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He worked coolly, without haste, as agile as a monkey when the ship careened and the sea spurted through the cracks of the gun-ports. Well pleased with his task, he said to himself, with that grin which no peril could obliterate: "God alone knows how I can strike fire to a match and keep it alight, but the sky shows signs of easier weather." The fury of the storm had, indeed, diminished.
Seeing that the Ösel's lower gun-ports were closed, and reasoning from this that she had been struck in the water-line and badly damaged, he was for boarding her at once, but his men refused to follow him. In the delay the Ösel backed away. "Running away from a frigate, are you? Shame on you, coward and poltroon! Stay and fight like a man for your King and your flag!"
In it he had always recognized the form of a brig he had seen hove-to in Portsmouth Harbor high poop, skyward-sticking bowsprit and ominous, even row of gun-ports where she carried her carronades three on a side. How those black cannon-mouths had gaped at the small boy on the dock! He wondered "Boom...!" came a hollow sound that seemed to hang like mist in a long echo over the island.
The chance had not been given him to shift his crews or to fling open his starboard gun-ports. Then ensued a moment's breathless hush, even the cries of those in agony lulling. The pall of smoke rolled a little, and a silver moonlight filtered through, revealing the weltering bodies twisted upon the boards. A stern call came from beyond the bulwarks. "Have you struck, sir?"
The chance had not been given him to shift his crews or to fling open his starboard gun-ports. Then ensued a moment's breathless hush, even the cries of those in agony lulling. The pall of smoke rolled a little, and a silver moonlight filtered through, revealing the weltering bodies twisted upon the boards. A stern call came from beyond the bulwarks. "Have you struck, sir?"
Seen from the river, they have a striking resemblance to the gun-ports of an ancient battleship. This place is known to sailormen the world over as "The Cuartel" and probably takes its name from the fact that it was a sort of block house used by the Spanish, to hold the approaches to the river.
Old Cary the man who claimed to possess some knowledge of Leirya said that when he last sailed in these seas the pirate was cruising in a schooner of unusual length, and lying very low in the water, her hull painted black, with a broad scarlet riband, in which her open gun-ports looked like a number of gaping mouths, having been built very large to enable the broadside guns to be trained almost fore and aft.
The flagship of our fleet being unable to answer the enemy with its artillery because the gun-ports were shut, and the vessel was tacking to starboard, determined to close with him. It grappled his flagship on the port side, sweeping and clearing the decks of the men on them. Then the colors with thirty soldiers and a few sailors were thrown aboard.
The Frenchman cast off at once and came to meet us, the Red Hand flying at his masthead, the red lump at his bows, the red streak clearly visible just below the open gun-ports. "Do your duty, lads," said John Ozanne. "There'll be tough work for us. He carries heavy metal. We'll close with him at all odds, and then the British bull-dog must see to it."
A mighty muffled blast sent the Bon homme Richard rolling to larboard, and the smoke eddied from our hatches and lifted out of the space between the ships. The Englishman had blown off his gun-ports. And next some one shouted that our battery of twelves was fighting them muzzle to muzzle below, our rammers leaning into the Serapis to send their shot home.
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