CHAPTER III.OMENS.
It was only after the gale had died away, and a new topmast had been sent aloft, that we lads came to understand how much mischief or trouble, whichever you choose to term it, might come of that disaster which had terminated so happily.
Once our watch was at leisure, the men began speculating upon the significance of what they were pleased to call an “omen,” and those whom I had looked upon as the bravest appeared to be the most disheartened by the mishap.
The breaking of the spar, which was doubtless brought about by some serious defect in the timber, dismayed them, and one and all argued as if eager to prove that the accident was but the forerunner of direst disaster.
Master Joshua looked grave as any owl while he told a yarn of a vessel which had lost a spar while leaving port, and was never heard of afterward, declaring solemnly that the mishap had come about solely as a means of warning the crew not to sail in the craft.
“But if they had already left the port, how would it be possible for the men to go back, even though the captainhad been willing to stand by and see his crew desert?” Simon asked, innocently, whereat Master Joshua fell into a passion, because “a boy” had dared make such foolish inquiries regarding what was as “plain as the nose on a man’s face.”
“It ain’t for the likes of you to be askin’ questions about the signs that are sent to sailormen,” he roared, shaking his fist at the lad who was simply trying to gain what might prove to be useful information. “Anybody who ain’t a natural born fool knows that sich things are seen by them as live on the ocean, an’ the pity of it is there are idjuts what can’t take warnin’.”
“Then you’re ready to believe that this ’ere cruise won’t be a payin’ one, eh?” the captain of Number Four gun asked, seriously.
“Accordin’ to what I’ve seen in this ’ere world, I wouldn’t want to put very many hopes on theAmerica’sever gettin’ into the home port again.”
After this gloomy prediction, for such it was because of the tone in which the words had been spoken, all hands began to look down in the mouth, and it can well be imagined that even Simon and I were feeling far from cheerful.
Had any other member of the crew suggested such a possibility, simply because we had carried away a topmast immediately after leaving port, I could have laughed at him; but Joshua Seabury was, to my mind, the ablest seaman afloat, and all he said carried great weight with it, so far as I was concerned.
The old man lighted his pipe in a sorrowful manner, as if saying to himself that the good ship might founder before he could finish his smoke, and the remainder of the crew began to spin yarns regarding signs and omens of which they had heard, until the whole boiling of them were worked up into the most doleful frame of mind.
Had the word been passed just then that a British privateer was in sight, I question if any undue excitement would have been shown by our men, so positive did all appear to be that we were on the eve of some great disaster.
At first Simon and I were disposed to laugh at these senseless forebodings, even though Master Joshua himself had been the first to give them words; but, later, it appeared to me as if much mischief might befall us because the men were so bent on persuading themselves that the carrying away of the topmast, especially on a Friday, was a token that some more than ordinarily serious danger threatened.
It would be reasonable to suppose that every privateersman was in danger so long as he remained afloat searching for the enemy; but to peril which had so good a foundation, these superstitious sailors gave no heed.
It was to them as if we had been protected until the moment after the topmast fell, and then we were not only left to our own devices, but given to understand that we could not escape even the ordinary dangers of the sea.
In reading over what has just been set down, I find that I have failed in giving a good idea of the state of mind into which every man Jack among us had fallen.
Perhaps at the time Simon and I did not fully realise what all this arguing, speech-making, and yarn-spinning on the subject of omens might amount to, but we had more than an inkling when, at a late hour on the second night after the topmast fell, while we were lounging about the deck simply because our watch was supposed to be on duty, Captain Ropes called for us to come aft.
Up to this moment he had given no heed whatsoever to Simon; it was as if the lad ceased to be a relative of his the moment he came aboard the ship as one of the crew, and I was feeling more than a trifle sore because my comrade’s father appeared to be copying so perfectly after Master Josh.
“I’m not asking you lads to tell tales out of school,” the captain said, when we had followed him into the after-cabin where he had his quarters; “but I would like to know if the men are still chewing over the loss of the topmast.”
“‘I AM NOT ASKING YOU LADS TO TELL TALES OUT OF SCHOOL,’ THE CAPTAIN SAID.”
“‘I AM NOT ASKING YOU LADS TO TELL TALES OUT OF SCHOOL,’ THE CAPTAIN SAID.”
Simon, who had seemingly failed to observe that his father no longer treated him as a son, at once gave a very good description of the situation of affairs forward, and when his story was come to an end the captain dismissed us exactly as he would have dismissed two lads whom he had never met before; but I guessed that he was disturbed in mind because of the foolish fears of the men.
