章节正文
say."
"They were sayingashore that the villain hath forty men aboard,"
said the boatswain.[2]
[2] The pirate captain had really only twenty-five men aboard of
his ship at the time of the battle.
Lieutenant Maynard's force consisted of thirty-five men in the
schooner and twenty-five men in the sloop. He carried neither
cannons nor carronades, and neither of his vessels was very well
fitted for the purpose for which they were designed. The
schooner, which he himself commanded, offered almost no
protection to the crew. The rail was not more than a foot high
in the waist, and the men on the deck were almost entirely
exposed. The rail of the sloop was perhaps a little higher, but
it, too, was hardly better adapted for fighting. Indeed, the
lieutenant depended more upon the moral force of official
authority to overawe the pirates than upon any real force of arms
or men. He never believed, until the very last moment, that the
pirates would show any real fight. It is very possible that they
might not have done so had they not thought that the lieutenant
had actually no legal right supporting him in his attack upon
them in North Carolina waters.
It was about noon when anchor was hoisted, and, with the schooner
leading, both vessels ran slowly in before a light wind that had
begun to blow toward midday. In each vessel a man stood in the
bows, sounding continually with lead and line. As they slowly
opened up the harbor within the inlet, they could see the pirate
sloop lying about three miles away. There was a boat just putting
off from it to the shore.
The lieutenant and his sailing master stood together on the roof
of the cabin deckhouse. The sailing master held a glass to his
eye. "She carries a long gun, sir," he said, "and four
carronades. She'll be hard to beat, sir, I do suppose, armed as
we are with only light arms for close fighting."
The lieutenant laughed. "Why, Brookes," he said, "you seem to
think forever of these men showing fight. You don't know them as
I know them. They have a deal of bluster and make a deal of
noise, but when you seize them and hold them with a strong hand,
there's naught of fight left in them. 'Tis like enough there'll
not be so much as a musket fired to-day. I've had to do with 'em
often enough before to know my gentlemen well by this time." Nor,
as was said, was it until the very last that the lieutenant could
be brought to believe that the pirates had any stomach for a
fight.
The two vessels had reached perhaps within a mile of the pirate
sloop before they found the water too shoal to venture any
farther with the sail. It was then that the boat was lowered as
the lieutenant had planned, and the boatswain went ahead to
sound, the two vessels, with their sails still hoisted but empty
of wind, pulling in after with sweeps.
The pirate had also hoisted sail, but lay as though waiting for
the approach of the schooner and the sloop.
The boat in which the boatswain was sounding had run in a
considerable distance ahead of the two vessels, which were
gradually creeping up with the sweeps until they had reached to
within less than half a mile of the pirates--the boat with the
boatswain maybe a quarter of a mile closer. Suddenly there was a
puff of smoke from the pirate sloop, and then another and
another, and the next moment there came the three reports of
muskets up the wind.
"By zounds!" said the lieutenant. "I do believe they're firing
on the boat!" And then he saw the boat turn and begin pulling
toward them.
The boat with the boatswain aboard came rowing rapidly. Again
there were three or four puffs of smoke and three or four
subsequent reports from the distant vessel. Then, in a little
while, the boat was alongside, and the boatswain came scrambling
aboard. "Never mind hoisting the boat," said the lieutenant;
"we'll just take her in tow. Come aboard as quick as you can."
Then, turning to the sailing master, "Well, Brookes, you'll have
to do the best you can to get in over the shoals under half
sail."
"But, sir," said the master, "we'll be sure to run aground."
"Very well, sir," said the lieutenant, "you heard my orders. If
we run aground we run aground, and that's all there is of it."
"I sounded as far as maybe a little over a fathom," said the
mate, "but the villains would let me go no nearer. I think I was
in the channel, though. 'Tis more open inside, as I mind me of
it. There's a kind of a hole there, and if we get in over the
shoals just beyond where I was we'll be all right."
"Very well, then, you take the wheel, Baldwin," said the
lieutenant, "and do the best you can for us."
Lieutenant Maynard stood looking out forward at the pirate
vessel, which they were now steadily nearing under half sail. He
could see that there were signs of bustleaboard and of men
running around upon the deck. Then he walked aft and around the
cabin. The sloop was some distance astern. It appeared to have
run aground, and they were trying to push it off with the sweeps.
The lieutenant looked down into the water over the stern, and saw
that the schooner was already raising the mud in her wane. Then
he went forward along the deck. His men were crouching down
along by the low rail, and there was a tense quietness of
expectation about them. The lieutenant looked them over as he
passed them. "Johnson," he said, "do you take the lead and line
and go forward and sound a bit." Then to the others: "Now, my
men, the moment we run her aboard, you get aboard of her as
quick as you can, do you understand? Don't wait for the sloop or
think about her, but just see that the grappling irons are fast,
and then get aboard. If any man offers to resist you, shoot him
down. Are you ready, Mr. Cringle?"
