Chapter Sixteen.Righting the Ship.“Now, men!” cried out Captain Miles, when our excitement had calmed down a little, “we’ve got the axe; but, the next thing we have to do is to use it, so as to release the ship as soon as we can. I think, my lads, I ought to have the first turn.”So saying, taking the axe from Jake, he made a slash at the end of the hawser which had been rigged up over the head of the foremast, when, the strands being cut through after a couple of heavy strokes, the rope parted, curling up like a whip and flying up in the air with a pretty sharp report.“Now, Mr Marline, it’s your turn,” said the captain, having thus set an example in commencing the work; and then, the first mate, nothing loth, attacked the main-shrouds, severing them clear to the chain-plates, when he handed over the axe to Jackson, who also did wonders with the weapon towards clearing away the heavy rigging that had so long resisted the efforts of the men with their clasp-knives.The sea by this time was quite calm, thus greatly facilitating our labour; but, from our not having had any food for two days, all hands were very weak, and it took them a much longer time to free the ship of all her rope hamper and cordage than they would have achieved the task in if they had possessed their proper strength. It was, therefore, quite late on in the afternoon when the rigging on the port side was all detached, although Jake had recovered the axe at noon, and we had set to work immediately afterwards.This, however, was only a preliminary to the real labour that lay before us—that of cutting away the masts, a much more serious matter.The ship, it must be recollected, was lying completely over on her starboard side, with all her spars extended horizontally flat along the surface of the sea, which washed up to the hatches; so that, even amidships, the water was too deep for the men to have stood on the deck, even if they could have found foothold; there. Away ahead, the bows were completely submerged right up to the fore-chains, the ocean swell washing right through theJosephinefore and aft, right up to the poop.Luckily, however, the upper portion of the mainmast bitts projected out of the water, so, Jackson, climbing down on to these and supporting himself as well as he could by balancing his body with his feet | extended outwards straddle-ways, commenced to slash away at the mast here; while the rest of the men, under Mr Marline’s directions, proceeded to clear away the rigging and unreeve those ropes which they were able to reach, in order to leave the spar clear for Jackson to work upon it freely.It was a terribly tough job, though, the young seaman having to waste a part of each blow in the water that covered the foot of the mast. This neutralised his efforts, but he could not help it, for the axe splashed in the sea before touching the wood.After a short spell, Jackson, quite feeble from hunger and exhaustion, had to give in, when Moggridge took his place, chopping vigorously at the mast as long as he was able. Then, another sailor took a turn at it, and so on, until each had had his go; when Jackson, rested a bit and refreshed by a long drink of water, began anew, making the chips of the hard wood fly as well as the sea, which he splashed up at every stroke the spray going into his eyes and almost blinding him.All the men worked with the greatest perseverance in spite of their weak state; and, just before sunset, when the mast was about half cut through, it gave signs of at length yielding, sundry sharp cracks being heard as its natural buoyancy forced it to rise, the different purchases that previously held it to the deck being also now severed.“Bravo, men, one spell more all round, and we’ll have the spar loose!” cried Captain Miles, going down into the waist himself to head this last attack, and taking a longer turn with the axe than anyone.Blow after blow was then rained upon the heel of the mast, all working with fresh courage and determination as the ponderous piece of timber gave way before their efforts, a wide gaping hole having been now made in it by the axe.“Look out and stand clear!” shouted Jackson, catching on to the same old sling he had rove out of the topsail halliards by which he had lowered himself from the bulwarks, and swinging himself out of danger. “It’s coming at last!”At the same moment, a scrunching, wrenching sound was heard, followed by a long, loud crack; and then, up floated the mainmast cut off close to the deck, although still attached to the ship by the rigging on the starboard side—which could not be reached, of course, at present, being under water, and the sea covering it to the depth of ten or twelve feet.The effect of this relief to the ship was at once apparent, the forward portion of the wreck sensibly rising out of the sea, and the top of the forecastle being now visible, as well as the whole of the port bulwarks up to the cat-head on that side; while the main-deck below us, and the upper portion of the poop, became slanting at an angle towards the water on the starboard, instead of being almost perpendicular to it as before, thus showing that the centre of gravity was changed and the vessel recovering her stability.