Across the Spanish Main: A Tale of the Sea in the Days of Queen Bess

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER THREE.

  HOW ROGER AND HARRY TOOK PART IN THEIR FIRST SEA-FIGHT.

  The squadron, headed by the ship of Cavendish himself, the _Stag Royal_,was well on its way to the Indies across the Atlantic, having taken inwood, water, and stores at the Western Islands. Roger and Harry, bythis time quite recovered from their first sea-sickness, were fastasleep in their bunks, it being their watch below, when they werearoused by a cry on deck of "Sail-ho!" followed by the question inanother voice: "Where away?"

  "Right ahead, sir," came the reply. "She seems to be a large ship, andSpanish by her rig."

  This was quite enough for the two lads, who, springing out of theirberths, dressed with all possible speed and ran up on deck.

  When they arrived there, however, there was nothing to be seen from thatlevel; but twenty pairs of eager eyes were looking out from theforecastle-head, anxious for the first glimpse of the stranger, who wasnearly certain to prove an enemy, and therefore a prospective prize.

  Presently a voice exclaimed: "I see her, I see her; there she is rightahead of us!" and at the same moment another hail floated down from themasthead: "Sail-ho, again, and several of them!"

  By this time both Roger and Harry could see the topsails of the shipfirst sighted, and their hearts beat fast at the prospect of a comingengagement.

  "How many sail can you make out?" shouted the officer on deck.

  "I can see four more, besides the one we sighted first, sir," came thereply; "and the ships look to me like a Spanish fleet sent out tointercept us, for they seem to be hove-to and waiting for something."

  "That is well," replied the officer, smiling at Roger; "let them onlylie-to until we reach them, and there is not much doubt that they willget something in the nature of an extremely disagreeable surprise."

  Now the fleet of Cavendish consisted of three ships only--the _StagRoyal_, on board which were Roger and Harry, with Cavendish himself, shebeing the flag-ship of the little squadron. Behind, at a distance ofabout half a mile, came the _Elizabeth_ and the _Good Adventure_, closetogether.

  Cavendish, having come on deck shortly after the first hail, looked atthe fleet of the enemy, and then cast his eyes over his own smallsquadron, as if comparing in his mind the comparative strengths of thetwo fleets.

  Then he gave the order: "Prepare the ship for action, men; clear thedecks; get the hammocks rolled up and triced along the bulwarks; openthe powder-magazine and get powder and shot on deck, and see that thecaptain of every gun has a plentiful supply of each. Also pass the wordfor the yeoman of the signals to signal the _Elizabeth_ and the _GoodAdventure_ to prepare for action forthwith, and to range up one on eachside of me."

  Having given these orders, and seen that the men hastened to carry themout, Cavendish turned to Harry and Roger, who were standing togetheranxiously looking ahead at the five ships, which were growing larger andmore distinctly visible to the eye every moment.

  "Well, young gentlemen," said he, "I mean to engage those five shipsthat you see yonder, and so will you get your first taste of theadventure you have come to seek. See that you bear yourselves bravely;remember you are fighting for your queen and the honour and glory ofyour country. This coming engagement is going to be no child's play,you may take my word for it. They are five vessels to our three, andare more heavily armed and of bigger tonnage than are we, by the look ofthem. But fear not, young men; faint heart never won fair enterprise;and if we should beat them--as I am certainly determined that we shall--doubtless you will have a handsome booty to handle after the battle.Yet will it be hard fighting; and I trust that not only you two, butevery man on board these good ships of mine will do his very utmost."

  With these words Cavendish turned away, and went aft to give furtherorders. Meanwhile the other two ships of his squadron, in answer to hissignal, had crowded on more sail, and were fast closing up, one oneither side of the flag-ship.

  The hulls of the five Spaniards were now quite plainly to be seen, andit was observed that they were all prepared and waiting to give battle,having slightly altered their formation since sighting the English, inorder to secure what they thought was the best position for fightingtheir opponents.

  They were by this time about two miles distant, and had formedthemselves into two divisions, in the order now known as "column of lineahead", and were evidently expecting the English ships to run in betweenthe two squadrons thus formed, trusting thus to be obliged to use onlyone broadside of each ship, while the English would be compelled to useboth; the idea of the Spaniards being that with this formation theEnglish would pass between them one at a time, and while each Englishship would use both broadsides upon entering the lane between the twoSpanish squadrons, she would be thereafter exposed, with empty guns, tothe fire in succession of the five Spanish ships; that is to say, thetwo ships in line ahead on the one side, and the three in the sameformation on the other.

  But if they imagined that the English were going to walk open-eyed intosuch a simple trap as that they were vastly mistaken.

  Cavendish saw at once what tactics the enemy anticipated that he wouldadopt, and immediately made up his mind to checkmate them by following atotally different line of action; and accordingly he promptly signalledfor his other two captains to come on board. This they did forthwith,and, taking them into the cabin of his ship, he briefly and hurriedlyexplained to them the manoeuvre he intended to adopt to outwit theSpaniards.

  This explanation was soon made, and the two skippers immediatelyreturned to their respective ships.

  The two squadrons had by this time arrived within gunshot of each other,and Harry and Roger, eager though they were for the fight to commence,were yet conscious of a peculiar feeling something akin to fright, inextenuation of which it must be remembered that neither of the boys hadever been in action before.

  It was now half an hour after mid-day, and one bell sounded on the threeships of the English fleet.

  At almost the same moment, and before the sound of the bells had diedaway, the first shot in the action was fired by the Spaniards.

  Harry, who was watching the starboard line or division of the enemy, sawa flash, and immediately afterwards heard a whizzing sound, followedfrom somewhere over his head by a sharp crash. Then a shower ofsplinters fell round him and Roger, who was standing close by; whileimmediately following this, down the wind came the dull boom of theexplosion.

  Roger looked aloft to see what damage had been done by the shot; it wasnot very much: the fore topmast showed a white mark where a piece hadbeen neatly gouged out of it, and a few ropes were severed, but nothingserious had happened.

  In accordance with Cavendish's orders, no shot was fired in return bythe English fleet; and presently, as they were about half a mile fromthe foremost Spanish vessels, a very hurricane of smoke and fire burstfrom as many of them as could bring their guns to bear on the littleEnglish squadron.

  There was a crashing and crackling all round, and Roger and Harryinvoluntarily winced as the round-shot came flying through the bulwarks,and spars and splinters came tumbling and flying all around them. Frombehind them there came a shriek, as some poor wretch met hisdeath-wound, and from across the water more shrieks were heard,announcing that theirs was not the only ship that was struck.

  "First blood to the enemy," shouted Harry to Roger through the turmoilof crashing wood and the shrieks of wounded men.

  "Yes," replied Roger; "but I wish they would give us orders to fire.This plan of sailing along without making any reply to the enemy's gunsis unnerving me, and it seems to me that if we are fired upon muchlonger without replying we shall have no men left in condition to fightwhen we get alongside the enemy."

  "Never fear, Roger," replied Harry. "Cavendish knows what he is about;and I think I see, even now, what manoeuvre he means to execute."

  The three English ships were now heading as though they indeed intendedpassing between the two lines of the enemy's squadron, and had so farfired not a single shot. Suddenly, however, w
hen only separated by afew hundred yards, the English changed their course two or three pointsto port, and headed for the starboard side of the two ships whichconstituted the right-hand line of the Spanish fleet.

  Thus the three English vessels were for a few minutes opposed to onlytwo Spanish ships, the three others being unable to fire except throughtheir consorts.

  This manoeuvre compelled the other three ships to leave their presentberths and run before the wind, afterwards tacking before they couldrange up on the opposite side of the English fleet and so bring theirguns to bear.

  But during the time occupied by this movement, the English ships were byno means idle.

  Upon ranging up alongside the two Spanish vessels, the sails of theEnglish ships collapsed as if by magic, the halliards being let go andthe clewlines manned; and, as the craft lost way, grapnels were thrown,and the ships were secured alongside two of the Spaniards.

  At that period the Spanish war-vessels were built with "flush" decks,that is, their decks were level fore and aft, and without bulwarks, andwere of much greater length than the English vessels, which were short,and therefore more easy to manoeuvre than the Spaniards. Likewise therewere raised constructions at bow and stern, something like small forts,called forecastles and aftercastles; the former word still remainingunder our modern term forecastle.

