A Pirate of the Caribbees | Page 7

of a fiercely burning fever. Our
people fought grimly and in silence, save for an occasional cheer at
some unusually successful shot; but the Frenchmen jabbered away
incessantly, sometimes reviling us and shaking their fists at us through
their open ports, and more often squabbling among themselves.
At length, when the fight had lasted about half an hour, the wind
dropped to a dead calm, and the Frenchman on our starboard side, who
had forged somewhat ahead of us, made an effort to lay himself athwart
our bows before he lost way altogether. But we were too quick for him,
for his mainmast was towing alongside and stopped his way; so we did
with him what he tried to do to us, driving square athwart his bows as
his bowsprit came thrusting in between our fore and main masts, when
we lost not a moment in lashing the spar to our main rigging. But, after
all, it resolved itself into tit for tat, for the other fellow put his helm
hard aport and just managed to drive square athwart our stern, where he
raked us most unmercifully for fully five minutes, until he drove clear,
bringing down all three of our masts before he left us. Of course we
could only retaliate upon him with our stern-chasers, which we played
upon him with considerable effect; but what we lacked in the way of
adequate retort to him we amply made up for to his consort, raking her
time after time with such good-will that in a few minutes her bows
were battered into a mere mass of torn and splintered timber.
Somebody on board her cried out that they had struck, but as her
marines kept up their fire upon us from the poop, while her main-deck
guns continued to blaze away whenever she swung sufficiently for any
of them to bear, no notice was taken of this intimation; and presently
our skipper gave the order to cut her adrift, so that her people might

have no chance to board--a proceeding that would have proved
exceedingly awkward for us in our then weakened condition.
But it presently became evident that they had no thought of boarding us;
on the contrary, their chief anxiety was clearly to escape from the warm
berth that they had thrust themselves into; for a few minutes later, the
fire on both sides having slackened somewhat, we observed that both
craft had their boats in the water and were doing their best to tow off
from us, and almost immediately afterwards the French ceased firing
altogether. I believe our skipper--fire-eater though he was--felt
unfeignedly thankful at this cessation of hostilities, for he immediately
followed suit, giving the order for the men to leave the guns and
proceed to repair damages. This was no light task, for not only were we
completely dismasted, but the hull of the ship was terribly knocked
about, the carpenter reporting five feet of water in the hold and
twenty-seven shot-holes between wind and water, apart from our other
damages, which were sufficiently serious. Moreover, our "butcher's
bill" was appallingly heavy, the list totalling up to no less than
thirty-eight killed and one hundred and six wounded, out of a total of
two hundred and eighty!
CHAPTER TWO.
THE ALTHEA FOUNDERS.
The French having ceased firing, and manifesting an unmistakable
anxiety to withdraw from our proximity, we bestowed but little further
attention on them, for it quickly became clear to us that our own
condition was quite sufficiently serious to tax our energies to the
utmost. The first task demanding the attention of the carpenter and his
mates was of course the stoppage of our leaks, and a very difficult task
indeed it proved to be, owing to the rapidity with which the water was
rising in the hold; by manning the pumps, however, and employing the
entire available remainder of the crew in baling, we succeeded in
plugging all the shot-holes and clearing the hold of water by noon,
when the men were knocked off to go to their well-earned dinner. Then,
indeed, we found time to look around us and to ask ourselves and each

other where the French were and what they were doing. There was no
difficulty in furnishing a reply to either question, for our antagonists
were only a bare four miles off, and close together. But bad as our own
plight was, theirs was very much worse; for we now saw that the frigate
which we had raked so unmercifully was in a sinking condition, having
settled so low in the water indeed that the sills of her main-deck ports
were awash and dipping with every sluggish heave of her upon the low
and almost imperceptible swell, while her own boats and those of her
consort were busily