join the channel fleet off ushant—capture the french frigate gentille, also a twenty-four-gun ship five days later—fleet returns to portsmouth—prize-money—to sea again in charge of a convoy—transport with two hundred hessian troops on board founders off cape finisterre—suddenly ordered to west indies—fight between a negro and a shark at port royal, jamaica—dignity balls—collision with h.m.s. sampson—outbreak of yellow fever—ordered to sea—capture two french ships and two privateers.
we were now destined to make one of the channel fleet, which we joined off the island of ushant, consisting of thirty-six sail of the line and seven frigates.
at daylight on the 6th of october, 1794, our signal was made to chase three suspicious vessels in the s.w. on nearing them we made the private signal, which they did not answer. we beat to quarters, and as they were under the same sail as when we first saw them, we neared them fast, and when within gunshot the nearest yawed and gave us a broadside, running up a french ensign, as did the other two. the shot fell short of us; we opened our main-deck guns and brought down her mizzen top-mast. the other two fired from time to time at us with little effect. they did not support their companion as they ought to have done. in a [pg 47]short time we were nearly alongside the one we had engaged, and gave her another broadside which she returned, and struck her colours. she proved the gentille, of forty-four guns and three hundred and eighty men. the other two, also french frigates of the same size, made all sail to the southwards. the enemy had eight men killed and fifteen wounded; we had four men wounded. we soon exchanged the prisoners; put the second lieutenant, a master’s mate, three midshipmen and fifty men on board her, and sent her to portsmouth. we immediately made sail in chase of the others, but as they had gained a considerable distance from us during the time we were exchanging the prisoners, there was little chance, without a change of wind, of overtaking them. in the middle watch we lost sight of them, and the day after rejoined the fleet. in five days afterwards we were again in chase of a ship, and after a severe tug of fourteen hours we captured her. she proved a french twenty-four-gun ship, with one hundred and sixty-five men. we also sent her into portsmouth. after having cruised off and on near ushant for about eight weeks, we were ordered to portsmouth, where we arrived shortly afterwards and completed our stores for six months. before sailing we received some prize-money, which produced, from stem to stern, little wisdom, much fun, and more folly. we were again ready for sea, and received orders to repair off plymouth and join part of the channel fleet and a convoy consisting of more than two hundred sail, [pg 48]bound to different parts of the world. in a few days we joined the rest of the fleet off cape finisterre, where some of the convoy parted company. the day following a most tremendous gale sprung up from the s.w., and in the night a transport with two hundred hessian troops on board went down on our weather beam. the shrieks of the poor fellows were distinctly heard. as it was impossible to render them any assistance, every soul on board her perished. in the morning the convoy were much dispersed; the gale continuing, they were ordered to leave the fleet for their destinations. after the gale abated the signal was made for our captain. an hour afterwards he came back looking as black as a thundercloud. as soon as he reached the quarter-deck he stamped with rage, and when it had nearly subsided he informed the officers that we were to proceed to the west indies without delay. this was an unexpected shock to many of the officers as well as himself, as they had left some of their clothes behind; however, there was no remedy for this mishap. as for myself, i anticipated a merry meeting with the many copper-coloured dignity ladies i formerly knew, provided the land-crabs had not feasted on their delicate persons.
in the afternoon we gave a long, lingering look at the fleet, and parted company with two other seventy-fours who were in the same scrape. our noble captain did not get rid of his angry looks for some days, and actually wept at what he termed [pg 49]the treacherous conduct of the admiralty. we understood afterwards that he was under an engagement of marriage to the sister of a nobleman, which was to have taken place in three months. nothing worth notice occurred during the passage, except the visit from neptune and his wife, and the shaving and ducking all his new acquaintances, who were rather numerous. we saw several tropical birds, which the sailors call boatswains, in consequence of their having one long feather for a tail, which they term a marlin-spike—an iron instrument sharp at one end and knobbed at the other, used in splicing ropes, etc.
the captain of marines also shot an albatross or man-of-war bird, so called from its manner of skimming through the air after other birds, which the seamen compare to sailing. it measured seven feet from pinion to pinion. on the fifth week of our separation from the fleet we made the island of san domingo, and on the day after anchored with the squadron in cape st. nicholas mole. we found here the sampson, of sixty-four guns, the magicienne and the thorn, and some transports. this mole, or harbour, is formed by the high land of the island on the right hand going in, and on the left by a peninsula, joined by a narrow sandy isthmus to the island at the head of the mole. it is strongly fortified. the harbour is a fine one, and would contain the whole british fleet. the town has a common appearance and has nothing remarkable in it. we remained here three weeks, at the end of which period [pg 50]we ran down to jamaica, and anchored off port royal. this town is built on a small peninsula, joined to the island by a long, narrow neck of sand called the palisades. here all unfortunate whites who depart this life become feasts for crabs of all descriptions, as it is the place of burial for the town and men-of-war. this isthmus is the dam which secures the harbour of kingston from the inroads of the sea. the houses of this town are generally not more than a single storey high, constructed of wood with overhanging shingled roofs, and verandahs in front, which prevent the sun entering the rooms.
photograph of plymouth harbour.
plymouth harbour. [frith, reigate.
one evening, being on shore at port royal, seated on a bench, i overheard a grey, woolly-headed black man relate the following story. i will give it in good english. in the year 1788, said he, the harbour of port royal was much troubled by a very large shark, which drove all the fish out to sea and distressed a number of fishermen. every attempt had been made to catch him, but without success. he at length became so constant a visitor that they named him “port royal tom.” at last, continued old sambo, for that was the narrator’s name, a young friend of mine, who was a very strong, courageous fisherman, said if the magistrates of the town would give him a doubloon, he would engage the shark and try to kill him in single combat. the magistrates consented, and two mornings after, before the sea-breeze set in, the dorsal fin of “port royal tom” [pg 51]was discovered. the black fisherman, nothing dismayed, paddled out to the middle of the harbour where the shark was playing about; he plunged into the water armed with a pointed carving knife. the monster immediately made towards him, and when he turned on his side (which providentially sharks are obliged to do to seize their prey, their mouths being placed so much underneath) the fisherman, with great quickness and presence of mind, dived, and stabbed him in the bowels. the shark, in agony, gave a horrid splash with his tail, and disappeared for a short time. he then rose again and attempted to seize the man a second time, but the latter once more dived and gave him his death-blow; he then regained his canoe almost exhausted. the shark soon after turned on his side, discolouring the water with his blood. four men in a canoe threw a rope over his tail and towed him on shore, where all the town came to meet the courageous fisherman, with the magistrates at their head, who presented him with his well-merited reward and his liberty. the shark was dissected and the skeleton sent to spanish town, where a few years afterwards it fell to pieces for want of care. this unfortunate town has been twice destroyed by an earthquake; the ruins on a clear day may be seen in three-fathom water.
we had been refitting and amusing ourselves on shore by dancing at dignity balls given by the upper-class copper-coloured washerwomen, who are the quintessence of perfection in affectation, when [pg 52]we were obliged to bid adieu to these interesting copper and coal-skinned ladies, as the ship was reported ready for sea, and the following morning we weighed and stood out of the harbour. as we passed the point we saw handkerchiefs without number waved by our dear, motley-coloured damsels as a farewell. we beat up to st. domingo and anchored in cape st. nicholas mole, where we found the leviathan, raisonable, sampson, and several frigates. we remained a week, and sailed with the above-named ships on a cruise round the island. on the third night after sailing, which was very dark with a fiery sea-breeze, the sampson (sixty-four) ran on board of us. she came with such force that she, by the shock, carried away her fore-mast, bowsprit, main-top mast and figure-head. she fortunately struck us abaft the main channels; had she done so amidships, it would have meant the destruction of both ships and of about a thousand lives. her larboard bumpkin dismounted the eighteen-pounder in the foremost lieutenant’s cabin in the wardroom, and in falling clear she swept away both quarter galleries from the side, one of which was fitted up as a library for the first lieutenant, who lost all his books. some of the mids who loved him were wicked enough to say that it was a punishment inflicted on him for mastheading them so often. i say nothing!
the sampson was towed to jamaica by the success frigate to repair her damages, and a fortnight afterwards we followed. the heroes of the cockpit [pg 53]declared the commodore was ashamed of our appearance. as we had only galleries on one side, we looked like a pig with one ear.
we anchored at port royal in the afternoon, and before the sails were furled we were surrounded by a number of boats and canoes filled with dignity and first and second-class dingy damsels, some of them squalling songs of their own composition in compliment to the ship and officers, accompanied by several banjos. when the ropes were coiled down they were admitted on board, when they began dancing round the quarter-deck and making love to the officers for their washing. having accomplished the purpose of their visit, they departed, promising that we should “hab ebery ting berry clean by saturday ebening, and dat he lib in hope for see massa at him house berry soon.”
the carpenters from the dockyard soon repaired the quarter galleries, and made good all other defects, when that fatal scourge, the yellow fever, made its appearance among the ship’s company. the schoolmaster, a clever, intelligent young man, who had been educated at christ’s hospital, was the first victim. this was quite sufficient to alarm the nerves of our gallant captain, who never joined the ship afterwards; he, having obtained permission from the admiral to return to england by a lugger going with despatches, took french leave of the whole of us—that is, no leave at all. in a few days afterwards captain b. joined us as acting-captain. he was a young, active, and smart officer. the [pg 54]yellow fever was now making lamentable havoc among the crew. six were either carried to the hospital or buried daily. after losing fifty-two men, one of the lieutenants, the captain’s clerk, and four mids, the captain requested the admiral’s permission to go to sea, for, although we had more than thirty cases of the fever on board, the surgeon thought the pure sea-breeze might be the means of preserving their lives. alas! he was fatally mistaken, for nearly the whole of them were thrown over the standing part of the fore-sheet before we returned from our cruise. we were one hundred and sixty short of our complement of men, besides having about fifty more in their hammocks, but the captain wished to persevere in keeping the sea. we had been from jamaica three weeks, cruising on the south side of st. domingo, when we captured a french brig of war of fourteen guns and one hundred and twenty-five men, and two days afterwards a large schooner privateer of one long eighteen-pounder on a traverse, and six eighteen-pounder carronades, with seventy-eight men. we now had nearly two hundred prisoners on board, and thought it prudent to retrace our steps to port royal, when on the following morning we fell in with two more schooner-rigged privateers. the first we captured mounted a long brass twelve-pounder and two six-pounders, with sixty-eight men. the other during the time we were exchanging prisoners had got considerably to windward of us. fortunately towards the evening it fell calm, when we manned and armed three of [pg 55]the boats. i had command of the six-oared cutter with eight seamen and three marines. in the launch were the lieutenant, a mid, and eighteen men, and in the other cutter as many as my boat held. we were two hours on our oars before we got within musket-shot of her. she had several times fired at us from her long gun charged with grape-shot, but without effect. we cheered and gave way, when her last charge knocked down the coxswain of the cutter i was in, who died a few hours afterwards, being shot in the head. the lieutenant and one man were slightly wounded in the launch. we were soon under the depression of her gun and alongside, when, on boarding her, one half of her motley crew ran below. the captain and the remainder made a show of resistance, when we ordered the marines to present. as soon as they saw we had possession of her decks and were advancing with our pistols cocked and our cutlasses upraised, they threw down their arms and surrendered. she proved a french privateer with a long six-pounder on a traverse and eight one-pound swivels, with fifty-two men. we took her in tow and soon regained the ship. we made all sail for port royal with our four prizes, and on our arrival next morning astonished our black and yellow-faced acquaintances, who, as before, came off with boats and banjos to welcome our return, not a little by our success. the following morning we sent fifty men to the hospital. we had buried during the cruise forty-three seamen, besides two mids and another of the [pg 56]lieutenants. the most healthy were the first attacked, and generally died on the third day. out of the five hundred and sixty men we brought from england, we had only now two hundred to do the duty of the ship.
