We lay ten days off Callao. Princess stayed near enough to shore that no ship could put out from the port without being seen. The rest of our ships were scattered to the north, none so far from the rest that she could not read the signals of some other. When the treasure ships put out-several large ships, strongly armed-Princess would make signal. As they sailed north, they would encounter us one by one, and by the time there were enough of us to alarm them, the passage back would be a long one. That was Capt. Burt's plan, and I still think it was a good one.
32
The Sea Fight
Most of the numbers in this account have been guessed at. They are good guesses for the most part-when I said that there were four unmarried men on the Santa Charita, for example. There could have been only three, or there might have been five. But I am fairly sure it was four. These are exact numbers: we had waited ten days off Callao when the treasure ships put out, and there were three of them.
The ten days have stuck in my mind because of the awful suspense of the wait. You cannot stay in one place in a ship unless you are tied to a wharf. If there were no currents and no wind, you might try. But even a toy boat set in the middle of a tub of water will drift to one side of the tub or the other, given time. A ship at anchor is held by its cable, but moves even so, now here, now there. We made a sea anchor, drifted downwind for three or four hours dragging the sea anchor, then took in the sea anchor and tacked slowly back to our original position. We did that so often that all of us, I think, began to hope for a storm. None blew.
At night, and sometimes by day, Novia and I talked about what we would do with our share of the gold. We would buy a hacienda in New Spain. Or a big farm in the New Jersey colony Capt. Burt had told me about once. Or a fine house in Madrid. Or Havana. A sugar plantation on Jamaica.
We would have the yard that had built the Castillo Blanco build a ship like that for us, hire a crew, and sail it around the world.
As time wore on we talked about what Novia might do if I were killed, and what I might do if she were. I am not going to go into that here. Some things are too personal, and that is one of them.
The tenth day was clear and warm, just like the first nine. It was about halfway through the forenoon watch when the Weald signaled ENEMY IN VIEW. After that, we followed Weald, in accordance with orders.
I did not get a good look at the three treasure ships until the day was more than half gone. There was a big galleon (later I learned she was the San Felipo), and two other ships that were only a little smaller (the Socorro and the Zumaya). So far, we had not worried them enough to make them turn back, which was what we wanted.
What we did not want was for them to keep going after sundown. Most Spanish ships hove to after sundown, and that was what we were expecting and hoping for. These kept going. That may have been SOP for the treasure ships, or it may just have meant that the captain of the San Felipo was getting a little concerned.
If it had been up to me, I would have gone for them that night. Capt. Burt decided to wait until morning. Having said that, I should also say that he had good reasons for it. First, we might wear down the Spanish crews a little if they were made to stand to their guns as long as we were in sight. Second, and more important, they could have put out their lights and scatted. If they had done that, we would have had a good chance of getting one, but not much chance of getting all three.
All three were what we wanted.
I slept on deck that night, which was no great hardship. About the time I was yawning and stretching, the Weald made signal: CROSS BOW OF LEAD SHIP GOOD LUCK CHRIS.
We crammed on as much sail as Sabina would carry in that wind, which was pretty much everything. The Spanish ships were strung out, as I saw when we got closer. The big galleon was in back to protect the smaller ships. One of those was about a quarter mile in front of her, and the other out in front of that one by about half as much.
I stayed west out of range of the galleon's guns. She fired anyway, throwing up fountains a hundred yards to starboard. It is a trip to be shot at and missed. It gets the old heart pumping and brightens up the eyes something wonderful.
When we got out front and put the wheel over, all that torment we had gone through in the Strait of Magellan paid off. This was fair weather, just a good stiff following wind. We put the helm over, brought the yards around, and had everything drawing again faster than any diesel-engine sailor would have thought possible.
The Spanish captain was ready for us and began his turn the moment he saw us go about. We fired as soon as our guns bore and got off the first broadside. Zumaya answered before the echoes had died away. Counting her guns was easy-she carried eight per side, five in the main battery and three on the weather deck. I guessed them twelve-pounders. If I was right, we were throwing a little more metal.
What really counts, though, is how much metal hits. The general rule with guns like we had is to aim at the base of the mainmast and pray to hit something. We were aiming a little higher and firing chain shot, because the last thing we wanted to do was to sink her. Novia was running up and down our weather deck checking aim, and Boucher was doing the same thing down below. But chain shot is slower to load and less accurate than round shot, and we were taking some punishment.
It looked bad until the Spanish captain tried to get fancy. His idea was to lag a little, then turn north again and rake us. It was the kind of thing I have seen a lot of guys do in fights-a good idea for somebody faster. We swung Sabina north again, it was our broadside to his bow, the same thing Capt. Burt had wanted originally.
I do not know how much damage altogether it did to Zumaya's rigging, but her formast went down and there seemed to be a good deal more.
'Shall we lay alongside, Captain?'
That was Bouton, and I told him I was not ready to die quite yet.
'But, Captain-'
'How long for the rest of them to catch up?'
He had not thought of that. I could see it in his face.
There was more fencing. One of our ships-usually the Weald-would engage the big galleon broadside-to- broadside. While the galleon was busy with whoever it was, somebody else-Snow Lady, Rescue, Fancy, or us- would cross her stern.
Or try to.
A minute can be forever when there is that kind of fighting. All afternoon (and we did it all afternoon) takes a year. There would be an hour or more of jockeying for position. Then hard shooting for five minutes or so, and then another hour or two of tacking, turning and edging around. I had musket men in the rigging, and Nazaire swore he hit the captain. If he did, I did not see any sign of it.
We did our best to keep track of them during the night and lost them anyway. Capt. Burt thought they had gone back to Callao. I did not get to speak to him, but I know he did from the orders he gave. Sabina was to look north, with Magdelena and Princess. I was in command. If we found them, Rombeau and I were to engage, and send Harker south. Weald, Snow Lady, Rescue, and Fancy would look south and send to us if they found the chase.
So what he thought was pretty plain. Sabina and Weald had taken more punishment than the others-Weald most of all, I would say, but it was the biggest we had and so was more able to take it.
The other thing was that I had the three fastest ships. The prevailing winds are north along that part of the coast, and he must have figured that if the Spanish had taken off north, they would make good time. It would be no use to send any ships but the fastest we had after them. On the other hand, running home to Mama would mean a lot of tacking. Our ships could probably out-tack the Spanish even if they were in good shape, and Zumaya had no foremast and would have trouble tacking even with a good captain and a handy crew.
Anyway, off we went with six men at the pumps and a dozen more trying to plug shot holes. That sounds like we were limping along, but actually we were not. I had the log cast three times, and one of those readings was sixteen knots. That was flying for a ship like Sabina, and I knew darned well that the Spanish were not going to
