A Middy of the Slave Squadron: A West African Story - Harry Collingwood

“Who’s been makin’ a fool of ye this time, stranger?”

“Nobody,” answered I curtly. “I acknowledge that you did the trick very handsomely when I boarded you on a former occasion; but there is going to be no fooling this time I assure you.”

“Well, I’ll be goldarned!” exclaimed the man, suddenly recognising me. “If it ain’t the young Britisher that—jigger my buttons if I didn’t think I’d seen yer before, stranger. Well, you know, you’ve got to prove what you say afore you can do anything, haven’t ye?”

“Yes,” I answered; “and if you will be good enough to hand me over your keys I will soon do so, to my own satisfaction if not to yours.”

“Very well,” he said, producing the keys; “the game’s up, I can see, so I s’pose it’s no use kickin’. There’s the keys, stranger. But I’d give a good deal to know who let ye into the secret.”

“No doubt,” returned I, with a laugh. “Adams and Markham, just mount guard over these two men, and do not let them stir off the poop until I return.”

So saying, I descended the poop ladder and, entering the cabin, made my way to the skipper’s state-room, and, opening a desk which I found there, soon discovered the genuine set of papers declaring the ship’s name to be the Preciosa, her port of registry Havana, and her ownership Spanish. Her Spanish crew we soon found snugly hidden away in spacious quarters beneath the lazaret; and, as to the name on her stern, we found that the piece of wood on which it was carved and painted was reversible, having Virginia, New Orleans, carved on one side of it and Preciosa, Havana, on the other, and that it could be unbolted and reversed in a few minutes by lifting a couple of movable planks in the after cabin. I called a couple of hands into the cabin and had this done forthwith, much to the relief of Captain Perry, as I afterward learned. She had a full cargo, consisting of seven hundred and thirty negroes, all young males, on board; and as she was a remarkably fast and well-built ship she was a prize worth having, to say nothing of the credit that we should win by putting a stop to her vagaries. We transferred her double crew to the Eros, where they were carefully secured in the hold on top of the ballast, and, a strong prize crew being put on board by Captain Perry, we were not long in clearing away the wreck and putting everything back into place again, being ready to make sail by one bell in the first watch.

Being a prize of such exceptional value, Captain Perry decided to accompany her in the Eros to Sierra Leone, where we arrived without adventure five days later. In due course she was adjudicated upon and condemned by the Mixed Commission; but I did not remain at Sierra Leone for that to take place; for upon our arrival we found that a packet had come in from England a few days previously bringing letters for me, acquainting me with the sad news of my father’s death and urging me to proceed home immediately to supervise the winding up of his affairs, and to assume the management of the very important property that he had left behind him. I therefore at once applied for leave, and, having obtained it, secured a passage in a merchant vessel that was on the point of sailing for Liverpool, where I duly arrived after an uneventful passage of twenty-seven days. I discovered, upon reaching home, that it would be quite impossible for me to manage my property and at the same time follow the sea; at my mother’s earnest entreaty, therefore, I gave up the latter; and am now a portly grey-headed county squire, a J.P., M.F.H., and I know not what beside, to whom my experiences as a Middy of the Slave Squadron seem little more than a fevered dream.