THE CAPTAIN OF H. B. M. SHIP DIAMOND ROCK
THE TALE OF A STRANGE SHIP OFF MARTINIQUE
"Come one, come all! this rock shall fly From its firm base as soon as I."
SCOTT
I.--THE CONDITION
"I am a passed midshipman now, Dorothy dear, and I'm certain to get myswab----"
"Swab, Mr. Maurice?" interrupted the young lady, archly.
"Yes, my epaulet--a lieutenant's commission--this year; you know whatI mean, Miss Venour. And, oh, I do love you so! With my pay and whatfather will allow me and what your grandfather will allow you we canget along,--that is, if you love me well enough to try it."
There was a long pause. The young lady looked down at her feet, whilethe arm of the young man stole around her waist. Tired at last ofwaiting, though the position was a charming one, the young officerrecalled her to herself by a slight squeeze, which was answered by adelightful little shriek from the girl.
"What was it you were saying?" she asked, hurriedly drawing away.
"I was telling you that I loved you," he answered with dignity,releasing her, "and asking you to marry me when I got to be alieutenant, if you love me. You do, don't you, Dorothy?" abandoninghis stateliness and bending toward her entreatingly.
"Ye--es, I--I--I think so, Mr. Maurice--James, then," she continued,in compliance with a deprecatory wave of his hand, "or Jim--or--" shehesitated a moment and added the word "dear."
His face brightened. He sprang toward her in boyish delight; but shechecked his rush with a pretty little motion, and continued, calmly,--
"You are a very nice boy indeed, but you are so young, you know----"
"Young!" he replied; "I am nineteen, and you are only seventeenyourself! You are scarcely old enough to be married."
"I am," she said, promptly; "I am old enough for anything."
"Old enough for me, Dot? Say, 'Yes!' You know I'm sure to come out alieutenant from this cruise, and then you will be a year older, too,you know, and--oh, Dot, do take me! You'd better take me now, youknow; you might not have a chance next year. I've been wounded once,and something tells me----"
He paused gloomily.
"Oh, Jim," she cried, "don't speak of it! But grandfather will neverconsent. You know perfectly well a lieutenant's pay does not amount toanything, and----"
"You are right there, Dot," broke in a deep voice, as a stout,red-faced old man in the uniform of a captain in the navy camestrolling out upon the beach from behind a clump of rocks.
"Captain Venour!" exclaimed the young officer, starting back indismay.
"Oh, grandfather, you have been listening! How shocking!" criedDorothy.
"Listening!" snorted the old man, contemptuously, with a nice mixtureof metaphors; "why, this young calf here has been roaring out his lovelike the bulls of Bashan."
"Sir--sir!" exclaimed Maurice, flushing painfully, "I love yourgranddaughter----"
"Stale news, lad. Everybody within half a mile of this knows it now,"said the old man. "Why, the smack of your----"
"Grandfather!" interrupted Dorothy, promptly, emulating her lover'sblush.
"And I want to marry her, sir, with your permission."
"Marry her!" shouted Captain Venour. "On the pay of a midshipman! Youyoung----"
"I'm a passed midshipman now, sir," interrupted Maurice, "and I'm sureto be a lieutenant when I come back from this cruise to the WestIndies,--and she says she loves me and that she will wait; didn't you,Dot?"
"Miss Venour, sir!" roared the old man, "in my presence! Did you makeany foolish promises to this young man, Dorothy?"
"I--ye--es, sir; I said I--I'd--I'd wait," answered Dorothy,reluctantly.
"Yes? Well, you will; you'll wait until he gets to be a captain. A manisn't fit to be married until he has had command of a ship and threeor four hundred men; he doesn't know how to manage a wife. Look at me!I married when I was a midshipman and--and--I know."
"But, sir, it will be fifteen years before I am a captain! Why, youweren't a captain yourself until you were forty, and I can never hopeto equal your record."
