"Gentlemen, shall we fight her?"
"Aye! Aye!" came from all. "She"s afraid of us!"
The vessel, in fact, was a treasure ship which had been recently chased by some English men-of-war and had already landed her treasure, to the value of about one million sterling (about $5,000,000). A slight breeze sprang up, at about five in the afternoon, and the big ship kept on her course; the gamey _King George_ following, while the white sails of the _Prince Frederick_ were far astern, as the breeze had not yet struck her. So they swashed along, the Englishmen anxious for a fight, and a chance to overhaul the supposed treasure which the stranger was carrying. At eight o"clock the _King George_ was struck by a favorable puff of wind, and came quite close to the seventy-four.
It was time for battle.
"What ship is that?" hailed Captain Walker, in the Portuguese tongue.
He was cleared for action and his men were all lying down at their quarters. There was no answer to his challenge.
"What ship is that?" he asked again; this time in English.
A voice came back,--also in English,
"And what ship may you be?"
"The _King George_."
_Crash! B-oo-m!_
A thundering broadside belched from the side of the seventy-four, dismounting two guns on the port side of the _King George_, and bringing the main topsail yard crashing to the deck. It was now bright moonlight, and in its radiance the flag of the stranger was seen to blow straight out, disclosing her nationality to be Spanish. She was the _Glorioso_: a strong and powerful vessel, ably officered and ably manned. She towered above the little _King George_ like a church-spire, and her broadsides now sputtered with great regularity.
_Crash! Crash! Crash!_
The sprightly little _King George_ kept after the big warship like a sword-fish chasing a whale. She drew so close that some burning wads from the Spanish guns set fire to her mainsail. Continually hoping that the _Prince Frederick_ would come up, the gallant Walker hammered away at the _Glorioso_ with furious precision, and drove her so near the rocks off Cape Vincent that the castle guns began to play upon the two grappling warriors of the sea. The British sea-captain fought and commanded with "a calmness peculiar to himself" and his example secured order and discipline even in the thickest of the fight, when the mainsail was set on fire. He was magnificent in action.
So the unequal struggle kept on. By half-past ten the _King George_ had been so severely damaged aloft that she could not have escaped if she had tried. All the braces were shot away; the foremast was quite disabled; and the mainmast was badly splintered. Battered, torn, and distressed she kept banging away at the great, towering Spaniard; while the big fellow ceased her fire somewhat, and ever now and again let go a broadside, like the blow from the mouth of a huge whale. It sounded like, _Chu-spow!_
[Ill.u.s.tration: ACTION BETWEEN THE "GLORIOSO" AND THE "KING GEORGE" AND "PRINCE FREDERICK" UNDER GEORGE WALKER.]
But hurrah! hurrah! The _Prince Frederick_ had at last caught the breeze, and came bouncing by, her little pennons fluttering like so many silk stockings on a clothes-line.
"Are you all well?" shouted her commander, as he neared the splintered _King George_. "You look as if you"re sinking."
Captain Walker came to the rail with the speaking-trumpet in his hand.
"One killed and fifteen wounded," he answered. "Now sail after that Spanish villain and take her, in revenge for all the damage that she has done me. She"s a treasure ship."
"All right," Captain Dottin called back, and he kept on after the _Glorioso_, which was now rapidly drawing away.
By the bright moonlight it could be seen that the _Duke_ and the _Prince George_ were also approaching. And, when they came close enough to the maimed and battered _King George_, her captain called to them, "to keep on after the Spaniard, and catch the rascal." They continued on their way, and, at daybreak the three vessels could be seen, through the gla.s.s, as they closed in upon the Spanish game-c.o.c.k from three sides. "She"ll be ours before nightfall," said Captain Walker, chuckling.
The headmost ship, apparently the _Duke_ under Captain Dottin, could now be seen to hotly engage the _Glorioso_, which greatly displeased the captain of the dismantled _King George_.
"Dottin will fire away all of his cartridges," said he, turning to a few of his officers, who cl.u.s.tered around him. "He will shoot them all off at too great a distance, and will afterwards be obliged to load with loose powder, by which some fatal accident is sure to occur. He"s a brave fellow, but a rash one!"
He had scarcely spoken, when a broadside rang out. Simultaneously, with the discharge of the guns, a pillar of smoke and flame shot high into the air.
"Good Heavens, the _Duke_ has blown up!" cried Captain Walker. "Dottin and his brave followers have found a watery grave!"
"It is merely the smoke of a broadside," one of the officers interrupted.
"No! No!" answered Walker, dejectedly. "It"s the last that will ever be seen of n.o.ble Dottin and his men!"
