Captain Cavendish

“ As for the ships, the Tiger was untouched, and the flag-ship practically intact, but the Elizabeth had been somewhat severely mauled. Captain Cavendish’s first instructions were that the vessels should at once proceed to execute such repairs as were necessary, in order that they should not be at a disadvantage in the event of a storm overtaking them. But before even this business could be undertaken came the disposal of the dead. ”

“ Behind, at a distance of about half a mile, came the Elizabeth and the Good Adventure, close together.
Cavendish, having come on deck shortly after the first hail, looked at the fleet of the enemy, and then cast his eyes over his own small squadron, as if comparing in his mind the comparative strengths of the two fleets.
Then he gave the order: “Prepare the ship for action, men; clear the decks; get the hammocks rolled up and triced along the bulwarks; open the powder-magazine and get powder and shot on deck, and see that the captain of every gun has a plentiful supply of each. ”

“ I'll teach him to despise me! I only hope they may hang him—the villain! Hard labor for life would not be half punishment enough for him!"
They talk of presentiments! Surely, there never was such a thing, else why had George Cavendish no dim foreshadowing of the doom darkening so rapidly around him. He had told Val Blake he had an engagement. So he had; it was in Prince Street, with Mr. Tom Oaks, who had returned to Speckport, and who was going the road to ruin faster than any victim Captain Cavendish had ever in hand before. It was growing dusk when they left the gambling-hell ”

“ Tramp steamers, topsail schooners, steam, motor, and sailing yachts, tugs, "hoppers", and fishing-smacks passed in endless procession, little knowing the venomous nature of the little Complex as she ploughed her way through the calm water at a modest nine knots.
It was Alec Carr, the navigator, who showed Cavendish round the ship. Carr, a burly, six feet two inch giant, hailing from North Berwick, was the man for that job. He, like the Captain, knew the ship from end to end, since both had served in a similar craft during the later stages of the Great War. ”

“ Miss Nettleby was not at all shocked at this proposal; but I suppose the reader is. I know very well it is disgraceful in one calling himself a gentleman, and altogether dishonorable; but Captain Cavendish's ideas of honor, and yours and mine, are rather different. Had any one called him a liar or a swindler, or thrown a decanter at his head, or a tumbler of wine in his face, at the mess-table, or elsewhere, he would have considered his honor forfeited forever, if he did not stand up to shoot and be shot at by the offending party, as soon as possible afterward. ”

“ The captain’s face blazed with righteous anger as he spoke, and his expression was reflected on the countenances of the officers gathered round him. It boded ill indeed for the pirate if ever the squadron should fall in with him.
“Send a man into the chains,” continued Cavendish, speaking to Roger. “As the land lies so low in the water, it is not unlikely that the water round it is very shoal, and I have no wish to get any of the vessels ashore if I can help it. And order the signalman to signal the rest of the fleet to keep the lead going.” ”

“ Happy would it have been for the gallant Cavendish had he remained contentedly on shore, but his eager soul burned for fresh enterprises. Having fitted out a squadron of three ships and two barks, in one of which, the Roebuck, John Davis went as captain, he sailed from Plymouth on the 26th of August, 1591, for the purpose of finding a North-West Passage by way of the Pacific into the Atlantic. ”

“ You go ahead, youngster, and fear nothing. I’ll back you up to the last cent, whatever you do; and always remember that whenever you feel in need of information or advice, you have wise old Lyga to fall back upon, and he is a host in himself.”
Thus reassured, Dick Cavendish summoned a servant and forthwith dispatched him to the adjacent barracks in which the officers and men of the bodyguard were lodged, with a message requesting Captain Acor’s immediate attendance. ”

