The Cruise Of The Comet

By James Otis

 

 

THE CRUISE OF THE COMET

The Story of a Privateer of 1812, sailing from 'Baltimore, as set down by Stephen Burton

 

EDITED BY

JAMES OTIS

AUTHOR OF "THE BOYS OF FORT SCHUYLER," "JENNY WREN'S BOARDING-HOUSE," ETC.

 

Illustrated By A. B. SHUTE

 

 

 

 

 

NOTE

The details of this story have been gathered chiefly from letters written by the boy Stephen Burton to a cousin in Portsmouth, N. H., and my work thereon has been little more than that of an editor. Young Burton's statements regarding the movements of the Comet have been verified by historians, and there is little or no question but that in all things, save perhaps some unimportant matters, it is a true and faithful account regarding this certain cruise of the celebrated privateering schooner.

James Otis

 

 

 

THE CRUISE OF THE COMET

 

CHAPTER I

 

THE BALTIMORE CLIPPER

 

CAPTAIN THOMAS BOYLE was my mother's brother, and had he been my father I could not have taken greater pride in his doings.  His schooner, and, of course, I am now speaking of the Comet, for she was nearer to me than the brig Chasseur, which he afterwards commanded, was a Baltimore clipper, and I saw all her building and outfitting, from the time the keel was laid down until the last gun had been mounted.

 

Although I was no sailor, and had never been so fortunate as to gain permission to make even the shortest cruise, there was in my heart more affection for this same trim little schooner than for all the world beside, saving, of course, my mother.

 

When Captain Tom — I never dared to call so brave a man uncle — first made ready to sail from Baltimore, on a privateering cruise, shortly after war was declared in 1812, I said all a boy might, in the hope of being allowed to count myself as one of the hundred and twenty who manned the Comet; and my good friend and comrade, Donald Fyffe, was not a whit less eager to do his share towards teaching the English King that we of the United States had come to the length of our forbearance, in the matter of allowing him to impress our sailors.

 

It was all in vain, however, that Donald and I pleaded.

 

Neither his parents nor mine would give consent to our going as privateersmen, and but for a few words Captain Tom let slip, before he sailed in July of 1812, we should have lost all hope of ever succeeding in our efforts.

 

"Wait until you have gained a twelvemonth in age, and then it may be I shall say a word in behalf of you lads."

 

It was little encouragement, to be sure; but yet to us it seemed much like an absolute promise, and our hearts were less sore when the Comet, carrying fourteen guns, — six in a broadside, with a swivel, and a gun amidships, — left the port.

 

Of all persons in Baltimore, whether man grown or boys, we were the proudest, when, in less than a month from the time Captain Tom set sail, the British ship Hopewell, carrying fourteen guns and twenty-five men, arrived at the home port as the prize of our Baltimore clipper.

 

She, with her cargo, was valued at a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and I dare venture to say the schooner had earned her cost, including the outfit, twice over in this one capture.

 

There had been a most obstinate combat, so some of the prize-crew told us; but the Comet was the victor, of course, because Captain Tom was in command.

 

From this hour, we two lads did more than dream of the time when we should be allowed to ship as privateers-men, for we talked concerning what Captain Tom had told us, until it was to our minds as if he had said we should join him on the next cruise, and laid many plans regarding what we would do, once we had signed the schooner's articles as green hands; for we could not hope to ship in any better berth.

 

Now, just one word regarding Donald Fyffe, who was my nearest, and, I might say, only friend in Baltimore, outside of my own family.

 

He was fifteen years old on the same day the Comets first prize came into port, and, although I was his senior by three months, it would have pleased me better could I have lost that much time in my life, in order that my birthday might have been marked by so joyous a happening; for many there were at that time who croaked of defeat, predicting the downfall of the United States, in thus attempting to give the English nation a lesson in good manners.

 

Donald, as may be guessed from his name, was of Scotch descent, and more than one of our schoolmates ventured to suggest that his desire to ship on board the Comet did not arise so much from a love of country, as because all well knew Captain Tom was one who could tassel the handkerchiefs of his crew with prize-money, until the gold and silver might become a burden.

 

That Donald well loves a shilling I know, but am willing to here set down that there was more in his heart concerning the honour to be gained, than any other thing. He was as eager to show what might be done by us of this young country, as the veriest spendthrift that ever walked a plank, and to give him that which is no more than his due, I must say a truer comrade, be he Scotch, Irish, or English, never lived.

