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THE TWO ADMIRALS
“I didn’t, Sir Jarvy. Seeing how things was a going on, among
the pigs, for our top hoverlooks the awful scene, I axed the
young gentleman to let me come down to condole with your
honour; and as they always lets me do as I axes, in such matters, why down I come. We has had one rattler in at our top,
howsever, that came nigh lo clear us all out on it!”
“Is any spar injured?” asked Sir Gervaise, quickly. “This
must be looked to – hey! Greenly?”
“Not to signify, your honour; not to signify. One of them
French eighteens aboard the prize just cocked its nose up, as
the ship lurched, and let fly a round ‘un and a grist of grape,
right into our faces. I see’d it coming and sung out ‘scaldings;’
and ‘twas well I did. We all ducked in time, and the round ‘un
cleared every thing, but a handful of the marbles are planted
in the head of the mast, making the spar look like a plumpudding, or a fellow with the small-pox.”
“Enough of this. You are excused from returning to the
top; – and, Greenly, beat the retreat. Bunting, show the signal
for the retreat from quarters. Let the ships pipe to breakfast, if
they will.”
This order affords a fair picture of the strange admixture of
feelings and employments that characterize the ordinary life
of a ship. At one moment, its inmates find themselves engaged
in scenes of wild magnificence and fierce confusion, while at
the next they revert to the most familiar duties of humanity.
The crews of the whole fleet now retired from the guns, and
immediately after they were seated around their kids, indulging ravenously in the food for which the exercise of the morning had given keen appetites. Still there was something of
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
the sternness of battle in the merriment of this meal, and the
few jokes that passed were seasoned with a bitterness that is
not usual among the light-hearted followers of the sea. Here
and there, a messmate was missed, and the vacancy produced
some quaint and even pathetic allusion to his habits, or to the
manner in which he met his death; seamen usually treating
the ravages of this great enemy of the race, after the blow has
been struck, with as much solemnity and even tenderness, as
they regard his approaches with levity. It is when spared themselves, that they most regard the destruction of battle. A man’s
standing in a ship, too, carries great weight with it, at such
times; the loss of the quarter-master, in particular, being much
regretted in the Plantagenet. This man messed with a portion
of the petty officers, a set of men altogether more thoughtful
and grave than the body of the crew; and who met, when they
assembled around their mess-chest that morning, with a sobriety and even sternness of mien, that showed how much in the
management of the vessel had depended on their individual
exertions. Several minutes elapsed in the particular mess of the
dead man, before a word was spoken; all eating with appetites
that were of proof, but no one breaking the silence. At length
an old quarter-gunner, named Tom Sponge, who generally led
the discourse, said in a sort of half-inquiring, half-regretting,
way –
“I suppose there’s no great use in asking why Jack Glass’s
spoon is idle this morning. They says, them forecastle chaps,
that they see’d his body streaming out over the starboard quarter, as if it had been the fly of one of his own ensigns. How was
it, Ned? you was thereaway, and ought to know all about it.”
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THE TWO ADMIRALS
“To be sure I does,” said Ned, who was Bunting’s remaining assistant. “I was there, as you says, and see’d as much of it
as a man can see of what passes between a poor fellow and a
shot, when they comes together, and that not in a very loving
manner. It happened just as we come upon the weather beam
of that first chap – him as we winged so handsomely among
us. Well, Sir Jarvy had clapped a stopper on the signals, seeing
as we had got fairly into the smoke, and Jack and I was looking about us for the muskets, not knowing but a chance might
turn up to chuck a little lead into some of the parly-woos; and
so says Jack, says he, ‘Ned, you’s got my musket; – (as I had,
sure enough) – and says he, ‘Ned, you’s got my musket; but
no matter arter all, as they’re much of a muchness.’ So when
he’d said this, he lets fly; but whether he hit any body, is more
than I can say. If he did, ‘twas likely a Frenchman, as he shot
that-a-way. ‘Now,’ says Jack, says he, ‘Ned, as this is your musket, you can load it, and hand over mine, and I’ll sheet home
another of the b – – s.’ Well, at that moment the Frenchman
lifted for’ard, on a heavy swell, and let drive at us, with all his
forecastle guns, fired as it might be with one priming – “
“That was bad gunnery,” growled Tom Sponge, “it racks a
ship woundily.”
“Yes, they’se no judgment in ships, in general. Well, them
French twelves are spiteful guns; and a little afore they fired, it
seemed to me I heard something give Jack a rap on the check,
that sounded as if a fellow’s ear was boxed with a clap of thunder. I looked up, and there was Jack streaming out like the fly
of the ensign, head foremost, with the body towing after it by
strings in the neck.”
