The prisoners on the Reindeer were turned over to the authorities. We felt very grateful to Captain Woods for his kindness to us; and when we came to anchor I drew up a paper setting forth his courtesies to us, and asking that, if he should ever become a prisoner in American hands, he should be treated as kindly as he had treated the officers and crew of the Marguerite. This was signed by myself and my first and second mates, and by all of my men who were asked to sign it.
Before we left the Reindeer Captain Woods called me into his cabin and told me what I knew very well without his saying so; that my promises relative to attempts to escape ended when we passed out of his hands. "And I wish to say further," said he, "that if you should find yourself wandering about the streets of Plymouth, you will do well to go to The Blue Anchor boarding-house, in the Barbican, facing Sutton Pool, and ask for Joe Waghorn, who keeps it. Say the same to Haines, your second mate."
With that he clasped my hand warmly, and we returned to the deck. In half an hour the boats had landed us, and we were marched off to the Citadel, where we were placed under guard for the night. What was to be our fate or destination, none of us could tell.
I revolved in mind constantly the parting words of Captain Woods, and determined to find The Blue Anchor as soon as possible. So did Haines, to whom I confided the secret, with the injunction to learn from the guards the way to the Barbican and Sutton Pool, but not to mention the boarding-house or the name of its proprietor.
Officers and crew were separated in the quarters where we were placed for the night, partly in order to preserve the distinction between them, and partly in consequence of the greater security the plan afforded. The chances of a conspiracy would have been much greater if officers and men were together, as the former could furnish the brains for a plot, while the latter could supply the muscle. Sailors have the courage for executing a scheme which may demand all the aggressive qualities of human nature, but they have not usually the skill for devising the scheme itself.
Haines ascertained from one of the guards the location of the Barbican quarter of Plymouth, and we racked our brains to invent a way for eluding the vigilance of our keepers, but all to no purpose. We learned that there had been so many escapes that the officers and men of the garrison were unusually watchful; the authorities had decreed that an escape, no matter under what circumstances, would be followed by severe punishment of those in charge at the time. I heard of a case in which a prisoner got away by creeping behind his guard, knocking him down with a stone, and escaping while the soldier lay senseless. The soldier was so severely wounded that he was sent to the hospital. When he recovered and came out, he was punished for his negligence in permitting the prisoner to regain his liberty.
In the quarters where we were placed we found several other prisoners of our own nationality; and under the circumstances it did not take long for us to get acquainted. We were kept at Plymouth for two days. On the afternoon of the second day several new prisoners arrived, and the guard told us we were to set out early in the morning for Dartmoor Prison.