 

His father was in trade, and mine a farmer.

 

This much for the two of us; and now to the Comet and Captain Tom Boyle, of whom little need be said, in this year of peace, 1815, when we have already given his Majesty the needed lesson, because the people of every State well know what he did both in the Comet and the Chasseur. Although there were six other privateers sailing from our home port in July of 1812, my uncle was oftentimes spoken of as " the Baltimore captain," and well did he deserve all the praise, which was bestowed upon him.

 

In November of this same first year of the war, the Comet returned, and but for Donald she might have put to sea again without our being on board.

 

He it was who suggested to me, when we knew the schooner was being made ready for an early departure, that we boldly approach the captain and claim he had promised to take us with him on the next cruise.

 

"But he did not really say so," I objected, fearing lest this uncle of mine be vexed with our importunities.

 

"After the success which has been his, I venture to say he has forgotten even the little encouragement he did give us, and if we are bold in approaching him, the business is done almost before a word "has been spoken."

 

I did not feel as positive, but Donald, insisting, carried the point, as he always does, and together we went to the dock, he volunteering to act as spokesman.

 

Captain Tom was on deck, and in high good-humour, for the first prize had been sold and the proceeds divided among his men in a manner, which gave him entire satisfaction.

 

Even under such favourable circumstances, my heart failed me when we stood before him, and he cried, in a tone which sounded to me like one of sternness:

 

"Well, why are you lads loafing around here where you have no business? Two great hulking boys like you should be at work."

 

"And so we count on doing, Captain Boyle," Donald replied, boldly, while I stepped behind him timorously, not daring to face this fighting uncle of mine.  " We have 'business here, and are ready to transact it."

 

"On board this schooner?"

 

"Ay, sir; for by your promise we are the same as members of the crew."

 

" How do you figure that, young jackanapes?   They be men aboard this schooner."

 

"Else the Hopewell would not have been taken."

 

"Have you young sprigs come to tell me that, believing I didn't know it?"

 

"No, sir; but to say that mayhap Stephen Burton and I can show we are older than our years."

 

"Well, what then?" Captain Tom asked, as if perplexed by Donald's speech.

 

"Only that we are now to have an opportunity of proving it, captain, for before the Comet last left this port you gave us what can be construed as little less than a promise that, when next the schooner put to sea, we should be on board, members of her crew,"

 

"Did I say that much?" my uncle asked, as he stood like one racking his brain to recall the past.

 

"Perhaps not in the very words, sir; but it has remained in our minds that what you said was to that effect."

 

While one might have counted ten, Captain Tom stood as if debating whether we should not be treated to a dose of the rope's-end, and then replied, with a laugh: "As for you, Donald Fyffe, I may not speak so certainly; but Stephen Burton, my sister's boy, should have good mettle in him, and, whether it be that I promised or no, you shall leave port on board the Comet, Turn to, now, at whatever your hands find to do, and see to it that there be no shrinking from duty."

 

This sudden agreement with our desires flustrated me, and I said, stammeringly: "If it please you, Captain Tom, we have not yet our parents' permission to ship."

 

"Then why did you present yourselves?"

 

"Because it would avail us little, whatever our parents might say, providing you were not willing," Donald replied, boldly, whereat Captain Tom seemed much pleased, and said, with a hearty laugh: "Fall to, boys; I'll see to it that the remainder of the business be settled according to your wishes, and from this out you may count yourselves as having regularly shipped for privateersmen."

 

 

In order to set down all which befell us, meaning now the Comet and her crew, there is little time in which to tell of our first experiences on board the schooner, while she yet lay at the dock, when we, as the youngest members of the crew, were forced to do every man's bidding, for so many words would be necessary in thus telling the tale as to weary both him who may read these lines and the one who sets them down.

 

Therefore it seems wiser to dismiss all the wearisome details of waiting and preparing for the cruise, with no single word of explanation, and go at once to that twenty-third day of December, in the year 1812, when, all being in readiness, the word was passed that an attempt would be made to slip through the blockading squadron on a cruise towards the coast of Brazil.

 

We had bidden farewell to our parents, Donald and I, twenty-four hours previous, for the command had then been given that every member of the crew must keep close on board the schooner during such time as she might remain at her moorings, without any hope of getting even so much as half an hour of shore-leave, for Captain Tom was minded to take advantage of his first favourable opportunity.

 

The Britishers, knowing full well that the most dangerous privateersmen were sailing out of Baltimore, kept sharp watch on the port, and many there were, even among our own men, who questioned if it would be possible to put the schooner past the squadron undetected.

