ip well, and had
been publicly complimented in general orders by Seymour for skill and
gallantry. The fleet had been exercised in signals and in various
simple evolutions, the weather was most pleasant, the men in excellent
spirits, and all that was necessary to complete their happiness was the
appearance of the looked-for squadron of the enemy. The eager lookouts
swept the seas unweariedly, but in vain, until early in the afternoon
of the sixth day, the fleet being in Longitude 58 degrees 18 minutes
West, Latitude 14 degrees 30 minutes North, about forty leagues east of
Martinique, heading due west on the starboard tack, it was reported to
Seymour, who was reading in the cabin, that the Fair American, again
far in the lead and somewhat to windward, had signalled a large sail
ahead. A short time should make her visible, if the vessels continued
on the present course, and, after having called his fleet about him by
signal, Seymour stood on for a nearer look at the stranger. An hour
later she was visible from the deck of the Randolph, a very large ship,
evidently a man-of-war under easy sail. The careful watchers could
count three tiers of guns through the glass, which proclaimed her a
ship of the line. From her motions, and the way she rose before them,
she was evidently a very speedy ship, capable of outsailing every
vessel of Seymour's little fleet without difficulty, except possibly
the brig Fair American. It would be madness for the squadron of
converted and lightly armed merchantmen to attack a heavy ship of that
class,--all who got near enough to do so would probably be sunk or
captured; yet the approaching vessel must be delayed or checked, or the
result would be equally serious to the fleet. Seymour at once formed a
desperate resolution. Signalling to the four State cruisers and the
six prizes to tack to the northeast, escape if possible, and afterward
make the best of their way back to Charleston, he himself stood on with
the little Randolph to engage the mighty stranger. At first the older
seamen could scarce believe their eyes. Was it possible that Captain
Seymour, in a small thirty-two-gun frigate, was about to engage
deliberately and wilfully in a combat with a ship of the line, a
seventy-four!--the difference in the number of guns giving no
indication of the difference in the offensive qualities of the two
ships, which might better be shown by a ratio of four or five to one in
favor of the ship of