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Updated: June 28, 2025
They had also made a note of the fact that, when the gunboat's crew had taken their turn at shore leave, fully three-quarters of the men had arranged to do so at the same time, so that a battue on a large scale might take place, leaving only a few men behind to look after the ship.
Half an hour later, when the Neptun anchored in front of the town, he had not stirred yet, had moved neither head nor limb as much as a hair's breadth. Directly the rumble of the gunboat's cable had ceased, Heemskirk came down heavily from the bridge.
The English flag was pulled down amid triumphant shouts of the Americans; the wounded were cared for, and English officers and crew made prisoners of war. When Rebecca saw the English flag vanish from the gunboat's mast and heard the resounding cheers, she knew that the Americans had conquered their enemy, and that the liberty tree would stand unchallenged.
"Everything is all safe, Captain," nodded Mr. Farnum. "Run back and get your naval party." As they were to run, now, on the surface, Jack stepped out to stand by the deck wheel Eph and Hal came out with him, David Pollard standing further aft. As the submarine rounded in under the gunboat's stern the voice of Kimball called: "As well done as ever, Mr. Benson! When shall we come on board?"
"By all means." Darkness came down over the ocean while Lieutenant Jack was sending a wireless despatch through the air to the Navy Department. Three hours later, under a new order from Washington, the gunboat's launch stole in alongside of a second schooner that had been pursued, overhauled and brought to a standstill.
The Navigator's order would have taken the ship well clear, but the helmsman, perplexed by having two diametrically opposite commands hurled at his head simultaneously, and not knowing which to obey, did nothing. There came a howl from the gunboat's forecastle and a frantic, blasphemous yelling from a party of Chinamen clustered on the junk's high poop. "Full speed astern!" roared Potvin.
Then Benson watched as, from the yards high up on the gunboat's signaling mast, colored electric lights glowed forth, twinkling briefly in turn. This is the modern method of signaling by sea at night. "He wants to know," said Benson, to Mr. Farnum, as he turned, "whether there is safe anchorage for a twelve-hundred-ton gunboat of one hundred and ninety-five feet length."
Every weapon was thereupon trained astern, and the accuracy of the little gunboat's fire was soon apparent, for on board the corvette one of the forward 100-pounders was dismounted and silenced, several Nordenfeldts were damaged and put out of action, and a luckily placed solid shot struck the Union's foremast full upon the cap, wrecking it and bringing the upper spars down, with disastrous effect to the men on deck below.
Technically and theoretically, haven't you lost your ship? With an explosive remark the gunboat's commander snatched up his cap, darting aft. The corporal, whose curiosity was aroused, judged that he was expected to follow, and did so. "What's this nonsense about towing a submarine torpedo boat?" demanded the gunboat's commander, reaching deck aft.
At the same time Blake heard the scream of a denim-clad figure that suddenly pitched from the landing-ladder into the sea. Then came an answering volley, from somewhere close below Blake. He could not tell whether it was from the boat-flotilla or from the port-holes above it. But he knew that Tankred and his men were returning the gunboat's fire.
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