Daring Deeds of Famous Pirates: True stories of the stirring adventures, bravery and resource of pirates, filibusters & buccaneersChatterton, E. Keble (Edward Keble)
History
Daring Deeds of Famous Pirates: True stories of the stirring adventures, bravery and resource of pirates, filibusters & buccaneers
Chatterton, E. Keble (Edward Keble)
Pirates
The Englishmen now set to work and cleared the ship of the dead Moslem
bodies, and then Rawlins assembled his men and gave praise to God “using
the accustomed Service on shipboard; and, for want of books, lifted
up their voices to God, as He put into their hearts or renewed their
memories.” And after having sung a psalm, they embraced each other “for
playing the men in such a deliverance.” The same night they washed the
ship of the carnage, put every thing in order, repaired the broken
quarter which had been damaged by the explosion, set up the binnacle
again and made for England. On the 13th February the _Exchange_ arrived
at Plymouth, where they “were welcomed like the recovery of the lost
sheep, or as you read of a loving mother that runneth with embraces to
entertain her son from a long voyage and escape of many dangers.”
As for the Torbay bark, she too had got back to England, having arrived
at Penzance two days before. Her story is brief but not less interesting.
The mate had been informed of Rawlins’ plan, and he and his friends had
agreed. But the carrying out of this had been a far simpler and neater
matter than that which had taken place on the _Exchange_. For once again
mere landsmen had been fooled at the hands of seamen. It happened on this
wise. They made the Turks believe that the wind had now come fair and
that the prize was being sailed back to Algiers. This they believed until
they sighted the English shore, when one of the Turks remarked that “that
land is not like Cape St. Vincent.” To this the man at the helm replied
very neatly, “Yes; and if you will be contented and go down into the
hold, and turn the salt over to windward, whereby the ship may bear full
sail, you shall know and see more to-morrow.”
Suspecting nothing the five Turks then went quietly down. But as soon as
they had gone below into the hold, the renegadoes, with the help of two
Englishmen, nailed down the hatches and kept the rascals there till they
reached Penzance. But one of the other Turks was on deck, and at this
incident he broke out into great rage. This was but short-lived, for an
Englishman stepped up to him, dashed out his brains and threw his body
overboard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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