And so it was with my last cruise in the Marguerite, in what proved to be the closing year of the war.
The privateers had committed so much havoc among British merchantmen, that few vessels ventured on the ocean without convoy. Occasionally a privateer would succeed in cutting out one of the convoyed craft, but the chance did not come often enough to make the business encouraging. Sometimes it happened that a ship-of-war was disguised as a merchantman; and when a privateer drew up alongside in full confidence of having taken a rich prize, ports opened in the side of the apparently peaceful craft, guns were run out, and the privateer was quickly brought to grief by twice or three times the weight of her metal; or if she managed to escape, it was only after severe suffering.
On this cruise I sailed away to the eastward, avoiding the big men-of-war and the convoys, in the hope of falling upon an unprotected merchant-ship.
Nothing was seen that appeared judicious for the Marguerite to attack, until we were more than half-way across the Atlantic. One afternoon we made out a sail to the eastward, and I cracked on in her direction in order to get near enough to make her out, and decide whether to close or give her a wide berth. We overhauled her rapidly, and while the sun was yet well in the sky. I was satisfied that, though much larger than the Marguerite, she was not sufficiently strong to cope with us successfully. So I kept on while she was trying to escape us, and in due time I fired a gun as a signal for her to heave-to.
She paid no attention to it; and then I fired another gun, following it by a third, which sent a ball through her mainsail. Upon this she took the hint, and hauled aback to wait for us to come up.
The Marguerite ranged alongside the stranger, and not more than two hundred yards away. Just as we were fairly abreast of her, and I was putting the trumpet to my lips to order her captain to send a boat on board, there was a transformation which would have done credit to a well-managed theater!
Seven holes opened in the side of the strange craft, seven ports dropped, and seven guns were run out. The instant they had been run out they were aimed and fired, so that the whole operation was performed in less time than it takes me to tell it. The shot came crashing into the schooner; and they were so well aimed that I believe every one of them hulled her. We returned fire very promptly, as every man had been standing to his post, and all was in readiness; but, of course, the stranger had the advantage of first fire, and at short range too.