“Bravo, men!” exclaimed Captain Miles joyously, delighted at such confirmatory proofs that his hopes of righting theJosephinewere not unduly sanguine. “As soon as we get the foremast clear she’ll come up all standing, never fear! Can’t you see how the poor thing is trying hard to free herself now?”As the portion of the floating mast that was inboard now rose out of the water as far as the main-top, a party of the men with Moggridge scrambled on to it and began cutting away the various cross ropes, halliards, clew-lines, and so on, that held it to the fore and mizzen spars. The yards had now floated too, although the upper portion of the mainmast bearing their weight, as it slewed over, pressed on the starboard bulwarks, remaining in that position from the calmness of the sea, which had not motion enough to drift it away.“If only a slight breeze would spring up now, so as to rouse a little more swell, we’d float clear of this wreck,” observed Mr Marline. “Half the weight of the mast still tends to keep the ship down to leeward.”“Ah, we don’t want it rough yet,” said the captain. “The foremast is the main thing to get rid of now; and, unless the sea keeps still, we’ll never manage to cut that away, for it is still more under water than the mainmast was.”“I forgot that,” replied the mate; and then, both went along the bulwarks forwards to where Jackson was beginning operations at the other spar.If the mainmast had proved stubborn and unyielding, this was twenty times more so, the great difficulty being that there was no vantage-ground to be had, in the shape of a firm footing, from whence to ply the axe.“It’s no use, sir,” said Jackson, when the captain had come abreast of the spot where he was standing, in the fore-rigging, trying vainly to reach the mast below. “I can’t even touch the timber, much less make a blow at it!”“Well, all that can be done,” replied Captain Miles, “is to lighten it as much as possible. Cut away what rigging you are able to lay hands on, and if the sea gets up in the night it may work free.”“All right, sir,” said Jackson; so, he and the gang with him went to work with a will, slashing here and there at the cordage connecting the mast with the port side of the ship.Meanwhile, Jake had been very busy, proving himself quite as useful as the rest.Swimming like a fish he had gone into the sea near the wreck of the mainmast; and, with that long knife of his, which had done so much damage to the sharks, he began cutting away the fastenings of the topgallant-yard, although leaving the lee-braces intact, so that the spar could be hauled in by and by.Moggridge was on the mast, too, and, with his gang of men, was operating on the tressel-trees to free the lower yard; so that, before it was dark, the whole stick of the mainmast was nearly clear. Only the shrouds and stays on the starboard side now held it to the hull; and, consequently, when it felt inclined to shift its position athwart ship it could easily do so.Jackson, and those with him forward, having now done as much as they could to cast-off the foremast gear, Captain Miles hailed them to come aft.“I think,” said he, “if we can only contrive to cut away the mizzen, and a breeze springs up, as there seems every prospect of from these clouds to windward, then, through the greater buoyancy now possessed by the ship amidships and astern, the foremast will go of its own accord. At all events, we can try it; for, as you say, there isn’t any chance of our getting rid of it by any unaided efforts of our own.”The lighter spars that Jake and Moggridge had detached were now hauled in and made into a sort of raft, upon which Jackson and the whole lot of the crew clambered, proceeding to attack the mizzen-mast, the lower part of which spar was just out of the water.Slash, bang went the axe with a will, wielded by hands nerved with all the strength of desperation, each man cutting away as long as he could, and then another hand taking his turn. Even I was busy with a knife, sawing away at the thick ropes, and doing what I could to help the others.The mizzen, being of considerably less diameter than the mainmast, took a much less time to conquer; so, soon it gave way with a splintering crash, the jagged heel floating up in the same way as the other, and working about freely as the rigging was severed so that it could easily pass overboard.“Now, men, we may cry a spell,” said Captain Miles when the task was accomplished. “Nothing more can be done now. We must wait for a breeze to clear away the wreck, when, I’ve no doubt, the ship will right again.”“I’m sure I hope so, dear captain!” said I fervently. “Do you think she really will?”“Not a doubt of it, my boy,” he answered. “She would have never come up so far if she had meant to stop on her beam-ends. See, now! Why, I can almost stand up here on the poop, the deck has risen so much already. By the morning, I hope she’ll be right end uppermost again.”