CHAPTER THREE.
I JOIN THE "HERMIONE."
On the following morning, after an early breakfast, we set out forLondon; where we safely arrived on the evening of the same day. At theoutset of the journey my father appeared to be in tolerably goodspirits, conversing with much animation upon the subject--which he hadintroduced--of my future career. I explained to him that my greatdesire was, and had been for some time, to become a sailor; and that Ihoped he would be able to see his way to forward my views. Contrary, Imust confess, to my expectations, my father raised no objections,stipulating only that I should enter the naval service; and he promisedme that he would use his best efforts to secure my nomination as amidshipman; but he cautioned me that, as he scarcely knew to whom toapply for this service, I might have to wait some time for thegratification of my wishes. The conversation which settled this, to me,important matter took place in the forenoon, the subject being finallydisposed of and dismissed just as we alighted for luncheon. On theresumption of our journey the conversation was by no means so lively,and it distressed me much to observe that my father was graduallysinking back into the same strange moody state of mind which hadpossessed him on the previous day. I made several efforts to win himback to a more cheerful condition, but they were quite ineffectual; and,after receiving two or three increasingly impatient replies, I wascompelled to abandon the attempt. For several days the sameunsatisfactory state of affairs continued, my father and I only meetingat breakfast and dinner, and then exchanging scarcely half a dozen wordsbeyond the ordinary courtesies; I was therefore not only considerablysurprised but much gratified when he one morning informed me that he hadsucceeded in securing my appointment as midshipman on board the frigate_Hermione_, then about to sail for the West Indies. He added that therewas no time to lose if I wished to go out in her; and that it wouldconsequently be necessary for us to set out for Portsmouth on thefollowing morning. This promptitude was rather more than I hadbargained for; notwithstanding my father's very peculiar behaviour I wasmuch attached to him, and had hoped to have enjoyed at least a month ortwo of his society; moreover, I felt very anxious as to his peculiarcondition, and would fain have remained with him until I could have seensome improvement in his mental state; but, on my mentioning this, heseemed so singularly averse to any delay of my departure that I sawnothing for it but to acquiesce.
A week later I had joined my ship, and on November 18th, 1796, we werebowling down channel under double-reefed topsails.
We duly arrived at our destination--Port Royal, Jamaica--after a tediouspassage of over two months' duration; and, having landed our despatches,were ordered to cruise between Cape Tiburon and the Virgin Islands.
By this time I had pretty well settled down into my proper place, hadceased to be the butt of the other midshipmen; and, having a real likingfor my duties, had learned to perform them pretty satisfactorily. MrReid, the first lieutenant, had expressed the opinion that I "shapedwell." But, even before our arrival at Jamaica, I had made theunwelcome discovery that the _Hermione_ was by no means likely to provea comfortable ship. The vessel herself there was no fault whatever tofind with; she was a noble frigate of thirty-two guns, very fast, and asplendid sea-boat. But the skipper--Captain Pigot--was a regulartartar. He was a tall, powerful man, and would have been handsome butfor his somewhat bloated features. Even to his officers he wasarrogant, overbearing, and discourteous to an almost unbearable degree;to the men he was simply an unmitigated tyrant. There was certainlysome excuse for severity of discipline and occasional loss of temper,had it gone no further than that, for our crew was, as a whole, theworst I have ever had the misfortune to be associated with, several ofthem being foreigners, and of the remainder a good sprinkling were menwho had been _sentenced_ by the magistrates _to serve the King_.Possibly in other and more patient hands they might have developed intoa good smart body of men, and such it was doubtless the skipper's hopeand intention to make them. But he most unfortunately went the wrongway to work. Punishment was his doctrine; the "cat" was his sovereignremedy for all evils. He flogged almost daily, even for the mosttrivial offences, and our "black list" was probably the longest in thenavy for a ship of our size. As might be expected, with a captain ofthis kind, we poor unfortunate mids were constantly in trouble, and thegreater part of our time was spent at the mast-heads.
