Prince Rupert, the Buccaneer

by Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne

There was no boat, no canoe upon the beach—nothing but a few logs, which would help to bear the weapons, and assist those that could not swim; and when the time came, the buccaneers stripped off all clothes except their breeches, for ease in the water. If they got drowned or killed, these reckless fellows said they could die as easy naked as clad; and if they took the carrack, there would be plenty more clothes in her store; while if they did not take her, why, then, they were as good as dead.

Here again, then, was a very horrid situation for the poor secretary; for to strip was to confess her sex, than which she would liefer have died, and to go into the water clad (being indeed no swimmer) was to court drowning. She did indeed make one attempt to escape the ordeal, saying that it was beneath his Highness's dignity to render up his clothes, and suggested that the taking of a brigantine—surely an easy matter—should be left to the common buccaneers, and that they should send a row-boat to the shore when they were ready for the attack on the carrack.

But the Prince only laughed. "My scrupulous Stephen," said he, "we are not in England now, or even Europe. Perhaps I am Rupert Palatine, as you say, though I have almost forgot. But, for the time, I am just a tarry sailor, that for risks and plunder goes share and share alike with his crew. And so, my lad, I am e'en going to play water-rat and dodge the sharks. But do you stay behind, if you please, and I'll send a boat for you when the affair is over."

"Nay," said Master Laughan, "if your Highness goes, your humble secretary follows;" and with that stepped into the water, laid hold of one of the logs which the swimmers stood ready to tow, and shut her eyes, and inwardly commended her soul to God. And so the greatest stroke of the enterprise began.

Now the present historian has to confess that of this horrible passage through the water no detail can be given here, for she made it in a condition close upon fainting. Let alone the new sensation of being afloat in unstable water, there was the dreadful fear of sharks with which those seas abounded, and this over-rid all dread of what the reception might be on the brigantine and beyond, and made the passage seem infinitely tedious. But, as it so fell out, no sharks attacked; and when the brigantine was reached, Master Laughan, burning with shame at all this pitiful display of cowardice, was the first to board and the first to strike a blow.

The taking of that dead-fish-stinking brigantine was in itself a small matter, as there were barely forty men on board, and some number of them negro and other slaves; but it was not accomplished without some dispute, and many cries rose shrilly up into the night before all could be silenced. A gun was fired from the storeship, which showed that she at least was awake; and presently, when the buccaneers had cut the cable, and were moving the brigantine with her sweeps, a breeze sprang up and drove away the mists from the whole surface of the bay.

Here then, it seemed, was the whole enterprise laid bare to public sight, and the one little vessel in the midst of such a huge force of enemies could do nothing better than surrender and sue for quarter. But such was the indomitable courage of the Prince and these savage buccaneers who followed him, that nothing was further from their thoughts. A trumpet pealed out from the great carrack, and they answered the challenge by wild shouts and stronger labour at their oars. Those on board the carrack understood the capture then, and retorted with a broadside from their great guns, which tore the waters of the bay into foam and fountains.

Not a shot hit; but the Prince was as wise as he was daring, and knowing that a couple of those iron messengers might well sink the brigantine before she had accomplished her purpose, steered her so as to meet the carrack bow to bow—which, as they had no spring ready to warp round their broadside, they could not avoid. They had only two bow pieces which could be brought to bear, and to these no reply could be made, as all the powder of the buccaneers had been wetted by the swimming. But their aim was bad and their loading slow, and most of the shots hummed through the rigging overhead, or spouted harmlessly in the water alongside.

So the brigantine made her advance, and finally fouled her foremast rigging with the sprit-sail yard on the carrack's towering boltsprit, and came to a standstill little harmed.

"Boarders away!" cried the Prince, and led the storm himself, sword in teeth. The carved woodwork of the great ship's beak hung above, sawing up and down with the motion of the seas. He caught his fingers in this and hauled himself up, amid a storm of missiles sent down from the high forecastle roof. His secretary, fearing horribly, but impelled by love, was close upon his heels; and the buccaneers, climbing like cats, followed close after.