This was what the brave Barry had been waiting for. It was not a case of whistling for a wind, as sailors often do, but of hoping and praying for a wind. It came just in time to save the Alliance from lowering her proud flag, or from going to the bottom with it still flying, as would have suited her bold captain the better.
Now she was able to give her foes broadside for broadside, and you may be sure that her gunners, who had been like dogs wild to get at the game, now poured in shot so fast and furious that they soon drove the foe in terror from his guns. In a short time, just as Captain Barry was brought on deck with his wound dressed, their flags came down.
The prizes proved to be the Atlanta and the Trepassy. That fight was near the last in the war. At a later date Captain Barry had the honor of carrying General Lafayette home to France in his ship.
CHAPTER VIII
CAPTAIN TUCKER HONORED BY GEORGE WASHINGTON
The Daring Adventures of the Hero of Marblehead
CAPTAIN SAMUEL TUCKER was a Yankee boy who began his career by running away from home and shipping as a cabin-boy on the British sloop-of-war Royal George. It was a good school for a seaman, and when his time was up he knew his business well.
There was no war then, and he shipped as second-mate on a merchant vessel sailing from Salem. Here he soon had a taste of warlike life and showed what kind of stuff was in him. The Mediterranean Sea in those days was infested by pirates sailing from the Moorish ports. It was the work of these to capture merchant ships, take them into port, and sell their crews as slaves.