Chapter Thirty Six.

Chapter Thirty Six.Fresh successes and perils.Our hero had now got the first step up the ratlines as an officer. As theLily’srepairs were likely to occupy some time, Captain Saltwell had, by the admiral’s permission, fitted out one of the prizes, a fine and fast little schooner, to which the name of theActivehad been given. He intended to man her from his own and theAriel’screws, and to send her cruising in search of the piratical craft which, under the guise of privateers, in vast numbers infested those seas.The admiral had intended to send aprotégéof his own in charge of the vessel, but that officer was taken ill, and both Lieutenant Horrocks and the first lieutenant of theArielwere engaged in attending to their respective ships.Rayner was sent for, and the command was offered to him. He accepted it with delight, and begged that Crofton might be allowed to accompany him. He took also Jack and Brown, and though he did not ask for Tom Fletcher, Tom was sent among the men drafted for the purpose.The schooner was furnished with four carronades and two long six-pounders. Her crew mustered twenty men.“We can dare and do anything in such a craft as this,” he exclaimed, enthusiastically, as he and Oliver were walking the deck together, while the schooner, under all sail, was steering a course for San Domingo.Before long they both dared and did several gallant actions. Just as they had sighted the land they fell in with three piratical feluccas, either one of which was a match for theActive.One, after a desperate resistance, was captured, another was sunk, and the third, while the British crew were securing their first prize, and endeavouring to save the drowning men, effected her escape. She was, however, shortly afterwards taken, and on the return of theActiveto Port Royal with her prizes, the thanks of the merchants of Jamaica were offered to Lieutenant Rayner for the service he had rendered to commerce.The admiral the next day sent for Rayner, and received him with more cordiality than is generally awarded to junior officers. Having listened to his report, and commended him for his gallantry.“How soon will you be ready to sail again?” he asked.“Directly our damages have been repaired, and they won’t take long, sir,” was the answer.“That is right. I have received information that a desperate fellow in command of a craft somewhat larger than theActivehas been pillaging vessels of all nations, and it will be a feather in your cap if you take her.”“I’ll do my best, sir,” answered Rayner.In two days theActivewas again at sea. Within a fortnight, after a long chase, she had fought and driven on shore a large schooner, got her off again, and recaptured two of her prizes, returning in triumph with all three to Jamaica.He and Oliver were highly complimented on their success. The admiral, who was still in the harbour, invited them to dine on board the flagship.“Mr Horrocks has just obtained his promotion, and you are thus, Mr Rayner, first lieutenant of theLily; and, Mr Crofton, I intend to give you an acting order as second lieutenant, and I hope that before long you will be confirmed in your rank.”This was good news. With happy hearts the two friends went on board theLily, which was now ready for sea. They found Lieutenant Horrocks packing up, ready to go on board a frigate just sailing for England.“I expect to enjoy a few weeks’ hunting before I get a ship, and when I do get one I shall be very glad to have you, Rayner, with me, should you be unemployed,” he said as they parted.Rayner would have preferred retaining the command of theActive, but an officer older than himself was appointed to her, and he could not complain.Once more theLilywas at sea. She cruised for some months, during which she captured several prizes, and cut out two others in a very gallant manner under the guns of a strong battery. Oliver soon afterwards had the satisfaction of being confirmed in his rank as lieutenant.Though Commander Saltwell made honourable mention of our hero on each occasion, he received no further recognition of his services. “I have no business to complain,” he observed. “My position is only that of many others who have done more than I have, but I should like to be wearing an epaulette on my right shoulder when we get home, and obtain a command with you, Oliver, as my first lieutenant.”With this exception, Rayner never alluded to the subject.TheLily’scruise was nearly up. She had lately sent away in her prizes her master and several petty officers and seamen, so that out of her establishment she could scarcely muster more than a hundred men.It was night, a light breeze blowing, the island of Desirade bearing south-east by south, distant six or seven leagues. The two lieutenants had been talking of home. In a few months they expected to be at Plymouth, and Rayner’s thoughts had been occupied, as they often were, with his brother officer’s sweet sister, Mary Crofton.Rayner had just come on deck to relieve Oliver, who had the middle watch. He had been pacing the deck, waiting for daylight, to commence the morning operation of washing decks, and was looking to windward, when, as the light slowly increased, at some little distance off he made out the dim outline of a large ship. Whether she was a friend or foe he could not determine; if the latter, the position of theLilywas critical in the extreme. He instantly sent the midshipman of the watch to arouse the commander, who hurried on deck. After watching the stranger for a few seconds, they both came to the conclusion that she was a frigate, and, as they knew of no English vessel of her class likely to be thereabouts, that she was French.“Turn the hands up and make sail,” said the commander. “We shall probably have to fight, but when the odds are so decidedly against us, it is my duty to avoid an action if I can.”The crew at the boatswain’s summons came tumbling up from below. All sail was immediately made, and theLily’shead directed to the north-west. She was seen, however, and quickly followed by the frigate, the freshening breeze giving an advantage to the larger vessel, which, having the weather-gauge, and sailing remarkably fast rapidly approached.“We’ve caught a Tartar at last!” exclaimed Tom. “The sooner we go below and put on our best clothes he better; we shall be taken aboard her before the day’s much older.”“How do you dare to say that!” cried Jack. “Look up there, you see our flag flying aloft, and I for one would sooner have our tight little craft sent to the bottom than be ordered to strike it. Our skipper hasn’t given in yet, and if he falls our first lieutenant will fight the ship as long as he has a plank to stand on.”Some of the crew, however, appeared to side with Tom, and showed an inclination to desert their guns.Rayner and Oliver went among them and cheered them up.“Lads!” cried the commander, who had observed some of them wavering as they gazed with looks of alarm at their powerful enemy, “most of you have sailed in theLilywith me since she was first commissioned. You know that I have never exposed your lives unnecessarily, and that we have always succeeded in whatever we have undertaken. You have gained a name for yourselves and our ship, and I hope you will not sully that name by showing the white feather. Although yonder ship is twice as big as we are, still we must try to beat her off, and it will not be my fault if we don’t.”The men cheered heartily, and went to their guns. Every preparation for battle being made—to the surprise of her own crew, and much more so to that of the Frenchman—the commandant ordered her to be hove-to.“Don’t fire a shot until I tell you, lads!” he cried out.Many looked at the stranger with anxious eyes; the flag of France was flying from her peak. Eighteen guns grinned out from her ports on either side—twice the number of those carried by theLily, and of a far heavier calibre. As she got within range she opened fire, her shot flying through theLily’ssails, cutting her rigging and injuring several of her spars, but her guns were so elevated that not a man was hit on deck.“Steady, lads! We must wait until she gets near enough to make every one of our guns tell!” cried the commander.Even when going into action a British seaman often indulges in jokes, but on this occasion every man maintained a grim silence.