CHAPTER XIII
THE BERMUDA TRADER
There is a great deal of the humdrum and monotonous in the day afterday life and work upon a ship at sea. Even if the ship is a cruiserand if there is a continuous watching for and study of all the othersails that appear, that too may grow dull and tiresome.
There were many days of such unprofitable watching from the outlooks ofthe _Noank_, after her first unexpected good fortune. She had somehowfailed to overtake that sought-for Porto Rico merchantman. The galehad favored an escape, and so had the delay occasioned by the pursuitand capture of the _Spencer_. Since then, carrying all the sail thevarying winds would let him, Captain Avery had sailed persistently on,hoping for that prize or for another as good. There had been topsailsreported, from time to time, between him and the horizon, and from two,at least, of those, he had cautiously sheered away, not liking theirvery excellent "cut." There might be tiers of dangerous guns away downbelow them and he did not want any more guns,--heavy ones.
"I said," he remarked, a little dolefully, "that I'd foller thatsugar-boat all the way to Liverpool, and I've only 'bout half done it.I'm goin' ahead. There's no use in tryin' back toward Cuba, now.We'll take a look at the British coast, pretty soon; France, too, andIreland, maybe Holland. We'll see what's to be had in the channels."
Everybody on board was likely to be satisfied with that decision,especially the British prisoners from the _Spencer_. As for these, thesailor part of them were already on very good terms with their captors,not caring very much how or in what kind of craft they were to findtheir way back to England. They were a happy-go-lucky lot offoremastmen with strong prejudices, of course, against all Yankeerebels, but with thoroughly seamanlike ideas that they had no right tobe sulky over the ordinary chances of war. They had not really lostmuch, and their main cause of complaint was their very narrow quarterson board the _Noank_. They had not the least idea that a change inthis respect was only a little ahead of them, but a great improvementwas coming.
Day had followed day, and the ocean seemed to be in a manner deserted.A feeling of disappointment seemed to be growing in the mind of CaptainAvery, and he had half forgotten how very good a prize the _Spencer_had been.
"This 'ere is dreadful!" he declared. "I'm afraid we're not goin' tomake a dollar. What few sails we've sighted have all been Dutch orFrench. I want a look at the red-cross flag again."
"Well, yes," thought Guert, "but I guess he doesn't want to see it on aman-o'-war. I feel a good deal as he does, though. I'll get Vine tolend me a glass. I've hardly had a chance to play lookout."
Vine let him have the telescope, of course, but Up-na-tan and Coco cameat once to see what he would do with it. He pulled it out to itslength and began to peer across the surrounding ocean.
"Ugh!" said Up-na-tan. "Boy fool! No stay on deck. Go up mast.Maintop. Then mebbe see something. No good eye!"
"Git up aloft, Guert!" added Coco. "Never mine ole redskin. Think hego bline, pretty soon. Can't see lobster ship."
That may have referred to the fact that they had served as lookouts,that morning, until they were weary of it, and Up-na-tan had lost histemper. They grinned discontentedly as they saw their young friend goaloft. He had now become well accustomed to high perches, and wasbeginning to regard himself as an experienced sailor for that kind ofsmall cruiser. He felt very much at home in the maintop, and evenCaptain Avery glanced up at him approvingly.
"He must learn how," he remarked, as he saw Guert square himself in hisnarrow coop and adjust the telescope.
"Ugh!" suddenly exclaimed the Indian. "Boy see! Wish ole chief upthere heself."
The others had not noticed so closely, and Guert was not apparentlyexcited. He was gazing steadily in one direction, however, instead ofhunting here and there, as he had done at first.
"Isn't a telescope wonderful?" he was thinking. "It brings that flagclose up. I can see that her foremast is gone. That looks likeanother sail, away off beyond her. More than one of 'em. Maybe it's afleet."
A lurch of the _Noank_ compelled him to lower his glass and grasp arope, while he leaned over to shout down his wonderful discoveries.
