Page:The history of yachting.djvu/259

Rh shot, flashing sabres, boarding pikes, and vicious grappling irons; of gun-crews stripped to the waist, with hairy arms and bodies tattooed in India ink, smeared with gunpowder and sweat; the oaths of the wounded and moans of the dying; the fierce wild shouts of victory, as the enemy hauled down his colors, blood trickling from the lee scuppers, amid smoke and the tumult of battle. Of bleak wintry gales, the spray flying across the decks, sheathing the bulwarks and rigging in icy armor; the giant waves rushing onward, bearing their white crests on high like warriors in battle, surging in seething breakers under the lee.

These visions, and many more, lay hidden among the oaken planks and timbers of these ancient sisters of the sea. We may look and look in vain for their records upon the page of history—they perished when these old-time yachts silently vanished from the ocean.

In the year 1690, among the numerous plots and counterplots incident to the Jacobite movement, was one in connection with which Viscount Preston undertook to convey certain letters,—one from Catherine Sedley, of a personal, if not private, nature, complaining of her lover, etc.; and two others of importance, one from Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely, intended for the Court of St. Germain, and the other to Mary of Madena, then residing in France. To carry out his plans, Preston chartered the smack James and Elizabeth to transport him and two Jacobite agents, named Ashton and Elliot, from the Thames to France.