diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/tmots10.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/tmots10.txt | 6706 |
1 files changed, 6706 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/tmots10.txt b/old/tmots10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..142dc4e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/tmots10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6706 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of the Sea, by Joseph Conrad +(#16 in our series by Joseph Conrad) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Mirror of the Sea + +Author: Joseph Conrad + +Release Date: October, 1997 [EBook #1058] +[This file was first posted on October 10, 1997] +[Most recently updated: June 26, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE MIRROR OF THE SEA *** + + + + +Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +The Mirror of the Sea + + + + +Contents: + + +I. Landfalls and Departures +IV. Emblems of Hope +VII. The Fine Art +X. Cobwebs and Gossamer +XIII. The Weight of the Burden +XVI. Overdue and Missing +XX. The Grip of the Land +XXII. The Character of the Foe +XXV. Rules of East and West +XXX. The Faithful River +XXXIII. In Captivity +XXXV. Initiation +XXXVII. The Nursery of the Craft +XL. The Tremolino +XLVI. The Heroic Age + + + +CHAPTER I. + + + +"And shippes by the brinke comen and gon, +And in swich forme endure a day or two." +The Frankeleyn's Tale. + + +Landfall and Departure mark the rhythmical swing of a seaman's life +and of a ship's career. From land to land is the most concise +definition of a ship's earthly fate. + +A "Departure" is not what a vain people of landsmen may think. The +term "Landfall" is more easily understood; you fall in with the +land, and it is a matter of a quick eye and of a clear atmosphere. +The Departure is not the ship's going away from her port any more +than the Landfall can be looked upon as the synonym of arrival. +But there is this difference in the Departure: that the term does +not imply so much a sea event as a definite act entailing a +process--the precise observation of certain landmarks by means of +the compass card. + +Your Landfall, be it a peculiarly-shaped mountain, a rocky +headland, or a stretch of sand-dunes, you meet at first with a +single glance. Further recognition will follow in due course; but +essentially a Landfall, good or bad, is made and done with at the +first cry of "Land ho!" The Departure is distinctly a ceremony of +navigation. A ship may have left her port some time before; she +may have been at sea, in the fullest sense of the phrase, for days; +but, for all that, as long as the coast she was about to leave +remained in sight, a southern-going ship of yesterday had not in +the sailor's sense begun the enterprise of a passage. + +The taking of Departure, if not the last sight of the land, is, +perhaps, the last professional recognition of the land on the part +of a sailor. It is the technical, as distinguished from the +sentimental, "good-bye." Henceforth he has done with the coast +astern of his ship. It is a matter personal to the man. It is not +the ship that takes her departure; the seaman takes his Departure +by means of cross-bearings which fix the place of the first tiny +pencil-cross on the white expanse of the track-chart, where the +ship's position at noon shall be marked by just such another tiny +pencil cross for every day of her passage. And there may be sixty, +eighty, any number of these crosses on the ship's track from land +to land. The greatest number in my experience was a hundred and +thirty of such crosses from the pilot station at the Sand Heads in +the Bay of Bengal to the Scilly's light. A bad passage. . . + +A Departure, the last professional sight of land, is always good, +or at least good enough. For, even if the weather be thick, it +does not matter much to a ship having all the open sea before her +bows. A Landfall may be good or bad. You encompass the earth with +one particular spot of it in your eye. In all the devious tracings +the course of a sailing-ship leaves upon the white paper of a chart +she is always aiming for that one little spot--maybe a small island +in the ocean, a single headland upon the long coast of a continent, +a lighthouse on a bluff, or simply the peaked form of a mountain +like an ant-heap afloat upon the waters. But if you have sighted +it on the expected bearing, then that Landfall is good. Fogs, +snowstorms, gales thick with clouds and rain--those are the enemies +of good Landfalls. + + + +II. + + + +Some commanders of ships take their Departure from the home coast +sadly, in a spirit of grief and discontent. They have a wife, +children perhaps, some affection at any rate, or perhaps only some +pet vice, that must be left behind for a year or more. I remember +only one man who walked his deck with a springy step, and gave the +first course of the passage in an elated voice. But he, as I +learned afterwards, was leaving nothing behind him, except a welter +of debts and threats of legal proceedings. + +On the other hand, I have known many captains who, directly their +ship had left the narrow waters of the Channel, would disappear +from the sight of their ship's company altogether for some three +days or more. They would take a long dive, as it were, into their +state-room, only to emerge a few days afterwards with a more or +less serene brow. Those were the men easy to get on with. +Besides, such a complete retirement seemed to imply a satisfactory +amount of trust in their officers, and to be trusted displeases no +seaman worthy of the name. + +On my first voyage as chief mate with good Captain MacW- I remember +that I felt quite flattered, and went blithely about my duties, +myself a commander for all practical purposes. Still, whatever the +greatness of my illusion, the fact remained that the real commander +was there, backing up my self-confidence, though invisible to my +eyes behind a maple-wood veneered cabin-door with a white china +handle. + +That is the time, after your Departure is taken, when the spirit of +your commander communes with you in a muffled voice, as if from the +sanctum sanctorum of a temple; because, call her a temple or a +"hell afloat"--as some ships have been called--the captain's state- +room is surely the august place in every vessel. + +The good MacW- would not even come out to his meals, and fed +solitarily in his holy of holies from a tray covered with a white +napkin. Our steward used to bend an ironic glance at the perfectly +empty plates he was bringing out from there. This grief for his +home, which overcomes so many married seamen, did not deprive +Captain MacW- of his legitimate appetite. In fact, the steward +would almost invariably come up to me, sitting in the captain's +chair at the head of the table, to say in a grave murmur, "The +captain asks for one more slice of meat and two potatoes." We, his +officers, could hear him moving about in his berth, or lightly +snoring, or fetching deep sighs, or splashing and blowing in his +bath-room; and we made our reports to him through the keyhole, as +it were. It was the crowning achievement of his amiable character +that the answers we got were given in a quite mild and friendly +tone. Some commanders in their periods of seclusion are constantly +grumpy, and seem to resent the mere sound of your voice as an +injury and an insult. + +But a grumpy recluse cannot worry his subordinates: whereas the +man in whom the sense of duty is strong (or, perhaps, only the +sense of self-importance), and who persists in airing on deck his +moroseness all day--and perhaps half the night--becomes a grievous +infliction. He walks the poop darting gloomy glances, as though he +wished to poison the sea, and snaps your head off savagely whenever +you happen to blunder within earshot. And these vagaries are the +harder to bear patiently, as becomes a man and an officer, because +no sailor is really good-tempered during the first few days of a +voyage. There are regrets, memories, the instinctive longing for +the departed idleness, the instinctive hate of all work. Besides, +things have a knack of going wrong at the start, especially in the +matter of irritating trifles. And there is the abiding thought of +a whole year of more or less hard life before one, because there +was hardly a southern-going voyage in the yesterday of the sea +which meant anything less than a twelvemonth. Yes; it needed a few +days after the taking of your departure for a ship's company to +shake down into their places, and for the soothing deep-water ship +routine to establish its beneficent sway. + +It is a great doctor for sore hearts and sore heads, too, your +ship's routine, which I have seen soothe--at least for a time--the +most turbulent of spirits. There is health in it, and peace, and +satisfaction of the accomplished round; for each day of the ship's +life seems to close a circle within the wide ring of the sea +horizon. It borrows a certain dignity of sameness from the +majestic monotony of the sea. He who loves the sea loves also the +ship's routine. + +Nowhere else than upon the sea do the days, weeks and months fall +away quicker into the past. They seem to be left astern as easily +as the light air-bubbles in the swirls of the ship's wake, and +vanish into a great silence in which your ship moves on with a sort +of magical effect. They pass away, the days, the weeks, the +months. Nothing but a gale can disturb the orderly life of the +ship; and the spell of unshaken monotony that seems to have fallen +upon the very voices of her men is broken only by the near prospect +of a Landfall. + +Then is the spirit of the ship's commander stirred strongly again. +But it is not moved to seek seclusion, and to remain, hidden and +inert, shut up in a small cabin with the solace of a good bodily +appetite. When about to make the land, the spirit of the ship's +commander is tormented by an unconquerable restlessness. It seems +unable to abide for many seconds together in the holy of holies of +the captain's state-room; it will out on deck and gaze ahead, +through straining eyes, as the appointed moment comes nearer. It +is kept vigorously upon the stretch of excessive vigilance. +Meantime the body of the ship's commander is being enfeebled by +want of appetite; at least, such is my experience, though +"enfeebled" is perhaps not exactly the word. I might say, rather, +that it is spiritualized by a disregard for food, sleep, and all +the ordinary comforts, such as they are, of sea life. In one or +two cases I have known that detachment from the grosser needs of +existence remain regrettably incomplete in the matter of drink. + +But these two cases were, properly speaking, pathological cases, +and the only two in all my sea experience. In one of these two +instances of a craving for stimulants, developed from sheer +anxiety, I cannot assert that the man's seaman-like qualities were +impaired in the least. It was a very anxious case, too, the land +being made suddenly, close-to, on a wrong bearing, in thick +weather, and during a fresh onshore gale. Going below to speak to +him soon after, I was unlucky enough to catch my captain in the +very act of hasty cork-drawing. The sight, I may say, gave me an +awful scare. I was well aware of the morbidly sensitive nature of +the man. Fortunately, I managed to draw back unseen, and, taking +care to stamp heavily with my sea-boots at the foot of the cabin +stairs, I made my second entry. But for this unexpected glimpse, +no act of his during the next twenty-four hours could have given me +the slightest suspicion that all was not well with his nerve. + + + +III. + + + +Quite another case, and having nothing to do with drink, was that +of poor Captain B-. He used to suffer from sick headaches, in his +young days, every time he was approaching a coast. Well over fifty +years of age when I knew him, short, stout, dignified, perhaps a +little pompous, he was a man of a singularly well-informed mind, +the least sailor-like in outward aspect, but certainly one of the +best seamen whom it has been my good luck to serve under. He was a +Plymouth man, I think, the son of a country doctor, and both his +elder boys were studying medicine. He commanded a big London ship, +fairly well known in her day. I thought no end of him, and that is +why I remember with a peculiar satisfaction the last words he spoke +to me on board his ship after an eighteen months' voyage. It was +in the dock in Dundee, where we had brought a full cargo of jute +from Calcutta. We had been paid off that morning, and I had come +on board to take my sea-chest away and to say good-bye. In his +slightly lofty but courteous way he inquired what were my plans. I +replied that I intended leaving for London by the afternoon train, +and thought of going up for examination to get my master's +certificate. I had just enough service for that. He commended me +for not wasting my time, with such an evident interest in my case +that I was quite surprised; then, rising from his chair, he said: + +"Have you a ship in view after you have passed?" + +I answered that I had nothing whatever in view. + +He shook hands with me, and pronounced the memorable words: + +"If you happen to be in want of employment, remember that as long +as I have a ship you have a ship, too." + +In the way of compliment there is nothing to beat this from a +ship's captain to his second mate at the end of a voyage, when the +work is over and the subordinate is done with. And there is a +pathos in that memory, for the poor fellow never went to sea again +after all. He was already ailing when we passed St. Helena; was +laid up for a time when we were off the Western Islands, but got +out of bed to make his Landfall. He managed to keep up on deck as +far as the Downs, where, giving his orders in an exhausted voice, +he anchored for a few hours to send a wire to his wife and take +aboard a North Sea pilot to help him sail the ship up the east +coast. He had not felt equal to the task by himself, for it is the +sort of thing that keeps a deep-water man on his feet pretty well +night and day. + +When we arrived in Dundee, Mrs. B- was already there, waiting to +take him home. We travelled up to London by the same train; but by +the time I had managed to get through with my examination the ship +had sailed on her next voyage without him, and, instead of joining +her again, I went by request to see my old commander in his home. +This is the only one of my captains I have ever visited in that +way. He was out of bed by then, "quite convalescent," as he +declared, making a few tottering steps to meet me at the sitting- +room door. Evidently he was reluctant to take his final cross- +bearings of this earth for a Departure on the only voyage to an +unknown destination a sailor ever undertakes. And it was all very +nice--the large, sunny room; his deep, easy-chair in a bow window, +with pillows and a footstool; the quiet, watchful care of the +elderly, gentle woman who had borne him five children, and had not, +perhaps, lived with him more than five full years out of the thirty +or so of their married life. There was also another woman there in +a plain black dress, quite gray-haired, sitting very erect on her +chair with some sewing, from which she snatched side-glances in his +direction, and uttering not a single word during all the time of my +call. Even when, in due course, I carried over to her a cup of +tea, she only nodded at me silently, with the faintest ghost of a +smile on her tight-set lips. I imagine she must have been a maiden +sister of Mrs. B- come to help nurse her brother-in-law. His +youngest boy, a late-comer, a great cricketer it seemed, twelve +years old or thereabouts, chattered enthusiastically of the +exploits of W. G. Grace. And I remember his eldest son, too, a +newly-fledged doctor, who took me out to smoke in the garden, and, +shaking his head with professional gravity, but with genuine +concern, muttered: "Yes, but he doesn't get back his appetite. I +don't like that--I don't like that at all." The last sight of +Captain B- I had was as he nodded his head to me out of the bow +window when I turned round to close the front gate. + +It was a distinct and complete impression, something that I don't +know whether to call a Landfall or a Departure. Certainly he had +gazed at times very fixedly before him with the Landfall's vigilant +look, this sea-captain seated incongruously in a deep-backed chair. +He had not then talked to me of employment, of ships, of being +ready to take another command; but he had discoursed of his early +days, in the abundant but thin flow of a wilful invalid's talk. +The women looked worried, but sat still, and I learned more of him +in that interview than in the whole eighteen months we had sailed +together. It appeared he had "served his time" in the copper-ore +trade, the famous copper-ore trade of old days between Swansea and +the Chilian coast, coal out and ore in, deep-loaded both ways, as +if in wanton defiance of the great Cape Horn seas--a work, this, +for staunch ships, and a great school of staunchness for West- +Country seamen. A whole fleet of copper-bottomed barques, as +strong in rib and planking, as well-found in gear, as ever was sent +upon the seas, manned by hardy crews and commanded by young +masters, was engaged in that now long defunct trade. "That was the +school I was trained in," he said to me almost boastfully, lying +back amongst his pillows with a rug over his legs. And it was in +that trade that he obtained his first command at a very early age. +It was then that he mentioned to me how, as a young commander, he +was always ill for a few days before making land after a long +passage. But this sort of sickness used to pass off with the first +sight of a familiar landmark. Afterwards, he added, as he grew +older, all that nervousness wore off completely; and I observed his +weary eyes gaze steadily ahead, as if there had been nothing +between him and the straight line of sea and sky, where whatever a +seaman is looking for is first bound to appear. But I have also +seen his eyes rest fondly upon the faces in the room, upon the +pictures on the wall, upon all the familiar objects of that home, +whose abiding and clear image must have flashed often on his memory +in times of stress and anxiety at sea. Was he looking out for a +strange Landfall, or taking with an untroubled mind the bearings +for his last Departure? + +It is hard to say; for in that voyage from which no man returns +Landfall and Departure are instantaneous, merging together into one +moment of supreme and final attention. Certainly I do not remember +observing any sign of faltering in the set expression of his wasted +face, no hint of the nervous anxiety of a young commander about to +make land on an uncharted shore. He had had too much experience of +Departures and Landfalls! And had he not "served his time" in the +famous copper-ore trade out of the Bristol Channel, the work of the +staunchest ships afloat, and the school of staunch seamen? + + + +IV. + + + +Before an anchor can ever be raised, it must be let go; and this +perfectly obvious truism brings me at once to the subject of the +degradation of the sea language in the daily press of this country. + +Your journalist, whether he takes charge of a ship or a fleet, +almost invariably "casts" his anchor. Now, an anchor is never +cast, and to take a liberty with technical language is a crime +against the clearness, precision, and beauty of perfected speech. + +An anchor is a forged piece of iron, admirably adapted to its end, +and technical language is an instrument wrought into perfection by +ages of experience, a flawless thing for its purpose. An anchor of +yesterday (because nowadays there are contrivances like mushrooms +and things like claws, of no particular expression or shape--just +hooks)--an anchor of yesterday is in its way a most efficient +instrument. To its perfection its size bears witness, for there is +no other appliance so small for the great work it has to do. Look +at the anchors hanging from the cat-heads of a big ship! How tiny +they are in proportion to the great size of the hull! Were they +made of gold they would look like trinkets, like ornamental toys, +no bigger in proportion than a jewelled drop in a woman's ear. And +yet upon them will depend, more than once, the very life of the +ship. + +An anchor is forged and fashioned for faithfulness; give it ground +that it can bite, and it will hold till the cable parts, and then, +whatever may afterwards befall its ship, that anchor is "lost." +The honest, rough piece of iron, so simple in appearance, has more +parts than the human body has limbs: the ring, the stock, the +crown, the flukes, the palms, the shank. All this, according to +the journalist, is "cast" when a ship arriving at an anchorage is +brought up. + +This insistence in using the odious word arises from the fact that +a particularly benighted landsman must imagine the act of anchoring +as a process of throwing something overboard, whereas the anchor +ready for its work is already overboard, and is not thrown over, +but simply allowed to fall. It hangs from the ship's side at the +end of a heavy, projecting timber called the cat-head, in the bight +of a short, thick chain whose end link is suddenly released by a +blow from a top-maul or the pull of a lever when the order is +given. And the order is not "Heave over!" as the paragraphist +seems to imagine, but "Let go!" + +As a matter of fact, nothing is ever cast in that sense on board +ship but the lead, of which a cast is taken to search the depth of +water on which she floats. A lashed boat, a spare spar, a cask or +what not secured about the decks, is "cast adrift" when it is +untied. Also the ship herself is "cast to port or starboard" when +getting under way. She, however, never "casts" her anchor. + +To speak with severe technicality, a ship or a fleet is "brought +up"--the complementary words unpronounced and unwritten being, of +course, "to an anchor." Less technically, but not less correctly, +the word "anchored," with its characteristic appearance and +resolute sound, ought to be good enough for the newspapers of the +greatest maritime country in the world. "The fleet anchored at +Spithead": can anyone want a better sentence for brevity and +seamanlike ring? But the "cast-anchor" trick, with its affectation +of being a sea-phrase--for why not write just as well "threw +anchor," "flung anchor," or "shied anchor"?--is intolerably odious +to a sailor's ear. I remember a coasting pilot of my early +acquaintance (he used to read the papers assiduously) who, to +define the utmost degree of lubberliness in a landsman, used to +say, "He's one of them poor, miserable 'cast-anchor' devils." + + + +V. + + + +From first to last the seaman's thoughts are very much concerned +with his anchors. It is not so much that the anchor is a symbol of +hope as that it is the heaviest object that he has to handle on +board his ship at sea in the usual routine of his duties. The +beginning and the end of every passage are marked distinctly by +work about the ship's anchors. A vessel in the Channel has her +anchors always ready, her cables shackled on, and the land almost +always in sight. The anchor and the land are indissolubly +connected in a sailor's thoughts. But directly she is clear of the +narrow seas, heading out into the world with nothing solid to speak +of between her and the South Pole, the anchors are got in and the +cables disappear from the deck. But the anchors do not disappear. +Technically speaking, they are "secured in-board"; and, on the +forecastle head, lashed down to ring-bolts with ropes and chains, +under the straining sheets of the head-sails, they look very idle +and as if asleep. Thus bound, but carefully looked after, inert +and powerful, those emblems of hope make company for the look-out +man in the night watches; and so the days glide by, with a long +rest for those characteristically shaped pieces of iron, reposing +forward, visible from almost every part of the ship's deck, waiting +for their work on the other side of the world somewhere, while the +ship carries them on with a great rush and splutter of foam +underneath, and the sprays of the open sea rust their heavy limbs. + +The first approach to the land, as yet invisible to the crew's +eyes, is announced by the brisk order of the chief mate to the +boatswain: "We will get the anchors over this afternoon" or "first +thing to-morrow morning," as the case may be. For the chief mate +is the keeper of the ship's anchors and the guardian of her cable. +There are good ships and bad ships, comfortable ships and ships +where, from first day to last of the voyage, there is no rest for a +chief mate's body and soul. And ships are what men make them: +this is a pronouncement of sailor wisdom, and, no doubt, in the +main it is true. + +However, there are ships where, as an old grizzled mate once told +me, "nothing ever seems to go right!" And, looking from the poop +where we both stood (I had paid him a neighbourly call in dock), he +added: "She's one of them." He glanced up at my face, which +expressed a proper professional sympathy, and set me right in my +natural surmise: "Oh no; the old man's right enough. He never +interferes. Anything that's done in a seamanlike way is good +enough for him. And yet, somehow, nothing ever seems to go right +in this ship. I tell you what: she is naturally unhandy." + +The "old man," of course, was his captain, who just then came on +deck in a silk hat and brown overcoat, and, with a civil nod to us, +went ashore. He was certainly not more than thirty, and the +elderly mate, with a murmur to me of "That's my old man," proceeded +to give instances of the natural unhandiness of the ship in a sort +of deprecatory tone, as if to say, "You mustn't think I bear a +grudge against her for that." + +The instances do not matter. The point is that there are ships +where things DO go wrong; but whatever the ship--good or bad, lucky +or unlucky--it is in the forepart of her that her chief mate feels +most at home. It is emphatically HIS end of the ship, though, of +course, he is the executive supervisor of the whole. There are HIS +anchors, HIS headgear, his foremast, his station for manoeuvring +when the captain is in charge. And there, too, live the men, the +ship's hands, whom it is his duty to keep employed, fair weather or +foul, for the ship's welfare. It is the chief mate, the only +figure of the ship's afterguard, who comes bustling forward at the +cry of "All hands on deck!" He is the satrap of that province in +the autocratic realm of the ship, and more personally responsible +for anything that may happen there. + +There, too, on the approach to the land, assisted by the boatswain +and the carpenter, he "gets the anchors over" with the men of his +own watch, whom he knows better than the others. There he sees the +cable ranged, the windlass disconnected, the compressors opened; +and there, after giving his own last order, "Stand clear of the +cable!" he waits attentive, in a silent ship that forges slowly +ahead towards her picked-out berth, for the sharp shout from aft, +"Let go!" Instantly bending over, he sees the trusty iron fall +with a heavy plunge under his eyes, which watch and note whether it +has gone clear. + +For the anchor "to go clear" means to go clear of its own chain. +Your anchor must drop from the bow of your ship with no turn of +cable on any of its limbs, else you would be riding to a foul +anchor. Unless the pull of the cable is fair on the ring, no +anchor can be trusted even on the best of holding ground. In time +of stress it is bound to drag, for implements and men must be +treated fairly to give you the "virtue" which is in them. The +anchor is an emblem of hope, but a foul anchor is worse than the +most fallacious of false hopes that ever lured men or nations into +a sense of security. And the sense of security, even the most +warranted, is a bad councillor. It is the sense which, like that +exaggerated feeling of well-being ominous of the coming on of +madness, precedes the swift fall of disaster. A seaman labouring +under an undue sense of security becomes at once worth hardly half +his salt. Therefore, of all my chief officers, the one I trusted +most was a man called B-. He had a red moustache, a lean face, +also red, and an uneasy eye. He was worth all his salt. + +On examining now, after many years, the residue of the feeling +which was the outcome of the contact of our personalities, I +discover, without much surprise, a certain flavour of dislike. +Upon the whole, I think he was one of the most uncomfortable +shipmates possible for a young commander. If it is permissible to +criticise the absent, I should say he had a little too much of the +sense of insecurity which is so invaluable in a seaman. He had an +extremely disturbing air of being everlastingly ready (even when +seated at table at my right hand before a plate of salt beef) to +grapple with some impending calamity. I must hasten to add that he +had also the other qualification necessary to make a trustworthy +seaman--that of an absolute confidence in himself. What was really +wrong with him was that he had these qualities in an unrestful +degree. His eternally watchful demeanour, his jerky, nervous talk, +even his, as it were, determined silences, seemed to imply--and, I +believe, they did imply--that to his mind the ship was never safe +in my hands. Such was the man who looked after the anchors of a +less than five-hundred-ton barque, my first command, now gone from +the face of the earth, but sure of a tenderly remembered existence +as long as I live. No anchor could have gone down foul under Mr. +B-'s piercing eye. It was good for one to be sure of that when, in +an open roadstead, one heard in the cabin the wind pipe up; but +still, there were moments when I detested Mr. B- exceedingly. From +the way he used to glare sometimes, I fancy that more than once he +paid me back with interest. It so happened that we both loved the +little barque very much. And it was just the defect of Mr. B-'s +inestimable qualities that he would never persuade himself to +believe that the ship was safe in my hands. To begin with, he was +more than five years older than myself at a time of life when five +years really do count, I being twenty-nine and he thirty-four; +then, on our first leaving port (I don't see why I should make a +secret of the fact that it was Bangkok), a bit of manoeuvring of +mine amongst the islands of the Gulf of Siam had given him an +unforgettable scare. Ever since then he had nursed in secret a +bitter idea of my utter recklessness. But upon the whole, and +unless the grip of a man's hand at parting means nothing whatever, +I conclude that we did like each other at the end of two years and +three months well enough. + +The bond between us was the ship; and therein a ship, though she +has female attributes and is loved very unreasonably, is different +from a woman. That I should have been tremendously smitten with my +first command is nothing to wonder at, but I suppose I must admit +that Mr. B-'s sentiment was of a higher order. Each of us, of +course, was extremely anxious about the good appearance of the +beloved object; and, though I was the one to glean compliments +ashore, B- had the more intimate pride of feeling, resembling that +of a devoted handmaiden. And that sort of faithful and proud +devotion went so far as to make him go about flicking the dust off +the varnished teak-wood rail of the little craft with a silk +pocket-handkerchief--a present from Mrs. B-, I believe. + +That was the effect of his love for the barque. The effect of his +admirable lack of the sense of security once went so far as to make +him remark to me: "Well, sir, you ARE a lucky man!" + +It was said in a tone full of significance, but not exactly +offensive, and it was, I suppose, my innate tact that prevented my +asking, "What on earth do you mean by that?" + +Later on his meaning was illustrated more fully on a dark night in +a tight corner during a dead on-shore gale. I had called him up on +deck to help me consider our extremely unpleasant situation. There +was not much time for deep thinking, and his summing-up was: "It +looks pretty bad, whichever we try; but, then, sir, you always do +get out of a mess somehow." + + + +VI. + + + +It is difficult to disconnect the idea of ships' anchors from the +idea of the ship's chief mate--the man who sees them go down clear +and come up sometimes foul; because not even the most unremitting +care can always prevent a ship, swinging to winds and tide, from +taking an awkward turn of the cable round stock or fluke. Then the +business of "getting the anchor" and securing it afterwards is +unduly prolonged, and made a weariness to the chief mate. He is +the man who watches the growth of the cable--a sailor's phrase +which has all the force, precision, and imagery of technical +language that, created by simple men with keen eyes for the real +aspect of the things they see in their trade, achieves the just +expression seizing upon the essential, which is the ambition of the +artist in words. Therefore the sailor will never say, "cast +anchor," and the ship-master aft will hail his chief mate on the +forecastle in impressionistic phrase: "How does the cable grow?" +Because "grow" is the right word for the long drift of a cable +emerging aslant under the strain, taut as a bow-string above the +water. And it is the voice of the keeper of the ship's anchors +that will answer: "Grows right ahead, sir," or "Broad on the bow," +or whatever concise and deferential shout will fit the case. + +There is no order more noisily given or taken up with lustier +shouts on board a homeward-bound merchant ship than the command, +"Man the windlass!" The rush of expectant men out of the +forecastle, the snatching of hand-spikes, the tramp of feet, the +clink of the pawls, make a stirring accompaniment to a plaintive +up-anchor song with a roaring chorus; and this burst of noisy +activity from a whole ship's crew seems like a voiceful awakening +of the ship herself, till then, in the picturesque phrase of Dutch +seamen, "lying asleep upon her iron." + +For a ship with her sails furled on her squared yards, and +reflected from truck to water-line in the smooth gleaming sheet of +a landlocked harbour, seems, indeed, to a seaman's eye the most +perfect picture of slumbering repose. The getting of your anchor +was a noisy operation on board a merchant ship of yesterday--an +inspiring, joyous noise, as if, with the emblem of hope, the ship's +company expected to drag up out of the depths, each man all his +personal hopes into the reach of a securing hand--the hope of home, +the hope of rest, of liberty, of dissipation, of hard pleasure, +following the hard endurance of many days between sky and water. +And this noisiness, this exultation at the moment of the ship's +departure, make a tremendous contrast to the silent moments of her +arrival in a foreign roadstead--the silent moments when, stripped +of her sails, she forges ahead to her chosen berth, the loose +canvas fluttering softly in the gear above the heads of the men +standing still upon her decks, the master gazing intently forward +from the break of the poop. Gradually she loses her way, hardly +moving, with the three figures on her forecastle waiting +attentively about the cat-head for the last order of, perhaps, full +ninety days at sea: "Let go!" + +This is the final word of a ship's ended journey, the closing word +of her toil and of her achievement. In a life whose worth is told +out in passages from port to port, the splash of the anchor's fall +and the thunderous rumbling of the chain are like the closing of a +distinct period, of which she seems conscious with a slight deep +shudder of all her frame. By so much is she nearer to her +appointed death, for neither years nor voyages can go on for ever. +It is to her like the striking of a clock, and in the pause which +follows she seems to take count of the passing time. + +This is the last important order; the others are mere routine +directions. Once more the master is heard: "Give her forty-five +fathom to the water's edge," and then he, too, is done for a time. +For days he leaves all the harbour work to his chief mate, the +keeper of the ship's anchor and of the ship's routine. For days +his voice will not be heard raised about the decks, with that curt, +austere accent of the man in charge, till, again, when the hatches +are on, and in a silent and expectant ship, he shall speak up from +aft in commanding tones: "Man the windlass!" + + + +VII. + + + +The other year, looking through a newspaper of sound principles, +but whose staff WILL persist in "casting" anchors and going to sea +"on" a ship (ough!), I came across an article upon the season's +yachting. And, behold! it was a good article. To a man who had +but little to do with pleasure sailing (though all sailing is a +pleasure), and certainly nothing whatever with racing in open +waters, the writer's strictures upon the handicapping of yachts +were just intelligible and no more. And I do not pretend to any +interest in the enumeration of the great races of that year. As to +the 52-foot linear raters, praised so much by the writer, I am +warmed up by his approval of their performances; but, as far as any +clear conception goes, the descriptive phrase, so precise to the +comprehension of a yachtsman, evokes no definite image in my mind. + +The writer praises that class of pleasure vessels, and I am willing +to endorse his words, as any man who loves every craft afloat would +be ready to do. I am disposed to admire and respect the 52-foot +linear raters on the word of a man who regrets in such a +sympathetic and understanding spirit the threatened decay of +yachting seamanship. + +Of course, yacht racing is an organized pastime, a function of +social idleness ministering to the vanity of certain wealthy +inhabitants of these isles nearly as much as to their inborn love +of the sea. But the writer of the article in question goes on to +point out, with insight and justice, that for a great number of +people (20,000, I think he says) it is a means of livelihood--that +it is, in his own words, an industry. Now, the moral side of an +industry, productive or unproductive, the redeeming and ideal +aspect of this bread-winning, is the attainment and preservation of +the highest possible skill on the part of the craftsmen. Such +skill, the skill of technique, is more than honesty; it is +something wider, embracing honesty and grace and rule in an +elevated and clear sentiment, not altogether utilitarian, which may +be called the honour of labour. It is made up of accumulated +tradition, kept alive by individual pride, rendered exact by +professional opinion, and, like the higher arts, it spurred on and +sustained by discriminating praise. + +This is why the attainment of proficiency, the pushing of your +skill with attention to the most delicate shades of excellence, is +a matter of vital concern. Efficiency of a practically flawless +kind may be reached naturally in the struggle for bread. But there +is something beyond--a higher point, a subtle and unmistakable +touch of love and pride beyond mere skill; almost an inspiration +which gives to all work that finish which is almost art--which IS +art. + +As men of scrupulous honour set up a high standard of public +conscience above the dead-level of an honest community, so men of +that skill which passes into art by ceaseless striving raise the +dead-level of correct practice in the crafts of land and sea. The +conditions fostering the growth of that supreme, alive excellence, +as well in work as in play, ought to be preserved with a most +careful regard lest the industry or the game should perish of an +insidious and inward decay. Therefore I have read with profound +regret, in that article upon the yachting season of a certain year, +that the seamanship on board racing yachts is not now what it used +to be only a few, very few, years ago. + +For that was the gist of that article, written evidently by a man +who not only knows but UNDERSTANDS--a thing (let me remark in +passing) much rarer than one would expect, because the sort of +understanding I mean is inspired by love; and love, though in a +sense it may be admitted to be stronger than death, is by no means +so universal and so sure. In fact, love is rare--the love of men, +of things, of ideas, the love of perfected skill. For love is the +enemy of haste; it takes count of passing days, of men who pass +away, of a fine art matured slowly in the course of years and +doomed in a short time to pass away too, and be no more. Love and +regret go hand in hand in this world of changes swifter than the +shifting of the clouds reflected in the mirror of the sea. + +To penalize a yacht in proportion to the fineness of her +performance is unfair to the craft and to her men. It is unfair to +the perfection of her form and to the skill of her servants. For +we men are, in fact, the servants of our creations. We remain in +everlasting bondage to the productions of our brain and to the work +of our hands. A man is born to serve his time on this earth, and +there is something fine in the service being given on other grounds +than that of utility. The bondage of art is very exacting. And, +as the writer of the article which started this train of thought +says with lovable warmth, the sailing of yachts is a fine art. + +His contention is that racing, without time allowances for anything +else but tonnage--that is, for size--has fostered the fine art of +sailing to the pitch of perfection. Every sort of demand is made +upon the master of a sailing-yacht, and to be penalized in +proportion to your success may be of advantage to the sport itself, +but it has an obviously deteriorating effect upon the seamanship. +The fine art is being lost. + + + +VIII. + + + +The sailing and racing of yachts has developed a class of fore-and- +aft sailors, men born and bred to the sea, fishing in winter and +yachting in summer; men to whom the handling of that particular rig +presents no mystery. It is their striving for victory that has +elevated the sailing of pleasure craft to the dignity of a fine art +in that special sense. As I have said, I know nothing of racing +and but little of fore-and-aft rig; but the advantages of such a +rig are obvious, especially for purposes of pleasure, whether in +cruising or racing. It requires less effort in handling; the +trimming of the sail-planes to the wind can be done with speed and +accuracy; the unbroken spread of the sail-area is of infinite +advantage; and the greatest possible amount of canvas can be +displayed upon the least possible quantity of spars. Lightness and +concentrated power are the great qualities of fore-and-aft rig. + +A fleet of fore-and-afters at anchor has its own slender +graciousness. The setting of their sails resembles more than +anything else the unfolding of a bird's wings; the facility of +their evolutions is a pleasure to the eye. They are birds of the +sea, whose swimming is like flying, and resembles more a natural +function than the handling of man-invented appliances. The fore- +and-aft rig in its simplicity and the beauty of its aspect under +every angle of vision is, I believe, unapproachable. A schooner, +yawl, or cutter in charge of a capable man seems to handle herself +as if endowed with the power of reasoning and the gift of swift +execution. One laughs with sheer pleasure at a smart piece of +manoeuvring, as at a manifestation of a living creature's quick wit +and graceful precision. + +Of those three varieties of fore-and-aft rig, the cutter--the +racing rig par excellence--is of an appearance the most imposing, +from the fact that practically all her canvas is in one piece. The +enormous mainsail of a cutter, as she draws slowly past a point of +land or the end of a jetty under your admiring gaze, invests her +with an air of lofty and silent majesty. At anchor a schooner +looks better; she has an aspect of greater efficiency and a better +balance to the eye, with her two masts distributed over the hull +with a swaggering rake aft. The yawl rig one comes in time to +love. It is, I should think, the easiest of all to manage. + +For racing, a cutter; for a long pleasure voyage, a schooner; for +cruising in home waters, the yawl; and the handling of them all is +indeed a fine art. It requires not only the knowledge of the +general principles of sailing, but a particular acquaintance with +the character of the craft. All vessels are handled in the same +way as far as theory goes, just as you may deal with all men on +broad and rigid principles. But if you want that success in life +which comes from the affection and confidence of your fellows, then +with no two men, however similar they may appear in their nature, +will you deal in the same way. There may be a rule of conduct; +there is no rule of human fellowship. To deal with men is as fine +an art as it is to deal with ships. Both men and ships live in an +unstable element, are subject to subtle and powerful influences, +and want to have their merits understood rather than their faults +found out. + +It is not what your ship will NOT do that you want to know to get +on terms of successful partnership with her; it is, rather, that +you ought to have a precise knowledge of what she will do for you +when called upon to put forth what is in her by a sympathetic +touch. At first sight the difference does not seem great in either +line of dealing with the difficult problem of limitations. But the +difference is great. The difference lies in the spirit in which +the problem is approached. After all, the art of handling ships is +finer, perhaps, than the art of handling men. + +And, like all fine arts, it must be based upon a broad, solid +sincerity, which, like a law of Nature, rules an infinity of +different phenomena. Your endeavour must be single-minded. You +would talk differently to a coal-heaver and to a professor. But is +this duplicity? I deny it. The truth consists in the genuineness +of the feeling, in the genuine recognition of the two men, so +similar and so different, as your two partners in the hazard of +life. Obviously, a humbug, thinking only of winning his little +race, would stand a chance of profiting by his artifices. Men, +professors or coal-heavers, are easily deceived; they even have an +extraordinary knack of lending themselves to deception, a sort of +curious and inexplicable propensity to allow themselves to be led +by the nose with their eyes open. But a ship is a creature which +we have brought into the world, as it were on purpose to keep us up +to the mark. In her handling a ship will not put up with a mere +pretender, as, for instance, the public will do with Mr. X, the +popular statesman, Mr. Y, the popular scientist, or Mr. Z, the +popular--what shall we say?