"No more you won't," said the old man, somewhat mollified by theadroit compliment.
"Oh, grandfather, not forty years! We couldn't wait until then! Why,I'm only seventeen now, sir, and James--Mr. Maurice--is only nineteen.Please, sir----"
Dorothy dropped on her knees on the sand before him, and at a motionof her hand Maurice did likewise.
"Get up, get up, you young fools!" said the old man; "suppose some oneshould see us!"
"No, sir," said Dorothy, grasping the skirts of his coat tightly; "notuntil you modify your terms. You know he loves me, and--and--and I amso sorry for him," she added, ingenuously.
"Well," said the captain, to whom Dorothy was as the apple of his eye,"I'll knock off a little. He can marry you when he has command of aship. If he is lucky, he might be made a lieutenant-commandant in fiveyears. Now, up with you!"
The young people struggled to their feet and looked sadly at eachother.
"Five years!" ejaculated the midshipman, mournfully.
"It's better than twenty, Jim," said Dorothy, cheerfully. "Can't youwait?"
"Wait! I will wait forever, Dot, I love you so----"
"Waugh!" roared the old captain, "are you going on with theseproceedings before my very eyes, at my age? It's indecent! There," headded, turning his back to them and walking away a few steps, at thesame time pulling an old silver watch from his pocket, "I'll give youjust five minutes; and take my advice, youngster, when you cut out aprize under convoy of a ship-of-the-line, don't make so much noiseabout it."
"I'll get a command inside of a year, Dot darling, or die in trying,"whispered the young man.
"I would rather have you alive without a command than dead with one,Jim," remarked Dorothy through her tears as the old captain came backtoward them.
"Now, I take it, you have just about time to make the harbor aroundyonder point where your ship is waiting for you," he said. "You'vesaid your good-bys, and you've got your answer, so you'd better upanchor and make a run for it. I'll take care Dot keeps her word, andmind you keep yours! Good-by and good luck to you. If you are half asimpudent in the face of the enemy as you have been to me here, youwill get the ship in a week."
The young midshipman clasped the proffered hand of the retired oldsea-captain, wrung it warmly, looked longingly at Dorothy dissolved intears on her grandfather's shoulder, and then turned and made his wayslowly down the beach toward the town and the harbor.
II.--THE UNDERTAKING
H. B. M.'s ship-of-the-line _Centaur_, 74, Captain Murray Maxwell,flying the broad pennant of Commodore Samuel Hood, was cruising to andfro off the island of Martinique, in front of Fort Royal Bay, toblockade the port and capture in- and out-bound vessels. One afternoonin the month of January, 1804, the commodore and the captain werestanding at the break of the poop discussing a problem. They had justbeen in chase of a fast-sailing French frigate, which had escaped themby boldly running under the lee of Diamond Rock, whither, throughignorance of the channel and want of pilots, they dared not follow.The thing had happened half a dozen times in the past month, and thecommodore naturally was exasperated.
The rock itself was a huge mass of naked stone, about a mile incircumference at the base, and towering out of the water to a heightof some six hundred feet, in shape resembling a rounded haystack. Onthe southward side the rock, sloping precipitously down to the water'sedge, was absolutely unscalable. The east and southwestern sides wereso broken as to be equally inaccessible, and the breakers, smashingwith tremendous force on the western end, made landing difficult orimpossible. The officer of the watch that afternoon, who happened tobe our quondam midshipman, James Wilkes Maurice, who had, by a seriesof fortunate accidents and some gallantry as well, been appointed alieutenant a month since, could not help overhearing the conversation.
"It's too bad!" said the commodore. "The scoundrels get under the leeof that rock every time and make a harbor,
and I don't see how we canprevent it unless we get a battery of heavy guns up on the rock; butthere appears to be no way up."
