Cruise of the Nonsuch Buccaneer

Harry Collingwood

Description

Though originally intended for young adult audiences, this tale of high-seas adventure is a captivating read for readers of all ages. Young George St. Leger has returned from a sea voyage, only to discover that his brother is in peril. Desperate, he begs the owner of a newly built vessel, the Nonsuch Buccaneer, to undertake a risky rescue mission. Will he pull off his daring plan?

Sujets

• Adventure (Guyana)
• Adventure

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781775458050
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE CRUISE OF THE NONSUCH BUCCANEER
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HARRY COLLINGWOOD
 
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The Cruise of the Nonsuch Buccaneer First published in 1914 ISBN 978-1-77545-805-0 © 2012 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Chapter One - How George Saint Leger Returned from Foreign Parts Chapter Two - How Robert Dyer Brought News of Disaster Chapter Three - How Old Simon Radlett Made a Certain Proposition to George Chapter Four - How the "Nonsuch" Came to Trinidad and was Careened There Chapter Five - How They Captured the "Santa Maria" at Margarita Chapter Six - How They Came to a Desert Island and Buried Their Treasure Chapter Seven - How They Came to San Juan de Ulua Chapter Eight - How George Proceeded to Deal with the Authorities of San Juan Chapter Nine - How George Visited the Holy Inquisition at San Juan Chapter Ten - How the Plate Ships Sought to Escape from San Juan Chapter Eleven - How They Emptied the Strong Rooms of the Twelve Plate Ships Chapter Twelve - How They Lost Two Men, and Encountered a Hurricane Chapter Thirteen - How the Englishmen Took Nombre de Dios Chapter Fourteen - How the Governor of Panama Treated Don Sebastian's Request Chapter Fifteen - How the Englishmen Marched Across the Isthmus to Panama Chapter Sixteen - How They Took the Great Galleon Chapter Seventeen - How They Fought the Galley Chapter Eighteen - How George Found His Brother
Chapter One - How George Saint Leger Returned from Foreign Parts
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The time was mid-afternoon, the date was January the 9th, in the year ofour Lord 1569; and the good town of Plymouth was basking in the hazysunlight and mild temperature of one of those delightful days thatoccasionally visit the metropolis of the West Country, even in mid-winter, under the beneficent influence of the Gulf Stream combined witha soft but enduring breeze from the south-south-east charged with warmair from the Saharan desert and the Mediterranean.
So mild and genial was the weather that certain lads, imbued with thatspirit of lawlessness and adventure which seems inherent in the natureof the young Briton, had conspired together to defy the authority oftheir schoolmaster by playing truant from afternoon school and going tobathe in Firestone Bay. And it was while these lads were dressing,after revelling in their stolen enjoyment, that their attention wasattracted by the appearance of a tall ship gliding up the Sound beforethe soft breathing of the languid breeze.
That she was a foreign-going ship was evident at a glance, first fromher size, and, secondly, from the whiteness of her canvas, bleached bylong exposure to a southern sun; and as she drew nearer, the display offlags and pennons which she made, and the sounds of trumpet, fife,hautboy, and drum which floated down the wind from her seemed toindicate that her captain regarded his safe arrival in English waters assomething in the nature of a triumph.
By the time that she had arrived abreast of Picklecombe Point thebathers had completely resumed their clothing and, having climbed to thehighest point within easy reach, now stood interestedly watching theslow approach of the ship, her progress under the impulse of the gentlebreeze being greatly retarded by the ebb tide. Speculation was rifeamong the little group of boys upon the question of the ship's identity,some maintaining that she must necessarily be a Plymouther, otherwisewhat was she doing there, while others, for no very clearly dennedreason, expressed the contrary opinion.
At length one of the party who had been intently regarding the craft forseveral minutes, suddenly flung his cap into the air, caught it as itfell, and exclaimed excitedly as he replaced it on his head:
"I know her, I du; 'tis my Uncle Marshall's Bonaventure , whoam fromthe Mediterranean and Spain; I'm off to tell my uncle. 'Twas onlyyesterday that I heard him say he'd give a noble to know that the Bonaventure had escaped the Spaniards; and a noble will pay me wellfor the flogging that I shall get from old Sir John, if Uncle Richardtells him that I played truant to go bathing. But I don't believe hewill; he'll be so mighty pleased to hear about the Bonaventure thathe'll forget to ask how I come to be to Firestone Bay instead of toschule."
And the exultant lad dashed away toward Stonehouse, accompanied by hiscompanions, each of whom was instantly ready to help with suggestions asto the spending of the prospective noble.
