| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
xxxviii SONGS AND BALLADS |
||
|
the Mary Rose, a forty-eight-gun ship, beat seven Algerines, and preserved the merchantmen under his charge. Kempthorne was knighted for this service on April 30, 1670. A picture of the fight was engraved by Hollar, which will be found in Ogilby's Africa, and the incident apparently inspired a ballad too. The picture of the action at Greenwich bears the following inscription :
' Two we burnt and two we sank and two did run away, And one we carried to Leghorn Roads to show we'd won the day.'
These lines are almost identical with two lines in Captain Mansfield's Fight with the Turks at Sea (printed on p. 86). The ballad on Mansfield's fight is perhaps an eighteenth century version, or imitation, of one on Kempthorne.
Often merchantmen successfully defended themselves. About October 1671, Captain John Baddison, of the Swallow, a merchantman of 180 tons and twenty-six men, fought an Algiers ship of-thirty-eight guns and 220 men, and not only repulsed two desperate attacks, but captured four of the Turks who boarded him. A poem entitled An Encomium on that Worthy Exploit of Captain John Baddison was published in 1671. The only copy known is in the possession of Lord Crawford, who has kindly permitted me to extract the following narrative of the engagement:
From Port a Port our Hero took his flight, With Canvas Wings, to entertain the Night On th' Oceans deep, where Billows lofty rise, Mounting their Surges to th' unconstant Skyes ; And after two dayes spent, he lost the sight Of great Bajona, and prepared to fight With a proud Turk, who from Argier was sent, And swiftly gave them chase, to the intent |
||