THE CAPTAIN OF THE NANCY LEE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1160, 25 May 1894, Page 9

THE CAPTAIN OF THE NANCY LEE.

We were well into the Gulf of Bengal, bound for Madras, when one morning, just as night was fading into dawn, I thought I heard a voice hailing us from the surface of the sea. There are sea birds who cry out almost like human beings, and although I was startled by the hail, I dismissed it after a few second* as theory of a bird. Scarcely had I done so when it came again, and this time I knew it was the voice of a woman. There was no need to hail the mate on watch, for he heard the cry as well. Wc were jogging along under easy sail, and he seized the glass and ran up the fore-rigging. There was a sort of steam rising from the water, but the mate had not climbed thirty feet when down he came again, and in one breath ordered the ship into the wind, the captain aroused, and a boat lowered. We of the watch had no doubt that the ship had been hailed by castaways, but the boat was down before any of us made out a lone woman in a sort of canoe craft about two cables' lengths away on our port bow. She had neither paddle nor oar,’ and her craft was driving with the wind and sea, while she sat cowering in the stern. Our boat was soon alongside of her craft, and woman and canoe were .soon aboard of the “ Admiral Nelson.” The watch below had been turned up, and everybody was on deck to see what was going on. The woman was white, and, as we soon ascertained, American. I say white, but bronze would be the better term, for it was evident that she had long been exposed to tropical weather. She was of medium size, regular features, and about forty years of age, and had at one time been good-look-ing. u Who and where is the captain of this ship ?” she suddenly snapped, as she reached the deck. 44 Here ma’am,I*’ 1 *’ gallantly replied our old man, as he ttopped briskly forward. 44 1 want to talk to you ia your cabin,” she

•ontlnued, her fingers working nervously and her eyes afire. They had not been gone a quarter of an hour when both re-appeared on deck. I was at the wheel, and therefore heard all that was Baid. It appeared that the woman, whose name was Mrs Thomas, owned and sailed a trading schooner, which had been left her at her husband’s death. It was a strange vocation for a womaD, but it seemed she liked it, and also had a good business head on her. She had a ciew of six, her mate being an Englishman and the others Lascars, and she had been sailing between nearly all the towns on the Gulf. Three days before we picked her up, her schooner had left Sumatra, bound for the Indian coast. The crew seemed to be perfectly quiet and content, but at ten o’clock of the previous night, headed by the mate, had suddenly laid violent bands on her and sent her adrift without water, food, or a paddle. The intention was to run away with tho schooner and cargo and sell them, and this plan might have been carried out but for her rescue. She was the spunkiest little woman I ever saw. She was so mad she couldn’t stand ■till for three seconds at a time. What she wanted was for our ship to go in pursuit. Her schooner was armed with two brass six pounders, while we had four twelves, and she expressed her entire willingness to see her craft sent to the bottom before the mutinous crew should benefit by their acts. Captain Wheeler was pretty well along in years, very careful on the question of insurance, and his mind was not made up until after breakfast. Theu ho decided toJufcup toward the Andaman Islands in scaruh of the schooner, and he almost promised to give her a taste of eur metal if she would not surrender. The little woman managed to eat a dozen mouthfuls of breakfast, and then returned to tho deck to almost assume control. She ordered a man aloft, bossed the job of casting loose the guns and getting up powder and Bhot, and every ten minutes she was hailing the lookout to know if anything was in sight. Luck was in her favour. While we had been jogging along all night, the schooner, being further to the east, bad beep almost btcalmed. We raised her almost dead ahead about noon, and as luck would have it, again we had plenty of wind, while ehe had none until the vessels were not over two miles apart. The schooner could hare no suspicion that tho woman was aboard of m, and we flew a signal that we wanted to ■peak hex. She at once lay to, and, as we ran down to her, I saw Mrs Thomas grit her teeth, clench her hands, and show other evidences of her feelings. She had borrowed the mate’s six-shooter, donned a hat and coat to disguise herself, and as we lay to about a cable’s length away no e> c could have male out her sox.

“ Schoonor ahoy 1” called our captain. “Ay, ay, sir 1 This is the 'Nancy Lee,* bound from Sumatra to the mainland.”

“ Are you the captain ?” «• No, sir. He’s very sick in his berth.” “ Run out those guns,” whispered the old man to us, and down went the port shutters and out went the big barkers, and such of the crew as were not at the guns rested their muskets along the rail. “ I*ve got your captain here, and she'll bo put aboard of you!” shouted the captain. “ Ifyou attempt any resistance I’ll sink you!”

The “ Nancy’s ” mate brdered his crew to one of the guns, but they refused to obey, every man of them sulking forward and disappearing down the hatch. The fellow left the deck long enough to arm himself with a cutlass, and as we lowered a boat he called out that he would split the head of the first man who attempted to board the schooner. Our first mate, the boatswain, and two of ui foremast hands went in the boat with Mrs Thomas, and as we hooked on to the schooner’s chains the boatswain pulled a revolver and climbed in over the bows. The mutineer retreated aft, and then we all boarded. The woman had not spoken a word since leaving the ship. She was pale as death, and her eyes glared like a tiger’s. As she dropped from the rail to the deck she cocked the weapon in her hand, walked aft and right up to the mate, and as he flourished his cutlass and commanded her to keep off, sho shot him dead in his tracks. “It’s the law of the sea,” she quietly remarked as she turned to us. “ Now to rout out those Lascars !”

“ But you won’t kill them ?” said our mate. “No, not quite 1” was her grim answer, as she handed him the smoking revolver.

Casting a look at tho dead mutineer, to be sure that he was dead, she went forward, took a belaying pin out of the port rail and, going to the hatch, called down — •* On deck here, every cowardly man of you, and be q ick about it i#o !” Thoy came up one after the other, and as each man touched the deck she gave him a crack over the head which made him see stars. They went down on their knees and begged for their live.*, and after knocking them about in a liberal way she finally agreed to extend pardon. Under her directions the mate’s body was searched, and, as she had anticipated, all the money aboard the schooner was found. Sho then ordered the body to bo flung overboard, and as it touched the water one of the biggest white sharks I ever saw seized it and bit it in half. While the Lascars were cleaning the deck the little woman ran down into her cabin and brought up a dozen bottles of wine, six boxes of cigars, and a lot of dried fruits for us to take back to the ship. Then she gave each of us a shake of the hand, and as we entered the yawl she sprang upon the port rail, held fast to the main shrouds with one hand and shouted —

“Good-bye and God bless you, Captain Wheeler 1 I’ve got my crafc back, thanks to 5011, and I’ll keep my eyes open after this !”

Then sho jumped down and went to the wheel and gave o r ders to get the schooner on her course, and in a couple of hours the craft was lost sight of behind one of the islands as itma’e for the inside route. Two

years later I saw the woman at Singapore, and she still owned the schooner, and was said to have a comfortable fortune in the bank. A year later I heard that she had purchased a brig, and, putting in a cargo on her own account, had sailed for home.— The Million.