NIGHTS IN THE GALLEY. 601 



" Very well, lads; here goes and I wish that Bill Rushworth was 

 here to hear it," said Bob; " but, perhaps, he's a listening to us, for 

 all we know/, 



Will Gibbon, who was a devout believer in ghosts, could not help 

 giving a look behind him. Alter which Bob went on. 



"Well! where was I, lads? ah! I know, young Watts was just 

 wounded. Well; so when the Frenchman was taken, my father 

 helped Watts down on deck, and took him into the cockpit, where 

 his wound was dressed ; it wasn't very bad it was chiefly the loss of 

 blood that made him feel so bad. When he come on deck again, with 

 his arm in a sling, the skipper says, ' Well, my boy, I see you are de- 

 termined to be an admiral, and you won't be long about it, if you go on 

 this way.' Directly they had repaired damages, they made for Ports- 

 mouth, and when they arrived, the captain took young Watts on 

 shore, and got him a good stock of clothes. After they had had a 

 regular refit, they got under weigh, to join the squadron cruising off 

 the coast of Portugal. Away they went, and when they joined the 

 admiral, they found they were just in time ; a privateer schooner was 

 said to be in the bay of Vigo, and they were ordered to go and fetch 

 her out; it was a fair wind, and in twenty-four hours they got off the 

 harbour, and saw, laying moored under the land, a small schooner, 

 with boarding nettings triced up, springs on her cables, and every 

 thing ready for defending herself. There it was, ' Boatswain's mate, 

 pass the word for volunteers ;' aft jumped almost the whole of the 

 ship's company. Three boats' crews were picked out for the two cut- 

 ters and pinnace. ' Clear away the pinnace up with the yard and 

 stay tackles turn the hands up out pinnace man the stay tackle 

 well haul taut hoist away.' Out she went. * Ease in the stay 

 haul out the yard belay belay lower lower away roundly off 

 all let go pipe the pinnace men away.' The second-luff went in 

 the pinnace, with another midshipman ; a master's mate took com- 

 mand of the first, and Watts, young as he was, had command of the 

 second cutter, and my father went as coxswain of her. ' Now, Mr. 

 Godfrey,' says the skipper, ' board her as much on the bow as you can ; 

 you'll be able to cut her boarding nettings better there; and mind, if you 

 think she's too strong for you, and has got more men than we fancy, re- 

 turn without attacking her, and I'll give you more men.' t Ay, ay, 

 Sir.' ' We must try her first before we. know whether she is too strong 

 or not,' says young Watts, only loud enough for the boat's crew to 

 hear him. Away they dashed gallantly into the bay. ' Give way, 

 my lads, cheerly ; we'll have the schooner in ten minutes/ says the 

 second luff. Just as they got within gun-shot of her, she let fly 

 a volley of great-guns and small-arms at the same time. A cry from 

 the pinnace, of ' help, help/ made the two cutters back their oars. 

 A shot had gone right through her bottom ; she was filling fast ; the 

 second luff, midshipman, and four men were killed, while the two 

 cutters had lost three men each. They stopped to take the men out 

 of the pinnace. All this time the schooner was firing away at them 

 with all her might, and the men dropping down like pigeons. At 

 last a shot came and raked the first cutter, fore and aft, tearing the 

 keelson out of her, and killing the master's mate and six men. By 