--anything from a teacher of high +morality to a bagman--who have won their little race. But I would +like (though not accustomed to betting) to wager a large sum that +not one of the few first-rate skippers of racing yachts has ever +been a humbug. It would have been too difficult. The difficulty +arises from the fact that one does not deal with ships in a mob, +but with a ship as an individual. So we may have to do with men. +But in each of us there lurks some particle of the mob spirit, of +the mob temperament. No matter how earnestly we strive against +each other, we remain brothers on the lowest side of our intellect +and in the instability of our feelings. With ships it is not so. +Much as they are to us, they are nothing to each other. Those +sensitive creatures have no ears for our blandishments. It takes +something more than words to cajole them to do our will, to cover +us with glory. Luckily, too, or else there would have been more +shoddy reputations for first-rate seamanship. Ships have no ears, +I repeat, though, indeed, I think I have known ships who really +seemed to have had eyes, or else I cannot understand on what ground +a certain 1,000-ton barque of my acquaintance on one particular +occasion refused to answer her helm, thereby saving a frightful +smash to two ships and to a very good man's reputation. I knew her +intimately for two years, and in no other instance either before or +since have I known her to do that thing. The man she had served so +well (guessing, perhaps, at the depths of his affection for her) I +have known much longer, and in bare justice to him I must say that +this confidence-shattering experience (though so fortunate) only +augmented his trust in her. Yes, our ships have no ears, and thus +they cannot be deceived. I would illustrate my idea of fidelity as +between man and ship, between the master and his art, by a +statement which, though it might appear shockingly sophisticated, +is really very simple. I would say that a racing-yacht skipper who +thought of nothing else but the glory of winning the race would +never attain to any eminence of reputation. The genuine masters of +their craft--I say this confidently from my experience of ships-- +have thought of nothing but of doing their very best by the vessel +under their charge. To forget one's self, to surrender all +personal feeling in the service of that fine art, is the only way +for a seaman to the faithful discharge of his trust. + +Such is the service of a fine art and of ships that sail the sea. +And therein I think I can lay my finger upon the difference between +the seamen of yesterday, who are still with us, and the seamen of +to-morrow, already entered upon the possession of their +inheritance. History repeats itself, but the special call of an +art which has passed away is never reproduced. It is as utterly +gone out of the world as the song of a destroyed wild bird. +Nothing will awaken the same response of pleasurable emotion or +conscientious endeavour. And the sailing of any vessel afloat is +an art whose fine form seems already receding from us on its way to +the overshadowed Valley of Oblivion. The taking of a modern +steamship about the world (though one would not minimize its +responsibilities) has not the same quality of intimacy with nature, +which, after all, is an indispensable condition to the building up +of an art. It is less personal and a more exact calling; less +arduous, but also less gratifying in the lack of close communion +between the artist and the medium of his art. It is, in short, +less a matter of love. Its effects are measured exactly in time +and space as no effect of an art can be. It is an occupation which +a man not desperately subject to sea-sickness can be imagined to +follow with content, without enthusiasm, with industry, without +affection. Punctuality is its watchword. The incertitude which +attends closely every artistic endeavour is absent from its +regulated enterprise. It has no great moments of self-confidence, +or moments not less great of doubt and heart-searching. It is an +industry which, like other industries, has its romance, its honour +and its rewards, its bitter anxieties and its hours of ease. But +such sea-going has not the artistic quality of a single-handed +struggle with something much greater than yourself; it is not the +laborious absorbing practice of an art whose ultimate result +remains on the knees of the gods. It is not an individual, +temperamental achievement, but simply the skilled use of a captured +force, merely another step forward upon the way of universal +conquest. + + + +IX. + + + +Every passage of a ship of yesterday, whose yards were braced round +eagerly the very moment the pilot, with his pockets full of +letters, had got over the side, was like a race--a race against +time, against an ideal standard of achievement outstripping the +expectations of common men. Like all true art, the general conduct +of a ship and her handling in particular cases had a technique +which could be discussed with delight and pleasure by men who found +in their work, not bread alone, but an outlet for the peculiarities +of their temperament. To get the best and truest effect from the +infinitely varying moods of sky and sea, not pictorially, but in +the spirit of their calling, was their vocation, one and all; and +they recognised this with as much sincerity, and drew as much +inspiration from this reality, as any man who ever put brush to +canvas. The diversity of temperaments was immense amongst those +masters of the fine art. + +Some of them were like Royal Academicians of a certain kind. They +never startled you by a touch of originality, by a fresh audacity +of inspiration. They were safe, very safe. They went about +solemnly in the assurance of their consecrated and empty +reputation. Names are odious, but I remember one of them who might +have been their very president, the P.R.A. of the sea-craft. His +weather-beaten and handsome face, his portly presence, his shirt- +fronts and broad cuffs and gold links, his air of bluff +distinction, impressed the humble beholders (stevedores, tally +clerks, tide-waiters) as he walked ashore over the gangway of his +ship lying at the Circular Quay in Sydney. His voice was deep, +hearty, and authoritative--the voice of a very prince amongst +sailors. He did everything with an air which put your attention on +the alert and raised your expectations, but the result somehow was +always on stereotyped lines, unsuggestive, empty of any lesson that +one could lay to heart. He kept his ship in apple-pie order, which +would have been seamanlike enough but for a finicking touch in its +details. His officers affected a superiority over the rest of us, +but the boredom of their souls appeared in their manner of dreary +submission to the fads of their commander. It was only his +apprenticed boys whose irrepressible spirits were not affected by +the solemn and respectable mediocrity of that artist. There were +four of these youngsters: one the son of a doctor, another of a +colonel, the third of a jeweller; the name of the fourth was +Twentyman, and this is all I remember of his parentage. But not +one of them seemed to possess the smallest spark of gratitude in +his composition. Though their commander was a kind man in his way, +and had made a point of introducing them to the best people in the +town in order that they should not fall into the bad company of +boys belonging to other ships, I regret to say that they made faces +at him behind his back, and imitated the dignified carriage of his +head without any concealment whatever. + +This master of the fine art was a personage and nothing more; but, +as I have said, there was an infinite diversity of temperament +amongst the masters of the fine art I have known. Some were great +impressionists. They impressed upon you the fear of God and +Immensity--or, in other words, the fear of being drowned with every +circumstance of terrific grandeur. One may think that the locality +of your passing away by means of suffocation in water does not +really matter very much. I am not so sure of that. I am, perhaps, +unduly sensitive, but I confess that the idea of being suddenly +spilt into an infuriated ocean in the midst of darkness and uproar +affected me always with a sensation of shrinking distaste. To be +drowned in a pond, though it might be called an ignominious fate by +the ignorant, is yet a bright and peaceful ending in comparison +with some other endings to one's earthly career which I have +mentally quaked at in the intervals or even in the midst of violent +exertions. + +But let that pass. Some of the masters whose influence left a +trace upon my character to this very day, combined a fierceness of +conception with a certitude of execution upon the basis of just +appreciation of means and ends which is the highest quality of the +man of action. And an artist is a man of action, whether he +creates a personality, invents an expedient, or finds the issue of +a complicated situation. + +There were masters, too, I have known, whose very art consisted in +avoiding every conceivable situation. It is needless to say that +they never did great things in their craft; but they were not to be +despised for that. They were modest; they understood their +limitations. Their own masters had not handed the sacred fire into +the keeping of their cold and skilful hands. One of those last I +remember specially, now gone to his rest from that sea which his +temperament must have made a scene of little more than a peaceful +pursuit. Once only did he attempt a stroke of audacity, one early +morning, with a steady breeze, entering a crowded roadstead. But +he was not genuine in this display which might have been art. He +was thinking of his own self; he hankered after the meretricious +glory of a showy performance. + +As, rounding a dark, wooded point, bathed in fresh air and +sunshine, we opened to view a crowd of shipping at anchor lying +half a mile ahead of us perhaps, he called me aft from my station +on the forecastle head, and, turning over and over his binoculars +in his brown hands, said: "Do you see that big, heavy ship with +white lower masts? I am going to take up a berth between her and +the shore. Now do you see to it that the men jump smartly at the +first order." + +I answered, "Ay, ay, sir," and verily believed that this would be a +fine performance. We dashed on through the fleet in magnificent +style. There must have been many open mouths and following eyes on +board those ships--Dutch, English, with a sprinkling of Americans +and a German or two--who had all hoisted their flags at eight +o'clock as if in honour of our arrival. It would have been a fine +performance if it had come off, but it did not. Through a touch of +self-seeking that modest artist of solid merit became untrue to his +temperament. It was not with him art for art's sake: it was art +for his own sake; and a dismal failure was the penalty he paid for +that greatest of sins. It might have been even heavier, but, as it +happened, we did not run our ship ashore, nor did we knock a large +hole in the big ship whose lower masts were painted white. But it +is a wonder that we did not carry away the cables of both our +anchors, for, as may be imagined, I did not stand upon the order to +"Let go!" that came to me in a quavering, quite unknown voice from +his trembling lips. I let them both go with a celerity which to +this day astonishes my memory. No average merchantman's anchors +have ever been let go with such miraculous smartness. And they +both held. I could have kissed their rough, cold iron palms in +gratitude if they had not been buried in slimy mud under ten +fathoms of water. Ultimately they brought us up with the jibboom +of a Dutch brig poking through our spanker--nothing worse. And a +miss is as good as a mile. + +But not in art. Afterwards the master said to me in a shy mumble, +"She wouldn't luff up in time, somehow. What's the matter with +her?" And I made no answer. + +Yet the answer was clear. The ship had found out the momentary +weakness of her man. Of all the living creatures upon land and +sea, it is ships alone that cannot be taken in by barren pretences, +that will not put up with bad art from their masters. + + + +X. + + + +From the main truck of the average tall ship the horizon describes +a circle of many miles, in which you can see another ship right +down to her water-line; and these very eyes which follow this +writing have counted in their time over a hundred sail becalmed, as +if within a magic ring, not very far from the Azores--ships more or +less tall. There were hardly two of them heading exactly the same +way, as if each had meditated breaking out of the enchanted circle +at a different point of the compass. But the spell of the calm is +a strong magic. The following day still saw them scattered within +sight of each other and heading different ways; but when, at last, +the breeze came with the darkling ripple that ran very blue on a +pale sea, they all went in the same direction together. For this +was the homeward-bound fleet from the far-off ends of the earth, +and a Falmouth fruit-schooner, the smallest of them all, was +heading the flight. One could have imagined her very fair, if not +divinely tall, leaving a scent of lemons and oranges in her wake. + +The next day there were very few ships in sight from our mast- +heads--seven at most, perhaps, with a few more distant specks, hull +down, beyond the magic ring of the horizon. The spell of the fair +wind has a subtle power to scatter a white-winged company of ships +looking all the same way, each with its white fillet of tumbling +foam under the bow. It is the calm that brings ships mysteriously +together; it is your wind that is the great separator. + +The taller the ship, the further she can be seen; and her white +tallness breathed upon by the wind first proclaims her size. The +tall masts holding aloft the white canvas, spread out like a snare +for catching the invisible power of the air, emerge gradually from +the water, sail after sail, yard after yard, growing big, till, +under the towering structure of her machinery, you perceive the +insignificant, tiny speck of her hull. + +The tall masts are the pillars supporting the balanced planes that, +motionless and silent, catch from the air the ship's motive-power, +as it were a gift from Heaven vouchsafed to the audacity of man; +and it is the ship's tall spars, stripped and shorn of their white +glory, that incline themselves before the anger of the clouded +heaven. + +When they yield to a squall in a gaunt and naked submission, their +tallness is brought best home even to the mind of a seaman. The +man who has looked upon his ship going over too far is made aware +of the preposterous tallness of a ship's spars. It seems +impossible but that those gilt trucks which one had to tilt one's +head back to see, now falling into the lower plane of vision, must +perforce hit the very edge of the horizon. Such an experience +gives you a better impression of the loftiness of your spars than +any amount of running aloft could do. And yet in my time the royal +yards of an average profitable ship were a good way up above her +decks. + +No doubt a fair amount of climbing up iron ladders can be achieved +by an active man in a ship's engine-room, but I remember moments +when even to my supple limbs and pride of nimbleness the sailing- +ship's machinery seemed to reach up to the very stars. + +For machinery it is, doing its work in perfect silence and with a +motionless grace, that seems to hide a capricious and not always +governable power, taking nothing away from the material stores of +the earth. Not for it the unerring precision of steel moved by +white steam and living by red fire and fed with black coal. The +other seems to draw its strength from the very soul of the world, +its formidable ally, held to obedience by the frailest bonds, like +a fierce ghost captured in a snare of something even finer than +spun silk. For what is the array of the strongest ropes, the +tallest spars and the stoutest canvas against the mighty breath of +the infinite, but thistle stalks, cobwebs and gossamer? + + + +XI. + + + +Indeed, it is less than nothing, and I have seen, when the great +soul of the world turned over with a heavy sigh, a perfectly new, +extra-stout foresail vanish like a bit of some airy stuff much +lighter than gossamer. Then was the time for the tall spars to +stand fast in the great uproar. The machinery must do its work +even if the soul of the world has gone mad. + +The modern steamship advances upon a still and overshadowed sea +with a pulsating tremor of her frame, an occasional clang in her +depths, as if she had an iron heart in her iron body; with a +thudding rhythm in her progress and the regular beat of her +propeller, heard afar in the night with an august and plodding +sound as of the march of an inevitable future. But in a gale, the +silent machinery of a sailing-ship would catch not only the power, +but the wild and exulting voice of the world's soul. Whether she +ran with her tall spars swinging, or breasted it with her tall +spars lying over, there was always that wild song, deep like a +chant, for a bass to the shrill pipe of the wind played on the sea- +tops, with a punctuating crash, now and then, of a breaking wave. +At times the weird effects of that invisible orchestra would get +upon a man's nerves till he wished himself deaf. + +And this recollection of a personal wish, experienced upon several +oceans, where the soul of the world has plenty of room to turn over +with a mighty sigh, brings me to the remark that in order to take a +proper care of a ship's spars it is just as well for a seaman to +have nothing the matter with his ears. Such is the intimacy with +which a seaman had to live with his ship of yesterday that his +senses were like her senses, that the stress upon his body made him +judge of the strain upon the ship's masts. + +I had been some time at sea before I became aware of the fact that +hearing plays a perceptible part in gauging the force of the wind. +It was at night. The ship was one of those iron wool-clippers that +the Clyde had floated out in swarms upon the world during the +seventh decade of the last century. It was a fine period in ship- +building, and also, I might say, a period of over-masting. The +spars rigged up on the narrow hulls were indeed tall then, and the +ship of which I think, with her coloured-glass skylight ends +bearing the motto, "Let Glasgow Flourish," was certainly one of the +most heavily-sparred specimens. She was built for hard driving, +and unquestionably she got all the driving she could stand. Our +captain was a man famous for the quick passages he had been used to +make in the old Tweed, a ship famous the world over for her speed. +The Tweed had been a wooden vessel, and he brought the tradition of +quick passages with him into the iron clipper. I was the junior in +her, a third mate, keeping watch with the chief officer; and it was +just during one of the night watches in a strong, freshening breeze +that I overheard two men in a sheltered nook of the main deck +exchanging these informing remarks. Said one: + +"Should think 'twas time some of them light sails were coming off +her." + +And the other, an older man, uttered grumpily: "No fear! not while +the chief mate's on deck. He's that deaf he can't tell how much +wind there is." + +And, indeed, poor P-, quite young, and a smart seaman, was very +hard of hearing. At the same time, he had the name of being the +very devil of a fellow for carrying on sail on a ship. He was +wonderfully clever at concealing his deafness, and, as to carrying +on heavily, though he was a fearless man, I don't think that he +ever meant to take undue risks. I can never forget his naive sort +of astonishment when remonstrated with for what appeared a most +dare-devil performance. The only person, of course, that could +remonstrate with telling effect was our captain, himself a man of +dare-devil tradition; and really, for me, who knew under whom I was +serving, those were impressive scenes. Captain S- had a great name +for sailor-like qualities--the sort of name that compelled my +youthful admiration. To this day I preserve his memory, for, +indeed, it was he in a sense who completed my training. It was +often a stormy process, but let that pass. I am sure he meant +well, and I am certain that never, not even at the time, could I +bear him malice for his extraordinary gift of incisive criticism. +And to hear HIM make a fuss about too much sail on the ship seemed +one of those incredible experiences that take place only in one's +dreams. + +It generally happened in this way: Night, clouds racing overhead, +wind howling, royals set, and the ship rushing on in the dark, an +immense white sheet of foam level with the lee rail. Mr. P-, in +charge of the deck, hooked on to the windward mizzen rigging in a +state of perfect serenity; myself, the third mate, also hooked on +somewhere to windward of the slanting poop, in a state of the +utmost preparedness to jump at the very first hint of some sort of +order, but otherwise in a perfectly acquiescent state of mind. +Suddenly, out of the companion would appear a tall, dark figure, +bareheaded, with a short white beard of a perpendicular cut, very +visible in the dark--Captain S-, disturbed in his reading down +below by the frightful bounding and lurching of the ship. Leaning +very much against the precipitous incline of the deck, he would +take a turn or two, perfectly silent, hang on by the compass for a +while, take another couple of turns, and suddenly burst out: + +"What are you trying to do with the ship?" + +And Mr. P-, who was not good at catching what was shouted in the +wind, would say interrogatively: + +"Yes, sir?" + +Then in the increasing gale of the sea there would be a little +private ship's storm going on in which you could detect strong +language, pronounced in a tone of passion and exculpatory +protestations uttered with every possible inflection of injured +innocence. + +"By Heavens, Mr. P-! I used to carry on sail in my time, but--" + +And the rest would be lost to me in a stormy gust of wind. + +Then, in a lull, P-'s protesting innocence would become audible: + +"She seems to stand it very well." + +And then another burst of an indignant voice: + +"Any fool can carry sail on a ship--" + +And so on and so on, the ship meanwhile rushing on her way with a +heavier list, a noisier splutter, a more threatening hiss of the +white, almost blinding, sheet of foam to leeward. For the best of +it was that Captain S- seemed constitutionally incapable of giving +his officers a definite order to shorten sail; and so that +extraordinarily vague row would go on till at last it dawned upon +them both, in some particularly alarming gust, that it was time to +do something. There is nothing like the fearful inclination of +your tall spars overloaded with canvas to bring a deaf man and an +angry one to their senses. + + + +XII. + + + +So sail did get shortened more or less in time even in that ship, +and her tall spars never went overboard while I served in her. +However, all the time I was with them, Captain S- and Mr. P- did +not get on very well together. If P- carried on "like the very +devil" because he was too deaf to know how much wind there was, +Captain S- (who, as I have said, seemed constitutionally incapable +of ordering one of his officers to shorten sail) resented the +necessity forced upon him by Mr. P-'s desperate goings on. It was +in Captain S-'s tradition rather to reprove his officers for not +carrying on quite enough--in his phrase "for not taking every ounce +of advantage of a fair wind." But there was also a psychological +motive that made him extremely difficult to deal with on board that +iron clipper. He had just come out of the marvellous Tweed, a +ship, I have heard, heavy to look at but of phenomenal speed. In +the middle sixties she had beaten by a day and a half the steam +mail-boat from Hong Kong to Singapore. There was something +peculiarly lucky, perhaps, in the placing of her masts--who knows? +Officers of men-of-war used to come on board to take the exact +dimensions of her sail-plan. Perhaps there had been a touch of +genius or the finger of good fortune in the fashioning of her lines +at bow and stern. It is impossible to say. She was built in the +East Indies somewhere, of teak-wood throughout, except the deck. +She had a great sheer, high bows, and a clumsy stern. The men who +had seen her described her to me as "nothing much to look at." But +in the great Indian famine of the seventies that ship, already old +then, made some wonderful dashes across the Gulf of Bengal with +cargoes of rice from Rangoon to Madras. + +She took the secret of her speed with her, and, unsightly as she +was, her image surely has its glorious place in the mirror of the +old sea. + +The point, however, is that Captain S-, who used to say frequently, +"She never made a decent passage after I left her," seemed to think +that the secret of her speed lay in her famous commander. No doubt +the secret of many a ship's excellence does lie with the man on +board, but it was hopeless for Captain S- to try to make his new +iron clipper equal the feats which made the old Tweed a name of +praise upon the lips of English-speaking seamen. There was +something pathetic in it, as in the endeavour of an artist in his +old age to equal the masterpieces of his youth--for the Tweed's +famous passages were Captain S-'s masterpieces. It was pathetic, +and perhaps just the least bit dangerous. At any rate, I am glad +that, what between Captain S-'s yearning for old triumphs and Mr. +P-'s deafness, I have seen some memorable carrying on to make a +passage. And I have carried on myself upon the tall spars of that +Clyde shipbuilder's masterpiece as I have never carried on in a +ship before or since. + +The second mate falling ill during the passage, I was promoted to +officer of the watch, alone in charge of the deck. Thus the +immense leverage of the ship's tall masts became a matter very near +my own heart. I suppose it was something of a compliment for a +young fellow to be trusted, apparently without any supervision, by +such a commander as Captain S-; though, as far as I can remember, +neither the tone, nor the manner, nor yet the drift of Captain S-'s +remarks addressed to myself did ever, by the most strained +interpretation, imply a favourable opinion of my abilities. And he +was, I must say, a most uncomfortable commander to get your orders +from at night. If I had the watch from eight till midnight, he +would leave the deck about nine with the words, "Don't take any +sail off her." Then, on the point of disappearing down the +companion-way, he would add curtly: "Don't carry anything away." +I am glad to say that I never did; one night, however, I was +caught, not quite prepared, by a sudden shift of wind. + +There was, of course, a good deal of noise--running about, the, +shouts of the sailors, the thrashing of the sails--enough, in fact, +to wake the dead. But S- never came on deck. When I was relieved +by the chief mate an hour afterwards, he sent for me. I went into +his stateroom; he was lying on his couch wrapped up in a rug, with +a pillow under his head. + +"What was the matter with you up there just now?" he asked. + +"Wind flew round on the lee quarter, sir," I said. + +"Couldn't you see the shift coming?" + +"Yes, sir, I thought it wasn't very far off." + +"Why didn't you have your courses hauled up at once, then?" he +asked in a tone that ought to have made my blood run cold. + +But this was my chance, and I did not let it slip. + +"Well, sir," I said in an apologetic tone, "she was going eleven +knots very nicely, and I thought she would do for another half-hour +or so." + +He gazed at me darkly out of his head, lying very still on the +white pillow, for a time. + +"Ah, yes, another half-hour. That's the way ships get dismasted." + +And that was all I got in the way of a wigging. I waited a little +while and then went out, shutting carefully the door of the state- +room after me. + +Well, I have loved, lived with, and left the sea without ever +seeing a ship's tall fabric of sticks, cobwebs and gossamer go by +the board. Sheer good luck, no doubt. But as to poor P-, I am +sure that he would not have got off scot-free like this but for the +god of gales, who called him away early from this earth, which is +three parts ocean, and therefore a fit abode for sailors. A few +years afterwards I met in an Indian port a man who had served in +the ships of the same company. Names came up in our talk, names of +our colleagues in the same employ, and, naturally enough, I asked +after P-. Had he got a command yet? And the other man answered +carelessly: + +"No; but he's provided for, anyhow. A heavy sea took him off the +poop in the run between New Zealand and the Horn." + +Thus P- passed away from amongst the tall spars of ships that he +had tried to their utmost in many a spell of boisterous weather. +He had shown me what carrying on meant, but he was not a man to +learn discretion from. He could not help his deafness. One can +only remember his cheery temper, his admiration for the jokes in +Punch, his little oddities--like his strange passion for borrowing +looking-glasses, for instance. Each of our cabins had its own +looking-glass screwed to the bulkhead, and what he wanted with more +of them we never could fathom. He asked for the loan in +confidential tones. Why? Mystery. We made various surmises. No +one will ever know now. At any rate, it was a harmless +eccentricity, and may the god of gales, who took him away so +abruptly between New Zealand and the Horn, let his soul rest in +some Paradise of true seamen, where no amount of carrying on will +ever dismast a ship! + + + +XIII. + + + +There has been a time when a ship's chief mate, pocket-book in hand +and pencil behind his ear, kept one eye aloft upon his riggers and +the other down the hatchway on the stevedores, and watched the +disposition of his ship's cargo, knowing that even before she +started he was already doing his best to secure for her an easy and +quick passage. + +The hurry of the times, the loading and discharging organization of +the docks, the use of hoisting machinery which works quickly and +will not wait, the cry for prompt despatch, the very size of his +ship, stand nowadays between the modern seaman and the thorough +knowledge of his craft. + +There are profitable ships and unprofitable ships. The profitable +ship will carry a large load through all the hazards of the +weather, and, when at rest, will stand up in dock and shift from +berth to berth without ballast. There is a point of perfection in +a ship as a worker when she is spoken of as being able to SAIL +without ballast. I have never met that sort of paragon myself, but +I have seen these paragons advertised amongst ships for sale. Such +excess of virtue and good-nature on the part of a ship always +provoked my mistrust. It is open to any man to say that his ship +will sail without ballast; and he will say it, too, with every mark +of profound conviction, especially if he is not going to sail in +her himself. The risk of advertising her as able to sail without +ballast is not great, since the statement does not imply a warranty +of her arriving anywhere. Moreover, it is strictly true that most +ships will sail without ballast for some little time before they +turn turtle upon the crew. + +A shipowner loves a profitable ship; the seaman is proud of her; a +doubt of her good looks seldom exists in his mind; but if he can +boast of her more useful qualities it is an added satisfaction for +his self-love. + +The loading of ships was once a matter of skill, judgment, and +knowledge. Thick books have been written about it. "Stevens on +Stowage" is a portly volume with the renown and weight (in its own +world) of Coke on Littleton. Stevens is an agreeable writer, and, +as is the case with men of talent, his gifts adorn his sterling +soundness. He gives you the official teaching on the whole +subject, is precise as to rules, mentions illustrative events, +quotes law cases where verdicts turned upon a point of stowage. He +is never pedantic, and, for all his close adherence to broad +principles, he is ready to admit that no two ships can be treated +exactly alike. + +Stevedoring, which had been a skilled labour, is fast becoming a +labour without the skill. The modern steamship with her many holds +is not loaded within the sailor-like meaning of the word. She is +filled up. Her cargo is not stowed in any sense; it is simply +dumped into her through six hatchways, more or less, by twelve +winches or so, with clatter and hurry and racket and heat, in a +cloud of steam and a mess of coal-dust. As long as you keep her +propeller under water and take care, say, not to fling down barrels +of oil on top of bales of silk, or deposit an iron bridge-girder of +five ton or so upon a bed of coffee-bags, you have done about all +in the way of duty that the cry for prompt despatch will allow you +to do. + + + +XIV. + + + +The sailing-ship, when I knew her in her days of perfection, was a +sensible creature. When I say her days of perfection, I mean +perfection of build, gear, seaworthy qualities and case of +handling, not the perfection of speed. That quality has departed +with the change of building material. No iron ship of yesterday +ever attained the marvels of speed which the seamanship of men +famous in their time had obtained from their wooden, copper-sheeted +predecessors. Everything had been done to make the iron ship +perfect, but no wit of man had managed to devise an efficient +coating composition to keep her bottom clean with the smooth +cleanness of yellow metal sheeting. After a spell of a few weeks +at sea, an iron ship begins to lag as if she had grown tired too +soon. It is only her bottom that is getting foul. A very little +affects the speed of an iron ship which is not driven on by a +merciless propeller. Often it is impossible to tell what +inconsiderate trifle puts her off her stride. A certain +mysteriousness hangs around the quality of speed as it was +displayed by the old sailing-ships commanded by a competent seaman. +In those days the speed depended upon the seaman; therefore, apart +from the laws, rules, and regulations for the good preservation of +his cargo, he was careful of his loading,--or what is technically +called the trim of his ship. Some ships sailed fast on an even +keel, others had to be trimmed quite one foot by the stern, and I +have heard of a ship that gave her best speed on a wind when so +loaded as to float a couple of inches by the head. + +I call to mind a winter landscape in Amsterdam--a flat foreground +of waste land, with here and there stacks of timber, like the huts +of a camp of some very miserable tribe; the long stretch of the +Handelskade; cold, stone-faced quays, with the snow-sprinkled +ground and the hard, frozen water of the canal, in which were set +ships one behind another with their frosty mooring-ropes hanging +slack and their decks idle and deserted, because, as the master +stevedore (a gentle, pale person, with a few golden hairs on his +chin and a reddened nose) informed me, their cargoes were frozen-in +up-country on barges and schuyts. In the distance, beyond the +waste ground, and running parallel with the line of ships, a line +of brown, warm-toned houses seemed bowed under snow-laden roofs. +From afar at the end of Tsar Peter Straat, issued in the frosty air +the tinkle of bells of the horse tramcars, appearing and +disappearing in the opening between the buildings, like little toy +carriages harnessed with toy horses and played with by people that +appeared no bigger than children. + +I was, as the French say, biting my fists with impatience for that +cargo frozen up-country; with rage at that canal set fast, at the +wintry and deserted aspect of all those ships that seemed to decay +in grim depression for want of the open water. I was chief mate, +and very much alone. Directly I had joined I received from my +owners instructions to send all the ship's apprentices away on +leave together, because in such weather there was nothing for +anybody to do, unless to keep up a fire in the cabin stove. That +was attended to by a snuffy and mop-headed, inconceivably dirty, +and weirdly toothless Dutch ship-keeper, who could hardly speak +three words of English, but who must have had some considerable +knowledge of the language, since he managed invariably to interpret +in the contrary sense everything that was said to him. + +Notwithstanding the little iron stove, the ink froze on the swing- +table in the cabin, and I found it more convenient to go ashore +stumbling over the arctic waste-land and shivering in glazed +tramcars in order to write my evening letter to my owners in a +gorgeous cafe in the centre of the town. It was an immense place, +lofty and gilt, upholstered in red plush, full of electric lights +and so thoroughly warmed that even the marble tables felt tepid to +the touch. The waiter who brought me my cup of coffee bore, by +comparison with my utter isolation, the dear aspect of an intimate +friend. There, alone in a noisy crowd, I would write slowly a +letter addressed to Glasgow, of which the gist would be: There is +no cargo, and no prospect of any coming till late spring +apparently. And all the time I sat there the necessity of getting +back to the ship bore heavily on my already half-congealed spirits- +-the shivering in glazed tramcars, the stumbling over the snow- +sprinkled waste ground, the vision of ships frozen in a row, +appearing vaguely like corpses of black vessels in a white world, +so silent, so lifeless, so soulless they seemed to be. + +With precaution I would go up the side of my own particular corpse, +and would feel her as cold as ice itself and as slippery under my +feet. My cold berth would swallow up like a chilly burial niche my +bodily shivers and my mental excitement. It was a cruel winter. +The very air seemed as hard and trenchant as steel; but it would +have taken much more than this to extinguish my sacred fire for the +exercise of my craft. No young man of twenty-four appointed chief +mate for the first time in his life would have let that Dutch +tenacious winter penetrate into his heart. I think that in those +days I never forgot the fact of my elevation for five consecutive +minutes. I fancy it kept me