After cruising with the squadron for some days, we had permission to go in search of adventures, and next morning, as we were running down along the coast of Porto Rico, we discovered five sail of vessels in a small bay. The water not being sufficiently deep to admit the ship, we manned and armed three boats and sent them in. I had the six-oared cutter, with nine men; we were soon alongside of them. They proved Spanish vessels, four small schooners and a sloop laden with fruit, [pg 96]principally oranges and shaddocks, and a quantity of yams and plantains. We sent them all down to Jamaica—why, you must ask the captain, as by the time they reached their destination almost the whole of the fruit was rotten, and the vessels did not pay the expenses of their condemnation. Shortly after this affair, two of the boats, with a lieutenant, a master’s mate, and myself, were sent in shore near Cape François, St. Domingo, on a cruise of speculation. No object being in sight when we left the ship, about 10 p.m. we came suddenly on three dark-looking schooners, who on seeing us gave us a warm reception. The night, fortunately for us, was very dark, and we were nearly alongside of them without our perceiving them, as they were anchored so near the land. I was mid of the lieutenant’s boat, and he determined on boarding the largest of them. I knew, or rather I could foresee, the result; but as he had taken in the course of the last two hours three north-westers, and was half-seas over, my advice availed little. The other boat was at some distance from us. On we went, when three of our men were seriously wounded and I received a musket-ball through the left side of my hat, which slightly wounded my ear, taking part of the hair, and I felt a distressing whirling noise inside my head, and was so giddy I was obliged to sit down, not before, however, I had shot a man in the main-channels who I thought had fired the shot at me. We had kept up a brisk firing, and must have killed several [pg 97]of their men, when they got long spars with a spike at the end over the side, and endeavoured to drive them through the bottom of our boat. The lieutenant, who was now more himself, found boarding her impracticable, as she had her boarding netting up, her decks filled with men, and nine ports in her side. We reluctantly pulled off. We had unfortunately taken the bull by the horns—that is, pulled for her broadside. The lieutenant and myself, for I recovered sufficiently to load my musket, kept firing at her decks as we retired. She paid us the same compliment, and slightly wounded another of the boat’s crew. Had the night not been so cloudy, and without a moon, we should have paid dearly for our temerity. We rowed in a straight line for her stern. The two other vessels were well armed, and they saluted us with a few shot as we pulled off, which, however, went far over us. We soon after joined the other boat, which had lost sight of us when we attempted boarding the enemy’s vessel. We learnt a few days afterwards, from a New Providence privateer, that they were three guardacostas, as the captain of her called them—in other words, Spanish government vessels, commanded by lieutenants, well armed, manned and equipped. We joined the ship next morning, and gave a Flemish account of our cruise. One of the wounded men, through loss of blood, died soon after coming on board. The other three having received flesh wounds, soon returned to their duty. The surgeon examined my ear, and found the [pg 98]tympanum ruptured. It destroyed my hearing on that side for ever, and for years after I was distressed with a loud roaring noise on the left side of my head. A fortnight later we fell in with a Spanish eighty-gun ship, a large frigate and a heavy-armed store ship. We were soon alongside the former, having beat to quarters previously. We asked her where she came from. Her answer was, “From sea.” We then asked her where she was bound to. Her answer was, “To sea.” Our skipper then jumped upon one of the quarter-deck carronades, with his eyes glistening like a Cornish diamond. The muzzles of our guns were at this time almost touching her side. One of our crew spoke Spanish. He was desired to hail her, and say that if she did not answer the questions which had been put she should be fired into. “From Cadiz” was the prompt answer, and “Bound to the Havannah.” “You might have answered that before,” said the skipper; “if I had given you a good dressing, you richly deserved it.” “I do not understand what you say,” was the reply. “You be d——d,” said our man of war, and we turned off on our heel. The same evening a court of inquiry was held by the mids, who were unanimous in declaring that the captain of the line of battle ship ought to be superseded and made swab-wringer, and that their own captain had acted with that spirit which became a British commander of a man-of-war, and that he deserved to have his health drunk in a bumper of grog, [pg 99]which was accordingly done. Here the court broke up, hoping the mate of the hold would bring with him, after serving the grog, an extra pint of rum to make up the deficiency. The captain, having heard of our proceedings, sent his steward to us with a bottle of the true sort as a proof of his satisfaction.
CHAPTER VIII.
MUTINY ON H.M.S. HERMIONE.
Tea with the boatswain’s wife—News of the mutiny at the Nore causes trouble among the sailors—Sent to cruise in consequence—A white squall and waterspout—Capture of a Spanish cruiser—Return to Port Royal—H.M.S. Hermione seized by mutineers and carried to Porto Bello—Recaptured by Captain Hamilton—An alarm caused by fireflies.
