Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1892 — CAST UP BY THE SEA. [ARTICLE]

CAST UP BY THE SEA.

BY SIR SAMUEL W. BAKER.

A CHAPTER Xl. Continued. "With her sails close hauled, the ' fibylle steered through the narrow entrance, and shot after shot, rang from her dects and reechoed from the surrounding hills as she saluted the fort upon the Point; she then came sharp up to the J wind and cast anchor within a hundred yards of the shore, while the ■ten swarmed up the rigging at the sound of the boatswain's whistle, and in a few minutes every sail was furled, and the Sybille looked as snug 0 as though she had been lying for a month in port. &t that time beautiful island of Ceylon had not been long in our possession—since England had wrested it from the Dutch- The latter people had contented themselves with the seaboard and adjoining lowlands, as they consiedred that the greatest importance of Ceylon consisted in the peculiar harbor of Trincomalee, which not only would contain a powerful fleet to command, the Indian seas, but was sufficiently large to float half the navies of the world; in addition to its vast capacity, the water was of sufficient depth within a few feet of tbs land to enable., a first-class ship of the line to lie with her bowsprit overhanging the shore. Trincomalee may be called the key of India; in the hands of a powerful enemy a fleet would lie in perfect security that could defy attack, as the vicinity of the harbor is specially arranged by nature for defense. At the time of which we writelhere was no other protection than the Dutch fort at the Point, which exists at the present day, and it is a curious instance of neglect that this magnificent harbor remains otherwise unprotected. • '■ ~ With a fleet of fast cruisers concentrated at Trincomalee by an enemy the trade of India would be almost anihilated, as- such vessels would scour the seas like falcons, and when chased by a superior force they would run for the impregnable nest. On the same principle, the possession •f Trincomalee affords incalculable advantages as a great depot and arsenal for naval and military stores. There is no other safe harbor in the island, neither is there any secure port nearer than Bombay; thus in the event of a naval action in the Indian seas, there are no ports to which the crippled ships could retreat for repairs except those of Port Louis ih the Mauritius, Trincomalee and * Bombay; it was accordingly of vital importance to our Indian possessions that these three harbors should belong toEngland. merce, at that time Mauritius belonged to the French, with whom we were at war, and the extreme importance of our position was painfully exhibited to the English by the havoc committed on our trade. In the strongly fortified harbor of Port Louis a French fleet of powerful frigates was established, with which our vessels of interior force upon the station were unable to cope. In consequence of our inferiority, several actions had been fought in the Indian seas, which added more to French England: nevertheless ojir Admiralty authorities continued to send te the Indian Station a number of second class frigates and corvettes that were totaliy uuadiipttMi for a collisioD with: the large ships and heavy metal of the enemy, ' .' :—... r -. Although the inferiority was admitted.it? did not interfere with the ardor of our captains, who withreekless intrepidity hovered around the coasts of Mauritius and challenged every combat without considering the odds. Thus many severe losses . had fallen upon us. Among those French vessels that hadfgained a high reputation was a powerful frigate, the Forte." This vessel had been newly built in France expressly to harrass our commerce in the Indian seas. and. $s our naval supremacy was generally admitted, the French had constructed this ship upon a scale and armament so superior to anything in that line xthat the English possessed that without some gross mismanagement success would appear almost certain. Ase the English losses had become of serious importance, it was re solved that the fleet upon, the Indian station should be reinforced. Thus, among other vessels, the ’Sybille had been dispatched from England, and it was the determination of her captain to seek out and fight the renowned Forte upon the earliest opportunity. 0 CHAPTER XII. A week after the Sybille had arrived in the harbor of Trincomalee she looked as though she had only iust been rigged and fitted for sea: ier lower rigging bad been tightened and retarred, her topmasts fresh varnished, and tfee vessel had been newly pointed from stem to stern. There "was not a ship in the British navy that looked more like a perfect specimen of a man-of-war: her guns were not only iu beautiful neatness and finish of polish, but her crew were constantly trained in; their use, as Captain Cooke was of opinion - that a shot thrown away worse than wasted; thus he instructed his men never to fire at a useless range, but to wait patiently for close quarters; “Clpse quarters and good seamanship will win the battle,” was a wellknown saying of the Sybflle's captain, in which his men had learnt to thoroughly believe. * During the frigate, s s tay at Tri n - com alee, she. on several occasions, put to sea to exercise her guus. until

