CHAPTER ELEVEN.
THE MANILLA IS STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.
For a full week nothing occurred of sufficient importance to be worthyof record; our little squadron making good headway before the fair windthat had come to our assistance; neither the brigantine nor the schoonerever being more than three or four miles distant from us; while, inresponse to daily invitations from Captain Chesney, the skipper of theIndiaman, Captain Winter frequently came on board to dine and spend theevening with the cuddy passengers. But on the ninth day after therecapture of the _Manilla_, the wind dwindled away to a light air, andthen shifted out from the north-east, gradually freshening to a strongbreeze, and breaking us off to an east-south-east course, close-hauledon the port tack. We stood thus all through the night; and at daybreakthe next morning a large ship was discovered about ten miles towindward, close-hauled on the starboard tack, dodging along undertopsails, jib, and spanker, with her courses in the brails. A singleglance at her was sufficient to assure us that she was a man-o'-war--afrigate--on her cruising-ground; and that her people were broad awakewas speedily made manifest, for we had scarcely made her out when sheshifted her helm and bore up for us, letting fall her courses andsetting her topgallant-sails and royals as she did so.
The discovery of this stranger was immediately productive of a veryconsiderable amount of anxiety among us all, for she was a powerfulvessel, and, if an enemy, likely to prove an exceedingly formidableantagonist. And there was very little doubt among us that she was anenemy; the cut of her square canvas being unmistakably French. Such wasalso Captain Winter's opinion; for he presently ran down under our sternand hailed me, stating his suspicions, and directing me to bear up andmake the best of my way to leeward, while he and the _Dolphin_ wouldendeavour to cover my retreat and distract the stranger's attentionuntil I had got clear off. His orders were that I was to run to leewarduntil out of sight of the Frenchman, and then to haul my wind on thestarboard tack, when he would do his utmost to rejoin me; but that, inthe event of his failing to do so, I was to make the best of my way homewithout wasting time in an endeavour to find him.
I lost no time in obeying his instructions, instantly wearing theIndiaman round and crowding sail to leeward. The frigate had by thistime neared us to within seven miles; and the moment that we in theIndiaman bore up, she set studding-sails on both sides in pursuit, whilethe brigantine and the _Dolphin_ stretched away to windward to intercepther. There was scarcely a shadow of doubt now in my mind that thestranger was a Frenchman; for although her studding-sails were set witha very commendable promptitude and alacrity, there was wanting in theoperation a certain element of smartness, very difficult to describe,yet perfectly discernible to the eye of a seaman, which I have observedto be almost the exclusive attribute of the British man-o'-war. Thedifference, indeed, is so marked that, as in the present case, it hasfrequently been possible to decide the nationality of a ship merely bythe way in which she is manoeuvred, and long before a sight of herbunting has been obtained. The conviction that the noble craft towindward was an enemy caused the greatest consternation on board the_Manilla_, particularly among the passengers; while even I, with all myknowledge of Captain Winter's indomitable courage, resource, and skill,could not but feel exceedingly anxious as to the result of his impendingcontest with so greatly superior a force. True, the memory of ourgallant fight with and brilliant capture of the _Musette_ frigate wasstill fresh in my memory; but I regarded that affair rather as a pieceof exceptional good luck than as the result of superior gallantry on ourpart, and it was quite on the cards that in the present case luck mightgo over to the side of the enemy. As in the case of the _Musette_, afortunate shot might make all the difference between victory and defeat,and it was too much to expect that such good fortune as had thenattended us would always be ours. Be it understood, I was in nowisefearful of personal capture. I felt pretty confident that the skipperwould be quite able to occupy the attention of the frigate long enoughto enable the _Manilla_ to make good her escape; but, that accomplished,would he be able also to save himself? Moved by so keen a feeling ofanxiety as I have indicated, it will not be wondered at that I had nosooner got the Indiaman before the wind, with every stitch of canvasspread that I could pack upon her, than I devoted my whole attention tothe movements of the three craft which were about to take part in theforthcoming ocean-drama.
