Ronald Morton, or the Fire Ships Part 14

"Hurra, lads! here she comes again; we'll have her fast this time,"

shouted the captain at this juncture.

The "Thisbe," deprived of her after-sail, paid off before the wind, and thus the French frigate ran directly into her, on the starboard quarter, the enemy's bowsprit hanging over the stump of her mainmast. The opportunity of securing the French ship was not lost, though her crew attempted to rush on board, as before, to prevent the operation.

While the captain and most of the superior officers who had escaped wounds or death were engaged in repelling them, Rolf caused himself to be brought nearer to the mainmast, that he might superintend the crew in lashing the bowsprit to it.

This time they took care that it should not again break away; and now the "Thisbe," running directly off before the wind, dragged the Frenchman after her.

The fight had been hot before, but it became hotter still. Again and again the Frenchmen endeavoured to cut away those second lashings, but the English marines kept up so hot a fire, that each time the attempt was frustrated. Still the enemy showed no signs of yielding. Something must be done. Wounded as he was, Morton dragged himself up to where the captain was standing.

"I beg your pardon, Captain Courtney, but if we could get a couple of guns run out abaft on the main-deck, we could silence that fellow pretty quickly," he said, touching his hat with all due formality.

It was somewhat out of rule for the boatswain to offer his advice unasked to the captain, but under the circ.u.mstances the irregularity was easily overlooked by such a man as Captain Courtney.

"You are right, Mr Morton," he answered; "send the carpenter and his crew aft, Mr Calder," to the second lieutenant. "Get the two after guns on the main-deck ready to run out astern as soon as we have some ports made for them."

Having given this order, the captain descended to the main-deck.

Mr Gimbol, the carpenter, soon made his appearance there from below, where he had been going his rounds through the wings, to stop any shot-holes which might have been made between wind and water.

With axes and saws he and his crew set to work, but the upper transom beam resisted all their efforts.

"We must blow out some ports," exclaimed the captain. "Send the firemen here."

A gang of men with buckets were quickly on the spot. The guns were pointed aft. "Fire!" cried the captain. The two guns went off together, and as the suffocating smoke blew off, two holes with jagged edges were seen in the stern, but flames were bursting out around them.

These, however, the firemen with their buckets quickly extinguished, and the guns, being again loaded, opened their fire through them on the deck of the Frenchman. The effect produced from this unexpected quarter was terrific. Fore and aft the shot flew crashing between the decks, seldom failing to find some victims, and oftentimes carrying off the heads of half-a-dozen men, as they stood at their guns, in its course from one end of the ship to the other. Never were guns more rapidly worked than were those two twelve-pounders on board the "Thisbe." The captain stood by, encouraging the men.

Rolf Morton went about, badly wounded as he was, to ascertain where his services were most required. Ronald followed his father, dreading every moment to see him fall from the effects of his first wound, or to find that he was again hit. Once more they returned to the upper deck.

Their numbers were falling, wounds were being received, and havoc was being made aloft and on every side. The masts of the French ship were still standing, but from the shrieks and cries which proceeded from her decks, there seemed little doubt that she was suffering even more than the "Thisbe." Ronald kept watching the enemy.

"See, father!--see!" he exclaimed. "Down, down they come!" He pointed at the Frenchman's foremast. It bent on one side, the few ropes which held it gave way, and crash it came down over the side. The mainmast stood, but the mizenmast in an instant afterwards followed the foremast, preventing the crew from working the greater number of the guns.

However, with those still unenc.u.mbered they continued to fire away with the greatest desperation. The English seamen fought on with the same determined courage as at first. They had made up their minds that they would take the enemy, and there was not a man on board who would have given in till they had done so, or till the ship sunk under them.

Half-an-hour pa.s.sed away. It seemed surprising that either ship could float with the pounding they gave each other, or that any human beings could survive on their decks amid the storm of shot and bullets rushing across them. At length a loud cheer burst from the throats of the English seamen, the Frenchman's last remaining mast was seen to lean over, and down it came with a tremendous crash, crushing many in its fall, and completely preventing the crew from working any of their guns.

"They will give in now, father, to a certainty," exclaimed Ronald.

"Not so sure, boy; see, they are going to make a desperate attempt to revenge themselves."

"Here they come!" he answered, and then the cry arose from the English ship of, "Boarders! repel boarders!"

Once more the Frenchmen came on with the most determined courage.

Captain Courtney and some of his officers and men who were aft threw themselves before the enemy, to stem the torrent which threatened to pour down on the "Thisbe's" decks; but with such fury and desperation did the Frenchmen come on, that many of the English were driven back, and there seemed no little probability that the former would gain their object. Rolf Morton, on perceiving this, and forgetting his wound, seized a cutla.s.s, and calling on all the men at hand, followed by Ronald, sprang aft to the aid of his captain. His a.s.sistance did not come a moment too soon. Captain Courtney was brought to his knee, and a French officer, who had led the boarders, was on the point of cutting him down, when Ronald sprang to his side, and thrusting his cutla.s.s before him, saved him from the blow intended for his head. Ronald would have had to pay dearly for his gallantry, had not Rolf cut the Frenchman down at the moment he was making, in return, a fierce stroke at his son.

More of the English crew, led by their officers, now came hurrying aft, and the Frenchmen, disheartened by the loss of their leader, again retreated to their ship, leaving eight or ten of their number dead or dying behind them. Still no one cried for quarter; and though not a gun was discharged, the marines and small-arm men kept up as hot a fire as before.

All this time the "Thisbe's" two after-guns on the maindeck kept thundering away at them, fearfully diminishing their numbers. And thus the fight continued: they made, however, no signal of yielding.

The Frenchmen had scarcely retreated from their daring attempt to board the frigate, when the lashings which secured their bowsprit to her began to give way. The boatswain had, however, got a hawser ready ranged along the deck, and this, in spite of the fire kept up at them, he, with his mates and others of the crew, secured to the gammoning of the Frenchmen's bowsprit.

"Now the lashings may go as soon as they like!" he exclaimed, almost breathless with the exertion; "the Frenchmen will gain little by the change."

So it proved: the enemy's ship, when the lashings gave way, dropped astern a few fathoms, and there she hung, towed onwards, as before, by the "Thisbe," whose crew were thus enabled to rake her decks with more deadly effect. Still the battle raged as at first.

At length some voices were heard from the bowsprit of the French frigate.

"Quarter! quarter!" was the cry. "We have struck! we yield!"

"Cease firing, my lads!" shouted the captain; "we have won the night!"

The order was obeyed. For an instant there was a perfect silence, a contrast to the uproar which had so long continued; even the wounded restrained the expression of their sufferings; and then there burst forth one of those hearty cheers, which few but English seamen can give, and which they so well know how to give with effect. And now many of the brave fellows who had hitherto worked away at their guns without flinching, sank down with fatigue, Rolf Morton even then would not go below.

"I'll stay on deck and see the enemy secured, and get the ship put to rights a little," he answered; "I am only just showing my boy how I wish him to behave. While there is duty to do, and a man has strength to do it, he should not shrink from it, whatever it may cost him."

Ronald listened to what his father was saying.

"That's it, father; I'll try and stick to that," he observed, looking up in his father's face.

It was now necessary to board the French ship to take possession of her, but how that was to be accomplished was the question, for not a boat that could swim remained on board either of the combatants.

The second lieutenant--one of the few officers unwounded--volunteered to work his way along the hawser, and a midshipman and several of the men offered to accompany him; Ronald begged leave to go also.

In those days, strange as it may seem, many seamen could not swim.

The boarding-party commenced their somewhat hazardous pa.s.sage from one ship to the other. The "Thisbe" had but slight way on her; the hawser was consequently somewhat slack, and the weight of the people on it brought it down into the water. The lieutenant and several of the men clung on, but the midshipman was by some means or other washed off.

Unable to swim, he cried out loudly for help, but no one could afford it, till Ronald let go his own hold of the rope, and swam towards him.

Of course to regain the hawser was hopeless, and it was equally difficult to swim back to the "Thisbe." Ronald had practised swimming from his childhood, and was as much at home in the water as on sh.o.r.e.

He struck out with one hand while he supported the young midshipman with the other. His first fear was that the French ship would run them down, but a few strokes carried him and his charge clear of that danger. He next attempted to get alongside her. He looked up, and saw her dark hull rising up above him. There were plenty of ropes hanging overboard; he found one that appeared secure above; he put it into the midshipman's hands.

"There, Mr Glover," he exclaimed; "we shall be the first on the enemy's deck after all."

He was not long in finding another rope for himself, and to the surprise of the Frenchmen they found two stranger boys standing on their quarter-deck.

"Have you come to take possession?" asked a lieutenant in tolerable English. "What! are all your superior officers killed?"

"Oh, no, monsieur," answered the midshipman; "they will be on board presently; but we are somewhat lighter craft, so made quicker work of it."

The second lieutenant of the "Thisbe" and his companions soon made their appearance, having clambered in over the bows; and the French frigate, which was found to be the "Concorde"--one of the largest cla.s.s in the French navy--was formally taken possession of.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

MORNING AFTER THE BATTLE--RONALD PLACED ON QUARTERDECK--RONALD SENT ON BOARD THE PRIZE--A SUSPICIOUS SAIL IN SIGHT--GALLANT DEFENCE OF THE "THISBE"--NIGHT CLOSES ON THE FIGHT.

As the bright cheerful light of morning broke on the world of waters, there lay the two frigates, which, when the sun went down, looked so gallant and so trim--now shorn of their beauty, shattered and blackened wrecks.

The foremast of the "Thisbe" was alone standing, while all the masts of the French frigate, with their sails, and yards, and rigging, hung in ma.s.ses of wreck and confusion over her sides. The decks covered with blood and gore, and the shattered remnants of mortality, presented a horrible and disgusting scene; while the broken bulwarks, the decks ploughed up, the wheel shot away, and the ruined condition of every part of the ship, showed the desperate nature of the conflict, and told of the bravery of the gallant French crew who had endured so much before they had consented to yield.

Onboard the "Thisbe" the carpenters were busily employed in patching up some of the boats, so that the prisoners might be removed from the prize, while the rest of the crew were engaged in clearing away the wreck of the masts, and in preparing to make sail on the ship.