“Now, lads!” shouted the commander, “give it them!”At the short distance the enemy now was from them the broadside told with terrible effect, the shot crashing through her ports and sides, while the shrieks and groans of the wounded were clearly distinguished from theLily’sdeck.The British crew, working with redoubled energy, hauled their guns in and out, and fired with wonderful rapidity, truly tossing them about as if they had been playthings. The French also fired, but far more slowly, sending hardly one shot to theLily’stwo. The officers went about the deck encouraging the men and laying hold of the tackles to assist them in their labours. At any moment a well-directed broadside from the frigate might leave the corvette a mere wreck on the ocean, or send her to the bottom. Every man on board knew this; but while their officers kept their flag flying at the peak, they were ready to work their guns and struggle to the last.An hour and a half had passed since the French frigate had opened her fire, and still the little sloop held out. Commander Saltwell’s great object was to avoid being run down or boarded. This he managed to do by skilful manoeuvring. At length Rayner, through his glass, observed the crew of the frigate running about her deck as if in considerable confusion. Once more theLilyfired, but what was the astonishment of the British seamen to see her haul her main-tack aboard and begin to make all sail, putting her head to the northward. To follow was impossible, as theLilyhad every brace and bowline, all her after backstays, several of her lower shrouds, and other parts of her rigging, shot away.Her sails were also torn, her mainmast and main-topsail yard and foreyard a good deal injured. Yet though she had received these serious damages aloft, strange to say one man alone of her crew had been slightly injured.“We must repair damages, lads, and then go and look after the enemy,” cried the commander.The guns being run in and secured, every officer, man, and boy set to work, the commander with the rest. In a wonderfully short time the standing rigging was knotted or spliced, fresh running rigging rove, new sails bent, and theLilywas standing in the direction in which her late antagonist had some time before disappeared.Not long after, however, the man at the mast-head discovered a large ship on the lee beam in the direction of Guadaloupe. TheLilyat once steered towards the stranger, when in the afternoon she came up with a vessel under French colours, which endeavoured to escape. Several shots were fired. The stranger sailed on.“She looks like an English ship,” observed the commander. “It will never do to let her get away. See what you can do, Crofton.”Oliver went forward and trained the foremost gun. He fired, and down came the stranger’s main-topsail yard. On this she hauled down her colours and hove-to.She proved to be, as the commander had supposed, a large English merchantman, a prize to the French frigate. The prisoners were at once removed, and the second lieutenant sent with a prize crew on board, when theLilytook her in tow. The wind was light, but a heavy swell sent the prize several times almost aboard the corvette, which was at length compelled to cast her adrift.The next morning the look-out from the mast-head of theLilyannounced a sail on the lee bow. In a short time, daylight increasing, she was seen to be a frigate, and no doubt her late antagonist. Captain Saltwell at once bore down on her, making a signal to the prize to do so likewise, and at the same time running up several signals as if speaking another ship to windward.On this the frigate, making all sail, stood away, and as she had the heels both of theLilyand her prize, was soon out of sight.Captain Saltwell, satisfied, as he had every reason to be, with his achievement, ordered the course to be shared for Jamaica.On his arrival he found his commission as post-captain waiting for him. He had won it by constant and hard service.“As I cannot reward you for the gallant way in which you beat off the French frigate and recaptured the merchant ship worth several thousand pounds, I must see what can be done for your first lieutenant,” said the admiral. “I will apply for his promotion, and in the meantime will give him an acting order to command theLily, and to take her home.”Captain Saltwell, thanking the admiral, expressed his intention to take a passage in his old ship.The news quickly spread fore and aft that theLilywas to be sent home. Loud cheers rose from many a stout throat, the invalids, of which there were not a few, joining in the chorus from below. One-third of those who had come out had either fallen fighting in the many actions in which she had been engaged, or, struck down by yellow fever, lay in the graveyard of Port Royal. No time was lost in getting fresh water and provisions on board.Never did crew work with more good-will than they did on this occasion.TheLilywas soon ready for sea, and with a fair breeze ran out of Port Royal harbour. The war was still raging as furiously as ever, and the officers and crew well knew that before they could reach the shores of old England they might have another battle or two to fight. Perhaps, in their heart of hearts, they would have preferred, for once in a way, a peaceful voyage. A look-out, however, was kept, but the Atlantic was crossed, and the chops of the Channel reached, without meeting a foe. Here theLilyencountered a strong easterly gale, and in vain for many days endeavoured to beat up to her destination.Having sighted Scilly, she was standing off the land, from which she was at a considerable distance under close-reefed topsails, when the wind suddenly dropped, and soon afterwards shifted to the southwards. The helm was put down, and the crew flew aloft to shake out the reefs.They were thus engaged when a sail was seen to the south-east. TheLily, standing on the opposite tack, rapidly neared her. Every glass on board was directed towards the stranger. She was a ship apparently of much the same size as theLily, but whether an English cruiser or an enemy it was difficult to determine.TheLily, by keeping away, might have weathered the Lizard and avoided her. Such an idea did not enter the young commander’s head. On the contrary, he kept the ship close to the wind, so that by again going about he might prevent the stranger from passing him.His glass had never been off her. Suddenly he exclaimed, “Hurrah! she’s French. I caught sight of her flag as she luffed up! Hands about ship! We’ll fight her, Captain Saltwell?” he added, turning to his former commander.“No doubt about it,” said Captain Saltwell, “I should if I were in your place.”The drum beat to quarters, the crew hurried to their stations, and every preparation was made for the expectedbattle. The stranger, after standing on some way, hauled up, so as to keep the weather-gauge, and, at the same time; to draw theLilyfarther away from the English coast.Once more the latter tacked, and passing under the stranger’s stern, poured in a raking broadside.The stranger, coming about, returned the fire; but as the shot flew from her guns down came her mizenmast, and she fell off before the wind.The crew of theLilycheered, and running in their guns, quickly fired a third broadside.The two ships now ran on side by side, Rayner having shortened sail so as to avoid shooting ahead of his antagonist. Notwithstanding the loss of their mizenmast, the Frenchmen fought with spirit for some time, but their fire at length began to slacken, while the British seamen continued to work their guns with the same energy as at first.Rayner now ordered the mizen-topsail and spanker to be set, and directed the crews of the starboard guns to refrain from firing until he should give the word; then putting down the helm, he suddenly luffed up, and stood across the bows of his opponent.“Fire!” he cried; and gun after gun was fired in succession, the shot telling with fearful effect as they swept the deck of the French ship. The latter put down her helm in a vain attempt to avoid being raked, but her bowsprit catching in the mizen rigging of theLily, Oliver, calling to Jack and several other men, securely lashed it there, in spite of the fire which the marines from the enemy’s forecastle opened on him and his companions.The bullets from the Frenchmen’s muskets came rattling sharply on board. Two of the seamen were hit, and just at the same moment their young commander was seen to fall. A midshipman and the purser, who were standing by his side, caught him in their arms.

