FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83  
84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   >>   >|  
om further service; and we have also resolved to pay the surgeons' bills for such of the mariners as may receive slighter wounds." But it was stipulated that no allowance was to be paid unless certificates were produced from the commanders of these cruisers. And before we go any further with the progress of these cutters, let us afford actual instances of the kind of treatment which had led the Board to make this allowance to its men. Three years before the above resolution, that is to say on April 24, 1777, Captain Mitchell was cruising in command of the Revenue cutter _Swallow_ in the North Sea. Off Robin Hood's Bay he fell in with a smuggling cutter commanded by a notorious contraband skipper who was known as "Smoker," or "Smoaker." Mitchell was evidently in sufficient awe of him to give him a wide berth, for the cruiser's commander in his official report actually recorded that "Smoker" "waved us to keep off"! However, a few days later, the _Swallow_, when off the Spurn, fell in with another famous smuggler. This was the schooner _Kent_, of about two hundred tons, skippered by a man known as "Stoney." Again did this gallant Revenue captain send in his report to the effect that "as their guns were in readiness, and at the same time waving us to go to the Northward, we were, by reason of their superior force, obliged to sheer off, but did our best endeavours to spoil his Market. There [_sic_] being a large fleet of colliers with him." But that was not to be their last meeting, for on May 2, when off Whitby, the _Swallow_ again fell in with the _Kent_, but (wrote Mitchell) the smuggler "would not let us come near him." The following day the two ships again saw each other, and also on May 13, when off Runswick Bay. On the latter occasion the _Kent_ "fired a gun for us, as we imagined, to keep farther from him." The same afternoon the _Swallow_ chased a large lugsail boat, with fourteen hands in her, and supposed to belong to the _Kent_. But the _Swallow_ was about as timid as her name, for, according to her commander, she was "obliged to stand out to sea, finding that by the force they had in their boat, and a number of people on shore, we had no chance of attacking them with our boat, as they let us know they were armed, by giving us a volley of small arms." None the less the _Swallow_ had also fourteen men as her complement, so one would have thought that this chicken-hearted commander would at least have made an e
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83  
84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Swallow
 

Mitchell

 

commander

 
allowance
 

report

 

fourteen

 

cutter

 

Revenue

 
obliged
 
Smoker

smuggler

 

Whitby

 

endeavours

 

superior

 

Northward

 

reason

 

Market

 

colliers

 

waving

 
meeting

imagined
 

attacking

 
giving
 

chance

 

finding

 

number

 

people

 
volley
 
chicken
 

thought


hearted
 

complement

 

occasion

 

readiness

 

Runswick

 

farther

 

belong

 

supposed

 

afternoon

 

chased


lugsail

 

famous

 

instances

 
treatment
 

resolution

 

Captain

 

cruising

 

command

 

actual

 

afford