Adventure Magazine Cover — page 36: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

600 ship must be held, with both anchors down, until further orders. I decided that we would go out that night. Knowing me as well as he did, Lorensen laughed tncredu- lously, thinking I was joking, for the chan- nel through the harbor was shaped like the letter S and commanded by a fort which could, as he said, blow us out of the water without half trying. “Just the same,’ I said, “‘ we are going to sea or to hell to-night.”’ “All right, Captain, but it will be to hell if I am any judge,” was the quiet reply of the game Lorensen, than whom a braver or better seaman never walked a deck. During the evening he greased all of the blocks so we could start on our problemati- cal journey without any noise. The moon went down at midnight, and before it was out of sight we had one anchor up, with a muffled capstan. We were getting up the other when the harbor policeman camealong. A few Bank of England notes blinded him and we got under way, with two of the ship’s boats towing us and the tide helping us along. Evidently the fort had orders to look out for us, but we caught them nap- ping, apparently, for we were almost past it when we were hailed and ordered to stop. The next minute, without giving us a decent chance to heave to, even had we been so inclined, they whanged away at us. The second shot went clear through us, just below the waterway, and Lorensen, who was with me at the wheel, exclaimed erimly, ‘Here we go, Captain!” But he was mistaken, for in the darkness their gunnery was not up to the standard of British marksmanship, for which I have a wholesome respect. They kept at it hard enough, but all of their shots went wild, except for one that punched a hole in the port bulwarks forward, though from the way the shells whistled I have no doubt our canvas would have been punctured many times had it been up. We were soon under cover of the Myrtle Bank Hotel and after that two ships pro- tected us until we were far enough away so that only a chance shot could reach us. At daylight I had the carpenter at work fixing up the little damage the fort had done us, and it was well that we were quick about it, for during the afternoon we met the old warship Bellerophon. We were preparing to salute her when she stopped and hove us to with a blank shot. I don’t think I have ever Adventure been more surprised, for there was no wire- less telegraph in those days, and I could not conceive how she had got word that we were suspected of filibustering. While I was racking my brain for some solution of the problem, Lorensen ran for- ward, leaned out over the side and came back and reported that there was a blue shirt under the bobstay. That explained it, for in those days it was an unwritten law in the British navy that when a sailor on a merchant ship had any pronounced com- plaint to make, regarding either his own treatment or general conditions on the vessel, he would hang a shirt in the chains, under the bowsprit, where it would not be seen by the officers unless they were looking for it, as a signal to any warship they met that there was something wrong on board. Whenever and wherever a warship saw a shirt fluttering under the bobstay the vessel was held up and carefully investigated. I suspected at once that it was Jimmy Donovan who had hung out the shirt and I had him bucked and gagged and stowed away in the hold. Then I made an entry on the log which showed that he had been left in the hospital at Kingston with per- nicious fever. By that time the Lieutenant from the Bellerophon was alongside. When he came aboard I assumed a look of injured inno- cence and profound surprise. He ordered me to muster the crew aft and called for my papers. To my great satisfaction he merely glanced at the certificate of registry, which was forged, and centered his atten- tion on the crew-list. —The men answered to their names as he called them off. When he came to Donovan I explained that he had been taken sick at Kingston and left there, and produced the log, which satisfied him. { ‘Who among you has any complaint to make?” he asked of the men. There was no response, and he repeated the question. ‘Don’t be afraid,’’ he encouraged them. “The Bellerophon will protect you. If you have any complaint to make, step out and make it. We will see that you get fair play and, if necessary, take you on board.” No one moved and, after waiting some time, the Lieutenant turned to me with the remark that everything seemed to be all right. I told him I had heard of no complaints from any of the men and asked why they had “stood us up.” “Why, there is a shirt out forward,” he GOMIGDOOKSEEO