"Hurrah!" yelled Vine. "Good for Guert!"
"Hard a-lee, then!" roared Captain Avery to the man at the helm."Ready about! Strange sail to looard! Up-na-tan, that long gun!Clear for action!"
It was all very well for him to shout rapid orders and for the crew tobring up powder and shot so eagerly, and get the schooner ready for afight. It was also well for the captain to go aloft and take the glasshimself. He could see more than Guert could. But what was the good ofit all when the wind was dying?
There was hardly air enough to keep the sails from flapping. Aschooner could do better than a square-rigged vessel under suchcircumstances, but that wind was an aggravating trial to a ship-load ofexcited privateersmen.
Captain McGrew had been permitted to come on deck, and Guert, as hereached the deck from aloft, was half sure that he had heard theEnglishman chuckling maliciously, then heard him mutter:--
"The Bermuda ships never sail home without a strong convoy. Thesechaps'll catch it."
When Captain Avery himself came down and the opinion of the _Spencer's_captain was reported to him, he said:--
"From Bermuda, eh? That's likely. We're not far out o' their course,I'd say. Who cares for convoy? I don't. This feller nighest us iscrippled and left behind. If it wasn't for this calm, my boy--"
There he became silent and stood still, staring hungrily to leeward.
Perhaps his manifest vexation was enjoyed by his English prisoner, butCaptain McGrew very soon put on a graver face, for the sharp-nosed_Noank_ was all the while slipping along, and the ship she was steeringtoward was almost as good as standing still. So must have been anyheavier craft, warlike or otherwise.
An hour went by, another, and the deceptive British merchant flag stillfluttered from the rigging of the _Noank_. The strange sail had madeno attempt to signal her and there had been a reason for it. She hadher own sharp-eyed lookouts, and these and her officers had beenstudying this schooner to windward of them.
"She's American built," they had said of her. "Most likely she's oneof the _Solway's_ prizes. The old seventy-four has picked up a dozenof them. She ought not to be coming this way though. She's runningout of her course."
There was something almost suspicious about it, they thought. It mightbe all right, but they were at sea in war time, and there was notelling what might happen.
"She'll be within hail inside of five minutes," they said at last."We've signalled her now, and she doesn't pay us any attention. Itlooks bad. Her lookouts haven't gone blind."
Not at all. Captain Avery was anything but shortsighted. His glasshad recently informed him that a huge hulk of some sort, only thetopsails of which had been seen at first, was steadily drifting nearer.
"Answer no hail!" he had ordered. "We must board her without firing agun."
Not for firing, therefore, but for show only, the pivot-gun threw offits tarpaulin disguise, and the broadside sixes ran their threateningbrass noses out at the port-holes, while the British flag came down andthe stars and stripes went up.
"Heave to, or I'll sink you!" was the first hail of Captain Avery."What ship's that?"
"_Sinclair_, Bermuda, Captain Keller. Cargo and passengers. Wesurrender!" came quickly back. "We are half disabled now.Short-handed."
"All right," said the captain. "We won't hurt you. We'll grapple andboard."
The _Sinclair_ was more than twice the size of the _Noank_. Shecarried a few good-looking guns, too. The grappling irons were thrown;the two hulls came together; the American boarders poured over herbulwarks, pike and cutlass in hand, ready for a fight. All they sawthere to meet them, however, was not more than a score of sailors, ofall sorts, and a mob of passengers, aft. Some of these were weepingand clinging to each other as if they had seen a pack of wolves coming.
"I'm Capt
ain Keller," said the nearest of the Englishmen. "You're toomany for us. We couldn't even man the guns. Five men on the sicklist."
He seemed intensely mortified at his inability to show fight, and heinstantly added:--
"Besides, man alive! six Bermuda planters and their families! They allexpect that you're going to make 'em walk the plank."