warm, even in my slumbers, better than +the high pile of blankets, which positively crackled with frost as +I threw them off in the morning. And I would get up early for no +reason whatever except that I was in sole charge. The new captain +had not been appointed yet. + +Almost each morning a letter from my owners would arrive, directing +me to go to the charterers and clamour for the ship's cargo; to +threaten them with the heaviest penalties of demurrage; to demand +that this assortment of varied merchandise, set fast in a landscape +of ice and windmills somewhere up-country, should be put on rail +instantly, and fed up to the ship in regular quantities every day. +After drinking some hot coffee, like an Arctic explorer setting off +on a sledge journey towards the North Pole, I would go ashore and +roll shivering in a tramcar into the very heart of the town, past +clean-faced houses, past thousands of brass knockers upon a +thousand painted doors glimmering behind rows of trees of the +pavement species, leafless, gaunt, seemingly dead for ever. + +That part of the expedition was easy enough, though the horses were +painfully glistening with icicles, and the aspect of the tram- +conductors' faces presented a repulsive blending of crimson and +purple. But as to frightening or bullying, or even wheedling some +sort of answer out of Mr. Hudig, that was another matter +altogether. He was a big, swarthy Netherlander, with black +moustaches and a bold glance. He always began by shoving me into a +chair before I had time to open my mouth, gave me cordially a large +cigar, and in excellent English would start to talk everlastingly +about the phenomenal severity of the weather. It was impossible to +threaten a man who, though he possessed the language perfectly, +seemed incapable of understanding any phrase pronounced in a tone +of remonstrance or discontent. As to quarrelling with him, it +would have been stupid. The weather was too bitter for that. His +office was so warm, his fire so bright, his sides shook so heartily +with laughter, that I experienced always a great difficulty in +making up my mind to reach for my hat. + +At last the cargo did come. At first it came dribbling in by rail +in trucks, till the thaw set in; and then fast, in a multitude of +barges, with a great rush of unbound waters. The gentle master +stevedore had his hands very full at last; and the chief mate +became worried in his mind as to the proper distribution of the +weight of his first cargo in a ship he did not personally know +before. + +Ships do want humouring. They want humouring in handling; and if +you mean to handle them well, they must have been humoured in the +distribution of the weight which you ask them to carry through the +good and evil fortune of a passage. Your ship is a tender +creature, whose idiosyncrasies must be attended to if you mean her +to come with credit to herself and you through the rough-and-tumble +of her life. + + + +XV. + + + +So seemed to think the new captain, who arrived the day after we +had finished loading, on the very eve of the day of sailing. I +first beheld him on the quay, a complete stranger to me, obviously +not a Hollander, in a black bowler and a short drab overcoat, +ridiculously out of tone with the winter aspect of the waste-lands, +bordered by the brown fronts of houses with their roofs dripping +with melting snow. + +This stranger was walking up and down absorbed in the marked +contemplation of the ship's fore and aft trim; but when I saw him +squat on his heels in the slush at the very edge of the quay to +peer at the draught of water under her counter, I said to myself, +"This is the captain." And presently I descried his luggage coming +along--a real sailor's chest, carried by means of rope-beckets +between two men, with a couple of leather portmanteaus and a roll +of charts sheeted in canvas piled upon the lid. The sudden, +spontaneous agility with which he bounded aboard right off the rail +afforded me the first glimpse of his real character. Without +further preliminaries than a friendly nod, he addressed me: "You +have got her pretty well in her fore and aft trim. Now, what about +your weights?" + +I told him I had managed to keep the weight sufficiently well up, +as I thought, one-third of the whole being in the upper part "above +the beams," as the technical expression has it. He whistled +"Phew!" scrutinizing me from head to foot. A sort of smiling +vexation was visible on his ruddy face. + +"Well, we shall have a lively time of it this passage, I bet," he +said. + +He knew. It turned out he had been chief mate of her for the two +preceding voyages; and I was already familiar with his handwriting +in the old log-books I had been perusing in my cabin with a natural +curiosity, looking up the records of my new ship's luck, of her +behaviour, of the good times she had had, and of the troubles she +had escaped. + +He was right in his prophecy. On our passage from Amsterdam to +Samarang with a general cargo, of which, alas! only one-third in +weight was stowed "above the beams," we had a lively time of it. +It was lively, but not joyful. There was not even a single moment +of comfort in it, because no seaman can feel comfortable in body or +mind when he has made his ship uneasy. + +To travel along with a cranky ship for ninety days or so is no +doubt a nerve-trying experience; but in this case what was wrong +with our craft was this: that by my system of loading she had been +made much too stable. + +Neither before nor since have I felt a ship roll so abruptly, so +violently, so heavily. Once she began, you felt that she would +never stop, and this hopeless sensation, characterizing the motion +of ships whose centre of gravity is brought down too low in +loading, made everyone on board weary of keeping on his feet. I +remember once over-hearing one of the hands say: "By Heavens, +Jack! I feel as if I didn't mind how soon I let myself go, and let +the blamed hooker knock my brains out if she likes." The captain +used to remark frequently: "Ah, yes; I dare say one-third weight +above beams would have been quite enough for most ships. But then, +you see, there's no two of them alike on the seas, and she's an +uncommonly ticklish jade to load." + +Down south, running before the gales of high latitudes, she made +our life a burden to us. There were days when nothing would keep +even on the swing-tables, when there was no position where you +could fix yourself so as not to feel a constant strain upon all the +muscles of your body. She rolled and rolled with an awful +dislodging jerk and that dizzily fast sweep of her masts on every +swing. It was a wonder that the men sent aloft were not flung off +the yards, the yards not flung off the masts, the masts not flung +overboard. The captain in his armchair, holding on grimly at the +head of the table, with the soup-tureen rolling on one side of the +cabin and the steward sprawling on the other, would observe, +looking at me: "That's your one-third above the beams. The only +thing that surprises me is that the sticks have stuck to her all +this time." + +Ultimately some of the minor spars did go--nothing important: +spanker-booms and such-like--because at times the frightful impetus +of her rolling would part a fourfold tackle of new three-inch +Manilla line as if it were weaker than pack-thread. + +It was only poetic justice that the chief mate who had made a +mistake--perhaps a half-excusable one--about the distribution of +his ship's cargo should pay the penalty. A piece of one of the +minor spars that did carry away flew against the chief mate's back, +and sent him sliding on his face for quite a considerable distance +along the main deck. Thereupon followed various and unpleasant +consequences of a physical order--"queer symptoms," as the captain, +who treated them, used to say; inexplicable periods of +powerlessness, sudden accesses of mysterious pain; and the patient +agreed fully with the regretful mutters of his very attentive +captain wishing that it had been a straightforward broken leg. +Even the Dutch doctor who took the case up in Samarang offered no +scientific explanation. All he said was: "Ah, friend, you are +young yet; it may be very serious for your whole life. You must +leave your ship; you must quite silent be for three months--quite +silent." + +Of course, he meant the chief mate to keep quiet--to lay up, as a +matter of fact. His manner was impressive enough, if his English +was childishly imperfect when compared with the fluency of Mr. +Hudig, the figure at the other end of that passage, and memorable +enough in its way. In a great airy ward of a Far Eastern hospital, +lying on my back, I had plenty of leisure to remember the dreadful +cold and snow of Amsterdam, while looking at the fronds of the +palm-trees tossing and rustling at the height of the window. I +could remember the elated feeling and the soul-gripping cold of +those tramway journeys taken into town to put what in diplomatic +language is called pressure upon the good Hudig, with his warm +fire, his armchair, his big cigar, and the never-failing suggestion +in his good-natured voice: "I suppose in the end it is you they +will appoint captain before the ship sails?" It may have been his +extreme good-nature, the serious, unsmiling good-nature of a fat, +swarthy man with coal-black moustache and steady eyes; but he might +have been a bit of a diplomatist, too. His enticing suggestions I +used to repel modestly by the assurance that it was extremely +unlikely, as I had not enough experience. "You know very well how +to go about business matters," he used to say, with a sort of +affected moodiness clouding his serene round face. I wonder +whether he ever laughed to himself after I had left the office. I +dare say he never did, because I understand that diplomatists, in +and out of the career, take themselves and their tricks with an +exemplary seriousness. + +But he had nearly persuaded me that I was fit in every way to be +trusted with a command. There came three months of mental worry, +hard rolling, remorse, and physical pain to drive home the lesson +of insufficient experience. + +Yes, your ship wants to be humoured with knowledge. You must treat +with an understanding consideration the mysteries of her feminine +nature, and then she will stand by you faithfully in the unceasing +struggle with forces wherein defeat is no shame. It is a serious +relation, that in which a man stands to his ship. She has her +rights as though she could breathe and speak; and, indeed, there +are ships that, for the right man, will do anything but speak, as +the saying goes. + +A ship is not a slave. You must make her easy in a seaway, you +must never forget that you owe her the fullest share of your +thought, of your skill, of your self-love. If you remember that +obligation, naturally and without effort, as if it were an +instinctive feeling of your inner life, she will sail, stay, run +for you as long as she is able, or, like a sea-bird going to rest +upon the angry waves, she will lay out the heaviest gale that ever +made you doubt living long enough to see another sunrise. + + + +XVI. + + + +Often I turn with melancholy eagerness to the space reserved in the +newspapers under the general heading of "Shipping Intelligence." I +meet there the names of ships I have known. Every year some of +these names disappear--the names of old friends. "Tempi passati!" + +The different divisions of that kind of news are set down in their +order, which varies but slightly in its arrangement of concise +headlines. And first comes "Speakings"--reports of ships met and +signalled at sea, name, port, where from, where bound for, so many +days out, ending frequently with the words "All well." Then come +"Wrecks and Casualties"--a longish array of paragraphs, unless the +weather has been fair and clear, and friendly to ships all over the +world. + +On some days there appears the heading "Overdue"--an ominous threat +of loss and sorrow trembling yet in the balance of fate. There is +something sinister to a seaman in the very grouping of the letters +which form this word, clear in its meaning, and seldom threatening +in vain. + +Only a very few days more--appallingly few to the hearts which had +set themselves bravely to hope against hope--three weeks, a month +later, perhaps, the name of ships under the blight of the "Overdue" +heading shall appear again in the column of "Shipping +Intelligence," but under the final declaration of "Missing." + +"The ship, or barque, or brig So-and-so, bound from such a port, +with such and such cargo, for such another port, having left at +such and such a date, last spoken at sea on such a day, and never +having been heard of since, was posted to-day as missing." Such in +its strictly official eloquence is the form of funeral orations on +ships that, perhaps wearied with a long struggle, or in some +unguarded moment that may come to the readiest of us, had let +themselves be overwhelmed by a sudden blow from the enemy. + +Who can say? Perhaps the men she carried had asked her to do too +much, had stretched beyond breaking-point the enduring faithfulness +which seems wrought and hammered into that assemblage of iron ribs +and plating, of wood and steel and canvas and wire, which goes to +the making of a ship--a complete creation endowed with character, +individuality, qualities and defects, by men whose hands launch her +upon the water, and that other men shall learn to know with an +intimacy surpassing the intimacy of man with man, to love with a +love nearly as great as that of man for woman, and often as blind +in its infatuated disregard of defects. + +There are ships which bear a bad name, but I have yet to meet one +whose crew for the time being failed to stand up angrily for her +against every criticism. One ship which I call to mind now had the +reputation of killing somebody every voyage she made. This was no +calumny, and yet I remember well, somewhere far back in the late +seventies, that the crew of that ship were, if anything, rather +proud of her evil fame, as if they had been an utterly corrupt lot +of desperadoes glorying in their association with an atrocious +creature. We, belonging to other vessels moored all about the +Circular Quay in Sydney, used to shake our heads at her with a +great sense of the unblemished virtue of our own well-loved ships. + +I shall not pronounce her name. She is "missing" now, after a +sinister but, from the point of view of her owners, a useful career +extending over many years, and, I should say, across every ocean of +our globe. Having killed a man for every voyage, and perhaps +rendered more misanthropic by the infirmities that come with years +upon a ship, she had made up her mind to kill all hands at once +before leaving the scene of her exploits. A fitting end, this, to +a life of usefulness and crime--in a last outburst of an evil +passion supremely satisfied on some wild night, perhaps, to the +applauding clamour of wind and wave. + +How did she do it? In the word "missing" there is a horrible depth +of doubt and speculation. Did she go quickly from under the men's +feet, or did she resist to the end, letting the sea batter her to +pieces, start her butts, wrench her frame, load her with an +increasing weight of salt water, and, dismasted, unmanageable, +rolling heavily, her boats gone, her decks swept, had she wearied +her men half to death with the unceasing labour at the pumps before +she sank with them like a stone? + +However, such a case must be rare. I imagine a raft of some sort +could always be contrived; and, even if it saved no one, it would +float on and be picked up, perhaps conveying some hint of the +vanished name. Then that ship would not be, properly speaking, +missing. She would be "lost with all hands," and in that +distinction there is a subtle difference--less horror and a less +appalling darkness. + + + +XVII. + + + +The unholy fascination of dread dwells in the thought of the last +moments of a ship reported as "missing" in the columns of the +Shipping Gazette. Nothing of her ever comes to light--no grating, +no lifebuoy, no piece of boat or branded oar--to give a hint of the +place and date of her sudden end. The Shipping Gazette does not +even call her "lost with all hands." She remains simply "missing"; +she has disappeared enigmatically into a mystery of fate as big as +the world, where your imagination of a brother-sailor, of a fellow- +servant and lover of ships, may range unchecked. + +And yet sometimes one gets a hint of what the last scene may be +like in the life of a ship and her crew, which resembles a drama in +its struggle against a great force bearing it up, formless, +ungraspable, chaotic and mysterious, as fate. + +It was on a gray afternoon in the lull of a three days' gale that +had left the Southern Ocean tumbling heavily upon our ship, under a +sky hung with rags of clouds that seemed to have been cut and +hacked by the keen edge of a sou'-west gale. + +Our craft, a Clyde-built barque of 1,000 tons, rolled so heavily +that something aloft had carried away. No matter what the damage +was, but it was serious enough to induce me to go aloft myself with +a couple of hands and the carpenter to see the temporary repairs +properly done. + +Sometimes we had to drop everything and cling with both hands to +the swaying spars, holding our breath in fear of a terribly heavy +roll. And, wallowing as if she meant to turn over with us, the +barque, her decks full of water, her gear flying in bights, ran at +some ten knots an hour. We had been driven far south--much farther +that way than we had meant to go; and suddenly, up there in the +slings of the foreyard, in the midst of our work, I felt my +shoulder gripped with such force in the carpenter's powerful paw +that I positively yelled with unexpected pain. The man's eyes +stared close in my face, and he shouted, "Look, sir! look! What's +this?" pointing ahead with his other hand. + +At first I saw nothing. The sea was one empty wilderness of black +and white hills. Suddenly, half-concealed in the tumult of the +foaming rollers I made out awash, something enormous, rising and +falling--something spread out like a burst of foam, but with a more +bluish, more solid look. + +It was a piece of an ice-floe melted down to a fragment, but still +big enough to sink a ship, and floating lower than any raft, right +in our way, as if ambushed among the waves with murderous intent. +There was no time to get down on deck. I shouted from aloft till +my head was ready to split. I was heard aft, and we managed to +clear the sunken floe which had come all the way from the Southern +ice-cap to have a try at our unsuspecting lives. Had it been an +hour later, nothing could have saved the ship, for no eye could +have made out in the dusk that pale piece of ice swept over by the +white-crested waves. + +And as we stood near the taffrail side by side, my captain and I, +looking at it, hardly discernible already, but still quite close-to +on our quarter, he remarked in a meditative tone: + +"But for the turn of that wheel just in time, there would have been +another case of a 'missing' ship." + +Nobody ever comes back from a "missing" ship to tell how hard was +the death of the craft, and how sudden and overwhelming the last +anguish of her men. Nobody can say with what thoughts, with what +regrets, with what words on their lips they died. But there is +something fine in the sudden passing away of these hearts from the +extremity of struggle and stress and tremendous uproar--from the +vast, unrestful rage of the surface to the profound peace of the +depths, sleeping untroubled since the beginning of ages. + + + +XVIII. + + + +But if the word "missing" brings all hope to an end and settles the +loss of the underwriters, the word "overdue" confirms the fears +already born in many homes ashore, and opens the door of +speculation in the market of risks. + +Maritime risks, be it understood. There is a class of optimists +ready to reinsure an "overdue" ship at a heavy premium. But +nothing can insure the hearts on shore against the bitterness of +waiting for the worst. + +For if a "missing" ship has never turned up within the memory of +seamen of my generation, the name of an "overdue" ship, trembling +as it were on the edge of the fatal heading, has been known to +appear as "arrived." + +It must blaze up, indeed, with a great brilliance the dull +printer's ink expended on the assemblage of the few letters that +form the ship's name to the anxious eyes scanning the page in fear +and trembling. It is like the message of reprieve from the +sentence of sorrow suspended over many a home, even if some of the +men in her have been the most homeless mortals that you may find +among the wanderers of the sea. + +The reinsurer, the optimist of ill-luck and disaster, slaps his +pocket with satisfaction. The underwriter, who had been trying to +minimize the amount of impending loss, regrets his premature +pessimism. The ship has been stauncher, the skies more merciful, +the seas less angry, or perhaps the men on board of a finer temper +than he has been willing to take for granted. + +"The ship So-and-so, bound to such a port, and posted as 'overdue,' +has been reported yesterday as having arrived safely at her +destination." + +Thus run the official words of the reprieve addressed to the hearts +ashore lying under a heavy sentence. And they come swiftly from +the other side of the earth, over wires and cables, for your +electric telegraph is a great alleviator of anxiety. Details, of +course, shall follow. And they may unfold a tale of narrow escape, +of steady ill-luck, of high winds and heavy weather, of ice, of +interminable calms or endless head-gales; a tale of difficulties +overcome, of adversity defied by a small knot of men upon the great +loneliness of the sea; a tale of resource, of courage--of +helplessness, perhaps. + +Of all ships disabled at sea, a steamer who has lost her propeller +is the most helpless. And if she drifts into an unpopulated part +of the ocean she may soon become overdue. The menace of the +"overdue" and the finality of "missing" come very quickly to +steamers whose life, fed on coals and breathing the black breath of +smoke into the air, goes on in disregard of wind and wave. Such a +one, a big steamship, too, whose working life had been a record of +faithful keeping time from land to land, in disregard of wind and +sea, once lost her propeller down south, on her passage out to New +Zealand. + +It was the wintry, murky time of cold gales and heavy seas. With +the snapping of her tail-shaft her life seemed suddenly to depart +from her big body, and from a stubborn, arrogant existence she +passed all at once into the passive state of a drifting log. A +ship sick with her own weakness has not the pathos of a ship +vanquished in a battle with the elements, wherein consists the +inner drama of her life. No seaman can look without compassion +upon a disabled ship, but to look at a sailing-vessel with her +lofty spars gone is to look upon a defeated but indomitable +warrior. There is defiance in the remaining stumps of her masts, +raised up like maimed limbs against the menacing scowl of a stormy +sky; there is high courage in the upward sweep of her lines towards +the bow; and as soon as, on a hastily-rigged spar, a strip of +canvas is shown to the wind to keep her head to sea, she faces the +waves again with an unsubdued courage. + + + +XIX. + + + +The efficiency of a steamship consists not so much in her courage +as in the power she carries within herself. It beats and throbs +like a pulsating heart within her iron ribs, and when it stops, the +steamer, whose life is not so much a contest as the disdainful +ignoring of the sea, sickens and dies upon the waves. The sailing- +ship, with her unthrobbing body, seemed to lead mysteriously a sort +of unearthly existence, bordering upon the magic of the invisible +forces, sustained by the inspiration of life-giving and death- +dealing winds. + +So that big steamer, dying by a sudden stroke, drifted, an unwieldy +corpse, away from the track of other ships. And she would have +been posted really as "overdue," or maybe as "missing," had she not +been sighted in a snowstorm, vaguely, like a strange rolling +island, by a whaler going north from her Polar cruising ground. +There was plenty of food on board, and I don't know whether the +nerves of her passengers were at all affected by anything else than +the sense of interminable boredom or the vague fear of that unusual +situation. Does a passenger ever feel the life of the ship in +which he is being carried like a sort of honoured bale of highly +sensitive goods? For a man who has never been a passenger it is +impossible to say. But I know that there is no harder trial for a +seaman than to feel a dead ship under his feet. + +There is no mistaking that sensation, so dismal, so tormenting and +so subtle, so full of unhappiness and unrest. I could imagine no +worse eternal punishment for evil seamen who die unrepentant upon +the earthly sea than that their souls should be condemned to man +the ghosts of disabled ships, drifting for ever across a ghostly +and tempestuous ocean. + +She must have looked ghostly enough, that broken-down steamer, +rolling in that snowstorm--a dark apparition in a world of white +snowflakes to the staring eyes of that whaler's crew. Evidently +they didn't believe in ghosts, for on arrival into port her captain +unromantically reported having sighted a disabled steamer in +latitude somewhere about 50 degrees S. and a longitude still more +uncertain. Other steamers came out to look for her, and ultimately +towed her away from the cold edge of the world into a harbour with +docks and workshops, where, with many blows of hammers, her +pulsating heart of steel was set going again to go forth presently +in the renewed pride of its strength, fed on fire and water, +breathing black smoke into the air, pulsating, throbbing, +shouldering its arrogant way against the great rollers in blind +disdain of winds and sea. + +The track she had made when drifting while her heart stood still +within her iron ribs looked like a tangled thread on the white +paper of the chart. It was shown to me by a friend, her second +officer. In that surprising tangle there were words in minute +letters--"gales," "thick fog," "ice"--written by him here and there +as memoranda of the weather. She had interminably turned upon her +tracks, she had crossed and recrossed her haphazard path till it +resembled nothing so much as a puzzling maze of pencilled lines +without a meaning. But in that maze there lurked all the romance +of the "overdue" and a menacing hint of "missing." + +"We had three weeks of it," said my friend, "just think of that!" + +"How did you feel about it?" I asked. + +He waved his hand as much as to say: It's all in the day's work. +But then, abruptly, as if making up his mind: + +"I'll tell you. Towards the last I used to shut myself up in my +berth and cry." + +"Cry?" + +"Shed tears," he explained briefly, and rolled up the chart. + +I can answer for it, he was a good man--as good as ever stepped +upon a ship's deck--but he could not bear the feeling of a dead +ship under his feet: the sickly, disheartening feeling which the +men of some "overdue" ships that come into harbour at last under a +jury-rig must have felt, combated, and overcome in the faithful +discharge of their duty. + + + +XX. + + + +It is difficult for a seaman to believe that his stranded ship does +not feel as unhappy at the unnatural predicament of having no water +under her keel as he is himself at feeling her stranded. + +Stranding is, indeed, the reverse of sinking. The sea does not +close upon the water-logged hull with a sunny ripple, or maybe with +the angry rush of a curling wave, erasing her name from the roll of +living ships. No. It is as if an invisible hand had been +stealthily uplifted from the bottom to catch hold of her keel as it +glides through the water. + +More than any other event does stranding bring to the sailor a +sense of utter and dismal failure. There are strandings and +strandings, but I am safe to say that 90 per cent. of them are +occasions in which a sailor, without dishonour, may well wish +himself dead; and I have no doubt that of those who had the +experience of their ship taking the ground, 90 per cent. did +actually for five seconds or so wish themselves dead. + +"Taking the ground" is the professional expression for a ship that +is stranded in gentle circumstances. But the feeling is more as if +the ground had taken hold of her. It is for those on her deck a +surprising sensation. It is as if your feet had been caught in an +imponderable snare; you feel the balance of your body threatened, +and the steady poise of your mind is destroyed at once. This +sensation lasts only a second, for even while you stagger something +seems to turn over in your head, bringing uppermost the mental +exclamation, full of astonishment and dismay, "By Jove! she's on +the ground!" + +And that is very terrible. After all, the only mission of a +seaman's calling is to keep ships' keels off the ground. Thus the +moment of her stranding takes away from him every excuse for his +continued existence. To keep ships afloat is his business; it is +his trust; it is the effective formula of the bottom of all these +vague impulses, dreams, and illusions that go to the making up of a +boy's vocation. The grip of the land upon the keel of your ship, +even if nothing worse comes of it than the wear and tear of tackle +and the loss of time, remains in a seaman's memory an indelibly +fixed taste of disaster. + +"Stranded" within the meaning of this paper stands for a more or +less excusable mistake. A ship may be "driven ashore" by stress of +weather. It is a catastrophe, a defeat. To be "run ashore" has +the littleness, poignancy, and bitterness of human error. + + + +XXI. + + + +That is why your "strandings" are for the most part so unexpected. +In fact, they are all unexpected, except those heralded by some +short glimpse of the danger, full of agitation and excitement, like +an awakening from a dream of incredible folly. + +The land suddenly at night looms up right over your bows, or +perhaps the cry of "Broken water ahead!" is raised, and some long +mistake, some complicated edifice of self-delusion, over- +confidence, and wrong reasoning is brought down in a fatal shock, +and the heart-searing experience of your ship's keel scraping and +scrunching over, say, a coral reef. It is a sound, for its size, +far more terrific to your soul than that of a world coming +violently to an end. But out of that chaos your belief in your own +prudence and sagacity reasserts itself. You ask yourself, Where on +earth did I get to? How on earth did I get there? with a +conviction that it could not be your own act, that there has been +at work some mysterious conspiracy of accident; that the charts are +all wrong, and if the charts are not wrong, that land and sea have +changed their places; that your misfortune shall for ever remain +inexplicable, since you have lived always with the sense of your +trust, the last thing on closing your eyes, the first on opening +them, as if your mind had kept firm hold of your responsibility +during the hours of sleep. + +You contemplate mentally your mischance, till little by little your +mood changes, cold doubt steals into the very marrow of your bones, +you see the inexplicable fact in another light. That is the time +when you ask yourself, How on earth could I have been fool enough +to get there? And you are ready to renounce all belief in your +good sense, in your knowledge, in your fidelity, in what you +thought till then was the best in you, giving you the daily bread +of life and the moral support of other men's confidence. + +The ship is lost or not lost. Once stranded, you have to do your +best by her. She may be saved by your efforts, by your resource +and fortitude bearing up against the heavy weight of guilt and +failure. And there are justifiable strandings in fogs, on +uncharted seas, on dangerous shores, through treacherous tides. +But, saved or not saved, there remains with her commander a +distinct sense of loss, a flavour in the mouth of the real, abiding +danger that lurks in all the forms of human existence. It is an +acquisition, too, that feeling. A man may be the better for it, +but he will not be the same. Damocles has seen the sword suspended +by a hair over his head, and though a good man need not be made +less valuable by such a knowledge, the feast shall not henceforth +have the same flavour. + +Years ago I was concerned as chief mate in a case of stranding +which was not fatal to the ship. We went to work for ten hours on +end, laying out anchors in readiness to heave off at high water. +While I was still busy about the decks forward I heard the steward +at my elbow saying: "The captain asks whether you mean to come in, +sir, and have something to eat to-day." + +I went into the cuddy. My captain sat at the head of the table +like a statue. There was a strange motionlessness of everything in +that pretty little cabin. The swing-table which for seventy odd +days had been always on the move, if ever so little, hung quite +still above the soup-tureen. Nothing could have altered the rich +colour of my commander's complexion, laid on generously by wind and +sea; but between the two tufts of fair hair above his ears, his +skull, generally suffused with the hue of blood, shone dead white, +like a dome of ivory. And he looked strangely untidy. I perceived +he had not shaved himself that day; and yet the wildest motion of +the ship in the most stormy latitudes we had passed through, never +made him miss one single morning ever since we left the Channel. +The fact must be that a commander cannot possibly shave himself +when his ship is aground. I have commanded ships myself, but I +don't know; I have never tried to shave in my life. + +He did not offer to help me or himself till I had coughed markedly +several times. I talked to him professionally in a cheery tone, +and ended with the confident assertion: + +"We shall get her off before midnight, sir." + +He smiled faintly without looking up, and muttered as if to +himself: + +"Yes, yes; the captain put the ship ashore and we got her off." + +Then, raising his head, he attacked grumpily the steward, a lanky, +anxious youth with a long, pale face and two big front teeth. + +"What makes this soup so bitter? I am surprised the mate can +swallow the beastly stuff. I'm sure the cook's ladled some salt +water into it by mistake." + +The charge was so outrageous that the steward for all answer only +dropped his eyelids bashfully. + +There was nothing the matter with the soup. I had a second +helping. My heart was warm with hours of hard work at the head of +a willing crew. I was elated with having handled heavy anchors, +cables, boats without the slightest hitch; pleased with having laid +out scientifically bower, stream, and kedge exactly where I +believed they would do most good. On that occasion the bitter +taste of a stranding was not for my mouth. That experience came +later, and it was only then that I understood the loneliness of the +man in charge. + +It's the captain who puts the ship ashore; it's we who get her off. + + + +XXII. + + + +It seems to me that no man born and truthful to himself could +declare that he ever saw the sea looking young as the earth looks +young in spring. But some of us, regarding the ocean with +understanding and affection, have seen it looking old, as if the +immemorial ages had been stirred up from the undisturbed bottom of +ooze. For it is a gale of wind that makes the sea look old. + +From a distance of years, looking at the remembered aspects of the +storms lived through, it is that impression which disengages itself +clearly from the great body of impressions left by many years of +intimate contact. + +If you would know the age of the earth, look upon the sea in a +storm. The grayness of the whole immense surface, the wind furrows +upon the faces of the waves, the great masses of foam, tossed about +and waving, like matted white locks, give to the sea in a gale an +appearance of hoary age, lustreless, dull, without gleams, as +though it had been created before light itself. + +Looking back after much love and much trouble, the instinct of +primitive man, who seeks to personify the forces of Nature for his +affection and for his fear, is awakened again in the breast of one +civilized beyond that stage even in his infancy. One seems to have +known gales as enemies, and even as enemies one embraces them in +that affectionate regret which clings to the past. + +Gales have their personalities, and, after all, perhaps it is not +strange; for, when all is said and done, they are adversaries whose +wiles you must defeat, whose violence you must resist, and yet with +whom you must live in the intimacies of nights and days. + +Here speaks the man of masts and sails, to whom the sea is not a +navigable element, but an intimate companion. The length of +passages, the growing sense of solitude, the close dependence upon +the very forces that, friendly to-day, without changing their +nature, by the mere putting forth of their might, become dangerous +to-morrow, make for that sense of fellowship which modern seamen, +good men as they are, cannot hope to know. And, besides, your +modern ship which is a steamship makes her passages on other +principles than yielding to the weather and humouring the sea. She +receives smashing blows, but she advances; it is a slogging fight, +and not a scientific campaign. The machinery, the steel, the fire, +the steam, have stepped in between the man and the sea. A modern +fleet of ships does not so much make use of the sea as exploit a +highway. The modern ship is not the sport of the waves. Let us +say that each of her voyages is a triumphant progress; and yet it +is a question whether it is not a more subtle and more human +triumph to be the sport of the waves and yet survive, achieving +your end. + +In his own time a man is always very modern. Whether the seamen of +three hundred years hence will have the faculty of sympathy it is +impossible to say. An incorrigible mankind hardens its heart in +the progress of its own perfectability. How will they feel on +seeing the illustrations to the sea novels of our day, or of our +yesterday? It is impossible to guess. But the seaman of the last +generation, brought into sympathy with the caravels of ancient time +by his sailing-ship, their lineal descendant, cannot look upon +those lumbering forms navigating the naive seas of ancient woodcuts +without a feeling of surprise, of affectionate derision, envy, and +admiration. For those things, whose unmanageableness, even when +represented on paper, makes one gasp with a sort of amused horror, +were manned by men who are his direct professional ancestors. + +No; the seamen of three hundred years hence will probably be +neither touched nor moved to derision, affection, or admiration. +They will glance at the photogravures of our nearly defunct +sailing-ships with a cold, inquisitive and indifferent eye. Our +ships of yesterday will stand to their ships as no lineal +ancestors, but as mere predecessors whose course will have been run +and the race extinct. Whatever craft he handles with skill, the +seaman of the future shall be, not our descendant, but only our +successor. + + + +XXIII. + + + +And so much depends upon the craft which, made by man, is one with +man, that the sea shall wear for him another aspect. I remember +once seeing the commander--officially the master, by courtesy the +captain--of a fine iron ship of the old wool fleet shaking his head +at a very pretty brigantine. She was bound the other way. She was +a taut, trim, neat little craft, extremely well kept; and on that +serene evening when we passed her close she looked the embodiment +of coquettish comfort on the sea. It was somewhere near the Cape-- +THE Cape being, of course, the Cape of Good Hope, the Cape of +Storms of its Portuguese discoverer. And whether it is that the +word "storm" should not be pronounced upon the sea where the storms +dwell thickly, or because men are shy of confessing their good +hopes, it has become the nameless cape--the Cape tout court. The +other great cape of the world, strangely enough, is seldom if ever +called a cape. We say, "a voyage round the Horn"; "we rounded the +Horn"; "we got a frightful battering off the Horn"; but rarely +"Cape Horn," and, indeed, with some reason, for Cape Horn is as +much an island as a cape. The third stormy cape of the world, +which is the Leeuwin, receives generally its full name, as if to +console its second-rate dignity. These are the capes that look +upon the gales. + +The little brigantine, then, had doubled the Cape. Perhaps she was +coming from Port Elizabeth, from East London--who knows? It was +many years ago, but I remember well the captain of the wool-clipper +nodding at her with the words, "Fancy having to go about the sea in +a thing like that!" + +He was a man brought up in big deep-water ships, and the size of +the craft under his feet was a part of his conception of the sea. +His own ship was certainly big as ships went then. He may have +thought of the size of his cabin, or--unconsciously, perhaps--have +conjured up a vision of a vessel so small tossing amongst the great +seas. I didn't inquire, and to a young second mate the captain of +the little pretty brigantine, sitting astride a camp stool with his +chin resting on his hands that were crossed upon the rail, might +have appeared a minor king amongst men. We passed her within +earshot, without a hail, reading each other's names with the naked +eye. + +Some years later, the second mate, the recipient of that almost +involuntary mutter, could have told his captain that a man brought +up in big ships may yet take a peculiar delight in what we should +both then have called a small craft. Probably the captain of the +big ship would not have understood very well. His answer would +have been a gruff, "Give me size," as I heard another man reply to +a remark praising the handiness of a small vessel. It was not a +love of the grandiose or the prestige attached to the command of +great tonnage, for he continued, with an air of disgust and +contempt, "Why, you get flung out of your bunk as likely as not in +any sort of heavy weather." + +I don't know. I remember a few nights in my lifetime, and in a big +ship, too (as big as they made them then), when one did not get +flung out of one's bed simply because one never even attempted to +get in; one had been made too weary, too hopeless, to try. The +expedient of turning your bedding out on to a damp