Page:A Mainsail Haul - Masefield - 1913.djvu/110

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A MAINSAIL HAUL

fought valiantly, for several hours, costing the pirates a sore mauling and the loss of sixty men killed and wounded. Jennings had been shaken by his wound, and by the late mutiny. His ship was battered and broken. He was short of men and provisions; his decks were full of wounded; and "he desired now in heart he might make his peace ... although with the tender of all he had." His first step was to put in at Baltimore, where he hoped to submit himself to the Lord Clanricarde, and to obtain refreshments. When he came to Baltimore, he sent in his boat with another present to buy him a fair reception, but his boat's crew deserted, without making any overtures, and Jennings, fearing that his men had been arrested, put to sea at once, intending to sail to the Shannon, to try the Earl of Thomond.

On his way to the Shannon, he called at various ports to get refreshments. His men rummaged through most of the towns on the coast, "and impeacht even their ordinary trade," though Lord Danvers did his best to stop them by ordering all provisions to be carried far inland. In the middle of January 1609, the two ships anchored in the