"That's jest what we'll do!" replied Captain Avery. "We'll cut theirthroats first, to make 'em stop their music. I'll tell you what,though. I've a lot of English fellers that I want to get rid of. Nouse to me. You can have 'em, if you'll be good. Captain McGrew, fetchyour men over into this 'ere 'Mudian! I don't want her."
"All right! We're coming!" called back the suddenly delightedex-skipper of the _Spencer_. "What luck this is!"
"Now, Captain Keller," said Avery, "we'll search for cash and anythingelse we want. Are you leakin'?"
"No," said the Englishman, "we're tight enough. We were damaged in agale, that's all. There's one of our convoy, off to looard,--the old_Solway_. She lost a stick, too."
"We won't hurt her," said Avery. "What did that old woman yell for?"
"Why," said Keller, "one o' those younkers told her you meant to burnthe ship and sell her to the Turks. But the best part of our cargo,for your taking, is coming up from the hold."
The two grim old salts perfectly understood each other's dry humor, andKeller's orders had been given without waiting for explanations.
"Hullo!" said Avery. "Well, yes, I'd say so! There they come! Howmany of 'em?"
"Forty-seven miserable Yankees," said Keller. "The _Solway_ took 'emout of a Baltimore clipper and another rebel boat. She stuck 'em in onus to relieve her own hold. They were to be distributed 'mong theChannel fleet, maybe. You may have 'em all. It's a kind of fairtrade, I'd say."
At that moment the two ships were ringing with cheers. The _Spencer_Englishmen, the short-handed crew of the _Sinclair_, and, mostuproariously of all, the liberated American sailors, who were pouringup from the hold, let out all the voices they had. It was anextraordinary scene to take place on the deck of a vessel just capturedby bloodthirsty privateers. The women and children ceased theircrying, and then the men passengers came forward to find out what wasthe matter. Ten words of explanation were given, and then even theywere laughing merrily. The dreaded pirate schooner had only broughtthe much needed supply of sailors, and there was no real harm in her.
A search below for cash and other valuables of a quickly movablecharacter was going forward with all haste, nevertheless, while theliberated tars of both nations transferred themselves and their effectsto either vessel.
"Not much cash," said Captain Avery, "but I've found a couple of extracompasses and a prime chronometer that I wanted. The prisoners are thebest o' this prize, and how I'm to stow 'em and quarter 'em, I don'texactly know. We must steer straight for Brest, I think."
"Captain," said Guert, coming to him a little anxiously, "off tolooard! Boats!"
The captain was startled.
"Boats? From the seventy-four?" he exclaimed. "That means mischief!All hands on board the _Noank_! Call 'em up from below! Tally! Don'tmiss a man! Drop all you can't carry!"
The skipper of the _Sinclair_ was looking contemptuously at hisbewildered passengers.
"The whimperingest lot I ever sailed with," he remarked of them; andthen he sang out, to be heard by all: "Captain Avery! Did you say youwere going to scuttle my ship, or set her afire?"
"Both!" responded the captain. "Jest as soon's I get good and ready.I'll show ye!"
"You bloodthirsty monster!" burst from one of the older ladies. "Allof you Americans are pirates! Worse than pirates!"
"Fact, madam!" said he; "but then you don't know how good we are, too.I'm a kind of angel, myself. Look out yonder, though! See that lot o'pirate boats from the _Solway_? The captain o' that tub is abloodthirsty monster! He eats children, ye know. He's a reg'larEnglishman!"
"You brute!" she said; and then, as the commander of the _Noank_ wasgoing over the rail, she added, more calmly; "Why! what an old fool Iam! The Americans are only in a hurry to get away. Our boats arecoming after 'em, and then they'll all be hung."
"That's it, madam," said Captain Keller. "They're going to get 'em,too. What I care for most is that we've hands enough now to repairdamages, so we can get you all to Liverpool."
