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From Powder Monkey to Admiral: A Story of Naval Adventure, a novel by William H. G. Kingston |
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Chapter 36. Fresh Successes And Perils |
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_ CHAPTER THIRTY SIX. FRESH SUCCESSES AND PERILS Our hero had now got the first step up the ratlines as an officer. As the _Lily's_ repairs were likely to occupy some time, Captain Saltwell had, by the admiral's permission, fitted out one of the prizes, a fine and fast little schooner, to which the name of the _Active_ had been given. He intended to man her from his own and the _Ariel's_ crews, and to send her cruising in search of the piratical craft which, under the guise of privateers, in vast numbers infested those seas. The admiral had intended to send a _protege_ of his own in charge of the vessel, but that officer was taken ill, and both Lieutenant Horrocks and the first lieutenant of the _Ariel_ were engaged in attending to their respective ships. Rayner was sent for, and the command was offered to him. He accepted it with delight, and begged that Crofton might be allowed to accompany him. He took also Jack and Brown, and though he did not ask for Tom Fletcher, Tom was sent among the men drafted for the purpose. The schooner was furnished with four carronades and two long six-pounders. Her crew mustered twenty men. "We can dare and do anything in such a craft as this," he exclaimed, enthusiastically, as he and Oliver were walking the deck together, while the schooner, under all sail, was steering a course for San Domingo. Before long they both dared and did several gallant actions. Just as they had sighted the land they fell in with three piratical feluccas, either one of which was a match for the _Active_. One, after a desperate resistance, was captured, another was sunk, and the third, while the British crew were securing their first prize, and endeavouring to save the drowning men, effected her escape. She was, however, shortly afterwards taken, and on the return of the _Active_ to Port Royal with her prizes, the thanks of the merchants of Jamaica were offered to Lieutenant Rayner for the service he had rendered to commerce. The admiral the next day sent for Rayner, and received him with more cordiality than is generally awarded to junior officers. Having listened to his report, and commended him for his gallantry. "How soon will you be ready to sail again?" he asked. "Directly our damages have been repaired, and they won't take long, sir," was the answer. "That is right. I have received information that a desperate fellow in command of a craft somewhat larger than the _Active_ has been pillaging vessels of all nations, and it will be a feather in your cap if you take her." "I'll do my best, sir," answered Rayner. In two days the _Active_ was again at sea. Within a fortnight, after a long chase, she had fought and driven on shore a large schooner, got her off again, and recaptured two of her prizes, returning in triumph with all three to Jamaica. He and Oliver were highly complimented on their success. The admiral, who was still in the harbour, invited them to dine on board the flagship. "Mr Horrocks has just obtained his promotion, and you are thus, Mr Rayner, first lieutenant of the _Lily_; and, Mr Crofton, I intend to give you an acting order as second lieutenant, and I hope that before long you will be confirmed in your rank." This was good news. With happy hearts the two friends went on board the _Lily_, which was now ready for sea. They found Lieutenant Horrocks packing up, ready to go on board a frigate just sailing for England. "I expect to enjoy a few weeks' hunting before I get a ship, and when I do get one I shall be very glad to have you, Rayner, with me, should you be unemployed," he said as they parted. Rayner would have preferred retaining the command of the _Active_, but an officer older than himself was appointed to her, and he could not complain. Once more the _Lily_ was at sea. She cruised for some months, during which she captured several prizes, and cut out two others in a very gallant manner under the guns of a strong battery. Oliver soon afterwards had the satisfaction of being confirmed in his rank as lieutenant. Though Commander Saltwell made honourable mention of our hero on each occasion, he received no further recognition of his services. "I have no business to complain," he observed. "My position is only that of many others who have done more than I have, but I should like to be wearing an epaulette on my right shoulder when we get home, and obtain a command with you, Oliver, as my first lieutenant." With this exception, Rayner never alluded to the subject. The _Lily's_ cruise was nearly up. She had lately sent away in her prizes her master and several petty officers and seamen, so that out of her establishment she could scarcely muster more than a hundred men. It was night, a light breeze blowing, the island of Desirade bearing south-east by south, distant six or seven leagues. The two lieutenants had been talking of home. In a few months they expected to be at Plymouth, and Rayner's thoughts had been occupied, as they often were, with his brother officer's sweet sister, Mary Crofton. Rayner had just come on deck to relieve Oliver, who had the middle watch. He had been pacing the deck, waiting for daylight, to commence the morning operation of washing decks, and was looking to windward, when, as the light slowly increased, at some little distance off he made out the dim outline of a large ship. Whether she was a friend or foe he could not determine; if the latter, the position of the _Lily_ was critical in the extreme. He instantly sent the midshipman of the watch to arouse the commander, who