"If you please, sir," said Maurice, turning about and saluting ingreat trepidation, for the junior lieutenant was a very small manindeed beside the commodore, "there is a way up, sir. When I was areefer on the _Cerberus_ she was cruising around here, and one calmday a party of us received permission to go ashore on that pile ofstone, and we managed to reach the top."
"Oho!" exclaimed the commodore, his eyes brightening. "And could youtake a gun up?"
"Not the way we went, sir."
"Well, then, I am afraid your experience will not be of service."
"But, sir, if I might make so bold, sir----" continued the juniorlieutenant, hesitatingly.
"Heave ahead! Out with it!" said the commodore.
"In calm weather, sir, there is no surf on that point, and it would bequite possible, I should think, to take the _Centaur_ in close to theshore, and then with a hawser and a traveller from the main-topmasthead we might make shift to land some guns."
"Capital!" exclaimed the commodore. "What do you think of it,Maxwell?"
"It is for you to say, sir," replied the cautious captain. "Theweather is fine enough to-day, and we might try it. It will be riskingHis Majesty's ship, though, sir," he remarked, gravely.
"Fetch me a glass," said Sir Samuel, turning to the midshipman of thewatch. When it was brought to him he took a long look at the base ofthe cliff, observing a little stretch of sandy beach, upon which thebreakers usually tumbled with tremendous fury. This morning,fortunately, it seemed calm.
"I will answer, sir, that there is deep water under the cliff,"ventured Maurice at this moment.
"Will you answer for the flag-ship, too, sir?" asked the commodore,keenly.
"No, sir, I----"
"I shall have to answer for that myself," he continued. "We'll try it,Captain Maxwell; the wind's off shore, the sea smooth as a mill-pond.We'll anchor the _Centaur_ close under the lee of the rock off thewest side there. Call away a boat. Let Mr. Maurice go in charge, and Imyself will accompany him. We'll examine into the situation."
The investigation under the commodore proved the practicability of thebold scheme proposed by the young lieutenant. The _Centaur_ wasanchored close under the lee of the cliff, and with incredible laborfive of her big guns--three long twenty-four-pounders and twoeighteen-pounders--were landed on the rock. One end of a heavy cablewas fastened to the main-topmast and the other was secured to the topof the cliff. Up this by means of a traveller the heavy guns weredragged. One of the twenty-four-pounders had been fitted upon acircular carriage commanding the landing-place, another was mounted onthe northeast side, and the third upon a platform about midway up therock. The two eighteen-pounders were planted on the very summit andcommanded an immense distance. When the commodore had decided toundertake the manning of the rock, Maurice had sought an interviewwith him and explained his reason for aspiring to the command of thelanding party, which would, in the natural course of events, be givento a much older man.
"So your marriage with little Dot Venour depends on your commandingsomething with a pennant fluttering above, does it? Lord!" roared thecommodore, bursting into deep sea laughter, "and you want to hoistyour juvenile broad pennant on this rock, and then you'll want toclaim all sorts of privileges, you young dog! I didn't think that babywas old enough to be married yet, nor you either. Get along with you!I don't know what my old friend Venour would say if I'd be a party tothis mad purpose of yours by giving you the command of thisexpedition. There, lad, go to your duty; I'll think about it," addedthe commodore, exploding with mirth again.
He thought so well about it, however, that when all preparations hadbeen made, to the very great disgust of the older officers of theship, he detailed Maurice to the command of the party. On account ofhis lack of rank, his junior officers were all midshipmen. He and thefour midshipmen and one hundred and twenty men and boys, includingsome of the best seamen, composed the landing party, with four months'supply of provisions and ammunition. As the _Centaur_ got under wayand beat up toward Fort Royal, Maurice tore open an envelope thecommodore had handed him when he bade him good-by. It was a commissionand orders to command H. B. M.'s sloop-of-war _Diamond Rock_, fiveguns and one hundred and twenty men! He almost fell over the precipicein surprise and delight at the situation.
