Why every man felt confident a battle was very near at hand, I am unable to say.
Beyond the fact that the officers had been discussing the advisability of attacking the enemy in Malden harbor, should he refuse to come out, there was nothing to indicate an immediate meeting with him, yet we spoke among ourselves as if a decisive engagement would positively be fought on the morrow.
Old Silas was the only man among the crew, with the exception of the officers, who had ever smelled burning powder in a fight on shipboard, and this night his opinion was eagerly sought for and implicitly relied upon.
“From what our commodore did at the taking of Fort George, I hold to it we shan’t work at long range many minutes, if it so be the wind serves us properly,” he said to the group of men around him, among which were Alec and I, and my comrade interrupted by saying proudly:—
“You may be certain of that! Oliver isn’t one who will hang off when an enemy is within striking distance!”
The old gunner paid no attention to this remark, but continued, as soon as the lad ceased speaking:—
“Leftenant Forrest told me that our scouts have reported the Britishers’ strength to be much in this ’ere way. The ship Detroit, just off the stocks, so to speak, carryin’ nineteen guns, one in pivot, an’ two howitzers; the ship Queen Charlotte, with seventeen guns an’ a howitzer; the schooner Lady Prevost mountin’ thirteen guns an’ a howitzer; the brig Hunter of ten guns; the sloop Little Belt, carryin’ three guns, an’ the schooner Chippewa, with one gun an’ two swivels. Now as you all know without my tellin’ you, our strength is fifty-two guns an’ two swivels. If Captain Dobbins were here with the Ohio, we’d be a little better off; but seein’s he has gone to Presque Isle, it’s a case of gettin’ on without him, which is like to make his heart ache when we sail into the bay with a long string of prizes.”
“My father would not have gone at such a time unless he had been ordered to do so,” I said quickly, thinking for the moment that the gunner would have it understood differently.
“I know that full well, lad. There’s no man in this fleet, or among the Britishers, for that matter, who doesn’t know Daniel Dobbins for a brave sailor, to say nothin’ of his bein’ the best navigator on the lakes. As I said, his heart will ache when he hears that we’ve given the Britishers a lickin’, an’ he wasn’t here to take a hand in the scrimmage.”
“Accordin’ to your own figgerin’, we need a good sailin’ breeze when the Englishmen heave in sight, else we’re likely to be taken at a disadvantage,” one of the sailors suggested.