The Cruise of the 'Black Prince' Privateer

Chapter I. One

evening I was sitting in the comfortable parlour of thc Woolpack Inn, in Dale Street, Liverpool, with mine host, John Pyc, discussing a bowl of punch brewed from right Jamaica and limes, which I had made a present to him on my return from the West Indies, and smoking a pipe of Carolina tobacco, when my old schoolfellow Tom Merrick came in, shaking the wet off his shaggy dreadnought coat, and said, " I heard you were here, Bob, and have come to make an offer to you on behalf of my father and his partner, old Floyd. They were arguing between themselves to whom to offer the command of their ship the Black Prince, and I said, ' There's my old schoolfellow Hawkins is now without a ship,' and I thought that they could do no better than get you. At first they said that, as you were at school with me, you must B T/ie Cruise of the "Black Prince? 2 be quite a boy, forgetting, as old people often do, that as they grow old those they have remembered as children become men of middle age — though, for that matter, I hope at thirty-eight neither of us are yet commencing to go downhill — and it took a good deal of my persuasion, and telling how old Grog Vernon had spoken so highly of your services at the taking of Porto Bello, and ofthe seamanship you showed in bringing that crazy old Elizabeth home from Charleston, before they consented to let me come to you ; and now I have been hunting for you for the last three hours, but have run you to earth at last.

Now, I make you the offer, will you accept the command of the Black Prince ? " " Take command of the Black Prince ! why, I should think I would. She's the finest ship that sails out of Liverpool. I shall never forget seeing her work up past Tom Shot's Point in old Calabar, and how Price — or Ap Rhys, as he loved to be called — handled her. But what has become of Price ? They can never have had any disagree ment with him." " Oh no ; there has been no disagreement, but Captain Ap Rhys, as we must all call him now, has been left by a relation of his a snug farm in Wales, and he has borne up for the farm, and, from what I hear, he not only succeeds to the farm, but also to the pulpit of a small chapel which his cousin was minister of." " I hope Ap Rhys will prove as good a farmer and preacher as he was a sailor ; and I think it likely, for he always was what we sailors call of a serious turn of mind.

I am infinitely obliged to his relation for leaving him the farm, and giving me thc chance of commanding the Black Prince." " Well, Bob, you'll take her ? I thought you would, and I'll come as super-cargo. Ar.d, I've some thing more to tell you. We have h^ard that war with France is to be declared, and my father and Mr. Floyd have determined to apply for a letter of marque." " What ! am I to command her as a privateer ? That's next best to being captain of a man-of-war." " Yes, my lad ; but she is not only to go privateer ing — she is to make thc round voyage to Africa and thc West Indies, and trust to her heels and her guns to escape capture." " She can certainly sail, and we'll pick up a right good crew. There were three or four good men in that old Elizabeth, and if they have not been picked up by the crimps, I dare say we may be able to get them — and they all have served in men-of-war.

There's Black Jack Jago, and his great chum that thc men called Bloodred Bill — Cundy 's his name ; John Beer, Tom Batten, and Harry Moxon — all Falmouth men, and good sailors. And then there's many a tidy man to be found on the banks of the Mersey." " There you go off at score. You just come down to the office on the quayside to-morrow morning, and you will get your instructions." "All right. But where is the ship now ? I only got back from my uncle's farm this afternoon, where I have been since I left the Elizabeth, and know nothing of the news of the town." " Well, she's up on the beach at Runcorn, to have her bottom resheathed where necessary, and breamed ; and just before Captain Ap Rhys left her she had got a new gang of lower rigging over thc mastheads, and the mate is busy setting it up.

I think the old dad did a good thing when hc built her. Last voyage Ap Rhys carried six hundred and fifty-seven slaves from Calabar to Jamaica, and never lost one on the whole voyage. All Liverpool said a ship of five hundred tons was far too big for the African or any other trade." " Is she five hundred tons ? I did not think her so big. She is frigate built, and, with her poop, she has as much room as some of our two-deckers -—rather a different class of ship from the old Elizabeth." " I believe you, my boy, and, as you say, she can sail well. She'll show a clean pair of heels to any John Crapands who may be too big for her. Now I must be off. I'll tell my father you'll be down at the office by eight o'clock in the Thc Cruise of the "Black Prince." 5 morning. Another glass of punch, to drink the health of the master of the Black Prince!' " All right, Tom.

