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When six days out, the Congress was dismasted. The Essex went on alone, and was thus the first ship-of-war to carry the flag of the United States around the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean.
The party who were just sitting down to breakfast at the station were sufficiently astonished to see Captain Blockstrop come rolling up the garden walk, with that small ship-of-war Tacks sailing in his wake, convoying the three civilians; but on going in and explaining matters, and room having been made for them at the table, Sam was also astonished on looking round to see that a new arrival had taken place since that morning.
The first was that, while the American ship-of-war captain had not heard the firing at the fort on the Rio Grande, he was under a strong impression that war had been declared. The other thing came out in a remark which he made to a junior officer standing by him. "It won't do!" he declared, emphatically. "I don't at all like that change of flags. It means mischief.
The next morning we were close up with the corvette, when a lieutenant from her boarded us to learn all the particulars we had to describe. The two masters, with Lyal and I, were then requested by the lieutenant to accompany him aboard the ship-of-war, to give a further account to the captain himself of what had occurred.
"In this case a petition was presented by Sir Edward Belcher, the captain, and the rest of the officers and crew of Her Majesty's ship-of-war Samarang, setting forth that on the 3d of June, 1844, the Samarang being then engaged in surveying duties, and near the island of Gillolo, on her passage towards the Straits of Patientia, Sir E. Belcher, with two officers and four men, quitted her in the gig, accompanied by the second barge, armed with a brass six-pounder gun and small arms, and manned with twenty officers and men.
Grahame in his History of the United States of North America, says: "The renowned Captain Cook, then serving as a petty officer on board of a British ship-of-war, co-operated in this exploit, and wrote an account of it to a friend in England. That he had distinguished himself may be inferred from his promotion to the rank of lieutenant in the Royal Navy, which took place immediately after."
The frigate was immediately provisioned for a several months' cruise, and sent under command of Captain Edward Collier to join Morgan's fleet as a private ship-of-war.
Filled with terror, she took advantage of the first wind that came, and sailed hastily away, followed by sixty Egyptian ships. The moment Antony discovered her flight he gave up the world for love. Springing from his ship-of-war into a light galley, he hastened in wild pursuit after his flying mistress.
The night was as foggy as that which preceded it, when about the hour of ten o'clock a coaster was observed gliding in towards the cliffs, and entering among a labyrinth of rocks that lay near the mouth of the bay. This vessel appeared well guided and well sailed. The shape of her hull, her rigging, her sails, denoted her to be a ship-of-war, or at the least a privateer.
"Two days ago," he proceeds in a passage which illustrates his character and a common experience, "I was nearly lost in a Turkish ship-of-war, owing to the ignorance of the captain and crew. Fletcher yelled after his wife; the Greeks called on all the saints, the Mussulmen on Alla; the captain burst into tears and ran below deck, telling us to call on God.
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