“ By this time I had descended to the deck, ready to take my post at quarters. The ladies still kept the deck, but the captain’s eye happening to fall on them, the stern expression of his countenance gave way to one of a milder character, and, approaching them, he said,
“I am afraid, my dear Miss St. Clair, that this will soon be no place for you or your fair companion. Allow me to send you to a place of safety. Ah! here is Mr. Cavendish, he will conduct you below.”
“Oh! Mr. Cavendish,” said Isabel, with a tremulous voice, “is there any chance of escape?” ”

“ Indignant at this, Cavendish resolved to send an expedition on shore to find their town and burn it. On the following day Captain Havers accordingly landed with a party of sixty well-armed men, who marched eight miles inland, till they were stopped by the steepness of the mountains at whose base they had arrived. ”

“ Roger and Harry had been sent ashore by Cavendish to take part in this work, as he wished them to get an insight into every part of the duties of a sailor, and thus make themselves two useful members of the crew, for the captain could not afford to carry any man who was not thoroughly proficient, the capacity of his ships being too small to afford accommodation to mere idlers. ”

“ Hasbrook looked hopeless again; for Captain Patterdale began to calculate how much he had paid, and how much more he was to pay, for the yacht. While he was doing so, there was a [21] knock at the street door, and, upon being invited to do so, Mr. Laud Cavendish entered the library with a bill in his hand.
Mr. Laud Cavendish was a great man in his own estimation, and a great swell in the estimation of everybody else. He was a clerk or salesman in a store; but he was dressed very elegantly for a provincial city like Belfast, and for a "counter-jumper" on six or eight dollars a week. ”

“ Sir Richard Grenville, a cousin of Raleigh’s, a British naval hero, was the general of the fleet assembled to carry the company out. Captain Thomas Cavendish, navigator and freebooter, soon to circumnavigate the globe, was commander of one of the ships. The two Indians, Wanchese and Manteo, whom Amadas and Barlow brought home with them, were joined to the company as guides.
The fleet comprised seven sail: the “Tiger,” admiral or flagship, of one hundred and forty tons; a “Flie-boat called the Roe-bucke, of the like burden”; the “Lyon,” one hundred tons, “or thereabouts” ”

“ Much anger and discontent were excited in connection with the division of the spoils, especially among the crew of the Content, who thought Cavendish took more than a fair share for himself and the company of the Desire—his own ship. The threatened mutiny was, however, suppressed, and a grand gala was held on the queen’s day—17th November, with eating and drinking,72 firing of guns, and a display of fireworks, with as a grand set-piece the blazing Santa Anna, with all of her precious cargo on board that the captors could not carry away with them. ”

“ He set out from Plymouth in three small vessels on the 21st July, 1586. One vessel was of 120 tons, the second of 60 tons, and the third of 40 tons--not much bigger than a Thames yacht. The united crews, of officers, men, and boys, did not exceed 123! Cavendish sailed along the South American continent, and made through the Straits of Magellan, reaching the Pacific Ocean. He burnt and plundered the Spanish settlements along the coast, captured some Spanish ships, and took by boarding the galleon St. Anna, with 122,000 Spanish dollars on board. ”

“ Cavendish was far from faultless. He was passionate and impetuous, and was still young at the end of his82 adventurous life. He was a University man, a bred aristocrat, a courtier, with a contempt for humanitarian doctrines and practices. Society, as it was constituted then, has to share the blame of his excesses, and especially his recklessness of human life. It was a comparatively venial offence in those days to fire into a crowd of South Sea Islanders with as little hesitation as if they had been a flock of wild ducks. His high spirit, courage, and intrepidity are, however, indisputable. ”

“ But fear not, young men; faint heart never won fair enterprise; and if we should beat them—as I am certainly determined that we shall—doubtless you will have a handsome booty to handle after the battle. Yet will it be hard fighting; and I trust that not only you two, but every man on board these good ships of mine will do his very utmost.”
With these words Cavendish turned away, and went aft to give further orders. Meanwhile the other two ships of his squadron, in answer to his signal, had crowded on more sail, and were fast closing up, one on either side of the flag-ship. ”