The historian of the period has omitted to record whether that worthy,Mr Richard Marshall, one of the most thriving merchants of Plymouth,was as good as his word in the matter of the promised noble; butprobably he was, for shortly after the arrival of his nephew with themomentous news, the good man emerged from his house, smiling and rubbinghis hands with satisfaction, and made the best of his way to the wharfin Stonehouse Pool, alongside which he knew that the Bonaventure wouldmoor, and was there speedily joined by quite a little crowd of otherpeople who were all more or less intimately interested in the ship andher crew, and who had been brought to the spot by the rapid spread ofthe news that the Bonaventure was approaching.
To the impatient watchers it seemed an age before the ship hove in sightat the mouth of the Pool. At length, however, as the sun dipped behindthe wooded slopes across the water toward Millbrook, a ship's spritsailand sprit topsail, with a long pennon streaming from the head of themast which supported the latter, crept slowly into view beyond Devil'sPoint, to the accompaniment of a general shout of "There a be!" from thewaiting crowd, and a minute later the entire ship stood revealed,heading up the Pool under all sail, to the impulse of the dying breezewhich was by this time so faint that the white canvas of the approachingcraft scarcely strained at all upon its sheets and yards.
For the period, the Bonaventure was a ship of considerable size, herregistered measurement being one hundred and twenty-seven tons. She waspractically new, the voyage which she was now completing being only hersecond. Like other ships of her size and time, she was very beamy, withrounded sides that tumbled home to a degree that in these days would beregarded as preposterous. She carried the usual fore and after castles,the latter surmounting the after extremity of her lofty poop. She wasrigged with three masts in addition to the short spar which reareditself from the outer extremity of her bowsprit, and upon which thesprit topsail was set, the fore and main masts spreading courses,topsails, and—what was then quite an innovation—topgallant sails,while the mizen spread a lateen-shaped sail stretched along a slopingyard suspended just beneath the top, in the position occupied in thesedays by the cross-jack. She was armed with twenty-two cannon of varioussizes and descriptions, and she mustered a crew of fifty-six men andboys, all told. Her hull was painted a rich orange-brown colour down toa little above the water-line, beneath which ran a narrow black striperight round her hull, dividing the brown colour of her topsides from herwhite-painted bottom which, by the way, was now almost hidden by a rankgrowth of green weed. She carried one large poop lantern, and displayedfrom her flagstaff the red cross of Saint George, while from her foreand main topgallant-mastheads, from the peak of her mizen, and from thehead of her sprit-topmast lazily waved other flags and pennons. As sheswung into view round Devil's Point the blare of trumpets and the rollof drums reached the ears of the crowd which awaited her arrival; butthese sounds presently ceased as her crew proceeded to brail up and furlsail after sail; and some ten minutes later, scarcely stemming theoutgoing tide, she drifted slowly in toward her berth alongside thewharf. Ropes were thrown, great hawsers were hauled ashore and madefast to sturdy bollards, fenders were dropped overside, and the Bonaventure was very smartly secured abreast the warehouse which wasdestined to receive her cargo.
Then, when the ship had been securely moored, fore and aft, her gangwaywas thrown open, a gang-plank was run out from the deck to the wharf,and Mr Richard Marshall, her owner, stepped on board and advanced withoutstretched hand toward a short, stout, grey-haired man who hadhitherto occupied a conspicuous position on the poop, but who nowdescended the poop ladder with some difficulty and hobbled towards thegangway.
The contrast between the two men was great in every way, except perhapsin the matter of age, for both were on the shady side of fifty; butwhile one of them, Mr Richard Marshall, merchant and shipowner, to wit,was still hale and hearty, carrying himself as straight and upright asthough he were still in the prime of early manhood, the other, who wasnone other than John Burroughs, the captain of the Bonaventure , movedstiffly and limped painfully as a result of many wounds received duringhis forty years of seafaring life, coupled with a rapidly increasingtendency to suffer from severe attacks of rheumatism. And they differedin dress as greatly as in their personal appearance; for while themerchant was soberly if not somewhat sombrely garbed in dark brownbroadcloth, with a soft, broad-brimmed felt hat to match, the captain(in rank defiance of the sumptuary laws then existing) sported trunkhosen of pale pink satin, a richly embroidered and padded satin doubletof the same hue, confined at the waist by a be