The Log of a Privateersman

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER NINETEEN.

  THE FATE OF THE SANTA THERESA.

  Upon rejoining Dumaresq, I learned from him that the pistol-shot firedin the cabin had attracted only the most casual and momentary notice ofthe few Frenchmen on deck; the majority of them, indeed, scarcelyrousing themselves sufficiently to do more than merely turn their headsto send a single inquiring glance aft. This was good news, as, althoughthe schooner was now to all intents and purposes our own, there were fewenough of us to navigate her, and I was most anxious that those fewshould not be weakened by possible injuries in a struggle to secure fulland complete possession. That full and complete possession, however, itwas absolutely necessary to secure at once, if anything was to be donetoward rescuing the unhappy Spaniards on board the fast-sinking _SantaTheresa_; so Dumaresq and I went forward and, by dint of a little good-humoured force, succeeded in persuading the remainder of the Frenchmento go below, where we secured them without much difficulty. This done,we at once brought the schooner to the wind, and proceeded to beat uptoward the Spanish ship, which we could just make out in the rapidlydeepening dusk of the tropical evening. I carefully noted her bearingand distance; and then, Dumaresq taking the wheel, the rest of us wentto work to make our prisoners permanently secure. Fortunately for us,Renouf's foresight enabled us to do this very effectually, he havingapparently recognised that circumstances might possibly arise renderingit important that he should possess the means to reduce a large numberof men to absolute helplessness; for which purpose he had providedhimself with an ample supply of irons, which now proved most useful tous. We lost no time in clapping these irons upon the hands and legs ofthe Frenchmen, thus rendering it impossible for them to give us theslightest trouble upon their recovery from their drunken debauch; and,having made all perfectly secure, our next business was to restore thecook and steward to sobriety, by subjecting them to a liberal douche ofsalt-water, and to set them to work to prepare us a meal, of which webegan to feel that we stood in need.

  The task of effectually securing the whole of our prisoners occupied aconsiderable amount of time; so that when it was at length completed tomy satisfaction the night had long since fallen, and we had completelylost sight of the Spanish ship, although Dumaresq had kept his eye uponher as long as possible. We had brought the schooner to the wind on thestarboard tack, in the first instance, and we held on upon this tackuntil I found, by means of a simple little diagram, drawn to scale upona piece of paper, that we could fetch her on the next tack when we hovethe schooner round. But my hopes of being able to rescue the Spaniardswere fast fading away, for the wind had evinced a decided disposition todrop with the setting of the sun; and when we at length tacked to fetchthe spot where we expected to find the _Santa Theresa_, the schooner wasgoing through the water at a speed of barely four knots. And, accordingto my reckoning, the ship was just that distance from us; so that itwould occupy us another hour to fetch her, and I was exceedinglydoubtful whether she would remain afloat so long. Indeed, I greatlyfeared that she had foundered already, for the night, although dark, wasclear. The stars were shining brilliantly from zenith to horizon, andit appeared to me that if she was still afloat we ought to be able tosee the blur of her canvas against the sky. But although I searched thehorizon from broad on the one bow to broad on the other, using for thepurpose an exceptionally fine night-glass that I found in Renouf'scabin, I was unable to make her out.

  Once or twice, it is true, I thought I had caught her right ahead, butit unfortunately happened that the portion of sky in that quarter wasbare of stars over a space very considerably larger than would have beencovered by the ship's canvas, and consequently I was without theassurance that would have been afforded me had the faint, duskyappearance that I took to be her sails alternately eclipsed and exposeda star. But I afterwards had reason to believe that I had really seenher, for when we had arrived within about a mile of the spot where Isupposed her to be, a faint, wailing cry, as of people in the lastextremity of despair, came pealing distinctly to us across the blackwater, and about a quarter of an hour later we suddenly found ourselvesamong a quantity of floating oars, buckets, hatches, and other articlesthat had undoubtedly belonged to the Spaniard. The presence of thesearticles proved conclusively that the unfortunate ship had gone down,and the cry that we had heard was doubtless the last despairing cry ofher hapless, helpless passengers and crew. Thus to the crime of piracyRenouf had added the far worse one of wholesale murder, for Dumaresqasserted that, according to his estimate, the number of passengers andcrew together on board the _Santa Theresa_ could not have fallen much,if anything, short of a hundred. We immediately hove the schooner to,and Dumaresq, with my four English shipmates, at once shoved off in aboat to search among the wreckage for possible survivors, but not onewas found; which is not to be wondered at, for it afterwards transpiredthat Renouf had driven the Spanish seamen below and battened them down,while he had lashed the officers and passengers hand and foot and lockedthem into the cabins the last thing before scuttling the ship!

