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Updated: June 9, 2025
"What do you make of 'em?" he shouted. The mate shut up the telescope and came leisurely down. "I count fifteen in all, sir." "I don't care how many. What are they?" "I calculate they're grabs and gallivats, sir." The captain gave a hoarse chuckle. "By thunder, then, we'll soon turn the tables! Angria's gallivats eh, Mr. Toley? We'll make a haul yet." But Captain Barker was to be disappointed.
But when, as he waited for the coming of the boat, his mind ran over the incidents of the flight the trussing of the sentry, the wary approach to the bastion, the tragic fate of the sentinel there, the stealthy creeping along the shore, the swim to the gallivats and all that had happened since: as he recalled these things, he could not but wonder that the alarm he dreaded had not already been given.
The grabs lay on the other side of the jetty, some hundred and twenty yards towards the river except three vessels which were held constantly ready for sea somewhat nearer the harbor mouth. He had learned, moreover, by cautious and apparently casual inquiries, that the gallivats were under a guard of ten men, the grabs of twenty.
He could not, with his small party, man a gallivat, which required fifty oarsmen to propel it at speed; while if he seized one of the lighter grabs, he would have no chance whatever of outrunning the gallivats that would be immediately launched in pursuit.
So long as any great noise and bustle was avoided, the sentinels on the walls of the fort would only suppose, if sounds reached their ears, that the watch on board were securing the gallivats at their moorings. When the sweeps had all been transferred Desmond ordered the prisoners to be brought from Angria's cabin to the smaller vessel.
The larger of these vessels, of which there were about ten, are called grabs, and the smaller, of which I counted upwards of sixty, gallivats. These latter are managed with oars as well as sails, and when there is no wind they are employed to tow the grabs behind them, so that in light weather it is easy for them to overtake the ship of which they are in pursuit.
Next year his neighbours, the Malirattas, having signified to the presidency of Bombay, that they were disposed to join in the necessary service of humbling this common enemy, so formidable to the whole Malabar coast, commodore James was detached with some ships of force to attack Angria, in conjunction with those allies. They accordingly joined him with seven grabs and sixty gallivats.
He knew that the gallivats of the Pirate's fleet, lashed together, lay about eighty yards from the head of the jetty under the shelter of the fortress rock, which protected them from the worst fury of the southwest monsoon.
The gallivats had separated into two groups; either they had been cut apart, or, more probably, the lashings had been burned through. Around one of the groups Desmond saw a number of small boats. They appeared to be trying to cut out the middle of the three gallivats, which seemed to be as yet uninjured, while the vessels on either side were in full blaze.
So deeply engrossed had Desmond been in the capture of the grab that he had forgotten the one serious danger that threatened to turn the tide of accident, hitherto so favorable, completely against him. He had forgotten the burning gallivats. But now his attention was recalled to them in a very unpleasant and forcible way.
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