"Aye, aye, sir," said the gunner.
"Very well, then, be ready, men; we'll be aboard 'em in a minute
or two."
"There's less than a fathom of water here, sir," sang out Johnson
from the bows. As he spoke there was a sudden soft jar and jerk,
then the schooner was still. They were aground. "Push her off to
the lee there! Let go your sheets!" roared the boatswain from
the wheel. "Push her off to the lee." He spun the wheel around
as he spoke. A half a dozen men sprang up, seized the sweeps,
and plunged them into the water. Others ran to help them, but the
sweeps only sank into the mud without moving the schooner. The
sails had fallen off and they were flapping and thumping and
clapping in the wind. Others of the crew had scrambled to their
feet and ran to help those at the sweeps. The lieutenant had
walked quickly aft again. They were very close now to the pirate
sloop, and suddenly some one hailed him from aboard of her. When
he turned he saw that there was a man standing up on the rail of
the pirate sloop, holding by the back stays. "Who are you?" he
called, from the distance, "and whence come you? What do you
seek here? What d'ye mean, coming down on us this way?"
The lieutenant heard somebody say, "That's Blackbeard hisself."
And he looked with great interest at the distant figure.
The pirate stood out boldly against the cloudy sky. Somebody
seemed to speak to him from behind. He turned his head and then
he turned round again. "We're only peaceful merchantmen!" he
called out. "What authority have you got to come down upon us
this way? If you'll come aboard I'll show you my papers and that
we're only peaceful merchantmen."
"The villains!" said the lieutenant to the master, who stood
beside him. "They're peaceful merchantmen, are they! They look
like peaceful merchantmen, with four carronades and a long gun
aboard!" Then he called out across the water, "I'll come aboard
with my schooner as soon as I can push her off here."
"If you undertake to come aboard of me," called the pirate, "I'll
shoot into you. You've got no authority to board me, and I won't
have you do it. If you undertake it 'twill be at your own risk,
for I'll neither ask quarter of you nor give none."
"Very well," said the lieutenant, "if you choose to try that, you
may do as you please; for I'm coming aboard of you as sure as
heaven."
"Push off the bow there!" called the boatswain at the wheel.
"Look alive! Why don't you push off the bow?"
"She's hard aground!" answered the gunner. "We can't budge her
an inch."
"If they was to fire into us now," said the sailing master,
"they'd smash us to pieces."
"They won't fire into us," said the lieutenant. "They won't dare
to." He jumped down from the cabin deckhouse as he spoke, and
went forward to urge the men in pushing off the boat. It was
already beginning to move.
At that moment the sailing master suddenly called out, "Mr.
Maynard! Mr. Maynard! they're going to give us a broadside!"
Almost before the words were out of his mouth, before Lieutenant
Maynard could turn, there came a loud and deafening crash, and
then instantly another, and a third, and almost as instantly a
crackling and rending of broken wood. There were clean yellow
splinters flying everywhere. A man fell violently against the
lieutenant, nearly overturning him, but he caught at the stays
and so saved himself. For one tense moment he stood holding his
breath. Then all about him arose a sudden outcry of groans and
shouts and oaths. The man who had fallen against him was lying
face down upon the deck. His thighs were quivering, and a pool of
blood was spreading and running out from under him. There were
other men down, all about the deck. Some were rising; some were
trying to rise; some only moved.
There was a distant sound of yelling and cheering and shouting.
It was from the pirate sloop. The pirates were rushing about
upon her decks. They had pulled the cannon back, and, through the
grunting sound of the groans about him, the lieutenant could
distinctly hear the thud and punch of the rammers, and he knew
they were going to shoot again.
The low rail afforded almost no shelter against such a broadside,
and there was nothing for it but to order all hands below for the
time being.
"Get below!" roared out the lieutenant. "All hands get below and
lie snug for further orders!" In obedience the men ran
scrambling below into the hold, and in a little while the decks
were nearly clear except for the three dead men and some three or
four wounded. The boatswain, crouching down close to the wheel,
and the lieutenant himself were the only others upon deck.
Everywhere there were smears and sprinkles of blood. "Where's
Brookes?" the lieutenant called out.
"He's hurt in the arm, sir, and he's gone below," said the
boatswain.
