Captain Rogers

“ But I didn’t mean it,” said my cousin.
“You’ll find that sea captains expect a man to abide by the ship’s papers. I don’t know as Captain Rogers loves you much, but maybe he’ll want to keep you just the same.”
“He ain’t trying to hold you,” snarled Paul.
“I never signed on,” I replied. “I haven’t been a real member of the crew at all. But you were very glad for Captain Rogers to take you out of the clutches of that crimp at Buenos Ayres. You won’t get away from the Scarboro so easy.” ”

“ I am sorry, Captain Rogers, that you have had so bad a specimen of a military man on board your ship. Were any superior officers on shore, we should at once bring him to a court-martial, and you would be under the necessity of carrying him and his belongings back. As it is, in the face of an enemy, we cannot refuse to serve under him, and we can only hope that his wife and daughters will cling round his neck and keep him at head-quarters, or that a shot may disable him from active service. ”

“ He therefore asked Captain Rogers, who was the leader of a band of scouts, and a man of extraordinary energy and enterprise, to allow him to accompany him on a scouting expedition towards Ticonderoga.
"I shall be glad to have you with me," Rogers replied; "but you know it is a service of danger. It is not like work with regular troops, where all march, fight, stand, or fall together. Here each man fights for himself. Mind, there is not a man among my band who would not risk his life for the rest; but, scattered through the woods as each man is, each must perforce rely principally on himself. ”

“ Captain William Rogers, son of Captain Rogers, who died in November, 1790, was born at Falmouth, 29th September, 1783. He married Susan, daughter of Captain John Harris, of S. Mawes. In 1807, Rogers was master, in temporary command of the Windsor Castle, a packet-boat from Falmouth to Barbados. She mounted six long 4-pounders and two 9-pounder carronades, with a complement of twenty-eight men and boys.
On October 1st, 1807, as the packet was on her passage to Barbados with the mails, a privateer schooner was seen approaching under all sail. ”

“ Courtney do provide the Ships with all manner of Necessaries, as fast an wanting; and as soon as Captain Rogers is in Health, that he assist in it, and that every one give a List to ’em of what they want from time to time; that Mr. Charles Pope do continue a-shore, and send off Provisions{287} for all the Ships, and keep a Book of the whole. Let every Ship take their daily turn to divide the Meat, and send it off as early as possible, in a Country Boat, and as near at he can no more nor less than 350 lb weight; every other Day, or as often as he can conveniently. ”

“ Captain Rogers knows his duty. He fulfils it sternly, I must say; but still we must obey; so march!” In the mean time Archie Gordon, having received directions from Jack, was seeing the light baggage of the major conveyed to the boat. He sent Alick to say that all was ready. The major saw that there was no excuse for further delay.
“Farewell, Captain Rogers,” he said, lifting his hat. “Farewell, gentlemen. You see a doomed man!” and he marched to the gangway.
“Oh, cruel! cruel!” uttered Mrs Bubsby, an exclamation repeated by Eugenia and Angelica. ”

“ Rogers,” whispered Lyndsay to Flora.
“You had better let the animal alone,” said Flora in the same tone: “’Tis sworn to silence.”
“Have you any family, Captain Rogers?” recommenced the incorrigible Hawke.
“Ay; more than’s good.”
“Girls, or boys?”
[181] “What’s that to you? Too many of both. Why do you call me Captain? You knows well enough that I’m not a captain; never was a captain, and never wants to be.”
After this rebuff, the surly Rogers was left to smoke his short black pipe in peace, and in a few minutes the little boat came alongside the huge Leviathan of the deep. ”

“ With the aid of shipping agents, or in some other underhanded way, the captain at last succeeded in mustering crew enough to handle his vessel, and this morning she went out in the teeth of the storm that forced Captain Rogers to seek shelter. When off the light-ship a man was seen to spring upon her rail and deliberately throw himself into the water. At the same time a white fishing-boat was cut loose from her starboard quarter, and the wind blew it out of sight. ”

“ That public books of plunder are to be kept in each ship, the plunder to be appraised and divided as soon as possible after capture. Every person to be sworn and searched so soon as they shall come aboard, any person refusing, to forfeit his share of the plunder; and that whereas Captain Rogers and Captain Courtney to make both ships companies easy, have given the whole cabin plunder (which in all probability is the major part) , to be divided among the crew, it is agreed that the said Captains Woodes Rogers and Steph: Courtney, shall have 5 per cent. ”

“ Rogers," ordered the captain, all alert in an instant.
"Why, it's this way, sir," returned the second officer. "I don't like the way the men are acting. I never was sweet on the crew from the beginning, for the matter of that, not meaning any disrespect to Mr. Ditty, who had the choosing of most of them. There's a few of them that are smart seamen, but most of them are rank swabs that don't know a marlinspike from a backstay. Seem more like a gang of river pirates than deep-sea sailors." ”

“ I must confess that every day I was becoming more and more enamored of this life at sea. We had had little fair weather and were kept busy making sail and then reefing again, or repairing the small damages made by the gale. Captain Rogers was not the man to lay hove to in any fair breeze. We outran the bad weather before we crossed the line and then the lookout went to the masthead and from that time on, as long as I was with the Scarboro, the crowsnest was never empty by day. ”

“ The tinkers, peddlers, fiddlers, and tailors who made up the crew, were each and all hoisted overboard by a rope. A stick was placed between their legs and they were ducked again and again in the brine.
“If any man wants to get off,” spoke Captain Rogers, “he can do so by paying me a half-a-sovereign ($2.50) which must be expended on an entertainment for the rest of the company when England shall be reached. Every man that is ducked is paid in proportion to the number of times that he goes under.” ”

“ The next day the weather was raw cold and rainy with a great sea from N.W., which did not, however, deter Rogers and Captain Dampier from "going in the yall on board the 'Dutchess' to visit 'em after the storm, where," he says, "we found 'em in a very orderly pickle; with all their clothes drying, the ship and rigging cover'd with them from the deck to the maintop while six more guns are got into the hold to make the ship more lively." ”

“ While personally Captain Rogers is made happy, and congratulates himself, first, "on the discovery of a large musket shot, which the doctor now cut out of his mouth, it having been there six months, so that the upper and lower jaw being broken and almost closed, he had much ado to come at it;" and next, "that several pieces of his foot and heel bone having been removed, he believes himself, thank God, in a fair way to have the use of his foot and recover his health." ”

“ And two ship's guns of about six hundred-weight each, mounted on field carriages, being placed in the great launch, Rogers, Captain Dover, and Captain Courtney landed with seventy men from their boats, a lieutenant with others being left on board one of the barks to ply her guns over their heads into the town.
"The enemy," says Rogers, "drew up their horse at the end of the street, fronting our men and barks, and lin'd the houses with men at half musket shot of the bank where we landed, making [Pg 78] a formidable show in respect to our little number. ”

“ The ship stood along the coast, sending her boats frequently on shore, but nothing of the wreck was seen, nor could Nick or Pipes manage to communicate with any of their countrymen, whom they described as “bad mans,” and made gestures significant of knocking on the head any intruders. Captain Rogers began to fear that such had been the fate of the crew of the Fair Imogene, the vessel of which they were in search. The ship occasionally came to an anchor, but the two Papuans invariably gave the same character to the inhabitants. ”

“ Then we read of thick fog, in which they lose sight of their consort for many hours, "though we made all the noise agreed on between us." And so the monotonous sea-life wears on, varied only by the smallest events, as when, December 10th, the commanders agree to chop boatswain's mates, the "Dutchess'" "being mutinous, and they willing to be rid of him." Or how, on the 18th, "in cold hazy rainy weather, one of the men on board the 'Dutchess' fell out of the mizen top, and broke his skull," and Captain Rogers boards her "with two surgeons ”

“ Captain Woodes Rogers not only lived to write his travels, but afterwards had charge of a naval squadron, sent to extirpate the pirates who infested the West Indies. He died in 1732, just a year after the death of Defoe.
[24] Rogers speaks of shipping while at Batavia "half a leaguer of Spelman's neep, or the best sort of arrack." Is the modern term "nip of spirit" derived from this word neep? ”

