, he raked
the enemy from stem to stern with a broadside. That one sample was
enough. She struck her flag without waiting for a second. Soon after the
envoy was safely landed in France.

Numbers of anecdotes are told of Captain Tucker, who was a man much
given to saying odd and amusing things.

Once he fell in with a British frigate which had been sent in search of
him. He had made himself a thorn in the British lion's side and was
badly wanted. Up came Tucker boldly, with the English flag at his peak.

He was hailed, and replied that he was Captain Gordon, of the English
navy, and that he was out in search of the _Boston_, commanded by the
rebel Tucker.

"If I can sight the ship I'll carry him to New York, dead or alive," he
said.

"Have you ever seen him?"

"Well, I've heard of him; they say he is a tough customer."

While talking, he had been manoeuvering to gain a raking position. Just
as he did so, a sailor in the British tops cried,--

"Look out below! That is Tucker himself."

The Englishman was in a trap. The _Boston_ had him at a great
disadvantage. There was nothing to do but to strike his flag, and this
he did without firing a gun.

When Charleston was taken by the British, the _Boston_ was one of the
vessels cooped up there and lost. Captain Tucker was taken prisoner.
After his exchange, as he had no ship, he took the sloop-of-war
_Thorn_, one of his former prizes, and went out cruising as a privateer.

After a three weeks' cruise, the _Thorn_ met an English ship of
twenty-three guns.

"She means to fight us," said the captain to his men, after watching her
movements. "If we go alongside her like men she will be ours in thirty
minutes; if we can't go as men we have no business there at all. Every
man who is willing to fight go down the starboard gangway; all others
can go down the larboard." Every soul of them took the starboard.

He manoeuvered so that in a few minutes the vessels lay side by side.
The Englishman opened with a broadside that did little damage. The
_Thorn_ replied with a destructive fire, and kept it up so hotly that
within thirty minutes a loud cry came from the English ship:

"Quarters, for God's sake! Our ship is sinking. Our men are dying of
their wounds."

"How can you expect quarters while your flag is flying?" demanded
Captain Tucker.

"Our halliards are shot away."

"Then cut away your ensign staff, or you'll all be dead men."

It was done and the firing cease