The Wreck of the Nancy Bell; Or, Cast Away on Kerguelen Land
by John C. Hutcheson · English · Gutenberg #21085 · 548,590 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Wreck of the Nancy Bell; Or, Cast Away on Kerguelen Land
Author: John C. Hutcheson
Illustrator: W. S. Stacey
Release date: April 15, 2007 [eBook #21085]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21085
Credits: Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRECK OF THE NANCY BELL; OR, CAST AWAY ON KERGUELEN LAND ***
Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
The Wreck of the Nancy Bell; or, Cast Away on Kerguelen Land
By John Conroy Hutcheson
___________________________________________________________
A well-written nautical novel by J.C. Hutcheson. The "Nancy
Bell" appears to be a well-found ship, on its way out from
the United Kingdom to New Zealand, but she is beset early
on by a severe storm which leaves her rudderless and
mastless. One of the passengers was an ex Royal Navy
Commander who, for some reason, was travelling incognito.
He had offered the Captain advice which was rejected as the
Captain thought it came from a landsman. Very possibly,
had he heeded that advice, the whole train of disasters
might not have occurred.
Hutcheson has a habit of introducing characters who speak
in their own form of English. In this case he has a
Jamaican, an Irishman, and a Yankee, all speaking with
their own native versions of the language. For good
measure there is also a Norwegian, who has to make himself
understood in a mixture of German and English. All this
makes for a rather difficult book to transcribe, but I hope
we have got it right.
Eventually the vessel is wrecked just off Kerguelen Island,
where the crew and passengers land and build themselves a
shelter to take them through the winter. There had been a
mutiny just before the wreck, and some of the crew had
landed elsewhere, but eventually one or two men who had not
been the actual mutineers, but who had got caught up in
events, make their way back to the main party.
When spring arrives they make their way to the other side
of Kerguelen Island, by a route which includes an overland
traverse by boat, portaging where necessary. Eventually a
vessel comes in, and they are saved.
Hutcheson is very good at getting his characters to appear
quite real, and for this reason he is a good author to
follow.
___________________________________________________________
THE WRECK OF THE NANCY BELL;
OR, CAST AWAY ON KERGUELEN LAND
by JOHN CONROY HUTCHESON
CHAPTER ONE.
OUTWARDS BOUND.
"How's her head?" exclaimed Captain Dinks, the moment his genial, rosy,
weather-beaten face appeared looming above the top-rail of the companion
way that led up to the poop from the saloon below, the bright mellow
light of the morning sun reflecting from his deep-tanned visage as if
from a mirror, and making it as radiant almost as the orb of day.
"West-sou'-west, sorr," came the answer, ere the questioner could set
foot on the deck, in accents short, sharp, prompt, and decisive, albeit
with a strong Milesian flavour, from the chief mate. He was the officer
of the watch, and was standing alongside the man at the wheel on the
weather-side of the ship, with a telescope under his arm and a keen look
of attention in his merry, twinkling grey eyes.
"Ha-hum!" muttered the captain to himself reflectively. "I wish the
wind would shift over more to the nor'ard, and we'd then be able to
shape a better course; we're going far too much to the west to please
me! I suppose," he added in a louder tone, addressing the mate again,
"she isn't making any great way yet since daylight, McCarthy, eh?"
"No, sorr, leastways, Captain Dinks," replied that worthy, a genuine
thorough-going Irishman, "from the crown of his head to the sole of his
fut," as he would have said himself, and with a shaggy head of hair and
beard as red as that of the wildest Celt in Connemara, besides being
blessed with a "brogue" as pronounced as his turned-up nose--on which
one might have hung a tea-kettle on an emergency, in the hope that its
surroundings would supply the requisite fire and fuel for boiling
purposes. "No, sorr, no way at all at all, sure! Not more'n five
knots, cap'en honey, by the same token, the last time we hove the log at
six bells, bad cess to it!"
"Everything drawing, too, slow and aloft!" said the captain, with just a
shade of discontent in his cheery voice, as he took in with a quick,
sailor-like glance the position of the ship and every detail of the
swelling pyramids of canvas that towered up on each mast from deck to
sky--the yards braced round sharp, almost fore and aft, the huge square
sails flattened like boards, the tremulous fluttering of the flying jib,
and occasional gybing of the spanker, showing how close up to the wind
the vessel was being steered. "You couldn't luff her a bit more,
McCarthy, could you?" he added, after another glance at the compass and
a murmured "steady!" to the steersman.
"Not a ha'porth, sorr," replied the mate sorrowfully, as if it went to
his heart to make the announcement. "I had the watch up only jist a
minit ago; an' if you'll belave me, Cap'en Dinks, we've braced up the
yards to the last inch the sheets will run, bad cess to thim!"
"Well, well, I suppose we'll have to put up with it; though it's rather
disheartening to have this sou'-wester right in one's teeth before we
have cleared the Chops of the Channel, after all our good luck in having
so fair a wind down with us from the Nore!"
The captain still spoke somewhat disconsolately; but, his temperament
was of too bright and elastic a nature to allow him long to look merely
on the dark side of things. Soon, he saw something to be cheerful over,
in spite of the adverse influence of Aeolus; and this was, as it
appeared to him, the wonderful progress the ship was making, although
sailing, close-hauled as she was, with the wind right before the beam.
"Now, isn't she a beauty, though, McCarthy," he said presently, with a
sort of triumphant ring in his speech, after gazing for a few moments in
silence over the taffrail astern at the long foaming wake the vessel was
leaving behind her, spread out like a glittering silver fan across the
illimitable expanse of greenish-tinged water. "Isn't she a beauty to
behave as she does under the circumstances! There are not many ships
laden like her that would make five knots out of a foul wind, as she is
now doing, eh?"
"That there ain't, sorr," promptly returned the other with hearty
emphasis, only too glad to have the opportunity of agreeing with his
skipper. "An' jist you wait, sorr, till we get into the nor'-east
trades; an' by the powers we'll say the crathur walk away from us, like
one of thim race-horses on the Skibbereen coorse whin you're a standin'
still and a watchin' thim right foreninst you."
"Aye, that we will, McCarthy," chimed in Captain Dinks, now all good
humour again, chuckling with anticipated pleasure and rubbing his hands
together gleefully. "I wouldn't wish for a better ship under me in fair
wind or foul than the _Nancy Bell_. Bless her old timbers, she's
staunch and sound from truck to keelson, and the smartest clipper that
ever sailed out of the London Docks--when she has anything like decent
weather!"
"That she is, sorr, plaze the pigs!" chorused the Irishman to this paean
of praise, which might have run on to an interminable length if it had
not been just then interrupted by the mate's suddenly raising his gilt-
banded cap in nautical salute to a new-comer, who now appeared on the
scene.
Captain Dinks, at once "cutting short" any further rhapsodical encomiums
he may have contemplated anent the merits of the _Nancy Bell_, turned
round.
"Ah, good morning, Mr Meldrum," said he in cordial tones, raising his
cap politely like his chief officer. "You are early on deck: an old
sailor, I presume!"
"Good morning, Captain Dinks," smilingly replied the gentleman
addressed, one of the few saloon passengers who patronised the cuddy of
the New Zealand clipper on her present voyage. He had only just that
moment come up from below, tempted to turn out by the genial brightness
of the lovely June morning; and, as he emerged from the companion
hatchway, he bent his steps along the poop towards the binnacle, by
which the captain and his aide-de-camp were standing. "Yes," he
continued, in answer to the former's question, "I have had a voyage or
two in my time, and one is accustomed to keep early hours at sea."
"Begorrah, ye're right, sorr!" ejaculated the Irish mate, with an
empressment that showed his earnestness. "An' a dale too airly for some
ov us sometimes. Sure, an' a sailor's loife is a dog's loife entirely!"
"Shut up, you old humbug!" said the captain with a laugh, turning to the
passenger; "Why, to hear him you would think McCarthy to be one of those
lazy lubbers who are never content unless they are caulking below,
snoozing their wits away whilst the sun is scorching their eyes out;
whereas, he's the most active and energetic seaman I ever met with in
all my experience at sea, man and boy, for the last thirty years. Look
you, Mr Meldrum, he never waits to be roused out by any chance when
it's his watch on deck; while, should the weather be at all nasty, you
really can't get him to go below and turn in--it is `spell ho' with him
with a vengeance, night and day alike!"
"Don't you belave his blarney, sorr," put in the mate eagerly, bursting
into a roar of merriment, although blushing purple with delight the
while at the skipper's compliment. "Why, sorr, whin I go to slape
sometimes, the divil himself couldn't wake me!"
"Ah!" rejoined Captain Dinks, "that may be when you're ashore, Tim, but
I know what you are when you're aboard ship and duty calls! I don't
forget, old man, how, under Providence," and this the captain added
reverently, taking off his cap and looking up to heaven as he spoke,
"you saved the _Nancy Bell_ on our last voyage home--no, Tim, I don't
forget!"
"Aye, aye, Cap'en Dinks," replied the other, not to be beaten, "true for
you, sorr; but, where was yoursilf the whilst, I'd like to know, and
what could I have done without your hilp sure, wid all your
blatheration?"
"Nonsense, Tim," returned the captain, giving the mate a slap on the
back which must have taken his breath away for the moment, as it made
him reel again, and then holding out his hand, which the other grasped
with a vice-like grip, in a paw that resembled more in size and shape a
leg of mutton than anything else--"Tip us your fist, my hearty, and let
us say no more about it!"
It would have done anyone's heart good to see the way in which these two
brave men--sailors both every inch of them--then looked each other
straight in the eyes, a smile of satisfaction illumining their faces, as
if each had reason to be proud of the other, their hands locked in a
friendly clasp that was true to the death!
As for Mr Meldrum, the passenger, who was a delighted observer of the
good feeling existing between the captain and second in command of the
vessel in which, like Caesar, he had "embarked himself and all his
fortunes," and was now journeying across the surface of the deep--a good
feeling that was fairly indicative of everything going well on the
voyage--he was so carried away by the spirit of the moment that he felt
inclined to ask that the general hand-shaking might be "passed round for
the good of the crowd." What is more, he immediately put his "happy
thought" into execution; whereupon, much fist-squeezing ensued between
the trio, the steersman looking on with a grin of complacency at the
fraternal exhibition, and gripping the spokes of the wheel more firmly,
as it were, out of a sort of fellow-sympathy, as he kept the ship "full
and by!"
"Tim McCarthy and I are old shipmates," said Captain Dinks presently, as
if apologising for the little ebullition of sentiment that had just
taken place, "and we've seen some rough times together."
"Pray don't mention it," said Mr Meldrum; "your friendly feelings do
you both honour! But, how are we getting on, captain," he added, to
change the subject, "the ship seems to be slipping along through the
water?"
"Pretty well, but not so well as I could wish. We've got an obstinate
head-wind against us, and cannot quite lay on our proper course; so I
don't think we'll be able to log much of a run when we take the sun at
noon. The wind looks like shifting now, however, so the next twenty-
four hours may tell a different tale."
As the captain spoke, the sails flapped ominously against the masts;
and, in obedience to a motion of the mate's hand, the steersman had to
let the vessel's head fall off a little more to the westward, in order
to fill the canvas again and make it draw.
"I think, cap'en, we'd better thry her on the other tack," said the
Irishman after a pause. "The wind's headin' us sure!"
"All right, McCarthy," answered the captain, "go forwards and call the
watch, and we'll see about getting her about."
Handing the captain the telescope, which he had retained until now under
his left arm, apparently regarding it as the badge of his authority as
officer of the watch--an authority which he now relinquished to his
chief--the mate was down the poop ladder and on the deck below in "a
brace of shakes;" and, in another moment, his voice was heard in
stentorian tones ringing through the ship fore and aft. "Hands 'bout
ship!"
The cry was like the wave of an enchanter's wand in the realms of Fairy-
land; for, where all had been previously quiet and easy-going, with only
the helmsman apparently doing anything on board so far as the vessel's
progress was concerned, there was now a scene of bustle, noise, and
motion,--men darting forwards to flatten the headsails and aft to ease
off the boom sheets, and others to their allotted stations, waiting for
the well-known orders from the captain, who stood in the centre of the
poop, with the passenger beside him, looking on with a critical eye at
the way in which the manoeuvre should be executed.
"All ready forward?" shouted the captain, as soon as he saw the crew at
their several posts.
"Aye, aye, sorr," replied Mr McCarthy.
"Ready, aye ready," repeated the captain--it was a sort of catch-word of
warning to prepare the men for the next word of command, like the
"'Tention!" of the drill sergeant to his squad of recruits--and he then
waved his hand to the man at the wheel to put up the helm.
"Helm's a lee!" was the next cry; and, instantly, the jib and foresail
began to shiver and shake as the ship's bows came up to the wind, and
the square sails flattened against the masts, while the boom of the
mizzen swung to and fro until the vessel should get out of stays and pay
off on the port tack.
"Raise tacks and sheets!" came in rotation, and the topgallant-bowlines
were let go, ready for the next move.
"Mainsail haul!"--and the ponderous mainyard was swung round, bringing
with it the maintopsail and topgallant yards with all their acreage of
canvas: the foreyards followed suit, when the captain shouted, "Haul of
all;"--and, after the final order, "Brace sharp!" the _Nancy Bell_ might
have been seen heading a sou'-south-east course in lieu of her former
direction to the westwards, and gaining more southing by the change.
The mate had just returned to the poop, after seeing the watch trim the
forward sails and curl down the slack of the ropes, while Captain Dinks
was wondering why the steward had not yet summoned them down to
breakfast, considering that it was past eight bells. He was just indeed
asking Mr Meldrum whether he felt hungry or not, when suddenly a great
commotion was heard down the companion hatch, as of voices in
altercation, a crash of crockery following in rapid sequence.
"I'd like to know what that stupid lubber is up to now," ejaculated the
captain. "He's an ignorant ass, and as slow as a mute at a funeral.
I'm sorry I had to ship him; but I had no alternative, for my old
steward was taken suddenly ill, and I had to put up with this substitute
whom he sent me just as we were leaving Plymouth."
"Perhaps," began the passenger, as if he were about to offer some good-
natured excuse for the man's awkwardness, but his observations were
drowned by a louder clatter below than ever; and, ere the captain could
descend to ascertain the cause, the new steward rushed up the companion
ladder, with his eyes half-starting from his head, his hair standing on
end, and his face pale with terror.
"Howly Moses!" exclaimed the mate. "Be aisy, can't ye. What's the
matter wid ye, you spalpeen, to be rooshin' on deck like a bull in a
china shop? Spake, you blissid omahdawn, or I'll shake the loife out of
ye!"
And the Irishman, putting his brawny hands on the terrified man's
shoulders, appeared about to carry out his threat, when the unfortunate
wight stuttered out in stammering accents, "Lor-ord, sir, do-oo-oo come
below. The-eer's a ghost in the cabin; an-an-and he wants to m-m-murder
me!" the man looking the while as if he was going to faint.
"A ghost in the cabin?" said the passenger, laughing; "and in daylight
to? Why, Captain Dinks, he must be a sort of _rara avis_--not _in
terris_, however, in this instance."
"A ghost in the cabin?" repeated the captain, in a serious tone of
voice, with a frown on his forehead that somewhat disturbed the usual
good-humoured expression of his countenance; "we must see about this. I
don't allow any ghosts aboard my ship!"
And, with these words he dived down the companion, followed closely by
the mate and passenger; the panic-stricken steward contenting himself
with remaining at the top of the hatchway at a safe distance from the
object that had alarmed him, although he could not help peering down
below and listening with bated breath as to what might ensue in the
cabin--heedless of the entreaties of the man at the wheel, in whom
curiosity had overpowered the sense of duty for the nonce and made to
speak in defiance of discipline, to "tell him all about it!"
CHAPTER TWO.
STOWED AWAY.
When the "party of observation" under the leadership of the captain
arrived at the foot of the companion way, nothing very alarming was
presented to their notices as there were no signs of disturbance to be
seen in the steward's pantry, which was close to hand on their right;
although, judging by the crashing sounds they had heard when on deck,
one and all would have almost sworn that a "free fight" had taken place
in that sanctum, causing its complement of crockeryware to come to
irretrievable grief.
Nor was anything wrong to be perceived, at first sight, on entering
within the cuddy.
On the contrary, everything there seemed in due order. The doors of the
cabins on either side, as well as those of the state-rooms at the
further end of the saloon, were closed in their ordinary way--with the
exception of one, which was opened for an instant, to allow of a night-
capped head, evidently of female ownership, peering forth for a
momentary peep round, and then immediately slammed to again; and, the
long table, which ran fore and aft the vessel the entire length of the
apartment from the foot of the mizzen mast, was neatly spread over with
a snow-white cloth, on which knives and forks were laid equi-distantly
with trim regularity, as well as other prandial paraphernalia, in
preparation for breakfast; while to complete the category, the swinging
trays above, that oscillated to and fro as the ship gave an occasional
lurch and roll to port or starboard, betrayed no lack of their proper
quota of wine-glasses, decanters, and tumblers. No, there was no trace
of any disorder here, nothing to account for that noise of a struggle
and of breakages below that had preceded the sudden uprush of the
steward to the poop. What could possibly have caused all that clatter
and commotion?
Evidently so thinking, the captain, mate, and passenger looked at each
other in a bewildered fashion, as if each were endeavouring to solve
some knotty conundrum, and had ultimately come to the conclusion to
"give it up!"
They had not long to wait, however, for an explanation to the mystery.
All at once, a deep, sepulchral groan came from abaft the mizzenmast, as
if some one was being smothered in the hold below; and, almost at the
same instant, there echoed from the adjacent cabin--that whence the
night-capped head before mentioned had popped out--a shrill scream, as
of a female in distress, succeeded by the exclamation, "Gracious
goodness, help us and save us! We shall all be murdered in our beds!"
"Be jabers," ejaculated the mate, following up the captain, who had
immediately rushed aft to the spot whence the groan had proceeded; "sure
and that's the Meejor's swate voice! I'd know it onywheres, aven in the
Bog of Allen!"
On the captain reaching the end of the cuddy table, which had, of
course, interfered with his view, the crash of crockery which they had
heard, and which had been hitherto inexplicable, became at once clear;
for, there on the floor of the deck was the debris of a pile of plates
and scattered fragments of cups and saucers which had been suddenly
dropped by the steward in his fright and were smashed to atoms; while,
in the centre of the scene of devastation, was the dungeon-like cavity
of the after-hatchway, the cover of which had been shifted from its
coamings by the man, in order for him to get up some of the cabin
provisions from the hold, whose gloomy depths were only faintly
illumined by the feeble rays of a lantern, which as it lay on its side
rolling on the deck, participated in the general upset.
Captain Dinks promptly took up the lantern, holding it over the open
hatchway; and, as he did so, a second groan came from below, more hollow
and sepulchral than before.
"Who's there?" shouted the captain down the hatchway.
There was no reply, save a fainter moan, apparently further away in the
distance, followed by a sort of gurgling sound, and then the fall of
some heavy object was heard in the hold.
"Who's there below?" repeated the captain, endeavouring to pierce the
cimmerian darkness by waving the lighted lantern about and holding it as
far down the hatchway as his arm could reach. "Speak or I'll fire!"
This was an empty threat of the skipper's, as he held no weapon in his
hand save the lantern; but it had the necessary effect all the same.
"It's only me, massa," said a thick guttural voice from below; "only
me," repeated the voice pleadingly. "Goramighty, massa, don't shoot!"
"And who's me?" interrogated the captain sternly, as the mate and the
passenger looked at each other inquiringly, a smile creeping over Mr
Meldrum's face, while the Irishman screwed up his left eye into a
palpable wink.
"Me, Snowball, sah--a 'spectable collud genleman from Jamaikey, massa,"
replied the voice in the hold.
"And what the dickens are you doing aboard my ship?" asked Captain Dinks
in an angry tone; but the others could see that he was half-laughing as
he spoke.
"Me want passage, sah, back home. Very bad peoples, sah, in Plymouth;
tieve all poah niggah's money and make him drunk. Snowball starbing; so
um see lubly fine ship goin' way and get aboard in shore boat wid um
last shillun: eb'ryting scramble and jumble when come on deck; so
Snowball go get in cabin, and den down in hold, where he see steward
stow um grub, and lie quiet till ship sail. When hold open, he try get
out, but can't; box fall on um foot, and Snowball holler wid pain;
steward tink um de Debbel and knock down tings. Snowball done no harm;
um bery bad wid um leg!"
"Sure, an' it's an impedent schoundrel he is, the spalpeen!" said the
mate. "Of all the cheeky stowaways I ever came across, he bates the lot
entirely. Shall I rouse him up with a rope's end, cap'en?"
"No, wait a bit, McCarthy," said the captain; "we'll try a little
persuasion first. Here, `Snowball,' or whatever else you call yourself,
just sling your hook out of that, and come up here. I fancy I shall be
able to accommodate you with something, besides a free passage at my
owner's expense!"
"Can't, massa," replied the stowaway, after making a movement, as they
could hear, below, succeeded by a suppressed cry of pain; "um leg jammed
'tween box and cask: Snowball feel bery bad--tink leg go squash: can't
move um nohow."
