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diff --git a/old/62336-h/62336-h.htm b/old/62336-h/62336-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 894710a..0000000 --- a/old/62336-h/62336-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8385 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Master Rockafellar’s Voyage, by W. 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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) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="500" height="750" alt="Cover image" /> -</div> - -<p class="center larger">MASTER ROCKAFELLAR’S VOYAGE</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center larger">BY THE SAME AUTHOR</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 20em;"> -<ul> -<li>MY DANISH SWEETHEART</li> -<li>HIS ISLAND PRINCESS</li> -<li>ABANDONED</li> -</ul> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> -<img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="700" height="450" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“BE PLEASED TO GET IN AND GO AWAY.”</p> -<p class="caption"><i><a href="#Page_175">See page 175.</a></i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> - -<p class="titlepage larger">MASTER ROCKAFELLAR’S<br /> -VOYAGE</p> - -<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">BY</span><br /> -W. CLARK RUSSELL<br /> -<span class="smaller">AUTHOR OF “MY DANISH SWEETHEART,” ETC., ETC.</span></p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">WITH 27 ILLUSTRATIONS BY GORDON BROWNE</p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">FIFTH EDITION</p> - -<p class="titlepage">METHUEN & CO. LTD.<br /> -36 ESSEX STREET W.C.<br /> -LONDON</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></p> - -<table summary="List of editions and their publication dates"> - <tr> - <td><i>First Published</i></td> - <td><i>October</i></td> - <td class="right"><i>1890</i></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Second Edition</i></td> - <td><i>November</i></td> - <td class="right"><i>1894</i></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Third Edition</i></td> - <td><i>August</i></td> - <td class="right"><i>1906</i></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Fourth Edition</i></td> - <td><i>November</i></td> - <td class="right"><i>1910</i></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><i>Fifth Edition</i></td> - <td colspan="2" class="center"><i>1913</i></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CONTENTS</h2> - -<table summary="Contents"> - <tr> - <td></td> - <td class="tdpg smaller">PAGE</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER I.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HE BEGS TO GO TO SEA</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER II.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HIS FIRST DAY ON BOARD SHIP</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">17</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER III.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HE SAILS FROM GRAVESEND</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">30</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HE GOES ALOFT</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">45</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER V.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HE SIGHTS A SHIP</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">59</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HE IS STRUCK BY LIGHTNING</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">74</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HE HEARS A BELL</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">88</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span>CHAPTER VIII.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HE SEES THE EQUATOR</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">103</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HE SEES AN ICEBERG</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">209</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER X.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HE SIGHTS A WRECK</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">227</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HE SEES A STRANGE LIGHT</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">243</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HE ARRIVES HOME</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">259</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> - -<h1><span class="smcap">Master Rockafellar’s Voyage</span></h1> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HE BEGS TO GO TO SEA.</i></span></h2> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="300" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">EBENEZER ROCKAFELLAR.</p> -</div> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> -tumbling about in it resembling a toy Noah’s ark -tossing on the strong ripples of a pond.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> -<img src="images/illus3.jpg" width="700" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“MY FATHER TALKED TO MY MOTHER.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Of the Blue, I think it is,” said my father.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> - -<p>“The Red is cock of the walk,” said I, who -had been listening to this conversation with much -interest.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>The name of the ship was the <i>Lady Violet</i>, 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.</p> - -<p>“There is no flogging now, I think, sir, at sea?” -said my father.</p> - -<p>“Oh dear no,” cried Mr. Duncan, smiling all -over his immense crimson face: “a barbarous -practice, sir, very happily suppressed ages ago.”</p> - -<p>“How are boys punished,” asked my father, “at -sea when they deserve it?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> - -<p>“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 <em>my</em> 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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“They need all their fathers allow them, sir,” -said the outfitter, with a bow.</p> - -<p>“Is it,” asked my father, “that they must always -appear very clean?”</p> - -<p>“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.’”</p> - -<p>“What is soft-tack?” said I.</p> - -<p>“Bread, the likes of which we eat ashore,” -answered the outfitter.</p> - -<p>“Don’t they get the same at sea?” said I.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> -which midshipmen’s trousers and shirts count for -nothing.”</p> - -<p>“I’d rather have a biscuit any day,” said I, “than -a slice of bread.”</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>“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, <span class="smcap">Thomas Rockafellar</span>, was to be painted -in strong, large black letters.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>The <i>Lady Violet</i> 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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> -to a sullen roar, as though she were vexed at being -imprisoned in a great box.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“I don’t think he is,” said the youngster.</p> - -<p>“This is my son,” said my father, “who has -come to join the <i>Lady Violet</i>. Are there any -formalities to go through—any book to be signed -by him—we are rather at a loss?”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Are you one of the officers, sir,” asked my -father.</p> - -<p>“I am the second mate, sir, and my name is -Jones,” answered the other.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HIS FIRST DAY ON BOARD SHIP.</i></span></h2> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <i>Lady Violet</i> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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—</p> - -<p>“Well, youngster, and who are you?”</p> - -<p>“I am Master Rockafellar, sir,” I answered.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p> - -<p>“That’s our livery you’ve got on,” said he; “you’re -one of the midshipmen, I suppose?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir,” said I; “and are you a midshipman, -please?”</p> - -<p>“No,” he answered; “I’m third mate. What’s -your name, again?”</p> - -<p>“Master Rockafellar,” said I.</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>“No, sir,” said I.</p> - -<p>“Haven’t you seen your bedroom?”</p> - -<p>“No, sir,” I answered again.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“My chest is locked, sir,” said I.</p> - -<p>“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!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Please, sir, which is the way?” said I, trembling.</p> - -<p>“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 <em>that’s</em> the -way.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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?”</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>The sailor was too grumpy and surly a man for -a little boy like me to address a second time; so I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/illus4.jpg" width="300" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“HE TURNED HIS EYES SLOWLY UPON ME.”</p> -</div> - -<p>“Now then!” bawled a powerful voice: “up or -down; one ways or t’other. There ain’t too much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> -light here; and who’s bin and made <em>you</em> think -you’re made o’ sheet glass?”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Where is my bedroom?” said I.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“I promised my father not to sell my clothes,” -I answered, with dignity. “Where’s my bedroom, -I say?”</p> - -<p>“Why, <em>there</em>,” 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.”</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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!</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Immediately facing the door there was stretched, -in one of the upper sleeping-shelves, a young red-faced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus5.jpg" width="500" height="450" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“‘IS THIS A BEDROOM?’ SAID I.”</p> -</div> - -<p>“Is this a bedroom?” said I.</p> - -<p>He expelled several mouthfuls of smoke before -answering, and then exclaimed, “Yeth.”</p> - -<p>“Am I to sleep here, do you know?” said I.</p> - -<p>“Can’t thay,” said he, lazily. “If you’re a midthipman,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> -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 <em>is</em> your second year at sea, -then you shall call me a Chinaman, without risk of -earning a kick for the compliment.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Well, young gentlemen,” he presently roared -out, “three of you are new to this ship this voyage,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> -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 -<i>Lady Violet</i>.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HE SAILS FROM GRAVESEND.</i></span></h2> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus6.jpg" width="500" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">A SCENE IN THE EMIGRANTS’ QUARTERS.</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> -the ship’s side to bitterly increase the sense of -loneliness in my childish heart.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p> - -<p>“How is it you’re not at work, youngster?” said -he.</p> - -<p>“I’ve just woke up,” said I.</p> - -<p>“Look here,” said he, “if you don’t call me sir, I -shall have to call <em>you</em> 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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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!”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <i lang="fr">mal de mer</i>, 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.</p> - -<p>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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/illus7.jpg" width="250" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“I FELL THROUGH THE RIGGING.”</p> -</div> - -<p>It was the forenoon watch, as the hours from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>Presently more hoarse songs resounded on deck, -along with the echo of tramping feet and of rigging -dropped hastily from the hand.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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!”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HE GOES ALOFT.</i></span></h2> - -<p>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 <i>Lady Violet</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> -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!</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Come along! come along!” he roared. “All -the beef we can get is wanted here!”</p> - -<p>I went in a staggering run to where the group -were pulling and laid hold of the rope.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span></p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/illus8.jpg" width="200" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“I SEEMED TO BE PINNED TO THE RATLINES.”</p> -</div> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Stop where you are!” he bawled to me; -“we’ll endeavour to manage without you this once.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“Two reefs, Mr. Cock!” bawled the mate from -the foremost end of the poop.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Presently the last knot had been tied in the -mizzen topsail, and the midshipmen were in the -act of descending.</p> - -<p>“Jump aloft two of you and secure that t’gallants’l -before it blows adrift!” roared the captain.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>His prize-fighter’s face vanished over the rim of -the top.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> - -<p>“<i>Lay down!</i>” 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.</p> - -<p>“Mizzen-top there!” cried the captain, “Lay -down, will you?”</p> - -<p>There can be no mistake about <em>that</em>, thought I. -I am not deaf. Twice I had been told to <i>lay down</i>; -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.</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>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 <em>am</em> lying -down.”</p> - -<p>The captain was staring up at me, but on hearing -this, he turned his back with a shake of his figure.</p> - -<p>“Come down, Master Rockafellar,” sung out the -mate in a voice full of laughter.</p> - -<p>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 <em>lay</em> down, sir.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus9.jpg" width="500" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“‘PLEASE, SIR, I <em>AM</em> LYING DOWN.’”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“Why you young guinea pig, why don’t you obey -orders?” he bawled; “to <i>lay down</i> at sea means to -<em>come</em> down, and you <em>know</em> it too; I see it in your -eye! Over with’ee, over with’ee.”</p> - -<p>His large nervous fist closed upon the collar of -my jacket, and I found myself lifted over the rim -at the top.</p> - -<p>“Catch hold of the futtock shrouds!” he roared, -“those iron bars, d’ye hear?—quick, before I let -you go!”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <i>soap and bullion</i>. 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> -away from them, the food tumble on to the deck, -and the whole family capsized on their backs.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HE SIGHTS A SHIP.</i></span></h2> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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—</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>It was on the night of the day of my adventure -in the mizzen-top that I stood my first watch. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“Still raining, is it?” asked a fellow named -Poole.</p> - -<p>“Ay, murderously,” was the answer; “but the -wind’s quartering us, and you’ll be making sail, I -allow, before we turn out.”</p> - -<p>“What’s been doing?”</p> - -<p>“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!”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>it</em><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> -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 <i>Lady -Violet</i> 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus10.jpg" width="500" height="550" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“‘WHAT D’YE SEE, MY LAD?’ SAID HE.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> -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:</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>He walked right aft, I following him, and stood -staring a moment or two, then with a start cried, -“By George, the <i>Flying Dutchman</i>, 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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> - -<p>“He has sent me for his night-glass,” -answered; “there is a big ship coming up astern.”</p> - -<p>“O-ho!” cried they, and emptying the bowls of -their pipes, they fled like startled deer on to the -poop.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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—<em>skysails</em> -can it be? It’s enough to make one think -oneself in a dream.”</p> - -<p>I saw him send a glance towards the companion-hatch, -as though he had a mind to call the captain.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus11.jpg" width="500" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“THE VESSEL ASTERN GREW UPON US.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Here, one of you,” he shouted to the midshipmen,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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!”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HE IS STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.</i></span></h2> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> -that that spell of duty would next night fall to the -lot of the other division.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Who’d be a sailor?” yawned the long midshipman -named Poole. “This is a part of the life that -they know nothing about ashore.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, what would I give for my feather bed at -home!” groaned another youngster, drowsily thrusting -his arms into a damp jacket.</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>But there was no magic in the thoughts of Nelson -to inspirit one at such a moment as this. For my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> -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?</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> -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 <i>Lady Violet</i> in -particular.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus12.jpg" width="500" height="550" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“I FELT MYSELF SWEPT BACKWARDS.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p> - -<p>Now, this lightning conductor was of copper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“What is it? What is it?” shouted the -skipper, as he ran towards us.</p> - -<p>The mate turned his face, but continued to keep -his eyes covered. “God forgive me!” he exclaimed; -“I believe I am struck blind.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“How did this happen, Master Rockafellar?” -exclaimed the captain.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>He stepped to the rail to look over and all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 225px;"> -<img src="images/illus13.jpg" width="225" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“THE KNIFE HAD FALLEN.”</p> -</div> - -<p>“Are you all -right down -there, my lad?” sang out the captain.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p> - -<p>The young fellow neither answered nor moved.</p> - -<p>“He has been stunned!” exclaimed one of the -passengers.</p> - -<p>“Oh, but wouldn’t he have fallen overboard if -that were so?” cried another.</p> - -<p>The captain shouted to some seamen, who were -overhanging the bulwarks in the waist:</p> - -<p>“Aft here, a couple of you, and help Barry -inboard.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HE HEARS A BELL.</i></span></h2> - -<p>There is no sentiment at sea, and if you come -off with your life no matter how narrowly, that -is enough for <em>you</em>. 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“Ay, sir,” I answered, “I should, very much.”</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus14.jpg" width="500" height="550" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“I GRASPED THE WHEEL.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Now, young gen’man,” said he, “you see -that there mark? We calls that the <i>lubber’s -point</i>. 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> -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?”</p> - -<p>“Sou’, sou’-west,” I answered.</p> - -<p>“You look again,” said he.</p> - -<p>“South by west, three-quarters west,” said I -after a prolonged squint at the compass.</p> - -<p>“Right!” said he; “now you keep her to -<em>that</em>.”</p> - -<p>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 <em>my</em> hands.</p> - -<p>“Well,” he answered, “I dunno that half a -p’int off ’ll sinnify for a minute. Try her if you -like, my lad.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“There, young gen’men,” exclaimed my companion, -“she’s a willing old mare, ye see. Now -bring her to her course again.”</p> - -<p>I thrust the spokes over the other way, intently -staring at the card.</p> - -<p>“Stead-<em>dee</em>!” 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.”</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>This reference to my first standing at the -wheel of the <i>Lady Violet</i> recalls to my mind -another incident of the middle watch a week or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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?”</p> - -<p>“What do you mean?” I asked; “anything -to see or listen to?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> - -<p>“To liththen to,” he said.</p> - -<p>I strained my ear.</p> - -<p>“There!” he cried.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Therth a bell ringing out to port here, thir,” -called out Kennet to the mate.</p> - -<p>Mr. Johnson crossed over to our side, and -listened.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>We stared our hardest, and answered, “Nothing, -sir.”</p> - -<p>“Fetch my binocular glass, Rockafellar.”</p> - -<p>He searched the sea narrowly through it, but -there was no distinguishable smudge of any sort.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“Fo’k’sle there!” shouted Mr. Johnson, “do -you hear the sound of a bell off the sea?”</p> - -<p>“Ay, ay, sir,” came a growling answer out of -the deep gloom of the fore part of the ship.</p> - -<p>“Can you make out anything like a sail?”</p> - -<p>There was a pause, and then came the reply, -“No, sir; there’s nothing in sight.”</p> - -<p>“This beats all my going a-fishing,” said the -mate, going to the rail to listen again.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> -crowded deck, and the hour one o’clock in the -morning.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 <i>Lady Violet</i> 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—</p> - -<p>“Pshaw, gentlemen, there are no <i>Flying Dutchmen</i> -in this age. It is a bell, I grant, and where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> -the noise comes from I don’t know, but there -is nothing in a little conundrum of this kind to -alarm us.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> -<img src="images/illus15.jpg" width="700" height="450" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“UNDER THE FRAME ... DANGLED A LARGE SHIP’S BELL.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HE SEES THE EQUATOR.</i></span></h2> - -<p>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—</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> -it about half-past eleven. Will you come along -with us, Rockafellar?”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said I; “I should like to see the -equator. It will be something to talk about when -I get home.”</p> - -<p>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!”</p> - -<p>“Is it in sight?” I exclaimed eagerly.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>He held the glass, and Kennet peered.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>They were as grave as a pair of judges, saving -the rapture which they endeavoured to express -with their countenances.</p> - -<p>“I say, Poole, let’s have a look!” said I, thirsting -with curiosity.</p> - -<p>“Make way for him, Kennet,” cried Poole.</p> - -<p>I put my eye to the telescope, which the midshipman -continued to hold steady against the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“Thee it?” -cried Kennet.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said I, -eagerly staring; -“but it’s up in the -air, Poole.”</p> - -<p>“Refraction, -man, refraction,” -he answered; “it -always shows like -that.”</p> - -<p>I sent a glance -with my naked -eye, and then -peered again -through the telescope.</p> - -<p>“When shall -we be able to see -it without a -glass?” I asked.</p> - -<div class="figleft" style="width: 225px;"> -<img src="images/illus16.jpg" width="225" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“I PUT MY EYE TO THE TELESCOPE.”</p> -</div> - -<p>“That’ll depend upon the thtate of the weather,” -answered Kennet.</p> - -<p>“But do we sail <em>under</em> it?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, hang it, Rockafellar!” cried Poole, “you’re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> -not at school now, little boy! Who’s to answer -such questions? Let’s down on deck, or the mate’ll -be singing out.”</p> - -<p>As I descended the shrouds I saw some sailors -at work in the waist, grinning very hard.</p> - -<p>“Seen it, sir?” bawled one of them.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said I.</p> - -<p>“No chance, I hope,” he sung out, “of its fouling -our mast-heads, is there, sir? Otherwise it’ll sweep -every spar overboard.”</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>The mate stood at the head of the poop ladder.</p> - -<p>“Where have you been, sir?” he exclaimed.</p> - -<p>“Up in the foretop, sir,” I answered.</p> - -<p>“And what job carried you there, young gentleman?”</p> - -<p>“I have been viewing the equator, sir,” I responded.</p> - -<p>“Who showed it to you?” said he, with a twinkling -eye.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Kennet and Mr. Poole, sir,” said I.</p> - -<p>He beckoned, with a solemn motion of his forefinger, -to Kennet, who approached.</p> - -<p>“Have you the equator handy about you, young -gentleman,” he inquired.</p> - -<p>Kennet coloured up, and said he had left it in his -telescope.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Bring it here, sir,” said the mate, “and let Mr. -Poole attend, that we may have the benefit of his -learning.”</p> - -<p>The midshipman disappeared, and shortly after -returned, with the glass under his arm and Poole -at his heels.</p> - -<p>“Now then, young gentlemen,” said the mate, -“be good enough to show Master Rockafellar the -equator from the poop point of view.”</p> - -<p>Poole looked very sheepish; Kennet hung his -long nose over one of the middle lenses, which he -unscrewed.</p> - -<p>“Now, let’s have a good geographical explanation, -if you please, Mr. Poole,” said the mate.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>It was now my turn to colour up. I had been -handsomely gulled, and the worst of it was the -sailors forward knew it.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> -for many days it never came to my passing two -or more of the sailors but that one would sing -out—</p> - -<p>“Bill, seen the line?”</p> - -<p>“No, Jack; where is it?”</p> - -<p>“In Rockafellar’s eye, bully!”</p> - -<p>However, to my great satisfaction, in due -course this piece of humour grew stale, and was -dropped.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>The name which he said he always gave to his -story when he told it to his friends was:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="center">“LA MULETTE.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>The ship was an Indiaman named the <i>Ruby</i>; -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.</p> - -<p>I was a passenger aboard the <i>Ruby</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> -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 <em>time</em>. 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>There were thirty-two cabin passengers in all, -and we had a poopful, as you will suppose. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> -sigh of a weeping giant somewhere in the blackness -over the side.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> -water to fill up the short measures of his breathing-times, -and he will ask for no other paradise -ashore or afloat.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Captain shows nobly to-night, sir,” said the -chief mate to me.</p> - -<p>“Ay!” said I, “little enough of the salt in <em>him</em> -you’d think.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Aren’t you dancing?” I asked.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> -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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“You are refusing everything the stewards offer -you, Mr. Catesby,” said the colonel’s lady by my -side. “You are in love.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>“Madam,” said I, “I perceive your husband in -the act of rising to make a speech.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> -wheel, and I could hear him quietly singing. The -lanterns burnt brightly; against the brilliant -atmospheric haze of moonshine to larboard—<em>larboard</em> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>alone</em>! 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.</p> - -<p>The body of the ship lay thin and long far -beneath me like a black plank, pallid aft with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> -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 <i>Tom Bowline</i>. 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 -<em>then</em>! What a vision of Lilliputian enjoyment!</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/illus17.jpg" width="400" height="300" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Hillo!” he called out, “good sport there, Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> -Catesby. What star have you been shooting over -pray? And what <em>is</em> it, may I ask? <em>turkey?</em>”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“What is it, Mr. Catesby? My stars! a handsome -bird surely,” exclaimed Captain Bow.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Captain,” cried a young lady, “is the -beautiful creature dead really?”</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>“A silver pouncebox, I declare,” exclaimed a -tall, stout lady, with a knowing nod of the feather -in her head.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Let’s have the story of the thing, Mr. Catesby,” -said the captain.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Oh, how dreadful!” “Oh how interesting!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> -“Oh, I wonder the fright didn’t make you faint, -Mr. Catesby!” and so on, and so on from the -young ladies.</p> - -<p>“Shall I cast the seizing of the box adrift, sir?” -said the mate.</p> - -<p>“Ay,” responded the captain.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Bring a lantern, some one,” roared the mate.</p> - -<p>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?”</p> - -<p>“I do,” exclaimed the handsome young “griffin” -who had sat next to the colonel’s lady at table.</p> - -<p>“Will you kindly translate this then?” said the -mate, handing him the letter.</p> - -<p>“It’s French,” said the young fellow; “no -matter; I can read French.”</p> - -<p>He ran his eye over the page, coughed, and read -aloud as follows:—</p> - -<p>“<i>La Mulette</i>, June 12th, 18—. This brig was -dismasted in a hurricane ten days since. Three of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> -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——”</p> - -<p>“Last words illegible,” said the young fellow, -holding the paper close to his nose.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, captain, <em>will</em> you search for the poor, poor -creatures?” cried one of the younger of the married -ladies.</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>“No,” said I, “the box will suffice as a memorial.”</p> - -<p>“Then, Mr. Pike, let it be hove overboard,” said -the captain.</p> - -<p>“Strike up ‘<i>Tom Bowline</i>’ for its interment,” -cried the little Irish Colonel, “‘<i>Faithful below he -did his duty</i>’ you know. Nearly knocked poor -Catesby overboard, though. What is it, a Booby?”</p> - -<p>“How <em>can</em> ye be so rude, Desmond?” said his -wife.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p> - -<p>“’Tis the bird I mane, my love,” he answered.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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, <em>that</em> was not -to be expected in old Bow, whose business was to -get to Bombay as fast as the wind would blow him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> -along; and indeed, seeing that the <i>Ruby</i> 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 <i>La Mulette</i>, 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.</p> - -<p>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 -<i>Ruby</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> -the luminary hung pretty nearly over the royal -truck with a wake of flaming gold under him -broadening to our cutwater, so that the <i>Ruby</i> looked -to be stemming some burning river of glory flowing -through a strange province of dark blue land.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Aloft there!” bawled the mate, putting his -hand to the side of his mouth, “how does she show, -my lad?”</p> - -<p>“’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.”</p> - -<p>“Something black!” shouted the little colonel, -whose Christian name was Desmond, “<i>La Mulette</i>, -Captain Bow, without doubt. Anybody feel inclined -to bet?”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> -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 <i>Ruby</i> 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 -<i>La Mulette</i>. 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.”</p> - -<p>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 <i>La Mulette</i>; 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> -it she was a fair hour and a half yet behind the -horizon from the altitude of the poop.</p> - -<p>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 <em>may</em> 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.</p> - -<p>“Anybody see any signs of life aboard of her?” -asked Captain Bow. “My sight is not what it was.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> -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, <i>La Mulette, Havre</i>, 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—</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p> - -<p>Some ladies standing near overheard this, and at -once went to work to induce the captain to bring -the <i>Ruby</i> 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 <em>see</em> 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:—</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> -that the Bay of Bengal is not so many leagues -distant ahead as it was a month ago.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Who has charge of the boat?” said I.</p> - -<p>“Second mate,” he answered.</p> - -<p>“May I accompany him, captain?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>I sprang into the boat as she swang at the davits.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“There’s room for others,” said the second mate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> -standing erect in the stern sheets with a wistful -glance at a knot of pretty faces at the rail.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 <i>Ruby</i> -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 <i>Ruby</i> and saw -that they were clewing up her royals, and hauling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“We must board her astern,” said the mate -“and stand by for a handsome dip of the counter.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“Hardly worth while exploring those moist -bowels, I think, sir,” said the mate.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“There’s nobody aft here, anyway,” said the -mate; “no use troubling ourselves to look for her -papers, I think, sir.”</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“Nobody here, sir,” said the mate.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“Hark!” cried I, “we are hailed from the -deck.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Ha!” cried the mate; “come along, Mr. -Catesby.”</p> - -<p>We walked cautiously and with difficulty aft,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> -gained the companion ladder and ascended. My -instant glance went to the <i>Ruby</i>. 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 <i>Ruby</i> 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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“Jump, for God’s sake, sir!” cried the mate.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>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 <i>Ruby</i>, -and the ocean all her way vanished in the wild and -terrifying eclipse of the thick, silvery, howling, -steam-like mist.</p> - -<p>“By ——, I have done it <em>now</em>!” cried the mate.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> -over and headed for us, their faces pale as those of -madmen.</p> - -<p>“They’ll never stem this weather,” cried the -mate; “follow me, Mr. Catesby, or we are dead -men.”</p> - -<p>He tore off his coat, kicked off his boots and -went overboard without another word.</p> - -<p><em>Follow him!</em> 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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>then</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> -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!</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <i>Ruby</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <i>Ruby</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> -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 <em>this</em>—“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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> -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 <i>Ruby</i> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <i>Ruby</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>I then walked on to the forecastle and lifted the -hatch-cover. This interior looked to have been -used by the people of <i>La Mulette</i> 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.</p> - -<p>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 <i>Ruby</i>, -whose topmast cloths lay sunk behind the horizon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <i>Ruby</i> floating up towards -the wreck out of the western gloom, luminous as a -snow-clad iceberg, with the soft splendour of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>is</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> -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!</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“In the name of God, who, and what are you?”</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>There was a parcel of candles in the pantry—as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> -were long-haired, chocolate-browed Portuguese, or -Spaniards—<i>Dagos</i> 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.</p> - -<p>“You Englis, sah?” he exclaimed, when he had -made an end of eating. I said yes. “How long -you been hear, sah?”</p> - -<p>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 <i>Mary Joseph</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“We mosh see to dah boat,” he exclaimed, and -spoke to his mates, apparently to that effect.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> -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 -<i>Ruby</i>, 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</p> - -<p>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?”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Forthwith the three fellows began to explore the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> -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 -<i>Ruby</i> 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.</p> - -<p>With an effort I mastered my agitation, constantly -directing glances at the sea with a frequent -prayer upon my lip that if not the <i>Ruby</i>, then at -least some ship to rescue me would heave into view -before sundown that night.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>He came close to me before answering; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> -other two meanwhile remaining at the hatch and -looking towards me.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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 -<i>ya</i>, <i>ya</i>! 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),<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“Be pleashed to get in and go away!” he exclaimed.</p> - -<p>“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——?”</p> - -<p>He interrupted me with a roar. “Go quick!” -he cried, lifting his weapon as though to strike, “or -I kill you!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <em>that</em> 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> -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 <em>may</em> perish here; -yet is there hope; but had I stayed <em>yonder</em> 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> -again direct my eyes at the fitful flashing over the -side with a dread in me of witnessing the outline -of a shark.</p> - -<p>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!</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"> -<img src="images/illus18.jpg" width="550" height="700" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> -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!</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>one</em> drink -of water!</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> -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 <i>La Mulette</i>!</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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....</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus19.jpg" width="500" height="425" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 <i>La Mulette</i>. -I conjectured that the miscreant would not have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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, <em>this</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>I let fall the weapons, and lay over a little strip<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> -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....</p> - -<p>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 <i>Ruby</i>. God! what a dream it has -been!”</p> - -<p>“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 <i>Ruby</i> came -to my bedside.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>It was <em>then</em> 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 <i>Ruby</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> -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 -<i>Ruby</i>. 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 <em>him</em> 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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> -down to them; it will render the mermaids more -placable, I don’t doubt.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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 <i>Ruby’s</i> arrival at Bombay, and sail the Indian -Ocean till they fell in with the wreck—if she was -still afloat.</p> - -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <i>Lady -Violet</i> 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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>The <i>Lady Violet</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> -sailors had run away, and new men were taken in -their place; otherwise the ship’s company remained -as it had been.</p> - -<p>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!</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> -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 <i>Lady Violet</i> went ambling through the -caressing waters.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus20.jpg" width="500" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“LISTENING TO THE YARNS HE SPUN.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span></p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> -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 <i>Lady Violet</i> 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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“See that, Kennet?” said I.</p> - -<p>He peered and cried, “Ha! doth it move?”</p> - -<p>We stared at it.</p> - -<p>“No,” said he, “it ith’nt moving. I thought it -wath a whirlwind firtht. I thay tho’—what the -doothe—tain’t a <em>windmill</em>, ith it?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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!”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>I watched, breathless with astonishment and awe,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“Will the thrasher kill him?” said I.</p> - -<p>“I expect tho,” he answered; “anyhow, of the -two, I’d thooner not be the whale.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“The whale’th killed,” said Kennet; “keep a -bright look-out, Rockafellar, and you’ll thee his -body rithe.”</p> - -<p>But though I stared long and earnestly, it was to -no purpose; the body did <em>not</em> rise: haply because -the whale wasn’t dead.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>For a long time I continued to furtively glance -at the sea, and then gave up looking, secretly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HE SEES AN ICEBERG.</i></span></h2> - -<p>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 <i>Lady Violet</i> 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> -and to the man who washed my linen, and to one -or two others.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> -figure; and his head struck my shoulder with such -force that I was spun round and felled, half-senseless, -to the deck.</p> - -<p>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. <em>He was stone dead!</em> The doctor -examined the body, and said it was disease of the -heart that had killed him.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>The burial of this poor fellow gave me an -opportunity of witnessing what I cannot but think<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> -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 <i>Lady Violet</i> 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!</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> -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!</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> -I may even say, it <em>shone</em> out clearly. I shouted to -Mr. Johnson to tell me what it was.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> -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!</p> - -<p>“Well, Master Rockafellar,” said the chief mate, -“pray, sir, what do you think of Cape Horn?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t like it, sir,” said I.</p> - -<p>“Isn’t it cold enough?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“I prefer the equator, sir,” I exclaimed.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“I smell ice!” he exclaimed.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p> - -<p>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:</p> - -<p>“<em>Ice right ahead, sir!</em>”</p> - -<p>“Ice right ahead, sir!” re-echoed the mate in a -shriek, whipping round his face towards the captain.</p> - -<p>“I see it, sir! I see it!” cried the skipper. -“Hard a starboard! hard a starboard! over with -it for your lives, lads!”</p> - -<p>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!</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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!</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HE SIGHTS A WRECK.</i></span></h2> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>We slipped into the south-east trade wind, and -bore away for the equator under fore-topmast studding-sail.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/illus21.jpg" width="300" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“I ... SAT RIDING A-COCK-HORSE OF IT” (<a href="#Page_231">p. 231</a>).</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> -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 <em>this</em>, I believe I should -wish to continue at sea all my life.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> -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)—</p> - -<p>“Here, Rockafellar, take my glass into the foretop, -and see what you can make of the object.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Where is it?” said I to a man who stood peering -seawards, with a hairy tar-stained hand protecting -his eyes.</p> - -<p>He pointed.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>The sailor asked leave to look, and putting his -eye to the telescope, exclaimed—</p> - -<p>“<em>Here’s</em> a bad job, I lay. She’s a settling down<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<div class="figright" style="width: 325px;"> -<img src="images/illus22.jpg" width="325" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“HE POINTED.”</p> -</div> - -<p>I made my way to the deck, and reported what -I had seen to the chief mate. It was not twenty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>that</em>, -though his head had been above water all the time.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> -into the troubled and concealing foam of our -wake.</p> - -<p>“Oh yes, sir,” answered Mr. Johnson. “His face -only lifted now and again.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> -the intentness of a pirate whose eyes are upon a -chase.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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!”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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. “<em>See there!</em>” -and he pointed a long, skinny, trembling forefinger -at the wreck.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>The young gentleman named Graham shuddered -as he turned away.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“The notion of course is,” said he, “that she belonged -to the wreck that we passed this morning.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span></p> - -<p>“There again!” shouted somebody. “Did you -see it? A man’s head it looked like.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>“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!”</p> - -<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> -His legs were cased in their native hair, which was -long, something like a goat’s.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus23.jpg" width="500" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“IT WAS A MONKEY.”</p> -</div> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>“Hands to the topsail braces!” bawled the captain; -“lay the maintopsail to the mast. We must -pick the poor brute up.”</p> - -<p>The <i>Lady Violet</i> 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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>He was carried to the forecastle followed by a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>The name <i>Dolphin</i>, 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 -<i>Elijah Gorman</i>, 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 <i>Elijah Gorman</i> -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.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HE SEES A STRANGE LIGHT.</i></span></h2> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> -the other, making the most horrible faces the -while, as though ravished by the exquisite sounds -he was producing.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 <i>Lady Violet</i> 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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/illus24.jpg" width="500" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“WOULD SHAVE HIMSELF.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span></p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> -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!”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>The mate, coming forward, cried, “Who was it -that sang out <i>man overboard</i>?”</p> - -<p>“I did, sir,” answered the sailor.</p> - -<p>“Step aft!” said the mate.</p> - -<p>The fellow dropped on to the deck and approached -the officer.</p> - -<p>“What do you mean,” cried the mate in a -passion, “by raising over a monkey such an alarm -as <i>man overboard</i>?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span></p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“What!” shouted the mate, “with those spectacles -on?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>We were talking in the midshipmen’s berth over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> -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 <i>Sweepstakes</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> -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.”</p> - -<p>“Where wath the mythtery?” asked Kennet.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> -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!</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> -voice of its own, whilst the masts were so wrung -that you would have expected them any minute to -snap and fall away overboard.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 475px;"> -<img src="images/illus25.jpg" width="475" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“SUDDENLY SHONE OUT A LIGHT.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span></p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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—</p> - -<p>“What do you think it?”</p> - -<p>“Why, but what <em>is</em> it?” I responded.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>As he spoke the fiery exhalation disappeared.</p> - -<p>“Ha! he’s started again!” cried Poole. “He’ll -meet with another ship presently and take another -spell of rest.”</p> - -<p>“A very good explanation, Mr. Poole,” exclaimed -the voice of the mate, “but not strictly scientific, -sir.”</p> - -<p>He had been standing within earshot of us, yet -was utterly indistinguishable in the blackness.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> -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.”</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span></p> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HE ARRIVES HOME.</i></span></h2> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>The light at the yard-arm vanished; there was a -noise of hurrying feet forwards, with a rumbling of -exclamations uttered in agitation.</p> - -<p>“What was that?” was shouted from the companion-hatch -in the captain’s familiar accents. -“Mr. Johnson?”</p> - -<p>“Sir?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span></p> - -<p>“What have we struck? Is there any ship near -us?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know, sir,” answered the mate; “it has -been as black as thunder all through.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> -o’clock the stars were shining, the moon was setting -in the west, a fresh breeze was blowing over our -starboard quarter, and the <i>Lady Violet</i> was once -more driving through it on her way home under -canvas that clothed her from truck to waterway.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> -dull lumpish thud that had made every heart in the -<i>Lady Violet</i> beat fast on that black night.</p> - -<p>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 -<i>Owen Glendower</i>, 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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> -<img src="images/illus26.jpg" width="700" height="450" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“A FINE CUTTER CAME THRASHING THROUGH IT.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span></p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 -<i>Lady Violet</i>, 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> -when we had been warped to our berth in the -docks.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“The picture of health!—gracious, how sunburnt—grown -a whole foot, I do declare!—my -goodness, Tommy, what shoulders!”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> -<img src="images/illus27.jpg" width="700" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">“WERE SEATED AT A TABLE.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>I said, “Kennet, are you not going ashore?”</p> - -<p>“Yeth,” he said; “but I muth finith my pipe -firtht.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>He threw down the sooty clay pipe he had been -smoking and jumped up.</p> - -<p>“Rockafellar,” he said, “I alwayth thaid you -were a brick!”</p> - -<p>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!</p> - -<p>“Ithth the change from thalt horthe, thir, that -maketh it nithe,” said Kennet, with his mouth -full.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p class="titlepage">UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, PRINTERS, WOKING AND LONDON.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -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-h.htm or 62336-h.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. 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