  We remained hove-to until past midnight, and then, having failed to findeven so much as a floating body, sorrowfully filled away, and shaped acourse for the West Indies, it being my intention to hand the whole crewover to the authorities upon a charge of piracy.

  A few days later, as we were running down the trade-wind, shortly aftermid-day, we sighted ahead a whole fleet of large ships steering prettynearly the same course as ourselves. They were under royals, withstudding-sails set on both sides, and despite the fact that they were somuch bigger than ourselves, we overhauled them so rapidly that by sunsetwe had brought them hull-up, and had neared them so closely that we werenot only able to identify them as line-of-battle ships, but, with theaid of Renouf's splendid telescope, were able to read several of thenames emblazoned upon their sterns. We made out such names as_Argonauta_, _Espana_, _Pluton_, _Terrible_, _Bucentaure_, _San Rafael_,and others, by means of which Dumaresq was able to identify some of themas ships that had been blockaded in the port of Toulon by Lord Nelson.Others were manifestly Spanish ships. Their names and appearancegenerally testified to that fact, and it therefore looked very much asthough Vice-admiral Villeneuve had somehow contrived to evade theBritish fleet, and, having effected a junction with a Spanish fleet, wasmaking the best of his way to the West Indies to work what damage mightbe within his power upon our colonies and our commerce in that quarterof the globe. There were twenty sail of them altogether. The fact thatso formidable a fleet of our enemies was ranging the Atlantic andsteering a course that would take them to some of the most valuable ofBritain's possessions in the western hemisphere was important newsindeed; and I reconnoitred the fleet as closely as I dared, contriving,before the daylight faded, to ascertain the name, and approximately thepower, of every ship. They did not deign to take the slightest noticeof us, beyond firing a shot or two at us whenever we ventured withinrange. So when darkness set in I bore away to the southwardsufficiently to give the flank ship a berth of about four miles, when Icrowded sail upon the schooner and ran past them, dropping them out ofsight before sunrise next morning.

  Despite the fact that we were so short-handed, we continued to carry on,night and day, arriving at Port Royal on the morning of the eighth dayafter sighting the combined fleet.

  My first task was to seek out the Admiral, whom I expected to find athis _Pen_ on the slope of the hill at the back of the town of Kingston;so no sooner was our anchor down than I engaged a negro boatman to takeme up the harbour. Arrived at Kingston, I procured a vehicle, and,driving to the Pen, was fortunate enough to catch the great man just ashe was about to sit down to breakfast. The announcement that I was thebearer of important intelligence relating to the enemy secured myimmediate admission to his presence, and, despite the fact that I wasonly a privateersman, the genial old seadog accorded me a heartywelcome, and insisted upon my sitting down to table with him directly hehad elicited from me the fact that I had not yet broken my fast. Hewas, of course, profoundly interested i
n the intelligence that I wasable to furnish him, relative to the presence of a combined French andSpanish fleet in the Atlantic, my information being the first that hadreached him of the fact, and he was good enough to say that, inhastening to him with the news, I had rendered a service of the utmostimportance to my country. Scarcely less interested was he in thenarration of my adventures from the time of the abandonment of the_Manilla_ to the moment of the capture of the _Jean Bart_. Hecomplimented me highly upon my conduct throughout, and, while promisingto immediately relieve me of the charge of my prisoners, incidentallyexpressed his regret that I had not selected the navy as my profession.I answered him that I was but an obscure individual, with no influenceor patronage whatever at my command, and that, therefore, had I enteredthe navy, I should probably never have been allowed to rise in myprofession, the influence and patronage which I lacked causing other andmore fortunate ones to be promoted over my head. His reply wascharacteristic.

