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Updated: June 26, 2025
And then, to his bitter rage and disappointment, a puff of wind came over from the westward, and the barque's sails filled. In ten minutes she was slipping through the water so quickly that she was leaving them astern fast, and in another hour she had swept round the south end of the land, and they saw her no more.
Thereupon they paused, "touched pipe" for a minute or two, and, brushing the back of the hand across their foreheads to wring off the sweat, started afresh. Along the barque's side ran a narrow line of blue paint, signifying that the vessel was in mourning, that somebody belonging to captain or owner was lately dead.
It was at first doubtful if this would be the case, but when the two vessels were within about a cable's-length of each other a somewhat stronger puff came up, dying away again just as the Flying Cloud was slowly passing under the barque's stern. Some of my people thought they heard some sort of a commotion in your direction." "Yes," answered the skipper from the barque.
As, however, the "Vigilant" sailed two feet to the barque's one, we had run her completely out of sight by noon; and we could only hope that she would reach the Rock in safety which she luckily did, and we of the "Vigilant" ultimately netted a good round sum in the shape of prize- money on her account.
If I can succeed in effecting communication with her skipper, it may be possible for us to accomplish one of three things: First, we may, with the assistance of the barque's crew, be enabled to effect our escape from these people altogether. Or, if that should prove impracticable, we may possibly be enabled to secure your transfer to the barque.
Let's hope they made some of them pay dearly for their work." A short inspection below showed that the barque's planking was crushed in, and that she was hopelessly damaged, even if she could have been got off, so soon after Mr Brooke gave the word to return to the boat. "I shall not touch the fire," he said. "If the captain has any wishes the boat can return.
"Then," said the skipper, "your next job, sir, will be to muster all the light line you can lay your hands upon, and range it along the larboard rail which will be our weather rail, presently, when we have got the ship round and station half a dozen men, or more, all along the weather rail, each with a coil, and let them stand by to heave as we cross the barque's stern.
Meanwhile we were precluded from returning the barque's fire lest we should injure or kill any of the unhappy wretches pent up in her hold. At length a round-shot entered the schooner's bows, traversed the decks, and passed out over the taffrail, glancing hither and thither as it went, and, although it did no material damage, affording several of the men a very narrow escape.
It was long past midnight by the time that O'Gorman had finished rifling the barque, by which time he had secured all the provisions out of the unfortunate craft's lazarette, had taken four brass nine-pounder guns, two dozen stand of muskets, the same number of cutlasses and boarding pikes, together with a considerable quantity of ammunition, had emptied one of the barque's water-tanks, and had robbed them, in addition, of their two best boats fine twenty-seven feet gigs with their whole equipment.
By noon it became apparent that we were gaining, although but slowly, on the barque, her royals and half her topgallant-sails being by this time above the horizon; and now all was anxiety on board the schooner as to the character of the coming night; for we had no doubt that, seeing, as they now must, that we were following them, the ever-vigilant suspicions of the barque's people would prompt them to avoid us should the night prove dark enough to permit of such a manoeuvre.
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