Part 5 (1/2)
On this particular day it was about noon when the lookout reported a sail hull down on our starboard bow In less than an hour she had apparently sighted us, for she altered her course so as to ht for us Now this was an unusual occurrence, as the stranger must either be a hostile craft or else a shi+p in distress and wishi+ng to coreat to justify the assu assistance, so all hands were piped to quarters After ic
The officers held a consultation, and as it ell known that a Barbary corsair had been co several acts of exceptional violence, hopes were entertained that the stranger would prove to be that particular vessel
Our captain showed hihter ”If this be the Algerine,” he said, ”her speed will enable her to make off when she finds out e are It remains, therefore, to trick and entice her to us See that all our ordnance is run in and the ports closed Keep nearly all theof Sicily up to the peak And you, Master Bennet,” he added, addressing our newly er and your duty will be done Now, gentle Charles!”
The work of transforly peacefulbefore the corsair (for such there was no doubt she was) ca with yards badly squared, for all the world like a helpless trader, her course having been previously altered as if she were intent on running away
But on board everything was different At each of her guns on the starboard side were nal to trice up the ports, run the guns out, and deliver a crushi+ng broadside Powder, shot, and buckets of water were placed close at hand, while boarding axes, pikes, cutlasses,about ready to be seized when required
The men the softly to one another, and with difficulty restraining the our strength
The officers, hidden under the break of the poop, had donned their buff coats, head- and back-plates, and pluet to quarters
My station, with young Drake, was on the gundeck, yet I could not resist the inclination of creeping aft and looking at the Algerine through one of our stern ports
She was now tearing along at a tremendous pace, barely a quarter of a , and she was being propelled by oars as well as by sails; yet a stern chase is always a long one
Thinking us an easy prey, she roups of dark-skinned s of the Barbary ports, clustered on her high foc's'le, yelling and waving their arof the chains of the alley slaves, and the sharp crack of the whip of the merciless taskun would be fired, merely to ith she drew up about fifty yards from our starboard quarter, and even at that short distance they did not scent danger, their eagerness blinding them to the fact that twenty-five closed ports separated the hail of iron
I ran back to h and spare the slaves All along thein alnal to run out the guns The feeble gli arms and bodies of half-naked sea to the shouts of their unseen foes
Suddenly came the order to fire The ports were triced up, and brilliant sunshi+ne flooded the gundeck With the creaking of the tackles and the rue wheels, the h the ports There was no need to take aim, for the vessels were almost side by side The volley that followed shook the Gannet from keel to truck and filled the deck with clouds of ses and rauns roared--this tiular broadside
Four ti as calmly as if at practice How it fared with the pirate we knew not Occasionally, between the clouds of slimpse of her black sides, crushed and torn by our broadsides A h an open port and struck a seaman fairly between the eyes He fell without a sound, and this was the only casualty on the ed hih a port A bucketful of sand was sprinkled on the spot where he fell, and the gun at which he was stationed was run out again
Suddenly there was a crashi+ng, grinding sound The side the corsair
”Boarders, away!” was the order, and, hastily closing the ports, to prevent our being boarded in turn, the whole of the men below poured on deck, armed hatever weapon came first to their hands
The vessels lay side by side, locked in an unyielding ee lateen yards lying athwart her decks, while heaps of dead and dying men encumbered her slippery planks But the remnant still resisted, and for us the coht We had already suffered considerably,been slain on our fo'c'sle and poop, and now, headed by our gallant Captain Poynings, we threw ourselves upon the foemen's deck, where we met with a desperate resistance The corsairs knew that surrender e of despair, calling on Allah and Mohammed as they sleere slain
Inch by inch they were driven back, pistolled or cut down or thrust overboard, till there remained but one Moslem, a tall, wiry villain, armed with pistol and sci his skull cloven by a lightning sweep of the corsair's razorlike blade, the other having his sword arh at the wrist Two more rushed at hied pistol full in the face With that several men made ready to shoot him down; but our lieutenant called on them to desist, and he himself advanced on the redoubtable Moslem
