HINCHINBROOKE AND AMERICAN PRIVATEER.
James remarks with some complacency that “the damages received by the ‘Marlborough,’ as admitted by Captain Bull and his officers, were of a very serious nature.” No admission from anybody is needed to show that when a vessel carrying sixteen 32–pounders and three other guns (James does not count the 12–pounder at the forecastle) engages one armed with twelve 6 and 9–pounders, the latter must suffer very heavily. It is astonishing, and by no means creditable to the “Primrose,” that her heavier metal did not end the action at a very early stage. James admits that “owing to the manœuvres of the ‘Duke of Marlborough,’ the ‘Primrose’ found a difficulty in firing with any effect.” Very probably she did: Captain Bull was an excellent seaman, and could not be expected to heave to in order to present an easier mark to the gunners of the “Primrose.” The fair judgment upon his proceedings on this occasion is that he acted like a good sailor and a brave commander. This was certainly the opinion of Mr. Freeling, and few people were more competent to judge.
On May 1st, 1814, the “Hinchinbrooke,” to which Packet Captain James, so often distinguished as master of the “Duke of Marlborough,” had been promoted, was on her homeward passage from St. Thomas, and had reached the neighbourhood of the Azores—a favourite cruising ground of the American Privateers, and one on which their ravages were long unchecked by the presence of any British man-of-war—when the look-out at the masthead reported a suspicious-looking vessel to the eastward. The strange sail drew rapidly nearer. At half-past four she hoisted American colours, and was drawing on fast. She fired no gun, nor was any hail heard; and as Captain James bade his men reserve their fire for closer quarters, the two ships neared each other in grim silence for the best part of an hour. At twenty minutes past five they lay within pistol shot distance, and, as if at a preconcerted signal, the two broadsides roared out in the same moment.
On this followed a tremendous cannonade. The American carried sixteen heavy guns, the calibre of which could not be ascertained. They were, however, certainly of greater weight than the “Hinchinbrooke’s” 9–pounder carronades, and at the short range at which they were discharged, did great execution on the Packet’s hull and rigging. This lasted for an hour; at the end of which time the Packet had suffered so much that Captain James was scarcely able, if he had wished it, to avoid the boarding attack which he saw the Americans were preparing. Indeed, confident in the strength of his nettings, and in the quality of his small handful of men, he may possibly have even welcomed the prospect of a hand-to-hand fight, wherein his men, who were doubtless growing restive under the long pounding of guns heavier than their own, might work off their suppressed fury, and perhaps gain an encouraging success. The assault was quickly upon them, delivered in great numbers, and with all the impetuosity which the Americans evinced in these attacks. Had the nettings been one whit less lofty, or less firmly secured, the Privateersmen must have gained a footing on the Packet’s deck. As it was, impassable though the nettings were, the small band of picked men led by Captain James to repulse them suffered heavily, one being slain outright, while three others, who could very ill be spared, received disabling wounds.
Relieved for the moment from the apprehension of boarders, Captain James could turn his attention to the state of his ship, which by this time had received serious injury. The Privateer had drawn off again to a little distance, and her heavy shot were crashing into the “Hinchinbrooke’s” sides in a manner which justified anxiety. Already several shot had passed between wind and water. The carpenter was one of the men badly wounded in repelling the boarders; and as the ship was reported to be making water fast, Captain James sent the master below, ill as he could spare him from the deck, with instructions to search for the leaks and endeavour to stop them.
The master found that the ship was in danger of sinking; and, what was almost worse, that the water had already entered the magazine and was spoiling the powder. There was no time to be lost. He returned on deck and asked for a party of men to help him in removing it to the after cabin. It was a difficult matter for Captain James to find these men. In the interval of the master’s absence from deck five more men had been hit, and the number available for fighting the ship was now lamentably small. Two or three sailors were, however, told off for the purpose, while the Americans, observing that several men had left the deck, seized the moment, and cast their boarders a second time upon the sides of the “Hinchinbrooke” with more fury than before, covered by a tremendous fire of great guns and of small arms from her tops. Reduced in numbers as they were, the Falmouth men succeeded in beating back this second assault as they did the first, and then, quite suddenly, came Captain James’ chance.
Throughout the action up to this point the Privateer had chosen her position as she pleased, being a much faster vessel than the Packet. But this very quality of speed now served her ill, for, when the ships separated, on the failure of the boarders, the American shot ahead. Instantly Captain James saw his opportunity, and, without a moment’s loss of time he luffed under his opponent’s stern, and raked her in succession with each of his three larboard guns, loaded with a treble charge. What execution he did by this manœuvre he could not judge, but it was probably deadly, for it shook off his enemy’s hold. Very shortly after it occurred the Cornishmen had the satisfaction of seeing her haul her wind to the northward, and she gave them no more trouble.
Thus ended this brave and well-fought action, conducted against heavy odds with a courage beyond all praise. The exact force of the Privateer was not ascertained. She carried sixteen guns, which may probably have been 12–pounders, and was “full of men.” It is scarcely likely that her crew numbered less than a hundred and twenty men; and, accepting that not excessive estimate, it must be allowed that for Captain James, with his eight 9–pounders and thirty-two men, to fight so strong a vessel for three hours, and to beat her in the end, was creditable to the last degree.
Captain Furze, who defended the “Lapwing” so gallantly at the end of 1813, was incapacitated by his severe wound from serving during the early part of the following year. On his recovery he was appointed to the “Chesterfield,” and towards Christmas sailed once more out of Falmouth with mails for Surinam.
The voyage passed without incident until January 4th, when the “Chesterfield” had entered the cruising ground of the American Privateers. Early in the morning when Madeira was well in sight, a strange schooner was spied from the masthead, and ere long it was manifest that she was chasing the Packet, and gaining on her fast.