The Worthington advance., 1881-08-18

EECH AND A FREE PRESS.
-NNEsOTA, n . a THURSDAY, FL ! IS j
n "a ~ y -: 80 = =
A ASEA-FIGHT IN THE FOH.
|: By ". Clark Russell, Author of ssThe Wreck
Of tho Governor" -
I was first mate OF the privateerinQ
schooner Tiaress. She was a vessel fully
equipped ito make general reprisals against
the goods, ships. and subjects Of the French
nation. as the commission, granted by his
Britanniq Majesty, read. She was flush
fore!sna aft, with 4 small main -hatchway
ana very sFeomy edsck:| Her beam was
twenty-seven feet, and her length one
hundred and nine feet. She mounted q
twenty four FOUNDER on the forecastle,
where there was plenty Of room to work it.
Her bulwarks were six feet high and Of
extraordinary thickness. She carried six
eighteen FOUNDERS, three on side, and
four foEty-two pound carronades, as well
Is the two twenty-four pound chasers,
making in all twelve guns. Her main mast
was eighty -four feet high, and the height
from the deck to the topmast- head was
verv nearly hundred and fifty feet. She
sat low in the water, and but for her beam.
her low free board would have threatened
q wet ship in seaway; but deep as she lay,
her upper sheathing came foot above the
point ct immersion, and the metal sparlled
like new gold. Captain Shelvocke, her
commander, had found no difficulty in OBJ
tanning q crew. The pick of two hundred
eager volunteers had been chosen. and
every man of the ninety selected was o
native of Great Britain
had been aroused at four o'clock one
morning, and, having gone on deck. had
found the dawn bright in the east, and the
schooner, under heavy canvas, huReinp
the wind and heaving west southwest.
Indeed. the wind had chopped around, and
was blowing off the English coast, The
nearest point of which was Duneeness:
though not only was there no land in view,
but the weather was so thick that the hori-
zon lay at distance of not more than two
miles around us.
1had hoped that when the morning broke
the haze would lift, but when the sun rose
and hung over the sea- line like the bottom
of newly secured copper kettle, the fog
came down as thick as q feather bed, and
blew in stream across tho deck. It was
all blank to within three ships lengths
ahead Of us. The green seas came rushing
and foaming out of the fog to windward,
but You could not see one inch beyond the
point at which their forms grew defined,
and they went combing in curves as pol
ished as oil to leeward, vanishing instantly
when they came in contact With the fog
curtain.
The breeze was warm, but the damn
made it uncomfortable. The decks were
so slippery that it was not easy to keep
ones footing. The moisture fell in show
ers from the rigging. and drops of water
formed on the brim of my hat as fast as
could shake them OF.
At four bells the watch turned out to
wash down. There were so many men to
perform this job that 1t was soon over, and
the decks being cleared up and the rigging
coiled down the schooner took more com m-
Portable air; but the fog remained unpleas-
antly dense, and sometimes settled down
SO thick that the inner jib was not to be
seen from the pinnacle. Fortunately we
had plenty of sea. room.
But fogs of this nature we're tolerably
fruitful of disagreeable surprises. At any
moment an enemy's hooker might ooze out
of the thickness and be aboard of US. I
therefore took care to see everything clear,
end stationed some experienced hands as
lookout men, keeping my own weather
eye lifting, as We say at sea.
We knew there was q large French cor
vette in the neighborhood, mounting very
heavy batteries, and great deal too big for
US to handle; and it would be 20 great joke
for the fog suddenly to clear, and expose
the beauty lying close enough to deliver a
broadside before We could give the schoon-
or canvas nough to get away.
Shortly before eight bells Shelvocke
came on deck, and seeing how matters
stood, and that the breeze was dropping,
the order was passed along for the men to
keep silence, also for no bells to be struck,
and for the leadsman to speak his report in
a low tone to hand stationed by his side
for the purpose of bringing his message
aft to the officer in charge. In addition to
this, the FORE was securely brailed up,
to silence their Tapping; and the sooner,
under her main sail and standing-jib, Gid
ed slowly up and down over the breathing
swell, as silent as dead house, and amid
fog as impenetrable as blanket.
At oight o'clock I went below to break
fast.
This fog is very bothersome," said I,
glancing up at the skylight that lay like
squares of smoked glass over the cabin.
The second mate left the cabin, and re- .
turned after an absence of few minutes.
Thick as mud, sir, and there's little
wind, and there's no appearance of it clear
ing" He went on deck again, and after
Shelvocke and had hung over the chart
few minutes We followed him.
It was my watch below, but I had no
mind to turn in. The fog was irritating
and burdensome; I considered it my duty
to be on the alert. Although there was very
little wind the fog blew across tho deck in
horizontal lines; it was as white as steam,
but not the more penetrable for that. Some
times it would open little in folds, and
disclose the water for about cables length
from the side of the vessel, lying as white
as though it were full of chalk sediment,
and not a blur upon it, though there was q
small ground-swell, upon which the schoon-
er rose and sank sluggishly. but quite noise-
lessly, as everything had been hauled taut
aloft, and the sheets fattened in to prevent
the canvas from shaking. For the most
part, however, the fog hung around and
over us in curtain, sometimes SO dense
that the men forward could not be seen,
while the masts shot up and disappeared in
it as If they had been sawn short of ut the
point where they vanished. The helms
man was mere looming shadow; although
there was brilliant sun shining overhead,
it produced no other effect upon the ex-
traordinarily thick mist than to whiten il;
the swell was fast subsidjng, and the lines
Of fog, like trailing smoke, were barely div
en- by the languid draft of air that was
moving from the north.
"Hark! what was that?" exclaimed.
What did you hear?" whispered Corney,
looking into the fox en- the right and
left.
''Hush!" muttered, "the-e is vessel
near u.s." went to Shelvocke. did you
hear noise like the creak of block Just
this minute, sirs"
Like the creak Of block? Where
way?" he reclaimed, jumping up.
cannot say where the sound came from,
cir, but We may hear something more by
listening"
! got onto q gun to give my ear q good
hoist above the bulwarks, and harkened
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