What it
meant to fight off these greedy cutthroats is told in a newspaper
account of the engagement of Captain Richard Wheatland, who was
homeward bound to Salem in the ship Perseverance in 1799. He was
in the Old Straits of Bahama when a fast schooner came up astern,
showing Spanish colors and carrying a tremendous press of canvas.
Unable to run away from her, Captain Wheatland reported to his
owners:
"We took in steering sails, wore ship, hauled up our courses,
piped all hands to quarters and prepared for action. The schooner
immediately took in sail, hoisted an English Union flag and
passed under our lee at a considerable distance. We wore ship,
she did the same, and we passed each other within half a musket.
A fellow hailed us in broken English and ordered the boat hoisted
out and the captain to come aboard, which he refused. He again
ordered our boat out and enforced his orders with a menace that
in case of refusal he would sink us, using at the same time the
vilest and most infamous language it is possible to conceive of.
. . . We hauled the ship to wind and as he passed poured a whole
broadside into him with great success. Sailing faster than we, he
ranged considerably ahead, tacked and again passed, giving us a
broadside and furious discharge of musketry, which he kept up
incessantly until the latter part of the engagement.
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