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“I thought when a fellow’s head was shot off,” put in another quarter-master named Ben Barrel, “that the body was
left in the ship while only the truck went!”
“That comes of not seeing them things, Ben,” rejoined the
eye-witness. “A fellow’s head is staid in its berth just like a
ship’s mast. There’s for’ard and back-stays, and shrouds, all’s
one as aboard here; the only difference is that the lanyards are
a little looser, so as to give a man more play for his head, than
it might be safe to give to a mast. When a fellow makes a bow,
why he only comes up a little aft, and bowses on the fore-stay,
and now and then you falls in with a chap that is stayed altogether too far for’ard, or who’s got a list perhaps from having
the shrouds set up too taut to port or to starboard.”
“That sounds reasonable,” put in the quarter-gunner,
gravely; “I’ve seen such droggers myself.”
“If you’d been on the poop an hour or too ago, you’d ha’
seen more on it! Now, there’s all our marines, their back-stays
have had a fresh pull since they were launched, and, as for
their captain, I’ll warrant you, he had a luff upon luff!”
“I’ve heard the carpenter overhauling them matters,” remarked Sam Wad, another quarter-gunner, “and he chalked it
all out by the square and compass. It seems reasonable, too.”
“If you’d seen Jack’s head dragging his body overboard, just
like the Frenchman dragging his wreck under his lee, you’d
ha’ thought it reasonable. What’s a fellow’s shoulders for, but
to give a spread to his shrouds, which lead down the neck and
are set up under the arms somewhere. They says a great deal
about the heart, and I reckons it’s likely every thing is key’d
there.”
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THE TWO ADMIRALS
“Harkee, Ned,” observed a quarter-master, who knew little
more than the mess generally, “if what you say is true, why
don’t these shrouds lead straight from the head to the shoulders, instead of being all tucked up under a skin in the neck?
Answer me that, now.”
“Who the devil ever saw a ship’s shrouds that wasn’t catharpened in!” exclaimed Ned, with some heat. “A pretty hand
a wife would make of it, in pulling her arms around a fellow’s
neck if the rigging spread in the way you mean! Them things is
all settled according to reason when a chap’s keel’s laid.”
This last argument seemed to dispose of the matter, the discourse gradually turning on, and confining itself to the merits
of the deceased.
Sir Gervaise had directed Galleygo to prepare his breakfast
as soon as the people were piped to their own; but he was still
detained on deck in consequence of a movement in one of his
vessels, to which it has now become necessary more particularly to recur.
The appearance of the Druid to the northward, early in the
morning, will doubtless be remembered by the reader. When
near enough to have it made out, this frigate had shown her
number; after which she rested satisfied with carrying sail
much harder than any vessel in sight. When the fleets engaged, she made an effort to set the fore-top-sail, close-reefed,
but several of the critics in the other ships, who occasionally
noticed her movements, fancied that some accident must have
befallen her, as the canvass was soon taken in, and she appeared disposed to remain content with the sail carried when
first seen. As this ship was materially to windward of the line,
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
and she was running the whole time a little free, her velocity
was much greater than that of the other vessels, and by this
time she had got so near that Sir Gervaise observed she was
fairly abeam of the Plantagenet, and a little to leeward of the
Active. Of course her hull, even to the bottom, as she rose on a
sea, was plainly visible, and such of her people as were in the
tops and rigging could be easily distinguished by the naked
eye.
“The Druid must have some communication for us from
the other division of the fleet,” observed the vice-admiral to
his signal-officer, as they stood watching the movements of the
frigate; “it is a little extraordinary Blewet does not signal! Look
at the book, and find me a question to put that will ask his errand?”
Bunting was in the act of turning over the leaves of his
little vocabulary of questions and answers, when three or four
dark balls, that Sir Gervaise, by the aid of the glass, saw suspended between the frigate’s masts, opened into flags, effectually proving that Blewet was not absolutely asleep.
“Four hundred and sixteen, ordinary communication,” observed the vice-admiral, with his eye still at the glass. “Look up
that, Bunting, and let us know what it means.”
“The commander-in-chief – wish to speak him!” read Bunting, in the customary formal manner in which he announced
the purport of a signal.
“Very well – answer; then make the Druid’s number to
come within hail! The fellow has got cloth enough spread to
travel two feet to our one; let him edge away and come under
our lee. Speaking will be rather close work to-day.”
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THE TWO ADMIRALS
“I doubt if a ship can come near enough to make herself
heard,” returned the other, “though the second lieutenant of
that ship never uses a trumpet in the heaviest weather, they
tell me, sir. Our gents say his father was a town-crier, and that
he has inherited the family estate.”
“Ay, our gents are a set of saucy fellows, as is usually the
case when there isn’t work enough aboard.”
