 | CHAPTER IV.
THE GUN-BRIG. The cruiser of the mist |  |
4. CHAPTER IV.
THE GUN-BRIG.
We have said that our story opened
shortly after the close of the last war with
Great Britain. With the end of the contest
between the two belligerent nations,
did not terminate the evils which are the
fruits of war. It is true, the respective
fleets of the combatting nations, ceased
longer to engage in combat, and either
sailed peacefully upon the ocean in idle
cruising, or returned to their ports. But
there were armed vessels which had taken
part in the contest, which did not belong
to the legitimate service of the country.
These were privateers or letters of marque.
Numerous commissions of this kind
had been issued by the United States government,
and the vessels sailing under
them had done essential service to the
country.
The close of the war found many of
these free cruisers in commission. The
majority of them returned to port, and
ceased preying upon the commerce of the
late foe. Some few of them, however,
had been too long pursuing the adventurous
career of privateering, readily to obey
the voice of peace. The life they had led
for three years, had fascinated them with
its wild attractions. Money had been
easily acquired, and the excitement of the
battle and the chase had rendered excitement
a passion. Thus it happened that
for some weeks after the peace had been
ratified, and hostile operations between the
lawful fleets of the two nations had ceased,
the public ear was startled, by the rumor
that several peaceable merchant-ships,
not only of England, but of the United
States, had been boarded and plundered
off the coast by vessels, still claiming to
be privateers. As soon as this intelligence
reached Washington, four vessels of war
were despatched from as many ports, to
capture and destroy these lawless cruisers,
that dared openly to despise the proclamation
of peace. One of these sailed from
Boston, one from New York, one from
Baltimore, and another from Norfolk.
Two of them were brigs of war, the others
corvettes of eighteen and twenty guns.
This force was soon sweeping the coast
from Florida to the New England capes,
and four of the bucaniering privateers
were captured and brought into port.
This prompt action on the part of the government,
soon cleared the American seas
of these bold pirates, who had thus assumed
the national flag to cover their deeds of
rapine. The vessels of war returned to
their several ports, and the merchant-vessel
once more fearlessly unfurled her canvass
to the breeze.
The season of security, however, was
but brief. The last brig of war had not
been ten days anchored in port, ere a Boston
barque put into Newport, Rhode Island,
reporting that she had been boarded the
evening before, off Block Island, by an
armed schooner, filled with men, and
plundered of all the most valuable portion
of her cargo. This intelligence renewed
the former excitement, and without waiting
orders from the Department, the commanders
of the brig of war which was
moored in Boston Harbor, and of a sloop
of war that lay off the Battery, slipped
their cables, and almost at the same hour
put to sea.
The sloop took the passage of the East
River, passing into the Sound through
Hurlgate; while the brig doubled Cape
Cod, hoping to fall in with the bucanier in
the vicinity of the Island where the barque
reported herself to have been plundered.
It was on the morning of the third day
after the arrival of the barque in Newport,
that the armed brig came in sight of Block
Island. The wind was light, and having
been so for the last four days, her captain
was sanguine that he should fall in with
the pirate in the vicinity of the island.
He therefore kept a midshipman aloft with
a glass to sweep the horizon, while he
stood on towards the island with the wind
blowing gently from the south-west.
The dark mass of the huge island rose
before them in all its sterile grandeur, reflecting
from its higher elevations, while its base
lay in a dense mist that was resting upon
the sea. The brig under her royals and
weather topmast studdensail, her courses
hauled a it, and every thing drawing, moved
steadily towards the island. The captain
with a spy-glass at his eye, watched keenly
the inlets of the land as the fog opened, occasionally
turning his glass seaward, and
then in the direction of the main.
“The fellow can't have had wind enough
to have got far away from this,” he said,
turning to his first lieutenant who stood
near him. “If he is not lying under the
west shoulder of the island, I am quite
sure he has run up the Sound!”
“It has been almost calm the last three
days, and what with the fogs that begin
to prevail at this season, she could not
have got far away!”
“That is my opinion. Yonder is a
fishing-boat just emerging from the bank
of fog that encircles the island. Keep
her away a point, and bring the boat to!
The fisherman will be able to give us some
intelligence!”
The brig was steered in the direction of
the fishing boat, and a gun brought it to.
“Fisherman ahoy!”
“What do you want, hey?” replied a
sonorous voice in reply, from the throat of
an old weather-beaten man, who looked as
if he had been born upon the salt sea, and
cradled upon its stormy billows.
“Have you seen anything of a large
schooner, with long raking masts and a
red head painted on her bends?”
“There was such a craft hailed me and
bought fish of me yesterday afternoon. I
reckon she was a privateer!”
“It is the very same, my man!” answered
the captain joyfully. “But there are
no privateers now, the war is at an end!”
“That's true, or ought to be, capting,
sure enough. But the schooner had the
'Merican flag up, and was full of men,
and had as many as six guns, if not more!”