  "Influence! patronage!" he exploded. "Ay, sir, you speak truly; thereis too much of it altogether. It amounts to a very serious drawback andinjury to the service in many ways. But, as for you, and men like you,you do not require either influence or patronage. You possess the bestof all influence in this," lightly touching the hilt of my sword, "andit is a thousand pities that greater facilities are not afforded to menof your kidney for entrance into the service. But perhaps the profitsderivable from successful privateering outweigh your patriotism, and youwould rather be as you are than become the wearer of His Majesty'slivery?"

  "You are mistaken, sir," answered I hotly. "To serve on His Majesty'squarter-deck would be the height of my ambition, but I confess I prefermy present position, as commander of a privateer to that of a warrant-officer aboard a man-o'-war."

  He answered me with a "Umph!" which afforded me no clue whatever to hisopinion of my outspoken reply; and, my business with him being at anend, I took my leave.

  "Have you any engagement for to-night?" he asked, extending his handvery cordially. And upon my answering that I had not, he said: "Thencome and dine with me; seven sharp. I want to see a little more ofyou."

  Of course I gladly accepted so flattering an invitation, and thenhurried away to appoint an agent and return to the schooner.

  I was anxious to get to sea again as quickly as possible, for I lookedupon the loss of the _Manilla_ as so much leeway, and a very seriousamount too, that could not be too speedily made up. But I foresaw thatmy chief difficulty in so doing would arise from my lack of a crew, andhow to scrape together a decent complement in a small town like KingstonI knew not, for I was fully aware that our men-o'-war kept the placepretty well swept of men. I was therefore greatly pleased when, havingcalled upon the individual who had been recommended to me by the Admiralas an agent, he informed me, upon the conclusion of my business properwith him, that he knew a man who he believed would be willing, for aconsideration, to find me as many good men as I might require. I atonce asked for the address of this person, but was informed that itwould be utterly useless for me, a total stranger, to call upon him, ashe would most certainly decline to treat with me; but that if I feltdisposed to leave the matter in his, the agent's, hands, he would do hisbest for me. I thought I understood pretty well what this meant. Thesystem of impressment had done more than anything else to render ournavy unpopular, and men were constantly deserting whenever and whereverthey found a chance. And when they had once succeeded in making goodtheir escape from the ship on board which they had been compelled toserve, their best chance of safety from recapture lay in getting to seaas quickly as possible, until which they were perforce obliged to lie inclose hiding. This state of affairs soon produced a set of men known as"crimps", who kept boarding-houses for the especial accommodation andconcealment of seamen who either had deserted from their ships, or who,having been paid off, were anxious to find other employment without therisk of impressment while openly looking for it. These crimps were tobe found in every British seaport, abroad as well as at home, and a verygood thing they made of it, what with their exorbitant charges for boardand lodging on the one hand, and, on the other, the premiums or head-money that they received from ship-masters for the supply of men. Itwas, of course, to their interest to be loyal to the men, and hence theyhedged themselves and their houses about with so many safeguards againstundesirable intrusion that it became a matter of almost impossibility toapproach them except through certain channels. I suspected that myagent was in touch with one or more of these men, and although Ithoroughly hated the system, which was nothing short of the mostaudacious robbery, both of the unfortunate men whom it professed tobefriend, and of the ship-masters who were compelled to avail themselvesof it, my prospects of procuring a crew by any other means were soremote that I unwillingly assented to my agent's suggestion, stipulatingonly that I should see the men and have the option of refusing such as Ideemed unsuitable. And with this understanding the agent undertook todo his best to find me at least forty thoroughly good men.

  This important matter put in train, I hastened back on board theschooner, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing Renouf and hisscoundrel crew passed over the side into the boats that were to conveythem to the prison-hulk. I had the still greater satisfaction oflearning, not very long afterwards, that Renouf, his brother, and half adozen more of the party had been hanged as pirates upon the evidence ofDumaresq, myself, and the other survivors of the gig's crew. This,however, is anticipating my story somewhat.

