 | CHAPTER X. The free-trader, or, The cruiser of Narragansett Bay |  |
10. CHAPTER X.
The lieutenant of the Gaspee, now
loudly cheered on his men to reach the
gang-way, and the better to show them
where to strike the brig, and to enable
him to ascertain what force and defences
the vessel had, he discharged a pistol,
the flash of which revealed the
captain and his crew armed, ready to
oppose him.
“This is likely to prove serious work,
but we must not be out-done by these
colonists in their opposition,” he said,
to the officer in charge of the other
boat.
“Did you see that spar suspended
over the brig's side?” cried the younger
officer. “They mean to cut it away to
fall upon us. I had best board by the
main chains.”
“Any way so that you get on board.
I shall board by the gang-way myself!
Oars! Seize your arms!” he cried, at
the same moment, as the men raised
their oars and dropped them lengthwise
of the boat, as her bow struck the
brig's waist.
The men were on their feet in a moment,
and the lieutenant, leaping forward,
seized the side-rope with one
hand to draw himself up, while he
brandished his cutlass in the other.—
But he had hardly thrown his weight upon
the rope, ere it parted at the top and
he fell over the side into the water. At
the same moment the lashings of the
spare top-mast, which Captain Benbow
had suspended over the side, were cut
by the mate.
The heavy spar fell with all its
weight upon the boat, and striking it
with its end upon the quarter, stove it
so that it immediately filled. The crew,
with cries and execrations, were plunged
into the flood, while the boat sank beneath
them, leaving them to swim for
their lives. Some of them grasped at
the iron supporters beneath the main
chains, and others seized the gunwale of
the other boat, into which Arling had
already been drawn and which had got
a hold upon the shroud with a boat
hook. Others were carried past the
brig which was still moving on under
press of sail, and struck for the shore,
which was but a cable's length distant.
The destruction of his boat in such a
summary manner with his own immersion
filled the breast of the commander
of the Gaspee with fury. He ordered
the men in the boat to board by the
chains and spring forward to lead them
where the boat-hook, which alone kept
the boat by the brig's side, was broken
in the hands of the man who held it, by
the force with which the Free-Trader
additional weight of men hanging upon
her gunwales.
The boat instantly fell astern and the
brig shot ahead of them beyond recovery.
Lieutenant Arling fired two pistols
after her in his furious disappointment,
and as he gave orders to row
shoreward, to land the men that were
clinging to the boat's sides, he swore
that the brig should not be twenty-four
hours longer afloat; and that if he
could lay hands on the captain of her
he should swing for it at the yard-arm
of the Gaspee.
“They have showed a pretty determined
resistance to begin with, against
the revenue law,” said the young officer.
“I hardly thought they would
dare to prevent a king's boat landing.”
“Pull hard, men, and land these
swimmers that are such a dead weight.
We must back on board the Gaspee
without delay. You lads that can swim
cast off and strike for the shore.”
Two of the eight men that were
clinging to the sides of the boat, let go
their hold and swam alone shoreward.
The boat soon after reached water shoal
enough for the rest to strike bottom,
when they were cast off, and the lieutenant,
saying he would send a boat for
them, put about and ordered the oarsmen
to row with all speed to the Gaspee.
This vessel was just visible, about a
mile off, but her position was distinctly
pointed out by a lantern in her rigging,
suspended there as a guide to the boats.
It would be difficult to give a true
picture of the deep, cutting disappointment
which filled the breast of the young
English commander, at being defeated
as he had been, in an attempt to board
an unarmed merchant-brig.
“If it had been,” he muttered, as his
boat bounded swiftly back to his schooner,
“if it had been a buccanier or an
armed vessel it would have been endurable;
but to be beaten off and one of
my boats sunk by a mere trader's crew,
is enough to make me pistol myself;
for I shall never hear the last of it. A
fine report I shall have to make to Captain
Petty, that with two boats and twenty-four
men, I was unable to board the
Yankee brig he sent me to look after.”
“We did all we could do, sir,” remarked
the passed midshipman; “if
Sir William had been in command of
the boats he would have fared precisely
as we have fared. But I cautioned you
against that confounded spar. By the
light of your pistol I saw that it was not
a fender, as you supposed it to be, but
had been hung over the side to be cut
away and fall upon our boats. Yet I
did not believe they would have gone so
far in opposing us.”
“Gone so far. Unless the king has
some score or two of those leading colonists
hanged, they will go so far
by and by, as to shut their ports to the
king's ships, and take the colonies into
their own hands.”
“England could crush them with a
blow,” answered the young man.
“I will crush this infernal Yankee
captain. As soon as I touch the deck
of the schooner I will open my broad-sides
upon him. Give way bravely,
men. Let not the villain get out of
reach of our guns before we can avenge
ourselves. A few strokes more and we
shall be on board. I am glad we lost no
men, or the matter would have been
more serious.”
“All got ashore safely, sir; only
Frost, had his head bruised by the spar
as it came down. The men only saved
themselves by leaping overboard, or others
would have been hurt. The wind
seems to freshen.”
“I dare say—to help this brig along;
but I will chase her till I blow her out
of the water; and if she escapes me,
the Bexley 'll finish her.”
“If she knows what the matter is!
But she will hardly know. We can't
telegraph her in the night.”