floor and lying +on it there was no earthly good, since you could not keep your +place or get a second's rest in that or any other position. But of +the delight of seeing a small craft run bravely amongst the great +seas there can be no question to him whose soul does not dwell +ashore. Thus I well remember a three days' run got out of a little +barque of 400 tons somewhere between the islands of St. Paul and +Amsterdam and Cape Otway on the Australian coast. It was a hard, +long gale, gray clouds and green sea, heavy weather undoubtedly, +but still what a sailor would call manageable. Under two lower +topsails and a reefed foresail the barque seemed to race with a +long, steady sea that did not becalm her in the troughs. The +solemn thundering combers caught her up from astern, passed her +with a fierce boiling up of foam level with the bulwarks, swept on +ahead with a swish and a roar: and the little vessel, dipping her +jib-boom into the tumbling froth, would go on running in a smooth, +glassy hollow, a deep valley between two ridges of the sea, hiding +the horizon ahead and astern. There was such fascination in her +pluck, nimbleness, the continual exhibition of unfailing +seaworthiness, in the semblance of courage and endurance, that I +could not give up the delight of watching her run through the three +unforgettable days of that gale which my mate also delighted to +extol as "a famous shove." + +And this is one of those gales whose memory in after-years returns, +welcome in dignified austerity, as you would remember with pleasure +the noble features of a stranger with whom you crossed swords once +in knightly encounter and are never to see again. In this way +gales have their physiognomy. You remember them by your own +feelings, and no two gales stamp themselves in the same way upon +your emotions. Some cling to you in woebegone misery; others come +back fiercely and weirdly, like ghouls bent upon sucking your +strength away; others, again, have a catastrophic splendour; some +are unvenerated recollections, as of spiteful wild-cats clawing at +your agonized vitals; others are severe, like a visitation; and one +or two rise up draped and mysterious, with an aspect of ominous +menace. In each of them there is a characteristic point at which +the whole feeling seems contained in one single moment. Thus there +is a certain four o'clock in the morning in the confused roar of a +black and white world when coming on deck to take charge of my +watch I received the instantaneous impression that the ship could +not live for another hour in such a raging sea. + +I wonder what became of the men who silently (you couldn't hear +yourself speak) must have shared that conviction with me. To be +left to write about it is not, perhaps, the most enviable fate; but +the point is that this impression resumes in its intensity the +whole recollection of days and days of desperately dangerous +weather. We were then, for reasons which it is not worth while to +specify, in the close neighbourhood of Kerguelen Land; and now, +when I open an atlas and look at the tiny dots on the map of the +Southern Ocean, I see as if engraved upon the paper the enraged +physiognomy of that gale. + +Another, strangely, recalls a silent man. And yet it was not din +that was wanting; in fact, it was terrific. That one was a gale +that came upon the ship swiftly, like a parnpero, which last is a +very sudden wind indeed. Before we knew very well what was coming +all the sails we had set had burst; the furled ones were blowing +loose, ropes flying, sea hissing--it hissed tremendously--wind +howling, and the ship lying on her side, so that half of the crew +were swimming and the other half clawing desperately at whatever +came to hand, according to the side of the deck each man had been +caught on by the catastrophe, either to leeward or to windward. +The shouting I need not mention--it was the merest drop in an ocean +of noise--and yet the character of the gale seems contained in the +recollection of one small, not particularly impressive, sallow man +without a cap and with a very still face. Captain Jones--let us +call him Jones--had been caught unawares. Two orders he had given +at the first sign of an utterly unforeseen onset; after that the +magnitude of his mistake seemed to have overwhelmed him. We were +doing what was needed and feasible. The ship behaved well. Of +course, it was some time before we could pause in our fierce and +laborious exertions; but all through the work, the excitement, the +uproar, and some dismay, we were aware of this silent little man at +the break of the poop, perfectly motionless, soundless, and often +hidden from us by the drift of sprays. + +When we officers clambered at last upon the poop, he seemed to come +out of that numbed composure, and shouted to us down wind: "Try +the pumps." Afterwards he disappeared. As to the ship, I need not +say that, although she was presently swallowed up in one of the +blackest nights I can remember, she did not disappear. In truth, I +don't fancy that there had ever been much danger of that, but +certainly the experience was noisy and particularly distracting-- +and yet it is the memory of a very quiet silence that survives. + + + +XXIV. + + + +For, after all, a gale of wind, the thing of mighty sound, is +inarticulate. It is man who, in a chance phrase, interprets the +elemental passion of his enemy. Thus there is another gale in my +memory, a thing of endless, deep, humming roar, moonlight, and a +spoken sentence. + +It was off that other cape which is always deprived of its title as +the Cape of Good Hope is robbed of its name. It was off the Horn. +For a true expression of dishevelled wildness there is nothing like +a gale in the bright moonlight of a high latitude. + +The ship, brought-to and bowing to enormous flashing seas, +glistened wet from deck to trucks; her one set sail stood out a +coal-black shape upon the gloomy blueness of the air. I was a +youngster then, and suffering from weariness, cold, and imperfect +oilskins which let water in at every seam. I craved human +companionship, and, coming off the poop, took my place by the side +of the boatswain (a man whom I did not like) in a comparatively dry +spot where at worst we had water only up to our knees. Above our +heads the explosive booming gusts of wind passed continuously, +justifying the sailor's saying "It blows great guns." And just +from that need of human companionship, being very close to the man, +I said, or rather shouted: + +"Blows very hard, boatswain." + +His answer was: + +"Ay, and if it blows only a little harder things will begin to go. +I don't mind as long as everything holds, but when things begin to +go it's bad." + +The note of dread in the shouting voice, the practical truth of +these words, heard years ago from a man I did not like, have +stamped its peculiar character on that gale. + +A look in the eyes of a shipmate, a low murmur in the most +sheltered spot where the watch on duty are huddled together, a +meaning moan from one to the other with a glance at the windward +sky, a sigh of weariness, a gesture of disgust passing into the +keeping of the great wind, become part and parcel of the gale. The +olive hue of hurricane clouds presents an aspect peculiarly +appalling. The inky ragged wrack, flying before a nor'-west wind, +makes you dizzy with its headlong speed that depicts the rush of +the invisible air. A hard sou'-wester startles you with its close +horizon and its low gray sky, as if the world were a dungeon +wherein there is no rest for body or soul. And there are black +squalls, white squalls, thunder squalls, and unexpected gusts that +come without a single sign in the sky; and of each kind no one of +them resembles another. + +There is infinite variety in the gales of wind at sea, and except +for the peculiar, terrible, and mysterious moaning that may be +heard sometimes passing through the roar of a hurricane--except for +that unforgettable sound, as if the soul of the universe had been +goaded into a mournful groan--it is, after all, the human voice +that stamps the mark of human consciousness upon the character of a +gale. + + + +XXV. + + + +There is no part of the world of coasts, continents, oceans, seas, +straits, capes, and islands which is not under the sway of a +reigning wind, the sovereign of its typical weather. The wind +rules the aspects of the sky and the action of the sea. But no +wind rules unchallenged his realm of land and water. As with the +kingdoms of the earth, there are regions more turbulent than +others. In the middle belt of the earth the Trade Winds reign +supreme, undisputed, like monarchs of long-settled kingdoms, whose +traditional power, checking all undue ambitions, is not so much an +exercise of personal might as the working of long-established +institutions. The intertropical kingdoms of the Trade Winds are +favourable to the ordinary life of a merchantman. The trumpet-call +of strife is seldom borne on their wings to the watchful ears of +men on the decks of ships. The regions ruled by the north-east and +south-east Trade Winds are serene. In a southern-going ship, bound +out for a long voyage, the passage through their dominions is +characterized by a relaxation of strain and vigilance on the part +of the seamen. Those citizens of the ocean feel sheltered under +the aegis of an uncontested law, of an undisputed dynasty. There, +indeed, if anywhere on earth, the weather may be trusted. + +Yet not too implicitly. Even in the constitutional realm of Trade +Winds, north and south of the equator, ships are overtaken by +strange disturbances. Still, the easterly winds, and, generally +speaking, the easterly weather all the world over, is characterized +by regularity and persistence. + +As a ruler, the East Wind has a remarkable stability; as an invader +of the high latitudes lying under the tumultuous sway of his great +brother, the Wind of the West, he is extremely difficult to +dislodge, by the reason of his cold craftiness and profound +duplicity. + +The narrow seas around these isles, where British admirals keep +watch and ward upon the marches of the Atlantic Ocean, are subject +to the turbulent sway of the West Wind. Call it north-west or +south-west, it is all one--a different phase of the same character, +a changed expression on the same face. In the orientation of the +winds that rule the seas, the north and south directions are of no +importance. There are no North and South Winds of any account upon +this earth. The North and South Winds are but small princes in the +dynasties that make peace and war upon the sea. They never assert +themselves upon a vast stage. They depend upon local causes--the +configuration of coasts, the shapes of straits, the accidents of +bold promontories round which they play their little part. In the +polity of winds, as amongst the tribes of the earth, the real +struggle lies between East and West. + + + +XXVI. + + + +The West Wind reigns over the seas surrounding the coasts of these +kingdoms; and from the gateways of the channels, from promontories +as if from watch-towers, from estuaries of rivers as if from +postern gates, from passage-ways, inlets, straits, firths, the +garrison of the Isle and the crews of the ships going and returning +look to the westward to judge by the varied splendours of his +sunset mantle the mood of that arbitrary ruler. The end of the day +is the time to gaze at the kingly face of the Westerly Weather, who +is the arbiter of ships' destinies. Benignant and splendid, or +splendid and sinister, the western sky reflects the hidden purposes +of the royal mind. Clothed in a mantle of dazzling gold or draped +in rags of black clouds like a beggar, the might of the Westerly +Wind sits enthroned upon the western horizon with the whole North +Atlantic as a footstool for his feet and the first twinkling stars +making a diadem for his brow. Then the seamen, attentive courtiers +of the weather, think of regulating the conduct of their ships by +the mood of the master. The West Wind is too great a king to be a +dissembler: he is no calculator plotting deep schemes in a sombre +heart; he is too strong for small artifices; there is passion in +all his moods, even in the soft mood of his serene days, in the +grace of his blue sky whose immense and unfathomable tenderness +reflected in the mirror of the sea embraces, possesses, lulls to +sleep the ships with white sails. He is all things to all oceans; +he is like a poet seated upon a throne--magnificent, simple, +barbarous, pensive, generous, impulsive, changeable, unfathomable-- +but when you understand him, always the same. Some of his sunsets +are like pageants devised for the delight of the multitude, when +all the gems of the royal treasure-house are displayed above the +sea. Others are like the opening of his royal confidence, tinged +with thoughts of sadness and compassion in a melancholy splendour +meditating upon the short-lived peace of the waters. And I have +seen him put the pent-up anger of his heart into the aspect of the +inaccessible sun, and cause it to glare fiercely like the eye of an +implacable autocrat out of a pale and frightened sky. + +He is the war-lord who sends his battalions of Atlantic rollers to +the assault of our seaboard. The compelling voice of the West Wind +musters up to his service all the might of the ocean. At the +bidding of the West Wind there arises a great commotion in the sky +above these Islands, and a great rush of waters falls upon our +shores. The sky of the westerly weather is full of flying clouds, +of great big white clouds coming thicker and thicker till they seem +to stand welded into a solid canopy, upon whose gray face the lower +wrack of the gale, thin, black and angry-looking, flies past with +vertiginous speed. Denser and denser grows this dome of vapours, +descending lower and lower upon the sea, narrowing the horizon +around the ship. And the characteristic aspect of westerly +weather, the thick, gray, smoky and sinister tone sets in, +circumscribing the view of the men, drenching their bodies, +oppressing their souls, taking their breath away with booming +gusts, deafening, blinding, driving, rushing them onwards in a +swaying ship towards our coasts lost in mists and rain. + +The caprice of the winds, like the wilfulness of men, is fraught +with the disastrous consequences of self-indulgence. Long anger, +the sense of his uncontrolled power, spoils the frank and generous +nature of the West Wind. It is as if his heart were corrupted by a +malevolent and brooding rancour. He devastates his own kingdom in +the wantonness of his force. South-west is the quarter of the +heavens where he presents his darkened brow. He breathes his rage +in terrific squalls, and overwhelms his realm with an inexhaustible +welter of clouds. He strews the seeds of anxiety upon the decks of +scudding ships, makes the foam-stripped ocean look old, and +sprinkles with gray hairs the heads of ship-masters in the +homeward-bound ships running for the Channel. The Westerly Wind +asserting his sway from the south-west quarter is often like a +monarch gone mad, driving forth with wild imprecations the most +faithful of his courtiers to shipwreck, disaster, and death. + +The south-westerly weather is the thick weather par excellence. It +is not the thickness of the fog; it is rather a contraction of the +horizon, a mysterious veiling of the shores with clouds that seem +to make a low-vaulted dungeon around the running ship. It is not +blindness; it is a shortening of the sight. The West Wind does not +say to the seaman, "You shall be blind"; it restricts merely the +range of his vision and raises the dread of land within his breast. +It makes of him a man robbed of half his force, of half his +efficiency. Many times in my life, standing in long sea-boots and +streaming oilskins at the elbow of my commander on the poop of a +homeward-bound ship making for the Channel, and gazing ahead into +the gray and tormented waste, I have heard a weary sigh shape +itself into a studiously casual comment: + +"Can't see very far in this weather." + +And have made answer in the same low, perfunctory tone + +"No, sir." + +It would be merely the instinctive voicing of an ever-present +thought associated closely with the consciousness of the land +somewhere ahead and of the great speed of the ship. Fair wind, +fair wind! Who would dare to grumble at a fair wind? It was a +favour of the Western King, who rules masterfully the North +Atlantic from the latitude of the Azores to the latitude of Cape +Farewell. A famous shove this to end a good passage with; and yet, +somehow, one could not muster upon one's lips the smile of a +courtier's gratitude. This favour was dispensed to you from under +an overbearing scowl, which is the true expression of the great +autocrat when he has made up his mind to give a battering to some +ships and to hunt certain others home in one breath of cruelty and +benevolence, equally distracting. + +"No, sir. Can't see very far." + +Thus would the mate's voice repeat the thought of the master, both +gazing ahead, while under their feet the ship rushes at some twelve +knots in the direction of the lee shore; and only a couple of miles +in front of her swinging and dripping jib-boom, carried naked with +an upward slant like a spear, a gray horizon closes the view with a +multitude of waves surging upwards violently as if to strike at the +stooping clouds. + +Awful and threatening scowls darken the face of the West Wind in +his clouded, south-west mood; and from the King's throne-hall in +the western board stronger gusts reach you, like the fierce shouts +of raving fury to which only the gloomy grandeur of the scene +imparts a saving dignity. A shower pelts the deck and the sails of +the ship as if flung with a scream by an angry hand; and when the +night closes in, the night of a south-westerly gale, it seems more +hopeless than the shade of Hades. The south-westerly mood of the +great West Wind is a lightless mood, without sun, moon, or stars, +with no gleam of light but the phosphorescent flashes of the great +sheets of foam that, boiling up on each side of the ship, fling +bluish gleams upon her dark and narrow hull, rolling as she runs, +chased by enormous seas, distracted in the tumult. + +There are some bad nights in the kingdom of the West Wind for +homeward-bound ships making for the Channel; and the days of wrath +dawn upon them colourless and vague like the timid turning up of +invisible lights upon the scene of a tyrannical and passionate +outbreak, awful in the monotony of its method and the increasing +strength of its violence. It is the same wind, the same clouds, +the same wildly racing seas, the same thick horizon around the +ship. Only the wind is stronger, the clouds seem denser and more +overwhelming, the waves appear to have grown bigger and more +threatening during the night. The hours, whose minutes are marked +by the crash of the breaking seas, slip by with the screaming, +pelting squalls overtaking the ship as she runs on and on with +darkened canvas, with streaming spars and dripping ropes. The +down-pours thicken. Preceding each shower a mysterious gloom, like +the passage of a shadow above the firmament of gray clouds, filters +down upon the ship. Now and then the rain pours upon your head in +streams as if from spouts. It seems as if your ship were going to +be drowned before she sank, as if all atmosphere had turned to +water. You gasp, you splutter, you are blinded and deafened, you +are submerged, obliterated, dissolved, annihilated, streaming all +over as if your limbs, too, had turned to water. And every nerve +on the alert you watch for the clearing-up mood of the Western +King, that shall come with a shift of wind as likely as not to whip +all the three masts out of your ship in the twinkling of an eye. + + + +XXVII. + + + +Heralded by the increasing fierceness of the squalls, sometimes by +a faint flash of lightning like the signal of a lighted torch waved +far away behind the clouds, the shift of wind comes at last, the +crucial moment of the change from the brooding and veiled violence +of the south-west gale to the sparkling, flashing, cutting, clear- +eyed anger of the King's north-westerly mood. You behold another +phase of his passion, a fury bejewelled with stars, mayhap bearing +the crescent of the moon on its brow, shaking the last vestiges of +its torn cloud-mantle in inky-black squalls, with hail and sleet +descending like showers of crystals and pearls, bounding off the +spars, drumming on the sails, pattering on the oilskin coats, +whitening the decks of homeward-bound ships. Faint, ruddy flashes +of lightning flicker in the starlight upon her mastheads. A chilly +blast hums in the taut rigging, causing the ship to tremble to her +very keel, and the soaked men on her decks to shiver in their wet +clothes to the very marrow of their bones. Before one squall has +flown over to sink in the eastern board, the edge of another peeps +up already above the western horizon, racing up swift, shapeless, +like a black bag full of frozen water ready to burst over your +devoted head. The temper of the ruler of the ocean has changed. +Each gust of the clouded mood that seemed warmed by the heat of a +heart flaming with anger has its counterpart in the chilly blasts +that seem blown from a breast turned to ice with a sudden revulsion +of feeling. Instead of blinding your eyes and crushing your soul +with a terrible apparatus of cloud and mists and seas and rain, the +King of the West turns his power to contemptuous pelting of your +back with icicles, to making your weary eyes water as if in grief, +and your worn-out carcass quake pitifully. But each mood of the +great autocrat has its own greatness, and each is hard to bear. +Only the north-west phase of that mighty display is not +demoralizing to the same extent, because between the hail and sleet +squalls of a north-westerly gale one can see a long way ahead. + +To see! to see!--this is the craving of the sailor, as of the rest +of blind humanity. To have his path made clear for him is the +aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous +existence. I have heard a reserved, silent man, with no nerves to +speak of, after three days of hard running in thick south-westerly +weather, burst out passionately: "I wish to God we could get sight +of something!" + +We had just gone down below for a moment to commune in a battened- +down cabin, with a large white chart lying limp and damp upon a +cold and clammy table under the light of a smoky lamp. Sprawling +over that seaman's silent and trusted adviser, with one elbow upon +the coast of Africa and the other planted in the neighbourhood of +Cape Hatteras (it was a general track-chart of the North Atlantic), +my skipper lifted his rugged, hairy face, and glared at me in a +half-exasperated, half-appealing way. We have seen no sun, moon, +or stars for something like seven days. By the effect of the West +Wind's wrath the celestial bodies had gone into hiding for a week +or more, and the last three days had seen the force of a south-west +gale grow from fresh, through strong, to heavy, as the entries in +my log-book could testify. Then we separated, he to go on deck +again, in obedience to that mysterious call that seems to sound for +ever in a shipmaster's ears, I to stagger into my cabin with some +vague notion of putting down the words "Very heavy weather" in a +log-book not quite written up-to-date. But I gave it up, and +crawled into my bunk instead, boots and hat on, all standing (it +did not matter; everything was soaking wet, a heavy sea having +burst the poop skylights the night before), to remain in a +nightmarish state between waking and sleeping for a couple of hours +of so-called rest. + +The south-westerly mood of the West Wind is an enemy of sleep, and +even of a recumbent position, in the responsible officers of a +ship. After two hours of futile, light-headed, inconsequent +thinking upon all things under heaven in that dark, dank, wet and +devastated cabin, I arose suddenly and staggered up on deck. The +autocrat of the North Atlantic was still oppressing his kingdom and +its outlying dependencies, even as far as the Bay of Biscay, in the +dismal secrecy of thick, very thick, weather. The force of the +wind, though we were running before it at the rate of some ten +knots an hour, was so great that it drove me with a steady push to +the front of the poop, where my commander was holding on. + +"What do you think of it?" he addressed me in an interrogative +yell. + +What I really thought was that we both had had just about enough of +it. The manner in which the great West Wind chooses at times to +administer his possessions does not commend itself to a person of +peaceful and law-abiding disposition, inclined to draw distinctions +between right and wrong in the face of natural forces, whose +standard, naturally, is that of might alone. But, of course, I +said nothing. For a man caught, as it were, between his skipper +and the great West Wind silence is the safest sort of diplomacy. +Moreover, I knew my skipper. He did not want to know what I +thought. Shipmasters hanging on a breath before the thrones of the +winds ruling the seas have their psychology, whose workings are as +important to the ship and those on board of her as the changing +moods of the weather. The man, as a matter of fact, under no +circumstances, ever cared a brass farthing for what I or anybody +else in his ship thought. He had had just about enough of it, I +guessed, and what he was at really was a process of fishing for a +suggestion. It was the pride of his life that he had never wasted +a chance, no matter how boisterous, threatening, and dangerous, of +a fair wind. Like men racing blindfold for a gap in a hedge, we +were finishing a splendidly quick passage from the Antipodes, with +a tremendous rush for the Channel in as thick a weather as any I +can remember, but his psychology did not permit him to bring the +ship to with a fair wind blowing--at least not on his own +initiative. And yet he felt that very soon indeed something would +have to be done. He wanted the suggestion to come from me, so that +later on, when the trouble was over, he could argue this point with +his own uncompromising spirit, laying the blame upon my shoulders. +I must render him the justice that this sort of pride was his only +weakness. + +But he got no suggestion from me. I understood his psychology. +Besides, I had my own stock of weaknesses at the time (it is a +different one now), and amongst them was the conceit of being +remarkably well up in the psychology of the Westerly weather. I +believed--not to mince matters--that I had a genius for reading the +mind of the great ruler of high latitudes. I fancied I could +discern already the coming of a change in his royal mood. And all +I said was: + +"The weather's bound to clear up with the shift of wind." + +"Anybody knows that much!" he snapped at me, at the highest pitch +of his voice. + +"I mean before dark!" I cried. + +This was all the opening he ever got from me. The eagerness with +which he seized upon it gave me the measure of the anxiety he had +been labouring under. + +"Very well," he shouted, with an affectation of impatience, as if +giving way to long entreaties. "All right. If we don't get a +shift by then we'll take that foresail off her and put her head +under her wing for the night." + +I was struck by the picturesque character of the phrase as applied +to a ship brought-to in order to ride out a gale with wave after +wave passing under her breast. I could see her resting in the +tumult of the elements like a sea-bird sleeping in wild weather +upon the raging waters with its head tucked under its wing. In +imaginative precision, in true feeling, this is one of the most +expressive sentences I have ever heard on human lips. But as to +taking the foresail off that ship before we put her head under her +wing, I had my grave doubts. They were justified. That long +enduring piece of canvas was confiscated by the arbitrary decree of +the West Wind, to whom belong the lives of men and the contrivances +of their hands within the limits of his kingdom. With the sound of +a faint explosion it vanished into the thick weather bodily, +leaving behind of its stout substance not so much as one solitary +strip big enough to be picked into a handful of lint for, say, a +wounded elephant. Torn out of its bolt-ropes, it faded like a +whiff of smoke in the smoky drift of clouds shattered and torn by +the shift of wind. For the shift of wind had come. The unveiled, +low sun glared angrily from a chaotic sky upon a confused and +tremendous sea dashing itself upon a coast. We recognised the +headland, and looked at each other in the silence of dumb wonder. +Without knowing it in the least, we had run up alongside the Isle +of Wight, and that tower, tinged a faint evening red in the salt +wind-haze, was the lighthouse on St. Catherine's Point. + +My skipper recovered first from his astonishment. His bulging eyes +sank back gradually into their orbits. His psychology, taking it +all round, was really very creditable for an average sailor. He +had been spared the humiliation of laying his ship to with a fair +wind; and at once that man, of an open and truthful nature, spoke +up in perfect good faith, rubbing together his brown, hairy hands-- +the hands of a master-craftsman upon the sea: + +"Humph! that's just about where I reckoned we had got to." + +The transparency and ingenuousness, in a way, of that delusion, the +airy tone, the hint of already growing pride, were perfectly +delicious. But, in truth, this was one of the greatest surprises +ever sprung by the clearing up mood of the West Wind upon one of +the most accomplished of his courtiers. + + + +XXVIII. + + + +The winds of North and South are, as I have said, but small princes +amongst the powers of the sea. They have no territory of their +own; they are not reigning winds anywhere. Yet it is from their +houses that the reigning dynasties which have shared between them +the waters of the earth are sprung. All the weather of the world +is based upon the contest of the Polar and Equatorial strains of +that tyrannous race. The West Wind is the greatest king. The East +rules between the Tropics. They have shared each ocean between +them. Each has his genius of supreme rule. The King of the West +never intrudes upon the recognised dominion of his kingly brother. +He is a barbarian, of a northern type. Violent without craftiness, +and furious without malice, one may imagine him seated masterfully +with a double-edged sword on his knees upon the painted and gilt +clouds of the sunset, bowing his shock head of golden locks, a +flaming beard over his breast, imposing, colossal, mighty-limbed, +with a thundering voice, distended cheeks and fierce blue eyes, +urging the speed of his gales. The other, the East king, the king +of blood-red sunrises, I represent to myself as a spare Southerner +with clear-cut features, black-browed and dark-eyed, gray-robed, +upright in sunshine, resting a smooth-shaven cheek in the palm of +his hand, impenetrable, secret, full of wiles, fine-drawn, keen-- +meditating aggressions. + +The West Wind keeps faith with his brother, the King of the +Easterly weather. "What we have divided we have divided," he seems +to say in his gruff voice, this ruler without guile, who hurls as +if in sport enormous masses of cloud across the sky, and flings the +great waves of the Atlantic clear across from the shores of the New +World upon the hoary headlands of Old Europe, which harbours more +kings and rulers upon its seamed and furrowed body than all the +oceans of the world together. "What we have divided we have +divided; and if no rest and peace in this world have fallen to my +share, leave me alone. Let me play at quoits with cyclonic gales, +flinging the discs of spinning cloud and whirling air from one end +of my dismal kingdom to the other: over the Great Banks or along +the edges of pack-ice--this one with true aim right into the bight +of the Bay of Biscay, that other upon the fiords of Norway, across +the North Sea where the fishermen of many nations look watchfully +into my angry eye. This is the time of kingly sport." + +And the royal master of high latitudes sighs mightily, with the +sinking sun upon his breast and the double-edged sword upon his +knees, as if wearied by the innumerable centuries of a strenuous +rule and saddened by the unchangeable aspect of the ocean under his +feet--by the endless vista of future ages where the work of sowing +the wind and reaping the whirlwind shall go on and on till his +realm of living waters becomes a frozen and motionless ocean. But +the other, crafty and unmoved, nursing his shaven chin between the +thumb and forefinger of his slim and treacherous hand, thinks deep +within his heart full of guile: "Aha! our brother of the West has +fallen into the mood of kingly melancholy. He is tired of playing +with circular gales, and blowing great guns, and unrolling thick +streamers of fog in wanton sport at the cost of his own poor, +miserable subjects. Their fate is most pitiful. Let us make a +foray upon the dominions of that noisy barbarian, a great raid from +Finisterre to Hatteras, catching his fishermen unawares, baffling +the fleets that trust to his power, and shooting sly arrows into +the livers of men who court his good graces. He is, indeed, a +worthless fellow." And forthwith, while the West Wind meditates +upon the vanity of his irresistible might, the thing is done, and +the Easterly weather sets in upon the North Atlantic. + +The prevailing weather of the North Atlantic is typical of the way +in which the West Wind rules his realm on which the sun never sets. +North Atlantic is the heart of a great empire. It is the part of +the West Wind's dominions most thickly populated with generations +of fine ships and hardy men. Heroic deeds and adventurous exploits +have been performed there, within the very stronghold of his sway. +The best sailors in the world have been born and bred under the +shadow of his sceptre, learning to manage their ships with skill +and audacity before the steps of his stormy throne. Reckless +adventurers, toiling fishermen, admirals as wise and brave as the +world has ever known, have waited upon the signs of his westerly +sky. Fleets of victorious ships have hung upon his breath. He has +tossed in his hand squadrons of war-scarred three-deckers, and +shredded out in mere sport the bunting of flags hallowed in the +traditions of honour and glory. He is a good friend and a +dangerous enemy, without mercy to unseaworthy ships and faint- +hearted seamen. In his kingly way he has taken but little account +of lives sacrificed to his impulsive policy; he is a king with a +double-edged sword bared in his right hand. The East Wind, an +interloper in the dominions of Westerly weather, is an impassive- +faced tyrant with a sharp poniard held behind his back for a +treacherous stab. + +In his forays into the North Atlantic the East Wind behaves like a +subtle and cruel adventurer without a notion of honour or fair +play. Veiling his clear-cut, lean face in a thin layer of a hard, +high cloud, I have seen him, like a wizened robber sheik of the +sea, hold up large caravans of ships to the number of three hundred +or more at the very gates of the English Channel. And the worst of +it was that there was no ransom that we could pay to satisfy his +avidity; for whatever evil is wrought by the raiding East Wind, it +is done only to spite his kingly brother of the West. We gazed +helplessly at the systematic, cold, gray-eyed obstinacy of the +Easterly weather, while short rations became the order of the day, +and the pinch of hunger under the breast-bone grew familiar to +every sailor in that held-up fleet. Every day added to our +numbers. In knots and groups and straggling parties we flung to +and fro before the closed gate. And meantime the outward-bound +ships passed, running through our humiliated ranks under all the +canvas they could show. It is my idea that the Easterly Wind helps +the ships away from home in the wicked hope that they shall all +come to an untimely end and be heard of no more. For six weeks did +the robber sheik hold the trade route of the earth, while our liege +lord, the West Wind, slept profoundly like a tired Titan, or else +remained lost in a mood of idle sadness known only to frank +natures. All was still to the westward; we looked in vain towards +his stronghold: the King slumbered on so deeply that he let his +foraging brother steal the very mantle of gold-lined purple clouds +from his bowed shoulders. What had become of the dazzling hoard of +royal jewels exhibited at every close of day? Gone, disappeared, +extinguished, carried off without leaving a single gold band or the +flash of a single sunbeam in the evening sky! Day after day +through a cold streak of heavens as bare and poor as the inside of +a rifled safe a rayless and despoiled sun would slink shamefacedly, +without pomp or show, to hide in haste under the waters. And still +the King slept on, or mourned the vanity of his might and his +power, while the thin-lipped intruder put the impress of his cold +and implacable spirit upon the sky and sea. With every daybreak +the rising sun had to wade through a crimson stream, luminous and +sinister, like the spilt blood of celestial bodies murdered during +the night. + +In this particular instance the mean interloper held the road for +some six weeks on end, establishing his particular administrative +methods over the best part of the North Atlantic. It looked as if +the easterly weather had come to stay for ever, or, at least, till +we had all starved to death in the held-up fleet--starved within +sight, as it were, of plenty, within touch, almost, of the +bountiful heart of the Empire. There we were, dotting with our +white dry sails the hard blueness of the deep sea. There we were, +a growing company of ships, each with her burden of grain, of +timber, of wool, of hides, and even of oranges, for we had one or +two belated fruit schooners in company. There we were, in that +memorable spring of a certain year in the late seventies, dodging +to and fro, baffled on every tack, and with our stores running down +to sweepings of bread-lockers and scrapings of sugar-casks. It was +just like the East Wind's nature to inflict starvation upon the +bodies of unoffending sailors, while he corrupted their simple +souls by an exasperation leading to outbursts of profanity as lurid +as his blood-red sunrises. They were followed by gray days under +the cover of high, motionless clouds that looked as if carved in a +slab of ash-coloured marble. And each mean starved sunset left us +calling with imprecations upon the West Wind even in its most +veiled misty mood to wake up and give us our liberty, if only to +rush on and dash the heads of our ships against the very walls of +our unapproachable home. + + + +XXIX. + + + +In the atmosphere of the Easterly weather, as pellucid as a piece +of crystal and refracting like a prism, we could see the appalling +numbers of our helpless company, even to those who in more normal +conditions would have remained invisible, sails down under the +horizon. It is the malicious pleasure of the East Wind to augment +the power of your eyesight, in order, perhaps, that you should see +better the perfect humiliation, the hopeless character of your +captivity. Easterly weather is generally clear, and that is all +that can be said for it--almost supernaturally clear when it likes; +but whatever its mood, there is something uncanny in its nature. +Its duplicity is such that it will deceive a scientific instrument. +No barometer will give warning of an easterly gale, were it ever so +wet. It would be an unjust and ungrateful thing to say that a +barometer is a stupid contrivance. It is simply that the wiles of +the East Wind are too much for its fundamental honesty. After +years and years of experience the most trusty instrument of the +sort that ever went to sea screwed on to a ship's cabin bulkhead +will, almost invariably, be induced to rise by the diabolic +ingenuity of the Easterly weather, just at the moment when the +Easterly weather, discarding its methods of hard, dry, impassive +cruelty, contemplates drowning what is left of your spirit in +torrents of a peculiarly cold and horrid rain. The sleet-and-hail +squalls following the lightning at the end of a westerly gale are +cold and benumbing and stinging and cruel enough. But the dry, +Easterly weather, when it turns to wet, seems to rain poisoned +showers upon your head. It is a sort of steady, persistent, +overwhelming, endlessly driving downpour, which makes your heart +sick, and opens it to dismal forebodings. And the stormy mood of +the Easterly weather looms black upon the sky with a peculiar and +amazing blackness. The West Wind hangs heavy gray curtains of mist +and spray before your gaze, but the Eastern interloper of the +narrow seas, when he has mustered his courage and cruelty to the +point of a gale, puts your eyes out, puts them out completely, +makes you feel blind for life upon a lee-shore. It is the wind, +also, that brings snow. + +Out of his black and merciless heart he flings a white blinding +sheet upon the ships of the sea. He has more manners of villainy, +and no more conscience than an Italian prince of the seventeenth +century. His weapon is a dagger carried under a black cloak when +he goes out on his unlawful enterprises. The mere hint of his +approach fills with dread every craft that swims the sea, from +fishing-smacks to four-masted ships that recognise the sway of the +West Wind. Even in his most accommodating mood he inspires a dread +of treachery. I have heard upwards of ten score of windlasses +spring like one into clanking life in the dead of night, filling +the Downs with a panic-struck sound of anchors being torn hurriedly +out of the ground at the first breath of his approach. +Fortunately, his heart often fails him: he does not always blow +home upon our exposed coast; he has not the fearless temper of his +Westerly brother. + +The natures of those two winds that share the dominions of the +great oceans are fundamentally different. It is strange that the +winds which men are prone to style capricious remain true to their +character in all the various regions of the earth. To us here, for +instance, the East Wind comes across a great continent, sweeping +over the greatest body of solid land upon this earth. For the +Australian east coast the East Wind is the wind of the ocean, +coming across the greatest body of water upon the globe; and yet +here and there its characteristics remain the same with a strange +consistency in everything that is vile and base. The members of +the West Wind's dynasty are modified in a way by the regions they +rule, as a Hohenzollern, without ceasing to be himself, becomes a +Roumanian by virtue of his throne, or a Saxe-Coburg learns to put +the dress of Bulgarian phrases upon his particular thoughts, +whatever they are. + +The autocratic sway of the West Wind, whether forty north or forty +south of the Equator, is characterized by an open, generous, frank, +barbarous recklessness. For he is a great autocrat, and to be a +great autocrat you must be a great barbarian. I have been too much +moulded to his sway to nurse now any idea of rebellion in my heart. +Moreover, what is a rebellion within the four walls of a room +against the tempestuous rule of the West Wind? I remain faithful +to the memory of the mighty King with a double-edged sword in one +hand, and in the other holding out rewards of great daily runs and +famously quick passages to those of his courtiers who knew how to +wait watchfully for every sign of his secret mood. As we deep- +water men always reckoned, he made one year in three fairly lively +for anybody having business upon the Atlantic or down there along +the "forties" of the Southern Ocean. You had to take the bitter +with the sweet; and it cannot be denied he played carelessly with +our lives and fortunes. But, then, he was always a great king, fit +to rule over the great waters where, strictly speaking, a man would +have no business whatever but for his audacity. + +The audacious should not complain. A mere trader ought not to +grumble at the tolls levied by a mighty king. His mightiness was +sometimes very overwhelming; but even when you had to defy him +openly, as on the banks of the Agulhas homeward bound from the East +Indies, or on the outward passage round the Horn, he struck at you +fairly his stinging blows (full in the face, too), and it was your +business not to get too much staggered. And, after all, if you +showed anything of a countenance, the good-natured barbarian would +let you fight your way past the very steps of his throne. It was +only now and then that the sword descended and a head fell; but if +you fell you were sure of impressive obsequies and of a roomy, +generous grave. + +Such is the king to whom Viking chieftains bowed their heads, and +whom the modern and palatial steamship defies with impunity seven +times a week. And yet it is but defiance, not victory. The +magnificent barbarian sits enthroned in a mantle of gold-lined +clouds looking from on high on great ships gliding like mechanical +toys upon his sea and on men who, armed with fire and iron, no +longer need to watch anxiously for the slightest sign of his royal +mood. He is disregarded; but he has kept all his strength, all his +splendour, and a great part of his power. Time itself, that shakes +all the thrones, is on the side of that king. The sword in his +hand remains as sharp as ever upon both its edges; and he may well +go on playing his royal game of quoits with hurricanes, tossing +them over from the continent of republics to the continent of +kingdoms, in the assurance that both the new republics and the old +kingdoms, the heat of fire and the strength of iron, with the +untold generations of audacious men, shall crumble to dust at the +steps of his throne, and pass away, and be forgotten before his own +rule comes to an end. + + + +XXX. + + + +The estuaries of rivers appeal strongly to an adventurous +imagination. This appeal is not always a charm, for there are +estuaries of a particularly dispiriting ugliness: lowlands, mud- +flats, or perhaps barren sandhills without beauty of form or +amenity of aspect, covered with a shabby and scanty vegetation +conveying the impression of poverty and uselessness. Sometimes +such an ugliness is merely a repulsive mask. A river whose estuary +resembles a breach in a sand rampart may flow through a most +fertile country. But all the estuaries of great rivers have their +fascination, the attractiveness of an open portal. Water is +friendly to man. The ocean, a part of Nature furthest removed in +the unchangeableness and majesty of its might from the spirit of +mankind, has ever been a friend to the enterprising nations of the +earth. And of all the elements this is the one to which men have +always been prone to trust themselves, as if its immensity held a +reward as vast as itself. + +From the offing the open estuary promises every possible fruition +to adventurous hopes. That road open to enterprise and courage +invites the explorer of coasts to new efforts towards the +fulfilment of great expectations. The commander of the first Roman +galley must have looked with an intense absorption upon the estuary +of the Thames as he turned the beaked prow of his ship to the +westward under the brow of the North Foreland. The estuary of the +Thames is not beautiful; it has no noble features, no romantic +grandeur of aspect, no smiling geniality; but it is wide open, +spacious, inviting, hospitable at the first glance, with a strange +air of mysteriousness which lingers about it to this very day. The +navigation of his craft must have engrossed all the Roman's +attention in the calm of a summer's day (he would choose his +weather), when the single row of long sweeps (the galley would be a +light one, not a trireme) could fall in easy cadence upon a sheet +of water like plate-glass, reflecting faithfully the classic form +of his vessel and the contour of the lonely shores close on his +left hand. I assume he followed the land and passed through what +is at present known as Margate Roads, groping his careful way along +the hidden sandbanks, whose every tail and spit has its beacon or +buoy nowadays. He must have been anxious, though no doubt he had +collected beforehand on the shores of the Gauls a store of +information from the talk of traders, adventurers, fishermen, +slave-dealers, pirates--all sorts of unofficial men connected with +the sea in a more or less reputable way. He would have heard of +channels and sandbanks, of natural features of the land useful for +sea-marks, of villages and tribes and modes of barter and +precautions to take: with the instructive tales about native +chiefs dyed more or less blue, whose character for greediness, +ferocity, or amiability must have been expounded to him with that +capacity for vivid language which seems joined naturally to the +shadiness of moral character and recklessness of disposition. With +that sort of spiced food provided for his anxious thought, watchful +for strange men, strange beasts, strange turns of the tide, he +would make the best of his way up, a military seaman with a short +sword on thigh and a bronze helmet on his head, the pioneer post- +captain of an imperial fleet. Was the tribe inhabiting the Isle of +Thanet of a ferocious disposition, I wonder, and ready to fall with +stone-studded clubs and wooden lances hardened in the fire, upon +the backs of unwary mariners? + +Amongst the great commercial streams of these islands, the Thames +is the only one, I think, open to romantic feeling, from the fact +that the sight of human labour and the sounds of human industry do +not come down its shores to the very sea, destroying the suggestion +of mysterious vastness caused by the configuration of the shore. +The broad inlet of the shallow North Sea passes gradually into the +contracted shape of the river; but for a long time the feeling of +the open water remains with the ship steering to the westward +through one of the lighted and buoyed passage-ways of the Thames, +such as Queen's Channel, Prince's Channel, Four-Fathom Channel; or +else coming down the Swin from the north. The rush of the yellow +flood-tide hurries her up as if into the unknown between the two +fading lines of the coast. There are no features to this land, no +conspicuous, far-famed landmarks for the eye; there is nothing so +far down to tell you of the greatest agglomeration of mankind on +earth dwelling no more than five and twenty miles away, where the +sun sets in a blaze of colour flaming on a gold background, and the +dark, low shores trend towards each other. And in the great +silence the deep, faint booming of the big guns being tested at +Shoeburyness hangs about the Nore--a historical spot in the keeping +of one of England's appointed guardians. + + + +XXXI. + + + +The Nore sand remains covered at low-water, and never seen by human +eye; but the Nore is a name to conjure with visions of historical +events, of battles, of fleets, of mutinies, of watch and ward kept +upon the great throbbing heart of the State. This ideal point of +the estuary, this centre of memories, is marked upon the steely +gray expanse of the waters by a lightship painted red that, from a +couple of miles off, looks like a cheap and bizarre little toy. I +remember how, on coming up the river for the first time, I was +surprised at the smallness of that vivid object--a tiny warm speck +of crimson lost in an immensity of gray tones. I was startled, as +if of necessity the principal beacon in the water-way of the +greatest town on earth should have presented imposing proportions. +And, behold! the brown sprit-sail of a barge hid it entirely from +my view. + +Coming in from the eastward, the bright colouring of the lightship +marking the part of the river committed to the charge of an Admiral +(the Commander-in-Chief at the Nore) accentuates the dreariness and +the great breadth of the Thames Estuary. But soon the course of +the ship opens the entrance of the Medway, with its men-of-war +moored in line, and the long wooden jetty of Port Victoria, with +its few low buildings like the beginning of a hasty settlement upon +a wild and unexplored shore. The famous Thames barges sit in brown +clusters upon the water with an effect of birds floating upon a +pond. On the imposing expanse of the great estuary the traffic of +the port where so much of the world's work and the world's thinking +is being done becomes insignificant, scattered, streaming away in +thin lines of ships stringing themselves out into the eastern +quarter through the various navigable channels of which the Nore +lightship marks the divergence. The coasting traffic inclines to +the north; the deep-water ships steer east with a southern +inclination, on through the Downs, to the most remote ends of the +world. In the widening of the shores sinking low in the gray, +smoky distances the greatness of the sea receives the mercantile +fleet of good ships that London sends out upon the turn of every +tide. They follow each other, going very close by the Essex shore. +Such as the beads of a rosary told by business-like shipowners for +the greater profit of the world they slip one by one into the open: +while in the offing the inward-bound ships come up singly and in +bunches from under the sea horizon closing the mouth of the river +between Orfordness and North Foreland. They all converge upon the +Nore, the warm speck of red upon the tones of drab and gray, with +the distant shores running together towards the west, low and flat, +like the sides of an enormous canal. The sea-reach of the Thames +is straight, and, once Sheerness is left behind, its banks seem +very uninhabited, except for the cluster of houses which is +Southend, or here and there a lonely wooden jetty where petroleum +ships discharge their dangerous cargoes, and the oil-storage tanks, +low and round with slightly-domed roofs, peep over the edge of the +fore-shore, as it were a village of Central African huts imitated +in iron. Bordered by the black and shining mud-flats, the level +marsh extends for miles. Away in the far background the land +rises, closing the view with a continuous wooded slope, forming in +the distance an interminable rampart overgrown with bushes. + +Then, on the slight turn of the Lower Hope Reach, clusters of +factory chimneys come distinctly into view, tall and slender above +the squat ranges of cement works in Grays and Greenhithe. Smoking +quietly at the top against the great blaze of a magnificent sunset, +they give an industrial character to the scene, speak of work, +manufactures, and trade, as palm-groves on the coral strands of +distant islands speak of the luxuriant grace, beauty and vigour of +tropical nature. The houses of Gravesend crowd upon the shore with +an effect of confusion as if they had tumbled down haphazard from +the top of the hill at the back. The flatness of the Kentish shore +ends there. A fleet of steam-tugs lies at anchor in front of the +various piers. A conspicuous church spire, the first seen +distinctly coming from the sea, has a thoughtful grace, the +serenity of a fine form above the chaotic disorder of men's houses. +But on the other side, on the flat Essex side, a shapeless and +desolate red edifice, a vast pile of bricks with many windows and a +slate roof more inaccessible than an Alpine slope, towers over the +bend in monstrous ugliness, the tallest, heaviest building for +miles around, a thing like an hotel, like a mansion of flats (all +to let), exiled into these fields out of a street in West +Kensington. Just round the corner, as it were, on a pier defined +with stone blocks and wooden piles, a white mast, slender like a +stalk of straw and crossed by a yard like a knitting-needle, flying +the signals of flag and balloon, watches over a set of heavy dock- +gates. Mast-heads and funnel-tops of ships peep above the ranges +of corrugated iron roofs. This is the entrance to Tilbury Dock, +the most recent of all London docks, the nearest to the sea. + +Between the crowded houses of Gravesend and the monstrous red-brick +pile on the Essex shore the ship is surrendered fairly to the grasp +of the river. That hint of loneliness, that soul of the sea which +had accompanied her as far as the Lower Hope Reach, abandons her at +the turn of the first bend above. The salt, acrid flavour is gone +out of the air, together with a sense of unlimited space opening +free beyond the threshold of sandbanks below the Nore. The waters +of the sea rush on past Gravesend, tumbling the big mooring buoys +laid along the face of the town; but the sea-freedom stops short +there, surrendering the salt tide to the needs, the artifices, the +contrivances of toiling men. Wharves, landing-places, dock-gates, +waterside stairs, follow each other continuously right up to London +Bridge, and the hum of men's work fills the river with a menacing, +muttering note as of a breathless, ever-driving gale. The water- +way, so fair above and wide below, flows oppressed by bricks and +mortar and stone, by blackened timber and grimed glass and rusty +iron, covered with black barges, whipped up by paddles and screws, +overburdened with craft, overhung with chains, overshadowed by +walls making a steep gorge for its bed, filled with a haze of smoke +and dust. + +This stretch of the Thames from London Bridge to the Albert Docks +is to other watersides of river ports what a virgin forest would be +to a garden. It is a thing grown up, not made. It recalls a +jungle by the confused, varied, and impenetrable aspect of the +buildings that line the shore, not according to a planned purpose, +but as if sprung up by accident from scattered seeds. Like the +matted growth of bushes and creepers veiling the silent depths of +an unexplored wilderness, they hide the depths of London's +infinitely varied, vigorous, seething life. In other river ports +it is not so. They lie open to their stream, with quays like broad +clearings, with streets like avenues cut through thick timber for +the convenience of trade. I am thinking now of river ports I have +seen--of Antwerp, for instance; of Nantes or Bordeaux, or even old +Rouen, where the night-watchmen of ships, elbows on rail, gaze at +shop-windows and brilliant cafes, and see the audience go in and +come out of the opera-house. But London, the oldest and greatest +of river ports, does not possess as much as a hundred yards of open +quays upon its river front. Dark and impenetrable at night, like +the face of a forest, is the London waterside. It is the waterside +of watersides, where only one aspect of the world's life can be +seen, and only one kind of men toils on the edge of the stream. +The lightless walls seem to spring from the very mud upon which the +stranded barges lie; and the narrow lanes coming down to the +foreshore resemble the paths of smashed bushes and crumbled earth +where big game comes to drink on the banks of tropical streams. + +Behind the growth of the London waterside the docks of London +spread out unsuspected, smooth, and placid, lost amongst the +buildings like dark lagoons hidden in a thick forest. They lie +concealed in the intricate growth of houses with a few stalks of +mastheads here and there overtopping the roof of some four-story +warehouse. + +It is a strange conjunction this of roofs and mastheads, of walls +and yard-arms. I remember once having the incongruity of the +relation brought home to me in a practical way. I was the chief +officer of a fine ship, just docked with a cargo of wool from +Sydney, after a ninety days' passage. In fact, we had not been in +more than half an hour and I was still busy making her fast to the +stone posts of a very narrow quay in front of a lofty warehouse. +An old man with a gray whisker under the chin and brass buttons on +his pilot-cloth jacket, hurried up along the quay hailing my ship +by name. He was one of those officials called berthing-masters-- +not the one who had berthed us, but another, who, apparently, had +been busy securing a steamer at the other end of the dock. I could +see from afar his hard blue eyes staring at us, as if fascinated, +with a queer sort of absorption. I wondered what that worthy sea- +dog had found to criticise in my ship's rigging. And I, too, +glanced aloft anxiously. I could see nothing wrong there. But +perhaps that superannuated fellow-craftsman was simply admiring the +ship's perfect order aloft, I thought, with some secret pride; for +the chief officer is responsible for his ship's appearance, and as +to her outward condition, he is the man open to praise or blame. +Meantime the old salt ("ex-coasting skipper" was writ large all +over his person) had hobbled up alongside in his bumpy, shiny +boots, and, waving an arm, short and thick like the flipper of a +seal, terminated by a paw red as an uncooked beef-steak, addressed +the poop in a muffled, faint, roaring voice, as if a sample of +every North-Sea fog of his life had been permanently lodged in his +throat: "Haul 'em round, Mr. Mate!" were his words. "If you don't +look sharp, you'll have your topgallant yards through the windows +of that 'ere warehouse presently!" This was the only cause of his +interest in the ship's beautiful spars. I own that for a time I +was struck dumb by the bizarre associations of yard-arms and +window-panes. To break windows is the last thing one would think +of in connection with a ship's topgallant yard, unless, indeed, one +were an experienced berthing-master in one of the London docks. +This old chap was doing his little share of the world's work with +proper efficiency. His little blue eyes had made out the danger +many hundred yards off. His rheumaticky feet, tired with balancing +that squat body for many years upon the decks of small coasters, +and made sore by miles of tramping upon the flagstones of the dock +side, had hurried up in time to avert a ridiculous catastrophe. I +answered him pettishly, I fear, and as if I had known all about it +before. + +"All right, all right! can't do everything at once." + +He remained near by, muttering to himself till the yards had been +hauled round at my order, and then raised again his foggy, thick +voice: + +"None too soon," he observed, with a critical glance up at the +towering side of the warehouse. "That's a half-sovereign in your +pocket, Mr. Mate. You should always look first how you are for +them windows before you begin to breast in your ship to the quay." + +It was good advice. But one cannot think of everything or foresee +contacts of things apparently as remote as stars and hop-poles. + + + +XXXII. + + + +The view of ships lying moored in some of the older docks of London +has always suggested to my mind the image of a flock of swans kept +in the flooded backyard of grim tenement houses. The flatness of +the walls surrounding the dark pool on which they float brings out +wonderfully the flowing grace of the lines on which a ship's hull +is built. The lightness of these forms, devised to meet the winds +and the seas, makes, by contrast with the great piles of bricks, +the chains and cables of their moorings appear very necessary, as +if nothing less could prevent them from soaring upwards and over +the roofs. The least puff of wind stealing round the corners of +the dock buildings stirs these captives fettered to rigid shores. +It is as if the soul of a ship were impatient of confinement. +Those masted hulls, relieved of their cargo, become restless at the +slightest hint of the wind's freedom. However tightly moored, they +range a little at their berths, swaying imperceptibly the spire- +like assemblages of cordage and spars. You can detect their +impatience by watching the sway of the mastheads against the +motionless, the soulless gravity of mortar and stones. As you pass +alongside each hopeless prisoner chained to the quay, the slight +grinding noise of the wooden fenders makes a sound of angry +muttering. But, after all, it may be good for ships to go through +a period of restraint and repose, as the restraint and self- +communion of inactivity may be good for an unruly soul--not, +indeed, that I mean to say that ships are unruly; on the contrary, +they are faithful creatures, as so many men can testify. And +faithfulness is a great restraint, the strongest bond laid upon the +self-will of men and ships on this globe of land and sea. + +This interval of bondage in the docks rounds each period of a +ship's life with the sense of accomplished duty, of an effectively +played part in the work of the world. The dock is the scene of +what the world would think the most serious part in the light, +bounding, swaying life of a ship. But there are docks and docks. +The ugliness of some docks is appalling. Wild horses would not +drag from me the name of a certain river in the north whose narrow +estuary is inhospitable and dangerous, and whose docks are like a +nightmare of dreariness and misery. Their dismal shores are +studded thickly with scaffold-like, enormous timber structures, +whose lofty heads are veiled periodically by the infernal gritty +night of a cloud of coal-dust. The most important ingredient for +getting the world's work along is distributed there under the +circumstances of the greatest cruelty meted out to helpless ships. +Shut up in the desolate circuit of these basins, you would think a +free ship would droop and die like a wild bird put into a dirty +cage. But a ship, perhaps because of her faithfulness to men, will +endure an extraordinary lot of ill-usage. Still, I have seen ships +issue from certain docks like half-dead prisoners from a dungeon, +bedraggled, overcome, wholly disguised in dirt, and with their men +rolling white eyeballs in black and worried faces raised to a +heaven which, in its smoky and soiled aspect, seemed to reflect the +sordidness of the earth below. One thing, however, may be said for +the docks of the Port of London on both sides of the river: for +all the complaints of their insufficient equipment, of their +obsolete rules, of failure (they say) in the matter of quick +despatch, no ship need ever issue from their gates in a half- +fainting condition. London is a general cargo port, as is only +proper for the greatest capital of the world to be. General cargo +ports belong to the aristocracy of the earth's trading places, and +in that aristocracy London, as it is its way, has a unique +physiognomy. + +The absence of picturesqueness cannot be laid to the charge of the +docks opening into the Thames. For all my unkind comparisons to +swans and backyards, it cannot be denied that each dock or group of +docks along the north side of the river has its own individual +attractiveness. Beginning with the cosy little St. Katherine's +Dock, lying overshadowed and black like a quiet pool amongst rocky +crags, through the venerable and sympathetic London Docks, with not +a single line of rails in the whole of their area and the aroma of +spices lingering between its warehouses, with their far-famed wine- +cellars--down through the interesting group of West India Docks, +the fine docks at Blackwall, on past the Galleons Reach entrance of +the Victoria and Albert Docks, right down to the vast gloom of the +great basins in Tilbury, each of those places of restraint for +ships has its own peculiar physiognomy, its own expression. And +what makes them unique and attractive is their common trait of +being romantic in their usefulness. + +In their way they are as romantic as the river they serve is unlike +all the other commercial streams of the world. The cosiness of the +St. Katherine's Dock, the old-world air of the London Docks, remain +impressed upon the memory. The docks down the river, abreast of +Woolwich, are imposing by their proportions and the vast scale of +the ugliness that forms their surroundings--ugliness so picturesque +as to become a delight to the eye. When one talks of the Thames +docks, "beauty" is a vain word, but romance has lived too long upon +this river not to have thrown a mantle of glamour upon its banks. + +The antiquity of the port appeals to the imagination by the long +chain of adventurous enterprises that had their inception in the +town and floated out into the world on the waters of the river. +Even the newest of the docks, the Tilbury Dock, shares in the +glamour conferred by historical associations. Queen Elizabeth has +made one of her progresses down there, not one of her journeys of +pomp and ceremony, but an anxious business progress at a crisis of +national history. The menace of that time has passed away, and now +Tilbury is known by its docks. These are very modern, but their +remoteness and isolation upon the Essex marsh, the days of failure +attending their creation, invested them with a romantic air. +Nothing in those days could have been more striking than the vast, +empty basins, surrounded by miles of bare quays and the ranges of +cargo-sheds, where two or three ships seemed lost like bewitched +children in a forest of gaunt, hydraulic cranes. One received a +wonderful impression of utter abandonment, of wasted efficiency. +From the first the Tilbury Docks were very efficient and ready for +their task, but they had come, perhaps, too soon into the field. A +great future lies before Tilbury Docks. They shall never fill a +long-felt want (in the sacramental phrase that is applied to +railways, tunnels, newspapers, and new editions of books). They +were too early in the field. The want shall never be felt because, +free of the trammels of the tide, easy of access, magnificent and +desolate, they are already there, prepared to take and keep the +biggest ships that float upon the sea. They are worthy of the +oldest river port in the world. + + And, truth to say, for all the criticisms flung upon the heads of +the dock companies, the other docks of the Thames are no disgrace +to the town with a population greater than that of some +commonwealths. The growth of London as a well-equipped port has +been slow, while not unworthy of a great capital, of a great centre +of distribution. It must not be forgotten that London has not the +backing of great industrial districts or great fields of natural +exploitation. In this it differs from Liverpool, from Cardiff, +from Newcastle, from Glasgow; and therein the Thames differs from +the Mersey, from the Tyne, from the Clyde. It is an historical +river; it is a romantic stream flowing through the centre of great +affairs, and for all the criticism of the river's administration, +my contention is that its development has been worthy of its +dignity. For a long time the stream itself could accommodate quite +easily the oversea and coasting traffic. That was in the days +when, in the part called the Pool, just below London Bridge, the +vessels moored stem and stern in the very strength of the tide +formed one solid mass like an island covered with a forest of +gaunt, leafless trees; and when the trade had grown too big for the +river there came the St. Katherine's Docks and the London Docks, +magnificent undertakings answering to the need of their time. The +same may be said of the other artificial lakes full of ships that +go in and out upon this high road to all parts of the world. The +labour of the imperial waterway goes on from generation to +generation, goes on day and night. Nothing ever arrests its +sleepless industry but the coming of a heavy fog, which clothes the +teeming stream in a mantle of impenetrable stillness. + +After the gradual cessation of all sound and movement on the +faithful river, only the ringing of ships' bells is heard, +mysterious and muffled in the white vapour from London Bridge right +down to the Nore, for miles and miles in a decrescendo tinkling, to +where the estuary broadens out into the North Sea, and the anchored +ships lie scattered thinly in the shrouded channels between the +sand-banks of the Thames' mouth. Through the long and glorious +tale of years of the river's strenuous service to its people these +are its only breathing times. + + + +XXXIII. + + + +A ship in dock, surrounded by quays and the walls of warehouses, +has the appearance of a prisoner meditating upon freedom in the +sadness of a free spirit put under restraint. Chain cables and +stout ropes keep her bound to stone posts at the edge of a paved +shore, and a berthing-master, with brass buttons on his coat, walks +about like a weather-beaten and ruddy gaoler, casting jealous, +watchful glances upon the moorings that fetter a ship lying passive +and still and safe, as if lost in deep regrets of her days of +liberty and danger on the sea. + +The swarm of renegades--dock-masters, berthing-masters, gatemen, +and such like--appear to nurse an immense distrust of the captive +ship's resignation. There never seem chains and ropes enough to +satisfy their minds concerned with the safe binding of free ships +to the strong, muddy, enslaved earth. "You had better put another +bight of a hawser astern, Mr. Mate," is the usual phrase in their +mouth. I brand them for renegades, because most of them have been +sailors in their time. As if the infirmities of old age--the gray +hair, the wrinkles at the corners of the eyes, and the knotted +veins of the hands--were the symptoms of moral poison, they prowl +about the quays with an underhand air of gloating over the broken +spirit of noble captives. They want more fenders, more breasting- +ropes; they want more springs, more shackles, more fetters; they +want to make ships with volatile souls as motionless as square +blocks of stone. They stand on the mud of pavements, these +degraded sea-dogs, with long lines of railway-trucks clanking their +couplings behind their backs, and run malevolent glances over your +ship from headgear to taffrail, only wishing to tyrannize over the +poor creature under the hypocritical cloak of benevolence and care. +Here and there cargo cranes looking like instruments of torture for +ships swing cruel hooks at the end of long chains. Gangs of dock- +labourers swarm with muddy feet over the gangways. It is a moving +sight this, of so many men of the earth, earthy, who never cared +anything for a ship, trampling unconcerned, brutal and hob-nailed +upon her helpless body. + +Fortunately, nothing can deface the beauty of a ship. That sense +of a dungeon, that sense of a horrible and degrading misfortune +overtaking a creature fair to see and safe to trust, attaches only +to ships moored in the docks of great European ports. You feel +that they are dishonestly locked up, to be hunted about from wharf +to wharf on a dark, greasy, square pool of black water as a brutal +reward at the end of a faithful voyage. + +A ship anchored in an open roadstead, with cargo-lighters alongside +and her own tackle swinging the burden over the rail, is +accomplishing in freedom a function of her life. There is no +restraint; there is space: clear water around her, and a clear sky +above her mastheads, with a landscape of green hills and charming +bays opening around her anchorage. She is not abandoned by her own +men to the tender mercies of shore people. She still shelters, and +is looked after by, her own little devoted band, and you feel that +presently she will glide between the headlands and disappear. It +is only at home, in dock, that she lies abandoned, shut off from +freedom by all the artifices of men that think of quick despatch +and profitable freights. It is only then that the odious, +rectangular shadows of walls and roofs fall upon her decks, with +showers of soot. + +To a man who has never seen the extraordinary nobility, strength, +and grace that the devoted generations of ship-builders have +evolved from some pure nooks of their simple souls, the sight that +could be seen five-and-twenty years ago of a large fleet of +clippers moored along the north side of the New South Dock was an +inspiring spectacle. Then there was a quarter of a mile of them, +from the iron dockyard-gates guarded by policemen, in a long, +forest-like perspective of masts, moored two and two to many stout +wooden jetties. Their spars dwarfed with their loftiness the +corrugated-iron sheds, their jibbooms extended far over the shore, +their white-and-gold figure-heads, almost dazzling in their purity, +overhung the straight, long quay above the mud and dirt of the +wharfside, with the busy figures of groups and single men moving to +and fro, restless and grimy under their soaring immobility. + +At tide-time you would see one of the loaded ships with battened- +down hatches drop out of the ranks and float in the clear space of +the dock, held by lines dark and slender, like the first threads of +a spider's web, extending from her bows and her quarters to the +mooring-posts on shore. There, graceful and still, like a bird +ready to spread its wings, she waited till, at the opening of the +gates, a tug or two would hurry in noisily, hovering round her with +an air of fuss and solicitude, and take her out into the river, +tending, shepherding her through open bridges, through dam-like +gates between the flat pier-heads, with a bit of green lawn +surrounded by gravel and a white signal-mast with yard and gaff, +flying a couple of dingy blue, red, or white flags. + +This New South Dock (it was its official name), round which my +earlier professional memories are centred, belongs to the group of +West India Docks, together with two smaller and much older basins +called Import and Export respectively, both with the greatness of +their trade departed from them already. Picturesque and clean as +docks go, these twin basins spread side by side the dark lustre of +their glassy water, sparely peopled by a few ships laid up on buoys +or tucked far away from each other at the end of sheds in the +corners of empty quays, where they seemed to slumber quietly +remote, untouched by the bustle of men's affairs--in retreat rather +than in captivity. They were quaint and sympathetic, those two +homely basins, unfurnished and silent, with no aggressive display +of cranes, no apparatus of hurry and work on their narrow shores. +No railway-lines cumbered them. The knots of labourers trooping in +clumsily round the corners of cargo-sheds to eat their food in +peace out of red cotton handkerchiefs had the air of picnicking by +the side of a lonely mountain pool. They were restful (and I +should say very unprofitable), those basins, where the chief +officer of one of the ships involved in the harassing, strenuous, +noisy activity of the New South Dock only a few yards away could +escape in the dinner-hour to stroll, unhampered by men and affairs, +meditating (if he chose) on the vanity of all things human. At one +time they must have been full of good old slow West Indiamen of the +square-stern type, that took their captivity, one imagines, as +stolidly as they had faced the buffeting of the waves with their +blunt, honest bows, and disgorged sugar, rum, molasses, coffee, or +logwood sedately with their own winch and tackle. But when I knew +them, of exports there was never a sign that one could detect; and +all the imports I have ever seen were some rare cargoes of tropical +timber, enormous baulks roughed out of iron trunks grown in the +woods about the Gulf of Mexico. They lay piled up in stacks of +mighty boles, and it was hard to believe that all this mass of dead +and stripped trees had come out of the flanks of a slender, +innocent-looking little barque with, as likely as not, a homely +woman's name--Ellen this or Annie that--upon her fine bows. But +this is generally the case with a discharged cargo. Once spread at +large over the quay, it looks the most impossible bulk to have all +come there out of that ship along-side. + +They were quiet, serene nooks in the busy world of docks, these +basins where it has never been my good luck to get a berth after +some more or less arduous passage. But one could see at a glance +that men and ships were never hustled there. They were so quiet +that, remembering them well, one comes to doubt that they ever +existed--places of repose for tired ships to dream in, places of +meditation rather than work, where wicked ships--the cranky, the +lazy, the wet, the bad sea boats, the wild steerers, the +capricious, the pig-headed, the generally ungovernable--would have +full leisure to take count and repent of their sins, sorrowful and +naked, with their rent garments of sailcloth stripped off them, and +with the dust and ashes of the London atmosphere upon their +mastheads. For that the worst of ships would repent if she were +ever given time I make no doubt. I have known too many of them. +No ship is wholly bad; and now that their bodies that had braved so +many tempests have been blown off the face of the sea by a puff of +steam, the evil and the good together into the limbo of things that +have served their time, there can be no harm in affirming that in +these vanished generations of willing servants there never has been +one utterly unredeemable soul. + +In the New South Dock there was certainly no time for remorse, +introspection, repentance, or any phenomena of inner life either +for the captive ships or for their officers. From six in the +morning till six at night the hard labour of the prison-house, +which rewards the valiance of ships that win the harbour went on +steadily, great slings of general cargo swinging over the rail, to +drop plumb into the hatchways at the sign of the gangway-tender's +hand. The New South Dock was especially a loading dock for the +Colonies in those great (and last) days of smart wool-clippers, +good to look at and--well--exciting to handle. Some of them were +more fair to see than the others; many were (to put it mildly) +somewhat over-masted; all were expected to make good passages; and +of all that line of ships, whose rigging made a thick, enormous +network against the sky, whose brasses flashed almost as far as the +eye of the policeman at the gates could reach, there was hardly one +that knew of any other port amongst all the ports on the wide earth +but London and Sydney, or London and Melbourne, or London and +Adelaide, perhaps with Hobart Town added for those of smaller +tonnage. One could almost have believed, as her gray-whiskered +second mate used to say of the old Duke of S-, that they knew the +road to the Antipodes better than their own skippers, who, year in, +year out, took them from London--the place of captivity--to some +Australian port where, twenty-five years ago, though moored well +and tight enough to the wooden wharves, they felt themselves no +captives, but honoured guests. + + + +XXXIV. + + + +These towns of the Antipodes, not so great then as they are now, +took an interest in the shipping, the running links with "home," +whose numbers confirmed the sense of their growing importance. +They made it part and parcel of their daily interests. This was +especially the case in Sydney, where, from the heart of the fair +city, down the vista of important streets, could be seen the wool- +clippers lying at the Circular Quay--no walled prison-house of a +dock that, but the integral part of one of the finest, most +beautiful, vast, and safe bays the sun ever shone upon. Now great +steam-liners lie at these berths, always reserved for the sea +aristocracy--grand and imposing enough ships, but here to-day and +gone next week; whereas the general cargo, emigrant, and passenger +clippers of my time, rigged with heavy spars, and built on fine +lines, used to remain for months together waiting for their load of +wool. Their names attained the dignity of household words. On +Sundays and holidays the citizens trooped down, on visiting bent, +and the lonely officer on duty solaced himself by playing the +cicerone--especially to the citizenesses with engaging manners and +a well-developed sense of the fun that may be got out of the +inspection of a ship's cabins and state-rooms. The tinkle of more +or less untuned cottage pianos floated out of open stern-ports till +the gas-lamps began to twinkle in the streets, and the ship's +night-watchman, coming sleepily on duty after his unsatisfactory +day slumbers, hauled down the flags and fastened a lighted lantern +at the break of the gangway. The night closed rapidly upon the +silent ships with their crews on shore. Up a short, steep ascent +by the King's Head pub., patronized by the cooks and stewards of +the fleet, the voice of a man crying "Hot saveloys!" at the end of +George Street, where the cheap eating-houses (sixpence a meal) were +kept by Chinamen (Sun-kum-on's was not bad), is heard at regular +intervals. I have listened for hours to this most pertinacious +pedlar (I wonder whether he is dead or has made a fortune), while +sitting on the rail of the old Duke of S- (she's dead, poor thing! +a violent death on the coast of New Zealand), fascinated by the +monotony, the regularity, the abruptness of the recurring cry, and +so exasperated at the absurd spell, that I wished the fellow would +choke himself to death with a mouthful of his own infamous wares. + +A stupid job, and fit only for an old man, my comrades used to tell +me, to be the night-watchman of a captive (though honoured) ship. +And generally the oldest of the able seamen in a ship's crew does +get it. But sometimes neither the oldest nor any other fairly +steady seaman is forthcoming. Ships' crews had the trick