We two lounged forward again, once we were at liberty, and I would have spoken with Simon concerning his father’s odd behaviour, but that the lad cut me short by saying, quite curtly:
“Before coming on board I was told plainly what mightbe expected, therefore I can’t complain. My father first went to sea with an uncle, and now he is giving me the same treatment which he then received.”
“But where would be the harm if he allowed us the run of the cabin, now and then?” I asked, petulantly. “It would please me right well to sit at his table once or twice in a week.”
“That you will never do while we are members of the crew,” Simon replied, with a laugh, “and perhaps it is quite as well.”
“I’d like to know how you can figure that out?” and now I was grown quite hot. “If my uncle was on board, I venture to say both of us would be eating there every day in the week.”
“Which might not be to our advantage. Now the men treat us as belonging to their mess; but if we ate in the cabin while pretending to do duty forward, father says our lives would soon be made burdensome, and surely he ought to know.”
To my mind the argument was a feeble one, not worthy a brave man like Captain Ropes; but I held my peace, understanding that it could hardly be pleasing for Simon to hear me criticise his father.
While the crew discussed the supposed ominous omen, I brooded over the fancied injustice of the captain toward Simon and myself, and in a very short time succeeded in believing that I was a veritable victim.
Simon Ropes displayed more sound common sense than all the remainder of us put together, and from that timewhen he stood up like a man battling against the fancies and whims of the men, with never one, not even I who counted myself his comrade, to back him, I came to know the lad for the hero he afterward proved himself to be when the decks were slippery with American blood.
Within two days after the topmast had been carried away the men were in very nearly a mutinous mood, some claiming that theAmericashould put back sufficiently long to cast off the spell of ill fortune which had been thrown over her, and others declaring that at the first opportunity they would desert, believing they were morally entitled to do so in order to save their own lives.
“If it was only a case of standin’ up in a fair fight, no matter how big might be the odds against us, I’d willingly take my chances with the others, because I shipped for such work,” one of the younger men of the crew said more than once in my hearing. “But this flyin’ in the face of bad luck, with a warnin’ plain before us, is more’n I bargained for.”
As a matter of course, his messmates should have reported him for uttering words which were well calculated to destroy the discipline of the ship; but it was as if nearly every man on board, save the officers, were in much the same way of thinking.
It was not simply the carrying away of a spar which so disturbed the crew; but, rather, the manner in which it was done, together with the time of the accident, all of which we lads heard discussed during nearly every hour while we were off duty.
The topmast was a new spar, and there was no apparent reason for its breaking; the gale was not heavy enough to cause the mishap, and the men refused to entertain the very reasonable explanation that there had been some defect in the timber, which escaped the notice of the spar-makers.
Then again, the accident had occurred on the first Friday after leaving port, and before we had sighted the sail of an enemy. Such a combination of circumstances, so the old shellbacks declared, was sufficient to stamp the affair as an omen of the most pronounced character.
The fact that all the men who had been aloft were saved, without even so much as a scratch, was brought forward by Simon, whenever the crew would condescend to listen to him, as a good reason why we should look upon the matter as one of good rather than bad significance, but day by day the mutinous talk grew louder.
The topmast had been carried away on the eleventh day of September, and not until the twenty-third of the same month did we fall in with a craft of any description.
The absence of vessels when we were in the track of the enemy’s merchant-ships was, to this superstitious crew, only additional proof that they were correct in their fancies.
The sun was just showing himself above the horizon on the day last mentioned, when the lookout shouted what, under different circumstances, would have been most welcome news.
A craft of some description was in sight; but so far away that it was impossible to make out anything savewhat, to Simon and I, looked like nothing more than the wing of a sea-bird outlined against the clear sky to leeward.
Certain it is the men would have grumbled had our ship’s course not been altered on the instant, and then, when this was done, even before the captain knew what kind of a craft he was steering for, every man Jack of them began making the most dismal predictions.
Now we were to learn the meaning of the omen, the men said, walking moodily to and fro as if certain that death was very close aboard. We would find the stranger an English frigate, at the very least, and the cruise of theAmericaas an American vessel would come to an end before sunset.
I believe of a verity that, had we fallen in with a Britisher who carried no greater weight of metal than ourselves, these predictions would have come true, so dispirited were the crew, and while we slowly drew nearer the strange sail, Simon and I stood well forward, burning with the most painful anxiety, fancying we were approaching some terrible doom.
