are the schooner for action, and in
twenty minutes everything was ready--the magazine opened, powder and
shot passed up on deck, the guns cast loose and loaded, the pikes cut
adrift from the main-boom, arms served out to the crew, and every man at
his appointed station. By this time the lower yards of the brig had
risen level with the horizon, whilst the upper half of the frigate's
topsails could be seen from the deck. The firing, meanwhile, had gone
on pretty deliberately, and it was now possible to see from our deck,
with the aid of a telescope, that the sails of both pursuer and pursued
were suffering pretty extensively from the effects of the cannonade. It
was evident that each was firing high, the frigate trying to wing the
brig and so arrest her flight, whilst the brig was equally anxious to
maim her big antagonist's spars, by which means only could she hope to
effect her escape. So far the brig appeared to be getting rather the
best of it, for though her canvas showed the daylight through it in
several places, her spars and running gear still remained uninjured, and
every sail was drawing to the utmost advantage, whilst the frigate had
lost her fore royal-mast, which, with its sail, was hanging down over
the topgallant-sail and topsail, and the main-topmast studding-sail tack
was cut and the sail streaming out loose and flapping furiously in the
wind; these little casualties being sufficient to enable the brig to
hold her own, for the time being at least, in the unequal race. To
encourage the plucky little vessel, by showing her that help was at
hand, we now fired a gun and hoisted our colours, allowing the ensign to
stream as far out to leeward as possible, in the act of running it up to
the gaff-end, in order that those on board her might catch a glimpse of
it before it was hidden by our canvas. Approaching each other as we
were, nearly end on, we rose each other very rapidly; and at length we
in the _Dolphin_ had the satisfaction of seeing the frigate, the vessel
most distant from us, fairly hull-up. She had by this time cleared away
the wreck of her fore royal-mast, had spliced her studding-sail tack,
and was in the very act of setting the sail again when the brig's two
stern-chasers spoke out simultaneously, and next moment down toppled the
frigate's fore and main-topgallant-masts with all attached, the
topgallant studding-sail booms snapping off like carrots at the same
time, and there the noble craft