Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers - J. H. Hubback (novels for students txt) 📗

“At a quarter past 8, hoisted out the pinnace and launch and sent them to board the chace.

“At 8 o’clock, I could discern with a glass the privateer, with his sail furled, laying in his oars, just within the west point of the cove, ready to pop out on the Spanish boat, and, but for our being so near, certainly would have recaptured her, but when our boats put off from the ship he went in again.

“At 10 o’clock, the boats returned with the chace, which proved to be a Spanish coasting-vessel of 20 tons, from Cadiz bound to Barcelona with wheat, prize to the General Pigot, a privateer belonging to Gibraltar. Supplied him with a few baracoes of water.

“At 11 o’clock, in boats and made sail on the larboard tack.”

This account of a twenty-four hours on board the Peterel will give some idea of the constant interest and continual demand on the judgment incidental to this life. This particular day, though a full one, was barren of results. The privateer got out of the way of the Peterel, and the chace which they did succeed in boarding had already surrendered to another British ship. The entries of a few days later, March 28, will show how varying was the success of these encounters. On that day they secured three prizes in twelve hours.

“5 o’clock A.M., saw a strange sail bear S.W. by S. Bore up and set royal and steering sails in chace.

“8 o’clock.—Fresh breezes and clear weather; came up with the chace close off the west end of Ivica. Shortened sail and hove to, sent a boat on board; she proved to be a Spanish brig laden with barley, from Almeria bound to Barcelona. Sent an officer and eight men to take possession, and took all the Spaniards out of her.

“At 10 o’clock.—Took her in tow, and made sail to the eastward.

“At half-past 10.—Saw a brig at the south part of Ivica, cast off the tow, and made all sail in chace.

“Half-past 11.—In steering sails.

“At noon.—Moderate and clear weather, passing through between Ivica and Formenterra, prize in company.

“Half-past 12.—Fired five guns at the chace to make her bring to, but without effect.

“At i o’clock.—She anchored close under a signal tower with four guns on it. Hoisted out the pinnace, and sent her armed under the direction of the second lieutenant to board the vessel.

“Half-past 2.—The pinnace returned with the brig; sent her away to cut out a small vessel, which was then riding about half a mile to the westward of the tower. The brig appears to be French, but no one was found on board her. Sent an officer and five men to take charge of her.

“At 5 o’clock.—The pinnace returned with the other vessel, a Spanish settee, appearing by papers found on board to be the Alicant packet. Her crew had quitted her on seeing our boats approach. Sent an officer and five men on board to take charge of her. Took her in tow and made sail; prizes in company.”

Such days as this were of quite frequent occurrence. Sometimes the prizes were of great value, as on April 11, when the Peterel, in company with the Powerful and the Leviathan, assisted in capturing a vessel which they thought to be a despatch-boat, and therefore of the first importance. She proved to be a fishing-boat, employed in carrying a brigadier-general, a lieutenant-colonel, and a captain of the Walloon Guards over to Ivica from Alicant. She had on board specie to the amount of 9000 dollars. The Peterel’s share of this valuable prize was 1469 dollars, which was paid out in the following proportions:

To a captain … . . 750 dollars

” a lieutenant … . . 62 1/2 “

” a warrant officer … . . 36 3/4 “

” a petty officer … . . 10 1/3 “

” a foremast man … . . 2 “

It is to be feared that the prize-money was a doubtful blessing to the foremast hands, especially as the Peterel was then nearing Port Mahon, where they lay at anchor for three days, during which it was no doubt easy to incur the punishments for drunkenness and neglect of duty which we find meted out two days later.

Another capture of political importance is detailed on the 26th April, when a Spanish tartan, the San Antonio de Padua, was brought to, having on board fifty-three soldiers belonging to a company of the 3rd battalion of the Walloon Guards, who were being conveyed from Barcelona to Majorca. These, with sailors and a few recruits also on board, summed up a capture of seventy-nine Spanish prisoners, who were taken on board the Peterel.

The tartan was manned by a midshipman and seven men, and taken in tow. The prisoners were afterwards transferred to the Centaur and the prize, after everything was taken out of her, was scuttled.

These few instances will serve to show the kind of life of which we get such tantalising hints in “Persuasion.”

The account Captain Wentworth gives to the two Miss Musgroves and to Admiral Croft of his earlier commands is a case in point. The date is not the same, for we remember that Captain Wentworth first got employ in the year six (1806), soon after he had parted in anger from Anne Elliot.

“The Miss Musgroves were just fetching the ‘Navy List’ (their own ‘Navy List,’ the first there had ever been at Uppercross), and sitting down together to pore over it, with the professed view of finding out the ships which Captain Wentworth had commanded.

“‘Your first was the Asp, I remember. We will look for the Asp.’

“‘You will not find her there. Quite worn out and broken up. I was the last man who commanded her. Hardly fit for service then. Reported fit for home service for a year or two, and so I was sent off to the West Indies.’

“The girls looked all amazement.

” ‘The Admiralty,’ he continued, ‘entertain themselves now and then with sending a few hundred men to sea in a ship not fit to be employed. But they have a great many to provide for; and among the thousands that may just as well go to the bottom as not, it is impossible for them to distinguish the very set who may be least missed.’

“‘Phoo! phoo!’ cried the Admiral. ‘What stuff these young fellows talk! Never was there a better sloop than the Asp in her day. For an old built sioop you would not see her equal. Lucky fellow to get her! He knows there must have been twenty better men than himself applying for her at the same time. Lucky fellow to get anything so soon, with no more interest than his.’

‘I felt my luck, Admiral, I assure you,’ replied Captain Wentworth seriously. ‘I was as well satisfied with my appointment as you can desire. It was a great object with me at the time to be at sea; a very great object. I wanted to be doing something.’

“‘To be sure you did. What should a young fellow like you do ashore for half a year together? If a man has not a wife, he soon wants to be afloat again.’

“‘But, Captain Wentworth,’ cried Louisa, ‘how vexed you must have been when you came to the Asp, to see what an old thing they had given you.’

“‘I knew pretty well what she was before that day,’ said he smiling. ‘I had no more discoveries to make than you would have as to the fashion and strength of an old pelisse, which you had seen lent about among half your acquaintance ever since you could remember, and which at last on some very wet day is lent to yourself. Ah! she was a dear old Asp to me. She did all I wanted. I knew she would. I knew that we should either go to the bottom together, or that she would be the making of me; and I never had two days of foul weather all the time I was at sea in her; and after taking privateers enough to be very entertaining, I had the good luck in my passage home the next autumn to fall in with the very French frigate I wanted. I brought her into Plymouth; and here was another instance of luck. We had not been six hours in the Sound when a gale came on which lasted four days and four nights, and which would have done for poor old Asp in half the time, our touch with the Great Nation not having improved our condition. Four and twenty hours later and I should only have been a gallant Captain Wentworth in a small paragraph at one corner of the newspapers; and being lost in only a sloop, nobody would have thought about me.’

“The girls were now hunting for the Laconia; and Captain Wentworth could not deny himself the pleasure of taking the precious volume into his own hands to save them the trouble, and once more read aloud the little statement of her name and rate, and present non-commissioned class. Observing over it that she too had been one of the best friends man ever had.

“‘Ah, those were pleasant days when I had the Laconia! How fast I made money in her! A friend of mine and I had such a lovely cruise together off the Western Islands. Poor Harville, sister! You know how much he wanted money: worse than myself. He had a wife. Excellent fellow! I shall never forget his happiness. He felt it all so much for her sake. I wished for him again next summer, when I had still had the same luck in the Mediterranean.’”

One cannot but feel, when one comes on such a conversation in Jane Austen’s novel, how perfectly she understood the details of her brothers’ lives. Her interest and sympathy were so great that we can almost hear Francis and Charles recounting experiences to their home circle, with a delicious dwelling on the dangers, for the sake of inward shudders, or “more open exclamations of pity and horror” from their hearers, with sidelong hits at the Admiralty, and with the true sailor’s love of, and pride in, the vessels he has commanded.