Of course such an opportunity was not likely to be lost; and it was fortunate for the Dominica planters that no French frigate or ship of the line was lying at Guadeloupe that day. Had the French been able to place such a vessel at the head of their flotilla, it can scarcely be doubted that the island must have fallen, for its shore defences were not adapted for resisting a strenuous attack, and the troops in garrison, consisting of detachments of the 46th and 3rd West India Regiments, were by no means numerous.
As it was, the outlook was sufficiently serious. The French promptly took the traitorous crew out of the “Dominica,” replaced them with sailors of their own nationality, and added as many troops as the vessel could carry. They re-named her “Napoleon,” gave her as consorts “L’Imperial,” a national schooner, and a sloop, both packed with troops, and added a couple of row-boats or galleys well stored with arms and ammunition. General Hortade took command, and the flotilla appeared off Dominica on the 24th May.
Its appearance aroused very great and natural alarm. A glance showed that the expedition was a strong one; and, even if a landing could be prevented, it was difficult to see how the sugar ships could be saved. To slip their moorings, and stand out to sea in different directions, would probably be to meet destruction singly; while in harbour they were at least under protection of whatever guns could be placed in position for their defence. There was no time to unload the cargoes, and but little chance of saving them; and the merchants gathered on the quay in consternation, watching the French ships grow nearer and nearer.
At this crisis, and while the enemy was still some miles off the land, two English ships entered the bay. One of them was the Packet, “Duke of Montrose,” commanded by Captain Bert Dyneley, a brave and skilful officer. The other was H.M.S. “Attentive,” which had been told off to convoy the Packet and the mails from Barbados through the archipelago of islands, among which Privateers swarmed almost as thickly as the sea birds.
The arrival of an English ship of war seemed to the Dominica merchants a providential deliverance, and under the orders of General Dalrymple, President of the island, the “Attentive” lost no time in standing out to sea again to intercept the enemy.
Her movements were watched from shore with keen anxiety, but the “Attentive” proved herself a wretched sailer. It was not the practice of the Admiralty to tell off for convoy duty any vessel which would make a good cruiser; and if the emergency had been less serious. Captain Dyneley, who must have found it difficult and irksome to keep back his own fine sailing brig to the slower pace of the escort, might have been amused to see that the “Attentive” stood no chance whatever of intercepting the French ships, every one of which was sailing easily away from her.
There was now no time to be lost. It was plain enough that the enemy would work havoc among the sugar ships, and might even land their troops before the “Attentive” could get into action. Only one chance of checking them remained; and General Dalrymple, backed by all the merchants of the island, appealed to Captain Dyneley to take a detachment of troops on board his Packet, and risk her in defence of the island. This was a proposal which raised several serious considerations.
The Packets of course were no part of the fighting forces of the country. They were not even national property, but belonged nominally to the commander.
The undertaking of the Department to pay for damage sustained in action might or might not apply to the present case. As far as Captain Dyneley knew there was no precedent for it. His standing orders were to avoid action whenever he could; but he was now called on to seek an engagement, to throw his Packet in the way of a greatly superior force, and that, moreover, on a service quite distinct from the business of the Post-Office. Here was no question of protecting the mails, but rather of putting them in danger.
It is true that the service he was asked to render seemed the only means of averting a national disaster, and might be thought likely to establish a strong claim on the gratitude of the Government. But Captain Dyneley was well aware that when the actions of officers on critical occasions came to be considered in the serene atmosphere of Whitehall, they were often measured by standards very different from those applied to them on the spot; and while he probably felt little doubt that the Postmaster General would make a generous appeal to the Treasury not to let him remain a loser for acting patriotically, he could be by no means certain that the trustees of the national purse would not argue that he ought to have stood out to sea, leaving the sugar ships to fight it out with the French, and that he acted most irregularly in thrusting his Packet into danger.