Captain John Crane, 1800-1815

by Thomas Wallace Knox

Early on the morning of the third day the signal for departure was hoisted on the British man-of-war. We hove anchor at once; and as there was a favoring wind we sailed out of the Bay of Gibraltar, and after passing Europa Point backed our sails, and waited for the Englishman. He took his own time for starting, and we lay there hove-to for an hour or more. Meantime, our captain had his eye on two vessels away out in the straits that looked very much like Algerines. Their movements indicated that they were "laying for" us. They probably expected, and certainly hoped, that we were going to sail through the straits unaccompanied by any escort, as there was no American war-ship at Gibraltar to give us any attention.

When the Algerine captains saw the English man-of-war coming out and heading for the straits, the Washington following close behind, they knew that their chances for business were decidedly interfered with for that day at least. The Englishman steered straight out into the Atlantic, not turning up the coast in the direction of Cadiz as we feared he might. Whether he did it out of courtesy to us, or merely to give himself a wide offing, I am unable to say; but we were all very glad he did so. The corsairs steered away to the south in the direction of the coast of Morocco; and the last we saw of them they sank beneath the horizon beyond Cape Spartel.

We sailed all day in the company of the British man-of-war,—I think her name was Grampus, but am not sure,—and when sunset came the coast was almost out of sight in the distance. Two or three merchant ships flying the English flag were in sight, or had been during the day. They were in no danger from the pirates, and of course could sail wherever they liked. At sundown our escort dipped his flag by way of saying farewell, and we dipped ours in return.

We gave some extra dips, like taking off our hats two or three times in succession, in order to thank him for his courtesy; and a great courtesy it was, in view of the strained relations existing at that time between our respective countries. I wondered, as I looked at the graceful figure of the Grampus dancing on the water, whether there were any impressed Americans serving on board of her, and perhaps looking over the rail in our direction, wishing, oh, so earnestly, that they were on board the Washington, under their own dear flag, and sailing for home.

Again and again we thanked our lucky stars that we relieved the crew of the Warwick as we did, and brought her safe to port. Our captain said, or at least Haines declared that he said it, "Charity is one of the noblest acts of which man is capable; and the best charity of all is that which receives a double reward, a high rate of salvage and protection against sea-robbers."

The Grampus and Washington steered on the same course for the greater part of the night; we could see her lights ahead of us, and noted that the distance steadily increased as the hours wore on. She had evidently cracked on all sail after bidding us good-by, having previously kept her canvas somewhat reduced in order to enable us to keep up to her. About four bells in the morning watch she turned to the northward; and at sunrise we had drawn so far apart that her hull had sunk below the horizon. By this time we were out of the area covered by the Algerine corsairs, and had nothing further to fear from them.

We had a favoring wind for several days, and took a straight course for home. Nothing worthy of note occurred for five or six days; and had it not been for a great deal of cleaning up and general overhauling of the ship we might have had an easy time of it. The captain was anxious to have his craft appear in as nice a condition as possible when it entered port and passed under the eyes of the owners. The common notion with landsmen is that when a ship leaves port on a long voyage she is in her finest condition, and comes home very much battered and bruised, and used up generally.

Now, the real fact is that unless she has some accident, or happens to come home in the dead of winter when it is impossible to do any work, she is in better condition when she reaches home than at any other time. When she sails from port her decks and sides are black and dirty from taking in cargo, her standing rigging is generally slack, there are loose ends hanging everywhere, and, as a sailor would express it, "everything is adrift."

The longer the voyage is the better is the appearance of the ship, provided she has fine weather for the last month or so of it. The best-looking vessels I've ever seen were those that had come round Cape Horn or Cape of Good Hope on their return from the other side of the world.