The Pirate Slaver: A Story of the West African Coast

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER SIX.

  A CAPTURE AND A CHASE.

  When I went on deck at midnight I found that there was no occasion toset the studding-sails, for the breeze had freshened to more than half agale, and the little hooker was staggering along before it and afast-rising sea at a tremendous pace--considering the drag--with herroyal clewed up and furled, and the gaff-topsail hauled down. Even thusshe was being greatly over-driven; so, as there was no need for _toomuch_ hurry, and as the sky astern had a hard, windy look, I took in thetopgallant-sail, and hauled down and stowed the mainsail, letting her goalong easily and comfortably for the remainder of the night. I had halfa mind to further relieve her by getting the drag inboard, but did notlike to do so without first consulting Ryan--since the thing was of hiscontrivance--so, as the matter was by no means sufficiently urgent tojustify me in disturbing him, I let it remain, and very glad was Iafterwards that I had done so; for when I went on deck again at sevenbells, there, away about a point on our weather quarter, gleamed in thebright morning sunshine the white upper sails of a large craft that hadbeen sighted at daybreak and that was now coming up to us fast. Ryanwas already on deck, having been called immediately that the strangerwas made out, and was in a state of high glee at the success of hisstratagem, for he informed me that he had been up on the topsail-yard,and had pretty well satisfied himself, both by the look of the craft andthe course she was steering, that she was a slaver running in upon thecoast to pick up a cargo.

  It now became a nice question with us whether we should reveal our truecharacter as soon as the stranger should have approached within reach ofour guns, or whether we should try to follow her in, and, lying in waitfor her, seize her as she came out with her cargo on board. We werestill at a considerable distance from the coast--some twelve hundredmiles--and that fact inclined us strongly to make short work of her byshowing our colours and bringing her to as soon as she should comeabreast of us; while, on the other hand, there was the chance that byfollowing her in we might fall in with something more valuable thanherself.

  We were still weighing the pros and the cons of this important question,when the look-out aloft--for Ryan had only half-an-hour previouslydetermined to have a look-out maintained from the topgallant-yardbetween the hours of sunrise and sunset--the look-out, I say, reported asail broad on our starboard bow, standing to the northward on a tautbowline, and under a heavy press of sail. She was as yet invisible fromthe deck; my superior officer and I therefore with one accord made adash for our telescopes, and, having secured them, hastened forward andmade our way up the fore-rigging to the topsail-yard, on to which weswung ourselves at the same moment. From this elevated view-point theupper half of the stranger's topmasts and all above were just visibleclear of the horizon; and, bringing our glasses to bear upon her, wemade her out to be a barque-rigged vessel under single-reefed topsails,courses, jib, fore and main-topmast-staysails, and spanker; her yards,which were pretty nearly square on to us, showed a quite unusual amountof spread for a merchant vessel, and the rapidity with which she alteredher bearings and forged athwart our forefoot was conclusive evidencethat she was a remarkably speedy craft. For a moment it occurred to usthat she might possibly be a cruiser belonging to one or another of thenations who had undertaken to share with Great Britain the noble task ofsuppressing the inhuman slave-traffic; but a very little reflectionsufficed to disabuse our minds of this idea, for no cruiser would havebeen carrying so heavy a press of canvas as she was showing, in theteeth of what had by this time become almost a gale, unless she were inchase of something, and, had she been, we must have seen it. Besides,although everything looked trim and ship-shape enough so far as herspars, sails, and rigging were concerned, there were evidences eventhere of a certain lack of discipline and order that would hardly havebeen tolerated on board a man-o'-war of _any_ nation, although most ofthe foreigners were a great deal more free and easy in that respect thanourselves. The conclusion at which we ultimately arrived, therefore,was that she was a slaver with her cargo on board, and "carrying-on" tomake a quick passage.

  But, fast as she was travelling, we were going through the water stillfaster, despite our drag, for we were carrying the wind almost squareover our taffrail, and Ryan, in order the more thoroughly to hoodwinkthe craft astern, had double-reefed and set our big mainsail, as thoughwe had been somewhat suspicious of her character, and anxious to keepher at as great a distance as possible; we were therefore foaming alongat a speed of fully eight knots, and rising the stranger ahead sorapidly, that when she crossed our hawse she was not more than eightmiles distant, and we had a clear view of her from our topsail-yard.She now hoisted Spanish colours; and we, not to be outdone inpoliteness, did the same, as also did the craft astern of us, each ofus, I suppose, accepting the exhibition of bunting on board the othersfor just what it was worth.

