As he preferred to command several vessels instead of one,
he took possession of some of the best of the ships and compelled as
many of their men as he thought he would need to enter his service.
Then, as one of the captured vessels was larger and better than his
brigantine, he took it for his own ship, and at the head of the little
pirate fleet he bid farewell to Marblehead and started out on a grand
cruise against the commerce of our coast.
It is wonderful how rapidly this man Low succeeded in his business
enterprises. Beginning with a little vessel with a dozen unarmed men, he
found himself in a very short time at the head of what was perhaps the
largest piratical force in American waters. What might have happened if
Nature had not taken a hand in this game it is not difficult to imagine,
for our seaboard towns, especially those of the South, would have been
an easy prey to Low and his fleet.
But sailing down to the West Indies, probably in order to fit out his
ships with guns, arms, and ammunition before beginning a naval campaign,
his fleet was overtaken by a terrible storm, and in order to save the
vessels they were obliged to throw overboard a great many of the heavier
goods they had captured at Marblehead, and when at last they found
shelter in the harbor of a small island, they were glad that they had
escaped with their lives.
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