The Log of a Privateersman

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER EIGHT.

  WE FALL IN WITH A CONVOY.

  The next three days were spent in dodging about the chops of theChannel, during which we saw nothing except a few homeward-bound Britishmerchantmen--all of them armed and quite capable of taking care ofthemselves--and a British line-of-battle ship, by which we were chasedfor six hours, but which we had little difficulty in escaping by jammingthe schooner close upon a wind. The unsophisticated reader may perhapsbe inclined to wonder why we should have been chased by one of our ownmen-o'-war; and why, being chased, we should have taken any trouble toescape from her. The fact, however, was that the _Dolphin_ wasaltogether too rakish-looking a craft to be mistaken for a ploddingmerchantman, her long, low, beamy hull, taunt, tapering spars, and broadspread of superbly-cut canvas proclaimed her a sea-rover as far as theeye could distinguish her; and, as the ensign carried was at that timebut an indifferent guarantee of a vessel's nationality, it was theimperative duty of our men-o'-war, when falling in with such a craft, tomake sure, if possible, that she was not an enemy and a danger to ourcommerce. Our friend the two-decker was therefore quite justified inher endeavour to get alongside us and obtain a sight of our papers; andhad we possessed any assurance that her delicate attentions would haveended there, her people would have been quite welcome to come aboard us,and overhaul the schooner and her papers to their heart's content. But,unfortunately, we had no such assurance. There was, at the time ofwhich I am now writing, a very great difficulty in procuring men enoughto adequately man our ships of war, and there was therefore noalternative left to the government but to resort to the process ofimpressment, a process which naval officers were too often apt to adoptwith scant discrimination. In their anxiety to secure a full complementfor their ships they deemed themselves justified not only in pressingmen ashore, but even in boarding the merchantmen of their own nationupon the high seas and impressing so many men out of them that instanceswere by no means rare of traders being subsequently lost through beingthus made so short-handed that their crews were insufficient in numberand strength to successfully battle against bad weather. The crews ofvessels furnished with letters of marque were nominally protected fromimpressment; but we were fully aware that the protection was onlynominal, and altogether insufficient; hence it came about that a Britishprivateer was always very much more anxious to escape from a man-o'-warflying the colours of her own country than she was to avoid a shipflying those of the enemy.

  And now, to return to my story. On the fourth day after our abortiveadventure in Abervrach harbour the wind hauled round from the eastward,and, heartily tired of and disgusted with our ill-luck, we gladlysquared away before it to seek a better fortune on the bosom of thebroad Atlantic. For a fortnight we stretched away to the southward andwestward, when we sighted and passed the lofty heights and precipitouscliffs of Flores and Corvo, in the neighbourhood of which Captain Winterdetermined to cruise for a week, it being customary for homeward-boundships from the southward to endeavour to make these islands and so checktheir reckoning. The wind, meanwhile, had gone round, and was nowblowing a very moderate breeze from the southward, with a clear sky,bright sunshine, and a pleasantly mild temperature.

  We cruised for eight days off the Azores, sighting only three vesselsduring the whole of that time; and as they were all British they were ofcourse of no use to us. Then, intensely disappointed at our continuedill-luck, we hauled our wind and, with a freshening breeze from thesouth-west, stretched away to the westward on the larboard tack, CaptainWinter having determined to look for better fortune in the West Indianwaters.

  For the first two days after quitting the neighbourhood of the Azores wemade excellent progress; and then a steadily falling barometer,accompanied by a lowering sky and a rapid increase in the strength ofthe wind, warned us to prepare for bad weather. Up to this time we hadbeen carrying our topgallant-sail, flying-jib, and small gaff-topsail;but with the steady freshening of the wind, the approach of night, andthe threatening aspect of the sky, the skipper deemed it prudent to stowour light canvas and to take down a reef in the mainsail and topsail.It was well that this precaution was taken; for during the night thewind increased to the strength of a gale, with a very heavy, dangeroussea; and when morning came it found us snugged down to the jib--with thebonnet off,--reefed foresail, and close-reefed mainsail. It was at thistime looking very black and wild to windward; the sky all along thesouth-western horizon being of a deep slaty, indigo hue, swept by swift-flying streamers of dirty, whitish-grey cloud; while the leaden-greysea, scourged into a waste of steep, foam-capped ridges and deep,seething, wind-furrowed valleys, had already risen to such a height asto completely becalm our low canvas every time that the schooner settleddown into the trough. The time was evidently at hand when it would benecessary for us to heave-to; the schooner was therefore got round uponthe starboard tack, with her head to the southward; and, as thebarometer was still falling, the hands were set to work to send down theyards and house the topmasts while it was still possible to do so. Thetask was a dangerous one; but we had plenty of strength, and, the menworking with a will, it was accomplished within an hour; and theschooner was then ready, as we hoped, to face the worst that couldhappen. By noon it was blowing so furiously, and the sea had increasedto such an extent, that the skipper determined not to risk the vesselany longer by further attempting to sail her, and she was accordinglyhove-to under a close-reefed foresail, when everybody but the officer incharge of the deck, and the man at the wheel, went below.

