For several days after this the _Essex_, having repaired the _Alert_, cruised with her in tow, and then an incident occurred, the story of which brings out very clearly another characteristic of the American crews; that is to say, the care with which the green crews were trained from the day they came on board. The number of prisoners on the _Essex_ very greatly exceeded her crew after the capture of the _Alert_, for the _Alert’s_ crew were added to the soldiers and men from the transport, while the _Essex_ had put out two prize crews. Knowing this, the prisoners formed a plan to take the ship, the coxswain of the _Alert’s_ gig being the leader in the conspiracy. Young Farragut happened to discover the plot on the night it was to be executed. He was lying in his hammock and saw the coxswain with a pistol in hand on the deck where the hammock was swinging. The coxswain was looking around to see if all was in order for his men to rise, and going to Farragut’s hammock, looked earnestly at the boy, who had the wit to feign sleep. But the moment the coxswain was gone, Farragut ran into the cabin and told Captain Porter, who sprang from his berth, and running out of his cabin began to shout: “Fire! Fire!” A more distressful cry than that is never heard at sea. To the prisoners it brought utter confusion. To the crew of the _Essex_ it meant only that they were to hasten to fire-quarters for a night-drill--something to which they had been trained ever since leaving New York. Captain Porter had even built fires that sent up volumes of smoke through the hatches in order to make the crew face what seemed to be a real fire, and so had steadied their nerves. Now they promptly but coolly went to their quarters. It was then a simple matter to turn them on the mutineers. [Illustration: An English Thirty-gun Corvette. _From an engraving by Merlo in 1794._] Afterwards the prisoners were sent to St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the _Alert_ as a cartel. She was not by the letter of the law a proper cartel, for she was still at sea and quite likely to be captured, but it is pleasant to observe that Admiral Sir John T. Duckworth “generously sustained the agreement” made by Captain Laugharne. He wrote: “It is utterly inconsistent with the laws of war to recognize the principle upon which this arrangement has been made. Nevertheless I am willing to give a proof at once of my respect for the liberality with which the captain of the _Essex_ has acted in more than one instance toward the British subjects who had fallen into his hands; of the sacred obligation that is always felt to fulfil the engagements of a British officer, and of my confidence in the disposition of his Highness, the Prince Regent, to allay the violence of war by encouraging a reciprocation of that courtesy by which its pressure upon individuals may be so essentially diminished.” [Illustration: SIR JOHN THOMAS DUCKWORTH, K.B. Vice Admiral of the White Squadron.]