful distance And now,” I continued, ”as I have relieved you of your co below to the surgeon to get your hurts attended to; I am sure that France can ill afford to lose so brave a man as yourself”
The poor fellow smiled wanly at my cluestion; while I went to work to get the prisoners disared without difficulty; the French appearing to be too utterly downcast and broken- spirited to drea hauled down their colours; and I was not surprised at this when I shortly afterwards learned that, out of a crew nuhty-four, she had lost no less than seven officers and sixty-three ht officers and ; the e had been inflicted by one gun! But then it was to be reate had been under the fire of that one gun for close upon five hours; the dusk of the short winter's day closing down upon us shortly after we had boarded our prize--the na secured our prisoners, I fired the three blank cartridges agreed upon as a signal, when the _Dolphin_ ran down and sent the end of a hawser aboard for the purpose of taking us in tow She also put very nearly her whole crew aboard, retaining ht have asup jury-masts
We had been in tow of the schooner but half an hour when Captain Winter came aboard in a boat to say that ere rather too heavy for hi all day and raising a sea that caused the schooner to strain to an alar on to her We therefore went to work to get so routed out abreeze then blowing, even this sate under command; we therefore cast off from the _Dolphin_, and that craft thereupon shortened sail to her booht not run away from us But even under that short canvas she was able to sail round and round us
During the whole of that night we stood to the northward and eastward; and all night long, too, ere hard at work, watch and watch, getting up jury spars; the result of our labours being that, by daybreak next ot a very serviceable jury fore us to set a fore-staysail, and also a main-topsail in place of a foresail With this head sail ere also enabled to give the frigate her close-reefed an to h the water at quite a respectable pace--that is to say about four knots per hour This, however, was not all; for the carpenter had been hard at work all through the night preparing a jury fore-top aloft and slung; by mid-day, therefore, ere enabled to set a fore- topsail, jib, and mainsail, which further increased our speed By four bells in the afternoon watch the island of Jersey was in sight, broad upon our lee bow, soht bells we tacked shi+p, being anxious not to draw too close in with the French coast in our then disabled condition
As the sun went down that night the weather ht the wind had softened down to a gentle breeze that barely gave us steerage-way through the water Finally it died away altogether, and when the sun rose next ht, the _Dolphin_ and ourselves were boxing the coth apart This in itself was rather provoking, as ere exceedingly anxious to get our prize into port, and off our hands; but the delay was as nothing coreeable circu sails in sight, about ten miles to the ard of us, apparently consorts, for we could see a good deal of signalling going on between the
They were a shi+p, a brig, and a large lugger, and the cut of their canvas left us little room to doubt that they were French Of course it was quite possible that they ht all three be perfectly har look about theestive of the privateersman, and if that was their character there could be no doubt whatever that we should find thehbours i up So little did Captain Winter like their appearance that, i likely to continue for so to be lowered, and went away in her to get a nearer look at the was a beautifully light, splendidlyboat, exactly suited for such a service, and not in the least likely to be overtaken by any boat such as either of the three vessels in sight reatly concern aveof additional jury spars aloft, in order that, if possible, the frigateorder by the ti a new main-topmast when the boatswain, as in the top, hailed the deck to say that the lugger and brig had rigged out their sweeps, and were heading in our direction, while the shi+p had lowered her boats and sent them ahead to toent up into the lass with me, and soon discovered that the report was only too correct; for when I reached ger churning up the water with her sweeps and co close behind, and the shi+p, in tow of her own boats, bringing up the rear This effectually disposed of the theory that they ht possibly bebut privateers or men-o'-war, and it was perfectly clear that they were fully bent upon paying us a visit
It afterwards appeared that Captain Winter did not suspect this new developot intothat all three vessels kept their heads persistently pointed in our direction, and that he appeared to be nearing the of the truth dawned upon hiht reserve their strength for a spurt in case of need Nevertheless, he continued to pull toward theer--the crehich at once opened fire upon hi ascertained the force of the squadron, he returned with all speed to us, having meanwhile ershowed five ports of a side, but the weight of her uns were run in and her ports closed; and the shi+p uns, apparently nine-pounders Now this was a force altogether too strong for us to cope with, even had we not been hampered with a prize to look after; for, unlike the case of the frigate, the force was distributed a concentrated on board of one only; and while Captain Winter was always ready to trust soood deal upon the chance that a lucky shot onist, it becaether when there were three craft to contend with He, therefore, reluctantly came to the conclusion that our prize must be sacrificed in order to ensure our own safety He therefore pulled straight to the _Dolphin_, and ordering the whole of her boats to be lowered andon board himself to superintend the operations upon which he had decided