“She was a pirate. Can you tell me
which way she was standing?”
“Pirate or no, her skipper paid me in
silver for my fish, and when my main-boom
knocked my tarpaulin overboard, he bade
one of his men toss me this one, which is
worth two of mine! He was stan'nen' at
the time to the nor'-west, with the wind
son'.”
“Up the Sound?”
“Belike he was; but as a fog was
drivin in from sea just then, he hadn't
made sail from me more nor five minutes,
afore he was wrapped up in it from deck
to truck, so I couldn't see him!”
“Did you see the vessel cruising here
before yesterday?”
“Yes. She lay on the other side of the
island, two leagues off shore, pretty much
all day, about four days ago; at least it
was a craft that looked mazing like her!”
“Thank you, my good man. Luff a
little under the stern, and I will be as liberal
for your news, as this bucanier was
for your fish!”
Thus speaking, the captain of the armed
brig took from his purse a sovereign,
and as the little fishing vessel luffed up
across the brig's wake, tossed it into the
bottom of it. The old man lifted his tarpaulin,
exposing a head of thick grisly
hair, and bowing, picked up the coin, and
once more put away on his course towards
his fishing ground.
All was now excitement and action on
board the brig. Her course was altered
three points, so as to pass the island to
leeward, and she moved through the water
with freer and swifter motion; for before
she had been steering so as to weather the
island.
“If the wind would only haul to the
south, we should then get two more knots
with the aid of studdensail a-wing,” said
the captain; “but we can't expect too
many blessings at once. It is enough for
this morning, to know that our game has
not escaped us by running to the east or
south! If he is gone into the Sound, he
is ours!”
The bank of fog which had hung about
the island, now slowly climbed up its sides
air, forming a low canopy of light cloud
above the sea. The whole shore of the
island now become visible, and was rapidly
and closely scanned by three spy-glasses,
in as many hands.
“He is not in shore there,” said the officer
of the deck emphatically.
“He may be on the other side of the
island,” observed the quarter-master. A
fleet of liners might be hid there, and we
not see 'em unless we sailed round!”
“We shall be in range to the north of
the island in half an hour, so that we can
take in the whole western shore at a
glance,” observed the captain; “but it is
my opinion that the bold rogue has ventured
his keel up the Sound, for the purpose
of showing himself to the good Connecticut
folk, and laughing at Uncle Sam's
cruisers. The fog still lays on the water
ahead, or else is slowly moving itself landward.”
“By ten o'clock we shall have a clear
horizon,” said the first lieutenant, “and if
he is in the Sound, we shall either see
him or hear of him before night! We
are going five knots full, and no doubt
when the fog gets into the sky, we shall
have an increase of breeze!”
“Heaven grant it!”
“Sail ho!” shouted the look-out from
the mast-head.
“Where away?” demanded the captain,
in a voice full of animation.
“To the westward, a point and a half
off the weather bow!”
The captain sprung into the weather
main rigging, and ascending rapidly a
dozen rattlings, levelled his glass.
“I can see nothing but the fog bank
that lays on the water a league ahead!”
he responded in a tone of vexation.
“I can see her masts striking above the
fog,” shouted the midshipman in the fore-topgallant
cross-trees.
“Keep hold of her then. What does
she look like?”
“I can only see her two sticks; and
they may be either the royal-masts of a
brig, or the slender top-masts of a schooner!”
“Do you see any royal yard?”
“Nothing but the tops of the masts.
Now the fog rolls up and hides them, sir!”
“Keep the bearings, quarter-master.
One point and a half off the weather bow.
Luff as much, and see if we can make
her! I will go aloft and take a look!”
In a few seconds the young and ambitious
captain of the brig of war, stood by
the side of the middy upon the fore-top-gallant
cross-trees. For the diameter of
four miles around him, the sea was clear
from fog; but a light bank of mist lay
upon the water two or three miles distant,
wholly concealing the main land and
Fisher's Island, which where but five and
seven miles distant ahead. Seaward the
atmosphere was clear, and to the south lay
Block Island, still overshadowed by the
bright cloud which had risen above it
from its base. The fisherman's skiff was
just visible in the eastern board, riding at
her anchor, and westward, near the head
of the island, were moored two or three
coasting shallops. The sea of fog that
lay above the watery sea ahead of the
brig, was about seventy feet in height, and
seemed to be slowly moving towards the
main land before the south-westerly wind
which wafted the vessel on. Its surface,
as viewed from the altitude at which the
captain stood, was undulating and restless
like the billowy ocean; now curling upward
in fantastic wreaths like smoke, now
tossing and eddying in feathery streamers,
as the fickle wind sported with it at its
will. Sometimes masses of the misty vapor
would heave themselves into the air
above the general surface in cloudy pinnacles,
till the breeze would break them
and scatter them, dissolving in air as they
flew. It was by one of these lifts of the
mist, that the masts of the vessel which
the midshipman had discovered, had been
suddenly concealed from his sight. As
the captain appeared on the cross-trees,
the masts re-appeared again. With his
unaided eye, he saw by their unusual rake,
a privateer-schooner, as all the clipper-built
craft of that day were termed.