The rock was entirely barren except on the north-west side, where alittle depression existed in which there was a group of stunted wildfig-trees. There were two or three caves half-way up to the summit,dry and airy, the floors covered with fine sand, of which the officerschose the smallest, the men another, and all hands made themselvesvery much at home. The crew was divided into watches, a station billmade out, lookouts appointed, and the regular routine of a man-of-warbegun.
They had not long to wait to demonstrate their usefulness. Two daysafter the departure of the _Centaur_ the lookout on the top of therock saw a frigate under a tremendous press of canvas endeavoring torun between the rock and the shore and make for Fort Royal. Far away,and coming along like a gigantic white cloud, was a ship which waspresently made out to be the _Centaur_. A drummer-boy, not the leastimportant member of the crew of the _Diamond Rock_, beat to quarters,the men sprang to their stations, and the huge guns were loaded andcarefully trained on the unsuspicious French ship. She came boomingalong at a terrific pace. Maurice, with a coolness remarkable in oneso young, waited until she was well in range, and then, taking carefulaim, with the long twenty-four half-way up the summit, ignited thepriming.
With a terrific roar the ball sped straight to its mark. They were toofar away to hear the crash as it struck the fore-topmast, but the fallof the mast and the confusion on the ship were plainly visible. Withhearty British cheers the rest of the battery let drive at theoncoming frigate. One of the eighteens carried away the jib-stay andthe jib-halliards. There was great consternation on the Frenchfrigate. No one had dreamed of an enemy in that quarter, and beforethey could make up their minds what to do a second broadside waspoured upon them from the rock. Clearly the pass was untenable. Thecaptain of the frigate was a good seaman, and he promptly turned aboutand made for the sea again. He hoped to escape the _Centaur_ by hisspeed, but the old ship-of-the-line had the wind and heels of him nowand she came rushing down upon the frigate. After a long pursuit anda gallant endeavor the French captain found himself under the_Centaur's_ guns. There was nothing to do but to surrender. Throwinga prize crew on board, the _Centaur_ ran off toward the rock. Whennear enough to be seen a string of flags fluttered out from themizzen-topgallant yard-arm, and the delighted youngsters on the rockread the following:
"Well done, Captain Maurice!"
The men on the _Centaur_ might have almost heard the cheers with whichthe men and boys on the rock greeted the signal. It had leaked outsomehow that the young lieutenant whom they all loved, and to whoseforethought the manning of the rock was due, was in some way fightingfor his sweetheart as well as his country, and, above all men, thesailor loves a lover.
Scarcely a week passed without a brush with the enemy, and some monthselapsed before the French learned that the passage which they had usedwith so much skill and success was finally closed to them, and, saveat night, no vessels attempted the channel--not many then. There hadbeen plenty of excitement during this period, but now all was changed.The _Centaur_ and other ships sailed away, and the crew on the rockhad little or no communication with the shore for over a year longer.Their provisions and water were replenished every quarter by afrigate, which was despatched for the purpose. Otherwise they seemedto have been forgotten. The novelty of the situation had worn off, andthe monotony had begun to pall upon them dreadfully. Maurice and hisyoung officers were at their wit's end to find employment for the menand keep them in good spirits. The discipline was, of course, sternlymaintained, but, sailor-like, the men tired of the shore and pined forthe unsteady deck of a ship; in addition, Maurice longed for Dorothy.He had not been able to send a w
ord, nor had he received a line fromthat young lady. He was too proud to write to the commodore by one ofthe provisioning ships, and ask for relief.
One evening about the middle of May, 1805, when the provision-ship wasabout due on its quarterly trip, the watchers on the rock saw a greatfleet of sixteen sail-of-the-line, seven frigates, three corvettes,and a number of smaller vessels, all flying the French flag, runningthrough the channel toward Fort Royal. With joy in their hearts at theopportunity for action, the five guns on the stony sloop-of-warpromptly opened fire upon the great French and Spanish fleet of M. deVilleneuve, who was prosecuting his attempt to befool Nelson by givinghim that mad chase across the Atlantic and back which ended atTrafalgar.