Our hero had now got the first step up the ratlines as an officer. As theLily’srepairs were likely to occupy some time, Captain Saltwell had, by the admiral’s permission, fitted out one of the prizes, a fine and fast little schooner, to which the name of theActivehad been given. He intended to man her from his own and theAriel’screws, and to send her cruising in search of the piratical craft which, under the guise of privateers, in vast numbers infested those seas.

The admiral had intended to send aprotégéof his own in charge of the vessel, but that officer was taken ill, and both Lieutenant Horrocks and the first lieutenant of theArielwere engaged in attending to their respective ships.

Rayner was sent for, and the command was offered to him. He accepted it with delight, and begged that Crofton might be allowed to accompany him. He took also Jack and Brown, and though he did not ask for Tom Fletcher, Tom was sent among the men drafted for the purpose.

The schooner was furnished with four carronades and two long six-pounders. Her crew mustered twenty men.

“We can dare and do anything in such a craft as this,” he exclaimed, enthusiastically, as he and Oliver were walking the deck together, while the schooner, under all sail, was steering a course for San Domingo.

Before long they both dared and did several gallant actions. Just as they had sighted the land they fell in with three piratical feluccas, either one of which was a match for theActive.

One, after a desperate resistance, was captured, another was sunk, and the third, while the British crew were securing their first prize, and endeavouring to save the drowning men, effected her escape. She was, however, shortly afterwards taken, and on the return of theActiveto Port Royal with her prizes, the thanks of the merchants of Jamaica were offered to Lieutenant Rayner for the service he had rendered to commerce.

The admiral the next day sent for Rayner, and received him with more cordiality than is generally awarded to junior officers. Having listened to his report, and commended him for his gallantry.

“How soon will you be ready to sail again?” he asked.

“Directly our damages have been repaired, and they won’t take long, sir,” was the answer.

“That is right. I have received information that a desperate fellow in command of a craft somewhat larger than theActivehas been pillaging vessels of all nations, and it will be a feather in your cap if you take her.”

“I’ll do my best, sir,” answered Rayner.

In two days theActivewas again at sea. Within a fortnight, after a long chase, she had fought and driven on shore a large schooner, got her off again, and recaptured two of her prizes, returning in triumph with all three to Jamaica.

He and Oliver were highly complimented on their success. The admiral, who was still in the harbour, invited them to dine on board the flagship.

“Mr Horrocks has just obtained his promotion, and you are thus, Mr Rayner, first lieutenant of theLily; and, Mr Crofton, I intend to give you an acting order as second lieutenant, and I hope that before long you will be confirmed in your rank.”

This was good news. With happy hearts the two friends went on board theLily, which was now ready for sea. They found Lieutenant Horrocks packing up, ready to go on board a frigate just sailing for England.

“I expect to enjoy a few weeks’ hunting before I get a ship, and when I do get one I shall be very glad to have you, Rayner, with me, should you be unemployed,” he said as they parted.

Rayner would have preferred retaining the command of theActive, but an officer older than himself was appointed to her, and he could not complain.

Once more theLilywas at sea. She cruised for some months, during which she captured several prizes, and cut out two others in a very gallant manner under the guns of a strong battery. Oliver soon afterwards had the satisfaction of being confirmed in his rank as lieutenant.

Though Commander Saltwell made honourable mention of our hero on each occasion, he received no further recognition of his services. “I have no business to complain,” he observed. “My position is only that of many others who have done more than I have, but I should like to be wearing an epaulette on my right shoulder when we get home, and obtain a command with you, Oliver, as my first lieutenant.”

With this exception, Rayner never alluded to the subject.

TheLily’scruise was nearly up. She had lately sent away in her prizes her master and several petty officers and seamen, so that out of her establishment she could scarcely muster more than a hundred men.

It was night, a light breeze blowing, the island of Desirade bearing south-east by south, distant six or seven leagues. The two lieutenants had been talking of home. In a few months they expected to be at Plymouth, and Rayner’s thoughts had been occupied, as they often were, with his brother officer’s sweet sister, Mary Crofton.

Rayner had just come on deck to relieve Oliver, who had the middle watch. He had been pacing the deck, waiting for daylight, to commence the morning operation of washing decks, and was looking to windward, when, as the light slowly increased, at some little distance off he made out the dim outline of a large ship. Whether she was a friend or foe he could not determine; if the latter, the position of theLilywas critical in the extreme. He instantly sent the midshipman of the watch to arouse the commander, who hurried on deck. After watching the stranger for a few seconds, they both came to the conclusion that she was a frigate, and, as they knew of no English vessel of her class likely to be thereabouts, that she was French.

“Turn the hands up and make sail,” said the commander. “We shall probably have to fight, but when the odds are so decidedly against us, it is my duty to avoid an action if I can.”

The crew at the boatswain’s summons came tumbling up from below. All sail was immediately made, and theLily’shead directed to the north-west. She was seen, however, and quickly followed by the frigate, the freshening breeze giving an advantage to the larger vessel, which, having the weather-gauge, and sailing remarkably fast rapidly approached.

“We’ve caught a Tartar at last!” exclaimed Tom. “The sooner we go below and put on our best clothes he better; we shall be taken aboard her before the day’s much older.”

“How do you dare to say that!” cried Jack. “Look up there, you see our flag flying aloft, and I for one would sooner have our tight little craft sent to the bottom than be ordered to strike it. Our skipper hasn’t given in yet, and if he falls our first lieutenant will fight the ship as long as he has a plank to stand on.”

Some of the crew, however, appeared to side with Tom, and showed an inclination to desert their guns.

Rayner and Oliver went among them and cheered them up.

“Lads!” cried the commander, who had observed some of them wavering as they gazed with looks of alarm at their powerful enemy, “most of you have sailed in theLilywith me since she was first commissioned. You know that I have never exposed your lives unnecessarily, and that we have always succeeded in whatever we have undertaken. You have gained a name for yourselves and our ship, and I hope you will not sully that name by showing the white feather. Although yonder ship is twice as big as we are, still we must try to beat her off, and it will not be my fault if we don’t.”

The men cheered heartily, and went to their guns. Every preparation for battle being made—to the surprise of her own crew, and much more so to that of the Frenchman—the commandant ordered her to be hove-to.

“Don’t fire a shot until I tell you, lads!” he cried out.

Many looked at the stranger with anxious eyes; the flag of France was flying from her peak. Eighteen guns grinned out from her ports on either side—twice the number of those carried by theLily, and of a far heavier calibre. As she got within range she opened fire, her shot flying through theLily’ssails, cutting her rigging and injuring several of her spars, but her guns were so elevated that not a man was hit on deck.

“Steady, lads! We must wait until she gets near enough to make every one of our guns tell!” cried the commander.

Even when going into action a British seaman often indulges in jokes, but on this occasion every man maintained a grim silence.

“Now, lads!” shouted the commander, “give it them!”

At the short distance the enemy now was from them the broadside told with terrible effect, the shot crashing through her ports and sides, while the shrieks and groans of the wounded were clearly distinguished from theLily’sdeck.

The British crew, working with redoubled energy, hauled their guns in and out, and fired with wonderful rapidity, truly tossing them about as if they had been playthings. The French also fired, but far more slowly, sending hardly one shot to theLily’stwo. The officers went about the deck encouraging the men and laying hold of the tackles to assist them in their labours. At any moment a well-directed broadside from the frigate might leave the corvette a mere wreck on the ocean, or send her to the bottom. Every man on board knew this; but while their officers kept their flag flying at the peak, they were ready to work their guns and struggle to the last.

An hour and a half had passed since the French frigate had opened her fire, and still the little sloop held out. Commander Saltwell’s great object was to avoid being run down or boarded. This he managed to do by skilful manoeuvring. At length Rayner, through his glass, observed the crew of the frigate running about her deck as if in considerable confusion. Once more theLilyfired, but what was the astonishment of the British seamen to see her haul her main-tack aboard and begin to make all sail, putting her head to the northward. To follow was impossible, as theLilyhad every brace and bowline, all her after backstays, several of her lower shrouds, and other parts of her rigging, shot away.

Her sails were also torn, her mainmast and main-topsail yard and foreyard a good deal injured. Yet though she had received these serious damages aloft, strange to say one man alone of her crew had been slightly injured.

“We must repair damages, lads, and then go and look after the enemy,” cried the commander.

The guns being run in and secured, every officer, man, and boy set to work, the commander with the rest. In a wonderfully short time the standing rigging was knotted or spliced, fresh running rigging rove, new sails bent, and theLilywas standing in the direction in which her late antagonist had some time before disappeared.

Not long after, however, the man at the mast-head discovered a large ship on the lee beam in the direction of Guadaloupe. TheLilyat once steered towards the stranger, when in the afternoon she came up with a vessel under French colours, which endeavoured to escape. Several shots were fired. The stranger sailed on.

“She looks like an English ship,” observed the commander. “It will never do to let her get away. See what you can do, Crofton.”

Oliver went forward and trained the foremost gun. He fired, and down came the stranger’s main-topsail yard. On this she hauled down her colours and hove-to.

She proved to be, as the commander had supposed, a large English merchantman, a prize to the French frigate. The prisoners were at once removed, and the second lieutenant sent with a prize crew on board, when theLilytook her in tow. The wind was light, but a heavy swell sent the prize several times almost aboard the corvette, which was at length compelled to cast her adrift.

The next morning the look-out from the mast-head of theLilyannounced a sail on the lee bow. In a short time, daylight increasing, she was seen to be a frigate, and no doubt her late antagonist. Captain Saltwell at once bore down on her, making a signal to the prize to do so likewise, and at the same time running up several signals as if speaking another ship to windward.

On this the frigate, making all sail, stood away, and as she had the heels both of theLilyand her prize, was soon out of sight.

