Captain Johnson

“ She had been upon deck and had seen the brig sink in the ocean. She had learned of her husband’s death; that she was weeping proved that she was a woman.
There was not much rest for Captain Johnson that night; the leaky condition of his ship, and the still strong gale and high-rolling waves kept him on the alert. Billy Bowsprit, who was a thorough seaman, insisted upon watching with the captain. Coe was assigned a berth in one of the state-rooms forward of the saloon. Knowing that he could be of no farther use, he consented to retire for the night. ”

“ He stood on his quarter-deck until his ship was ablaze from stem to stern, and absolutely sinking under his feet; then, transferring his flag to the Isla de Cuba, he fought with what was left of his fleet, standing fearlessly amid a hail of shrapnel until his second ship and over one hundred of her crew sank like lead in a whirl of water. It seems to me that history in its roll of heroes should make mention of an admiral who could fight his ships so bravely and stand on the bridge coolly and calmly when his fleet captain was torn to pieces by one of our shells at his side. ”

“ This the Captain was glad to hear, but yet began to expostulate with them upon the injustice of such doings. Saith Avery: “What do I care? Every man for himself. Come, come, Captain, if you will go, get you gone; the longboat waits for you, and if there be any more cowards in the ship, you may all go together.” Which words so affrighted the whole crew, that there was not above nine or ten of them that durst venture, who made the best of their way to the shore as fast as they could, and thought they were well off. ”

“ What had become of the captain and Mr Lukyn I could not tell. Fierce was the encounter, for the French seamen fought desperately, and their marines kept blazing away faster than ever. Mr Bryan and the French officer leading the boarders met,—their blades flashed rapidly for a few seconds, and the Frenchman fell mortally wounded. Mr Johnson was in his glory: the first time he led on his followers, however, the Frenchmen withstood him for some seconds, and, more of them pouring down on the deck, he was driven back a foot or two, but it was only for a moment. ”

“ He remained in command of the Invincible for several years, and in the early sixties he took in succession three frail wooden side-wheel river steamboats, the Fire Dart, Fire Cracker, and Fire Queen, from New York round the Cape of Good Hope to China, with no accident or mishap—a remarkable achievement. In 1866, Captain Johnson was the navigator, but not in command, of the yacht Vesta in her race with the Henrietta and Fleetwing across the Atlantic.
The Comet was 1836 tons register, and measured: length 229 feet, breadth 42 feet, depth 22 feet 8 inches. ”

“ Out of them he took whatever he wanted, keeping for his own Use a Schooner of 80 Tons, on board of which he put 10 Carriage Guns, and 50 men, and named her the Fancy making himself Captain, and appointing Charles Harris Captain of the Brigantine. Making up a complement of 80 men out of the vessels, some by force, and others by their own inclinations, he sailed away from Mablehead, and soon after he met two Sloops bound for Boston, with provisions for the garrison ”

“ To the east was a rocky island, jutting out into craggy points, with a few scattered clumps of palm-trees, and a pennant of mist streaming out from the bare conical hill which capped it. A heavy surf beat upon the shore, and at a safe distance from it the British 32-gun frigate “Leda,” Captain A. P. Johnson, raised her black, glistening side upon the crest of a wave, or swooped down into an emerald valley, dipping away to the nor’ard under easy sail. On her snow-white quarter-deck stood a stiff, little, brown-faced man, who swept the horizon with his glass. ”

“ The Captain rose, steadying himself by a hand on the gunwale: "Stop that swearing, you," he said; "lay aft here and rummage these lockers. You other hands, muster the gear in the boat and clear away the raffle. Mr Johnson, you and I will bail for an hour; the boat is leaking, and we'll take the first spell. We want warming, I think."
The Chief Mate raised his head from against the thwart—"I can't bale, sir; let the men do it. I'm done."
"Mr Johnson, I'm sixty-five years old and I'm going to bale, and I'm captain of this ship." ”