The French ships returned the fire as they came within range of therock, and their tremendous broadsides kicked up a deal of noise andcut up the face of the rock somewhat, but did no other damage. Thecrew of the rock made excellent practice, and, considering theirforce, rendered the passage interesting to the French. The ennui ofthe intervening months was forgotten. Villeneuve was furious. Neverbefore had one lieutenant, four midshipmen, and one hundred-odd men(some of them had died during the sojourn) engaged successfully asplendid fleet of line-of-battle-ships. Toward evening one belatedSpanish ship unsuspiciously attempted to anchor near the rock, but shewas soon driven off with much loss. The elated Englishmen saw thefleet anchor at Fort Royal, now called, in deference to the republicanform of government of France, Fort de France. Villeneuve, who wasfuriously angry, learned from the French at Fort de France that theformidable barrier was held by a handful of men, so he determined tocapture the rock, and for that purpose, on the 29th of May, hedetached a squadron consisting of the _Pluton_ and _Berwick_, 74's,the frigate _Sirene_, 36, the _Argus_, 16, an armed schooner, andeleven gun-boats under the command of Commodore Cosmao, of the_Pluton_, with four hundred troops-of-the-line.
The rock had been blockaded ever since the arrival of the fleet atMartinique. When Maurice saw the ships bearing down upon him at breakof day on the 31st of June, 1805, he knew what to expect. Owing to thefact that the supply-ship, which was due, had not arrived,--because ofthe blockade, doubtless, and the presence of the great Frenchfleet,--Maurice unfortunately found himself with but a scanty supplyof powder and shot. He determined to abandon two of the lower guns andconcentrate his force about the eighteen-pounders and thetwenty-four-pounder half-way up. Spiking the lower guns, thusdestroying the battery, he withdrew to the summit of his command. Fortwo days the ships were anchored near by, the mild weather permittingthem to come close in. During this period the French poured anunremitting hail of shot upon the stone batteries of the rocky vessel.Maurice and his men answered the fire slowly but with great precisionfrom their three remaining guns. Three of the gun-boats and two othersmall boats were sunk, and the larger ships were much cut up. Theyoung captain might have protracted his defence indefinitely had nothis powder entirely failed him. Observing the English fire to slacken,the French finally landed their troops on the beach at the foot of therock. The last charge of the twenty-four hurled its iron missive ofdeath among the Frenchmen huddled on the beach. Then, like a flock ofgoats, they sprang at the cliffs and clambered up the steep sides ofthe rock, which the fire of the ships cleared with showers ofgrape-shot. A feeble musketry-fire, for the small cartridges had beentorn to contribute powder for the great guns, met them, but they cameboldly on. As they swarmed over the rock Maurice and some of the oldermen struck at the advancing French with their swords. The two mennearest him were killed and he himself was badly wounded. There wasnothing left but surrender. A French officer hauled down the Englishflag. The young captain had lost his first command. H. B. M.'ssloop-of-war _Diamond Rock_ had passed into the hands of AdmiralVilleneuve.
When the young captain recovered his senses in the cabin of the_Bucentaur_, the flag-ship of the French admiral, bound for Europeagain, he did not know whether or not he had won Dorothy Venour.
III.--THE REWARD
Early in November, a week or so after the great battle of Trafalgar,which the young captain witnessed from the deck of the French ship,from which in the confusion he escaped to the _Victory_, where he didgood service until the close of the action, he was landed atPortsmouth once more. In his pocket he bore two documents, one dated ayear and a half back, and the other but yesterday. Led by an instinctwhich he could not explain, instead of going up to Captain Venour'shouse on the hill, he made his way through the town and along thebeach toward that sheltered little cove from which he had taken hisdeparture two years before. As he turned the point of rocks he saw alonesome little figure seated on the sand, resting her chin in herhand and looking mournfully out over the sea. It was Dorothy. He stoleup behind her, caught her under the arms, lifted her to her feet, andkissed her before she could utter a scream. When she recovered,however, she made up for her startled silence.