at length, the day arrived when she was to sail in search of the renowhed depredator, the Forte. /At that time the French Indian squadron, under Admiral Sersey, was cruising with great success in the neighborhood or Mani 11 a. and through-, out the China seas, in which direction our losses of homeward "bound Indiamen had been most severe; it was reported that the Forte was also in those seas, and the SybiHe left the quiet harbor of Trincomolee with her officers and crew in high spirits at the expected recon tre. After a rapid voy age to Manilla, to the great disappointment of Captain Tlooke, he heard that the Forte had left, and that she was cruising ih the Bay of Bengal. Without losing a day. the Sybille ran, for Madras, where she expected to gain some intelligence of the proceedings of her enemy. - Upon arrival at the Madras roadstead, Captain Cook heard; to his intense satisfaction, that the Foyte was cruising along the coast, and that she had already intercepted several vessels. Having gained this welcome intelligence, he sailed with.-’'® out delay for the mouth of the Bengal river. v When inear the Sandheads j the Sibille met a vessel containing French prisoners, some of whom had been on the Forte; these, Upon seeing the j armament of the Sybille, ridiculed fithe idea of an encounter with their : heavy frigate. Upon the same vessel was an English captain of a merchant vessel that had been captured by the Forte; he also expressed an ! opinion that the risk of an engagej meat would be most dangerous to the j Sybille, at the same time he gallantly 1 volunteered his services. The Forte was reported to be near at hand; off the Sandheads.

I It was oa a dark sight that the , Sibille was standing under easy sail, with the wind light but steady from sou'-sou’-west, when flashes were remarked in the far distance which resembled sheet lightning. At first this appearance attracted no more than ordinary attention, but, upon their quick an# repeated occurance, Captain Cooke concluded that they originated from the explosion of cannon; it was, therefore, natural to suppose that, as the Forte was within a short distance, the flashes must proceed from her in some engagement with an English vessel. Having carefully extinguished all lights on board, the Sybille tadked to the west at 9 p. m., aud at 1:30 p. m. she distinguisneH three vessels in a cluster in the southeast; these were the Forte and her two valuable prizes, the Indiamea Endeavor and the Mornington from China. In her action with these ships the flashes from the Forte's guns had attracted the attention of the British frigate. The Svbille’-s drum beat to quarters, ancl as the crew stood at their guns a . finer lot of seamen could never have been selected. Not a light was to be seen on the English ship, but standing on the quar-ter-deck, in a silence in which a pin might have been heard fall, the galTah’tCaptain Cooke addressed a few spirit-stirring words to his brave followers: “My lads,” he said, ‘‘you’ve long been looking for the Forte; there. she lies before you: go - in, and take her! Double shot your guns, and don’t fire until you rub against her sic.es. ”, “Rightly conjecturingthat one of these ships would prove to be the object of his search, Captain Cooke continued to stand to the 'westward in order to get the .weather gage; and soon afterward the Sybule passed about two miles to leeward of them. At 10 p. m., having brought the three ships sufficiently on her quarter to enable her to weather them by going on the other tack, the Sybille put about, and taking her top gallant sails and courses, kept the centre ship, which, from her superior size and the lights in her stern, marked her out as the Forte, on her lee or larboard bow. ‘The water was at this time quite smoothe. with a light and steady breeze still blowing from tte §ou’-sou'-west, and the Sybille, under her topsails, jib and spanker, was going about two knots an, hour. At 1130 p. m. „ the Sybille saw that three ships were lying to on the starboard tack, or that on which she was standing. * •• “At midnight, when the Sybille had approached within a mile of the Forte, the latter’s two rows of ports, lighted up as they were, gave the ship a very formidable appearance. The Forte then filled, hove in stays undeFtbe Sybille's lee bow, and as her larboard guns began to bear, fired six or seven of them, the instant and principal effect of which was to bring clown her opponent's jib. The Forte, as she passed on. tired also her after guns, and one of her prizes opened her fire; but stilt" the Sybille, as a proof of the judgment of her commander and the steadiness of her crew, reserved her fire for a shorter and mote effective distance. “The patience of however, was put to no longer a trial I than until the Forte passed abaft the beamof theirship; when,at threequarters past midnight, the Sybille put her helm up, and fired the whole of her broadside into the Forte’s stern at less than pistol shot,distance} ,so close indeed that the French ship’s spanker boom was scarcely cleared.* Luffing quickly up, the Sybille was presently close alongside her antagonist to leeward,

