CHAPTER XXXI
CAPTAIN SCOTT SETS A REEFED FORESAIL
The Mediterranean had very suddenly lashed itself into a fury. Nothing movable would stay in place, and everything had to be secured. Rope-yarns were in great demand; and Captain Scott had done everything possible for the safety of the property on board, in the pilot-house, on deck, and in the cabin. At first everything in the galley was pitched into heaps; but Pitts had brought order out of confusion there.
By the middle of the afternoon watch, with Morris and Louis on duty, everything had been put in order; for after the captain and Felix believed that all was safe, something would break loose and need further attention. The water-casks had given them the most trouble. Felipe and Pitts had assisted them in putting the half-casks back into the run and securing them there; but the full ones, containing fifty gallons each, were more troublesome. They were blocked up in the standing-room, and made fast with strong ropes; but they still had an inclination to break away.
Louis Belgrave had the wheel from four bells, or two o'clock; and he found he had his hands full, and that it required no little of his strength to manage it. He had seen several heavier gales than the present, when the Guardian-Mother knocked about quite as much as the Maud in the more tremendous seas of the Atlantic. Felipe had sailed in the Maud more than any other person on board; but he appeared to be the only one who was at all alarmed at the situation, though he had made the voyage from Mogadore to Funchal and back, and at the time when he took his final leave of the Pacha; but he had never been at sea in her in a gale.
At about every roll of the little steamer the sea broke over the bulwarks and swept over the bow and stern where there was no deck-house to obstruct its passage. Every door, window, or other opening had been closed and securely fastened, and thus far no water had found its way into the inside of the boat. As long as the engine did not break down Captain Scott had no fears for the safety of the Maud, uncomfortable as she was to those on board in such a gale.
The little steamer had two masts, and she was rigged as a schooner; but they appeared to be more for ornament than for use. A mainsail, foresail, and jib were stowed away in the forecastle; but it was doubtful if they had ever been bent on. The rigging and spars certainly added to the nautical effect of the craft; and they afforded an opportunity for the display of flags, for the gaffs on each mast were secured in place aloft by the vangs. The American flag had been set at the main peak during the voyage to Tangier; though, as anything but a tender of the ship, she was not legally entitled to use it.
"Well, Louis, what do you think of this?" said Captain Scott, who had watched his opportunity when the starboard side of the steamer was under water to open the port door of the pilot-house wide enough to enable him to enter.
"I think it is a tolerably fresh breeze," replied the young millionaire, as he heaved the wheel over to meet a big billow. "It makes a lively time in a steamer no larger than the Maud."
"It is a regular muzzler," added the captain. "But I have been out in a gale as heavy as this one in the Seahound; and she was not as big as the Maud."
"It is not comfortable; and I suppose that is about the worst that can be said of it."
"She is all right as long as the engine holds its own; and both Felipe and Don say there is no danger of its giving out," said the captain. "I suppose it is all right; but I wish we had another string to our bow."
"What other string could we have to our bow?" asked Louis, giving his companion an inquiring glance.
"The sails; and I wish I had thought to bend them on before we left Gib, or this forenoon, when we had nothing under the canopy to do but bite our finger-nails."
"I dare say it would be well to have them ready for use as a last resort," suggested Louis.
"As something more than that, though it would be exceedingly convenient to be able to set a reefed foresail in case the engine should break down. I have been thinking of bending on the foresail since it came on to blow heavily."
"You have no use for it yet; for Felipe says the Pacha had everything about the craft built twice as strong as was necessary, and I have no fear of the engine," replied Louis.
"If the sails were bent on, I should have set a reefed foresail, and perhaps a reefed mainsail, before this time," continued the captain. "It would steady her a great deal if nothing more, for I do not believe we are making our ten knots an hour just now."
Captain Scott sat on the divan, and appeared to be considering the expedient he had mentioned. A few minutes later he announced his intention to bend on the foresail, and he made his exit with the same precaution he had used in entering. He called Felix, Pitts, Morris, and Don to assist in the work, after he had been into the forecastle by the way of the engine and fire rooms. He overhauled the sails, and found the one he wanted.
Pitts carried it on deck, and it was passed up to the promenade deck, as they called the roofs of the deck-houses. The foremast was between the galley and the pilot-house. The gaff was lowered; and Scott and Pitts, who were both sailors, lashed the head of the sail to it. The mast-hoops were all in place, and the inner-leach was readily secured to them. Felix and Don, who were not sailors, had enough to do in holding on at the sail to keep the wind from whipping it out of the hands of the operators.
The promenade deck was swept by floods of spray all the time, and the party had not been there five minutes before they were wet to the skin; but no one minded this, for the weather was quite warm, the wind, fresh as it was, coming from the burning sands of Africa.
