Captain Bull could spare no man from the deck of his ship; and was thus unable to retaliate. He was now, however, within about twelve leagues of Barbados; and there was a good chance of running under shelter of the island, if he were not first dismasted. At the end of an hour, however, during which he maintained a stout resistance, it was clear that he could not much longer manœuvre his ship, which had suffered greatly in her spars and rigging. Two more of his men were down. He himself was almost wholly incapacitated by a rifle bullet which had pierced both cheeks; and at this juncture, the Privateer ran suddenly alongside, the “Duke of Marlborough” refused to obey her helm, the French made fast their grapplings, and were pouring down in overwhelming numbers upon the Packet’s deck, when Captain Bull, perceiving that further resistance was hopeless, ordered the mail to be sunk, tore up his private signals, and struck his colours.
The French captain knew how to appreciate a gallant enemy; and Captain Bull always acknowledged the kindness shown to him, and to the wounded. The “Duke of Marlborough” was navigated into Guadeloupe, where the unwounded sailors were thrown into what Captain Bull described as “the most horrible dungeon that can be conceived, where they had scarcely sufficient air to breathe.” Fortunately they were not kept long in this confinement, but were liberated after a short captivity, and permitted to return to England.
It may be useful to remark at this point that these French Privateers, of which such numbers were sent out from Guadeloupe and Martinique, were not only formidable by reason of the numbers of their crews and the weight of metal which they carried, but even more on account of the desperate courage with which they attacked. Many a sloop of the British Navy, armed and manned with a force far superior to that of the Post-Office Packets found it no child’s play to encounter one of these ocean free-lances, and some had reason to regret having challenged them. The “General Erneuf” was widely known and dreaded in the Caribbean Archipelago, as was also her sister ship, “La Dame Erneuf.” The career of the latter vessel was stopped in 1805 by H.M. brig “Curieux,” after a very sharp action, in which, as Captain Bettesworth testifies in his report, the French had “30 killed and 41 wounded.” And “in justice to his gallantry,” the captain adds, “I must say he never struck whilst there was a man on his decks.”
Such being the spirit in which the French Privateers were fought, it is not wonderful that they committed great ravages among our commerce. The “Duke of Marlborough” was converted into a Privateer, and on her first voyage captured H.M. sloop “Lily.” The sloop in her turn was rechristened “General Erneuf,” the original vessel of the name having been lost in some unexplained manner. The name had lost its luck, however, for she was quickly brought to account by H.M. sloop “Reynard,” Captain Jeremiah Coghlen, who in thirty-five minutes reduced her to such a condition of helplessness that her captain blew her up in preference to surrendering.
With facts such as these before us, it is impossible to make light of the actions fought by the Falmouth Packets against these formidable adversaries. The merit of a fight does not depend on the numbers of the men engaged, but on the quality of the defence offered by the weaker party. The character of a forlorn hope attaches to every one of the battles into which these little vessels carried so high a spirit; and it must always be a matter of regret that the records of so many of them have been allowed to perish.
There lies before the writer a list of actions fought in the years 1804 and 1805, every one of which might well be thought to deserve some record, had not the details of them been forgotten. It was justly accounted no disgrace to Captain Bull to surrender to the “General Erneuf”; yet Captain Patterson, in the “Eliza,” fought and beat this very Privateer a few months later. The action lasted two hours and a half; and one would give much to know what passed during that time, for it is certain that the Privateer did not drop the prey in which she had fixed her teeth without hard and heavy fighting.
In May, 1805, Captain Mudge, in the “Queen Charlotte,” defended himself for two hours against a Privateer of 16 guns and 110 men. Captain Mudge had seen much service in the navy, and had been present at the engagement with Admiral Langara off Cape St. Vincent in 1781. He was a brave and experienced officer, of whom it might be said with confidence that he fought to the very utmost before he surrendered.
It is unfortunate that these and many another gallant fight can never now be described; but we are happily in possession of fuller details of a very important public service rendered about this time by a Falmouth officer, on almost the only occasion when the forces of a Packet were employed, and properly employed, in an action which might have been avoided, but was deliberately sought.
The island of Dominica, in some respects the most beautiful of all the West Indian group, was an object of continual envy on the part of the French. Lying as it did almost within sight of their own island of Guadeloupe, it seemed not impossible that by a sudden attack it might be captured; and it is strange that the danger of such a surprise was not more carefully guarded against by the English Government.
Whatever may be the explanation of this negligence, it happened that in May, 1806, though a number of sugar ships fully laden were lying in Rozeau Bay, the capture of which would inflict a most serious loss upon the planters, there was actually no ship of war in the bay or in the neighbourhood for their protection. It is true that H.M. sloop “Dominica” had been sent to cruise off Guadeloupe; but even with the greatest zeal and enterprise, this vessel could scarcely have counted on intercepting more than a small proportion of the Privateers which lurked in every bay and creek of that notorious island, while, as it happened, any schemes which her officers had formed in this direction were promptly frustrated by a mutiny of the crew, who seized the vessel, took her into Guadeloupe, and reported to the French the defenceless state of Dominica.