There was no outward sign of any hesitancy or doubt whatever in themovements of either vessel. The frigate had borne away into our wakethe moment that we had borne away, and was now foaming along after us ingallant style, with studding-sails set on both sides, from the royalsdown; and was of course coming up with us, hand over hand. There was noquestion as to her intentions; she was after us, and meant to catch usif she could. On the other hand, the brigantine and schooner, under allplain sail, were stretching away to windward, close-hauled on thelarboard tack, with a space of only a hundred fathoms or so dividingthem, the brigantine leading. It looked as though the two vessels wereabout to engage the frigate on the same side, which,--if it was to be arunning fight, as seemed probable,--was sound judgment on CaptainWinter's part, since it would enable the frigate to use only onebroadside, and so virtually reduce her weight of metal by one-half. Thetwo craft continued to stand on this tack until the frigate was nearlyabreast of them, when they hove about at the same moment, andsimultaneously hoisted their colours. The frigate probably hoisted hercolours in reply to this challenge, but, if so, we could not see whatthey were, her own canvas intervening to hide the flag from us; but shefired her whole broadside a few seconds later, and we saw the shotspouting up the water as they flew toward the two craft which dared todispute the passage of the sea with her. They appeared to fall short;at all events no perceptible damage was done to either vessel; but amoment later the schooner fired, and the sound of the report told methat it was her long eighteen-pounder that was speaking. The shotstruck the water about sixty or seventy fathoms from the frigate,ricochetted, and appeared to pass over her, for presently we saw thewater spout up again well to starboard of the vessel. This was enoughfor the saucy little _Dolphin_; she was beyond the range of thefrigate's guns, but could reach her antagonist with her own Long Tom.She therefore immediately bore up, set her square-sail and studding-sails, and, maintaining her distance, steered a parallel course to thatof the frigate, while the brigantine stood on, with the now evidentintention of taking up a raking position athwart the frigate's stern.
The _Dolphin_ now opened a rapid fire upon the frigate with her longgun, and every shot showed that the latter was well within range. Thefrigate replied from time to time with single guns, but Comben was toowary to approach near enough to be hit, and so the fight went on forsome time, with no apparent damage to either combatant. Meanwhile, thebrigantine had, as I had anticipated, placed herself athwart thefrigate's stern, well within range, and now traversed the Frenchman'swake, sailing to-and-fro athwart his stern, pouring in a whole rakingbroadside every time she crossed it, and receiving but two guns inreply. All this, of course, was exceedingly pretty and interesting asan exhibition of Captain Winter's skill and acumen in fighting an enemyof superior force; but thus far the firing had been comparativelyineffective, a few holes here and there in the Frenchman's sails beingthe only visible result of the expenditure of a considerable quantity ofgunpowder, while he had neared us to within four miles, and wasoverhauling us so rapidly that another hour, at most, would see uswithin reach of his guns.
Mason, however--the man who had formerly proved himself to be soexcellent a shot with the eighteen-pounder,--was still aboard theschooner, and I had great hopes of him, especially as I knew that hewould be by this time upon his mettle and animated by a feeling that itbehoved him to speedily do something remarkable if he would save hisreputation. Nor was I deceived in my expectations of him; for, veryshortly afterwards, a shot from the schooner cut the halliard of thefrigate's larboard lower studding-sail, and the sail dropped into thewater, retarding the vessel's progress perceptib
ly until it was got in.It occupied the Frenchmen nearly a quarter of an hour to accomplishthis, to splice the halliard, and to reset the sail. Meanwhile thebrigantine had not been idle; and even while the Frenchmen were busyabout their studding-sail, she recrossed the frigate's stern, firinganother broadside at that vessel's spars, with considerable success, itappeared; for although we could not make out exactly what had happenedit was evident that something had gone seriously wrong, CaptainChesney--who stood beside me, watching the fight--declaring that he hadnoticed an appearance strongly suggestive of the fall of the frigate'smizzen-mast. I hardly believed that such could be the case, for,steering as the frigate then was, dead before the wind, had her mizzen-mast fallen, it would have fallen forward, doing so much damage to thespars and sails on the mainmast that I think the effect would have beenrecognisable even where we were. I considered it far more probable thatthe mizzen-topmast or topgallant-mast had been shot away. The next shotfrom the schooner, however, was an exceedingly lucky one; it appeared tostrike the frigate's fore-topmast about six feet below the cross-trees,and the next moment the whole of the wreck was hanging by the topsail-sheets from the fore-yard down on to the ship's forecastle, with herjibs and fore-topmast-staysail towing under her bows. This at oncecaused her to broach-to, and settled her business, so far as any hope ofcapturing us was concerned; but she had her revenge by pouring the wholeof her starboard broadside into the brigantine, the sails and rigging ofwhich were tremendously cut up by the unexpected salute. And as thefrigate broached-to we saw that my surmise was not very far wide of themark, her mizzen-topgallant-mast and mizzen-topsail yard having beenshot away, the latter in the slings.
