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Updated: June 6, 2025
It was, however, seen and acted upon by the second in command, Admiral Onslow, in the Monarch, who soon after led the larboard division through the Dutch line, three ships from the rear, and then closely engaged the Jupiter. Duncan’s own ship, the Venerable, the leading ship of the starboard division, marked out the Vryhide, De Winter’s flagship, as his own antagonist.
The men flew to their stations with pistols in their belts and cutlasses by their sides, eager to begin the fight. The "Thisbe" was on the starboard tack, when the enemy, on the larboard tack, slowly glided past her to windward, looking like some dark phantom stalking over the surface of the deep. Ronald, who stood on the forecastle with his father, watched her with intense eagerness.
She was lashed to the larboard side of the "Royal George," and we were piped to clear the lighter, and get the rum out of her, and stow it in the hold of the "Royal George." I was in the waist of our ship, on the larboard side, bearing the rum-casks over, as some of our men were aboard the sloop to sling them.
This, of course, brought us up, and we had only to "ease larboard oars; pull round starboard!" and go aboard the Alert, with something very like a flea in the ear. There was a light land-breeze all night, and the ship did not come to anchor until the next morning.
This was the signal for an immediate display of confusion on board the Dutchman; which ship immediately set her royals and flying-jib, and, when she found that that would not do, bearing away sufficiently to permit of her setting all her larboard studding-sails again. Of course, as soon as she bore away we bore away too, steering such a course as would enable us to gradually converge upon her.
The pirates of the prize crew had sought shelter wherever they could find it. The waist of the ship was flooded with breaking seas. A few of the larboard watch were huddled forward, close to the lofty forecastle where they were stationed as sentries over the imprisoned sailors of the Plymouth Adventure.
It was the gunner's favourite. He declared that he could shoot as true with it, and ten times as far, as he could with a tower musket. The gun was loaded and pointed through the larboard bow port. Still the chase held on. It was time to bring her to, for the wind gave signs of dropping. "Are you ready there, forward, with the gun?" asked the commander. "Ay, ay, sir!" was the answer.
A shifting of the wind helped us to mend our pace a little; two hours, three hours, four hours passed, and still the enemy had not come within range of us. And then, as day began to dawn, I gave up hope, foreseeing a speedy end to the chase and an enforced surrender. But a cry from Runnles, who had gone aloft, raised my drooping spirits. "Four sail, sir, on the larboard bow," he shouted.
She had a pair of mizzen-masts, one on the larboard side, one on the starboard, and I was puzzled to know how they were used. "She'll pass close aboard on this next tack," Mr. Cledd replied. "I think we'll be able to see." He had paused to watch her manoeuvres. "Here's the doctor," Blodgett murmured. Black Frank was coming aft with a quick humpy walk. "'Scuse me, sah, 'scuse me!" he said.
I then went up to the raised poop, on which the officer of the watch was standing, and, in as polite a way as I could, reminded him of the dangerous reef on our larboard beam. "Or rather, I may say, on our larboard bow," I added; "and if we stand on much longer on the course we are now keeping, we shall strike on it to a certainty."
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