The postcaptain Author:John Davis Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VI. Britannia rules the main! Old Song. There being no ship visible, and the cruise of the Desdemona having expired, the captain shaped his cour... more »se for the white cliffs of Albion. Dark, thick weather intimated their approach to the land, and the night before they made it, they found themselves, in a dense fog, surrounded by a large fleet of three deckers, seventy-fours, and frigates. " A large fleet in sight," cried the man at the mast-head. " Yes, and close aboard of us." The captain and lieutenants had assembled on the quarter-deck, and the crew were crowding up the hatchways. " This," said the captain, as he was in the act of directing his night-glass towards a three-decker—" this must be the channel fleet. Don't alter the ship's course.". " Better our fleet, sir," said the second lieutenant, " than the French fleet. We are within range of their lower tiers." " That is true," retorted the captain, and yet I would undertake to run the gauntlet through the half dozen frigates to leeward, and defy their firing, though they blazed away at me all at once. Let go the main-top-bowline. Lay the main-top-sail to the mast. That three decker is edging down to speak us. What a ship! she might hoist us in, and stow us away upon her booms. Fill the main-top-sail. She is ranging up alongside." A profound silence predominated on board both ships, when the hailing came on. "What frigate is that?" " The Desdemona." " What line of battle ship is that ?" " The Queen Charlotte." " If I mistake not, I have the honour to be accosted by Sir Roger Curtis. You have some noble ships in company." " Yes, there are the Tremendous, theInvincible, the Impregnable, the Glory, the Valiant, and the Thunderer, formidable not only in name, but their armament a...« less