f the chase; and, the moment that her
three masts were in line, we again tacked and stood after her, being now
directly in her wake and about nine miles astern. Meanwhile the rest of
the squadron had also tacked, and were now to be seen tailing out in a
long straggling line on our lee quarter--the _Mermaid_ leading, the
_Quebec_ next, and the rest--nowhere, as the racing men say.

Breakfast was now served, and by the time that I again went on deck we
had so far gained upon the chase that the foot of her courses could be
now and then seen as we rose upon the crest of a sea. She was evidently
a very smart as well as a very fine ship; yet we were overhauling her,
hand over hand, as our ships pretty generally did those of the French.
It was freely admitted on all hands that the French were better
shipbuilders than ourselves, yet our ships generally proved the faster
in a chase like the present; and I had often wondered how it was. _Now_
I saw and could understand the reason. It was because the British ships
were better sailed and better _steered_ than those of our enemies. Even
at our then distance it was painfully apparent that the yards of the
chase were trimmed in the most slovenly manner, and in the matter of
steering she was sheering and yawing all over the place; whilst for
ourselves, our canvas was trimmed with the utmost nicety; and we had a
man at the wheel who never for a single instant removed his glance from
the weather-leach of our main-topgallant--sail, which was kept the
merest trifle a-lift--just sufficiently so, and no more, to show that
the frigate was looking up as high as it was possible for her to go,
whilst the remainder of her canvas was clean full and dragging her along
at race-horse speed. The result was that, though our ship was possibly
the slower of the two, her wake was as straight as though it had been
_ruled_ upon the heaving water; whilst that of the chase was so crooked
that she must have travelled over nearly half as much ground again as
ourselves, thus losing through faulty steering more than she gained
through superiority in speed.

At 10 a.m., by which time we had neared the chase to within a distance
of six miles, the stranger hove about for the first time and stood to
the southward and eastward, close-hauled on the larboard tack. At 10:30
we followed suit, and half an hour later the high land behind Jean
Rabel, Saint Domingo, was sighted from aloft Captain Pigot now came to
the