Captain Saltwell, satisfied, as he had every reason to be, with his achievement, ordered the course to be shared for Jamaica.

On his arrival he found his commission as post-captain waiting for him. He had won it by constant and hard service.

“As I cannot reward you for the gallant way in which you beat off the French frigate and recaptured the merchant ship worth several thousand pounds, I must see what can be done for your first lieutenant,” said the admiral. “I will apply for his promotion, and in the meantime will give him an acting order to command theLily, and to take her home.”

Captain Saltwell, thanking the admiral, expressed his intention to take a passage in his old ship.

The news quickly spread fore and aft that theLilywas to be sent home. Loud cheers rose from many a stout throat, the invalids, of which there were not a few, joining in the chorus from below. One-third of those who had come out had either fallen fighting in the many actions in which she had been engaged, or, struck down by yellow fever, lay in the graveyard of Port Royal. No time was lost in getting fresh water and provisions on board.

Never did crew work with more good-will than they did on this occasion.

TheLilywas soon ready for sea, and with a fair breeze ran out of Port Royal harbour. The war was still raging as furiously as ever, and the officers and crew well knew that before they could reach the shores of old England they might have another battle or two to fight. Perhaps, in their heart of hearts, they would have preferred, for once in a way, a peaceful voyage. A look-out, however, was kept, but the Atlantic was crossed, and the chops of the Channel reached, without meeting a foe. Here theLilyencountered a strong easterly gale, and in vain for many days endeavoured to beat up to her destination.

Having sighted Scilly, she was standing off the land, from which she was at a considerable distance under close-reefed topsails, when the wind suddenly dropped, and soon afterwards shifted to the southwards. The helm was put down, and the crew flew aloft to shake out the reefs.

They were thus engaged when a sail was seen to the south-east. TheLily, standing on the opposite tack, rapidly neared her. Every glass on board was directed towards the stranger. She was a ship apparently of much the same size as theLily, but whether an English cruiser or an enemy it was difficult to determine.

TheLily, by keeping away, might have weathered the Lizard and avoided her. Such an idea did not enter the young commander’s head. On the contrary, he kept the ship close to the wind, so that by again going about he might prevent the stranger from passing him.

His glass had never been off her. Suddenly he exclaimed, “Hurrah! she’s French. I caught sight of her flag as she luffed up! Hands about ship! We’ll fight her, Captain Saltwell?” he added, turning to his former commander.

“No doubt about it,” said Captain Saltwell, “I should if I were in your place.”

The drum beat to quarters, the crew hurried to their stations, and every preparation was made for the expectedbattle. The stranger, after standing on some way, hauled up, so as to keep the weather-gauge, and, at the same time; to draw theLilyfarther away from the English coast.

Once more the latter tacked, and passing under the stranger’s stern, poured in a raking broadside.

The stranger, coming about, returned the fire; but as the shot flew from her guns down came her mizenmast, and she fell off before the wind.

The crew of theLilycheered, and running in their guns, quickly fired a third broadside.

The two ships now ran on side by side, Rayner having shortened sail so as to avoid shooting ahead of his antagonist. Notwithstanding the loss of their mizenmast, the Frenchmen fought with spirit for some time, but their fire at length began to slacken, while the British seamen continued to work their guns with the same energy as at first.

Rayner now ordered the mizen-topsail and spanker to be set, and directed the crews of the starboard guns to refrain from firing until he should give the word; then putting down the helm, he suddenly luffed up, and stood across the bows of his opponent.

“Fire!” he cried; and gun after gun was fired in succession, the shot telling with fearful effect as they swept the deck of the French ship. The latter put down her helm in a vain attempt to avoid being raked, but her bowsprit catching in the mizen rigging of theLily, Oliver, calling to Jack and several other men, securely lashed it there, in spite of the fire which the marines from the enemy’s forecastle opened on him and his companions.

The bullets from the Frenchmen’s muskets came rattling sharply on board. Two of the seamen were hit, and just at the same moment their young commander was seen to fall. A midshipman and the purser, who were standing by his side, caught him in their arms.