Thereupon the lieutenant himself walked over to the forecastle
hatch, and, hailing the gunner, ordered him to get up another
ladder, so that the men could be run up on deck if the pirates
should undertake to come aboard. At that moment the boatswain at
the wheel called out that the villains were going to shoot again,
and the lieutenant, turning, saw the gunneraboard of the pirate
sloop in the act of touching the iron to the touchhole. He
stooped down. There was another loud and deafening crash of
cannon, one, two, three--four--the last two almost together--and
almost instantly the boatswain called out, "'Tis the sloop, sir!
look at the sloop!"
The sloop had got afloat again, and had been coming up to the aid
of the schooner, when the pirates fired their second broadside
now at her. When the lieutenant looked at her she was quivering
with the impact of the shot, and the next moment she began
falling off to the wind, and he could see the wounded men rising
and falling and struggling upon her decks.
At the same moment the boatswain called out that the enemy was
"They were sayingashore that the villain hath forty men aboard,"
said the boatswain.[2]
[2] The pirate captain had really only twenty-five men aboard of
his ship at the time of the battle.
Lieutenant Maynard's force consisted of thirty-five men in the
schooner and twenty-five men in the sloop. He carried neither
cannons nor carronades, and neither of his vessels was very well
fitted for the purpose for which they were designed. The
schooner, which he himself commanded, offered almost no
protection to the crew. The rail was not more than a foot high
in the waist, and the men on the deck were almost entirely
exposed. The rail of the sloop was perhaps a little higher, but
it, too, was hardly better adapted for fighting. Indeed, the
lieutenant depended more upon the moral force of official
authority to overawe the pirates than upon any real force of arms
or men. He never believed, until the very last moment, that the
pirates would show any real fight. It is very possible that they
might not have done so had they not thought that the lieutenant
had actually no legal right supporting him in his attack upon
them in North Carolina waters.
It was about noon when anchor was hoisted, and, with the schooner
leading, both vessels ran slowly in before a light wind that had
begun to blow toward midday. In each vessel a man stood in the
bows, sounding continually with lead and line. As they slowly
opened up the harbor within the inlet, they could see the pirate
sloop lying about three miles away. There was a boat just putting
off from it to the shore.
The lieutenant and his sailing master stood together on the roof
of the cabin deckhouse. The sailing master held a glass to his
eye. "She carries a long gun, sir," he said, "and four
carronades. She'll be hard to beat, sir, I do suppose, armed as
we are with only light arms for close fighting."
The lieutenant laughed. "Why, Brookes," he said, "you seem to
think forever of these men showing fight. You don't know them as
I know them. They have a deal of bluster and make a deal of
noise, but when you seize them and hold them with a strong hand,
there's naught of fight left in them. 'Tis like enough there'll
not be so much as a musket fired to-day. I've had to do with 'em
often enough before to know my gentlemen well by this time." Nor,
as was said, was it until the very last that the lieutenant could
be brought to believe that the pirates had any stomach for a
fight.
The two vessels had reached perhaps within a mile of the pirate
sloop before they found the water too shoal to venture any
farther with the sail. It was then that the boat was lowered as
the lieutenant had planned, and the boatswain went ahead to
sound, the two vessels, with their sails still hoisted but empty
of wind, pulling in after with sweeps.
The pirate had also hoisted sail, but lay as though waiting for
the approach of the schooner and the sloop.
The boat in which the boatswain was sounding had run in a
considerable distance ahead of the two vessels, which were
gradually creeping up with the sweeps until they had reached to
within less than half a mile of the pirates--the boat with the
boatswain maybe a quarter of a mile closer. Suddenly there was a
puff of smoke from the pirate sloop, and then another and
another, and the next moment there came the three reports of
muskets up the wind.
"By zounds!" said the lieutenant. "I do believe they're firing
on the boat!" And then he saw the boat turn and begin pulling
toward them.
The boat with the boatswain aboard came rowing rapidly. Again
there were three or four puffs of smoke and three or four
subsequent reports from the distant vessel. Then, in a little
while, the boat was alongside, and the boatswain came scrambling
aboard. "Never mind hoisting the boat," said the lieutenant;
"we'll just take her in tow. Come aboard as quick as you can."
Then, turning to the sailing master, "Well, Brookes, you'll have
to do the best you can to get in over the shoals under half
sail."
"But, sir," said the master, "we'll be sure to run aground."
"Very well, sir," said the lieutenant, "you heard my orders. If
we run aground we run aground, and that's all there is of it."
"I sounded as far as maybe a little over a fathom," said the
mate, "but the villains would let me go no nearer. I think I was
in the channel, though. 'Tis more open inside, as I mind me of
it. There's a kind of a hole there, and if we get in over the
shoals just beyond where I was we'll be all right."