“Petty will understand that some
thing is on the tapis! and hearing the
firing and seeing the brig, if she is not
sunk by our guns, before she gets up to
the port, he will be sure to board her—if
he can. Nothing would please me so
much as to have him attempt it and be
beaten off as I have been. It would
make me the happiest man in the service.
But they won't be likely to expect
him, for they must be ignorant that
the sloop is up the bay, or they would
hardly keep on so steadily. See how
the fellow crowds sail. He seems to be
afraid of our vengeance.”
“Ho, the boat!” suddenly hailed
the officer of the watch on the deck of
the Gaspee, which they had now got
close aboard of.
“Gaspee!” responded Midshipman
Carrol. “Where is the first cutter,
with the Captain?”
Before any answer was given the
boat was alongside, and Arling sprang
on board.
“Here is the Captain,” he answered
in a bitter tone; “but the first cutter is
in the bottom of the Bay! Send the third
cutter with four oars to the main board
at once, Mr. Carroll, and bring the crew
on board!”
“Aye, aye, sir!”
“What has happened, sir?” asked
the second lieutenant, who had charge
of the schooner. “I heard pistols discharged
and thought something was
going wrong!”
“Wrong! all went wrong! In a
word, sir, the Yankee resisted us,
cut away a spar, and sunk our boat
alongside with it, and we were worsted,
with half my men in the water. But
they shall be paid! Pipe to quarters!
Fill away and storm up the bay again!
we must chase, and if we can't catch
her, we must sink her!”
All was now excitement on board the
cruiser. The shrill whistle of the
boatswain and the creaking of cordage
and blocks, the noise of guns wheeled
upon their coinings and of shot rolled
across the deck as they were brough
up from below by the powder-boys,
combined with the rapid orders of the
commander, which were echoed by the
other officers, produced a scene of noise
and confusion only to be seen on board
an armed vessel just preparing to engage.
The schooner was soon under sail
again, standing northward on the same
course, steered by the brig, which was
still obscurely seen about a mile and a
quarter, bearing N. N. East. The
third cutter was despatched to the
main, and ordered to pull after the
schooner as soon as the men had
been taken from the shore. Seeing
the Gaspee at length fairly under canvass,
and sailing at the rate of five-and-a-half
knots, Arling gave orders to open
his fire upon the brig, commencing
with the bow gun, and firing aft each
gun in rapid succession.
The loud thunder of his cannon
awoke the echoes of the shores, and
heard at Newport, four or five miles
distant, startled the citizens anew, for
the two guns which he had fired at the
brig an hour before to bring her to, hap
been heard by the towns-people, and
surprised them not a little; for it was
not known that the Gaspee had gone
down after night-fall. This second
cannonading, which Arling kept up for
he had discharged four broadsides,
filled them with apprehension and curiosity.
The whole town was alarmed
and agitated, and each one seeking information
of his neighbor touching the
heavy firing in the Bay below.
“Master Kerrick,” said Arling at
length to the quarter-master, who acted
as pilot to the Gaspee, being familiar
with the channel; “are we far below
the deep water at the head of this shoal
that separates me from the brig, which
seems to have charmed spars!”
“About two cable's length, sir, I
should think; but we had best stand up
pretty well before we attempt to stretch
across, as there is a strong ebb tide,
and we might be drifted, as the wind is
light, upon the head of the shoal; and
we should have to lay there till next
tide!”
“Keep a sharp watch, sir, and let me
know just when we head the shoal; for
I am in no humor, with an enemy under
my lee, to run on this course a fathom
farther than I have need to, to double the
shoal, which I heartily wish was in the
bottom of the Red Sea! Keep the lead
going, sir, and be certain!”
“The lead is going, sir; but the shoal
shifts, and sometimes is twenty fathoms
farther up than it is at others!”
“You are the schooner's pilot, and
ought to know your duty, so that you
report when the vessel heads the shoal.”
“I will do it, sir,” answered the master
with a respectful manner; but he
began to grumble as he walked away.
“Mr. Carrol!”
“Sir?”
“I see you have your spy-glass at
your eye. Have our shot done any mischief
to the brig's top-hawser?”
“She seems to carry everything aloft,
sir, as before. But I can't see distinctly,
as she is blended with the shore.”
“She creeps in as far as she can, to
keep out of the way of my guns. But
it won't avail her. Cease firing, there,
forward. Boatswain, wait my orders
again. I am not to be laughed at also
for firing a dozen broad-sides into a yankee
skipper without touching a rope-yarn.
We shall soon head this accursed
shoal at the rate we are moving, and
then we shall have the game in our own
hands. The brig cannot escape us, let
the Gaspee's nose once get pointed round
this sand-bar, for we out-sail her three
to two.”
“Quar-ter-less-five,” sung out the
leads-man from the fore-chains.
“You keep away too much. Luff a
point—we are shoaling!” said the pilot
to the steersman. “We are near the
head of the shoal, sir.”
“Thank Heaven and the saints for
that news!” answered Arling with fierce
joy.
“Six fathoms deep.”
“That is better; are we high enough
up to hall up and strike across?”
“We are just at the head of the shoal,
sir, but we must keep in a cable's length
farther to get deep water enough for leeway.
“Are we ahead of the shoal, sir? I
want a short answer?” demanded Arling
with haughty importance.
“Yes, sir—but—”
“Then brace up and haul aft fore
and main sheets!” shouted Arling in a
voice that rang through the schooner.
| CHAPTER X. The free-trader, or, The cruiser of Narragansett Bay | |