“You should make a little allowance, Sir Gervaise, for being
in the ship of a successful commander-in-chief. That makes us
all carry weather-helms among the other messes.”
“Up with your signal, sir; up with your signal. I shall be
obliged to order Greenly to put you upon watch-and-watch
for a month, in order to bring you down to the old level of
manners.”
“Signal answered, already, Sir Gervaise. By the way, sir,
I’ll thank you to request Captain Greenly to give me another
quarter-master. It’s nimble work for us when there is any thing
serious to do.”
“You shall have him, Bunting,” returned the vice-admiral,
a shade passing over his face for the moment. “I had missed
poor Jack Glass, and from seeing a spot of blood on the poop,
guessed his fate. I fancied, indeed, I heard a shot strike something behind me.”
“It struck the poor fellow’s head, sir, and made a noise as if
a butcher were felling an ox.”
“Well – well – let us try to forget it, until something can
be done for his son, who is one of the side boys. Ah! there’s
Blewet keeping away in earnest. How the deuce he is to speak
us, however, is more than I can tell.”
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
Sir Gervaise now sent a message to his captain to say that
he desired his presence. Greenly soon appeared, and was made
acquainted with the intention of the Druid, as well as with the
purport of the last signals. By this time, the rent main-top-sail
was mended, and the captain suggested it should be set again,
close-reefed, as before, and that the main-sail should be taken
in. This would lessen the Plantagenet’s way, which ship was
sensibly drawing ahead of her consorts. Sir Gervaise assenting,
the change was made, and the effects were soon apparent, not
only in the movement of the ship, but in her greater ease and
steadiness of motion.
It was not long before the Druid was within a hundred
fathoms of the flag-ship, on her weather-quarter, shoving the
brine before her in a way to denote a fearful momentum. It was
evidently the intention of Captain Blewet to cross the Plantagenet’s stern, and to luff up under her lee quarter; the safest
point at which he could approach, in so heavy a swell, provided
it were done with discretion. Captain Blewet had a reputation
for handling his frigate like a boat, and the occasion was one
which would be likely to awaken all his desire to sustain the
character he had already earned. Still no one could imagine
how he was to come near enough to make a communication
of any length. The stentorian lungs of the second lieutenant,
however, might effect it; and, as the news of the expected hail
passed through the ship, many who had remained below, in
apathy, while the enemy was close under their lee, came on
deck, curious to witness what was about to pass.
“Hey! Atwood?” exclaimed Sir Gervaise, for the little excitement had brought the secretary up from the commander-
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THE TWO ADMIRALS
in-chief’s cabin; – “what is Blewet at! The fellow cannot mean
to set a studding-sail!”
“He is running out a boom, nevertheless, Sir Gervaise,
or my thirty years’ experience of nautical things have been
thrown away.”
“He is truly rigging out his weather fore-topmast-studdingsail-boom, sir!” added Greenly, in a tone of wonder.
“It is out,” rejoined the vice-admiral, as one would give emphasis to the report of a calamity. “Hey! – what? Isn’t that a
man they’re running up to the end of it, Bunting? Level your
glass, and let us know at once.”
“A glass is not necessary to make out that much, Sir Gervaise. It is a man, beyond a doubt, and there he hangs at the
boom-end, as if sentenced by a general court-martial.”
Sir Gervaise now suppressed every expression of surprise,
and his reserve was imitated, quite as a matter of course, by the
twenty officers, who, by this time, had assembled on the poop.
The Druid, keeping away, approached rapidly, and had soon
crossed the flag-ship’s wake. Here she came by the wind, and
favoured by the momentum with which she had come down,
and the addition of the main-sail, drew heavily but steadily up
on her lee-quarter. Both vessels being close-hauled, it was not
difficult steering; and by watching the helms closely, it would
have been possible, perhaps, notwithstanding the heavy sea, to
have brought the two hulls within ten yards of each other, and
no harm should come of it. This was nearer, however, than it
was necessary to approach; the studding-sail-boom, with the
man suspended on the end of it, projecting twice that distance,
beyond the vessel’s bows. Still it was nice work; and while yet
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
some thirty or forty feet from the perpendicular, the man on
the boom-end made a sign for attention, swung a coil of line
he hold, and when he saw hands raised to catch it, he made a
cast. A lieutenant caught the rope, and instantly hauled in the
slack. As the object was now understood, a dozen others laid
hold of the line, and, at a common signal, when those on board
the Plantagenet hauled in strongly, the people of the Druid
lowered away. By this simple, but united movement, the man
descended obliquely, leaping out of the bowline in which he
had sat, and casting the whip adrift. Shaking himself to gain
his footing, he raised his cap and bowed to Sir Gervaise, who
now saw Wycherly Wychecombe on his poop.
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