The three vessels now went at it, hammer and tongs, the brigantine beingfor the moment fairly under the frigate's guns. But Winter soon verycleverly got himself out of this awkward situation, and,--while theFrenchmen were busily engaged in an endeavour to clear away the wreckand get their ship once more before the wind,--laid himself athwarttheir bows and, with his topsail aback, poured broadside after broadsideinto the helpless craft; while the _Dolphin_, gliding hither andthither, beyond the reach of the frigate's guns, sent home an eighteen-pound shot every two or three minutes, every one of which appeared totell somewhere or other on the Frenchman's hull. We now ran away fromthem, fast, however, and by noon had lost sight of them altogether.But, when last seen, they were still hammering away at each other, thebrigantine and schooner appearing to be getting rather the best of it.
Once fairly out of sight of the combatants, we took in our studding-sails, and hauled our wind to the northward, in obedience to CaptainWinter's orders; and although I had a sharp look-out for the _Dolphin_and her consort maintained throughout the whole of the next day, I wasnot greatly surprised at their not heaving in sight. I had not muchmisgiving as to the ultimate result of the fight; but I believed thatthe brigantine at least would not get off without a rather severemauling, in which case the schooner would naturally stand by her untilshe could be again put into decent workable trim.
The fourth day after the fight dawned without bringing us a sight of ourconsorts, and I then began to feel rather uneasy; fearing that they hadprobably missed us, somehow, and that we should have to make our wayhome as best we could, unprotected; and to enter the English Channeljust then, unprotected, meant almost certain capture. For although theIndiaman was certainly armed, after a fashion, most of her guns were"quakers", while the others--ten in all--were only six-pounders; and itwould need the whole of her crew to work her only, under her awkwardjury-rig, with no one to spare for fighting. However, it was useless tomeet trouble half-way; so I determined to plod steadily onward andhomeward, hoping for the best. Hitherto, ever since the day of ourmeeting with the Frenchman, we had experienced moderate but steadybreezes from the northward and eastward, but on the day of which I amnow writing there were indications of an impending change. The windgradually died down to a light, fitful air that came in flaws, firstfrom one quarter of the compass and then from another, lasting but a fewminutes, with lengthening intervals of calm between them, while hugepiles of black, thunderous-looking cloud gradually heaped up along thenorthern horizon until they had overspread the whole sky. Thebarometer, too, exhibited a tendency to fall; but the decline was soslight that I was of opinion it meant no more than perhaps a sharpthunder-squall, particularly as there was no swell making; moreoverthere was a close, thundery feeling in the stagnating air, whichincreased as the day grew older. It was not, however, until about anhour after sunset, and just as we were sitting down to dinner in thecuddy, that the outbreak commenced; which it did with a sudden, blindingflash of lightning that darted out of the welkin almost immediatelyoverhead, instantly followed by a deafening crash of thunder that causedthe Indiaman to tremble to her keel; the sensation being not unlike whatone would expect to feel if the craft were being swept rapidly alongover a sandy bottom which she just touched.
This first flash was soon followed by another, not quite so near athand, then by another, and another, and another, until the lightning wasplaying all about us in such rapidly succeeding flashes that the wholeatmosphere was luminous with a continuous quivering of ghastly blue-green light, while the heavens resounded and the ship trembled with theunbroken crash and roll of the thunder. The spectacle was magnificent,but it was also rather trying to the nerves; the lightning being sodazzlingly vivid that it was positively blinding, while I had neverheard such awful thunder before, even in the West Indies. Several ofthe lady passengers, indeed, were so unnerved by the storm that theyretreated from the table and shut themselves into their cabins. Evenyoung Dumaresq, who had hitherto appeared to be irrepressible, wassubdued by the awful violence of the turmoil that raged around us. Hewas admitting something to this effect to me when he was cut short by ablaze of lightning that seemed to envelop the whole ship in a sheet offlame; there was a rending shock, violent enough to suggest that theIndiaman had come into violent collision with another vessel--althoughwe were fully aware that such a thing could not be, the weather at themoment being stark calm,--the hot air seemed to suddenly becomesurcharged with a strong sulphurous smell; and then came a peal ofthunder of so terrific and soul-subduing a character that it might havebeen the crash of a shattered world. For a brief space we were all sothoroughly overpowered, so awed and overwhelmed by this tremendousmanifestation of the Creator's power that we remained speechless andmotionless on our seats; then, as the echo of the thunder rumbled awayinto the distance, and our hearing gradually recovered from the shock ofthat last dreadful detonation, we became aware of loud shrieks of painout on deck, a brilliant light, a confused rush and scurry of feet, andshouts of:
"Fire! fire! The ship's been struck, and is all ablaze!"
At the cry, Captain Chesney, Dumaresq, and I sprang to our feet anddashed out on deck. Merciful Heaven! what an appalling scene met ourgaze! The foremast had been struck, and was cloven in twain from thejury topgallant-mast-head to the deck; it had also been set on fire, andthe blazing mass of timber, cordage, and canvas had fallen back upon themainmast, setting the sails and rigging of that mast also on fire; theflames blazing fiercely as they writhed and coiled about the spars anddarted hither and thither, like fiery serpents, through the mazes of thetarred and highly inflammable rigging. But that was by no means theworst of it. The lightning, upon reaching the deck, appeared to havedarted hither and thither in the most extraordinary way, for wepresently discovered that a considerable quantity of metal-work, such asiron bands, belaying-pins, bolts, the chain topsail-sheets, and othersuch matters had been either wholly or partially fused by the terrificheat of the electric discharge; while several silent, prostrate figureson the deck, scorched black, and with their clothing burnt from theirbodies, told that death had been busy in that awful instant when thebolt had struck the ship. But there was worse even than that; for therewere other figures crouched and huddled upon the deck, moaning piteouslywith pain; and one man stood erect, with his hands clasped over hiseyes, and his head thrown back
, shrieking to be taken below, for he hadbeen struck blind!
It was a dreadful moment; a moment of frightful peril, and of horrorindescribable; a moment when a man might well be excused if he foundhimself temporarily overmastered by the accumulated terrors of hissurroundings; but Chesney, the captain of the Indiaman, proved equal tothe occasion. For a single instant he stood aghast at the awfulspectacle that met his horrified gaze; then he pulled himself togetherand, instinctively assuming the command--as, under the circumstances, hewas perfectly justified in doing,--he made his voice ring from end toend of the ship as he ordered all hands to be called. The order,however, was scarcely necessary, for by this time the watch below--startled by the shock of the lightning-stroke, the shrieks of theinjured, and that indefinable conviction of something being wrong thatoccasionally seizes people upon the occurrence of some direcatastrophe--were tumbling up through the fore-scuttle with much of thehurry and confusion of panic, which was greatly increased when theybeheld the masts, sails, and rigging all ablaze. By voice and example,however, we presently contrived to steady them and get them undercontrol; and then, while one gang was told off to convey the injured menbelow--Dumaresq meanwhile hurrying away to summon the doctor, who wasbusily engaged in the cabin, endeavouring to soothe some of the ladypassengers, who were in hysterics,--the rest of the crew were set towork to rig the pumps, muster the buckets, and pass along the hose. Ina few minutes all was ready, the pumps were started, and the chief mate,with a line to which the end of the hose was bent, climbed up into themain-top, from which he began to play upon the fire. But by this timethe flames had acquired such a firm hold upon the spars, canvas, andheavily tarred rigging that the jet of water from the hose proved quiteincapable of producing any visible effect whatever upon them; and themate himself soon became so hemmed in by the fire that he was in thevery act of retreating to the deck when the flood-gates of heaven wereopened, and the rain suddenly pelted down in such overwhelming torrentsthat in less than five minutes the conflagration aloft was completelyextinguished; but not until the sails had been burnt to tinder, thespars badly charred, and most of the standing and running riggingdestroyed.
With the outburst of rain that had rendered us such excellent servicethe violence of the storm sensibly abated, perhaps because it had nearlyspent itself; at all events the lightning discharges now succeeded eachother at steadily lengthening intervals as the storm passed away to thesouthward, the thunder died down to a distant booming and rumbling, andfinally ceased altogether in about an hour and a half from thecommencement of the outbreak, while the lightning became a harmless,fitful quivering of vari-coloured light along the southern horizon.
But we were now in a most awkward predicament; a predicament that mighteasily become disastrous should it come on to blow, as was by no meansimpossible. For not only had three men been killed outright and eightmore or less seriously injured by that terrible lightning-stroke, butour sails were gone, our foremast destroyed, and our rigging so badlyinjured that our main and mizzen-masts stood practically unsupported;while we had too much reason to fear that the masts and spars themselveswere so seriously weakened by the play of the flames upon them as tohave become of little or no use to us. And, to crown all, it was now sopitch-dark that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to ascertainthe full extent of our disaster until daylight. Our situation, however,was too critical to admit of our waiting until then; it was of vitalimportance that immediate steps should be taken to secure what had beenleft to us; and, with this object, the carpenter and boatswain procuredlanterns with which they proceeded aloft to make a critical examinationinto the condition of the spars and rigging. They were thus engagedwhen the doctor, who had been down in the forecastle, attending to thehurts of the wounded men, appeared on deck, and, catching sight ofCaptain Chesney and myself standing together under the break of thepoop, beckoned us to follow him into his cabin.