I and poured in a second broadside, as j well directed as the previous raking one. • Th£ bearing up of the Sybille hadjsbeen so sudden and unexpected that several of the Forte’s larboard pr weather guns went off after the former had passed to leeward. ‘‘Thus this furious night actiop commenced. For nearly the first hour, during which the two ships lay broadside to broadside, at a distance that never exceeded point blank musket Tange, and was sometimes. Mnuch neairer, the Forte returned a but far too elevated, and consequently an almost harmless, fire. At I*3o a. m., on March 1, Captain Cooke was mortally wounded by a grape shot, and the command devolved upon Lieutenant Lucius Hardy man. About ten minutes after Captain Cooke had been carried below, Captain Davies of the army, an aide-de-camp of Lord Mornington’s, and a volunteer upon this occasion, while encouraging the men at the quarter deck guns, of some of which he had charge, was killed by a cannon shot that nearly severed his body.” ~ " ■<- Ned Grey was splashed with his blood, as, stripped to the waist he fought his gun, with the brave fellows around him, with that coot intrepidity that has won all of England’s battles. He had seen his beloved captain struck down by a shot, and for the moment he would have

rushed to his assistance; but a stern sense of duty overcame this first impulse, and, as others supported the captain’s sinking frame, Ned cast a sorrowful look behind him, and then lent double strength to his work as they ran the gun out and the shot crashed into the sides of the French frigate; For upward of two hours there had been an uninterrupted roar of artillery, but at this time the fire from the Forte began to slacken, and at 2:30 a. m. it entirely ceased. ‘‘On this the Sybille discontinued her fire, and hailed to know if her antagonist had struck. Receiving no reply, although the ships were still so clpse that the voices of Forte’s people were distinctly heard, the Sybille recommenced firing with rehewed vigor. Finding no return, the British frigate a second time ceased, and a second time hailed,but again without effect. At this moment, perceiving the Forte’s rigging filled with men, and her top-gallant sail loose, as if with the intention of endeavoring to escape, the Sybille recommenced her fire for the third time, and set her own foresail and top gallant sails. “In five minutes after this the. Forte’s mizzenmast came down, and in another minute or two her fore and main masts and bowsprit. The Sybille ceased firing, her crew gave three cheers, and thus at 2:28 a. m., I being about two hours and a half from its commencement, the action ! ended. . ! “The Sibylle immediately dropped her anchor in seventeen fathoms, and all hands began repairing the rigging and bending new sails. At about 3 a. m., one of the English prisoners on board the Forte, finding That the ship was drifting upon the Sibylle, hailed the latter that a boat might be sent on board, as all theirs had been shot to pieces. Although no doubt existed on board the Sibylle as to the name of the ship of which [ she had, made such a wreck, the question was ‘'put, and ‘the French frigate Forte’ was the answer returned. While possession is taking of the prize, we will give some account of the damage and loss of life on the ship that had so gallently capI tured her. “The Sibylle had most of her standing and all her running rigging i and 9ails shot to pieces, all her masts I and yards, particularly the main and i mizzen masts and the yards on them i badly wounded, but with all this The ; Sibylle had only received iff the hull and upper works six shot; one of which, however, had dismounted a gun, and another, a twenty-four pounder, having entered one of the officer’s cabins, had shivered to atoms a large trunk and a smaller one near it, carried away two legs of a sofa and passed out through the : ship’s side. The Sibylle had lost Captain Davies, one seaman, one ■ marine arid two soldiers killed, and Captain Cooke (mortally), fifteen sea- ! men and one soldier wounded; total, five killed and seventeen wounded. “When Lieutenant Nicholas Manager, third of the Sibylle, with his boat’s crew, went on board the Forte, 1 the scene of wreck and carnage that presented itself to theft- view was such, by all accounts, as no other persons than the actual spectators j could form an adequate idea of. The j bow-sprit had gone close to the fig-ure-head, the foremast one foot above the forecastle, the main mast eight feet above the quarter-deck, and the mizzenmast ten feet above the poop. As the masts had fallen with all sails set, it was remarked that The three topsails were very slightly injured; the Sybille’s shot had taken a lower : and more fatal direction. All the boats, booms, the wheel, capstan, binnaele and other articles on deck were cut to pieces. “The Forte’s upper works were lined with cork to prevent splinters, and for the same purpose nettings were fixed, fore and aft as well as on : the main deck and on the quarterdeck, forecastle and gangways. Anotout netting was spread like an awning over the quarter-deck. This is common on board French ships; and, being put up to prevent blocks and other heavy articles from falling from aloft, is appropriately named 'la sauve-tete. ’ The starboard quar-ter-deck and forecastle barricades ware completely destroyed, and, the: same side ojf the Forte from the bends upward was nearly befit in. Upward of three hundred round shot were counted in her hull; sever*! of