The smoke now cleared away and no ship was to be seen upon the surface of the water. The _Glorioso_ was still-belching both smoke and flame, and near her were three sails, indistinctly seen through a haze of smoke and fog. Could it not have been the _Duke_, after all? "Vain thought," cried bold Walker, aloud. "Our bravest and best ship has gone to the bottom."
This terrible incident had such an effect upon the seamen of the _King George_ that Captain Walker called the officers aside into the companionway, and there made them a speech.
"My brave men," said he, "you must keep up an air of cheerfulness before these fellows of ours, for, otherwise they will be backward in fighting, and will not have the courage which we desire. Go among them and show no sign that you are lacking in pleasantry."
As he ceased speaking there was a series of sudden explosions, mingled with cries of alarm.
"Gad zooks! What"s happened!" cried all, rushing to the deck.
They found matters in a sorry state, for the crew was in a panic; some clinging outside the ship; some climbing out upon the bowsprit, all ready to jump overboard should the vessel blow up.
Captain Walker was astonished. "Why, men!" said he. "What means this confusion?"
It was easily explained, for the alarm had been caused by a seaman who stepped upon a number of loaded muskets, which had been covered by a sail. One was fired off accidentally, and this exploded some spare ammunition, set the sail on fire, and completely demoralized the crew; who still were thinking of the sad tragedy which they had just witnessed. Order was quickly restored, the blazing sail was torn down and bucketed, and the terrified sailors came back to their posts. When men have their nerves shattered, it is easy to startle them.
But how about the _Glorioso_?
The fair-fighting Spaniard was far out of sight, by now, still whanging away at her many enemies, and still proudly flaunting the flag of Arragon in the faces of the British war-dogs, who were snapping and snarling at her like a wolf pack. What became of her was not known for several days, when the poor, battered _King George_ staggered into a sheltering harbor, there to meet with the _Duke_ herself, which was Dottin"s good ship,--the one which all had thought to have exploded and sunk.
"Hurray!" shouted many. "She"s afloat after all!"
Eager questioning brought out the fact that it had been the frigate _Dartmouth_ which had exploded; a vessel which had run near the fight in order to see the fun. Some loose powder had set fire to her magazine, and thus she had suffered the same fate as the _Fleuron_, which, as you remember, had blown up, when at anchor in the harbor of Brest. _It"s a wise ship that keeps away from a sea battle._
Only seventeen of the crew of this unfortunate craft had been picked up by the boats of the _Prince Frederick_; one of whom was an Irish lieutenant named O"Brien, who was hauled aboard Dottin"s vessel, clad only in a night shirt.
"Sirrah!" said he, bowing politely. "You must excuse the unfitness of my dress to come aboard a strange ship, but really I left my own in such a hurry that I had no time to stay for a change." He had been blown out of a port-hole!
An additional vessel, the _Russel_, had aided in the capture of the powerful _Glorioso_, so it had taken four privateers to down the proud Castilian: the _Duke_, the _Prince George_, the _Prince Frederick_, and the _Russel_. Certainly she had put up a magnificent battle and she had completely crippled the stout little craft sailed by Captain Walker, who was now filled with chagrin and mortification, when he found that the treasure (which he had been sure was in the hold) had been safely landed at Ferrol, before he had sighted this valorous man-of-warsman. It was a great blow both to him and to his men, and, upon arriving at Lisbon he was met by one of the owners of his own vessel, who severely reprimanded him for fighting with such a powerful boat.
"Captain Walker," said he, "I fear that your fighting blood is superior to your prudence!"
But to this, the game old sea-dog replied, with considerable heat:
"Had the treasure been aboard the _Glorioso_, as I expected, my dear sir, your compliment would have been far different. Or had we let her escape from us with the treasure aboard, what would you have said then?"
To these sage reflections the owner did not reply.
The honesty and courage of this able seaman were never questioned, and the following incident bears good witness to the first quality. Upon one occasion he was sailing for Lisbon in a well-armed privateer, when a couple of East India trading ships offered him 1,000 ($5,000) if he would act as their guard and protect them from the enemy.
"Gentlemen," said he to the captain of these vessels, "I shall never take a reward for what I consider it my duty to do without one. I consider it my bounden duty to conduct you both safely into port, for you are both British ships, and I am engaged to fight the enemies of our King."
So he convoyed them safely into port and would not take even the smallest present, in recompense for his services.
As a fighter he had no superior. War is simply glorified sport and those who are best trained athletically can usually win upon the battle-field. Did not Wellington say, "The battle of Waterloo was won upon the foot-ball grounds of Eton and Harrow?" Which was another way of saying that the boys who had learned to stand punishment upon the athletic field, could take it manfully and well upon the field of battle.