The morning wore away before Captain Furze had convinced himself that escape was impossible, but being at last fully satisfied of the necessity of fighting, he took in his studding sails and awaited the attack. The schooner, as she came nearer, was seen to be a formidable antagonist, mounting sixteen guns, and having her decks literally crowded with men. She was flying American colours, which fact of itself was enough to show the Packetsmen that if they were to save their vessel and their liberty, it would be no child’s play that they had to face.
The unfortunate result of Captain Furze’s former action in the “Lapwing” was attributed, as will be remembered, to the fact that he had been obliged to sail from Falmouth without the two long brass 9–pounders which the Atlantic Packets used as chasers, and with which he believed he could have kept the enemy at a respectful distance. On the present occasion he had his guns; but, as if some destiny were resolved to equalize the conditions of the two fights, the slide of one of the 9–pounders broke at the second discharge, and the gun was thenceforth useless. The remaining one was served with redoubled vigour, but it was not enough to keep off a determined enemy, and about one o’clock the action was in full progress.
At half-past one the enemy came close up under the larboard quarter of the “Chesterfield,” with the evident intention of boarding; whereupon Captain Furze put the helm hard a-starboard, and gave him the larboard broadside. The guns were skilfully pointed, and must have done great damage, for the American sheered off in some confusion, and resumed her cannonade at pistol shot distance, pouring in also a fire of musketry, which, from whatever reason, did less execution on the Packet than was usual on such occasions. One man was killed about two o’clock, and shortly afterwards two others were severely wounded. But these casualties, which were the only ones throughout the action, were not in proportion to the number of the enemy’s sharpshooters, and were insufficient to discourage the Packetsmen.
A more serious misfortune was that a round shot dismounted one of the “Chesterfield’s” guns, thus reducing her broadside to two guns. By dint of great exertions, however, two guns were brought over from the starboard side (the Packets were always pierced for more guns than they carried), and the lost ground was quickly recovered. Indeed, the fire of the Cornish gunners was so steady and continuous that the Americans seem to have had no further opportunity of attempting to board, and confined themselves to endeavouring to cripple their plucky little opponent. At this game the Cornishmen were as good as their enemies; and after the action had lasted for three hours. Captain Furze had the gratification of seeing that the fire of the Privateer was gradually lessening. About four o’clock she hoisted her squaresail, and made off, apparently much damaged; though had she persisted a little longer, she might possibly have been rewarded by success, for the “Chesterfield” was left in a sorry plight. Her mainmast was very badly wounded, not a single brace or bowline left intact. Her sails were hanging torn in every direction, and the number of shot lodged in her hull testified plainly enough to the severity of the struggle. However, the ship was still quite seaworthy, and after such repairs as the stores on board enabled Captain Furze to make, she resumed her voyage, and reached Surinam without further mishap.
In the course of this year, 1814, some fresh disturbances among the seamen at Falmouth revealed the fact that the lesson taught by the removal of the Packets to Plymouth in 1810 had already been in part forgotten.
On the 12th July, when the “Speedy” Packet had completed her complement of men, had taken her mails on board, and was about to slip her moorings, a number of her crew refused to join the vessel, and, headed by the gunner, went to the agent’s office and demanded their discharge. Being asked for their reasons, they had nothing better to say than that they did not like the voyage, and that if they were to go upon it they must have more pay. The agent, willing to concede whatever was possible, paid them a month’s wages in advance, whereupon they became more riotous and intractable than before. Seeing that they were quickly passing out of his control, being in fact in a state of excitement which made them for the time quite inaccessible to reason, the agent sent a message to the captain of the Guardship; and in an hour two strong parties were scouring every alley and public-house in the town in search of the malingering seamen of the “Speedy,” but could find no trace of them. Nor was this surprising, for the deserters were all Falmouth men, and the old town contained hiding-places which more careful searchers than the press-gangs might have failed to discover.
Meanwhile, Captain Sutherland, who commanded the “Speedy,” had engaged other men at unusually high rates of pay, to take the place of the missing ones. But these new men were resolved not to fall short of the high example set before their eyes, and they too decamped as soon as they had secured a payment in advance.
It was impossible to allow the mails to suffer delay from conduct such as this, and in order to demonstrate that the Service could go on very well without the Falmouth sailors, the “Speedy” was sent round to Plymouth, where she completed her crew without difficulty. This reminder of the ease with which the prosperity of Falmouth, dependent as it was chiefly on the Packets, could be destroyed by their removal, had a very sobering effect. The sense of insecurity which outbreaks of this kind created in the minds of the authorities was, however, a grave misfortune for Falmouth, contributing, as it doubtless did, to the formation of the scheme which a few years later placed the Service under Admiralty control, and ultimately removed it from Falmouth altogether.
It is scarcely possible within the limits of a work such as this to describe all the gallant fights of the Falmouth vessels in the period under consideration. The conditions of naval warfare in those days were simple, the incidents of one sea fight resembled another, and the recital of them is apt to become wearisome, unless kept within narrow limits. There is one fortunate little action which may, however, be described before the subject is closed; a fight which is less remarkable for the desperate or bloody character of the fighting than for the breezy confidence with which the Falmouth commander took his ship into action, and the skill or good luck which brought him through it with absolute success.
The “Walsingham,” under the temporary command of Mr. William Nicholls, was on her way to Barbados, and about a hundred miles distant from that island, when a sail was seen from the masthead standing towards the Packet. It was not long before the strange vessel was made out to be a schooner under easy sail, having her fore-topsail close reefed. In those seas any vessel of such a class was far more likely to be a privateer than a peaceful trader; and Mr. Nicholls, who was well aware of this, turned the hands to quarters and cleared the ship for action while the stranger was still hull down on the horizon.