CHAPTER XVIII
AN AFTERNOON EXCURSION TO TANGIER
Louis had applied for permission to make the excursion to Tangier on his own account, though he knew it would be exceedingly agreeable to the other members of the ship's company, for it would give them practice in their duties. He had spoken to the commander about the engineer; and he had promptly consented to ship another oiler, for it was enough for Felipe to run the engine of the Maud and take proper care of it, as it was a very nice piece of machinery. At the same time he added fifty per cent to the wages of this officer.
He had ordered Mr. Sage to provide a suitable lunch for the steamer; for it was thirty miles to Tangier, and it would require at least seven hours for the Maud to go there and return, and the excursionists would get hungry before they came back.
"But why can't we go with them, Captain Ringgold?" asked Mrs. Belgrave. "It will certainly be a very pleasant trip, and there must be something there to see."
"I thought of going to Tangier in the Guardian-Mother," replied the commander; "but you have seen a specimen of Mohammedan places at Mogadore, and I have reserved most of that species of sights for Constantinople, where you will see them in their full glory and on a large scale. Then the boys are going over there simply to experiment with their new organization and see how it works, and I think they would prefer to be alone. Besides, Tangier is in Morocco; and it is remotely possible that Ali-Noury Pacha may be there, for it is over three weeks since the Fatimé went out to sea through the Strait."
"I am quite satisfied to remain," replied the lady.
"Very likely the boys will not land at all at Tangier, for they have no time to do so."
"I certainly don't want to go there if there is the least danger of meeting the Pacha," added Mrs. Belgrave.
The rich, powerful, and distinguished Pacha had taken a fancy to Blanche, the beautiful daughter of Mr. Woolridge, and had followed the party to Gibraltar in the Fatimé, his large steam-yacht; but the Guardian-Mother had avoided her, and had actually run away from her.
"I have a little business in the city this afternoon, and we will go ashore in the barge if you wish to visit the place again."
"I don't think much of the place itself, but it is interesting to look at the people of various nations that one meets in the street there; and I want to do a little shopping," added the lady.
Lunch was served at noon that day. The bunkers of the Maud had been filled with coal, and she was all ready to get under way. The big four were very much excited, and they disposed of their mid-day meal very hastily. They would not have thought to take their overcoats if the anxious mothers of two of them had not insisted that they should do so. Felipe had been at work on the engine, with which he was more familiar than with any other, for he had served as engineer when she was in the service of the Pacha.
"The Mah-ood," he began when Louis went on board, pronouncing the name of the steamer as he read it on the sign.
"No, no!" exclaimed Louis, laughing heartily. "You have translated the word into Spanish or Turkish;" and he proceeded to drill the engineer in the pronunciation of the new name of the craft.
"The Maud," he repeated for the twentieth time.
"That will do very well, Felipe."
"The Maud used to make ten knots an hour when I worked for the Pacha," he continued. "I shall make her do so now."
"All right; but always be on the safe side."
"What you call the safe side?" asked Felipe, whose English was still very much at fault, especially in its idioms, though he did very well in simple conversation.
"Don't burst the boiler," laughed Louis.
He promised not to do so. Morris, the pilot, was in the pilot-house, where he had been at work a considerable part of his time in putting everything there in order and according to his own fancy, for he felt that this was his domain. Captain Scott was on the promenade deck, and he had prepared himself for his present duties.
Captain Ringgold had an abundance of charts, and among them one of four sheets of the Mediterranean Sea. This one had thirty plans of harbors and ports upon it, and among them one of the Strait of Gibraltar. The latter was about a foot long and eight inches wide, which the commander had cut out of the sheet and given to Captain Scott, who, for this reason, felt entirely confident in regard to his navigation. The only thing he needed was a parallel ruler, so that he could lay off the course from the compass designs given on every chart.
"Make the course south south-west, Mr. Woolridge!" he called to the pilot.
Morris was a little startled to hear himself "mistered;" but the fasts had been cast off by the accomplished deck-hands, and he rang the gong to go ahead. He had learned the bells as they were used on board of the Guardian-Mother; and he felt quite at home at the wheel, and not a little exhilarated to find himself steering such a beautiful little steamer as his regular duty.
"Do you know where you are, Captain Scott?" asked Louis playfully.
"Just as well as though I had been here all my life," replied he.
"I suppose you know your way out of this bay."
"As well as I know my way into bed when I am tired."
"But the course you gave out was south south-west."
"Which is precisely the course I wish to make."
"But I should think that would take you over upon Carnero Point."
"There is about eighteen and a half degrees of variation in the compass here, and the course I gave out will take us about south."
"I did not think of the variation," added Louis.
"If you look on the chart of these waters, you will find the diagram of the compass with the magnetic north indicated, and the other points adjusted to it," replied Captain Scott, as he produced the plan of the Strait of Gibraltar. "Using this you could not forget the variation, which is here given at 18° 50.′"
"I see that you are quite up on your navigation, Captain Scott."
"When I was sailing the Seahound I was sometimes out of sight of land, and if I hadn't known what I was about I should not have been able to get there."
"I think you are all right," added Louis, as he went aft.
He went into the engine-room, where he found Felipe as enthusiastic as the captain of the steamer. He was delighted to have a more responsible position than on board of the Guardian-Mother, and especially with the increase of his wages. He was an exceedingly steady young man, and Mr. Shafter and Mr. Sentrick had been very much pleased with him. They declared that he understood a marine engine perfectly; in fact, he had a genius for mechanics and machinery.
"Have you that thing to tell you how fast you go in the ship, Mr. Belgrave?" asked the engineer.
"You mean the log," replied Louis.
"Yes; I mean the log; but I don't know what you call him.La barquillain Spanish."
"I thought that was a little boat; but you can't learn everything from the dictionary. But you must not call thebarquillaeither 'him' or 'her' in English, but 'it,' for we have only natural genders; and things that don't have life are neuter," said Louis, who was still assisting the young engineer to improve his English.
"No!" exclaimed Felipe. "What for you call the moon a 'she'? She don't have no life. My book he say"—
"Itsays," interposed the instructor.
"It says 'the ship she sails well.' The ship don't have no life."
"By a figure of speech called personification, or prosopopœia, we attribute life and action to inanimate objects," replied Louis, laughing, as he quoted from the grammar. "Now you understand it."
"No!" exclaimed Felipe; and his teacher did not suppose he could take in such a sentence; but he proceeded to render it into simpler language, with a long explanation; and possibly at the end of it the pupil had some faint idea of the figure of speech.
"You have not thebarquilla?" he asked, glad to drop the grammar and rhetoric.
"We have no log-line on board," replied Louis.
"But I wish to know how fast the Maud is going."
"We can easily ascertain that from the chart."
"I don't understand," added Felipe, shaking his head.
"When we are off Tarifa I will tell you just how many miles we have run," said Louis, as he consulted his watch. "We are two miles off Europa Point, and it is just half-past one. Put that down on your slate."
On board of the Guardian-Mother the engineer on duty made a record of the working of the engine, just as the officer in charge of the ship commits everything to the log-slate, to be copied into the log-book; but the engineer of the Maud had not yet opened a record book. Louis wandered about the deck with nothing to do, and almost wished he had been made captain or pilot so that he might have some regular work.
But Captain Scott had already ordered that the deck-hands should relieve the pilot, and he was to have two hours' work in every eight. But he seated himself with Felix in the standing-room. There was enough to see, for the shores of Europe and Africa were both in sight, and the Strait was full of vessels passing in and out. The captain joined them for a time; but his talk was mainly of tides and currents, showing that he had studied the subject very carefully.
"I don't understand you, Captain Scott, much better than Felipe did me when I talked to him about personification as a figure of speech," said Louis.
"Sorra one word I can mahke uv ut," added Felix; and as has been occasionally stated before, the Milesian varied his dialect to suit all the four quarters of the Emerald Isle.
"I borrowed the North Atlantic Directory of Captain Ringgold when I saw him looking it over. It treats mainly of prevailing winds, of tides and currents," replied the captain. "I had read in some other book that a current from the Atlantic always sets into the Mediterranean through the Strait."
"Faix, Oi'd think the big say'd git full, loike an Oirishman at Donnybrook Fair," interposed Felix.
"The Directory don't take that view, and says it has sometimes been known to flow outward," added Scott. "But there are currents near the shores which set out on the tide."
"Then we seem to be mixed up in a lot of currents," said Louis. "Felipe is very anxious to know what speed the Maud is making; for he says her usual rate used to be ten knots an hour, though she averaged only about nine during our voyage from Madeira to Tarifa. He has been at work on the engine, and he thinks he can make even more than that out of her."
"Begorra, she is makin' ut loively this afternoon," suggested Felix.
"It is easy enough to come at it," replied Captain Scott. "I gave out west south-west for the course when we were just two miles off Europa Point, from which we take our departure. When the lighthouse at Tarifa bears north by the compass, we shall have run fifteen knots."
"That's it to a hair!" exclaimed Louis. "I knew it was to be done in about that manner."
The steamer continued on her course for over an hour along the north shore, and as the distance from the land increased the captain looked out for the bearings of Tarifa lighthouse.