“It is our man!” he exclaimed with
enthusiasm. “Mr. Waters, keep the
brig's head a point more to windward,”
he shouted to the deck below. “Pipe all
hands to quarters. There is no mistake
now but that we will have this kingfisher
in our own net before another half hour!”
The orders he had given were obeyed
with that animation which evinced an eager
desire to combat with the enemy.
The commander kept his glass at his eye
for a few moments after he had given
these orders, and closely watched the two
topmasts. The schooner to which they
belonged, seemed to be about a mile
within the bosom of the fog, and to be
slowly forging to the eastward. After a
few moments longer observation he was
satisfied that she was approaching on the
opposite tack to that on which the brig
was running. This conviction assured
him that he should not fail to fall in with
him; and in order that he should not lose
him by going into the fog, he gave the
order, to the surprise of his officers, to
shorten sail.
“The fog is moving away from us, sir,
almost as fast as we sail,” said the middy,
“and if you shorten sail, sir, we shall be
fully exposed to the schooner when she
comes out of it; and as we are not within
gun-shot of her, she may get away from
us!”
“You are right, Frank, for once in your
life. Hold on below till further orders!”
The schooner kept standing on towards
the fog, the verge of which was now half
a mile distant. The captain had now lost
sight of the masts altogether, and the
mist seemed to be rising from the sea. He
descended to the deck, and, without a word
to any one, threw himself over the side, at
the gangway, and dropped by the man-rope
close to the surface of the water. As
he expected, he could see under the fog,
which had risen at least two feet from the
water, and was still steadily ascending.
A mile distant he beheld with perfect distinctness
the lower portion of the dark hull
of the schooner. He now regained the
deck, and taking the bearings of the vessel,
crowded all sail, and in five minutes afterwards
entered the region of sea-cloud.
The fog lay upon the decks and filled
densely the atmosphere. Nothing was
visible but the white vapor around. A
man stationed over the side so as to see
underneath the fog, every minute reported
the position of the schooner.
The captain now joined him, and saw
that she was within reach of shot; but as
he was not able to see higher than her
gunwales, he did not like to fire, lest he
should be doing mischief to a friend. So
he waited impatiently the slow rising of the
mist as it became more and more rarified
by the sun's rays.
The brig, nevertheless, kept standing
on her way, steering a direct course for
the unconscious vessel.
“She is armed, I can see that much!”
cried the captain of the brig. “In two
minutes more her hull will be visible.
Keep away a little. That is it! so, steady
as you are. We shall be alongside of
her in six minutes. She seems to be
steering obliquely across our bows! stand
by them with that weather-bow gun. Now
silence every sound! steady as you are,
helmsman. I can now plainly see her
decks and her men! she is crowded with
heads. It is the schooner we are in search
of! Elevate the piece a little and fire at
a venture!”
The roar of the twelve-pounder broke
suddenly the stillness of the morning.
The captain and his officers watched
through the open ports the effect of the
shot upon the movements of the enemy.
But the schooner was at the same instant
enveloped in the smoke of her own guns,
and one after another in rapid succession
three balls whistled through the misty air
above the heads of those on the gun-brig's
deck.
“They are as wide awake as we are!”
exclaimed the captain: “when we supposed
unseen, they have been watching us under
the curtain of fog just as we have been
watching them. They have aimed their
iron billiard-balls well, for every one of
them passed within twenty feet of the deck.
They were at the least eighteens! stand
by your guns, men, and be ready to give
her a broadside!”
The lint-locks flashed above the heads
of the men who held them. All waited
for the word.
“Luff a little!” shouted the captain.
“Luff it is, sir!” responded the helmsman.
“Steady, as you are!”
“Steady!”
“Fire, boys!”
The brig reeled under the recussion of
the simultaneous discharge of all her larboard
guns, and her captain, leaning over
the gun in the after port closely watched
the effect upon the schooner, which, when
last seen, was not half a mile distant. It
was some moments before the smoke of the
powder blew aside; and then he saw, to
his chagrin, that the fog had heavily settled
again upon the water. He could discern
no object a hundred fathoms distance.
“Confound my luck!” he cried with vexation;
“the concussion of the air and the
weight of the smoke together have settled
the fog and hid the fellow completely.
But we will stand on till we hear her
`speak' again, and so tell us her whereabouts;
keep still every one and listen for
the least noise from her!”
The schooner did not “speak” again.
In vain they listened. No gun replied to
the broadside; no sound of creaking yard
or rattling rope betrayed to their ears the
position of the invisible schooner.
| CHAPTER IV.
THE GUN-BRIG. The cruiser of the mist | |