"Very well, then, you take the wheel, Baldwin," said the
lieutenant, "and do the best you can for us."
Lieutenant Maynard stood looking out forward at the pirate
vessel, which they were now steadily nearing under half sail. He
could see that there were signs of bustleaboard and of men
running around upon the deck. Then he walked aft and around the
cabin. The sloop was some distance astern. It appeared to have
run aground, and they were trying to push it off with the sweeps.
The lieutenant looked down into the water over the stern, and saw
that the schooner was already raising the mud in her wane. Then
he went forward along the deck. His men were crouching down
along by the low rail, and there was a tense quietness of
expectation about them. The lieutenant looked them over as he
passed them. "Johnson," he said, "do you take the lead and line
and go forward and sound a bit." Then to the others: "Now, my
men, the moment we run her aboard, you get aboard of her as
quick as you can, do you understand? Don't wait for the sloop or
think about her, but just see that the grappling irons are fast,
and then get aboard. If any man offers to resist you, shoot him
down. Are you ready, Mr. Cringle?"
"Aye, aye, sir," said the gunner.
"Very well, then, be ready, men; we'll be aboard 'em in a minute
or two."
"There's less than a fathom of water here, sir," sang out Johnson
from the bows. As he spoke there was a sudden soft jar and jerk,
then the schooner was still. They were aground. "Push her off to
the lee there! Let go your sheets!" roared the boatswain from
the wheel. "Push her off to the lee." He spun the wheel around
as he spoke. A half a dozen men sprang up, seized the sweeps,
and plunged them into the water. Others ran to help them, but the
sweeps only sank into the mud without moving the schooner. The
sails had fallen off and they were flapping and thumping and
clapping in the wind. Others of the crew had scrambled to their
feet and ran to help those at the sweeps. The lieutenant had
walked quickly aft again. They were very close now to the pirate
sloop, and suddenly some one hailed him from aboard of her. When
he turned he saw that there was a man standing up on the rail of
the pirate sloop, holding by the back stays. "Who are you?" he
called, from the distance, "and whence come you? What do you
seek here? What d'ye mean, coming down on us this way?"
The lieutenant heard somebody say, "That's Blackbeard hisself."
And he looked with great interest at the distant figure.
The pirate stood out boldly against the cloudy sky. Somebody
seemed to speak to him from behind. He turned his head and then
he turned round again. "We're only peaceful merchantmen!" he
called out. "What authority have you got to come down upon us
this way? If you'll come aboard I'll show you my papers and that
we're only peaceful merchantmen."
"The villains!" said the lieutenant to the master, who stood
beside him. "They're peaceful merchantmen, are they! They look
like peaceful merchantmen, with four carronades and a long gun
aboard!" Then he called out across the water, "I'll come aboard
with my schooner as soon as I can push her off here."
"If you undertake to come aboard of me," called the pirate, "I'll
shoot into you. You've got no authority to board me, and I won't
have you do it. If you undertake it 'twill be at your own risk,
for I'll neither ask quarter of you nor give none."
"Very well," said the lieutenant, "if you choose to try that, you
may do as you please; for I'm coming aboard of you as sure as
heaven."
"Push off the bow there!" called the boatswain at the wheel.
"Look alive! Why don't you push off the bow?"
"She's hard aground!" answered the gunner. "We can't budge her
an inch."
"If they was to fire into us now," said the sailing master,
"they'd smash us to pieces."
"They won't fire into us," said the lieutenant. "They won't dare
to." He jumped down from the cabin deckhouse as he spoke, and
went forward to urge the men in pushing off the boat. It was
already beginning to move.
At that moment the sailing master suddenly called out, "Mr.
Maynard! Mr. Maynard! they're going to give us a broadside!"
Almost before the words were out of his mouth, before Lieutenant
Maynard could turn, there came a loud and deafening crash, and
then instantly another, and a third, and almost as instantly a
crackling and rending of broken wood. There were clean yellow
splinters flying everywhere. A man fell violently against the
lieutenant, nearly overturning him, but he caught at the stays
and so saved himself. For one tense moment he stood holding his
breath. Then all about him arose a sudden outcry of groans and
shouts and oaths. The man who had fallen against him was lying
face down upon the deck. His thighs were quivering, and a pool of
blood was spreading and running out from under him. There were
other men down, all about the deck. Some were rising; some were
trying to rise; some only moved.
There was a distant sound of yelling and cheering and shouting.
It was from the pirate sloop. The pirates were rushing about
upon her decks. They had pulled the cannon back, and, through the
grunting sound of the groans about him, the lieutenant could
distinctly hear the thud and punch of the rammers, and he knew
they were going to shoot again.