her guns were dismounted, and the very cables in her tiers were rendered unserviceable. “Theloss onboard the Forte may ■ well have been severe. Her original crew, including a portion of Malays taken on board at Batavia, amounted to 513 men and boys. Of this number she had sent away various prizes, according to the account given by her officers, 143; leaving 37U as the number present in the action. Of these she lost, as appears, 65 killed, including her captain, first lieutenant and some other officers, and 80 wounded, including also several of her officers.” [The description of this celebrated action between the Sybille and the Forte is extracted from James’ “Naval History.”] At the close of the action the two prizes now manned with French crews (the Lord Mornington and Endeavor) made sail and effected their escape after an ineffectual chase by the Sybille, the shattered condition of her rigging preventing the possibility of carrying sufficient sail to overhaul them. The joy of the Sybille’s crew was terribly damped by the grievous wound received by their captain: a grape-shot had entered the fleshy, portion of his right arm, and tearing its way through the ribs,.it had passed out at the back near the spine; the doctor had no hope of his recovery, » n A few days were passed in rigging the Forte under jury-masts, after was in -tow the Sybille to Calcutta, where she could be repaired sufficiently to enable her to proceed to England. Upon arrival at Calcutta, there was universal gratification at the sight, of the dreaded Forte thus brought in as a capture ,by the gallant Sybille, But the unfortunate Captain Cooke co.uld enjoy no share of the honors that were heaped upon them; the glory of this world was passed; and he gradually sank, and died a few "days after "his arrival. Before his death he had requested to see Ned Gray, whom he had taken the warmest interest, and he confided him to the care of Lieutenant Hardyman, requesting, that as he had been forcibly taken from his home, he might return to England cn board the Forte, together with Nigger Tim and the dog Nero. The latter had so attached himself to the captain that he had seldom stirred from his cabin since the day he had received his mortal wound.

The body of Captain Cooke was buried at Calcutta with military honors, followed to the grave not only by the Sybille’s officers and crew, but by an enormous assemblage of people, among whom there was no more sincere mourner thanNed’Grey, who had lost his best and most powerful friend. y 1 -/ -—Trne had received from Captain Cooke. Lieutenant Hardyman, who had succeeded to the command, placed a prize crew upon the Forte, including Ned Gray and his party- that had originally been kidnapped, together with Jem Stevens, who had shown so much nervousness m the late fight that the officers requested to be rid of him, and the xmsaai~J3iavinff been partially repaired, set sail for England • ; r The Forte was commanded by the same officer who had taken NeAGray. from the beach on the morning that he and Tim had left Sandy, Cove with the intention of returning home to breakfast, and the good-natured lieutenant now looked forward to returning to his friends the same lad covered with honor that he had orgiually misled; as he had left England on board the Sybille, so he would return on board the Sybille’s prize, which he had bravely helped to win. . On the 25th of March the Forte .sailed, and had fair weather until she arrived in about 17 degrees south latitude. Ned Grey was acting as midshipman, having received this temporary promotion for the voyage. Nigger Tim was, as before, in the galley as cook’s mate; and Jem Stevens was as sullen as usual, but ever since the action with the Forte he had very little to say, so during the fight he had been found lying upon his back, at first suppled to be killed, but upon examination there was no wound, and he could only explain the situation by declaring that he had been knocked down by the wind of a shot at the commence- j ment of the action, v and that he had not recovered his senses until it was over. V : had been made by the officers j and crew, who were sufficiently j uncharitable to attribute' his prostration to fear; the word “coward” had been used by more than one in connection with this affair; and even Nigger .Tim had ventured a remark that had become a by-word with" the sailors —“Massa Stevens smell de powder, Massa Stevens get de bellyache.” Ned Grey had long since discontinued his efforts at reconciliation, and to avoid unpleasantness he said as little as possible to his old schoolfellow,. It was on the 22nd of April that the Forte suddenly lost the wind and lay becalmed. The barometer had fallen in an alarming manner since the morning, and it continued to sink with great rapidity, although the sky was perfectly clear. At about an hour after noon snow-white and dense clouds, like mountains.of frozen snbw, rose upon all quarters of t the horizon, and were it not for the oppressive heat the scene might uave been imagined in the arctic regions. Quickly ascendifig from the sea, and darkening as they rose, the clouds massed together, and uniting from all directions, in about an hour : they formed the densest canopy that totally concealed the heavens- The sky was solidly black, as though cov--ered by thick folds of velvet, only in certain points the color varied to a

. - . -> t■ x . ' - ■ dark purplish gray, as one edge of an overlapping stratum was exposed. It was the hurricane season in that particular latitude and lengitudinal position, and there could be no doubt that a cyclone of the most fearful description was about to burst upon them. The Forte was badly manned, as few could be spared from the Sybille, and the greater portion of the crew were Lascars; in addition to this disadvantage she had onlv been patched and otherwise hastily repaired since her recent engagement, in which she had been terribly’scattered, and her rigging was made up of old stuff that had been procured in Calcutta simply to enable her to complete the voyage to England preparatory to a general refit. Altogether, the Forte was in no condition to contend with a tropical cyclone. (to be continued.)’