On the evening of the next day the boatswain’s wife invited me to take tea. I could not refuse so kind an offer, and at the vulgar hour of six, behold us sipping our Bohea out of porringers, with good Jamaica stuff in it in lieu of milk. “Do you like it?” said the boatswain to me. “Have you enough rum in it? Take another dash.” “No, thank you,” said I; “no more splicing, or I shall get hazy, and not be able to keep the first watch.” “That rum,” said he, “is old pineapple, and like mother’s milk, and will not hurt a child. Now,” said he, “we are talking of rum, I’ll tell you an odd story that happened to me in the last ship I belonged to. I had a capital case of the right sort given to me by a brother Pipes. One evening I had asked some of the upper class dockyard maties, for we were lying at Antigua, to take a glass of grog. When I went to the case, I found two of the bottles at low-water mark, and another a [pg 101]marine. ‘Ho! ho!’ said I to myself; ‘this is the way you make a southerly wind in my case-bottles, and turn to windward in my cabin when I am carrying on the war on the forecastle, is it? I’ll cross your hawse and cut your cable the next time, as sure as my name is Tricing.’ After the last dog-watch, I threw myself into my cot all standing, with my rattan alongside of me. About three bells of the first watch, I heard someone go very cunningly, as he thought, into my cabin. I immediately sprung out and seized a man in the act of kissing one of my dear little ones, for it was a case with nine quart bottles. ‘Who are you?’ said I. ‘Nobody,’ replied he. ‘You are the fellow I have been cruising after since I entered the service five-and-twenty years ago, and now I have got you, by G——d! I’ll sheet you home most handsomely for all past favours.’ I then gave it to him thick and thin. ‘Now, my lad,’ said I, ‘chalk this down in your log, that when you have the thievish inclination to take what does not belong to you, remember my cane, if you do not your God.’ This rum gentleman belonged to the after-guard, and I did not forget him.”
After cruising round Porto Rico and Hispaniola for two months, we bore up for the mole, where we found two sail of the line, a sixty-four and two sloops of war. In the course of our cruise we had sent in an American brig and a schooner laden with flour. The latter was condemned, half-barrels of gunpowder being found in the under [pg 102]flour casks. The former was let go, although we thought she ought to have been condemned, as her register was defective. We understood that the judge’s wife, of the Vice-Admiralty Court, who was notorious for accepting presents, had received a purse from some of the masters of the American vessels detained by the cruisers to let them escape trial. How true this may be must be left to time and the curious to decide.
On overhauling the fore-shrouds and mainstay, we found them too much worn to be trustworthy. As we could not be refitted with lower rigging from the naval stores at this place, the senior officer gave us an order to proceed to Jamaica. We took leave of all the “Ballaker ladies,” as the mids chose to call them. Know, reader, that the fish called by that name is a most destructive and voracious one, and as I presume they thought the ladies were of that character, some of them had too much reason to call them so. We reached Port Royal on the afternoon of the following day, but remarked we were not received with that welcome as before; no boats filled with yellow-legged females came off with banjos. Why? Because we brought in no prize with us. And when we went on shore some of these delicate dames exclaimed when we accosted them: “Eh, massa, you hab know me before? I no recollect you. What ship you belong to?” And we were seldom asked to the dignity balls. We were all now in tolerable health, when the packet from England arrived, bringing letters for [pg 103]the squadron, one of which I received, acquainting me that my sister’s husband was appointed to command the A. frigate fitting for the Mediterranean, and that my youngest brother, in the India marine, had died in Bengal. He was a fine, spirited youth, nineteen years of age; we had not met since we were at school. Some of our seamen also received letters by the same opportunity, acquainting them with the mutiny at the Nore, and a few days afterwards a disaffected spirit broke out in the squadron, which we had some trouble in subduing. However, by reasoning with the petty officers and the best seamen, it terminated without open mutiny or bloodshed, although the crews of some of the ships had been mistaken enough to have delegates for their proceedings. To finally root out the trouble the admiral ordered the five line of battle ships fitting out at Port Royal to complete their stores and sail without delay for the Gulf of Mexico. Two days afterwards we stood out to sea. The squadron consisted of a ship of ninety-eight guns, four seventy-fours, and a frigate. The commander-in-chief had his flag on board the former. After touching at the Grand Caymans for turtle, we reached the Bay of Mexico, where, and off the Havannah, we cruised for some weeks without taking anything. One night, having the middle watch and looking over the lee gangway, I observed some black spots on the water. The moon, which was in her third quarter, was sometimes hidden by the dark scud, for it was blowing fresh, and when she shone in full [pg 104]splendour the spots appeared stationary. I lost no time in pointing this out to the lieutenant of the watch, who agreed with me that they must be the negro heads of some coral reef. We were with the squadron running directly on them. We immediately fired a gun and hauled our wind, and then fired a second to warn the ships astern of us of the danger. When we hauled off we could not clear them, and it was more than an hour before we got an offing. They were the “Double-headed shot” keys. Our signal was made for the captain and master to repair on board the admiral. The latter, we understood, was well hauled over the coals, and he came on board looking like a boy who had been whipped. He thought it was “moral impossible” (for that was always his favourite way of speaking when he thought he had anything of importance to relate) that the admiral should find fault with him as a navigator; he could not account for counter currents and undertows, and he knew how to navigate a ship as well as any man in the fleet.
The inhabitants of the cockpit, as usual, held a court of inquiry on his conduct, when they declared on summing up what they had remarked of his character, that he was too conceited to be clever, that he was a very indifferent navigator, and they wondered who the devil gave him his warrant as master, for they would not trust him to navigate a barge in the New River. After cruising till the mids declared they were ennuiéd of seeing the [pg 105]Havannah, the dry Tortugas, Cape Antonio, and the low land near Mississippi so often, and that they had worn their chemises twice over and had only soiled sheets for table-cloths; that they were obliged to get one of the marines to pipe-clay their stockings and the collar of their shirts when they were asked to dine in the cabin; that it was a horrible, hard case to eat biscuits filled with bargemen and purser’s lice; that the water was full of jenny jumps—all these miseries, concluded they, ought to be made known to the admiral, and that if he did not order the squadron in again he ought to be tried by a court of mids and reduced to the humble rank of a cockpitsman and feed off bargemen for a month.