114 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



tion, and it may be easily believed that men to whom danger and hairbreadth escapes were part 

 of their every-day life would scarcely submit supinely when there was any chance in their favor. 

 A notable instance of this kind occurred in April, 1771. Two ISTantucket whaling sloops, com- 

 manded respectively by Isaiah Chadwick and Obed Bunker, were lying at anchor in the harbor of 

 Abaco, when a ship appeared off the mouth of the harbor with her signals set for assistance. 

 With that readiness to aid distressed shipmates which has ever been a distinguishing trait of 

 American whalemen, one of the captains with a boat's crew made np of men from each sloop 

 hastened to render such help as was in their power. The vessel's side reached, the captain imme- 

 diately boarded her to find what was desired, and much to his surprise had a pistol presented to 

 his head by the officer in command with a peremptory demand that he should pilot the ship into 

 the harbor. He assured the commander that he was a stranger there, but that there was a man 

 in his boat who was acquainted with the port. The man was called and persuaded in the same 

 manner in which the captain had been. The argument used to demonstrate the prudence of his 

 compliance with the request being so entirely unanswerable the man performed the service, anchor- 

 ing the ship where a point of laud lay between her and the sloops. This being done the boat was 

 dismissed and the men returned to their vessels. The Nantucket captains now held a consultation 

 as to what course should be pursued. Those who had been on board the ship noticed that the 

 men seemed to be all armed. They also observed, walking alone in the cabin, a man. The con- 

 clusion arrived at was that the ship was in the hands of pirates and the man in the cabin was the 

 former captain, and measures were immediately inaugurated to secure the vessel and crew. To 

 this end an invitation was extended to the usurping captain, his officers, and passengers to dine on 

 board one of the sloops. The courtesy was accepted, and the pirate captain and his boatswain, 

 with the displaced captain as representative of the passengers, repaired on board the sloop. After 

 a short time he became uneasy, and proposed to return to his own vessel, but he was seized by the 

 whalemen and bound fast and his intentions frustrated. The actual captain now explained the 

 situation, which was that the ship sailed from Bristol (R. I. !) to the coast of Africa, from thence 

 carried a cargo of slaves to the West Indies, and was on her return home with a cargo of sugar 

 when the mutiny occurred, it being the intention of the mutineers to become pirates, a business at 

 that time quite thrifty and promising. Our fishermen now told the boatswain that if he would go 

 on board the ship and bring the former mate, who was in irons, and aid in recapturing the vessel, 

 they would endeavor to have him cleared from the penalties of the law, and they prudently inti- 

 mated to him that there was a man-of-war within two hours' sail from which they could obtain 

 force enough to overpower his associates. As a further act of prudence, they told him they would 

 set a certain signal when they had secured help from the ship of war. 



" The boatswain not returning according to the agreement made, one sloop weighed anchor 

 and stood toward the pirate ship as though t > pass on one side of her. As she approached, the 

 mutineers shifted their guns over to the side which it seemed apparent she would pass and trained 

 them so as to sink her as she sailed by. But those who navigated the sloop were fully alive to 

 these purposes, and as she neared the ship her course was suddenly changed and she swept by on 

 the other side and was out of range of the guns before the buccaneers could recover from their 

 surprise and reshift and retrain their cannon. On the sloop stood upon her course till they were 

 out of sight of the ship, then tacking, the signal agreed with the boatswain was set and she was 

 steered boldly for the corsair. As she hove in sight, the pirates, recognizing the sign, and believ- 

 ing an armed force from the man-of-war was on board the whaling vessel, fled precipitately to the 

 shore, where they were speedily apprehended on their character being known. Tue whalemen 



