The National tribune., 1898-05-26

American shipmate in any kind of trouble.
He would always follow OF stand by, but
very seldom lead off
The most curious thing though. was,
that they would never learn our language.
In my ship the numbers of the two nation
alitieS, American and French, were always
about equal. At the end of our two years
cruise every one of my Americans spoke
French almost as well as he did English,
but beyond few words here and there,
not one OF my French sailors had learned
to speak our tongue"
MANY CAPTURES MADE.
Such were the conditions under which
these pupils of Paul Jones invaded the
domain of the East India commerce OF
England i'm the closing years of our Revolu-
| tionary War. Between July, 1850. and DC
tober, 1881, they captured Is English ships
between the Cape of Good Hope and the
Straits of MalaCca, the total prize value OF
which, as adiudged, condemned and paid to
them and their crews and owners through
the French Admiralty courts was $50, 600
francs tSay, S314 ,CO0).
Their last and greatest exploit was on
June 20, 1881, when they took the Mermaid,
British sloop- Of-war OF 18 guns, and the
East InCiamen Kenilworth Castle and Graf
ton almost within sight of Point de Gale,
Hindostan; the two Indiamen having on
board besides rich cargoS, 400 English
soldiers going out to Join various regiments
serving in India.
They came near losing this chance by
mistaking the Grafton for 50-gun ship, in
consequence of her great size and having
two tiers of ports. AS it was ii cost May
rant 80 of the crew of the Bonaventure to
take the Mermaid; and the Grafton did not
strike to Tanning in the Eclipse until q OF
his crew had been killed or wounded. The
kenilwOrth Castle, being chartered trans
port. and unarmed made resistance,
beyond Il futile effort to escape when she
| SAW the fate of her COnSOrtS.
| After this capture they returned to the
Isle of France, whence, after thorough refit,
they sailed for home. Oct. 20, 1881. Arriv-
ing at Brest in February, 1882 they had to
wait some time for adjustment of their
prize accounts. When this was concluded
Tanning and some of his American officers
| and crew bought the Eclipse took her to
| Nantes and brought her thence to Boston
| in July of that year with cargo the pro
| ceedS of which added handsomely to the
profits of their previous exploits in her as
a French privateer in the Indian Ocean
| In these times it is hardly possible to
describe and even difficult to imagine, the
career of sailor in those days; now bear
| ing a hearty hand in the most famous Of
naval battles; then venturing to far-of
seas on an expedition which required nice
distinction to define as between the priva-
teer and the pirate; and winding up at last
with peaceful merchant voyage from
| Nantes to Boston.
| DETAILS OF THE BATTLE.
Tanning relates an anecdote of the cap
ture of the Mermaid by his comrade May
rant, that is well worth telling. Without
quoting him in full | will sun. Marie his
| text
He says that at daylight June 49, 1881,
| Mayrant who was lust within signal dis
lance, made signal for three sail to leeward,
two of them evidently men-ofwar Fan
| ming at once wore off the wind and ran
IN
got within hail of each other the hulls Of
| the three strangers were up. The three
ships were close-hauled, the smallest one
leadin-. During all thfir cruise together
it had been agreed that as Mayrant had
| ranked Tanning in the Richard and Al
lance he should be the senior officer OF the
, two privateerS. "a
SO, on this occasion Alayrant, who was
nearest to the three strangers, Slgnaled to
Tanning that he thought the leader was
sloop- of-war, and the next astern two
decker-probably a !0-Gun ship Tanning
answered by asking lpermission-as his was
much the smarter ,sailer OF the two, and
as they had the weather gage-tO run
/ down close enough to see exactly what
I they had TO deal with Mayrant Signaled
back: "As you will but look out for your
SELF
Mayrant then hauled his wind so as to
keep about abeam Of the leading stranger,
and Tanning ran down towards the second
a large Indiaman wcli-armed. He at once
signaled this discovery to Mayrant and
asked permission to attack; to which
Mayrant replied: Go it, Nat; l will take
the leader"
The third ship. which was q heavier
sailcr than the others, row went off the
wind Tanning and Mayrant at once at
tackled their respective antagonists. who
struck after some very spirited resistance.
They proved to be the Mermaid, sloop-of-
II.
Indiaman, mounting 26 guns, Sand g.
Founders.
Mayrant sent Tom Potter, his First
Lieutenant, to take possession OF the Mer-
maid. 1t must be remembered that both
the Bonaventure and the Eclipse flew the
French flag. When Potter went up the
side of the Mermaid he saw that she had
been very badly punished. She had lost
her Captain, First Lieutenant and II men
killed, and her Second Lieutenant and ~
men wounded. Her upper works, boats,
etc, were complete wreck, and she had
been 50 badly hulled that she already had
four feet of water in the hold
The Third Lieutenant was in command. !
Tom Potter accosted him, OF course, in Eng
lish, asking What ship is this"
Amazed at hearing his own language
spoken so clearly by officer from a
French ship, the English Lieutenant for
got the situation so completely as TO /
answer: "Who the devil are your
Il am Midshipman Thomas Potter, of
the American Continental Navy, and First /
Lieutenant of the French private armed /
ship the BOnaventure alongside, under /
command of Lieut.. John Mayrant, also Of /
the American Continental Navy replied
Potter.
We'll, well" said the Englishman; q
quite can't understand this at all, not at
all, you know; but this is he East
Juda Company's late ship, the Mermaid.
But will you do me the favor TO tell me how
all this is''
Never mind explanations now" retorted
Potter. Your ship is sinking, and the
first thing to do is to get what is left of
your people out of her. All | can tell you
now is that you have struck to Frerch
ship with an American crew.!
Soon after the remnant OF the Mer
maid s crew were transferred to the Bon
aventure the former was set on fire and
shortly blew up. But it took the English
man q long time to understand how it was
that he had been taken by ship of equal
force flying the French flag.
ITO be cOntinued)