Here, host, fill Mr. Merrick's and my glasses — bumpers, — and join us in wishing good fortune to the Black Prince and her new skipper." John Pyc was ready enough to comply, and thc toast was drunk with enthusiasm, and after ex changing good nights, Tom left me and rode away. As soon as he had gone, I asked Pye if hc knew of the whereabouts of Jack Jago and his old ship mates. " Jack Jago ? D'ye mean the man they call Black Jack, who was a prisoner with the Moors?" " Yes, the same." " Well, I can't rightly say. I heard he was seen •a few days ago, but he's lying low, for fear of the press-gang ; but the tender dropped down to thc bar this afternoon, and he'd be safe now. I think I know most of the cribs where they stow them selves, but he's too wide awake to trust to thc crimps, and it may take some time to find him.

Any way I'll send a lad round to look for him, and he'll be here if he's to be found by seven in thc morning ? " " All right. Will you do it at once ? " " I'll send at once. Good night. Do you want anything more before you go to bed ? " " No, thank you," John Pye left the room, and I was left alone to consider my prospects, and what a great piece of good luck had befallen me in my old school fellow getting me the command of the Black Prince, for except the crazy old Elizabeth, I had never yet commanded a ship, and I now found myself master of one of the finest ships sailing out of Liver pool, or, for that matter, out of any English port. I had hitherto been rather knocked about in the world. My father had been at one time a sea lieutenant, but when hc married my mother he quitted thc navy, with the intention of settling down as a farmer near her brother's farm in Cumberland ; but when on my birth my mother died, he again took to the sea, and got command of a merchant vessel sailing out of Liverpool.

Till I was seven years old I lived with my uncle, a Cumberland statesman, and then my father — who now owned the ship he sailed, having invested all his money in her purchase — took me to sea with him for four years, when, at thc advice of his friends, hc sent me to thc school at Liverpool where Tom Merrick was being educated, and there I made his acquaintance, which ripened into a warm friendship and continued long after our school-days. At the age of fifteen my school-days were brought to an abrupt close by the death of my father, who was killed whilst defending, though unsuccessfully, his ship from capture by an enemy's frigate ; and, as all he had was invested in the ship and her freight, I was left a penniless orphan. My uncle, who had a large family, would willingly have taken me to his home and given me my chance with my cousins, but one of my father's old friends offered to take me to sea with him, and putting my gentility on one side, I had dipped my hands in the tar bucket and slush pot, and, by zeal and good conduct, worked my way aft to thc quarter-deck, In 1739 I was present at the taking of Porto Bello by Admiral Vernon, or Old Grog, as the sailors called him, where I was fortunate enough to attract his attention by carrying messages under fire, and afterwards at the disastrous operations against Cartagena, where scurvy and disease decimated our forces, the ship I was on board of having been chartered as a transport.

At this time I made the acquaintance of Roderick Random, who was a doctor's mate in one of the men-of-war, as one night a boat I was in had the good fortune to save him from drowning when his own had been capsized. At the age of twenty-two I became my old friend and patron's, Captain How's, mate ; and served with him in that capacity till he died some years after, being employed chiefly in the West Indian and African trade. On his death he was succeeded by a stranger, who brought a relation of his own as mate, and I for a time, being thrown out of employment, had to ship before thc mast, and as an able seaman made a voyage to the East Indies, where the English and French East India Com panies were constantly fighting with each other, though the two countries were not at war. But indeed in those days there was no peace beyond the line.

In a brush which we had with a French cruiser, I had the good fortune to attract the attention of our captain, and finding out my history, he gave me the berth of the third mate, who had been killed in the action, and endeavoured to get me confirmed in that post, on the return of the ship to England ; but owing to the place being required by one of the India Board for a young gentleman, in whom he was interested, his application was refused. I was thus again thrown on my own resources, and had some idea of shipping on board a king's ship, when I ran up against my friend Tom Merrick, who for some time had been employed in a merchants' house in London, and who was surprised to see the desolate condition in which I was. He at once sent me down to Liverpool, where his interest got me a berth as mate on board a Guincaman, and I had been employed in that trade till the time this story commences.

