Captain Winstanley

“ Captain Winstanley took up his quarters at Beechdale Cottage in less than a week after Mrs. Tempest's dinner-party. He sent for his horses, and began the business of hunting in real earnest. His two hunters were unanimously pronounced screws; but it is astonishing how well a good rider can get across country on a horse which other people call a screw. Nobody could deny Captain Winstanley's merits as a horseman. ”

“ What can happen to a woman who sits at home and works crewel antimacassars and reads novels all day, and never drinks anything stronger than tea, and never eats enough to disturb her digestion? She ought to be a female Methuselah."
Secure in this idea of his wife's longevity, and happy in his speculations, Captain Winstanley looked forward cheerfully to the future: and the evil shadow of the day when the hand of fate should thrust him from the good old house where he was master had never fallen across his dreams. ”

“ CHAPTER XIV. "Kurz ist der Schmerz und ewig ist die Freude."
Captain Winstanley said no more about Lord Mallow; but Violet had to listen to much plaintive bemoaning from her mother, who could not understand how any well-brought-up young woman could refuse an Irish peer with a fine estate, and the delights of a trousseau made by the renowned Theodore. Upon this latter detail Mrs. Winstanley dwelt at more length than upon that minor circumstance in a marriage—the bridegroom. ”

“ Everything is in order, and you know quite as much about the affairs of the ship as I do, so there is no need for me to worry you or myself with going over them. Next, I want you to send C. B. to me. I feel that as I cannot travel alone there is no one to whom I could more safely entrust myself than him, and I want to arrange with him.”
Winsloe signified assent, and going on deck passed the word for C. B., telling him that the captain [Pg 218] wished to see him. C. B. obeyed on the instant, and seated himself at the captain’s side at his request. ”

“ By degrees the suspicions respecting the character of the stranger increased, till few had any doubt that he was an enemy. Captain, Winslow, however, was not to be intimidated by the appearance of the ship. Captain Winslow had probably made up his own mind as to what he would do, but, under the circumstances of the case, he judged it necessary to call his officers and the principal passengers together, to ask their opinion as to what course should be pursued. Colonel Armytage was, of course, summoned to the consultation. ”

“ The Japanese lieutenant was the same who had received the word of honor of the officers on board the hospital ship Ontario on May eighth, and to whom Winstanley had refused to give his. Two months after his voyage as second mate on board the Port Elizabeth, which enabled him to gather information concerning the Japanese measures for the defense of San Francisco, Winstanley stood on the bridge of the battleship Delaware as commander of the second Atlantic squadron. ”

“ Such was the case in the Winslow. The exploding shell cost the lives of [pg 119] Ensign Bagley and four seamen; it also crippled the craft by wrecking her steam-steering gear. Later her captain and one of his crew were wounded by separate shots.
THE TRAGEDY OF THE WINSLOW. Ensign Bagley was killed outright, two of the group of five died on the deck of the disabled torpedo-boat, and the other two died while being removed to the Wilmington.
The signal, “Many wounded,” went up from the staff of the Winslow, and Passed Assistant Surgeon Cook of the Wilmington boarded the torpedo-boat. ”

“ Beyond every thing. It is just what we wanted. It would be most jolly." Schillie wound up by saying, "It is extremely stupid, and I should not like it at all." "Would you not?" said the captain, with kind concern, laying great stress on the you; "Oh but ye must, I'd never take ye to sea, and La Luna in such a leaky state." "What, captain, how! pray explain yourself." "Well, if I must tell the truth, the more we have examined the ship the more fearful are we to trust you all on board of her." Heaps of voices now interrupted the captain. "But what are we to do? How are we to get away? ”

“ Lesher, he's drunk but he's cap'n all the same."
"That's right," put in a third sailor. "Hurrah for Captain Lesher and the rum he let us have!"
"Got to keep off, I tell you," went on Bostwick. "If you don't, we have—er—we have strict orders to fire on you, yes, sir."
"To fire on us!" cried Dick. "Do you mean to say you would fire on us?"
"Now, see here, don't you put in your oar," said a fourth sailor. "You don't count with us. It's the cap'n that was we're talkin' to."
"I am captain still," said Captain Blossom firmly. "If you don't want to obey me, you must leave the ship." ”

