CHAPTER XXXVI
THE TIDE DECIDES
It was now September, and the weather was beautiful on the NorthCarolina coast. Captain Thomas (late Bonnet) of the Royal James (lateRevenge) had always enjoyed cool nights and invigorating morning air,and therefore it was that he said to his faithful servitor, BenGreenway, when first he stepped out upon the deck as his vessel laycomfortably anchored in a little cove in the Cape Fear River, that hedid not remember ever having been in a more pleasant harbour. Thiswell-tried pirate captain--Stede Bonnet, as we shall call him,notwithstanding his assumption of another name--was in a genial mood ashe drank in the morning air.
From his point of view he had a right to be genial; he had a right to bepleased with the scenery and the air; he had a right to swear at theScotchman, and to ask him why he did not put on a merrier visage on sucha sparkling morning, for since he had first started out as CaptainThomas of the Royal James he had been a most successful pirate. He hadsailed up the Virginia coast; he had burned, he had sunk, he had robbed,he had slain; he had gone up the Delaware Bay, and the people in shipsand the people on the coasts trembled even when they heard that hisblack flag had been sighted.
No man could now say that the former captain of the Revenge was not anaccomplished and seasoned desperado. Even the great Blackbeard would nothave cared to give him nicknames, nor dared to play his blithesometricks upon him; he was now no more Captain Nightcap to any man. Hiscrew of hairy ruffians had learned to understand that he knew what hewanted, and, more than that, he knew how to order it done. They listenedto his great oaths and they respected him. This powerful pirate nowcommanded a small fleet, for in the cove where lay his flag-ship alsolay two good-sized sloops, manned by their own crews, which he hadcaptured in Delaware Bay and had brought down with him to this quietspot, a few miles up the Cape Fear River, where now he was repairing hisown ship, which had had a hard time of it since she had again come intohis hands.
For many a long day the sound of the hammer and the saw had mingled withthe song of the birds, and Captain Bonnet felt that in a day or two hemight again sail out upon the sea, conveying his two prizes to someconvenient mart, while he, with his good ship, freshened and restored,would go in search of more victories, more booty, and more blood.
"Greenway, I tell you," said Bonnet, continuing his remarks, "you aretoo glum; you've got the only long face in all this, my fleet. Eventhose poor fellows who man my prizes are not so solemn, although theyknow not, when I have done with them, whether I shall maroon them toquietly starve or shall sink them in their own vessels."
"But I hae no such reason to be cheerful," said Ben. "I hae bound mysel'to stand by ye till ye hae gone to the de'il, an' I hae no chance o'freein' mysel' from my responsibeelities by perishin' on land or in thesea."
"If anything could make me glum, Ben Greenway, it would be you," saidthe other; "but I am getting used to you, and some of these days when Ihave captured a ship laden with Scotch liquors and Scotch plaids Ibelieve that you will turn pirate yourself for the sake of your share ofthe prizes."
"Which is likely to be on the same mornin' that ye turn to be an honestmon," said Ben; "but I am no' in the way o' expectin' miracles."
On went the pounding and the sawing and the hammering and the swearingand the singing of birds, although the latter were a little farther awaythan they had been, and in the course of the day the pirate captain,erect, scrutinizing, and blasphemous, went over his ship,superintending the repairs. In a day or two everything would befinished, and then he and his two prizes could up sail and away. It wasa beautiful harbour in which he lay, but he was getting tired of it.
There were great prospects before our pirate captain. Perhaps he mighthave the grand good fortune to fall in with that low-born devil,Blackbeard, who, when last he had been heard from, commanded but a smallvessel, fearing no attack upon this coast. What a proud and gloriousmoment it would be when a broadside and another and another should bepoured in upon his little craft from the long guns of the Royal James.
Bonnet was still standing, reflecting, with bright eyes, upon thisdazzling future, and wondering what would be the best way of letting thedastardly Blackbeard know whose guns they were which had sunk his ship,when a boat was seen coming around the headland. This was one of his ownboats, which had been posted as a sentinel, and which now brought thenews that two vessels were coming in at the mouth of the river, but thatas the distance was great and the night was coming on they could notdecide what manner of craft they were.
This information made everybody jump, on board the Royal James, and thenoise of the sawing and the hammering ceased as completely as had thesongs of the birds. In a few minutes that quick and able mariner,Bonnet, had sent three armed boats down the river to reconnoitre. If thevessels entering the river were merchantmen, they should not be allowedto get away; but if they were enemies, although it was difficult tounderstand how enemies could make their appearance in these quietwaters, they must be attended to, either by fight or flight.
When the three boats came back, and it was late before they appeared,every man upon the Royal James was crowded along her side to hear thenews, and even the people on the prizes knew that something hadhappened, and stood upon every point of vantage, hoping that in some waythey could find out what it was.
The news brought by the boats was to the effect that two vessels, notsailing as merchantmen and well armed and manned, were now ashore onsand-bars, not very far above the mouth of the river. Now Bonnet sworebravely. If the work upon his vessels had been finished he would upanchor and away and sail past these two grounded ships, whatever theywere and whatever they came for. He would sail past them and take withhim his two prizes; he would glide out to sea with the tide, and hewould laugh at them as he left them behind. But the Royal James was notready to sail.
The tide was now low; five hours afterward, when it should be high,those two ships, whatever they were, would float again, and the RoyalJames, whatever her course of action should be, would be cut off fromthe mouth of the river. This was a greater risk than even a pirate asbold as Bonnet would wish to run, and so there was no sleep that nighton the Royal James. The blows of the hammers and the sounds of the sawsmade a greater noise than they had ever done before, so that the nightbirds were frightened and flew shrieking away. Every man worked with allthe energy that was in him, for each hairy rascal had reason to believethat if the vessel they were on did not get out of the river before thetwo armed strangers should be afloat there might be hard times ahead forthem. Even Ben Greenway was aroused. "The de'il shall not get him anysooner than can be helped," he said to himself, and he hammered andsawed with the rest of them.
On his stout and well-armed sloop the Henry, Mr. William Rhett, ofCharles Town, South Carolina, paced anxiously all night. Frequently fromthe sand-bar on which his vessel was grounded he called over to hisother sloop, also fast grounded, giving orders and asking questions. Onboth vessels everybody was at work, getting ready for action when thetide should rise.
Some weeks before the wails and complaints of a tortured sea-coast hadcome down from the Jersey shores to South Carolina, asking for help atthe only place along that coast whence help could come. A pirate namedThomas was working his way southward, spreading terror before him andleaving misery behind. These appeals touched the hearts of the people ofCharles Town, already sore from the injuries and insults inflicted uponthem by Blackbeard in those days when Bonnet sat silently on the pirateship, doing nothing and learning much.
There was no hesitancy; for their own sake and for the sake of theircommerce, this new pirate must not come to Charles Town harbour, and anexpedition of two vessels, heavily armed and well manned and commandedby Mr. William Rhett, was sent northward up the coast to look for thepirate named Thomas and to destroy him and his ship. Mr. Rhett was not amilitary man, nor did he belong to the navy. He was a citizen capable ofcommanding soldiers, and as such he went forth to destroy the pirateThomas.
Mr. Rhett met people enough along the c
oast who told him where he mightfind the pirate, but he found no one to tell him how to navigate thedangerous waters of the Cape Fear River, and so it was that soon afterentering that fine stream he and his consort found themselves aground.
Mr. Rhett was quite sure that he had discovered the lair of the big gamehe was looking for. Just before dark, three boats, well filled with men,had appeared from up the river, and they had looked so formidable thateverything had been made ready to resist an attack from them. Theyretired, but every now and then during the night, when there was quietfor a few minutes, there would come down the river on the wind the soundof distant hammering and the noise of saws.
It was after midnight before the Henry and the Sea Nymph floated free,but they anchored where they were and waited for the morning. Whetherthey would sail up the river after the pirate or whether he would comedown to them, daylight would show.
Mr. Rhett's vessels had been at anchor for five hours, and every man onboard of them were watching and waiting, when daylight appeared andshowed them a tall ship, under full sail, rounding the distant headlandup the river. Now up came their anchors and their sails were set. Thepirate was coming!
Whatever the Royal James intended to do, Mr. Rhett had but one plan, andthat was to meet the enemy as soon as possible and fight him. So upsailed the Henry and up sailed the Sea Nymph, and they pressed ahead sosteadily to meet the Royal James that the latter vessel, in carrying outwhat was now her obvious intention of getting out to sea, was forcedshoreward, where she speedily ran upon a bar. Then, from the vessels ofCharles Town there came great shouts of triumph, which ceased when firstthe Henry and then the Sea Nymph ran upon other bars and remainedstationary.
Here was an unusual condition--three ships of war all aground and aboutto begin a battle, a battle which would probably last for five hours ifone or more of the stationary vessels were not destroyed before thattime. It was soon found, however, that there would only be two partiesto the fight, for the Sea Nymph was too far away to use her guns. TheRoyal James had an advantage over her opponents, since, when sheslightly careened, her decks were slanted away from the enemy, while thelatter's were presented to her fire.
At it they went, hot and heavy. Bonnet and his men now knew that theywere engaged with commissioned war vessels, and they fought for theirlives. Mr. Rhett knew that he was fighting Thomas, the dreaded pirate ofthe coast, and he felt that he must destroy him before his vessel shouldfloat again. The cannon roared, muskets blazed away, and the combatantswere near enough even to use pistols upon each other. Men died, bloodflowed, and the fight grew fiercer and fiercer.
Bonnet roared like an incarnate devil; he swore at his men, he swore atthe enemy, he swore at his bad fortune, for had he not missed thechannel the game would have been in his own hands.
So on they fought, and the tide kept steadily rising. The five hoursmust pass at last, and the vessel which first floated would win the day.
The five hours did pass, and the Henry floated, and Bonnet swore louderand more fiercely than before. He roared to his men to fire and tofight, no matter whether they were still aground or not, and with manyoaths he vowed that if any one of them showed but a sign of weakening hewould cut him down upon the spot. But the hairy scoundrels who made upthe crew of the Royal James had no idea of lying there with their shipon its side, while two other ships--for the Sea Nymph was nowafloat--should sail around them, rake their decks, and shatter them topieces. So the crew consulted together, despite their captain's roarsand oaths, and many of them counselled surrender. Their vessel was muchfarther inshore than the two others, and no matter what happenedafterward they preferred to live longer than fifteen or twenty minutes.
But Bonnet quailed not before fate, before the enemy, or before hiscrew; if he heard another word of surrender he would fire the magazineand blow the ship to the sky with every man in it. Raising his cutlassin air, he was about to bring it down upon one of the cowards heberated, when suddenly he was seized by two powerful hands, which pinnedhis arms behind him. With a scream of rage, he turned his head andfound that he was in the grasp of Ben Greenway.
"Let go your sword, Master Bonnet," said Ben; "it is o' no use to yenow, for ye canna get awa' from me. I'm nae older than ye are, though Ilook it, an' I've got the harder muscles. Ye may be makin' your waysteadily an' surely to the gates o' hell an' it mayna be possible that Ican prevent ye, but I'm not goin' to let ye tumble in by accident solong as I've got two arms left to me."
Pale, haggard, and writhing, Stede Bonnet was disarmed, and the JollyRoger came down.