324 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



changed, for Flamborough village is nearly three miles 

 from the nearest railway station, and that a very small 

 one ; and the North and South Landings furnish sights 

 as odd and quaint as when Jones appeared off the grim 

 and dangerous headland which juts far out to sea. From 

 the Castle Hill at Scarborough, twenty miles away, the 

 Head is clearly visible, and watchers on the ramparts of 

 the fortress would distinguish the flashes of the guns and 

 hear the boom of the discharges. To the south of Flam- 

 borough, on the shores of Bridlington Bay, and farther 

 down the cliffs, were crowds of amazed and excited 

 people. 



It was known that Jones was in the neighbourhood. 

 On 2ist September he had chased two sail off Flam- 

 borough Head. One, a brigantine collier, in ballast, of 

 Scarborough, he took, and at once sank her, as a fleet ap- 

 peared to the southward. Jones could not come up with 

 the fleet before night ; but he got so near one of the ships 

 that he drove her ashore between the Head and Spurn. 

 A Sunderland brigantine, from Holland, then fell to him 

 as a prize. Next morning, at daybreak, he saw a fleet 

 approaching from Spurn, and took it to be a convoy 

 which was expected at Leith from London. According 

 to the story told by Jones, who did not err on the side of 

 modesty, the fleet had not the courage to come on, although 

 one of the ships had a pendant hoisted and seemed to be a 

 ship of force. This vessel, however, kept to windward, 

 very near the land, and on the edge of dangerous shoals 

 which Jones could not approach with safety. He signalled 

 for a pilot, and two pilot-boats went off. These, appar- 

 ently containing fishermen, told Jones that the ship with 

 a pendant was an armed merchantman, and that a King's 



