If this is a true account one shudders to think what may have been the fate of those unhappy, plague-stricken men below—probably brought up and hove overboard in a ferocious panic!
The French ship was named the Vengeance, of 36 guns and about 400 men; so there was no discredit to Captain Death in yielding, after such a plucky resistance. The merchants of London opened a subscription at Lloyd's Coffee House for his widow and the widows of the crew, and for the survivors, who had suffered the loss of all their possessions.
This desperate fight was much talked about at the time, and inspired some rhymester, whose name has not come down to us, to compose the following:
CAPTAIN DEATH
The muse and the hero together are fir'd,
The same noble views has their bosom inspir'd;
As freedom they love, and for glory contend,
The muse o'er the hero still mourns as a friend;
So here let the muse her poor tribute bequeath,
To one British hero—'tis brave Captain Death.
The ship was the Terrible—dreadful to see!
His crew was as brave and as valiant as he.
Two hundred or more was their full complement,
And sure braver fellows to sea never went.
Each man was determined to spend his last breath
In fighting for Britain and brave Captain Death.
A prize they had taken diminish'd their force,
And soon the brave ship was lost in her course.
The French privateer and the Terrible met,
The battle began with all horror beset.
No heart was dismayed, each bold as Macbeth;
The sailors rejoiced, so did brave Captain Death.
Fire, thunder, balls, bullets were soon heard and felt,
A sight that the heart of Bellona would melt.
The shrouds were all torn and the decks fill'd with blood.
And scores of dead bodies were thrown in the flood.
The flood, from the time of old Noah and Seth,
Ne'er saw such a man as our brave Captain Death.
At last the dread bullet came wing'd with his fate;
Our brave captain dropped, and soon after his mate.
Each officer fell, and a carnage was seen,
That soon dy'd the waves to a crimson from green;
Then Neptune rose up, and he took off his wreath,
And gave it a triton to crown Captain Death.
Thus fell the strong Terrible, bravely and bold,
But sixteen survivors the tale can unfold.
The French were the victors, tho' much to their cost,
For many brave French were with Englishmen lost.
For thus says old Time, "Since Queen Elizabeth,
I ne'er saw the fellow of brave Captain Death."
There is another poetic effusion on the subject, under the title "The Terrible Privateer"; but it is such halting doggrel that the reader shall be spared the transcription; with the exception of the last verse, which breathes such a blunt British spirit that it would be a pity to omit it:
Here's a health unto our British fleet.
Grant they with these privateers may meet,
And have better luck than the Terrible,
And sink those Mounsiers all to hell.
The Vengeance was, in fact, captured about twelve months later by the Hussar, a man-of-war, after a stout resistance, in which she lost heavily; it is impossible, however, to say how far the devout aspiration of the poet was fulfilled!
MR. PETER BAKER AND THE "MENTOR"
In the Reading-room of the Free Library in Liverpool there hangs an oil-painting, of which a reproduction is here given, illustrating an incident which occurred during the American War of Secession, in 1778.