Off swung the terrible privateer, her much increased ship's companysending back a round of cheers as she did so. A light puff of airbegan to fill the limp sails of the _Sinclair_, and she, too, gatheredheadway.
"Wind come a little more," said Up-na-tan, thoughtfully. "No fightboat. No hurt 'Muda ship. No sink her."
The captain overheard him, and he broke out into a hearty laugh.
"No, you old scalper," he said. "I'm a Connecticut man, I am. I can'tbear to see anything like wastage. What's the use o' burnin' a shipyou can't keep? It's a thing I couldn't do."
"No take her, anyhow," said the Indian. "Ole tub too slow. Lobstership take her back right away. Ugh! Bad wind!"
Very bad indeed was that light breeze, and away yonder were the boatsof the _Solway_ coming steadily along in a well-handled line.
"They're dangerous looking, sir," said Groot, the Dutch ex-pirate,after a study of them through a glass. "Two of them carry boat guns.Strong crews. I'd not like to be boarded by them."
"We won't let 'em board," said the captain. "Thank God, we've a gooddeal more'n a hundred men now. I guess Keller'll warn 'em how strongwe are. That may hold 'em back."
It was a schooner wind, and the _Noank_ was going along, but she wasnot travelling so fast as were the vigorously pulled boats. It was alesson in sea warfare to watch them and see how perfect was theirdiscipline and the oar-training of their crews.
"That's the reason," remarked Captain Avery, "why England rules thesea. We'll have a navy, some day, and we'll beat 'em at their ownteachin's."
The rescued prisoners had been having a hard time of it in the hold ofthe Bermuda trader, and they were beginning to feel desperate now atwhat seemed a prospect of being once more captured by the enemy. Theywent to the guns, and they armed themselves like men who were about tofight for their very lives. There was one piece that they were notallowed to touch, however, for Up-na-tan himself was behind thepivot-gun. He and Groot, in consultation, seemed to be carefullycalculating the now rapidly diminishing distance between the schoonerand the British boat-line.
This reached the _Sinclair_ speedily, and its delay there was only longenough for reports and explanations.
"That's her armament, is it?" the lieutenant in command had said toKeller. "Stronger than I expected, but we can take her. Forward, all!She won't think of resisting us. Give her a gun to heave to!"
The longboat in which he stood carried a snub-nosed six-pounder, andits gunners at once blazed away. They had the range well, and theirshot went skipping along only a few fathoms aft of the _Noank's_ stern.
"Father," exclaimed Vine, "it won't do to let that work go on. Wemight be crippled."
"Give it to 'em, Up-na-tan!" shouted the captain. "Men! We won't betaken! We'll fight this fight out!"'
Loud cheers answered him, but it was Groot, the pirate, who was nowsighting the long eighteen, and he proved to be a capital marksman.
"Ugh! Longboat!" said Up-na-tan. "Now!"
Away sped the iron messenger, so carefully directed, but not oneBritish sailor was hurt by it. It did but rudely graze the larboardstern timber of the _Solway's_ longboat at the water line.
"Thunder!" roared the astonished lieutenant. "A hole as big as abarrel! If they haven't sunk us!"
The nearest boats on either hand pulled swiftly to the rescue, but thatboat-gun would never again be fired. The other gun, in the _Solway's_pinnace, spoke out angrily, and, curiously enough, it had been chargedwith nothing but grape-shot. All of this was what Captain Avery mighthave described as wastage, for it was uselessly scattered over the sea.
/> Loud were the yells and cheers on board the _Noank_ as her crew sawtheir most dangerous antagonist go under water, sinking all the fasterbecause of the heavy cannon. Of course, the sailors whose boat had sounexpectedly gone out from under them were all picked up, but not oneof them had saved pike or musket. The attacking force had thereforebeen diminished seriously, and there had also been many minutes ofdelay.
"Captain," said Groot, "I'll send another pill among them, whilesthey're clustered so close together."
