About a cable's length, on one of the quarters of the Montauk, was a ship
careering before the gale like themselves, though carrying more canvas,
and consequently driving faster through the water. The sudden appearance
of this vessel in the sombre light of the morning, when objects were seen
distinctly but without the glare of day; the dark hull, relieved by a
single narrow line of white paint, dotted with ports; the glossy
hammock-cloths, and all those other coverings of dark glistening canvas
which give to a cruiser an air of finish and comfort, like that of a
travelling carriage; the symmetry of the spars, and the gracefulness of
all the lines, whether of the hull or hamper, told all who knew anything
of such subjects, that the stranger was a vessel of war. To this
information Captain Truck added that it was their old pursuer the Foam.
"She is corvette-built," said the master of the Montauk, "and is obliged
to carry more canvas than we, in order to keep out of the way of the seas;
for, if one of these big fellows should overtake her, and throw its crest
into her waist, she would become like a man who has taken too much
Saturday-night, and with whom a second dose might settle the purser's
books forever."
Such in fact was the history of the sudden appearance of this ship. She
had lain-to as long as possible, and on being driven to scud, carried a
close-reefed maintop-sail, a show of canvas that urged her through the
water about two knots to the hour faster than the rate of the-packet.
Necessarily following the same coarse, she overtook the latter just as the
day began to dawn. The cry had arisen on her sudden discovery, and the
moment had now arrived when she was about to come up, quite abreast of her
late chase. The passage of the Foam, under such circumstances, was a grand
but thrilling thing. Her captain, too, was seen in the mizzen-rigging of
his ship, rocked by the gigantic billows over which the fabric was
careering. He held a speaking-trumpet in his hand, as if still bent on his
duty, in the midst of that awful warring of the elements. Captain Truck
called for a trumpet in his turn, and fearful of consequences he waved it
to the other to keep more aloof, The injunction was either misunderstood,
the man-of-war's man was too much bent on his object, or the ocean was too
uncontrollable for such a purpose, the corvette driving up on a sea quite
abeam of the packet, and in fearful proximity. The Englishman applied the
trumpet, and words were heard amid the roaring of the winds. At that time
the white field of old Albion, with the St. George's cross, rose over the
bulwarks, and by the time it had reached the gaff-end, the bunting was
whipping in ribbons.
"Show 'em the gridiron!" growled Captain Truck through his trumpet, with
its mouth turned in board.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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