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diff --git a/1465-h/1465-h.htm b/1465-h/1465-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..71c351b --- /dev/null +++ b/1465-h/1465-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1469 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The Wreck of the Golden Mary</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">The Wreck of the Golden Mary, by Charles Dickens</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Wreck of the Golden Mary, by Charles +Dickens + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Wreck of the Golden Mary + + +Author: Charles Dickens + +Release Date: April 4, 2005 [eBook #1465] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRECK OF THE GOLDEN MARY*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1894 Chapman and Hall edition of “Christmas +Stories” by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<h1>THE WRECK OF THE GOLDEN MARY</h1> +<h2>THE WRECK</h2> +<p>I was apprenticed to the Sea when I was twelve years old, and I have +encountered a great deal of rough weather, both literal and metaphorical. +It has always been my opinion since I first possessed such a thing as +an opinion, that the man who knows only one subject is next tiresome +to the man who knows no subject. Therefore, in the course of my +life I have taught myself whatever I could, and although I am not an +educated man, I am able, I am thankful to say, to have an intelligent +interest in most things.</p> +<p>A person might suppose, from reading the above, that I am in the +habit of holding forth about number one. That is not the case. +Just as if I was to come into a room among strangers, and must either +be introduced or introduce myself, so I have taken the liberty of passing +these few remarks, simply and plainly that it may be known who and what +I am. I will add no more of the sort than that my name is William +George Ravender, that I was born at Penrith half a year after my own +father was drowned, and that I am on the second day of this present +blessed Christmas week of one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, +fifty-six years of age.</p> +<p>When the rumour first went flying up and down that there was gold +in California—which, as most people know, was before it was discovered +in the British colony of Australia—I was in the West Indies, trading +among the Islands. Being in command and likewise part-owner of +a smart schooner, I had my work cut out for me, and I was doing it. +Consequently, gold in California was no business of mine.</p> +<p>But, by the time when I came home to England again, the thing was +as clear as your hand held up before you at noon-day. There was +Californian gold in the museums and in the goldsmiths’ shops, +and the very first time I went upon ’Change, I met a friend of +mine (a seafaring man like myself), with a Californian nugget hanging +to his watch-chain. I handled it. It was as like a peeled +walnut with bits unevenly broken off here and there, and then electrotyped +all over, as ever I saw anything in my life.</p> +<p>I am a single man (she was too good for this world and for me, and +she died six weeks before our marriage-day), so when I am ashore, I +live in my house at Poplar. My house at Poplar is taken care of +and kept ship-shape by an old lady who was my mother’s maid before +I was born. She is as handsome and as upright as any old lady +in the world. She is as fond of me as if she had ever had an only +son, and I was he. Well do I know wherever I sail that she never +lays down her head at night without having said, “Merciful Lord! +bless and preserve William George Ravender, and send him safe home, +through Christ our Saviour!” I have thought of it in many +a dangerous moment, when it has done me no harm, I am sure.</p> +<p>In my house at Poplar, along with this old lady, I lived quiet for +best part of a year: having had a long spell of it among the Islands, +and having (which was very uncommon in me) taken the fever rather badly. +At last, being strong and hearty, and having read every book I could +lay hold of, right out, I was walking down Leadenhall Street in the +City of London, thinking of turning-to again, when I met what I call +Smithick and Watersby of Liverpool. I chanced to lift up my eyes +from looking in at a ship’s chronometer in a window, and I saw +him bearing down upon me, head on.</p> +<p>It is, personally, neither Smithick, nor Watersby, that I here mention, +nor was I ever acquainted with any man of either of those names, nor +do I think that there has been any one of either of those names in that +Liverpool House for years back. But, it is in reality the House +itself that I refer to; and a wiser merchant or a truer gentleman never +stepped.</p> +<p>“My dear Captain Ravender,” says he. “Of +all the men on earth, I wanted to see you most. I was on my way +to you.”</p> +<p>“Well!” says I. “That looks as if you <i>were</i> +to see me, don’t it?” With that I put my arm in his, +and we walked on towards the Royal Exchange, and when we got there, +walked up and down at the back of it where the Clock-Tower is. +We walked an hour and more, for he had much to say to me. He had +a scheme for chartering a new ship of their own to take out cargo to +the diggers and emigrants in California, and to buy and bring back gold. +Into the particulars of that scheme I will not enter, and I have no +right to enter. All I say of it is, that it was a very original +one, a very fine one, a very sound one, and a very lucrative one beyond +doubt.</p> +<p>He imparted it to me as freely as if I had been a part of himself. +After doing so, he made me the handsomest sharing offer that ever was +made to me, boy or man—or I believe to any other captain in the +Merchant Navy—and he took this round turn to finish with:</p> +<p>“Ravender, you are well aware that the lawlessness of that +coast and country at present, is as special as the circumstances in +which it is placed. Crews of vessels outward-bound, desert as +soon as they make the land; crews of vessels homeward-bound, ship at +enormous wages, with the express intention of murdering the captain +and seizing the gold freight; no man can trust another, and the devil +seems let loose. Now,” says he, “you know my opinion +of you, and you know I am only expressing it, and with no singularity, +when I tell you that you are almost the only man on whose integrity, +discretion, and energy—” &c., &c. For, I don’t +want to repeat what he said, though I was and am sensible of it.</p> +<p>Notwithstanding my being, as I have mentioned, quite ready for a +voyage, still I had some doubts of this voyage. Of course I knew, +without being told, that there were peculiar difficulties and dangers +in it, a long way over and above those which attend all voyages. +It must not be supposed that I was afraid to face them; but, in my opinion +a man has no manly motive or sustainment in his own breast for facing +dangers, unless he has well considered what they are, and is able quietly +to say to himself, “None of these perils can now take me by surprise; +I shall know what to do for the best in any of them; all the rest lies +in the higher and greater hands to which I humbly commit myself.” +On this principle I have so attentively considered (regarding it as +my duty) all the hazards I have ever been able to think of, in the ordinary +way of storm, shipwreck, and fire at sea, that I hope I should be prepared +to do, in any of those cases, whatever could be done, to save the lives +intrusted to my charge.</p> +<p>As I was thoughtful, my good friend proposed that he should leave +me to walk there as long as I liked, and that I should dine with him +by-and-by at his club in Pall Mall. I accepted the invitation +and I walked up and down there, quarter-deck fashion, a matter of a +couple of hours; now and then looking up at the weathercock as I might +have looked up aloft; and now and then taking a look into Cornhill, +as I might have taken a look over the side.</p> +<p>All dinner-time, and all after dinner-time, we talked it over again. +I gave him my views of his plan, and he very much approved of the same. +I told him I had nearly decided, but not quite. “Well, well,” +says he, “come down to Liverpool to-morrow with me, and see the +Golden Mary.” I liked the name (her name was Mary, and she +was golden, if golden stands for good), so I began to feel that it was +almost done when I said I would go to Liverpool. On the next morning +but one we were on board the Golden Mary. I might have known, +from his asking me to come down and see her, what she was. I declare +her to have been the completest and most exquisite Beauty that ever +I set my eyes upon.