These things were hard to bear and not easily forgiven; while the blow was driven home on the arrival of the Packet at her destination, when the merchants’ clerks would come down offering Jack famine prices for the very goods he had been robbed of—so he would naturally put it to himself—and the price of many a spree on shore, to say nothing of pretty things for the wife at home, would go back into the merchant’s pocket instead of jingling in Jack’s.
The wages were raised on the boats which were no longer allowed to trade, but the increase by no means compensated for the profits lost, and the seamen maintained that they were still lower than the current rate in the Merchant Service. If they were reminded that merchant sailors were exposed to the danger of the pressgang, while Packetsmen carried protections, they retorted that the protections were not always respected.
This was true enough. For when the press-gangs were sweeping the streets of Falmouth, bursting forcibly into sailors’ drinking shops, and, half drunk themselves, giving chase to any sturdy fellow whom they met, it often happened that a Packetsman was seized and only laughed at, or knocked down and soundly cursed, when he claimed exemption. Sometimes his protection was torn in the scuffle. Sometimes it was fraudulently taken from him; and if then he lost his temper and became violent, he was told that his mutinous conduct had deprived him of any right to protection; and not even the intervention of the agent, or of the Postmaster General, could restore him to the Packet Service.
So the irritation at Falmouth went on, sometimes seeming to die away, but ever reasserting itself, and often threatening serious trouble. There needed but some natural occasion for an outbreak; and such an occasion was found in 1810.
In that year, for some unrecorded reason, the Lisbon Packets were brought into line with the West India boats, and private trade was henceforth forbidden on both. The Lisbon sailors resented the new rule fiercely; and the long-threatened tumult broke out at last in resentment over the somewhat excessive zeal with which the searchers and the Custom-House officers enforced it.
Before entering on the details of the curious events which accompanied this outbreak, it will be well to refer to two actions fought about this time, not only because both were skilfully conducted and very gallantly fought; but even more because the crew of the “Duke of Marlborough,” which was the Packet engaged, were ringleaders in the coming revolt, and the circumstances show that their discontent in no way affected the spirit in which they fought.
The first of these actions occurred on July 26th, 1810, when the “Duke of Marlborough” was on her homeward voyage from Lisbon, under the command of Mr. James, who had defended her so bravely in 1807. Her adversary was a French brig Privateer, carrying no less than eight guns (believed to be 18–pounders) on her broadside, in addition to one on the forecastle, with a very large complement of men; and the action was conducted at such close quarters that one of the French sailors, having fired his musket at Mr. James, and missed him, threw the weapon at him. It was well for the Falmouth men, outnumbered as they were, that this was so; for if the Privateer had chosen a more distant position, her heavy guns must in the end have given her the victory; whereas in meeting boarders the British sailor is in his element, and time after time as the French came on the Falmouth men met them cheerfully, and always drove them back.
For an hour and fifty minutes of almost ceaseless fighting Mr. James and his brave crew maintained their dogged and obstinate resistance, until at last a well aimed shot brought down the Privateer’s foretopmast, and she sheered off, leaving the “Duke of Marlborough” to pursue her voyage. It was not too soon, for there were several feet of water in the Packet’s hold, and she would probably have sunk if the fight had lasted much longer. Mr. James had three men wounded, but fortunately none killed.
The second action was remarkable in this respect, that it occurred in full sight of home.
It was on October 1st, in the same year 1810. The “Duke of Marlborough” was once more homeward bound from Lisbon, and was approaching the coast of Cornwall on a thick, hazy morning, when she sighted a strange schooner, but almost at once lost her again in the mist. At 9 A.M. the Packet was within three leagues of the Lizard, and Pendennis Castle, which crowns the entrance to Falmouth Harbour was in sight, when the strange vessel reappeared suddenly, standing towards the Packet under a press of sail. Captain Bull made the private signal, but it remained unanswered; and though the English coast was so close that it appeared the height of audacity for an enemy to venture an attack, he judged it prudent to order the ship to be cleared for action. His orders were obeyed with alacrity; and having seen the boarding nettings triced up, the mail brought on deck and shotted, and every other preparation made, he spoke a few encouraging words to his crew. He was a man of brief and pithy speech, and knew his crew too well to suppose that any but the plainest eloquence was needed. Therefore, pointing to the shore, which was then clearly visible, he simply said, “Now, my lads, there is Pendennis, there are your homes,” and felt content, as well he might, that no man on board would forget that he was about to fight under the eyes of his friends, and in sight of his own cottage door.