"Not a shot!" sharply commanded Captain Avery. "I'm thinkin'! Men!It's more'n likely there are 'pressed Americans on those boats. Iwon't risk it. We must get away."
"Ay, ay, sir," came heartily back from many voices. "Let 'em go."
That was what saved the really beaten British tars from any more heavyshot, and the _Noank_ was all the while increasing her distance. Theonly remaining danger to her now was the mighty _Solway_, and hersails, full set, could be seen and studied by the glasses on theschooner.
"She's the first big ship I ever saw under full sail," said Guert toGroot. "I've only seen 'em in port."
"You'd be of little good on her till after you'd served awhile," saidthe Dutchman, in his own tongue. "It isn't even every British captainthat can handle a seventy-four as she ought to be handled."
Whoever was in charge of the _Solway_ now, she was sailing faster thanthe _Noank_, and things were looking badly. So said one of his oldneighbors to Captain Lyme Avery, only to be answered by a chuckle.
"Jest calc'late," he added, quite cheerfully. "A starn chase is alwaysa long chase. They won't be gettin' into range for their best gunstill about dark. Then I'll show ye. Vine, make a barrel raft! Sharp!"
Up from the hold came quickly a dozen or so of empty barrels, and thesewere carpentered together with planks so as to make a skeleton deck.In the middle of this was rigged a spar like a mast, and the raft wasready.
All the sailors believed they knew what was coming. It was an old,old, trick, as old as the hills, but it might be the thing to try inthis case.
On came the stately line-of-battle ship, as the shadows deepened. Shewas slowly gaining in spite of the _Noank_ having every inch of hercanvas spread. She would soon be near enough to fly her bow chasers.If these were heavy enough, there would then be nothing left theAmerican privateer but prompt surrender. The next half-hour was,therefore, a time of breathless anxiety.
"It's almost dark enough, now," said Captain Avery, at last, with acloudy face. "Over with the raft, Vine; I'm goin' to try somethin'new."
Over the side it went and it floated buoyantly, with a large, lightedlantern swinging at the tip of its pretty tall mast. At the foot ofthat spar, however, had been securely fastened a barrel of powder, witha long line-fuse carried from it up several feet along the uprightstick.
"If that light fools him at all," said the captain, "it'll gain us halfan hour and five miles. If it doesn't, why, then we're gone, that'sall. Now, Coco, due nor'west! Keep her head well to the wind. Weshall pass that seventy-four within two miles."
It was a daring game to play, taking into account British night-glassesand heavy guns, to tack toward a line-of-battle ship in that manner.
On the _Solway_, however, there had been a feeling of absolutecertainty as to overtaking the schooner. She had been in plain view,they said, up to the moment when her crew so foolishly swung out alantern. It was a mere glimmer, truly, but it would do to steer by.It was many minutes afterward that an idea suddenly flashed into theexperienced mind of the British commander.
"Nonsense!" he exclaimed. "No Yankee would have held up a light for usto chase him by. That's a decoy! Hard a-port, there! The rebels'd gooff before the wind. They can't take in an old hand like me."
Precisely because the _Noank_ had not gone off before the wind, herseemingly safest course, the _Solway_ was not immediately followingher. More minutes went by, and then there arose a storm ofexclamations on board the seventy-four.
"Captain," asked an excited officer, "did she blow up?"
"No," he gruffly responded. "That's only part of the decoy."
Not all his subordinates agreed with him, however, and it was plainlyhis duty to carry his ship past the place of the now vanished light andof so tremendous an explosion. He did so grumblingly.
"I know 'em," he said. "It's only some trick or other. They're sharpchaps to deal with, on land or sea. They're a kind of Indian fighters,and they're up to anything. Do you know, I believe we've lost her!"
That was what he had done, or else Captain Lyme Avery had lost theseventy-four, for when the next morning dawned her lookouts coulddiscover no sign of the _Noank's_ white canvas between them and thehorizon.