“ There was a slight scream from Eugenia, echoed by Angelica, while some sounds greatly resembling those produced when a person is having his ears boxed, proceeded through the canvas. Directly afterwards the major, with a flushed countenance and a bald head, rushed out at the door, followed by a wig sent as a missile after him. On seeing Captain Rogers reading at the further corner of the cabin, he tried to pick it up, but the vessel giving a gentle roll at the time, sent him flying into the middle of the cabin before he had succeeded in his object. ”

“ We seldom catch Captain Rogers giving himself time for repose during his cruise, but the natural charms of this island appear to have had some effect even upon his practical matter of fact temperament, for he says, while here, "'twas very pleasant ashoar among the green piemento trees, which cast a refreshing smell. Our house being made by putting a sail round four of 'em, and covering it a top with another ”

“ But under protest from Rogers, who as he lay, no doubt in great misery, on his back, recounts "how it was now after taking this rich prize our great misfortune to have a paper war amongst ourselves." Rogers' chief objection to Captain Dover was "that owing to his violent temper, capable men could not well act under him, while as a Dr of physick he was incapable as a seaman himself." ”

“ I wondered at myself how business-like and practical I had become; but a strong impulse now impelled me, and seemed to add a sort of strength to my whole nature.
“As Cousin Harry is the mirror of punctuality, and you now represent him, Mr. Potts,” said she, shaking my hand, “pray remember not to be later than seven.”
CHAPTER XLVI. CAPTAIN ROGERS STANDS MY FRIEND
“Constantinople, Odessa, and the Levant.—The 'Cyclops,' five hundred horse-power, to sail on Wednesday morning, at eight o'clock. For freight or passage apply to Captain Robert B. Rogers.” ”

“ Again, sir!”
“Pass the word for Cap’n Rogers, Webb,” the second mate said to me, and grabbing his glasses he started up the backstays to see the sight. Some of the hands sprang into the rigging, too, and soon the whaler’s battle-cry rang through the ship:
“Ah-h blows! And spouts!”
Captain Rogers was on deck in a moment. He ran up after Ben Gibson and took an 136earnest peek through the glasses himself. Then he dropped down to the quarter and said, but with satisfaction:
“Only one fish in sight. May be more ahead. Perhaps it’s a she with a calf and has got behind the school. We’ll see. ”

“ The weather is now described "as violent hot," spite of which Rogers speaks of "cleaning one side of the 'Dutchess,' on the afternoon of the 24th, and the other side the next morning; giving the ships great lists; and that having men enough, he let the pinnace, with Captain Dover, Mr. Vanbrugh, and others, go whilst the 'Duke' was cleaning, to take their pleasure, but to return by twelve o'clock, when we should want our boat. ”

“ Rogers in evidence of the declaration. After her divorce she married Captain John Roach, master of an English vessel in the fur trade. The tradition is that, having sailed from Quebec for London, he most unaccountably lost his reckoning and found himself in Portsmouth (New Hampshire) harbor. Here for reasons satisfactory to himself, he sold the cargo on his own account and quit sea life.17 After his marriage he lived with his wife and her son by the former marriage on the estate in Concord, previously mentioned as having been conveyed by Rogers to her father. ”

“ In 1790 Rogers was flag captain to Sir John Jervis (afterwards Earl of St. Vincent) [q. v.] in the Prince. In 1793 he was appointed to the Quebec frigate, and in her, after a few months in the North Sea and off Dunkirk, he joined the fleet which went out with Jervis to the West Indies. He served with distinction at the reduction of Martinique and Guadeloupe in March and April 1794, and was afterwards sent in command of a squadron of frigates to take Cayenne. ”

“ SAILING TOWARDS THE ISLANDS OF GUAM AND BOUTON, THENCE TO BATAVIA, AND ROUND THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, HOME.
1710 Before sailing for Guam, it was necessary to appoint a commander for their new consort, the "Batchelor" frigate, and Captain Dover having, it seems, a large money-stake in the ships, was, much against Rogers' wish, selected by the majority for this post. ”