Ned Myers, or, a Life Before the MastCooper, James Fenimore
History
Ned Myers, or, a Life Before the Mast
Cooper, James Fenimore
Myers, Ned, approximately 1793-1849; Seafaring life
I laid out most of my hundred dollars, in getting a new outfit, and then
shipped in a small pilot-boat-built schooner, called the M'Donough, bound
to Ireland, to supply such honest fellows as my old fisherman with good
tobacco, cheap. Our cargo was in small bales, being the raw material,
intended to be passed by hand. We had seventeen hands before the mast, but
carried no armament, pistols, &c., excepted. The schooner sailed like a
witch, carrying only two gaff-topsails. We made the land in fourteen days
after we left the Hook, our port being Tory Island, off the north-west
coast of Ireland. We arrived in the day-time, and showed a signal, which
was answered in the course of the day, by a smoke on some rocks. A large
boat then came off to us, and we filled her with tobacco the same evening.
In the course of the night, we had despatched four or five more boats,
loaded with the same cargo; but, as day approached, we hauled our wind,
and stood off the land. Next night we went in, again, and met more boats,
and the succeeding morning we hauled off, as before. When we saw a boat,
we hailed and asked "if they were outward bound." If the answer was
satisfactory, we brailed the foresail and permitted the boat to come
alongside. In this manner we continued shoving cargo ashore, for quite a
week, sometimes falling in with only one boat of a night, and, at others,
with three or four; just as it might happen. We had got about two-thirds
of the tobacco out, and a boat had just left us, on the morning of the
sixth or seventh day, when we saw a man-of-war brig coming round Tory
Island, in chase. At this sight, we hauled up close on a wind, it blowing
very fresh. As the English never employed any but the fastest cruisers for
this station, we had a scratching time of it. The brig sailed very fast,
and out-carried us; but our little schooner held on well. For two days and
one night we had it, tack and tack, with her. The brig certainly gained on
us, our craft carrying a balanced reefed-mainsail, bonnet off the foresail
and one reef in, and bonnet off the jib. The flying-jib was inboard. At
sunset, on the second night, the brig was so near us, we could see her
people, and it was blowing fresher than ever. This was just her play,
while ours was in more moderate weather. Our skipper got uneasy, now, and
determined to try a trick. It set in dark and rainy; and, as soon as we
lost sight of the brig, we tacked, stood on a short distance, lowered
everything, and extinguished all our lights. We lay in this situation
three hours, when we stuck the craft down again for Tory Island, as
straight as we could go. I never knew what became of the brig, which may
be chasing us yet, for aught I know for I saw no more of her. Next day we
had the signal flying again, and the smoke came up from the same rock, as
before. It took us three days longer to get all the tobacco ashore, in
consequence of some trouble on the island; but it all went in the end, and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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