Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy: A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present time, with accounts of providential escapes and heart-rending fatalities.Anonymous
History
Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy: A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present time, with accounts of providential escapes and heart-rending fatalities.
Anonymous
Mutiny; Pirates; Seafaring life; Shipwrecks
We made all sail in chase, blazing away to little purpose; we had no
chance on a bowline, and when our 'Amigo' had satisfied himself of his
superiority by one or two short tacks, he deliberately took a reef in
his mainsail, hauled down his flying jib and gaff-topsail, triced up
the bunt of his foresail, and fired his long thirty-two at us. The
shot came in our third aftermost port on the starboard side, and
dismounted the carronade, smashing the slide and wounding three men.
The second missed, and as it was madness to remain to be peppered,
probably winged, whilst every one of ours fell short, we reluctantly
kept away on our course, having the gratification of hearing a clear
well blown bugle on board the schooner play up "Yankee Doodle." As the
brig fell off, our long gun was run out to have a parting crack at
her, when the third and last shot from the schooner struck the sill of
the midship port, and made the white splinters fly from the solid oak
like bright silver sparks in the moonlight. A sharp, piercing cry rose
in the air--my soul identified that death-shriek with the voice that I
had heard, and I saw the man who was standing with the lanyard of the
lock in his hand drop heavily across the breech, and discharge the gun
in his fall. Thereupon a blood-red glare shot up in the cold blue sky,
as if a volcano had burst forth from beneath the mighty deep, followed
by a roar, and a scattering crash, and a mingling of unearthly cries
and groans, and a concussion of the air and the water as if our whole
broadside had been fired at once.--Then a solitary splash here, and a
dip there, and short sharp yells, and low choking bubbling moans, as
the hissing fragments of the noble vessel we had seen, fell into the
sea, and the last of her gallant crew vanished forever beneath that
pale broad moon. We were alone; and once more all was dark, wild and
stormy. Fearfully had that ball sped fired by a dead man's hand. But
what is it that clings, black and doubled, across the fatal cannon,
dripping and heavy, and choking the scuppers with clotting gore, and
swaying to and fro with the motion of the vessel, like a bloody
fleece? "Who is it that was hit at the gun there?" "Mr. Nipper, the
boatswain, sir, the last shot has cut him in two."
LOSS OF THE NAUTILUS, SLOOP OF WAR,
ON A ROCK IN THE ARCHIPELAGO.
A misunderstanding having originated between the Court of Great
Britain, and the Ottoman Porte, a powerful squadron was ordered to
proceed to Constantinople, for the purpose of enforcing compliance
with rational propositions. The object, however, proved abortive; and
the expedition terminated in a way which did not enhance the
reputation of these islands in the eyes of the Turks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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