The Voyage of the Aurora Part 4

These orders were promptly executed, the discomfited Frenchmen being permitted to pa.s.s out of the galley only one at a time. Cross's burly form, drawn cutla.s.s and conspicuously displayed pistol, supported by the appearance of the barque's crew in his immediate background, proving an effectual deterrent to any attempt on the part of the privateersmen to make a rush for freedom, and in something like a couple of hours from the time of her capture, the _Aurora_, was once more in the undisputed possession of her rightful owner.

CHAPTER FOUR.

THE DEPARTURE OF THE CONVOY.

About daybreak the wind veered round and blew a fine, fresh, steady breeze from the northward, enabling the barque to lay her course with flowing sheets; and sunset found her safely anch.o.r.ed in Plymouth Sound, one of a fleet of nearly two hundred merchantmen, which had a.s.sembled there for the purpose of being convoyed across the Atlantic.

The convoy was to sail on the following day but one; the men-o'-war which const.i.tuted their escort were already in the Sound, along with several other ships of the royal navy; and as the cable smoked out through the _Aurora's_ hawse-pipe that evening, when she dropped her anchor, George fondly hoped his troubles were at an end.

But he was mistaken.

As soon as the canvas was furled, Captain Leicester manned a boat, and, proceeding on board the admiral's ship reported the circ.u.mstance of the capture and recapture of his vessel, requesting at the same time to be relieved as soon as possible of the custody of his prisoners. This was speedily arranged. By the admiral's orders an armed boat's crew was at once despatched to the _Aurora_, the prisoners were released from their bonds, pa.s.sed into the man-o'-war's boat, and in little more than an hour from their arrival in the Sound safely lodged on board a prison-hulk.

So far, so good. But George had yet to learn that there was one inconvenient result generally attendant upon a request to a man-o'-war for a.s.sistance. The boat, after conveying the Frenchmen to the prison-hulk, duly returned to the admiral's ship; but, instead of the crew at once pa.s.sing out of her, they were ordered to remain where they were, the lieutenant in charge alone going on deck and holding a short conference with the captain, after which he re-entered the boat, and she proceeded once more alongside the _Aurora_.

George saw her coming, and wondered what could possibly be her errand.

He was not left long in doubt.

"I am very sorry to trouble you," remarked the lieutenant, as he encountered George at the gangway, whither the latter had repaired to meet him, "but I must ask you to kindly muster your men."

George knew only too well then what this visit boded, but he was quite helpless; so, putting the best face he could upon the matter, he answered as cheerfully as he could, and directed that all hands should be summoned on deck.

"I hope, however," he remarked to the officer, "that you will not deprive me of any of my crew. I have shipped only just sufficient men to handle her, and I a.s.sure you that even with the fine weather we have had in our trip down Channel I have found that we have not a hand too many for the efficient management of the ship."

"Ah, yes," answered the lieutenant with a laugh; "all you merchant-skippers tell the same story; but we shall see--we shall see.

They must be exceptionally good men, however, or you would never have succeeded in recovering possession of your ship. Ah! here they are, and a fine smart crew they look, too. Upon my word I must congratulate you, Mr--a--um--a, upon your good luck in securing so many fine fellows; why, they look capable of taking care of a ship twice your size. I really _must_ relieve you of one or two of them; it would be nothing short of treason to his most gracious Majesty to allow you to keep them all, when the navy is in such urgent want of men."

The crew were by this time a.s.sembled on deck, and a very disconcerted and disgusted-looking set of men they were; they had submitted to weeks of voluntary imprisonment in crimps' houses for the sole purpose of escaping impressment into the navy, and now, when their voyage had actually begun, here was a man-o'-war's boat alongside, to force them into the service they regarded with so great an abhorrence. No wonder that they looked and felt disgusted.

The men were drawn up in line along the deck, in single file, and the lieutenant sauntered leisurely along the line, critically examining each man as he came to him, but without, as George had antic.i.p.ated, ordering any of them into the boat alongside. At length he reached the last individual in the line, one of the lads, and Leicester was beginning to breathe freely once more, hoping that he was, after all, not to be robbed of any of his crew, when the officer returned to the head of the line, and, touching the second mate lightly on the chest with his finger, said--

"You were evidently born to become a man-o'-war's man, my fine fellow; get your traps together and pa.s.s them and yourself into the boat alongside as soon as you have received your wages."

"Excuse me," said George, "I really must ask you not to take that man; he is my second mate."

"Your second mate!" exclaimed the officer with well-feigned astonishment. "You surely do not mean to say you carry a second mate on board such a c.o.c.k-boat as this?"