of +melting away swiftly in those days. So, probably on account of my +youth, innocence, and pensive habits (which made me sometimes +dilatory in my work about the rigging), I was suddenly nominated, +in our chief mate Mr. B-'s most sardonic tones, to that enviable +situation. I do not regret the experience. The night humours of +the town descended from the street to the waterside in the still +watches of the night: larrikins rushing down in bands to settle +some quarrel by a stand-up fight, away from the police, in an +indistinct ring half hidden by piles of cargo, with the sounds of +blows, a groan now and then, the stamping of feet, and the cry of +"Time!" rising suddenly above the sinister and excited murmurs; +night-prowlers, pursued or pursuing, with a stifled shriek followed +by a profound silence, or slinking stealthily along-side like +ghosts, and addressing me from the quay below in mysterious tones +with incomprehensible propositions. The cabmen, too, who twice a +week, on the night when the A.S.N. Company's passenger-boat was due +to arrive, used to range a battalion of blazing lamps opposite the +ship, were very amusing in their way. They got down from their +perches and told each other impolite stories in racy language, +every word of which reached me distinctly over the bulwarks as I +sat smoking on the main-hatch. On one occasion I had an hour or so +of a most intellectual conversation with a person whom I could not +see distinctly, a gentleman from England, he said, with a +cultivated voice, I on deck and he on the quay sitting on the case +of a piano (landed out of our hold that very afternoon), and +smoking a cigar which smelt very good. We touched, in our +discourse, upon science, politics, natural history, and operatic +singers. Then, after remarking abruptly, "You seem to be rather +intelligent, my man," he informed me pointedly that his name was +Mr. Senior, and walked off--to his hotel, I suppose. Shadows! +Shadows! I think I saw a white whisker as he turned under the +lamp-post. It is a shock to think that in the natural course of +nature he must be dead by now. There was nothing to object to in +his intelligence but a little dogmatism maybe. And his name was +Senior! Mr. Senior! + +The position had its drawbacks, however. One wintry, blustering, +dark night in July, as I stood sleepily out of the rain under the +break of the poop something resembling an ostrich dashed up the +gangway. I say ostrich because the creature, though it ran on two +legs, appeared to help its progress by working a pair of short +wings; it was a man, however, only his coat, ripped up the back and +flapping in two halves above his shoulders, gave him that weird and +fowl-like appearance. At least, I suppose it was his coat, for it +was impossible to make him out distinctly. How he managed to come +so straight upon me, at speed and without a stumble over a strange +deck, I cannot imagine. He must have been able to see in the dark +better than any cat. He overwhelmed me with panting entreaties to +let him take shelter till morning in our forecastle. Following my +strict orders, I refused his request, mildly at first, in a sterner +tone as he insisted with growing impudence. + +"For God's sake let me, matey! Some of 'em are after me--and I've +got hold of a ticker here." + +"You clear out of this!" I said. + +"Don't be hard on a chap, old man!" he whined pitifully. + +"Now then, get ashore at once. Do you hear?" + +Silence. He appeared to cringe, mute, as if words had failed him +through grief; then--bang! came a concussion and a great flash of +light in which he vanished, leaving me prone on my back with the +most abominable black eye that anybody ever got in the faithful +discharge of duty. Shadows! Shadows! I hope he escaped the +enemies he was fleeing from to live and flourish to this day. But +his fist was uncommonly hard and his aim miraculously true in the +dark. + +There were other experiences, less painful and more funny for the +most part, with one amongst them of a dramatic complexion; but the +greatest experience of them all was Mr. B-, our chief mate himself. + +He used to go ashore every night to foregather in some hotel's +parlour with his crony, the mate of the barque Cicero, lying on the +other side of the Circular Quay. Late at night I would hear from +afar their stumbling footsteps and their voices raised in endless +argument. The mate of the Cicero was seeing his friend on board. +They would continue their senseless and muddled discourse in tones +of profound friendship for half an hour or so at the shore end of +our gangway, and then I would hear Mr. B- insisting that he must +see the other on board his ship. And away they would go, their +voices, still conversing with excessive amity, being heard moving +all round the harbour. It happened more than once that they would +thus perambulate three or four times the distance, each seeing the +other on board his ship out of pure and disinterested affection. +Then, through sheer weariness, or perhaps in a moment of +forgetfulness, they would manage to part from each other somehow, +and by-and-by the planks of our long gangway would bend and creak +under the weight of Mr. B- coming on board for good at last. + +On the rail his burly form would stop and stand swaying. + +"Watchman!" + +"Sir." + +A pause. + +He waited for a moment of steadiness before negotiating the three +steps of the inside ladder from rail to deck; and the watchman, +taught by experience, would forbear offering help which would be +received as an insult at that particular stage of the mate's +return. But many times I trembled for his neck. He was a heavy +man. + +Then with a rush and a thump it would be done. He never had to +pick himself up; but it took him a minute or so to pull himself +together after the descent. + +"Watchman!" + +"Sir." + +"Captain aboard?" + +"Yes, sir." + +Pause. + +"Dog aboard?" + +"Yes, sir." + +Pause. + +Our dog was a gaunt and unpleasant beast, more like a wolf in poor +health than a dog, and I never noticed Mr. B- at any other time +show the slightest interest in the doings of the animal. But that +question never failed. + +"Let's have your arm to steady me along." + +I was always prepared for that request. He leaned on me heavily +till near enough the cabin-door to catch hold of the handle. Then +he would let go my arm at once. + +"That'll do. I can manage now." + +And he could manage. He could manage to find his way into his +berth, light his lamp, get into his bed--ay, and get out of it when +I called him at half-past five, the first man on deck, lifting the +cup of morning coffee to his lips with a steady hand, ready for +duty as though he had virtuously slept ten solid hours--a better +chief officer than many a man who had never tasted grog in his +life. He could manage all that, but could never manage to get on +in life. + +Only once he failed to seize the cabin-door handle at the first +grab. He waited a little, tried again, and again failed. His +weight was growing heavier on my arm. He sighed slowly. + +"D-n that handle!" + +Without letting go his hold of me he turned about, his face lit up +bright as day by the full moon. + +"I wish she were out at sea," he growled savagely. + +"Yes, sir." + +I felt the need to say something, because he hung on to me as if +lost, breathing heavily. + +"Ports are no good--ships rot, men go to the devil!" + +I kept still, and after a while he repeated with a sigh. + +"I wish she were at sea out of this." + +"So do I, sir," I ventured. + +Holding my shoulder, he turned upon me. + +"You! What's that to you where she is? You don't--drink." + +And even on that night he "managed it" at last. He got hold of the +handle. But he did not manage to light his lamp (I don't think he +even tried), though in the morning as usual he was the first on +deck, bull-necked, curly-headed, watching the hands turn-to with +his sardonic expression and unflinching gaze. + +I met him ten years afterwards, casually, unexpectedly, in the +street, on coming out of my consignee office. I was not likely to +have forgotten him with his "I can manage now." He recognised me +at once, remembered my name, and in what ship I had served under +his orders. He looked me over from head to foot. + +"What are you doing here?" he asked. + +"I am commanding a little barque," I said, "loading here for +Mauritius." Then, thoughtlessly, I added: "And what are you +doing, Mr. B-?" + +"I," he said, looking at me unflinchingly, with his old sardonic +grin--"I am looking for something to do." + +I felt I would rather have bitten out my tongue. His jet-black, +curly hair had turned iron-gray; he was scrupulously neat as ever, +but frightfully threadbare. His shiny boots were worn down at +heel. But he forgave me, and we drove off together in a hansom to +dine on board my ship. He went over her conscientiously, praised +her heartily, congratulated me on my command with absolute +sincerity. At dinner, as I offered him wine and beer he shook his +head, and as I sat looking at him interrogatively, muttered in an +undertone: + +"I've given up all that." + +After dinner we came again on deck. It seemed as though he could +not tear himself away from the ship. We were fitting some new +lower rigging, and he hung about, approving, suggesting, giving me +advice in his old manner. Twice he addressed me as "My boy," and +corrected himself quickly to "Captain." My mate was about to leave +me (to get married), but I concealed the fact from Mr. B-. I was +afraid he would ask me to give him the berth in some ghastly +jocular hint that I could not refuse to take. I was afraid. It +would have been impossible. I could not have given orders to Mr. +B-, and I am sure he would not have taken them from me very long. +He could not have managed that, though he had managed to break +himself from drink--too late. + +He said good-bye at last. As I watched his burly, bull-necked +figure walk away up the street, I wondered with a sinking heart +whether he had much more than the price of a night's lodging in his +pocket. And I understood that if that very minute I were to call +out after him, he would not even turn his head. He, too, is no +more than a shadow, but I seem to hear his words spoken on the +moonlit deck of the old Duke--: + +"Ports are no good--ships rot, men go to the devil!" + + + +XXXV. + + + +"Ships!" exclaimed an elderly seaman in clean shore togs. "Ships"- +-and his keen glance, turning away from my face, ran along the +vista of magnificent figure-heads that in the late seventies used +to overhang in a serried rank the muddy pavement by the side of the +New South Dock--"ships are all right; it's the men in 'em. . ." + +Fifty hulls, at least, moulded on lines of beauty and speed--hulls +of wood, of iron, expressing in their forms the highest achievement +of modern ship-building--lay moored all in a row, stem to quay, as +if assembled there for an exhibition, not of a great industry, but +of a great art. Their colours were gray, black, dark green, with a +narrow strip of yellow moulding defining their sheer, or with a row +of painted ports decking in warlike decoration their robust flanks +of cargo-carriers that would know no triumph but of speed in +carrying a burden, no glory other than of a long service, no +victory but that of an endless, obscure contest with the sea. The +great empty hulls with swept holds, just out of dry-dock, with +their paint glistening freshly, sat high-sided with ponderous +dignity alongside the wooden jetties, looking more like unmovable +buildings than things meant to go afloat; others, half loaded, far +on the way to recover the true sea-physiognomy of a ship brought +down to her load-line, looked more accessible. Their less steeply +slanting gangways seemed to invite the strolling sailors in search +of a berth to walk on board and try "for a chance" with the chief +mate, the guardian of a ship's efficiency. As if anxious to remain +unperceived amongst their overtopping sisters, two or three +"finished" ships floated low, with an air of straining at the leash +of their level headfasts, exposing to view their cleared decks and +covered hatches, prepared to drop stern first out of the labouring +ranks, displaying the true comeliness of form which only her proper +sea-trim gives to a ship. And for a good quarter of a mile, from +the dockyard gate to the farthest corner, where the old housed-in +hulk, the President (drill-ship, then, of the Naval Reserve), used +to lie with her frigate side rubbing against the stone of the quay, +above all these hulls, ready and unready, a hundred and fifty lofty +masts, more or less, held out the web of their rigging like an +immense net, in whose close mesh, black against the sky, the heavy +yards seemed to be entangled and suspended. + +It was a sight. The humblest craft that floats makes its appeal to +a seaman by the faithfulness of her life; and this was the place +where one beheld the aristocracy of ships. It was a noble +gathering of the fairest and the swiftest, each bearing at the bow +the carved emblem of her name, as in a gallery of plaster-casts, +figures of women with mural crowns, women with flowing robes, with +gold fillets on their hair or blue scarves round their waists, +stretching out rounded arms as if to point the way; heads of men +helmeted or bare; full lengths of warriors, of kings, of statesmen, +of lords and princesses, all white from top to toe; with here and +there a dusky turbaned figure, bedizened in many colours, of some +Eastern sultan or hero, all inclined forward under the slant of +mighty bowsprits as if eager to begin another run of 11,000 miles +in their leaning attitudes. These were the fine figure-heads of +the finest ships afloat. But why, unless for the love of the life +those effigies shared with us in their wandering impassivity, +should one try to reproduce in words an impression of whose +fidelity there can be no critic and no judge, since such an +exhibition of the art of shipbuilding and the art of figure-head +carving as was seen from year's end to year's end in the open-air +gallery of the New South Dock no man's eye shall behold again? All +that patient, pale company of queens and princesses, of kings and +warriors, of allegorical women, of heroines and statesmen and +heathen gods, crowned, helmeted, bare-headed, has run for good off +the sea stretching to the last above the tumbling foam their fair, +rounded arms; holding out their spears, swords, shields, tridents +in the same unwearied, striving forward pose. And nothing remains +but lingering perhaps in the memory of a few men, the sound of +their names, vanished a long time ago from the first page of the +great London dailies; from big posters in railway-stations and the +doors of shipping offices; from the minds of sailors, dockmasters, +pilots, and tugmen; from the hail of gruff voices and the flutter +of signal flags exchanged between ships closing upon each other and +drawing apart in the open immensity of the sea. + +The elderly, respectable seaman, withdrawing his gaze from that +multitude of spars, gave me a glance to make sure of our fellowship +in the craft and mystery of the sea. We had met casually, and had +got into contact as I had stopped near him, my attention being +caught by the same peculiarity he was looking at in the rigging of +an obviously new ship, a ship with her reputation all to make yet +in the talk of the seamen who were to share their life with her. +Her name was already on their lips. I had heard it uttered between +two thick, red-necked fellows of the semi-nautical type at the +Fenchurch Street Railway-station, where, in those days, the +everyday male crowd was attired in jerseys and pilot-cloth mostly, +and had the air of being more conversant with the times of high- +water than with the times of the trains. I had noticed that new +ship's name on the first page of my morning paper. I had stared at +the unfamiliar grouping of its letters, blue on white ground, on +the advertisement-boards, whenever the train came to a standstill +alongside one of the shabby, wooden, wharf-like platforms of the +dock railway-line. She had been named, with proper observances, on +the day she came off the stocks, no doubt, but she was very far yet +from "having a name." Untried, ignorant of the ways of the sea, +she had been thrust amongst that renowned company of ships to load +for her maiden voyage. There was nothing to vouch for her +soundness and the worth of her character, but the reputation of the +building-yard whence she was launched headlong into the world of +waters. She looked modest to me. I imagined her diffident, lying +very quiet, with her side nestling shyly against the wharf to which +she was made fast with very new lines, intimidated by the company +of her tried and experienced sisters already familiar with all the +violences of the ocean and the exacting love of men. They had had +more long voyages to make their names in than she had known weeks +of carefully tended life, for a new ship receives as much attention +as if she were a young bride. Even crabbed old dock-masters look +at her with benevolent eyes. In her shyness at the threshold of a +laborious and uncertain life, where so much is expected of a ship, +she could not have been better heartened and comforted, had she +only been able to hear and understand, than by the tone of deep +conviction in which my elderly, respectable seaman repeated the +first part of his saying, "Ships are all right . . ." + +His civility prevented him from repeating the other, the bitter +part. It had occurred to him that it was perhaps indelicate to +insist. He had recognised in me a ship's officer, very possibly +looking for a berth like himself, and so far a comrade, but still a +man belonging to that sparsely-peopled after-end of a ship, where a +great part of her reputation as a "good ship," in seaman's +parlance, is made or marred. + +"Can you say that of all ships without exception?" I asked, being +in an idle mood, because, if an obvious ship's officer, I was not, +as a matter of fact, down at the docks to "look for a berth," an +occupation as engrossing as gambling, and as little favourable to +the free exchange of ideas, besides being destructive of the kindly +temper needed for casual intercourse with one's fellow-creatures. + +"You can always put up with 'em," opined the respectable seaman +judicially. + +He was not averse from talking, either. If he had come down to the +dock to look for a berth, he did not seem oppressed by anxiety as +to his chances. He had the serenity of a man whose estimable +character is fortunately expressed by his personal appearance in an +unobtrusive, yet convincing, manner which no chief officer in want +of hands could resist. And, true enough, I learned presently that +the mate of the Hyperion had "taken down" his name for quarter- +master. "We sign on Friday, and join next day for the morning +tide," he remarked, in a deliberate, careless tone, which +contrasted strongly with his evident readiness to stand there +yarning for an hour or so with an utter stranger. + +"Hyperion," I said. "I don't remember ever seeing that ship +anywhere. What sort of a name has she got?" + +It appeared from his discursive answer that she had not much of a +name one way or another. She was not very fast. It took no fool, +though, to steer her straight, he believed. Some years ago he had +seen her in Calcutta, and he remembered being told by somebody +then, that on her passage up the river she had carried away both +her hawse-pipes. But that might have been the pilot's fault. Just +now, yarning with the apprentices on board, he had heard that this +very voyage, brought up in the Downs, outward bound, she broke her +sheer, struck adrift, and lost an anchor and chain. But that might +have occurred through want of careful tending in a tideway. All +the same, this looked as though she were pretty hard on her ground- +tackle. Didn't it? She seemed a heavy ship to handle, anyway. +For the rest, as she had a new captain and a new mate this voyage, +he understood, one couldn't say how she would turn out. . . . + +In such marine shore-talk as this is the name of a ship slowly +established, her fame made for her, the tale of her qualities and +of her defects kept, her idiosyncrasies commented upon with the +zest of personal gossip, her achievements made much of, her faults +glossed over as things that, being without remedy in our imperfect +world, should not be dwelt upon too much by men who, with the help +of ships, wrest out a bitter living from the rough grasp of the +sea. All that talk makes up her "name," which is handed over from +one crew to another without bitterness, without animosity, with the +indulgence of mutual dependence, and with the feeling of close +association in the exercise of her perfections and in the danger of +her defects. + +This feeling explains men's pride in ships. "Ships are all right," +as my middle-aged, respectable quartermaster said with much +conviction and some irony; but they are not exactly what men make +them. They have their own nature; they can of themselves minister +to our self-esteem by the demand their qualities make upon our +skill and their shortcomings upon our hardiness and endurance. +Which is the more flattering exaction it is hard to say; but there +is the fact that in listening for upwards of twenty years to the +sea-talk that goes on afloat and ashore I have never detected the +true note of animosity. I won't deny that at sea, sometimes, the +note of profanity was audible enough in those chiding +interpellations a wet, cold, weary seaman addresses to his ship, +and in moments of exasperation is disposed to extend to all ships +that ever were launched--to the whole everlastingly exacting brood +that swims in deep waters. And I have heard curses launched at the +unstable element itself, whose fascination, outlasting the +accumulated experience of ages, had captured him as it had captured +the generations of his forebears. + +For all that has been said of the love that certain natures (on +shore) have professed to feel for it, for all the celebrations it +had been the object of in prose and song, the sea has never been +friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human +restlessness, and playing the part of dangerous abettor of world- +wide ambitions. Faithful to no race after the manner of the kindly +earth, receiving no impress from valour and toil and self- +sacrifice, recognising no finality of dominion, the sea has never +adopted the cause of its masters like those lands where the +victorious nations of mankind have taken root, rocking their +cradles and setting up their gravestones. He--man or people--who, +putting his trust in the friendship of the sea, neglects the +strength and cunning of his right hand, is a fool! As if it were +too great, too mighty for common virtues, the ocean has no +compassion, no faith, no law, no memory. Its fickleness is to be +held true to men's purposes only by an undaunted resolution and by +a sleepless, armed, jealous vigilance, in which, perhaps, there has +always been more hate than love. Odi et amo may well be the +confession of those who consciously or blindly have surrendered +their existence to the fascination of the sea. All the tempestuous +passions of mankind's young days, the love of loot and the love of +glory, the love of adventure and the love of danger, with the great +love of the unknown and vast dreams of dominion and power, have +passed like images reflected from a mirror, leaving no record upon +the mysterious face of the sea. Impenetrable and heartless, the +sea has given nothing of itself to the suitors for its precarious +favours. Unlike the earth, it cannot be subjugated at any cost of +patience and toil. For all its fascination that has lured so many +to a violent death, its immensity has never been loved as the +mountains, the plains, the desert itself, have been loved. Indeed, +I suspect that, leaving aside the protestations and tributes of +writers who, one is safe in saying, care for little else in the +world than the rhythm of their lines and the cadence of their +phrase, the love of the sea, to which some men and nations confess +so readily, is a complex sentiment wherein pride enters for much, +necessity for not a little, and the love of ships--the untiring +servants of our hopes and our self-esteem--for the best and most +genuine part. For the hundreds who have reviled the sea, beginning +with Shakespeare in the line + + +"More fell than hunger, anguish, or the sea," + + +down to the last obscure sea-dog of the "old model," having but few +words and still fewer thoughts, there could not be found, I +believe, one sailor who has ever coupled a curse with the good or +bad name of a ship. If ever his profanity, provoked by the +hardships of the sea, went so far as to touch his ship, it would be +lightly, as a hand may, without sin, be laid in the way of kindness +on a woman. + + + +XXXVI. + + + +The love that is given to ships is profoundly different from the +love men feel for every other work of their hands--the love they +bear to their houses, for instance--because it is untainted by the +pride of possession. The pride of skill, the pride of +responsibility, the pride of endurance there may be, but otherwise +it is a disinterested sentiment. No seaman ever cherished a ship, +even if she belonged to him, merely because of the profit she put +in his pocket. No one, I think, ever did; for a ship-owner, even +of the best, has always been outside the pale of that sentiment +embracing in a feeling of intimate, equal fellowship the ship and +the man, backing each other against the implacable, if sometimes +dissembled, hostility of their world of waters. The sea--this +truth must be confessed--has no generosity. No display of manly +qualities--courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness--has ever +been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power. The +ocean has the conscienceless temper of a savage autocrat spoiled by +much adulation. He cannot brook the slightest appearance of +defiance, and has remained the irreconcilable enemy of ships and +men ever since ships and men had the unheard of audacity to go +afloat together in the face of his frown. From that day he has +gone on swallowing up fleets and men without his resentment being +glutted by the number of victims--by so many wrecked ships and +wrecked lives. To-day, as ever, he is ready to beguile and betray, +to smash and to drown the incorrigible optimism of men who, backed +by the fidelity of ships, are trying to wrest from him the fortune +of their house, the dominion of their world, or only a dole of food +for their hunger. If not always in the hot mood to smash, he is +always stealthily ready for a drowning. The most amazing wonder of +the deep is its unfathomable cruelty. + +I felt its dread for the first time in mid-Atlantic one day, many +years ago, when we took off the crew of a Danish brig homeward +bound from the West Indies. A thin, silvery mist softened the calm +and majestic splendour of light without shadows--seemed to render +the sky less remote and the ocean less immense. It was one of the +days, when the might of the sea appears indeed lovable, like the +nature of a strong man in moments of quiet intimacy. At sunrise we +had made out a black speck to the westward, apparently suspended +high up in the void behind a stirring, shimmering veil of silvery +blue gauze that seemed at times to stir and float in the breeze +which fanned us slowly along. The peace of that enchanting +forenoon was so profound, so untroubled, that it seemed that every +word pronounced loudly on our deck would penetrate to the very +heart of that infinite mystery born from the conjunction of water +and sky. We did not raise our voices. "A water-logged derelict, I +think, sir," said the second officer quietly, coming down from +aloft with the binoculars in their case slung across his shoulders; +and our captain, without a word, signed to the helmsman to steer +for the black speck. Presently we made out a low, jagged stump +sticking up forward--all that remained of her departed masts. + +The captain was expatiating in a low conversational tone to the +chief mate upon the danger of these derelicts, and upon his dread +of coming upon them at night, when suddenly a man forward screamed +out, "There's people on board of her, sir! I see them!" in a most +extraordinary voice--a voice never heard before in our ship; the +amazing voice of a stranger. It gave the signal for a sudden +tumult of shouts. The watch below ran up the forecastle head in a +body, the cook dashed out of the galley. Everybody saw the poor +fellows now. They were there! And all at once our ship, which had +the well-earned name of being without a rival for speed in light +winds, seemed to us to have lost the power of motion, as if the +sea, becoming viscous, had clung to her sides. And yet she moved. +Immensity, the inseparable companion of a ship's life, chose that +day to breathe upon her as gently as a sleeping child. The clamour +of our excitement had died out, and our living ship, famous for +never losing steerage way as long as there was air enough to float +a feather, stole, without a ripple, silent and white as a ghost, +towards her mutilated and wounded sister, come upon at the point of +death in the sunlit haze of a calm day at sea. + +With the binoculars glued to his eyes, the captain said in a +quavering tone: "They are waving to us with something aft there." +He put down the glasses on the skylight brusquely, and began to +walk about the poop. "A shirt or a flag," he ejaculated irritably. +"Can't make it out. . . Some damn rag or other!" He took a few +more turns on the poop, glancing down over the rail now and then to +see how fast we were moving. His nervous footsteps rang sharply in +the quiet of the ship, where the other men, all looking the same +way, had forgotten themselves in a staring immobility. "This will +never do!" he cried out suddenly. "Lower the boats at once! Down +with them!" + +Before I jumped into mine he took me aside, as being an +inexperienced junior, for a word of warning: + +"You look out as you come alongside that she doesn't take you down +with her. You understand?" + +He murmured this confidentially, so that none of the men at the +falls should overhear, and I was shocked. "Heavens! as if in such +an emergency one stopped to think of danger!" I exclaimed to myself +mentally, in scorn of such cold-blooded caution. + +It takes many lessons to make a real seaman, and I got my rebuke at +once. My experienced commander seemed in one searching glance to +read my thoughts on my ingenuous face. + +"What you're going for is to save life, not to drown your boat's +crew for nothing," he growled severely in my ear. But as we shoved +off he leaned over and cried out: "It all rests on the power of +your arms, men. Give way for life!" + +We made a race of it, and I would never have believed that a common +boat's crew of a merchantman could keep up so much determined +fierceness in the regular swing of their stroke. What our captain +had clearly perceived before we left had become plain to all of us +since. The issue of our enterprise hung on a hair above that abyss +of waters which will not give up its dead till the Day of Judgment. +It was a race of two ship's boats matched against Death for a prize +of nine men's lives, and Death had a long start. We saw the crew +of the brig from afar working at the pumps--still pumping on that +wreck, which already had settled so far down that the gentle, low +swell, over which our boats rose and fell easily without a check to +their speed, welling up almost level with her head-rails, plucked +at the ends of broken gear swinging desolately under her naked +bowsprit. + +We could not, in all conscience, have picked out a better day for +our regatta had we had the free choice of all the days that ever +dawned upon the lonely struggles and solitary agonies of ships +since the Norse rovers first steered to the westward against the +run of Atlantic waves. It was a very good race. At the finish +there was not an oar's length between the first and second boat, +with Death coming in a good third on the top of the very next +smooth swell, for all one knew to the contrary. The scuppers of +the brig gurgled softly all together when the water rising against +her sides subsided sleepily with a low wash, as if playing about an +immovable rock. Her bulwarks were gone fore and aft, and one saw +her bare deck low-lying like a raft and swept clean of boats, +spars, houses--of everything except the ringbolts and the heads of +the pumps. I had one dismal glimpse of it as I braced myself up to +receive upon my breast the last man to leave her, the captain, who +literally let himself fall into my arms. + +It had been a weirdly silent rescue--a rescue without a hail, +without a single uttered word, without a gesture or a sign, without +a conscious exchange of glances. Up to the very last moment those +on board stuck to their pumps, which spouted two clear streams of +water upon their bare feet. Their brown skin showed through the +rents of their shirts; and the two small bunches of half-naked, +tattered men went on bowing from the waist to each other in their +back-breaking labour, up and down, absorbed, with no time for a +glance over the shoulder at the help that was coming to them. As +we dashed, unregarded, alongside a voice let out one, only one +hoarse howl of command, and then, just as they stood, without caps, +with the salt drying gray in the wrinkles and folds of their hairy, +haggard faces, blinking stupidly at us their red eyelids, they made +a bolt away from the handles, tottering and jostling against each +other, and positively flung themselves over upon our very heads. +The clatter they made tumbling into the boats had an +extraordinarily destructive effect upon the illusion of tragic +dignity our self-esteem had thrown over the contests of mankind +with the sea. On that exquisite day of gently breathing peace and +veiled sunshine perished my romantic love to what men's imagination +had proclaimed the most august aspect of Nature. The cynical +indifference of the sea to the merits of human suffering and +courage, laid bare in this ridiculous, panic-tainted performance +extorted from the dire extremity of nine good and honourable +seamen, revolted me. I saw the duplicity of the sea's most tender +mood. It was so because it could not help itself, but the awed +respect of the early days was gone. I felt ready to smile bitterly +at its enchanting charm and glare viciously at its furies. In a +moment, before we shoved off, I had looked coolly at the life of my +choice. Its illusions were gone, but its fascination remained. I +had become a seaman at last. + +We pulled hard for a quarter of an hour, then laid on our oars +waiting for our ship. She was coming down on us with swelling +sails, looking delicately tall and exquisitely noble through the +mist. The captain of the brig, who sat in the stern sheets by my +side with his face in his hands, raised his head and began to speak +with a sort of sombre volubility. They had lost their masts and +sprung a leak in a hurricane; drifted for weeks, always at the +pumps, met more bad weather; the ships they sighted failed to make +them out, the leak gained upon them slowly, and the seas had left +them nothing to make a raft of. It was very hard to see ship after +ship pass by at a distance, "as if everybody had agreed that we +must be left to drown," he added. But they went on trying to keep +the brig afloat as long as possible, and working the pumps +constantly on insufficient food, mostly raw, till "yesterday +evening," he continued monotonously, "just as the sun went down, +the men's hearts broke." + +He made an almost imperceptible pause here, and went on again with +exactly the same intonation: + +"They told me the brig could not be saved, and they thought they +had done enough for themselves. I said nothing to that. It was +true. It was no mutiny. I had nothing to say to them. They lay +about aft all night, as still as so many dead men. I did not lie +down. I kept a look-out. When the first light came I saw your +ship at once. I waited for more light; the breeze began to fail on +my face. Then I shouted out as loud as I was able, 'Look at that +ship!' but only two men got up very slowly and came to me. At +first only we three stood alone, for a long time, watching you +coming down to us, and feeling the breeze drop to a calm almost; +but afterwards others, too, rose, one after another, and by-and-by +I had all my crew behind me. I turned round and said to them that +they could see the ship was coming our way, but in this small +breeze she might come too late after all, unless we turned to and +tried to keep the brig afloat long enough to give you time to save +us all. I spoke like that to them, and then I gave the command to +man the pumps." + +He gave the command, and gave the example, too, by going himself to +the handles, but it seems that these men did actually hang back for +a moment, looking at each other dubiously before they followed him. +"He! he! he!" He broke out into a most unexpected, imbecile, +pathetic, nervous little giggle. "Their hearts were broken so! +They had been played with too long," he explained apologetically, +lowering his eyes, and became silent. + +Twenty-five years is a long time--a quarter of a century is a dim +and distant past; but to this day I remember the dark-brown feet, +hands, and faces of two of these men whose hearts had been broken +by the sea. They were lying very still on their sides on the +bottom boards between the thwarts, curled up like dogs. My boat's +crew, leaning over the looms of their oars, stared and listened as +if at the play. The master of the brig looked up suddenly to ask +me what day it was. + +They had lost the date. When I told him it was Sunday, the 22nd, +he frowned, making some mental calculation, then nodded twice sadly +to himself, staring at nothing. + +His aspect was miserably unkempt and wildly sorrowful. Had it not +been for the unquenchable candour of his blue eyes, whose unhappy, +tired glance every moment sought his abandoned, sinking brig, as if +it could find rest nowhere else, he would have appeared mad. But +he was too simple to go mad, too simple with that manly simplicity +which alone can bear men unscathed in mind and body through an +encounter with the deadly playfulness of the sea or with its less +abominable fury. + +Neither angry, nor playful, nor smiling, it enveloped our distant +ship growing bigger as she neared us, our boats with the rescued +men and the dismantled hull of the brig we were leaving behind, in +the large and placid embrace of its quietness, half lost in the +fair haze, as if in a dream of infinite and tender clemency. There +was no frown, no wrinkle on its face, not a ripple. And the run of +the slight swell was so smooth that it resembled the graceful +undulation of a piece of shimmering gray silk shot with gleams of +green. We pulled an easy stroke; but when the master of the brig, +after a glance over his shoulder, stood up with a low exclamation, +my men feathered their oars instinctively, without an order, and +the boat lost her way. + +He was steadying himself on my shoulder with a strong grip, while +his other arm, flung up rigidly, pointed a denunciatory finger at +the immense tranquillity of the ocean. After his first +exclamation, which stopped the swing of our oars, he made no sound, +but his whole attitude seemed to cry out an indignant "Behold!" . . +. I could not imagine what vision of evil had come to him. I was +startled, and the amazing energy of his immobilized gesture made my +heart beat faster with the anticipation of something monstrous and +unsuspected. The stillness around us became crushing. + +For a moment the succession of silky undulations ran on innocently. +I saw each of them swell up the misty line of the horizon, far, far +away beyond the derelict brig, and the next moment, with a slight +friendly toss of our boat, it had passed under us and was gone. +The lulling cadence of the rise and fall, the invariable gentleness +of this irresistible force, the great charm of the deep waters, +warmed my breast deliciously, like the subtle poison of a love- +potion. But all this lasted only a few soothing seconds before I +jumped up too, making the boat roll like the veriest landlubber. + +Something startling, mysterious, hastily confused, was taking +place. I watched it with incredulous and fascinated awe, as one +watches the confused, swift movements of some deed of violence done +in the dark. As if at a given signal, the run of the smooth +undulations seemed checked suddenly around the brig. By a strange +optical delusion the whole sea appeared to rise upon her in one +overwhelming heave of its silky surface, where in one spot a +smother of foam broke out ferociously. And then the effort +subsided. It was all over, and the smooth swell ran on as before +from the horizon in uninterrupted cadence of motion, passing under +us with a slight friendly toss of our boat. Far away, where the +brig had been, an angry white stain undulating on the surface of +steely-gray waters, shot with gleams of green, diminished swiftly, +without a hiss, like a patch of pure snow melting in the sun. And +the great stillness after this initiation into the sea's implacable +hate seemed full of dread thoughts and shadows of disaster. + +"Gone!" ejaculated from the depths of his chest my bowman in a +final tone. He spat in his hands, and took a better grip on his +oar. The captain of the brig lowered his rigid arm slowly, and +looked at our faces in a solemnly conscious silence, which called +upon us to share in his simple-minded, marvelling awe. All at once +he sat down by my side, and leaned forward earnestly at my boat's +crew, who, swinging together in a long, easy stroke, kept their +eyes fixed upon him faithfully. + +"No ship could have done so well," he addressed them firmly, after +a moment of strained silence, during which he seemed with trembling +lips to seek for words fit to bear such high testimony. "She was +small, but she was good. I had no anxiety. She was strong. Last +voyage I had my wife and two children in her. No other ship could +have stood so long the weather she had to live through for days and +days before we got dismasted a fortnight ago. She was fairly worn +out, and that's all. You may believe me. She lasted under us for +days and days, but she could not last for ever. It was long +enough. I am glad it is over. No better ship was ever left to +sink at sea on such a day as this." + +He was competent to pronounce the funereal oration of a ship, this +son of ancient sea-folk, whose national existence, so little +stained by the excesses of manly virtues, had demanded nothing but +the merest foothold from the earth. By the merits of his sea-wise +forefathers and by the artlessness of his heart, he was made fit to +deliver this excellent discourse. There was nothing wanting in its +orderly arrangement--neither piety nor faith, nor the tribute of +praise due to the worthy dead, with the edifying recital of their +achievement. She had lived, he had loved her; she had suffered, +and he was glad she was at rest. It was an excellent discourse. +And it was orthodox, too, in its fidelity to the cardinal article +of a seaman's faith, of which it was a single-minded confession. +"Ships are all right." They are. They who live with the sea have +got to hold by that creed first and last; and it came to me, as I +glanced at him sideways, that some men were not altogether unworthy +in honour and conscience to pronounce the funereal eulogium of a +ship's constancy in life and death. + +After this, sitting by my side with his loosely-clasped hands +hanging between his knees, he uttered no word, made no movement +till the shadow of our ship's sails fell on the boat, when, at the +loud cheer greeting the return of the victors with their prize, he +lifted up his troubled face with a faint smile of pathetic +indulgence. This smile of the worthy descendant of the most +ancient sea-folk whose audacity and hardihood had left no trace of +greatness and glory upon the waters, completed the cycle of my +initiation. There was an infinite depth of hereditary wisdom in +its pitying sadness. It made the hearty bursts of cheering sound +like a childish noise of triumph. Our crew shouted with immense +confidence--honest souls! As if anybody could ever make sure of +having prevailed against the sea, which has betrayed so many ships +of great "name," so many proud men, so many towering ambitions of +fame, power, wealth, greatness! + +As I brought the boat under the falls my captain, in high good- +humour, leaned over, spreading his red and freckled elbows on the +rail, and called down to me sarcastically, out of the depths of his +cynic philosopher's beard: + +"So you have brought the boat back after all, have you?" + +Sarcasm was "his way," and the most that can be said for it is that +it was natural. This did not make it lovable. But it is decorous +and expedient to fall in with one's commander's way. "Yes. I +brought the boat back all right, sir," I answered. And the good +man believed me. It was not for him to discern upon me the marks +of my recent initiation. And yet I was not exactly the same +youngster who had taken the boat away--all impatience for a race +against death, with the prize of nine men's lives at the end. + +Already I looked with other eyes upon the sea. I knew it capable +of betraying the generous ardour of youth as implacably as, +indifferent to evil and good, it would have betrayed the basest +greed or the noblest heroism. My conception of its magnanimous +greatness was gone. And I looked upon the true sea--the sea that +plays with men till their hearts are broken, and wears stout ships +to death. Nothing can touch the brooding bitterness of its heart. +Open to all and faithful to none, it exercises its fascination for +the undoing of the best. To love it is not well. It knows no bond +of plighted troth, no fidelity to misfortune, to long +companionship, to long devotion. The promise it holds out +perpetually is very great; but the only secret of its possession is +strength, strength--the jealous, sleepless strength of a man +guarding a coveted treasure within his gates. + + + +XXXVII. + + + +The cradle of oversea traffic and of the art of naval combats, the +Mediterranean, apart from all the associations of adventure and +glory, the common heritage of all mankind, makes a tender appeal to +a seaman. It has sheltered the infancy of his craft. He looks +upon it as a man may look at a vast nursery in an old, old mansion +where innumerable generations of his own people have learned to +walk. I say his own people because, in a sense, all sailors belong +to one family: all are descended from that adventurous and shaggy +ancestor who, bestriding a shapeless log and paddling with a +crooked branch, accomplished the first coasting-trip in a sheltered +bay ringing with the admiring howls of his tribe. It is a matter +of regret that all those brothers in craft and feeling, whose +generations have learned to walk a ship's deck in that nursery, +have been also more than once fiercely engaged in cutting each +other's throats there. But life, apparently, has such exigencies. +Without human propensity to murder and other sorts of +unrighteousness there would have been no historical heroism. It is +a consoling reflection. And then, if one examines impartially the +deeds of violence, they appear of but small consequence. From +Salamis to Actium, through Lepanto and the Nile to the naval +massacre of Navarino, not to mention other armed encounters of +lesser interest, all the blood heroically spilt into the +Mediterranean has not stained with a single trail of purple the +deep azure of its classic waters. + +Of course, it may be argued that battles have shaped the destiny of +mankind. The question whether they have shaped it well would +remain open, however. But it would be hardly worth discussing. It +is very probable that, had the Battle of Salamis never been fought, +the face of the world would have been much as we behold it now, +fashioned by the mediocre inspiration and the short-sighted labours +of men. From a long and miserable experience of suffering, +injustice, disgrace and aggression the nations of the earth are +mostly swayed by fear--fear of the sort that a little cheap oratory +turns easily to rage, hate, and violence. Innocent, guileless fear +has been the cause of many wars. Not, of course, the fear of war +itself, which, in the evolution of sentiments and ideas, has come +to be regarded at last as a half-mystic and glorious ceremony with +certain fashionable rites and preliminary incantations, wherein the +conception of its true nature has been lost. To apprehend the true +aspect, force, and morality of war as a natural function of mankind +one requires a feather in the hair and a ring in the nose, or, +better still, teeth filed to a point and a tattooed breast. +Unfortunately, a return to such simple ornamentation is impossible. +We are bound to the chariot of progress. There is no going back; +and, as bad luck would have it, our civilization, which has done so +much for the comfort and adornment of our bodies and the elevation +of our minds, has made lawful killing frightfully and needlessly +expensive. + +The whole question of improved armaments has been approached by the +governments of the earth in a spirit of nervous and unreflecting +haste, whereas the right way was lying plainly before them, and had +only to be pursued with calm determination. The learned vigils and +labours of a certain class of inventors should have been rewarded +with honourable liberality as justice demanded; and the bodies of +the inventors should have been blown to pieces by means of their +own perfected explosives and improved weapons with extreme +publicity as the commonest prudence dictated. By this method the +ardour of research in that direction would have been restrained +without infringing the sacred privileges of science. For the lack +of a little cool thinking in our guides and masters this course has +not been followed, and a beautiful simplicity has been sacrificed +for no real advantage. A frugal mind cannot defend itself from +considerable bitterness when reflecting that at the Battle of +Actium (which was fought for no less a stake than the dominion of +the world) the fleet of Octavianus Caesar and the fleet of +Antonius, including the Egyptian division and Cleopatra's galley +with purple sails, probably cost less than two modern battleships, +or, as the modern naval book-jargon has it, two capital units. But +no amount of lubberly book-jargon can disguise a fact well +calculated to afflict the soul of every sound economist. It is not +likely that the Mediterranean will ever behold a battle with a +greater issue; but when the time comes for another historical fight +its bottom will be enriched as never before by a quantity of jagged +scrap-iron, paid for at pretty nearly its weight of gold by the +deluded populations inhabiting the isles and continents of this +planet. + + + +XXXVIII. + + + +Happy he who, like Ulysses, has made an adventurous voyage; and +there is no such sea for adventurous voyages as the Mediterranean-- +the inland sea which the ancients looked upon as so vast and so +full of wonders. And, indeed, it was terrible and wonderful; for +it is we alone who, swayed by the audacity of our minds and the +tremors of our hearts, are the sole artisans of all the wonder and +romance of the world. + +It was for the Mediterranean sailors that fair-haired sirens sang +among the black rocks seething in white foam and mysterious voices +spoke in the darkness above the moving wave--voices menacing, +seductive, or prophetic, like that voice heard at the beginning of +the Christian era by the master of an African vessel in the Gulf of +Syrta, whose calm nights are full of strange murmurs and flitting +shadows. It called him by name, bidding him go and tell all men +that the great god Pan was dead. But the great legend of the +Mediterranean, the legend of traditional song and grave history, +lives, fascinating and immortal, in our minds. + +The dark and fearful sea of the subtle Ulysses' wanderings, +agitated by the wrath of Olympian gods, harbouring on its isles the +fury of strange monsters and the wiles of strange women; the +highway of heroes and sages, of warriors, pirates, and saints; the +workaday sea of Carthaginian merchants and the pleasure lake of the +Roman Caesars, claims the veneration of every seaman as the +historical home of that spirit of open defiance against the great +waters of the earth which is the very soul of his calling. Issuing +thence to the west and south, as a youth leaves the shelter of his +parental house, this spirit found the way to the Indies, discovered +the coasts of a new continent, and traversed at last the immensity +of the great Pacific, rich in groups of islands remote and +mysterious like the constellations of the sky. + +The first impulse of navigation took its visible form in that +tideless basin freed from hidden shoals and treacherous currents, +as if in tender regard for the infancy of the art. The steep +shores of the Mediterranean favoured the beginners in one of +humanity's most daring enterprises, and the enchanting inland sea +of classic adventure has led mankind gently from headland to +headland, from bay to bay, from island to island, out into the +promise of world-wide oceans beyond the Pillars of Hercules. + + + +XXXIX. + + + +The charm of the Mediterranean dwells in the unforgettable flavour +of my early days, and to this hour this sea, upon which the Romans +alone ruled without dispute, has kept for me the fascination of +youthful romance. The very first Christmas night I ever spent away +from land was employed in running before a Gulf of Lions gale, +which made the old ship groan in every timber as she skipped before +it over the short seas until we brought her to, battered and out of +breath, under the lee of Majorca, where the smooth water was torn +by fierce cat's-paws under a very stormy sky. + +We--or, rather, they, for I had hardly had two glimpses of salt +water in my life till then--kept her standing off and on all that +day, while I listened for the first time with the curiosity of my +tender years to the song of the wind in a ship's rigging. The +monotonous and vibrating note was destined to grow into the +intimacy of the heart, pass into blood and bone, accompany the +thoughts and acts of two full decades, remain to haunt like a +reproach the peace of the quiet fireside, and enter into the very +texture of respectable dreams dreamed safely under a roof of +rafters and tiles. The wind was fair, but that day we ran no more. + +The thing (I will not call her a ship twice in the same half-hour) +leaked. She leaked fully, generously, overflowingly, all over-- +like a basket. I took an enthusiastic part in the excitement +caused by that last infirmity of noble ships, without concerning +myself much with the why or the wherefore. The surmise of my +maturer years is that, bored by her interminable life, the +venerable antiquity was simply yawning with ennui at every seam. +But at the time I did not know; I knew generally very little, and +least of all what I was doing in that galere. + +I remember that, exactly as in the comedy of Moliere, my uncle +asked the precise question in the very words--not of my +confidential valet, however, but across great distances of land, in +a letter whose mocking but indulgent turn ill concealed his almost +paternal anxiety. I fancy I tried to convey to him my (utterly +unfounded) impression that the West Indies awaited my coming. I +had to go there. It was a sort of mystic conviction--something in +the nature of a call. But it was difficult to state intelligibly +the grounds of this belief to that man of rigorous logic, if of +infinite charity. + +The truth must have been that, all unversed in the arts of the wily +Greek, the deceiver of gods, the lover of strange women, the evoker +of bloodthirsty shades, I yet longed for the beginning of my own +obscure Odyssey, which, as was proper for a modern, should unroll +its wonders and terrors beyond the Pillars of Hercules. The +disdainful ocean did not open wide to swallow up my audacity, +though the ship, the ridiculous and ancient galere of my folly, the +old, weary, disenchanted sugar-waggon, seemed extremely disposed to +open out and swallow up as much salt water as she could hold. +This, if less grandiose, would have been as final a catastrophe. + +But no catastrophe occurred. I lived to watch on a strange shore a +black and youthful Nausicaa, with a joyous train of attendant +maidens, carrying baskets of linen to a clear stream overhung by +the heads of slender palm-trees. The vivid colours of their draped +raiment and the gold of their earrings invested with a barbaric and +regal magnificence their figures, stepping out freely in a shower +of broken sunshine. The whiteness of their teeth was still more +dazzling than the splendour of jewels at their ears. The shaded +side of the ravine gleamed with their smiles. They were as +unabashed as so many princesses, but, alas! not one of them was the +daughter of a jet-black sovereign. Such was my abominable luck in +being born by the mere hair's breadth of twenty-five centuries too +late into a world where kings have been growing scarce with +scandalous rapidity, while the few who remain have adopted the +uninteresting manners and customs of simple millionaires. +Obviously it was a vain hope in 187- to see the ladies of a royal +household walk in chequered sunshine, with baskets of linen on +their heads, to the banks of a clear stream overhung by the starry +fronds of palm-trees. It was a vain hope. If I did not ask myself +whether, limited by such discouraging impossibilities, life were +still worth living, it was only because I had then before me +several other pressing questions, some of which have remained +unanswered to this day. The resonant, laughing voices of these +gorgeous maidens scared away the multitude of humming-birds, whose +delicate wings wreathed with the mist of their vibration the tops +of flowering bushes. + +No, they were not princesses. Their unrestrained laughter filling +the hot, fern-clad ravine had a soulless limpidity, as of wild, +inhuman dwellers in tropical woodlands. Following the example of +certain prudent travellers, I withdrew unseen--and returned, not +much wiser, to the Mediterranean, the sea of classic adventures. + + + +XL. + + + +It was written that there, in the nursery of our navigating +ancestors, I should learn to walk in the ways of my craft and grow +in the love of the sea, blind as young love often is, but absorbing +and disinterested as all true love must be. I demanded nothing +from it--not even adventure. In this I showed, perhaps, more +intuitive wisdom than high self-denial. No adventure ever came to +one for the asking. He who starts on a deliberate quest of +adventure goes forth but to gather dead-sea fruit, unless, indeed, +he be beloved of the gods and great amongst heroes, like that most +excellent cavalier Don Quixote de la Mancha. By us ordinary +mortals of a mediocre animus that is only too anxious to pass by +wicked giants for so many honest windmills, adventures are +entertained like visiting angels. They come upon our complacency +unawares. As unbidden guests are apt to do, they often come at +inconvenient times. And we are glad to let them go unrecognised, +without any acknowledgment of so high a favour. After many years, +on looking back from the middle turn of life's way at the events of +the past, which, like a friendly crowd, seem to gaze sadly after us +hastening towards the Cimmerian shore, we may see here and there, +in the gray throng, some figure glowing with a faint radiance, as +though it had caught all the light of our already crepuscular sky. +And by this glow we may recognise the faces of our true adventures, +of the once unbidden guests entertained unawares in our young days. + +If the Mediterranean, the venerable (and sometimes atrociously ill- +tempered) nurse of all navigators, was to rock my youth, the +providing of the cradle necessary for that operation was entrusted +by Fate to the most casual assemblage of irresponsible young men +(all, however, older than myself) that, as if drunk with Provencal +sunshine, frittered life away in joyous levity on the model of +Balzac's "Histoire des Treize" qualified by a dash of romance de +cape et d'epee. + +She who was my cradle in those years had been built on the River of +Savona by a famous builder of boats, was rigged in Corsica by +another good man, and was described on her papers as a 'tartane' of +sixty tons. In reality, she was a true balancelle, with two short +masts raking forward and two curved yards, each as long as her +hull; a true child of the Latin lake, with a spread of two enormous +sails resembling the pointed wings on a sea-bird's slender body, +and herself, like a bird indeed, skimming rather than sailing the +seas. + +Her name was the Tremolino. How is this to be translated? The +Quiverer? What a name to give the pluckiest little craft that ever +dipped her sides in angry foam! I had felt her, it is true, +trembling for nights and days together under my feet, but it was +with the high-strung tenseness of her faithful courage. In her +short, but brilliant, career she has taught me nothing, but she has +given me everything. I owe to her the awakened love for the sea +that, with the quivering of her swift little body and the humming +of the wind under the foot of her lateen sails, stole into my heart +with a sort of gentle violence, and brought my imagination under +its despotic sway. The Tremolino! To this day I cannot utter or +even write that name without a strange tightening of the breast and +the gasp of mingled delight and dread of one's first passionate +experience. + + + +XLI. + + + +We four formed (to use a term well understood nowadays in every +social sphere) a "syndicate" owning the Tremolino: an +international and astonishing syndicate. And we were all ardent +Royalists of the snow-white Legitimist complexion--Heaven only +knows why! In all associations of men there is generally one who, +by the authority of age and of a more experienced wisdom, imparts a +collective character to the whole set. If I mention that the +oldest of us was very old, extremely old--nearly thirty years old-- +and that he used to declare with gallant carelessness, "I live by +my sword," I think I have given enough information on the score of +our collective wisdom. He was a North Carolinian gentleman, J. M. +K. B. were the initials of his name, and he really did live by the +sword, as far as I know. He died by it, too, later on, in a +Balkanian squabble, in the cause of some Serbs or else Bulgarians, +who were neither Catholics nor gentlemen--at least, not in the +exalted but narrow sense he attached to that last word. + +Poor J. M. K. B., Americain, Catholique, et gentilhomme, as he was +disposed to describe himself in moments of lofty expansion! Are +there still to be found in Europe gentlemen keen of face and +elegantly slight of body, of distinguished aspect, with a +fascinating drawing-room manner and with a dark, fatal glance, who +live by their swords, I wonder? His family had been ruined in the +Civil War, I fancy, and seems for a decade or so to have led a +wandering life in the Old World. As to Henry C-, the next in age +and wisdom of our band, he had broken loose from the unyielding +rigidity of his family, solidly rooted, if I remember rightly, in a +well-to-do London suburb. On their respectable authority he +introduced himself meekly to strangers as a "black sheep." I have +never seen a more guileless specimen of an outcast. Never. + +However, his people had the grace to send him a little money now +and then. Enamoured of the South, of Provence, of its people, its +life, its sunshine and its poetry, narrow-chested, tall and short- +sighted, he strode along the streets and the lanes, his long feet +projecting far in advance of his body, and his white nose and +gingery moustache buried in an open book: for he had the habit of +reading as he walked. How he avoided falling into precipices, off +the quays, or down staircases is a great mystery. The sides of his +overcoat bulged out with pocket editions of various poets. When +not engaged in reading Virgil, Homer, or Mistral, in parks, +restaurants, streets, and suchlike public places, he indited +sonnets (in French) to the eyes, ears, chin, hair, and other +visible perfections of a nymph called Therese, the daughter, +honesty compels me to state, of a certain Madame Leonore who kept a +small cafe for sailors in one of the narrowest streets of the old +town. + +No more charming face, clear-cut like an antique gem, and delicate +in colouring like the petal of a flower, had ever been set on, +alas! a somewhat squat body. He read his verses aloud to her in +the very cafe with the innocence of a little child and the vanity +of a poet. We followed him there willingly enough, if only to +watch the divine Therese laugh, under the vigilant black eyes of +Madame Leonore, her mother. She laughed very prettily, not so much +at the sonnets, which she could not but esteem, as at poor Henry's +French accent, which was unique, resembling the warbling of birds, +if birds ever warbled with a stuttering, nasal intonation. + +Our third partner was Roger P. de la S-, the most Scandinavian- +looking of Provencal squires, fair, and six feet high, as became a +descendant of sea-roving Northmen, authoritative, incisive, wittily +scornful, with a comedy in three acts in his pocket, and in his +breast a heart blighted by a hopeless passion for his beautiful +cousin, married to a wealthy hide and tallow merchant. He used to +take us to lunch at their house without ceremony. I admired the +good lady's sweet patience. The husband was a conciliatory soul, +with a great fund of resignation, which he expended on "Roger's +friends." I suspect he was secretly horrified at these invasions. +But it was a Carlist salon, and as such we were made welcome. The +possibility of raising Catalonia in the interest of the Rey netto, +who had just then crossed the Pyrenees, was much discussed there. + +Don Carlos, no doubt, must have had many queer friends (it is the +common lot of all Pretenders), but amongst them none more +extravagantly fantastic than the Tremolino Syndicate, which used to +meet in a tavern on the quays of the old port. The antique city of +Massilia had surely never, since the days of the earliest +Phoenicians, known an odder set of ship-owners. We met to discuss +and settle the plan of operations for each voyage of the Tremolino. +In these operations a banking-house, too, was concerned--a very +respectable banking-house. But I am afraid I shall end by saying +too much. Ladies, too, were concerned (I am really afraid I am +saying too much)--all sorts of ladies, some old enough to know +better than to put their trust in princes, others young and full of +illusions. + +One of these last was extremely amusing in the imitations, she gave +us in confidence, of various highly-placed personages she was +perpetually rushing off to Paris to interview in the interests of +the cause--Por el Rey! For she was a Carlist, and of Basque blood +at that, with something of a lioness in the expression of her +courageous face (especially when she let her hair down), and with +the volatile little soul of a sparrow dressed in fine Parisian +feathers, which had the trick of coming off disconcertingly at +unexpected moments. + +But her imitations of a Parisian personage, very highly placed +indeed, as she represented him standing in the corner of a room +with his face to the wall, rubbing the back of his head and moaning +helplessly, "Rita, you are the death of me!" were enough to make +one (if young and free from cares) split one's sides laughing. She +had an uncle still living, a very effective Carlist, too, the +priest of a little mountain parish in Guipuzcoa. As the sea-going +member of the syndicate (whose plans depended greatly on Dona +Rita's information), I used to be charged with humbly affectionate +messages for the old man. These messages I was supposed to deliver +to the Arragonese muleteers (who were sure to await at certain +times the Tremolino in the neighbourhood of the Gulf of Rosas), for +faithful transportation inland, together with the various unlawful +goods landed secretly from under the Tremolino's hatches. + +Well, now, I have really let out too much (as I feared I should in +the end) as to the usual contents of my sea-cradle. But let it +stand. And if anybody remarks cynically that I must have been a +promising infant in those days, let that stand, too. I am +concerned but for the good name of the Tremolino, and I affirm that +a ship is ever guiltless of the sins, transgressions, and follies +of her men. + + + +XLII. + + + +It was not Tremolino's fault that the syndicate depended so much on +the wit and wisdom and the information of Dona Rita. She had taken +a little furnished house on the Prado for the good of the cause-- +Por el Rey! She was always taking little houses for somebody's +good, for the sick or the sorry, for broken-down artists, cleaned- +out gamblers, temporarily unlucky speculators--vieux amis--old +friends, as she used to explain apologetically, with a shrug of her +fine shoulders. + +Whether Don Carlos was one of the "old friends," too, it's hard to +say. More unlikely things have been heard of in smoking-rooms. +All I know is that one evening, entering incautiously the salon of +the little house just after the news of a considerable Carlist +success had reached the faithful, I was seized round the neck and +waist and whirled recklessly three times round the room, to the +crash of upsetting furniture and the humming of a valse tune in a +warm contralto voice. + +When released from the dizzy embrace, I sat down on the carpet-- +suddenly, without affectation. In this unpretentious attitude I +became aware that J. M. K. B. had followed me into the room, +elegant, fatal, correct and severe in a white tie and large shirt- +front. In answer to his politely sinister, prolonged glance of +inquiry, I overheard Dona Rita murmuring, with some confusion and +annoyance, "Vous etes bete mon cher. Voyons! Ca n'a aucune +consequence." Well content in this case to be of no particular +consequence, I had already about me the elements of some worldly +sense. + +Rearranging my collar, which, truth to say, ought to have been a +round one above a short jacket, but was not, I observed +felicitously that I had come to say good-bye, being ready to go off +to sea that very night with the Tremolino. Our hostess, slightly +panting yet, and just a shade dishevelled, turned tartly upon J. M. +K. B., desiring to know when HE would be ready to go off by the +Tremolino, or in any other way, in order to join the royal +headquarters. Did he intend, she asked ironically, to wait for the +very eve of the entry into Madrid? Thus by a judicious exercise of +tact and asperity we re-established the atmospheric equilibrium of +the room long before I left them a little before midnight, now +tenderly reconciled, to walk down to the harbour and hail the +Tremolino by the usual soft whistle from the edge of the quay. It +was our signal, invariably heard by the ever-watchful Dominic, the +padrone. + +He would raise a lantern silently to light my steps along the +narrow, springy plank of our primitive gangway. "And so we are +going off," he would murmur directly my foot touched the deck. I +was the harbinger of sudden departures, but there was nothing in +the world sudden enough to take Dominic unawares. His thick black +moustaches, curled every morning with hot tongs by the barber at +the corner of the quay, seemed to hide a perpetual smile. But +nobody, I believe, had ever seen the true shape of his lips. From +the slow, imperturbable gravity of that broad-chested man you would +think he had never smiled in his life. In his eyes lurked a look +of perfectly remorseless irony, as though he had been provided with +an extremely experienced soul; and the slightest distension of his +nostrils would give to his bronzed face a look of extraordinary +boldness. This was the only play of feature of which he seemed +capable, being a Southerner of a concentrated, deliberate type. +His ebony hair curled slightly on the temples. He may have been +forty years old, and he was a great voyager on the inland sea. + +Astute and ruthless, he could have rivalled in resource the +unfortunate son of Laertes and Anticlea. If he did not pit his +craft and audacity against the very gods, it is only because the +Olympian gods are dead. Certainly no woman could frighten him. A +one-eyed giant would not have had the ghost of a chance against +Dominic Cervoni, of Corsica, not Ithaca; and no king, son of kings, +but of very respectable family--authentic Caporali, he affirmed. +But that is as it may be. The Caporali families date back to the +twelfth century. + +For want of more exalted adversaries Dominic turned his audacity +fertile in impious stratagems against the powers of the earth, as +represented by the institution of Custom-houses and every mortal +belonging thereto--scribes, officers, and guardacostas afloat and +ashore. He was the very man for us, this modern and unlawful +wanderer with his own legend of loves, dangers, and bloodshed. He +told us bits of it sometimes in measured, ironic tones. He spoke +Catalonian, the Italian of Corsica and the French of Provence with +the same easy naturalness. Dressed in shore-togs, a white starched +shirt, black jacket, and round hat, as I took him once to see Dona +Rita, he was extremely presentable. He could make himself +interesting by a tactful and rugged reserve set off by a grim, +almost imperceptible, playfulness of tone and manner. + +He had the physical assurance of strong-hearted men. After half an +hour's interview in the dining-room, during which they got in touch +with each other in an amazing way, Rita told us in her best grande +dame manner: "Mais il esi parfait, cet homme." He was perfect. +On board the Tremolino, wrapped up in a black caban, the +picturesque cloak of Mediterranean seamen, with those massive +moustaches and his remorseless eyes set off by the shadow of the +deep hood, he looked piratical and monkish and darkly initiated +into the most awful mysteries of the sea. + + + +XLIII. + + + +Anyway, he was perfect, as Dona Rita had declared. The only thing +unsatisfactory (and even inexplicable) about our Dominic was his +nephew, Cesar. It was startling to see a desolate expression of +shame veil the remorseless audacity in the eyes of that man +superior to all scruples and terrors. + +"I would never have dared to bring him on board your balancelle," +he once apologized to me. "But what am I to do? His mother is +dead, and my brother has gone into the bush." + +In this way I learned that our Dominic had a brother. As to "going +into the bush," this only means that a man has done his duty +successfully in the pursuit of a hereditary vendetta. The feud +which had existed for ages between the families of Cervoni and +Brunaschi was so old that it seemed to have smouldered out at last. +One evening Pietro Brunaschi, after a laborious day amongst his +olive-trees, sat on a chair against the wall of his house with a +bowl of broth on his knees and a piece of bread in his hand. +Dominic's brother, going home with a gun on his shoulder, found a +sudden offence in this picture of content and rest so obviously +calculated to awaken the feelings of hatred and revenge. He and +Pietro had never had any personal quarrel; but, as Dominic +explained, "all our dead cried out to him." He shouted from behind +a wall of stones, "O Pietro! Behold what is coming!" And as the +other looked up innocently he took aim at the forehead and squared +the old vendetta account so neatly that, according to Dominic, the +dead man continued to sit with the bowl of broth on his knees and +the piece of bread in his hand. + +This is why--because in Corsica your dead will not leave you alone- +-Dominic's brother had to go into the maquis, into the bush on the +wild mountain-side, to dodge the gendarmes for the insignificant +remainder of his life, and Dominic had charge of his nephew with a +mission to make a man of him. + +No more unpromising undertaking could be imagined. The very +material for the task seemed wanting. The Cervonis, if not +handsome men, were good sturdy flesh and blood. But this +extraordinarily lean and livid youth seemed to have no more blood +in him than a snail. + +"Some cursed witch must have stolen my brother's child from the +cradle and put that spawn of a starved devil in its place," Dominic +would say to me. "Look at him! Just look at him!" + +To look at Cesar was not pleasant. His parchment skin, showing +dead white on his cranium through the thin wisps of dirty brown +hair, seemed to be glued directly and tightly upon his big bones, +Without being in any way deformed, he was the nearest approach +which I have ever seen or could imagine to what is commonly +understood by the word "monster." That the source of the effect +produced was really moral I have no doubt. An utterly, hopelessly +depraved nature was expressed in physical terms, that taken each +separately had nothing positively startling. You imagined him +clammily cold to the touch, like a snake. The slightest reproof, +the most mild and justifiable remonstrance, would be met by a +resentful glare and an evil shrinking of his thin dry upper lip, a +snarl of hate to which he generally added the agreeable sound of +grinding teeth. + +It was for this venomous performance rather than for his lies, +impudence, and laziness that his uncle used to knock him down. It +must not be imagined that it was anything in the nature of a brutal +assault. Dominic's brawny arm would be seen describing +deliberately an ample horizontal gesture, a dignified sweep, and +Cesar would go over suddenly like a ninepin--which was funny to +see. But, once down, he would writhe on the deck, gnashing his +teeth in impotent rage--which was pretty horrible to behold. And +it also happened more than once that he would disappear completely- +-which was startling to observe. This is the exact truth. Before +some of these majestic cuffs Cesar would go down and vanish. He +would vanish heels overhead into open hatchways, into scuttles, +behind up-ended casks, according to the place where he happened to +come into contact with his uncle's mighty arm. + +Once--it was in the old harbour, just before the Tremolino's last +voyage--he vanished thus overboard to my infinite consternation. +Dominic and I had been talking business together aft, and Cesar had +sneaked up behind us to listen, for, amongst his other perfections, +he was a consummate eavesdropper and spy. At the sound of the +heavy plop alongside horror held me rooted to the spot; but Dominic +stepped quietly to the rail and leaned over, waiting for his +nephew's miserable head to bob up for the first time. + +"Ohe, Cesar!" he yelled contemptuously to the spluttering wretch. +"Catch hold of that mooring hawser--charogne!" + +He approached me to resume the interrupted conversation. + +"What about Cesar?" I asked anxiously. + +"Canallia! Let him hang there," was his answer. And he went on +talking over the business in hand calmly, while I tried vainly to +dismiss from my mind the picture of Cesar steeped to the chin in +the water of the old harbour, a decoction of centuries of marine +refuse. I tried to dismiss it, because the mere notion of that +liquid made me feel very sick. Presently Dominic, hailing an idle +boatman, directed him to go and fish his nephew out; and by-and-by +Cesar appeared walking on board from the quay, shivering, streaming +with filthy water, with bits of rotten straws in his hair and a +piece of dirty orange-peel stranded on his shoulder. His teeth +chattered; his yellow eyes squinted balefully at us as he passed +forward. I thought it my duty to remonstrate. + +"Why are you always knocking him about, Dominic?" I asked. Indeed, +I felt convinced it was no earthly good--a sheer waste of muscular +force. + +"I must try to make a man of him," Dominic answered hopelessly. + +I restrained the obvious retort that in this way he ran the risk of +making, in the words of the immortal Mr. Mantalini, "a demnition +damp, unpleasant corpse of him." + +"He wants to be a locksmith!" burst out Cervoni. "To learn how to +pick locks, I suppose," he added with sardonic bitterness. + +"Why not let him be a locksmith?" I ventured. + +"Who would teach him?" he cried. "Where could I leave him?" he +asked, with a drop in his voice; and I had my first glimpse of +genuine despair. "He steals, you know, alas! Par ta Madonne! I +believe he would put poison in your food and mine--the viper!" + +He raised his face and both his clenched fists slowly to heaven. +However, Cesar never dropped poison into our cups. One cannot be +sure, but I fancy he went to work in another way. + +This voyage, of which the details need not be given, we had to +range far afield for sufficient reasons. Coming up from the South +to end it with the important and really dangerous part of the +scheme in hand, we found it necessary to look into Barcelona for +certain definite information. This appears like running one's head +into the very jaws of the lion, but in reality it was not so. We +had one or two high, influential friends there, and many others +humble but valuable because bought for good hard cash. We were in +no danger of being molested; indeed, the important information +reached us promptly by the hands of a Custom-house officer, who +came on board full of showy zeal to poke an iron rod into the layer +of oranges which made the visible part of our cargo in the +hatchway. + +I forgot to mention before that the Tremolino was officially known +as a fruit and cork-wood trader. The zealous officer managed to +slip a useful piece of paper into Dominic's hand as he went ashore, +and a few hours afterwards, being off duty, he returned on board +again athirst for drinks and gratitude. He got both as a matter of +course. While he sat sipping his liqueur in the tiny cabin, +Dominic plied him with questions as to the whereabouts of the +guardacostas. The preventive service afloat was really the one for +us to reckon with, and it was material for our success and safety +to know the exact position of the patrol craft in the +neighbourhood. The news could not have been more favourable. The +officer mentioned a small place on the coast some twelve miles off, +where, unsuspicious and unready, she was lying at anchor, with her +sails unbent, painting yards and scraping spars. Then he left us +after the usual compliments, smirking reassurringly over his +shoulder. + +I had kept below pretty close all day from excess of prudence. The +stake played on that trip was big. + +"We are ready to go at once, but for Cesar, who has been missing +ever since breakfast," announced Dominic to me in his slow, grim +way. + +Where the fellow had gone, and why, we could not imagine. The +usual surmises in the case of a missing seaman did not apply to +Cesar's absence. He was too odious for love, friendship, gambling, +or even casual intercourse. But once or twice he had wandered away +like this before. + +Dominic went ashore to look for him, but returned at the end of two +hours alone and very angry, as I could see by the token of the +invisible smile under his moustache being intensified. We wondered +what had become of the wretch, and made a hurried investigation +amongst our portable property. He had stolen nothing. + +"He will be back before long," I said confidently. + +Ten minutes afterwards one of the men on deck called out loudly: + +"I can see him coming." + +Cesar had only his shirt and trousers on. He had sold his coat, +apparently for pocket-money. + +"You knave!" was all Dominic said, with a terrible softness of +voice. He restrained his choler for a time. "Where have you been, +vagabond?" he asked menacingly. + +Nothing would induce Cesar to answer that question. It was as if +he even disdained to lie. He faced us, drawing back his lips and +gnashing his teeth, and did not shrink an inch before the sweep of +Dominic's arm. He went down as if shot, of course. But this time +I noticed that, when picking himself up, he remained longer than +usual on all fours, baring his big teeth over his shoulder and +glaring upwards at his uncle with a new sort of hate in his round, +yellow eyes. That permanent sentiment seemed pointed at that +moment by especial malice and curiosity. I became quite +interested. If he ever manages to put poison in the dishes, I +thought to myself, this is how he will look at us as we sit at our +meal. But I did not, of course, believe for a moment that he would +ever put poison in our food. He ate the same things himself. +Moreover, he had no poison. And I could not imagine a human being +so blinded by cupidity as to sell poison to such an atrocious +creature. + + + +XLIV. + + + +We slipped out to sea quietly at dusk, and all through the night +everything went well. The breeze was gusty; a southerly blow was +making up. It was fair wind for our course. Now and then Dominic +slowly and rhythmically struck his hands together a few times, as +if applauding the performance of the Tremolino. The balancelle +hummed and quivered as she flew along, dancing lightly under our +feet. + +At daybreak I pointed out to Dominic, amongst the several sail in +view running before the gathering storm, one particular vessel. +The press of canvas she carried made her loom up high, end-on, like +a gray column standing motionless directly in our wake. + +"Look at this fellow, Dominic," I said. "He seems to be in a +hurry." + +The Padrone made no remark, but, wrapping his black cloak close +about him, stood up to look. His weather-tanned face, framed in +the hood, had an aspect of authority and challenging force, with +the deep-set eyes gazing far away fixedly, without a wink, like the +intent, merciless, steady eyes of a sea-bird. + +"Chi va piano va sano," he remarked at last, with a derisive glance +over the side, in ironic allusion to our own tremendous speed. + +The Tremolino was doing her best, and seemed to hardly touch the +great burst of foam over which she darted. I crouched down again +to get some shelter from the low bulwark. After more than half an +hour of swaying immobility expressing a concentrated, breathless +watchfulness, Dominic sank on the deck by my side. Within the +monkish cowl his eyes gleamed with a fierce expression which +surprised me. All he said was: + +"He has come out here to wash the new paint off his yards, I +suppose." + +"What?" I shouted, getting up on my knees. "Is she the +guardacosta?" + +The perpetual suggestion of a smile under Dominic's piratical +moustaches seemed to become more accentuated--quite real, grim, +actually almost visible through the wet and uncurled hair. Judging +by that symptom, he must have been in a towering rage. But I could +also see that he was puzzled, and that discovery affected me +disagreeably. Dominic puzzled! For a long time, leaning against +the bulwark, I gazed over the stern at the gray column that seemed +to stand swaying slightly in our wake always at the same distance. + +Meanwhile Dominic, black and cowled, sat cross-legged on the deck, +with his back to the wind, recalling vaguely an Arab chief in his +burnuss sitting on the sand. Above his motionless figure the +little cord and tassel on the stiff point of the hood swung about +inanely in the gale. At last I gave up facing the wind and rain, +and crouched down by his side. I was satisfied that the sail was a +patrol craft. Her presence was not a thing to talk about, but +soon, between two clouds charged with hail-showers, a burst of +sunshine fell upon her sails, and our men discovered her character +for themselves. From that moment I noticed that they seemed to +take no heed of each other or of anything else. They could spare +no eyes and no thought but for the slight column-shape astern of +us. Its swaying had become perceptible. For a moment she remained +dazzlingly white, then faded away slowly to nothing in a squall, +only to reappear again, nearly black, resembling a post stuck +upright against the slaty background of solid cloud. Since first +noticed she had not gained on us a foot. + +"She will never catch the Tremolino," I said exultingly. + +Dominic did not look at me. He remarked absently, but justly, that +the heavy weather was in our pursuer's favour. She was three times +our size. What we had to do was to keep our distance till dark, +which we could manage easily, and then haul off to seaward and +consider the situation. But his thoughts seemed to stumble in the +darkness of some not-solved enigma, and soon he fell silent. We +ran steadily, wing-and-wing. Cape San Sebastian nearly ahead +seemed to recede from us in the squalls of rain, and come out again +to meet our rush, every time more distinct between the showers. + +For my part I was by no means certain that this gabelou (as our men +alluded to her opprobriously) was after us at all. There were +nautical difficulties in such a view which made me express the +sanguine opinion that she was in all innocence simply changing her +station. At this Dominic condescended to turn his head. + +"I tell you she is in chase," he affirmed moodily, after one short +glance astern. + +I never doubted his opinion. But with all the ardour of a neophyte +and the pride of an apt learner I was at that time a great nautical +casuist. + +"What I can't understand," I insisted subtly, "is how on earth, +with this wind, she has managed to be just where she was when we +first made her out. It is clear that she could not, and did not, +gain twelve miles on us during the night. And there are other +impossibilities. . . ." + +Dominic had been sitting motionless, like an inanimate black cone +posed on the stern deck, near the rudder-head, with a small tassel +fluttering on its sharp point, and for a time he preserved the +immobility of his meditation. Then, bending over with a short +laugh, he gave my ear the bitter fruit of it. He understood +everything now perfectly. She was where we had seen her first, not +because she had caught us up, but because we had passed her during +the night while she was already waiting for us, hove-to, most +likely, on our very track. + +"Do you understand--already?" Dominic muttered in a fierce +undertone. "Already! You know we left a good eight hours before +we were expected to leave, otherwise she would have been in time to +lie in wait for us on the other side of the Cape, and"--he snapped +his teeth like a wolf close to my face--"and she would have had us +like--that." + +I saw it all plainly enough now. They had eyes in their heads and +all their wits about them in that craft. We had passed them in the +dark as they jogged on easily towards their ambush with the idea +that we were yet far behind. At daylight, however, sighting a +balancelle ahead under a press of canvas, they had made sail in +chase. But if that was so, then-- + +Dominic seized my arm. + +"Yes, yes! She came out on an information--do you see, it?