“ The Pirates took several of the Guns out of the ships, and mounted them on board the Rose. Lowe ordered the Schooner to lie in the Fare between St. Michael’s and St. Mary’s, where he met with Captain Carter in the Wright Galley; who, defending himself, they cut and mangled him and his Men in a barbarous manner; after which, they were for burning the ship, but contented themselves with cutting her cable, rigging, and sails to pieces, and so left her to the mercy of the seas. ”

“ I thanked Mr Johnson very much for the confidence he reposed in me, but told him that I had come for the very purpose of asking him to let me go in his boat.
“You, Mr Merry?” exclaimed the boatswain. “You’ll be made into mince-meat—cut to atoms—annihilated. It’s no child’s play, that cutting-out work we are going on, let me tell you. Time enough when you are bigger.”
“But I want to go, that I may know how to do it,” I argued; “I have come to sea to learn to be a sailor and an officer, and the captain says we should lose no opportunity of gaining knowledge ”

“ Perhaps we are going on a voyage of discovery. We shall know more when Dr. Clawbonny comes; I daresay he will tell us all about it."
"There's nothing for it but to wait," answered Johnson; "I'll go and hunt up some solid subjects, captain; and as to their animal heat, I guarantee beforehand you can trust me for that."
Johnson was a valuable acquisition; he understood the navigation of these high latitudes. He was quartermaster on board the Phoenix, one of the vessels of the Franklin expedition of 1853. ”

“ Then coming into the Bay, they fell upon a ship of two hundred tons, called the Greyhound; against whom Lowther firing his guns, hoisted the piratical Colours, which Captain Edward bravely returned; but at length finding the Pirate too strong for him he yielded, and the Pirate came on Board, and not only rifling the ship, but beat and cut the men in a cruel manner. In crusing about the Bay, they took several other vessels without any resistance, particularly a Sloop of 100 Tons, which they mounted with 8 carriages and 10 swivel guns. ”

“ Thomas Johnson is a Norwegian by birth, the son of a pilot at Mandal, a seaport on the coast of Norway, where he was born in the year 1758. Having been engaged in that occupation for nearly twenty years, he was consequently accustomed to a seafaring life; and in the absence of his father towed the first American vessel into the harbor of Mandal. This vessel was the Ranger, from Boston, carrying eighteen guns, under the command of Captain Jones. ”

“ There was the finger of Providence again in that. On coming into this port the captain of the schooner J. R. Mather found that the sloop E. A. Johnson had come in, and by a comparison of the rigging of her bowsprit, found on the bow of his boat, with the rigging of the E. A. Johnson, that that was the vessel which caused the collision. Further than this, nothing is known of that night. There was no cry from the deck of the E. A. Johnson when it encountered the schooner ”

“ Johnson would have gladly gone with the captain in his dangerous expedition; but Hatteras drew him to one side and said to him in an affectionate, almost weeping voice,—
"Johnson, you are the only man I can trust. You are the only officer with whom I can leave the ship. I must know that you are here to keep an eye on Shandon and the others. They are kept to the ship by the winter; but who can say what plans they are not capable of forming? ”

“ The Captain, by this time being awaked by the noise of the conspirators working the ship, rung the bell, inquiring what was [Pg 10] the matter, to whom Avery and some of the crew replied, “Nothing. Are you mutinous in your cups? Can’t you lie down, sleep, and be quiet?”
“No,” saith the Captain. “I am sure something’s the matter with the ship. Does she drive? What weather is it? Is it a storm?”
Saith Avery: “Cannot you lie quiet while you are quiet? I tell you all’s well; we are at sea in a fair wind and good weather.” ”

“ He, being a mighty lover of children, would often divert himself by talking to the boy, till at length he took such a fancy to him, that he ordered him a little hammock in his own cabin, and none were so great as the [Pg 7] Captain and his boy Avery, which had like to have proved very fatal to him; for Avery one night, observing the Captain to be very drunk with some passengers that were on board, got a lighted match and had like to have blown up the ship, had not the Gunner happened accidentally to follow him into the store-room. ”

