es at the cruiser's men and
restraining Sidebotham in his endeavour to help the _Sincerity_. They
even carried the latter away by force, and beat and bruised him in the
most brutal manner.

Captain Dow, realising that the intention of the mob was to get the
_Sincerity_ stranded, determined to cut his cable and exhorted them in
his Majesty's name to disperse, to which they paid not the slightest
attention except to send more showers of stones on to the cruiser's
decks. Seeing from afar what was happening, the mate and six men who
had been sent to board the dogger now returned to the _Sincerity_.
Whereupon the dogger, perceiving her chance, promptly got under way.
As the crowd on shore still continued to pelt his ship with stones and
had already wounded two of his crew, the cruiser's commander fired
amongst them. For a time, at least, this dispersed them, and so Dow
was able to get his vessel clear. He immediately proceeded to follow
the Dutch dogger, and chased her until she had, perforce, to run
herself on to the sands at Ramsey to the north of the island.
Determined not to be beaten, Dow now sent his mate and ten men on
board her, seized her, and marked her in several places with the sign
of a broad arrow to denote her capture.

[Illustration: "Dow sent his mate and ten men on board her."]

But when the mate came to open the hatches several of the islanders
who had been secreted on board, with the assistance of two boat-loads
of armed men who had rowed off from the shore, seized the mate and
his men, and threatened that if they resisted they would kill them.
Being completely overpowered, the eleven naval men were compelled to
yield and be carried ashore, where they were shut up in cellars and
finally carried down to Castletown Castle. Meanwhile, the smugglers
set to work on the dogger's cargo and landed it safely. A few days
later six of the eleven were released, but the other five were
detained until Captain Dow should refund the twenty-five guineas he
had seized from the Irish wherry. In order to give him a fright they
also sent word that the five men should be tried before one of their
Courts of Judicature on the following Thursday, were he to fail to
send the money. As the captain declined to accede to their demands,
the five prisoners were on July 5 brought up and remanded till a month
later. Finding it was impossible to obtain their release the commander
of the _Sincerity_ weighed anchor and ran back to Ramsey