--on +information. . . . We have been sold--betrayed. Why? How? What +for? We always paid them all so well on shore. . . . No! But it +is my head that is going to burst." + +He seemed to choke, tugged at the throat button of the cloak, +jumped up open-mouthed as if to hurl curses and denunciation, but +instantly mastered himself, and, wrapping up the cloak closer about +him, sat down on the deck again as quiet as ever. + +"Yes, it must be the work of some scoundrel ashore," I observed. + +He pulled the edge of the hood well forward over his brow before he +muttered: + +"A scoundrel. . . . Yes. . . . It's evident." + +"Well," I said, "they can't get us, that's clear." + +"No," he assented quietly, "they cannot." + +We shaved the Cape very close to avoid an adverse current. On the +other side, by the effect of the land, the wind failed us so +completely for a moment that the Tremolino's two great lofty sails +hung idle to the masts in the thundering uproar of the seas +breaking upon the shore we had left behind. And when the returning +gust filled them again, we saw with amazement half of the new +mainsail, which we thought fit to drive the boat under before +giving way, absolutely fly out of the bolt-ropes. We lowered the +yard at once, and saved it all, but it was no longer a sail; it was +only a heap of soaked strips of canvas cumbering the deck and +weighting the craft. Dominic gave the order to throw the whole lot +overboard. + +I would have had the yard thrown overboard, too, he said, leading +me aft again, "if it had not been for the trouble. Let no sign +escape you," he continued, lowering his voice, "but I am going to +tell you something terrible. Listen: I have observed that the +roping stitches on that sail have been cut! You hear? Cut with a +knife in many places. And yet it stood all that time. Not enough +cut. That flap did it at last. What matters it? But look! +there's treachery seated on this very deck. By the horns of the +devil! seated here at our very backs. Do not turn, signorine." + +We were facing aft then. + +"What's to be done?" I asked, appalled. + +"Nothing. Silence! Be a man, signorine." + +"What else?" I said. + +To show I could be a man, I resolved to utter no sound as long as +Dominic himself had the force to keep his lips closed. Nothing but +silence becomes certain situations. Moreover, the experience of +treachery seemed to spread a hopeless drowsiness over my thoughts +and senses. For an hour or more we watched our pursuer surging out +nearer and nearer from amongst the squalls that sometimes hid her +altogether. But even when not seen, we felt her there like a knife +at our throats. She gained on us frightfully. And the Tremolino, +in a fierce breeze and in much smoother water, swung on easily +under her one sail, with something appallingly careless in the +joyous freedom of her motion. Another half-hour went by. I could +not stand it any longer. + +"They will get the poor barky," I stammered out suddenly, almost on +the verge of tears. + +Dominic stirred no more than a carving. A sense of catastrophic +loneliness overcame my inexperienced soul. The vision of my +companions passed before me. The whole Royalist gang was in Monte +Carlo now, I reckoned. And they appeared to me clear-cut and very +small, with affected voices and stiff gestures, like a procession +of rigid marionettes upon a toy stage. I gave a start. What was +this? A mysterious, remorseless whisper came from within the +motionless black hood at my side. + +"Il faul la tuer." + +I heard it very well. + +"What do you say, Dominic?" I asked, moving nothing but my lips. + +And the whisper within the hood repeated mysteriously, "She must be +killed." + +My heart began to beat violently. + +"That's it," I faltered out. "But how?" + +"You love her well?" + +"I do." + +"Then you must find the heart for that work too. You must steer +her yourself, and I shall see to it that she dies quickly, without +leaving as much as a chip behind." + +"Can you?" I murmured, fascinated by the black hood turned +immovably over the stern, as if in unlawful communion with that old +sea of magicians, slave-dealers, exiles and warriors, the sea of +legends and terrors, where the mariners of remote antiquity used to +hear the restless shade of an old wanderer weep aloud in the dark. + +"I know a rock," whispered the initiated voice within the hood +secretly. "But--caution! It must be done before our men perceive +what we are about. Whom can we trust now? A knife drawn across +the fore halyards would bring the foresail down, and put an end to +our liberty in twenty minutes. And the best of our men may be +afraid of drowning. There is our little boat, but in an affair +like this no one can be sure of being saved." + +The voice ceased. We had started from Barcelona with our dinghy in +tow; afterwards it was too risky to try to get her in, so we let +her take her chance of the seas at the end of a comfortable scope +of rope. Many times she had seemed to us completely overwhelmed, +but soon we would see her bob up again on a wave, apparently as +buoyant and whole as ever. + +"I understand," I said softly. "Very well, Dominic. When?" + +"Not yet. We must get a little more in first," answered the voice +from the hood in a ghostly murmur. + + + +XLV. + + + +It was settled. I had now the courage to turn about. Our men +crouched about the decks here and there with anxious, crestfallen +faces, all turned one way to watch the chaser. For the first time +that morning I perceived Cesar stretched out full length on the +deck near the foremast and wondered where he had been skulking till +then. But he might in truth have been at my elbow all the time for +all I knew. We had been too absorbed in watching our fate to pay +attention to each other. Nobody had eaten anything that morning, +but the men had been coming constantly to drink at the water-butt. + +I ran down to the cabin. I had there, put away in a locker, ten +thousand francs in gold of whose presence on board, so far as I was +aware, not a soul, except Dominic had the slightest inkling. When +I emerged on deck again Dominic had turned about and was peering +from under his cowl at the coast. Cape Creux closed the view +ahead. To the left a wide bay, its waters torn and swept by fierce +squalls, seemed full of smoke. Astern the sky had a menacing look. + +Directly he saw me, Dominic, in a placid tone, wanted to know what +was the matter. I came close to him and, looking as unconcerned as +I could, told him in an undertone that I had found the locker +broken open and the money-belt gone. Last evening it was still +there. + +"What did you want to do with it?" he asked me, trembling +violently. + +"Put it round my waist, of course," I answered, amazed to hear his +teeth chattering. + +"Cursed gold!" he muttered. "The weight of the money might have +cost you your life, perhaps." He shuddered. "There is no time to +talk about that now." + +"I am ready." + +"Not yet. I am waiting for that squall to come over," he muttered. +And a few leaden minutes passed. + +The squall came over at last. Our pursuer, overtaken by a sort of +murky whirlwind, disappeared from our sight. The Tremolino +quivered and bounded forward. The land ahead vanished, too, and we +seemed to be left alone in a world of water and wind. + +"Prenez la barre, monsieur," Dominic broke the silence suddenly in +an austere voice. "Take hold of the tiller." He bent his hood to +my ear. "The balancelle is yours. Your own hands must deal the +blow. I--I have yet another piece of work to do." He spoke up +loudly to the man who steered. "Let the signorino take the tiller, +and you with the others stand by to haul the boat alongside quickly +at the word." + +The man obeyed, surprised, but silent. The others stirred, and +pricked up their ears at this. I heard their murmurs. "What now? +Are we going to run in somewhere and take to our heels? The +Padrone knows what he is doing." + +Dominic went forward. He paused to look down at Cesar, who, as I +have said before, was lying full length face down by the foremast, +then stepped over him, and dived out of my sight under the +foresail. I saw nothing ahead. It was impossible for me to see +anything except the foresail open and still, like a great shadowy +wing. But Dominic had his bearings. His voice came to me from +forward, in a just audible cry: + +"Now, signorino!" + +I bore on the tiller, as instructed before. Again I heard him +faintly, and then I had only to hold her straight. No ship ran so +joyously to her death before. She rose and fell, as if floating in +space, and darted forward, whizzing like an arrow. Dominic, +stooping under the foot of the foresail, reappeared, and stood +steadying himself against the mast, with a raised forefinger in an +attitude of expectant attention. A second before the shock his arm +fell down by his side. At that I set my teeth. And then-- + +Talk of splintered planks and smashed timbers! This shipwreck lies +upon my soul with the dread and horror of a homicide, with the +unforgettable remorse of having crushed a living, faithful heart at +a single blow. At one moment the rush and the soaring swing of +speed; the next a crash, and death, stillness--a moment of horrible +immobility, with the song of the wind changed to a strident wail, +and the heavy waters boiling up menacing and sluggish around the +corpse. I saw in a distracting minute the foreyard fly fore and +aft with a brutal swing, the men all in a heap, cursing with fear, +and hauling frantically at the line of the boat. With a strange +welcoming of the familiar I saw also Cesar amongst them, and +recognised Dominic's old, well-known, effective gesture, the +horizontal sweep of his powerful arm. I recollect distinctly +saying to myself, "Cesar must go down, of course," and then, as I +was scrambling on all fours, the swinging tiller I had let go +caught me a crack under the ear, and knocked me over senseless. + +I don't think I was actually unconscious for more than a few +minutes, but when I came to myself the dinghy was driving before +the wind into a sheltered cove, two men just keeping her straight +with their oars. Dominic, with his arm round my shoulders, +supported me in the stern-sheets. + +We landed in a familiar part of the country. Dominic took one of +the boat's oars with him. I suppose he was thinking of the stream +we would have presently to cross, on which there was a miserable +specimen of a punt, often robbed of its pole. But first of all we +had to ascend the ridge of land at the back of the Cape. He helped +me up. I was dizzy. My head felt very large and heavy. At the +top of the ascent I clung to him, and we stopped to rest. + +To the right, below us, the wide, smoky bay was empty. Dominic had +kept his word. There was not a chip to be seen around the black +rock from which the Tremolino, with her plucky heart crushed at one +blow, had slipped off into deep water to her eternal rest. The +vastness of the open sea was smothered in driving mists, and in the +centre of the thinning squall, phantom-like, under a frightful +press of canvas, the unconscious guardacosta dashed on, still +chasing to the northward. Our men were already descending the +reverse slope to look for that punt which we knew from experience +was not always to be found easily. I looked after them with dazed, +misty eyes. One, two, three, four. + +"Dominic, where's Cesar?" I cried. + +As if repulsing the very sound of the name, the Padrone made that +ample, sweeping, knocking-down gesture. I stepped back a pace and +stared at him fearfully. His open shirt uncovered his muscular +neck and the thick hair on his chest. He planted the oar upright +in the soft soil, and rolling up slowly his right sleeve, extended +the bare arm before my face. + +"This," he began, with an extreme deliberation, whose superhuman +restraint vibrated with the suppressed violence of his feelings, +"is the arm which delivered the blow. I am afraid it is your own +gold that did the rest. I forgot all about your money." He +clasped his hands together in sudden distress. "I forgot, I +forgot," he repeated disconsolately. + +"Cesar stole the belt?" I stammered out, bewildered. + +"And who else? Canallia! He must have been spying on you for +days. And he did the whole thing. Absent all day in Barcelona. +Traditore! Sold his jacket--to hire a horse. Ha! ha! A good +affair! I tell you it was he who set him at us. . . ." + +Dominic pointed at the sea, where the guardacosta was a mere dark +speck. His chin dropped on his breast. + +". . . On information," he murmured, in a gloomy voice. "A +Cervoni! Oh! my poor brother! . . ." + +"And you drowned him," I said feebly. + +"I struck once, and the wretch went down like a stone--with the +gold. Yes. But he had time to read in my eyes that nothing could +save him while I was alive. And had I not the right--I, Dominic +Cervoni, Padrone, who brought him aboard your fellucca--my nephew, +a traitor?" + +He pulled the oar out of the ground and helped me carefully down +the slope. All the time he never once looked me in the face. He +punted us over, then shouldered the oar again and waited till our +men were at some distance before he offered me his arm. After we +had gone a little way, the fishing hamlet we were making for came +into view. Dominic stopped. + +"Do you think you can make your way as far as the houses by +yourself?" he asked me quietly. + +"Yes, I think so. But why? Where are you going, Dominic?" + +"Anywhere. What a question! Signorino, you are but little more +than a boy to ask such a question of a man having this tale in his +family. Ah! Traditore! What made me ever own that spawn of a +hungry devil for our own blood! Thief, cheat, coward, liar--other +men can deal with that. But I was his uncle, and so . . . I wish +he had poisoned me--charogne! But this: that I, a confidential +man and a Corsican, should have to ask your pardon for bringing on +board your vessel, of which I was Padrone, a Cervoni, who has +betrayed you--a traitor!--that is too much. It is too much. Well, +I beg your pardon; and you may spit in Dominic's face because a +traitor of our blood taints us all. A theft may be made good +between men, a lie may be set right, a death avenged, but what can +one do to atone for a treachery like this? . . . Nothing." + +He turned and walked away from me along the bank of the stream, +flourishing a vengeful arm and repeating to himself slowly, with +savage emphasis: "Ah! Canaille! Canaille! Canaille!. . ." He +left me there trembling with weakness and mute with awe. Unable to +make a sound, I gazed after the strangely desolate figure of that +seaman carrying an oar on his shoulder up a barren, rock-strewn +ravine under the dreary leaden sky of Tremolino's last day. Thus, +walking deliberately, with his back to the sea, Dominic vanished +from my sight. + +With the quality of our desires, thoughts, and wonder proportioned +to our infinite littleness, we measure even time itself by our own +stature. Imprisoned in the house of personal illusions, thirty +centuries in mankind's history seem less to look back upon than +thirty years of our own life. And Dominic Cervoni takes his place +in my memory by the side of the legendary wanderer on the sea of +marvels and terrors, by the side of the fatal and impious +adventurer, to whom the evoked shade of the soothsayer predicted a +journey inland with an oar on his shoulder, till he met men who had +never set eyes on ships and oars. It seems to me I can see them +side by side in the twilight of an arid land, the unfortunate +possessors of the secret lore of the sea, bearing the emblem of +their hard calling on their shoulders, surrounded by silent and +curious men: even as I, too, having turned my back upon the sea, +am bearing those few pages in the twilight, with the hope of +finding in an inland valley the silent welcome of some patient +listener. + + + +XLVI. + + + +"A fellow has now no chance of promotion unless he jumps into the +muzzle of a gun and crawls out of the touch-hole." + +He who, a hundred years ago, more or less, pronounced the above +words in the uneasiness of his heart, thirsting for professional +distinction, was a young naval officer. Of his life, career, +achievements, and end nothing is preserved for the edification of +his young successors in the fleet of to-day--nothing but this +phrase, which, sailor-like in the simplicity of personal sentiment +and strength of graphic expression, embodies the spirit of the +epoch. This obscure but vigorous testimony has its price, its +significance, and its lesson. It comes to us from a worthy +ancestor. We do not know whether he lived long enough for a chance +of that promotion whose way was so arduous. He belongs to the +great array of the unknown--who are great, indeed, by the sum total +of the devoted effort put out, and the colossal scale of success +attained by their insatiable and steadfast ambition. We do not +know his name; we only know of him what is material for us to know- +-that he was never backward on occasions of desperate service. We +have this on the authority of a distinguished seaman of Nelson's +time. Departing this life as Admiral of the Fleet on the eve of +the Crimean War, Sir Thomas Byam Martin has recorded for us amongst +his all too short autobiographical notes these few characteristic +words uttered by one young man of the many who must have felt that +particular inconvenience of a heroic age. + +The distinguished Admiral had lived through it himself, and was a +good judge of what was expected in those days from men and ships. +A brilliant frigate captain, a man of sound judgment, of dashing +bravery and of serene mind, scrupulously concerned for the welfare +and honour of the navy, he missed a larger fame only by the chances +of the service. We may well quote on this day the words written of +Nelson, in the decline of a well-spent life, by Sir T. B. Martin, +who died just fifty years ago on the very anniversary of Trafalgar. + +"Nelson's nobleness of mind was a prominent and beautiful part of +his character. His foibles--faults if you like--will never be +dwelt upon in any memorandum of mine," he declares, and goes on-- +"he whose splendid and matchless achievements will be remembered +with admiration while there is gratitude in the hearts of Britons, +or while a ship floats upon the ocean; he whose example on the +breaking out of the war gave so chivalrous an impulse to the +younger men of the service that all rushed into rivalry of daring +which disdained every warning of prudence, and led to acts of +heroic enterprise which tended greatly to exalt the glory of our +nation." + +These are his words, and they are true. The dashing young frigate +captain, the man who in middle age was nothing loth to give chase +single-handed in his seventy-four to a whole fleet, the man of +enterprise and consummate judgment, the old Admiral of the Fleet, +the good and trusted servant of his country under two kings and a +queen, had felt correctly Nelson's influence, and expressed himself +with precision out of the fulness of his seaman's heart. + +"Exalted," he wrote, not "augmented." And therein his feeling and +his pen captured the very truth. Other men there were ready and +able to add to the treasure of victories the British navy has given +to the nation. It was the lot of Lord Nelson to exalt all this +glory. Exalt! the word seems to be created for the man. + + + +XLVII. + + + +The British navy may well have ceased to count its victories. It +is rich beyond the wildest dreams of success and fame. It may +well, rather, on a culminating day of its history, cast about for +the memory of some reverses to appease the jealous fates which +attend the prosperity and triumphs of a nation. It holds, indeed, +the heaviest inheritance that has ever been entrusted to the +courage and fidelity of armed men. + +It is too great for mere pride. It should make the seamen of to- +day humble in the secret of their hearts, and indomitable in their +unspoken resolution. In all the records of history there has never +been a time when a victorious fortune has been so faithful to men +making war upon the sea. And it must be confessed that on their +part they knew how to be faithful to their victorious fortune. +They were exalted. They were always watching for her smile; night +or day, fair weather or foul, they waited for her slightest sign +with the offering of their stout hearts in their hands. And for +the inspiration of this high constancy they were indebted to Lord +Nelson alone. Whatever earthly affection he abandoned or grasped, +the great Admiral was always, before all, beyond all, a lover of +Fame. He loved her jealously, with an inextinguishable ardour and +an insatiable desire--he loved her with a masterful devotion and an +infinite trustfulness. In the plenitude of his passion he was an +exacting lover. And she never betrayed the greatness of his trust! +She attended him to the end of his life, and he died pressing her +last gift (nineteen prizes) to his heart. "Anchor, Hardy--anchor!" +was as much the cry of an ardent lover as of a consummate seaman. +Thus he would hug to his breast the last gift of Fame. + +It was this ardour which made him great. He was a flaming example +to the wooers of glorious fortune. There have been great officers +before--Lord Hood, for instance, whom he himself regarded as the +greatest sea officer England ever had. A long succession of great +commanders opened the sea to the vast range of Nelson's genius. +His time had come; and, after the great sea officers, the great +naval tradition passed into the keeping of a great man. Not the +least glory of the navy is that it understood Nelson. Lord Hood +trusted him. Admiral Keith told him: "We can't spare you either +as Captain or Admiral." Earl St. Vincent put into his hands, +untrammelled by orders, a division of his fleet, and Sir Hyde +Parker gave him two more ships at Copenhagen than he had asked for. +So much for the chiefs; the rest of the navy surrendered to him +their devoted affection, trust, and admiration. In return he gave +them no less than his own exalted soul. He breathed into them his +own ardour and his own ambition. In a few short years he +revolutionized, not the strategy or tactics of sea-warfare, but the +very conception of victory itself. And this is genius. In that +alone, through the fidelity of his fortune and the power of his +inspiration, he stands unique amongst the leaders of fleets and +sailors. He brought heroism into the line of duty. Verily he is a +terrible ancestor. + +And the men of his day loved him. They loved him not only as +victorious armies have loved great commanders; they loved him with +a more intimate feeling as one of themselves. In the words of a +contemporary, he had "a most happy way of gaining the affectionate +respect of all who had the felicity to serve under his command." + +To be so great and to remain so accessible to the affection of +one's fellow-men is the mark of exceptional humanity. Lord +Nelson's greatness was very human. It had a moral basis; it needed +to feel itself surrounded by the warm devotion of a band of +brothers. He was vain and tender. The love and admiration which +the navy gave him so unreservedly soothed the restlessness of his +professional pride. He trusted them as much as they trusted him. +He was a seaman of seamen. Sir T. B. Martin states that he never +conversed with any officer who had served under Nelson "without +hearing the heartiest expressions of attachment to his person and +admiration of his frank and conciliatory manner to his +subordinates." And Sir Robert Stopford, who commanded one of the +ships with which Nelson chased to the West Indies a fleet nearly +double in number, says in a letter: "We are half-starved and +otherwise inconvenienced by being so long out of port, but our +reward is that we are with Nelson." + +This heroic spirit of daring and endurance, in which all public and +private differences were sunk throughout the whole fleet, is Lord +Nelson's great legacy, triply sealed by the victorious impress of +the Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar. This is a legacy whose value +the changes of time cannot affect. The men and the ships he knew +how to lead lovingly to the work of courage and the reward of glory +have passed away, but Nelson's uplifting touch remains in the +standard of achievement he has set for all time. The principles of +strategy may be immutable. It is certain they have been, and shall +be again, disregarded from timidity, from blindness, through +infirmity of purpose. The tactics of great captains on land and +sea can be infinitely discussed. The first object of tactics is to +close with the adversary on terms of the greatest possible +advantage; yet no hard-and-fast rules can be drawn from experience, +for this capital reason, amongst others--that the quality of the +adversary is a variable element in the problem. The tactics of +Lord Nelson have been amply discussed, with much pride and some +profit. And yet, truly, they are already of but archaic interest. +A very few years more and the hazardous difficulties of handling a +fleet under canvas shall have passed beyond the conception of +seamen who hold in trust for their country Lord Nelson's legacy of +heroic spirit. The change in the character of the ships is too +great and too radical. It is good and proper to study the acts of +great men with thoughtful reverence, but already the precise +intention of Lord Nelson's famous memorandum seems to lie under +that veil which Time throws over the clearest conceptions of every +great art. It must not be forgotten that this was the first time +when Nelson, commanding in chief, had his opponents under way--the +first time and the last. Had he lived, had there been other fleets +left to oppose him, we would, perhaps, have learned something more +of his greatness as a sea officer. Nothing could have been added +to his greatness as a leader. All that can be affirmed is, that on +no other day of his short and glorious career was Lord Nelson more +splendidly true to his genius and to his country's fortune. + + + +XLVIII. + + + +And yet the fact remains that, had the wind failed and the fleet +lost steerage way, or, worse still, had it been taken aback from +the eastward, with its leaders within short range of the enemy's +guns, nothing, it seems, could have saved the headmost ships from +capture or destruction. No skill of a great sea officer would have +availed in such a contingency. Lord Nelson was more than that, and +his genius would have remained undiminished by defeat. But +obviously tactics, which are so much at the mercy of irremediable +accident, must seem to a modern seaman a poor matter of study. The +Commander-in-Chief in the great fleet action that will take its +place next to the Battle of Trafalgar in the history of the British +navy will have no such anxiety, and will feel the weight of no such +dependence. For a hundred years now no British fleet has engaged +the enemy in line of battle. A hundred years is a long time, but +the difference of modern conditions is enormous. The gulf is +great. Had the last great fight of the English navy been that of +the First of June, for instance, had there been no Nelson's +victories, it would have been wellnigh impassable. The great +Admiral's slight and passion-worn figure stands at the parting of +the ways. He had the audacity of genius, and a prophetic +inspiration. + +The modern naval man must feel that the time has come for the +tactical practice of the great sea officers of the past to be laid +by in the temple of august memories. The fleet tactics of the +sailing days have been governed by two points: the deadly nature +of a raking fire, and the dread, natural to a commander dependent +upon the winds, to find at some crucial moment part of his fleet +thrown hopelessly to leeward. These two points were of the very +essence of sailing tactics, and these two points have been +eliminated from the modern tactical problem by the changes of +propulsion and armament. Lord Nelson was the first to disregard +them with conviction and audacity sustained by an unbounded trust +in the men he led. This conviction, this audacity and this trust +stand out from amongst the lines of the celebrated memorandum, +which is but a declaration of his faith in a crushing superiority +of fire as the only means of victory and the only aim of sound +tactics. Under the difficulties of the then existing conditions he +strove for that, and for that alone, putting his faith into +practice against every risk. And in that exclusive faith Lord +Nelson appears to us as the first of the moderns. + +Against every risk, I have said; and the men of to-day, born and +bred to the use of steam, can hardly realize how much of that risk +was in the weather. Except at the Nile, where the conditions were +ideal for engaging a fleet moored in shallow water, Lord Nelson was +not lucky in his weather. Practically it was nothing but a quite +unusual failure of the wind which cost him his arm during the +Teneriffe expedition. On Trafalgar Day the weather was not so much +unfavourable as extremely dangerous. + +It was one of these covered days of fitful sunshine, of light, +unsteady winds, with a swell from the westward, and hazy in +general, but with the land about the Cape at times distinctly +visible. It has been my lot to look with reverence upon the very +spot more than once, and for many hours together. All but thirty +years ago, certain exceptional circumstances made me very familiar +for a time with that bight in the Spanish coast which would be +enclosed within a straight line drawn from Faro to Spartel. My +well-remembered experience has convinced me that, in that corner of +the ocean, once the wind has got to the northward of west (as it +did on the 20th, taking the British fleet aback), appearances of +westerly weather go for nothing, and that it is infinitely more +likely to veer right round to the east than to shift back again. +It was in those conditions that, at seven on the morning of the +21st, the signal for the fleet to bear up and steer east was made. +Holding a clear recollection of these languid easterly sighs +rippling unexpectedly against the run of the smooth swell, with no +other warning than a ten-minutes' calm and a queer darkening of the +coast-line, I cannot think, without a gasp of professional awe, of +that fateful moment. Perhaps personal experience, at a time of +life when responsibility had a special freshness and importance, +has induced me to exaggerate to myself the danger of the weather. +The great Admiral and good seaman could read aright the signs of +sea and sky, as his order to prepare to anchor at the end of the +day sufficiently proves; but, all the same, the mere idea of these +baffling easterly airs, coming on at any time within half an hour +or so, after the firing of the first shot, is enough to take one's +breath away, with the image of the rearmost ships of both divisions +falling off, unmanageable, broadside on to the westerly swell, and +of two British Admirals in desperate jeopardy. To this day I +cannot free myself from the impression that, for some forty +minutes, the fate of the great battle hung upon a breath of wind +such as I have felt stealing from behind, as it were, upon my cheek +while engaged in looking to the westward for the signs of the true +weather. + +Never more shall British seamen going into action have to trust the +success of their valour to a breath of wind. The God of gales and +battles favouring her arms to the last, has let the sun of +England's sailing-fleet and of its greatest master set in unclouded +glory. And now the old ships and their men are gone; the new ships +and the new men, many of them bearing the old, auspicious names, +have taken up their watch on the stern and impartial sea, which +offers no opportunities but to those who know how to grasp them +with a ready hand and an undaunted heart. + + + +XLIX. + + + +This the navy of the Twenty Years' War knew well how to do, and +never better than when Lord Nelson had breathed into its soul his +own passion of honour and fame. It was a fortunate navy. Its +victories were no mere smashing of helpless ships and massacres of +cowed men. It was spared that cruel favour, for which no brave +heart had ever prayed. It was fortunate in its adversaries. I say +adversaries, for on recalling such proud memories we should avoid +the word "enemies," whose hostile sound perpetuates the antagonisms +and strife of nations, so irremediable perhaps, so fateful--and +also so vain. War is one of the gifts of life; but, alas! no war +appears so very necessary when time has laid its soothing hand upon +the passionate misunderstandings and the passionate desires of +great peoples. "Le temps," as a distinguished Frenchman has said, +"est un galant homme." He fosters the spirit of concord and +justice, in whose work there is as much glory to be reaped as in +the deeds of arms. + +One of them disorganized by revolutionary changes, the other rusted +in the neglect of a decayed monarchy, the two fleets opposed to us +entered the contest with odds against them from the first. By the +merit of our daring and our faithfulness, and the genius of a great +leader, we have in the course of the war augmented our advantage +and kept it to the last. But in the exulting illusion of +irresistible might a long series of military successes brings to a +nation the less obvious aspect of such a fortune may perchance be +lost to view. The old navy in its last days earned a fame that no +belittling malevolence dare cavil at. And this supreme favour they +owe to their adversaries alone. + +Deprived by an ill-starred fortune of that self-confidence which +strengthens the hands of an armed host, impaired in skill but not +in courage, it may safely be said that our adversaries managed yet +to make a better fight of it in 1797 than they did in 1793. Later +still, the resistance offered at the Nile was all, and more than +all, that could be demanded from seamen, who, unless blind or +without understanding, must have seen their doom sealed from the +moment that the Goliath, bearing up under the bows of the Guerrier, +took up an inshore berth. The combined fleets of 1805, just come +out of port, and attended by nothing but the disturbing memories of +reverses, presented to our approach a determined front, on which +Captain Blackwood, in a knightly spirit, congratulated his Admiral. +By the exertions of their valour our adversaries have but added a +greater lustre to our arms. No friend could have done more, for +even in war, which severs for a time all the sentiments of human +fellowship, this subtle bond of association remains between brave +men--that the final testimony to the value of victory must be +received at the hands of the vanquished. + +Those who from the heat of that battle sank together to their +repose in the cool depths of the ocean would not understand the +watchwords of our day, would gaze with amazed eyes at the engines +of our strife. All passes, all changes: the animosity of peoples, +the handling of fleets, the forms of ships; and even the sea itself +seems to wear a different and diminished aspect from the sea of +Lord Nelson's day. In this ceaseless rush of shadows and shades, +that, like the fantastic forms of clouds cast darkly upon the +waters on a windy day, fly past us to fall headlong below the hard +edge of an implacable horizon, we must turn to the national spirit, +which, superior in its force and continuity to good and evil +fortune, can alone give us the feeling of an enduring existence and +of an invincible power against the fates. + +Like a subtle and mysterious elixir poured into the perishable clay +of successive generations, it grows in truth, splendour, and +potency with the march of ages. In its incorruptible flow all +round the globe of the earth it preserves from the decay and +forgetfulness of death the greatness of our great men, and amongst +them the passionate and gentle greatness of Nelson, the nature of +whose genius was, on the faith of a brave seaman and distinguished +Admiral, such as to "Exalt the glory of our nation." + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE MIRROR OF THE SEA *** + +This file should be named tmots10.txt or tmots10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, tmots11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, tmots10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext05 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext05 + +Or /etext04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, +91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + + PROJECT GUTENBERG LITERARY ARCHIVE FOUNDATION + 809 North 1500 West + Salt Lake City, UT 84116 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + |