Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Previous Page
–
Next Page
OCR
\
THE LOG CABIN LIBRARY. . 47
CHAPTER XXII.
THE BRITISH ADMIRAL,
When Admiral Howe received the news of the double defeat
and repulse of his boats in Salem Harbor, and their failure to
capture the Rattlesnake, he was dining in Boston with the Brit-
ish Commander-in-Chief, General Gage. .
“The foul fiend take the rebels!” he cried. ‘It seems as if
. this new cruiser was fated to destroy more men and vessels than
anything else we have afloat. She must be destroyed, or the
next thing we know she'll be sailing right into our harbor here
to attack the flag-ship. The fellow has audacity enough to do
‘it. He tired into the Bellerophon in the presence of the whole
fleet.” : ~
“We all fail sometimes, my dear admiral. I would try some
other plan, You have the fellow closely blockaded, have you
not?” :
“Yes. .He can never get out without running the gantlet of
two hundred guns.” :
“Then it is but a matter of time to effect his capture. He
must never be allowed to get to sea, or we will lose more trans-
ports.. There must be many.on their way to this port now, and
we soon shall be badly in want of the provisions tliat they
carry.” , :
“She shall not get to sea, general. And if a plan I now have
in mind succeeds, there will be but little of her left by this time
to-morrow. One of my young officers is almost insane on the
torpedo question. He. has been working on torpedoes ever
since we have been port, and I have given him full leave to ex-
periment on this Rattlesnake, with orders for.all the assistance
he needs. He will, to-night, on the flood tide, make a trial,
and he is sanguine in his belief that he will blow the
fellow up. .If he does, he will get a thousand pounds from
e.” .
“I will add another thousand to encourage him,” said General
age.
He shall hear of your kind offer,” said Howe. ‘‘He runs a
fearful risk, for he is obliged to go with a submerged vessel di-
rectly under the enemy to affix and fire his torpedo. If he fails
aud falls into rebels hands, they will show him no mercy.”
*‘Let us hope there will be no failure. Fill your glass, admiral,
and we.will drink to his success.”
Gage did so, and had barely emptied his glass, when his
adjutant-general sent in a message that he wished to make a
report. :
“Tell him to come in. He can report with a glass of wine in
his hand,” was the general’s reply.
“Well, Marston, what news?” asked the general, mctioning
the adjutant to take a seat at the table.
“Bad news, genoral. The transport taken by that rebel
schooner contained ‘our siege cannon and powder. They are
now transporting them from Salem to the enemy’s works out-
- side our lines.”
, “Jove! It is bad news,” muttered the generaly ‘and we are
not strong enough to risk a sortie to recapture them. I hope
the first gun they fire will burst to atoms and kill every gunner.
Drink, sir—such bad news needs washing down. And then
see if there is any chance to surprise the transportation party,
and rerort.” :
CHAPTER XXIII..
THE RATTLESNAKE ESCAPES.
“Tho prize is all clear, sir; every ounce of freight ashore!”
cried Jack Clewline, as he came on board the Rattlesnake
on the evening of the day after the boat attack, just before
sunset. : : : .
“Good!” cried Ned Pemberton. ‘You have worked nobly.
Now put every prisoner ashore under charge of the town guard,
and on the very first of the ebb tide we will astonish those Brit-
ish-men-o’warsmen outside.”
“How, sir?” .
“The wind and tide setting, fair, I'll send a fire ship out that
will make them give the month of the harbor a wide berth, and
if I can’t slip out to sea during the excitement I’m mistaken in
my belief. I can try, at any rate.” .
“Gool! The ship is an old hulk anyway. | There are a dozen
barrels of tar and three or four of oil on board, and ll deluge
her decks with them, and she’ll make a blaw as bright as Vesu-
vius in full blast.”
“Well, get allready. The tide ebbs early. Then, before the
- flood is at its strength, I’ll try to slip out. “Maybe I can do so
in the last of the ebb. They intend another attack, I think. The
fleet seems to have been increased to-day; and with my glass I
make out considerable pulling to and fro in boats between the
vessels, They'll not trust to signals since they’ve learned we
got a signal-beok from, that corvette.”
oe
ced
“They’d better not. I’ve got-every signal memorized, and
could read ’em ata glance. ButJ’ll hurry back to clear the
prize and have all ready for a bonfire.” .
