Famous Privateersmen and Adventurers of the Sea Part 41

Barney gazed intently at the stranger.

"You're right," said he. "Load the three-pounder with grape-shot."

"And here's a crow-bar as'll top it off nice," put in a sailor.

Captain Robinson laughed.

"Yes, spike her in, too. She'll plunk a hole clear through th'

rascal," he cried. "I'll touch her off myself."

The British gun-boat drew nearer and nearer. Just as she was within striking distance--about ten yards--the three-pounder was touched off with a deaf'ning roar.

"So accurate was the aim," says an old historian, "that the British were completely baffled in their attempt; their foresails and all their weather foreshrouds being cut away."

"Give her a broadside!" called out Captain Robinson, as the brig sheered off in order to support its foremast, which tottered with its own weight; the rigging which supported it, being half cut away. And, as he spoke--the crew let drive a shower of b.a.l.l.s and grape-shot. It was the last volley.

The _Pomona_ kept upon her course, while the white sails of the attacker grew fainter and fainter upon the horizon.

"I saw her name as she ranged in close to us," said Joshua Barney, slapping Captain Robinson on the back. "And it was the _Rosebud_."

"I reckon that _Rosebud_ has no thorns left," chuckled Captain Robinson, and he was still chuckling when the little _Pomona_ safely sailed into the harbor of Bordeaux in France. The voyage had been a success.

Here a store of guns, powder and shot was purchased, and, having s.h.i.+pped a cargo of brandy, and raised the crew to seventy men, the staunch, little vessel set sail for America.

Not three days from the coast of France the cry of "Sail ho!" startled all on board, and, upon the starboard quarter--loomed a British privateer. Upon nearer view she was seen to have sixteen guns and seventy men.

"All hands for a fight!" cried Robinson. "Don't let th' fellow escape."

Now was a hard battle. It lasted for full two hours, and--in the end--the Britisher struck, with twelve killed and a number wounded, while the American loss was but one killed and two wounded. The _Pomona_ kept upon her course, jubilantly.

But the saucy s.h.i.+p was not to have all smooth sailing. She was soon captured--by whom it is not known--and stout "Josh" Barney became a prisoner of war. In December, 1780, with about seventy American officers, he was placed on board the _Yarmouth_--a sixty-four-gun brig--and was s.h.i.+pped to England.

Now listen to the treatment given him according to a contemporaneous historian. Did you ever hear of anything more atrocious?

Peace--indeed--had more horrors than war in the year 1780.

"From the time these Americans stepped aboard the _Yarmouth_ their captors gave it to be understood, by hints and innuendos, that they were being taken to England 'to be hanged as rebels;' and, indeed the treatment they received aboard the _Yarmouth_ on the pa.s.sage over, led them to believe that the British officers intended to cheat the gallows of their prey, by causing the prisoners to die before they reached port.

"On coming aboard the s.h.i.+p-of-the-line, these officers were stowed away in the lower hold, next to the keel, under five decks, and many feet below the water-line. Here, in a twelve-by-twenty-foot room, with upcurving floor, and only three feet high, the seventy-one men were kept for fifty-three days, like so much merchandise--without light or good air--unable to stand upright, with no means to get away.

"Their food was of the poorest quality, and was supplied in such insufficient quant.i.ties, that, whenever one of the prisoners died, the survivors concealed the fact, in order that the dead man's allowance might be added to theirs. The water which they were served to drink was atrocious.

"From the time the _Yarmouth_ left New York till she reached Plymouth, in a most tempestuous winter pa.s.sage, these men were kept in this loathsome dungeon. Eleven died in delirium; their wild ravings and piercing shrieks appalling their comrades, and giving them a foretaste of what they, themselves, might expect. Not even a surgeon was permitted to visit them.

"Arriving at Plymouth, the pale, emaciated men were ordered to come on deck. Not one obeyed, for they were unable to stand upright.

Consequently they were hoisted up, the ceremony being grimly suggestive of the manner in which they had been treated,--like merchandise. And what were they to do, now that they had been placed on deck?

"The light of the sun, which they had scarcely seen for fifty-three days, fell upon their weak, dilated pupils with blinding force; their limbs were unable to uphold them, their frames wasted by disease and want. Seeking for support, they fell in a helpless ma.s.s, one upon the other, waiting and almost hoping for the blow that was to fall upon them next. Captain Silas Talbot was one of these unfortunate prisoners.

"To send them ash.o.r.e in this condition was 'impracticable,' so the British officers said, and we readily discover that this 'impracticable' served the purpose of diverting the indignation of the land's folk, which sure would be aroused, if they knew that such brutality had been practiced under the cross of St. George (the cross upon the British flag).

"Waiting, then, until the captives could, at least, endure the light of day, and could walk without leaning on one another, or clutching at every object for support, the officers had them removed to the old Mill Prison."

This story has been denied, for the reason that the log of the _Yarmouth_ shows that she was forty-four and not fifty-three days at sea, and the captain writes:

"We had the prisoners 'watched' (divided into port and starboard watch) and set them to the pumps. I found it necessary so to employ them, the s.h.i.+p's company, from their weak and sickly state, being unequal to that duty, and, on that account to order them whole allowance of provisions."

It would have been impossible for men to be in the condition which the first historian describes if they had to man the pumps. It would have been impossible for them to have done an hour's work. Therefore, I, myself, believe the second story. Don't you?

But to return to stout "Josh" Barney, now meditating thoughts of escape in old Mill Prison. Bold and resourceful he was always, and he was now determined to face the difficulties of an exit and the chances of detection. "I must and can get away," he said.

The prisoners were accustomed to play leap-frog, and one day the crafty "Josh" pretended that he had sprained his ankle. Constructing two crutches--out of pieces of boards--he limped around the prison-yard and completely deceived all but a few of his most intimate friends.

One day--it was May the eighteenth, 1781--he pa.s.sed a sentry near the inner gate. The fellow's name was Sprokett and he had served in the British army in America, where he had received many kindnesses from the country people. For this reason his heart warmed to the stout, young "Josh," who had often engaged him in conversation.

Hopping to the gate upon his crutches, the youthful American whispered,

"Give me a British uniform and I will get away. Can you do it?"

Sprokett smiled.

"Sure," said he.

"To-day?"

"Dinner."

And this meant one o'clock, when the warders dined.

"All right," whispered "Josh," smiling broadly, and he again hobbled around the yard.

After awhile the sentry motioned for him to come nearer. He did so--and as he approached--a large bundle was stealthily shoved into his arms. He hastened to his cell and there put on the undress uniform of an officer of the British army.

Drawing on his great-coat, he went into the yard and hobbled about upon his two sticks until the time drew near for the mid-day mess.

Then he drew close to the gate.

One o'clock tolled from the iron bell upon the prison rampart, and, as its deep-toned echoes sounded from its tower, several of Barney's friends engaged the half-dozen sentries in conversation. It was the time for action.

The astute "Josh" suddenly dropped his crutches. Then--walking across the enclosure towards the gate,--he winked to the sentry. A companion was at hand. With a spring he leaped upon his shoulders. One boost--and he was on top of the walk. Another spring, and he had dropped to the other side as softly as a cat.

But the second gate and sentry had to be pa.s.sed.

Walking up to this red-coated individual he placed four guineas (about $20.00) into his outstretched palm. The soldier smiled grimly, as the great-coat was tossed aside, and the shrewdest privateer in the American Navy walked towards the opening through the outer wall, which was usually left ajar for the convenience of the prison officials.

Another sentry stood upon duty at this point.

Barney nodded. The sentry had been "squared" (told of the coming escape) and so he turned his back. Thus--with his heart beating like a trip-hammer--"Josh," the nervy one--walked down the cobbled street outside of the "Old Mill." He was free.

Dodging into a lane, he soon met a friend who had been told of his attempt, and who took him to the house of an old clergyman in Plymouth. In the morning, with two fellow-countrymen, who were also in hiding (for they had been captured as pa.s.sengers in a merchant vessel), he secured a fis.h.i.+ng-smack. "Josh" now covered his uniform.

Putting on an old coat with a tarred rope tied around his waist, a pair of torn trousers, and a tarpaulin hat, the disguised Jack-tar ran the little vessel down the River Plym, just as day was dawning. The forts and men-of-war were safely pa.s.sed, and the little shallop tossed upon the gleaming wavelets of the English channel.