hurried on deck. After watching the stranger for a few seconds, they both came to the conclusion that she was a frigate, and, as they knew of no English vessel of her class likely to be thereabouts, that she was French. "Turn the hands up and make sail," said the commander. "We shall probably have to fight, but when the odds are so decidedly against us, it is my duty to avoid an action if I can." The crew at the boatswain's summons came tumbling up from below. All sail was immediately made, and the _Lily's_ head directed to the north-west. She was seen, however, and quickly followed by the frigate, the freshening breeze giving an advantage to the larger vessel, which, having the weather-gauge, and sailing remarkably fast rapidly approached. "We've caught a Tartar at last!" exclaimed Tom. "The sooner we go below and put on our best clothes he better; we shall be taken aboard her before the day's much older." "How do you dare to say that!" cried Jack. "Look up there, you see our flag flying aloft, and I for one would sooner have our tight little craft sent to the bottom than be ordered to strike it. Our skipper hasn't given in yet, and if he falls our first lieutenant will fight the ship as long as he has a plank to stand on." Some of the crew, however, appeared to side with Tom, and showed an inclination to desert their guns. Rayner and Oliver went among them and cheered them up. "Lads!" cried the commander, who had observed some of them wavering as they gazed with looks of alarm at their powerful enemy, "most of you have sailed in the _Lily_ with me since she was first commissioned. You know that I have never exposed your lives unnecessarily, and that we have always succeeded in whatever we have undertaken. You have gained a name for yourselves and our ship, and I hope you will not sully that name by showing the white feather. Although yonder ship is twice as big as we are, still we must try to beat her off, and it will not be my fault if we don't." The men cheered heartily, and went to their guns. Every preparation for battle being made--to the surprise of her own crew, and much more so to that of the Frenchman--the commandant ordered her to be hove-to. "Don't fire a shot until I tell you, lads!" he cried out. Many looked at the stranger with anxious eyes; the flag of France was flying from her peak. Eighteen guns grinned out from her ports on either side--twice the number of those carried by the _Lily_, and of a far heavier calibre. As she got within range she opened fire, her shot flying through the _Lily's_ sails, cutting her rigging and injuring several of her spars, but her guns were so elevated that not a man was hit on deck. "Steady, lads! We must wait until she gets near enough to make every one of our guns tell!" cried the commander. Even when going into action a British seaman often indulges in jokes, but on this occasion every man maintained a grim silence. "Now, lads!" shouted the commander, "give it them!" At the short distance the enemy now was from them the broadside told with terrible effect, the shot crashing through her ports and sides, while the shrieks and groans of the wounded were clearly distinguished from the _Lily's_ deck. The British crew, working with redoubled energy, hauled their guns in and out, and fired with wonderful rapidity, truly tossing them about as if they had been playthings. The French also fired, but far more slowly, sending hardly one shot to the _Lily's_ two. The officers went about the deck encouraging the men and laying hold of the tackles to assist them in their labours. At any moment a well-directed broadside from the frigate might leave the corvette a mere wreck on the ocean, or send her to the bottom. Every man on board knew this; but while their officers kept their flag flying at the peak, they were ready to work their guns and struggle to the last. An hour and a half had passed since the French frigate had opened her fire, and still the little sloop held out. Commander Saltwell's great object was to avoid being run down or boarded. This he managed to do by skilful manoeuvring. At length Rayner, through his glass, observed the crew of the frigate running about her deck as if in considerable confusion. Once more the _Lily_ fired, but what was the astonishment of the British seamen to see her haul her main-tack aboard and begin to make all sail, putting her head to the northward. To follow was impossible, as the _Lily_ had every brace and bowline, all her after backstays, several of her lower shrouds, and other parts of her rigging, shot away. Her sails were also torn, her mainmast and main-topsail yard and foreyard a good deal injured. Yet though she had received these serious damages aloft, strange to say one man alone of her crew had been slightly injured. "We must repair damages, lads, and then go and look after the enemy," cried the commander. The guns being run in and secured, every officer, man, and boy set to work, the commander with the rest. In a wonderfully short time the standing rigging was knotted or spliced, fresh running rigging rove, new sails bent, and the _Lily_ was standing in the direction in which her late antagonist had some time before disappeared. Not long after, however, the man at the mast-head discovered a large ship on the lee beam in the direction of Guadaloupe. The _Lily_ at once steered towards the stranger, when in the afternoon she came up with a vessel under French colours, which endeavoured to escape. Several shots were fired. The stranger sailed on. "She looks like an English ship," observed the commander. "It will never do to let her get away. See what you can do, Crofton." Oliver went forward and trained the foremost gun. He fired, and down came the stranger's main-topsail yard. On this she hauled down her colours and hove-to. She proved to