To equip the fleet of small boats would require nearly every man and boy on board, leaving no one to handle the frigate in case the wind sprang up, and as we noted this fact—I mean as the old shellbacks discussed it—Master Hackett said to me with a long-drawn sigh of relief:—
"It's the luck of the Essex to find Britishers so plentiful; but this time she's got more'n a mouthful, an' that fellow yonder is like to give us the slip unless our slow-movin' prizes work up this way before the wind rises."
"Do you mean, Master Hackett, that we can't make any effort at capturing her?" I asked in surprise.
"Look about an' see if that ain't the size of it. Do you reckon Captain Porter would strip his own ship, leavin' her helpless in case this 'ere calm ended with a squall?"
It surely did not seem possible our commander would do anything of the kind, and my heart was heavy as I gazed at the Britisher lying so near at hand and we unable to so much as come up with her.
Before our crew had much time for discussion we were startled, and some of the oldest hands almost frightened, by being called to man the boats; and our surprise may be imagined when we learned that every craft was to be sent off.
I saw the old shellbacks looking at each other furtively, exchanging odd glances and shrugging their shoulders as much as to say that Captain Porter must have taken leave of his senses; but into the boats they went, and all hands followed until there were none left aboard the frigate except the captain himself, the chaplain, the captain's clerk, and the boatswain.
Four men only to look after the Essex in case of sudden danger, or in event of our being forced to surrender! It surely seemed as if we were gazing upon the frigate for the last time, when the boats were pulled away, and I heard Master Hackett mutter to the man nearest him:—
"Take your good-by squint at the old hooker, matey, for I'm reckonin' there's many a chance you'll never see her again. I'm willin' to admit that a man-o'-warsman is bound to run many a risk; but this 'ere beats anything I ever saw or heard of before."
And from the expression on the faces of all I understood that to a man the crew believed we were going far beyond our duty,—which fact, as may well be imagined, was not calculated to make me very comfortable in mind. There were an hundred things likely to happen that would leave us without a ship, and it was by no means even chances that we could gain a foothold on the deck of the stranger. Surely, the day must come when we should find a Britisher who would fight, even though he was no more than a whaler, and this might be the day.