"Certainly I do," retorted George somewhat tartly; "why not, pray?"

"Simply, my good man, because such an individual is wholly unnecessary.

You can take charge of one watch, yourself, you know, and your mate will of course command the other, so that you can have no possible use for a second mate. Why, a smart, active young fellow like you ought to be ashamed of such an act of laziness as the carrying of a second mate.

Pay the man his wages, if you please, and let him pa.s.s into the boat."

"I owe him no wages," answered George; "on the contrary, he--and every other man of the crew, for that matter--has drawn a month's advance, and owes me three weeks' service yet before we shall be square. Who is to reimburse me for that loss?"

"I am sorry to say I am quite unable to answer that question," was the reply; "but, giving it--mind you, strictly as my private opinion--I am afraid you will have to suffer the loss. For my part I have never been able to understand why you masters of merchantmen _will_ persist in so risky a policy as the payment of a month's wages in advance, when you can never tell what may occur to prevent the men from working out their time. But this is not business; I must bear a hand and finish my work, or I shall get severely rapped over the knuckles."

Then, turning once more to the men, he ordered the carpenter to get his things ready, and go into the boat.

"No," said George, by this time thoroughly exasperated, "_that_ I will _not_ permit. This man is the ship's carpenter, and I forbid you, sir, to impress him at your peril."

"You _forbid_, eh?" said the lieutenant, turning angrily upon George.

"Take care what you are saying, my fine fellow, or I may perhaps find ways and means of impressing _you_ before you sail."

Then, suddenly realising that he had allowed his temper to outrun his discretion, he added in a conciliatory tone--

"Well, since you say that this man is the carpenter, I will spare him; but you should have explained that fact to me at first; and as to impressing _you_, why, I daresay you know the old joke about impressing a ship-master, and will understand I was only jesting; you are a capital fellow, and have behaved very well over this business, so I will let you off as easily as I can. But of course I must do my duty and take another man or two from you; if I did not, some of the other ships would be sending on board you and leaving you really short-handed."

With that he picked out with unerring eye the two able-seamen, and then, turning to George with a great show of generous forbearance, announced that he would leave him all the rest, though he could hardly reconcile it to his conscience to _go away_ with only three men out of so strong and smart a crew as that belonging to the _Aurora_.

Cross was by this time with his chest on deck; the other two impressed men soon followed, and the disconsolate trio pa.s.sed down the ship's side in moody silence, unmoved alike by the commiserating looks of their late shipmates or the jocular and more than half-ironical congratulations of the man-o'-war's men in the boat upon their entry into so promising a service as that of the British navy.

On the departure of the boat, George held a short consultation with Mr Bowen, the result of which was a very wise determination to "grin and bear it," rather than risk fresh annoyance by an effort--which he very strongly suspected would be utterly useless--to obtain redress and the rest.i.tution of his men. This determination come to, the carpenter was summoned aft, and installed into the duties and the berth of the unfortunate Cross; George thus finding his crew reduced to three men, the officers included, and one lad in each watch, the cook and steward of course being "idlers," and their services in the working of the ship only to be demanded on occasions of exceptional urgency.

On the day but one following that of the impressment of the _Aurora's_ men, a gun was fired at sunrise by the commodore, blue-peter was hoisted at the fore-royal-mastheads, and the fore-topsails were loosed on board the ships of the convoying squadron, and the still morning air immediately began to resound with the songs of seamen and the clanking of windla.s.s-pawls, as the fleet of merchantmen const.i.tuting the convoy began to get under weigh. There was a considerable amount of emulation displayed among the merchant-skippers--those of them, at least, whose ships or crews had any pretensions to smartness, and in half an hour a good many of the craft were under weigh and standing out to sea with a light air of wind from the eastward. The old _Tremendous_, 74, led the van, closely followed by the _Torpid_, 50; while the frigates _Andromeda_ and _Vixen_, each of 32 guns, a.s.sisted by the _Dasher_, _Grampus_, _Throstle_, and _Mallard_, 10-gun-brigs, cruised round and round the laggards, making signals, firing guns, and generally creating a great deal of fuss, noise, and excitement. The leading portion of the fleet was hove-to, hull-down, at sea, before the last craft in the convoy had succeeded in getting her anchor and making a start; but by noon the whole of the fleet was fairly in the Channel, when the _Tremendous_ made the signal to fill, and away they all went, bowling along to the southward and westward, the dull sailers under every rag they could spread to the wind--now settled into a fine steady royal-breeze from east-south-east, while the smarter craft were compelled to show only such a spread of canvas as would enable the dullards to keep pace with them. The _Tremendous_ and _Torpid_, under double-reefed topsails, led the way about two miles apart; the frigates were posted, one to windward and one to leeward of the merchant-fleet, and the brigs brought up the rear, it being their duty to whip-in the stragglers, urge on the slow-coaches, and keep a sharp lookout for prowling privateers.