be, as the commander had supposed, a large English merchantman, a prize to the French frigate. The prisoners were at once removed, and the second lieutenant sent with a prize crew on board, when the _Lily_ took her in tow. The wind was light, but a heavy swell sent the prize several times almost aboard the corvette, which was at length compelled to cast her adrift. The next morning the look-out from the mast-head of the _Lily_ announced a sail on the lee bow. In a short time, daylight increasing, she was seen to be a frigate, and no doubt her late antagonist. Captain Saltwell at once bore down on her, making a signal to the prize to do so likewise, and at the same time running up several signals as if speaking another ship to windward. On this the frigate, making all sail, stood away, and as she had the heels both of the _Lily_ and her prize, was soon out of sight. Captain Saltwell, satisfied, as he had every reason to be, with his achievement, ordered the course to be shared for Jamaica. On his arrival he found his commission as post-captain waiting for him. He had won it by constant and hard service. "As I cannot reward you for the gallant way in which you beat off the French frigate and recaptured the merchant ship worth several thousand pounds, I must see what can be done for your first lieutenant," said the admiral. "I will apply for his promotion, and in the meantime will give him an acting order to command the _Lily_, and to take her home." Captain Saltwell, thanking the admiral, expressed his intention to take a passage in his old ship. The news quickly spread fore and aft that the _Lily_ was to be sent home. Loud cheers rose from many a stout throat, the invalids, of which there were not a few, joining in the chorus from below. One-third of those who had come out had either fallen fighting in the many actions in which she had been engaged, or, struck down by yellow fever, lay in the graveyard of Port Royal. No time was lost in getting fresh water and provisions on board. Never did crew work with more good-will than they did on this occasion. The _Lily_ was soon ready for sea, and with a fair breeze ran out of Port Royal harbour. The war was still raging as furiously as ever, and the officers and crew well knew that before they could reach the shores of old England they might have another battle or two to fight. Perhaps, in their heart of hearts, they would have preferred, for once in a way, a peaceful voyage. A look-out, however, was kept, but the Atlantic was crossed, and the chops of the Channel reached, without meeting a foe. Here the _Lily_ encountered a strong easterly gale, and in vain for many days endeavoured to beat up to her destination. Having sighted Scilly, she was standing off the land, from which she was at a considerable distance under close-reefed topsails, when the wind suddenly dropped, and soon afterwards shifted to the southwards. The helm was put down, and the crew flew aloft to shake out the reefs. They were thus engaged when a sail was seen to the south-east. The _Lily_, standing on the opposite tack, rapidly neared her. Every glass on board was directed towards the stranger. She was a ship apparently of much the same size as the _Lily_, but whether an English cruiser or an enemy it was difficult to determine. The _Lily_, by keeping away, might have weathered the Lizard and avoided her. Such an idea did not enter the young commander's head. On the contrary, he kept the ship close to the wind, so that by again going about he might prevent the stranger from passing him. His glass had never been off her. Suddenly he exclaimed, "Hurrah! she's French. I caught sight of her flag as she luffed up! Hands about ship! We'll fight her, Captain Saltwell?" he added, turning to his former commander. "No doubt about it," said Captain Saltwell, "I should if I were in your place." The drum beat to quarters, the crew hurried to their stations, and every preparation was made for the expected battle. The stranger, after standing on some way, hauled up, so as to keep the weather-gauge, and, at the same time; to draw the _Lily_ farther away from the English coast. Once more the latter tacked, and passing under the stranger's stern, poured in a raking broadside. The stranger, coming about, returned the fire; but as the shot flew from her guns down came her mizenmast, and she fell off before the wind. The crew of the _Lily_ cheered, and running in their guns, quickly fired a third broadside. The two ships now ran on side by side, Rayner having shortened sail so as to avoid shooting ahead of his antagonist. Notwithstanding the loss of their mizenmast, the Frenchmen fought with spirit for some time, but their fire at length began to slacken, while the British seamen continued to work their guns with the same energy as at first. Rayner now ordered the mizen-topsail and spanker to be set, and directed the crews of the starboard guns to refrain from firing until he should give the word; then putting down the helm, he suddenly luffed up, and stood across the bows of his opponent. "Fire!" he cried; and gun after gun was fired in succession, the shot telling with fearful effect as they swept the deck of the French ship. The latter put down her helm in a vain attempt to avoid being raked, but her bowsprit catching in the mizen rigging of the _Lily_, Oliver, calling to Jack and several other men, securely lashed it there, in spite of the fire which the marines from the enemy's forecastle opened on him and his companions. The bullets from the Frenchmen's muskets came rattling sharply on board. Two of the seamen were hit, and just at the same moment their young commander was seen to fall. A midshipman and the purser, who were standing by his side, caught him in their arms. _ |
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