His first act was to order the whole of the frigate's boats to be stripped of their oars, rowlocks, and bottom-boards, and when this was done they were lowered, and the prisoners, wounded as well as sound, sent down into them; when, as soon as he had satisfied himself that the whole of the Frenchate's boats were towed about a mile away and cast adrift Meanwhile, in obedience to instructions, I had collected all the inflammable material that I could lay hands upon, and had set the shi+p on fire in four places, with the result that when the _Dolphin's_ boats returned alongside our prize to take us off, she ell alight, with the s in the deck It took us but a short time to leave her, and the moment that ere once more on board the schooner the sweeps were manned and the vessel put upon a northerly course, this direction having been chosen in consequence of the discovery that a light air had sprung up and was co down from the northward and eastward, which would place us dead to ard of our foronists by the time that it reached us
At the er was so about half a mile astern of her, and the shi+p perhaps aVery shortly afterwards the flaate'sfroh we had lost her, there was no chance of her again falling into the hands of the French
The breeze was a long ti, indeed, that after waiting a full half-hour, with the cat's-paws playing upon the water within biscuit-toss of us, the hele of delicate blue thatline where the calether for the mastery This was reached in about a quarter of an hour, when, after a feeble preli, our canvas filled, the sweeps were laid in, and we began to h the water at a speed of so up nearly due north, while the lugger and the brig at the sa us, and the shi+p despatched two of her boats to the rescue of their helpless coer, which was a very fine and evidently very fast vessel of her class, wasdesperate efforts to close with us, with such success that at the end of another half-hour it becaht and fickle breeze freshened somewhat in the interiun-shot of us This, however, gave us no concern whatever, for ere faralso was doing her best, ere both drawing away from her so steadily that we of the _Dolphin_ quite reckoned upon being able in due tier before her consort could come up to her assistance
Six bells in the forenoon watch had just struck when the frigate bleith a dull, heavy boom, not nearly so loud as I had expected to hear, but the concussion was terrific, causing the schooner to quiver to her keel, while its effect upon the languid breeze was such as to completely kill it for three or fourstealthily along the water again, and about half an hour later it reached the lugger, which immediately laid in her sweeps and hauled close to the wind in pursuit of us We were at this ti along at a speed of about four and a half knots, the lugger being about a point abaft our lee bea up about half a point higher than ourselves, in her eagerness to close with us By noon it had becoe in point of speed, so that it lay with us to ood our escape, or not, as we pleased We had, however, lost one valuable prize, through the inopportune appearance of the lugger and her consorts, and were by no o off empty-handed, if we could help it We therefore quietly and unostentatiously checked our sheets and weather braces just sufficiently to permit the wind to all but spill out of our canvas, thus deadening our way somewhat; and the men then went to dinner
Our little ruse had its desired effect, the lugger having closed up to within a ain; and as the schooner had long ago been cleared for action, the galley fire was now extinguished, and the creent to the guns in readiness for the cole At the sae down upon our antagonist
Just about this tiht the first of the breeze, and at once crowded sail in chase It was therefore time for us to set about our work in earnest, if we did not desire to have her to reckon with as well as the lugger Nevertheless, we still withheld our fire; the skipper being deterin until he could make short work of it
”Mr Bowen,” said he to er, ”I want to take that felloith as little da, because if they happen to be much cut up we may find ourselves so seriously ha away froo round the deck, and direct the men to aim with the utmost care at the ports, so that our shot uns, after which it will be an easy side and carry her with a rush I expect her people are already so tired with their long spell at the sweeps that they will not have ht Ha! there she opens fire! So it is time to show our colours”
And he proceeded to bend on and hoist the ensign with his own hands, while I turned away to carry out his instructions
The single shot that the lugger had fired flew fair between our e, however, was repaired in less than fivealoft and neatly spliced and re-rove the brace Meanwhile our lads had carefully levelled and pointed their guns, and now only awaited the word to fire This soon cauns in our larboard broadside rang out together, five neat holes in the lugger's bulwarks testifying to the accuracy hich they had been aier alain the shot went hue They probably had no very keen desire to engage us single-handed, but were anxious to cripple us and so give ti to close to their support; but in their anxiety to do this they had pointed their guns so high that the shot had flown over us altogether
Our lads were quite wide-awake enough to understand the ier They therefore handled their guns very se for their one, and ere now close enough to observe that the second of these two broadsides had disuns
”Hurrah, lads!” exclaiain If you are sive another broadside, and board in the s-irons, and heave as we touch I will lead the boarders e of the shi+p--”
He was interrupted by another broadside froh the bulwarks, and I i pain just abovethe locality of the injury It proved to be abeen driven into the flesh I quickly pulled it out, and hurriedly bound up the wound with ave the word to the helmsman to ”Up helm, and run her aboard!”
”I see that you are hurt, Mr Bowen,” said he, turning tovery serious, I hope?”
”Aworth speaking about”