Captain Williams

“ One day, after I had seen all the sights, and had begun to think seriously of finding a ship, I was strolling along the wharves on the latter errand, when I heard a voice I knew cry put, “There, Captain Williams, there's just your chap; he'll make as good a third-mate as can be found in all America.” ”

“ The ship you have destroyed was the ‘Wilks’ privateer, mounting twenty guns—six-pounders—commanded by as brave a man as ever stepped, Captain John Williams, and bound into the English channel on a six-months’ cruise. If it is any satisfaction to you, you may say that she was only off the stocks five weeks. There’s the captain; he’ll never break biscuit more, nor will several of our people who were drowned coming on shore. There’s all that remains of poor Captain Williams. ”

“ Lieutenant Williams, for his conduct on this memorable occasion was immediately promoted to the rank of Commander, and appointed to the Dolphin, a 44-gun ship armed en flute; but previous to his joining her he acted for some time as Flag-Captain to Rear-Admiral Parker, in the Blenheim 98, and served pro tempore in the Kingfisher sloop of war. ”

“ She stood in, however; but instead of anchoring as usual, in what may be called the outer harbor, she ran close in to the landing-place, furled her sails, and then, to Captain Williams's great relief, sent down her fore-yard, stripped it of the sail and rigging, and launched it overboard. Two boats, full of men, were soon seen towing it ashore, the spar having been "sprung" in one of those sudden and violent "flaws" of wind so peculiar to high and mountainous coasts.
All this was extremely gratifying to the commander of the American ship ”

“ They were kept so busy working they had no time to think.
Williams scarcely stirred though others were shunted to and fro by the deck's heave. He could not have appeared more indifferent toward the crew had he been their lawful captain.
The Mariana had three Kanakas in her crew, but there were more than that about the deck. They worked willingly and hard.
All the while the sail was being set, the bark shivered and plunged. Rigging screeched. Vibrant intensity was everywhere. The canvas bulged hard as granite. Only the stars, remote, cold, were at peace. ”

“ From the Lizard, Captain Williams was removed into the Daedalus frigate, and thence to the Unicorn, mounting 38 guns. The former was stationed in the North Sea. In the latter he cruized principally on the coast of Ireland.
On the 30th Aug. 1795, the Unicorn captured the Comet Dutch brig of war, mounting 18 guns. The day before, in company with the Diana and Seahorse, she had also taken an East Indiaman and a South Sea whaler, both of whom had been convoyed from the Cape of Good Hope by the Comet. ”

“ Williams said:
"Our duty is clear. God has sent us here to their aid, and whatever be the risk, we must run it; we cannot sail away and leave them to perish."
"It is a terrible choice to have to make," the captain said huskily. "I am responsible for the lives of all on board this ship, passengers and crew. I know what these fevers are; they go right through a ship. There are but seven men alive now on yonder vessel; another day or two there may not be one. If we have dealings with them, their fate may be ours." ”

“ A man who wanted to die—he had not been suspected of that—might jump into the sea; but a man who cared for life would not go swimming off for a distant ship that might any minute put up her helm and make off.
As they had passed the Heraldr no one had thought of Williams; afterward, no one imagined that it was then that he had gone overboard.
So while Captain Butler, poking about on the reef, was still cursing Williams for having drowned himself, up came the Heraldr and threw her main topsail to the mast almost within a hundred yards of the schooner. ”

“ On the 10th Aug. 1780, Captain Williams being on a cruise off Ushant, in the Flora, of 42 guns and 259 men, fell in with an enemy’s frigate and a cutter, the former of which he captured after a most desperate action. She proved to be la Nymphe, of 32 guns, pierced for 40, and 291 men, 63 of whom, including her commander, were killed, and 73 wounded. The loss sustained by the Flora was 9 killed and 27 wounded. It is somewhat singular, that la Nymphe was taken by the Flora in the same manner in which she herself afterwards took the Cleopatra [1] ”

“ New vessels kept continually approaching. As fast as one party left the ship others made their appearance, and at last the Albatross was surrounded by an immense fleet. All their commanders having at last communicated with Oriel Porphyry, they crowded sail for Columbia.
“Captain,” exclaimed the young merchant, after the last of his visitors had departed, “are you sure of the crew?”
“To a man, sir,” replied old Hearty. “There’s such a stir in the ship as never was afore. They are all impatient to be led against your enemies. I never saw such enthusiusiasm in all my life.” ”

“ A melancholy pause succeeded this sentence.—“It was an ugly business that at Cape Danger, warn’t it, Mister Log?” at last asked the scoundrel of the little man upon the stool.
“Ugly, ugly, very ugly, I may say uncommonly, deplorably, ferociously ugly, Mister Scrumpydike,” replied the captain’s clerk.
“Well, it’s no use lamenting the catastrophe now,” observed the captain. “All we’ve got to do is to get a new ship and a fresh set of hands. The ship we’ve as good as got, but she can be of no use without a crew of the right sort. To get such a set of fellows together will take some time. ”

“ The operations of the fleet, to which Captain Williams was attached during the siege, and after the capture of St. Christopher’s [4] , at the above mentioned period, form an epoch in the proud annals of the British Navy; compelling an enemy of superior force to quit his anchorage, taking the same situation during action, and defeating the attempts made to force that position, was a lesson in naval tactics, that will ever be deservedly regarded with admiration ”

“ Their apprehensions were confirmed in a space of time that seemed impossible to have enabled Captain Williams to reach his ship, by seeing the Albatross, under jib and spanker, slowly standing to the westward, and again anchoring full half a mile farther out to sea than before; not, to be sure, out of reach of the guns of the battery, but at such a distance as to render it extremely problematical whether Spanish artillerymen would be able to [Pg 243] throw a shot within half a mile of her, especially in a star-light night. ”

“ The record of Charles as a midshipman is very much more stirring than Francis’ experiences. He served on board the Unicorn, under Captain Thomas Williams, at the time of the capture of the French frigate La Tribune, a notable single ship encounter, which brought Captain Williams the honour of knighthood. ”

“ An engineer, isn't he? The missis calls him a sailor." He continued that voyage, made in 1862.
There was one evening when, on the home run, we had overhauled and passed our rivals in the race, and were off the Start. Captain Williams was serving a tot all round, in a propitiatory act, hoping to lower the masts of the next astern deeper beneath the horizon, and to keep them there till he was off Blackwall Point. He then found he wanted to show me a letter, testimony to the work of his ship, which he had received that voyage from his owners. ”

“ As the boat approached the landing with the consul's guests McGuire began from afar to guess at the strange faces.
Among them was the familiar face of Matt Ward, the new captain of Heraldr—a fellow with a large waistline and an overhanging mustache with tobacco-stained fringe. He was hard-spoken and glowered at whomever he talked. With his own hands he had been picking a crew for the Heraldr even before she came, and he seemed to want all of the scoundrels and roughs in sight. A lot of them, lured by the hint of trouble and treasure, were eager to sign on. ”

“ Williams," said Capt. Horton, as he lit his pipe from the American commander's. "It's bad, I know, and I've lost as nice a little brig as ever sailed out of London, and don't know as I shall ever get another, even if I ever get home to old England again. Speaking of that, Captain Greene, do you hold us prisoners of war, or how?"
"Not at all, sir," replied the captain. "If I'd overhauled your brig before that pirate fell a-foul of you, why, then, it would have been a different thing; but, shiver my timbers, if I ever make war against a ship's crew in distress. ”

“ In a very short time, by the aid of Tommy Sandwich, whose language was allied to that of the natives of New Britain, Captain Williams learnt how matters stood. His visitor was anxious to help him, and volunteered to join the white man in an attack on the treacherous people of Mano, though he gave but little hope of their finding Maurice alive. ”

“ Scrunch me, if it arn’t my old ship, the Whittington!”
“What, my father’s vessel?” asked Oriel Porphyry.
“The very same!” cried the old man with [288] delight. “I knows her better nor any ship I ever sailed in. No doubt she wants to speak with us. Bring her head up to the wind, helmsman! I wonder whether my old captain is alive still? He was a right-down trump. But what a mazement he’ll be in to find me in command o’ the Albatross.”
“I know Captain Barter well. I’ve met him frequently at my father’s table, and a very gentlemanly, sensible man he is;” said the young merchant. ”

“ The Heraldr's carpenter afterward applied for the reward-money offered for Brundage “dead or alive,” as there was no doubt as to his fate; but Chips did not get it.
Captain Butler knew, or said that he did, that Williams and the red-headed fellow, McGuire, were dead; but some of the schooner's sailors vowed up and down by every Bible that could be brought them that those pirates were not dead and that many a ship would meet them when it was not expecting such a thing. ”

“ The officers and ship’s company were acquitted of all blame.
In Mar. 1809, Lieutenant Williams was appointed to the H elder 32, Captain John Serrell, fitting out for the Jamaica station; in which ship he continued till she was ordered home, about Aug. 1810, when he got removed into the Reindeer sloop. Previous to this, the Helder, in the course of six weeks, had lost one lieutenant, two masters, two pursers, five midshipmen, and about eighty sailors, &c., all by the yellow fever: the only officer who escaped an attack was a lieutenant of marines. ”

“ I sent for Captain Munson, who agreed to take John, and desired that he might be ready to sail for South America, in a week.
He was young, he said, as he looked at the boy, but stout, and appeared as if he might perform a cabin boy’s duty.
John, when told he was to go in a week, appeared to feel that it would be more difficult to leave the family and his fellow-servants than he had hitherto thought it would be.
He made himself perpetually busy, early and late; any little thing which he could find to do for any one was carefully performed. ”

“ Noll was going; that was plain to any seeing eye. The captain grew weaker every day; his skin yellowed and parched, and the lower lids of his eyes sagged down and revealed the flaming red of their inner surface. These sagging lower lids made crescent-shaped pockets which were forever filled with rheumy fluid.... Noll was an ugly thing; and his perpetual mirth, his cackling laughter were the more horrible.... He was a laughing corpse; [Pg 253] dissolution was upon him. But he kept himself so steeped with alcohol he did not feel its pangs. ”

“ Tourniquet.
“I acknowledge nothing of the kind, doctor, I assure you,” replied Professor Fortyfolios. “The doctrine of necessity——”
“Hullo! is my nightingale silent?” cried the captain, unceremoniously interrupting the logicians. “Have you piped all dry—not a song left, nor a voice to sing it with? Is the harp dumb, or the singer sad, that we haven’t heard so much as the ghost of a tune!”
“Neither, noble captain,” replied Zabra, dressing his handsome face in his happiest smiles. “I wait your pleasure for a theme. ”

“ The frigate engaged the Chatham half-an-hour, although close alongside, and had eighty-six men killed and wounded: we had only two men slain and four wounded.”
Lieutenant Thomas Williams married Miss Bond, of a highly respectable family in Cornwall; and at the time of his demise was one of the officers of the Royal Hospital, Greenwich. His uncle, the late Captain Richard Williams, was a shipmate of the illustrious Nelson, who, many years afterwards, paid him a very flattering compliment. ”

“ He became not more earnest exactly, but a little more convincing as he said:
“You'll be the men ever'body'll look at when you get back to Sydney—point at—gape at—with all the papers writin' about you—the men that were too scared o' Williams to take him when he wanted to surrender.”
The words had poison in them. Captain Butler frowned grimly.
“Oh, yes, you'll be looked at—pointed—talked about——”
Captain Butler demanded to know what assurance there was that no trick or trap lay behind the offer.
“Not a damn bit,” said McGuire, “'Cept this. What does a man love best? ”

“ I spent many hours in the chart-house with Garth and Lawless settling the details of our contemplated expedition. There was, in truth, much to plot out and arrange. The captain was more emphatic than ever against the idea of anybody beyond us three being let into the secret of the treasure-hunt. In fact, as our discussions proceeded, he showed himself increasingly reluctant to grant us as long as a week on the island.
"It's asking too much, Sir Alexander," he said, shaking his red head, "to expect the crew to remain cooped up in the yacht in sight of green land and not a man allowed ashore. ”