 

At near the close of the day I have mentioned, it was whispered among our men that Captain Tom would, on that evening, make the venture that might end for ever the career of the Comet and all on board.

 

As it appeared to Donald and me, who were neither weatherwise nor seamen, no better time could have been chosen for the attempt.  Since three o'clock in the afternoon a dense mass of clouds had been scurrying across the sky, bringing with them plenty of wind and a promise of rain.

 

That the night would be a dark one all knew, and there seemed more danger the schooner's spars would be literally blown out of her than that she might be becalmed.

 

It was said among our men that Captain Tom had taken no one into his confidence, not even the owners of the vessel, as to the hour he should set sail.

 

It was near to nine o'clock in the evening when, amid the most profound silence, our mooring lines were cast off, and the Comet started on the long cruise which brought to her so much credit, and to us such an ample amount of prize-money.

 

When sail was made, Donald and I could do no more than keep out of the way of those who knew a seaman's duty.

 

It can well be fancied that, with a crew of one hundred and twenty, there are very many who must remain idle at such a time, and I felt no shame in lying close under the rail amidships, while others performed the necessary labour.

 

As the lights of the town grew dimmer, and the dark tracery of spars and cordage, which told where lay the British squadron, became more distinct, my comrade's heart must have misgiven him somewhat as to the final result of the cruise, for he said, in a voice that was not overly steady: "How think you, Stephen Burton, all this will end? Are we to come back with both profit and honour, or is it to be that we shall never see our homes again?"

 

I was angered with him that he should have asked such a question at that moment, for, even as he spoke, I was thinking of my dear mother, wondering if I should ever look in her face again, and with his words the tears came near to dropping from my eyes, which would have been a sorry way to begin a cruise under such a commander as Captain Tom Boyle.

 

I dared not make any reply, lest he should know of the grief in my heart, and therefore pretended, by rising sufficiently and looking over the rail at the spars of the enemy, which we were approaching so closely, not to have heard it.  On board our schooner not a sound could be heard, save now and then the faint creaking of the blocks and the swirl of waters as the Comets sharp prow sent them hissing astern.

 

 I have said Donald and I lay under the starboard rail amidships, and as the Comet dashed swiftly over the water without apparently attracting the attention of the enemy, my timorousness vanished until I whispered boldly to my comrade: " This running the blockade is not such a venturesome affair as I had believed.  The Britishers are asleep, and a whole fleet of privateers might put to sea without the redcoats being any the wiser."

 

I could not better have chosen words to prove my ignorance than I did at that moment.

 

The older members of the crew — those who had aided in the capture of the Hopewell—were peering ahead anxiously, as if believing we were still in a dangerous locality, and Donald had just turned to speak, when it seemed to me as if the whole side of the nearest war-vessel was lighted up by a sheet of flame.

 

I staggered back half blinded by the glare, not understanding what had caused it, and it was for an instant as if thunder roared all around me, while even above the reverberations I could hear what sounded like the rending and splintering of wood.

 

"What is it?" I cried, in my fear and perplexity, and almost at the same instant our motionless, silent crew were aroused to the greatest activity.

 

Captain Tom began to shout much like a man suddenly gone crazy, and it seemed to me as if every person on board, save Donald and myself, were running to and fro, or clambering into the rigging.

 

Following this first crash and roar, came jets of flame from each of the dark hulks on the starboard bow, and I heard an odd but wicked screaming in the air with every thunderous outburst.

 

Donald spoke to me, but I could not distinguish his words because of the uproar.

 

Perhaps one might have counted ten before I understood that the men on board the blockading squadron were not as ignorant of our purpose as I had foolishly supposed, and that every effort was being made to compass the destruction of the Comet.

 

It seems strange to me now as I set it down, that, after the first terrible fear which assailed me, I suddenly lost all consciousness of danger, and absolutely forgot that the King's ships might send us to the bottom in a twinkling, by a well-directed shot.

 

Donald and I joined the crew in running here and there, as if it were possible for us to be of some assistance, even though Captain Tom might have been talking in a foreign tongue for all we could understand of the orders given.

 

After a time, and before we were out of range, I knew, from what the men about me said, that our foretop-mast had been so severely wounded it was necessary to strengthen it lest the entire spar should go by the board.

 

Green hand as I was, I failed to understand what was meant when the first mate gave an order to "fish" the topmast, and believed it was to be taken down, until some of the crew began to bind pieces of timber either side of the weakened portion.