  That same night I dined with the Admiral, and had the honour of meetingthe Governor and some half-dozen more of the principal personages of theisland. I was rather astonished, I must admit, at the perfectequanimity with which my portentous tidings had been received. TheAdmiral had, of course, had a busy day of it in preparing and sendingoff despatches to the other islands belonging to the crown, as well asin arranging for the defence of our possessions generally; but I soonfound that there was an utter absence of apprehension on the score of anattack.

  "No, no," exclaimed the Admiral confidently. "Villeneuve has escapedfrom Toulon, it is true, but he will be like a canary that has slippedout of its cage, he will be so frightened at unexpectedly findinghimself free that he will not dare to make the least use of his freedom;his greatest anxiety will be to escape the pursuers that he knows mustbe on his track. For, d'ye see, Nelson will become aware of his escapein less than twelve hours, and will be after him forthwith. The onlywonder to me is that he has not overtaken him and brought him to actionbefore now. I would give a good deal for the power to let Nelson knowthe whereabouts of this fleet; but I haven't another ship at mydisposal. By the way, Mr Bowen, what are you going to do next?"

  "I shall proceed to sea again without a moment's unnecessary delay,sir," I answered. "All I want is a crew."

  "_All_ you want!" echoed the Admiral. "By George, sir, I don't knowwhere you will find a crew in Jamaica. I believe every available manhas already been hunted out and appropriated by our men-o'-war. Haveyou no men at all?"

  "Four only; and I am not yet by any means certain that they will consentto ship with me. I have no authority whatever over them. They formedpart of the crew of the _Manilla_."

  "Well," observed the Admiral, "I am afraid it is a bad look-out for you.At the same time if you should succeed in picking up enough to enableyou to handle your schooner, let me know. I may find you some work todo, if you care to undertake it."

  I slept ashore that night; and upon calling upon my agent next day wasas much astonished as gratified to learn that "his friend" was preparedto furnish me with sixty prime seamen,--every one of whom had served onboard a man-o'-war,--upon payment of a guinea a head for them. It was atolerably stiff premium to pay; but, as times then were, they would befully worth it, should they turn out to be as represented, so I agreedto go and see them that night; with the result that--not to dwell atunnecessary length upon this part of my story--I next morning foundmyself in command of as smart a crew as a man need wish to have at hisback. I fo
und that I was indebted for this slice of good fortuneprincipally to the fact that the crew of a privateer were exempt fromimpressment, which exemption was allowed to hold good in the WestIndies, although the exemption was frequently little better than a deadletter at home and in other parts of the world. I now went to work toprovision and water the schooner for a three-months' cruise; and so welldid my agent work for me that, within seventy-two hours of my arrival atPort Royal, I was able to report myself ready for sea and at theAdmiral's service.

  "That is well!" exclaimed the Admiral, rubbing his hands, when I soreported myself. "I congratulate you upon your smartness, Mr Bowen,and also upon your good fortune in finding a crew; it is a good dealmore than our own people could have done. And now, if you are willingto render your country a further important service, I can afford you theopportunity. I am convinced that Lord Nelson will not remain inactiveat home, now that Admiral Villeneuve has contrived to give him the slip,he will chase the combined fleet round the world, if need be. But it isimportant that Villeneuve should be watched. What, therefore, I wantyou to do is to sail in search of the combined fleet, and find them;ascertain as much as you can relative to their projected movements, andthen find the British fleet and acquaint Nelson with all that you havebeen able to learn. When you have done that, you will be free to cruisewherever you please; but make an excuse to return to Jamaica at yourearliest convenience, and do not fail to call on me."

  I thanked the Admiral for his kindness, promised to execute hiscommission to the best of my ability, and took my leave. Two hourslater the schooner, which I had rechristened the _Sword Fish_, wasoutside the Pallisades, working her way to the eastward under as heavy apress of canvas as I dared pile upon her.