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Updated: June 8, 2025


He put to sea with the Indefatigable and Amazon on the 22nd, and supposing the enemy to have gone to the southward, cruised off Capes Ortugal and Finisterre until the 11th of January. On the 2nd, the Amazon carried away her main-topmast, and on the 11th, the Indefatigable sprung her main-topmast and topsail-yard in a squall, and was obliged to shift them.

An hour later his ship was boarded by French pirates, and Lewis was despatched. After scratching the faces of nearly all the enemy, the cat ran up the mainmast, throwing off sparks and screeching, scrambled to the end of the topsail-yard, and leaped off into the night.

At half-past eleven a smart point-blank firing commenced on both sides, which was severely felt by the enemy. The main topsail-yard of one of the brigs was cut through, and the frigate lost her after-sails.

The three "middies" astride of that topsail-yard were, of course, castaways from the same ship, in the service of the same Government, though each was of a different nationality from the other two.

Simultaneously with the appearance of the larboard watch, Captain Pigot issued from his cabin and, ascending the poop ladder, made his way aft to the taffrail, from which position he was able to command a view of the proceedings on each topsail-yard.

Precious, significant, half-minutes those, as much so as are the last few grains of sand in the hour-glass! "Keep her away two points," cried Bax. "Ay, ay, sir," answered the steersman. At that moment a violent gust snapped the topsail-yard, and the sail was instantly blown to ribbons.

The cutting it would have disabled the ship until it could have been repaired; and had the order been obeyed, the topsail-yard itself would, in all probability, have been sprung, or broken in two on the cap.

But "the more hurry the less speed" is an old adage; and so it proved in the present case, the men on the mizzen topsail-yard managing so to bungle matters that when, on the expiration of two and a half minutes the outside limit of time allowed by the skipper for reefing a topsail Captain Pigot closed his watch with a snap and replaced it smartly in his pocket, several of the reef-points still remained to be tied.

"Now," thought I, "look out for squalls." And as the thought passed through my mind the squall came, in the shape of a hail from the skipper himself. "Mizzen topsail-yard, there!" he shouted, "what are you about, you lazy lubbers? Do you intend to spend the remainder of the watch in reefing that topsail?

So thinks I, if these men are made fast, this is no place for me to be loose in, and crawled down to my old place in the waist, at the after end of the spare topsail-yard, which was made fast to the starboard-bulwarks, and which extended a little abaft of the main shrouds. If any gentleman can detect a nautical error in that last sentence, I shall feel obliged by his mentioning it.

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