“ Here the crew destroyed a negro town, in revenge for the death of one of their men, whom the inhabitants had killed with a poisoned arrow. Their course across the Atlantic to the Brazilian shore offers no remarkable features. They erected their forge upon an island, where they healed their sick and built a pinnace. Anchoring in a harbor on the Patagonian coast, Cavendish named it Port Desire, after [278] his flag-ship,—a name which it still retains. He seems to have considered the savages to be giants, and asserts that he saw footprints eighteen inches long. ”

“ Cavendish prided himself on being a most humane and Christian pirate; he would not kill the people of the Santa Ana for the mere pleasure of it. He did not ravish the women, or throw overboard the children. After taking what he wanted out of the galleon, leaving still some five hundred tons of valuable cargo, and after setting fire to the vessel, he was not particular to see that every plank was burned before he left it. There was nothing mean about Cavendish; though it does not appear why he did not leave the ship to the Spaniards so that in it they might bring him more gold to capture. ”

“ Cavendish, who had just walked forward to make sure that all was as it should be, heard the warning, and shouted an order for all on deck to prepare for the outfly, and then, seizing his speaking-trumpet, rushed up on the poop beside the boys, and roared out a warning to the only ship within hail. Then, turning, he told the two lads to get down off the poop on to the main-deck, where they would be sheltered to a certain extent by the high bulwarks of the ship. ”

“ Two days later they sailed for the Straits of Magellan, where, after many furious storms, they sailed halfway through the straits, and on 21 April 1592 the ships anchored in a cove four leagues W. from Cape Froward, where they remained until 15 May, enduring great hardships, Cavendish all the while being with Davis on board the Desire. It soon became obvious that Cavendish had outlived his reputation as a leader of men ”

“ He found there an immense quantity of dog-fish, very large, and so strong that four men could with difficulty kill them, and numbers of birds, which, having no wings, could not fly, and which fed upon fish. They are classed under the general names of auks and penguins. In this very secure harbour, the ships were drawn up on shore to be repaired. During his stay at this place Cavendish had some skirmishes with the Patagonians,—"men of gigantic size, and having feet eighteen inches long"—who wounded two of the sailors with arrows tipped with sharpened flints. ”

“ Although Cavendish contributed comparatively little to the sum of geographical knowledge by accurate reports of any original discoveries he had made, apart from the moral aspect of the principal incidents in his career, he was indisputably a remarkable man, and rarely since the78 world began has a young man of only twenty-eight years achieved such a record as he had done, at the end of his circumnavigation, illustrative of daring bravery, indomitable perseverance, and manly endurance. ”

“ Cavendish filled his ships with as much of this as they could carry and burnt the remainder with the captured ships. On 25 May Cavendish arrived at the island of Puna in the gulf of Guayaquil; here they remained eleven days, hauled the Desire and Content on shore for repairs, sank a large Spanish ship lying at anchor, with all her furniture, and burned the town, out of revenge for an unsuccessful sortie of the Spaniards and natives upon a foraging party wherein forty of the enemy were slain, with the loss of twelve English. ”

“ Five days later they doubled the equinoctial line and continued their course northward until 9 July, when off the coast of Guatemala they captured a ship in ballast piloted by Michael Sancius, a Provençal, who informed Cavendish of a great prize that was on its way from the Philippines. Cavendish burned the ship in ballast, as also a barque which he captured the next day which was sent from Lima to carry warning all along the coast. ”

“ No one here is paying any attention to us. Enright is the only one who even suspicions, and his mouth is shut. It makes me laugh to think how easily the fools were gulled. We've got a clear field if you will only let me play the game out in my own way. Do I get the money?"
He must have acceded, for his voice no longer rose to a high pitch. Presently, when the orchestra began playing again. Miss Donovan and Willis judged the pair were giving their attention to the dinner. Finally, after an hour had passed, Cavendish emerged from the booth, went to the check-room, and hurriedly left the café. ”