“ Upon this neglect the Lord Bellamont, and some others who knew what great captures had been made by the Pirates, and what a prodigious wealth must be in their possession, were tempted to fit out a ship at their own private charge, and to give the command of it to Captain Kid; and to give the thing a greater reputation, as well as to keep their seamen under the better command, they procured the King’s Commission for the said Captain Kid. ”

“ Knapp, and had almost repeated Johnson's feat on the poop when an iron belaying-pin in the hands of the captain descended upon him and broke his left arm. Mr. Knapp's fists and boots completed his tutelage, and he was carried to his bunk with another lesson learned. Johnson, swearing the while, skilfully set the broken bones and made a sling; then, by tactful wheedling of the steward, secured certain necessaries from the medicine-chest, with hot water from the galley; but open assistance was refused by the captain. ”

“ The malignity of soldiers and sailors against each other has been often experienced at the cost of their country; and, perhaps, no orders of men have an enmity of more acrimony, or longer continuance. When, upon our late successes at sea, some new regulations were concerted for establishing the rank of the naval commanders, a captain of foot very acutely remarked, that nothing was more absurd than to give any honorary rewards to seamen, "for honour," says he, "ought only to be won by bravery, and all the world knows that in a sea-fight there is no danger, and therefore no evidence of courage." ”

“ Gogles and I were sent below to our hammocks, and Mr Johnson followed us to put on dry clothes.
“I’ll set all to rights, Mr Merry,” he observed, in a kind tone; “I saw how it all happened, and the brave way in which you jumped after the other youngster; but I wouldn’t say anything before that strange captain. I know him well. He’s a pest in the service, and always was. Had it not been for him I should have been on the quarter-deck. However, I must go and shift myself. Turn in and take a glass of grog; you’ll be all to rights to-morrow morning.” ”

“ From the Bar of Charles-Town, they sailed to North-Carolina; Captain Teach in the Ship, which they called the Man of War, Captain Richards and Captain Hands in the Sloops, which they termed Privateers, and another Sloop serving them as a Tender. Teach began now to think of breaking up the Company, and securing the Money and the best of the Effects for himself, and some others of his Companions he had most Friendship for, and to cheat the rest: Accordingly, on Pretence of running into Topsail Inlet to clean, he grounded his Ship, and then, as if it had been done undesignedly, and by Accident ”

“ In rough weather, it is as much as one person can do to keep his place at the table at all; and to guard the dishes, bottles, and castors, 20 from a general slide in the direction of the lurch, requires a sleight and coolness reserved only for a sailor. "Prenez garde!" shouts the captain, as the sea strikes, and in the twinkling of an eye, everything is seized and held up to wait for the other lurch in attitudes which it would puzzle the pencil of Johnson to exaggerate. ”

“ Shortly afterwards Johnson and ten of his English officers contrived to run away from their master, the Sultan, in his best and fastest lateen vessel, with an enormous booty. Sailing up to the head of the Persian Gulf, Johnson managed to reach Constantinople with his share of the plunder, worth £800,000. With this as an introduction, he was hospitably received, and was made a bashaw, and at the end of a long life of splendour died a natural death. [Pg 174]
JOHNSON, Captain Henry, alias "Henriques the Englishman." ”

“ Adams, who knew that he was one of the crew of Captain Jones, and consequently must have been in the conflict of the Serapis and Richard, which having occurred so recently, was a subject of general conversation. Many of the sailors frequented the hall of Congress, and Johnson became interested in listening and observing what was so new to him that he was a daily visiter. When the members found that the sailors were part of the crew of Captain Jones, they frequently left their seats, and came over to them to inquire the particulars of the recent engagement. Mr. ”

“ I hope he’s not a King’s hard bargain, like some lieutenants I have fallen in with within the last hundred years,” said Mr Johnson.
“No, sir; he’s no hard bargain,” answered Edkins. “I heard the captain say his name is Bryan, the same officer who, with twenty hands, cut out a French brig of seven guns and ninety men the other day in the West Indies.”
“All right; he’ll do for us,” observed Mr Johnson, with a patronising air. “By the bye, Edkins, have you received any directions about this boy?” ”