"Be jabers!" exclaimed the good-natured Irishman, "sure an' the poor
baste's hurt, and, by your lave, cap'en, I'll go down and say what's the
matther."
"Do," said Captain Dinks; but ere he could get out the word, the mate,
taking his consent for granted, had caught hold of the hatchway coamings
with his powerful hands and swung himself down on to the lower deck;
reaching up afterwards for the lantern, which the captain handed him,
and then disappearing from view as he dived amongst the heterogeneous
mass of boxes and casks, and bales of goods, mingled with articles of
all sorts, with which the place was crammed.
After a moment's absence, he came back beneath the hatchway.
"Plaze, git a blanket or two out of one of the cabins, cap'en, to hoist
him up," said he; "the unlucky beggar sames to be injured badly, and I
think his ribs are stove in, besides a heavy box having fallen on his
leg. He hasn't got such a chape passage this toime as he expected; for
he has been more'n half suffocated in the flour hogshead where he first
stowed himself away; and, begorrah, to look at him now, with his black
face all whitened, like a duchess powthered for a ball, and his woolly
hid, and the blood all over him, as if he had been basted wid a
shillelagh at Donnybrook Fair, why, his own mother wouldn't know him.
It's small blame to that fool of a steward to be afther taking him for
somethin' onnatural, sure!"
While the mate had been giving this explanation of the stowaway's
condition Captain Dinks had not been idle.
With an agility of which none would have thought him capable, looking at
his thick-set and rather stout figure, he had rushed in a second to his
own cabin, which was near aft; and, dragging out a couple of railway
rugs and a coil of rope had pitched them below to the Irishman,
concluding his operations by jumping down alongside him, to aid in
releasing the injured man from his perilous position--telling the
passenger as he quitted him to "sing out" for assistance.
"Steward!" shouted Mr Meldrum up the companion, in obedience to the
captain's injunction; but never a bit did that worthy stir in response,
nor did the ringing of a hand-bell, which the passenger saw in one of
the swing-trays above the cuddy table expedite the recalcitrant
functionary's movements, albeit it brought others to Mr Meldrum's aid.
"What is the matter, papa dear?" said a tall, graceful, nice-looking
girl, of some eighteen summers, as she emerged from the state-room on
the starboard side of the saloon and came towards Mr Meldrum. "Florry
and I heard a heavy crash which woke us up, and then a cry of alarm, and
a rush of feet along the deck which frightened us, for we could not tell
what had happened. I dressed as fast as I could, but I wouldn't have
come out if I had not heard your voice. As for poor Florry, she says
she won't get up, and is now hiding her head under the clothes, as she
thinks there's a mutiny going on or something dreadful!" and the girl
laughed merrily as she spoke, disclosing the while a set of pearly teeth
that were beautifully regular, and coral lips that would have put a
rosebud to the blush; but, when she came up beside her father, who
looked very young to be her parent, for he barely seemed forty years of
age, she placed her hand on his arm in a caressing way, looking up into
his face with a more serious expression, as if she had merely assumed
the laugh to disguise a fear that she really felt.
"Oh, there's nothing very dreadful happening, Kate," replied Mr
Meldrum; "only a stowaway in the hold whom the steward took for a ghost,
to the serious detriment of the breakfast things which you heard being
smashed; so, pray go back to your cabin, my dear, and soothe `poor
Florry's' alarms. We are just getting our unexpected guest up from his
temporary quarters under the saloon, and I'll call you when the coast is
clear." This he said that she might not be shocked at the sight of the
wounded man; and he felt far more comfortable when she had retired into
her state-room and shut the door of communication that opened from it
into the cuddy.
His comfort, however, was not of very long duration.
"I'd like to know what all this terrible hullabaloo is about?" exclaimed
a gaunt and elderly female with sharp features and a saffron-hued
complexion, coming out from the cabin on the opposite side of the deck,
where she had previously appeared for an instant when in deshabille, as
her night-capped head had evidenced. "It is positively scandalous,
disturbing first-class passengers like this in the middle of the night
and frightening them out of their wits!"
"My dear madam," said Mr Meldrum blandly; "why, it is just on the
stroke of eight o'clock, and we'll be soon having breakfast."
"Don't `my dear madam' me, sir," returned the lady indignantly; "my name
is Mrs Major Negus, and I insist on being treated with proper respect.
Where is the captain of the vessel, sir?"
"Down there," said Mr Meldrum laconically, pointing to the open
hatchway.
"And why is he not at his post, looking after the welfare of his
passengers?" demanded the lady sternly, with the voice of a merciless
judge.
"Really I think you had better ask him," replied Mr Meldrum laughing;
"it strikes me he is now looking after the welfare of one of his
passengers, unexpected though the sable gentleman may be!"
What Mrs Major Negus might have rejoined to this, cannot unfortunately
be told, for at that moment, just as she had drawn herself up to her
full height of some five feet ten inches, or thereabouts, and appeared
prepared to demolish Mr Meldrum for his temerity in laughing at her--in
laughing at her, forsooth; the wife of the deputy assistant comptroller-
general of Waikatoo, New Zealand--the captain called out to him to bear
a hand to raise the wounded darkey from out of his self-selected prison.
Mr Adams, the second mate, turning out of his cabin at the same time
to take his watch, the two managed to raise "Snowball"--the captain and
the Irishman easing the burden by lifting him from below. As for the
grand Mrs Major Negus, she had to content herself with looking on with
an undisguised contempt at the whole proceeding, wondering all the while
that they should dare to introduce a negro into the saloon in that
manner without having first asked her permission!
Help generally comes when it is not specially wanted; so, by the time
the stowaway had been lifted and placed on a berth in one of the vacant
cabins, having his wounds, which were somewhat serious, seen to and
bound up, some others of the passengers appeared on the scene.
Notably amongst these was Mr Zachariah Lathrope, of Providence, Rhode
Island, an American gentleman of a particularly inquisitive nature, but
who, professing some knowledge of medical craft, was really of some use
in this instance, as there was no regular ship surgeon on board; and,
secondly, young Master Negus, a "born imp of mischief," whose
acquaintance will be further improved as the voyage proceeds; while,
Llewellyn, the steward, summoned courage at last to descend the
companion, in company with his wife the stewardess, who had been forward
to the cook's galley in search of some early tea for the lady
passengers. Seeing her husband on the poop she had brought him below,
being, as Mr McCarthy observed, "twice the man" that her presumptive
"lord and master" could possibly have been supposed, even by his warmest
admirer.
The mystery being thus satisfactorily explained, and the stowaway made
comfortable for the while in a much more sumptuous lodging than he ever
expected--Captain Dinks waiting to call him to account until he should
have recovered from his injuries--the debris of broken crockeryware was
cleared away, and the saloon party piped to breakfast, throughout which
meal, it need hardly be added, Llewellyn got chaffed immeasurably anent
his supernatural visitor, never having a moment's peace about his
discovery of the "ghost in the cabin" and subsequent terrific fight
therewith.
And, all this while, the ship was tacking every now and then to make the
most out of the wind, which was shifting from the west to the south, and
veering occasionally from the east to the north; rising as it shifted
and blowing with an ever-increasing force, till the vessel was running
under reefed topsails and foresail, with her spanker half brailed up,
her spread of canvas having been reduced by degrees, in preparation for
the threatening gale that seemed coming from the south-west, that is, if
the appearances of the sea and sky were to be trusted.
CHAPTER THREE.
A NARROW SQUEAK.
During the forenoon watch, the deck was in charge of Mr Adams, the
second mate--a plain, steady-going, matter-of-fact sort of man, with
none of that buoyant spirit and keen sense of humour which characterised
hid senior shipmate McCarthy, although he was a thorough sailor to the
backbone, and believed the human race to be divided into two classes,
those who were seamen and those who weren't. The wind now took a more
favourable turn, settling itself in the south-east quarter as if it
meant to remain there, thus enabling the ship to steer a better course;
and, meanwhile, the sky clearing up a bit, the threatening clouds
drifted to leeward and the sun shone out again just as it did when the
captain first came on deck in the early morning.
Taking advantage of the change, the reefs were shaken out of the
topsails, the courses let fall again, the jib and flying-jib hoisted,
and the topgallants set; and soon, with her head steering south-west and
a half south, the _Nancy Bell_ was bounding over the waves under all
plain sail, as if anxious to make up for the time she had lost in
tacking about against the head-wind that had barred her southward
progress ever since she took her departure from the Lizard Point on the
previous day when she hauled out from the Channel.
The breeze was freshening, and there was a nasty sort of chopping sea,
when the captain came on the poop at noon to take the sun, in order to
ascertain his longitude--an operation which would have been much more
difficult in the hazy weather that had prevailed some few hours
previous, with the zenith every now and then overcast by the fleecy
storm wrack and flying scud that came drifting across the sky as the
wind veered; but the ship was making good running, and everything bade
fair for her soon crossing the boisterous Bay of Biscay, on whose
troubled waters she had now entered.
"She's slipping along!" said Captain Dinks to Adams, rubbing his hands
together gleefully, as he put down his sextant on the top of the saloon
skylight for a moment and gave a glance aloft and then over the side to
windward.
"Yes, sir," replied the second mate. "Going fine--eleven knots last
heave of the lead."
"Ah, nothing can beat her on a bowline!" said the captain triumphantly.
"She's a clipper and no mistake when she has the wind abeam: bears her
canvas well, too, for a little un!" he added, with another glance aloft,
where the sails could be seen distended to their utmost extent and
tugging at the bolt-ropes, while the topgallant-masts were bent almost
into a curve with the strain upon them and the stays aft were stretched
as tight as fiddle-strings.
"Yes, sir; she does," agreed Adams; "but, don't you think, sir, she's
carrying on too much now that the wind has got up? I was just going to
call the hands to take in sail when you came on deck."
"Certainly not," replied Captain Dinks, struck aghast by the very
suggestion of such a thing. "I won't have a stitch off her! Why, man
alive, you wouldn't want me to lose this breeze with such a lot of
leeway as we have to make up?"
"No, sir; but--"
"Hang your `buts'!" interrupted the captain with some heat. "You are a
bit too cautious, Adams. When you have sailed the _Nancy Bell_ as long
as I have you'll know what she's able to carry and what she isn't!"
With these pregnant words of wisdom, the captain resumed possession of
his sextant and proceeded to take the altitude of the sun, shouting out
occasional unintelligible directions the while through the skylight to
Mr McCarthy, who was in his cabin below, so that he might compare the
position of the solar orb with Greenwich time as marked by the
chronometer. Then telling Adams at the end of the operation to "make it
eight bells," whereupon the tinkling sounds denoting twelve o'clock were
heard through the ship, he himself also hurried below, to "work out his
reckoning."
On Captain Dinks coming up again, he reported that the _Nancy Bell_ had
done better than he expected for her "first day out," considering the
adverse circumstances she had had to contend with, for she had logged
more than a hundred and fifty miles; but he did not look quite so
jubilant as he had done before going below, nor did McCarthy, who now
accompanied him on deck to relieve the second mate, whose watch had
expired.
"What's the matter, captain?" asked Mr Meldrum, with a smile, "are you
not satisfied; or, did you expect the ship to have done more?"
The passenger was patrolling the poop, in company with his two
daughters, Kate and Florry--the latter a rompish little girl, some
twelve years old, with long golden-brown hair which the wind was making
wild havoc of, dashing it across her face as she turned, and streaming
it out to leeward behind her in picturesque confusion. The girls had
some little difficulty in walking along the deck, as it was inclined to
a considerable angle from the vessel's heeling over; but, by dint of
clutching hold of their father, which they did with much joking and
merriment and silvery laughter, each taking an arm on either side, they
managed to preserve their equilibrium, keeping pace in regular quarter-
deck fashion.
"No," replied Captain Dinks to Mr Meldrum's chaffing question, "I can't
say that I am satisfied, for I'm sorry to tell you that the barometer is
going down."
"Indeed!" said the other, "and with the wind from the south-east! I'd
advise you, captain, to take in sail at once."
"Why, you're as bad as Adams," returned Captain Dinks rather huffily; "I
suppose you'd like me to strip the ship just when we're getting the
first fair breeze we've had since leaving Plymouth! Excuse me, Mr
Meldrum, I know my business; and, I presume, you'll allow a sailor to be
better acquainted with his duties than any landsman can possibly be."
"Oh, certainly, Captain Dinks," said Mr Meldrum with a bow, "and I'm
sure I beg your pardon for interfering! Of course, as you say, a
landsman has no knowledge of these things and has no right to speak."
"Oh, papa!" exclaimed Kate Meldrum reproachfully, "how could you say
that?" while Florry pinched his arm and seemed convulsed with laughter,
which she endeavoured to choke down in vain, at some secret joke or
other; but Captain Dinks, quite restored to his usual good-humour and
politeness by Mr Meldrum's apology, did not notice the girls, and
presently all were chatting together with the utmost cordiality, the
captain enlarging on the excellent run he hoped to make to New Zealand,
and promising the young ladies that they should see Madeira ere the week
was out, for he anticipated that the south-easterly breeze they now had
would carry them well past the Spanish coast and into the north-east
trades, when their voyage would be all plain sailing down to the
Equator.
How true, however, is the old adage, "Man proposes and God disposes!"
While the captain was chatting gaily with his passengers, another change
was taking place in the appearance of the heavens. The heavy,
threatening clouds, which had risen up after breakfast and been swept
away to leeward by the south-east wind as it got up, were now slowly
being banked up along the horizon to the northward and westward, the
haze extending down to the south right ahead of the vessel's track,
while a lot of scud began to be seen flying aloft at a very considerable
rate--not from but towards the point from which the breeze was blowing,
a sign that betokened not merely another shift of the wind, but a
squall, and one not to be trifled with either!
The obscuring of the sun by the drift was the first thing that called
the captain's attention to the altered state of the weather, and he at
once gave the order--"All hands shorten sail!" the mate rushing forwards
to see the details properly carried out.
The order did not come an instant too soon.
All at once, in a moment, the wind, which had previously been blowing
strongly from the south-east, died away and it was dead calm; while the
sea--already rough enough with the short chopping waves of the morning--
began to run with those huge billows that seem to get up almost without
preparation on the advent of a gale, every second growing more
mountainous.
At the captain's word of command, re-echoed by Mr McCarthy, the crew
had sprung aloft immediately; and, working with a will, had furled the
topgallant-sails, taken in the flying-jib, hauled up the mainsail and
mizzen-trysail and squared the after yards, when the ship resembled a
gladiator, entering the arena of the prize-ring stripped for a fight, as
she thus awaited the approach of the storm.
In the south-east the sky was clear and cloudless, but in the opposite
direction dark heavy purple masses of vapour rolled over each other,
more unnatural in appearance owing to a lighter cloud covering the
curling, wreathing fluid as if with a veil. Shooting from this dark
pile of clouds, some few were detached and became separated, rising to a
higher region of the air, in which they were dissipated and blown out
like mares'-tails that passed rapidly across the zenith; whilst on the
water, and about a mile or so from the vessel, the sea appeared covered
with a thick white mist, before which ran a dark line of black.
Mr Meldrum had sent the girls below the moment Captain Dinks had given
his orders to shorten sail, in spite of their entreaties to be allowed
to remain on deck with him and "see the storm;" so, being now alone, he
stationed himself near the binnacle close to the captain.
As he stood watching the lull before the break of the squall, he felt a
hand touching his shoulder; and looking round he found his fellow
passenger, Mr Zachariah Lathrope, by his side.
"Jee-hosophat! mister," said the American; "I guess we're goin' to have
a blizzard, and no mistake!"
"What's a blizzard?" said Mr Meldrum, smiling at the other's nasal
intonation, which was more marked than usual, even for a citizen of the
land of the setting sun.
"Why, darn my moccasins, deon't yew know what a blizzard is?"
Mr Meldrum shook his head in the negative: he felt that he should laugh
outright in the other's face if he opened his mouth to speak, and he did
not wish to appear wanting in politeness.
"Waal," said the American, drawing himself up, as if proud of his
superior knowledge and ability in being able to enlighten a backward
Britisher. "A blizzard's a hurricane and a tornader and a cyclone, all
biled inter one all fired smash and let loose to sweep creation. We
have 'em to rights out Minnesota way; and let me tell you, mister, when
you've ten through the mill in one, you wouldn't kinder like to hev a
share in another. Snakes and alligators! Why, a blizzard will shave
you as clean as the best barber in Boston, and then friz the marrow in
your bones an' blow you to Jericho. It's sarten death to be caught out
on the prairie in one of 'em: your friends won't find your body till the
snow melts in the spring. I guess you wouldn't like to try one,
streenger!"
"No, I think not," said Mr Meldrum, shivering at the description, for
he had heard before of these "Northers" of the Far West; but, the next
moment, the thoughts of blizzards and all belonging to them were
banished from his mind by what he saw, for the storm was upon them.
It came with a blast that shook the ship from truck to keelson and
almost turned her over, the wind being accompanied by a shower of hail
and rain that pelted those on deck like grape-shot and completely took
their breath away.
"Let go everything!" shouted the captain. Fortunately, the halliards
being cast off in time, the ship was not taken aback; and the steersman
putting the helm down, she paid off from the wind and ran off for
sometime directly before it, tearing through the water at the rate of
twenty knots an hour, with everything flying by the run.
"Thank God!" exclaimed Mr Meldrum, in heartfelt thanksgiving to Him who
controls the winds and storms, as he sprang to aid the man at the wheel,
seeing that he had a hard task to keep the helm over.
"Ya-as, I guess that were a narrow squeak," said the American; "and I
kalkerlate I'll make tracks down south fore another of them snorters
come!" So saying, Mr Lathrope dived down the companion-way, his
departure being accelerated by a heavy sea which washed over the quarter
and floated him below.
"Way aloft there!" shouted the captain; and, although his words could
not be heard from the howling of the wind, which shrieked and raved like
pandemonium broken loose as it tore through the rigging, the men knew
what was wanted and scrambled up the shrouds as well as they could,
sometimes stopping for breath as a stronger blast than usual pinned them
to the ratlines, where they stuck as if spread-eagled for sport.
After a good half-hour's hard work, the courses were clewed up and
furled, the jib hauled down, and the topsails close-reefed, a staysail
being set to steady her, when the men came down from aloft pretty well
worn out with their exertions.
Hardly had they got below, however, than the captain, seeing a second
squall coming, ordered them up again, to strip the ship of her remaining
sail.
But, he was too late this time.
Before the men could ascend the shrouds the wind struck the vessel, like
an avalanche, on her starboard broadside, heeling her over to port as if
she had been canted by the caulkers in dock. Then, another following
sea pooped her and cleared the decks fore and aft, sweeping everything
loose overboard, the maintopsail being split to pieces at the same time;
while the foretop-mast stay-sail was blown clean away to leeward,
floating in the air like a white kite against the dark background of the
sky. Finally, the foretop-gallant mast was carried by the board to
complete the ruin, leaving the ship rolling like a wreck upon the
waters, though, happily, no lives as yet were lost.
CHAPTER FOUR.
SAVED!
While all this turmoil and confusion was going on above on deck--with
the ship labouring and straining through the heavy seas that raced after
her as she ran before the wind, one every now and then outstripping its
fellows and breaking over her quarter or stern-rail with a force that
made her quiver from end to end, and "stagger like a drunken man," as
the Psalmist has so aptly described it, the thud of the heavy waves
playing a sort of deep bass accompaniment to the shrieking treble of the
wind as it whistled and wailed through the shrouds and cordage, and the
ragged remnants of the torn topsail flapping against the yard, with the
sound of a stock-driver's whip, in a series of short, sharp reports--
those below in the cuddy were far from having a pleasant time of it;
for, they were almost in the dark, the captain having caused the
companion-hatch to be battened down, and a heavy tarpaulin thrown across
the skylight to prevent the tons of water that came over the poop at
intervals from flooding the saloon as the waves swept forward in a
cascade of foam.
This was just after Mr Zachariah Lathrope, the American passenger, had
so well illustrated Virgil's line, _facilus descensus averni_, in coming
down the stairway by the run, on the top of a "comber;" and, although
the steward had lit one of the swinging lamps over the cuddy table, it
only served, with its feeble flickering light, to "make the darkness
visible" and render the scene more sombre.
The _Nancy Bell was_ a wooden ship, clipper built and designed for the
passenger trade; but, being only of some nine hundred tons or so
burthen, she had not that wealth of accommodation below that some of the
first-class liners running to Australia and New Zealand possess,
especially in these days of high-pressure steamers and auxiliary screws,
which make the passage in half the time that the old-fashioned sailing
vessels used to occupy.
She was, however, as well fitted up as her size permitted; and, as her
list of passengers was by no means filled, there was plenty of space for
those who now had possession of the main saloon, most of whom have been
already introduced to notice. If she had had, indeed, as proportionate
an amount of cargo as she had passengers it might have been all the
better for her seaworthiness. Instead of this, however, she was, by
far, too deep in the water, having a lot of deadweight amid-ships, in
the shape of agricultural implements and other hardware, which she was
taking out to Otago, that seriously interfered with her buoyancy, making
her dip to the waves instead of rising over them, and depriving her of
that spring and elasticity which a good ship should always have.
Now, she was groaning and creaking at every timber, as if in the last
throes of mortal agony; and the manner in which she rolled when she got
into the trough of the sea, between the intervals of the following
billows, would have dispelled any idea one might have possessed as to
her proper angle of stability, and made the observer feel inclined to
treat it as "a vanishing point."
Added to this, she pitched every now and then as if she were going to
dive into the depths of the ocean; and, when she rose again in
recovering herself, it seemed as if she were going down bodily by the
stern, the surge of the sea along the line of ports in the cabin bearing
out the illusion as it swelled up above her freeboard.
With the glass and crockeryware in the steward's cabin rattling, as if
in an earthquake, and trunks and portmanteaus banging from side to side
of the saloon, or floating up and down in the water that had accumulated
from the heavy sea that had washed down the companion when Mr Zachariah
Lathrope so gracefully made his rapid descent below, the place was a
picture of discomfort and disorder such as a painter would have been
powerless to depict and words would utterly fail to describe.
Kate and Florry Meldrum had retired to their berths, having experienced
a slight suspicion of squeamishness which the unwonted movements of the
vessel had brought about. They thought in such case that "discretion
was the better part of valour," especially as they felt no alarm as to
the safety of the ship, having perfect confidence that their father
would look after them if there was any danger; but Mrs Major Negus, on
the contrary, was firmly convinced that the _Nancy Bell_ was going to
the bottom. She sat in the captain's seat at the head of the cuddy
table, tightly clutching on to the sides to preserve her equilibrium at
each roll of the ship, loudly bewailing her untimely fate; and between
the paroxysms of her grief she found time now and again to scold her son
Maurice, who was enjoying himself most delightfully amongst the floating
baggage, narrowly escaping destruction every moment from the wreck of
the debris on the cabin floor, as it banged to and fro with the swish of
the water and the roll of the ship.
During one of the lulls in the series of squalls that swept over the
vessel in rapid sequence, Mr McCarthy came below by the direction of
the captain--who, of course, could not leave the deck--to see how the
passengers were getting on, as well as to have the dead-lights put up in
the state-rooms, in case of the stern-ports being battered in by the
waves; for these had now swollen to an enormous size, and seemed
veritably mountains high, rising up far above the cross-jack yard
sometimes.
"And how are we getting on now, Mrs Meejor?" said he, good-humouredly
addressing the lady at the head of the table, as he made his way to the
aftermost end of the saloon, followed by a couple of sailors, who had
accompanied him to aid him in his task of barricading the ports.
"Sir," replied she, endeavouring to speak with as much dignity as her
insecure position and her qualmishness would allow, "I am surprised at
your asking me such a question and displaying levity when I feel as if I
am dying, and we are all going down to the bottom--stee-ured!"
"Yes, mum," said that worthy from the pantry door, to which he was
holding on, surveying the scene of desolation before him with the air of
a connoisseur.
"Bring a basin, please--oh, my!"
"Yes, mum; coming, mum."
"Maurice!"
"Yes, ma."
"Get up out of that mess there, and come to me at once!"
"What, ma?"
"Come to me here, im-mediately!"
"Sha'n't!"
"I'll--oh, Lord; oh, dear! Steward, send the stewardess to me, and help
me into my cabin. I'm dying, I know I am! Oh, gracious goodness, why
did I ever come to sea?"
"Faix, the ould lady has had to give in," said the mate to one of the
sailors with him. "I thought she wouldn't hould out much longer!"
whereat, of course, there was a general laugh from the men.
"The Major"--as everybody on board spoke of the lady, almost after a
day's acquaintance with her peculiarities and haughty airs--was just
then endeavouring to rise from the captain's chair, when the vessel,
after a deeper pitch forward than usual, settled down suddenly by the
stern, accompanying the movement by a lurch to starboard that carried
away the lashings of the chair; and, in an instant she and the steward
and stewardess, along with Master Negus, were rolling to leeward on the
floor amongst the dunnage, the whole quartette sputtering and splashing
in the sea-water, and vainly endeavouring for some time to rise, for the
"Major," first clutching one and then the other as they were scrambling
to their legs, hampered their efforts without improving her own position
in the least.
At last, by the aid of Mr McCarthy and the sailors, the good lady was
pulled up on to her feet and assisted into her cabin, where lying back
in her berth, she loudly inveighed against the conduct of everyone,
particularly selecting the Captain, in her outpour of indignation, for
putting to sea when he must have known, as she held, that a storm was
coming on; he had only done it, she was certain, in order to annoy her
and put her life in peril!
In the midst of her diatribe--which was listened to by no one, for the
mate and sailors had returned on deck after completing the job that had
brought them down in thorough ship-shape fashion, and the steward and
stewardess, now that they had got my lady to her bunk, were trying to
make matters more comfortable in the saloon--Mrs Major Negus suddenly
bethought herself of her young hopeful, of whose existence she had been
awhile oblivious while attending to her own woes.
"Maurice!" cried she, in accents whose shrillness rose above the roar of
the waves and the groaning of the ship's timbers, "Maurice, come here at
once, sir, I order you!"
But, lo and behold! no Maurice made his, appearance; nor did he respond
to his mother's heart-rending appeal. The young scamp had sneaked up
the companion, unperceived by the mate, and was now on deck in high glee
at his freedom from maternal thraldom, watching the battle of the
elements and the struggle of the ship against the supremacy of the wind
and waves, that were vying with each other to overwhelm her.
The boy stood on the lee side of the poop, and was looking over the side
at the wreck of the fore-topgallant mast, which was still attached to
the ship by the stay and braces of the yard, the men not yet having time
to cut it adrift--all hands being busy in doing what was possible to
save the main-topgallant mast, that had begun to show signs of giving
way.
Nobody knew he was there, or that he was on deck at all, till Mr
Meldrum happened suddenly to cast his eye in his direction, when he at
once motioned him to come away.
But, "the imp" took no notice of the warning, and Mr Meldrum was
hesitating whether he should leave his station by the binnacle, where he
had been doing yeoman's service in aiding the helmsman ever since the
first squall burst over the ship, when a heavy wave came over the
quarter to windward, and, dashing violently against the port bulwarks,
carried a large portion away into the sea; and, along with the broken
timber-work, away went young Master Negus!
Mr Meldrum hesitated no longer as to crossing the deck; but another was
sooner at the scene of action.
Frank Harness, the "third mate," as he was euphemistically called--a
dashing young fellow of nineteen, and just completing his sea-time as
midshipman before passing the Trinity House examination for his
certificate in seamanship--who had been aloft bearing a hand in making
the mizzen-topsail snug, the leech of the sail having blown out through
the violence of the gale, was just on his way down the rigging again to
see where he could be of use elsewhere, when he noticed the boy's peril
as quickly as the passenger; and, with one bound, he alighted on the
deck.
In a rapid eye-glance he took in the situation.
Raised on the top of a curling wave, the fragments of the broken
bulwarks and stanchions had got entangled with the wreck of the fore-
topgallant mast, some twenty yards or so to leeward of the ship; and,
clinging to the mass, Frank could see the boy holding on with a grip of
desperation and terror, drenched with his ducking and the surf that
washed over him, and with his mouth wide open as if yelling for
assistance--although never a sound reached those on board for the roar
of a giant could not have been heard against the wind.
Taking a turn of the signal halliards round his wrist, Frank Harness at
once leaped into the sea and struck out gallantly for the boy; those on
the poop cheering him as he cleaved through the foaming billows and
quickly neared the wreckage, forgetful for a moment of their own
immediate peril in the exciting scene before them, and waiting anxiously
for their turn to assist the rescuer and the rescued on board again.
In the meantime, Mrs Major Negus--alarmed at the disappearance of her
young hopeful from below, neither the steward or stewardess being able
to give any account of him after searching the cabins in vain--had
managed to scramble up the companion-way, nerved to desperation by the
divine power of a mother's love; and by some means or other she
contrived to slide back the hatch and step out on to the poop-deck,
where, holding on by the rail, she eagerly looked to the right and left
in quest of Maurice.
Seeing the group on the lee-side gazing steadfastly at the scene in the
water, she staggered towards them, clutching hold of the tarpaulin over
the skylight to steady herself.
"My boy! my boy!" she exclaimed frantically. "Where is he? Oh, he's
lost," she added with a piercing scream,--"fiends, monsters, are you
going to let him drown before your eyes?"--and she made an effort as if
to plunge overboard to where she could see the curly head of her darling
rising just above the waves.
"Hold!" cried Captain Dinks kindly, grasping her arm firmly and drawing
her back. "He's being saved, and we'll have him on board again in a
minute. There, don't you see, some one has plunged in after him and is
just gripping him; we'll have them up together as soon as he has made
fast!"
"Bless him, the brave fellow!" exclaimed the poor lady, whose
peculiarities and bad temper were now forgotten by all in sympathy with
her natural alarm and anxiety, for she spoke in a voice broken with sobs
and tears. "Who is he? I'll fall down on my knees and thank him for
saving my boy!"
"Frank Harness," said the captain; "but I'm sure the gallant fellow will
not want any thanks for doing a brave action! Look alive forward
there!" he called out to the men in the waist, "and ease off those
topgallant braces a bit and let the wreck drift alongside. So--easy
there--belay! Another minute, and we'll have them."
Frank had reached the wreckage while Maurice's mother had been speaking,
and without an instant's delay had looped the end of the signal
halliards round the boy's waist as he held on himself to the end of the
topgallant yard, to which the lee braces were attached. A quick motion
of his arm had then apprised Captain Dinks what to do, and in another
minute or two the wreckage had been floated in under the ship's quarter,
and a dozen hands were helping the brave lad and the boy whom he had
rescued up the side--Maurice, indeed, being hauled up by the bight of
the signal halliards first.
His mother almost went into hysterics when he was restored to her, as if
from the very gates of death; but her joy did not allow her to forget to
thank his rescuer, which she did far more enthusiastically than Frank
liked, with all the men looking on!
The gale continued raging with unabated force all that evening; but
towards midnight it lulled sufficiently for some sail to be set on the
ship, which was then kept more on her proper course.
CHAPTER FIVE.
A CALM.
It was a lovely dawn the morning after the storm in the Bay of Biscay.
Even Mr Adams, plain, matter-of-fact, simple, and unsympathetic sailor
as he was, without a particle of poetry or imagination about him, could
not but gaze with admiration at the glory of God's handiwork, as he
noticed the grand panorama of change that marked the progress from
darkness to light, from night to day!
Soon after his watch began, the twinkling stars had gone to rest,
putting out their tiny lanterns, as they had arisen, one be one; and
now, the violet blue of the firmament paled gradually into sea-green and
grey, soft neutral tints mixed on the great palette of Nature to receive
the roseate hue that presently illumined the whole eastern sky,
heralding the approach of the glorious orb of day. Next, streaks of
light salmon-coloured clouds shot across the horizon, their edges
decorated with a fringe of gold that gleamed brighter and more intense
each moment, the water glowing beneath the reflection as if wakening
into life: and then, the majestic sun stepping up from his ocean bed--
all radiant--"like a bridegroom out of his chamber," and moving with
giant strides higher and higher up the heavens, as if "anxious to run
his course," and make up for the lost time of the night--shone through
the transparent purple mist of the morning like a blush rose behind a
glittering veil of dewdrops!
By the time the breakfast hour arrived--"eight bells"--the blue sea was
dancing merrily in the sunshine, the waves calming down to only a
crisping curl of their foam-flecked summits, and the _Nancy Bell_ was
speeding along under a pile of canvas fore and aft from deck to truck,
Mr Adams having made good use of his time while others were sleeping to
get up the spare topgallant-mast forward and set all the upper sail he
could; so the passengers, roused up to new life by the cheery influence
of the bright summer day, coming after all the gloom and misery and
storm and tempest of the past, mustered round the cuddy table in full
force.
Mr Meldrum and the American were there as a matter of course; but, by
the side of her father, on the right of the skipper, appeared now for
the first time at the table since the ship had left port, the graceful
form of Kate Meldrum accompanied by the slighter figure of Florry,
supported on the other side of the table by Mrs Major Negus and her
young hopeful; while Mr Adams faced Captain Dinks--it being the chief
mate's turn of duty on deck--having brave Frank Harness close alongside.
They formed a very joyous coterie altogether, and enjoyed themselves all
the more from their natural revulsion of spirits after all the
discomfort and misery they had passed through, Captain Dinks himself
setting an example and provoking the merry laughter of the girls with
his absurd jokes, although the young ladies seemed brimful of fun,
especially Miss Florry, who the skipper said might make a good match for
mischievousness with Master Negus--whereat a grim smile was seen to
steal across the face of "the Major," lightening up her sallow
countenance and making her "come out in new colours."
As for Mr Zachariah Lathrope, he was too busy with the ham and eggs to
do much talking; although, like the monkeys, he probably thought the
more, for ever and anon he would pass encomiums on the viands and pass
up his plate for a fresh helping, the steward having enough to do in
supplying his wants quickly enough.
After breakfast, a visit was paid to "Snowball," the darkey Stowaway,
who was found much better and progressing so favourably that the captain
ordered his removal to the "fokesail," to complete his convalescence;
which it may be here added he satisfactorily accomplished in a few days,
when he was installed in the galley as cook, in the place of a Maltese
sailor who was glad to get forward again before the mast. The negro had
slept continually from the time he had been released from durance vile
in the after-hold, neither the racket below nor the turmoil on deck
during the storm having disturbed his slumbers. This, no doubt, had
hastened his recovery, for Mr McCarthy was positive that three of his
ribs at least had been broken.
"Why is Snowball like a worm, Miss Meldrum?" said Captain Dinks to Kate,
after telling her that he intended installing the darkey in the galley
as cook; "do you know, eh!"
"Oh, if that's a conundrum, captain," replied she with a piquant laugh
that lit up her whole face, making it quite beautiful, Frank Harness
thought, "I give it up at once. I'm a bad hand at guessing riddles."
"Well, you see," said Captain Dinks, with that cheery "ho, ho!" of a
laugh of his, which always preceded any of his good things, "the worm or
grub develops into the butterfly; but Snowball made the butter fly when
he tumbled over that cask in the steerage, and now he is going to
develop into the grub line and turn cook!"
"That's too bad!" said Kate laughing. "I never heard a worse sort of
pun in my life."
"Then it's all the better, my dear," replied he; and as everybody else
laughed too, they possibly shared the captain's opinion.
After this, there was a move on deck--not before it was needed perhaps!
At noon, Captain Dinks, after manipulating his sextant and adjusting the
sights, seemed to be much longer taking his observation than usual; and
when he went below to his cabin to work out the reckoning he certainly
remained a most unconscionable time.
By and by, however, he came up the companion again, his face beaming
with delight.
"What do you think, Mr Meldrum?" said he, somewhat excitedly, to that
gentleman, who, along with the remainder of the saloon party, was
standing on the poop leaning over the taffrail to windward, looking over
the apparently limit less expanse of water, that stretched away to the
horizon, and basking in the sunshine, which was tempered by a mellow
breeze that seemed just sufficient to keep the sails of the _Nancy Bell_
full--and that was all.
"I'm sure I can't say," replied Mr Meldrum good-humouredly. "Found
another ghost in the cabin, eh?"
"No, no; couldn't have two in one voyage," said the skipper.
"Made another conundrum?" again inquired the other slily, poking fun at
the captain's previous attempt in the riddle line.
"Oh, no," said Captain Dinks, laughing out at this. "That was too good
to be repeated: I've got better news than that, Mr Meldrum--something
really to surprise you!"
"I'm all attention," said Mr Meldrum, "but pray do not keep us long in
suspense. Don't you see we're all anxious!"
"Why," exclaimed Captain Dinks triumphantly, "the _Nancy Bell_ has made
nearly five degrees of latitude since I last took the sun, there!"
"Oh dear!" said Florry ruefully; "I thought you were going to tell us
something funny!" and she looked so disappointed that Kate laughed at
her and Master Maurice Negus grinned; whereupon Florry, in a pet,
smacked the young gentleman's face, for which she was reproved by her
father and ordered below, although the sentence of banishment was
remitted later on at Mrs Major Negus's especial request.
This little interlude over, the captain proceeded with his explanation.
"Yes," said he, "we're now in latitude 44 degrees 56 minutes north, and
longitude 9 degrees 42 minutes west; so that we've run pretty close on
four hundred miles since yesterday at noon. Just think of that, now!"
"A pretty good distance," said Mr Meldrum; "but, you must recollect we
had the gale to drive us on."
"Aye, sorr," said Mr McCarthy, joining in the conversation, "and didn't
it droive us too! Begorrah, there was some times that the wind tuck the
ship clane out of the wather and carried us along in the air like one of
them flying-fish you'll say when we gits down to the line!"
"It was fortunate it was in our favour," observed the captain
reflectively. "We couldn't have tried to beat against it; and, heavily-
laden as we are, it would have been madness to have tried to lay-to!"
"You're right," said Mr Meldrum, "and it was equally fortunate that the
gale carried us so far and no further! Another twelve hours of it and
we would have been high and dry ashore on the Spanish coast."
"I think you're not far out," replied the captain, scratching his head
and pondering over the matter, "for we'll only just shave past Cape
Finisterre now keeping our course; and if we hadn't made so much westing
when we got out of the Channel I don't know where we should have been!"
"Faix and it was grumbling at it you were all the toime, cap'en!" said
McCarthy with a knowing wink; "though you do now say it was all for the
best, as the man said when they buried his wife's grandmother!"
"Aye, you're right," said Captain Dinks more seriously, "all is for the
best, if we could only know it at the time!"
Thenceforward, the weather kept fine; and the fates seemed favourable to
the _Nancy Bell_ in her pilgrimage across the sea.
There was no lack of incident in the voyage, however.
One day, about a week after they had bidden farewell to the Bay of
Biscay with all its terrors and troubled waters, as the ship was
approaching that region of calms which lies adjacent to the Tropic of
Cancer, her rate of progression had grown so "small by degrees and
beautifully less," that she barely drifted southward with the current,
until at length she came to a dead stop, so far as those on board could
judge, lying motionless on the surface of the water "like a painted ship
upon a painted ocean," as the situation is described in Coleridge's
_Ancient Mariner_.
Round about the vessel, dolphins disported themselves, and "Portuguese
men-of-war" floated over the sea with their gelatinous sails unfurled,
and everything seemed lazy and enjoyable to the passengers--although the
captain and crew did not evidently relish the state of inaction which
the calm brought about, for they were looking out in all quarters for
the wished-for wind.
Not a ship was in sight--nothing happening to break the peaceful repose
of the deep for hours.
The captain was "having a stretch" below; the men snoozing away on the
deck forwards in all sorts of odd corners; the officer of the watch
blinking as he squinted aloft to see if the dog-vane stirred with any
passing breath of air; even the steersman was nodding over the helm, as
the wheel rotated round to port or starboard as it listed, according as
the ship rose or fell on the long heavy rolling swell that undulated
over the bosom of the deep; and most of the passengers were in the same
somnolent state--when all at once an event occurred that soon broke the
monotony of the afternoon, waking up the sleepy ones to fresh vitality,
for an object of interest had at last arisen in the uneventful day
sufficient for the moment to enchain their attention.
The listless lotus eaters had to thank Master Negus for the excitement,
in the first instance.
That young gentleman was possessed of a keen desire for knowledge, which
his more prosaic seniors were in the habit of misconstruing, deeming it
to arise, as they said, from an insatiable and impertinent curiosity
combined with an inherent love of mischief. Be that as it may, this
desire for knowledge on Master Maurice's part frequently led him into
places where, to put it delicately, his presence was undesirable in many
ways; his love for investigation taking him especially to certain
dangerous localities whither he was peremptorily forbidden to go both by
his mother and the captain.
Among such tabooed spots in the ship was the forecastle; and here,
consequently, as a matter of course, Master Maurice most delighted to
steal away when neither the maternal eye of Mrs Major Negus was upon
him nor any of the other people aft were watching him. He did not mind
the sailors, for they made a point of encouraging him forward and took
much pleasure in developing his propensities for mischief.
This afternoon, he was enjoying himself after the desire of his heart-
climbing about the rigging in a way that would have made his mother
faint, when, in one of his scrambles up to the foretop, he saw something
in the water which was hidden from the sight of the others on board,
through the head-sails of the ship shutting out their line of view.
"Oh, crickey," shouted out Master Negus at the top of his voice, at once
betraying his whereabouts in his excitement, "there's a fight going on
in the water, and two whales are leathering each other like fun!"
CHAPTER SIX.
THE BLACK FISH AND THE THRESHER.
"Good gracious me!" exclaimed Mrs Major Negus, jumping up in a fright
from the comfortable nap which she had been taking in a lean-back chair
on the poop; "where is that unhappy boy? He'll be the death of me some
day!"
"I'm here, ma!" shouted out Maurice from the forecastle. "Do come,
everybody. It's such fun! Ah, there, the big one has just got such a
whack and is in a terrible wax. He's hunting about for the little one,
who has dived away from him out of reach!"
"Fokesall, ahoy!" hailed Mr Adams, who had charge of the deck; "what's
the matter forward!"
"Only a fight, sir, between a black-fish and a thresher," answered Ben
Boltrope, the carpenter, an old man-o'-war's man, and one of the most
efficient hands of the _Nancy Bell's_ crew.
"A fit!" exclaimed Mr Zachariah Lathrope, drawing his long telescopic
legs together and rising into a sitting posture on the top of the cabin
skylight, where he had been taking his usual afternoon siesta instead of
putting himself to the trouble of going below and turning into his bunk,
as was his usual wont after luncheon. "A fit! Wa-al I guess I'm on. I
allers likes to hitch in with a muss!" and, so saying, the lanky
American was soon scrambling down the poop-ladder and making his way
forward, followed by all the remainder of the passengers--Mrs Major
Negus, of course, going to look after her darling boy, while Frank
Harness accompanied Kate Meldrum, as he said, to "take care of her,"
although, as her father was not far distant, it might have been supposed
that his protecting arm was not so absolutely necessary as he thought!
A very strange spectacle was seen, when the party, after diving beneath
the slackened sheets of the mainsail, that flapped about an inert mess
of canvas above their heads, and picking their way past the galley and
windlass, at last climbed up into the bows of the ship, where the
majority of the crew had already assembled and taken up vantage points
in the rigging, half-way up which was Master Maurice, waving his hat
wildly in a great state of excitement, and the master as it were of the
situation.
"There they are!" said he pointing to where the water was lashed up and
broken into foam, about half a mile ahead of the ship, amidst which a
couple of dark bodies could be seen tumbling about--one occasionally
jumping up high in the air and coming down on the other with a thud, and
a smack that sounded like the crack of a whip, or report of a rifle.
"There they are, Miss Meldrum, I saw them first!"
"Come down out of that, sir, at once!" screamed out his mother, with a
pant and a puff between each word, her breath having been almost taken
away by her unusually quick movements in getting forwards. "Have I not
ordered you never to go up those ropes?"
"Oh, bother, ma!" exclaimed the young hopeful, paying not the slightest
attention to his mother's command. He had been so spoilt, petted at one
time and scolded another, that all her authority over him was lost save
in name. "There! bravo, little one--oh, my, wasn't that a good one,
now?"
And so, Mrs Major Negus--abandoning any expectation of making Maurice
descend from his perch in the shrouds, where, however, she could see
that he was in no imminent danger, for he had one of the sailors on
either side of him who would catch him should he slip--was obliged
perforce to do as all the rest were doing and gaze at the thrilling
marine drama that was being acted out with such tragic earnestness on
the surface of the deep before their eyes.
A black-fish--which, it may be mentioned here, for the benefit of the
uninitiated, is a species of cachalot, although differing from the true
spermaceti family of whales in having the spout-holes placed on the top
of the head, in place of on the snout, and the pectoral fins shorter--
was being assailed by its bitter enemy the thresher or "fox shark."
This latter is one of the most peculiar fishes to be seen throughout the
length and breadth of the ocean, that world of living wonders; for it
has a most extraordinary face, or head, which is more like that of an
ape than of one of the piscine tribe; while its tail is divided into two
lobes or blades, one of which is small and insignificant, and the other
larger than the body of the animal, curling up at the end like the tail-
feather of a bird of paradise.
There could be no comparison between the two combatants, in respect to
size at least; for, while the whale was some fifty feet long--nearly a
third of the length of the _Nancy Bell_--the thresher could not have
exceeded thirteen feet; and as for girth, the former was in proportion
like a portly, Daniel-Lambert sort of man put by the side of a starving
street urchin of seven. The only advantage the thresher apparently
possessed was in its eyes, which, when one could get a glimpse of them,
looked like those of a hawk; while the unwieldy cetacean had little tiny
optics, not much bigger than those of a common haddock, which were
placed in an unwieldy lump of a head, that seemed ever so much bigger
than its body, with a tremendous lower jaw containing a row of teeth,
each one of which was nearly a foot long.
The thresher, seemingly, had only the advantage of his antagonist in the
proportionate size of his eyes; but, "just wait till you have seen him
use his long feather-like tail!" as Maurice Negus said, and you will
arrive at the conclusion that the combatants were not so very unequally
matched after all.
The very size of the black-fish militated against his chances for, while
it took him more than his own length to turn in the water, the thresher
darted, here, there and everywhere, like an eel--just getting out of his
reach when the other thought he had got him and had opened his ponderous
jaws to crush him. It was at this moment that his agile tormentor,
seizing his opportunity, would leap out of the water and give the whale
a "whack" on his side behind the fin, one of his tenderest spots, the
blow resounding far and wide over the water and probably leaving a weal
if not an indentation in the animal's side.
Mr Zachariah Lathrope got quite interested, bobbing from one side of
the topgallant-forecastle to the other, and trying to obtain the best
view he could of the contest.
"Bully for the little scorpion, marm!" he exclaimed to "the Major," as
he shoved his hands down into his trouser pockets and seemed to lift
himself up in his eagerness. "I'll bet my bottom dollar he'll fix that
air whale to rights! By gosh, that wer a sockdolager; I guess the big
varmint is kinder gettin' riled!"
The whale here spouted and fluked his tail, diving down for a moment
beneath the surface; but, he did not long disappear, and when he came up
shortly afterwards nearer the ship, the spectators could see that the
water around him was dyed with blood.
As the black-fish rose, the thresher, who evidently had been waiting for
him and knew the precise spot where he would reappear, threw himself up
in the air, turning a sort of summersault; and, "whack!" came his whip-
like tail round his victim's body, the whale seeming to writhe under the
blow as if driven half mad with pain.
"Look, look!" exclaimed Florry Meldrum, "the thresher isn't alone; what
are those long-nosed fishes swimming about under the whale? They seem
to be helping the other one!"
"You're right, Florry," said her father, "they are swordfish. What you
think are their noses are long projecting saw-like blades, and they are
the whale's deadliest enemy. I never saw them, however, attacking one
in company with a thresher before: they must have formed an alliance for
the express purpose, as they have really nothing in common."
"It reminds me, mister," said the American, putting a chew of tobacco in
his mouth pensively, "of a bull fit I once see in Carthagena when I was
to Spain some years ago. That air thresher is jist like the feller all
fixed up with lace and fallals called the Piccador, who used to stir up
the animile with squibs and crackers and make him fly round like a dawg
when he's kinder tickled with a flea under his tail; and the sword-fish,
as you calls them outlandish things, are sunthen' like the Matador that
gives the bull his quietus with his wepping. That air power of blood
that you see, I guess, is from them, and not from t'other's cow-hide of
a tail!"
"Golly, massa, you speaks for true," said Snowball, who formed one of
the party of lookers-on, abandoning his coppers in the galley in order
to see the fun. "Bress de Lord! see how dat long snout chap dere gib
him goss now!"
It really seemed an organised attack.
As soon as the back of the black-fish appeared above the surface, the
thresher, springing several yards out of the water, descended with great
violence on the object of its rancour and inflicted what sounded like a
hearty slap with its tail, the sword-fishes in their turn striking the
whale from below; so that, try how he might, the unhappy monster of the
deep could not escape his persevering foes.
"Sure and be jabers it bates Donnybrook Fair entirely!" said Mr
McCarthy, who had also come up from below, the news having also reached
him of what was taking place. "The poor baste will soon be bate into a
cocked hat with all them ragamuffins on to him at once! It's liking to
help him I'd be if I saw the chance!"
But the doom of the black-fish was evidently by this time sealed and
human aid was powerless to assist him: all could see for themselves that
the last act in the drama was close at hand!
Suddenly, the thresher gave another violent bound upwards into the air
from the surface of the ensanguined water, leaping almost over the
whale; and, as he fell back again into the sea, his tail, which was bent
like a bow, delivered a terrible lash, surpassing any of its previous
attempts. At the same time, as if by a concerted movement, those on
board could see--for the combatants were now so close alongside the ship
that the bight of a rope could have been easily hove over them--one of
the sword-fish made a dart at the exposed flank of the whale, burying
its ugly saw-like weapon almost up to the head and inflicting a wound
that must have been mortal.
The black-fish instantly emitted a sort of hollow muffled roar; and,
sending up a fountain of watery spray mixed with blood from its spout-
holes, splashed the sea violently with its formidable flukes, after
which it rolled over, rocking from side to side in its last dying flurry
or death agony.
"I guess he's a gone coon!" said the American, hitching up his trousers
again and turning over the quid of tobacco in his mouth. "It seems a
terrible pity to waste him though. There's a powerful sight of blubber
in that air animile!" and the speaker appeared to gaze sadly at the
carcase of the conquered cetacean as it floated by.
"It's all over," said Mr Meldrum, turning from the now pitiful
spectacle with disgust. "Come away, girls!" But Kate had long since
left the scene, the sight not having been of a nature to suit her tender
heart; and, she was now far away aft with Frank Harness, sitting in a
secluded corner of the poop, where she could see nothing of the
sanguinary ending of the contest. Florry, on the contrary, had remained
to the last, as well as Mrs Major Negus--who, it may be observed, had
watched the struggle from its commencement to its close with almost as
much interest as her enthusiastic son and heir; and Mr Meldrum had much
difficulty in tearing the little girl away from her rapt contemplation
of the dead whale.
"Stop a minute, papa," she urged when he took hold of her arm to draw
her from the rail. "Do look! they have all left him now they have
killed him. I wonder what they quarrelled about?"
"Sure, an' just for the same rayson, missy, that Christians hate sich
other," said Mr McCarthy, "just for no cause at all, but bekaze they
can't help it, alannah! And now that the little divils have kilt him,
sure they've swum off and left the poor crathur to die, just the same as
some ov us does to sich other, more's the pity, by the same token!"
It was true enough.
The thresher and his active allies had all at once disappeared, how,
when, or where, none of those looking on could tell; the lifeless body
of the black-fish only remaining in evidence of the battle that had
taken place.
There it was, floating sluggishly on the heavy rolling swell of the
ocean, in solitary grandeur; for the dolphins and "Portuguese men-of-
war" that had been seen earlier in the afternoon had taken themselves
off as soon as the light began--evidently preferring calmer scenes and
not relishing the proximity of such inveterate enemies of their several
species as the late combatants.
CHAPTER SEVEN.
FIRE!
The calm continued for four days, during which time not a breath of wind
came from any point of the compass to waft the ship on her way;
although, of course, she could not help drifting a few miles every
twenty-four hours southwards, under the influence of the great
equatorial current.
However, if there was no wind, there was no lack of novelty to those of
the passengers who had never been to sea before; for, from their being
now within the tropical region, the ocean around, albeit so still and
glassy, seemed to swarm with life. Thousands of flying-fish were to be
seen fluttering on either side of the vessel, while skipjacks and
bonetas also showed themselves occasionally; and the dreaded shark, with
his close attendant and valet the pilot-fish, was not an absentee, for
he was continually cruising about astern on the constant look-out.
"How funny those flying-fish look!" said Florry Meldrum, watching a
shoal of them that rose from the water just like a covey of white larks,
and which, after skimming past the _Nancy Bell_, again settled in the
sea, quite tired out with their short flight.
"You should see them nearer," said Frank Harness, who was between the
two girls, looking out over the gangway aft--"and then you would call
them funnier. Ah! here is one," he added, catching one of the little
fluttering creatures that had become entangled in the mizzen rigging;
"you see, it doesn't have wings as you think, but only a membrane
between its fins, just like what a bat has."
"Yes," said I "I see. It is curious, though, that they should look so
white at a distance, when their backs are dark and blueish, like a
mackerel!"
"Ah! that is because the under part of their wings is only then visible.
Look, now, at that lot there that have just risen to escape the boneta.
They seem exactly like a fall of snowflakes!"
"Poor things!" said Kate. "The boneta seems to be their inveterate
enemy, or rather consumer, as he appears to be in good condition on the
diet. It's a pity, though, that he's such a glutton; for he's a nice-
looking fish, all purple and gold, and he oughtn't to be so cruel!"
"Oh! he's not the only enemy of the flying-fish, Miss Meldrum," answered
Frank; "you should see the albatross after them down near the Cape. The
bird hunts them as soon as they rise in the air, and the boneta when
they're in the water; so, between the two, they have little chance of
escape--just like the fight, the other day, between the black-fish on
the one side and the thresher and sword-fish on the other."
"Ah!" exclaimed Kate with a shiver, "I couldn't look at that long! The
boneta hunt the flying-fish in a fairer way, and they do look so pretty
when they jump out of the water! How disappointed the boneta must then
feel when they see them take unto themselves wings and fly away?"
"They needn't be disappointed long," said Frank Harness, laughing, "for,
they must know that they're bound to catch them up in the long run.
But, look at that cloud there, Miss Meldrum, slowly creeping up the sky.
`I guess,' as our American friend says, that we're going to have some
rain."
"Do you think so?" she answered, smiling at Frank's rather good
imitation of Mr Lathrope's nasal intonation of voice; "I thought it
looked too bright for that."
"We'll have it soon; just you see," said Frank.
"All right, Mr Positive, I suppose we must bow to your superior
nautical skill."
"Oh, Miss Meldrum, don't laugh at me, if I am only a poor sailor," said
he reproachfully; "you always seem to taunt me with my profession!"
"I!" exclaimed Kate in surprise. "Why, I would not make fun of you, or
hurt your feelings, for the world!"
Frank seized her hand and pressed it, as if he were about to say
something in response; but, just at that moment, the rain, without
offering the apology of a warning drop or two to give notice of its
approach, came down in a perfect deluge, making them rush for shelter
beneath the poop awning.
This was just after lunch, early in the afternoon; and the rain lasted
until the dinner-bell sounded, coming down in regular sheets of water,
as if emptied out suddenly from some enormous reservoir above.
All sorts of tubs, buckets, kegs, and open casks, including the scuttle
butt, were ranged along the spar-deck, below the break of the poop, to
catch the welcome shower, tarpaulins being spread over the open
hatchways, where exposed, to prevent the flood from going below: while
the ends of the after awning were tied up in a sort of huge bag for the
rain to drain off into it, so that none of it might be wasted--the
canvas being let down, when the receptacle was pretty full, to empty the
contents into the water-puncheons--for the pure liquid was a precious
godsend, being an agreeable relief to the brackish supply which the ship
carried in her tanks.
As might have been imagined, Master Negus and Miss Florry watched all
these operations with the greatest interest, for they would have been
only too glad if their respective guardians had allowed them to take a
more active part in the watery campaign than that of merely looking on.
Mr Zachariah Lathrope, however, was his own master, and he made himself
very busy amongst the dripping sailors, who were hopping about on the
wet decks as if enjoying their ducking, much amusement being caused when
Mr McCarthy, for a joke, let the leach of the awning once go by the
run, when, the American passenger being off his guard, some hundred
gallons of water came down on him, giving the worthy gentleman an
impromptu shower-bath.
It was grand fun while the rain lasted, all the men folk paddling about
in it to their hearts' content and ducking each other when they had the
chance; while the ladies observed the sports from the shelter of the
poop, seeming to take equally as much pleasure in the skylarking. It
was amazing, too, to notice the amount of dirt and rubbish which the
downpour washed away into the scuppers. What with the continual
swilling and scrubbing and swabbing that the decks underwent every
morning, it ought to have been an impossibility for any dust or debris
to exist; but, there it was, to prove the contrary--the rain "exposing
the weakness of the land," and making a clean sweep of everything that
was dirty which lay about in the odd corners fore and aft the ship.
The day after the rain, just when all on board--sick of the calm, the
listless monotonous roll of the ship, the flapping of the idle sails
against the masts, and the sight of the same cloudless sky and endless
expanse of tumid sea, with surface unbroken by the tiniest ripple, save
when a dolphin leaped out of the water or a fairy nautilus glided by in
his frail shell craft--were longing for the advent of the north-east
trades, which Captain Dinks had expected them to "run into" ever since
they lost their first favourable wind, there came a visitor to the
_Nancy Bell_, the most dreaded of all the perils of the deep--Fire!
Eight bells had just been struck in the morning watch; and the
passengers were just preparing for breakfast--that is, such as were late
risers, like Mrs Major Negus and Mr Lathrope, neither of whom turned
out earlier than was necessary. Those who knew what was the healthiest
plan, like Mr Meldrum and his daughters, had been up and out more than
an hour before, walking up and down the poop and getting up a vigorous
appetite for the first meal of the day.
The captain had not long come up the companion; and, after looking aloft
and to the northward, scanning the horizon around, had stepped up to the
binnacle, where he stood contemplating the compass hopelessly, as if he
had given up all idea of the wind coming, while the hands of the watch
on duty were listlessly idling about the waist of the ship, dead weary
of having nothing to do.
The cook, apparently, was the only really busy person on board at the
time, for he could be seen popping in and out of his galley forwards,
handing dishes to Llewellyn, the steward, to bring aft for the cuddy
table. The darkey seemed bathed in perspiration, and looked as if he
found cooking hot work in latitudes under the constellation of the Crab,
whither the vessel had drifted.
All at once, however, a change came over the scene.
As the steward was passing the main hatch in his second journey aft to
the saloon, he noticed a thin column of smoke ascending from the main
hold, where the principal portion of the cargo was stowed. Like a fool,
although it might have been pleaded for him that he was constitutionally
nervous, he let fall the dishes he was carrying on a tray, in his fright
at the sight of this evidence of a conflagration below, instead of going
quietly up to the captain and telling him what he had seen; and, to make
matters worse, he called out at the same time in terrified accents, as
loud as he could bawl--"Fire! fire! the ship's on fire!"
Had a thunderbolt burst on board, or had the vessel struck on a rock in
the middle of the ocean, the alarm that was instantly spread on board
could not have been greater; and where all had been listless inactivity
but a moment before, was now all life, motion, and excitement.
"A fire! whar?" exclaimed Mr Zachariah Lathrope poking his head out of
the companion-way, judiciously concealing the remainder of his lanky
person, as he had not yet quite finished his toilet. "Snakes and
alligators, Cap'en, but I'm terrible skeart at fires! I hope it ain't
up to much chucks?"
"Oh, no!" said Captain Dinks, reassuringly, expressing what he wished
more than what he felt. He had remained aft in order to somewhat allay
the alarm which the outcry of the steward had excited; but he was
itching to get to the scene of action himself, although he had sent Mr
McCarthy there already, besides ordering the crew to their respective
stations, and having the hose-pump manned.--"Oh, no, nothing at all,
only one of that ass, Llewellyn's, happy discoveries, another sort of
ghost in the cabin! Here, Harness," he added aside to Frank, who had
just come up from below, dropping his voice to a whisper. "Just stop on
the poop a minute, and keep these people quiet. I must go down to the
hold myself to look after matters; don't say anything more than you can
help."
So saying, the captain scuttled down the poop ladder on to the spar-deck
in a jiffey, and in another second he was descending the main hatch,
whence the smoke could be now clearly seen, coming up in clouds.
Mrs Major Negus's voice was also heard at this juncture. The good lady
had ascended the companion behind the American, who still remained at
the spot where he had first made his appearance, and was just then
adjusting his braces; and almost at the same instant that her dulcet
accents reached the ears of those on deck she burst upon them, as it
were by storm, carrying Mr Lathrope along with her, still _en
deshabille_, it is true, as regarded his coat and waistcoat, but
fortunately now with his trousers, or as he called them "pants,"
properly arranged.
"Goodness gracious, man!" she exclaimed frantically--"do get out of the
way. Lord a mercy! where's the fire? Oh dear, oh my! We shall all be
burnt alive? Maurice, my darling boy! come to your mother's arms and
let us die together. Maurice! Where's my boy?"
"You'd better stop that screechin' and say your prayers, marm," said Mr
Zachariah Lathrope, sententiously. "The b'y is all right below,
sleepin' in the corner of the sofy, and I'd advise you to go and rouse
him up, instead of rushing up har like a mad bull in fly time, a
knocking folks down and hollerin'."
Mrs Major Negus took his advice; for, without withering up the American
with her scorn, as she would probably have done another time, she at
once rushed back below to the cuddy as quickly as she had come up, to
wake up Maurice; while Kate Meldrum, seizing the opportunity which the
diversion afforded, sidled up to Frank Harness unperceived.
"Is there any danger really?" she asked the young sailor in a low tone,
so that no one else could hear; and her face was pale, but composed and
resolute, as she looked into his.
"Could you bear to be told the truth?" said he hesitatingly.
"I could," she replied; and he saw that she meant it.
"Well, there certainly is danger, although it is best not to alarm
everybody, for when people get frightened they interfere and hinder what
is being done to save them. I wouldn't like to tell the crew, Miss
Meldrum, what I tell you; but I know you are brave, and see that you can
bear to be told the truth. A lot of woollen goods are on fire in the
main hold, and must, from the extent of the area already consumed, have
been smouldering for days. We are doing all that men can do to quench
it, and we may succeed, as there is no wind and nothing to fan the
flames; but the only thing that hinders us is our being unable to get to
the seat of the mischief, which is in the very centre of the cargo.
However, the men are now breaking in the deck above, and as soon as we
are able to get the end of the hose down and pass buckets, all may be
well. Keep a good heart, Miss Meldrum, there's no absolute danger yet;
when there is I will tell you. So, please, prevent that `Mrs Major'
from going into hysterics!"
"I will, for I trust you," said Kate with a somewhat sad smile on her
pale face. "Here, Florry, come below away from the smoke and sparks;
Mr Harness says the fire will soon be out and that there is no danger,
and I don't want you to spoil your new frock!"
So courageously speaking, the brave girl then went below with her
sister; and by her presence and example assuaged "the Major's" fears,
thus preventing that lady from going back on deck and spreading
consternation amongst the crew by her cries, as would otherwise have
been the case. Mr Zachariah Lathrope, too, came down to the cuddy,
attracted by the smell of breakfast, which the captain had directed the
steward to go on getting as if nothing had happened--thus to punish the
poltroon in a sort of way for his cowardly alarm; hence, the coast was
left clear for the officers and men to put out the fire without being
flurried by the fears and importunities of the passengers.
Meanwhile, Captain Dinks with Mr Meldrum, who was the first to
volunteer--their efforts well supported by the exertions of McCarthy and
the second mate and Frank Harness--were working like Britons in the
_Nancy Bell's_ hold.
The fire had broken out, as Frank had stated, almost in the centre of
the ship; for two bulkheads had to be battered down and the main deck
cut through, before the source of it could be reached. However, by dint
of arduously plying the axe and crowbar, an opening was at length made
whence the fire could be got at. Flames immediately burst forth the
moment air was admitted into the hold, but these were pressed down with
wet blankets, and, the fire-hose being carried down and the pumps manned
by the watch on deck, a copious stream of water was directed throughout
that portion of the ship where all the light woollen and textile goods
were stowed. The hose, too, was supplemented by a continuous relay of
buckets full of water passed rapidly along the lower deck and down the
hatchway by the starboard watch--whose turn it was below, but whom the
alarm of fire had caused to rouse out again to duty--so that in half an
hour from the discovery of the outbreak all danger was over and the last
spark quenched.
"Thank God!" said Kate Meldrum, with heart-felt earnestness, her lovely
eyes full of tears as she looked up into Frank's face when he came to
tell her the news. "I thought all hope was gone, you were so long in
coming!"
"But were you not certain I would come?" asked Frank anxiously.
"Yes, I had confidence in your promise."
"Thank you," was all he replied; but his look spoke volumes.
At the same time another mutual "confidence game" was being played in a
different part of the ship; but in this the understanding was between
Mr Meldrum and Ben Boltrope, the ship's carpenter and ex-man-o'-war's-
man.
"Aye, aye, sir," said the latter when the two were parting on the main
deck after the termination of their labours in the lower hold. "I
recognised your honour the moment you came on deck that morning of the
storm in the Bay of Biscay. I couldn't mistake the cut of your honour's
jib, sir, begging your pardon."
"Well, I'm sure I did not recognise you, or you may be sure I would have
spoken to you. Still, you need not blurt out my identity to everybody,
you know."
"Sartinly not, your honour. I'll keep mum, sir, never you fear, though
I don't forget the old--"
"Stop," said Mr Meldrum, changing the subject. "I've no doubt all
hands are pretty dry after all the heat we've been in down below, so,
with the captain's permission, I'll send something forward for them to
splice the main brace with."
"Aye, aye, your honour," replied Ben; "a nod's as good as a wink to a
blind horse."
And the two parted, the one going forward to the forecastle and the
other aft into the saloon.
CHAPTER EIGHT.
AN OCEAN WAIF.
"Wa-al, Cap," said Mr Lathrope after dinner that day, when he was
sipping his coffee on top of the skylight, which he had selected for his
favourite seat when on the poop, the "location," as he expressed it,
having the advantage of possessing plenty of "stowage room" for his long
legs--"I guess we've had a long spell o' calms, and a tarnation
slitheration of a del-uge, 'sides being now a'most chawed up by a fire;
so I kalkerlate its 'bout time we hed sunthen' of a breeze. Thunder,
mister, it's kinder gettin' played out, I reckon, knocking about in
these air latitoods, without nary going ahead even once in a blue moon!"
"Oh, the wind isn't far off now," replied Captain Dinks, "you see those
porpoises there, passing us now and playing astern? Well, they are a
certain sign of a breeze soon coming from the quarter towards which
they're swimming."
"Wa-al, I dew hope so," drawled the American, with a sigh and a yawn of
weariness, "guess I shall snooze till it comes;" and he proceeded to
carry his thought into execution.
Captain Dinks turned out a true prophet.
A little later on in the day a breeze sprang up, that subsequently
developed into the long-wished-for south-east trade-wind, thus enabling
the good ship to bid adieu to the Doldrums and cross the equator, which
feat she accomplished two days after the fire.
From the line--which Master Negus was able to see distinctly with the
aid of one of Mr McCarthy's fine red hairs neatly adjusted across the
object-glass of his telescope--the ship had a splendid run over to the
South American coast, following the usual western course adopted by
vessels going round the Cape of Good Hope, in order to have the
advantage afterwards of the westerly winds and get well to the south;
and, when she had reached the thirty-fourth parallel of longitude and
latitude 18 degrees 22 minutes south--that is, about midway between
Bahia and Rio Janeiro, her head was turned to the south-east with light
winds from the northward and eastward, and she began to make way towards
the "Cape of Storms," after getting to the southward of which she would
have a straight run due east to New Zealand.
The _Nancy Bell's_ bows, however, were not long pointed in the direction
of the rising sun, when another incident occurred to vary the monotony
of the voyage--although, fortunately, this time not a second fire, nor
any peril from the sea to those on board.
It was the second day of her south-easterly course; and from the wind
blowing fresh from the north-east, right on her port quarter, with fine
bright weather, the ship was running pretty free, all sail being set, at
the rate of over twelve knots an hour, leaving a wake behind her like a
mill-race.
"Arrah, sure, and I call, that goin'!" exclaimed the first mate
exultantly, as he walked up and down the poop quickly--just as if his
doing so helped the vessel along, in the same way as one sees the
coxswain of a boat bending backwards and forwards to keep time with the
rowers!
"Yes, like one o'clock!" chimed in Captain Dinks, showing an equal
enthusiasm. "The old girl is walking away with us at a fine rate,
McCarthy. I wouldn't be surprised if we logged three hundred by noon."
"And fifty more tacked on it, sorr," said the mate. "Why, we've done
twelve knots ivry hour of my watch; and Adams tould me she wor running
the same at eight bells. By the piper that played before Moses, it's a
beauty she is--she'd bate aisy the fastest tay clipper from Shanghai!"
"Aye, that she would!" chorused the captain. "What do you think of the
ship now, Miss Kate?" he added to that young lady, who was leaning
against the bulwarks to leeward, looking out over the sea. She was all
alone with her thoughts, Frank Harness being away forwards attending to
the cutting out of a new main-topgallant sail to replace the one they
had lost in the storm, the one they were now using being old and unable
to stand any further rough usage.--"You are not ashamed of the old
_Nancy_, now, eh?"
"Oh no, Captain Dinks," answered Kate, "I never was, even in her worst
moments when we were becalmed; and I'm sure I couldn't be now, when she
is sailing along so beautifully; but, what is that speck out there,
captain, away to the right--is it a bird, or what?"
"Eh, my dear?" said the skipper, looking in the direction the girl had
pointed--"a bird? no, by Jove, it looks like a sail of a boat well down
on the horizon. Here, McCarthy, hand me your glass."
Captain Dinks seemed even more excited than he had been a moment before
when he spoke of the vessel's progress; for, taking the telescope that
the mate handed him, he scrutinised eagerly the object Kate had noticed.
"Good heavens, it is a boat!" he exclaimed presently, "and I think I can
see a man in the stern-sheets, though I'm not quite sure: at all events,
I'll run down and overhaul it, for it would never do to abandon a poor
fellow in distress; no English sailor would think of such a thing! This
is all your doing, Miss Kate, you and your pretty eyes, which have the
best sight of any on board. We'll have to put the ship about,
McCarthy," he added to the mate; "we can't fetch that boat on this
tack."
"Hands 'bout ship!" roared the mate, in response to the captain's
implied wish; and, immediately, there was much running to and fro on the
decks, and a yelling out of orders and hoarse "aye ayes" in reply--a
striking difference to the quiet that had reigned a moment or two
before, when the ship was slipping along through the water with the wind
on her quarter, never a sail having to be shifted or a rope pulled, and
only the man at the wheel for the time being having anything to do out
of the thirty odd hands on board.
"Helm's a lee!" cried the captain, and the head-sheets were let go;
"raise tacks and sheets!" and the fore-tacks and main sheets were cast
off; while the weather crossjack braces and the lee main braces were
belayed, ready to be let go at a moment's notice, and the opposite
braces hauled taut. "Mainsail haul!" then sang out the captain when
these preparations were completed; when the braces being let go, the
yards swung round like a top. The after yards were subsequently braced
up and belayed, the main sheet hauled aft, the spanker eased over to
leeward, and the watch stood by the head braces.
"Let go and haul!" was the next word of command; upon which the weather
fore-braces were let go and those to leeward hauled in by the men
forward under the personal supervision of Mr McCarthy, after which the
men boarded the fore-tack and hauled down the jib-sheet, clapping a
tackle on it as it blew fresh; and the _Nancy Bell_, braced round on the
starboard tack and with the wind a little more aft than when she was
running eastwards just now, stood towards the boat that Kate had been
the first to perceive, drifting a bout upon the wild ocean so far away
from land.
At this juncture, Frank Harness sprang up into the fore cross-trees to
con the ship, by Captain Dink's directions; and presently his orders to
the steersman could be heard ringing out clear and distinct above the
creaking of the cordage and the wash of the sea alongside--those on the
poop, listening to all they could hear with intense eagerness, and
waiting for the moment when they could see for themselves the object of
the ship's quest.
"Keep her up a bit--steady!"
"Aye, aye, sir; steady it is!"
"Port!"
"Port it is!"
"Steady!"
"Steady it is!"
"Luff!"
"Aye, aye, sir!"
"Keep her so!"
"There is a man in her, sir!" Frank now called out in a different tone
of voice; "I can see him distinctly! He is trying to wave a
handkerchief or something. He looks almost dead, poor fellow!"
The excitement on board at hearing this piece of news became all the
more intensified.
"Are we nearing him?" shouted out Captain Dinks.
"Oh yes, sir; the boat bears now broad on the weather beam. Keep her
steady as she is, and we can round-to close alongside. Look out, we're
getting pretty close now!"
"Look out forward there!" cried the captain: but several hands were
there already with the first mate at their head, a coil of rope in his
hand, on the watch to heave it over the boat as soon as she was
approached near enough.
"Time to come about, sir," hailed Frank from the cross-trees; and,
"Hands 'bout ship!" roared out Captain Dinks, almost in the same breath.
During the bustle that ensued, those on the poop could not see what was
going on forward; but when the _Nancy Bell_ paid off again from the wind
on the port tack--thus resuming again what had been her previous course
before the boat had been sighted--it was found that the object for which
they had gone out of their way was safely alongside.
It was a shocking sight!
Four dead bodies were stretched, in every conceivable attitude of agony,
across the thwarts and in the bottom of the boat, which from its shape
had evidently belonged to some whaling vessel; while, sitting up in the
stern-sheets, close to the helm, which his feeble hands were powerless
to grasp, was the living skeleton of another sailor, whose eyes seemed
starting out from their deep sockets and whose lips appeared feebly
endeavouring to shape the syllables of "wa-ter!"
In a second, Mr McCarthy had leaped down into the floating coffin as it
towed alongside; and, lifting the body of the solitary survivor from
amidst the corpses of his dead comrades, handed the light load--for the
poor, starved creature did not weigh more than a child of ten, although
a man of over six feet in height--up to hands that as carefully received
him; and then, leaping back again on board himself, the whale-boat was
scuttled by a plank being knocked out of her bottom and cut adrift, to
sink with her mortal freight into the common grave of those who die on
the deep, the stench from the remains being horrible and permeating the
whole ship while the boat was in contact with her.
The rescued sailor was placed in a cot and given at first a small
quantity of thin soup which Snowball was busily concocting for the cabin
dinner, and after that, nourishment at intervals. By these restorative
measures, in a day or two, he recovered sufficiently to be able to tell
who he was and how he came to be in such a sad plight.
He was a Norwegian sailor, he said, and belonged to an American whaler
which had been on her voyage home after a three years' whaling cruise in
the South Pacific. On rounding Cape Horn, they had encountered a
fearful storm which had nearly dismasted the ship and washed the master
and five hands overboard. He and four others had launched the only boat
they had left over the side, trying to pick up their shipmates; but, the
sea was too heavy for them, and when they endeavoured to return, they
found they could not fetch their vessel again, which perhaps was just as
well, for soon afterwards they saw her go down stern foremost. After
that, they ran before the wind for several days and nights--how long he
could not tell--until his four comrades had died from exhaustion, and he
himself, he believed, was just on the point of giving up his life when
providence sent the _Nancy Bell_ to succour him.
"Ach der goot Gott!" said the man in his half German, half English way,
speaking brokenly and with tears in his eyes. "Der lieber Gott! I
shall nevare vergersen sie nevare!"
They had had, he said, a breaker of water in the boat when they quitted
the whaler, but this was soon drunk out, and although they had
occasionally something to eat, catching several fish, they suffered
terribly from thirst. It was that which had killed his comrades mainly.
As for him, he bore it better than them, but it must have been eight
days since a drop of liquid had passed his lips.
"Golly, dat am bad," said Snowball in the galley that evening, when some
of the hands gathered round the caboose to have a comfortable pipe and
talk over the events of the day. "Dat orful bad, eight day widout grub
or liquor! dis niggah not able 'tomach dat for sure!"
"Lor', Snowball, that's nothing when you are used to it," said Ben
Boltrope, the man-o'-war's-man, who was pretty well king of the
forecastle by reason of his service in the navy and general smartness as
a seaman. "What is eight days in a boat without grub, when you've got
to go ten, as I've done, besides wandering about on a sandy shore after
swimming for a day and night to save my life? Why, that's nothing!"
"Goramighty, Massa Boltrope, you no swim ten day widout habin' notin' to
eat, nor no water, hey?" said Snowball in astonishment.
"No, you blessed donkey, I didn't say that," replied the worthy Jack
tar. "I said as how I had gone without grub or water for ten days after
swimming for more than twelve hours."
"Dat berry rum for sure," said the darkey--"don't know how to belieb
dat, no how!"
CHAPTER NINE.
THE CAPE OF STORMS.
The steady nor'-east wind that was driving the good ship so gallantly on
her way when Captain Dinks put her about in order to rescue the
Norwegian sailor, continued for days, accompanied by such magnificent
weather, that the _Nancy Bell_ was enabled to make very rapid progress
down to those lower parallels it was necessary for her to reach before
she could stretch forward, in a straight line eastward towards her port
of destination.
"I guess, Cap," said Mr Zachariah Lathrope, noticing the quick change
of temperature in the air, day by day, as they left the tropics behind--
the mornings and evenings becoming gradually colder--"she air making as
straight tracks fur the south as them northern carpet-baggers did after
our little onpleasantness, what you folks called the civil war in the
States; when they used to rush down from Washington arter
postmasterships and other sich like offices, which wer to be hed, they
kinder thought, fur the asking! She air goin' slick, and that's a
fact!"
"Yes," replied the worthy captain, whose face beamed with good humour
and satisfaction at the splendid run the vessel was making; "we are
going ahead, working down our southing, and will soon be able to steer
for New Zealand. She does walk along, and no mistake!" And then he
would look aloft, perhaps, and give an order for a brace to be tautened
here, or a sheet slackened there--the hours thus flying by in halcyon
moments, as far as the wind and sea, and the course of the ship, and all
on board were concerned--collectively and individually.
The nights in these southern latitudes were simply beautiful beyond
compare.
The moon had no sooner died out than she revived again, as if gifted
with perpetual youth--not an evening passing without her presence,
sooner or later, on the scene--and appeared, too, to have more dignity
of position and greater size than in the frigid north, ascending right
up to the very zenith, instead of merely skirting the heavens, as she
sometimes does here, and shining down from thence like a midnight sun in
radiant splendour. The Scorpion, also, amongst the various
constellations, was similarly promoted, occupying a place nearer the
centre of the firmament; while the Southern Cross, quite a new
acquaintance, followed by Castor and Pollux, began to descend towards
the sea, becoming more diagonal as the days drew on than when originally
observed, and finally vanishing from view head foremost.
As for the North Star, it had long since entirely disappeared; and only
the horses in Charles' Wain yet remained above the horizon towards that
point of the compass.
To Kate Meldrum's eyes, the sunsets were especially grand; for, as soon
as the time came for the glorious orb of day to sink to rest in the
golden west, a series of light amber-tinted clouds would arrange
themselves all round the horizon, as if with a studied pictorial effect,
like the stage grouping in what theatrical people term "a set piece;"
and then, by degrees, these clouds would become tinged with the
loveliest kaleidoscopic colours, all vividly bright--while the far-off
heaven that lay between them was of the purest palest rose-hued gold,
and the sky immediately above of a faint, ethereal, blueish, transparent
green.
In the daytime, especially as the ship drew nearer to the meridian of
the Cape, there was more life in, on, and about the ocean; and on
passing the Island of Tristan da Cunha, which the _Nancy Bell_ sailed by
some three hundred miles to the northward, Master Maurice Negus was
greeted with the sight of a sperm-whale.
This fellow was much smaller than the black-fish which had come to such
an untimely end when assailed by the thresher, being scarcely longer
than thirty-two feet. Maurice was especially credited with the
cetacean's discovery, because, when he noticed the spout of spray the
animal threw up from his blow-holes in the distance, he surprised
everybody by calling out that he could see one of the Crystal Palace
fountains--getting much laughed at, as might have been expected, for the
naive announcement.
As those on board watched, they could see the whale every now and then
heave himself out of the water, half the length of his long dark body,
and fall "flop" down again, with a concussion that sent up the water
around him in white surf, like breakers. After this little diversion,
he amused himself with swimming backwards and forwards past the ship, as
if just showing what he could do, at a great rate; exposing only a thin
streak of his back and the fin and tail, but making the sea boil up as
if a plough were going through it, and leaving a wake behind him like
that of a paddle-wheel steamer--finally starting off suddenly due north,
as if he had all at once recollected an appointment in that direction,
when he soon disappeared from sight.
The flying-fish and dolphins, bonetas and sharks, like the "Portuguese
men-of-war," were long since all left behind; but their places were
taken by the albatross, the Cape pigeon, the shearwater, and a sea-bird
called the "parson," dozens of which flew about the ship every day.
The shearwater was a larger species of tern, or sea-swallow; the
"parson," so called for his sombre appearance and sedate manner, was a
kind of sable gull about the size of an English crow. His colour,
however, was not black, but a dusky brownish black, as if the reverend
gentleman's coat had got rusty from wear. These birds had a very odd,
"undertakerish" air about them, which amused Maurice and Florry very
much, and some having venerable white heads, which appeared as if
powdered with flour, like a footman's for a party, were so much more
eccentric looking, that even the grave Mrs Major Negus could not help
smiling at their appearance and queer ways.
"Do look, papa!" exclaimed Kate--who during the voyage would at one time
be in the highest spirits, and the next pensive, as if occupied by a
world of thought--"I declare if that one isn't the very image of Mr
Trotter, our curate at Allington! He has the same little tuft of hair
on top on his head; and, besides, he has the identical same way of
popping it on one side when he used to speak, and staring at you with
his little round eyes. Is he not like Mr Trotter, father?" and she
pointed out one especially jaunty little "parson" to his notice.
"Well, there is a little resemblance, certainly," said Mr Meldrum,
joining in Florry's laughter at the remark. "I don't suppose, though,
my dear, we'll ever see poor Mr Trotter or Allington again."
"Dear old Allington!" murmured Kate with a sigh; and, in a moment, her
memory flew back to the past, with all its sad associations.
The Cape pigeons were the prettiest of all the birds that visited the
ship, being very like the common wood pigeon in the shape of their head
and bill, but having webbed feet to suit their aquatic habits. They
were much plumper, too, than either the shearwaters or parsons--which
latter, by the way, unlike the fat cleric of popular opinion, were of
very slender and delicate proportions.
In the matter of plumage, the Cape pigeons were white and downy, with
the head and wings striped with brown like butterflies, a large species
of which they strongly resembled when flying away from the ship, with
their pinions spread.
But, of all the birds they saw, the albatross was the most wonderful to
observe. Not much larger than a goose in the size of its body, it had
enormous thin-edged wings, that enabled it to float about in the air, at
will apparently, without any perceptible motion, for hours at a stretch.
It seemed to direct its course by the slightest possible turning of its
body, so as to alter the inclination of its wings, which, extending out
straight and firm, bore the bird up or down, or away many miles off in a
second of time, in the most surprising manner.
The albatross floats, or skims along the air, but does not fly according
to our ideas, although it has an extraordinary power of launching itself
from enormous heights down to the level of the sea with the velocity of
lightning.
"Just like a white-winged messenger of light," as Kate Meldrum observed
in the hearing of Captain Dinks, "sent out from the angelic host above
on some divine mission to suffering humanity below!"
"Ah; that sounds very pretty, missy," said the captain; "but the
albatross' mission happens to be fish; and I fancy that spoils the
sentiment a bit!"
Eighteen days after passing the line, some seven weeks from her start,
the _Nancy Bell_ crossed the meridian of Greenwich, or longitude zero--
at which precise time her position could not be said to be either east
or west--in latitude 38 degrees south, a couple of degrees below the
Cape; and the wind, which had kept steadily from the north-east and
northward ever since the South American coast had been left astern, now
got well round to the south-west, enabling every stitch of canvas to
draw, from the spanker to the flying jib. Seeing this Captain Dinks
caused the upper yards to be squared a bit and the main and fore top-
gallant studding-sails set, thus helping the vessel on her way.
This sort of weather lasted for five days, the ship being steered east
by south, meeting the sun and losing an hour a day by the chronometer
and going twelve knots each hour out of the twenty-four; when on
reaching the longitude of the Cape "a change came o'er the spirit" of
the _Nancy Bell's_ "dream."
The wind shifted suddenly from the south-west to the north-east; and the
heavy rolling sea, peculiar to the Southern Ocean, set in, accompanied
by showers of rain, and hail, and snow. Soon, sail had to be reduced,
and the ship, with all her gay canvas stripped off her, had as much as
she could do to stagger along under reefed topsails and foresail, the
mizzen staysail being set to give her more power aft, her steering
becoming very wild after a bit although two men were at the helm.
From merely looking squally, the clouds gathering on the horizon grew
thicker and thicker, till they got as black as ink. The sea, also,
darkened to a dark leaden hue, and the swell increased so rapidly in
height that when the vessel sank down into the intermediate valley not a
glimpse could be obtained of anything beyond the watery mountains on
either side.
"I guess we're going to have it pretty rough, Cap, eh," said the
American to Captain Dinks; "it looks all-powerful squally, it dew!"
"You're right," said the captain. "We're now in the vicinity of the
Cape of Storms, and we've got to look out."
So saying, Captain Dinks showed his determination of "looking out," by
having all the lighter spars of the ship sent down from aloft, besides
causing everything to be made secure on deck and below for the expected
storm.
Not long after the _Nancy Bell_ was made snug the tempest burst upon
her. The high, smooth rolling waves were torn and wrenched asunder, as
it were; and their summits wreathed into masses of foam, which curled
over as they advanced against the wind, and, breaking away in fragments,
blew off in masses of snowy whiteness to leeward. The ship was meeting
this swell nearly head on; and as the rollers caught her fairly on the
bows she struck them with a sound as heavy as that with which the weight
falls in a pile-driving machine, taking in some of the sea over the
forecastle and carrying it aft as far as the break of the poop--washing
about everything in its course until the water finally found vent from
the deck through the scuppers.
One of these waves--a regular mountain of a sea, the water all green,
and standing up like a huge pellucid wall before it toppled over--coming
in over the bows, made a clean sweep of all that was movable lying
forward of the mainmast, carrying over the side all the hen-coops,
sheep-pen, water casks, as well as spare spars that had been stowed
along the deck, nothing being left to show that they had ever been
there! Even Snowball's galley was upset and rolled about in the waist
to leeward, the sea having not been quite strong enough to carry it
overboard, while its unhappy occupant, half drowned in the scuppers and
not able to extricate himself from his perilous position, was loudly
calling for aid.
Ben Boltrope--who had been having a confab with the darkey, and probably
a "drop of something hot," his special failing, in the galley when the
sea washed over the ship and fetched it away--was promptly at hand to
help his sable friend; when the galley was reinstated in its proper
place, and so tightly lashed down to the ring-bolts that a sea would
have had to carry away the deck itself to have lifted it again. But,
sad to relate, the sheep and the poultry had disappeared for ever from
human ken, along with their pens and coops, and the saloon passengers
would thenceforth have to fare without any such delicacies as roast
mutton and boiled fowl--a terrible piece of news for Mr Lathrope when
it was brought to his ears!
As the evening closed in and night came on, the force of the wind and
sea both seemed to increase, and it appeared incredible that a fabric
formed by human hands should have been capable of sustaining the rude
shocks and ponderous blows which the ship received again and again as
she battled with the waves; but the captain had in the end to let the
vessel fall off her course and scud before the gale, going whither the
elements listed.
"Oh, father," said Kate to Mr Meldrum, the two remaining on deck long
after the others had gone below, "what confidence sailors must have in
the qualities of their ship, not to be overcome with dread at such a
scene, especially if they direct a thought to the frail timbers that
only separate them from the watery abyss!"
"Aye, my child," replied he; "but, what greater confidence in God's
protecting power!"
"True, father," said Kate, and after that she remained silent until Mr
Meldrum declared it was time to go below. They did not retire, however,
until it was as dark as pitch, when nothing could be seen beyond the
wall of water on either side of the taffrail--the tumid mass looking
like a black avalanche about to overwhelm them, while the roaring of the
wind and rattling of blocks and creaking of cordage, in conjunction with
the groaning of the ship's timbers, and crashing sounds of the waves as
they broke against the quarter, as if trying to beat the vessel's sides
in, made such a discord and concert altogether that it drowned
conversation, even had either been inclined to talk in the presence of
such a display of the mighty power of Him who rules the waves.
Down in the cuddy, the scene was certainly more cheerful; and, what with
the bright light of the swinging lamps, and the well-spread table
comfortably arranged for tea, with the cups and saucers placed between
"fiddles" to prevent them from slipping adrift when the vessel pitched
or rolled, it afforded a strong contrast to the barren bareness and
gloomy discomfort of the deck, especially on such a cold night, with
suspicions of hail, and sleet, and snow at intervals. But, still, here
also everything was not quite so rose-coloured as might have at first
appeared; for stormy weather at sea discounts what might be called the
market value of the comforts and conveniences of everyday life to a most
surprising extent!
The cups and saucers were all right, or so they seemed at first sight in
their abnormal position; but, the moment those who sat down at the table
began to use them, they took to flying about like shuttles in a carpet-
loom. Bread-baskets and cake-dishes discharged their contents like
catapults against the panelling of the cabin doors, while jugs of
condensed milk--which was used not from any special liking for the
article, but through default of there being a cow on board--were emptied
most impartially on to the shirt-fronts and dresses of the gentlemen and
ladies who unfortunately sat opposite to them.
"Durn my boots!" ejaculated the American once; "but if them air sheep
hadn't gone overboard to feed the fishes, I guess we'd hev hed capers
enuff goin' on down har to sarve for sass to the biled mutton!"
All put up, however, with these petty annoyances gleefully enough, only
too glad to be able to joke and make capital out of them and pleased
that their present calamities were not too serious for laughter; and
when they separated at bedtime, it was with the cheerful wish that the
weather might be a trifle brighter on the morrow. No one seemed to
think for a moment of danger, or took heed of the bustle on deck, or of
the quivering and shaking of everything in the saloon, which seemed
suffering from what Mr Lathrope styled a "seaquake"--in
contradistinction to earthquake.
But, hardly had six bells been struck in the first watch when the order
"out lights" was given and the welcome gleam of the cuddy lamp
disappeared summarily, plunging all in darkness--than a sudden
stupendous shock assailed the ship startling the sleepers.
There came first a stunning blow, apparently from a wave, right
amidships; and then, the vessel seemed to go down to the very water's
edge on one side, heeling over as rapidly immediately afterwards to the
other.
Away went everything that was movable below, flung backwards and then
forwards right across the ship--the thumping noise made by the heavy
boxes falling in the cabins and state-rooms, combined with the crashing
and smashing of glass and crockeryware in the cuddy, where the table and
settle-seats had been carried away by the run, and the outcry of the
sailors yelling and stamping above, not to speak of the grinding and
groaning of the bulkheads and shuddering of the ship's timbers between
decks, all making up a babel of sound and confusion that was worse by a
thousand fold than what had previously occurred during the first storm
which the vessel, experienced in the Bay of Biscay.
Naturally, the majority of those below thought that all was over, and
piercing cries of terror and appeal for help resounded through the ship.
CHAPTER TEN.
CAUGHT IN A CYCLONE.
A storm at sea is bad enough in the daytime, but at night it is
terrible; for then, the peril unseen is so magnified by the terror-
stricken mind as to become far more appalling than a much greater danger
seen face to face and realised:-- the latter can be grappled with, but
the former, by its very intangibility and "unreachableness," daunts the
bravest heart and paralyses the strongest arm!
Llewellyn, the steward, managed to procure a light, which he did only
after much delay--the racket and uproar having apparently sent his
little wits wool-gathering--the cuddy looked the very picture of
desolation, almost leading to the belief that the sea had made a clean
breach through the sides of the ship in one of its rude onslaughts
dashing everything to pieces.
Fortunately, however, this was not the case, although the saloon
skylight had been carried away, gratings and all, and a considerable
amount of water had come down through the opening, which loomed now
above the semi-lighted space like a large hole broken in the deck; but,
by reason of the carrying away of the table and seats from their
lashings and ring-bolt fastenings and now being washed in a jumbled heap
to one side of the cuddy, the cabins to leeward were so completely
barricaded that their occupants were prevented from issuing forth. It
was from this quarter that the cries for help proceeded--the voice of
Mrs Major Negus, it need hardly be mentioned, predominating, although
the American passenger, who had a berth alongside that distinguished
lady, also sang out pretty loudly.
"Hullo, steward!" called out Mr Meldrum on seeing the light, having
already opened the door of his state-room, which had a sliding panel and
was undamaged as far as he could notice. "Why, what's the matter!"
"Only shipped a sea, sir," answered Llewellyn rather gruffly, for he was
annoyed at being roused from his sleep, "though from the row they're a-
making one would think we were all going to the bottom!"
"Much mischief done, eh?" asked Mr Meldrum, taking in at a glance the
havoc in the cuddy--"I mean on deck," he added.
"Can't say, sir," replied the other; "ain't had time to look about here
yet, much less to go up and see! It's a bad berth that o' steward to a
lot of bawling females on a passenger ship; I'd liefer--"
But, his grumblings were stopped for the moment by the renewed loud
screams of Mrs Major Negus--who was his pet aversion on board on
account of her giving him more trouble than all the rest combined, while
Master Maurice really was the plague of his life.
"Steward--stew-ard!" she cried, "Come here at once and get me out! I'm
all smothered and drowned, and nobody will help me! Stew-ard! I'm
dying--I'll tell the captain with my last breath. Stew-ard!"
"Sure I'm coming, mum, as fast as I can," sang out Llewellyn aloud,
adding _sotto voce_ for his own satisfaction, "Hang that Major Madam!
I'd never have shipped in the _Nancy Bell_ if I had a-knowed she was
coming aboard! Bless you, mum, I'm coming--everything is all right and
there isn't no cause for alarm!"
"Isn't there?" indignantly demanded the lady in a queer sort of half
suffocated voice from behind the barred door of her cabin. "If you were
jumbled in a pool of water, with all your luggage on top of you, I don't
think you'd think everything right. Help, man! release me at once, or
I'll be drowned and flattened into a pancake!"
"Say, you Mister Steward, you jest hurry up and git the lady out of her
muss, and come and fix me up," chimed in the voice of Mr Zachariah
Lathrope. "I guess I've had my innards a'most squoze out agin the
durned bunk, an' feel like a dough-nut in a frying-pan. If you leave me
much longer I kalkerlate this old boss'll be cold meat, you bet, and
you'll have the funeral to pay!"
Mr Meldrum coming to Llewellyn's aid, the steward managed at length to
clear away the wreckage from before the door of Mrs Major Negus' cabin,
and then from that of the American, when both the occupants were found
more seriously hurt than either of their rescuers had imagined, they
thinking that their outcries had proceeded more from alarm than any real
injury.
The wife of the deputy-assistant comptroller-general of Waikatoo was
lying, all purple in the face, with a heavy portmanteau on the top of
her, on the deck of her cabin in nearly a foot of water; and by the time
they got her up from her perilous position she fainted dead away in the
steward's arms.
"Here, Mary!" called out Llewellyn to his wife, the stewardess, who
quickly appeared on the scene half-dressed. "Attend to this lady, while
we go and see after Mister Lathrope."
The American was in a much worse plight; for, whereas Mrs Major Negus
had only swallowed a lot of sea-water and had been only nearly
frightened to death, Mr Lathrope's sallow face was so unearthly pale
that Mr Meldrum was certain he had received some severe injury; as he
was tightly jammed between his bunk and the washing-stand, while a heavy
packing-case had tumbled out of the top berth on to one of his
shoulders, preventing him from moving.
"I guess, mister, you jest come in time," said the poor fellow with a
sickly smile, as they pulled away the case and wash-stand, and helped
him into a sitting position on the bunk, "another minnit and it would
have been all up with Z Lathrope, Esquire!" And he gasped for breath,
putting his hand to his left side, as if feeling pain there.
"Oh, papa, are you there?" said Kate, coming out, in a charming state of
dishabille, from the state-room she shared with her sister on the
opposite side of the saloon, alongside to that of Mr Meldrum. "Is
anybody hurt?"
"Yes, my dear," answered her father, "you'd better bring some sal
volatile or something. Mrs Negus has fainted; and I'm afraid poor Mr
Lathrope is in a bad way."
The plucky girl did not delay, or exhibit any of that feminine weakness
or nervousness which might have been expected under the circumstances.
Retiring for a moment, to throw a shawl round herself and get what was
required in the emergency, she quickly reappeared again at the door of
the state-room,--which she closed behind her to prevent Miss Florry,
inquisitive as usual, from coming forth; and then proceeded to cross the
floor of the cuddy as well as she was able--a somewhat difficult task
considering the rolling and pitching of the vessel, and the fact that
the table and seats, which generally formed points of vantage for
holding on, had been swept away, so that there was nothing for her to
cling to.
Half running, half sliding, she, however, reached the opposite side and
was quickly engaged in the Samaritan task of bathing Mr Lathrope's
temples with Eau de Cologne.
"Don't you bother, miss," said the American faintly, "I guess I ain't so
much hurt arter all!" but he couldn't help groaning as he spoke,
whereupon Mr Meldrum laid him down gently and sent the steward for some
brandy, which revived him somewhat.
"I got a pretty considerable gouge in the ribs from that air wash-
stand," said he, pointing out the objectionable piece of furniture as he
uttered the words; "but I guess I'll be all right presently. How's
Madam Negus!"
"Oh, she was more frightened than hurt," said Mr Meldrum laughing; "she
was in a nice pickle on the floor of her cabin. You should just have
seen her. I really don't think she could ever be dignified to me any
more!"
"For shame, papa, to laugh at misfortune!" said Kate; "and now, as Mr
Lathrope seems better, I'll go and look after his fellow-sufferer." So
saying, the girl clambered along by the side of the saloon to where Mrs
Major Negus was ensconced in state, in the adjoining cabin--now revived
from her fainting fit and with Mary Llewellyn ministering to her wants,
although "the Major" could not help scolding the latter at intervals, as
if she were the cause of the disaster.
In the midst of all this, down came Mr McCarthy, the first mate, from
the poop.
"Be jabers and it's a foine time you are having of it, any way!" said he
by way of greeting, looking round with a quizzical cock of his eye at
the dismantled cuddy. "I only thought you'd have had a drop of wather
or two whin the skoilight got adrift, and we've rigged up tarpaulins
over it and battened it down comfortably, so that ye'll not be throubled
any more by the say washing down. But, how did the table git carried
away! It was fixed down so strong it's a puzzle to me entirely!"
"Goodness only knows," said Mr Meldrum; "there came a tremendous crash
amidships soon after midnight, and away it went!"
"Ah that was whin that gossoon Adams had howlt of the helm. The
omahdawn, he was looking up at the spars and tellin' the cap'en about
taking the topsails off her, as she was carrying too much sail, instead
of mindin' his own business and lookin' to the steering; and, faix, he
let the ship broach to, bad cess to him!"
"And how are you getting on now, on deck?" asked Mr Meldrum.
"Will, sorr," said the mate, speaking more earnestly than was his usual
wont, and dropping his voice so that no one else could hear him. "To
spake the truth and shame the divil--faix it's no lie I'm telling--we're
right in the centre of a cyclone, and the Lord only knows if we'll iver
git out of it!"
"I thought so," murmured Mr Meldrum; "my poor children!"
"Sure and be a man now!" whispered the mate as Kate came out of Mrs
Major Negus' cabin. "I wouldn't have tould you if I had thought
contrariwise!"
"I was not thinking of myself," said Mr Meldrum sternly; "what sail are
you carrying?"
"Sail!" exclaimed Mr McCarthy; "faix and its joking ye are! Ivery
stitch of canvas, sure, was blown to smithereens when the ship broached
to, and the foretop-mast was thin took out of her, too, by the same
token! The divil a hap'orth are we carrying, save a piece of tarpaulin
lashed in the weather rigging to kape her hid to the say, and that's all
we can do till daylight comes, if we iver say it, please God, for it's
as dark now as a blue dog in a black entry, and you couldn't say your
hand before your face to set any sail, if ever a man could git up the
rigging--but whist now about that! Steward," he added in a louder key,
"come, look alive here and git the cuddy to rights in shipshape fashion!
By the powers, but the skipper'd be in a foine rage if he saw it all
mops and brooms like this! Bear a hand, man, and be smart, and I'll
send the carpenter to help you as soon as the watch is relayed." With
these words he bustled on deck again, after changing his oilskin, which
was all knocked to pieces, for a rough pea-jacket, and saying to Mr
Meldrum that he thought the latter would be more handy, for it was
blowing enough to take one's hair off!
"Papa," said Kate as soon as the mate had ascended the companion, "what
was that Mr McCarthy was saying when he spoke so low to you?"
"Eh, my dear?" answered her father a little confusedly, with some
hesitation in his voice. "Oh, only that the storm was raging violently
and did not seem to lull at all yet."
"Did he say that there was any danger?"
"Danger, eh? no, I--I can't say. I think I'll just step up and see for
myself;" and, anxious to escape this cross-examination, as well as
really to judge whether the position of the ship was as precarious as
the chief mate had indicated, Mr Meldrum likewise went up on to the
poop, finding some trouble when he reached the top of the companion
stairs, in opening the hatch.
For a moment, after emerging on to the deck, all was terribly dark--as
black as ink, as Mr McCarthy had said; but, the next instant, the whole
awful scene was lit up by the most intense and vivid flash of lightning
Mr Meldrum had ever beheld--the electric fluid being quite
unaccompanied by any peal of thunder, although that might have been
drowned by the continuous roar and shriek of the howling wind which
appeared to have gone mad with the unbridled fury of a demon.
During the brief space of time in which the zigazag stream of fire from
the vault of heaven momentarily lit up the surroundings of the ship,
which it did with a brightness that eclipsed the light of day, Mr
Meldrum could see the vessel tumbling about amid a chaotic mass of
waves, which it was no exaggeration to term mountains high, as if she
were in the vortex of a whirlpool; while dense opaque black clouds
hovered over her, vomiting forth wind, apparently from every quarter of
the horizon, the gusts tearing at the ship with harpy-like clutches, as
if they would rend her to pieces--she, like a poor human thing racked
with pain, labouring and groaning, and bending this way and that to
escape the relentless wind, so well aided by the clutching billows from
below that leaped up to engulf the vessel when they themselves were not
absolutely flattened to the surface of the water, as they were
sometimes, by the force of the hurricane.
The scene was literally awful!
The next moment all was darkness again; with the night black as Erebus,
and Mr Meldrum unable, as the mate had said, to see his hand before his
face.
Captain Dinks, however, had noted his arrival on deck; and approached
him without being seen.
"I advise you to go below, Mr Meldrum," said he, "you can do no good
here, nor any of us, indeed, until morning, when I hope we'll have
better weather. It's a terrible night, the worst I have ever seen at
sea in all my time!"
"Aye, terrible," replied the other, shouting in the ear of the captain,
but, as he was facing the wind, his voice seemed to the latter only like
a whisper. "I'll take your advice, as I see I could be of no use;
still, if I can be of any service, mind you call me!"
"Aye, aye," said Captain Dinks, "you go down and go to sleep. We are
all in God's hands now, though I'll do all that man can--good night!"
"Good night," said Mr Meldrum; and he then went below again to give
what report he could to Kate, who was waiting anxiously for his expected
reappearance, as he had said he should not be gone long when he left
her.
She had been certain the ship was in great danger; and she now read the
confirmation of her worst fears in her father's face.
"Oh, papa!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms round his neck as soon as
he came down the companion, without waiting to hear a word from him. "I
thought so, I thought so!"
"Hush, my child!" said he soothingly, leading her towards her state-room
and opening the door, "go in to your cabin and pray!"
And thus the weary night passed away.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
IN UNKNOWN LATITUDES.
When daylight came, through the exertions of Ben Boltrope, the
carpenter, and a couple of the crew sent to aid him, the cuddy offered a
more presentable appearance than it had done just immediately after the
midnight scare; for, the table and seats were fixed back in their
original positions, the debris cleared away, and a portion of the
skylight restored--all of which so brightened up the interior that what
had passed but a few hours before seemed but a dream, at first, to those
of the passengers who turned out early. The continuous sustained roar
of the wind and waves had so drowned the noise of the men hammering and
moving about that the repairs appeared to have been accomplished by
magic.
As soon as Mr Meldrum went on deck, however, he could see little
alteration for the better there.
The great rolling billows, as Maury has described them, were running
high and fast, tossing their white caps in the air, looking like the
green hills of a western prairie capped with snow, and chasing each
other in sport; while the wind was still blowing a hurricane, and the
ship, resembling a crippled bird with her foretop-mast gone, was running
now before the gale under a single storm-staysail, that looked no bigger
than an ordinary sized pocket-handkerchief, at a greater rate of speed
than she would have done in a stiff breeze with all her canvas spread.
The outlook around, too, was by no means cheering.
The horizon was piled up with masses of blue-black clouds, whose ragged
edges meant mischief, and scraps of greyish white scud were flying
across the sky in all directions--now towards the same point as the
wind, now against it, as if there were contending currents aloft and
they could not decide what precise course to travel.
Captain Dinks, who, with the other officers, had been on deck all night,
looked haggard and care-worn. The men, too, seemed worn-out, which
could not be wondered at, as no sooner had the watch whose turn it was
to be relieved, got below than they were roused up again at the call of
"All hands"--when, of course, they had to tumble on deck again, without
a moment's time for the rest and repose they needed after the exposure
they were subjected to in battling up and down the rigging in the
tempest of wind and rain and hail that had lasted through the livelong
night.
"Not a very bright look-out!" said the captain, trying to speak
cheerily, but failing miserably in the attempt. "Old Boreas, too, I'm
afraid, is going to put on a fresh hand to the bellows, for the
barometer has fallen again."
"Indeed?" answered Mr Meldrum.
"Yes," continued Captain Dinks; "it stood at 29.50 at three o'clock this
morning, and when I looked just now it was at 29.25."
"That's bad," said the other; "it shows we've not got the worst of the
cyclone yet."
"No," replied the captain; "we've got that all to come! Luckily, I sent
down the topgallant-masts yesterday evening, or we'd have had every
stick out of her by now:-- they would have been safe to go when the
foretop-mast went, if not before. However, there they are, all lashed
together by the longboat, not gone yet; and I hope we shall have some
use for them yet bye and bye."
"I only hope so," said Mr Meldrum sadly, the despondent way in which
Captain Dinks spoke affecting him too.
The ship seemed easier running before the wind than when lying-to,
although there was the risk of the heavy following seas pooping her, a
contingency that had already happened when a portion of the bulwarks
were carried away at the time the saloon skylight was smashed, leaving
an ugly gash in the ship's side; but a spare hawser had been triced up
and secured fore and aft to prevent the men being washed overboard
through the aperture, and life lines were rove and passed along the deck
for the same purpose.
"It's safer to carry on," observed Captain Dinks, seeing the anxious
glance Mr Meldrum bent to windward. "I've heard of a ship outrunning a
hurricane before; and so might we again."
"So have I," said Mr Meldrum; "but not a cyclone! Look there, ahead,
at that bank of storm-clouds; perhaps we're running into a worse gale
than the one we've got."
"Well, we can only act for the best," replied the captain curtly,
apparently not relishing this criticism of his seamanship from a
landsman--as he thought--who knew nothing about the matter; and he then
moved back to his post by the binnacle, leaving Mr Meldrum standing by
the head of the companion, where he was presently joined by Frank
Harness, the first and second mates being both forward, superintending
the bending of preventer stays to secure the masts, which seemed to be
ready to jump out of the ship from the leverage exercised even by the
little sail she was carrying.
By noon, when it was utterly impossible to take an observation, the
heavens being black all round, with showers of hail and snow coming down
at intervals, and the wind, blowing over the Antarctic ice-fields,
seemed to cut the face as with a knife--the temperature of the air had
become bitterly cold, while the barometer fell to 29 inches. The very
spirit of destruction appeared to brood over the ill-fated _Nancy Bell_.
Mr Meldrum, after a brief visit below to look after his daughters and
see how the American passenger was progressing since his accident, had
returned on deck, accompanied by Kate, who pleaded so earnestly to be
allowed to come that he could not resist her entreaties. She now stood,
sheltered behind him, in the mouth of the companionway, watching the
brewing of the fresh storm with which the vessel was about to be
assailed--Frank Harness close to her side as if for additional
protection, although the captain had told him he might go below and have
a spell off after being up all night. The young sailor, as soon as she
came up, had taken off his own monkey-jacket and fastened it round her
shoulders to protect her from the wind and hail, despite all Kate's
protests, to which he was obliged to turn a deaf ear by reason of the
force of the gale.
Suddenly, the dark looming mass of clouds in front of the ship appeared
to split asunder, showing gaping ragged edges fringed with white, just
like a shark's mouth.
Mr Meldrum at once rushed to where Captain Dinks was standing close to
the wheel-house, where two men had all they could do to control the
helm, although they were the strongest hands on board, the one being Ben
Boltrope, the ex-man-o'-war's-man, and the other Karl Ericksen, the
Norwegian sailor who had been rescued from the boat, and who was a
perfect giant now that he was restored to health and strength--standing
over six feet, and with long brawny arms that seemed as powerful as
those of a windmill when he threw them about.
"For God's sake, Captain," exclaimed Mr Meldrum, "round the ship to, if
you can! If that squall that's coming right forward catches her in the
teeth, she will go down stern foremost in a second!"
"Nonsense, Mr Meldrum!" answered Captain Dinks hotly. "Who are you? a
landsman, to give orders to a trained seaman! I don't allow passengers
to interfere with me in working my own ship."
"Considering I have been in the royal navy all my life, and left the
service with the rank of commander," said Mr Meldrum quietly, not a
whit angered by the captain's somewhat reasonable indignation, "I think
I am something of an authority on the point. But, don't let us argue
that matter now, Captain Dinks. I apologise for interfering; but I have
seen and been through a good many cyclones in the China seas, when I was
in command of a gunboat there, and I advise you to do as I've said."
"Trust his honour, Capting, sir," chimed in Ben Boltrope, for once
forgetting his sense of discipline, and speaking to his superior officer
without leave; "I've sarved with Commander Meldrum, and knows what he
is."
"I'm sure, sir, Mr Meldrum, I hardly know how to address you," said
Captain Dinks, his old polite sell again, and smiling as if there was no
storm near. "I beg your pardon for not recognising that you were of the
same craft; but what could I think, or how could I judge?"
"Oh, never mind that now," said Mr Meldrum eagerly. "Put her about at
once, as you value all our lives."
"All right!" replied Captain Dinks; "down with the helm there, sharp!"
The men strained every sinew to get the wheel round, the muscles on the
Norwegian's arms standing out in relief like wire ropes, and Ben
Boltrope using his utmost strength and assisting him with a will.
"Look out forward!" shouted the captain in the meantime, to warn
McCarthy and the men what was going to be done so that they might hold
on; "were going to 'bout ship." And although they could not hear a word
he said, they judged what he meant by his motions and prepared
themselves accordingly.
The manoeuvre was executed at last, but very nearly a moment too late.
As the ship came round, she met the sea full butt, and was for the
instant almost buried--the water coming in high over the forecastle and
falling like a cataract into the waist, engulfing the men there in a
well of green wave and foam; while, at the same moment, the squall ahead
struck her on the port bow, the vessel, between the two opposing forces,
being like a piece of iron 'twixt hammer and anvil. The concussion was
tremendous, knocking everybody off their feet just as if the ship had
struck on a rock.
Crash went the remains of the foremast over the side, carrying with it
the maintop-mast and the solitary scrap of sail that was set; and for a
moment the ship broached to, heeling over as if she were going to
founder.
However, the same expedient that had been tried in the night, that of a
tarpaulin in the weather-rigging, was again resorted to; and the helm
being kept down, the vessel's head was got to the sea, the wreck of the
foremast, which had swung clear of the ship although still kept attached
by the gear forwards, acting as a sort of breakwater, and tempering down
the strength of the waves, so that after a time she rode somewhat easy.
Meanwhile, Kate had a terrible fright.
As the shock came when the _Nancy Bell_ was put about, Frank Harness
threw his arm round Kate's waist to prevent her from being thrown down,
holding on himself at the same time like grim death to the rail of the
companion; and on the ship steadying, he released the girl and let go
his hold. At that moment, however, a wave came over the poop, and he,
being taken off his guard, was rolled over on the deck and washed
towards the opening in the broken bulwarks.
Kate instantly, without hesitating for a second, made a snatch at his
collar; and, clutching hold of it, in the very nick of time, saved him
by a miracle--had he been carried overboard, no earthly power could have
rescued him!
"Oh, Frank!" she exclaimed, "I thought I had lost you!" And, as he
scrambled to his feet, pale with the suddenness of his peril and her
effort to rescue him, the brave girl sank down, apparently lifeless, on
the deck--all of a heap.
"Good heavens, she is dead!" cried Frank. "She has been killed in
trying to save me!" and in the desperation of grief he looked as if he
were going to throw himself into the sea.
"No, no, my boy," said Mr Meldrum, who had witnessed the incident from
the wheel-house, and had now come to his aid; "she has only fainted from
revulsion of feeling and the strain on her nerves. Help me to carry her
below."
And, as the two descended the companion-way with their apparently
inanimate burden, the young sailor could not help furtively kissing the
floating tresses of dark brown hair that swept across his face as he
tenderly supported Kate's head on his shoulder, guarding it jealously in
the passage below. His anxiety was soon afterwards relieved by Mr
Meldrum coming out from the cabin where they had deposited poor Kate,
and telling him that she was getting better.
It was a bad case with the ship, however; worse than anyone thought.
Soon after Frank and Mr Meldrum had left the deck, Ben Boltrope, who
was still in the wheel-house with the Norwegian, called out to Captain
Dinks:-- "I think there's something wrong with the rudder, sir," he
said.
"Wrong with the rudder!" repeated the captain. "What do you mean?" and
he came nearer to look himself at the steering gear.
"Why; the wheel goes round either way, just as you please, without any
strain at all, as if the ropes were parted, or the rudder gone adrift!"
"Mercy on us! That would be a calamity!" exclaimed Captain Dinks; and,
watching his opportunity, when the stern of the ship rose up in the air,
he looked over the rail below. "It is really the case!" he said, in
grave accents. "The rudder and rudder-post have both been carried away.
What a blessing that they did not go before we got her about; if they
had, nothing could have saved us."
"True for you, sir," responded Ben in acquiescence; while the Norwegian
nodded his head and said, "Ja! ja!"
"Come away from there, my men," presently said the captain after a long
silence, as if he were thinking to himself what should be done; "it's no
use your stopping there any longer. But, stay, it is best not to alarm
the crew too soon. You stop, Norwegee," calling that sailor by the name
the men had dubbed him; "and you, carpenter, go and sound the well to
see what water we have taken in. Mind and do it quietly, now, so as not
to be seen; and you need not tell any of the hands about the loss of the
rudder, you know."
"Aye, aye, sir, I twig," said Ben, going forwards and then down the main
hatchway, slipping off the cover for the purpose.
Presently he returned aft, looking very serious.
"There's four feet water in the hold, sir," said he.
"Only four feet?" replied Captain Dinks, pretending to treat the matter
with great unconcern; "why, I thought she would have had ever so much
more in her, with all the straining she has gone through in the last
twenty-four hours, besides the lot of seas she took in before we had the
hatches battened. Still we'd better get rid of it, carpenter, as
there's no use our carrying more cargo than we are obliged, eh?"
"No, sir," said Ben somewhat dubiously, not taken in by the captain's
manner.
"Just what I think," said Captain Dinks. "Here, McCarthy," he cried out
to the first mate, who, ever intent on duty, was busily engaged in
trimming matters amidships, having the lashings of the longboat and
spare spars overhauled in readiness for the next sea that might flood
the decks--for nothing could be done about the wreck of the foremast
till the gale moderated, as to loose it now would be to lose their
sheet-anchor. "McCarthy, just have the chain-pumps rigged and pump out
the hold to get rid of all that water we have taken on board."
"Aye, aye, sorr," was the hearty response, and the "cling, clang" of the
pumps was soon heard resounding with a will through the ship, the men
encouraged by the mate to do their best.
Still, it was a bad look-out.
The ship had first been scudding due east, and then to the northward,
goodness only knew how many miles off her course; and now, here she was,
drifting southwards, dismasted and rudderless, a hopeless wreck in
unknown waters, at the mercy of the elements!
CHAPTER TWELVE.
ICE AHEAD!
Although the wind and sea had being doing their utmost, without, to
transform the previously trim ship, that had sailed from Plymouth so
gallantly, into the veritable semblance of a battered hulk, no further
damage had been done below: so that, in the cuddy, all was comparative
comfort--in contrast to the scene on deck.
Mr Zachariah Lathrope, who made light of his injuries, albeit his left
arm was in a sling--confessing, too, that his side "felt kinder painful,
as if some coon had given him a sockdolager in the ribs, or a grizzly
bar put his hug on"--was seated at the replaced table, pitching into a
sort of heavy lunch, to make amends for his missed breakfast, while the
steward was cutting up a plentiful supply of ham for him on his plate,
so that he could use his solitary hand with a fork and so feed himself.
Mrs Major Negus was busily engaged in her cabin, and with the
assistance of Mary Llewellyn, the stewardess, was rearranging all her
numerous goods and chattels that had been so ruthlessly banged about in
the night; and Master Maurice, whom the turmoil had not disturbed in the
least, was still sleeping in the top bunk as composedly as he had
continued doing all through the period of his mother's struggles on the
floor and narrow escape from suffocation, unawakened either by the noise
or her loud calls for help--the worthy lady as soon as she came to
herself having earnestly cautioned Kate and the stewardess not to arouse
her darling boy, for "he would be so frightened, you know, if he saw me
like this!"
Kate herself, recovered from her faint, but yet feeling weak and languid
from the effects of all she had gone through, was mechanically assisting
Florry to dress, wondering the while, in a dull apathetic way, whether
she would ever again have to tender the same offices to her little
sister, for she was prepared for the worst and believed that the ship
was in imminent danger--although she hoped still, with the ardent nature
of youth, that they might be delivered, trusting to the loving mercy and
watchful care of that God to whom she had prayed during the night, even
before her earthly father's counsel, and before whose footstool she had
already that morning bent the knee more than once.
As for Mr Meldrum--who had remained below from the consciousness that
he could not be of any service in the immediate present on deck and from
an unwillingness to having the appearance even of shoving himself
forward and interfering with the management of the ship after what
Captain Dinks had said--he had tumbled out a portmanteau in his state-
room in order to overhaul some old papers; and he presently came out
into the cuddy with a chart in his hand.
"Hillo, mister," said the American as soon as he noticed him, "jest
roused up, hey? I thought you wer havin' a bit of snooze, and wondered
when you were goin' to turn out!"
"Ah," said Mr Meldrum gravely, "it's no time for sleeping now for any
one on board. The ship is in far too perilous a position for that!"
"Is she?" asked Mr Lathrope, most unconcernedly apparently.
"She really is," replied Mr Meldrum.
"Wa-al, if she is," returned the other, lifting a huge morsel of ham on
the end of his fork, and surveying it critically with much relish of eye
before placing it in his capacious mouth, "why, it's a bad business,
that's all I ken say; and I'm right down sorry fur it, I am--things was
going on so slick and pleasant! But if we can't help it, mister, what's
the sorter use in grievin'? I don't see the good in cryin' over a spilt
petroleum can, I don't! Now, dew, mister, draw up har and make yourself
comf'able; you'll find this bacon prime, for I knows it's the gen-u-ine
Chicago brand and came out of the States."
"No, thanks," said Mr Meldrum, smiling at the other's imperturbable
philosophy and epicureanism that seemed proof against everything, even
the sense of mortal peril, "I had something to eat earlier, and do not
care about anything now."
At that moment, Captain Dinks came down the companion and looked into
the saloon, when, seeing Mr Meldrum, he beckoned to him.
"Would you mind coming on deck for a few moments," said he hurriedly, "I
want to speak to you about something?"
"Certainly," said Mr Meldrum, at once getting up from the table, on
which he had spread out the chart he had brought from his cabin and was
engaged with a pair of compasses in picking out the ship's possible
position.
"Say, mister--" commenced the American.
"Pray, excuse me," interrupted Mr Meldrum, "I'll speak to you when I
come down again; I must join the captain now, as you see;" and he
hurried to the companion-way, Captain Dinks standing aside and motioning
to him to go up first.
"Say, Cap--" called out Mr Lathrope, not to be baffled.
"Can't stop now," curtly replied Captain Dinks; and he, too, disappeared
in the rear of Mr Meldrum.
"Now, I do jest wonder what them two coons hev on hand?" said the
American, when they had thus left him with his curiosity unslackened;
"I'm durned if I don't go up myself and see: people must rise pretty
airly o' mornin's to take a rise out of this old hoss!"
A roll of the ship, however, coming as soon as he had risen from his
seat, settled his inquisitiveness. "I guess I'd better bide har," he
murmured to himself, uttering his thoughts aloud. "This air vessel's a
durned sight too skittish on her footing to please me, an' that air
ramshackly arm o' mine might git squoze agin if I went on deck! No, I
guess I'll bide har in the land of Gilead--Steward!" he added, raising
his voice.
"Yes, sir," answered Llewellyn, coming out of his pantry.
"Hev you got any coffee or tea fixins?"
"No, sir, that lazy nigger Snowball says he can't light the galley
fire."
"Does he? I'd make him smell fire if I'd got him out on the plantation
whar I was riz! Then, bring me a glass of brandy and water, and make it
stiff: I allers go in fur temperance drinks when I can get them, that is
before sundown; but if I'm obleeged to take pizen, why, I likes it
strong!"
When Mr Meldrum gained the deck, in company with the captain, he found
the wind still blowing with terrific force and a dangerous sea on,
although as the gale had not shifted during the last hour from the
north-west, to which quarter it had finally veered, there was some hope
that they had escaped from the worst of the cyclone and were now being
hurried along its outside edge. In one of the last onslaughts of the
wind, however, the mainyard truss had been carried away, and the yard
swung so violently to and fro after snapping the braces like pack-thread
that it seemed as if the main-mast would go; but, fortunately, in one of
its mad gyrations, as it moved about like the arms of a semaphore, the
yard-arm had caught in the standing rigging on the starboard side,
where, through the gallant exertions of Frank Harness and the Norwegian
sailor, who performed the task at the peril of their lives, it was
firmly lashed and secured from doing further mischief. This operation
eased the ship considerably, and certainly saved the masts.
The worst piece of news that the captain had to tell Mr Meldrum was
with reference to the manner in which the ship was leaking.
"We had four feet water in her when the carpenter sounded the well at
six bells," said Captain Dinks; "and after rigging the pumps we reduced
it considerably; but since then, she has made nearly two feet again--all
clear and clean without any bilge in it--which shows she's taking it in
fresh and fast."
"There must be a big leak somewhere," said Mr Meldrum, "and the sooner
we see about stopping it the better."
"Yes," said the captain, "we might keep it down certainly by an hour's
spell in each watch; but it tires out the men so. I think it is coming
in somewhere astern; the rudder-post must have started some of the
timbers when it got wrenched off."
"Very probably," said the other; "but then, the ship has had a good deal
of straining the last day or two, besides from the storm in the Bay of
Biscay."
"Ah! she felt that," replied Captain Dinks. "That's what, no doubt,
weakened the rudder and made it go so easily this morning; but I'll call
the carpenter."
The port watch had gone below with Mr Adams, to have a little rest, for
there was no need of all the crew being on deck, the ship riding out the
gale to leeward of the floating anchor which providence had sent them in
the shape of the broken foremast, and there being nothing to do; so, on
a hail from the captain, Mr McCarthy passed the word forwards for Ben
Boltrope, who soon made his appearance out of the fo'c'sle--scrambling
aft as well as he could by holding on to every rope in his way, for the
vessel rolled and pitched most uneasily, rendering upright walking along
the deck an utter impossibility.
"Sarvent, sir," said he, touching his hat to Mr Meldrum on coming up
the poop ladder; "glad to see you on deck."
"What about this leak, carpenter?" said Captain Dinks. "Please tell Mr
Meldrum all you know."
"Well, your honour," said Ben, "all that can be said lies in a nut-
shell! She's making water as fast as it can pour in; and if we don't
find the leak and stop it, she'll founder pretty soon."
"Have you any idea where it is coming in?" inquired Mr Meldrum.
"Well, sir, the cap'en say it's by the rudder-post; but I myself thinks
it's amidships or else forrud: I'd have looked, but I couldn't shift the
cargo without help."
"This must be seen to at once, Captain Dinks," said Mr Meldrum. "As
you have asked my aid, I would advise your calling the watch below; and
I'll go down with the carpenter and see whether we can spy out the
leak."
"Oh, by all means, if you think that will do any good, although I'm of
the opinion that the leak is in the stern. McCarthy, call the port
watch up to go below and break cargo!"
"All hands, ahoy!"
This cry soon brought up the weary sailors, who had only just retired
after more than twenty hours of duty, before they had had time to close
their eyes in their first sleep, but they came out of the forecastle
willingly enough, well knowing the peril the ship was in; and, down
below the main-hatch they bumbled after Mr Meldrum and the carpenter,
glad that it was not for another spell of pumping for which they had
been called up.
Ben Boltrope was found to be right. After tossing to one side the bales
and boxes and heavy masses of iron that filled the midship section of
the hold, they found a great gap between the timbers through which the
water was spouting in at the rate of some hundred gallons an hour--the
cause of the hole being apparent enough in a long iron girder which had
got jammed against the side of the ship, end outwards, and in the
working of the ship had made its way clean through the strakes and
planking--just as if it had been an auger, the hole had been bored so
round and neat!
This orifice was now carefully plugged and battened over; and when the
pumps were again rigged and the vessel cleared it was found that she had
ceased to make water to any appreciable extent.
"Thank God for that!" said Captain Dinks heartily. "I own I was wrong,
for I was certain that the rudder-post was the seat of mischief:-- the
ship was bound to leak there!"
"It was a very natural thought of yours," said Mr Meldrum, to soothe
his sense of defeat. "I would have held to the same but for the
carpenter."
"Ah! he's a roight good man, sorr," chimed in Mr McCarthy, "and a
cridit to the sarvice that brought him up. Sure, an' he's a sailor ivry
inch ov him, from the crown of his hid to the sole of his fut!"
The sky was still obscured by clouds and the stormy billows were tossing
about, striving to bear down the ship and beat her to pieces; but she
bravely held her own, head to sea, and rode out the gale all that day
and night, as if she had been at anchor, although drifting steadily the
while in a south-easterly direction, the impulse of the waves and the
force of the wind on her hull carrying her thither.
It was the same the next day; but, on the third morning, the gale
somewhat moderated, although still blowing with considerable force from
the northward and westward, and under Mr Meldrum's advice, which
Captain Dinks now eagerly sought on every occasion, sail was got upon
the ship and she was allowed to run before the wind, hoping that the
vessel might reach smoother latitudes and fine weather, when they would
be able to repair damages and continue their voyage.
It was but a poor pretence of making sail, however!
All they could set was a close-reefed mizzentop-sail and a fore
staysail, which latter was hoisted on a jury-mast rigged forwards in
place of the foremast; while the missing rudder was replaced by an
ingenious makeshift, the joint handiwork of Mr Meldrum and the
carpenter, composed of lengths of a spare hawser and some of the smaller
spars, sawn up, lashed together, and then planked over, so as to offer a
yielding surface to the sea, and secured under the stern by guys and
tackles leading from the quarter galleries, the steering gear being then
attached.
This contrivance was found to work admirably in guiding the ship before
the wind, although if they had tried to wear her or put her about by it,
there might have been some difficulty and danger in the operation.
Towards the evening of this day, while the crippled _Nancy Bell_, so
ruthlessly shorn of her fair proportions, was going along pretty
bravely, nevertheless, at some six knots an hour or more under the
little sail she was carrying, with the sea still rough and wintry and
the sky all clouded over, the thermometer was noticed to go down again
several degrees; and Mr Meldrum, who alone had made the discovery for
the wind having been bitterly cold for days past the feeling in the air
would not have specially attracted attention--at once warned Captain
Dinks that they had run so far southwards that he was certain they were
near ice, and consequently it would be best to keep a strict look-out.
"Ice?" exclaimed the captain aghast. "Why, we aren't much below the
latitude of the Cape, I take it!"
"You'll find you are wrong when we're able to get an observation,"
replied Mr Meldrum. "I wouldn't be surprised to find that we were far
below `the Forties,' with all that drift and leeway we've had! However,
wherever we are, we're not far from ice, take my word for it, whether it
be a wandering berg out of its latitude or the drift from the Antarctic
ice-fields."
"All right, sir," said Captain Dinks laughing, "I'll take your word for
it; though an iceberg hereabouts, to my thinking, is a rather rum
visitor this time of year, and I'll believe it when I see it!"
However, the captain was wrong again.
Just before dark, the look-out in the maintop reported something ahead,
which presently turned out to be an enormous iceberg, fortunately far
away to leeward out of the course of the ship. It was an immense
irregular mass several miles long and of great height, appearing to
reach up into the clouds above as it heaved up and down on the heavy
rolling sea; and its top and points, covered with snow, stood out
distinctly against the dark horizon.
"Ah, we are well away from that fellow!" said Mr Meldrum rubbing his
hands; but his congratulations were cut short in a moment by the look-
out man forward--the Norwegian sailor, who as an old whaler was
accustomed to Antarctic sights and sounds--shouting out that there was
field-ice ahead, and that from the crashing of the floes he thought the
ship must be near the pack.
"Take in sail at once," said Mr Meldrum, "and keep a sharper look-out
than ever. If the vessel runs against the ice woe betide us all!"
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
"LAND HO!"
"Let go the mizzentop-sail halliards, and man the fore staysail down-
haul!" shouted out Captain Dinks the moment Mr Meldrum had spoken; and,
the helm being put down at the same time, the ship was again brought
head to wind, almost sooner than it has taken to describe the operation.
However, as it was observed after a little while that the vessel
drifted so rapidly to leeward, through the mere force of the wind on her
exposed hull and remaining spars, not to speak of the wash of the sea,
and thus ran in quite as great danger of colliding with the ice as if
she had been going ahead, the fore staysail, reefed into the most
attenuated proportions, was set again--so that the ship might be under
steerage way and be able to avoid, under judicious control, the numerous
small bergs that now hove in sight like miniature islands in every
direction, making the navigation perilous in the extreme.
As night came on, too, the dangers surrounding the _Nancy Bell_
increased tenfold; for, the wind not only blew with greater strength,
but it was accompanied by blinding showers of hail and snow, while a
thick fog rose from the freezing water, more like steam than anything
else, obscuring everything and preventing the floating ice from being
seen until it was immediately under the bows.
It was just about the beginning of the second dog-watch at four bells--
six o'clock in the evening--that the mist came; so, after a brief
consultation with Mr Meldrum, Captain Dinks told the chief mate to call
the hands aft.
"We are in as tight a hole, McCarthy," said he, "as the poor old ship
was ever placed in, and it will take us all our time to get out of it;
so, it's best to let all the hands know it, that each may do his best
for the good of all."
"Aye, aye, sorr," answered Mr McCarthy; "it's no sight o' use beating
about the bush when danger's under weigh. Till 'em the truth, Cap'en,
and shame the divil!" Soon afterwards, his ringing voice calling, "all
hands ahoy!" was heard forwards.
The crew were not long tumbling aft; and, when they had assembled on the
main deck, Captain Dinks addressed them from the break of the poop.
"Men," said he, "I'm sorry to say the _Nancy Bell_ is in a position of
the greatest peril. We are now, after fighting with a cyclone for five
days, being carried along by a rising gale into the midst of scattered
icebergs, any one of which may knock a hole in the ship; while if we
should run upon one of the bigger ones we must go to pieces at once.
You know how, throughout the bad weather we've had, I have tried, to
spare you as much as I could, conveniently with the proper working of
the ship, and I've always allowed the watches their regular spell below;
but to-night, and as long as we are surrounded by the ice, I can't allow
a man off duty! None of us can tell whether the _Nancy Bell_ will be
afloat and we alive by morning; so, no single hand must leave the deck
without special permission. You may be certain I sha'n't set the
example, and you can now go forwards. I am about to set fresh look-
outs, and each man will have his station."
The majority of the crew gave a cheer at this, Ben Boltrope's lusty
voice being conspicuously to the fore; but some, amongst whom was a lazy
lout named Bill Moody, who was the chief grumbler in the forecastle,
expressed their discontent audibly; saying that they "hadn't signed
articles to be worked like dogs!"
Captain Dinks' ears were pretty sharp, and he heard what was said; so he
called the men back.
"I know who spoke," said he, "and I wouldn't disgrace the rest of the
crew by supposing that they share his feelings; but I'll add this for
his benefit, that anybody who may be discontented will find me easy-
going enough when I am stroked the right way, but a pretty tough
customer when anybody falls athwart my hawse!"
While this little incident was taking place, of course, the usual look-
out was not neglected, the Norwegian being still aloft in the maintop,
with Frank Harness and Mr Adams on the forecastle; but now, extra men
were detailed for the duty. Karl Ericksen, called down from the maintop
where his range of view had become limited through the increasing
darkness and snowstorm, was placed between the knight-heads; a man on
each bow; Frank Harness on the fore scuttle; Mr McCarthy and Adams on
the port and starboard quarters; and Ben Boltrope at the wheel--Captain
Dinks being here, there, and everywhere to see that everybody was on the
_qui vive_, even ascending the mizzen rigging sometimes into the top, to
have an outlook from there and try whether his eyes could pierce the
misty vapour that hung over the sea by dint of looking down into it.
Thenceforward, throughout the weary night, there was little to do save
looking out and conning the ship.
When a large cake of ice or berg was seen drifting perilously near, or
bearing down upon the vessel, the word was passed along the deck from
forward to aft and her head turned one way or the other, the yards of
the mizzen-mast--now the only ones left on the ship, with the exception
of the fouled main-yard--being squared or braced up to help her
inclination to either side, which was also assisted by the loose
mizzentop sail. This latter had only been hauled up by the clewlines
and buntlines when sail was shortened, so as to be available to be
dropped and sheeted home at a moment's notice in any sudden emergency
when it might be necessary to get way on the ship to prevent her running
foul of some giant iceberg that was trying to overtake her. From
midnight the only break in the monotony of the silent watch, throughout
the anxious hours that elapsed before daylight, was the warning cry of
the look-outs' forward "Ice ahead!" or "Ice on the lee bow!" with the
sailing directions of the captain to the steersman, quickly following
the words of warning, "Hard up with the helm!" or else, "Keep her off a
little, my man!" or the single word,--sometimes the most important order
of all,--"Steady!"
In the cuddy, naturally, it was an equally anxious time throughout the
trying night; indeed, more so, considering the state of mind of those
concerned.
Mr Meldrum, on going below, had told of the course of things above,
explaining the perilous position of the ship without unduly alarming the
nervous susceptibilities of the women folk, and after his periodical
visits to the deck he brought back the cheering news that all was as yet
going on well; but still, the very fact of being unable to do anything
save watch and pray, was even more exhausting and wearying than in being
exposed to the bitter weather like the crew and officers of the ship
were--for the sense of duty and something constantly calling on their
attention prevented the latter from thinking, as those could only do who
had no cause or call for action.
The American passenger did not, however, appear in the least put out or
more than ordinarily impressed with the gravity of the situation, taking
it, as it were, as a matter of course.
"It's no use making a muss over what can't be helped," he said with the
utmost sang-froid. "The ship's in good hands, and as I can't do
anything, why I guess I'll let things ride and be as comf'able as I
ken." So he ate and drank with just as good an appetite as ever when
dinnertime came--though it was later than usual, through Snowball not
having been able to light the galley fire till nearly dark; and, on the
arrival, according to Mr Zachariah Lathrope's reckoning, of bedtime, he
curled himself up in his bunk, going to sleep as composedly as if he had
been safe and sound ashore, with the comforting assurance to the others,
as he said "good-night," that "if things should kinder turn out
onpleasant, why, I guess they'll rouse me up!"
Florry Meldrum, too, and Master Maurice Negus were not one whit the more
alarmed by the critical condition of the _Nancy Bell_ either; but,
neither Maurice's mother nor Kate closed their eyes for a moment the
livelong night.
When some feeble rays of light at length strayed down through the
skylight, causing the lamps over the cuddy table to burn more dimly,
when the scuttles in the cabins, seen through the half-opened doors,
became illumined by some reflection from without, showing that the long-
wished-for morning had broken at last, Kate, unable to endure the
suspense any longer, put on her cloak and went on deck.
The scene and all its surroundings had very much altered since she had
last been up the companion-way; so that when she got on the poop now, so
great a transformation had occurred that it seemed to her as if she were
in a species of nautical fairyland.
The ship herself was cased in ice--hull, spars, and standing rigging,
and all--with long pendulous icicles hanging from the main and mizzen
yards. The fog or mist having also cleared away and the clouds vanished
from the sky, every object glittered like jewels in the golden rays of
the rising sun.
But the _Nancy Bell_ was not the only object of attraction and interest.
She was surrounded by icebergs in every direction--to the right, to the
left, right in front, and astern--some little mites not bigger than
cockle-shells in comparison with the larger ones, baby bergs, so to
speak, and others as lofty as mountains, extending as far as the eye
could reach to the horizon; the ship racing by them and threaded her way
in and out between the moving masses with the dexterity of a Highlander
executing the sword-dance. The wind was still blowing more than half a
gale from the northward and westward, and the vessel was running before
it under the fore staysail and mizzentop-sail, which had been dropped
again with the reef points shaken out, making eight knots good, too, at
that.
Where there was no ice, the rolling sea was of an intense ultramarine
blue, reflecting the colour of the distant sky; while, as the sun came
up higher, different tints were displayed by the icebergs, whose shape
was as various as their sizes--bergs that in their gorgeous architecture
and fairy magnificence, with fantastic peaks and airy pinnacles, which
glittered now in the full light of day with all the varied colours of
the rainbow, flashing out scintillations and radiances of violet and
iris, purple and turquoise, and sapphire blue, emerald green and orange,
blush rose and pink and red--all mingled with soft shades of crimson and
carmine, and interspersed with gleams of gold and silver and a frosting
over all of bright white light.
"Ah!" ejaculated Kate, uttering her thoughts aloud, so carried away was
she by the vivid beauty of the scene, "those who haven't seen an iceberg
at sea at sunrise, have no idea of the grand loveliness of God's
handiwork in nature!"
"They look beautiful enough now, missy," said Captain Dinks, who had
come to her side unnoticed, and seemed much jollier than he had done the
night before, when he thought the ship in her last extremity; "but we
didn't think them so a little while ago, when it looked as if the poor
old _Nancy Bell_ would lay her old bones amongst them!"
"Ah! Captain Dinks," replied she, "there was One above looking after us
then, as he is now!"
"You are right," said he earnestly; "or we should never have escaped as
we did; once or twice, when we grazed a berg, I thought it was all up
with us."
"Oh!" exclaimed Kate with a shudder, "it was a terrible night; and you
and the poor fellows on deck must have found it bitterly cold."
"Not a doubt of that," said Captain Dinks laughing. "I was almost half-
frozen in the mizzen rigging; and as for poor Frank Harness, when he
came off the fore-scuttle, where he was stationed all night to pass the
word from the look-outs forward, he could hardly move his limbs! If it
hadn't been for the hot coffee our friend Snowball served out every two
hours to warm us up, I don't believe any of us would have been alive
this morning. But here comes your father. How sly your were all to
keep it so carefully concealed that he was in the navy; and I taking him
all the time for a lubberly landsman! I'll never forgive myself; for
you must all have laughed at me, especially you, Miss Kate, and your
roguish little sister. Ah! good morning, Mr Meldrum," added the
captain turning to that gentleman; "I was just thinking about you. I
wanted to have a consultation about our course. My dead reckoning is
all at sea, and I hardly can guess where we are now; but I trust we
shall be able to get an observation of the sun at noon, and then we will
be able to prick off our position on the chart."
"I sincerely hope so," said Mr Meldrum; "for I think we're going far
too much to the southward."
"Do you, still, eh?" replied Captain Dinks. "I don't quite agree with
you. I thought it best to keep the ship before the wind, not only
because it eases her but on account of the gale being bound to slacken
down soon; and if we run down to a lower latitude, as I have frequently
done in this part of the ocean before, we will probably get fine weather
and be able to tinker up the old craft and make her look all a taunto
again."
"Ah!" said Mr Meldrum, "you are just as likely to run on to something
else, not quite so pleasant as fine weather! Mark my words, Captain
Dinks, I am as certain, and more so now than I was three days ago, as I
told you then, that we are far down in the Forties; and what with the
easting we have made since passing the meridian of the Cape and the
leeway we have drifted, we must be pretty close to the Crozet Islands or
Kerguelen Land."
"Kerguelen Land!" ejaculated the captain; "nonsense, man; why we are
hundreds of miles to the westward of it."
"Are we?" replied Mr Meldrum. "Well, just wait till twelve o'clock and
we'll see who is right, you or I!"
Hardly, however, had the words escaped his lips than the look-out man in
the maintop--who had been replaced as soon as day broke, when the
prospect around the ship became more extended, thus rendering his
services useful--shouted out a cry that had almost been forgotten, and
which made every heart on board leap with mingled feelings of
overpowering joy, consternation, surprise, dismay! Every pulse stopped
for a second spellbound! The cry was--"Land ho!"
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS.
"Land!" called out the captain. "Where away?"
"On the weather-beam," answered the man aloft, who still spoke in a
voice which sounded as if he had been greatly startled. "It's rising
rapidly every moment, sir, out of the water."
"The fellow must be blind!" exclaimed Captain Dinks. "There is no land
there in that direction, if I know it. He must be taking one of those
big icebergs for an island; that's about the matter. Hanged if I don't
go up and see for myself!"
Running down the poop ladder, the captain soon started up the shrouds on
the port side towards the maintop where the lookout man was stationed.
It was not Karl Ericksen this time, whose word he would have implicitly
taken, but Bill Moody, one of the worst of the crew, and who, it may be
remembered, had already evinced an unsailorlike spirit by his
insubordination on an occasion when the pluck and endurance of everyone
required to be tested. From this fact alone, Captain Dinks was the less
inclined to trust him.
The captain, however, found mounting the ratlines not so easy a task as
he might have imagined, for the rigging was all frozen hard and as
unbending as iron; but he persevered unflinchingly, and disdaining to
creep through the "lubber's hole," climbed over the top in the usual
sailor's way, although he puffed and panted a good deal when he got
there, which proved to him that the flesh he had gained on his plump
little person, since he had been a youngster and first shinned up the
rigging, had not improved his climbing powers.
"Now, where's this wonderful land of your's!" he asked, as soon as he
got alongside of Bill Moody, taking his glass out of his pocket and
adjusting the focus ready for action.
"There," answered the man surlily, pointing towards the north-east,
where a faint blue bank seemed to rise out of the ocean above and beyond
the ice-fields. It could be seen with the naked eye to be of a
different colour to even the most distant bergs, the distinction being
quite marked.
"By Jove, the man's right!" ejaculated Captain Dinks with surprise.
"I knew I were," said Bill Moody in a bragging sort of way. "I think I
can see a hole in a ladder as well as most people; and if that ain't
land, why, I'll eat it."
"There, that will do," interposed the captain to stop any further
remarks, while he proceeded to inspect the hazy object with keen
attention for some minutes, after which he replaced his glass in his
pocket and prepared to descend to the deck again.
"Keep a sharp look-out," he said to Moody as he disappeared over the
side of the top, "and sing out, as soon as we get any nearer, whether
you can see a line of breakers at the foot of the island; for island it
is, sure enough!"
"Aye, aye," grunted out the man; and Captain Dinks went down the rigging
even more carefully than he had ascended, finding great difficulty in
preventing his unaccustomed feet from slipping off the ratlines, which
were like rungs of the smoothest and most polished ice.
"You were right, and I was wrong," he said to Mr Meldrum, as soon as he
had regained the poop. "There is land in sight, sure enough, although I
can at present only see it faintly towards the north-east. It must be,
as you say, either the Crozet Islands or Kerguelen Land, for there's
nothing else between us and the Australian continent, as we haven't yet
got quite so far south as the Antarctic regions."
"It's probably Kerguelen Land," observed Mr Meldrum, "for you couldn't
see the Crozets nearly so far off; but I hope there's not going to be
another change of the weather. It seems clouding over again."
"Not before we get an observation, I trust," replied the captain; "I
don't like knocking about any longer without knowing where I am."
"Nor I, sorr," put in the first mate heartily. "Sure it's like goin' in
the dark to Bandon Fair, for all the worruld over."
"It's not what we like," interposed Mr Meldrum somewhat dryly. "We
have got to put up with what we can get."
"True for you, sorr," said Mr McCarthy, not to be beaten; "sure, but
isn't it best to make the best on it."
"That's incontestable," replied Mr Meldrum with a laugh; and there the
conversation ended, Kate and her father going below to breakfast.
The weather got thicker, with the wind coming in gusts and now and then
shifting a bit, so that the solitary mizzen-topsail of the _Nancy Bell_
had now again to be close reefed, and her course directed more towards
the land, which they did not seem to near so rapidly as they had thought
they would--owing probably to some current that was all the time
carrying them southwards while they were steering towards the east.
They were actuated, however, by no vulgar curiosity to inspect this
ocean land in thus seeking to approach it.
On an ordinary occasion they would most certainly have given it a pretty
wide berth; but now, should the sky cloud over so much as to prevent
their getting an observation of the sun by which to correct their
latitude and longitude, the identification of the land would at once
prove their position on the chart without further trouble. This was why
they wanted to near it.
After breakfast, when Mr Meldrum came on deck again, the wind had
freshened considerably, although still blowing from the north-west,
while the outlook was generally squally; but the sky above still kept
clear, with the sun shining down at intervals, when the scud, which was
beginning to fly about again, did not interpose to hide its beams. The
land, the while, was
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