Chapter Thirty Seven.Conclusion.“Keep at it, my lads, until she strikes!” cried the young commander, as he fell.Captain Saltwell had meantime, seeing what would occur, ordered two guns to be run out at the after ports. Scarcely had they been fired when an officer, springing into the forecastle of the French ship, waved his hat and shouted that they had struck.Oliver and Jack, on looking round for Rayner, and seeing him bleeding on the deck, forgetful of everything else, sprang aft to his side. At that moment the crew raised a cheer of victory; Rayner feebly attempted to join in it. He was carried below. With anxious hearts his officers and crew waited to hear the report of the surgeon.It was Oliver’s duty to go on board and take possession of the prize. Unwillingly he left his friend’s side. Of theLily’screw five had been killed, and many more beside her commander, wounded. But Oliver saw, as he stepped on board the prize, how much more severely she had suffered. Everywhere lay dead and dying men. How dread and terrible a fact is war! A lieutenant, coming forward, presented his sword.“My captain lies there,” he said, pointing to a form covered by a flag. “The second lieutenant is wounded below; three other officers are among the dead. We did not yield while we had a chance of victory.”“Yours is a brave nation, and I must compliment you on the gallant way in which you fought your ship,” answered Oliver, in the best French he could command.To lose no time, the prisoners were removed, the prize taken in tow, and all sail made for Plymouth.At length the surgeon come on deck.“The commander will do well, I trust,” he said; “but I shall be glad to get him on shore as soon as possible. As soon as I had extracted the bullet, he sent me off to look after the other wounded men, saying that they wanted my care as well as he did.”The crew on this gave a suppressed cheer. It would have been louder and more prolonged, but they were afraid of disturbing the commander and the other wounded men.All were proud of their achievement as they sailed up Plymouth Sound with their prize in tow, but no one felt prouder than Jack Peek.“I knew Captain would do something as soon as he had the chance,” he had remarked to Brown, who greatly shared his feelings.Rayner was at once removed to the hospital. As he was unable to hold a pen, Captain Saltwell wrote the despatches, taking care to give due credit to the active commander of the corvette.A short time afterwards Oliver carried to the hospital—to which he had never failed to pay a daily visit—an official-looking letter.“Ah! that will do him more good than my doctoring,” said the surgeon, to whom he showed it.Oliver opened it at Rayner’s request. It was from the Lords of the Admiralty, confirming him in his rank, and appointing him to command theUrania(the English name given to the prize), which, being a fine new corvette, a hundred tons larger than theLily, had been bought into the service.“It will take some time to refit her, and you will, I hope, be about again before she is ready for sea,” said Oliver. “I have brought a message from my mother, who begs, as soon as you are ready to be removed, that you will come and stay at our house. She is a good nurse, and you will enjoy more country air than you can here.”Rayner very gladly accepted the invitation. Neither Oliver nor Mrs Crofton had thought about the result, but before many weeks were over Commander William Rayner was engaged to marry Mary Crofton, who had given him as loving and gentle a heart as ever beat in woman’s bosom. He told her how often he had talked about her when away at sea, and how often he had thought of her, although he had scarcely dared to hope that she would marry one who had been a London street boy and powder monkey.“I love you, my dear Bill, for what you are, for being noble, true, and brave, and such you were when you were a powder monkey, as you call it, although you might not have discovered those qualities in yourself.”He was now well able to marry, for his agents had in their hands several thousand pounds of prize-money, and he might reasonably hope to obtain much more before the war was over.Our hero was well enough to assume the command of theUraniaby the time she was ready for sea. Oliver, as his first lieutenant, had been busily engaged in obtaining hands, and had secured many of theLily’sformer crew. The commander had some time before sent for Jack Peek, and urged him to prepare himself for obtaining a boatswain’s warrant.“Thank you, sir,” said Jack; “but, you see, to get it I must read and write, and that’s what I never could tackle. I have tried pothooks and hangers, but my fingers get all cramped up, and the pen splits open, and I have to let it drop, and make a great big splash of ink on the paper; and as for reading, I’ve tried that too. I know all the letters when I see them, but I can’t manage to put them together in the right fashion, and never could get beyond a, b, ab, b, o, bo. I might in time, if I was to stick to it, I know, and I’ll try when we are at sea if I can get a messmate to teach me. But while you’re afloat I’d rather be your coxswain, if you’ll give me that rating; then I can always be with you, and, mayhap, render you some service, which is just the thing I should be proud of doing. Now, sir, there’s Tom Fletcher; he’s got plenty of learning, and he ought to be a good seaman by this time. If you were to recommend him to be either a gunner or a boatswain, he’d pass fast enough.”Rayner shook his head. “I should be happy to serve Tom Fletcher for old acquaintance’ sake, but I fear that although he may have the learning, as you say, he has not got the moral qualities necessary to make a good warrant officer. However, send him to me, and I’ll have a talk with him on the subject.”Jack promised to look after Tom, whom he had not seen since theLilywas paid off. He returned in a few days, saying that he had long searched for him in vain, until at length he had found him in a low house in the lowest of the Plymouth slums, his prize-money, to the amount of nearly a hundred pounds, all gone, and he himself so drunk that he could not understand the message Jack brought him.“I am truly sorry to hear it,” said Rayner. “But you must watch him and try to get him on board. If he is cast adrift he must inevitably be lost, but we will try what we can do to reform him.”“I will gladly do my best, sir,” answered Jack. When theUraniawas nearly ready for sea, Jack did contrive to get Tom aboard of her, but the commander’s good intentions were frustrated, for before the ship sailed he deserted with could not again be discovered.Of this Rayner was thankful, as he must of necessity have done what would have gone greatly against his feelings—ordered Tom a flogging.Honest Brown, however, who had gone to school as soon as theLilywas paid off; received what he well deserved, his warrant as boatswain of the corvette he had helped to win. He had shortly to go to sea in a dashing frigate, and from that he was transferred to a seventy-four, in which he was engaged in several of England’s greatest battles.Some years passed, when after paying off theUrania, as Rayner was passing along a street in Exeter, he heard a stentorian voice singing a verse of a sea ditty. The singer, dressed as a seaman, carried on his head the model of a full-rigged ship, which he rocked to and fro, keeping time to the tune. He had two wooden legs in the shape of mopsticks, and was supporting himself with a crutch, while with the hand at liberty he held out a battered hat to receive the contributions of his audience. Occasionally, when numbers gathered round to listen to him, he exchanged his song for a yarn. As Rayner approached he was saying, “This is the way our government treats our brave seamen. Here was I fighting nobly for my king and country, when a Frenchman’s shot spoilt both my legs, and I was left to stump off as best I could on these here timber toes without a shiner in my pocket, robbed of all my hard-earned prize-money. But you good people will, I know, be kind to poor Jack, and fill this here hat of his with coppers to give him a crust of bread and a sup to comfort his old heart.“‘Come all ye jolly sailors bold,Whose hearts are cast in honour’s mould,While England’s glory I unfold,Huzza to theArethusa!’”Suddenly he recognised Captain Rayner, who, from being dressed in plain clothes, he had not at first observed. He started, and then began, with an impudent leer, “Now, mates, I’ll spin you another yarn about an English captain who now holds his head mighty high, and would not condescend to speak to poor Jack if he was to meet him. We was powder-monkeys together, that captain and I. But luck is everything. He went up, and I went down. That’s the way at sea. If all men had their deserts I should be where he is, in command of a fine frigate, in a fair way of becoming an admiral. But it’s no use complaining, and so I’ll sing on—“‘The famedBelle Poulestraight ahead did lie,TheArethusaseemed to fly,Not a brace, or a tack, or a sheet did we slackOn board of theArethusa.’”“No, no, mate, you was not aboard theArethusa!” cried Jack Peek, who had followed his captain at a short distance, and looking Tom in the face. “You was not aboard theArethusa. I’ll tell you what kept you down. It was conceit, idleness, drink, and cowardice; and I’ll tell you what gave our brave captain his first lift in the service. It was his truthfulness, his good sense, his obedience to the orders of his superiors. It was his soberness, his bravery; and if you, with your learning and advantages, had been like him, you too might have been in command of a dashing frigate, and not stumping about on one wooden leg, with the other tied up to deceive the people. It’s hard things I’m saying, I know, but I cannot stand by and hear a fellow who ought to know better running monstrous falsehoods off his reel as you have been doing. You might have borne up for Greenwich, and been looked after by a grateful country; or you might have saved money enough to have kept yourself in comfort to the end of your days; but it all went in drink and debauchery, and now you abuse the government for not looking after you. Howsumdever, Tom Fletcher, I’m very sorry for you, and if you’ll knock off this sort of vagabond life, which brings disgrace on the name of a British sailor, I’ll answer for it our good captain will exert his influence and get you a berth in Greenwich or elsewhere, for he has often spoken about you, and wondered where you were a-serving.”Jack Peek had probably never made so long a speech in his life. It was perhaps too long, for it enabled the old sailor to recover his presence of mind, and looking at Jack with a brazen countenance, he declared that he had never seen him before, when off he went as fast as he could walk on his wooden stumps, and turning down a by-lane was lost to view.Jack had to hurry on to overtake his captain. It was the last time he saw Tom Fletcher alive; but he afterwards heard that a man answering his description, who had been sent to prison as a rogue and a vagabond, had subsequently been killed in a drunken quarrel with another seaman of the same character.Jack had followed his old friend and captain from ship to ship, and at length having overcome the difficulty not only of the alphabet, but of pothooks and hangers, he obtained his warrant, and for several years had charge of one of the ships in which he had fought and bled, now laid up in Portsmouth harbour.In the course of years there was found in the list of English Admirals the names of Sir William Rayner, KCB, John Saltwell, and Oliver Crofton.The End.