In a few seconds the young officer was back on board the ship,
and boat after boat hurrying to the shore carried prisoners to
safe keeping there. .
And then Clewline hurried his preparations to make the vessel
inflammable at so many points that the enemy could. not bears
her to put out the fire.
Besides, he had left a couple of barrels of gunpowder ina po-
sition that would insure their explosion if the hatches were
raised, or after they- burned through, which he knew would take
longer than the deck, for the latter was made of yellow, resinous
pine, while the former was hard white-oak.
When night set in the tide was running at a rapid ebb, and
Pemberton waited until it was half run out before he decided to
start the fire-ship.
His schooner had been made ready, and sail could be sect the
instant the anchor broke ground, which would take only three
or four minutes. ;
Ned went on board the ship himself, and she was allowed to
drop the full length of her cable before being set adrift, so as to
be sure she would go clear of the schooner.
Then, Jack Clewline with one boat’s crew alone remained on
board, and she was set adrift by unshackling her cable from its
bite about the foremast. As the wind blew fair for the squadron
outside, her courses and top-sails were set, and then a slow-
match communicating with a mass of oakum, powder, and tar,
which would burn just ten minutes after the Loat left;; was set
on fire, and Clewline, the last man on board, got in his’ boat
which towed astern and cast off. votre *
The ship plunged swiftly forward in the darkness, and Clew-
line rapidly pulled back to the schooner, which he gained just
as the blaze breaking out on the ship, told how well his work
had been done.
In five minutes the ship seemed to be a sheet of fire fore and
aft, and the English fleet on which she bore down with rapid
speed were seen to make sail and scud off seaward to get out of
danger, for they evidently supposed she was full of powder.
The ship was soon a towering blaze of fire, lighting up every-
thing seaward, but Ned knew it only made the darkness inland
the more dense, and he got ready to raise the anchor the mo-
ment the explosion came which would scatter what was left of
the ship.
The prize had got somesix or seven miles into the offing,
and the British still gave her a wide berth, when suddenly there
were a flash and shock like astudden burst of thunder, and then
all was darkness, The powder had done its work, and the ship
was shattered and most likely sunk. -
‘Now is our time. /We will hardly get clear of the harbor be-
fore flood tide makes,” cried Pemberton. ‘Where is Hopkins,
the pilot?”
“Here I be, capting; like one boot and one shoe, always on
hand when I'm wanted. Let her slide. I'll see sho keeps clear
of the bottom.”
“And Hopkins appeared with a hand lead and line ready to
take soundings.
In a minute more the anchor wasup, and under jib and main-
sail only, the schooner was steered for the mouth of the chan-
nel. / ,
In fifteen minutes Hopkins told Pemberton to haul up to
the east, and then the foresail was hauled aft, and under the
three sails the schooner swiftly crept along as close in shore as
the soundings would permit, purposely by taking a northerly
course as the one least likely to be suspected should the British,
at moonrise, discover that the schooner had got out of the
harbor. . :
No light was shown, no unavoidable noise made, and in an
hour the schooner was so far north of the harbor that Pemberton
felt it safe to haul ont seaward a little more. Hopkins said
there were a good many rocks and little islands in shore which
could not. be seen till one was fairly a-top of them. |
In another hour the moon would. be up, and then, if his
escape was discovered, as Hopkins said, Pemberton knew the
whole British fleet would scatter in pursuit like a pack of hounds
“at fault,” on the:trail of one poor fox.
Suddenly, while they were yet within six or seven miles of
Salem Harbor, there came a terrible explosion from that direc-
tion, and Pemberton feared that by some nutoward accident the
great store ofspowder landed from the prize had been fired.
But Clewline insisted that thirty tons of powder would make
a far heavier explosion, especially.as it had been placed in a very
strong and tight stone house for safety. :
Little did either dream that the explosion was that of an tm-
mense torpédo prepared especially for their destruction, and
that at that very moment its ill-fated inventor was drifting up -
we . \
ewe ne eee