“Hurrah! there’s Taylor down there with his Butler coffee-mill! Fill away, Mr. Bailey, and make all sail! Be alive about it, or we shall not be in at the death! There he goes again! I don’t believe that schooner will get away from us this time!”
The yards flew round and we filled, as the topmen sprang aloft to turn out the reefs. The topsail yards flew to the mastheads, the topgallant sails were sheeted home with lightning speed, and we bore down upon the scene of conflict with all possible dispatch.
But the firing had already ceased, and we soon saw signal lanterns hoisted from the masts of the schooner that had given us such a chase.
“Well, sir, we have got her at last!” came over the water in Mr. Taylor’s familiar tones, as we approached.
“Glad to hear it, Mr. Taylor,” I replied; “but what have you got?”
“The schooner Royal Yacht, sir. She ran out of Galveston, through the whole blockading fleet, night before last. She has a cargo of one hundred and fifty bales of cotton, sir!”
“Give the cutter’s crew three cheers, men!” I said, and our crew sprang into the rigging and gave three as hearty cheers as ever came from one hundred throats.
“I will send Mr. Allen on board the schooner with a prize crew, Mr. Taylor, and you can return in your own boat with the schooner’s captain and crew.”
This exchange was soon made, and Mr. Taylor came on board with his prisoners, and gave me the particulars of the capture. When the squall struck us, he had been already five hours in chase. He lost sight of the schooner, and for a time had his hands full in keeping his boat from filling. When the wind lulled, as nothing was in sight, he determined to return to the ship, and, hearing our guns and seeing our signals, he was making the best of his way back to us, when the schooner that was escaping from us almost ran him down.
He at once opened fire from his Butler gun at short range, and drove the schooner’s crew from the deck by a well-directed rifle fire. Left without a steersman, the vessel yawed, the cutter dashed alongside, the boat’s crew sprang on board, and the prize was taken!