“Keep at it, my lads, until she strikes!” cried the young commander, as he fell.

Captain Saltwell had meantime, seeing what would occur, ordered two guns to be run out at the after ports. Scarcely had they been fired when an officer, springing into the forecastle of the French ship, waved his hat and shouted that they had struck.

Oliver and Jack, on looking round for Rayner, and seeing him bleeding on the deck, forgetful of everything else, sprang aft to his side. At that moment the crew raised a cheer of victory; Rayner feebly attempted to join in it. He was carried below. With anxious hearts his officers and crew waited to hear the report of the surgeon.

It was Oliver’s duty to go on board and take possession of the prize. Unwillingly he left his friend’s side. Of theLily’screw five had been killed, and many more beside her commander, wounded. But Oliver saw, as he stepped on board the prize, how much more severely she had suffered. Everywhere lay dead and dying men. How dread and terrible a fact is war! A lieutenant, coming forward, presented his sword.

“My captain lies there,” he said, pointing to a form covered by a flag. “The second lieutenant is wounded below; three other officers are among the dead. We did not yield while we had a chance of victory.”

“Yours is a brave nation, and I must compliment you on the gallant way in which you fought your ship,” answered Oliver, in the best French he could command.

To lose no time, the prisoners were removed, the prize taken in tow, and all sail made for Plymouth.

At length the surgeon come on deck.

“The commander will do well, I trust,” he said; “but I shall be glad to get him on shore as soon as possible. As soon as I had extracted the bullet, he sent me off to look after the other wounded men, saying that they wanted my care as well as he did.”

The crew on this gave a suppressed cheer. It would have been louder and more prolonged, but they were afraid of disturbing the commander and the other wounded men.

All were proud of their achievement as they sailed up Plymouth Sound with their prize in tow, but no one felt prouder than Jack Peek.

“I knew Captain would do something as soon as he had the chance,” he had remarked to Brown, who greatly shared his feelings.

Rayner was at once removed to the hospital. As he was unable to hold a pen, Captain Saltwell wrote the despatches, taking care to give due credit to the active commander of the corvette.

A short time afterwards Oliver carried to the hospital—to which he had never failed to pay a daily visit—an official-looking letter.

“Ah! that will do him more good than my doctoring,” said the surgeon, to whom he showed it.

Oliver opened it at Rayner’s request. It was from the Lords of the Admiralty, confirming him in his rank, and appointing him to command theUrania(the English name given to the prize), which, being a fine new corvette, a hundred tons larger than theLily, had been bought into the service.

“It will take some time to refit her, and you will, I hope, be about again before she is ready for sea,” said Oliver. “I have brought a message from my mother, who begs, as soon as you are ready to be removed, that you will come and stay at our house. She is a good nurse, and you will enjoy more country air than you can here.”

Rayner very gladly accepted the invitation. Neither Oliver nor Mrs Crofton had thought about the result, but before many weeks were over Commander William Rayner was engaged to marry Mary Crofton, who had given him as loving and gentle a heart as ever beat in woman’s bosom. He told her how often he had talked about her when away at sea, and how often he had thought of her, although he had scarcely dared to hope that she would marry one who had been a London street boy and powder monkey.

“I love you, my dear Bill, for what you are, for being noble, true, and brave, and such you were when you were a powder monkey, as you call it, although you might not have discovered those qualities in yourself.”

He was now well able to marry, for his agents had in their hands several thousand pounds of prize-money, and he might reasonably hope to obtain much more before the war was over.

Our hero was well enough to assume the command of theUraniaby the time she was ready for sea. Oliver, as his first lieutenant, had been busily engaged in obtaining hands, and had secured many of theLily’sformer crew. The commander had some time before sent for Jack Peek, and urged him to prepare himself for obtaining a boatswain’s warrant.