 

As a matter of course, it became necessary that the strain on the spar should be lessened while this task was being performed, and it could only be done by taking in certain of the sails, even though we needed every inch of canvas to aid us in drawing away from the enemy.

 

Although, as I have said, the night was black with darkness, I understood by what I both saw and heard that the squadron was getting under way in pursuit of us, and once more I grew timorous, believing we must certainly be captured, crippled as we were.

 

"Our first cruise is like to be our last, and not overly long at that," Donald said to me, when we were so far away from the enemy that their fire had slackened; and it pleased me to hear a certain quaver in his voice, for I thus knew I was not the only one on board who was beginning to show the white feather.

 

"Then you do not believe we shall escape?" I asked, not that I was eager to hear his opinion on the subject, but because I knew of nothing else to say just at the moment.

 

"Do you think we can?" he asked, sharply, and I made as if I had failed to hear the words.

 

Just then I saw my uncle, standing aft, near the helmsman, as unconcerned as if he were safe at the dock in Baltimore.

 

He was watching the movements of the men aloft, now and then directing them as to the work in hand, and never once glancing back to where the King's ships, under such press of canvas as must have buried their bows deep in the water, were in full chase.

 

"There is one who appears to have little doubt of our escape," I said, with a sigh of relief, for it heartened me wonderfully to see him so calm when death was close aboard.

 

"We can gather but little comfort from his movements, for I have heard it said that whenever danger is greatest, Captain Tom appears the most cheery."

 

All this I knew quite as well as did Donald, and from that moment I ceased trying to appear brave.

 

Together we two crouched behind the rail, watching the pursuers astern, and only looking aloft now and then, for it seemed to us, in our ignorance of such matters, as if the sailors could do but little towards repairing the mischief which had been wrought.

 

After what appeared to be a very long time, I lost sight of the enemy, and, fearing lest my eyes were playing me some tricks, I asked Donald:

 

 "Can you see the King's ships now?"

 

"They have been growing less distinct this last five minutes; perhaps a cloud has come between them and us, for it is not possible they would give up the chase so soon."

 

"Not they; we may count on being pursued so long as the lookouts can keep the schooner in view."

 

Then, quite by chance, I turned my head and was surprised at seeing all the crew on deck.

 

" Is the topmast mended?" I asked of that sailor nearest me, and he replied, cheerily:

 

"Ay lad, this ten minutes or more, and since the job was done we have begun to show the Britishers our heels.  At one time it looked like a close shave; but now it's much the same as if we were on blue water.  It'll need more than those tubs of the blockadin' squadron to catch the Comet when Captain Tom Boyle is in command."

 

"Do you really mean that we are no longer in danger?" I asked, hardly daring to credit the statement.

 

"What I am giving out is that we have run the blockade in fine shape; but on a cruise like this I reckon we're always messmates with danger."

 

"But what about the wounded topmast?"

 

"She's holdin' now, an' is likely to till we've run the Britishers' hull down. Then it'll be a matter of putting a new spar in its place."

 

"But we must go into some harbour to do that," I said, again giving proof of my ignorance, whereat the man laughed heartily.

 

"You're precious green for a lad of your years.  If spars couldn't be sent down or up without puttin' a craft into the dock, there'd be mighty little privateerin' done, or fightin' either, for that matter."

 

It was as if a terrible load had suddenly been lifted from my mind, for I had no question but that the man spoke the truth, and so great was my relief that I laughed aloud, although there was nothing to cause mirth.

 

Then Donald and I could give our entire attention to watching the gallant little schooner as she stormed along with all canvas spread, when many another craft would have been reefed down snug, and there was an exhilaration in my heart such as I had never felt before, or never have since, except under similar circumstances.

 

We, meaning Donald and I, gave little heed to the passing of time, and might have remained on deck until morning but that Captain Tom, suddenly espying us, called sharply for both to come aft.

 

"Why are you not below?" he asked, when we stood before him. "Do you count on learning a seaman's duties by loiterin' around the deck in the night?"

 

"I was too frightened to go below while we were sailing past the Britishers, and after that too happy to think of sleep." Donald replied, promptly.

 

"You must forget how to be frightened before you will be of much service on a craft like this," Captain Tom replied, with a low laugh that reminded me of my mother. "Now get you below, and remember in the future that fear is not allowed on board the Comet until all danger has passed."

 

 

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