The combat atched with breathless interest, for Geoffrey Weaver was a pastacquired both the French and Italian ainst Spaniards and Turks, and also in the Low Countries In ahis breastplate; yet as the sci, the armour did not serve hiainst a man armed with a pointed sword
Their blades met, and so quick was the swordplay that none could follow it In a few seconds both ounded, the blood trickling down the lieutenant's face from a nick on the forehead Then, quicker than words, Weaver escaped a sweeping blow fro nimbly backwards, and the next h the Mosleht at an end, we began to cheer lustily; but our triue his weapon, the corsair seized hi with him into the sea
We rushed to the side, but only a few bubbles caht of his armour, Weaver sank like a stone, and his irip, shared his fate
However, there was no tirets, and all hands were set to work to repair the daht Our losses were heavy: besides the lieutenant, two midshi+pmen, the bos'n, and sixteen men were killed, and the purser and thirty-three erine all her creere accounted for, not one surviving; while, in spite of our care, the losses aalley slaves were fearful A few stray shots and a shower of splinters had wrought destruction on these helpless chained-up wretches, and the gratitude of the survivors e knocked their fetters off was touching to witness There were Spaniards, Genoese, Venetians, French, and Dutch, negroes, and one Englishman, a man from Hull--twenty-three all told, most of ounded
The prize was badly shattered, but little dae was done near the waterline The Gannet suffered hardly at all, the corsairs, being unprepared for resistance, having neglected to use their two pieces of brass ordnance
The bodies of the dead were committed to the deep, the wounded attended to, and the decks cleaned of their ghastly stains, while a party of sea jury rime of the powder froht cut on the calf ofHohen it was done I could not reeon, so I dressed it ed I was sent for by the captain, and on reporting myself he said: ”Master Wentworth, I have been fully satisfied with your conduct in the fight, and although you are young in years you have a man's head on your shoulders You will now have your first coe of the prize with seven men to work her You must keep in company with the Gannet till off the Barbary coast, where you will have to shape a course for Tangier, which now belongs to His Majesty King Charles Should we be compelled to part company, I will rely on you to work the shi+p into that port You can, of course, use a sextant?”
I assented
”Very well, here is a plan of the harbour of Tangier This place,” indicating the et the necessary charts and instrue of the prize as soon as possible”
I saluted and left his cabin, feeling inclined to dance for joy, yet having sufficient dignity left to walk sedately across the quarterdeck
When I gained the gunroom I told the neith unrestrained enthusias companions, now reduced to two in nuh not slow in offering their congratulations, did not conceal the fact that htfall the fitting of the jury ed, and the working party was recalled Then, with ether with two of the liberated slaves, I took possession of the prize, having, with Captain Poyning's permission, named her the Little Gannet
CHAPTER IX
--I lose the Little Gannet
Throughout the first part of the night we held on our course, the poop lights of the Gannet acting as a guide Watches were set, fivethe wind veered round and blew freshly from the west'ard, and when the sun rose, a watery orb, the wind increased into half a gale
We saw the Gannet shorten sail, bowling along on the starboard tack under easy canvas to enable us to keep up with her I ordered additional preventers to be rove, had the hatches battened down, and took every possible precaution to ensure the safety of ale, acco the Gannet was nowhere to be seen Even with her jury rig the Little Gannet gave a good account of herself, though it was necessary to take an occasional spell at the puh her hastily patched sea my craft would lay closer to the wind than the Gannet, so I ordered her to be kept on the starboard tack for two hours, then on the larboard tack for another two hours, and so on, hoping by these ale moderated
There were, as I have mentioned, five men in each watch--one of the two liberated slaves, a Genoese, who spoke no English, being in ro, was placed in the second
This negro was of a gigantic stature, with powerful liale came on he could with difficulty be made to do any work at all, but lay in a heap in the weather scuppers, lish, Spanish, and his native tongue
All that day the gale continued, but on the h of a heavy swell, with no sign of the Gannet
About nine in thewe spied a sail on our starboard quarter This we concluded was the Gannet, which we had evidently passed during the night; but three hours afterwards we could see that it was not our parent shi+p, but a smaller and speedier craft