Appointed captain in the 50th Regiment—Embark for Jamaica—A terrible storm and a drunken captain—Return to port—Sail again with another captain—Ship chased by a pirate—Jamaica once more

IN April, 1821, I again attended the Commander-in-Chief’s Military Secretary’s levÉe. Sir Henry Torrens was still in office, and when I told him of my anxiety to be employed he asked me where I would like to serve. I said, “Jamaica above all other parts of the world”; he then directed me to write to him to that effect. I did so next day, and three weeks afterwards had the pleasure of seeing myself appointed captain of a company in the 50th Regiment, and I soon received an official letter advising me to join the depot of the regiment in the Isle of Wight, which I did in the month of July following. I remained doing duty there for nearly twelve months, and it was during that period that I had a severe attack of inflammation of the eyes, which induced me to appeal to Lord Palmerston for the second, and last time, for my pension. We embarked for Jamaica in the hired ship Echo, but were detained by contrary winds in Cowes harbour for a fortnight. The captain had his wife on board during our detention, and we were so much pleased with his manner and polite attentions that we invited him to become our guest during the voyage (for in those days officers so embarked provided their own messing), and all went on well until a fine fair wind enabled us to sail: the captain then landed his wife, and from that hour and for ten days after he was never sober.

During this time the mate took charge, but in a few days we were met by a fearful gale right against us, and every hour and day it became worse and worse. Our captain still remained beastly drunk and most troublesome, every now and then throwing handfuls of silver, and some gold, amongst the soldiers on deck, allowing them to scramble for it, and when spoken to by any of us, swearing and damning and calling out that we were all going to Davy Jones’s locker together.

The gale at last increased to a hurricane; the captain then became so troublesome that the senior officers present (Captain Powell and I) went officially to our commanding officer, Colonel P——, and advised him to confine the captain to his cabin, and to order the mate to take the ship back to port, as the sailors were already done up and grumbling. Colonel P—— was a good and kind man, but without energy or resolution, and he declined to interfere or to take any such responsibility on himself. We urged and urged our request, as the lives of all were in danger, but still finding Colonel P—— would not do anything, we insisted on having his leave to act, so that we might ourselves carry out his orders. He then said, “Well, boys, just do as you like.” We then at once forced the captain off the deck into his cabin, and told him he must consider himself under arrest. He got very violent, and swore he would not be kept a prisoner by any one. Then we got him down again and placed two sentries in his cabin, with orders not to suffer him to go on deck. We next went to the mate and told him that his captain was a prisoner for habitual drunkenness and neglect of duty, and that he (the mate) should at once take the ship into port. This the honest sailor refused to do; he could not, he said, act without his captain’s orders, that he would be dismissed by the owners and ruined if he did so. We reported accordingly to Colonel P——, who at once declined further responsibility. The gale continued without any visible change; many of our sails were blown away, the weather became very thick and dirty, our sailors were done up and discontented to a man, yet the mate would do nothing. He confessed the crew were overworked, but that he could not help it, and dared not go back. In this state we got through another day and night, and next morning found ourselves at daylight all but on shore on the island of Alderney, with only enough sea room to clear the rocks ahead of us, on which we must have been wrecked, had not the morning’s dawn happily come in time to save us.

When clear in the open sea, we again urged the mate to bear away for the nearest harbour, but he still refused, urging his former reasons. We then begged him to parade the whole crew on the quarter-deck, that we might know their opinions. This he did, and the gallant fellows to a man declared they could not possibly work any longer, and urged us, for the safety of all, to put up in some harbour. For days we had made no observations, but being satisfied it was the island of Alderney we saw that morning the mate had no doubt of our whereabouts. We now went to Colonel P—— (who seldom left his cabin, for he had his wife and a young lady, Miss C——, with him), and we urged or rather insisted upon his signing a written order which we had prepared, directing the mate at once to take the ship back to the nearest port, telling Colonel P—— at the same time the danger we had escaped, and the result of our parade of the crew. As before, he resisted for some time all responsibility, but at last we got him to sign the order. Then followed difficulties with the mate, and it was not until we threatened to put a sentry over him that he consented, and gave the order to bear away and steer for Torbay. At four on the same evening land was reported ahead, and by sunset we were close in, and hoisted a signal of distress, which soon brought us a pilot boat, which boarded us and at once took us safely to anchor, thankful for our escape from destruction.

I now recommended Colonel P—— to report all that had occurred to us to the different authorities in London, and to state the necessity which obliged him to take all the responsibility and to act as he did. Poor man! he became more than ever confused, and said that he would be ruined and brought to a court-martial. I tried all I could to convince him, and he asked me to write the reports in his name, and said that he would sign them if I did so. I dispatched them at once, for fear of his altering his mind, and he soon received an answer approving of all he had done, and thanking him for his most able and judicious conduct.

On the same day the owners came down from London, bringing another captain with them. It was then found that the ship had suffered much, and carpenters and shipwrights were sent from the dockyard at Plymouth to examine and repair her. The owners were so pleased with the assistance which the soldiers gave the sailors during the gale, that they made the former a present of two tons of potatoes. It took more than a fortnight before the Echo was again reported fit for sea. During that time we amused ourselves landing and making excursions daily to different parts of the country, and in this interval Colonel P—— had a second letter, saying that our application for additional allowances for our losses during the storm was under favourable consideration; this enabled us to replenish our sea-stock, and to make due provision for our future comfort. We sailed again with a fair breeze, and in due course reached Madeira, where we remained for some days, landing frequently and enjoying ourselves much in that gay town.