On my last voyage, the ship in which I was had been totally wrecked in a hurricane, and only myr.clf Tlic Cruise of the "Black Prince!' 9 and two other men had escaped on some wreckage, and when, after three days of terrible suffering, we were picked up, my companions were in such a dreadful condition that they both died a short time after, and I was for a long time dangerously ill and was taken to the seaman's hospital at Port Royal. When I recovered I went to the correspondents of my owners, and by them was ordered to take a passage home in one of their ships which was to call at Charleston on the way home. At Charleston we found the Elizabeth, which had put in there from stress of weather, and had lost her master and several of her crew from yellow fever. She was in such a bad condition that it was hard to find any one who would consent to cross the Western Ocean in her.

As I thought it was an opportunity of getting command of a ship, I volunteered to take her home if a crew could be found. Thc merchant to whom she was consigned was only too glad to accept my offer, and was so pleased with my willingness to run the risk of the voyage, that he pressed me to stay at his house whilst the Elizabeth underwent the repairs which were absolutely necessary before she could put to sea. I found Mr. Penmore, who was the scion of an old English family, and his wife and daughters most charming people ; one of the daughters indeed was so charming, that I could not withstand her winning ways, and soon lost my heart to her. Muriel Penmore returned my affections, and gave me leave to prefer my suit to her father. Mr. Penmore, who, though he had left the old country, still retained all the pride of his family, was furious at what he was pleased to term my presumption, and ordered me out of the house, calling me an impertinent and low-bred tarpaulin, and forbidding me to say farewell to Muriel.

I had to take up my quarters in a lodging-house in the town, to wait for the Elizabeth to be ready for sea, as there was no other place where I could find shelter. Mr. Penmore hurried on the preparations, and would, verily, I believe, have turned me out the command, if he could have made sure that I would not remain in Charleston, and he had been able to find any one else to take command of the ship. I tried all manner of means to communicate with Muriel, but could not manage it, and all the letters 1 addressed to her and her father were returned to me unopened. I tried to see Mr. Penmore several times, but without avail, and had even to transact business connected with the ship with his chief clerk instead of with him personally. At last the Elizabeth was reported ready for sea, and I went on board and got all in order for sailing.

As, notwithstanding the repairs which had been made, she was very leaky, a gang of twenty slaves was put on board for the purpose of relieving the sailors of a portion of the labour at the pumps. In the boat that brought these I saw a boy whom I had constantly noticed at Mr. Penmore's, and he managed, unseen by the overseer who came to deliver the slaves to me, and obtain my receipt for them, to give me a note from my beloved Muriel, in which she assured me of her undying affection for me, and by whom I was able to send a reply, couched in the most ardent language I could muster, and in return for a lock of her hair which she sent me to send one of my own and a ring I had purchased in the town and had longed for an opportunity of giving her. The next morning we sailed from Charleston, and after a most tedious and dangerous voyage, in which only the seamanship of the crew and the unremitting labours of the negroes at the pumps prevented her from being lost, the Elizabeth arrived at Liverpool, but in such an unseaworthy condition that all idea of repairing her was abandoned, and the hopes I had of having the command of her when she again went to sea were dashed to the ground.

I, as was my custom whenever I came to Liver pool, made my way into Cumberland to visit my uncle and cousins, and had only this very afternoon returned to look for employment, and had intended to go next morning to call on Tom Merrick to see if he could help me in my search. I was delighted with the opening before me and now trusted that a few successful voyages might enable me to return to Charleston, and again sue for the hand of my Muriel, and, if her father proved obdurate, to induce her to leave her home and throw in her lot with mine. As I was thinking over my prospects, mine host returned into the room, and said, " Your honour will have Black Jack here to-morrow morning. One of my lads is the sharpest boy in all Liverpool, and hc says he knows where Jago and thc rest are hiding, but that he must be well paid to go there and have some token from you to prove that it is not a dodge of the press-gang their being sent for.