Before two hours had passed, such a lady for sailing was the ship, we could see clearly the topsails of the chase, and the most outspoken grumbler among us declared that she was nothing more formidable than a British merchant-brig.
The majority of the crew began to recover their courage and their spirits; but a few of the older shellbacks insisted that, whether the stranger was a peaceful merchantmanor a heavily armed privateer, we were about to learn the true meaning of the omen.
And so we did learn the meaning, or, rather, that it had no meaning at all,—at least, nothing that was to work us harm at the beginning of the voyage.
Within an hour of noon we had overhauled and brought to the British brigJames and Charlotte, Lavitt, master, from Liverpool, bound for St. John’s with a cargo of hats, dry goods, and a general assortment of merchandise.
One gun had been fired to bring her to, and no more powder than the single charge was burned in the capture of what all hands knew beyond a peradventure was a valuable prize.
It would have pleased me well had I been allowed to board her; but Captain Ropes was not disposed to spend any idle time when there were, perhaps, other merchantmen to be overhauled.
Without delay a prize-crew of six, under command of Mr. Tibbetts, was thrown on board, after which we stretched away on our course with eleven prisoners in the hold, and the master of the captured brig quartered aft, he having passed his word of honour to make no attempt to communicate with the other Britishers.
The tongues of those off duty began to wag furiously once we stood away from the brig, and now had come the time when those who argued the strongest that we were doomed to some terrible misfortune, and among whom was Master Josh, were forced to bear such ridicule as only a crew of sailormen can invent.
Simon and I believed that the capture of this first prize, which was a rich one, such as should go far toward tasselling our neckerchiefs with dollars, would bring to an end all the mutinous talk we had been hearing, and, during the remainder of this day, we were correct.
Next morning, however, the croakers had decided that one vessel captured was no sign the omen was for the good rather than the bad, and straightway began figuring how the traverse might be worked to bring ruin upon us.
This last stage of the believers in omens was not as serious as the first, since there were very many who contented themselves with reckoning how much would be coming to us from the prize, in case Mr. Tibbetts succeeded in getting her to a home port, and when one sets dollars against old women’s whims, the odds are decidedly in favour of the former.
Now from this time out we had so much of drill during fair weather, that the croakers really did not have time to present their foolish views in detail, and we two lads counted on the matter dying a natural death; but in this we were mistaken.
Were I to set down here all we did or said while theAmericacruised here or there, without sighting any save a friendly sail, the words would fill an enormous book, and, when they had been read, would amount to nothing.
Life aboard ship, as Simon and I soon came to understand, grows very monotonous after a certain time, and we who had nothing more exciting than the continual drills with small arms, exercise at the great guns, andlessons in working ship under every emergency, soon grew sick at heart because of the lack of adventure.
It goes without saying that, during this time of comparative idleness, Simon Ropes and I were educated into very fair sailors, as well as privateersmen, and, before many weeks had passed, came to believe we could hold our own with the oldest shellback on board.
Now and then Captain Ropes condescended to speak with us; but a stranger would not have believed that my comrade was his son, or I the nephew of the ship’s owner.
As a matter of course we two lads were thoroughly instructed as to our duties in event of an engagement, and day after day did we serve the gunners with ammunition, which it was necessary we should carry back to the magazine when the drill was at an end.
When the days lengthened into weeks after the capture of our first prize, and we came across nothing flying the British flag, the croakers sprang up very strong once more, and during our watch below we heard so much about omens and signs that I literally turned sick at heart whenever I came across a group who were harping on the loss of a new topmast on the first Friday after leaving port.
The prisoners must have had a sorry time of it; they were kept in the hold, except two hours each day when they came up for fresh air and exercise, and I dare venture to say that they longed as heartily as did our crew that another capture might be made, because then theirchances of being sent ashore would be so much the greater.
Simon and I saw but little of these unfortunates, for the very good reason that we kept out of their way so far as possible.
It was by no means pleasant to watch the poor fellows when they came on deck eager and thirsty for a breath of sweet air, and we made it our business to be engaged in some other part of the ship while they were pacing to and fro on deck, guarded by eight or ten men with loaded muskets in their hands.
During all this long, weary time of watching, hoping, and predicting evil, we came to know what a gallant craft was ours.
There was ample opportunity to test her sailing qualities under every condition of weather, and never a man on board who did not come to believe she could overhaul or show her heels to anything afloat.
