The blow was a heavy one, for the “Grantham” belonged to Captain Bull. If he had remained on the spot, he might have recovered some portion of his property by salvage, but there was no time for delay. His duty was to convey the mails to Jamaica, and he lost no time in chartering a schooner, in which he reached Jamaica even earlier than he had been expected. The plucky way in which so young a captain faced his misfortunes won for him a considerable amount of esteem among the merchants in the island; and feeling confident that their property was safe in his hands, they appealed to the Governor and to the Deputy Postmaster of the colony to entrust to him the mails which the “Grantham” should have carried home to England, and to authorize him to charter a vessel for the passage. The Postmaster hesitated. He would have preferred to hold the mails over until the Packet of the following month arrived, but in the end he yielded to the wishes of the merchants. A Privateer, the “Caroline,” was hired, and Captain Bull set sail for England. It was curious how persistently ill-fortune pursued him. On the very day on which the “Caroline” left Kingston harbour she sprang a leak, and after vainly endeavouring to keep the water under, Captain Bull was obliged to bear up for port. To add to the dangers of his position, a strong breeze rose, which quickly increased to a full gale. The ship was labouring heavily, and making water most uncomfortably fast. It was clear that she could never reach port, and Captain Bull resolved that their only chance lay in running her ashore. In such a storm the expedient was desperate enough, but a spot was selected in which it seemed possible that the ship might hold together, and by skilful management the lives of all on board were saved. The mails, too, were got ashore uninjured, and for the second time within ten days Captain Bull presented himself at Kingston in the capacity of a shipwrecked mariner, possessing nothing of his own except the clothes in which he stood, but bringing with him all the public property entrusted to his care. Confirmed in their confidence by this second proof that it was well bestowed, the merchants would have their mails entrusted to no one else, and within three days Captain Bull was once more afloat, this time on board the “Thomas,” an armed ship bound for Liverpool. The “Thomas” was a good and seaworthy craft, and the voyage passed over without incident until in mid-Atlantic she encountered a French corvette of twenty-four guns, which bore down and opened fire on the “Thomas.” A sharp action followed, which might have ended unfortunately had not a lucky shot cut away the mizzen-mast of the corvette, and in the confusion of this disaster the “Thomas” made good her escape.