One afternoon--it was on the 22nd of March, 1797--being off Zaccheo, thelookout aloft reported that a brig and several smaller vessels were atanchor inshore between that island and the larger one of Porto Rico.The first lieutenant thereupon at once went aloft with his telescope,where he made a thorough examination of the strangers and theirposition; having completed which to his satisfaction, he returned to thedeck and made his report to Captain Pigot. The ship's head wasimmediately directed inshore; and the pinnace, first and second cutters,and gig were ordered away, under lieutenants Reid and Douglas, to go in,as soon as the ship had anchored, and cut out the vessels. Mr Reid,with whom, I think, I was somewhat of a favourite, kindly selected me totake charge of the gig; and young Courtenay, my especial chum, wasfortunate enough to be chosen by Mr Douglas to command the secondcutter. By Courtenay's advice, I procured from the armourer a ship'scutlass, to replace my almost useless dirk; and having carefully loadedand primed a very excellent pair of pistols with which my father hadpresented me, I thrust those useful articles into my belt and hastenedon deck, just as the frigate was rounding to preparatory to anchoring.A couple of minutes later the anchor was let go abreast of and scarcelyhalf a mile distant from a small battery, the guns of which commandedthe vessels we were about to attack, and the canvas was very smartlyclewed up and furled.
The men were still aloft when the battery, which had hoisted Spanishcolours, opened fire upon us, the first shot severing our larboard main-topgallant back-stay. This damage, slight as it was, sufficed toeffectually rouse Captain Pigot's hasty, irritable temper; and, hurryingthe men down from aloft, he ordered the larboard broadside to be manned,and the guns to be directed upon the audacious battery. A couple ofwell-directed broadsides sufficed to silence its fire, and the boatswere then immediately piped away.
"Mark my words, Lascelles," said Courtenay, as we trundled down theship's side together, "we are going to have a tough time of it withthose craft in there; three of them have boarding nettings triced up,and are evidently preparing to give us a warm reception. They look likeprivateers, and if so, I daresay they are full of men, who will haveample opportunity to bowl us over at their leisure whilst we are pullingin upon them. And we shall have no help from the frigate's guns, forthe rascals are beyond their reach."
"Now then, Courtenay, no croaking, young gentleman, if you please, or Ishall be under the painful necessity of sending you back on board, andtaking Mr Maxwell in your place," said Mr Douglas, who was followingus down the side, and who happened to overhear Courtenay's encouragingremarks.
"Oh, no, sir, you can't be so heartless as to do that; have someconsideration for my feelings," laughed Courtenay; and flinging himselfdown in the stern-sheets of the boat, he drew his cutlass, and affectedto be very cautiously feeling its edge, to the covert amusement of themen who happened to see him.
"It's a'most sharp enough for you to shave with, ain't it, sir?"demurely inquired the smart fore-topman, who was stroke-oar inCourtenay's boat, at which there was another grin; Courtenay's chinbeing as guiltless of hair as the back of a lady's hand, notwithstandingwhich it was whispered that he assiduously shaved every morning with hispenknife.
"Now, are we all ready, Douglas?" asked Mr Reid, as he stood in thestern-sheets of the pinnace, and ran his eye critically over the boats."Then, shove off; let fall and give way, lads. Lascelles and I willtackle the brig, Mr Douglas, whilst I must leave you and Mr Courtenayto give a good account of those two schooners which have hoisted theircolours. We will take matters quietly, so as to spare the men as muchas possible, until the shot begins to drop round us, when we must make adash and get on board as quickly as we can."
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Courtenay's assumption that the three vessels we had marked out forattack were privateers was speedily strengthened by the circumstancethat boats were seen to put off from the smaller craft--doubtless prizesof the others--conveying what were probably the prize-crews back totheir own ships, to assist in their defence. As we neared the land wemade out that the people in the battery were still standing to theirguns, and we momentarily expected them to open fire upon us; but theywere wise enough to refrain, evidently having already had a sufficientexperience of the frigate's broadsides, the destructive effects of whichbecame distinctly visible as we pulled past.
Upon our arriving abreast the battery, the brig and the two schooners,for which we were heading, having got springs upon their cables andhoisted French colours, brought their broadsides to bear upon us, andcommenced firing, whereupon we separated, taking "open order," as themarines say, so as to offer as small a mark as possible. It was thefirst time I had "smelt powder," and as the shot began to hum past us, Imust plead guilty to having at the outset experienced a certain amountof nervous trepidation. I had an idea that every shot would find itsmark, that "every bullet has its billet," and I momentarily expected tofeel the crushing blow which would tell me that I had been hit. But onwe swept, the shot flying close over our heads, or just past us oneither side, occasionally striking the water within such near proximityas to dash a little shower of spray right over the boat, and presentlythe musketry bullets came whistling about our ears, yet we remainedunscathed. This opened my eyes, and gave me a juster appreciation thanI had had before of the perils of warfare. I saw that it was by nomeans the necessarily deadly thing I had hitherto imagined it to be, andmy courage came back to me, my spirits rising momentarily higher inresponse to the increasing excitement of the occasion. For we were nowdashing forward upon our several quarries at racing speed, the menstraining at the oars until the stout ashen staves bent like willowwands, and the water buzzed and foamed and bubbled, hissing past us in aregular series of miniature whirlpools, whilst the boats seemed everynow and then as though they were about to be lifted clear out of thewater by the herculean efforts of their panting crews.
