Captain Marshall

“ I revelled in the breeze, in the sight of the marching, sunny sea, in the way the ship cut cleanly through the seas, keeping her bows wet with spray, in the crisp commands and the way the men responded to them, in the noises of a ship and the sound of the water, and in the silence. Now and then I lifted my eyes to the towering pyramid of canvas, and I could not help echoing the thought of the sailor quoted by Dana: “How quietly they do their work!”
Captain Marshall was on deck nearly all day, pacing the deck by the weather rail, but I did not hear him give an order. He scarcely spoke. ”

“ I determined to move up next morning with H.M.S. Desirée and the Blazer, but the weather was so extremely thick that it was impossible to move: the same day I received another communication from Captain Marshall, that Stoar battery, a little below Gluckstadt, was attacked by the Swedes, when the enemy set fire to the gun-carriages, spiked their guns, and retreated into the town ; I therefore resolved to proceed up the river that night in a gun-boat, and ordered the frigate and brig to come up as soon as the weather should clear. They arrived this morning. ”

“ To him I was but one of the crew of the Clearchus, and a whaleman. Smart masters of smart ships have a profound contempt for whalemen as a class, because of their general slackness, I suppose, although those of them who really know feel an equally profound respect for their venturesome spirit. Captain Marshall was the master of the smartest ship I have ever come across, and the condition of his vessel reflected the character of the master, as it always does. ”

“ The sailors, for the most part, worked with a will, although there were several laggards, for laziness among certain classes of men is not confined to the land alone.
Captain Marshall was angry, and he did not hesitate to let the first mate know it.
"There is no sense in taking too many risks," he remarked, after his orders had been obeyed. "That storm is coming, as sure as fate." ”

“ Captain Marshall, Commander Banks, and Lieutenant Edgecombe, had each received permission to wear their respective orders; though the only firing which took place at Hamburgh was on the occasion mentioned in p. 284, which led to no result, and where the former and the latter officers only were present, Commander Banks, as well as Lieutenant Woollnough, being on the other side of the river, separated from them by a long range of islands. On no occasion was Commander Banks under fire, that Lieutenant Woollnough was not so likewise ”

“ My duty is to save the ship. Do you want to go to the bottom of the ocean?" And Captain Marshall spoke in such a decided way that Jasper Van Blott sneaked off and said no more for the time being.
A portion of the crew came below, and not without difficulty a number of heavy boxes and casks were shifted. Then the ship's carpenter and an assistant went to work to tighten up the seams, through which the water of the ocean was spurting furiously. ”

“ Every exertion was instantly made to get her off, but to no purpose. The weather rather clearing, we soon perceived the danger of our situation. It was truly terrible, and scarcely left us the most distant prospect of life. Our brave and worthy captain, however, with the most undaunted fortitude I ever beheld, still continued to animate the crew to hope and further perseverance. This he did with as much collectedness and self-command as if conducting the ordinary duty of the ship; never in my life did I witness such utter disregard to death and danger. ”

“ When Washington was preparing the final stroke, darkness fell. The exhausted Americans, their clothing drenched with sweat, slept on their arms upon the field of battle, their General-in-Chief himself lying on the ground among the living, the wounded, and the dead. Somewhere on that hard-fought ground, Captain-Lieutenant John Marshall stretched himself by his comrades. Washington was determined to press the attack at break of day. But at midnight the British stole away so silently that the Americans did not hear a sound from their retreat. ”

“ The news the captain brought was very dis heartening, and it was a gloomy party that assembled in the cabin of the bark that evening.
"We shall be perfectly safe in this harbor, so long as the weather remains fair," said Captain Marshall. "But a heavy blow might cause us to drag our anchors and either run ashore or on the reef. We must get away in the near future, if it can possibly be accomplished." ”

“ The whole of the vessels destined to enter the Adour were placed under the command of Captain Dowell O’Reilly, of the Lyra brig, who proceeded in a Spanish-built boat, selected as the safest for the service he was going upon, taking with him the principal pilot, the boats of the British squadron, and two flats, to endeavour to find a passage through the surf: a few troops were at that time seen crossing over to the French side of the river, but evidently much in want of the boats intended for their assistance. ”

“ Two of the boats had broken adrift from us, and two had swamped alongside: the wind shifted again, and we made a push to extricate ourselves, but found the navigation so difficult that it required the intense labour of three days to accomplish it.
“The Atalante’s captain and four other Dutchmen are killed, eleven are wounded, and so dreadfully that our surgeon thinks every one of them will die. To the end of my existence I shall regret the captain; he was a perfect hero; and if his crew had been like him, critical indeed would have been our situation. ”

“ That little port—the crippled ship’s hospital—has seen many a strange sight come in from the sea, but never a more astounding spectacle than that which the Arizona presented the Sunday forenoon she entered there.
“Begob, captain!” said the pilot, as he swung himself over the rail. “I’ve heard of carrying coals to Newcastle, but this is the first time I’ve seen a steamer bringing a load of ice into St. John’s.”
They are a grim race, these sailors, and, the danger over, the captain’s reply was: “We were lucky, my man, that we didn’t all go to the bottom in an ice box.” ”

“ Captain J. Marshall, in command, immediately ordered her boats to be lowered with the result that within a quarter of an hour all the passengers and crew were clear of the ship, except the Captain himself, the Chief, First, Second and Third Officers, who made a special request to the Captain to be allowed to remain on board. The manner in which the boats were thus speedily lowered and filled and navigated to positions of safety was an evolution which reflected favourably on the organisation of the ship. ”

“ While Thomas Marshall and his Third Virginia Line were thus checking Cornwallis's assault on the right, the British charged, in dense masses, across the Brandywine, at Chadd's Ford, upon Wayne's division, to which Captain-Lieutenant John Marshall had been assigned. The Americans made a show of resistance, but, learning of the rout of their right wing, quickly gave way. ”