“ Most lumbering vessels would have bumped a hole in their bottoms, but I'll be bound she [55] has not rasped an inch of her keel. Here she lays us, and bids us, while she lies doon to rest, to take a snack ashore, and be thankful for a' the mercies showered on our unworthy heads. Good Mr. Austin is gone fra us, Madam, but surely there remains some amongst us to lift the song of praise and glory."
Every heart responded to the good captain's words, and the crippled crew, more alive than we were to the danger we had escaped, flocked from each part of the vessel to join us. ”

“ Isn’t there any trick we can work out to defend ourselves with?”
“I think there is, Captain,” answered Don Winslow, rising from his chair. “I’d like to talk it over first, though, with Michael Splendor. Suppose we join him, below, while Pennington is sending this radio I’ve just coded. Red’s an expert operator, so there won’t be any mistakes!”
Below, in the captain’s quarters. Lieutenant Darnley had just finished outlining the situation to Splendor and Mercedes Colby. The girl was taking the latest news of sabotage and sudden death with cool courage, as became the daughter of a Navy Admiral. ”

“ Captain Winslow could not help feeling that his ship was completely in the power of the stranger. She evidently sailed two feet to his one; could shoot ahead and rake him, or could stand off and cannonade him with her long guns, without his being able to return a shot. A sturdy Briton as he was, he almost wished, for the sake of all on board, especially of the females, that it had been determined to yield at once.
“No, no, that would never do,” he muttered soon after to himself; “we’ll fight, and defend them like men.”
The stranger had been edging in nearer and nearer to the Indiaman. ”

“ Smart.—"Oh no, Sir, I'll never believe that."
Felix.—"Oh, but she was. I saw her shut her eyes when we all had to shoot together, and she did not open them for a good minute after."
Schillie.—"Good lack, captain, what is going to happen now?"
Boats were approaching La Luna. The pirates boarded her, and, after half an hour's work, her anchors were taken up, and she was towed to the other side of the bay, and there made secure.
Night set not in more darkly than the gloom that fell upon our hearts. We could but leave our fates in the hand of a good and merciful Providence. ”

“ The wind was light and in favour of the corvette, and slowly the two vessels diminished the few miles between them; but there was enough wind to show the royal colours on the Badger.
"He is a bold fellow, that pirate," said some of the naval men, "and he will wait and fight us."
"He will wait and fight us," said some of the others, "because he cannot get away; in this wind he is at our mercy."
Captain Vince stood and gazed over the water, sometimes with his glass and sometimes without it. ”

“ In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend that Captain John A. Winslow, United States Navy, receive a vote of thanks from Congress for the skill and gallantry exhibited by him in the brilliant action, while in command of the United States steamer Kearsarge, which led to the total destruction of the piratical craft Alabama on the 19th of June, 1864—a vessel superior in tonnage, superior in number of guns, and superior in number of crew. ”

“ I have told them what you proposed to do, and they don't intend to stand it."
"Didn't I tell you we'd get square?" put in Dan Baxter, his evil face glowing with triumph. "We have all that is on board, and we mean to keep everything."
"This is mutiny!" stormed Captain Blossom.
"Call it what you please," answered Lesher recklessly. "I reckon I and the boys know what we are doing!"
"That's right!" cried the half-drunken sailors. "Hurrah for Cap'n Lesher. He's a man after our own hearts!"
"Supposing I demand to be let on board?" went on Captain Blossom. ”

“ Friday came; the Kearsarge waited in the channel with ports down; guns pivoted to starboard; the whole battery loaded; and shell, grape, and canister ready to use in any method of attack or defence,—but no Alabama appeared. A French pilot-boat drifted near, and the black-eyed skipper cried out,
“You fellers look out for ze Alabama. She take in much coal. Whew! She take much of ze captured stuff ashore. Whew! She scrub ze deck. Whew! She put ze sailors to ze business of sharpening ze cutlass and ze dirk. Whew! You look out for ze great privateer! Whew!”
Captain Winslow only smiled. ”

“ After a short encounter of thirty-five minutes between the torpedo boat Winslow, the tug Hudson and the gunboat Wilmington on the American side, and the batteries at Cardenas and four Spanish gunboats, our arms were again victorious. Five Americans fell in this engagement. Ensign Worth Bagley of the Winslow, a brave North Carolinian, was the first officer to yield up [382] his life. It is stated that even after the Winslow's starboard engine and steering gear were useless, the crew kept hurling shot at the Spaniards on shore, until she was totally disabled. ”

“ Lieutenant Allen, catching the captain’s glance of query, shook his head.
“I didn’t touch Ahern, except to turn him over, sir,” he declared. “And there was no one else in the engine room when I arrived. Strange way to kill a man, with a wire noose!”
“The French call it 'La Garrote,’” observed Don Winslow, stooping to pick a peculiar metal object from a dark corner of the deck. “If I’m not mistaken, this thing is it! Looks as if the killer dropped it in his hurry to get away.” ”

“ This was accepted, and a battle took place off that harbor. Captain Winslow, of the Kearsarge, so manoeuvred that the Alabama was compelled to move round in a circular track, while he trained his guns upon her with fearful effect. On the seventh rotation, the Confederate vessel ran up the white flag and soon after sank. Captain Winslow rescued a part of the sinking crew, and others were picked up, at his request, by the Deerhound, an English yacht; but this vessel steamed off to the British coast with those she had saved, among whom was Captain Semmes. ”

“ A few weeks ago I had as guests at my house two young men who were graduates of the West Point Military Academy in 1889. One was my son, at present an instructor in the Academy, and the other was E. Eveleth Winslow, of the corps of engineers, who had the honor of being graduated at the head of his class. During the course of the conversation I asked Captain Winslow whether he was a relative of the late Commodore John Ancrum Winslow, commander of the Kearsarge in her famous fight with the Alabama. ”

“ It didn’t look like a seaman’s blouse!”
“You mean, it might have been an officer’s, Don?” cried Mercedes Colby, leaning forward in her deck chair.
“Or a petty officer’s or even a cabin steward’s,” responded the young commander. “That really isn’t much to go on in naming a suspect, you see.”
“I’m sure, Winslow,” said Captain Riggs stiffly, “that every commissioned officer here aboard is above suspicion. As for the enlisted personnel, of course, I can’t be sure. There were some replacements made in the crew before we shoved off from Guantanamo, and a spy might have come aboard with them. ”

“ What Captain Winslow’s notion of humanity may be is a point beyond my knowledge, but I have good reason for believing that not many members of the royal yacht squadron would, from ‘motives of humanity’ have taken Captain Semmes from the water in order to give him up to the tender mercies of Captain Winslow, and his compatriots. Another reason assigned by your correspondent for that hero’s forbearance may be imagined in the reflection that such a performance as that of Captain Wilkes, who dragged two ‘enemies’ or ‘rebels’ from an English ship, would not bear repetition. ”

“ Am I right, Skipper?”
“I hope so, Red!” replied Don Winslow soberly. “At least we’ll make the Americas and their two oceans an unlucky harbor for the enemies of peace. With the aid of all our loyal shipmates, not forgetting Suzette and Count Borg and Lotus, too, we’ll work, we’ll live, and if need be we’ll die to make this old world a better place!”
“Amen!” responded Michael Splendor from his sickbed. “Already ye have the Scorpion and his warmongers on the run, but perilous waters lie before ye. Commander. The enemy is desperate. ”

“ Suddenly he’d heard two pistol shots, and the sound of men running. He was still wondering what it was all about, when the door burst open and two hundred pounds of fighting man landed on him. Naturally he’d tried to fight back, but his attacker, who turned out to be Lieutenant Pennington, had him licked from the start.
Don Winslow heard the story through, without a change of expression.
“Why,” he asked, “did you have the deadlights screwed over the portholes. Is that customary aboard this craft?”
“Captain Riggs’ orders, sir,” replied the radio operator instantly. ”