Chapter 74 - Page 2

Three times around spun she;
Three times around spun our gallant ship,
And she went to the bottom of the sea--
The sea, the sea, the sea,
And she went to the bottom of the sea!"

These songs would be varied by sundry _yarns_ and _twisters_ of
the top-men. And it was at these times that I always endeavoured
to draw out the oldest Tritons into narratives of the war-service
they had seen. There were but few of them, it is true, who had been
in action; but that only made their narratives the more valuable.

There was an old negro, who went by the name of Tawney, a sheet-
anchor-man, whom we often invited into our top of tranquil
nights, to hear him discourse. He was a staid and sober seaman,
very intelligent, with a fine, frank bearing, one of the best men
in the ship, and held in high estimation by every one.

It seems that, during the last war between England and America,
he had, with several others, been "impressed" upon the high seas,
out of a New England merchantman. The ship that impressed him was
an English frigate, the Macedonian, afterward taken by the
Neversink, the ship in which we were sailing.

It was the holy Sabbath, according to Tawney, and, as the Briton
bore down on the American--her men at their quarters--Tawney and
his countrymen, who happened to be stationed at the quarter-deck
battery, respectfully accosted the captain--an old man by the
name of Cardan--as he passed them, in his rapid promenade, his
spy-glass under his arm. Again they assured him that they were
not Englishmen, and that it was a most bitter thing to lift their
hands against the flag of that country which harboured the
mothers that bore them. They conjured him to release them from
their guns, and allow them to remain neutral during the conflict.
But when a ship of any nation is running into action, it is no
time for argument, small time for justice, and not much time for
humanity. Snatching a pistol from the belt of a boarder standing
by, the Captain levelled it at the heads of the three sailors,
and commanded them instantly to their quarters, under penalty of
being shot on the spot. So, side by side with his country's foes,
Tawney and his companions toiled at the guns, and fought out the
fight to the last; with the exception of one of them, who was
killed at his post by one of his own country's balls.

At length, having lost her fore and main-top-masts, and her
mizzen-mast having been shot away to the deck, and her fore-yard
lying in two pieces on her shattered forecastle, and in a hundred
places having been _hulled_ with round shot, the English frigate
was reduced to the last extremity. Captain Cardan ordered his
signal quarter-master to strike the flag.