“ After working through the grades of ordinary and able seaman, and third, second, and chief mate on board of various vessels, he sailed for a number of voyages as mate with Captain Charles H. Marshall in the Black Ball packet ship Britannia between New York and Liverpool. ”

“ Captain Black discovered an enemy’s convoy close to the main land, making for the ports of Tran and Spalatro, to which he immediately gave chase. As he neared them, the merchant vessels separated, the greater part, together with 10 gun-boats, bearing up for the bay of Boscaline; these he continued in pursuit of under all sail: at 5-30 A.M. they anchored in a line about a mile from the shore, hoisted French colours, and commenced firing at the Weazle; the wind blowing strong at S.E. directly into the bay, her sails and rigging were considerably damaged before she could close with them ”

“ A few hours previous to the Russell’s departure for England, the youth was desired by Captain Buckner to apply for his discharge into her, and at the same time to request that one of the Prothée’s boats might be sent to remove his wounded parent from the shore; instead, however, of obtaining either the one or the other, he received a severe reprimand for being so long absent; the unfeeling officer at the same time saying, “because a man is wounded, it is no reason that others should run from ship to ship!” ”

“ Not that I am chicken-hearted, and I'd stand to my ship as your captain did—ay, and go down with her if needs must; but for all that it is a roughish life, and a terrible trial for them that love you and are left ashore."
"Ay! ay!" old Colley said, "there's the pinch. The youngster's father made off to better himself now ten years agone, and he's never been heard of from that day to this. Dead, of course; only the poor woman, his wife, won't believe it—so the lad says."
A day or two after this the captain called Jack, and said:
"The mate wants a word with you in private." ”

“ The crisis was fast approaching, when human fortitude could do no more. Had not the officers been steady, all must have perished: the mizen mast was set on fire in the captain’s cabin, and the flames bursting from all the lee ports. At 5 o’clock they ran the ship on shore, about a mile from the beach, in the bay of Rosas. The Spanish boats came off to their assistance, but were afraid to approach near enough to be of any service. ”

“ In the mean time she hove-to, and hoisted the boats out; but to prevent the people rushing into them, the marines were kept under arms. Prepared for the worst, they made all sail for the land: providentially the wind was fair, and they stood in for the bay of Rosas, with signals of distress flying at each mast-head, but no vessel was in sight to afford them relief. The fire rapidly increasing, the exertions of the captain and his noble crew increased with the danger. ”

“ Was made a lieutenant on the 27th Dec. 1803; and appointed to the Lynx sloop, Captain John Willoughby Marshall, on the Baltic station, in the spring of 1809. He obtained great credit for his conduct in the command of that ship’s boats, at the capture of three Danish armed luggers, near Rostock, Aug. 13th, in the latter year [1] . ”

“ When these pirates were first discovered, they were in chase of an Ionian vessel, and there being reason to suspect (as was afterwards found to be the fact) , that they had shortly before plundered another vessel under the same flag, Captain Hamilton sent Lieutenant Marsham in one of the Cambrian’s boats, with a Greek interpreter, to desire that they would come down to his Majesty’s ships for examination; but the pirates having refused to comply with this desire. ”

“ The fact that Marshall places himself in this detachment, which was a part of Maxwell's light infantry, together with his presence at Iron Hill, fixes his position in the battle of the Brandywine and in the movements that immediately followed. It is reasonably certain that he was under Maxwell until just before the battle of Germantown. Of this skirmish Washington's optimistic and excited Secretary wrote on the spot, that Maxwell's men killed thirty men and one captain "left dead on the spot." (Harrison to the President of Congress, Sept. 11, 1777; Writings: Ford, vi, footnote to 68.) ”

“ Handspikes, and the butt-ends of muskets, became formidable weapons in the hands of the latter, and soon laid prostrate on the deck the captain and most of the officers near him. The majority of the surviving crew having by this time fled below, all further resistance presently ceased. The British were not long in cutting the cable of their prize, nor in unfurling her sails; and in a very few minutes, the Curieux, in the hands of her new masters, stood out of Fort Royal harbour. A smart fire was successively opened from Fort Edward, a battery on Point Negro, and another at Point Soloman ”

“ Sir William Marshall, regent of the kingdom of England and restorer of Magna Charta; a Captain John Marshall, who distinguished himself at the siege of Calais in 1558; and finally, the Irish captain who fought Cromwell and fled to Virginia as above mentioned. (Paxton, 7 et seq.)
Senator Humphrey Marshall rejected this story as "a myth supported by vanity." (Ib.) Colonel Cary declares that "there is no evidence whatever in support of it." (Cary Papers, MSS.) Other painstaking genealogists have reached the same conclusion. ”

“ Sir,– Before I quit this place, so different from the usual state of captivity and hardships we had to expect, I beg leave, as well on my own part as on that of my officers, who belonged to His B. Majesty’s ship the Romney, to return you our most sincere thanks, and to assure you, that the very humane attention which we unfortunate men experienced from you, shall never be effaced from our memories.
“We request you to assure Captain Verderoon, and the other captains and officers of the ships under your orders, that we are sensible of the great friendship which has been shown to us. ”

“ In the course of that service Captain D’Urban fitted out a small vessel as a tender, armed her with the launch’s carronade, and placed her under the command of Lieutenant Peyton, who soon captured several of the enemy’s coasters. On one occasion, a French privateer of 6 long guns and 30 men, came out from Ancona, for the purpose of rescuing a prize he had just taken, but after an hour’s manoeuvring, and firing on both sides, she sheered off and returned into port, without having injured any of the tender’s crew, then consisting of only 8 men. ”