“Thank you, sir,” said Jack; “but, you see, to get it I must read and write, and that’s what I never could tackle. I have tried pothooks and hangers, but my fingers get all cramped up, and the pen splits open, and I have to let it drop, and make a great big splash of ink on the paper; and as for reading, I’ve tried that too. I know all the letters when I see them, but I can’t manage to put them together in the right fashion, and never could get beyond a, b, ab, b, o, bo. I might in time, if I was to stick to it, I know, and I’ll try when we are at sea if I can get a messmate to teach me. But while you’re afloat I’d rather be your coxswain, if you’ll give me that rating; then I can always be with you, and, mayhap, render you some service, which is just the thing I should be proud of doing. Now, sir, there’s Tom Fletcher; he’s got plenty of learning, and he ought to be a good seaman by this time. If you were to recommend him to be either a gunner or a boatswain, he’d pass fast enough.”

Rayner shook his head. “I should be happy to serve Tom Fletcher for old acquaintance’ sake, but I fear that although he may have the learning, as you say, he has not got the moral qualities necessary to make a good warrant officer. However, send him to me, and I’ll have a talk with him on the subject.”

Jack promised to look after Tom, whom he had not seen since theLilywas paid off. He returned in a few days, saying that he had long searched for him in vain, until at length he had found him in a low house in the lowest of the Plymouth slums, his prize-money, to the amount of nearly a hundred pounds, all gone, and he himself so drunk that he could not understand the message Jack brought him.

“I am truly sorry to hear it,” said Rayner. “But you must watch him and try to get him on board. If he is cast adrift he must inevitably be lost, but we will try what we can do to reform him.”

“I will gladly do my best, sir,” answered Jack. When theUraniawas nearly ready for sea, Jack did contrive to get Tom aboard of her, but the commander’s good intentions were frustrated, for before the ship sailed he deserted with could not again be discovered.

Of this Rayner was thankful, as he must of necessity have done what would have gone greatly against his feelings—ordered Tom a flogging.

Honest Brown, however, who had gone to school as soon as theLilywas paid off; received what he well deserved, his warrant as boatswain of the corvette he had helped to win. He had shortly to go to sea in a dashing frigate, and from that he was transferred to a seventy-four, in which he was engaged in several of England’s greatest battles.

Some years passed, when after paying off theUrania, as Rayner was passing along a street in Exeter, he heard a stentorian voice singing a verse of a sea ditty. The singer, dressed as a seaman, carried on his head the model of a full-rigged ship, which he rocked to and fro, keeping time to the tune. He had two wooden legs in the shape of mopsticks, and was supporting himself with a crutch, while with the hand at liberty he held out a battered hat to receive the contributions of his audience. Occasionally, when numbers gathered round to listen to him, he exchanged his song for a yarn. As Rayner approached he was saying, “This is the way our government treats our brave seamen. Here was I fighting nobly for my king and country, when a Frenchman’s shot spoilt both my legs, and I was left to stump off as best I could on these here timber toes without a shiner in my pocket, robbed of all my hard-earned prize-money. But you good people will, I know, be kind to poor Jack, and fill this here hat of his with coppers to give him a crust of bread and a sup to comfort his old heart.

“‘Come all ye jolly sailors bold,Whose hearts are cast in honour’s mould,While England’s glory I unfold,Huzza to theArethusa!’”

Suddenly he recognised Captain Rayner, who, from being dressed in plain clothes, he had not at first observed. He started, and then began, with an impudent leer, “Now, mates, I’ll spin you another yarn about an English captain who now holds his head mighty high, and would not condescend to speak to poor Jack if he was to meet him. We was powder-monkeys together, that captain and I. But luck is everything. He went up, and I went down. That’s the way at sea. If all men had their deserts I should be where he is, in command of a fine frigate, in a fair way of becoming an admiral. But it’s no use complaining, and so I’ll sing on—

“‘The famedBelle Poulestraight ahead did lie,TheArethusaseemed to fly,Not a brace, or a tack, or a sheet did we slackOn board of theArethusa.’”

“No, no, mate, you was not aboard theArethusa!” cried Jack Peek, who had followed his captain at a short distance, and looking Tom in the face. “You was not aboard theArethusa. I’ll tell you what kept you down. It was conceit, idleness, drink, and cowardice; and I’ll tell you what gave our brave captain his first lift in the service. It was his truthfulness, his good sense, his obedience to the orders of his superiors. It was his soberness, his bravery; and if you, with your learning and advantages, had been like him, you too might have been in command of a dashing frigate, and not stumping about on one wooden leg, with the other tied up to deceive the people. It’s hard things I’m saying, I know, but I cannot stand by and hear a fellow who ought to know better running monstrous falsehoods off his reel as you have been doing. You might have borne up for Greenwich, and been looked after by a grateful country; or you might have saved money enough to have kept yourself in comfort to the end of your days; but it all went in drink and debauchery, and now you abuse the government for not looking after you. Howsumdever, Tom Fletcher, I’m very sorry for you, and if you’ll knock off this sort of vagabond life, which brings disgrace on the name of a British sailor, I’ll answer for it our good captain will exert his influence and get you a berth in Greenwich or elsewhere, for he has often spoken about you, and wondered where you were a-serving.”

Jack Peek had probably never made so long a speech in his life. It was perhaps too long, for it enabled the old sailor to recover his presence of mind, and looking at Jack with a brazen countenance, he declared that he had never seen him before, when off he went as fast as he could walk on his wooden stumps, and turning down a by-lane was lost to view.

Jack had to hurry on to overtake his captain. It was the last time he saw Tom Fletcher alive; but he afterwards heard that a man answering his description, who had been sent to prison as a rogue and a vagabond, had subsequently been killed in a drunken quarrel with another seaman of the same character.

Jack had followed his old friend and captain from ship to ship, and at length having overcome the difficulty not only of the alphabet, but of pothooks and hangers, he obtained his warrant, and for several years had charge of one of the ships in which he had fought and bled, now laid up in Portsmouth harbour.

In the course of years there was found in the list of English Admirals the names of Sir William Rayner, KCB, John Saltwell, and Oliver Crofton.

Back to Index Next