  As the day wore on the weather grew worse, and by nightfall it wasblowing a perfect hurricane, the force of the wind being so great that,even under the small rag of a close-reefed foresail, the schooner wasbowed down to her water-ways, and her lee scuppers were all afloat. Yetthe little craft was making splendid weather of it, riding themountainous seas as light and dry as a gull, looking well up into thewind, and fore-reaching at the rate of fully three knots in the hour.But it was a dreary and uncomfortable time for us all, the air being sofull of scud-water that it was like being exposed to a continuoustorrent of driving rain; despite our oil-skins and sou'-westers half anhour on deck was sufficient to secure one a drenching to the skin, whilethe spray, driven into one's face by the furious sweep of the hurricane,cut and stung like the lash of a whip. The schooner, being but a smallcraft, too, was extraordinarily lively; leaping and plunging, rollingand pitching to such an extent and with so quick a motion that it wasquite impossible to keep one's footing without holding on to something;while to secure a meal demanded a series of feats of dexterity thatwould have turned a professional acrobat green with envy. And all thisdiscomfort was emphasised, as it were, by the yelling and hooting andshrieking of the wind aloft, the roar of the angry sea, and the heavy,perpetual swish of spray upon the deck.

  It was about three bells in the first watch that night, when--I being incharge of the deck, and the skipper keeping me company--a light was madeout upon our lee bow, quickly followed by another, and another, andstill another, until the whole of the horizon ahead was lighted up likea town, there being probably over two hundred lights in sight. It wasevident that we were approaching a large concourse of ships; and inabout an hour's time we found ourselves driving into the very heart ofthe fleet. The night was altogether too dark for us to be enabled tomake out who and what they were; but the skipper was of opinion that wehad encountered a large convoy, and as it was impossible to tell whetherthey were friends or foes, he determined to wear the schooner round, assoon as we could find room, and heave her to with her head to thewestward, like the rest of the fleet, when the morning would enable usto ascertain the nationality of our neighbours and decide whetheranything was likely to be gained by keeping them company. At eightbells, therefore, by which time we had passed right through the fleet,we got the schooner round and waited impatiently until morning. Therewas a good deal of firing of blank cartridge, throughout the night, asalso of signalling with coloured lanterns; but we could, of course, makenothing of it, and took
it simply to mean that the men-o'-war in chargeof the convoy were doing their best to keep the fleet from becomingscattered during the continuance of the gale.

  When morning dawned, and the light came struggling feebly through thethick pall of murky, storm-torn vapour that overspread the sky, itbecame apparent that the skipper's surmise as to the character of thefleet had been correct: the _Dolphin_ being in the midst of some twohundred and fifty sail of vessels of different rigs, from the statelyship to the saucy schooner, in charge of two seventy-fours, a fifty-gunship, a frigate, and four eighteen-gun-brigs. The men-o'-war were allsnugged comfortably down, royal and topgallant yards on deck,topgallant-masts struck, and not an ounce of unnecessary top-hamperaloft; but most of the merchantmen had kept everything standing, even totheir royal-yards. There were a few, however--mostly the largercraft,--who had sent down their top-hamper; and there were others--notably a very fine, frigate-built ship--that had lost one or more oftheir spars during the gale, and were now in great difficulties, withthe wreck thrashing about aloft and not only threatening the remainingspars, but also the lives of the crew, who could be seen endeavouring tocut the raffle adrift. That the convoy was British became apparent assoon as the light grew strong enough to enable us to distinctly make outour nearest neighbours.

  It struck me that the men-o'-war's people were not keeping their eyesquite so wide open as they might have done; for there were only fourother schooners beside ourselves in the whole fleet, and one would havesupposed that the presence of a fifth would instantly have beennoticed--especially when that fifth wore so very roguish an appearanceas the _Dolphin_,--yet throughout the whole of that day no effort wasmade to ascertain our nationality, where we came from, whither we werebound, or anything about us! Of course, under ordinary circumstances,having ascertained that the convoy was British, and, therefore, of noespecial interest to us, we should have parted company by getting theschooner round with her head to the southward. There was, however, onecircumstance that decided the skipper to keep company with the convoy alittle longer, and it was this: As has already been mentioned, there wasa very fine, frigate-built merchantman in the fleet, which, when morningdawned, was seen to be in a situation of considerable difficulty, herfore and mizzen-topmast and main-topgallant-mast being over the side,having apparently been carried away during the night by the tremendousrolling and pitching of the ship. And near her was an exceedinglysmart-looking brigantine, with main-topmast and fore topgallant-masthoused. This vessel joined the convoy about daybreak and was now hove-to under a close-reefed main trysail, and fore-topmast-staysail, whichought to have enabled her to easily forge ahead and eat out to windwardof the disabled ship. And, as a matter of fact, she did so; yet somehowshe always seemed to drop back again into her old place, just to leewardof the ship; and after observing her motions for some time, I becameimpressed with the idea that this was the result of deliberate design,rather than of accident. For something seemed to be constantly goingwrong with her trysail sheet, necessitating a temporary taking in of thesail, during which she would pay off and go wallowing away to leewardfor a distance of three or four miles, when the sail would be reset, andshe would come creeping stealthily and imperceptibly up into somewherenear her old berth again. And this was done so naturally that, had itnot occurred more than once, I do not know that I should have taken anynotice of it. To me, however, the circumstance wore a rather suspiciousappearance; and when I had mentioned it to the skipper he seemedsomewhat disposed to take my view that the craft, although apparentlyBritish built, was in reality an enemy's privateer, with designs uponthe disabled ship as soon as a favourable opportunity should occur forcarrying them out. At all events there appeared to be enoughprobability in the hypothesis to induce Captain Winter to remain incompany of the convoy, to watch the progress of events, instead ofwearing round and resuming our course to the southward.

