 After five years of captivity, however, Capt Massey and his men took advantage of a drunken carousal to free themselves and retake the "Ouzel", which they then promptly sailed back to Dublin, its hold still full of the pirates' booty.It was not long before rumours were circulating around Dublin to the effect that the trading mission to Smyrna had been a blind all along and that it was Captain Massey and his crew who had been engaged in piracy on the high seas.The tall story of Algerian corsairs and a five-year captivity in North Africa, not to mention the fortuitous escape of the entire crew, was considered too far-fetched to be true.