  Ryan and I had by this time pretty well made up our minds as to thecharacter of both our neighbours; and as the stranger astern--a largebrig--was now barely half-a-mile distant from us, and drawing rapidly upon our starboard quarter, it was necessary to make up our minds withoutdelay as to the course to be pursued; the question being whether weshould meddle at all with the brig, and thus run the risk of excitingthe barque's suspicions, or whether we should devote our whole energiesto the pursuit of the latter. I was all for letting the brig go, for weknew, by the course she was steering, that she had no slaves on board,and the chances were even that we should find nothing else on board hersufficiently compromising to secure her condemnation by the MixedCommission. Ryan, on the other hand, could not make up his mind to letthe chance go by of making two prizes instead of one.

  "`A bird in hand is worth two in the bush, Harry, me bhoy,'" he remarkedto me as we stood together near the binnacle, watching the approach ofthe brig, which was now foaming along not a quarter of a mile away fromus; "and I look upon that brig as being quite as much in our hand asthough you and I stood upon her quarter-deck, with all her crew safeunder hatches. Steady there!" he continued, to the man at the tiller;"mind your weather-helm, my man, or you'll be having that mainsailjibing over, and I need not tell you what _that_ means in a breeze likethis. Don't meet her quite so sharply; if she seems inclined to take asheer to starboard, let her go; I will take care that the brig does notrun over us. Just look at her," he went on, turning again to me, "isn'tshe a beauty? Why, she's almost as handsome, and as big too, as the_Mercedes_! D'ye mean to tell me that such a hull as that would ever beemployed in the humdrum trade of carrying palm-oil? Why, it would benothing short of a waste of skilful modelling! No, _sorr_, she wasbuilt for a slaver, and a slaver she is, or I'll eat this hat of mine,puggaree and all, for breakfast!"

  "I grant all that you say," admitted I, "but if she has nothingincriminating on board her, what then? We shall only be wasting ourtime by boarding her, while we shall certainly give the alarm to thebarque yonder, and, as likely as not, lose her for our pains."

  Ryan took a good long look at the barque, that was now about two pointsbefore our larboard beam, and some six miles distant, thrashing along ina style that did one's heart good to see, and plunging into the heavyhead-sea, against which she was beating until her foresail was dark withwet half-way up the weather-leech, and the spray was flying clean overher, and drifting away like smoke to leeward. Then he turned and lookedat the brig on our opposite quarter.

  "It's risky," he remarked to me through his set teeth, "but, by thepowers, I'll chance it! If we happen to be mistaken, why, I'll make theskipper a handsome apology; if he's a true man, that ought to satisfyhim. Mr Bartlett"--to the boatswain--"cast off that drag and get itinboard over the port-rail with as little fuss as may be, so that ifthose fellows in the brig are watching us they may not know what we'reabout; I want to keep that conthrivance a saycret as long as I can. Beas smart as you like about it. Mr Dugdale, I want twenty men to armthemselves forthwith, and then creep into the waist under the lee of thestarboard bulwarks, taking care that they are not seen; pick me out thebest men
in the ship, if you please. Ah, here is Gowland, the very manI wanted to see! Mr Gowland, you see that brig--" and as I turned awayto muster the men, and see that they were properly armed, he drewGowland away to the other side of the deck, and began to communicatesomething to him in a very rapid, earnest manner.

  By the time that the drag had been got inboard and stowed away, I hadpicked out the required men, and had contrived to get them by twos andthrees under the starboard bulwarks without--so far as I knew--beingseen by those on board the brig, watching the roll of the schooner andgiving the word for the men to pass up through the scuttle and make acrouching run for it as the schooner rolled to port and hid her deckfrom the brig. That craft had by this time overhauled us, and was farenough ahead to permit of our reading her name--the _Conquistador_, ofHavana--upon her stern; while our helmsman, taking Ryan's hint, hadsteered so wildly, that he had sheered the schooner almost to withinbiscuit-toss of her neighbour. Meanwhile, now that the drag was nolonger impeding us, we were gradually lessening the small space of waterthat separated us from the brig, and we could see that the schooner andher movements were exciting much curiosity and speculation, if notactual suspicion, in the minds of three men who stood right aft on hermonkey-poop, intently watching us.

  "Go for'ard and hail them," said Ryan to me; "I want to get a littlecloser if I can without unduly exciting their suspicions. You canaffect to be deaf if you like; perhaps that will give us a chance."

  I took the speaking-trumpet in my hand and, clambering leisurely intothe fore-rigging, hailed in Spanish--

  "Ho, the brig ahoy! what brig is that?"

  "The _Conquistador_, of Havana," was the reply. "What schooner isthat?"

  I turned to one of the men who was standing near me and asked, in themost natural manner in the world, "What did he say?"

  "The _Conkistee_--something, of Hawaner, it sounded like to me, sir,"answered the man.

  "What did you say?" I yelled at the brig, raising the trumpet again tomy mouth.

  "The _Con-quist-a-dor_, of Havana. What schooner is that?"

  I assumed the most utter look of bewilderment I could upon the spur ofthe moment, and then, waving my arm impatiently at our helmsman to sheerstill closer alongside the brig, whose quarter was now fair abreast ofour fore-rigging, repeated my question--

  "_What_ did you say?"

  My interlocutor, who was evidently the skipper of the brig, stamped onthe deck with vexation as he raised his hands to his mouth, and yelledat the top of his voice--

  "The _Con-quist-a-dor_, of Havana! Do not sheer so close to me, if youplease, senor. You will be foul of me if you do not look out!"

  "That will do, Mr Dugdale," shouted Ryan in English, to the evidentastonishment and consternation of the brig's people, "we can manage now.Stand by to jump aboard with me. I shall want you to act asinterpreter, for the deuce a word do I understand of their confoundedlingo."

  And as he spoke he waved his hand to the helmsman, while at the samemoment Gowland, who stood close by, hauled down the Spanish and ran upthe British ensign to our peak. There was a shout of dismay from thoseon board the brig, and a quick trampling of feet as her crew rushed totheir stations and hurriedly threw the coiled-up braces, halliards, andsheets off the pins with some confused notion of doing something toevade us even at the last moment. But they were altogether too late;Somers, the quarter-master, who had seen what was afoot, and hadgradually worked his way aft, sprang to the tiller, and jamming it overto port, sheered us very cleverly alongside the brig in the wake of hermain-rigging, into which Ryan and I instantly leaped, followed by ourtwenty armed men. The surprise was so sudden and so complete that therewas no time for resistance, even had the Spaniards been disposed tooffer any, and in another moment we had reached the brig's deck and shewas in our possession, the schooner instantly sheering off again to ashort distance in order that the two craft might not do any damage toeach other.

  Having taken so very decisive a step as to board and carry the brig,there was now of course nothing for us but to go through with the affairin the same high-handed fashion. I therefore demanded at once to seethe ship's papers; and after many indignant protests they were producedand flung down upon the cabin table for our inspection. These fullyestablished the identity of the brig; and as an examination of her holdrevealed that she was fitted with a slave-deck, large coppers for thepreparation of food for the unfortunate blacks her captain hoped tosecure, a stock of water, and farina ample enough to meet the wants of alarge "cargo," and an abundance of slave-irons, we were fully justifiedin taking possession of her, which we did forthwith. Half-an-hoursufficed for us to secure our capture and put a prize-crew on boardunder Gowland's command, and we then parted company; the brig to standon for an hour as she was going--so as not to needlessly alarm thebarque--and then to haul up and shape a course for Sierra Leone, whilewe at once hauled our wind in pursuit of our new quarry, which bore bythis time well upon our port-quarter--as we had hitherto been going--with her topsails just showing above the horizon.

  We had no sooner trimmed sail in chase of the barque than we found, toour unspeakable gratification, that we were still far enough to windwardto lay well up for her, she being at the commencement of the chase notmore than a point and a half upon our weather bow, while, from thesuperiority of our rig, we were able to look quite that much higher thanshe did. The question now was whether, in the strong wind and heavy seathat we had to contend against, we could hold our own with a craft somuch more powerful than ourselves.

  We had of course taken the precaution to get down a couple of reefs inour topsail, and the same in the foresail, as well as to haul down thesquaresail and get the bonnet off the jib before leaving the_Conquistador_, but it was not until we had hauled our wind and put theschooner on a taut bowline, that we were able to realise how hard it wasactually blowing. Up to then the wind had seemed no more to us than abrisk, pleasant breeze, while the schooner rode the long, creamingsurges lightly as a gull. _Now_, however, we had to doff our straw hatsin a hurry to save them from being blown away, and to don close-fittingcloth caps instead, as well as our oil-skins, while it was positivelyhard work to cross the deck against the wind. As for the schooner, shebehaved like a mad thing, careening to her gunwale as she soared to thecrest of a wave and cleft its foaming summit in a blinding deluge ofspray that swept her decks from the weather cat-head right aft to thecompanion, and plunging next moment into the trough with a strong rollto windward, and a very bedlam of yells and shrieks aloft as the galeswept between her straining masts and rigging. She shuddered as ifterrified at every headlong plunge that she took, while the milk-whitespume brimmed to the level of her figure-head, and roared away from herbows in a whole acre of boiling, glistening foam. The creaking andgroaning of her timbers and bulkheads raised such a din that a novicewould have been quite justified in fearing that the little hooker wasrapidly straining herself to pieces, while more than one crash ofcrockery below, faintly heard through the other multitudinous sounds,told us that the wild antics of the barkie were making a very prettygeneral average among our domestic utensils. But, with all her creakingand groaning, the schooner now proved herself to be a truly superbsea-boat, scarcely shipping so much as a bucketful of green water,despite the merciless manner in which we were driving her; and the wayin which she surmounted sea after sea, turning up her streamingweather-bow to receive its buffet, and gaily "shaking her feathers"after every plunge, was enough to make a sailor's heart leap with prideand exultation that was not to be lessened even by the awe-inspiringspectacle of the mountains of water that in continuous procession soaredup from beneath her keel and went roaring away to leeward with foamingcrests that towered to the height of the cross-trees.

  Our first anxiety, of course, was to ascertain whether we were gainingupon the chase, or whether she was maintaining her distance from us; assoon, therefore, as we had secured our morning altitude of the sun forthe determination of the longitude, we measured as accurately as wecould the angl
e subtended by that portion of the barque's main-mastwhich showed above the horizon. The task was one of very considerabledifficulty owing to the violent motion of the two craft, and when we haddone our best we were by no means satisfied with the result, but wethought it might possibly be some help to us; so when we had at lengthagreed upon the actual value of the angle, we clamped our instruments,and, taking them below, stowed them carefully away in our bunks, wherethere was not much danger of their coming to harm through the franticplunging of the schooner, our purpose of course being to compare theangle then obtained with another to be measured an hour or two later.If the second angle should prove to be greater than the first, it wouldshow that we had gained on the chase; if, on the contrary, it shouldprove to be less, it would show that the chase had increased herdistance from us. It was shortly before noon when we again brought oursextants on deck, opinion being meanwhile strongly divided as to whetheror not we were gaining; some asserting positively that we were, whileothers as stoutly maintained that we were not. But even our sextantsfailed to settle the question, for if there was any difference at all inthe angle, it was too minute for detection, and we were left in almostthe same state of suspense as before. The only relief afforded us wasthe assurance that we were practically holding our own with the barque,and that unless the weather grew still worse than it was, we stood afairly good chance of catching her eventually. One thing was certain;light as our draught of water was, and small as was the schooner's areaof lateral resistance compared with that of the barque, we were slowlybut certainly eating our way out upon her weather quarter, her main andforemasts having been visible to leeward of her mizenmast when the chasecommenced, while now they just showed clear of each other to windward,thus conclusively demonstrating that we were gaining the weather-gaugeof her, despite the heavy sea. This was certainly a most comfortingreflection, and greatly helped to console us for the otherwise slowprogress that we were making in the chase. Ryan seemed to be the mostdisappointed man among us all; he was very impetuous and hot-headed; heliked to do everything on the instant and with a rush; and upon thediscovery that we were not gaining perceptibly, he muttered somethingabout giving the schooner more canvas. Luckily, before giving the orderhe paused long enough to allow the fact to be borne in upon him that themasts were already whipping and bending like fishing-rods, and the geartaxed to its utmost capacity of resistance; and being, despite thecharacteristics above-mentioned, a reasonably prudent and carefulofficer, the sight restrained him, and he forbore to attempt anything sorisky as the further over-driving of the already greatly over-drivencraft.

  Not so with the skipper of the barque. It was, of course, impossiblefor us to know whether he had observed the capture of the_Conquistador_--we hoped and believed not; but, however that may havebeen, it was certain that he had been keeping his eyes sufficiently opento promptly become aware of the fact that the schooner had altered hercourse and was standing after him under a very heavy press of sail, andif our surmises as to his character were anywhere near the truth, thatcircumstance alone would be quite sufficient to fully arouse hiseasily-awakened apprehensions and to urge him to keep us at arm's-lengthat all risks. Be that as it may, we had just made it noon when thequarter-master called our attention to the fact that the barque's peoplehad loosed their main-topgallant-sail and were sheeting it home over thedouble-reefed topsail. It was an imprudent thing to do, however, forthe sail had scarcely been set ten minutes when the topgallant-mast wentover the side, snapped short off by the cap. Her skipper instantlyavailed himself of the pretext afforded by this accident to bear awaythree or four points while clearing the wreck, his object doubtlessbeing to determine beyond all question whether we really were after himor not; and if this was his purpose, we did not leave him long in doubtupon the point, our own helm being put up the instant that we saw whathe was about. Realising, by this move on our part, the true state ofaffairs, he now squared dead away before the wind, shook out all hisreefs, and set his fore-topgallant-sail, as well as topmast and lowerstudding-sails. This was piling on the canvas with a vengeance, butRyan was not the man to be bluffed by any such move as that; every glasswe had was now levelled at the barque, and no sooner were her peopleseen in the rigging than away went our own, and so much smarter were ourpeople than those belonging to the barque, that our own studding-sailswere set and dragging like cart-horses while theirs were still beingsent aloft. This experiment was tried for about half-an-hour, by whichtime it became evident that the schooner was fully as good off the windas was the barque, if not a trifle better; she seemed to fairly _fly_,while at times, when the breeze happened to freshen a trifle, it reallyseemed as though she would be lifted out of the water altogether; and Iam quite persuaded that but for the preventers we had rigged for thepurpose of relieving the masts when she was rolling so heavily duringthe preceding calm--and which still remained aloft and were doingsplendid service--we must have lost both our sticks and been reduced toa sheer hulk long before the half-hour had expired.

  I have said that we were doing quite as well as, if not a trifle betterthan, the barque; for while we held our own with her, so that she wasunable to appreciably alter her bearing from us, we were steadily edgingup toward her, our gain in this respect being so great that ere the nextmanoeuvre was attempted we had risen her high enough to get a momentaryglimpse of the whole length of her rail when she floated up on the crestof a sea. It was clear, therefore, that the barque had gained nothingby running off the wind; on the contrary, we had neared her fully amile; her skipper, therefore, having given the unsuccessful experiment afair trial, suddenly took in all his studding-sails again, reduced hiscanvas once more to a couple of reefs, and braced sharp up to the wind,as before. But here again we had the advantage of him through thesuperior smartness of our own crew, for he no sooner began to shortensail than we did the same, handling our canvas so quickly that we wereready nearly five minutes before him, the result being that we hadgained another half-mile upon him and had placed ourselves a goodquarter of a mile upon his weather quarter by the time that he hadsweated up his top sail-halliards. We now felt that, barring accidents,the barque was ours; she could escape us neither to leeward nor towindward. Instead, therefore, of continuing to jam the schooner asclose into the wind's eye as she would sail, with the object ofweathering out on the barque, we pointed the little vixen's jib-boomfair and square at the chase, checked the sheets and braces a few inchesfore and aft, and put her along for all that she was worth.

  It is astonishing to note the advantageous effect that is produced uponthe sailing of a ship when it becomes possible to check the sheets andbraces even a few paltry inches; it was distinctly noticeable in thecase of the schooner; her movements were perceptibly freer and easier,she no longer drove her keen cut-water into the heart of the seas,receiving their blows upon the rounding of her weather bow with a forcesufficient to shake her from stem to stern and almost to stop her wayfor an appreciable instant of time; she now slid smoothly up the breastof the wave, taking its stroke fairly in the wake of the fore-rigging,where it had little or no retarding effect upon her, surmounted itscrest with a long, easy roll, and then sank with equal smoothness downinto the trough, along which she sped lightly and swiftly as a petrel.It added a good half-a-knot to her speed.

  It was soon apparent that even this comparatively trifling advantage onour part had not escaped the notice of our wary friend the skipper ofthe barque; it suggested to him yet one more experiment, and he was notslow to make it, keeping his ship away about a point and a half andchecking his braces accordingly. This proved very much moresatisfactory so far as he was concerned; for by four bells in theafternoon watch we had lost sight of the barque's hull again, and it wasunmistakably evident that she was increasing her distance from us. Weheld on, however, straight after her, as before; for although it wasundeniable that she was now drawing away from us, it was but slowly; itwould take her a good many hours to run us out of sight at that rate,and we felt pretty confident that when the weather mo
derated--which wehoped would be before long, as the glass indicated a slight risingtendency--we should have her at our mercy. Meanwhile, however, we feltthat we must not count our chickens before they were hatched; for therewould be nearly an hour and a half of darkness between sunset andmoonrise, and in that time our crafty friend would be pretty certain toattempt some new trickery if there seemed a ghost of a chance of itsproving successful.