"Oh, Jim dear!" she cried, precipitating herself into his arms with ashriek of delight, "you look like a real man now!"
"I am a man, Dot darling," he replied, his eyes brightening as he sawher radiant face peeping out from the brown curls near his shoulder.
"Well, sir," exclaimed the deep voice of Captain Venour, coming downthe beach,--singular how he always happened to be around atinopportune moments,--"you may be a man, but have you a command?"
"Oh, grandfather, he has command of me," cried Dorothy, archly,breaking away from her lover. "Won't I do?"
The old captain whistled.
"I've had command of a ship-of-the-line and I've tried to command onewoman, but give me the ship-of-the-line," he answered, reflectively."No, you won't do."
"Captain Venour," remarked the young man, gravely, "I have had acommand, sir, and in accordance with your agreement I have come toclaim your granddaughter."
"What was your command, my lad?" asked the captain, facetiously, "adinghy or a jolly-boat?"
"Neither, sir."
"A cutter, then?"
"No, sir."
"A brig or a sloop-of-war?"
"No, sir."
"Good heavens!" exclaimed the captain; "you don't mean to say you havebeen in charge of a frigate or a ship-of-the-line, a boy like you?"
"No, sir, not quite," said the young man.
"Well, what did you command? Did it have two masts?"
"It didn't have any masts, sir."
"No masts!"
"No, sir; it was a rock."
"Good Lord!" ejaculated the old man, sitting down feebly and staring."A rock? What do you mean? Are you trifling with me? That is no way togain the lass."
"Well, sir," answered Maurice, gravely, "here are my ordersauthorizing me to command His Majesty's sloop-of-war _Diamond Rock_,five guns and one hundred and twenty men. It's a great stone hill offMartinique. I commanded it for one year and six months, at the end ofwhich we beat off M. de Villeneuve's great fleet, and were onlycaptured when our powder gave out, by a heavy squadron which bombardedus for two days. I was wounded----"
"Oh, Jim, wounded!" cried Dorothy, with a shriek of alarm, rushingtoward him, while the dazed old man made no movement to prevent her.
"It is nothing, Dot darling," said the young fellow, manfully, but notmaking the slightest effort to avoid the caress. "I was wounded andtaken on board the French flag-ship _Bucentaur_, from which I escapedto the _Victory_ at Trafalgar, where Nelson beat the French fleet."
"Hey? What?" cried the old man. "Beat the French? But, of course, wealways do that."
"I saw him killed, sir," added young Maurice.
"Who killed?" exclaimed Captain Venour, in astonishment.
"Lord Nelson, sir; right in the height of the battle."
"Good God!" cried Captain Venour. "Nelson gone? He was a reefer underme on the _Hinchinbrook_. It can't be possible!"
"Yes, sir, it is," replied the young captain.
There was a long pause.
"What next, sir?" asked Captain Venour.
"Well, sir, I swung myself on board the _Victory_ in the action.Captain Hardy
recognized me and gave me a gun division whoselieutenant had been killed, and--and that's all. No, sir; here's apaper from Lord Collingwood, who succeeded to the command after LordNelson died, recommending me to be appointed post-captain,and--and--that's all, sir. May I have Dorothy now, sir?"
"You may," answered the captain, feebly, utterly overcome by theastonishing recital. "Any man who has commanded a six-million-ton rockand fought at Trafalgar can have anything he wants,--if Dorothy iswilling."
Dorothy signified unmistakably that she was willing.
"Poor Nelson!" continued the old captain. He rose slowly to his feetand turned away again, saying,--
"I will turn my back once more, young people, and mind, do it softly!"