A Victorious Union by Oliver Optic (best way to read an ebook .txt) 📖

sort. Though he is a Briton, he is a 'last ditch' man."

"Probably a very large majority of his ship's company are English, or anything but Southern Americans, and he ought to have a proper regard for them."

"I think he must see some chance of redeeming himself and his ship, for I never met a more high-toned and gentlemanly man in all my life, and I don't believe he would sacrifice his people unless with a hope that he considers a reasonable one."

"Come about, Mr. Passford, and bear down on the enemy. Unless he works his steering gear, we have her where she is utterly helpless," said the commander.

"I wonder she does not get a couple of her heaviest guns in position on her quarter-deck, and 173 use them as stern chasers," said Christy, after he had obeyed the captain's order, and the Bellevite was again headed directly for the enemy.

"She appears to require all the space there for the work on her steering appliances," replied Captain Breaker. "In ten minutes more I hope we shall be able to board her; and I think we can then make very short work of this business. About the flanking movement you propose, Mr. Passford, I have never seen anything of the kind done, for most of my fighting experience with blockade-runners has been at long range, though I was in the navy during the Mexican war, where our operations were mostly against fortifications and batteries."

"I do not consider the plan practicable except under peculiar circumstances, like the present," returned Christy. "I am confident that we outnumber the enemy, and the men for the flank movement are available."

"If we were boarding in boats we should naturally attack both on the starboard and port sides. But, Mr. Passford, the executive officer cannot be spared to command the launch and its crew."

"I was not thinking of commanding the flanking party myself, sir."

174 "Neither can the officers of divisions be spared."

"I think I can find a volunteer, not in the sailing department, who would conduct the movement to a successful issue, Captain," added Christy, very confidently.

"Mr. Vapoor? But we cannot spare him from the engine room for a minute," protested the commander, who was well aware that the chief engineer was the lieutenant's especial crony. "That would not do at all."

"I was not thinking of Mr. Vapoor, sir," interposed Christy.

"Who, then?" demanded the commander, lowering his spy-glass to look into the young man's face.

"My associate in the expedition to Mobile Point, who did quite as much as I did, if not more, to make it a success. I mean Mr. Graines, the third assistant engineer. I know that he is a brave man and an officer of excellent judgment," replied the lieutenant, with more enthusiasm than he usually manifested when not in actual combat.

"Very well, Mr. Passford; I give you the order to carry out your plan, and I hope it will work to your satisfaction. But you must not take more 175 than twenty men," said the commander in conclusion of the whole matter.

"Mr. Walbrook," called Christy without losing a moment in the preparations for carrying out his scheme, which neither the captain nor himself could say was an original idea.

The station of the second lieutenant at quarters is on the forecastle, and of the third in the waist, or the middle of the ship. The third lieutenant stepped forward at the call of the executive officer, touched his cap, for "the honors due the quarter-deck cannot be dispensed with," even at exciting times.

Christy gave him the order to cast loose the launch, and have it in readiness to lower into the water at a moment's notice; and Mr. Walbrook proceeded to obey it without delay. The first lieutenant then called Mr. Walters, a midshipman, and directed him to give his compliments to Mr. Vapoor, and ask him if he could spare the third assistant engineer for special duty for a couple of hours, more or less.

The messenger returned with the reply that the chief engineer would be happy to detail Mr. Graines for special duty at once. In five minutes more 176 the assistant engineer appeared upon the quarter-deck in uniform, and touched his cap to the executive officer.

"I am directed to report to you, Mr. Passford, for special duty," added Graines.

"I wish you to assume this duty, Mr. Graines, as a volunteer, if at all," replied Christy. "All the officers on deck are required at their stations, and the commander has authorized what I call a flanking movement, which I purpose to send out under your orders."

"I am very much obliged to you, Mr. Passford, for the honor you do me in selecting me for this duty; and I accept the position with pleasure," answered the engineer, touching his cap again.

"But this is a fighting position, Mr. Graines," added Christy with a smile.

"So much the better, sir; and if my education permitted, I should prefer to be in the thickest of the fight rather than shut up in the engine room," returned the engineer; and this was just the estimate the lieutenant had made of him.

He had been well educated; but he had learned the trade of a machinist, and the want of any naval training rather than his own inclination had driven 177 him into the engine room. But he had been three years at sea as a sailor, and came home as second mate of an Indiaman.

Christy explained to him very fully the plan he had suggested, and Graines readily grasped the idea. He provided himself with a cutlass and revolver, and became very enthusiastic in the discharge of his special duty. With the aid of the first lieutenant he selected the men for the movement, though Christy would not permit the detail to consist of all the best men, for that would not be fair or generous to the officers of divisions. They were a fair average of the quality of the seamen.

The Tallahatchie made an attempt to come about in order to make her guns available; but for some unknown reason it appeared to be a failure, for she presently stopped her screw again. The Bellevite was rapidly approaching her, and her commander evidently realized that the loyal ship intended to board, for he made his preparations to meet the onslaught.

Captain Rombold, in spite of his misfortune in the Dornoch the year before, was inclined to disparage the bravery and skill of the officers of the 178 United States Navy, and to regard the seamen as inferior to those of his own country, though he was too gentlemanly to express himself directly to this effect. Christy had drawn this inference from what he said in the conversations with him when Colonel Passford and he were prisoners on board of the Chateaugay.

Holding this view, as Christy was confident he did, it was plain from his action that he expected, or at least hoped, to win a victory in the hand-to-hand encounter which was impending. Of course it was possible that he might do so, and come into possession of the Bellevite, winch had outsailed him, and disabled his ship for a combat at longer range.

As the Federal steamer drew near to the enemy a volley of musketry was poured into her, which was promptly returned, and several of the crew on both sides dropped to the deck, and were borne to the cockpit, though the relative strength of each remained about as before, as nearly as the officers on the quarter-deck of the Bellevite could judge.

The speed of the attacking ship had been greatly reduced as she neared the Tallahatchie, and the launch was already in the water with its crew of 179 twenty men on board. The crew of the latter were armed with all the boarding weapons in use, and before the hands on deck had fastened to the enemy, the flanking party were working their heavy craft around the stern of the steamer.

The loyal ship came in contact with the side of the Confederate. The grappling irons were cast, and in an incredibly short space of time the two vessels were firmly attached to each other. The supreme moment had come, as all thought, but for some reason not apparent, the command to board was withheld. Captain Breaker who stood on the quarter deck with Christy, appeared to be perplexed. He saw that the seamen of the enemy were drawn up on the starboard side, instead of at the port bulwarks.

180 CHAPTER XVI THE LIEUTENANT'S DARING EXPLOIT

Captain Breaker was perplexed when his ship came alongside the enemy and was made fast to her, for things were not working according to the usual rules made and provided for such occasions, and Captain Rombold was evidently resorting to some unusual tactics. The two steamers were of about the same height above water, so their decks were very nearly on a level.

The men with muskets on both sides were reloading their weapons, and those with navy revolvers were discharging them at the enemy; but the officers of divisions concealed their men behind the bulwarks when the order to board did not come.

Christy saw the perplexity of the commander at his side, and it was evident to both of them that some unusual strategy was to be adopted, and Captain Breaker did not intend to fall into a trap if he could avoid it. They could see nothing that 181 looked suspicious except the position of the enemy's force on the starboard side of the ship.

Before the captain could stop him, the first lieutenant had leaped into the mizzen rigging, and ascended far enough to obtain a view of the quarter deck over the bulwarks, while the commander walked aft far enough to accomplish the same purpose by looking through the aperture made by the shot which had carried away the wheel of the enemy, without exposing himself to the fire of the seamen on board of her.

Christy's action occupied but the fraction of a minute; but several muskets and revolvers were discharged at him in this brief time. Letting go his hold of the rigging, he dropped to the deck before the captain could see what he was doing; and it was supposed that the daring officer had been brought down by the shots fired at him.

"Second division, follow me!" he cried, as he picked up the cutlass he had dropped.

About thirty men rushed to the quarter-deck, hurried on by Mr. Walbrook. Christy leaped upon the rail, with the cutlass in his right hand, and the revolver in his left, and dropped down upon the quarter deck of the Tallahatchie, upon a squad of 182 seamen who were lying low behind a thirty-pounder, whose carriage was close to the bulwark, the piece pointed forward.

The first lieutenant had seen from his position in the mizzen rigging the trap which had been set for the crew of the Bellevite. They were expected to leap to the rail, and cut away the boarding nettings—not always used, but were on this occasion—and then drop down to the deck. The first command would naturally have been to "Repel boarders;" but this was not given, and no fighting was to be done till the boarders reached the ship, when the thirty-pounder, doubtless loaded with grape or shrapnel, was to mow down the invaders of the deck.

Christy's men poured down after him, and before the crew of the gun, who had no doubt been ordered to conceal themselves, could get upon their feet they were cut down by the impetuous tars from the Bellevite. It was the work of but a moment. Christy had taken some pains to have the opinion of Captain Rombold that American seamen were inferior to British circulated, and the men evidently intended to prove that they were the equals of any sailors afloat.

183 "Swing the muzzle of the gun to starboard!" shouted Christy, as he took hold with his own hands to point the piece, which was in position in a moment.

Captain Rombold stood but a short distance from the stump of the mizzen mast with a cutlass in his hand. He rushed forward to rally his crew; and he seemed to be rendered desperate by the failure of the scheme to which he had resorted. At this moment Christy heard Captain Breaker shout the order to board, and the men were springing to the rail, and tearing away the boarding netting.

"Stand by the lanyard!" cried the first lieutenant on the quarter-deck of the enemy, and he had sighted the piece himself in the absence of any regular gun crew. "Fire!"

The cloud of smoke concealed all of the deck forward of the mizzen mast, and Christy could not see what effect had been produced by the charge of grape, or