Captain Rogers again badly wounded.
But though the surgeons and chief officers wished him to stay in port on board the prize, he was unable to resist the temptation, when, on the afternoon of the 26th, "two sentries who had been placed upon a hill above the port signalled by three waffs that a third sail was in sight, as well as the 'Dutchess' and 'Marquiss,'" of joining his consorts as soon as possible, in command of his own ship, Captain Dover remaining on board the prize. It was 7 p.m., and soon quite dark, before the "Duke" was under weigh; but at daybreak next morning all three vessels were sighted to windward, distant about four leagues; the wind remained scant, however, all day, so that Rogers and his crew had the mortification of seeing first the "Marquiss" and then the "Dutchess" briskly engage the gallion without being able to join them; in fact it was midnight before they did so, and then only to find that the "Marquiss" had fired away nearly all her powder and shot with little or no effect, her guns being too small, and that the "Dutchess" had been forced to stretch away, with several men wounded, from the Spaniard, to repair her foremast and other defects, among which was a shot in her powder-room. "Curiously enough," Rogers says, "the Spaniard had been making signals to the 'Duke,' and edging toward her all day, mistaking her for her lost consort, until just before dusk, otherwise, having little wind, and that against us, we should not have been up with her at all." The following day, however, the "Duke" was near enough to join in the fight, but only to find, as the "Dutchess" and "Marquiss" had done before her, that their largest round shot (six-pounders) did very little hurt to the gallion, a brave new ship, the "Bignonia," of 900 tons and 60 guns, and well provided with close-quarters,[19] and her waist protected by strong boarding-netting.[20] The "Dutchess" had now twenty men killed and wounded, while a fire-ball from the enemy's roundtop, lighting on the "Duke's" quarter-deck, blew up an ammunition chest, by which Mr. Vanbrugh and a Dutchman were much burnt; while Rogers says, "Just before we blew up on the quarter deck I was unfortunately wounded by a splinter in the left foot, part of my heel bone being struck out and ankle cut above half through, which bled very much before it could be dressed, and weaken'd me so that I could not stand, but lay on my back in great misery." From first to last they had been engaged six or seven hours, and placed not less than 500 shot in the gallion; yet there she lay "driving," the Spanish flag obstinately flying from her maintopmast head, "all our battering signing little beyond killing two men in her tops, and shattering her rigging."
After a long engagement are forced to let the large Manila ship go.
As all this fighting was simply of a commercial character, a council was now assembled on board the "Duke," and though the Spaniard still "lay with his mainyard aback, expecting another brush," it was at once decided, "that after keeping the galleon company till night, they should then lose her, and return to the harbour to look after the prize already taken." This measure was the more urgent as ammunition of all sorts was running short, and the "Duke's" mainmast shot through miserably in two places, so that it settled to it, threatening every moment to fall by the board, and bring other spars down with it; which, as they had a long voyage before them, and masts not easily got there without great delay, might even endanger the safety of the whole expedition. It was indeed lucky for them that they did not attempt to board this great ship, for they learnt afterwards that her complement of men amounted to 450, besides passengers; while in all three ships they had now less than 120 men left fit for boarding. Soon after this the "Spaniard filled her sails and made away W.N.W.," glad enough, no doubt, to lose sight of them, though in size and force she was quite equal to the great gallion that, to Lord Anson's surprise, bore down upon the "Centurion," of 60 guns, instead of trying to avoid her. Weight of metal, however, enabled him to make as short work of that gallion as Rogers did of the smaller one.
Rogers himself was of opinion that had the "Duke" and "Dutchess" attacked this ship together in the first instance, they would have taken her, and was most anxious for that reason that the "Dutchess" and "Marquiss" should not go out of port until his ship was ready to sail. The majority, however, decided then that he should remain in port until the arrangements for the security of the smaller gallion and her prisoners were completed. Upon arriving at Port Segura the prisoners, with Captain Pichberty, his officers, and a padre, were supplied with water and provisions, and after acknowledging in writing "that they had been very civilly treated," were despatched in the small bark to Acapulco.
FOOTNOTES:
[17] On returning to England, Rogers learnt that Mr. Hatley's bark was not lost; but that, after pluckily keeping the sea for a fortnight without water, he was forced to make for the mainland; where he and his companions fell into the hands of some Spanish Indians, and were by them tied up to a tree, whipped, and otherwise illtreated, their lives being only saved by a padre, who interfered and cut them down; after which Hatley remained a prisoner at Lima for some time.
[18] Even in Nelson's time, and later, it was not unusual to find women, the wives of petty officers, on board a man-of-war in commission, who acted as washerwomen, and helped the surgeons and their mates in the sick-bay, or on the orlop deck among the wounded in time of action; and the author can remember one of these old ladies, about forty years ago, living in the island of Jersey with her husband, a retired gunner, who had been in the actions of the Nile and Trafalgar.
[19] "Close-quarters." Strong barriers of wood across a ship in certain places, used as a retreat when boarded, fitted with loop-holes for small arms, and often with powder-chests on the deck over them, which can be fired from the close-quarters upon a boarding party.