diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/62336-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62336-0.txt | 6161 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 6161 deletions
diff --git a/old/62336-0.txt b/old/62336-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 78a9443..0000000 --- a/old/62336-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6161 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Master Rockafellar's Voyage, by William Clark Russell - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Master Rockafellar's Voyage - -Author: William Clark Russell - -Illustrator: Gordon Browne - -Release Date: June 7, 2020 [EBook #62336] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTER ROCKAFELLAR'S VOYAGE *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - -MASTER ROCKAFELLAR’S VOYAGE - -BY THE SAME AUTHOR - - MY DANISH SWEETHEART - HIS ISLAND PRINCESS - ABANDONED - - - - -[Illustration: “BE PLEASED TO GET IN AND GO AWAY.” - -_See page 175._] - - - - - MASTER ROCKAFELLAR’S - VOYAGE - - BY - W. CLARK RUSSELL - AUTHOR OF “MY DANISH SWEETHEART,” ETC., ETC. - - WITH 27 ILLUSTRATIONS BY GORDON BROWNE - - FIFTH EDITION - - METHUEN & CO. LTD. - 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. - LONDON - - _First Published_ _October_ _1890_ - _Second Edition_ _November_ _1894_ - _Third Edition_ _August_ _1906_ - _Fourth Edition_ _November_ _1910_ - _Fifth Edition_ _1913_ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - CHAPTER I. - - HE BEGS TO GO TO SEA 1 - - CHAPTER II. - - HIS FIRST DAY ON BOARD SHIP 17 - - CHAPTER III. - - HE SAILS FROM GRAVESEND 30 - - CHAPTER IV. - - HE GOES ALOFT 45 - - CHAPTER V. - - HE SIGHTS A SHIP 59 - - CHAPTER VI. - - HE IS STRUCK BY LIGHTNING 74 - - CHAPTER VII. - - HE HEARS A BELL 88 - - CHAPTER VIII. - - HE SEES THE EQUATOR 103 - - CHAPTER IX. - - HE SEES AN ICEBERG 209 - - CHAPTER X. - - HE SIGHTS A WRECK 227 - - CHAPTER XI. - - HE SEES A STRANGE LIGHT 243 - - CHAPTER XII. - - HE ARRIVES HOME 259 - - - - -MASTER ROCKAFELLAR’S VOYAGE - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -_HE BEGS TO GO TO SEA._ - - -My name is Thomas Rockafellar; father and mother always called me Tommy, -and by that name was I known until I grew too old to be called by -anything more familiar than Tom. I have seen people look at one another, -and smile, perhaps, when they have heard the name Rockafellar mentioned -as that of a family; but I here beg leave to state that the Rockafellars -are an exceedingly ancient race, who, if they do not claim to have -arrived in this country with William the Conqueror, can excuse themselves -for not having landed with that chieftain by being able to prove that -they had been many years established when the keels of the Norman galleys -grounded on the Hastings shore. - -[Illustration: EBENEZER ROCKAFELLAR.] - -Amongst my ancestors were several sailors, who had served the king or -queen of their times in the navy of the state. A portrait of Ebenezer -Rockafellar, who was a rear-admiral in the early years of George the -Second’s reign, hung in the dining-room at home, and represented a face -like that of the man in the moon when the planet rises very crimson out -of the sea on a hot summer’s evening. He had a tail on his back and a -great copper speaking-trumpet under his arm and his forefinger, on which -was a huge ring, rested upon a globe of the world. The artist had painted -in a picture of a thunderstorm happening through a window, with the -glimpse of a rough sea, and an old-fashioned ship like a castle tumbling -about in it resembling a toy Noah’s ark tossing on the strong ripples of -a pond. - -It might have been my looking at this red-faced ancestor of mine, and -admiring his speaking-trumpet, and the noble colour of weather which -stained his face that first put it into my head to go to sea. I cannot -say. Who can tell where little boys get their notions from? I would stand -before that picture, and in my small way dream about the ocean, about -sharks, tropic islands full of cocoa-nut trees, and monkeys, and parrots -gorgeous as shapes of burnished gold; and I would dream also, all in my -small way, of flying-fish like little lengths of pearl flashing out of -the dark-blue brine on wings of gossamer, and elephants and ivory tusks, -and of black men in turbans and robes glittering with jewels, like the -dark velvet sky on a midsummer night; and so on, and so on, until there -arose in me a passion to go to sea, and behold with my own little eyes -the wonders of the world. - -Father and mother tried hard to conquer my desire; and then, when they -found I would still be a sailor, they pretended to consent, secretly -meaning to weary me out, or to give me a good long chance of changing my -views by delaying to take any steps to humour my wishes. At last, finding -my mind to be wonderfully resolved, my father talked to my mother gravely -about my disposition for the sea—told her that when a boy exhibited a -strong inclination for a walk, no matter of what nature if honest, he -should not be baulked—that I might have the makings of another Captain -Cook in me, or at all events of a Vancouver, and end my days as a great -man. - -“Besides, my dear,” said he, “one voyage at least cannot harm him; it -will fill his mind with new experiences, it will also test his sincerity; -it will act as the strongest possible persuasion one way or the other. -It will be cheaper too than a year of schooling, and more useful, I -don’t doubt. So, my dear, let us make up our minds to send him into the -Merchant Service for one voyage.” - -However, it was some time before my mother consented. She would not very -strongly have objected to the Royal Navy, she said, but she considered -the Merchant Service too vulgar for a Rockafellar. - -“Vulgar, my dear!” cried my father; “why, do you forget that your own -Uncle Martin was in the service of the Honourable East India Company?” - -“Ah but,” she answered, “Uncle Martin was always a perfect gentleman, and -even had he been a common sailor on board a barge, he would have carried -himself with as much dignity and been as fully appreciated by people -capable of distinguishing as if he had been an Admiral of the Blues.” - -[Illustration: “MY FATHER TALKED TO MY MOTHER.”] - -“Of the Blue, I think it is,” said my father. - -“The Red is cock of the walk,” said I, who had been listening to this -conversation with much interest. - -Well, it ended, after many talks, in my mother agreeing with my father -that one voyage could do me no harm, and that if I returned as eager for -the sea life as I now was, it might prove as good a calling for me as any -other vocation that could be named. So after making certain inquiries, -my father one day took me to London with him, to call upon a shipowner -who lived close by Fenchurch Street. He had five vessels, three of them -large ships, of which two had formerly been Indiamen, and the others were -barques. They were all regular traders to Australia: that is to say, to -the different ports of that colony, and one or more of them were always -to be found in the East India Docks discharging the wool with which they -returned home full of, or taking in merchandise for the outward passage. - -The shipowner, Mr. Duncan, was a large, fat, cheerful man, “with a very -knowing eye, and supposed to be already worth, my dear, about a million -and a half,” as I afterwards heard my father tell my mother. We passed -through an office full of clerks into a little back room, where we were -received by Mr. Duncan, who seemed delighted to make our acquaintance. -He patted me on the head, said that he was always fond of boys whose -hair curled, declared that he could not remember ever having set eyes on -a more likely sailorly-looking lad, promised me that I should become the -captain of a ship if I worked hard, and then he and my father went to -business. - -The terms were a premium of sixty guineas for the first voyage, together -with ten guineas for what was called mess-money; “and with regard to -pocket money,” said Mr. Duncan, “I should say if you give the captain -enough to enable him to put half-a-crown a week into the lad’s pocket -whilst he’s in harbour the boy will have more than he needs for simple -enjoyment, and too little,” said he, closing one eye, “for what Jack -calls larks.” - -The name of the ship was the _Lady Violet_, and Mr. Duncan told us that -she was commanded by Captain Tempest, who, notwithstanding his stormy -name, was a gentleman-like person of a mild disposition, one of the best -navigators out of the Port of London, and beloved by all who sailed with -him. - -“There is no flogging now, I think, sir, at sea?” said my father. - -“Oh dear no,” cried Mr. Duncan, smiling all over his immense crimson -face: “a barbarous practice, sir, very happily suppressed ages ago.” - -“How are boys punished,” asked my father, “at sea when they deserve it?” - -“Why, sir,” answered Mr. Duncan, “the captain usually sends for them to -his cabin, and lectures them paternally and tenderly. His admonitions -rarely fail, but if there be great perversity, then possibly a little -extra duty of a trifling kind is given to them. But there is very little -naughtiness amongst boys at sea, sir! very little naughtiness indeed. -Perhaps I should add, in _my_ ships, where no bad language is allowed, -where sobriety is strictly encouraged, and where even smoking is regarded -as objectionable, though of course,” added Mr. Duncan, drawing a deep -breath that sounded like a sigh, “we do not prohibit it.” - -A good deal more to this effect passed between my father and Mr. Duncan, -and then certain arrangements having been made, we took our leave. - -The ship was to sail in three weeks; she lay in the East India Docks, and -as she would not be hauling out of the gates until the afternoon, there -was no need for me to present myself on board sooner than the morning of -the day of her sailing. - -My outfit was procured at a well-known marine establishment in Leadenhall -Street. I very well recollect the pride with which I tried on a blue -cloth jacket, embellished with brass buttons, and surveyed my appearance -in a large pier-glass. I had never before been dressed in brass buttons, -and felt, now that I was thus decorated, that I was a man indeed. Also -the glittering badge of a sort of wreath of gold, embracing a gorgeous -little flag on the cap which the outfitter placed on my head, enchanted -me. Indeed, I could not but think that the privilege of wearing so -beautiful a decoration would be cheaply earned by years of exposure and -hardship, not to mention shipwreck, and even famine and thirst in an open -boat. - -“It seems to me,” said my father to the outfitter, “to judge by your -list, that it is the practice of young gentlemen when they first go to -sea to take a great number of shirts and fine duck trousers with them.” - -“They need all their fathers allow them, sir,” said the outfitter, with a -bow. - -“Is it,” asked my father, “that they must always appear very clean?” - -“No, sir,” answered the outfitter. “I regret to say that it is the habit -of most young gentlemen when first they go to sea to swap their trousers -and shirts with the baker for what is termed ‘soft-tack.’” - -“What is soft-tack?” said I. - -“Bread, the likes of which we eat ashore,” answered the outfitter. - -“Don’t they get the same at sea?” said I. - -“No, young gentleman,” answered the outfitter; “there’s nothing but -biscuit eaten at sea by sailors, and it’s sometimes rather wormy. When it -is so, soft-tack grows into a delicacy, compared with which midshipmen’s -trousers and shirts count for nothing.” - -“I’d rather have a biscuit any day,” said I, “than a slice of bread.” - -I thought the smile the outfitter bestowed upon me a rather singular one. -My father looked pleased, and said to the outfitter, “Master Rockafellar -will keep his clothes, I know.” - -“Not a doubt of it, sir,” responded the outfitter, and forthwith -proceeded to show us the oilskins, sou’wester, sea-boots, bars of marine -soap, clasp-knife, and the other articles which were to form the contents -of the brand-new white-wood sea-chest, with grummets for handles, and -with a little shelf for “curios,” and upon the lid of which my name, -THOMAS ROCKAFELLAR, was to be painted in strong, large black letters. - -I will pass over my parting with my mother and sisters and little -brother. My uniform came down a week before I sailed, and my wearing of -the clothes greatly helped to sustain my spirits, whilst they made me -feel that I was a sailor, and must not betray any sort of weakness that -might seem girlish. I tried hard not to cry as my mother strained me to -her heart, and I said good-bye with dry eyes; but I broke down when I was -in the railway carriage as the engine whistled, and the familiar scene of -the station slipped away. My father, who was accompanying me to the ship, -put his hand upon mine, and said something in a low voice, that was, I -think, a prayer to God that He would protect and bless and guard his boy, -and then turned his face to the window, and when presently I peeped at -him, I saw that he had been weeping too. - -Ah, dear little friends! let us always love our father and mother, and be -grateful to them. They suffer much for us when we are young, and when we -are incapable of understanding their anxieties and griefs. Later on in -life we find it all out ourselves, and it is as sweet as a blessing sent -to us by them from heaven if we can remember that we were always good, -and loving, and tender to them when we were little ones, and when they -were alive to be made happy by our behaviour. - -When I look back from the hour of my trotting into the docks at my -father’s side, down to the time when I felt the ship heaving and plunging -under me upon the snappish curl of the Channel waters, all that happened -takes so misty a character that it is like peering at objects through a -fog. Everything, of course, was new to me, and all was startling in its -way, confusing my little brains; and it was a sort of Wonderland also. - -The docks were full of business, and movement and hurry; huge cranes -were swiftly swinging out tons’ weight of cargo from the holds of ships -to the snorting accompaniment of steam machinery; dockyard labourers -were chorussing on the decks of the vessels, or bawling to one another -on the quayside; the earth trembled to the passage of heavy waggons; and -the ear was distracted by the shrill whistling and roaring puffing of -locomotives. There were fellows aloft on the ships, dismantling them of -their spars, and rigging, or bending sails, and sending up masts, and -crossing-yards, and reeving gear for a fresh voyage. - -It was a brilliant October morning, with a keen shrill wind that made -even the dirty Thames water of the docks tremble into a diamond-bright -flashing, and in this wind you seemed to taste the aromas of many -countries—coffee, and spices, and fragrant produce, the mere flavour of -which in the atmosphere sent the fancy roaming into hot and shining lands. - -The _Lady Violet_ still lay alongside the quay. I recollect thinking her -an immense ship as we approached. Aloft she looked as heavy and massive -as a man-of-war, with her large tops, her canvas rolled up on the yards, -and all her sea-gear—a bewildering complication of ropes—in its place. -She had a broad white band along her sides, upon which were painted black -squares to imitate portholes. She was an old-fashioned ship, as I know -now—though then I saw but little difference between her and the rest of -them that lay about. Her stern was square and very handsomely gilt; -there were large windows in it, and the sunlight flashing in them made -the long white letters of her name stare out as though they were formed -of silver. She had a handsome flag flying at the mainmast head, exactly -like the one that I wore in the badge on my cap. The red ensign floated -gaily at her peak, and at the fore-royalmast head the Blue Peter—signal -for sailing—was rippling against the light azure of the sky. - -My father seemed as much confused as I was by the bustle and novelty. He -grasped my hand, and we stepped over a broad gangway bridge on to the -ship’s deck. Here was confusion indeed! all sorts of ropes’ ends knocking -about, men on deck shouting to men in the hold, pigs grunting, babies -crying, cocks crowing, and hens cackling; steerage passengers bound out -as emigrants wandering dejectedly about; unshorn, melancholy men in -slouched hats, pale-faced women with hollow cheeks stained by recent -tears, cowering under the break of the poop, and gazing forlornly around -them; and drunken sailors on the forecastle bawling out coarse joking -farewells to friends ashore. We went up a ladder that conducted us to the -upper-deck or poop, and I noticed that along the rails on either side -were stowed a great number of bales of compressed hay as fodder for the -sheep, which were bleating somewhere forward, and for a cow that was now -and then giving vent to a sullen roar, as though she were vexed at being -imprisoned in a great box. - -There were several midshipmen on the poop running about. They glanced -at me out of the corner of their eyes as they passed. I could not but -envy them, for they seemed quite at home, whilst here was I, trembling -nervously by the side of my papa, staring up at the masts, and wondering -if ever I should be made to creep up those great heights, and if so, -what was to become of me when I had reached the top? There was no need, -indeed, to glance at my buttons to know that I was a “first voyager.” -My wandering eyes and open mouth were assurance as strong as though I -had been labelled “greenhorn.” My father, stepping up to one of the -midshipmen, asked if the captain was on board. - -“I don’t think he is,” said the youngster. - -“This is my son,” said my father, “who has come to join the _Lady -Violet_. Are there any formalities to go through—any book to be signed by -him—we are rather at a loss?” - -All too young as I was to be an observer, I could yet see a spirit of -laughing mischief flash into the lad’s brown handsome face, and I have no -doubt that he would have told me to go forward and seek for the cook and -report myself, or have started me on some other fool’s errand of a like -sort, but for a sunburnt man in a blue-cloth coat coming up to us, and -asking my father what he wanted; on which the midshipman slunk away and -joined two other midshipmen, who, on his speaking to them, began to shake -with laughter. - -“No, there is nothing to be done, sir,” said the weather-stained man -in answer to my father’s question. “I suppose your chest is aboard?” -he exclaimed, looking at me. “Better go below and see that your kit’s -arrived. We shall be warping out in a few minutes.” - -“Are you one of the officers, sir,” asked my father. - -“I am the second mate, sir, and my name is Jones,” answered the other. - -My father was about to put some further questions to him, but just then -Mr. Jones, bawling out “Right you are!” to some one who had called to him -from some part of the ship or the shore, rushed away. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -_HIS FIRST DAY ON BOARD SHIP._ - - -“Well, Tommy,” said my father, “as the ship will soon be leaving I -had better be off, as I do not want to go to Australia with you. God -bless thee, my son. Be a good lad; do not forget your prayers; remember -to write to us as often as you can send a letter”—and here his voice -breaking, he ceased and stooped to kiss me; but I drew away. I did not -like to be kissed by my father in the presence of the little bunch of -midshipmen who were viewing us from near the wheel. I feared they would -regard it as an unmanly act, and sneer at me afterwards as being girlish. - -My father, with a sad smile, squeezed my hand and left me. Little boys -are often very sensitive on points of what they consider manliness. They -will laugh at this weakness when they grow older, but I think it is wise -to humour them. I afterwards heard—but I did not then know—that my -father when he stepped ashore walked straight to the building that was -then called the Brunswick Hotel, and posting himself at a window where I -could not see him, sat watching me with the tears in his eyes, until the -ship had hauled through the lock gates and I was no longer visible. - -No one who has stood on board a large sailing ship for the first time, -and witnessed the proceeding of getting her under way, will wonder at the -confusion my mind was in as the _Lady Violet_ hauled out into the river, -and at my inability therefore to recollect all that passed, I took very -little heed of my father’s leaving the vessel. I stood lost in amazement, -staring about me like a fool, my mouth wide open. I remember noticing the -pier heads gliding past the ship as we warped out stern first; people -standing on the quayside shouting to us, waving hats and handkerchiefs, -some of them weeping; whilst our passengers in groups along the line -of bulwarks responded to these farewells with kissing of hands, broken -cries of “God bless you!” “Good-bye!” and the like. I remember the sharp -shouts of the mate on the forecastle repeating the pilot’s orders, the -half-tipsy chorusing of seamen heaving at the capstan, the figure of a -fellow at the helm revolving the spokes, first one way, then another, the -manœuvring of a little snorting tug to receive the line for the hawser -by which our great ship was to be towed down the river. Nobody took any -notice of me. I stood at the head of one of the poop ladders leaning -against the rail, wondering at the swiftness with which the people on the -pier heads, who continued to gesticulate towards us, were diminished into -dwarf-like proportions. - -Four or five midshipmen hung about the poop, but they seemed too -busy with their thoughts, now that we were in the actual throes of -leave-taking, and had started in earnest upon our long voyage, to favour -me with their glances and grins. - -The river was full of life—of barges and wherries, of dark-winged -colliers, swarming along under full breasts of sail; of Thames steamers -cutting through the sparkling grey waters with knife-like stems; of ships -in tow like ourselves, bound up or down; of huge majestic metal fabrics, -gliding to their homes in the docks after days of thunderous passage -through the great oceans, or floating regally past us on the way to the -distant west or far more distant east. - -I know not how long I had thus stood staring, when a big, -broad-shouldered young fellow, with a face like a prize-fighter’s, yet -of a kindly expression, stepped up to me, and said, in a gruff, deep-sea -note— - -“Well, youngster, and who are you?” - -“I am Master Rockafellar, sir,” I answered. - -“That’s our livery you’ve got on,” said he; “you’re one of the -midshipmen, I suppose?” - -“Yes, sir,” said I; “and are you a midshipman, please?” - -“No,” he answered; “I’m third mate. What’s your name, again?” - -“Master Rockafellar,” said I. - -“Ha!” he exclaimed; “the right sort of name to go to sea with. Every -‘wave,’ as one’s grandmother calls it, would speak of itself as a -‘rock-a-fellow.’” He burst into a mighty laugh, and then said kindly, -“Well, well; I’ve heard of even queerer names than ‘Rockafellar.’ Been -below yet?” - -“No, sir,” said I. - -“Haven’t you seen your bedroom?” - -“No, sir,” I answered again. - -“Well, take my advice,” said he, “and jump below at once, and secure -a bunk, and see that your chest is all right—I suppose you’ve brought -one—or some of those ’tween-deck passengers down there will be borrowing -your mattress and forgetting to return it, and rigging themselves out in -your clothes.” - -“My chest is locked, sir,” said I. - -“And what of that?” he roared. “D’ye think there never was a handspike -aboard a ship since the days of Nelson? Jump below, jump below, I tell -ye!” - -“Please, sir, which is the way?” said I, trembling. - -“Go down those steps,” said he, pointing to the poop ladder, “and just -over against the cuddy front there’s a black hole. Drop down it, for -_that’s_ the way.” - -I at once stepped on to the main-deck, and saw a square aperture, which I -was afterwards informed was called the “booby hatch.” There was a little -crowd of third-class passengers standing round it, looking very wretched -and melancholy, two or three of the women holding babies, who cried -incessantly. - -I looked into the hatch; it seemed very dark beneath, and a close, most -unpleasant, but quite indescribable smell rose up through it—a sort of -atmosphere of onions, yellow soap, fumes of lamp-oil, the whole tinctured -with a peculiar flavour of shipboard. A short flight of perpendicular -steps fell to the bottom. I was too manly to ask my way of the women; so, -perceiving a sailor coiling away a rope upon a pin near the main-shrouds, -I went up to him, and said, “I want my bedroom; d’ye know where it is?” - -He turned his eyes slowly on me, took a somewhat sneering survey of my -buttons, spat a mouthful of tobacco-juice into a scupper-hole, and then -said, whilst he proceeded with his work, “Better ask the capt’n.” - -The sailor was too grumpy and surly a man for a little boy like me to -address a second time; so I made my way to the hatch, and put my leg -over into it, concluding that I should find somebody to tell me where my -bedroom was when I had descended. The ladder was perpendicular, and I was -very slow in stepping down it. - -[Illustration: “HE TURNED HIS EYES SLOWLY UPON ME.”] - -“Now then!” bawled a powerful voice: “up or down; one ways or t’other. -There ain’t too much light here; and who’s bin and made _you_ think -you’re made o’ sheet glass?” - -This remark, I found, was uttered by a seafaring man, one of the sailors -of the ship, I afterwards came to know, who had been told off to help -our handful of emigrants to secure their boxes. I think he was slightly -in liquor; at all events, I grew sensible of a distinct taste of -rum-and-water on the air as I jumped backwards on to the lower deck close -beside him. - -“Where is my bedroom?” said I. - -“No bedrooms at sea, young ’un,” he answered. “What callin’s yourn? Are -’ee a sailor man? My precious eyes! there’s buttons! See here, my lively: -when the shanks of them buttons is worn off, I’ll give ye the value of a -fardenswuth of silver spoons for the whole boiling of ’em.” - -“I promised my father not to sell my clothes,” I answered, with dignity. -“Where’s my bedroom, I say?” - -“Why, _there_,” said he, pointing with a tar-stained stump of forefinger -into the dusk. “Shut your eyes and walk straight, and your nose’ll steer -ye the right course, I lay.” - -I spied a door to the right some little distance abaft the part of the -deck that was pierced by the great mainmast, and making for it, entered, -and found myself in a long narrow cabin fitted on either hand with a -double row of bunks, or sleeping-shelves, and lighted by three little -round portholes, called “scuttles.” Bright as the day was outside, in -this cabin it was no better than twilight, and I hung for some moments in -the doorway, scarcely able to distinguish objects. - -When presently I could fairly use my sight I took notice of a thin slip -of a table, penetrated by stanchions, up or down which it could be made -to travel as space happened to be wanted. At the aftermost extremity -athwart this interior were two or three shelves containing tin dishes, -pannikins, coarse black-handled knives and forks, jars of pickles, red -tins of preserved potatoes, and other such commodities: the produce, as I -afterwards heard, of the amount which each midshipman had to subscribe in -a sum of ten guineas to what was called “the mess”—and a mess it was! - -Under these shelves stood a cask of flour, and another of exceedingly -moist sugar, and an immense jar of vinegar. Here and there against the -bulkhead partitions between the bunks hung a sou’wester or a coat of -oilskin; whilst under the lower tier of bunks you caught a glimpse of the -soles and heels of sea boots and shoes, with a thin canvas bag, perhaps, -like a man’s leg. In most of the bunks lay a heap of rude bedding, -roughly-made mattresses, and stout blankets. - -Immediately facing the door there was stretched, in one of the upper -sleeping-shelves, a young red-faced youth. He was in his shirt and -trousers, and was smoking a short sooty clay pipe. He eyed me out of a -pair of little black eyes, which winked drowsily on either side of his -immense nose, the polished point of which caught the ruddy glow of his -pipe-bowl as he sucked at it, and shone over the edge of his bunk as -though it were a glowworm. There was nobody else in the cabin but this -youth. - -[Illustration: “‘IS THIS A BEDROOM?’ SAID I.”] - -“Is this a bedroom?” said I. - -He expelled several mouthfuls of smoke before answering, and then -exclaimed, “Yeth.” - -“Am I to sleep here, do you know?” said I. - -“Can’t thay,” said he, lazily. “If you’re a midthipman, you do; if -you aint, you’ll be kicked out.” Saying which, he closed his eyes, and -refused to answer other questions, though, by his continuing to smoke, I -knew he had not fallen asleep. - -I entered the cabin, and after peering a bit into the bunks, saw my -bedding in one of the two sleeping-places which ran athwartships. At -this point my memory grows misty again. I have some dim recollection -of attempting to make my bed, of hunting about for the sheets—not then -knowing that sailors do not use sheets at sea—of moodily getting into the -bunk, and wishing that I was at home again; of stretching myself, after a -little, and falling asleep; of being awakened by a hubbub of voices, and -discovering that the berth was full of midshipmen—nine “young gentlemen” -in all, including myself—who were sitting round the table, using the edge -of their bunks for chairs, and drinking tea out of pannikins, and hacking -at a lump of cold roast meat. - -This, I say, I recollect; also that I was invited by the third mate, who -sat on a cask at the head of the table, to arise and join the others, -and drink tea with them, which I did; that the handsome young fellow -whom my father had spoken to on the poop began with a grave face to ask -me questions intended to raise a laugh at my expense, and that he was -abruptly silenced by the third mate (whose name was Cock), who said to -him, “See here, my lad: this is your second voyage, and you are giving -yourself airs on the strength of it. Now, what are your talents as a -sailor? Could you put a ship about? Could you send a yard down? Could you -take a star? D’ye know anything about stowing a hold? See here, my heart -of oak!—until you’ve got some knowledge of your calling, don’t you go -and try and make a fool of a lad who comes fresh to it. Everybody’s got -to begin, and so I tell you; and if before six months of shipboard this -young Master Rockafellar hasn’t more seamanship in any one of his fingers -than you’ve got in all your body, though this _is_ your second year at -sea, then you shall call me a Chinaman, without risk of earning a kick -for the compliment.” - -The lad blushed to the roots of his hair, and looked subdued. He was a -great powerful man was this third mate, and I seemed to feel with the -instincts of a boy that no sort of bullying or mean sneaking tyranny was -likely to be attempted so long as he made one of our company. - -The tea was very strong, and the bottom of my pannikin was full of black -leaves. The liquor had a flavour of old twigs and stale molasses; the -beef was so hard that I could scarcely make my teeth meet in it, yet it -was fresh, and it was not long before the salt food upon which we had to -live made me think yearningly of it as a delicacy—as something for even a -bite of which I would have gladly “swapped” a shirt. - -All this while the ship was being towed down the river. I was still in -the midshipman’s cabin when there was a great noise on deck—voices of men -shouting, sounds of feet running hastily—and on looking through one of -the portholes I saw the houses of a town just abreast, and noticed that -they moved slowly, and yet more slowly, until they came to a dead halt. -We had come to a mooring-buoy, for the night, off Gravesend; but one of -the midshipmen told me that we should be underway again long before this -side of the world was awake; by which he meant that the tug would take us -in tow at daybreak. - -It was dark by this time. A boy who acted as our servant lighted a lamp -that was shaped like a coffee-pot, with the end of the wick coming out of -the spout. By this weak and fitful light the scene of the berth looked -very strange to my young, inexperienced eyes. All the midshipmen were -below, some smoking, some cutting up pipefuls from squares of black -tobacco, jabbering loudly about the pleasures they had taken during -three months ashore. The language was not of the choicest, and my young -ears were frequently startled by terms and expressions which I had never -before heard. The third mate sat with his legs over the edge of his bunk -listening grimly. - -“Well, young gentlemen,” he presently roared out, “three of you are -new to this ship this voyage, but there are six of you who sailed in -her last year, and when those six went ashore they were a deal more -gentlemanly and careful in their language than I now find ’em. Where, -pray, did you pick up these fine words? Not in your homes, I’ll warrant. -Now hearken to me, mates; you’re not going to make the better sailors for -employing language which you wouldn’t tolerate in the mouth of any man, -speaking in the presence of your mothers and sisters. You’re in my charge -understand, and since you come to me as young gentlemen, young gentlemen -you shall be; so stand by and mind your words!” saying which he looked -at them one after the other, directing an emphatic nod at each of the -lads as he stared. After this I heard no more bad words, and if I except -a slip or two, I may truthfully say that when the voyage had fairly -commenced, and the lads had come well under the influence of Mr. Cock, -there never was afloat a better spoken body of youths than those which -occupied the midshipmen’s berth aboard the _Lady Violet_. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -_HE SAILS FROM GRAVESEND._ - - -The ship lay motionless as a rock on the smooth water off Gravesend; -nevertheless, owing to the strong fumes of the tobacco, probably coupled -with the close atmosphere of the berth, and its warm flavouring of lamp -oil, water-proof clothes, pickled onions, and black tea, I felt somewhat -sick and crept quietly out of the cabin, trusting that the fresh air -on deck might revive me. Just outside our berth, in the open space of -’tween-decks, which was entered from above by means of the booby-hatch, -were the emigrants’ quarters. We carried about thirty of these poor -people, and here they now were all of a jumble, using mine as well as the -chests of the other midshipmen for seats and tables, the women talking -vehemently, some of them still crying, here and there a man smoking in -a sullen posture, others sitting over greasy packs of cards, whilst a -few children played at hide-and-seek in and out of the sleeping-places, -and amongst the emigrant’s bundles; three or four quite young babies -meanwhile setting the whole picture to music with shrill, melancholy -cries. A single lamp of the same pattern as ours illuminated this grimy -grotesque scene. - -[Illustration: A SCENE IN THE EMIGRANTS’ QUARTERS.] - -I pushed my way on deck, but on my arrival found that it was raining -hard, which accounted for the emigrants being crowded below. There was -shelter to be had under the break of the poop, as the ledge of deck -is called that overhangs the entrance to the cuddy; and there I stood -awhile, gazing along the dark length of gleaming, streaming deck that -was deserted, and listening to the complaining of the wind, amid the -stirless shadow of the spars and rigging on high, or watching the damp -and dusky winking of the lamps ashore, or of the lights of ships at -anchor round about us. Ah! thought I, this is not so comfortable as being -in my father’s snug parlour at home, with a sweet and airy bedroom all to -myself to pass the night in, and a kind mother at the fresh and fragrant -breakfast table next morning to help me to a plateful of eggs and bacon, -and a cup of fine aromatic coffee and cream! Maybe I shed a tear or two; -I was but a little boy fresh from home, and amidst a great strange scene, -with the darkness and the sobbing of the rain and the deserted deck, and -the cold noise of the running waters of the river washing along the -ship’s side to bitterly increase the sense of loneliness in my childish -heart. - -It was not long before I went below. Most of the midshipmen were turned -in, that is to say, they were lying down in their clothes and shoes with -nothing but their jackets removed. I thought I could not do better than -follow their example and how wearied I was I could not have imagined till -I put my head down upon the bolster at the end of my bunk, when I almost -instantly fell asleep. - -Being a very green, raw, quite young hand, I could be of no use on deck -for the present, and it was for this reason, I suppose, they let me sleep -in the morning, for when I woke I was the only midshipman in the cabin. -There was a queer noise of scraping overhead, sounds as of the flinging -down of coils of rope, the noises of water being swooshed along the -planks; and the sunlight that shone through the portholes was tremulous -with the play of glittering, moving waters. I went on deck and found the -ship in tow of the tug, with the land a long way past Gravesend gliding -astern, and the river so wide that over the bows it looked like the -ocean. There were jibs and staysails hoisted, and the ship appeared to -be sailing along. It was a fresh, windy morning; there were great white -clouds rolling from off the distant land over our mast-heads, and the -dark brown smoke of the tug ahead fled in a wild scattering low down -upon the waters. The decks were being “washed down” as it is called at -sea; sailors on legs naked to the knees were scrubbing and pounding away -with brushes, buckets of water were being emptied over the planks, and a -sturdy mariner with a whistle round his neck and great whiskers standing -out from his cheeks, went about amongst the seamen, directing them in -a voice that sounded like a roll of thunder. He was the boatswain. -I was not a little surprised to find the midshipmen with scrubbing -brushes in their hands washing down the poop. I mounted the ladder and -stood a moment looking on. One of them worked a pump just before the -mizzen-mast, whilst another filled buckets at it, the third mate threw -the water about, and the middies plied their brooms with the energy of a -crossing-sweeper. The youth with a great nose who spoke with a lisp was -polishing the brass-rail that ran athwartship in front of the poop. A -man in a long coat and a tall rusty hat paced the deck alone. His face -might have been carved out of a large piece of mottled soap. I afterwards -found out that he was the pilot. There was another man standing near the -wheel. He had a ginger-coloured beard that forked out from under his -chin, pleasant dark-blue eyes and a copper-coloured face. It was not long -before I discovered that he was Mr. Johnson, the chief officer. He came -along in a pleasant way to where I stood staring. - -“How is it you’re not at work, youngster?” said he. - -“I’ve just woke up,” said I. - -“Look here,” said he, “if you don’t call me sir, I shall have to call -_you_ sir, and I am sure it’s easier for you to say it than for me. Pull -your boots and stockings off like a man, put them in that coil of rope -there upon the hencoop, tuck your trousers up, lay hold of that scrubbing -brush yonder and see what sort of job you’re going to make at whitening -these decks.” - -In a minute I was scrubbing with the rest of them, and it made me feel as -if I was on the Margate sands to be trotting about with bare feet, with -the salt brine sparkling and flashing about my ankles. - -My memory at this point grows dim again, for I was rapidly approaching -the unpleasant experience of sea-sickness. I recollect that I helped to -dry the decks with a swab that was so heavy I could scarcely flourish -it, and that I was shown by the third mate how to coil away a rope over -a pin, also that I dragged with the others upon some gear which caused a -staysail between the mainmast and the mizzen-mast to ascend; I then went -below to breakfast, at which there was served up a dish of hissing brown -steaks, each of them wide enough to have served as a garment for my young -ribs. But by this time something of the weight of the wide sea beyond was -in the river, the ship was faintly pitching, much too faintly perhaps to -be taken notice of by anything but a delicate young stomach like mine. -I felt that I was pale, and the sight of the heap of great brown steaks -floating handsomely in grease, which took a caking of white, even as -the eye watched, added not a little to the uncomfortable sensation that -possessed me. The others plunged their knives and forks into the layers -of meat and ate with avidity; but for my part I could only look on. - -“Take and turn in, my lad,” said the third mate kindly; “it’s bound to -occupy you a day or two to get rid of your longshore swash, and then -we’ll be having you jockeying the weather mizzen-topsail yard-arm, and -bawling ‘haul out to leeward’ in a voice loud enough to be heard at -Blackwall.” - -I was glad to take his advice, and was presently at my length in the -bunk, too ill to speak, yet with a glimmering enough of mind in me to -bitterly deplore that I had not heeded my mother’s counsel and remained -at home. - -The wind hardened as the river widened, and much dismal creaking and -groaning rose out of the hold and sides, the bulkheads, strong fastenings -and freight of the lofty fabric as she went rolling stately in the wake -of the tug that was thrashing through the hard green Channel ridges in -a smother of foam. The wind was south-east, I heard some of our fellows -say, with a lot of loose black scud flying along the marble face of -the sky, and a gloomy thickness to windward, that was promise of tough -weather, ere we should have settled the South Foreland well down upon the -quarter. One of the lads said that if the wind headed us yet more, we -should bring up in the Downs, and lie there till it blew a fair breeze, -which might signify a fortnight’s waiting. - -“If so,” says he, “I shall put on a clean shirt and go straight ashore, -then button my ears behind me, and never stop running till I get to -London town; for twenty miles of salt water’s enough for me; and here -we are bound away for six thousand leagues of it, with all the way back -again on top!” - -In this fashion the lads would talk as they came below from the deck, and -sick as I was I managed to heed enough of their conversation to pick up -what was going forward. I cannot express how I envied their freedom from -sea-sickness. Some were making their third voyage, others their second. -I was the only “first-voyager” as they call it. It sometimes rained on -deck, and the fellows would come below gleaming in oilskins, the sight -of which made me feel pitifully girlish, insomuch that on three several -occasions I made a desperate effort to get up and act my part of a sailor -as they did theirs; but the oppression of nausea was too violent, and -down I lay again, saving the third time when, contriving to feel my feet, -the ship at the instant gave a lurch which sent me headlong into one of -the fore and aft bunks where I lay half stunned, and so miserably sick -that the third mate had to lift me in his arms to enable me to return to -my own bed. - -Sea-nausea is at all times distressing, and I do not know that one is -easier for suffering in a fine saloon, with looking-glasses and flowers -and the electric-light, and the fresh breezes of heaven blowing through -the open skylights to keep the place sweet. But if this _mal de mer_, as -the French call it, is more unendurable in one interior than in another -it must be so I think in a midshipmen’s berth—at least such a berth as -ours was:—Twelve sleeping shelves and nine lads to sleep in them, with a -huge giant of a third mate to fill the tenth; a sort of twilight draining -in through the three scuttles, the immensely thick glass of which was -often eclipsed by the roaring wash of a green sea sweeping along the -sides; a lamp burning night and day, from whose untrimmed flame there -arose to the ceiling of the cabin a pestilential coil of smoke. - -In these narrow gloomy quarters we lived and moved, and had our being. -Here we ate our meals, here we slept, here we washed ourselves, here -the youngsters smoked. Hardest part of all were the confusing noises -made by the emigrants just outside our berth. Unlashed chests slided to -and fro; children were incessantly falling down and squealing; many -heart-disturbing lamentations arose from such of the poor wretches as -lay sick and helpless in their dark bulkheaded compartments. They had to -fetch their meals from the galley, and not yet having acquired the art of -walking on a tumbling deck, those who had to bring the rations of beef -or pork along, would repeatedly come with a run through the booby-hatch, -and lie at the bottom of the ladder badly scalded in a little lake of -pease-soup, or with the beef rolling away among the chests, whilst the -air resounded with execrations, scarcely stifled by the complaining -sounds of the ship’s fabric. - -The third mate was very kind to me; told me there was no hurry; I was -welcome to lie in my bunk till I felt equal to coming on deck. - -“I was sick for a fortnight when I first went to sea,” I heard him say. -“I was one of four apprentices. Those shipmates of mine were brutes, and -the very first night we were out they hauled me from my hammock and ran -me to the mizzen shrouds, up which they forced me to go, saying that -the topgallant sail would be clewing up shortly, and I must be in the -cross-trees in readiness to help furl it. A ratline carried away, and -I fell through the rigging on to the deck. I broke no bones, but I lay -senseless, which so terrified the young bullies that when I was taken -to my hammock they never more offered to trouble me. I was ill for a -fortnight, I say, and the memory of it makes me sorry for every youngster -when he first comes to the life and is sea-sick.” - -However, on the morning of the third day from our quitting Gravesend, -though I was still very ill, I could stand no longer the miseries of my -confinement to the cabin. Since I was bound to suffer, I thought it was -better to feel wretched in the open air than amid the smells and noise -and gloom of the midshipmen’s berth. - -[Illustration: “I FELL THROUGH THE RIGGING.”] - -It was the forenoon watch, as the hours from eight to twelve are called. -The fellows who had been on deck since four o’clock had come below at -eight bells, and after breakfasting had turned in to smoke a pipe and -then get some sleep. They were in the port or chief mate’s watch, to -which division of the ship’s company I was supposed to belong, though I -don’t remember how I came to know this. We were still in “soundings” as -it is termed—that is to say, not yet out of the Channel, though we were a -long way down it. - -On this morning there was a strong sea running on the bow, but not so -much wind as the motion of the ship would have led one to suppose. The -mids, when they came below, had told the others who were to relieve them -that the vessel was under all plain sail saving the flying jib and fore -and mizzen royals, and that the “old man” as they termed the captain, -was driving her; that they had heard the mate say that he expected it -would be an “all hands” job before four bells had gone—ten o’clock. I -caught all this, scarce comprehending it, and lay drowsily and stupidly -watching the lads get their breakfast and then vault into their bunks -with all their clothes on—“all standing” as the sea saying is—ready to -rush on deck to the first summons. The ship was lying over at a sharp -angle, and there was a great roaring and seething along her sides of -swollen waters smitten into yeast, and the cabin portholes came and went -like the winking of eyes to the shrouding of the glass by the liftings -and leapings of the green billows. Presently there were certain sounds on -deck which unmistakably denoted that sail was being shortened. - -“It’s ‘in main royal’ now, I suppose,” said one of the middies, sleepily, -“and about time too. What’s the hurry all this side of Sydney, New South -Wales?” - -Presently more hoarse songs resounded on deck, along with the echo of -tramping feet and of rigging dropped hastily from the hand. - -“Old man’th growing alarmed, I reckon!” exclaimed the lisping long-nosed -midshipman, whose name was Kennet. “Oh, how I do with,” he cried, -feigning to speak in a voice as though he wept, “that I had thtoptht at -home to bottle vinegar for my poor deah mamma. Eh, Rockafellar? Better -to bottle vinegar athore, my beauty, than to lie thick and hungry in a -nathty cabin.” - -As he spoke, the third mate’s voice was to be heard ringing like the roar -of a bull down through the booby-hatch—“All hands reef topsails! Up you -come, all you young gentlemen bee-low there! Lively, now! before the ship -falls overboard!” - -The youngsters sprang from their bunks, and were out of the cabin in a -breath. Then it was that I made up my mind to linger no longer sea-sick -in this dismal, straining cabin. I pulled on my shoes, plunged into my -jacket, and, setting my cap firmly upon my head, went clawing my way to -the steps of the hatch, up which I staggered, feeling exceedingly ill and -weak, but determined now to push on even to perishing sooner than suffer -in darkness and loneliness below. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -_HE GOES ALOFT._ - - -Talk of the confusion of hauling the ship out of dock! Here was uproar -thrice confounded with a vengeance! The ship seemed to be almost on her -beam ends; there was an ugly livid squall over the trucks and howling -through the masts; they had put the helm up to ease off the weight -of the first outfly, and the _Lady Violet_ was thrashing and foaming -through it with the spume blowing in snow-storms over her forecastle; -all three topsail yards were on the caps, and the huge sails—for we -carried single topsails—were blowing out like giant bladders in the grip -of their gear. The outer jib was slatting on the jibboom; the clewed-up -main topgallant-sail was making its mast up there whip to and fro like -the end of an angler’s rod; the immense mainsail was thundering at its -clews and sides and slowly rose to the yard to the drag of the sailors, -who were roaring out at the ropes which belonged to it; the captain, -standing near the wheel, was shouting out orders to the mate; the mate -was bellowing to the second mate, who was forward; the second mate was -vociferating to the boatswain; in all directions gangs of sailors were -delivering their working choruses at the top of their lungs. The wind -shrieked, the rain hissed through it like volleys of small shot; the -shaking of the loose canvas on high might have passed for the discharge -of the batteries of a frigate; the foam flew over the ship; the water -washed in angry sobs along the scuppers. Preserve us! - -To such a greenhorn as I was then, very young, very sick, with -consternation and astonishment working in me like a passion, there was -distraction and uproar enough here to have justified me in concluding -that the end of all things was at hand. - -In a few moments I found myself on the poop where the midshipmen were -hard at work with the reef tackle and other gear preparing the mizzen -topsail for reefing, snugging the spanker, and so forth. Their station -was aft, and their duty lay in attending to all the sails on the -mizzen-mast under the charge of the third mate. He was swinging off upon -a rope, when he caught sight of me. - -“Come along! come along!” he roared. “All the beef we can get is wanted -here!” - -I went in a staggering run to where the group were pulling and laid hold -of the rope. - -“Belay!” shouted the third mate, and sprang into the weather mizzen -rigging, whither he was followed by the rest of the midshipmen. For a -moment I hung in the wind, sending one thirsty, dizzy look aloft. “Well, -now or never!” thought I; and with that I got on to the hencoop, swung -myself into the rigging, and began the ascent. - -[Illustration: “I SEEMED TO BE PINNED TO THE RATLINES.”] - -The wind came so hard that I seemed to be pinned to the ratlines, and -I felt as though all the breath were blown out of my body. I sent a -yearning look up, and saw the third mate on the weather mizzen-top-sail -yard-arm, striding the spar as though it were a horse, his muscular legs -dangling between the dark heavens and the wool-white water. The lads were -sliding out upon the foot-ropes, some to windward, some to leeward. I -tried to make haste, but the sweep of the blast reduced my struggles to -a mere crawling. It took me a full five minutes to reach to the height -of the futtock shrouds—thin bars of iron which stretch at a sharp angle -from the masts to the rim of the platform called “the top.” I took these -irons in my little hands, but lacked the courage to swing myself by them -over into the top. How on earth, then, was I to gain the yard upon which -the midshipmen were working? Through the irons I spied a hole in the -platform, and with great trouble and a deal of trembling I contrived to -squeeze through it, and then I found myself on a sort of stage with the -ship looking as if she were a mile below me, and the mizzen-royal yard as -if it were two miles above me. - -The wind screamed frantically in my ears, yet not so loudly but that -I could hear my small heart thumping in them. I clutched a rope, and -stood staring wildly at the yard on which my shipmates were knotting the -reef-points. I thought Mr. Cock a much more wonderful man than Blondin or -any tight-rope walker that ever I had heard of, to be able to sit upon -that rocking point of spar without tumbling off, and to be passing the -earing as coolly as if he were tying his shoes. - -“Stop where you are!” he bawled to me; “we’ll endeavour to manage without -you this once.” - -The sea looked five times bigger than ever I had before seen it. The -worst of the squall was over, and past the edge of the flying gloom -to windward there was a sort of faintness in the sky, with curls and -wisps of scud blowing up it out of the hard green of the distant water -that looked calm, so far away it was; and right out in the midst of -the distant ocean, over which the dim light of the sky was breaking, I -saw a ship, like a toy, vanishing and reappearing amongst the surges, -flinging the foam away from her in bursts of steam-light cloud; and so -little did she look with her three milk-white bands of topsails and -marble-like round of foresail, that whilst my eye dwelt upon her, I could -scarce persuade myself that she was real: rather, indeed, some craft -of fairy-land, which a great strong fellow, such a man as Mr. Cock for -instance, might be able to hold in the hollow of his hand. - -I was at no great height, yet the captain looked an insignificant little -creature as he stood at the rail sending his gaze aloft; the man at the -wheel resembled one of those dolls which you purchase as sailors for your -model boat, and the decks of the ship from poop to forecastle showed -like a long wet plank. It was wonderful to think so narrow a base should -support the tall, wide-spreading fabric of mast, yard, and gear that was -now somewhat nakedly shearing through the dusk of the squall, to the -plunging and long floating rushes of the hull over whose side a sea would -now and again fling a head of water that swept with the sparkle of a -fountain clear into the milk-white race to leeward. - -“Two reefs, Mr. Cock!” bawled the mate from the foremost end of the poop. - -I watched the lads swinging in a row upon the foot-ropes, tossing up -their heels as they brought the reef-points upon the yard, and wondered -how long it would take me to learn their trick of working aloft, as -coolly as though they toiled with the solid earth under them. All three -topsails were being reefed at the same time. I could not see forward, but -I could hear the voices of the men chorusing as they, lighted, the sails -over. Evidently the captain expected dirty weather; and, to be sure, out -abeam it looked ugly enough, with a kind of rusty light growing in the -atmosphere that threw a malevolent complexion of storm upon the sky. - -Presently the last knot had been tied in the mizzen topsail, and the -midshipmen were in the act of descending. - -“Jump aloft two of you and secure that t’gallants’l before it blows -adrift!” roared the captain. - -A couple of the mids sprang into the topmast rigging, and in a few -moments were giving battle to the sail, that, even as the captain called, -began to flog upon the yard. - -Well, thought I, as I stood staring up at them, some day I dare say I -shall be able to do that too; but I declare the possibility seemed mighty -remote from me just then. Indeed, once again I was beginning to feel -horribly sea-sick. The higher you mount above the hull of a ship, the -wilder of course grows the rolling, and the mizzen-top in which I stood -seemed to me to swing through the air a score of times more furiously -than the decks below were swaying. It increased my nausea moreover to -look up and see the two youngsters dizzily whirling under the dark sky, -plunging and hauling at the thrashing sail, as though the hold they had -with their boots was enough to save their lives if they fell backwards. - -But now the others were swarming into the top, and swinging themselves -over into the lower rigging, and dancing down the shrouds till, taut as -those huge ropes were, they leapt again. - -“Come along! come along!” bawled the third mate, as he plumped like a -cannon ball alongside of me, and with a sinewy arm poised himself an -instant before putting his foot on the futtock ratlines: “There’s nothing -good enough to look at up here, to keep you staring open mouth as though -you were a newly landed cod. Lay down smartly now, youngster, and tail on -to the topsail halliards.” - -His prize-fighter’s face vanished over the rim of the top. - -“_Lay down!_” thought I, “what does he mean?” and I went nervously to the -edge of the platform to ask him to explain himself, but saw that he was -already on deck. - -“Mizzen-top there!” cried the captain, “Lay down, will you?” - -There can be no mistake about _that_, thought I. I am not deaf. Twice I -had been told to _lay down_; and with that I stretched myself along on my -back, taking care however to keep a hearty good hold of some ropes which -passed through the top within reach of my grasp. - -“Mizzen-top there!” after a little came a roaring hail from the mate; -“what are you about up there, sir? Do you mean to lay down or not?” - -On hearing this, I crept on my knees to the rim of the top, and looking -over, cried out in the shrill voice of my childhood, “Please, sir, I _am_ -lying down.” - -The captain was staring up at me, but on hearing this, he turned his back -with a shake of his figure. - -“Come down, Master Rockafellar,” sung out the mate in a voice full of -laughter. - -When I heard this I crawled over to another edge of the top where I could -see him, and piped out, “The captain said I was to _lay_ down, sir.” - -[Illustration: “‘PLEASE, SIR, I _AM_ LYING DOWN.’”] - -It was wonderful that my thin voice should have carried in such a wind, -yet I was heard plainly enough. Then arose a shout of laughter from the -midshipmen; the mate called something to Mr. Cock, who in a trice came -bundling up the mizzen rigging, and flounded with a crimson face into the -top. - -“Why you young guinea pig, why don’t you obey orders?” he bawled; “to -_lay down_ at sea means to _come_ down, and you _know_ it too; I see it -in your eye! Over with’ee, over with’ee.” - -His large nervous fist closed upon the collar of my jacket, and I found -myself lifted over the rim at the top. - -“Catch hold of the futtock shrouds!” he roared, “those iron bars, d’ye -hear?—quick, before I let you go!” - -I gripped at something, but whether it was iron or rope I was too -horrified to know. He let go, and my legs swung out into the air. But -green-horns cling too tightly to be in much danger on such occasions as -this. A heave of the ship swung me in again, my toes struck something -hard, and with the swiftness of a monkey I coiled my little shanks round -it. Down I slid, breathless, and with the eyes half out of my head, and -was not a little astonished and rejoiced to find my foot upon a ratline -in the mizzen rigging, whence the descent was as easy as walking the deck. - -“That’s your lesson,” exclaimed the third mate as he jogged down the -rigging past me. “You’ll never shirk the futtock shrouds again, will -you?” - -But I had no breath with which to answer him. It was a rough lesson, but -it did me good. It made me see that climbing and descending were no such -terrifying processes as they looked. Possibly I might not have got so -much confidence out of this adventure had I known that the third mate had -only pretended to let go; that in reality he was maintaining his hold of -my collar after my legs had swung out, though I was too much terrified to -be sensible of this. - -I have always considered that the alarm of this little business cured me -of sea-sickness. Whilst in the top, as I have told you, the nausea was -over-poweringly strong upon me; but when I had come down I was no longer -sensible of it, and from that moment, indeed, I never had a return of it. -There can be no doubt that this distressing malady lies mainly in the -nerves, and the fright I had received by being hung out over the top, so -to speak, had acted upon me as an electric shock, healing and ending the -prostrating complaint. - -It blew a gale of wind for three days. I don’t doubt I should have -heard a deal about my adventure aloft from the midshipmen but for the -weather. The wet on deck and the discomforts below were too much for the -youngsters’ spirits, and until the sun shone forth again we were a very -sulky lot. The ship was miserably uncomfortable. It rained incessantly, -with such a continuous blowing of spray over us, that it was sometimes -above one’s ankles on the main deck. There were tarpaulins over the -hatchways, and the ’tween-decks were as dark as the hold. There had -been no time yet for the passengers to grow seasoned to the sea life; -most of those in the “cuddy,” as the saloon was then called, kept their -cabins. Now and again one of them at long intervals crawled into the -companion-hatch, where he exhibited a face white as a spectre’s. - -But the chief of the misery was amongst the emigrants. Boxes and chests -were incessantly breaking loose, and menacing their lives as the poor -creatures sat huddled in sea-sick groups under the booby-hatch, for the -sake of the dim light that sifted down through it. There were times -when the galley fire was washed out, and the emigrants had to content -themselves with biscuit and molasses and cold water, and small doses of -that nauseous food called “soup and boulli,” nick-named by the sailors -_soap and bullion_. I have seen a little family of them squatting round -a sea-chest belonging to one of us midshipmen, an old towel for a -table-cloth, and on it a tin dish or two containing hard ship’s biscuit, -a mess of soup and boulli, a lump of pork fat, probably two or three -days’ old, along with other such cold and throttling fare as the ship’s -third-class larder yielded; and while they were attempting to make a meal -off this trough-like collection of victuals, I have seen the chest slip -away from them, the food tumble on to the deck, and the whole family -capsized on their backs. - -I do not know that the emigrant in these days is a person very carefully -and hospitably looked after at sea; but in my time the treatment he met -with on shipboard—that is to say, the utter indifference to his comfort -exhibited by owners and captains—rendered him the most miserable wretch -afloat. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -_HE SIGHTS A SHIP._ - - -These three days of storm brought me into a tolerably close acquaintance -with some of the hardships of the sailor’s life. Our cabin did not leak, -yet somehow or other the deck of it was always damp, with a noise as of -the bubbling of water under the bunks. The scuttles were incessantly -under water, and all the light we had was imparted by the dingy flare of -our malodorous coffee-pot-shaped lamp. - -The food was perhaps the hardest part to my young stomach. Every -midshipman’s father had been called upon to pay ten guineas mess money; -yet I do not know that this ninety guineas obtained any stores for us, -if it were not a cask or two of flour, a cask of sugar, a few dozens of -pickles, and some cases of “preserved spuds,” as potatoes are called -at sea. We were therefore thrown upon the ship’s stores, and fed as -the sailors forward did. This I say was the hardest part to me, since, -though my sickness had passed, my appetite had not recovered its old -strength, and for a long time I was never hungry enough to eat with the -least relish the greenish masses of salt pork, and the iron-hearted -rounds and squares and cubes of salt horse, and the pans of lukewarm -slush-flavoured water, at the bottom of which rolled a handful of peas, -as digestible as musket-balls, and the dark-skinned puddings, compounded -of the coarsest flour and the skimmings of the greasy water of the cook’s -copper, which the lad who waited upon us would come staggering with from -the galley, and place upon the narrow slip of table, scarce visible in -our twilight. - -I believe I should have starved but for the biscuit, which was crisp and -good, though Kennet, the long-nosed midshipman, endeavoured to cheer me -by saying— - -“Thtoph a bit, Rockafellah—wait till we’re a fortnight out, and then -ththand by! They’ll be broaching the regular provithionth then, and -if there don’t go a thcore of wormth to every chap’th bithcuith I’m a -lobthter.” - -The crying of children outside, the growling of men, and the shrill -complaining of women combined with the crazy creaking and groaning of the -fabric, so that it was very hard to get any sleep. - -It was on the night of the day of my adventure in the mizzen-top that -I stood my first watch. It was eight o’clock in the evening, and the -moment after the last of the chimes of the bell on deck had been swept -away by the gale, the four midshipmen who were in the starboard, or -second mate’s watch, came bundling below. Their oilskins were streaming -wet, and they blew upon their fingers’-ends as they entered the berth. - -“Still raining, is it?” asked a fellow named Poole. - -“Ay, murderously,” was the answer; “but the wind’s quartering us, and -you’ll be making sail, I allow, before we turn out.” - -“What’s been doing?” - -“Nothing. But talk of the Bay of Biscay! Why, the Straits of Magellan -might be close aboard. That’s right, my sweet and lively hearty! On with -your boots, my noble fellow! One, two, buckle my shoe; three, four, open -the door; five, six, cut all your sticks!” - -And the youth who had thus spoken, and whose closing observations were -levelled at me, thrust a short black length of clay pipe into the flame -of the lamp, and sprang into his bed to refresh himself with a smoke -before going to sleep. - -I got into my sea-boots, which were very new and creaked noisily, wrapped -my body in an oiled coat, wedged a sou’wester securely upon my little -head, and followed the others on deck. The night seemed very black -after the lamplight, dim as _it_ was, in the cabin. It was the darker -at that moment for a heavy squall of rain that was blowing with a note -of shrieking in it over the bulwark rail, and splitting in shouts and -whistlings through the masts and rigging. I clambered on to the poop, -and stood holding on to the brass rail staring about me in a blind way, -for there was a deal to daze a raw-head like me coming new to the scene, -I assure you. The ship was tearing through the water under three-reefed -topsails and foresail. She made a great swirling and roaring of white -water all round her, and the snow of it put an illumination into the -black air till you seemed able to see a mile away. There was a high sea -running, but it had quartered us along with the wind, and the _Lady -Violet_ sank and rose very nobly and easily upon the long black seething -coils of brine which chased her thundering to her counter, and expiring -there in foam. - -The other midshipmen hung about the quarter-deck, under the shelter of -the break of the poop. Now and again they showed themselves, but at long -intervals. The shadowy figure of the chief mate paced the weather-deck. -Through the glass of the skylights I could see the people sitting in the -cuddy below. Some played at chess or cards; others lolled in a sickly -posture upon sofas; the captain, with his face burnished by weather, -conversed with two ladies; a small chart lay before him, and he was -explaining something to them, running his forefinger over the paper, and -smiling into their puzzled faces. It was more like a fancy than a reality -to witness that shining interior set in the black frame of the night—that -handsome cuddy, with its soft carpets, its brilliant lamps, its gleaming -swinging trays, its globes of gold fish, its ferns and richly-painted -panels, in which the lustre of the oil flames rippled; the whole showing, -as it were, like a picture flung by some magic-lantern upon an atmosphere -of sooty blackness. - -I crept aft, and stood looking a little while at the man that steered. -The light in the binnacle touched his face and figure, and threw him -into relief. His sou’wester came low over his brow, and the rest of -him, saving a knob of a nose and a pair of cheeks compounded of warts, -freckles, and wrinkles, was formed of an oilskin coat, oiled leggings, -and huge sea-boots. He grasped the wheel with hands of iron, often -bending a reddish glittering eye upon the compass-card that swung in -the bowl, and I watched him thrusting the spokes first a little way up -and then a little way down, and wondered why he did not keep the wheel -steady. But I did not like to speak to him, for what little of his face -was visible looked very sour; and then, again, I was certain that he must -be in a bad temper, through having to stand exposed to the lashing wet -and strong cold wind of the night. - -I went to the taffrail, and looked down over the stern of the ship at -the frothing cataract of water that boiled out from round about her -rudder, and streamed away pale and paler yet into the darkness, where I -could see the dim line of it rising and falling upon the black surges. -It resembled a footpath passing over a hilly country. The ocean looked a -dreadfully desolate immense surface in that darkness, wider than the sky, -it seemed to me, for the reason of the fancy of prodigious measureless -distance coming to one out of the obscurity that lay in ink upon it, with -the fitful flashings of the heads of seas showing in the heart of the -murkiness. I shuddered as I thought how cold a death drowning must be. I -shuddered again at the imagination of being alone in an open boat upon -the vast surface of weltering gloom. I recalled what I had read of the -sufferings of shipwrecked people, of fire at sea, of leaks which gained -upon the pumps and sunk the vessel deeper and deeper, of sudden fierce -storms which tore the masts out of ships, and left them helpless as logs -of wood to slowly drown. - -[Illustration: “‘WHAT D’YE SEE, MY LAD?’ SAID HE.”] - -Whilst my little brains were thus busy, my eye was taken by what appeared -to be a sort of smudge far away astern in the windy shadow of the night. -If I looked straight at it, it vanished, but on gazing a little away from -it I could see it very clearly. I continued to peer for some time, and -was quite sure that the blotch—whatever it might be—was hardening, so to -speak, and enlarging. I turned my head to see if the mate observed it, -but was sure he had not by his manner of walking the deck. I stepped up -to him, and said: - -“If you please, sir, I think there’s something catching us up out there!” -and I levelled my small arm at the ocean over the stern. - -“Why, what d’ye see, my lad?” said he, very kindly; “you must have -gimblet-like eyes to be able to bore a hole into such a night as this. -It’s Master Rockafellar, isn’t it?” stooping to get a sight of my face. -“Overtaking us, do you say?” - -He walked right aft, I following him, and stood staring a moment or -two, then with a start cried, “By George, the _Flying Dutchman_, I do -believe! A big ship coming through the air it looks, and overhauling us -as though she were a roll of smoke. Jump below, my lad, and fetch me my -night-glass.” - -He told me where his cabin was, and where I should find the glass, and -off I rushed, proud to be employed. His cabin window overlooked the -quarter-deck, and against the bulkhead the four middies of our watch were -grouped, smoking and yarning in the shelter there. - -“Why, what are you up to?” shouted one of them; “that’s the chief -mate’s cabin. He’ll hang you up by the neck at that yard-arm, you young -Rockafellar, if he catches you in his berth.” - -“He has sent me for his night-glass,” answered; “there is a big ship -coming up astern.” - -“O-ho!” cried they, and emptying the bowls of their pipes, they fled like -startled deer on to the poop. - -I found the glass—a binocular—and ran with all my might with it to the -mate, who, as he took it from me, said, “That’s right. You’re a smart -boy!” a piece of commendation which so inspirited me that, I believe, had -he told me to go up to the main-royal-yard, I should have promptly and -comfortably have made my way to that great height. - -The sight I had been the first to descry was, indeed, well worth -watching. The speed of our own ship through the water, though she was -under very small canvas, could not have been less than nine knots in the -hour, yet the vessel astern grew upon us as though we were in tow of one -of our own quarter-boats, and scarcely moving. She showed pale as the -watery moon dimly glancing through a body of vapour. - -“She is dead in our wake,” the chief mate said, as though talking -to himself. “Does she see us, I wonder? Heavens alive! what is she -under—_skysails_ can it be? It’s enough to make one think oneself in a -dream.” - -I saw him send a glance towards the companion-hatch, as though he had a -mind to call the captain. - -[Illustration: “THE VESSEL ASTERN GREW UPON US.”] - -“Here, one of you,” he shouted to the midshipmen, who were grouped -on the other side of the wheel, staring with all their eyes at the -approaching ship, “whip that binnacle lamp out and show it.” - -Kennet sprang to the compass-stand, unshipped the light, vaulted on to -the grating, and there stood holding, at the height of his arm, the -will-o’-the-wisp spark of flame. - -The pursuing vessel was doubtless much closer to us when I first -perceived her than I should have supposed by the pallid shadow she made -on the troubled darkness of the waters. I think it must have been in -less than half-an-hour’s time from the moment of my sighting her that -she became a huge, easy-distinguishable shape in the heart of our wake. -You saw sail upon sail towering upon her in pale spaces, which glimmered -as though she reflected a strong starlight. By this time the news had -reached the cuddy, and the captain had come on deck, together with most -of the passengers, and we stood in a crowd, watching, and waiting, and -wondering; for not yet had the tall and rushing phantom astern of us -offered to shift her helm, and to my young eyes it seemed as though -she was bound to steer right into us, cleaving us to amidships, like -splitting a log with the blow of a hatchet. - -“What does he mean to do? There seems no look-out on board!” called the -captain to the mate. “Show more lights, Mr. Johnson, and let it be done -quickly.” - -The officer delivered some orders in a sharp, eager voice, and in a -few minutes three or four sailors came running aft with large lanterns -swinging in their hands. - -“She has the cut of a Yankee,” I heard the captain say to the mate; “her -high bows and crowd of canvas forward screen us from her quarter-deck. -Great thunder! is she in a madman’s hands? She will be into us, sir. Fire -a rocket!” - -These signals were kept somewhere below. A midshipman shot away like an -arrow, and returned, and then up soared the thing, the fire of it hissing -as it sped javelin-like into the flying thickness on high, where it burst -like a flash of lightning, flinging a green radiance far and wide, and -sailing in a ball of flame slowly over our mizzen-mast-head on to the -lee-bow. - -Almost simultaneously with the detonation it made, like the blast of a -blunderbuss, we saw the head of the vessel astern falling off. As she -rose foaming to the head of a sea, her flying jibboom went majestically -rounding away to leeward of us, opening out the fabric behind into a ship -of some fifteen hundred tons, with high black sides and cotton-white -canvas of the Yankee swelling from the water-ways to the trucks. A sort -of groan of astonishment and admiration, mingled with a deep note of the -fear that had been excited, arose from amongst the crowd of us. Indeed, -but for her putting her helm over, her long bowsprit and tapering -jibbooms must have been spearing our rigging in another five minutes, and -her sharp clipper stem grinding into our counter. - -A voice hailed us from her; our captain sprang on to the grating abaft -the wheel, and roared back, “What d’ye say?” But no response was made to -this. She swept past to leeward, within a musket-shot. You could hear the -thunder of the wind in her canvas, and the roaring of the water crushed -into yeast at her stem. It was like hearkening to the beating of surf on -a stormy night on the sea-coast. She showed no light of any kind, not a -spot of brightness on her deck or in her side to relieve the deep dye -of blackness her hull made upon the obscurity. In a few minutes she had -forged ahead, and a little later she had melted out upon the gloom over -the port bow. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -_HE IS STRUCK BY LIGHTNING._ - - -This was an incident to kill the tediousness of my first watch on deck -very pleasantly. It was seeing life at sea too, tasting the excitement of -it, and when eight bells sounded, and I went below, I began in good truth -to feel myself something of a sailor. - -But it was “watch and watch,” with us on board that ship, as in all -other ships of those days, though what the practice is now in this age -of steamboats I will not undertake to say. By “watch and watch,” I mean -that one division of the crew went below for four hours, whilst the other -division kept the deck. Those below then came up again for another four -hours’ duty, and so on till the dog watches came round, when each watch -had two hours of duty only, the object of the change being to vary the -time of the four hours’ watches; so that, for example, if one division -had to keep the middle watch, say on a Monday the dog watches contrived -that that spell of duty would next night fall to the lot of the other -division. - -What “watch and watch” signified I never could have imagined till four -o’clock in the morning was struck on the ship’s bell, and the midshipmen -who had been on deck since midnight came in their headlong way below to -rout us up. - -“Eight bells! eight bells, my honeys!” they roared. “Out you come, and up -you go! It rains beautifully, and is still as black as thunder all round.” - -I was in a dead sleep, and could scarcely open my eyes. By way of helping -me to wake up, one of the lads who had just descended threw his streaming -sou’-wester at my face. - -“Who’d be a sailor?” yawned the long midshipman named Poole. “This is a -part of the life that they know nothing about ashore.” - -“Oh, what would I give for my feather bed at home!” groaned another -youngster, drowsily thrusting his arms into a damp jacket. - -“Lively now, or I’ll feather bed ye!” shouted Mr. Cock from his corner -bunk. “A sailor who talks of a feather bed should be tarred first before -the down’s applied. My precious limbs! Was it out of such whinings as -this that Trafalgar’s victory was manufactured?” - -But there was no magic in the thoughts of Nelson to inspirit one at such -a moment as this. For my part, my sympathies were wholly with the lad -who yearned for a feather bed, and though I had promised my father not -to swap my clothes, I would have gladly given half my outfit for the -privilege of turning in again. Oh the misery of the cold and wet of the -deck, going to it as I did with lids of lead, and trembling in oilskins, -from the comfort and warmth of the blankets! I shall give up the sea, -I thought as I climbed the poop ladder with chattering teeth: I have -already had enough of it. I would go on shore at once if I could. What is -there in brass buttons to render this sort of thing tolerable? - -There were no signs of daybreak till about six o’clock, and then down -away in the east there stole out upon the gloom a faint, most melancholy -grey light, against which the ridge horizon washed in a tumbling line -of ink. How am I to express the cheerless aspect of the ship in the -illumination of this dull and dismal dawn? Her reefed canvas was dark -with wet, her slack gear was blown into semi-circles by the gale, her -scuppers sobbed with wet, and the water floated from side to side of her -deck with her rolling. But all the same, the planks had to be washed -down, the hencoops cleansed, and the poop made tidy; so as soon as light -enough came to see by, the pump was rigged, buckets got along, and there -we were scrubbing for our lives, with smoke from the newly-kindled galley -fire breaking from the chimney, the boatswain on the main-deck pointing -his hose, and bawling to the sailors to scrub with a will, the wide-awake -pigs under the long-boat grunting for their breakfast, the cow lowing -gloomily at catching sight of the butcher’s mate, and the ship all the -while rushing before the strong gale, with the chasing seas breaking in -foam to the height of the main-brace bumpkins, and a grim and yellow -salt in a tight sou’-wester swinging off upon the wheel, and mumbling -upon a quid that stood high in his cheek, as though he were muttering -sea-blessings to himself on the ocean life in general, and on the _Lady -Violet_ in particular. - -Well, when the gale broke we had fine weather, and nothing noticeable -happened for some days. The passengers got the better of their -sea-sickness, and came on deck, and the ship looked hospitable and -homely, with ladies reading or knitting, or walking the decks aft, and -with the poor women of the steerage forward sitting in the sun, with -coloured handkerchiefs tied round their heads, their children romping -about their feet, and the men belonging to their company lounging against -the bulwarks, pipes between their teeth, their hats slouched, and their -arms folded. - -We were sliding towards the warm parallels, and Mr. Cock told me to keep -a bright look-out for flying fish, as we should be seeing them spark out -of the blue water alongside before long, “like silver paper-cutters, -Master Rockafellar,” said he, “on the gauze wings of the dragon-fly.” By -this time I was able to crawl aloft without a beating heart and trembling -body. I could shin over the mizzen-top as lightly and easily as the rest -of them, and had been once on to the mizzen-royal-yard, the highest yard -on the mizzen-mast, to watch Kennet roll the sail up, that I might know -how to furl it for myself another time. - -In fact, I had now climbed the rigging often enough to enjoy being aloft. -I would think as I poised myself upon a foot-rope, and overhung the yard -it belonged to, that nothing nearer to the sensation of flying could -be imagined. I swung between heaven and sea. The soft cream-coloured -clouds looked to be rolling close over my head. Far away down was the -narrow white deck of the ship, with sail upon sail swelling in curves -of snow-white softness betwixt where I was perched, and the ivory-like -planks deep down below. The blue ocean swept away into boundless -distance, and the world of waters looked as huge as though the sight of -them was a dream. - -At last came a day that was to be marked by an incident of terror. The -captain and mates had taken the sun at noon; the sailors had eaten -their dinner, and the port-watch, the one that I belonged to, was on -deck, to remain there till four. Two of the midshipmen were on the -cross-jack-yard at work on some job there, the third was below, and I, -the fourth of them, hung about the break of the poop in readiness to run -on an errand, and to jump to any order given me. - -It was a fine warm day, the wind right aft, and the ship was buzzing -along with studding sails out on both sides. The tiffin bell had just -sounded; there was nobody on the poop but the chief mate, myself, and -the man at the wheel. Through the skylight I could see the passengers -assembling at the luncheon table. Presently noticing that Mr. Johnson, -the chief officer, was staring with unusual steadfastness at the horizon -over the stern, I sent a look in that direction, and observed that there -was a large black cloud sailing up the sky, exactly on a line with the -course we were making. I never had before, and have never since, seen -a body of vapour with so ugly a look. Its hinder part was tufted into -the true aspect of thunder; its brow was a pale sulphur colour, which -darkened into a swollen curve of livid belly; its wild extraordinary -shape too made you think of it as of some leviathan flying beast, a -mighty dragon, such as one reads about, or some huge and horrible -creation descending from another world. The black shadow it threw upon -the sea contrasted oddly with the flashing blue that was streaming -merrily with us along the path of the wind. - -However, it is a saying with Jack that you need never fear a squall that -you can see through. The blue sky showed clear and bright past the tail -of the cloud on the sea-line, as the mass of black vapour soared. The -mate turned to pace the deck, just sending a careless glance over the -stern now and again. It was easy to guess that he saw nothing to trouble -him there; no order was given, and the ship continued to sail pleasantly -on the wings of her far overhanging canvas before the warm and gushing -wind. - -Gradually the cloud overtook us, and then it overhung the vessel like an -immense black canopy, plunging us and a great space of sea into gloom, -and all around, beyond the confines of its murky dye, was shining summer -weather. But the cloud, instead of blowing ahead, lingered over us as -though its stooping bosom was arrested by our mast-heads, or the whole -electric body of it attracted by our tall fabric. No rain fell, no -squally gust of wind swept from it through the regular breathing of the -breeze astern. The mate crossed over to where I was standing, and looked -over the rail into the main-chains. - -“Ha!” he cried, “jump down there, Master Rockafellar,” pointing to the -platform called the channel, which in those days served to spread the -rigging, “and cast that lightning conductor adrift.” - -[Illustration: “I FELT MYSELF SWEPT BACKWARDS.”] - -Now, this lightning conductor was of copper wire; the point of it rose -above the main truck, and the length of it was led down the main-royal -back-stay to the water’s edge. But the bottom end of it, instead of -trailing in the water, was coiled up and “stopped,” as it is called, to -one of the lanyards of the shrouds. In other words, it was tied to a part -of the rigging by rope-yarns. - -I stood a moment feeling for my knife, which I then remembered I had left -in my bunk. The mate seeing that I was at a loss, and understanding by my -gestures what my want was, cried to a young ordinary seaman, who was on -the main-deck, to jump into the chains and cut the lightning conductor -adrift, and drop the end overboard. He was a fine young fellow—an -Irishman, I remember, named Barry. His sheath-knife was on his hip, and -he whipped the blade from its leather case, as he bounded on to the -topgallant-rail, and dropped over the side into the main chains. - -He had got his hand on the coil of wire, and was in the act of passing -his knife through the rope-yarns, when a great spurt of flame fell in a -dazzling flash down the rigging. The whole ship seem to reel out of the -shadow that was upon her in a blaze of crimson glory. In the same breath -there was a single blast of thunder, one dead enormous shock, that seemed -to bring the vessel to a stand, and thrill through every plank in her, -as though she had grounded. I was standing close to the rail at the -moment; the flame rushed close past me; the air was scorching hot with -it; but, for the beat of a pulse only, so far as I was concerned, for I -felt myself swept backwards, as though lifted off my feet, and fell at -full length upon my back. I immediately sprang to my legs, almost out -of my mind with bewilderment and terror, but in no wise hurt. The mate, -grasping the rail with one hand, was shading his eyes with the other. -The captain, followed by all the passengers, came rushing up out of the -cuddy, whilst such of the crew as were below tumbled headlong from the -forecastle to see what had become of the ship. - -“What is it? What is it?” shouted the skipper, as he ran towards us. - -The mate turned his face, but continued to keep his eyes covered. “God -forgive me!” he exclaimed; “I believe I am struck blind.” - -In a moment the captain saw how it was, and the ship’s doctor, without a -word, passed his arm through the mate’s, and led the poor fellow below. - -“How did this happen, Master Rockafellar?” exclaimed the captain. - -I quickly told him that the mate had gone to the side to see if the -lightning conductor was all right, and had called to one of the ordinary -seamen to jump into the chains to clear it. - -He stepped to the rail to look over and all the passengers went with -him, shouldering one another to obtain a view. The sailor stood upright, -with one hand yet upon the coil of wire. His right hand, from which the -knife had fallen, was outstretched, but as we looked we could see it -slowly, very slowly, sinking to his side, as the handle of a pump will -fall from a horizontal position. I could not see his face; it was turned -seawards. - -[Illustration: “THE KNIFE HAD FALLEN.”] - -“Are you all right down there, my lad?” sang out the captain. - -The young fellow neither answered nor moved. - -“He has been stunned!” exclaimed one of the passengers. - -“Oh, but wouldn’t he have fallen overboard if that were so?” cried -another. - -The captain shouted to some seamen, who were overhanging the bulwarks in -the waist: - -“Aft here, a couple of you, and help Barry inboard.” - -It was at that moment the ship slightly rolled to port, and the figure -of Barry plunged into the sea, falling limberly in the most lifelike -manner. He struck the water, and lay afloat, and then, as he went astern, -I caught a glimpse of his face. It was the colour of chocolate, most -horrible to view, with nothing of his eyes showing but the whites, and -his lips distended in a dreadful grin, exhibiting his teeth and gums -as though his mouth had been torn away. One of the ladies fainted. A -shriek arose from many of them. The third mate sprang aft, and I saw him -standing erect on the taffrail poising a lifebuoy; but even whilst he -flourished the thing the body sank. - -Never for an instant was it doubted by any of us that he had been struck -dead, and that he was a corpse when he fell from the chains. It was a -fate I myself had escaped by the very skin of my teeth only! But for -my having left my knife below, I should at once have dropped over the -side on being ordered to do so by the mate, and there have been killed -by the flash that had slain the unhappy young sailor man! Yet nothing -was made of my escape. The captain merely said, “Lucky for you, Master -Rockafellar, that you weren’t in Barry’s place;” whilst the midshipmen -hardly referred to the matter, except to say that the mate had no right -to put a man to the job of handling a lightning conductor with an -electric storm hanging over the mast-heads. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -_HE HEARS A BELL._ - - -There is no sentiment at sea, and if you come off with your life no -matter how narrowly, that is enough for _you_. You are not expected to -speak of the close shave, unless with a grin of indifference. Let your -shipmates believe that you view it seriously, and they will set you -down for a swab, a lady sailor, a longshoreman. This arises from an -overstrained sense of manliness; yet it is true, nevertheless, that no -genuine seaman will ever care to make anything of an accident, though -no more than an inch of space or a single moment of time stand between -him and a horrible end. However, that night, when I was in my bunk, and -my messmates asleep, I got upon my knees in my bed, and, with tears and -sobs, thanked my Heavenly Father for His preservation of me. I was very -heavy when I first laid me down, but I kept myself awake that I might -lift up my young heart in gratitude, and pray for a continuance of God’s -mercy; and when I put my head again on the bolster, there was just such a -sense of peace and happiness in me as would have come had my mother stood -by my bedside and kissed me. - -For four days the mate was off duty, and it was feared that he would -lose his sight, but to the general satisfaction of all hands—for he was -an excellent seaman, a kind-hearted man, and popular fore and aft—he -made his appearance on deck on the morning of the fifth day with a shade -over his eyes, and by the end of the week his old power of vision was -perfectly restored to him. - -We took the trade wind, and swept down the broad Atlantic Ocean, making -run after run in the twenty-four hours that was almost equal to steam, as -steam then went. I was now as nimble aloft as need be, knew all the ropes -of the ship, had learnt to make most of the principal knots, could polish -a length of brass-work with the best of them, and, in other ways, was -winning recognition as being of some use aft, small as I was. Mr. Cock -was very kind to me, he showed me how to use the sextant, and took much -trouble in explaining points of navigation. - -Once during a quiet middle watch—that is, from midnight until four in -the morning—I was standing near the wheel, looking at the compass, and -thinking how like a live thing it was, as sentient as though it were -informed by a human spirit, marvellously and beautifully faithful as a -finger pointing the way to the mariner over the trackless breast of the -deep. I was standing, I say, with my little head full of fancies coming -into it out of the luminous circle of card, when Mr. Johnson, coming up, -asked me if I would like to steer. - -“Ay, sir,” I answered, “I should, very much.” - -“You’re but a little one for that big wheel,” said he, and I could see -him smiling by the starlight, “but the helm don’t kick, and you’re here -to learn. Give him hold of the spokes, Hunt,” said he, addressing the -man, “and show him what to do;” and so saying, he fell to patrolling the -deck afresh, softly whistling, as if for more wind. - -The breeze was abeam, a pleasant air that held the sails motionless, and -we were quietly going along at about four and a half knots. I grasped the -wheel, and the man stood behind me. - -[Illustration: “I GRASPED THE WHEEL.”] - -“Now, young gen’man,” said he, “you see that there mark? We calls that -the _lubber’s point_. It’s on a line with the ship’s head, and when you -know your course, you’ve got to keep the p’int of it dead on end with -that there mark, if so be as she don’t break off, or if so be as there -ain’t no sea on. But if her head swings, then you’ve got to hit what’s -called the mean of the oscillations of the card. Can you tell how her -head is now?” - -“Sou’, sou’-west,” I answered. - -“You look again,” said he. - -“South by west, three-quarters west,” said I after a prolonged squint at -the compass. - -“Right!” said he; “now you keep her to _that_.” - -She needed no steering, however. At long intervals a very small movement -of the helm sufficed; but my enjoyment was very great. I was not yet -fourteen, but had I been forty I could not have felt more fully a man. I -cannot express how great was the sense of importance which possessed me -when I considered that the big ship, with her costly freight and the many -souls who were sleeping under my feet, was being directed by my young -hands through the great enveloping shadow of the night. At first I could -scarcely realize my power, and asked permission of the somewhat hoarse -salt who leaned upon the grating behind me to move the wheel, that I -might make sure that the ship would respond to the helm in _my_ hands. - -“Well,” he answered, “I dunno that half a p’int off ’ll sinnify for a -minute. Try her if you like, my lad.” - -So I put my small weight upon the spokes, and brought the wheel over, -till the sailor in muffled accents (that the mate might not hear) cried -“So!” Great was my delight on observing the card to swing. - -“There, young gen’men,” exclaimed my companion, “she’s a willing old -mare, ye see. Now bring her to her course again.” - -I thrust the spokes over the other way, intently staring at the card. - -“Stead-_dee_!” came a hoarse whisper from behind me: “meet her, my lad, -or she’ll be a p’int too high afore you know where you are.” - -But he had to show me what he meant by slightly reversing the helm, as -the ship came back to her course. I was highly delighted, and should -have been glad to steer for the remainder of the night. However, the -mate broke into my enjoyment by ordering me to trim the binnacle lamp; -but always afterwards I was on the look-out for an opportunity to take -the wheel, my experiences creeping cautiously from light airs into smart -breezes, until it came to my being as well qualified as any man on board, -having regard to my strength, of course, to stand a “trick.” - -This reference to my first standing at the wheel of the _Lady Violet_ -recalls to my mind another incident of the middle watch a week or two -later on. We were nearing the equator, and had already penetrated that -glassy belt of baffling airs and sneaking cats-paws extending a degree or -two on either hand the Line, and universally spoken of by sailors as the -“Doldrums.” I turned out at midnight and went on deck. The sky was very -full of large rich trembling stars, yet they seemed to diffuse no light, -saving one planet in the south under which there lay in the black breast -of the deep a little icy gleam of wake, or reflection; otherwise the -ocean stretched as black as thunder to its horizon. There was a gentle -wind blowing off the quarter, just enough to give us steerage way, with -a long light swell from the westwards, upon which the ship rolled as -regularly as the tick of a clock, her topsail sometimes coming in to the -mast with a clap that made one think a gun had been fired up aloft. - -It was a very hot night; now and again there was a delicate winking of -violet lightning in the far north-east. It was about twenty minutes after -midnight, and I was walking up and down the poop to leeward with Kennet, -hearing him tell of a donkey race that he once rode in, when he suddenly -came to a stand holding his breath as it were, and then exclaimed in a -mysterious voice, “I thay, Rockafellar, what’th that?” - -“What do you mean?” I asked; “anything to see or listen to?” - -“To liththen to,” he said. - -I strained my ear. - -“There!” he cried. - -“A bell,” I explained. “There must be a ship near us. The sound is off -abeam here,” and we stepped to the lee rail on the port side of the -vessel. - -The chimes of a bell tolling very slowly, as though for a funeral, -could be heard with curious distinctness, so delicate a vehicle for the -transmission of sound is smooth water. - -“Therth a bell ringing out to port here, thir,” called out Kennet to the -mate. - -Mr. Johnson crossed over to our side, and listened. - -“Yes, a bell sure enough,” said he presently, after peering earnestly -into the gloom in the direction of the noise, “but I see nothing of a -shadow to resemble a ship. Do you, young gentlemen? Your eyes should be -keener than mine.” - -We stared our hardest, and answered, “Nothing, sir.” - -“Fetch my binocular glass, Rockafellar.” - -He searched the sea narrowly through it, but there was no distinguishable -smudge of any sort. - -Black as the ocean was, there were stars hanging low over the horizon, -and had there been a ship within five miles of us, the eclipse of those -stars by her sails would have revealed her. But the tolling assured us -that the bell could not be half-a-mile distant. It swung in long floating -chimes across the water, and I cannot express the quality of mystery and -awe which the strange noise put into the darkness of the night. It made -one think of a church ashore, and a graveyard with its mouldering stones -glimmering to the starlight. - -“Fo’k’sle there!” shouted Mr. Johnson, “do you hear the sound of a bell -off the sea?” - -“Ay, ay, sir,” came a growling answer out of the deep gloom of the fore -part of the ship. - -“Can you make out anything like a sail?” - -There was a pause, and then came the reply, “No, sir; there’s nothing in -sight.” - -“This beats all my going a-fishing,” said the mate, going to the rail to -listen again. - -The watch on deck uncoiled themselves from the secret nooks in which -they had been dozing, and went to the bulwarks, which they overhung -listening, and then broke into exclamations as the ghostly tolling met -their ears. Some of the fellows who were off duty, disturbed by the noise -on deck, came out of the forecastle; then the captain arrived through the -companion-hatch, and was presently followed by some passengers, so that -it seemed as if the bell had woke the whole ship up; for here were we -with a tolerably crowded deck, and the hour one o’clock in the morning. - -The growing clearness of the chimes showed that we were approaching the -bell. The helm was shifted, so as to head the vessel in the direction of -the sound, but very shortly after this had been done the wind failed, -and a clock-calm fell; the long light swell rolled in folds of polished -ebony, and we lay without an inch of way upon us. - -The chiming of the bell, that did not now seem two cables’ length away -from us ahead, broke with startling clearness through the dull flapping -of the canvas as the _Lady Violet_ swayed. Yet there was nothing to be -seen. Maybe there were now some eighty pairs of eyes staring from poop, -main-deck, and forecastle, but there was nothing between us and the -stars of the horizon. What could it be? I remember that my own little -heart beat fast when Kennet, in a voice of awe, said that he reckoned it -was some spirit of the sea ringing the ship’s funeral bell, and that he -wouldn’t be surprised if by this time to-morrow night we were all dead -men. You could hear a murmur of superstitious whispers and talk rolling -along the line of sailors and steerage passengers at the rail. The -captain poop-poohed, and I heard him say— - -“Pshaw, gentlemen, there are no _Flying Dutchmen_ in this age. It is a -bell, I grant, and where the noise comes from I don’t know, but there is -nothing in a little conundrum of this kind to alarm us.” - -But all the same, even to my youthful ears, the secret superstitious -dismay and wonder which were upon him sounded so clear in his voice that -one did not want to see his face to know how he felt. All night long the -bell continued to toll just off the bow, and not a sigh of wind was to be -felt, so dead was the calm that had come down. Never a man or a boy of -us all turned in. I went on to the forecastle with others, and followed -Kennet on to the flying jibboom, at the extremity of which long spar we -were nearer to the object that produced the noise than any person who -remained inboard was, but there was nothing to be seen, though I stared -into the quarter whence the chimes were issuing in a regular tolling, -rhythmic as the heave of the swell, until my eyes reeled in my head. - -The puzzle was not to be solved till daybreak, and then, when the swift -tropic dawn had brightened out the sea from line to line, a cry half of -laughter, half of indignation, seemed to break from all hands, as though -they could now scorn themselves for the emotions of the night. In fact, -within a quarter of a mile ahead of us there rose and fell upon the -swell, that was still polished as quicksilver, a small wooden frame of -an elliptical form, supported on a somewhat broad platform, portions of -the planking of which were split, as though it had at one time formed a -solid body which had been wrenched and mutilated by a blow of the sea. -Under the frame, amidships of it, dangled a large ship’s bell, the tongue -of which, vibrating regularly as the heave of the sea swayed the whole -fabric, struck the metal sides, and produced the dismal and melancholy -tolling which had kept us awake and filled us with consternation -throughout the night! Little wonder that the keenest eyes amongst us -should not have perceived it; even by daylight, and at a short distance -from us, it showed but as a very little object—so small indeed, that had -it passed us within a biscuit-toss in the darkness, it must have slipped -by unperceived. - -It was no doubt a part of a wreck, and had probably belonged to some -foreign ship. We could afford to laugh at our fears now, and certainly we -deserved the relief of a little merriment, for our superstitious alarm -throughout the long hours of the darkness had been very considerable. - -[Illustration: “UNDER THE FRAME ... DANGLED A LARGE SHIP’S BELL.”] - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -_HE SEES THE EQUATOR._ - - -We crossed the equator a little before noon on a Tuesday. Though I had -learnt at school all about the imaginary line that girdles the earth, -yet I was stupid enough to believe what Kennet and the others told me: -namely, that if I ascended to the foretop with a telescope, and pointed -it steadily over the starboard cat-head, I should obtain a good view of -the equator. No more was necessary than to ascertain at what hour the -ship was likely to cross the line, so as to save the anxiety of looking -for the circle when it might still be some distance below the edge of the -sea. On the morning of this Tuesday Kennet arrived on the poop with a -telescope in his hand, and said— - -“Poole and I are going into the foretop to view the equator. It should be -in sight now from that height, for I heard the chief mate tell Mrs. Moore -that if this air held we should be crossing it about half-past eleven. -Will you come along with us, Rockafellar?” - -“Yes,” said I; “I should like to see the equator. It will be something to -talk about when I get home.” - -We went forward and got into the fore-shrouds on the lee-side, that our -going aloft might not be noticed from the poop. When we were in the top, -Poole steadied the glass against the topmast rigging, and instantly cried -out “Beautiful!” - -“Is it in sight?” I exclaimed eagerly. - -“Oh, lovely! oh, divine!” he said in a voice of rapture, with his eye -glued to the glass. “Kennet, my dear, come and take a look.” - -He held the glass, and Kennet peered. - -“Ha!” shouted the long-nosed youth, drinking in a deep breath: “a noble -picture, by George! I wonder if the captain would let ’uth go athore upon -it? Wouldn’t a ride on a camel be jolly along that ththrait road.” - -They were as grave as a pair of judges, saving the rapture which they -endeavoured to express with their countenances. - -“I say, Poole, let’s have a look!” said I, thirsting with curiosity. - -“Make way for him, Kennet,” cried Poole. - -I put my eye to the telescope, which the midshipman continued to hold -steady against the rigging, and sure enough, just a little way over the -horizon, was the equator, a thin, very well-defined line, showing against -the light azure of the sky like a delicate ruling in ink. - -“Thee it?” cried Kennet. - -“Yes,” said I, eagerly staring; “but it’s up in the air, Poole.” - -“Refraction, man, refraction,” he answered; “it always shows like that.” - -I sent a glance with my naked eye, and then peered again through the -telescope. - -“When shall we be able to see it without a glass?” I asked. - -[Illustration: “I PUT MY EYE TO THE TELESCOPE.”] - -“That’ll depend upon the thtate of the weather,” answered Kennet. - -“But do we sail _under_ it?” - -“Oh, hang it, Rockafellar!” cried Poole, “you’re not at school now, -little boy! Who’s to answer such questions? Let’s down on deck, or the -mate’ll be singing out.” - -As I descended the shrouds I saw some sailors at work in the waist, -grinning very hard. - -“Seen it, sir?” bawled one of them. - -“Yes,” said I. - -“No chance, I hope,” he sung out, “of its fouling our mast-heads, is -there, sir? Otherwise it’ll sweep every spar overboard.” - -“No, it looks to be too high up in the air to hurt us,” I answered, and -trudged aft, followed by a half-smothered chorus of laughter. - -The mate stood at the head of the poop ladder. - -“Where have you been, sir?” he exclaimed. - -“Up in the foretop, sir,” I answered. - -“And what job carried you there, young gentleman?” - -“I have been viewing the equator, sir,” I responded. - -“Who showed it to you?” said he, with a twinkling eye. - -“Mr. Kennet and Mr. Poole, sir,” said I. - -He beckoned, with a solemn motion of his forefinger, to Kennet, who -approached. - -“Have you the equator handy about you, young gentleman,” he inquired. - -Kennet coloured up, and said he had left it in his telescope. - -“Bring it here, sir,” said the mate, “and let Mr. Poole attend, that we -may have the benefit of his learning.” - -The midshipman disappeared, and shortly after returned, with the glass -under his arm and Poole at his heels. - -“Now then, young gentlemen,” said the mate, “be good enough to show -Master Rockafellar the equator from the poop point of view.” - -Poole looked very sheepish; Kennet hung his long nose over one of the -middle lenses, which he unscrewed. - -“Now, let’s have a good geographical explanation, if you please, Mr. -Poole,” said the mate. - -“There’s the line, Rockafellar,” said Poole, taking the lens, and -pointing to a hair stretched across it, secured by a drop of gum at -either extremity. - -It was now my turn to colour up. I had been handsomely gulled, and the -worst of it was the sailors forward knew it. - -“Never mind, Master Rockafellar,” said the mate kindly; “older birds than -you have been caught by that kind of chaff. You can take the equator -below, Mr. Kennet,” and, smothering a laugh between his teeth, he walked -aft. - -I was afterwards told that this was a very ancient trick; but, old as it -was, a joke at my expense was made out of it, fore and aft; since for -many days it never came to my passing two or more of the sailors but that -one would sing out— - -“Bill, seen the line?” - -“No, Jack; where is it?” - -“In Rockafellar’s eye, bully!” - -However, to my great satisfaction, in due course this piece of humour -grew stale, and was dropped. - -I had read, when at home, a good deal about the customs practised by -sailors on crossing the equator, and was not a little disappointed to -find that the crew went on with their work as unconcernedly as though the -Line were a thousand miles distant. I had been haunted by visions of a -fine theatrical show, and had secretly longed for the hour that was to -exhibit Neptune with a crown on his head, and a beard of oakum on his -chin, attended by his wife, his physician, and the several courtiers who -made up his train of state. I had followed, with boyish eagerness, the -accounts of the ceremony in the works of Marryat and in other novels, and -was much dejected on being told by Mr. Cock that this sort of skylarking -was out of date. - -“And well for you, young gentleman, maybe,” said he, “that it is so; -for you’re a green hand, do you see, and it was always upon the like of -you that the forecastle tomfoolery was poured out thickest. How would -you relish, think you, being lathered with a mixture of tar and slush -and filth; next, having your cheeks scraped with jagged bits of iron -cask-hoops till they bled; then plunged backwards into water enough to -drown you, and left to scramble out like a half-dead rat, amidst roars -of laughter from the unfeeling Jack? No, no; I’m as fond as any man of -honest skylarking, but there was always too much of Old Nick in the -temper of the shaving and ducking custom to please my humour: and it’s -a very good job, I think, that the mouldy bit of barbarity was long ago -flung overboard.” - -The ship was often brought to a stand by calms during our passage of the -equator, and these intervals were very monotonous and hard to bear. - -The midshipmen’s berth was so insufferably hot that during my watch below -I was unable to remain in it, and would come on deck and hang about under -the break of the poop where the side-wings of the saloon, or cuddy, made -a recess, and where one was kept cool by the fanning of light draughts of -air sent circling betwixt the rails by the swaying of the folds of the -hauled-up main-course. - -It was at this time that an old gentleman named Catesby—a passenger—who -had lived in Australia for many years, related to some of us lads an -extraordinary experience that had befallen him during a voyage he made -to India when a young man. The old East-Indiaman was then afloat; pirates -were also abundant; there was no steam then to be met with at sea, and -the excitement and romance of the ocean were at their height. The old -gentleman had known a relative of mine, and took a fancy to me, and would -frequently bring a handful of almonds and raisins or some sweet biscuits -from his pockets—purloinings from the dessert on the cuddy table—and slip -the delicacies into my hand with a merry manner of cautiously looking -around him as though he was afraid of the captain seeing him. I remember -that he delightfully killed several long hot hours one day by telling -two or three of us lads the story of his early adventure. I see him now -with a cigar drooping between his lips as he went on reciting, and recall -the stare of admiration and expectation we fixed upon his face as he -proceeded. - -The name which he said he always gave to his story when he told it to his -friends was: - - “LA MULETTE.” - - All day long there had been a pleasant breeze blowing from - abeam; but as the sun sank into the west the wind fined into - light, delicate curls of shadow upon the sea that, at the hour - of sundown when the great luminary hung poised like a vast - target of flaming brass upon the ocean-line, turned into a - surface of molten gold through which there ran a light, wide, - long-drawn heave of swell, regular as a respiration, rhythmic - as the sway of a cradle to the song of a mother. - - The ship was an Indiaman named the _Ruby_; the time long ago, - as human life runs, in this century nevertheless, when the old - traditional conditions of the sea-life were yet current—the - roundabout Indian voyage by way of the Cape—the slaver sneaking - across the parching parallels of the Middle Passage—the - piccaroon in the waters of the Antilles dodging the fiery - sloop whose adamantine grin of cannons was rendered horribly - significant to the eye of the greasy pirate by the cross of - crimson under whose meteoric folds the broadside thundered. - - I was a passenger aboard the _Ruby_, making the voyage to India - for my pleasure. The fact was, being a man of independent - means, I was without any sort of business to detain me at home. - Your continental excursion was but a twopenny business to me. - Here was this huge ball of earth to be circumnavigated whilst - one was young, with spirits rendered water-proof by health. - Time enough, I thought, to amble about Europe when Australia - began to look a long way off. So this was my third voyage. One - I had made to Sydney and Melbourne, and a second to China; and - now I was bound to Bombay with some kind of notion beyond of - striking into Persia, thence to Arabia, and so home by way of - the classic shores of the Mediterranean. - - Well, it happened this 18th of June to be the captain’s - birthday. His name was Bow; he would be fifty-three years old - that day he told us, and as he had used the sea since the age - of thirteen he was to be taken as a man who knew his business. - And a better sailor there never was, and never also was there - a person who looked less like a sailor. If ever you have seen - a print of Charles Lamb you have had an excellent likeness of - Captain Bow before you—a pale, spare creature of a somewhat - Hebraic cast of countenance, with a brow undarkened by any - stains of weather. His memory went far back; he had served as - mate in John Company’s ships, had known Commodore Dance who - beat Linois and spoke of him as a perfect gentleman; deplored - the gradual decay of the British sailor, and would talk with - a wistful gleam in his eye of the grand and generous policy - of the Leadenhall Street Directors in allowing to their - captains as much cubic capacity in the ships they commanded for - their own private use and emolument as would furnish out the - dimensions of a considerable smack. - - It was his birthday and long ago all of us passengers had made - up our minds to celebrate the occasion by a supper, a dance - on deck, and by obtaining permission for Jack forward to have - a ball on condition that we should be allowed to ply him with - drink enough to keep his heels nimble and no more. We were in - the Indian Ocean climbing north, somewhere upon the longitude - of Amsterdam Island, so formidable was the easting made in the - fine old times. The latitude, I think, was about 12° south, and - desperately hot it was, though the sun hung well in the north. - Spite of awnings and wet swabs the planks of the deck seemed - to tingle like burning tin through the thin soles of your - boots. If you put your nose into an open skylight the air that - rose drove you back with a sense of suffocation, so heavily - was the fiery stagnation of it loaded with smells of food and - of the cabin interior, though there never was a sweeter and - breezier cuddy, with its big windows and windsail-heels when - the thermometer gave the place the least chance. But when the - sun was nearly setting, some sailors quietly came aft and fell - to work to make a ball-room of the poop. They took the bunting - out of the signal locker and stretched it along the ridge-ropes - betwixt the awning and the rail until it was like standing - inside a huge Chinese lantern for colour. They hung the ship’s - lamps along in rows, roused up the piano from its moorings in - the cuddy, embellished the tops of the hencoops with red baize, - and in fifty directions not worth the trouble of indicating, - so decorated and glorified the after-end of the ship that when - the lamps came to be lighted with streaks of pearl-coloured - moonshine glittering upon the deck betwixt the interstices of - the signal flags, and movement enough in the tranquil lift of - the great fabric to the swell to fill the eye with alternations - of swaying shadow and gleam, this ball-room of almond-white - plank and canvas ceiling of milky softness and walls of radiant - banners was more like some fairy sea-vision than a reality, - especially with the glimpse you caught of the vast silent ocean - solitude outside with its sky of hovering stars and a stillness - as of a dead world in the atmosphere—such a contrast, by - heaven! to the revelry within the shipboard pavilion, when once - the music had struck up and the forms of women in white gowns - fluffing up about them like soapsuds were swimming round the - decks in the embrace of their partners, that a kind of shudder - would come into you with the mere thinking of the difference - between the two things. - - The music was good; there was a steerage passenger, a lady, - who played the piano incomparably well; then there was a - cuddy passenger who blew upon the flute very finely indeed. - A military officer returning to India after a long spell of - sick-leave at home had as light, delicate and accomplished - a hand on the fiddle as any of the best of the first violins - which I have heard in the crackest of orchestras. When the - committee of passengers had been talking about and arranging - for this band the chief officer told them that if they thought - there would not be instruments enough there was a man forward, - a fellow named Ratt, who played the fiddle exquisitely, and, - if we wished it, he would make one of the instrumentalists. - We consented, and for several days previous to this night - you might have heard Ratt rehearsing in the ’tween decks, - scraping in a way that made the military gentleman returning - from sick-leave look somewhat grave. He spoke of Ratt with a - foreboding eye, and what he feared happened. The man could - indeed play, but he had no sense of _time_. All went wrong with - the first dance-air that was struck up. The tune he made was - right enough; but it was always darting ahead and bewildering - the others and finally the band came to a stop, though Ratt - continued to play several bars, whilst the military gentleman - in great temper was shouting to him to go away. I should have - felt sorry for the poor fellow had he not been saucy, for he - had dressed himself with extraordinary care, greased every - separate hair upon his head as though it had been a rope-yarn - and had arrived aft with a sailor’s expectation of seeing - plenty of fun and getting plenty of drink. It ended in the - chief mate grasping him by the collar and tumbling him down the - poop ladder. I afterwards heard that he went forward and in a - towering passion threw his fiddle overboard, swearing that he - would never play upon anything again but the Jew’s harp and - then only for hogs to dance to; there was no longer any taste - left amongst human beings, he said, for good music. - - The merriment aft was scarcely affected by this instant’s - failure. The moment Jack had been tumbled off the poop the - instrumentalists began afresh and the decks were once more - filled with sliding and revolving couples. I had slightly - sprained my ankle that morning by kicking against a coil of - rope and was unable to dance; but this was no deprivation to me - on a burning hot night, with no place for the draughts out of - the fanning canvas to come through, and the smell of blistered - paint rising in a lukewarm breathing off the sides of the ship - as though the sun still stood over the main-truck. So squatting - myself on a hencoop I sat gazing at the merry, moving, radiant - picture and listening to the music and to the laughter of the - girls which came back from the canvas roof of the poop in - echoes soft and clear as the notes of the flute. - - There were thirty-two cabin passengers in all, and we had a - poopful, as you will suppose. There were more than a dozen - girls, dark and fair, most of them pretty enough. There - were a few young married ladies too and a little mob of - dignified mammas. The men were of the old-fashioned mixture, - a few military officers, a sprinkling of Civil Service young - gentlemen, fierce old men with white whiskers and gleaming - eyes, with peppercorns for livers and with a capacity of - putting on the tender aspects of Bengal tigers when anything - went wrong—merchants, judges, planters—I can scarce remember - now what they were. There were lanterns enough to make a bright - light, and some of them being of coloured glass threw bars of - ruby and of emerald against the yellow radiance of the clear - flame and the ivory streaks of moonlight. Far aft was the wheel - with the brass upon it reflecting the lustre till it glowed - out against the blackness over the stern like a circle of dull - fire upon the liquid obscurity. Grasping the spokes of it was - the figure of a seaman, smartly apparelled in flowing duck and - a grass hat on “nine hairs”; his shape, dim in the distance, - floated up and down against a bright star or two; but there was - little need for him to keep his eye on the course. The calm was - dead as dead could be. Half-an-hour since the ship’s head was - north-west and now it was west, and the swell was under the bow - with a strange melancholy sob of water breaking into the pauses - betwixt the music and sounding like the sigh of a weeping - giant somewhere in the blackness over the side. - - And black the water was spite of the air being brimful of the - soft silver of the moonlight. On either hand the planet’s - wake the ocean ran in ebony to the indigo of the night sky; - but you only needed to steal to the break of the poop clear - of the awning to mark how gloriously the luminary was limning - the ship as if she had no other magic for the deep that night. - Every sail was a square of pearl, every shroud and back-stay, - every brace and halliard a rope of silver wire, the yards of - ivory, with hundreds of stars of delicate splendour sparkling - and flashing in the dew along the rails. The Jacks had rigged - up lanterns forward and were cutting capers on the forecastle - and in the waist to some queer music that was coming out - of the darkness upon the booms. It was strange enough to - see their whiskered faces revolving in the weak, illusive - light, to witness apparitions of knobs and warts and wrinkles - storm-darkened to the hue of the shell of a walnut showing - out for an instant to the glare of a lantern. There was great - laughter that way and a jovial growling of voices. I believe - the sailors had got, with the captain’s leave, some of the - women of the steerage passengers to dance with, and their - happiness was very great; for give Jack a fiddle, and a girl - to twirl to the sawing of it, and a drink of rum and water to - fill up the short measures of his breathing-times, and he will - ask for no other paradise ashore or afloat. - - Much was made of old Captain Bow. He looked as if he had taken - all day to dress himself, so skewered was he in a garb of the - old school; tail-coat, a frill, a collar half way the height of - the back of his head, buff waistcoat, tight pantaloons; shoes - like pumps, and a heavy ground-tackle of seals dangling from - the rim of his vest. - - “Captain shows nobly to-night, sir,” said the chief mate to me. - - “Ay!” said I, “little enough of the salt in _him_ you’d think.” - - “He dances well enough for an old shellback,” said the mate. - “A man needs a ship for a dancing-master to teach him how to - spread his toes as the Captain does.” - - “Aren’t you dancing?” I asked. - - “No, it’s my watch on deck. I’ve got the ship to look after. - But it’s little watching she wants. Oh, blow, my sweet breeze, - blow!” he whispered, with a pensive cock of his eye at the sea - through a space between the flags. “It isn’t to be the only - birthday aboard us, I allow, Mr. Catesby. If the cockroaches - below aren’t celebrating some festival of their own, then are - we manned with marines, sir. Phew! the Hooghley of a dead night - with bodies foul of the cable and the gangway ladder is a joke - to this. What’s become of the wind? What’s become of the wind?” - and he stole away to the wheel softly whistling between his - teeth. - - It was too sultry to eat; the very drink you got was so warm - that you swallowed it only for thirst, and put down the glass - with a sort of loathing. When I took a peep through the after - skylight and saw the tables laid out for supper for the special - birthday feast that was to be eaten, my tongue did cleave to - the roof of my mouth, and I felt as if I should never be able - to eat another blessed morsel of food this side the grave. - Every dish looked exhausted with perspiration; the hams were - melting, the fowls shone like varnish, much that had come solid - to the table was now fluid. However I was one of the committee - and it would not do for me to be absent, so when the bell rang - to announce supper and the music stopped, I stepped up to the - wife of a colonel and, giving her my arm, fell in with the - procession and entered the cabin. - - It is a picture I need but close my eyes to vividly witness - anew. There were two tables, one athwartships well aft, and the - other running pretty nearly down the whole length of the cabin. - The interior was lighted with elegant silver lamps, and along - the length of the ceiling there was a beautiful embellishment - of ferns, goldfish in globes, and so forth. On either hand went - a range of berths, the bulkheads richly inlaid, the panels - hand-painted, and there was many another little touch full - of grace and taste. Far aft, at the centre of the athwartship - table—his quaint, old-fashioned figure showing like a cameo - upon the dull ground of the bulkhead behind him—sat the - captain, talking to right and left, with a dry, kind smile - lying wrinkled upon his face like the meshes of a South African - spider’s web. On either side of him went a row of passengers, - down to the foot of the table that was over against the cuddy - front. The ladies’ dresses were handsome; we were an assemblage - of rich folks for the most part, and had thoroughly overhauled - our wardrobes that we might do fitting honour to this very - interesting occasion. Jewels sparkled in white ears, and upon - white wrists and fingers. We were not lacking in turbans and - feathers, in thick gold chains, immense brooches bearing - the heads of the living or of the departed. There was much - popping of champagne corks, much rushing about of stewards, - much laughter, and a busy undertone of talk. The memory of the - picture dwells in me with an odd pertinacity. I had shared - in more than one festive scene on board ship in my time, but - in none do I recall the significance which the framework of - vast ocean solitude outside, of the deep mystery of the wide - moonlit shadow, and the oppressive peace of the tropical night, - communicated to this one. It might have been the number of - the folks assembled; their gay, and in many instances, even - splendid attire, the essentially shore-going qualities of the - merry-making, clearly defining themselves in the heart of the - deep—like the sight of a house in a flood. In fact the scene - completely dominated all shipboard habits, and the thoughts - which grew out of them. It made every heave of the fabric upon - the weak, black, invisible swell a sort of wonder as though - some novel element were introduced; the familiar creak of a - bulkhead, the faint jar of the rudder upon its post caused one - to start as one would to such things ashore. - - “You are refusing everything the stewards offer you, Mr. - Catesby,” said the colonel’s lady by my side. “You are in love.” - - “I am in a fever, madam,” I replied: “the tropics usually - affect me as a profound passion. In fact I feel as if I could - drown myself.” - - “Why make a voyage to India, then, Mr. Catesby? Is there not - the North-West Passage left to explore, with the great Arctic - Circle to keep ye cool?” - - “Madam,” said I, “I perceive your husband in the act of rising - to make a speech.” - - A short, fiery-faced Irishman, with whiskers like silver wires - projecting cat-like from his cheeks, stood up to propose the - captain’s health. Glasses were filled, and the little colonel - blazed away. When he had made an end (old Bow steadfastly - watching him all the while with a smile of mingled incredulity - and delight), the skipper’s health was drunk with cheers and - to the song of “He’s a jolly good fellow,” the air of which - was caught up by the ship’s company forward, and re-echoed to - the cuddy with hurricane lungs from the forecastle. Then old - Bow rose straight and unbending in his tightly-buttoned coat - on to his thin shanks; but at that moment there was a movement - of a little group of the stewards at my end of the table; the - colonel’s lady by my side was whispering with animation to - what was in those days called a “griffin,” a handsome young - fellow seated on her left; and being half dead with heat, and - in no temper to listen to old Bow, whose preliminary coughs and - slow gaze around the table threatened a very heavy bestowal - of tediousness, I slipped off my chair, sneaked through the - jumble of stewards, and in a moment was ascending the poop - ladder, breathing with delight the night atmosphere of the sea, - that tasted cold as a draught of mountain water after the hot, - food-flavoured air of the cuddy. - - Forward the sailors had come to a stand, and were talking, - smoking, drinking, and eating by the will-of-the-wisp glare of - the few lanterns which hung that way. There was nobody aft, - saving the helmsman and the second officer, who had turned out - to relieve the chief mate that he might join the supper party. - He lay over the rail abreast of the wheel, and I could hear - him quietly singing. The lanterns burnt brightly; against the - brilliant atmospheric haze of moonshine to larboard—_larboard_ - was then the word—the bunting which walled the poop glistened - like oiled paper. The monotonous voice of old Bow was still - returning thanks; again and again his deep sea notes were - broken by loud cheers. The life below, the speechifying and the - huzzaing there, the brightness of the light, the frequent chink - of glasses, put a wild sort of mocking look into the emptiness - of this deck with its lanterns swaying to the roll of the ship, - and the motionless figure of the steersman showing unreal, like - some image of the fancy, down at the end of the vessel, through - the vista of bunting and kaleidoscopic light and white awning - framing a star-studded square of dark ether over the taffrail. - - Yet I still wanted air. The poop was smothered up with flags - and canvas; the cross-jack was furled, spanker brailed up, - and the mainsail hung from its yard in festoons to the grip - of its gear. There was no wing of canvas therefore near the - deck to fan a draught along, and so it came into my head to - jump aloft and see what sort of coolness of dew and dusk were - to be had in the maintop. I got on to the rail and laid hold - of the main shrouds, and leisurely travelled up the ratlines. - Methought it was as good as climbing a hill for the change of - temperature the ascent gave me. The iron of the futtock shrouds - went through and through me in a delicious chill, and with the - smallest possible effort I swung myself over the rim of the - top and stood upon the platform, rapturously drinking in the - gushings of air which came in little gusts to my face out of - the pendulum beat of the great maintopsail against the mast to - the tender swing of the tall fabric. - - If ever you need to know what a deep sense of loneliness is - like, go aloft in a dead calm when the shadow of the night - lies heavy upon the breathless ocean, and from the altitude of - top, cross-tree or yard, look down and around you! The spirit - of life is always strong in the breeze or in the gale of wind. - There are voices in the rigging: there is the organ note of the - billow flung foaming from the ship’s side; there is a tingling - vitality in the long floating rushes of the fabric bursting - through one head of yeast into another. All this is company, - along with the spirit shapes of the loose scud flying wild, or - the sociable procession of large, slow clouds. But up aloft - in such a clock-calm as lay upon the deep that night you are - _alone_! and the lonelier for the distant sounds which rise - from the decks—the dim laugh, the faint call, liker to the - memories of such thing than the reality. - - The body of the ship lay thin and long far beneath me like a - black plank, pallid aft with the spread of awning, with an - oblong haze of light in the main hatch where the grating was - lifted, and dots of weak flame from the lanterns forward, - resembling bulbous corposants hovering about the forecastle - rail. The ship’s hull, by the broad raining of the moonshine, - was complexioned to the aspect of the leaf of the silver - tree when lighted by the stars. Yet as she slightly rolled, - breaking the black water from her side into ripples, you saw - the phosphor starting and winking in the ebony profound there, - like the reflection of sheet-lightning. Exquisitely lulling - was the tender pinion-like flapping of the light, moonlit - canvas, soaring spire-fashion in ivory spaces high above my - head, with the pattering of dew falling from the cloths as they - swayed. A sound of thin cheering from the cuddy floated to me; - presently a fiddle struck up somewhere forwards, and a manly - voice began _Tom Bowline_. Now, thought I, if they would only - strip the poop of its awning, that I might see them dancing by - the lantern light when supper was over, and they had fallen to - caper-cutting afresh! What a scene of pigmy revelry _then_! - What a vision of Lilliputian enjoyment! - - I seated myself Lascar-fashion and lighted a cigar. Could I - have distinguished the figure of a midshipman below I should - have hailed him, and sent down the end of a line for a draught - of seltzer and brandy. But the repose up here, the dewy - coolness, the royal solitude of the still, majestic night, with - sentinel stars drowsily winking along the sea-line, and the - white planet of the moon sailing northwards into the west amid - the wide eclipse of its own soft silver glory, were all that my - fevered being could pray for. - - It is as likely as not that after a little I was nodding - somewhat drowsily. I recollect that my cigar went out, and - that on sucking at it and finding it out I would not be at - the trouble of lighting it again. I say I might have been - half-asleep sitting, still Lascar-fashion, with my back against - the head of the lower-mast, when on a sudden, something—soft, - indeed, but amazingly heavy—struck me full on the face and - chest, and fell upon my knees where it lay like a small - feather-bed. But for my back being supported, I must have been - stretched at full length and, for all I know, knocked clean - overboard, or, worse still, hurled headlong to the deck. - - [Illustration] - - I was so confounded by the shock and the blow that for some - moments I sat goggling the object, that lay as lead upon my - knees, like a fool. I then threw it from me, and stood up. It - fell where a slant of moonshine lay clear upon the side of the - top, and I perceived that it was a big sea-bird, as large as a - noddy, white as snow saving the margin of its wings, which were - of a velvet black. It had a long, curved beak, and I gathered - from the look of one of its pinions, which overlaid the - body as though broken, that its width of wing must have come - proportionately very near to that of the albatross. I could see - by the moonshine that the eyes were closing by the slow drawing - down of a white skin. The creature did not stir. I stood - staring at it full five minutes, gripping the topmast rigging - to provide against its rolling me out of the top should it rise - suddenly and strike out with its wings, but there was no stir - of life in it. It was then that I caught sight of something - which seemed to glitter in the thick down upon its breast like - a dewdrop on thistledown. It was a little square case of white - metal, apparently a tobacco-box, secured to the bird’s neck. - By this time the passengers had come up from supper, and were - dancing again on the poop. I could see nothing for the awning, - but the music was audible enough, and I could also catch the - sliding sounds of feet travelling over the hard planks, and the - gay laughter of hearts warmed by several toasts. The Jacks were - also at work forward. An occasional note of tipsy merriment, I - would think, rose up from that part of the ship; but there was - no lack of earnestness in the toe and heeling there; the slap - of the sailors’ feet upon the decks sounded like the clapping - of hands; and I could just catch a glimpse of the figure of the - fiddler in the obscurity which overlaid the booms quivering and - swaying as he sawed, as though the noise he made was driving - him crazy. - - I seized the big bird by the legs and found its weight by - no means so considerable as I should have supposed from the - blow it dealt me. So, tightly binding its webbed feet with my - pocket-handkerchief, that they might serve me as a handle, - I dropped with this strange, dead sea-messenger through the - wide square of the lubber’s hole into the main shrouds, and - leisurely descended. The chief mate stood at the head of the - starboard poop ladder as I reached the rail. - - “Hillo!” he called out, “good sport there, Mr. Catesby. What - star have you been shooting over pray? And what _is_ it, may I - ask? _turkey?_” - - A shout of this sort was enough to bring everybody running - to look. The music ceased, the dancing abruptly stopped. In - a moment I was surrounded by a crowd of ladies and gentlemen - shoving and exclaiming as they gathered about the skylight upon - which I had laid the big sea-fowl. - - “What is it, Mr. Catesby? My stars! a handsome bird surely,” - exclaimed Captain Bow. - - “Oh, Captain,” cried a young lady, “is the beautiful creature - dead really?” - - “See!” shouted a military man, “the creature’s breast is - decorated with a crucifix. No, damme, it’s a trick of the - light. What is it, though?” - - “A silver pouncebox, I declare,” exclaimed a tall, stout lady, - with a knowing nod of the feather in her head. - - “A sailor’s nickel tobacco-box more like, ma’am,” observed the - mate, “with some castaway’s writing inside, or that bird’s a - crocodile.” - - “Let’s have the story of the thing, Mr. Catesby,” said the - captain. - - I briefly stated that I had ascended to the maintop to breathe - the cool air up there and that whilst I was nodding the bird - had dashed against me and fallen dead across my knees. - - “Oh, how dreadful!” “Oh how interesting!” “Oh, I wonder the - fright didn’t make you faint, Mr. Catesby!” and so on, and so - on from the young ladies. - - “Shall I cast the seizing of the box adrift, sir?” said the - mate. - - “Ay,” responded the captain. - - The officer with his knife severed the laniard of sennit and - made to lift the lid of the box. But this proved a long job, - inexpressibly vexatious to the thirsty expectations of the - onlookers owing to the lid fitting so tightly as to resist, as - though soldered, the blade of the knife. When opened at last, - there was disclosed, sure enough, inside, a piece of paper - folded, apparently a leaf from a logbook. - - “Bring a lantern, some one,” roared the mate. - - Some one held a light close to the officer, who exclaimed, - after opening the sheet and gazing at it a little, “Any lady or - gentleman here understand Spanish?” - - “I do,” exclaimed the handsome young “griffin” who had sat next - to the colonel’s lady at table. - - “Will you kindly translate this then?” said the mate, handing - him the letter. - - “It’s French,” said the young fellow; “no matter; I can read - French.” - - He ran his eye over the page, coughed, and read aloud as - follows:— - - “_La Mulette_, June 12th, 18—. This brig was dismasted in a - hurricane ten days since. Three of us survive. At the time - of our destruction our latitude was 8° south, and longitude - 81° 10’ east. Should this missive fall into the hands of any - master or mate of a ship he is implored in the name of God and - of the Holy Virgin to search for and to succour us. He will be - richly——” - - “Last words illegible,” said the young fellow, holding the - paper close to his nose. - - “Humph!” exclaimed Captain Bow. He hummed over the latitude and - longitude, and addressing the mate said, “The wreck should not - be far off, Mr. Pike.” - - “Oh, captain, _will_ you search for the poor, poor creatures?” - cried one of the younger of the married ladies. - - “Twelfth of June the date is, hey?” said the captain, “and this - is the eighteenth. In six days the deluge, madam—at sea. Well, - we shall keep a bright look-out, I promise you. D’ye want to - keep the bird, Mr. Catesby?” - - “No,” said I, “the box will suffice as a memorial.” - - “Then, Mr. Pike, let it be hove overboard,” said the captain. - - “Strike up ‘_Tom Bowline_’ for its interment,” cried the little - Irish Colonel, “‘_Faithful below he did his duty_’ you know. - Nearly knocked poor Catesby overboard, though. What is it, a - Booby?” - - “How _can_ ye be so rude, Desmond?” said his wife. - - “’Tis the bird I mane, my love,” he answered. - - The girls would not let it be hove overboard for a good bit. - They hung over the snow-white creature caressing its delicate - down and strong feathers with fingers whose jewels glittered - upon the plumage like raindrops in moonlight. However ere long - the music started anew. The people that still hovered about the - bird drew off, and the mate sneaking the noble creature to the - side quietly let it fall. - - Well, next day, I promise you, this incident of the bird gave - us plenty to talk about. In fact it even swamped the memory of - the dance and the supper, and again and again you would see - one or another of the ladies sending a wistful glance round - the sea-line, in search of the dismasted brig—as often looking - astern as ahead, whilst one or two of the young fellows amongst - us crept very gingerly aloft, holding on as they went as though - they would squeeze all the tar out of the shrouds, just to - make sure that there was nothing in sight. However, there was - a professional look-out kept forward. I heard the captain give - directions to the officer of the watch to send a man on to - the fore-royal yard from time to time to report if there was - anything in view; but as to altering his course with the chance - of picking up the Frenchman, _that_ was not to be expected in - old Bow, whose business was to get to Bombay as fast as the - wind would blow him along; and indeed, seeing that the _Ruby_ - had already been hard upon four months from the river Thames, - you will suppose that, concerned as we might all feel about the - fate of _La Mulette_, the softest-hearted amongst us would have - been loth to lose even a day in a search that was tolerably - certain to prove fruitless—as the mate proved to a group of us - whilst he stood pointing out our situation and the supposed - position of the brig upon a chart of the Indian Ocean lying - open upon the skylight. - - We got no wind till daybreak of the morning following - the dance, and then a pleasant air came along out of - south-south-east, which enabled the _Ruby_ to expand her - stunsails and she went floating over the long sapphire swells - of the fervid ocean under an overhanging cloud of cloths which - whitened the water to starboard of her, till it looked like - a sheet of quicksilver draining there. This breeze held and - shoved the ponderous bows of the Indiaman through it at the - rate of some four or five miles in the hour. So we jogged - along, till it came to the fourth day from the date of my - adventure in the maintop. The fiery breeze had by this time - crept round to off the starboard bow, and the ship was sailing - along with her yards as fore and aft as they would lie. It was - a little before the hour of noon. The captain and mates were - ogling the sun through their sextants on either hand the poop, - for the luminary hung pretty nearly over the royal truck with - a wake of flaming gold under him broadening to our cutwater, - so that the _Ruby_ looked to be stemming some burning river of - glory flowing through a strange province of dark blue land. - - Suddenly high aloft from off the maintop-gallant-yard—whose arm - was jockeyed by the figure of a sailor doing something with the - clew of the royal—came a clear, distant cry of “Sail ho!” and I - saw the man levelling his marline-spike at an object visible to - him a little to the right of the flying-jibboom end. - - “Aloft there!” bawled the mate, putting his hand to the side of - his mouth, “how does she show, my lad?” - - “’Tis something black, sir,” cried the man, making a binocular - glass of his fists. “’Tis well to the starboard of the dazzle - upon the water. It is too blinding that way to make sure.” - - “Something black!” shouted the little colonel, whose Christian - name was Desmond, “_La Mulette_, Captain Bow, without doubt. - Anybody feel inclined to bet?” - - Some wagering followed, whilst I stepped below for a telescope - of my own, and then went forward and got into the fore-rigging, - with the glass slung over my shoulders. There was no need to - ascend above the top. I levelled the telescope when I gained - that platform, and instantly saw the object with a handbreadth - of the gleam of the blue sea past her, showing that she was - well this side of the horizon from the elevation of the - foremast, and that she would be visible from the poop in a - little while. There was but a very light swell on; the spires - of the _Ruby_ floated steadily through the blue atmosphere. I - had no difficulty in commanding the object therefore, and the - powerful lenses of my telescope brought her close. It was a - wreck, a sheer hulk indeed, and without a shadow of a doubt _La - Mulette_. Her masts were gone, though a fragment of bowsprit - remained. Whole lengths of her bulwark were apparently crushed - flat to the covering-board; nevertheless, the hulk preserved - a sort of rakish aspect, a piratical sheer of long, low side. - “Let her prove what she will,” thought I, “I am a Dutchman if - yonder craft hasn’t carried a bitter and poisonous sting in her - head and tail in her time.” - - They had “made” eight bells on the poop, and the mellow chimes - were sounding upon the quarter-deck, and echoing in the silent - squares of canvas, as I descended the rigging and made my way - aft. I told Captain Bow that the craft ahead was a hulk, and - without doubt _La Mulette_; on hearing which the passengers - went in a rush to the side and stood staring as though the - object was close aboard, some of them pointing and swearing - they could see her, though at the rate at which we were shoving - through it she was a fair hour and a half yet behind the - horizon from the altitude of the poop. - - However, when I came up from tiffin some little while before - two o’clock, the hulk lay bare upon the sea over the starboard - cat-head, with a light like the flash of a gun breaking from - her wet black side to the languid roll of her sunwards, and a - crowd of steerage-passengers and sailors forward staring at - her. At any time a wreck at sea, washing about in the heart of - some great ocean solitude, will appeal with solemn significance - to the eye of one sailing past it. What dreadful tragedy has - she been the little theatre of? you wonder. You speculate upon - the human anguish she memorializes, upon the dark and scaring - horrors her shape _may_ entomb. But it is a sight to appeal - with added force to people who have been at sea for many long - weeks, without so much as the glimpse of a sail for days at a - time to break the enormous monotony of the ocean, or to furnish - a fugitive human interest to the ever-receding sea-line—that - most mocking of all earthly limitations. - - “Anybody see any signs of life aboard of her?” asked Captain - Bow. “My sight is not what it was.” - - There were many sharp young eyes amongst us, and some powerful - glasses; but there was nothing living to be seen. She looked - to have been a vessel of about two hundred and fifty tons. Her - copper sheathing rose to the bends, and was fresh and bright. - She had apparently been pierced for ten guns, but this could - be only conjecture, seeing that her bulwarks had been torn to - pieces by the fall of her spars. There was a length of topmast, - or what-not, riding by its gear alongside of her, with a raffle - of canvas and running rigging littering the fore-part. Her - wheel stood and her rudder seemed sound. She was flush-decked, - but all erections such as caboose, companion, and so forth were - gone. Yet she sat with something of buoyancy on the water, and - her rolling was without the stupefaction you notice in hulls - gradually filling. As her stern lifted, the words, _La Mulette, - Havre_, rose in long, white letters upon the counter, with a - sort of ghastliness in the blank stare of them by contrast with - the delicate blue of the sea. Old Bow hailed her loudly; then - the mate roared to her with the voice of a bull, but to no - purpose. I said to the second mate, who stood alongside of me - at the rail— - - “Yonder to be sure is the ship from which the sea-bird brought - the letter the other night. There were three living men aboard - her a few days ago. Are they below, think you?” - - “Been taken off, sir, I expect,” he answered. “Or dead of - hunger, or thirst, and lying corpses in the cabin. Or maybe - they drowned themselves. Mr. Pike’s hail was something to bring - a dying man out of his bunk to see what made it. No, sir, - yonder’s an abandoned craft or a coffin anyway.” - - Some ladies standing near overheard this, and at once went to - work to induce the captain to bring the _Ruby_ to a stand, - and send a boat. I listened to them entreating him; he shook - his head good-naturedly, with a glance into the north-western - quarter of the sea. “Oh, but, dear captain,” the ladies - reasoned, “after that letter, you know, as though you were - appointed by Providence to receive it—surely, surely, you will - not sail away from that wreck without making quite sure there - is nobody on board her! Only conceive that the three poor - creatures may be dying in the cabin, that they may have heard - your cry and Mr. Pike’s, that they may be able even to _see_ - this ship through a porthole, and yet be too weak to crawl on - deck to show themselves!” What followed was lost to me by the - second mate beginning to talk:— - - “She’ll have been a French privateer,” he said to me. “What - a superb run, sir! Something in her heyday not to be easily - shaken of a merchantman’s skirts. Of course she’ll have thrown - all her guns overboard in the hurricane. Does the capt’n - mean to overhaul her, I wonder,” he continued, throwing a - look aloft. “He’ll have to bear a hand and make up his mind - or we shall be losing her anon in yonder thickness. Mark the - depression in the ocean line nor’-west, sir. D’ye notice the - swell gathers weight too, and there’s a dustiness in the face - of the sky that way that’s better than a hint that the Bay of - Bengal is not so many leagues distant ahead as it was a month - ago.” - - He was rattling on in this fashion, more like one thinking - aloud than talking to a companion, when there was a sudden - clapping of hands among the ladies who surrounded the captain, - and at the same moment I heard him tell the mate to swing the - topsail to the mast and get one of the starboard quarter-boats - manned. All was then bustle for a few minutes, the mate - bawling, the sailors singing out at the ropes, men manœuvring - with the boats’ gripes and falls. I went up to the captain. - - “Who has charge of the boat?” said I. - - “Second mate,” he answered. - - “May I accompany him, captain?” - - “Certainly, Mr. Catesby. I will only ask you, should you board - her, to look alive. The weather shows a rather suspicious front - down there,” indicating with a nod of his head the quarter to - which the second mate had called my attention. “But, bless my - heart! there’ll be nothing to see, nothing worth sending for. - It is only to please the ladies, you know.” - - I sprang into the boat as she swang at the davits. - - It was a trip, a treat, a pleasant break for me; besides, my - being the first to receive the letter gave me a kind of title - as it were to the adventure. - - “There’s room for others,” said the second mate standing erect - in the stern sheets with a wistful glance at a knot of pretty - faces at the rail. - - There was no response from male or female. “Lower away now - lively, lads,” cried the mate. Down sank the boat, the blocks - were dexterously unhooked, out flashed the oars and away we - went. - - I couldn’t have guessed what weight there was in this ocean - swell till I felt the volume of it from the low seat of the - ship’s quarter-boat. The _Ruby_ looked to be rolling on it as - heavily again as she seemed to have been when I was on her - deck, and the beat of her canvas against the mast rang in - volleys through the air like the explosion of batteries up - there. The wreck came and went as we sank and soared, and I - caught the second mate eying her somewhat anxiously as though - theorizing to himself upon the safest dodge to board her. - She was farther off than I should have deemed possible, so - deceptive is distance at sea, and though the five seamen pulled - cheerily, the job of measuring the interval between the two - craft, what with the voluminous heave of the swell running at - us, and what with the roasting sunshine that lay like a sense - of paralysis in one’s back bone, proved very tedious to my - impatience to come at the hulk and explore her. As we swept - round under her stern, supposing that her starboard side would - be clear of wreckage, I glanced at the _Ruby_ and saw that they - were clewing up her royals, and hauling down her flying jib - with hands on the cross-jack-yard rolling the sail up. There - were spars and a litter of trailing gear on either side the - hulk; every roll was a spiteful snapping at the ropes with a - drag of the floating sticks which sometimes made the water foam. - - “We must board her astern,” said the mate “and stand by for a - handsome dip of the counter.” - - Our approach was very cautious; indeed it was necessary to - manœuvre very gingerly indeed. We got on to the quarter, and - watching his chance the bow oarsman cleverly sprang through - the crushed rail as the deck buoyantly swang down to the heave - of the boat, carrying the end of the painter with him; the - mate followed, and I after a tolerably long interval, wanting - perhaps the nerve and certainly the practised limbs of the - sailors. In truth I may as well say here that I should have - stuck to the boat and waited for the mate’s report but for - the dislike of being laughed at when I returned. I very well - knew I should not be spared, least of all by those amongst the - passengers who would have forfeited fifty pounds rather than - quitted the ship. - - The hull had a desperately wrecked look inboards with the - mess of ropes, staves, jagged ends, crushed rails, rents - manifesting the fury of the hurricane. I swept a glance along - in expectation of beholding a dead body, or, if you will, some - scarcely living though yet breathing man; but nothing of the - kind was to be seen. The mate hung his head over the companion - hatch from which the cover had been clean razed and peered - down, then shouted and listened. But no other sound followed - than the long moan and huge washing sob of the swell brimming - to the wash-streak with a dim sort of choking, gurgling noise - as of water streaming from side to side in the hold. - - “Hardly worth while exploring those moist bowels, I think, - sir,” said the mate. - - “Oh, yes,” said I, “if we don’t take a peep under deck what - will there be to tell? This is a quest of the ladies’ making, - remember, and it must be a complete thing or ‘stand by’ as you - sailors say.” - - “Right you are, sir,” said he, “and so here goes,” and with - that he put his foot upon the companion ladder and dropped into - the cabin. - - I followed at his heels, and both of us came to a stand at the - bottom of the steps whilst we stared round. There was plenty of - light to see by streaming down through the skylight aperture - and the hatch. The cabin was a plain, snuff-coloured room with - a few sleeping berths running forward, a rough table somewhat - hacked and cut about as if with the slicing of tobacco, a row - of lockers on either hand, a stand of firearms right aft and - some twenty cutlasses curiously stowed in a sort of brackets - under the ceiling or upper deck. Hot as it was above, the - cabin struck chill as though it were an old well. Indeed you - saw that it had been soused over and over again by the seas - which had swept the vessel, and there was a briny, seaweedy - flavour in the atmosphere of it that made you think of a cave - deep down in a sea-fronting cliff. We looked into the sleeping - berths going forward to where a moveable bulkhead stopped the - road. It was not easy to walk; the increasing weight of the - swell was defined by the heavy though comparatively buoyant - rolling of the hull. The deck went in slopes like the roof of - a house from side to side with now and again an ugly jerk that - more than once came near to throwing me when a sudden yawn - forced the dismasted fabric into a swift recovery. - - “There’s nobody aft here, anyway,” said the mate; “no use - troubling ourselves to look for her papers, I think, sir.” - - “No; but this is only one end of the ship,” I answered. “There - may be a discovery to make forward. Can’t we unship that - bulkhead there, and so get into the ’tween-decks?” - - We laid hold of the frame, and after peering a bit, for this - part of the cabin lay in gloom, we found that it stood in - grooves, and without much trouble we slided it open, and the - interior to as far as a bulkhead that walled off a bit of - forecastle lay clear before us in the daylight shining through - the main-hatch. Here were a number of hammocks dangling from - the deck, and some score or more of seamen’s chests and bags - in heaps, some of them split open, with quantities of rough - wearing apparel scattered about, in so much that I never - could have imagined a scene of wilder disorder, nor one more - suggestive of hurry and panical consternation and delirious - headlong behaviour. - - “Nobody here, sir,” said the mate. - - “No,” I answered; “I suppose her people left her in their - boats, and that one of the wretches who were forced to remain - behind wrote the letter we received the other night.” - - “At sea,” said the mate, “there is no imagining how matters - come about. I allow that the three men have been taken off - by some passing vessel. Anyway, we’ve done our bit, and the - capt’n, I expect, ’ll be waiting for us. Thunder! how she - rolls,” he cried, as a very heavy lurch sent us both reeling - towards the side of the craft. - - “Hark!” cried I, “we are hailed from the deck.” - - “Below there!” shouted a voice in the companion hatch. “They’ve - fired a gun aboard the Indiaman, sir, and have run the ensign - up half-mast high. The weather looks mighty queer, sir.” - - “Ha!” cried the mate; “come along, Mr. Catesby.” - - We walked cautiously and with difficulty aft, gained the - companion ladder and ascended. My instant glance went to - the _Ruby_. She had furled her mainsail and fore and mizzen - topgallant-sails, hauled down her lighter staysails and big - standing jib, and as I glanced at her a gun winked in a - quarter-deck port, and the small thunder of it rolled sulkily - up against the wind. In fact, whilst we were below, the breeze - had chopped clean round and the _Ruby_ was to leeward of the - wreck, with a very heavy swell rolling along its former course, - the wind dead the other way, beginning to whiten the ridges on - each huge round-backed fold, and a white thickness—a flying - squall of vapour it looked to me, with a seething and creaming - line of water along the base of it as though it was something - solid that was coming along—sweeping within half-a-mile of - the wreck right down upon us. The mate sent a look at it and - uttered a cry. - - “Haul the boat alongside,” he shouted to the fellows in her. - “Handsomely now, lads. Stand by to jump into her,” he cried to - the seaman who had been the first to spring on board the wreck - with the end of the line. - - They brought the boat humming and buzzing to the counter; - the sailor standing on the taffrail plumped into her like a - cannon-shot; ’twas wonderful he didn’t scuttle her. The mate - whipping the painter off the pin or whatever it was that it - had been belayed to, held it by a turn whilst he bawled to - me to watch my chance and jump. But the wreck lying dead in - the trough was rolling in a quite frenzied way, like a see-saw - desperately worked. Her movements, combined with the soaring - and falling of the boat, were absolutely confounding. I would - gather myself together for a spring and then, before I could - make it, the boat was sliding as it might seem to me twenty or - thirty feet deep and away. - - “Jump, for God’s sake, sir!” cried the mate. - - “I don’t mean to break my neck,” I answered, irritable with the - nervous flurry that had come to me with a sudden abominable - sense of incapacity and helplessness. - - As I spoke the words, sweep! came the white smother off the sea - over us with a spiteful yell of wind of a weight that smote - the cheek a blow which might have forced the strongest to turn - his back. The hissing, and seething, and crackling of the - spume of the first of the squall was all about us in a breath, - and, in the beat of a heart, the _Ruby_, and the ocean all her - way vanished in the wild and terrifying eclipse of the thick, - silvery, howling, steam-like mist. - - “By ——, I have done it _now_!” cried the mate. - - The end of the painter had been dragged from his hand or he had - let it fall! And the wind catching the boat blew her over the - swell like the shadow of a cloud. The seamen threw their oars - over and headed for us, their faces pale as those of madmen. - - “They’ll never stem this weather,” cried the mate; “follow me, - Mr. Catesby, or we are dead men.” - - He tore off his coat, kicked off his boots and went overboard - without another word. - - _Follow him!_ To the bottom, indeed! but nowhere else, for I - could not swim a stroke. But that was not quite it. Had I had - my senses I might have grasped the first piece of wreckage I - could put my hand upon and gone after him with it to paddle - and hold on to till I was picked up. But all this business - coming upon us so suddenly, along with the sudden blinding of - me by the vapour, the distracting yelling of the wind and the - sickening bewilderment caused by the wreck’s violent rolling, - seemed to have driven my wits clean out of my head. The boat - was scarcely more than a smudge in the thickness, vanishing and - showing as she swept up and rushed down the liquid acclivities, - held with her bow towards the hulk by the desperately-plied - oars of the rowers. The mate was borne down rapidly towards - her. I could just see three of the sailors leaning over the - side to drag him out of the water; the next instant the little - fabric had vanished in the thickness, helplessly and with - horrible rapidity blown out of sight the moment the men ceased - rowing to rescue their officer. - - I do not know how long all this may have occupied; a few - minutes maybe sufficed for the whole of the tragic passage. I - stood staring and staring, incredulous of the truth of what had - befallen me, and then with an inexpressible sickness of heart I - flung myself down upon the deck under the lee of a little space - of bulwark, too dizzy and weak with the horror that possessed - me to maintain my footing on that wildly swaying platform. - - I had met in my travels with but one specimen of such weather - as this; it was off the Cape of Good Hope to the westward; the - ship was under topmast and topgallant studding sails, when, - without an interval of so much as twenty seconds of calm, she - was taken right aback by a wind that came with the temper of - half a gale in it, whilst as if by magic a fog, white and dense - as wool, was boiling and shrieking all about her. - - For some time my consternation was so heavy that I sat - mechanically staring into that part of the thickness where the - boat had disappeared, without giving the least heed to the sea - or to the wreck. It was _then_ blowing in earnest, the ocean - still densely shrouded with flying vapour, and an ugly bit of a - sea racing over the swell that rolled its volumes to windward. - A smart shock and fall of water on to the forecastle startled - me into sudden perception of a real and imminent danger. The - fore-scuttle was closed, but the main and companion hatchways - yawned open to the weather; there were no bulwarks worth - talking of to increase the wreck’s height of side, and to - hinder the free tumbling of the surge on to the decks, so if - the wind increased and the sea grew heavier, the hulk must - inevitably fill and go down like a thunderbolt! - - It would be idle to try to express the thoughts which filled - me. I was like one stunned: now casting an eye at the sea to - observe if the billows were increasing, now with a heart of - lead watching the water frothing upon the deck, as the hull - heaved from one side to the other; then straining my sight - with a mad passion of eagerness into the vapour that shut off - all view of the ocean to within a cable’s length of me. There - was nothing to be done. Even could I have met with tarpaulins, - there was no sailor’s skill in me to spread and secure them - over the open hatches. However, when an hour had passed in this - way, I took notice of a small failure of the wind, though there - was no lightening of the impenetrable mist. The folds of the - swell had diminished, and the sea was running steadily; the - hull with her broadside dead in the trough, rose and fell with - regularity, and though at long intervals the surge struck her - bow, and blew in crystals over the head, or tumbled in scores - of bucketfuls upon the deck, nothing more than spray wetted the - after-part of her. - - It was now six o’clock in the evening. In two hours’ time the - night would have come down, and if the weather did not clear, - the blackness would be that of the tomb. What would the _Ruby_ - do? Remain hove-to and wait for moonlight or for daybreak to - seek for me? A fragment of comfort I found in remembering that - the wreck’s position would be known to Captain Bow and his - mates, so that their search for me, if they searched at all, - ought not to prove fruitless; though to be sure much would - depend upon the drift of the hulk. Presently, fearing that - there might be no water or provisions on board, I was seized - with a sudden thirst, bred by the mere apprehension that I - might come to want a drink. There was still light enough to - enable me to search the interior, and now I suppose something - of my manhood must have returned to me, for I made up my mind - to waste no moment of the precious remaining time of day in - imaginations of horror and of death and in dreams of desperate - despondency. I went on my hands and knees to the hatch, lest - if I stood up I should be knocked down by the abrupt rolling - of the craft, and entered the cabin. On deck all was naked and - sea-swept from the taffrail to the “eyes,” and if there were - aught of drink or of food to be had it must be sought below. I - recollected that one of the forward berths or cabins, which the - second mate and I had looked into, had shown in the gloom as a - sort of pantry; that is to say, in peering over my companion’s - shoulders, I had caught a glimpse of crockery on shelves, the - outlines of jars and so forth. But the inspection had been very - swift, scarce more than a glance. I made for this cabin now, - very well remembering that it was the last of a row of three - or four on the starboard side. I opened the door, and secured - it by its hook to the bulkhead that I might see, and after - rummaging a little I found a cask of ship’s bread, a small cask - (like a harness cask) a quarter full of raw pickled pork, a - jar of vinegar, two large jars of red wine, and best of all, - a small barrel about half full of fresh water, slung against - the bulkhead, with a little wooden tap fixed in it, for the - convenience as I supposed of drawing for cabin use. There were - other articles of food, such as flour, pickles, dried fruit, - and so on; the catalogue would be tedious, nor does my memory - carry it. - - I poured some wine into a tin pannikin, and found it a very - palatable, sound claret. I mixed me a draught with cold - water, and ate a biscuit with a little slice of some kind of - salt sausage, of which there lay a lump in a dish, and found - myself extraordinarily refreshed. I cannot tell you indeed - how comforted I was by this discovery of provisions and fresh - water, for now I guessed that if the weather did not drown the - wreck, I might be able to support life on board of her until - the _Ruby_ took me off, which I counted upon happening that - night if the moon shone, or most certainly next morning at - latest. My heart however sank afresh when I regained the deck. - The sudden change from the life, the cheerfulness, the security - of the Indiaman, to _this_—“Oh, my God! my God!” I remember - exclaiming as I sank down under the lee of the fragment of - bulwark, with a wild look around into the thickness and along - the spray-darkened planks of the heaving and groaning derelict. - The loneliness of it! no sounds save the dismal crying of - the wind sweeping on high through the atmosphere, and the - ceaseless seething and hissing of the dark-green frothing seas - swiftly chasing one another out of sight past the wall of - vapour that circled the wreck, with the blank and blinding mist - itself to tighten as with a sensible ligature into unbearable - concentration the dreadful sense of solitude in my soul. - - Slowly the wind softened down, very gradually the seas sank, - and their worrying note of snarling melted into a gentler tone - of fountain-like creaming. But the vapour still filled the air, - and so thick did it hang that, though by my watch I knew it to - be the hour of sundown, I was unable to detect the least tinge - of hectic anywhere, no faintest revelation of the fiery scarlet - light which I knew must be suffusing the clear heavens down - to the easternmost confines above this maddening blindness of - mist. - - Then came the blackness of the night. So unspeakably deep a - dye it was that you would have thought every luminary above - had been extinguished, and that the earth hung motionless in - the sunless opacity of chaos out of which it had been called - into being. The hours passed. I held my seat on the deck with - my back against a bulwark stanchion. It was a warm night with - a character as of the heat of steam owing to the moisture - that loaded and thickened the atmosphere. Sometimes I dozed, - repeatedly starting from a snatch of uneasy slumber to open - my eyes with ever-recurring horror and astonishment upon the - blackness. Gleams of the sea-fire shot out fitfully at times - from the sides of the wreck, and there was nothing else for the - sight to rest upon. At midnight it was blowing a small breeze - of wind and the sea running gently—at midnight I mean as I - could best reckon; but the darkness remained unchanged, and I - might know that the fog was still thick about me by no dimmest - spectre of moon or star showing. - - I then slept, and soundly too, for two or three hours, and when - I awoke it was daylight, the sea clear to the horizon, the sky - a soft liquid blue with masses of white vaporous cloud hanging - under it like giant bursts of steam, and the sun shining - with a sort of misty splendour some degree or two above the - sea-line. There was a pleasant air blowing out of the north, - with power to wrinkle the water and no more. My limbs were so - cramped that for a long while I was incapable of rising; when - at last my legs had recovered their power I stood erect and - swept the ocean with my eyes. But the light blue surface went - in undulations naked to the bend of the heavens on all sides. - I looked and looked again, but to no purpose. I strained my - sight till an intolerable torment in my eyeballs forced me to - close my lids. There was nothing in view. I very well remember - falling on my knees and grovelling upon the deck in the anguish - of my spirit. I had so surely counted on daylight exhibiting - the _Ruby_ somewhere within the circle which enclosed me that - the disappointment which came out of the bald vacancy of the - ocean struck me down like a blow from a hammer. Presently I - lifted up my head and regained my feet, and feeling thirsty - moved with a tread of lead to the yawning hatch, sending the - most passionate, yearning glances seaward as I walked, and - halting again and again to the vision of some imagination of - break in the continuity of the gleaming girdle—some delicate - shoulder of remote cloud, some imaginary speck which dissolved - upon the blue air whilst my gaze was on it. - - I mixed some wine and water, and made a light repast off - biscuit and a piece of Dutch cheese that was on the shelf. I - then thought I would look into the cabins for a chair to sit - upon on deck, for a mattress to lie upon, for something also - that might make me a little awning, and pushed open the door - of the berth immediately facing the pantry, as I may call - it. The wreck was rolling very lightly, and her decks were - now as easy to step as the Indiaman’s. This berth contained - a bunk and bedding, a sailor’s chest, some clothes hanging - against the bulkhead, but nothing to serve my turn. The next - was similarly furnished, saving that here I took notice that a - small quantity of wearing apparel lay about as though scattered - in a hurry, and that the lid of a great box, painted a dark - green with the letter D in white upon it, had been split open - as though the contents were to be rifled, or as though the lock - had resisted and there had been no time to coax it save by a - chopper. I passed into a third cabin. This had some comfort of - equipment in the shape of shelves and a chest of drawers, and - had doubtless been the commander’s. There was a very handsome - telescope on brackets, a few books, a quadrant, a large silver - timepiece, a small compass and one or two other matters of a - like sort upon a little table fitted by hinges in a corner; - there were three chests in a row with a litter of boots and - shoes, a soft hat or two, a large handsome cloak costly with - fur, and so forth, strewed about the deck. - - I was looking with wonder at these articles when my eye - was taken by something bright near the smallest of the - three chests. I picked it up; it was an English sovereign. - Others lay about as though a handful had been clutched and - dropped—here being the same manifestations of terrified hurry - as, it seemed to me, I witnessed in the other cabins. The lid - of the small chest was split in halves, and the chopper that - had seemingly been wielded rested against the side of the - box. A massive padlock was still in the staples. I lifted the - half of the lid and was greatly astonished by the sight of - a quantity of gold pieces lying in divisions of a tray that - fitted the upper part of the chest. Each division contained - coins of various nations. They were all gold pieces—English, - Portuguese, Brazilian and coins of the United States. I prised - open the padlocked part of the lid and seized the tray to lift - it that I might observe what lay underneath. But the weight of - gold in it was so great that I had to exert my utmost strength - to raise one end of the tray on to the edge of the box; which - done, I was able to slide it along till the bottom of the box - was revealed. - - The sight of the gold had filled me with expectations of - beholding some amazing treasure under the tray. What I there - saw was a heap of rough, brick-shaped stuff of a dull, rusty, - reddish tint. I grasped a lump, and though I had never seen - gold in that form before, I was satisfied by the extraordinary - weight of the piece I held that all those coarse, rough, - dull-coloured bricks were of the most precious of metals. I - slided the tray back to its place and let fall the two halves - of the lid with another look around me for any article that - might be useful to me on deck. The excitement kindled by the - spectacle of the gold rapidly died away. I dully mused on it, - so to speak, whilst my eye roamed, languidly speculating about - it, with a strange indifference in my thoughts, concluding - that it represented the privateersman’s sorted plunder; that - in all likelihood when the rush had been made to the boats one - or more had split open this chest to fill their pockets, but - had been obliged to fly for their lives ere they could find - time for more than a scrambling clutch at the tray. But it was - the contents no doubt of this chest—if indeed this chest held - all the treasure of the buccaneer—that was indicated by the - writer of the letter in the concluding line of it, the closing - words of which had been found illegible by the young fellow who - translated the missive. - - I put the telescope under my arm and passed into the cabin, - and found a small chair near the arms rack, and near it upon - the deck lay a great cotton umbrella, grimy and wet with the - saturation of the cabin. I took it up thankfully and carried it - with the chair up the steps. There was a great plenty of ropes’ - ends knocking bout. I cut a piece and unlaid the strands, and - securing the umbrella to a stanchion, sat down on the chair - under it; and indeed without some such shelter the deck would - have been insupportable, for low as the sun still was in the - east, his fires were already roasting, and I well knew what - sort of temperature was to be expected as he floated higher, - leaving my form with a small blotch of southern shadow only - yoked to it. - - I passed the morning in sweeping the horizon with the - telescope. It was a noble glass—a piece of plunder, with an - inscription that represented it as a gift from the officers of - a vessel to her commander; I forget the names, but recollect - they were English. The placidity of the day dreadfully - disheartened me. There was but little weight in the languid - air to heave the _Ruby_ or any other vessel into view. The sea - under the sun was like brand new tin for the dazzle of it, and - as the morning advanced the heavy, vaporous clouds of daybreak - melted out into curls and wisps like to the crescent moon, with - a clear sky rising a pale blue from the horizon to overhead to - where it swam into the brassy glory which flooded the central - heavens. Weary of sitting, and exhausted by looking, I put down - the glass and went to the main hatch with the idea of making - out what water there was in the hold. The pumps were gone and - the wells of them sank like black shafts into the deck. But - whatever there was of water in the hulk lay so low that I - could not catch so much as a gleam of it. There was some light - cargo in the hold—light as I reckoned by the sit of the wreck - upon the water; chiefly white wooden cases, with here and there - canvas bales; but whatever might have been the commodities - there was not much of them, at least amidships, down into which - I stood peering. - - I then walked on to the forecastle and lifted the hatch-cover. - This interior looked to have been used by the people of _La - Mulette_ as a sort of sail-locker. The bulkhead extended but a - very short distance abaft the hatch, and the deck was stowed - with rolls of sails, coils of spare rigging, hawsers, tackle - and so forth. I put my head into the aperture and took a long - and careful survey of the interior, for the mate and I had not - explored this part of the brig, and it was possible, I thought, - I might find the bodies of the three survivors here. But there - was nothing whatever to be witnessed in that way; so I closed - the hatch again and went aft. - - The day passed, the light breeze lingered, but it brought - nothing into sight. I would think as I sent my glance along the - naked, sea-swept, desolate deck, gaunt and skeleton-like, with - its ragged exhibition of splintered plank and crushed bulwark, - that had there been a mast left in the hull I might from the - summit of it be able to see the _Ruby_, whose topmast cloths - lay sunk behind the horizon to the eyes which I levelled from - the low side of the wreck. “Oh!” I would cry aloud, “if I could - but be sure that she was near me though hidden!” Maddening as - the expectation might have been which the sight of her afar - would have raised in me, yet the mere having her in view, - no matter how dim, deceptive a speck she proved, would have - taken a deal of the bitterness, the heart-subduing feeling of - hopelessness out of the wild and awful sense of desolation that - possessed me. - - The sun sank; with the telescope trembling in my hands I - made a slow, painful circle of the ocean whilst the western - magnificence lay upon it, and then let fall the glass and fell - into the chair, and with bowed head and tightly-folded arms, - and eyes closed to mitigate by the shadowing of the lids the - anguish of the fires which despair had kindled in them—for - my heart was parched, no relief of tears came to me—I waited - for the darkness of a second night to settle down upon the - wreck. But on this day the gloom fell with the brilliance of - stars, and some time after eight the moon rose, a moist, purple - shield, at whose coming the light draught of wind died out - and the ocean flattened into a breathless, polished surface. - When presently the moon had soared and whitened, the sea - looked as wide again as it was to the showering of her light, - brimming the atmosphere with a delicate silver haze; indeed - there went a shadowing round about its confines to the shaft - of moonlight on the water that made it seem hollow where the - wreck lay, and it was like floating in the vastness of the - firmament that bent over it to glance over the side of the hull - and see the mirror-like breast studded with reflections of the - larger stars, and to follow the shadow of the deep, curled at - the extremities as it seemed, to the tropic astral dust that - twinkled there like dew trembling to the breath of a summer - night wind. - - I had brought up some blankets from below and these I made - a kind of mattress of under the shelter of the umbrella. It - was about ten o’clock, I think, when I threw myself down - upon them. A pleasant breeze was then blowing directly along - the wake of moonlight, and the water was rippling like the - murmurs of a brook against the sides of the pale, silent, - gently-rolling hull. I lay awake for a long time listening - to this cool, refreshing, tinkling sound of running ripples, - with a mind somewhat weakened by my distress. Indeed, many - thoughts wearing a complexion of delirium passed through my - head with several phantasies which must have frightened me as - a menace of madness had my wits been equal to the significance - of them. For example, I can recall seeing, as I believed, the - _Ruby_ floating up towards the wreck out of the western gloom, - luminous as a snow-clad iceberg, with the soft splendour of - the moonshine on her canvas; I recollect this, I say, and that - I laughed quietly at the thought of her approach, as though - I would ridicule myself for the fears which had been upon me - throughout the day; then of jumping up in a sudden transport - and passion of delight; when the vision instantly vanished; - whereupon a violent fit of trembling seized me, and I sank down - again upon the blankets groaning. But the agitation did not - linger; some fresh deception of the brain would occur and win - my attention to it. - - This went on till I fell asleep. Meanwhile the breeze continued - to blow steadily, and the rippling of water along the bends was - like the sound of the falling of large raindrops. - - I awoke, and turning my head towards the fore-part of the - wreck, I spied the figure of a man erect and motionless on the - forecastle. The moon was low in the west; I might guess by - her position that daybreak was not far off. By her red light - I saw the man. I sat erect and swept a glance round; there - was no ship near me, no smudge upon the gloom to indicate a - vessel at a distance. Father of heaven! I thought, what _is_ - it? Could yonder shadowy form be one of the three sailors who - had been left on the wreck? Surely I had closely searched the - hull; there was nothing living aboard of her but myself. The - sweat-drops broke from my brow as I sat motionless with my - eyes fixed upon the figure that showed with an inexpressible - ghostliness of outline in the waning moonlight. On a sudden - there arose another figure alongside of him, seemingly out of - the hard planks of the deck; then a third; and there the three - of them stood apparently gazing intently aft at me, but without - a stir in their frames, that I could witness. Three of them! - - I rose to my feet and essayed to speak, but could deliver no - more than a whisper. I tried again, and this time my voice - sounded. - - “In the name of God, who, and what are you?” - - “Ha!” cried one of them. He said something to his companions, - in words which were unintelligible to me, then approached, - followed by the others, all three of them moving slowly, with a - wavering gait, as though giddy. - - “Som drink for Christu’s sake!” said the man who had called Ha! - pointing his finger at his mouth, and speaking in a tone that - made one think of his throat as something rough, like a file. - By this time it was clear to me they were no ghosts. I imagined - them negroes, so dark their faces looked in the dim west rays - and failing starlight. Whence they had sprung, in what manner - they had arrived, I could not imagine; but it was not for me to - stand speculating about them in the face of the husky appeal - for drink. - - There was a parcel of candles in the pantry—as I term it. I - had a flint and steel in my pocket, and followed by the men, I - led the way below, bidding them stand awhile till I obtained - a light; and after groping and feeling about with my hands, - I found the paper of candles, lighted one, and then called - to the men. They arrived. I pointed to the jars, saying in - English, there was wine in them; and then to the slung cask - of water, and then to the food on the shelves. They instantly - grasped each one of them a pannikin, and mixed a full draught - and swallowed it, with a strange trembling sigh of relief and - delight. They then fell upon the biscuit and sausage, eating - like famished wolves, both fists full, and cramming their - mouths. They were not very much more distinguishable by the - feeble light of the candle than on deck; however, I was able - to see they were not blacks. The man who had addressed me - was of a deep Chinese yellow, with lineaments of an African - pattern, a wide flat nose, huge lips, eyes like little shells - of polished ebony glued on porcelain. His hair was the negro’s, - a black wiry wool. He wore a short moustache, the fibres like - the teeth of a comb, and there was a tuft of black wool upon - his chin. Small gold earrings, a greasy old Scotch cap, a - shirt like a dungaree jumper, and loose trousers thrust into a - pair of half Wellingtons, completed the attire of the ugliest, - most villainous-looking creature I had ever set eyes on. His - companions were long-haired, chocolate-browed Portuguese, or - Spaniards—_Dagos_ as the sailors call them; I noticed a small - gold crucifix sparkling upon the mossy breast of one of them. - Their feet were naked, indeed their attire consisted of no more - than a pair of duck or canvas breeches, and an open shirt, - and a cap. They continued to feed heartily, and several times - helped themselves to the wine, though before doing so, the - yellow-faced man would regularly point to the jar with a nod, - as though asking leave. - - “You Englis, sah?” he exclaimed, when he had made an end of - eating. I said yes. “How long you been hear, sah?” - - I told him. He understood me perfectly though I spoke at - length, relating in fact my adventure. I then inquired who he - and his companions were, and his story was to the following - effect: That he was the boatswain, and the other two, able - seamen, of a Portuguese ship called the _Mary Joseph_, bound - to Singapore or to some Malay port. The vessel had been set - on fire by one of the crew, an Englishman, who was skulking - drunkenly below after broaching a cask of rum. They had three - boats which they had hoisted out; most of the people got away - in the long boat, six men were in the second boat, he and his - two comrades got into the jolly-boat. They had with them four - bottles of water, and a small bag of ship’s bread, and nothing - more. They parted company with the other boats in the night, - and had been four days adrift, sailing northwards by the sun - as they reckoned, under a bit of a lug, and keeping an eager - look-out though they sighted nothing; until a little before - sundown that evening, they spied the speck of this wreck, and - made for it, but so scant was the wind, and so weak their - arms that it had taken them nearly all night to measure the - distance, which would be a few miles only. They got their boat - under the bow—she was lying there now, he said—and stepped - on board one after the other. This explained to me their - apparition. Of course I had not seen the boat or heard her as - she approached, and to me, lying aft, the three men rising over - the bows looked as though, like ghostly essences, they had - shaped themselves on the forecastle out through the solid plank. - - I addressed the others, but the yellow man told me that their - language was a jargon of base Portuguese, of which I should be - able to understand no more than here and there a word, even - though I had been bred and educated in Lisbon. - - “We mosh see to dah boat,” he exclaimed, and spoke to his - mates, apparently to that effect. - - I extinguished the candle, and followed them on deck. It was - closer upon daybreak than I had supposed. Already the grey was - in the east, like a light filtering through ash-coloured silk, - with the sea-line black as a sweep of India ink against it - and the moon a lumpish, distorted mass of faint dingy crimson, - dying out in a sort of mistiness westwards, like the snuff of a - rushlight in its own smoke. Even whilst the three fellows were - manœuvring with the boat over the bow, the tropic day filled - the heavens in a bound, and it was broad morning all at once, - with a segment of sun levelling a long line of trembling silver - from the horizon down to mid-ocean. My first glance was for the - _Ruby_, but the sea lay bare in every quarter. The fellows came - dragging their boat aft; I looked over and saw that the fabric - was of a canoe-pattern, with a queer upcurled bow, and a stern - as square as the amid-ship section of the boat; four thwarts, - short oars with oval-shaped blades, and a small mast with a - square of lugsail lying with its yard in the bottom of the boat - - The yellow man pointing to her exclaimed in a hoarse, throaty, - African guttural, “It is good ve keep hor. Dis wreck hov no - ’atch; she sink, and vidout hor,” nodding at the boat again, - “were ve be?” - - I said yes, by all means let us secure the boat. He exclaimed - that for the present she would lie safely astern, and with that - they took a turn with the line that held her and she rested - quietly on the sea clear of the quarter. - - Forthwith the three fellows began to explore the hull. The - yellow man or boatswain, as I must henceforth call him, said - no more to me than this as he pointed to the yawning hatches: - “You are gen’elman,” with an ugly smile intended no doubt for - a stroke of courtesy as he ran his eye over me: “ve are common - sailor. Ve vill see to stop dem hole. More fresh vataire to - drink ve need. Possib more bee-low. Also tobacco.” And thus - saying he cried out to the others in their own dialect, and the - three of them went to the main hatchway and disappeared down it. - - I lifted the telescope and ran it over the sea, then sighed - as with a breaking heart I laid the glass down again upon the - deck. A strong sense of dismay filled me whilst I sat musing - upon the men who were now coolly rummaging the vessel below. - The rascality which lay in every line of the ugly yellow - ruffian’s face, coupled with the stealthy, glittering glances, - the greasy, snaky hair, the dark piratic countenances of the - others might well have accounted for the apprehension, the - actual consternation indeed which fell upon me whilst I thought - of them. But that was not all. The recollection of the gold - rushed upon me as a memory that had clean gone out of my mind, - but that had suddenly flashed back upon me to communicate a - sinister significance to the presence of the three Portuguese - seamen. I can clearly understand now that my brain, as I had - said, had been weakened by the honor of my situation, and - by the long madness of expectation which had held it on fire - whilst I searched the sea and waited for the _Ruby_ to appear. - So that, instead of accepting these three foreign sailors as - a kind of godsend with whose assistance I might be enabled to - doctor up the wreck so as to fit her to float until help came, - not to speak of them as companions in misery, human creatures - to talk to, beings whose society would extinguish out of this - dreadful situation the intolerable element of solitude—I say - instead of viewing these men thus, as might have happened, - I believe, had I been my old self, a profound fear of and - aversion from them seized me, and such was the state of my - nerves at that time, I call to mind that I looked at the boat - which hung astern with a sort of hurry in me to leap into her, - cast her adrift, and sail away. - - With an effort I mastered my agitation, constantly directing - glances at the sea with a frequent prayer upon my lip that if - not the _Ruby_, then at least some ship to rescue me would - heave into view before sundown that night. - - The men were a long while below. I stepped softly to the - companion hatch, and bent my ear down it that I might know if - they had made their way through the ’tween decks bulkhead into - the cabin. The chink of money was very distinct, but that was - all. Presently, however, I heard them talking in low voices, - but their tongue was Hebrew to me, and I went back to my chair, - looking yet again around the sea-line. I think they had been - at least an hour below when they arrived on deck, emerging - through the main hatch. They then walked forward without taking - any notice of me, and disappeared through the fore-scuttle, - whence, after a while, they arose bearing amongst them several - tarpaulins which they had come across. I took it that there - was a carpenter’s chest down there, for the yellow boatswain - flourished a hammer in one hand, and a box of what proved to - be round-headed nails in the other. They carefully secured - the hatch with a couple of these tarpaulins, then came to - the quarter-deck, and similarly roofed the skylight and the - companion hatch, saving that they left free a corner flap to - admit of our passage up and down. - - “Dis is sailor vork,” said the boatswain, giving me a nod, - whilst his face shone like a yellow sou’-wester in a squall - of wet with the sweat that flooded his repulsive visage. “Dah - vataire keep out now, sah.” - - “It is well done,” said I, softening my voice to disguise the - emotion of disgust and aversion which possessed me at sight of - the ugly, treacherous, askant sort of stare he fastened upon me - whilst he spoke. “Have you breakfasted?” - - He came close to me before answering; the other two meanwhile - remaining at the hatch and looking towards me. - - “Ay,” he then said, “dere ish plenty biscuit, plenty vataire, - plenty beef,” indicating with a grimy thumb a portion of the - hold that lay under the cabin floor. “Dere ish plenty gold - too,” he added in a hoarse, theatrical sort of whisper, with a - sudden gleam of his little horrible eyes which to my fancy was - as much like the blue flash off some keen and polished blade of - poniard as anything I can figure to liken it to. - - “Yes,” said I carelessly, “plenty I believe. But I must break - my own fast now. We shall need fresh water before the day’s - out, and, praised be the saints, there is plenty of it, you - say.” - - With that I went to the hatch, turned the flap of the tarpaulin - and descended, eyed narrowly by the two fellows who stood - beside it, and as I gained the interior I heard them say - something to the boatswain, who responded with an off-hand - sort of _ya_, _ya_! as though he would quiet a misgiving in - them. I made a hurried meal of some wine, biscuit and cheese, - and noticing as I passed on my way to the cabin again that - the door of the berth in which the chest of gold stood was - shut, I tried the handle and found it locked. The key was - withdrawn. Smothering a curse upon the hour that had brought - these creatures to the wreck, I lighted a cigar (of which I - had a leather case half-full in my pocket), more for the easy - look of it than for any need I felt for tobacco just then, and - went in a lounge to the shelter of my umbrella. The boatswain - was examining the telescope when I arrived. He instantly put - it down on perceiving me and went forward to where his mates - were. They peered first over one side, pointing and talking, - and arguing with amazing volubility and with astonishing - contortions; they then crossed to the other side, and looked - over and fell into the same kind of hot, eager talk and - gesticulations. It was easy to guess that they spoke about the - spars which floated, held by their gear, against the wreck. - After a bit they came to an agreement, disappeared in the - forecastle and returned with tackles and coils of rope. One - of them went over the side, and after a while there they were - hauling upon purchases and slowly bringing the spar out of - water, the boatswain talking and bawling with furious energy - the whole while. I went forward to help them, and the yellow - ruffian nodded when I seized hold of the rope they were pulling - at, and cried with a hoarse roar of laughter, “Yash, yash. Ve - make a mast, ve make a yart, and ve put up sail, and ve steer - to our own countree and be reech men.” - - Dagos as they were, they had some trick of seamanship amongst - them. There was stump enough left of the foremast to secure the - heel of a spar to, and by four o’clock that afternoon, with a - break of but a single half-hour for a meal and a smoke (they - had found plenty of pipes and tobacco in the seamen’s chests - between decks), they had rigged up and stayed a jury-mast and - crossed it with a yard manufactured from a boom of the wreckage - to larboard; which, light as the breeze was, yet furnished them - with spread of sail enough to give the sheer-hulk steerage way. - - I had lent them a hand and done my landsman’s best, and had - gone aft to rest myself and to sweep the sea with the telescope - for the hundredth time that day. The three men were below - getting some supper. The hull was stirring through the water - at a snail’s pace to a weak, hot wind blowing right over her - taffrail out of the south-east. The helm was amidships, and - her short length of oil-smooth wake showed her going straight - without steering. I could distinctly hear the men conversing - in the cabin. I reckoned because they knew their lingo was - unintelligible to me that they talked out. There was a fiery - eagerness in the tones they sometimes delivered themselves in, - but earnestly as I listened I could catch no meaning but that - of their imprecations, which readily enough took my ear owing - to a certain resemblance between them and Spanish and Italian - oaths. A short interval of silence followed. All three then - came on deck, one of them carrying a jar and another a canvas - bag. I instantly observed that every man of them had girded - a cutlass to his side. They seemed to avoid my gaze as they - walked to the pin to which the line that connected the boat was - belayed, and hauled her alongside. I threw away my cigar and - stood up. The first idea that occurred to me was, they were - going to victual the boat, sway the chest of gold into her and - sail away from me; and I cannot express with what devotion I - prayed to my Maker that this might prove so. I looked from one - to the other of them. Once I caught a side-long glance from the - boatswain; otherwise they went to this business as though I - were not present, talking in rough, hurried whispers, with an - occasional exclamation from the yellow ruffian, that was like - saying, “Make haste!” When the boat was alongside one of them - dropped into her, and received the jar and bag from the other. - He then returned, and the moment he was inboards the boatswain, - rounding upon me, drew his cutlass and pointed to the boat. - - “Be pleashed to get in and go away!” he exclaimed. - - “Go away!” I echoed, too much thunderstruck by the villain’s - order to feel or witness the horror of the fate designed for - me. “What have I done that you should——?” - - He interrupted me with a roar. “Go quick!” he cried, lifting - his weapon as though to strike, “or I kill you!” - - The hands of the others groped at the hilts of their cutlasses; - all three eyed me now, and there was murder in every man’s - look. Without a word I stepped to the side, and sprang into - the boat. One of them threw the line off the pin into the sea. - “Hoise your sail and steer that way, or we shoot!” bellowed the - yellow ruffian, waving his cutlass towards the sea astern. God - knows there were small arms enough in the cabin to enable them - to fulfil _that_ threat. I grasped the halliards, mast-headed - the little lug, and throwing an oar over the stern, sculled - the boat’s head round, and in a minute was slipping away from - the hull, at the stern of which the three men stood watching - me, the blade in the boatswain’s hand shining to the sun like - a wand of fire as he continued to point with it into the - south-east. - - Here now was I adrift in the mighty heart of the Indian Ocean - in a small boat like a canoe, so shaped that she was little - likely to lie close to the wind; hundreds of leagues from the - nearest point of land, and in a part of the deep navigated - in those days at long intervals only—I mean by the Dutch and - English traders to the east; for the smaller vessels kept a - much more westerly longitude than where I was, after rounding - the Cape; often striking through the Mozambique or so climbing - as to keep Mauritius aboard. Never was human being in a more - wildly-desperate situation. I did not for an instant doubt - that this was the beginning of the end, that if I was not - capsized and drowned out of hand by some growing sea, I was - to perish (unless I took my own life) of hunger and thirst. - Yet the rage and terror which were upon me when I looked over - my shoulder at the receding wreck passed away, with the help - of God to be sure, ere the figures of the miscreants who had - served me thus had been blended by distance out of their shapes - into the body and hues of the hull. I thought to myself it is - an escape, at all events. I _may_ perish here; yet is there - hope; but had I stayed _yonder_ I was doomed: the sight of the - gold had made them thirsty for my life. In my sleep, ay, or - even waking, they would have hacked me to pieces and flung me - overboard to the sharks here. - - In this consideration, I say, I seemed to find a source of - comfort. If I died as I now was, it would be God’s act, whereas - had I remained in the wreck I must have been brutally butchered - by the wretches whom the devil had despatched to me in the - darkness of the morning that was gone. Nevertheless I was at a - loss to comprehend their motive in thus using me. First of all - by sending me away in their boat, they had robbed themselves - of their only chance of escape should the wreck founder. - Then again, I was a man, with a serviceable pair of hands - belonging to me, and how necessary willing help was to persons - circumstanced as they were, they could easily have gathered - from the labours of the day. Besides, they would be able to - judge of my condition by my attire, and how could they be sure - that I should demand the treasure or put in my claim for a - share of it? But I need not weary you with my speculations. - - The sun sank when there was a space of about a league betwixt - my boat and the wreck, and the darkness came in a stride out of - the east. The wind was weak and hot, and there was a crackling - noise of ripples round about the boat as she lay with scarce - any way upon her, lightly but briskly bobbing upon the tropic - ocean dimples. When the darkness came I let fall my sail, - intending later on, when the wreck should have got well away - towards the horizon, to head north; for methought the further - I drew towards the equator out of these seas the better would - be my chance of being rescued. The stars were very plentiful, - rich, and brilliant that night. I gave God thanks for their - company, and for the stillness and peace upon the ocean, and I - prayed to Him to watch over and to succour me. When the moon - rose I stood up and looked around, but saw nothing of the - wreck; on which I hoisted my sail afresh and headed the boat - north, as I conjectured by the position of the moon. There was - a deal of fire in the sea, and I would again and again direct - my eyes at the fitful flashing over the side with a dread in me - of witnessing the outline of a shark. - - The moon had risen about two hours, when I spied the gleam - of water in the bottom of the boat. I was greatly startled, - believing that she was leaking. Certainly there had been no - water when I first entered her, nor down to this minute had I - noticed the light or heard the noise of it in her. There was a - little pewter mug in the stern sheets, a relic of the ship from - which the Portuguese had come. I fell to bailing with it, and - presently emptied the boat. No more water entered, for which at - first I was deeply thankful; but after a little I got musing - upon how it could have penetrated, seeing that no more came; - and then a dreadful suspicion entering my mind, I looked for - the jar which the Portuguese had handed into the boat, and saw - it lying on its bilge in the bows. I picked it up and shook it; - it was empty! It had been corked by a piece of canvas which - still remained in the bung, but on the jar capsizing through - the jerking of the boat, the water had easily drained out, and - it was this precious fluid which I had been feverishly baling - and casting overboard! - - Maddened as I was by this discovery, I had yet sense enough - remaining to sop my handkerchief in the little puddle that - still damped the bottom of the boat, and to wring the moisture - into the pewter measure. But at the outside half a pint was the - utmost I recovered, which done I sat me down, my face buried in - my hands, with my eyes scorched as though they were seared by - the burning tears that rose to them from my full and breaking - heart. - - The night passed. Hour after hour I lay in a sort of - stupefaction in the stern sheets, taking no notice of the - weather, my eyes fixed upon the stars, a little space of which - directly over my head I would crazily essay to number. Once I - pressed the handkerchief to my parched lips, but found the damp - of it brackish, and threw it from me. But I would not touch the - precious drop of water I had preserved. Too bitterly well did - I guess how the morrow’s sun would serve me, and the very soul - within me seemed to recoil from the temptation to moisten my - dry and burning tongue. - - [Illustration] - - The memory of the early hours of that morning, of daybreak, - of the time that followed, is but that of a delirium. I took - no heed of my navigation. The sheet of the sail was fast, and - the boat travelled softly before the gentle breeze that sat in - little curls upon the water. I recollect thinking in a stupid, - half-numbed way, that the boat was pursuing the path of the - wreck whose one sail would suffer her to travel only straight - before the wind. But the pain of thirst, the anguish of my - situation, the maddening heat of the sun, the cruel, eternal - barrenness of the ocean; these things combined lay like death - upon me. I was sensible only that I lived and suffered. There - was biscuit in the canvas bag which had been put in the boat. - I thought by munching a fragment to ease the anguish in my - throat, but found I could not swallow. Ah, heavenly God! the - deliriousness of the gaze which I fastened upon the clear, - cool, blue water over the side, the horrible temptation to - drink of it, to plunge, and soak, and drown in it the torment - of the seething and creaming noises of its ripples against the - burning sides of the boat, which sickened the atmosphere with - their poisonous smell of hot paint! - - The night came—a second night. Some relief from the thirst - which tortured me I had obtained by soaking my underclothes, - and wearing the garments streaming. It was a night of wonderful - oceanic beauty and tenderness: the moon, a glorious sphere - of brilliancy, the wind sweet and cool with dew, and the sea - sleeping to the quiet cradling of its swell. I had not closed - my eyes for many a long weary hour, and nature could hold out - no longer. It was a little before midnight I think that I fell - asleep; the boat was then sailing quietly along, and steering - herself, making a fair straight course of her progress—though - to what quarter of the heavens she was carrying me I knew not, - nor for a long while had thought of guessing. When I awoke the - darkness was still upon the ocean, and the moon behind a body - of high light cloud which she whitened and which concealed her, - though her radiance yet lay in the atmosphere as a twilight. - Right ahead of me, but at what distance I could not imagine, - there floated a dark object upon the water. My glance had gone - to her sleepily, but the instant it fell upon her I sprang to - my feet, and bounded like a dart into the bow of the boat, and - stood with my hands on the square of the canoe-shaped stem - straining my sight into the gloom. - - She was a ship—no doubt of that; yet she puzzled me greatly. - The light was so thin and deceptive that I could distinguish - little more than the block of blackness she made upon the dark - sea. Apparently she was lying with all sails furled, or else - hauled up close to the yards. One moment I would think that she - was without masts; then I imagined I could perceive a visionary - fabric of spar and rope. But she was a ship! Help she would - yield me—the succour of her deck, and, oh my God! one drink, - but _one_ drink of water! - - I flung the oars over, and weak as I was fell to rowing with - might and main. The boat buzzed through the ripples to the - impulse of my thirst-maddened arms. The shadow ahead slowly - loomed larger and closer, till all in a breath I saw by a - sudden gleam of moonlight which sparkled through a rent in the - cloud, that she was _La Mulette_! - - I dropped the oars, let fall the sail, and stood with my eyes - fixed upon her, considering a little. Would the men murder me - if I boarded her? Or would they not fill my empty jar for me on - my beseeching them, on my pointing to my frothing lip as the - yellow man had done, on my asking for water only, promising to - depart at once? Why, it was better to be butchered by their - cutlasses than to perish thus. I felt mad at the thought of a - long sweet draught of wine and water out of a cold pannikin, - and rendered utterly defiant, absolutely reckless by my - sufferings, and by the dream and allurement of a drink of - water, I fell to the oars again, and rowed the boat alongside - the wreck. - - I now noticed for the first time that the mast and sail which - the fellows had erected were gone. Indeed the mast lay over - the side, and the sail floated black under it in the water. I - listened; all was hushed as death in the motionless hulk. I - secured the painter of the boat to the chain plate, sprang on - to the deck and stood looking a minute. Close to the wheel lay - the figure of a man. He was sound asleep as I might suppose, - his head pillowed on his arm, and the other arm over his face - in a posture of sheltering it. He was the only one of the three - visible. Wildly reckless always and goaded with the agony of - thirst I went straight to the hatch and dropped into the cabin. - The blackness was that of a coal-mine, but I knew the way, and - after a little groping found the pantry door and entered. With - an eager hand I sought for a candle, found one and lighted it, - and in a few minutes my thirst was assuaged and I was standing - with clasped uplifted hands thanking God for the exquisite - comfort of the draught. Yet I drank cautiously. My need made - me believe that I could have drained a cask to its dregs, but - I forced my dreadful craving to be satisfied with scarce more - than a quarter of a pint. The drink relaxed the muscles of - my throat and I was able to eat. Afterwards I drank a little - again, and then I felt a new man. - - I stayed about twenty minutes in the pantry, in which time I - heard no kind of noise saving a dim creak now and again from - the hold of the wreck. Extinguishing the candle I entered the - cabin and stood debating with myself on the course I should - follow. Water I must have: should I fill a jar and carry - it stealthily to the boat and be off and take my chance of - managing the business unheard? Yes, I would do that, and if I - aroused the sleepers, why, seeing that I was willing to go they - might not refuse me a supply of drink.... - - I was musing thus when there was the sound of a yawn on deck. - At that moment I remembered the array of cutlasses that - embellished the cabin ceiling. It was the noise the fellow - made, the perception that one of the three at all events was - awake with his mates somewhere at hand to swiftly alarm, which - put the thought of those cutlasses into my head, or it is fifty - to one if in the blackness of that interior I should have - recollected them. I sprang upon the table and in a moment was - gripping a blade. The very feel of it, the mere sense of being - armed sent the blood rushing through my veins as though to - some tonic of miraculous potency. “Now,” thought I, setting my - teeth, “let the ruffians fall upon me if they will. If my life - is to be taken it shall not be for the want of an English arm - to defend it.” - - I jumped on to the deck, went stealthily to the foot of the - steps and listened. The man yawned again, and I heard the - tread of his foot as he moved, whence I suspected him to be - the yellow boatswain, the others being unshod, though to be - sure there were shoes enough in the ’tween decks for them had - they a mind to help themselves. As I sent a look up through the - lifted corner of tarpaulin over the hatch I spied the delicate, - illusive grey of daybreak in the air, and so speedy was the - coming of the dawn that it lay broad with the sun close under - the rim of the horizon ere I could form a resolution whilst - listening to make sure that he who was on deck continued alone. - Then hearing him yawn again and no sound of the others reaching - my ears, I mounted the steps and gained the deck. - - [Illustration] - - It was the Portuguese boatswain, as I had imagined. He was in - the act of seating himself much in the same place where I had - seen him sleeping when I boarded the vessel; but he instantly - saw me as I arose, and remained motionless and rigid as though - blasted by a flash of lightning. His jaw dropped, his hideous - little eyes protruded bright with horror and fright from their - sockets, and his yellow face changed into a sort of greenish - tint like mottled soap or the countenance of a man in a fit. - No doubt he supposed me a spectre, rising as I did in that way - out of the cabin when the rogue would imagine me a hundred - miles off, or floating a corpse in the water, and I dare say - but for the paralysis of terror that had fixed his jaw some - pious sentences would have dropped from him. For my part I hung - in the wind undecided, at a loss to act. I sent a look over my - shoulder to observe if the others were about, and the movement - of my head seemed like the release of him from the constraint - of my eye. He leapt into an erect posture and rushed to the - side, saw the boat, uttered a cry for all the world resembling - the rough, saw-like yell of the albatross stooping to some bait - in the foaming eddies of a wake, in a bound came back to the - binnacle, the body of which stood, though the compass, hood - and glass were gone, and thrusting his hand into it pulled out - a pistol which he levelled at me. The weapon flashed as I ran - at him. Ere he had time to draw the cutlass which dangled at - his hip, I had buried the blade, the large heavy hilt of which - I grasped with both hands, deep in his neck, crushing clean - through his right jaw; and even whilst he was in the act of - falling I had lifted and brought the cutlass down upon him - again, this time driving the edge of it so deep into his skull - that the weight of him as he dropped dead dragged the weapon - out of my hand, and it was a wrestle of some moments to free - the blade. - - I swept round fully prepared for the confrontment of the - others, who, I took it, if they were sleeping below, would rush - up on deck on hearing the report of the pistol. My head was - full of blood; I felt on fire from my throat to my feet. God - knows why or how it was, for I should have imagined of myself - that the taking of a human life would palsy my muscles with - the horror of the thing to the weakness of a woman’s arm; and - yet in the instant of my rounding, prepared for, panting for a - sight of the other two, I seemed conscious of the strength of a - dozen men in me. - - All was still. The sun had risen in splendour; the ocean was - a running surface of glory under him, and the blue of the - south had the dark tenderness of violet with the gushing into - it of the hot and sparkling breeze which had sprung up in the - north with the coming of the morn. Where were the others? My - eyes reeled as they went from the corpse of the Portuguese - to the pistol he had let drop. I picked it up; it was a rude - weapon belonging to the armoury of _La Mulette_. I conjectured - that the miscreant would not have thus armed himself without - providing a stock of ammunition at hand, and on putting my arm - into the binnacle stand I found, sure enough, a powder-horn - and a parcel of pistol-bullets. I carefully loaded the weapon, - narrowly seeing to the priming, all the while constantly - glancing along the deck and listening. Then with the pistol in - one hand and the cutlass in the other, I stepped below, furious - and eager for a sight of the dead man’s mates. - - The lifted tarpaulin let the morning sunshine fall fair into - the cabin, and now I saw that which had before been invisible - to me; I mean a great blood-stain upon the deck, with a - spattering of blood-drops and spots of more hideous suggestion - yet, round about. A thin trail of blood went from the large - stain upon the floor along through the passage betwixt the - berths, and so to the main hatch. Ha! thought I, _this_ - signifies murder! I found nothing in the cabins. The door of - the berth in which the chest of gold stood, was locked, but - on putting my whole weight against it with knee and shoulder - it flew open. The contents of the place were as I had before - taken notice of; and there were no signs here of either dead or - living men. I regained the deck, and walking forward observed a - thin line of blood going from the coamings of the main hatch to - the side. It was the continuation and termination of the trail - below, and most unmistakably denoted the passage of a bleeding - body borne through the hatch and cast overboard. I walked - further forward yet, and on the forecastle witnessed another - wide stain of blood. It looked fresher than the other—nay, it - was not yet dry, and the heat went out of my body, and ice cold - shudders swept through my limbs as I turned my back upon it, - sick, dizzy, and trembling. - - Those horrible marks gave me the whole story as fully as though - the dead brute aft had recited it to me at large ere I struck - him down. He had murdered his mates one after the other to be - alone with the gold. It had been murder cold and deliberate, - I was sure. There were no signs of a struggle; there were no - hints of any previous conflict in the person of the yellow - Portuguese. It was as though he had crept behind the men one - after another, and struck them down with a chopper. Indeed I - was as sure of this as though I had witnessed the deed; and - there was the chest of gold in the cabin to explain the reason - of it. How he hoped to manage if he fell in with a ship (and I - know not what other expectation of coming off with his life he - could have formed) it is useless to conjecture. Some plausible - tale no doubt he would have taken care to prepare, claiming the - gold as his by law of treasure-trove. - - I let fall the weapons, and lay over a little strip of - bulwark, panting for breath. My eyes were upon the water over - the side, but a minute after on directing them at the sea-line, - I spied the sails of a ship, a square of pearl glimmering - in the blue distance, and slightly leaning from the hot and - brilliant breeze gushing fair down upon her starboard beam. - Scarce had my mind time to recognize the object as a ship, when - it vanished; a reddish gloom boiled up mistlike all about me; - the ocean to a mile away from the side of the wreck turned of - the deep crimson of blood, spinning round like a teetotum; then - followed blackness, and I remember no more.... - - When consciousness returned I found myself lying in a bunk in - a ship’s cabin. The place was familiar to me, and I recollect - in a weak way trying to find out why it should be so. “Why, - confound it all,” I muttered, “this is my cabin aboard the - _Ruby_. God! what a dream it has been!” - - “Very glad your senses have returned to you, Mr. Catesby. It’s - been a doocid long faint, sir,” exclaimed a familiar voice, and - no less a person than the second mate of the _Ruby_ came to my - bedside. - - A moment after the door opened, and the doctor of the ship - entered. I was about to speak; he peremptorily motioned - silence, felt my pulse and brow, nodding approvingly; then - addressing the mate, thanked him for keeping watch and told - him he could go. As my dawning intellects brightened, my - eagerness to make sure of the reality of the adventure I had - come through grew into a little fever. When I looked round the - cabin and saw my clothes hanging upon the bulkhead, my books, - the twenty odds and ends of the homely furniture of my berth, - I could not but believe that I had fallen ill, been seized - perhaps with a fever, and that the incidents of the wreck, the - open boat, the murderous Portuguese, were a mere vision of my - distempered brain. But for some hours the doctor had his way, - would not suffer me to talk, with his own hand brought me broth - and wine, and now, finding me strong enough, as I supposed, to - support a conversation, went out and in a few minutes returned - with Captain Bow. - - It was _then_ my suspicion that all that had happened to me - was most horribly and fearfully real was confirmed. The boat - that had left me aboard the wreck had been sighted sweeping - down in the mist; twenty ropes’ ends had been hove at her from - the _Ruby_, and in a few minutes her people were safe on the - Indiaman’s deck. Sail was shortened to close-reefed topsails, - but a black blowing night drew around, as you know, and when - the dawn broke the wreck was nowhere visible. Light, baffling - weather followed. Meanwhile Bow swore that he would not quit - these waters till he had exhausted the inside of a week in - search for me. At sunrise that morning the wreck was signalled - from the foretopgallant yard of the _Ruby_. The ship was - immediately headed for it, and in a couple of hours the hulk - was close aboard. The chief officer was sent in charge of a - boat, and I was found lying, dead as they thought, a fathom’s - distance from a large stain of blood, whilst aft was the body - of a half-caste with his head cut open. They left _him_ as he - lay, but me they handed into the boat to carry on board, with - the design of giving me a Christian burial, till the doctor, - looking at me, asked if they wanted to add to the horrors - of the wreck by drowning a living man, and ordered me to be - conveyed at once to my bed. - - This was the captain’s story, and I then related mine. Both he - and the doctor exchanged looks as I talked. It was tolerably - evident to my mind that they only believed in about a quarter - of what I told them. - - “But, Captain,” I cried, “on my solemn honour as a gentleman, - as I am alive here to say it, there was gold to the value of - many thousands of pounds in the chest.” - - “Yes, yes,” he answered with a glance of compassion at me. “I - don’t doubt it, Mr. Catesby. So much the better for the mermen - when it goes down to them; it will render the mermaids more - placable, I don’t doubt.” - - “But, gracious mercy!” I cried, “it is only the sending of a - boat, you know. Why, sir, there’s enough in that chest to yield - a little fortune to every mother’s son of us aboard.” - - “Yes, yes,” said Captain Bow, with a faint smile of concern - at the doctor, who kept his eyes with a knowing look in them - fastened upon the deck. “But we took you off the wreck, my dear - sir, a little before nine o’clock, and it is now after four, - and as our speed has been a comfortable eight knots ever since, - you may reckon the hulk at sixty miles’ distance astern. No, - Mr. Catesby, we’re bound to Bombay this time in earnest, sir. - No more hunting after wrecks this voyage.” - - But I got every man-jack of the passengers, with the whole - ship’s company to boot, to credit my story up to the hilt - before we had measured half the length of the Bay of Bengal, - and such was the conviction I had inspired forwards at all - events that the third mate one night told me it was reported - that a number of the forecastle hands had made up their minds - to charter, if possible, if not, then to run away with, a - country wallah on the _Ruby’s_ arrival at Bombay, and sail the - Indian Ocean till they fell in with the wreck—if she was still - afloat. - -But now to resume the story of Master Rockafellar’s voyage: we caught -the south-east trades much closer to the equator than they are used to -blow, and bowled merrily down the South Atlantic, rounding the Cape of -Good Hope at a distance of fifty leagues from it, and driving ahead, with -a strong westerly gale over our stern, straight as an arrow for Cape -Leeuwin. Though the _Lady Violet_ showed like a frigate upon the water, -with a beam that made her look somewhat tub-like, and a round massive -bow that would crush a sea as the head of a whale might, she sailed -nobly, easily reeling off a full twelve knots when there was wind enough -to drive her, looking up when on a bowline with erect spars and a wake -without an inch of lee-way in it; and I have known her, even in regions -of calms and cats-paws and baffling airs, to travel in some mysterious -manner a hundred miles in twenty-four hours. - -She was a favourite ship among passengers, and almost as punctual in -her dates as though she were a steamer; and this voyage, true to her -old records, she sailed through the Sydney Heads one sparkling morning -at about eight o’clock, making the time of her passage from the Thames -exactly eighty-one days. - -I will pass swiftly over our stay at Sydney. I should need a deal of room -to describe the glories of this rich Australian scene, of islands and -blue water and shores, with white houses peeping out from amidst the -fringe of the bush. We hauled in alongside the Circular Quay, and then -followed much grimy work in the shape of discharging cargo, furbishing -up the ship, attending to the rigging, and the like. Then the vessel was -conveyed to the other side of the harbour to receive her freight of wool. -I was ashore a good many times, yet cannot say that I saw much of Sydney. -Many a long hour would I spend in the beautiful Botanical Gardens, gazing -at the astonishing vegetation, and watching with admiration the songless -birds of superb plumage which throng those acres of grace, beauty, and -colour. Mr. Cock took me to the theatre. I was out rowing and sailing too -very often; but the captain would not let me have much liberty. He said I -was too young to be cruising about ashore alone, and indeed my half-crown -a week did not help me very largely to partake of the diversions of -Sydney. My chief pleasure lay in sitting in the main-chains, when there -was nothing to do, and fishing. Many fish, wonderful in colour, did I -haul up, and some of them were a very delicate food. - -The _Lady Violet_ was pretty deep with wool when we were towed out to -sea. The passengers we had brought out were replaced by a new set—all -of them colonials, intending a visit to the old home for purposes of -pleasure or business. Three of our sailors had run away, and new men -were taken in their place; otherwise the ship’s company remained as it -had been. - -I remember going on the forecastle in the second dog-watch of the first -day that we were out, and leaning over the head-rail and looking into -the evening-shadowed distance, and saying to myself, “We are homeward -bound!” Ah, the delight of those words to the sailor, be he old or young! -It is the most inspiriting of all the sentiments in the songs Jack sings. -It is a thought that seems to compensate for all past hardships, and to -hearten a man to endure all that may be harsh and painful in the time -that yet lies between him and his arrival home. My young heart beat high, -I remember, and I found a wonderful delight, as I overlay the forecastle -rail, in looking straight down under me, where the coppered fore-foot of -the ship was sheering through the satin-like seas rolling to her bow, -and in thinking that every fathom of white water, with its tinkling -foam-bells and bubbles of yellow spume which ran past, shortened the -distance between me and my dear old home by six feet! - -We were in the South Pacific now, making for the terrible Cape Horn, -about whose enormous icebergs and leviathan seas and black snow-storms -there was a deal said in our midshipmen’s berth; but it was still -delicious weather; the indescribable sweetness and softness of the -Pacific was in the temperature; the sun-touched billows chased us in -lines of dark blue and flaming gold; sea-birds with breasts of snow, -poised on long tremulous wings of ermine, hovered in our wake; and the -albicore and the bonito merrily kept us company, as the _Lady Violet_ -went ambling through the caressing waters. - -[Illustration: “LISTENING TO THE YARNS HE SPUN.”] - -This was the pleasantest part of the voyage, so far as I was concerned. -I made friends with one of the boatswain’s mates, and was much in the -forecastle with him during my watches below. I can see myself now, -sitting on his sea-chest, listening to the yarns he spun me about the -voyages he had made and the countries he had visited, or learning from -him how to lay up sennit, to wield a marline-spike, to use the palm and -needle, and so on. A lamp fed by slush spluttered under a blackened beam -just over us; a number of hammocks hung from the ceiling or upper deck, -with here and there a weather-darkened face, well whiskered, overlying -the edge of the canvas with a pipe in its mouth. A double tier of bunks -went curving into the eyes of the ship where the hawse-pipes were, and -where the gloom lay heavy. In one of these beds a man would lie with a -book in his hand, laboriously reading, his lips moving like a child’s -as his eyes spelt down the page. Squatting on a chest would be a grim -unshaven salt, sourly stitching at a pair of breeches. Elsewhere -you would see a fellow greasing his sea-boots, another munching at a -sea-biscuit with his eyes fixed like an owl’s, a third cutting up a -pipeful of tobacco from a black flat cake that made me think of toffee. -Yet, despite the life and movement within, the forecastle was always very -quiet. My boatswain’s mate would talk to me in hoarse whispers, and the -other sailors rarely conversed above their breath. Sleep is naturally -prized at sea. The opportunities for taking it are short, and must be -made the most of. Hence, seamen are very careful that their mates, when -turned in, should repose undisturbed that when their own turn comes round -for a nap they may sleep in quiet. - -The dog-watches are the holiday hours at sea, and on a fine evening, -whilst we were in the Pacific, I would repair to the forecastle and there -sit, listening to and watching the men until the sun went down and the -black shadow of night came along. They had a fiddle amongst them, and one -of them played the concertina, and these instruments made music enough -to set them a-dancing. I have laughed till the tears stood in my eyes -to watch the brawny capering Jacks sliding about in a waltz, tenderly -embracing one another as partners, capsizing over the flukes of the -stowed anchors, and making a very pageant of the forecastle deck—with -its rough details of capstan, catheads, scuttle and the like—by their -swimming, floating, jovial figures, coloured of every hue with the -clothes they wore. My friend the boatswain’s mate danced the hornpipe -to perfection. He valued himself on this art, and was not always very -forward in obliging us. When he suffered himself to be coaxed, the treat -he gave us was a real one. He would dress himself so as to resemble a -man-of-war’s man, and make his appearance with a straw hat on the back of -his head-on “nine-hairs,” as sailors say—flowing trousers, pumps, an open -shirt that disclosed his mossy breast, and take his stand on a part of -the forecastle where the passengers aft could see him. The fiddler would -then clamber on to the booms over the long-boat, and begin to saw away, -and off would start the boatswain’s mate in a delightful shuffle—feet -twinkling, legs vibrating, arms arched—a manly figure indeed! whilst the -sailors noisily clapped their hands in huge relish of the show. - -We were drawing into colder weather, though Cape Horn was still a long -way off, when there happened two incidents in the same morning, one -of which—as you will suppose when I have related it—made a very deep -impression on me. - -The ship was under all plain sail, by which is signified all the canvas -a vessel carries saving her studding-sails. The breeze was moderate -and off the bow, and there was very little sea; but through the bosom -of the deep there ran, as regular as the beat of the pulse, a long -swell, slipping its volumes into our quarter with weight enough in -each broad-backed fold to keep the _Lady Violet_ curtseying until the -forecastle of her looked as flat as a spoon on the slope of water ahead. -I was at work with Kennet in one of the quarter-boats, clearing her out. -The boat hung from a pair of irons, termed “davits,” over the side, -and was steadied by flat mat-like lashings, called “gripes.” From over -the gunwale of the boat we could obtain a clear view of the sea ahead, -whereas, from the poop the horizon over the bows was concealed by the -foresail and mainsail. - -Presently, pausing in my work to glance ahead, I caught sight of a body -of foam about a couple of points on the bow, as we should say, though how -far off it was I could not imagine. Figure the moon reflecting herself in -water just as she shows in the heavens—that is to say, as a bright silver -disk—and you will obtain a good idea of the appearance on which my eyes -had fastened. It rose and fell upon the swell, by which one knew that it -must be afloat, whatever it was. - -“See that, Kennet?” said I. - -He peered and cried, “Ha! doth it move?” - -We stared at it. - -“No,” said he, “it ith’nt moving. I thought it wath a whirlwind firtht. I -thay tho’—what the doothe—tain’t a _windmill_, ith it?” - -I now saw, as he had seen, what resembled the vanes of a windmill -revolving in the foam—a wet black arm that rose and fell out of the white -seething like to the blades of a propeller rotating under the counter of -a tall light steamer, amidst the boiling of the water churned up by the -machine. - -“See that thrasher!” suddenly shouted the chief mate. “By George, -gentlemen and ladies, a fight between a thrasher and a whale, as I live! -A rare sight, truly!” - -And all the passengers who were on deck came rushing with him over to -the side to look. As we approached, the spectacle grew in magnitude, and -proved one of the wildest—I may say one of the most terrific—pictures -which the imagination could body forth, even of the sea—that arena of -wonders and of terrors. There was so much fury of foaming water, that -it was hard to distinguish the gigantic combatants. Yet now and again -I would catch a sight of a large space of the gleaming dark body of a -leviathan whale, upon which the great arms of the thrasher were beating -in blows, the echoes of which had something of a metallic twang in them -that made you think of a giant blacksmith striking upon an enormous -anvil. The boiling commotion covered a large space of water, and might -easily have passed for the first fierce foamings of a waterspout. - -I watched, breathless with astonishment and awe, my eyes half out of my -head. Here was something to talk about to my father and mother! But would -they believe it? It was a sight I could scarcely credit, specially when -Kennet told me that what I saw of the whale was only a little bit of him. - -“Will the thrasher kill him?” said I. - -“I expect tho,” he answered; “anyhow, of the two, I’d thooner not be the -whale.” - -When the monster duellists had settled down upon our quarter, the long -black arms suddenly vanished. The seething turmoil expired into smooth -water, and the swell rolled flawless as before. - -“The whale’th killed,” said Kennet; “keep a bright look-out, Rockafellar, -and you’ll thee his body rithe.” - -But though I stared long and earnestly, it was to no purpose; the body -did _not_ rise: haply because the whale wasn’t dead. - -“Oh, but,” said Kennet, “a big chap like that ithn’t going to rithe up -with a pop ath though he wath a little fith. When a whale gothe to work, -no matter what hith buthineth ith, he’th bound to take hith time. Did you -ever thee a fat man hurry himthelf. Courth not. Tho ith it with whaleth.” - -For a long time I continued to furtively glance at the sea, and then gave -up looking, secretly pleasing myself with the idea that the whale was -still alive, and not very much hurt; for it seemed to me very hard that -any creature should meet with so dreadful an end as being flogged to -death. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -_HE SEES AN ICEBERG._ - - -When I had finished my work in the boat, I walked forward to toast my -hands for a little at the galley-fire. The cook and I were good friends. -Our esteem for each other had grown up through my giving him a portion of -my allowance of rum, which acts of attention he repaid by presenting me, -from time to time, with a hot roll or jam tart. For, though the owner of -the _Lady Violet_ had told my father that his ships were sober vessels, -yet with us it was the practice for the steward to serve out every day at -noon, on the drum of the capstan on the quarter-deck, a gill, or tot, of -rum to the whole ship’s company. We midshipmen, as being on the articles, -were included, and, regularly with the rest, I presented myself for my -“tot”; but the stuff was much too fiery for me; the flavour, moreover, -I thought extremely disagreeable; so, instead of swallowing the dose, I -preserved it in a bottle and gave it to the boatswain’s mate, and the -cook, and to the man who washed my linen, and to one or two others. - -Well, having yarned a bit with the cook about the fight between the -whale and the thrasher, whilst I warmed my fingers at his genial stove, -I quitted the galley to go aft again. As I left the structure, the chief -mate, standing at the break of the poop, sang out for some hands to clew -up the main-royal and furl it. The mizzen-royal, I saw, was in process -of being stowed by Poole, and there was a fellow dancing up the lower -fore-shrouds on his way to furl the fore-royal. Some hands came tumbling -past me; they let go the halliards and tailed on to the clew-lines, and a -couple of sailors jumped on to the bulwarks to get into the rigging. One -continued on his way aloft; the other halted with his feet still upon the -bulwark-rail, and his left hand upon his heart. - -He was a short man, with a yellowish, coarse face, dingy and stained, -the skin like an old blanket. He had a tuft of ginger-coloured beard -under his chin, a rounded back that seemed hunched, and stunted bow -legs. I looked at him as I came abreast on my way to the poop, struck by -his lingering when he should have been running aloft—struck, also, by a -quite indescribable expression in his face. His eyes were upturned like -those of a sleeper when you part the lids. I was exactly opposite him -when he fell. He tumbled inboards like a wooden figure; and his head -struck my shoulder with such force that I was spun round and felled, -half-senseless, to the deck. - -I recovered in a few moments, and sat upright; nobody took any notice -of me. A crowd had gathered round the prostrate man, and presently two -or three of the sailors lifted him up and carried him forwards. _He was -stone dead!_ The doctor examined the body, and said it was disease of the -heart that had killed him. - -I cannot express the effect this shock produced upon me. The mere seeing -the poor fellow fall a corpse would have been painful and terrible to my -young nerves; but to be struck by him—to carry about with me a shoulder -aching from the blow of his head!—it was an incident that filled my -boyish sleep with nightmares that lasted me for a long fortnight. Again -and again I would start from my slumbers—from some horrible vision of the -dead man clasping me—drawing me from my bed—struggling to carry me on -deck to jump overboard with me! Had I found courage to speak out, my mind -might have been soothed; but I did not dare whisper my thoughts for fear -of being laughed at, and though the impression faded before long, yet, -whilst it lasted I was the most nervous miserable creature, I do believe, -that was ever afloat. - -The burial of this poor fellow gave me an opportunity of witnessing what -I cannot but think the most impressive ceremony that is anywhere to be -viewed. How solemn a thing is a funeral on shore we all know; but at -sea those points and features which render the interment of the dead on -land affecting and awful are immeasurably heightened by the vastness of -the ocean, the mystery of its depths, the contrast between it and the -littleness of the form committed to its great dark heart, and, above -all, by the utter extinction of the body. Ashore there is a grave: you -can point to the mound or to the stone; but at sea nothing but a bubble -follows the plunge of the corpse: it is swallowed up in the immensity of -the deep as the mounting lark dies out in the blue into which it soars. - -The dead sailor was stitched up in his hammock and a weight attached to -his feet. The shrouded figure was placed upon a hatch grating, and the -large ensign thrown over it, after which it was brought by four seamen -to the gangway. The captain stood bare-headed close by, prayer-book in -hand; the whole ship’s company gathered round, most of them having made -some little difference in their attire for the occasion; the passengers -collected at the break of the poop, the gentlemen with their caps in -their hands, and the ladies looking down upon the quarter-deck with -grave and earnest faces. A stillness fell upon the ship, and you heard -nothing but the voice of the captain reading the Service, mingled with -the hissing noise of the foam washing past, and the humming of the wind -in the concavities of the canvas. At a signal one end of the grating was -lifted, and the hammock flashed overboard. A shudder ran through me as I -saw it go. Then, when the last words of the Service had been recited, the -captain put on his hat and entered the cabin, the boatswain’s pipe rung -out shrilly in dismissal of the men, and within a quarter of an hour the -ship had regained her familiar appearance—the ladies walking on the poop, -the captain briskly chatting with some passengers near the wheel, and the -sailors of the watch at work on their several jobs about the deck and in -the rigging. - -It was customary in my time to hold an auction of the effects of a dead -sailor shortly after his burial. There was an odd mixture of humour -and pathos in the scene. The poor fellow’s chest was brought on to the -quarter-deck, and the mate at the capstan played the part of auctioneer. -I stood under the break of the poop, looking on; and, young as I was, -I seemed to have mind enough to appreciate the queer appearance the -Jacks presented as they stood shouldering one another in bunches, with -something of shyness in their manner, and with askant, half-sheepish, yet -grinning glances directed at the ladies who stood on the poop, viewing -the scene. - -There was not much of an auction, for the poor fellow had left very few -clothes behind him. He had been one of those improvident sailors who will -spend in a single night ashore the earnings for which they have laboured -during a twelvemonth, and who are driven by poverty to ship again in a -hurry, often rolling into the forecastle with nothing but a jumper and a -pair of tarry breeches in their bags. The articles were held up for the -crew to see; Mr. Johnson did not apparently relish the idea of handling -them. The steward pulled a pair of trousers out of the chest, and -expanded them between his raised hands. - -“What bid for these?” said the mate; “you all behold them. Observe -that patch; the neatness of the stitching heightens the value of those -trousers by at least five shillings more than they are intrinsically -worth, if only as an object of art just to look at. How much shall I say?” - -One bid two shillings, another five, and the breeches were ultimately -knocked down to the cook for ten—not a little to my astonishment, for it -seemed to me that an offer of even threepence for them would have been -excessive. The steward then flourished a worn shirt, for which a sailor -with a hoarse voice offered three-and-sixpence. It was knocked down to -him, and, had it been an extraordinary bargain, he could not have looked -more pleased. Then a very rusty monkey-jacket was exposed, together with -a belt and sheath-knife, a pair of shoes which certainly did not match, -a greasy Scotch cap, and one or two other articles of a like nature. -They all fetched high prices. The sailors seemed to regard the biddings -as a joke; yet it was impossible that there should be much humour in the -thing to those to whom these specimens of squalid raiment were knocked -down, since the money was deducted from their pay. Nor could I gather of -what use the clothes were likely to prove to the fellows who purchased -them, there being superstitious fancies in every forecastle concerning -dead men’s attire, so that very few sailors will ever be got to clothe -themselves in a drowned ship-mate’s dress. - -But there is a deal of good nature in the recklessness of Jack’s -character, and the bids made at these auctions are owing, not to the -desire of the men to possess the articles, but to the feeling that the -money they spend will be of help to the dead man’s relatives. - -The captain, in making the Horn this voyage, was running his ship on -the Great Circle track; at all events, he was steering a very much more -southerly course than was customary with vessels whose masters deemed -a wide spread of longitude preferable to the risks of ice amongst the -narrower meridians. It was not the harshest time of the year down off -the South American headland; but even with Cape Horn in sight, the -weather would have been bitterly and abominably cold. Judge, then, how -it was with us when I tell you that the navigation of the _Lady Violet_ -carried her to within a league or two of sixty degrees south latitude. -I had often heard of Cape Horn seas and skies, and here they were now -with a vengeance—an horizon shrouded by a wall of grey mist to within a -musket-shot of the ship; the shadows of black clouds whirling overhead -and darkening the air yet with heavy snowfalls, which blew along in -horizontal masses, thick as the contents of a feather-bed, or with -volleys of hail big as plums, which rang upon the decks as though tons of -bullets were being emptied out of the tops; seas of mountainous height -of a dark olive-green, whose white and roaring heads seemed to brush -the flying soot of the heavens as they came storming at us; the rigging -glazed with ice; the running gear so frozen that the ropes crackled in -our hands as wood spits in a fire; the decks full of water, with such a -rolling and plunging of them besides that it was sometimes at the risk of -your life that you let go the rope you swung by to obey an order—this was -my experience of the Horn! - -And only a little bit of it, too. Spite of our oilskins, we were so -repeatedly wet through that it came to our having no dry clothes to put -on. I have known what it is to come down from aloft after reefing the -mizzen topsail, and to shed tears, child as I was, with the agony of the -cold in my hands. The cook could do nothing with the galley-fire, and -there was no warm food to be had. Again and again would we of the watch -on deck go below, and appease our hunger by a meal of mouldy biscuit, -which I would endeavour to sweeten with a coating of salt butter and -moist sugar, and with a pannikin of cold water, tasting already like the -end of a voyage. The passengers remained in the cuddy. The every-day -ship’s routine could not be carried on, and the sailors kept under cover, -but always ready to rush out at the first summons. The decks therefore -seemed deserted, and, but for the two hands at the wheel, and but for -the mate of the watch, who crouched hugging himself under the lee of a -square of canvas in the mizzen rigging, the ship might have been deemed -abandoned—a craft speeding aimlessly before the gale with a company of -souls dead below! - -Never shall I forget the impression produced upon me one night by the -sight of the sea. I came on deck at twelve o’clock, and found the ship -hove-to under a close-reefed main topsail and fore-topmast staysail. -There was a curl of reddish moon in the northern sky, and over that -shapeless blotch of light, as it looked to be, the loose scud was flying -like rolls of brown smoke at hurricane speed. The roaring of the surges -was almost deafening, and there is nothing in language to convey the -astounding noise of the wind in the ice-glaced rigging—the shrieking, the -shrilling, the whistling of it, as it split in fiendish howlings upon the -ropes, and swept away under the foot of the bursting band of topsail, -with a note of thunder like the noise of a train of empty waggons -speeding along the metals in tow of a locomotive. - -I crept up the lee poop-ladder, but on gaining the deck was pinned to the -rail for some minutes by the force of the wind. Then, finding I could -do nothing with my legs, I fell upon my knees and crawled like a rat to -windward; and, still crawling, I passed along under the shelter of the -line of hencoops until I arrived at the mizzen rigging, where the mate -stood protected by the piece of sailcoth fastened to the shrouds. He -handed me the end of a rope, which I passed round my waist and belayed to -a pin, and then I could stand up without fear of falling, otherwise the -prodigious slope of the deck rendered the feet entirely helpless. - -I could now look about me. The first thing I saw, broad on the -weather-bow, was a huge mass of faintness—a great blurr as it seemed of -dim light—that seemed to blend with the flying gloom as you gazed, though -if you withdrew your eye from it for a moment and then looked afresh, it -showed, I may even say, it _shone_ out clearly. I shouted to Mr. Johnson -to tell me what it was. - -“An iceberg,” he roared; for I can tell you it needed all the wind our -lungs could hold to render ourselves audible to each other amid the -fierce clamour of that Cape Horn night. - -It was the first ice that I had seen. Several bergs of magnitude had been -passed during the week, but always when I was below, and, as the weather -was continuously thick, they were out of sight promptly, long before -eight bells called me to keep my watch. - -I stared, fascinated by the huge visionary spectral mass that lay, of the -colour of faint starlight, out upon the bow. It came and went, for our -ship was rolling furiously. Never could I have dreamt that the waves of -the ocean raged to such a height as they were now running to. One moment -the ship was on a level keel in the trough, in a valley deep down, with -moving walls of water on either hand of her; for a breathless moment -there was a lull, the gale seemed to have been spent, you heard nothing -but the howl of it on high, and the savage hissing of boiling foam. - -But in a moment the vessel was sweeping up the huge liquid incline—up and -yet up, with sickening rapidity, with spars sloping till the angle of -the deck was like that of the roof of a house, with all her top hamper -shrieking anew, as it soared into the full weight of the gale. Then would -follow another instant’s pause, whilst she hung poised on the flickering -peak of the sea that had hoisted her, when once more down she would slip, -reeling to windward as she went, until the heart of the valley was again -reached, with its terrifying interval of calm and its deafening uproar of -storm above. - -I forgot the iceberg presently in watching the tremendous billows; and -for a considerable time I swung in the bight of the rope that was round -me, full of consternation. As I looked at the approaching seas it seemed -impossible that the ship could ride to them; but she was a noble vessel, -buoyant as an ocean bird, and she took every surge with a magnificent -ease, falling away, as it were, from the first Titanic blow of it upon -her bow, then rising, like a thing on wings and full of life, never -shipping a drain of water save right forwards, where now and again -you would see the spray blowing in a smoke of crystals right over the -forecastle head. - -Her glorious behaviour after a while restored confidence to me, and then -I looked at the iceberg again. I longed to ask Mr. Johnson questions -about it, but talking, beyond now and again a brief shout, was out of the -question. Such a night as this was the right sort of frame in which to -view the picture of that dim, wild, gigantic berg. The distorted smudge -of red moon, the sweeping shadows of vapour, the enormous seas, frothing, -as it seemed, to the very sky, the darkness, the savage, warring noises -of the tempest, all concurred to impart an inexpressible quality of awe -and mystery and terror to that silent mass of paleness which loomed up -out of the obscurity of the horizon each time our ship rose to the height -of the sea. - -The gale abated before my watch was out, but we were still hove-to when -I went below. At eight o’clock, when the midshipmen in the starboard -watch came down to rout us out, they told us that the wind had shifted, -that the captain had come up on deck at seven and ordered the yards to be -squared and the reefed fore-topsail and foresail set, and that the ship -was now running dead before it on a course well to the north of east, -which looked as if the “old man” feared that he had made more southing -than was good for him, and was now heading for a warmer part of the ocean -whilst there was a wind to serve him. - -One did not need to be told that the vessel had the sea right astern of -her. She was going along on a level keel, though pitching heavily, and -the comparative evenness of her decks after the late fearful slope of -them came with something of novelty to my strained and tired little legs. - -On passing through the booby-hatch, I found the ship almost hidden in a -snowstorm. The fall had the density of a fog, and I do not exaggerate -when I say that nothing was to be seen of the spars above the maintop, -whilst the forecastle was an indistinguishable outline in the white -smother blowing like steam along the decks. One of us midshipmen had to -be on the poop within eyeshot of the mate. We took turn and turn about -at this, Poole going first, and the others of us hanging together in the -cuddy embrasure under the break of the deck, where there was some shelter -to be obtained from the marrow-freezing, man-killing wind. - -When my turn came round, the weather, that had been tolerably clear -for half-an-hour, grew as thick as “mud in a wine-glass” again with -snow. From the poop-rail the two men who were keeping a look-out on the -forecastle head were hardly to be seen. It was blowing half a gale of -wind, but, being dead aft, much of its weight was taken out of it. - -Under reefed topsails and yawning foresail dark with saturation and -iron-hard with frost, the ship drove before the blast, chased by huge -seas which scared me to watch, as the summits rose in grey, freckled, and -foaming hills high above the heads of the steersmen, who were clinging to -the wheel with nervous, sinewy grip. The mate stood at the head of the -weather-poop ladder; the captain, clothed in water-proof garments from -head to foot, paced a bit of deck from the grating abaft the wheel to the -mizzen-shrouds. Through the weeping skylight you caught a dim glimpse -of the outlines of passengers cuddling themselves in the cabin. Heavens, -how did I envy them! What would I have given for the liberty to exchange -this freezing, snow-swept deck for the warmth of the glowing cuddy-stove -and the luxury of the wine-scented atmosphere, the comfortable sofas, the -piano, and the little library of books which the steward had charge of! - -“Well, Master Rockafellar,” said the chief mate, “pray, sir, what do you -think of Cape Horn?” - -“I don’t like it, sir,” said I. - -“Isn’t it cold enough?” he asked. - -“I prefer the equator, sir,” I exclaimed. - -I could see by a laugh in his eye that he was about to deliver something -mirthful; but all on a sudden he fell as grave as a mute, and began to -sniff, as though scenting something in the air whilst he cast a look at -the captain, who continued to patrol the after part of the deck with a -careless step. He sniffed again. - -“I smell ice!” he exclaimed. - -I thought he might wish me to sniff too, which I did, somewhat -ostentatiously, perhaps, that he might notice me; but as to smelling -ice—why, ’twas all snow to me, with a coldness in it that went beyond -ice, to my mind. The flakes were still rolling over us, dense as smoke, -from the lead-coloured sky, and the ship’s bowsprit was nearly out of -sight. - -Once more the mate sniffed up the air with wide nostrils, went to the -rail and thrust his head over, with a long, probing look ahead, and then -came back to where I was standing. He was about to speak, when, out from -the whirling, wool-white thickness forward, came the loud and fearful cry: - -“_Ice right ahead, sir!_” - -“Ice right ahead, sir!” re-echoed the mate in a shriek, whipping round -his face towards the captain. - -“I see it, sir! I see it!” cried the skipper. “Hard a starboard! hard a -starboard! over with it for your lives, lads!” - -The spokes revolved like the driving-wheel of a locomotive in the hands -of the two seamen, and the ship paid off with a slow, stately sweep -of her head, as she swung upon the underrun of a huge Pacific sea, -brimming to her counter, and roaring in thunder along the line of her -water-ways—and just in time! - -For, out upon the starboard bow there leapt out of the snowstorm, in -proportions as huge as those of the cathedral of St. Paul’s, a monster -iceberg. It all happened in a minute, and what a minute was that! It was -a prodigious crystalline mass, some of the sharp curves of it of a keen -blue, the summits deep in snow, and the sides frightfully scored and -gashed into ravines and gorges and caverns, whilst all about the sky-line -of it, showing faintly in the whirling flakes, were forms of pinnacles -and spires, of towers and minarets, columns like those of ruins, and -wild and startling shapes like couchant beasts of colossal size, giant -helmets, forts, turreted heads of castles, and I know not what besides. - -In the fair and streaming sunshine, that would have filled it with -flaming jewels of light, and kindled all kinds of rich and shining -colours, it would have glowed out upon the sea as a most glorious, most -magnificent object; but now, with the shadow upon it of the storm-laden -sky, and rendered wild beyond imagination by the gyrations of the clouds -of snow all about it, it offered a most dreadful and terrifying picture -as it swept past, with the noise of the great seas bursting at its base, -smiting the ear like shocks of earthquake. - -We had escaped it by a miracle. Our ship’s head had been pointed for -it as neatly as the muzzle of a musket at the object to be shot at. In -another three minutes our bows would have been into it, and the ship have -ground herself away from the bows aft, as you shut up the tubes of a -telescope! - -Our captain seemed to take fright at this experience, and whilst the -loom of the mighty mass was still visible on the lee quarter, orders -were given for all hands to turn out and heave the ship to. Nor was way -got upon her again till the weather cleared, and even then for several -days our progress was exceedingly stealthy, the order of the time being -that whenever it came on thick the ship was to be hove-to. It was weary, -desperate work, and every hand on board the ship soon grew to yearn, with -almost shipwrecked longings, for the blue skies and the trade-winds of -the South Atlantic. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -_HE SIGHTS A WRECK._ - - -But at last came a day when the meridian of Staten Island was passed -under our counter; and when eight bells had been made, the ship’s course -was altered, and we were once more heading for the sun with a strong -wind on the beam, the ocean working in long sapphire lines of creaming -billows, the ship leaning down under a maintopgallant sail, with a single -reef in the topsail under it, and the sailors going about their work with -cheerful countenances; for this northward course made us all feel that we -were really and truly homeward bound at last. - -It was thought that our passage would be a smart one, as good a run as -any on record, for though, to be sure, we had been detained a bit off the -Horn by the frequent heaving to of the ship, yet we had traversed the -long stretch of the South Pacific very briskly, whilst for a long eight -days now there blew a strong, steady beam wind that drove us through it -at an average of two hundred and fifty miles in the twenty-four hours. -With less weight in the breeze we should have done better still. We could -never show more than a maintopgallant sail to it, and the high seas were -by no means helpful to the heels of the ship. Yet Cape Horn was speedily -a long way astern of us; the horrible weather of it was forgotten as pain -is. Every night, stars which had become familiar to us were sinking in -the south, and new constellations soaring out of the horizon over the -bows. It was delightful to handle the ropes, and find them supple as coir -instead of stiff as iron bars, to pick up the sails, and feel them soft -again to the touch instead of that hardness of sheets of steel which they -gathered to them in the frosty parallels. The sun shone with a warmth -that was every day increasing in ardency; the dry decks sparkled crisply -like the white firm sand of the sea-beach. The live-stock grew gay and -hearty with the Atlantic temperature: the cocks crew cheerily, the hens -cackled with vigour, the sheep bleated with voices which filled our -salted, weather-toughened heads with visions of green meadows, of fields -enamelled with daisies, of hedges full of nosegays, and of twinkling -green branches melodious with birds. - -We slipped into the south-east trade wind, and bore away for the equator -under fore-topmast studding-sail. - -[Illustration: “I ... SAT RIDING A-COCK-HORSE OF IT” (p. 231).] - -One moonlight night a fancy to view the ship from the bowsprit entered my -mind. I went on to the forecastle and crawled out on to the jibboom, and -there sat riding a-cock-horse of it, holding by the outer jib-stay. The -moon shone brightly over the maintopsail yard-arm; all sail was on the -ship, and she was leaning over from the fresh breeze like a yacht in a -racing match. The moonlight made her decks resemble ivory, and stars of -silver glory sparkled fitfully along them in the glass and brass work. -The whole figure of the noble fabric seemed to be rushing at me; the foam -poured like steam from her stem that was smoking and sheering through the -ocean surge. Over my head soared the great jibs, like the wings of some -mighty spirit. My heart leapt up in me to the rise and fall of the spar -that I jockeyed. It was like sitting at one end of a leviathan see-saw, -and every upheaval was as exhilarating as a flight through the air. Ah, -thought I, as I leisurely made my way inboards, if sailoring were always -as pleasant as _this_, I believe I should wish to continue at sea all my -life. - -It was two days afterwards, at about half-past six in the morning watch, -that a fellow in the foretop hailed the deck and reported a black object -on the lee-bow which, he said, didn’t look like a ship, though it was a -deal too big for a long-boat. I was staring wistfully in the direction -the man had indicated. Mr. Johnson noticed this, and said, with a -kind smile (I seemed to be a favourite of his, maybe because I was but -a little chap to be at sea, otherwise I do not know what particularly -entitled me to his kindness)— - -“Here, Rockafellar, take my glass into the foretop, and see what you can -make of the object.” - -I was very proud of this commission, and not a little pleased to escape -even for a short spell the grimy, prosaic business of scrubbing the poop. -The telescope was a handsome instrument in a case, the strap of which I -threw over my shoulder; and, slipping on a pair of shoes (for I never -could endure the pressure of the ratlines against the soles of my naked -feet), I got into the shrouds and arrived in the foretop. - -“Where is it?” said I to a man who stood peering seawards, with a hairy -tar-stained hand protecting his eyes. - -He pointed. - -I levelled the glass, and in an instant beheld the black hull of a ship -lying deep in the water, rolling heavily, yet very sluggishly. All three -masts were gone, and a few splinters forking out between her knight-heads -were all that remained of her bowsprit. - -The sailor asked leave to look, and putting his eye to the telescope, -exclaimed— - -“_Here’s_ a bad job, I lay. She’s a settling down too. She’ll be out -of sight under water afore we’re abreast, or I’m a Kanaka,” by which he -meant a South Sea Islander. - -[Illustration: “HE POINTED.”] - -I made my way to the deck, and reported what I had seen to the chief -mate. It was not twenty minutes after this when a loud cry arose from -the forecastle, followed by a rush of men to the rail, to see what the -fellow who had called out was pointing at. We of the poop, forgetting -the ship’s discipline in the excitement raised by the shout and headlong -hurry of men forward, ran to the side to look also, and we saw close -against the lee-bow of the ship, fast sliding along past the side, the -figure of a man in a lifebuoy. He was naked to the waist; his arms -overhung the circle, but his form, leaning forward, had so tilted the -buoy that his head lay under water. He rose and fell upon the seas, which -sometimes threw him a little way out and then submerged him again, with -his long hair streaming like grass at the bottom of a shallow running -stream. - -The sailors along the waist and on the forecastle were looking aft, as -though they expected that the mate would back the topsail yard and send -a boat; but the man that had gone past was dead as dead can be: even my -young eyes could have told _that_, though his head had been above water -all the time. - -“It is a recent wreck, I expect, sir,” I heard Mr. Johnson say to the -captain, who stepped on deck at that moment. “The poor fellow didn’t look -to have been in the water long.” - -“There was no doubt he was a corpse?” inquired the captain, to whose -sight the form of the drowned man was invisible, so rapidly had it veered -astern into the troubled and concealing foam of our wake. - -“Oh yes, sir,” answered Mr. Johnson. “His face only lifted now and again.” - -At eight bells the wreck was in sight from the poop, but at a long -distance. I went below to get some breakfast, and then returned, too much -interested in the object that had hove into view to stay in the cabin, -though I had been on deck since four o’clock, and had scarcely slept more -than two hours during the middle watch. - -Our ship’s helm had been slightly shifted, so that we might pass the -wreck close. As we advanced, fragments of the torn and mutilated fabric -passed us; portions of yards, of broken masts with the attached gear -snaking out from it, casks, hatch-covers, and so forth. It was easy to -guess, by the look of these things, that they had been wrenched from the -hull by a hurricane. I noticed a length of sail-cloth attached to a yard, -with a knot in it so tied that I did not need to have been at sea many -months to guess that nothing could have done it but some furious ocean -blast. - -We all stood looking with eagerness towards the wreck—the ladies with -opera-glasses to their eyes, the gentlemen with telescopes; the captain -aft was constantly viewing her through his glass, and the second mate, -who had charge of the deck, watched her through the shrouds of the main -rigging with the intentness of a pirate whose eyes are upon a chase. - -The fact was, it was impossible to tell whether there might be human -beings aboard of her, let alone the sort of pathetic interest one found -in the sight of the lonely object rolling out yonder in a drowning way -amidst the sparkling morning waters of the blue immensity of the deep. -Only a little while ago, I thought to myself as I surveyed her, she was -a noble ship; her white sails soared, she sat like a large summer cloud -upon the water, the foam sparkled at her fore-foot; like ourselves, she -might have been homeward bound—and now see her! Hearts which were lately -beating in full life, are silent—stilled for ever in those cold depths -upon whose surface she is heaving. - -There is no object in life, I think, that appeals more solemnly to -the mind than a wreck fallen in with far out at sea. She is an image -of death, and the thought of the eternity that follows upon death is -symbolized by the secret green profound in whose depths she will shortly -be swallowed up. - -The hull lay so deep in the water that the name under her counter was -buried, and not to be read. A flash of light broke from her wet black -side each time she rolled from the sun, and the brilliant glare was so -much like the crimson gleam of a gun, that again and again I would catch -myself listening for the noise of the explosion, as though forsooth there -were people firing signals to us aboard her. - -“An eight hundred ton ship at least,” the captain told the ladies, “and -a very fine model. Oh yes! She’s been hammered to pieces by a storm of -wind. She has no boats, you see, so let us hope her people managed to get -away in safety, and that they are by this time on board a ship.” - -“I daresay,” said a young fellow, one of the cuddy passengers, “that her -hold is full of valuable goods. Pity we couldn’t take her in tow and -carry her home with us. Why shouldn’t the cargo of such a vessel as that -be worth—call it twenty thousand pounds if you will? There’s just money -enough in that figure to make me tolerably comfortable for the rest of -my life. Confounded nonsense to have a fortune under your nose, and be -obliged to watch it sink!” - -“Well, Mr. Graham,” said the captain, laughing, “there’s the hulk, sir. -If you have a mind to take charge of her, I’ll put you on board. Nothing -venture nothing have, you know. That’s particularly the case at sea.” - -“Too late! too late!” growled out the bass voice of an old major who had -been making the tour of the world for his health. “_See there!_” and he -pointed a long, skinny, trembling forefinger at the wreck. - -She was sinking as he spoke! It was as wild a sight in its way as you -could conceive; she put her bow under and lifted her stern, and made her -last dive as though she were something living. She disappeared swiftly; -indeed the ocean was rolling clear to the horizon before you could -realise that the substantial object, which a moment or two before was -floating firm to your sight, was gone. - -The young gentleman named Graham shuddered as he turned away. - -It was an hour after this that one of the midshipmen came into our berth, -and said that a ship’s boat had been made out right ahead. Nothing living -in her had as yet been distinguished. - -“The notion of course is,” said he, “that she belonged to the wreck that -we passed this morning.” - -I was reading in my bunk, but on hearing this, I immediately hopped out -and went on deck. There was more excitement now than before. A crowd of -the passengers were staring from the poop, with knots of steerage folks -and a huddle of the ship’s idlers on the forecastle, craning their necks -under the bowsprit and past the jibs to get a view. Indeed, whilst the -midshipmen had been telling us about this boat below, a glimpse had been -caught of something moving over the low gunwale of her—some said it was -a cap that had been waved; but whatever it was it had not shown again. -However, everybody was now sure that there was something alive in the -boat, and we all seemed to hold our breath whilst we waited. It was an -ordinary ship’s quarter-boat painted white. - -“There again!” shouted somebody. “Did you see it? A man’s head it looked -like.” - -“Ay,” said the second mate, who had his telescope bearing on the boat at -the moment: “a head, and no mistake; but of what kind, though? More like -a cocoa-nut, to my fancy, than a man’s nob.” - -“There he is! there’s the poor creature!” cried a lady in a sort of -shriek, with an opera-glass at her eyes. “He’s standing up—he has fallen -backwards—ah! he’s up again. But, oh dear me!—can it be a man?” - -“With a tail!” said the second mate, who continued to ogle the boat -through his telescope. “Bless my heart!—why—why—captain, I believe it’s a -great monkey!” - -In a few minutes the boat was under the bow, and a strange roar of -mingled wonder and laughter came floating aft to us from the crowd on -the forecastle. It was a monkey, as the second mate had said—a big ape, -with strong white whiskers, which ringed the lower part of his face like -wool. He had evidently been some crew’s pet; a small velvet cap with a -yellow tassel, like a smoking cap, was secured to his head; he also wore -a pair of large spectacles apparently cut out of thin white wood. His -body was clothed in a short jacket of some faded reddish material, with -a slit behind for the convenience of his tail, the end of which was raw, -as though he had been lately breakfasting off it. His legs were cased in -their native hair, which was long, something like a goat’s. - -[Illustration: “IT WAS A MONKEY.”] - -One could see that the poor beast was terribly weak. He would climb up on -a thwart, then fall backwards, and, as his boat slipped past, he lay on -his side looking up at us through his spectacles with the most woebegone, -piteous, grinning face of appeal that ever monkey in this world assumed. - -There was a sudden explosion of laughter from amongst us; no man could -help himself. Indeed, the first sight of the boat had put some fancies of -horrors to be disclosed into our heads, and the change, from our notion -of beholding dead or dying human beings, into this apparition of a huge -monkey in a smoking cap and spectacles, was so violent and ridiculous a -surprise that it proved too much for the gravest amongst the crowd aft. - -“Hands to the topsail braces!” bawled the captain; “lay the maintopsail -to the mast. We must pick the poor brute up.” - -The _Lady Violet_ was brought to a stand. Five men in charge of the -second mate sprang into a lee-quarter boat; the tackles were slacked -away, and in a few minutes our boat was alongside the other, with two of -the fellows handing out the monkey, that lay as quiet as a baby in their -arms. - -Everybody crowded on to the main-deck to get a view of the poor beast -when the boat had brought him alongside. He had the look of an old man; -and though you saw that the unhappy animal was suffering, his grimaces -were so ugly, the appeal of his bloodshot eyes through his spectacles so -ludicrously human-like, that he made you laugh the louder at him somehow -or other for the very pity that he excited in you. - -“Get him water and food, lads, some of you,” cried the second mate from -the poop; “treat him as though he were mortal like yourselves. He’ll take -all ye’ll give him and more than he ought to have; and we haven’t saved -him to perish of a bust-up.” - -He was carried to the forecastle followed by a crowd of sailors and -steerage people, and I lost sight of him, though I hung about, boy-like, -for a bit, hoping they would bring him forth presently. However, it -seemed that after the seamen had given him a drink of water and a couple -of biscuits to eat, they took off his cap and spectacles and put him into -a hammock with a blanket up to his throat, where he lay like a human -being, rolling a languishing eye round upon those who looked at him, -until he fell asleep. - -The name _Dolphin_, Boston, was painted in the stern-sheets of the -boat in which the monkey was, and of course it was supposed, fore and -aft, that that was the name of the wreck we had fallen in with. But I -afterwards heard—when I had been home some months—that the hull we had -seen founder was a large English barque called the _Elijah Gorman_, -whilst the boat from which we had taken the monkey had belonged to the -Yankee craft whose name was on her. How the boat happened to have been -adrift, and how her sole occupant should have been a monkey, I never -could get to hear, though my father made many inquiries, being much -interested in my story of this little affair. The crew of the _Elijah -Gorman_ had been taken off by a steamer bound to England from a South -American port; so full particulars concerning her loss had been published -in the newspapers some time before we arrived in the Thames. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -_HE SEES A STRANGE LIGHT._ - - -Well, the sailors made a great pet of this immense monkey, who proved a -very inoffensive, gentle, well-tamed creature, abounding in such tricks -as a rough forecastle would educate a monkey in. The Jacks tried him -with a pipe of tobacco, and he was observed to take several whiffs with -an air of great relish, though he put the pipe down long before the bowl -was empty. Once, seeing a man shaving, he imitated the fellow to such -perfection as to show that he had been taught to feign to handle a razor; -whereupon the carpenter shaped a piece of wood to resemble a razor, with -which the monkey, whenever he was asked, would shave himself, pretending -to lather his beard, after, with his own hands, putting a little bit of -canvas under his chin. The sailors also discovered that the creature -could play the fiddle—that is to say, if you put two sticks in his hand -and told him to fiddle, he would adjust one of them to his shoulder, and -saw away with the other, making the most horrible faces the while, as -though ravished by the exquisite sounds he was producing. - -Again and again would I stand watching him till the tears flowed from my -eyes. The sailors called him Old Jacob, dimly conceiving that was a good -name for anything with a white beard. But alas! the ocean had marked him -for her own, and poor Old Jacob did not live to see land again. His death -was very tragical, and the manner in which I was startled by it leaves -the incident, to this moment, very clear in my memory. - -We had run out of the north-east trades, and were sweeping along over a -high sea before a strong breeze of wind. We had met with a bothersome -spell of baffling weather north of the equator, and the captain was now -“cracking on,” as the term goes, to make up for lost time, carrying a -main-royal, when, at an earlier season, he would have been satisfied with -a furled topgallant sail, and through it the _Lady Violet_ was thundering -with foam to the hawse-pipe, the weather-clew of her mainsail up, and the -foretop-mast staysail and jibs flapping and banging in the air over the -forecastle, where they were becalmed by the forecourse and topsail. - -[Illustration: “WOULD SHAVE HIMSELF.”] - -There was a sailor at work on the rigging low down on the fore-shrouds. -I had been watching him for some minutes, observing the carelessness of -his pose as he stood poised on a ratline, whilst I thought how utterly -hopeless would be the look-out of a man who should fall overboard into -the white smother roaring alongside; and I turned my back to walk aft, -when I heard a loud cry of “Man overboard!” - -I looked; the fellow I had been watching had disappeared! I rushed to the -side and saw poor Old Jacob skimming along astern! He had his spectacles -and his cap on, and he was swimming like a man, striking out with vigour. -He swept to the height of a sea, and his poor white-whiskered face most -tragically comical with its spectacles stood out clear as a cameo for a -breath, ere it vanished in the hollow. It then disappeared for good. - -I glanced forward again and perceived the man whom I thought had fallen -into the sea climbing out of the forechains to the part of the rigging -where he had been at work. - -The mate, coming forward, cried, “Who was it that sang out _man -overboard_?” - -“I did, sir,” answered the sailor. - -“Step aft!” said the mate. - -The fellow dropped on to the deck and approached the officer. - -“What do you mean,” cried the mate in a passion, “by raising over a -monkey such an alarm as _man overboard_?” - -“I thought it was a man, sir,” answered the sailor. “I had caught sight -of him on the jibboom, and believed it was Bill Heenan.” - -“What!” shouted the mate, “with those spectacles on?” - -“I didn’t notice the spectacles, sir,” said the man; “I see a figure -out on the jibboom, and whilst I was looking the jib-sheet chucked him -overboard, and that’s why I sung out.” - -The mate stared hard at the man, but seemed to think he was telling the -truth, on which he told him to go forward and get on with his work, -biting his underlip to conceal an expression of laughter, as he walked -towards the wheel. - -That evening, in the second dog-watch, there was a fight between the -sailor, whose name was Jim Honeyball, and Bill Heenan. Bill had heard -that Jim had mistaken him for Old Jacob, and had told the mate so; and -thereupon challenged him to stand up like a man. There was a deal of -pummeling, much rolling about, encouraging cheers from the sailors, and -“language,” as it is called, on the part of the combatants; but neither -was much hurt. - -Such was the end of the poor monkey; yet he seemed to have found a -successor in Bill Heenan, for, to the end of the voyage, the Irishman was -always called Old Jacob. - -We were talking in the midshipmen’s berth over the loss of the monkey, -when Poole, the long midshipman, who was in my watch, spun us the -following yarn:—“I made my first voyage,” said he, “in a ship called -the _Sweepstakes_, to Madras, Calcutta, and Hong Kong. On our way home -we brought up off Singapore for a day on some business of cargo, of -which I forget the nature. I was standing at the gangway, my duty as -midshipman being to keep the ship’s side clear of loafers, when I saw a -large boat heading for us. She was like one of those surf-boats you see -at Madras. There were five fellows rowing her, and one chap steered with -a long oar. They were all darkies, naked to the waist. I was struck by -the manner in which one of them, as the boat approached, looked over the -shoulder at our ship. The others kept their eyes on their oars or gazed -over the stern; but this chap stared continuously behind him as the boat -advanced; by which I mean that he looked ahead, for of course a fellow -rows with his back upon the bow of a boat. They came alongside, and I -found that the men had a great number of monkeys to sell. I looked hard -at the fellow whose chin had been upon his shoulder as he rowed, and -was wondering what on earth sort of native he was, when, on a sudden, I -caught sight of his tail! He was a huge ape, of the size of a man—at all -events, of the size of his shipmates. He so much resembled the others -at a little distance that there was nothing wonderful in my not having -distinguished him quickly. He had pulled his oar with fine precision, -keeping time like one of the University Eight, and there had been nothing -odd about him at all, saving his manner of looking over his shoulder. The -others held up monkeys to show us, and, I tell you, I burst into a roar -of laughter when I saw this great ape pick up a bit of a marmozette and -flourish it up at me as if he would have me buy. In a very little while -the ship was full of monkeys. Almost every man amongst us bought one. I -chose a pretty little creature that slept in the clews of my hammock all -the way home; but he grew so tall and quarrelsome that my mother, when -I was absent last year, gave him away to an old gentleman, who shortly -afterwards, in the most mysterious manner, disappeared, together with the -monkey.” - -“Where wath the mythtery?” asked Kennet. - -“Well,” said Poole, “the notion was that the monkey had eaten up the -old gentleman, dressed himself up in his clothes, and gone to London to -consult a solicitor, with a view of contesting the old man’s will, as -being next of kin.” - -We were gradually now drawing near home. The English Channel was no -longer so far off but that we could think of it as something within -reach of us. All my clothes had shrunk upon me, whence I might know that -I had grown much taller and broader than I was when I left England. -My face was dark with weather, the palms of my hands hard as horn with -pulling and hauling. I had the deep-sea rolling gait that is peculiar -to sailors, and, indeed, I had been transformed during the months I had -been away into as thorough a little “shellback” as was ever made of a -boy by old ocean. I was wonderfully hearty besides—had the appetite of a -wolf and the spirits of a young spaniel. I was equal to doing “my bit” -on board ship, whatever might be the job I was set to. I could put as -neat a bunt to the furl of the mizzen-royal as any lad aboard, knew how -to send the yard down, how to pass an earing—though I was too small, and -without sufficient strength, to jockey the yard-arm in reefing—was well -acquainted with all the parts of the rigging, and the various uses of the -complicated gear; could steer, make knots of twenty different kinds—in -short, I had picked up a great deal of sea knowledge of a working sort; -but I knew nothing of navigation beyond the art of bringing the sun down -to the horizon through a sextant, and working out a simple proposition of -latitude, for which I had to thank Mr. Cock; Captain Tempest taught me -nothing. - -I was very eager to get home; I had never before been so long absent from -my parents. I was pining, too, for comforts which when at home I had made -nothing of, but which I would now think upon as the highest luxuries. -How often when hacking with a black-handled knife at a piece of iron-hard -salt junk and rapping the table with a biscuit to free the mouthful of -any stray weevil which might be lurking in the honeycombed fragment—how -often, I say, has the vision of my father’s table arisen before my eyes: -the basin of soup at which I have known myself to sometimes impatiently -turn up my nose; the fried sole or delicious morsel of salmon; the roast -leg of mutton or sirloin of beef, with its attendant vegetables—things -not to be dreamt of at sea—the jam tarts, the apple pies, the custards, -not to mention the dessert! Oh, how often has the lump of cold salt fat -pork or the mouthful of nauseous soup and bouilli come near to choking -me with those thoughts of breakfast, dinner, and supper at home, which -the odious nature of the food on our cabin table has excited in my hungry -imagination! - -After we had crossed the parallels of the Horse Latitudes, as they are -called, we met with some strange weather: thick skies with a look of -smoke hanging about the horizon, sometimes the sun showing as a shapeless -oozing, like a rotten orange, a dusky green swell rolling up out of two -or three quarters at once, as it seemed, and shouldering one another into -a jumble of liquid hills which strained the ship severely with rolling, -making every tree-nail, bolt, and strong fastening cry aloud with a -voice of its own, whilst the masts were so wrung that you would have -expected them any minute to snap and fall away overboard. - -Some of our passengers whom the mountainous seas of the Horn had not in -the least degree affected were now sea-sick; in fact, I heard of one lady -as lying below dangerously ill with nausea. The men declared it made them -feel squeamish to go aloft. I should have laughed at this in such salt -toughened Jacks as they but for an experience of my own; for being sent -to loose the mizzen topgallant sail, I was so oppressed with nausea on my -arrival at the cross-trees, that it was as much as I could do to get upon -the yard and cast the gaskets adrift. This was owing to the monstrous -inequalities of the ship’s movements, to the swift jerks and staggering -recoveries which seemed to displace one’s very stomach in one; added to -which was the close oppressive temperature, a thickness of atmosphere -that corresponded well with the pease-soup-like appearance of the ocean, -and that seemed to be explained by the sulphur-coloured, smoky sort of -sky that ringed the horizon. - -It was on this same day, or rather in the night of it, during the first -watch, from eight o’clock to midnight, that a strange thing happened. It -was very dark, so black indeed that though you stood shoulder to shoulder -with a man you could see nothing of him. There was no wind, but a heavy -swell was running on whose murky, invisible coils the ship was violently -rolling. There was not a break of faintness, not the minutest spot of -light in the sky, whose countenance, with a scowl of thunder upon it, -seemed to press close to our wildly sheering mast-heads. - -There was something so subduing in the impenetrable gloom, something that -lay with so heavy a weight upon the spirits, that the noisiest amongst us -insensibly softened his voice to a whisper when he had occasion to speak. -I particularly noticed this when some of the watch came aft to clew up -the main topgallant sail and snug the main sail with its gear; there was -no singing out at the ropes; instead of the hoarse peculiar songs sailors -are wont to deliver when they drag, the men pulled silently as ghosts, -and not a syllable fell from them that was audible to us when they were -upon the yard rolling the sail up. - -[Illustration: “SUDDENLY SHONE OUT A LIGHT.”] - -I was holding on to a belaying pin to steady myself when there suddenly -shone out a light upon the boom iron at the extremity of the main-yard. -It was of a greenish hue, sickly somewhat, so as to make one think of -a corpse-candle or a graveyard Jack-o’-lantern. It swayed as a bladder -would or as a soap-bubble might ere it soars from the pipe out of which -it is blown. It had some power of illuminating in spite of its wan -complexion, for I observed that it threw a very feeble light upon the -clew of the sail, and that, as the ship rolled the yard-arm on which it -shone towards the sea, the huge, round, ebony black swell mirrored it in -the shape of a dull star like a phosphoric jelly-fish. - -I had never seen such a sight before, nor indeed had I ever heard of the -like of such a thing. I was standing close to Poole at the time, and he -said to me— - -“What do you think it?” - -“Why, but what _is_ it?” I responded. - -“A spirit of the sea!” he exclaimed in a sepulchral voice; “the ghost of -a dead sailor who has grown tired with flying and is resting himself on -the yard-arm. The souls of dead seamen always carry lanterns with them to -show them the road on dark nights after this pattern.” - -As he spoke the fiery exhalation disappeared. - -“Ha! he’s started again!” cried Poole. “He’ll meet with another ship -presently and take another spell of rest.” - -“A very good explanation, Mr. Poole,” exclaimed the voice of the mate, -“but not strictly scientific, sir.” - -He had been standing within earshot of us, yet was utterly -indistinguishable in the blackness. - -“The light, Rockafellar,” continued the officer, “is what is called by -sailors a corposant. It is supposed that the points of iron on board -a ship kindle into a flame some quality of electricity in the air. I -daresay it will show again in a minute. Yes, as I thought.... It is on -the topsail yard-arm now.” - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -_HE ARRIVES HOME._ - - -He had scarcely uttered these words when a shock ran through the ship -for all the world as though the heave of the swell had let her fall -with violence upon some hard shoal. The decks trembled as though to an -explosion. The tremor of the fabric seemed to enter into one’s very -marrow, and it would be impossible to express the sense of dismay it -excited, happening as it did on a black night, and in the middle of the -wide ocean where we knew there could be no shoals for hundreds of leagues. - -The light at the yard-arm vanished; there was a noise of hurrying feet -forwards, with a rumbling of exclamations uttered in agitation. - -“What was that?” was shouted from the companion-hatch in the captain’s -familiar accents. “Mr. Johnson?” - -“Sir?” - -“What have we struck? Is there any ship near us?” - -“I don’t know, sir,” answered the mate; “it has been as black as thunder -all through.” - -“Get a cast of the lead,” exclaimed the captain, but quietly, with no -note of hurry in his voice; “send the carpenter aft to sound the pumps; -get lanterns up to show a light over the side.” - -The blow felt as though the ship had struck some floating wreck. In a -minute the vessel was wide awake. The shock had aroused the sleepers, -who came tumbling up pell-mell out of cabin and forecastle. The decks, -which before were of a death-like stillness, were now alive with sailors -running about, with passengers full of excitement and fear, with lanterns -briskly travelling from place to place, with one stationary one at the -pumps, where the white-haired carpenter stood lowering his sounding-rod, -with the deliberation of a Scotchman, down the well. - -There was nothing to be seen over the side, and there was no more water -in the bottom of the ship than was always to be found there. The sea was -sounded all around with the hand-lead, but, as will readily be supposed, -no bottom was got. - -In the midst of this commotion the heavens seemed to be split open by -a flash of lightning; the whole surface of the ocean shone out to its -farthest confines to the crimson blaze, and then came, within three -seconds of the terrific glare, a crash of thunder right overhead. The -enormous explosion liberated the rain; down it came, a very Niagara -Falls of water! In a trice it was up to a man’s knees in the main-deck, -and every mother’s son of us was as a drowned rat, soaked through and -through; the passengers rushing headlong to the hatches, and the sailors -floundering about here and there to the hurried cries of the mate -ordering sail to be shortened. - -There was no more lightning, but the rain continued to fall in a living -sheet of water, which flashed the fire up out of the sea all about us. -Indeed, the black atmosphere was extraordinarily full of electricity, and -even through the blinding veil of the rain you could catch a sight of -bluish sparks glittering about the ironwork, with the coming and going -of nebulous lights upon the yard-arms and bowsprit. The ship was snugged -down, but the furling of the wet and beating canvas was hard work. You -could not see an inch before your face. I had to grope my way on to the -mizzen topsail yard as a man might through a small tunnel in the bottom -of a pyramid. The foot-ropes were as slippery as ice, and as my legs -were very short my situation was one of real danger, not more due to the -sickening rolling and strong beating of the heavy saturated canvas than -to the circumstance of Poole being alongside of me—by which I mean that -his long legs, like a pair of compasses, weighed down the foot-rope upon -which we were standing into an angle down which I would slide, until -my feet were off the line, and there was nothing to save me from going -overboard but my grip of the jack-stay. - -All the while that we were working we expected the mass of impenetrable -shadow that hung over our heads, dark as the midnight inkiness of a -vault, to burst into a roaring gale of wind; yet all remained quiet; the -rain ceased; saving the straining noises of the rolling ship there was -nothing to be heard but the sobbing of water cascading off the decks -overboard through the scupper holes. No more shocks were felt, though -I fancy the nerves of us all continued on the strain in expectation of -such another thump as that which had sent the people below running up in -terror through the hatches. - -At midnight it was still a thick black calm, and the same high swell -working that had been running throughout the watch. I was not a little -rejoiced to hear the chimes of the bell, for I had been soaked by the -downfall to the very marrow, yet durst not leave the deck for a minute -to change my wet clothes for dry ones. We turned in dog-tired, and slept -without a stir throughout the four hours; and when we were called again -at four o’clock the stars were shining, the moon was setting in the -west, a fresh breeze was blowing over our starboard quarter, and the -_Lady Violet_ was once more driving through it on her way home under -canvas that clothed her from truck to waterway. - -What it was that we had struck or that had struck us could only be a -matter of conjecture. The captain was of opinion that the shock had been -caused by a submarine earthquake—a volcanic explosion deep down. “It was -the right sort of night,” he argued, “for disturbances of that kind; the -water full of fire, and the atmosphere tingling with electricity.” On -the other hand, Mr. Johnson had no doubt that the ship had received a -blow from the rising of a whale under her keel. The creature had risen to -spout, but had been frightened by the thump it had given itself and made -off. - -It was a thing, as I had said, that one could only speculate upon. The -ship was divided into two parties, one accepting the captain’s and the -other the mate’s opinion. Which side I declared for I do not remember; -but on recurring to the incident at this distance of time, I have no -doubt whatever that the mate was in the right, for since those days I -have been on board a ship where an earthquake has happened in the deep -sea beneath her, and the sort of vibratory scraping sensation that -accompanied the shock was entirely different from the dull lumpish thud -that had made every heart in the _Lady Violet_ beat fast on that black -night. - -As we approached the entrance to the English Channel ships grew numerous, -and every hour yielded us a fresh canvas of ocean panorama. At daybreak -one morning we spied a large ship right ahead, and by four o’clock in -the afternoon had approached her close enough to read the name upon her -stern; and great was our triumph when we discovered that she was the fine -clipper ship _Owen Glendower_, that had left Sydney eight days before us. -We passed her in the night, and the watch on deck let fly an ironical -cheer at her, taking their chance of being heard, and at sunrise next -morning nothing but her royal and topgallant sails were visible on the -shining line of the horizon. - -[Illustration: “A FINE CUTTER CAME THRASHING THROUGH IT.”] - -It was rather thick weather in the Channel, and we saw no land till we -made the South Foreland. A fine cutter came thrashing through it to -alongside of us when off Dungeness, and a pilot climbed out of her over -our side. With what profound interest, and joy, and admiration did my -young eyes explore his purple visage, and survey his stout coat and the -warm shawl round his neck! He had not been on board ten minutes when the -sun shone forth, and the green and frothing waters of the Channel showed -clear to the horizon. Then it was that the coast of our dear old home lay -fair and beautiful upon our port beam and bow—white cliffs slopes of -green sward, delicate as satin, groups of Liliputian houses, with windows -sparkling, the chocolate-coloured canvas of smacks, the white wings of -pleasure-yachts, the grimy cloths of round-bowed, black-hulled colliers, -enriching the surface of the laughing seas betwixt us and the line of -shingle upon which the surf was surging. - -Off the South Foreland a tug chased and cleverly hooked us by making a -short cut to the North Foreland, where she intercepted us as we swept -round in a large, majestic arch, with the red-hulled lightship stationed -abreast of Ramsgate resting like a spot of colour against the yellow -shelf of the Goodwin Sands, on our port quarter, and a busy scene of -shipping opening under our bows as we headed for the River Thames. But -the shift of helm brought the wind ahead, and by this time our captain -and the skipper of the tug, having agreed upon the question of terms for -towage, the order was given to clew up and furl; a line from the tug was -hove to us, the end of a huge hawser attached to it and paid out over -the bow, and presently the _Lady Violet_, in tow of the panting little -steamer, was quietly gliding along for her home in the East India Docks, -with her crew aloft sending down sails and unreeving gear. - -News of our being in the Channel had reached my father long before we had -arrived in the river, and he was one of the first to step on board when -we had been warped to our berth in the docks. - -I was below, polishing myself up to go ashore, when Kennet called through -the hatch that my father was on the quarter-deck and waiting to see me. -I rushed up, and in a moment was in his arms. I had no objection to his -kissing me now; in fact, I may say that I kissed him. The overstrained -sense of manliness in me was gone. I was a young sailor with a full -heart, and there were tears both in my father’s and my own eyes as he -drew away from me, after our first hug, to have a good look at me. - -“The picture of health!—gracious, how sunburnt—grown a whole foot, I do -declare!—my goodness, Tommy, what shoulders!” - -This, and the like, was all he could say for some time. I asked after my -mother, my sisters, my little brother. Thank God, they were all well, and -eagerly awaiting my arrival at home. - -“I have ordered a jolly good dinner at the Brunswick Hotel,” said my -father; “let us go and partake of it, my son. But first you will say -good-bye to the officers and your shipmates.” - -[Illustration: “WERE SEATED AT A TABLE.”] - -The captain was not to be seen. Mr. Johnson shook me cordially by the -hand and assured my father that I had the making of a sailor in me. All -the midshipmen had hurried ashore with the exception of Kennet, who was -below, sitting on a chest smoking his pipe when I descended to say -farewell to such of the lads as I could find in the cabin. He pretended -to weep as he squeezed my hand. - -I said, “Kennet, are you not going ashore?” - -“Yeth,” he said; “but I muth finith my pipe firtht.” - -“Kennet,” I said, “come and dine with my father and me. He has ordered a -good dinner to be in readiness for us at the Brunswick Hotel.” - -He threw down the sooty clay pipe he had been smoking and jumped up. - -“Rockafellar,” he said, “I alwayth thaid you were a brick!” - -A little later, my father, Kennet, and myself were seated at a table, -white with damask and sparkling with glass, in a window overlooking the -Docks. Oh! the excellence of the roast beef! Oh! the sweetness of the -cauliflower with its melted butter! Oh! the incomparable flavour of the -mealy potatoes! - -“Ithth the change from thalt horthe, thir, that maketh it nithe,” said -Kennet, with his mouth full. - -And so ended Master Rockafellar’s voyage. Would you like to know if I -ever went to sea again? Well it is a question that need not signify just -now. If this little yarn which I have been spinning has amused you, then, -should you desire more by-and-by, I don’t doubt there is enough stuff -stowed away in the locker of my memory to make plenty of “twisters,” as -stories are called at sea. Meanwhile, boys and girls, I touch the peak of -my midshipman’s cap to you in respectful farewell. - - UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, PRINTERS, WOKING AND LONDON. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Master Rockafellar's Voyage, by -William Clark Russell - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTER ROCKAFELLAR'S VOYAGE *** - -***** This file should be named 62336-0.txt or 62336-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/3/3/62336/ - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the - United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you - are located before using this ebook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - |