Frederic Stanhope Hill

“ The early dawn is breaking, and by its dim light and the blaze of a fire-raft drifting down past us I see just abreast of us a light river-boat crowded with rebel troops. As I look at her the captain of my No. 5 gun loads with grape and cannister, and depresses his gun as he trains it point blank upon the crowd of trembling wretches. ”

“ Many an evening, when a boy, I have coiled myself up on the deck, close to the windlass bitts, with my jacket rolled up under my head as a pillow, and have listened with eager interest to those tough yarns, while the good ship, with every inch of canvas, from courses to moonsails, drawing, gently rose and fell with rhythmic motion, as she ploughed her way through the long rolling swells of the broad Pacific. ”

“ From this point the view was very extended; and unslinging my marine glass, I, sailor-like, turned first to look at the beautiful picture my noble ship presented gracefully riding at her anchors, her tall masts tapering skyward, the ensign and pennant drooping idly from the peak and masthead in the light air, the guns peering from her side being the only thing to indicate that she was not some “peaceful merchant caravel.”
“She is certainly a beauty, doctor. You don’t often see a prettier craft, and she is as good as she is bonny, and carries a swift pair of heels into the bargain! ”

“ We were supposed to be in port, and Jack dearly loves his “Sunday liberty,” with its attendant run ashore; but here no one cared to go on shore on Sundays or any other day, merely to wander about in the sand, half devoured by mosquitoes, and without a living soul to exchange a word with. Then, to make it even more disagreeable, as the bay is unprotected, and it was in the winter season, we were compelled to stand anchor watches at night, and keep our sails bent in readiness to slip our anchors and work off shore if a norther should strike us. ”

“ The effect of this murderous fire, at such close quarters, upon the crowd massed upon the proa’s deck was terrific, and the slaughter was frightful. Yet, by some strange chance, the captain, a tall, vicious-looking Malay, stripped to the waist and waving a naked kreese to encourage his followers, had escaped uninjured, and was shouting to his men, to rally them, with the evident intent of boarding us. ”

“ As the smoke blew to leeward I sprang on the rail, and as our ship payed off and the sails filled, the foremast of the leading proa snapped off a few feet above the deck and fell overboard with a great crash, dragging with it the heavy lateen sail!
“Good shot, Kelson!” shouted Captain Archer from the poop; “that fellow has got his hands full of work and is out of the game for the present!” And our men set up a hearty cheer at this sudden and unexpected discomfiture of our adversary. ”

“ Responsive to the call, the quiet ship was soon alive with men hastening to their stations.
“Stand by halyards, sheets, clewlines, and downhauls fore and aft!” shouted the executive officer through his trumpet. “Lower away; let go; clew up, haul down!” There was a whizzing of ropes, a flapping of canvas, and in a moment the yards were down and the sails were hanging in festoons.
“Away, topgallant and royal yard men! Lay aloft, topmen and lower yard men! Trice up booms; lay out; furl!”
A hundred men sprang into the rigging as they were called away ”

“ The ship was at once hove to, every one rushed on deck, and there, on the weather quarter, the figure of a man was seen rising and falling on the crest of the dark green waves. Fortunately as he passed astern some one had thrown an empty chicken coop overboard, which, drifting near him, he had managed to get hold of, and to this he was clinging for dear life.
Captain Arthur at once called for volunteers for the whaleboat, which swung on the port quarter, and a good crew was speedily selected. ”

“ By eleven o’clock the wind veered to the southwest and became squally, the tide began to flow and the swell to heave. At 11.30 the ship began to move, but just then the hawser parted. Captain Arthur immediately ordered the boats to pull away about forty-five degrees abaft the starboard beam; the breeze freshened and gave a greater impulse to the strain of the stream cable, and, to our delight, the ship launched off and got sternway, which, the boats assisting, swung her around on her heel with her head to the northward. ”

“ A young master’s mate hurries past me bearing a message to the captain, who is on the topgallant forecastle; as he goes up the ladder and touches his cap to his commander a rifle ball from the fort, whose walls we are close abreast of, strikes him in the forehead, and the poor boy falls dead, his message not yet delivered! ”

“ The greatest difficulty I experienced was in keeping my men out of sight. They were as full of excitement as a cat watching for a mouse, and would endeavor to steal up the hatchways for a peep at the schooner, notwithstanding all the vigilance of their officers.
At last the schooner was within little more than a cable’s length of our port quarter, and her crew were standing by to shorten sail, in anticipation of anchoring, when I quietly walked across the poop and gave Mr. Taylor the word. ”

“ And by the next morning, when the ship would be down the river at the Belize, the tugboat was cast off, and then, and not until then, would the ship’s crew be needed to make sail and clear up the decks for sea.
It was the duty of the junior officer to receive and count the men as they came on board ship in every stage of intoxication. Some were brought over the gangway, absolutely helpless, by two stalwart runners; and when the ship’s quota had been duly delivered in the forecastle the shipping and boarding-house masters received a month’s advance pay for each man. ”

“ I did the best I could to make life endurable for the poor wretch. An old thick suit of mine he deftly made over for himself, and some of his shipmates helped him out with a few other clothes. But, even with the best intention, I could not make a sailor of poor Shang,—it was not in him, for he was a most helpless lubber,—and that was the misery of it.
He had been shipped and entered on our ship’s articles as an able seaman, and Joe had received sixteen dollars of monthly wages on his account. Our crew was short, at best, the winter voyage was a stormy one, and poor Shang could not be favored. ”

“ I know that I shall perish before we get there! Ach, lieber Gott, vot become of my lieblinge! Aber des Himmels Wege; sind des Himmels Wege!”
At last the long voyage was nearly at an end. Cape Clear was in sight one night as I came up to take the watch at midnight, and a very pleasant sight it was to all of us. There was a stiff all-sail breeze from the southward, and we were laying our course fairly up channel. I was looking over the quarter-rail at the light, now well abeam, as Shang came aft and drew near me. ”

“ We furled all sails, and I was sent by Captain Arthur in the cutter to sound around the ship. I found the eastern edge of the reef on which we lay to be very steep, with shelves projecting beyond each other as it deepened. These edges were of very sharp and ragged coral, descending so rapidly as scarcely to allow room to lay an anchor on. ”

“ As the dense white smoke of the burning brimstone in the vessel curled up, the captain lowered the pot through the hole in the deck, keeping it close up to the beams and out of reach of the men below, and then placed two wet swabs over the hole, so that none of the fumes could escape above.
Flesh and blood could not endure the suffocating vapors that immediately filled the forecastle. In less than five minutes there was a terrific rush up the ladder, and a violent effort was made to raise the hatch, which was prevented by the lashings and the heavy kedge anchor. ”

“ The captain of one of my guns is struck full in the face by a solid shot and his head is severed from his body; as he falls the lockstring in his hand is pulled and his gun is discharged! “Hurry the body below and load again!”
I call my junior officer to take my place while I go to my forward gun, and as I turn a shell explodes and tears his right arm away! ”

“ So in July we ran the batteries again, down river and at night this time, giving up the capture of Vicksburg to the army; and we all know the history of that long and tedious siege.
Preparations now commenced in good earnest for the naval attack upon Mobile, and we learned that for that service several of the new monitors were to be sent out to our fleet. But Farragut, now admiral, was a very old-fashioned sailor, with a strong prejudice in favor of wooden ships: he had gained all his victories in such ships, and he said he was too old a dog to learn new tricks. ”

“ A vivid flash of lightning, emphasized by a rattling clap of thunder, followed hard upon this remark.
“Yes, indeed; you must get in your studding sails and flying kites at once, Mr. Allen, for it is coming down upon us by the run!”
Mr. Bailey came on deck and took the trumpet, as executive officer, the boatswain’s call sounded shrill, and the light sails came rapidly in.
“Furl the topgallant sails, sir!” I cried. And they were barely in when the wind was howling.
“Stand by topsail halyards fore and aft, clew lines and reef tackles. Let go, clew down and haul out. ”

“ As we had not been able to get an observation for several days, I hurried on deck with my sextant. Just as I had braced myself against the port rail, the man at the wheel carelessly let the ship yaw, and a great wave that must have weighed tons came aboard, smashing the starboard quarter boat to flinders, dashing in the cabin skylight, and sweeping the decks in a terrible manner. ”

“ With this force Flag Officer Farragut was expected to accomplish a feat which up to that time had never yet been performed successfully,—to reduce two forts situated in swamps on the banks of a rapid stream, where there was no possibility of coöperation by the land forces, and then to pass seventy-five miles up a river guarded, as we believed, by earthworks bristling with guns, to the conquest of a city garrisoned by fifty thousand troops and defended by formidable iron-clad batteries! ”

“ With the instinctive impulse of obedience to a commanding officer, the man at once obeyed and went for the water, without a second thought.
During his absence Glenny crawled out of the window to the guards and lowered himself down by a rope into a small fishing-canoe they had towing alongside. He then cut the painter, and in a moment he had dropped astern in the swift current and vanished in the darkness! ”

“ Bailey, following my suggestions, had transformed my dandy man-of-war bark into a merchant drogher, to all appearance from a short distance. He had also got himself up in the masquerade costume of a Kennebunk mate, and in his shirt sleeves was lounging over the midship rail, cigar in mouth, watching the approach of our Confederate friend, who was standing in for the anchorage evidently entirely unconscious of any lurking danger. ”

“ Then one afternoon I went on board the Princess Royal to make my farewell call on Captain Colvocoresses, and returning to my ship, was about getting under weigh, when, taking a look seaward, I saw a schooner standing in for the harbor from the eastward.
Mr. Bailey, who was looking at her intently with his glass, exclaimed: “Captain, she is full of cotton and carrying a large deck load. She is a blockade runner, sure!” ”

“ Everything is done with the utmost silence, save for the thunder of the mortar fleet, which has now gone at it, hammer and tongs, and the air above us is filled with the hurtling shells, made visible in their passage, like comets, by their trains of fire. ”

“ It was very evident that they had a wholesome objection to our 9-inch guns at closer quarters.
Their shells passed over us and fell near us, but only one, a spent shell, came in through an after port, but fortunately it failed to explode, and Lieutenant Edward Terry calmly picked it up and threw it overboard.
The usual signal, “Chase the enemy,” was made to the Water Witch, and like a bantam rooster she steamed up toward the two steamers, and they withdrew out of range. ”

“ I then laid in a sufficient supply of stores for a voyage of four months; and obtaining the necessary papers for my vessel from the government officials, who were all very sympathetic, I took Charlie on board as pilot, and sailed from Valparaiso with a fair wind, on the 6th of May, in search of my runaway ship.
I found my schooner all that I could have wished: she was very fast and easily handled; and the crew, which was largely made up of runaway men-of-war’s men, were familiar with the use of the great guns and well drilled in small arms. ”