The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1893-12-29


fired across her bows as a summons to
heave to and as warning of what was
in store for her if she did not, but the
roar of the gun was followed by chorus
of yells, and three or four bullets came
whizzing over our heads. The brig wild
ened the gap until out of rifle range, and
the captain then said to the crew of Long
Tom:
81 want to save the women if they are
aboard, and though yonder rascals are a
desperate lot 1 don't want to sink them.
Aim to strike her above the water
line. A few shot may take the fight out
of them"
The first shot passed between her fore
and mainmast without touching any
thing, but the second smashed her bull
warks and killed two men. A third and
fourth were fired, both of them creating
havoc aboard, and we were looking for
some token of surrender when the
bark ported her helm and came bearing
up on our quarter. We had the weather
gauge, but she had been three or four
points off the wind. The fellows were
evidently determined to get near enough
to use their rifles, but with their poor
seamanship they stood no show.
We gave the brig more sail, and after
couple of tacks were off her quarter
and sending solid shot aboard again.
There was great confusion among the
convicts, and we were hoping for sig
nal when the wretches brought the
Ino1z MO oo1,11 coo fha,,,
very plainly without glass, and their
presence put stop to our firing, as the
convicts had expected. While we con-
tinued to gaze across the waters one of
the women was lifted above the star
board rail and dashed to the shrouds of
the mizzenmast, and a minute later the
other was similarly secured in the shrouds
of the mainmast. 1t was a scheme to
stop our fire, and every man groaned in
spirit as he wondered how our captain
would take it. He must have realized
that there was but one course open to
him, and after bit he said to the cap
tain of our big gun:
calm at her foremost and try to Grip
pie her. She must either surrender or
I'll sink her!''
During the next 30 minutes we fired
six times. The foremost was carried
away about 20 feet above the deck, her
forward deck plowed by two shot and
the yawl on her stern davits smashed to
splinters. A shot which crashed through
her bulwarks between her main and
mizzenmasts was reported from aloft as
81, aiol,f Of hn vii
lains, but with their craft lying wreck
in the trough of the seas they continued
to shout defiance at us. We suspended
firing to give them chance to surren-
der, but they had determined to die first.
The crew of man-of-war could have
carried the brig by boarding, though it
would have been a desperate fight, but
we were not strong handed enough to
attempt such thing. The unfortunate
women must go down if the convicts
did, but death would be preferable to
our sailing away and leaving them
in the hands of the monsters. We
changed our shot to shell as we loaded
Long Tom again, and the gun was
pointed to strike the hull. One after an
other fveshell were sent into the bark,
each one tearing great hole and carry
ing wounds and death, and we had re-
loaded for the sixth time when it was
seen that the craft was settling away.
We had our eyes on her as she was
heaved up broadside to us by wave, her
decks almost awash. There was wild
cheer from the convicts, half a dozen
rifles were discharged, and as the bark
dropped into the trough the waves ran
right over her, and she settled away
with the heaviness of block of granite.
We ran down to the spot, but there was
no one to rescue. Living and dead had
been drawn down together.