Captain John Crane, 1800-1815

by Thomas Wallace Knox

Then he called up one of his men from the boat and said he would search the ship to see if anybody had hidden away. Accompanied by the sailor he went through the forecastle, and afterwards through the quarters of the captain and mates. The captain appeared to be mollified somewhat during the search, and thankful that he was losing only two men. While the search was going on in the cabin he asked the officer to take a glass of rum.

It was rather derogatory to the British dignity for an officer of a king's ship to drink with an American merchant captain, and our skipper appeared to recognize the fact. Placing the bottle and a single glass on the table, he briefly said, "Help yourself," and then stepped respectfully aside.

The officer smacked his lips over the glass of rum, and then poured out a second one, the sailor whom he had brought on board standing respectfully behind him. Neither of them noticed that the captain had left the cabin and gone on deck, or if they did observe it they suspected nothing. The officer found the rum of excellent quality, and it did not take long for his brain to become considerably muddled. Meantime something he little dreamed of was going on outside the cabin.

A signal of recall had been hoisted on the British ship, from which we had drifted somewhat, so that the distance was twice as great as when the officer came on board. Somehow our captain did not observe the signal of recall; neither did the mate nor anyone else.

I asked Haines what the signal was, and he replied in a low voice,

"Shut your mouth, you young idiot! Don't ask no questions; don't you see the old man's looking the other way?"

I turned my eyes in the direction of the captain, and found that his gaze was directed as far as possible from the British ship. He was doing nothing in particular, and I thought he might be looking out to see if any other ship was happening along from that quarter of the ocean.

Ten or fifteen minutes passed away in this manner, and then a gun was fired from the man-of-war.

The firing of the gun compelled our captain to look in the direction whence the sound came, and after looking a moment toward the other vessel, he proceeded slowly toward the cabin, where he had left the officer and the bottle of rum enjoying each other's society. He told the officer about the signal of the gun-fire, and the latter thanked him in a voice that was decidedly husky.