Thc boy, who is called Rat, will go at once and tell the men your wishes if you will." " All right, Pye. Here is my hanger — they know that ; and I'll even go to bed now, but let me know at once when the men come in the morninsr." Thc Cruise of the "Black Prince." 13

Chapter II. My

night's rest was broken by dreams of successful actions and captures of prizes loaded with doubloons, and my returning to Charleston to claim the hand of Muriel as a rich man. From these dreams I was awoke by a knock at my door, followed by the entry of one of the servants of the inn, who told me it was half-past six o'clock and that two sailors were down below asking for me. I got up at once and dressed, and, going down, found that Black Jack Jago and his inseparable friend Cundy, commonly called Bloodred Bill, were there waiting for me. Two men more different in their outward appearance could scarcely be imagined. Jago was over six feet high, and thin and gaunt, and, as his nickname implied, as dark as a Spaniard. His hair was commencing to get grizzled, and one side of his face was disfigured by a scar from a wound which he had received in effecting his escape from captivity at Algiers, where he had been a slave for five years.

Of his ex periences there he could never be got to speak, but his frame bore many marks of the cruelty and ill usage to which he had been subjected, and on his wrists and ankles were thc scars of the irons by which hc had been settered. Though the pirates might have injured his body, they had been power less to affect his spirit, and he was reckoned by those who knew him as one of the best and bravest of British seamen. His companion was a short, stout man, of not more than five feet three, and seemed, from the massivencss of his build, like a giant cut short. His face was tanned red by the wind and spray of many a storm, and his hair was also bright red, thus justifying his nickname ; but a bright blue eye — for he had only one — and a smile which played round his lips were quite contrary to the idea of ferocity, which the name would seem to imply.

He was a townsman of Jago's, and had formed one of the crew of the ship which picked him up, the only survivor of six who had managed to steal a boat at Algiers and make their escape. Jago was lying insensible in the bottom of thc boat among the corpses of his companions, and it could never be found out for how many days he had existed without food or water, and his recovery every one said was due to the care lavished on him by his friend. After this Cundy in thc West Indies had fallen overboard in a port infested by sharks, and, having been injured in falling, was unable to swim, and would soon have either been drowned or fallen a prey to these ravenous monsters, if Jago, heedless of the danger hc incurred, had not sprung overboard to his assistance and brought him safely on board. Ever since thc two men had been inseparable friends, and had always shipped together and tried to be in thc same watch and mess, and wherever one was to be seen it was quite certain that thc other was close at hand.

They were sitting down in a sanded room, furnished with wooden benches, and when I entered both got up, and, smoothing down their forelocks, said, " Morning, and sarvice to your honour." " Good morning, my lads," I said. " I want to know if you will sail with me ? I am promised the command of thc Black Prince, belonging to Messrs. Merrick and Floyd." " Sail with your honour ! — ay, that we will ! " said Cundy — "won't we, Bo?" to Jago. "We knows your honour for a good seaman, and a skilful one, and one that knows and cares for a man." "All right, my good fellows; but you don't know where we are going, or what we're going to do." " That's all one to us ; it don't matter a piece of tobacco whether it's the East Indies, South Seas, or thc Spanish main. A good skipper and a good ship's all we ask for, and here's both.

Eh, Bo ? " and Cundy, as was his unfailing custom, appealed to Jago, who signified his assent by a nod and a grunt. " Well, we are going down the coast of Africa, and across to the West Indies, and I believe we're to have a letter of marque. Now, what d'ye say ? " " Say ! why, we'll sail with your honour for a voyage like that twenty times over." " Good, my men. Now, the ship is on the beach at Runcorn, being breamed and refitted. Will you go round and see what men you can get together ? Do you know of any ? " " Yes, your honour ; Jan Beer and Sam Moxon is down where we've been stowed away while the press-gang was about, and there's some seven or eight more likely lads there, too. A privateer in the Spanish main — that would bring men out of the stones of Liverpool." " Well, mind, I won't have any sweepings out of the gutter, nor longshore loafers ; every man you bring must be a seaman."

" Sartain, your honour. A good crew makes light work, and we want no lazy, lubberly swabs aboard, to put their fists in a mess kid, and never pull a pound in boarding a tack." " All right. Now tell the host to give you some thing to cat, and not to forget the drink. I must go down to thc quayside to sec the owners." I now went up to my room to make my toilet, and, assisted by my black servant Toby, I put on my best wig and a blue coat guarded with silver lace, and, with a silver-mounted hanger round my waist, which had belonged to my father, a three cornered hat cocked rather 0:1 one side, I considered myself as smart a looking skipper as could be seen on thc Liverpool flags. Just as I was putting thc finishing touches to my dress, I heard the sound of a horse in the street, and in another moment Tom Merrick bounded into my room.