The low rail afforded almost no shelter against such a broadside,
and there was nothing for it but to order all hands below for the
time being.
"Get below!" roared out the lieutenant. "All hands get below and
lie snug for further orders!" In obedience the men ran
scrambling below into the hold, and in a little while the decks
were nearly clear except for the three dead men and some three or
four wounded. The boatswain, crouching down close to the wheel,
and the lieutenant himself were the only others upon deck.
Everywhere there were smears and sprinkles of blood. "Where's
Brookes?" the lieutenant called out.
"He's hurt in the arm, sir, and he's gone below," said the
boatswain.
Thereupon the lieutenant himself walked over to the forecastle
hatch, and, hailing the gunner, ordered him to get up another
ladder, so that the men could be run up on deck if the pirates
should undertake to come aboard. At that moment the boatswain at
the wheel called out that the villains were going to shoot again,
and the lieutenant, turning, saw the gunneraboard of the pirate
sloop in the act of touching the iron to the touchhole. He
stooped down. There was another loud and deafening crash of
cannon, one, two, three--four--the last two almost together--and
almost instantly the boatswain called out, "'Tis the sloop, sir!
look at the sloop!"
The sloop had got afloat again, and had been coming up to the aid
of the schooner, when the pirates fired their second broadside
now at her. When the lieutenant looked at her she was quivering
with the impact of the shot, and the next moment she began
falling off to the wind, and he could see the wounded men rising
and falling and struggling upon her decks.
At the same moment the boatswain called out that the enemy was
- ashore [ə´ʃɔ:]
ad.向岸上 (初中英语单词) - aboard [ə´bɔ:d] ad.&prep.在...上 (初中英语单词)
- actually [´æktʃuəli] ad.事实上；实际上 (初中英语单词)
- anchor [´æŋkə] n.锚 v.抛锚 (初中英语单词)
- vessel [´vesəl] n.容器；船；脉管 (初中英语单词)
- lieutenant [lef´tenənt] n.陆军中尉；代理；副手 (初中英语单词)
- stomach [´stʌmək] n.胃；胃口，食欲 (初中英语单词)
- venture [´ventʃə] n.投机 v.冒险；敢于 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- channel [´tʃænəl] n.海峡；航道；途径 (初中英语单词)
- steadily [´stedili] ad.坚定地；不断地 (初中英语单词)
- resist [ri´zist] v.抵抗；对抗；抵制 (初中英语单词)
- sprang [spræŋ] spring 的过去式 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- peaceful [´pi:sfəl] a.和平的；平静的 (初中英语单词)
- undertake [,ʌndə´teik] vt.从事；承担；担保 (初中英语单词)
- beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
- instantly [´instəntli] ad.立即，立刻 (初中英语单词)
- running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
- cannon [´kænən] n.大炮 (初中英语单词)
- saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
- pirate [´paiərət] n.海盗 v.做海盗；掠夺 (高中英语单词)
- continually [kən´tinjuəli] ad.不断地，频繁地 (高中英语单词)
- naught [nɔ:t] n.无；零 (高中英语单词)
- schooner [´sku:nə] n.纵帆船 (高中英语单词)
- alongside [əlɔŋ´said] ad.在旁 prep.横靠 (高中英语单词)
- bustle [´bʌsəl] v.(使)匆忙 n.匆忙 (高中英语单词)
- boldly [´bəuldli] ad.大胆地；醒目地 (高中英语单词)
- violently [´vaiələntli] ad.强暴地；猛烈地 (高中英语单词)
- obedience [ə´bi:djəns] n.服从；顺从 (高中英语单词)
- villain [´vilən] n.坏人；恶棍；反面角色 (英语四级单词)
- midday [´middei] n.中午 (英语四级单词)
- musket [´mʌskit] n.滑膛枪 (英语四级单词)
- trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
- fathom [´fæðəm] n.英寻 vt.推测，揣摩 (英语四级单词)
- whence [wens] ad.从何处；从那里 (英语四级单词)
- outcry [´autkrai] n.喊叫；强烈抗议 (英语四级单词)
- touching [´tʌtʃiŋ] a.动人的 prep.提到 (英语四级单词)
- afloat [ə´fləut] ad.&a.漂浮；在海上 (英语四级单词)
- bluster [´blʌstə] v.(风)狂吹 n.狂风声 (英语六级单词)
- holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)
- gunner [´gʌnə] n.炮手，枪手 (英语六级单词)
- impact [´impækt] n.影响，作用；冲击 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
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