From Madeira we soon got into the trade winds, and had delightful sailing, without any extraordinary occurrence, till we got off the island of St. Christopher, when one morning the captain came and roused us all from our beds, saying we were being chased by a pirate. This was startling news, for we had heard that these seas were full of pirates, and that they seldom showed mercy to any one. Our ladies and soldiers’ wives began crying and moaning at once, for they expected nothing less than our utter destruction. Most of us hurried on deck in our night-dresses, and there saw a clipper brig bearing down upon us under all sail, about fifteen miles distant. Our captain still trusted that she might be a man-of-war, but when she fired a gun there was no doubt of her being a pirate. We returned in great excitement to our cabins and dressed with all dispatch. I then, as the next senior officer, went to Colonel P—— to report our situation, and to request his orders as to what we ought to do, and begged him to come up at once. His wife got alarmed, and he merely said he could do nothing; but at last told me, “Just do as you like.” I returned on deck and consulted with the captain, who observed that it was useless to attempt to run away, as the stranger was gaining fast upon us, and had fired another gun to bring us to. Although we had about ten officers on board and about two hundred soldiers, all these were recruits, and we had not one stand of arms belonging to the troops nor to the ship. However, we decided to make some appearance, and ordered the soldiers to dress in their red coats and caps, to remain ready below, but not to move, till ordered on deck. Meantime the captain furled every sail, except his three top-sails, and with these and his colours flying he continued running easily before the wind. We could clearly see with our glasses the well-known pirates’ flag, blue with a white death’s-head, flying from the fore top-mast head and the decks crowded with men. Captain Fraser determined to continue our course till the pirate was all but on board of us, then to bring our ship sharp round to the wind, and our men to run up and show themselves in line under our bulwarks, with the officers flourishing their swords, to show we were all ready for action, expecting by this sudden manoeuvre that the pirate would be right aboard or alongside of us before he had time to take in his crowd of sails, and, if so, that we might then have a chance of grappling and boarding him, when our numbers might give us some advantage; but we were no sooner round and brought to the wind than our adversary, as if by magic, had all his extra sails down, and was round to the wind as soon as we were, showing a splendid broadside of nine guns and a crew of no less than eighty men.

We were now within a few hundred yards of each other, and expected every minute a shot amongst us. Nothing was done for about ten minutes; the pirate then lowered his boat, and sent her fully manned to board us. Our captain said she must come to our leeside, and that our only chance was to secure them. This we agreed to do, and at once to dress one of their men in one of our sailor’s clothes and to hang him up at our peak, so as to make the pirate believe that his men had taken possession of our ship. This was a desperate resolution, but as we expected no quarter from them we had no choice but to make the most of our perilous situation. Just as the boat came under our stern a signal of recall was made from the pirate, and the boat at once returned to the brig. We continued to look with additional anxiety, expecting every moment to see the boat come back, but for another ten minutes nothing was done, and our captain then ordered our ship to bear away and continue our course, so as to see what the pirate would do, and whether he would fire and bring us up again. But he thought better of it and allowed us to continue our course in peace, seeing no doubt that we were only troops and that he could not expect much booty from us. During the whole of this time Colonel P—— never left his cabin. His wife was crying and sobbing the whole time, and all his endeavours were to comfort her. Of the officers then present, only General Gallaway and myself are now living, and on that occasion Gallaway proved himself to be a promising young soldier, for he volunteered to lead the first boarders, should we succeed in grappling with the pirate.

We reached Port Royal in Jamaica a week afterwards, and at once reported our adventures to the admiral, Sir Edward Owen, and from the description our captain gave of the pirate our naval officers knew him well, and had often given him chase in vain. Two or three men-of-war were now sent to look for him, but returned in a few days without seeing him. Dozens of pirates, of various classes, were at this time cruising in these seas, and had made many captures, plundering and burning their prizes, and barbarously ill-treating and murdering their victims. We had a large naval force on the Jamaica station at this time, and they captured many of these lawless pirates, who were at once tried, and in every instance found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. I attended some of the trials and saw many of these daring fellows, who were plucky to the last, for they did not deny but actually gloried in their calling. They were men of all nations, but principally Italians and Spaniards. We landed on the following day at Kingston, and our different detachments of officers and men joined their respective regiments, viz., the 33rd, 50th, and 92nd.

The English mail which left England after us arrived at Port Royal some time before we did, and Colonel P—— found a letter waiting for him from the Secretary of War authorizing him to draw £80 as compensation for lost sea-stock during the gale already recorded. He therefore called a meeting of the officers who arrived in the Echo, and on our assembling read the letter, and proposed dividing the money amongst us, claiming three shares for himself—that is, for himself, his wife, and Miss C——. I said, “No, colonel; you only subscribed one share of our additional expenses, and you may remember that when we agreed to purchase extra provisions at Torbay we, the officers, declined to allow Mrs. P—— or Miss C—— to contribute one shilling to that expense.” On this he got very angry and said, “Well, Captain Anderson, I’ll bring you to a court-martial for attempting to obtain money under false pretences.” I answered, “Very well, sir; I believe you signed these letters.” He was thus settled, and most completely put about, and then said, “By G——! I think you are right”; so ended our dispute, and the money was divided share and share alike to each of us.