The forty sail Rogers found lying in Batavia Road were nearly all Dutch, and during his stay there of four months only five other English ships touched at the port.
Owing to "some unwholesome water drunk by his crew while careening at Horn Island," Rogers lost several men here by fever, &c., and to replace them and others, who tempted maybe by the price of arrack,[24] ran from the ships at this time, thirty-four Dutch sailors were shipped before sailing. Rogers must have known something of sailors and their ways, but even he expresses surprise at men deserting so late in the voyage, and losing their hard-earned share of prize-money, or, as he calls it, "plunder;" perhaps, however, in the case of the "Duke's" men, the prospect of constant work at the pumps had something to do with their leaving her.
The "Duke," "Dutchess," and "Batchelor," did not actually take their "departure from Java Head" until October 4th, and it was the 27th of December before they "came up with Cape Falso and by noon were abreast of the Cape of Good Hope and saw the Table Land." During this three months' voyage, Rogers says, "nothing remarkable happen'd, except that on the 31st of October the 'Duke' having three feet of water in her, and her pumps choaked, we fir'd guns for our consorts to come to our relief, but had just sucked her" (i.e., pumped her dry) "as the 'Dutchess' came up."
"During the whole of this voyage," Rogers says, "he remained very thin and weak, as his ship did leaky," and the day after anchoring in Table Bay, "they buried Mr. Ware, chief surgeon, with naval honours as usual; being a very honest useful man, and good surgeon, bred up at Leyden in the study of phisick as well as surgery."
They lost also while at the Cape another important officer, in the person of Mr. Vanbrugh; who in the early part of the cruise, as the "Duke's" agent, more than once gave Rogers trouble in his negotiations about plunder, &c.
My proposals to the other Capts. not comply'd with.
The expenses of ships in commission could not have been great in Rogers' time, or they would have entirely swallowed any profits, even of a privateering cruise, due to the owners, owing to the length of time the vessels lay idle at anchorages such as Batavia Roads and Table Bay. For though the "Duke" and her consorts arrived at the Cape on the 27th of December, 1710, it was April, 1711, before they sailed for England in company with sixteen Dutch East Indiamen and six English ships. Rogers was anxious himself not to have waited for the convoy of these ships. "Thinking we should loose too much time by staying for them, and the benefit of their convoy to Holland; which would not only be out of the way, but very tedious and chargeable, while having large quantities of decaying goods on board, the time lost in waiting for the Dutch at the Cape might be better spent in Brazil, where we could lie in little danger from an enemy and vend our goods at great rates; sailing thence to Bristol through the North channel with the summer before us. Keeping in the latitude of 55 or 56 degrees for two or three hundred leagues before getting the length" (i.e. longitude) "of the north of Ireland, and by that means avoiding the track of an enemy." But though Rogers earnestly press'd that if they would not agree to this, one of the privateers might take this run alone, and the other keep with the 'Batchelor' and Dutch fleet, the majority was against the thing, and thought it safer to go home altogether under convoy of the Dutch than run any risk of losing their rich prize by meeting an enemy between the Cape and home. Much of the officers' time during their long stay at the Cape was spent ashore holding sales of prize goods to the Dutch settlers; and among other things so disposed of, mention is particularly made of twelve negroes. Rogers also wrote to his owners from here telling them "of his safe arrival with the Acapulco ship, now called the 'Batchelor' frigate mounted with 20 great guns, and 200 brass patereroes, with 116 men; a firm ship; and that the 'Duke' and 'Dutchess,' being fitted with everything necessary, only waited for the fleet which was expected to sail about the end of March."
Including the "Duke," "Dutchess," and "Batchelor," a fleet of twenty-five armed ships was now ready to sail under the command of a Dutch flag, vice- and rear-admiral. For though really only armed merchantmen, the commanders of these Dutch Indiamen, most of which were a thousand tons, took the rank and state of officers in the Dutch navy. And it must have been a picturesque scene in Table Bay, when at daybreak on the 5th of April "the Flag hoisted a blue ensign, loos'd his foretopsail, and fir'd a gun as the signal to unmoor." In doing which on board the "Duke," Rogers says, "our cable rubb'd against the oakum, which for a time had partially stopped the leak, and occasioned his ship to be as leaky as ever, after having been indifferent tight for some time." As soon as the fleet was under weigh, the captains of the English vessels were signalled to go on board the flag-ship, to receive their order of sailing, &c., "which were very particular and obligatory to be punctually observ'd."