We skirted along the coast of Portugal, passing the island of St. Michael on the fifth of October, and yet not until a full month later, that is to say, on the sixth day of November, did we sight another craft flying the cross of St. George.
During all this time our croakers had kept their tongues wagging industriously, declaring that the next time we saw the British flag it would be at the topmast head of an English ship of the line, which would speedily verify the predictions represented by the faulty topmast.
It was as if we had been at sea half a lifetime when thelookout reported a brig-rigged craft to windward, and after she was brought into view of us on deck we knew beyond question that we had almost within our clutches another British craft.
The cruise did not bid fair to be what is known as a “lucky” one if the game was to be found so few and far between; but we were ready to welcome anything that might break the monotony, even though it should be a Britisher that far out-classed us.
A little fighting then, with some blood-letting, would have been good medicine for those who were grown mutinous once more, and I fancied, from what could be told by the expression on the faces of the officers, that a regular battle, providing we might get the best of it, would be welcomed, even though there were no dollars to be gained.
We were not to overhaul this second Britisher without some labour, as we soon came to understand, for the brig was a smart sailer, and more than once before she was brought to did it appear as if she might succeed in giving us the slip, despite the good qualities of our ship.
From ten o’clock in the forenoon until nearly daybreak next morning, we staggered on under full press of canvas, not gaining more than two miles in all that time, and then Master Josh began to breed discontent by declaring that we were astern of no less a craft than theFlying Dutchmanherself.
“We’ll board her even if she’s full to the scuppers with ghosts,” the boatswain said, smiting his thigh with hishand as if bent on splintering the bone. “We’ve had enough of signs an’ tokens since this ’ere cruise began, an’ I’m comin’ to believe that our ill luck is caused by it. I’m not settin’ myself up to put this whole ship’s company into proper trim; but this much I’ll swear to, the next man who begins to croak about what’s goin’ to happen jest because a cross-grained timber went adrift in a gale, will come mighty nigh havin’ to settle the question once an’ for all with me. I’m not a fightin’ man naturally, neither am I willin’ to hear so much chin over nothin’ more’n might have been expected.”
Both Simon and I were fully prepared to see these words provoke such a quarrel as only the master-at-arms could quell; but to our surprise not a word was spoken in reply. Every man Jack of the croakers held his peace, although there were many among them, notably Master Josh, who might have given the boatswain more of a task than he wanted, had it come to a game of fisticuffs.
Most likely the fact that we were in chase of what might prove a rich prize prevented the men from indulging in a fight; but certain it is that the challenge, for it could be taken as nothing less, was not accepted.
I noted with considerable satisfaction, however, that we heard no more about omens during the remainder of the race, which came to an end about noon, with the British brigBenjaminlying to about half a mile to leeward, and Captain Ropes calling off a prize-crew to take her in charge.
This craft, the second we had taken, was bound forEngland from Newfoundland, laden with fish, and commanded by James Collins.
We took from her the mate and seven men, leaving on board her captain, one man, and a boy, and sent from theAmericaJoseph Dixon and eight men, with orders to make any port in the United States north of Nantucket.
There was no time spent in overhauling the prize. As soon as the prisoners could be brought aboard we were off, leaving Master Dixon to his own devices, so far as keeping clear of British armed vessels was concerned.
Both Simon and I had hoped the prisoners taken from theJames and Charlottewould be sent away; but instead of thus clearing the ship, we received an addition of eight others, and, what concerned us two lads most nearly, we were told off to care for the enemy in the way of keeping them supplied with food and water.
It was the most distasteful task ever set me; but there was no use in trying to cry off from it, and, even had it been ten times worse than really was the case, I would not have uttered a single word of complaint, save, perhaps, to my comrade, for there had been full and plenty of grumbling on this cruise.
Our duties, as we soon learned from the second officer, consisted in carrying from the cook’s quarters to the hold the food served out for each meal, and also to have an eye over the prisoners during a certain portion of each day, when the full crew was required to be on deck at the regular drill.
Thus it was that we two lads found ourselves beyondcontrol of Master Josh, who had not proven himself a very good instructor, owing to the severe attack of fear and grumbling which had come upon him with the carrying away of the topmast, and I for one was not sorry to make the change, although almost any other duty than that of guarding and feeding the prisoners would have been more to my liking.
I could not prevent a certain feeling of pity for these poor fellows, who were thus kept in close confinement for no other reason than that their king was at war with the United States, and it is possible that both us lads did somewhat toward making the imprisonment less irksome at times.