" Here, heave out, you lazybones ; I've ridden in from Mr. Floyd's house, and here you are not dressed yet." " One moment. — Here, Toby, just give me a hand kerchief. — Now I'm ready, but I have been up for a long time, and have got two of the men I wanted for the crew of the Black Prince downstairs, and they say they can find me some more." "All right; come along. You are a regular macaroni, but you look a sailor, too. My father and Mr. Floyd are full of the letter of marque ; but it will be necessary for us to go to London to get it. There may be some difficulty, as war is not declared yet, but I think that Sir John Dor mer, who is a friend of father's, and high in favour at court for services he rendered the Government during the Jacobite rising, may be able to help us." Tom Merrick and I were soon at his father's IS C house, the lower rooms of which were used as their offices, and here we found both Mr. Merrick and Mr. Floyd waiting for us.

When I came in Mr. Merrick said, "Good morning, Captain Hawkins. I suppose my son has told you that we want a master for the Black Prince, our old friend Captain Price having decided to give up going to sea? Master Tom has recommended you, and after making careful inquiries of the owners of the Elizabeth, we have decided on offering you the command of the Black Prince. We remember your father well, and he was always an honourable man, as well as a smart seaman. If you will only follow in his footsteps I am sure we shall never have reason to regret having intrusted you with the command of one of our ships." " I am sure, sir," I replied, " that I will do my utmost to merit your approbation. I cannot now say much, except that my humble duty and thanks are yours and Mr. Floyd's for the honour you have done me in the bestowal of this mark of your confidence."

" That's well," chimed in Mr. Floyd ; " but you must not think that it's this young shipjack here who has to be thanked for our choosing you, but your own merits and seamanship. I went yesterday to Malcolmson Brothers, who own the Elizabeth, and they told me how you frapped the crazy old craft together on the passage home and brought her into thc Mersey, when many another man would have sailed." " Yes, sir, I had a tough piece of work to bring her home ; but I am well repaid for any difficulty by being intrusted with such a vessel as the Black Prince. I am happy to say I can get some of the best men who were in the Elizabeth to sail with me again." " That's very well," said Mr. Merrick ; " but now I must talk to you on business matters. We have news from our correspondents in London that there will be war with France in a very short time, and we think that, sooner than undergo the delays entailed by sailing with a convoy, we will arm the Black Prince, and let her trust to herself for protection, and, in some measure to repay the cost of this, to ask for a letter of marque against thc Mounseers."

" I should like nothing better. You know my father was in the navy, and I have seen some sighting. But is not the Black Prince armed already ? " " Certainly. She has guns on boards, because at Sierra Leone and elsewhere on the African coast there are many pirates ; but we think of arming her so as to be a match for any ship of her tonnage." " If you do, sir, I hope that I may be able to give a good account of any Frenchman we may meet. I've seen her sail, and I know she has the heels of most ships." Thc Cruise of the "Black Prince." 20 " All right, Captain Hawkins. We will now go and take oars from near the slave market, and go up with the flood tide to where she is on the beach at Runcorn." We went down to the steps leading to the river, and then got into a wherry belonging to Mr. Merrick, and with a flood tide soon got up to where the Black Prince was on the beach, with thc shipwrights busy about her bottom, and after a good deal of scrambling and climbing, managed to get up on her deck.

If what I had seen of the Black Prince before from the outside had pleased me, I had double reason to feel satisfied with her when I got on the poop and could really judge of her size and roominess. The poop had on each side ports for three guns, and places on the gunwale for mount ing swivels, but all these had been landed whilst the ship was being refitted, as had also the guns on the main deck and forecastle. The waist was covered with a flying deck, chinsed down, which could be removed when necessary, to give air to the slaves in the 'tween decks and hold. Thc mate, who I found was busy setting up the new lower rigging with a gang of longshore men, did not seem to view me with any friendly eye, and I was very glad to hear him tell Mr. Merrick that he wished to bear up for the shore. I could see that the work was not being done in the way I should like, and determined that I should have Jago and Cundy, and such men as they could bring at once, to turn to the next morning, and that Mr. Jones, as thc mate was called, should be permitted to leave directly, and that a likely young fellow named Harry Trenal, who had been third mate in the Elizabeth, should have the berth of second mate in the Black Prince, and, until I found a trustworthy and good seaman for the post of first mate, have charge of the work.