Once within musket-shot of the vessels, a very few minutes at this pacesufficed us to cover the remaining distance, when we dashed alongside--the first lieutenant ranging up on the brig's starboard quarter, whilstwe in the gig took her in the larboard fore-chains--and a stubborn hand-to-hand fight immediately commenced. The craft we had attacked provedto be full of people; and upon our attempting to board, we found thatthey had been divided into two distinct parties, one of which wassuccessfully opposing Mr Reid, whilst the other seemed determined atall costs to prevent my own little party from gaining a footing upon thedeck. Twice were we forced back into the boat, and I saw that two orthree of the men were bleeding from pike or bullet wounds. A third timewe made the attempt, and as I was scrambling up into the brig's channelsa Frenchman thrust his pike through a port at me. I grasped the weapon,and partly through my antagonist's efforts to wrench it away again, andpartly with the aid of a friendly push behind from one of our own lads,I suddenly found myself shot in through the port, and safely landed onthe brig's deck. Springing to my feet in an instant, I laid fiercelyabout me with my cutlass, and thus cleared a way for the gig's crew tofollow me. In less than a minute the gigs were in possession of thefore part of the deck, and so quickly was the thing done, and with suchgood-will did our lads lay about them, that the party opposed to usrecoiled in a sudden panic. Taking instant advantage of this, wecharged them with a wild hurrah, whereupon they fairly turned tail andfled before us, rushing helter-skelter in among the other party. Thewhole body of defenders being thus thrown into disorder, the firstlieutenant's party managed to make good their footing on deck; and then,after one desperate but ineffectual charge on the part of the Frenchmen,we had no further trouble, the defenders throwing down their weapons andcalling for quarter. This was, of course, at once accorded them, andthey were ordered below, the hatches being clapped over them, whilst theship was subjected to an overhaul. She proved to be both empty and old,besides being apparently a particularly leaky tub; she was consequentlyvalueless, and except for the purpose of destroying her, and thusputting a stop to her depredations, not worth the trouble of taking.This fact definitely ascertained, Mr Reid ordered the crew on deckagain; and, giving them five minutes in which to collect their personalbelongings, directed them to take the brig's boats and make the best oftheir way ashore. The crew thus got rid of, the vessel herself waseffectually set on fire in three places, and as soon as the flames hadtaken such a hold as to prevent all possibility of their extinction weleft her.
Meanwhile, the second lieutenant and Courtenay had been equallysuccessful with ourselves, each having captured one of the schoonerswithout very much difficulty. They proved, however, to be, like thebrig, very old and weak, having evidently been strained all to pieces inthe effort to make them perform services for which they were neverbuilt. They, therefore, were also set on fire. And as for theirprizes, they consisted of half a dozen wretched little dirty coasters,the largest of which could not have measured over sixty tons. Theircrews, we were informed, had been landed on various parts of the coast,so, their lawful owners not being there to take possession of them,these craft were likewise devoted to the flames. By the time that theFrenchmen had all been got rid of, and the little fleet effectually seton fire, it had fallen dark, and all hands being pretty well tired out,we made the best of our way back to the frigate. We had eight handswounded in this skirmish, all the wounds proving fortunately of a verytrifling character, so much so indeed that not one of the wounded wasput on the sick list for even a single day.
The _Hermione_ remained at anchor all night; and on the followingmorning Mr Douglas, with a boat's crew, went on shore, drove the smallgarrison out of the fort, and spiked and dismounted the guns.
Thus, harmlessly, so far at least as I was concerned, ended my firstbrush with the enemy; and though I never heard anything further of theaffair, I received the gratifying information that the first lieutenanthad spoken very highly of my conduct on the occasion when making hisreport to Captain Pigot.