</p> +<p>We had inspected every timber in her, and had come back to the gangway +to go ashore from the dock-basin, when I put out my hand to my friend. +“Touch upon it,” says I, “and touch heartily. +I take command of this ship, and I am hers and yours, if I can get John +Steadiman for my chief mate.”</p> +<p>John Steadiman had sailed with me four voyages. The first voyage +John was third mate out to China, and came home second. The other +three voyages he was my first officer. At this time of chartering +the Golden Mary, he was aged thirty-two. A brisk, bright, blue-eyed +fellow, a very neat figure and rather under the middle size, never out +of the way and never in it, a face that pleased everybody and that all +children took to, a habit of going about singing as cheerily as a blackbird, +and a perfect sailor.</p> +<p>We were in one of those Liverpool hackney-coaches in less than a +minute, and we cruised about in her upwards of three hours, looking +for John. John had come home from Van Diemen’s Land barely +a month before, and I had heard of him as taking a frisk in Liverpool. +We asked after him, among many other places, at the two boarding-houses +he was fondest of, and we found he had had a week’s spell at each +of them; but, he had gone here and gone there, and had set off “to +lay out on the main-to’-gallant-yard of the highest Welsh mountain” +(so he had told the people of the house), and where he might be then, +or when he might come back, nobody could tell us. But it was surprising, +to be sure, to see how every face brightened the moment there was mention +made of the name of Mr. Steadiman.</p> +<p>We were taken aback at meeting with no better luck, and we had wore +ship and put her head for my friends, when as we were jogging through +the streets, I clap my eyes on John himself coming out of a toyshop! +He was carrying a little boy, and conducting two uncommon pretty women +to their coach, and he told me afterwards that he had never in his life +seen one of the three before, but that he was so taken with them on +looking in at the toyshop while they were buying the child a cranky +Noah’s Ark, very much down by the head, that he had gone in and +asked the ladies’ permission to treat him to a tolerably correct +Cutter there was in the window, in order that such a handsome boy might +not grow up with a lubberly idea of naval architecture.</p> +<p>We stood off and on until the ladies’ coachman began to give +way, and then we hailed John. On his coming aboard of us, I told +him, very gravely, what I had said to my friend. It struck him, +as he said himself, amidships. He was quite shaken by it. +“Captain Ravender,” were John Steadiman’s words, “such +an opinion from you is true commendation, and I’ll sail round +the world with you for twenty years if you hoist the signal, and stand +by you for ever!” And now indeed I felt that it was done, +and that the Golden Mary was afloat.</p> +<p>Grass never grew yet under the feet of Smithick and Watersby. +The riggers were out of that ship in a fortnight’s time, and we +had begun taking in cargo. John was always aboard, seeing everything +stowed with his own eyes; and whenever I went aboard myself early or +late, whether he was below in the hold, or on deck at the hatchway, +or overhauling his cabin, nailing up pictures in it of the Blush Roses +of England, the Blue Belles of Scotland, and the female Shamrock of +Ireland: of a certainty I heard John singing like a blackbird.</p> +<p>We had room for twenty passengers. Our sailing advertisement +was no sooner out, than we might have taken these twenty times over. +In entering our men, I and John (both together) picked them, and we +entered none but good hands—as good as were to be found in that +port. And so, in a good ship of the best build, well owned, well +arranged, well officered, well manned, well found in all respects, we +parted with our pilot at a quarter past four o’clock in the afternoon +of the seventh of March, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, and +stood with a fair wind out to sea.</p> +<p>It may be easily believed that up to that time I had had no leisure +to be intimate with my passengers. The most of them were then +in their berths sea-sick; however, in going among them, telling them +what was good for them, persuading them not to be there, but to come +up on deck and feel the breeze, and in rousing them with a joke, or +a comfortable word, I made acquaintance with them, perhaps, in a more +friendly and confidential way from the first, than I might have done +at the cabin table.</p> +<p>Of my passengers, I need only particularise, just at present, a bright-eyed +blooming young wife who was going out to join her husband in California, +taking with her their only child, a little girl of three years old, +whom he had never seen; a sedate young woman in black, some five years +older (about thirty as I should say), who was going out to join a brother; +and an old gentleman, a good deal like a hawk if his eyes had been better +and not so red, who was always talking, morning, noon, and night, about +the gold discovery. But, whether he was making the voyage, thinking +his old arms could dig for gold, or whether his speculation was to buy +it, or to barter for it, or to cheat for it, or to snatch it anyhow +from other people, was his secret. He kept his secret.</p> +<p>These three and the child were the soonest well. The child +was a most engaging child, to be sure, and very fond of me: though I +am bound to admit that John Steadiman and I were borne on her pretty +little books in reverse order, and that he was captain there, and I +was mate. It was beautiful to watch her with John, and it was +beautiful to watch John with her. Few would have thought it possible, +to see John playing at bo-peep round the mast, that he was the man who +had caught up an iron bar and struck a Malay and a Maltese dead, as +they were gliding with their knives down the cabin stair aboard the +barque Old England, when the captain lay ill in his cot, off Saugar +Point. But he was; and give him his back against a bulwark, he +would have done the same by half a dozen of them. The name of +the young mother was Mrs. Atherfield, the name of the young lady in +black was Miss Coleshaw, and the name of the old gentleman was Mr. Rarx.</p> +<p>As the child had a quantity of shining fair hair, clustering in curls +all about her face, and as her name was Lucy, Steadiman gave her the +name of the Golden Lucy. So, we had the Golden Lucy and the Golden +Mary; and John kept up the idea to that extent as he and the child went +playing about the decks, that I believe she used to think the ship was +alive somehow—a sister or companion, going to the same place as +herself. She liked to be by the wheel, and in fine weather, I +have often stood by the man whose trick it was at the wheel, only to +hear her, sitting near my feet, talking to the ship. Never had +a child such a doll before, I suppose; but she made a doll of the Golden +Mary, and used to dress her up by tying ribbons and little bits of finery +to the belaying-pins; and nobody ever moved them, unless it was to save +them from being blown away.</p> +<p>Of course I took charge of the two young women, and I called them +“my dear,” and they never minded, knowing that whatever +I said was said in a fatherly and protecting spirit. I gave them +their places on each side of me at dinner, Mrs. Atherfield on my right +and Miss Coleshaw on my left; and I directed the unmarried lady to serve +out the breakfast, and the married lady to serve out the tea. +Likewise I said to my black steward in their presence, “Tom Snow, +these two ladies are equally the mistresses of this house, and do you +obey their orders equally;” at which Tom laughed, and they all +laughed.</p> +<p>Old Mr. Rarx was not a pleasant man to look at, nor yet to talk to, +or to be with, for no one could help seeing that he was a sordid and +selfish character, and that he had warped further and further out of +the straight with time. Not but what he was on his best behaviour +with us, as everybody was; for we had no bickering among us, for’ard +or aft. I only mean to say, he was not the man one would have +chosen for a messmate. If choice there had been, one might even +have gone a few points out of one’s course, to say, “No! +Not him!” But, there was one curious inconsistency in Mr. +Rarx. That was, that he took an astonishing interest in the child. +He looked, and I may add, he was, one of the last of men to care at +all for a child, or to care much for any human creature. Still, +he went so far as to be habitually uneasy, if the child was long on +deck, out of his sight. He was always afraid of her falling overboard, +or falling down a hatchway, or of a block or what not coming down upon +her from the rigging in the working of the ship, or of her getting some +hurt or other. He used to look at her and touch her, as if she +was something precious to him. He was always solicitous about +her not injuring her health, and constantly entreated her mother to +be careful of it. This was so much the more curious, because the +child did not like him, but used to shrink away from him, and would +not even put out her hand to him without coaxing from others. +I believe that every soul on board frequently noticed this, and not +one of us understood it. However, it was such a plain fact, that +John Steadiman said more than once when old Mr. Rarx was not within +earshot, that if the Golden Mary felt a tenderness for the dear old +gentleman she carried in her lap, she must be bitterly jealous of the +Golden Lucy.</p> +<p>Before I go any further with this narrative, I will state that our +ship was a barque of three hundred tons, carrying a crew of eighteen +men, a second mate in addition to John, a carpenter, an armourer or +smith, and two apprentices (one a Scotch boy, poor little fellow). +We had three boats; the Long-boat, capable of carrying twenty-five men; +the Cutter, capable of carrying fifteen; and the Surf-boat, capable +of carrying ten. I put down the capacity of these boats according +to the numbers they were really meant to hold.</p> +<p>We had tastes of bad weather and head-winds, of course; but, on the +whole we had as fine a run as any reasonable man could expect, for sixty +days. I then began to enter two remarks in the ship’s Log +and in my Journal; first, that there was an unusual and amazing quantity +of ice; second, that the nights were most wonderfully dark, in spite +of the ice.</p> +<p>For five days and a half, it seemed quite useless and hopeless to +alter the ship’s course so as to stand out of the way of this +ice. I made what southing I could; but, all that time, we were +beset by it. Mrs. Atherfield after standing by me on deck once, +looking for some time in an awed manner at the great bergs that surrounded +us, said in a whisper, “O! Captain Ravender, it looks as if the +whole solid earth had changed into ice, and broken up!” +I said to her, laughing, “I don’t wonder that it does, to +your inexperienced eyes, my dear.” But I had never seen +a twentieth part of the quantity, and, in reality, I was pretty much +of her opinion.</p> +<p>However, at two p.m. on the afternoon of the sixth day, that is to +say, when we were sixty-six days out, John Steadiman who had gone aloft, +sang out from the top, that the sea was clear ahead. Before four +p.m. a strong breeze springing up right astern, we were in open water +at sunset. The breeze then freshening into half a gale of wind, +and the Golden Mary being a very fast sailer, we went before the wind +merrily, all night.</p> +<p>I had thought it impossible that it could be darker than it had been, +until the sun, moon, and stars should fall out of the Heavens, and Time +should be destroyed; but, it had been next to light, in comparison with +what it was now. The darkness was so profound, that looking into +it was painful and oppressive—like looking, without a ray of light, +into a dense black bandage put as close before the eyes as it could +be, without touching them. I doubled the look-out, and John and +I stood in the bow side-by-side, never leaving it all night. Yet +I should no more have known that he was near me when he was silent, +without putting out my arm and touching him, than I should if he had +turned in and been fast asleep below. We were not so much looking +out, all of us, as listening to the utmost, both with our eyes and ears.</p> +<p>Next day, I found that the mercury in the barometer, which had risen +steadily since we cleared the ice, remained steady. I had had +very good observations, with now and then the interruption of a day +or so, since our departure. I got the sun at noon, and found that +we were in Lat. 58 degrees S., Long. 60 degrees W., off New South Shetland; +in the neighbourhood of Cape Horn. We were sixty-seven days out, +that day. The ship’s reckoning was accurately worked and +made up. The ship did her duty admirably, all on board were well, +and all hands were as smart, efficient, and contented, as it was possible +to be.</p> +<p>When the night came on again as dark as before, it was the eighth +night I had been on deck. Nor had I taken more than a very little +sleep in the day-time, my station being always near the helm, and often +at it, while we were among the ice. Few but those who have tried +it can imagine the difficulty and pain of only keeping the eyes open—physically +open—under such circumstances, in such darkness. They get +struck by the darkness, and blinded by the darkness. They make +patterns in it, and they flash in it, as if they had gone out of your +head to look at you. On the turn of midnight, John Steadiman, +who was alert and fresh (for I had always made him turn in by day), +said to me, “Captain Ravender, I entreat of you to go below. +I am sure you can hardly stand, and your voice is getting weak, sir. +Go below, and take a little rest. I’ll call you if a block +chafes.” I said to John in answer, “Well, well, John! +Let us wait till the turn of one o’clock, before we talk about +that.” I had just had one of the ship’s lanterns held +up, that I might see how the night went by my watch, and it was then +twenty minutes after twelve.</p> +<p>At five minutes before one, John sang out to the boy to bring the +lantern again, and when I told him once more what the time was, entreated +and prayed of me to go below. “Captain Ravender,” +says he, “all’s well; we can’t afford to have you +laid up for a single hour; and I respectfully and earnestly beg of you +to go below.” The end of it was, that I agreed to do so, +on the understanding that if I failed to come up of my own accord within +three hours, I was to be punctually called. Having settled that, +I left John in charge. But I called him to me once afterwards, +to ask him a question. I had been to look at the barometer, and +had seen the mercury still perfectly steady, and had come up the companion +again to take a last look about me—if I can use such a word in +reference to such darkness—when I thought that the waves, as the +Golden Mary parted them and shook them off, had a hollow sound in them; +something that I fancied was a rather unusual reverberation. I +was standing by the quarter-deck rail on the starboard side, when I +called John aft to me, and bade him listen. He did so with the +greatest attention. Turning to me he then said, “Rely upon +it, Captain Ravender, you have been without rest too long, and the novelty +is only in the state of your sense of hearing.” I thought +so too by that time, and I think so now, though I can never know for +absolute certain in this world, whether it was or not.</p> +<p>When I left John Steadiman in charge, the ship was still going at +a great rate through the water. The wind still blew right astern. +Though she was making great way, she was under shortened sail, and had +no more than she could easily carry. All was snug, and nothing +complained. There was a pretty sea running, but not a very high +sea neither, nor at all a confused one.</p> +<p>I turned in, as we seamen say, all standing. The meaning of +that is, I did not pull my clothes off—no, not even so much as +my coat: though I did my shoes, for my feet were badly swelled with +the deck. There was a little swing-lamp alight in my cabin. +I thought, as I looked at it before shutting my eyes, that I was so +tired of darkness, and troubled by darkness, that I could have gone +to sleep best in the midst of a million of flaming gas-lights. +That was the last thought I had before I went off, except the prevailing +thought that I should not be able to get to sleep at all.</p> +<p>I dreamed that I was back at Penrith again, and was trying to get +round the church, which had altered its shape very much since I last +saw it, and was cloven all down the middle of the steeple in a most +singular manner. Why I wanted to get round the church I don’t +know; but I was as anxious to do it as if my life depended on it. +Indeed, I believe it did in the dream. For all that, I could not +get round the church. I was still trying, when I came against +it with a violent shock, and was flung out of my cot against the ship’s +side. Shrieks and a terrific outcry struck me far harder than +the bruising timbers, and amidst sounds of grinding and crashing, and +a heavy rushing and breaking of water—sounds I understood too +well—I made my way on deck. It was not an easy thing to +do, for the ship heeled over frightfully, and was beating in a furious +manner.</p> +<p>I could not see the men as I went forward, but I could hear that +they were hauling in sail, in disorder. I had my trumpet in my +hand, and, after directing and encouraging them in this till it was +done, I hailed first John Steadiman, and then my second mate, Mr. William +Rames. Both answered clearly and steadily. Now, I had practised +them and all my crew, as I have ever made it a custom to practise all +who sail with me, to take certain stations and wait my orders, in case +of any unexpected crisis. When my voice was heard hailing, and +their voices were heard answering, I was aware, through all the noises +of the ship and sea, and all the crying of the passengers below, that +there was a pause. “Are you ready, Rames?”—“Ay, +ay, sir!”—“Then light up, for God’s sake!” +In a moment he and another were burning blue-lights, and the ship and +all on board seemed to be enclosed in a mist of light, under a great +black dome.</p> +<p>The light shone up so high that I could see the huge Iceberg upon +which we had struck, cloven at the top and down the middle, exactly +like Penrith Church in my dream. At the same moment I could see +the watch last relieved, crowding up and down on deck; I could see Mrs. +Atherfield and Miss Coleshaw thrown about on the top of the companion +as they struggled to bring the child up from below; I could see that +the masts were going with the shock and the beating of the ship; I could +see the frightful breach stove in on the starboard side, half the length +of the vessel, and the sheathing and timbers spirting up; I could see +that the Cutter was disabled, in a wreck of broken fragments; and I +could see every eye turned upon me. It is my belief that if there +had been ten thousand eyes there, I should have seen them all, with +their different looks. And all this in a moment. But you +must consider what a moment.</p> +<p>I saw the men, as they looked at me, fall towards their appointed +stations, like good men and true. If she had not righted, they +could have done very little there or anywhere but die—not that +it is little for a man to die at his post—I mean they could have +done nothing to save the passengers and themselves. Happily, however, +the violence of the shock with which we had so determinedly borne down +direct on that fatal Iceberg, as if it had been our destination instead +of our destruction, had so smashed and pounded the ship that she got +off in this same instant and righted. I did not want the carpenter +to tell me she was filling and going down; I could see and hear that. +I gave Rames the word to lower the Long-boat and the Surf-boat, and +I myself told off the men for each duty. Not one hung back, or +came before the other. I now whispered to John Steadiman, “John, +I stand at the gangway here, to see every soul on board safe over the +side. You shall have the next post of honour, and shall be the +last but one to leave the ship. Bring up the passengers, and range +them behind me; and put what provision and water you can got at, in +the boats. Cast your eye for’ard, John, and you’ll +see you have not a moment to lose.”</p> +<p>My noble fellows got the boats over the side as orderly as I ever +saw boats lowered with any sea running, and, when they were launched, +two or three of the nearest men in them as they held on, rising and +falling with the swell, called out, looking up at me, “Captain +Ravender, if anything goes wrong with us, and you are saved, remember +we stood by you!”—“We’ll all stand by one another +ashore, yet, please God, my lads!” says I. “Hold on +bravely, and be tender with the women.”</p> +<p>The women were an example to us. They trembled very much, but +they were quiet and perfectly collected. “Kiss me, Captain +Ravender,” says Mrs. Atherfield, “and God in heaven bless +you, you good man!” “My dear,” says I, “those +words are better for me than a life-boat.” I held her child +in my arms till she was in the boat, and then kissed the child and handed +her safe down. I now said to the people in her, “You have +got your freight, my lads, all but me, and I am not coming yet awhile. +Pull away from the ship, and keep off!”</p> +<p>That was the Long-boat. Old Mr. Rarx was one of her complement, +and he was the only passenger who had greatly misbehaved since the ship +struck. Others had been a little wild, which was not to be wondered +at, and not very blamable; but, he had made a lamentation and uproar +which it was dangerous for the people to hear, as there is always contagion +in weakness and selfishness. His incessant cry had been that he +must not be separated from the child, that he couldn’t see the +child, and that he and the child must go together. He had even +tried to wrest the child out of my arms, that he might keep her in his. +“Mr. Rarx,” said I to him when it came to that, “I +have a loaded pistol in my pocket; and if you don’t stand out +of the gangway, and keep perfectly quiet, I shall shoot you through +the heart, if you have got one.” Says he, “You won’t +do murder, Captain Ravender!” “No, sir,” +says I, “I won’t murder forty-four people to humour you, +but I’ll shoot you to save them.” After that he was +quiet, and stood shivering a little way off, until I named him to go +over the side.</p> +<p>The Long-boat being cast off, the Surf-boat was soon filled. +There only remained aboard the Golden Mary, John Mullion the man who +had kept on burning the blue-lights (and who had lighted every new one +at every old one before it went out, as quietly as if he had been at +an illumination); John Steadiman; and myself. I hurried those +two into the Surf-boat, called to them to keep off, and waited with +a grateful and relieved heart for the Long-boat to come and take me +in, if she could. I looked at my watch, and it showed me, by the +blue-light, ten minutes past two. They lost no time. As +soon as she was near enough, I swung myself into her, and called to +the men, “With a will, lads! She’s reeling!” +We were not an inch too far out of the inner vortex of her going down, +when, by the blue-light which John Mullion still burnt in the bow of +the Surf-boat, we saw her lurch, and plunge to the bottom head-foremost. +The child cried, weeping wildly, “O the dear Golden Mary! +O look at her! Save her! Save the poor Golden Mary!” +And then the light burnt out, and the black dome seemed to come down +upon us.</p> +<p>I suppose if we had all stood a-top of a mountain, and seen the whole +remainder of the world sink away from under us, we could hardly have +felt more shocked and solitary than we did when we knew we were alone +on the wide ocean, and that the beautiful ship in which most of us had +been securely asleep within half an hour was gone for ever. There +was an awful silence in our boat, and such a kind of palsy on the rowers +and the man at the rudder, that I felt they were scarcely keeping her +before the sea. I spoke out then, and said, “Let every one +here thank the Lord for our preservation!” All the voices +answered (even the child’s), “We thank the Lord!” +I then said the Lord’s Prayer, and all hands said it after me +with a solemn murmuring. Then I gave the word “Cheerily, +O men, Cheerily!” and I felt that they were handling the boat +again as a boat ought to be handled.</p> +<p>The Surf-boat now burnt another blue-light to show us where they +were, and we made for her, and laid ourselves as nearly alongside of +her as we dared. I had always kept my boats with a coil or two +of good stout stuff in each of them, so both boats had a rope at hand. +We made a shift, with much labour and trouble, to get near enough to +one another to divide the blue-lights (they were no use after that night, +for the sea-water soon got at them), and to get a tow-rope out between +us. All night long we kept together, sometimes obliged to cast +off the rope, and sometimes getting it out again, and all of us wearying +for the morning—which appeared so long in coming that old Mr. +Rarx screamed out, in spite of his fears of me, “The world is +drawing to an end, and the sun will never rise any more!”</p> +<p>When the day broke, I found that we were all huddled together in +a miserable manner. We were deep in the water; being, as I found +on mustering, thirty-one in number, or at least six too many. +In the Surf-boat they were fourteen in number, being at least four too +many. The first thing I did, was to get myself passed to the rudder—which +I took from that time—and to get Mrs. Atherfield, her child, and +Miss Coleshaw, passed on to sit next me. As to old Mr. Rarx, I +put him in the bow, as far from us as I could. And I put some +of the best men near us in order that if I should drop there might be +a skilful hand ready to take the helm.</p> +<p>The sea moderating as the sun came up, though the sky was cloudy +and wild, we spoke the other boat, to know what stores they had, and +to overhaul what we had. I had a compass in my pocket, a small +telescope, a double-barrelled pistol, a knife, and a fire-box and matches. +Most of my men had knives, and some had a little tobacco: some, a pipe +as well. We had a mug among us, and an iron spoon. As to +provisions, there were in my boat two bags of biscuit, one piece of +raw beef, one piece of raw pork, a bag of coffee, roasted but not ground +(thrown in, I imagine, by mistake, for something else), two small casks +of water, and about half-a-gallon of rum in a keg. The Surf-boat, +having rather more rum than we, and fewer to drink it, gave us, as I +estimated, another quart into our keg. In return, we gave them +three double handfuls of coffee, tied up in a piece of a handkerchief; +they reported that they had aboard besides, a bag of biscuit, a piece +of beef, a small cask of water, a small box of lemons, and a Dutch cheese. +It took a long time to make these exchanges, and they were not made +without risk to both parties; the sea running quite high enough to make +our approaching near to one another very hazardous. In the bundle +with the coffee, I conveyed to John Steadiman (who had a ship’s +compass with him), a paper written in pencil, and torn from my pocket-book, +containing the course I meant to steer, in the hope of making land, +or being picked up by some vessel—I say in the hope, though I +had little hope of either deliverance. I then sang out to him, +so as all might hear, that if we two boats could live or die together, +we would; but, that if we should be parted by the weather, and join +company no more, they should have our prayers and blessings, and we +asked for theirs. We then gave them three cheers, which they returned, +and I saw the men’s heads droop in both boats as they fell to +their oars again.</p> +<p>These arrangements had occupied the general attention advantageously +for all, though (as I expressed in the last sentence) they ended in +a sorrowful feeling. I now said a few words to my fellow-voyagers +on the subject of the small stock of food on which our lives depended +if they were preserved from the great deep, and on the rigid necessity +of our eking it out in the most frugal manner. One and all replied +that whatever allowance I thought best to lay down should be strictly +kept to. We made a pair of scales out of a thin scrap of iron-plating +and some twine, and I got together for weights such of the heaviest +buttons among us as I calculated made up some fraction over two ounces. +This was the allowance of solid food served out once a-day to each, +from that time to the end; with the addition of a coffee-berry, or sometimes +half a one, when the weather was very fair, for breakfast. We +had nothing else whatever, but half a pint of water each per day, and +sometimes, when we were coldest and weakest, a teaspoonful of rum each, +served out as a dram. I know how learnedly it can be shown that +rum is poison, but I also know that in this case, as in all similar +cases I have ever read of—which are numerous—no words can +express the comfort and support derived from it. Nor have I the +least doubt that it saved the lives of far more than half our number. +Having mentioned half a pint of water as our daily allowance, I ought +to observe that sometimes we had less, and sometimes we had more; for +much rain fell, and we caught it in a canvas stretched for the purpose.</p> +<p>Thus, at that tempestuous time of the year, and in that tempestuous +part of the world, we shipwrecked people rose and fell with the waves. +It is not my intention to relate (if I can avoid it) such circumstances +appertaining to our doleful condition as have been better told in many +other narratives of the kind than I can be expected to tell them. +I will only note, in so many passing words, that day after day and night +after night, we received the sea upon our backs to prevent it from swamping +the boat; that one party was always kept baling, and that every hat +and cap among us soon got worn out, though patched up fifty times, as +the only vessels we had for that service; that another party lay down +in the bottom of the boat, while a third rowed; and that we were soon +all in boils and blisters and rags.</p> +<p>The other boat was a source of such anxious interest to all of us +that I used to wonder whether, if we were saved, the time could ever +come when the survivors in this boat of ours could be at all indifferent +to the fortunes of the survivors in that. We got out a tow-rope +whenever the weather permitted, but that did not often happen, and how +we two parties kept within the same horizon, as we did, He, who mercifully +permitted it to be so for our consolation, only knows. I never +shall forget the looks with which, when the morning light came, we used +to gaze about us over the stormy waters, for the other boat. We +once parted company for seventy-two hours, and we believed them to have +gone down, as they did us. The joy on both sides when we came +within view of one another again, had something in a manner Divine in +it; each was so forgetful of individual suffering, in tears of delight +and sympathy for the people in the other boat.</p> +<p>I have been wanting to get round to the individual or personal part +of my subject, as I call it, and the foregoing incident puts me in the +right way. The patience and good disposition aboard of us, was +wonderful. I was not surprised by it in the women; for all men +born of women know what great qualities they will show when men will +fail; but, I own I was a little surprised by it in some of the men. +Among one-and-thirty people assembled at the best of times, there will +usually, I should say, be two or three uncertain tempers. I knew +that I had more than one rough temper with me among my own people, for +I had chosen those for the Long-boat that I might have them under my +eye. But, they softened under their misery, and were as considerate +of the ladies, and as compassionate of the child, as the best among +us, or among men—they could not have been more so. I heard +scarcely any complaining. The party lying down would moan a good +deal in their sleep, and I would often notice a man—not always +the same man, it is to be understood, but nearly all of them at one +time or other—sitting moaning at his oar, or in his place, as +he looked mistily over the sea. When it happened to be long before +I could catch his eye, he would go on moaning all the time in the dismallest +manner; but, when our looks met, he would brighten and leave off. +I almost always got the impression that he did not know what sound he +had been making, but that he thought he had been humming a tune.</p> +<p>Our sufferings from cold and wet were far greater than our sufferings +from hunger. We managed to keep the child warm; but, I doubt if +any one else among us ever was warm for five minutes together; and the +shivering, and the chattering of teeth, were sad to hear. The +child cried a little at first for her lost playfellow, the Golden Mary; +but hardly ever whimpered afterwards; and when the state of the weather +made it possible, she used now and then to be held up in the arms of +some of us, to look over the sea for John Steadiman’s boat. +I see the golden hair and the innocent face now, between me and the +driving clouds, like an angel going to fly away.</p> +<p>It had happened on the second day, towards night, that Mrs. Atherfield, +in getting Little Lucy to sleep, sang her a song. She had a soft, +melodious voice, and, when she had finished it, our people up and begged +for another. She sang them another, and after it had fallen dark +ended with the Evening Hymn. From that time, whenever anything +could be heard above the sea and wind, and while she had any voice left, +nothing would serve the people but that she should sing at sunset. +She always did, and always ended with the Evening Hymn. We mostly +took up the last line, and shed tears when it was done, but not miserably. +We had a prayer night and morning, also, when the weather allowed of +it.</p> +<p>Twelve nights and eleven days we had been driving in the boat, when +old Mr. Rarx began to be delirious, and to cry out to me to throw the +gold overboard or it would sink us, and we should all be lost. +For days past the child had been declining, and that was the great cause +of his wildness. He had been over and over again shrieking out +to me to give her all the remaining meat, to give her all the remaining +rum, to save her at any cost, or we should all be ruined. At this +time, she lay in her mother’s arms at my feet. One of her +little hands was almost always creeping about her mother’s neck +or chin. I had watched the wasting of the little hand, and I knew +it was nearly over.</p> +<p>The old man’s cries were so discordant with the mother’s +love and submission, that I called out to him in an angry voice, unless +he held his peace on the instant, I would order him to be knocked on +the head and thrown overboard. He was mute then, until the child +died, very peacefully, an hour afterwards: which was known to all in +the boat by the mother’s breaking out into lamentations for the +first time since the wreck—for, she had great fortitude and constancy, +though she was a little gentle woman. Old Mr. Rarx then became +quite ungovernable, tearing what rags he had on him, raging in imprecations, +and calling to me that if I had thrown the gold overboard (always the +gold with him!) I might have saved the child. “And now,” +says he, in a terrible voice, “we shall founder, and all go to +the Devil, for our sins will sink us, when we have no innocent child +to bear us up!” We so discovered with amazement, that this +old wretch had only cared for the life of the pretty little creature +dear to all of us, because of the influence he superstitiously hoped +she might have in preserving him! Altogether it was too much for +the smith or armourer, who was sitting next the old man, to bear. +He took him by the throat and rolled him under the thwarts, where he +lay still enough for hours afterwards.</p> +<p>All that thirteenth night, Miss Coleshaw, lying across my knees as +I kept the helm, comforted and supported the poor mother. Her +child, covered with a pea-jacket of mine, lay in her lap. It troubled +me all night to think that there was no Prayer-Book among us, and that +I could remember but very few of the exact words of the burial service. +When I stood up at broad day, all knew what was going to be done, and +I noticed that my poor fellows made the motion of uncovering their heads, +though their heads had been stark bare to the sky and sea for many a +weary hour. There was a long heavy swell on, but otherwise it +was a fair morning, and there were broad fields of sunlight on the waves +in the east. I said no more than this: “I am the Resurrection +and the Life, saith the Lord. He raised the daughter of Jairus +the ruler, and said she was not dead but slept. He raised the +widow’s son. He arose Himself, and was seen of many. +He loved little children, saying, Suffer them to come unto Me and rebuke +them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. In His name, my +friends, and committed to His merciful goodness!” With those +words I laid my rough face softly on the placid little forehead, and +buried the Golden Lucy in the grave of the Golden Mary.</p> +<p>Having had it on my mind to relate the end of this dear little child, +I have omitted something from its exact place, which I will supply here. +It will come quite as well here as anywhere else.</p> +<p>Foreseeing that if the boat lived through the stormy weather, the +time must come, and soon come, when we should have absolutely no morsel +to eat, I had one momentous point often in my thoughts. Although +I had, years before that, fully satisfied myself that the instances +in which human beings in the last distress have fed upon each other, +are exceedingly few, and have very seldom indeed (if ever) occurred +when the people in distress, however dreadful their extremity, have +been accustomed to moderate forbearance and restraint; I say, though +I had long before quite satisfied my mind on this topic, I felt doubtful +whether there might not have been in former cases some harm and danger +from keeping it out of sight and pretending not to think of it. +I felt doubtful whether some minds, growing weak with fasting and exposure +and having such a terrific idea to dwell upon in secret, might not magnify +it until it got to have an awful attraction about it. This was +not a new thought of mine, for it had grown out of my reading. +However, it came over me stronger than it had ever done before—as +it had reason for doing—in the boat, and on the fourth day I decided +that I would bring out into the light that unformed fear which must +have been more or less darkly in every brain among us. Therefore, +as a means of beguiling the time and inspiring hope, I gave them the +best summary in my power of Bligh’s voyage of more than three +thousand miles, in an open boat, after the Mutiny of the Bounty, and +of the wonderful preservation of that boat’s crew. They +listened throughout with great interest, and I concluded by telling +them, that, in my opinion, the happiest circumstance in the whole narrative +was, that Bligh, who was no delicate man either, had solemnly placed +it on record therein that he was sure and certain that under no conceivable +circumstances whatever would that emaciated party, who had gone through +all the pains of famine, have preyed on one another. I cannot +describe the visible relief which this spread through the boat, and +how the tears stood in every eye. From that time I was as well +convinced as Bligh himself that there was no danger, and that this phantom, +at any rate, did not haunt us.</p> +<p>Now, it was a part of Bligh’s experience that when the people +in his boat were most cast down, nothing did them so much good as hearing +a story told by one of their number. When I mentioned that, I +saw that it struck the general attention as much as it did my own, for +I had not thought of it until I came to it in my summary. This +was on the day after Mrs. Atherfield first sang to us. I proposed +that, whenever the weather would permit, we should have a story two +hours after dinner (I always issued the allowance I have mentioned at +one o’clock, and called it by that name), as well as our song +at sunset. The proposal was received with a cheerful satisfaction +that warmed my heart within me; and I do not say too much when I say +that those two periods in the four-and-twenty hours were expected with +positive pleasure, and were really enjoyed by all hands. Spectres +as we soon were in our bodily wasting, our imaginations did not perish +like the gross flesh upon our bones. Music and Adventure, two +of the great gifts of Providence to mankind, could charm us long after +that was lost.</p> +<p>The wind was almost always against us after the second day; and for +many days together we could not nearly hold our own. We had all +varieties of bad weather. We had rain, hail, snow, wind, mist, +thunder and lightning. Still the boats lived through the heavy +seas, and still we perishing people rose and fell with the great waves.</p> +<p>Sixteen nights and fifteen days, twenty nights and nineteen days, +twenty-four nights and twenty-three days. So the time went on. +Disheartening as I knew that our progress, or want of progress, must +be, I never deceived them as to my calculations of it. In the +first place, I felt that we were all too near eternity for deceit; in +the second place, I knew that if I failed, or died, the man who followed +me must have a knowledge of the true state of things to begin upon. +When I told them at noon, what I reckoned we had made or lost, they +generally received what I said in a tranquil and resigned manner, and +always gratefully towards me. It was not unusual at any time of +the day for some one to burst out weeping loudly without any new cause; +and, when the burst was over, to calm down a little better than before. +I had seen exactly the same thing in a house of mourning.</p> +<p>During the whole of this time, old Mr. Rarx had had his fits of calling +out to me to throw the gold (always the gold!) overboard, and of heaping +violent reproaches upon me for not having saved the child; but now, +the food being all gone, and I having nothing left to serve out but +a bit of coffee-berry now and then, he began to be too weak to do this, +and consequently fell silent. Mrs. Atherfield and Miss Coleshaw +generally lay, each with an arm across one of my knees, and her head +upon it. They never complained at all. Up to the time of +her child’s death, Mrs. Atherfield had bound up her own beautiful +hair every day; and I took particular notice that this was always before +she sang her song at night, when everyone looked at her. But she +never did it after the loss of her darling; and it would have been now +all tangled with dirt and wet, but that Miss Coleshaw was careful of +it long after she was herself, and would sometimes smooth it down with +her weak thin hands.</p> +<p>We were past mustering a story now; but one day, at about this period, +I reverted to the superstition of old Mr. Rarx, concerning the Golden +Lucy, and told them that nothing vanished from the eye of God, though +much might pass away from the eyes of men. “We were all +of us,” says I, “children once; and our baby feet have strolled +in green woods ashore; and our baby hands have gathered flowers in gardens, +where the birds were singing. The children that we were, are not +lost to the great knowledge of our Creator. Those innocent creatures +will appear with us before Him, and plead for us. What we were +in the best time of our generous youth will arise and go with us too. +The purest part of our lives will not desert us at the pass to which +all of us here present are gliding. What we were then, will be +as much in existence before Him, as what we are now.” They +were no less comforted by this consideration, than I was myself; and +Miss Coleshaw, drawing my ear nearer to her lips, said, “Captain +Ravender, I was on my way to marry a disgraced and broken man, whom +I dearly loved when he was honourable and good. Your words seem +to have come out of my own poor heart.” She pressed my hand +upon it, smiling.</p> +<p>Twenty-seven nights and twenty-six days. We were in no want +of rain-water, but we had nothing else. And yet, even now, I never +turned my eyes upon a waking face but it tried to brighten before mine. +O, what a thing it is, in a time of danger and in the presence of death, +the shining of a face upon a face! I have heard it broached that +orders should be given in great new ships by electric telegraph. +I admire machinery as much is any man, and am as thankful to it as any +man can be for what it does for us. But it will never be a substitute +for the face of a man, with his soul in it, encouraging another man +to be brave and true. Never try it for that. It will break +down like a straw.</p> +<p>I now began to remark certain changes in myself which I did not like. +They caused me much disquiet. I often saw the Golden Lucy in the +air above the boat. I often saw her I have spoken of before, sitting +beside me. I saw the Golden Mary go down, as she really had gone +down, twenty times in a day. And yet the sea was mostly, to my +thinking, not sea neither, but moving country and extraordinary mountainous +regions, the like of which have never been beheld. I felt it time +to leave my last words regarding John Steadiman, in case any lips should +last out to repeat them to any living ears. I said that John had +told me (as he had on deck) that he had sung out “Breakers ahead!” +the instant they were audible, and had tried to wear ship, but she struck +before it could be done. (His cry, I dare say, had made my dream.) +I said that the circumstances were altogether without warning, and out +of any course that could have been guarded against; that the same loss +would have happened if I had been in charge; and that John was not to +blame, but from first to last had done his duty nobly, like the man +he was. I tried to write it down in my pocket-book, but could +make no words, though I knew what the words were that I wanted to make. +When it had come to that, her hands—though she was dead so long—laid +me down gently in the bottom of the boat, and she and the Golden Lucy +swung me to sleep.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p><i>All that follows, was written by John Steadiman, Chief Mate</i>:</p> +<p>On the twenty-sixth day after the foundering of the Golden Mary at +sea, I, John Steadiman, was sitting in my place in the stern-sheets +of the Surf-boat, with just sense enough left in me to steer—that +is to say, with my eyes strained, wide-awake, over the bows of the boat, +and my brains fast asleep and dreaming—when I was roused upon +a sudden by our second mate, Mr. William Rames.</p> +<p>“Let me take a spell in your place,” says he. “And +look you out for the Long-boat astern. The last time she rose +on the crest of a wave, I thought I made out a signal flying aboard +her.”</p> +<p>We shifted our places, clumsily and slowly enough, for we were both +of us weak and dazed with wet, cold, and hunger. I waited some +time, watching the heavy rollers astern, before the Long-boat rose a-top +of one of them at the same time with us. At last, she was heaved +up for a moment well in view, and there, sure enough, was the signal +flying aboard of her—a strip of rag of some sort, rigged to an +oar, and hoisted in her bows.</p> +<p>“What does it mean?” says Rames to me in a quavering, +trembling sort of voice. “Do they signal a sail in sight?”</p> +<p>“Hush, for God’s sake!” says I, clapping my hand +over his mouth. “Don’t let the people hear you. +They’ll all go mad together if we mislead them about that signal. +Wait a bit, till I have another look at it.”</p> +<p>I held on by him, for he had set me all of a tremble with his notion +of a sail in sight, and watched for the Long-boat again. Up she +rose on the top of another roller. I made out the signal clearly, +that second time, and saw that it was rigged half-mast high.</p> +<p>“Rames,” says I, “it’s a signal of distress. +Pass the word forward to keep her before the sea, and no more. +We must get the Long-boat within hailing distance of us, as soon as +possible.”</p> +<p>I dropped down into my old place at the tiller without another word—for +the thought went through me like a knife that something had happened +to Captain Ravender. I should consider myself unworthy to write +another line of this statement, if I had not made up my mind to speak +the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth—and I must, +therefore, confess plainly that now, for the first time, my heart sank +within me. This weakness on my part was produced in some degree, +as I take it, by the exhausting effects of previous anxiety and grief.</p> +<p>Our provisions—if I may give that name to what we had left—were +reduced to the rind of one lemon and about a couple of handsfull of +coffee-berries. Besides these great distresses, caused by the +death, the danger, and the suffering among my crew and passengers, I +had had a little distress of my own to shake me still more, in the death +of the child whom I had got to be very fond of on the voyage out—so +fond that I was secretly a little jealous of her being taken in the +Long-boat instead of mine when the ship foundered. It used to +be a great comfort to me, and I think to those with me also, after we +had seen the last of the Golden Mary, to see the Golden Lucy, held up +by the men in the Long-boat, when the weather allowed it, as the best +and brightest sight they had to show. She looked, at the distance +we saw her from, almost like a little white bird in the air. To +miss her for the first time, when the weather lulled a little again, +and we all looked out for our white bird and looked in vain, was a sore +disappointment. To see the men’s heads bowed down and the +captain’s hand pointing into the sea when we hailed the Long-boat, +a few days after, gave me as heavy a shock and as sharp a pang of heartache +to bear as ever I remember suffering in all my life. I only mention +these things to show that if I did give way a little at first, under +the dread that our captain was lost to us, it was not without having +been a good deal shaken beforehand by more trials of one sort or another +than often fall to one man’s share.</p> +<p>I had got over the choking in my throat with the help of a drop of +water, and had steadied my mind again so as to be prepared against the +worst, when I heard the hail (Lord help the poor fellows, how weak it +sounded!)—</p> +<p>“Surf-boat, ahoy!”</p> +<p>I looked up, and there were our companions in misfortune tossing +abreast of us; not so near that we could make out the features of any +of them, but near enough, with some exertion for people in our condition, +to make their voices heard in the intervals when the wind was weakest.</p> +<p>I answered the hail, and waited a bit, and heard nothing, and then +sung out the captain’s name. The voice that replied did +not sound like his; the words that reached us were:</p> +<p>“Chief-mate wanted on board!”</p> +<p>Every man of my crew knew what that meant as well as I did. +As second officer in command, there could be but one reason for wanting +me on board the Long-boat. A groan went all round us, and my men +looked darkly in each other’s faces, and whispered under their +breaths:</p> +<p>“The captain is dead!”</p> +<p>I commanded them to be silent, and not to make too sure of bad news, +at such a pass as things had now come to with us. Then, hailing +the Long-boat, I signified that I was ready to go on board when the +weather would let me—stopped a bit to draw a good long breath—and +then called out as loud as I could the dreadful question:</p> +<p>“Is the captain dead?”</p> +<p>The black figures of three or four men in the after-part of the Long-boat +all stooped down together as my voice reached them. They were +lost to view for about a minute; then appeared again—one man among +them was held up on his feet by the rest, and he hailed back the blessed +words (a very faint hope went a very long way with people in our desperate +situation): “Not yet!”</p> +<p>The relief felt by me, and by all with me, when we knew that our +captain, though unfitted for duty, was not lost to us, it is not in +words—at least, not in such words as a man like me can command—to +express. I did my best to cheer the men by telling them what a +good sign it was that we were not as badly off yet as we had feared; +and then communicated what instructions I had to give, to William Rames, +who was to be left in command in my place when I took charge of the +Long-boat. After that, there was nothing to be done, but to wait +for the chance of the wind dropping at sunset, and the sea going down +afterwards, so as to enable our weak crews to lay the two boats alongside +of each other, without undue risk—or, to put it plainer, without +saddling ourselves with the necessity for any extraordinary exertion +of strength or skill. Both the one and the other had now been +starved out of us for days and days together.</p> +<p>At sunset the wind suddenly dropped, but the sea, which had been +running high for so long a time past, took hours after that before it +showed any signs of getting to rest. The moon was shining, the +sky was wonderfully clear, and it could not have been, according to +my calculations, far off midnight, when the long, slow, regular swell +of the calming ocean fairly set in, and I took the responsibility of +lessening the distance between the Long-boat and ourselves.</p> +<p>It was, I dare say, a delusion of mine; but I thought I had never +seen the moon shine so white and ghastly anywhere, either on sea or +on land, as she shone that night while we were approaching our companions +in misery. When there was not much more than a boat’s length +between us, and the white light streamed cold and clear over all our +faces, both crews rested on their oars with one great shudder, and stared +over the gunwale of either boat, panic-stricken at the first sight of +each other.</p> +<p>“Any lives lost among you?” I asked, in the midst of +that frightful silence.</p> +<p>The men in the Long-bout huddled together like sheep at the sound +of my voice.</p> +<p>“None yet, but the child, thanks be to God!” answered +one among them.</p> +<p>And at the sound of his voice, all my men shrank together like the +men in the Long-boat. I was afraid to let the horror produced +by our first meeting at close quarters after the dreadful changes that +wet, cold, and famine had produced, last one moment longer than could +be helped; so, without giving time for any more questions and answers, +I commanded the men to lay the two boats close alongside of each other. +When I rose up and committed the tiller to the hands of Rames, all my +poor follows raised their white faces imploringly to mine. “Don’t +leave us, sir,” they said, “don’t leave us.” +“I leave you,” says I, “under the command and the +guidance of Mr. William Rames, as good a sailor as I am, and as trusty +and kind a man as ever stepped. Do your duty by him, as you have +done it by me; and remember to the last, that while there is life there +is hope. God bless and help you all!” With those words +I collected what strength I had left, and caught at two arms that were +held out to me, and so got from the stern-sheets of one boat into the +stern-sheets of the other.</p> +<p>“Mind where you step, sir,” whispered one of the men +who had helped me into the Long-boat. I looked down as he spoke. +Three figures were huddled up below me, with the moonshine falling on +them in ragged streaks through the gaps between the men standing or +sitting above them. The first face I made out was the face of +Miss Coleshaw, her eyes were wide open and fixed on me. She seemed +still to keep her senses, and, by the alternate parting and closing +of her lips, to be trying to speak, but I could not hear that she uttered +a single word. On her shoulder rested the head of Mrs. Atherfield. +The mother of our poor little Golden Lucy must, I think, have been dreaming +of the child she had lost; for there was a faint smile just ruffling +the white stillness of her face, when I first saw it turned upward, +with peaceful closed eyes towards the heavens. From her, I looked +down a little, and there, with his head on her lap, and with one of +her hands resting tenderly on his cheek—there lay the Captain, +to whose help and guidance, up to this miserable time, we had never +looked in vain,—there, worn out at last in our service, and for +our sakes, lay the best and bravest man of all our company. I +stole my hand in gently through his clothes and laid it on his heart, +and felt a little feeble warmth over it, though my cold dulled touch +could not detect even the faintest beating. The two men in the +stern-sheets with me, noticing what I was doing—knowing I loved +him like a brother—and seeing, I suppose, more distress in my +face than I myself was conscious of its showing, lost command over themselves +altogether, and burst into a piteous moaning, sobbing lamentation over +him. One of the two drew aside a jacket from his feet, and showed +me that they were bare, except where a wet, ragged strip of stocking +still clung to one of them. When the ship struck the Iceberg, +he had run on deck leaving his shoes in his cabin. All through +the voyage in the boat his feet had been unprotected; and not a soul +had discovered it until he dropped! As long as he could keep his +eyes open, the very look of them had cheered the men, and comforted +and upheld the women. Not one living creature in the boat, with +any sense about him, but had felt the good influence of that brave man +in one way or another. Not one but had heard him, over and over +again, give the credit to others which was due only to himself; praising +this man for patience, and thanking that man for help, when the patience +and the help had really and truly, as to the best part of both, come +only from him. All this, and much more, I heard pouring confusedly +from the men’s lips while they crouched down, sobbing and crying +over their commander, and wrapping the jacket as warmly and tenderly +as they could over his cold feet. It went to my heart to check +them; but I knew that if this lamenting spirit spread any further, all +chance of keeping alight any last sparks of hope and resolution among +the boat’s company would be lost for ever. Accordingly I +sent them to their places, spoke a few encouraging words to the men +forward, promising to serve out, when the morning came, as much as I +dared, of any eatable thing left in the lockers; called to Rames, in +my old boat, to keep as near us as he safely could; drew the garments +and coverings of the two poor suffering women more closely about them; +and, with a secret prayer to be directed for the best in bearing the +awful responsibility now laid on my shoulders, took my Captain’s +vacant place at the helm of the Long-boat.</p> +<p>This, as well as I can tell it, is the full and true account of how +I came to be placed in charge of the lost passengers and crew of the +Golden Mary, on the morning of the twenty-seventh day after the ship +struck the Iceberg, and foundered at sea.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRECK OF THE GOLDEN MARY***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 1465-h.htm or 1465-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/6/1465 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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