The tack was secured, and the clew hauled out to the end of the boom. The foot of the sail was then lashed down, and the work was finished, though it had taken an hour and a half to do it. The two sailors then overhauled the sheet and the halyards to see that they were in working order. Pitts had brought up some "slush," or grease, which was applied where it was needed.
A single reef was then put in the sail, and then a second upon the top of it, so that the last could be turned out if the craft would bear more sail. Captain Scott then stationed his force so that none of them would be knocked overboard by the thrashing of the sail, which was then hoisted with no little difficulty. The sheet was hauled in and made fast to the lower block, which moved on a traveller.
"The sail was then hoisted with no little difficulty."
"The sail was then hoisted with no little difficulty."
"The sail was then hoisted with no little difficulty."
The wind was square on the beam, and filled the reefed sail. The blast laid the steamer down to the plankshear; but she rallied after the first shock, and did not heel over as much as the captain supposed she would. The effect was very satisfactory, and the Maud went along much steadier than before.
"What do you think of it, Pitts?" asked the captain, and all the party were holding on at the stays of the smoke-stack.
"She behaves like a dandy, sir," replied the steward. "She would carry the foresail with only one reef in it."
"That is just what I was thinking," added Scott. "What is more, I am going to turn out the second reef, and let her go it with one."
"It won't be an easy thing to do with the wind on the beam, sir," suggested Pitts. "If you spill the sail, sir, the boom will run out so as to make a hard job of it, sir."
"I was thinking of that," replied the captain, as he went forward, and, bending down over the front of the pilot-house, yelled to Louis at the wheel to head the steamer up into the wind.
"Ay, ay, sir!" screamed the helmsman; and in a moment more the Maud was pitching into the head sea, and the reefed foresail was flapping in the gale.
The second reef was turned out in a minute or two, and the order was sent down by Morris for Louis to come up to the course again. The sheet remained as before, and the sail filled as the Maud came about. As it was done gradually there was no shock as before, and the steamer soon came to her bearings. She heeled over more than before, but not much, and her motion was decidedly steadier.
At four o'clock Louis rang eight bells, and the watches were to be changed. It was the turn of the starboard watch, and the captain's trick at the wheel. He directed Felix, his watch-mate, to keep the lookout on the promenade deck where he could see the sail and keep it in trim, for he was sailor enough to do this, though he was not an able seaman. The rest of the party descended to their places below.
"Well, Louis, what do you think of it now?" asked the captain, as he went into the pilot-house on the lee side.
"I think you have greatly improved the situation, Captain Scott."
"I feel perfectly happy, my boy," replied Scott, who appeared to be considerably exhilarated as he took the wheel from the hands of Louis. "I seem to know where I am now better than I did before. The engine may break down now if it is so disposed, and I can snap my finger in its face, for we have sail enough to keep the Maud on the top of the water if anything happens to the machinery."
"You were certainly born to be a sailor, Captain," replied Louis, as he seated himself on the divan.
"I believe that with all my might, and this experience is worth a hundred dollars a day to me," answered Scott.
"Call it fifty," laughed the other.
"It is very valuable to me, whatever you call it in figures. I have a big ambition in this direction; and it is bigger now than it was before I became a decent fellow. I think Captain Ringgold will make a man of me."
"It looks as though he had already done so," added Louis.
"Perhaps he has not finished his work yet. We are going along very nicely now, my hearty."
"We are indeed. The Maud rolls a good deal"—
"You don't expect her to go along on an even keel in such a sea as this, do you?" interposed the captain.
"Certainly not; she is behaving very well."
"She is behaving like a lady in a ballroom!" exclaimed Scott with enthusiasm. "She has a good deal of motion, like the belle of the waltz; but her motion is poetry."
"She is waltzing along very well."
It was the first dog watch. Pitts could not get up a regular dinner, for the pots and pans would not stay on the galley; but he gave the ship's company enough to eat. The racks, or "fiddles," on the table in the cabin kept the dishes in tolerable order. After the meal the captain called all hands, and succeeded in heaving the log, which, to his astonishment, gave thirteen knots. He concluded that there must be some mistake, and he repeated the operation with the same result.
"I don't understand it, Don," said he. "Have you been driving the engine?"
"The last time I looked at the revolutions, I thought she must be making about eleven knots," replied the second engineer. "The furnace has a big draught in this wind, and the sail helps her a couple of knots."
The captain did not object to the speed. The steamer went along without incident or accident, and by this time the ship's company had become accustomed to the motion. Southerly storms are not usually of long duration, and at midnight the gale broke, though the sea was still disturbed. The watches were regularly kept, the lookout man attending to the sail on the upper deck. In the morning the wind had shifted to the south-west.