The English coast was still faintly visible, like a light grey cloud, on the horizon astern, when a strange sail was sighted on the port beam, steering west, a course which brought her gradually nearer to the convoy. She was brig-rigged, and she continued to approach until she had reached a point some six miles from the fleet; when she suddenly hauled her wind, and, without showing any colours, stood away to the southward and eastward, close-hauled, under a heavy press of canvas.

There had been a considerable amount of signalling going on between the various men-o'-war from the moment of her first appearance, and now there was still more; but it soon ceased; the last string of flags displayed by the _Tremendous_ was acknowledged by the _Andromeda_, the weathermost frigate, and the excitement appeared to be at an end.

"I'm afraid that means trouble for some of us, unless the men-o'-war keep a good sharp lookout," observed Mr Bowen to George, jerking his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the rapidly receding brig, as the two men walked the deck together, criticising the appearance and sailing powers of the various craft in company.

"Ah, indeed?" remarked George. "I see you have come to the same conclusion as myself with regard to the stranger, which is that she is a French privateer."

"Just that, sir, and nothing else," was the reply. "She is French all over; no need for her to show her colours; her rig speaks her nationality plain enough for a blind man to read it. She's been on the watch for this fleet for the last week or more, you may depend on it, and now she has gone back to report the news to her consorts that the West India convoy has sailed. Mark my words, sir; we shall all have to keep a good sharp lookout, or a few of us will be snapped up yet, in spite of the men-o'-war, before we sight the next land."

"Well," said George, "we must take care that the _Aurora_ is not one of the few, that is all. Luckily, we are not exactly the dullest sailer in the fleet; and we must manage to keep well in the body of it. It is the outsiders that will run the greatest risk."

For the next three or four days an unusual amount of vigilance was observable on board the men-o'-war, especially the frigates and gun-brigs, all of which kept well in the offing during the day, evidently on the lookout for prowling picaroons, and closing in again upon the convoy at night; but nothing was seen to keep alive suspicion; no ships of any description were encountered, save a couple of English frigates, each of which replied to the private signal and exchanged numbers with the _Tremendous_; and on the evening of the tenth day out the lofty, precipitous cliffs of the Azores were sighted and pa.s.sed.

Another week sped away without the occurrence of any incident worthy of record; the wind continued fair and steady; and the convoy, though its rate of travelling was rather slow, made very good progress.

On the afternoon of the eighteenth day out from Plymouth, the fleet being at the time in lat.i.tude 32 degrees North, longitude 44 degrees 30 minutes West, or about half-way to Jamaica, the wind fell light; the sky, which had hitherto been clear, became overcast, heavy ma.s.ses of dark, thunderous cloud slowly gathering in the south-western quarter and gradually spreading athwart the sky until the whole of the visible heavens were obscured. The barometer dropped slightly, indicating, in conjunction with the aspect of the sky, a probable change of wind and a consequent interruption to their hitherto highly satisfactory progress.

As evening fell, flashes of sheet-lightning were occasionally to be seen along the southern horizon; and Captain Leicester, antic.i.p.ating a thunder-storm and a probable heavy downfall of rain, made preparations for the refilling of his water-casks.

But, though the atmosphere appeared to be heavily charged with electricity, the thunder held off, and when night closed down upon the convoy, the moon being then in her third quarter and rising late, it became as dark as a wolf's mouth.

Lights were of course displayed on board each ship; and the convoy having become somewhat scattered in consequence of the failure of the breeze, the effect was very singular and striking.

This being George's first voyage across the Atlantic, he was naturally a little anxious; and on the night in question he resolved to remain on deck until the weather should have a.s.sumed some more decided aspect.

There was fortunately still a gentle breeze from about east-south-east fanning the convoy along at a speed of some two knots in the hour, just giving the ships steerage-way; and they were consequently able to keep out of each other's way, and thus avoid collision, always a great element of danger when a large number of craft happen to be sailing in company.

About two bells in the middle watch, George being seated at the time near the companion, smoking a meditative pipe, and thinking somewhat ruefully about Lucy Walford, the carpenter, who was in charge of the deck, approached him and said--

"Unless I am greatly mistaken, sir, here's a large craft without any lights creeping up on our larboard quarter."

"Indeed," said George, rousing himself and stepping aft to the taffrail with the carpenter; "whereabouts is she?"