  The gale continued to blow all day with unabated fury, and the convoy,of course, remained hove-to. But, as the hours wore on, the severalcraft gradually became more scattered, the less weatherly vesselssteadily settling away to leeward, until, by the time that the dark,gloomy day drew toward its close, the fleet was spread out over asurface of ocean measuring, as nearly as one could judge, nearly orquite twelve miles in every direction: those craft that had sustaineddamage aloft naturally for the most part settling to leeward at agreater rate than the rest, since they were unable to dispose theircanvas so advantageously as the others for the purpose of lying-to. Thefrigate and gun-brigs were kept busy all day watching these stragglers,urging them by signal, and the occasional firing of guns, to close withthe main body of the fleet, and generally playing the part of sheep-dogs; while the crews of the lame ducks could be seen clearing away thewreck of their broken spars, unbending their split sails and bendingothers in place, and, in fact, doing their utmost to comply with theorders of the men-o'-war. But, after all, their utmost was but little;the merchantmen being altogether too lightly manned to be able to doreally effective work in the face of such a gale as was then blowing.The brigantine that had excited our suspicions had come in for a shareof the attention of one of the gun-brigs, and it was noticeable that,after the man-o'-war had run down and hailed her, no further accidentsappeared to have happened aboard her, so that the disabled ship hadgradually settled away some five miles astern and to leeward of her.Just as the darkness was closing down upon us, however, she took in hertrysail and fore-topmast-staysail, and set a main-staysail instead; butthey were so long about it that, when at length the change had beeneffected, the ship had drawn up to within about half a mile of thebrigantine's lee quarter. I directed Captain Winter's attention tothis, and he agreed with me that the manoeuvre had an exceedinglysuspicious appearance.

  "The ship, however, is quite safe for the present," he remarked; "for,even assuming the brigantine to be a Frenchman and a privateer, herpeople can do nothing so long as it continues to blow so heavily as atpresent. But directly that the wind shows signs of dropping we may lookout; and if we observe any further suspicious manoeuvres we may safelyconclude that she is French, and, if the men-o'-war do not forestall us,we will have a slap at her; for she appears to be a wonderfully fast andweatherly craft and is certainly a most magnificent sea-boat."

  I determined that I would keep a sharp eye upon the movements of thatbrigantine--for I could not rid my mind of a very strong suspicion thather people meant mischief,--and I accordingly watched her until she haddisplayed her light, which I then pointed out to a man whom I told offfor the especial purpose of keeping his eye on it; it being my intentionto persuade the skipper, if possible, to run down a little closer to herwhen it had become sufficiently dark to conceal our movements fromobservation. Captain Winter offered no objection to my proposal; andaccordingly, at eight bells of the second dog-watch, when the deck wasrelieved, our helm was put up and we edged away down toward the lightwhich was stated to be that of the brigantine. But when at length, bycareful manoeuvring, we had contrived to approach within biscuit-toss ofthe vessel displaying it, it was discovered, to my chagrin, that she wasnot the brigantine, but a large barque, the skipper of which appeared tobe greatly frightened at our sudden appearance near him; for he hailedus, in execrable French, that he was armed, and that if we did not sheeroff forthwith he would fire into us. I replied, in English, that heneed not be afraid of us, as we were British, like himself, and theninquired whether he had seen a large brigantine in his neighbourhood. Igot a reply to my question, it is true, but it was utterlyincomprehensible; and I doubt very much whether the man understood whatI had said to him; for the wind rendered it almost impossible for themost powerful voice to make itself heard, unless at a very shortdistance and dead to windward, as was the barque when her skipper hailedus. We made several attempts to find the brigantine that night, butsomehow failed to stumble across either her or the disabled ship uponwhich we suspected her of entertaining designs.