  The English vessels were then, as mentioned above, shorter by a gooddeal than those of their opponents, and so the total length of the threeEnglish ships was covered by that of the two Spanish vessels, which factpreserved them for the moment from the fire of the other three ships ofthe enemy. Roger now saw the reason why Cavendish had reserved hisfire. Immediately his ships came alongside those of the enemy, thebroadsides of all three were simultaneously discharged, with fearfuleffect, for amid the crash of falling spars and rending timbers could beheard the cries and shrieks of the wounded, and the moans of the dying.

  A dense cloud of smoke spread over the decks and concealed thecombatants from one another, but the din was terrific; while orders andshouts, hoarse words of command, and fierce oaths mingled with thecheers of the English.

  The sternmost vessel of the enemy, which was the one that had receivedthe concentrated broadsides of two of the English ships, was now on firesomewhere on her lower-deck; three or four of her ports were blown intoone big opening, and her decks were a very shambles of dead and wounded.

  The fire below made very rapid headway, and effectually prevented hermen from working the lower-deck guns; it thus happened that with onedischarge from the English guns one of the two Spanish ships engaged wasseriously crippled.

  The two craft, however, responded gallantly from their upper decks withwhat cannon they were still able to serve, and a perfect hail of arrowsand arquebus bullets swept the English decks, mowing down men in alldirections.

  The English had quietly reloaded those of their broadside guns that wereon the side of the enemy, the guns of the port broadside being stillundischarged.

  "Now, lads," roared Cavendish above the clamour and din of rendingtimber and falling spars, "give them another broadside; and let themusketeers on the upper decks and the bowmen in the fore and aftercastles follow it up with a volley, in order to clear their decks.Immediately after the discharges the boarders are to follow me!"

  At the commencement of the engagement Roger and Harry, seeing what waslikely to happen, had laid aside their light rapiers and armedthemselves with a pair of pistols apiece and the more formidable Englishhanger as used by the ordinary seamen; and shoulder to shoulder theystood by the starboard bulwarks, ready to spring as soon as Cavendishshould give his order to board.

  Meanwhile the three other Spaniards, seeing the manoeuvre of the Englishand the danger of their consorts, had made all sail as quickly aspossible, and were now running away before the wind in order to go aboutand stand up on the starboard tack to engage the English vessels andrelieve their companions, which were in a somewhat parlous state.

  The guns of the English ships' starboard broadsides now once more openedfire with a simultaneous crash, which was immediately followed by adischarge of musketry and arrows which laid low on the Spaniard's decknearly every living soul who had not taken what cover the deckstructures afforded.

  "Now, boarders," roared Cavendish, his voice ringing high above theturmoil, "away with you, and do not leave their decks until their flagcomes down!"

  With a wild cheer the seamen, headed by Cavendish--who was closelysupported by Roger and Harry, who were respectively second and third onthe enemy's decks,--dashed at the Spaniards.

  One of the two Spanish ships was now blazing fiercely, having been seton fire by the discharges of the English guns, and her crew werebeginning to think that the time had arrived for them to leave her. Inthis opinion they were confirmed by the English, who were graduallydriving them from their own decks to those of their consort. They werethus, as it were, between two fires, and were badly hampered by thenecessity to climb from the one vessel to the other. Those of them whocould not gain the deck of the other ship were driven overboard, andvery few of them survived to reach their goal.

  "Quickly, lads," shouted Roger; "drive these fellows off the deck, andlet us regain our own ship while we can. The other Spaniards aredrawing up, and will be on us before we are ready for them if we do notlook sharp."

  The seamen, animated by his voice, and seeing the necessity for doing ashe said, redoubled their efforts, and, with hearty cheers, massedthemselves together and charged along the reeking and slippery decks.

  The Spaniards, unable to resist the weight of the charge, scattered,and, finding no other way of escape, dashed below; but they could not soeasily avoid the victorious English, who followed and hunted them out oftheir hiding-places.

  As Roger and Harry, having dashed below in pursuit, were running downone of the narrow alleyways, searching for hidden Spaniards, a mansprang from behind a curtain and aimed a heavy blow with his sword atRoger, who was foremost, cutting him down.

