They went to breakfast, and when they returned found the master and three seamen in the forecastle holding a very earnest conversation. The fourth sailor was at the wheel. Fernando, glancing off to their larboard saw a large ship, flying English colors, bearing down upon them, and he had no doubt that this vessel was the subject of discussion. She signalled to the schooner to heave to, and as they were within range of her powerful guns, the skipper was forced to obey. This vessel was the English frigate _Macedonian_ cruising along the American coast, and at this time short of hands. In a few moments, the frigate came near and hove to, while a boat with a dozen marines and an officer came alongside the schooner. "What is your business?" asked the skipper. "We are looking for deserters and Englishmen." "Well, here are my crew," said the skipper pointing to his sailors. "Every one I will swear is American born!" "But who are these young men?" "Three passengers I am taking to Baltimore." The three students began to entertain some grave apprehensions. Terrence for once was quiet. His dialect he knew would betray him, and when he was asked where he lived and where he was from, he tried hard to conceal his brogue; but it was in vain. Sukey came forward and tried to explain matters, but only made them worse. The result was that all three were in a short hour transported to the _Macedonian_ in irons. Protest was useless; the _Macedonian_ was short of hands and they were forced to go. They were not even permitted to write letters home. However, the skipper had their names, and the whole affair was printed in the _Baltimore Sun_, and copies were sent to the parents of the young men. Captain Snipes of the English frigate was one of those barbarous, tyrannical sea captains, more brute than human, and, in an age when the strict discipline of the navy permitted tyranny to exist, he became a monster. The three recruits were added to his muster-roll and gradually initiated into the mysteries of sailor's life on a war vessel. Poor Sukey for several days was fearfully seasick; but he recovered and was assigned to his mess. Fortunately they were all three assigned to the same mess. The common seamen of the _Macedonian_ were divided into thirty-seven messes, put down on the purser's book as Mess No. 1, Mess No. 2, Mess No. 3. The members of each mess clubbed their rations of provisions, and breakfasted, dined and supped together at allotted intervals between the guns on the main deck.