Stories of Our Naval Heroes Part 7

"Say, good fellow, can you tell if the Honorable Samuel Tucker lives here or hereabouts?"

The workman looked up with a quizzical glance from under the brim of his tarpaulin and replied:

"Honorable, honorable! There's none of that name in Marblehead. He must be one of the Salem Tuckers. I'm the only Samuel Tucker in this town."

"Anyhow, this is where I was told to stop. A house standing alone, with its gable-end to the sea. This is the only place I've seen that looks like that."

"Then I must be the Tucker you want, honorable or not. What is it you have got to say to him?"

He soon learned, and was glad to receive the news. Early the next morning he had left home for the port where the _Franklin_ lay, and not many days pa.s.sed before he was out at sea.

The _Franklin_, under his command proved one of the most active ships afloat. She sent in prizes in numbers. More than thirty were taken in 1776--ships, brigs, and smaller vessels, including "a brigantine from Scotland worth fifteen thousand pounds."

These were not all captured without fighting. Two British brigs were taken so near Marblehead that the captain's wife and sister, hearing the sound of cannon, went up on a high hill close by and saw the fight through a spy-gla.s.s.

The next year Captain Tucker was put in command of the frigate _Boston_, and in 1778 he took John Adams to France as envoy from the United States.

It was a voyage full of incidents. They pa.s.sed through days of storm, which nearly wrecked the ship. Many vessels were seen, and the _Boston_ was chased by three men-of-war.

She ran away from these, and soon after came across a large armed vessel, which Captain Tucker decided to fight. When the drum called the men to quarters, Mr. Adams seized a musket and joined the marines.

The captain requested him to go below. Finding that he was not going to obey, Tucker laid a hand on his shoulder and said firmly:

"Mr. Adams, I am commanded by the Continental Congress to deliver you safe in France. You must go below."

Mr. Adams smiled and complied. The next minute there came a broadside from the stranger. There was no response from the _Boston_. Other shots came, and still no reply. At length the blue-jackets began to grumble.

Looking them in the eyes, Tucker said, in quizzical tones:

"Hold on, lads. I want to get that egg without breaking the sh.e.l.l."

In a few minutes more, having got into the position he wished, he raked the enemy from stem to stern with a broadside. That one sample was enough. She struck her flag without waiting for a second. Soon after the envoy was safely landed in France.

Numbers of anecdotes are told of Captain Tucker, who was a man much given to saying odd and amusing things.

Once he fell in with a British frigate which had been sent in search of him. He had made himself a thorn in the British lion's side and was badly wanted. Up came Tucker boldly, with the English flag at his peak.

He was hailed, and replied that he was Captain Gordon, of the English navy, and that he was out in search of the _Boston_, commanded by the rebel Tucker.

"If I can sight the ship I'll carry him to New York, dead or alive," he said.

"Have you ever seen him?"

"Well, I've heard of him; they say he is a tough customer."

While talking, he had been manoeuvering to gain a raking position. Just as he did so, a sailor in the British tops cried,--

"Look out below! That is Tucker himself."

The Englishman was in a trap. The _Boston_ had him at a great disadvantage. There was nothing to do but to strike his flag, and this he did without firing a gun.

When Charleston was taken by the British, the _Boston_ was one of the vessels cooped up there and lost. Captain Tucker was taken prisoner.

After his exchange, as he had no ship, he took the sloop-of-war _Thorn_, one of his former prizes, and went out cruising as a privateer.

After a three weeks' cruise, the _Thorn_ met an English ship of twenty-three guns.

"She means to fight us," said the captain to his men, after watching her movements. "If we go alongside her like men she will be ours in thirty minutes; if we can't go as men we have no business there at all. Every man who is willing to fight go down the starboard gangway; all others can go down the larboard." Every soul of them took the starboard.

He manoeuvered so that in a few minutes the vessels lay side by side.

The Englishman opened with a broadside that did little damage. The _Thorn_ replied with a destructive fire, and kept it up so hotly that within thirty minutes a loud cry came from the English ship:

"Quarters, for G.o.d's sake! Our ship is sinking. Our men are dying of their wounds."

"How can you expect quarters while your flag is flying?" demanded Captain Tucker.

"Our halliards are shot away."

"Then cut away your ensign staff, or you'll all be dead men."

It was done and the firing ceased. A dreadful execution had taken place on the Englishman's deck, more than a third of her crew being dead and wounded, while blood was everywhere.

And so we take our leave of Captain Tucker. He was one of the kind of sailors that everyone likes to read about.

CHAPTER IX

THE LAST NAVAL BATTLE OF THE REVOLUTION

THE HEROIC CAPTAIN BARNEY IN THE "HYDER ALI" CAPTURES THE "GENERAL MONK"

YOU must think by this time that we had many bold and brave sailors in the Revolution. So we had. You have not been told all their exploits, but only a few among the most gallant ones. There is one more story that is worth telling, before we leave the Revolutionary times.

If you are familiar with American history you will remember that Lord Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington in October, 1781. That is generally looked on as the end of the war. There was no more fighting on land. But there was one bold affair on the water in April, 1782, six months after the work of the armies was done.

This was in Delaware Bay, where Captain Barry had taken a war vessel with a few rowboats. The hero of this later exploit was Captain Joshua Barney, and he was as brave a man as John Barry.

Captain Barney had seen service through the whole war. Like John Paul Jones, an accident had made him a captain of a ship when he was a mere boy. He was only seventeen, yet he handled his ship with the skill of an old mariner. War broke out soon afterward and he became an officer on the _Hornet_, though still only a boy. Soon after he had some lively service in the _Wasp_, and captured a British privateer with the little sloop _Sachem_.

Then he had some bad fortune, for he was taken prisoner while bringing in a prize vessel, and was put on the terrible prison-ship _Jersey_. Few of the poor fellows on that vessel lived to tell the story of the frightful way in which they were treated. But young Barney managed to escape, and went to sea again as captain of a merchant vessel. In this he was chased by a British war-vessel, the _Rosebud_. Shall I tell you the way that Captain Barney plucked the petals of the _Rosebud_? He fired a crowbar at her out of one of his cannon. This new kind of cannon-ball went whirling through the air and came ripping and tearing through the sails of the British ship. After making rags of her sails, it hit her foremast and cut out a big slice. The Americans now sailed quietly away. They could laugh at John Bull's _Rosebud_.

On the 8th of April, 1782, Captain Barney took command of the _Hyder Ali_. This was a merchant ship which had been bought by the State of Pennsylvania. It was not fit for a warship, but the State was in a hurry, so eight gun-ports were cut on each side, and the ship was mounted with sixteen six-pounder cannon. Then she set sail from Philadelphia in charge of a fleet of merchant vessels.

On they went, down the Delaware river and bay, until Cape May was reached. Here Captain Barney saw that there was trouble ahead. Three British vessels came in sight. One of these was the frigate _Quebec_.

The others were a brig, the _Fair American_, and a sloop-of-war, the _General Monk_.

Before such a fleet the _Hyder Ali_ was like a sparrow before a hawk.

Captain Barney at once signaled his merchant ships to make all haste up the bay. Away they flew like a flock of frightened birds, except one, whose captain thought he would slip round the cape and get to sea. But the British soon swallowed up him and his ship, so he paid well for his smartness.