  With a faint groan Roger fell, and Harry stumbled over his body, thusenabling the Spaniard to effect his escape.

  Half-stunned from the force of his fall, Harry raised himself and bentover Roger.

  "Roger, Roger," he exclaimed, "are you much hurt? Speak to me, lad."

  But Roger made no reply, lying perfectly still, with a stream of redslowly spreading from under his head and staining the white planking.Suddenly, from above sounded a harsh cry.

  "Back, back, every man of you, and cut the ships adrift; the Spaniardsare firing the magazines; back, for your lives!" Loud and imperativerang out the voice of Cavendish. "Quick, lads, for your lives, or weshall be all blown up together!"

  "Roger, Roger, wake, lad," cried Harry; "the ship has been set on fire,and will blow up directly. Heavens, what can I do?"

  But Roger never stirred; so, as there was nothing else to be done, Harrytook his body under the arms and began to drag him along toward thenearest hatchway.

  At this moment the broadsides of the English again rang out, showingthat the other three Spaniards were drawing up, and were within gunshot.

  Meanwhile, on board the Spanish ship no sound was to be heard save theroar and crackle of the flames, as Harry, putting out all his strength,lifted the inanimate body of his friend to his shoulder, and plungedalong the passage through the blinding and suffocating smoke.

  He was dashing forward, holding his breath as much as possible, with hiseyes smarting with smoke, and feeling as though they would burst fromtheir sockets, when he crashed up against some obstacle, dropping thebody of Roger from the force of the contact. A puff of fresh air nowblew the smoke aside for a moment, and Harry saw what was the cause ofhis stoppage. His way was blocked by a stout oaken door, that hadevidently been closed by some seaman when he retreated upon hearing thealarm that the magazine was in danger of being fired.

  Harry dragged frantically at the handle and turned it wildly, but invain; the door was secured on the other side by some kind of springlatch,
and escape seemed impossible.

  The smoke meanwhile was momentarily becoming more and more dense, and itwas now an agony to breathe, while every second of delay meant awfuldanger; and Roger seemed to be rapidly bleeding to death for want ofattention to his wound.

  Harry looked round for some instrument with which to force the door, andhis eye fell upon a handspike, probably dropped by some flying foe.Seizing this, he smashed madly at the door, till at length the panelsplintered under his frantic blows; then, putting his hand through theopening, he felt for the latch, found it, and the door opened at histouch.

  Once again raising Roger in his arms, he staggered blindly along; and atlast, bleeding from contact with splinters, and his hands almost rawwith wielding the handspike, he reached the foot of the companion-ladderand dashed up it with his still inanimate burden in his arms.

  On reaching the deck he saw that the grapnels had been cut, the threeEnglish vessels had drifted some hundreds of yards away, and were eventhen engaging the three other Spanish ships which had come up; and theair was again full of the roar of cannon, the crashing of timbers,falling of masts, shrieks, groans, cries, orders, and imprecations.

  The Spanish ship which had been in company with the craft that caughtfire had vanished, and only a few timbers and fragments were floating onthe surface; she had evidently been sunk by the terrible fire of theEnglish guns.

  The ship on which they now were, the _Maria Dolorosa_, was by this timea spouting fountain of flame, from her bows as far aft as her mainmast.Her guns were exploding one after another as the fire reached them, andadded their thunder to the already awful din.

  Harry raised his voice, and shouted over the water with all the power ofhis lungs to the English ships, but the continued roar of the cannon,mingled with the rattling crash of musketry volleys, the shoutedcommands of the officers, the hoarse outcries of toiling and fightingmen, and the crash of rending wood as the broadsides tore their way intothe vitals of the reeling ships effectually drowned his outcries; whileeverybody was far too busily engaged to notice his critical situation.

  "Ah, Roger!" said he, apostrophising the inanimate figure that lay athis feet as he stood at the extreme edge of the poop, in order to be asfar away from the furnace heat as possible,--"Ah, Roger, I fear, dearlad, that our lives are coming to an end even before we are fairlylaunched on our adventures! Oh, why cannot they--!"

  At this moment there was a roar as if all earth and heaven weredissolving in chaos, and Harry, feeling as if he were being whirleddownward into everlasting night, knew no more.

  The fire had at last reached the magazine!