“But, how about our lodging for the night?” suggested Mr Marline. “If we lie along the bulwarks, in the same way as before, and the ship rights suddenly in the night, we’ll be all thrown in the water.”“I have thought of that,” said Captain Miles. “We’ll brace up this raft of spars here close in under the bulwarks inboard, and then we’ll be on the safe side of the hedge if she comes up while we’re napping! Let us have another drink of water now, Jackson, my lad, and turn in for the night, for I’ve no doubt you’re all pretty tired. I’m sorry I can’t pipe down to supper.”“You are not more sorry than I am,” put in Mr Marline drily. “I could eat with the greatest gusto the skeleton of my grandmother’s cat now!”This speech of his had the very effect he wished of making the men laugh at their privation. Judging by my own feelings, they must have felt terribly hungry and empty; for, instead of two days, it seemed two years since I had tasted food.I was fairly famishing!There was no chance yet, however, of our getting anything to eat; so, in accordance with Captain Miles’s directions, preparations were now made for our accommodation during the night, as the evening was beginning to close in and darkness to settle down on the face of the deep, veiling the waste of waters from the gaze of us poor shipwrecked fellows.The loose spars detached from the masts were hauled up lengthwise along the bulwarks on the inner side of the poop, where they were lashed securely so as to form a sort of shelf; and, on this, all hands now settled themselves as comfortably as they could—Captain Miles with Mr Marline and myself being on the after part of the structure, while Jackson with the others bunked down nearer the break of the poop; but, each man was separately tied, for greater precaution, in case of the sea getting up again and the waves breaking over the vessel.While we had been moving about exerting ourselves, the sense of hunger had not been so apparent, although all experienced its gnawing pain in a greater or less degree; but now, resting quietly, doing nothing and having to bear all the suspense of waiting for what might turn out possibly to be only an uncertainty on the morrow, the ravenous feeling that assailed us became almost unbearable, several of the men moaning and groaning in their sleep.As for myself, I know that when I dozed off in fragmentary snatches of sleep I dreamed of all sorts of splendid banquets, with nice dishes such as I had often tasted in the West Indies when dad gave a dinner-party; only to waken up in the still darkness and hear the melancholy wash of the sea surging up against the ship’s hull, with the creaking noise the masts made as they surged to and fro on the swell.Up to midnight, as far as we could tell the time, no breeze came; but, towards morning, a slight wind arose, when the sea became agitated, as we could hear from the sound of it breaking over the hull forwards, the ends of the masts worked to and fro more boisterously, grinding against the starboard bulwarks and tearing the timbers away bit by bit.“Ah!” I heard Captain Miles say, as if talking to himself, “this is our chance if it only does not get too rough.”The sound of his voice woke up Gottlieb, the remaining German sailor, who was lying near Jake, the latter being next me as usual.This man had taken the loss of his countryman a good deal to heart. Our hardships, besides, had affected his health; for, all of us noticed how ill he looked during the day when working at clearing away the masts.“I vas die!” he now exclaimed.“Dying? Nonsense, my man, not a bit of it,” cried Captain Miles. “Keep up your courage, and you’ll be worth a hundred dead men yet.”“Ach nein, I vas die, I knows,” replied the other, speaking solemnly in deep low tones.His German accent and mode of speech seemed to come out more strongly now than I had noticed before; and it flashed across my mind how I had once read somewhere that, when a man is at his last, though he may have lived amongst strangers for years and spoken a foreign tongue, he will then naturally go back to the language and thoughts of his own country.“Shall I get you some water?” asked Jackson, who was also awake and heard what Gottlieb had said.“Nein—no. I want not water, not nothing,” returned the other. “Listen, I’ve got to tell you sometings before I vas die. I did not speak before for fear to make mischief. You remember my poor frients Hermann?”“Aye,” said Captain Miles, now keenly attentive. “Poor fellow, he fell overboard and got caught by the sharks.”“Dat is what I vant explain,” painfully whispered the German, his voice failing him. “Hermann vas not fall overboard. He vas throwed over.”“Thrown over! How—by whom?” exclaimed the captain quite startled.“He vas throw over by Davis—he one bad man.”“Davis?” cried Captain Miles, all of us eagerly listening.“Ye–es. Davis, he grab holt of poor Hermann and say, ‘ah, you rascal, Jackson, I have you now,’ and den he pitch him over the side. Poor Hermann, he give one yell, for he vas sleep and not awaken yet, and den dere vas a splash and de sharks swallow him up!”“Good heavens, man!” cried Captain Miles, “why did you not tell us of this before?”“I vas afraid, and de man is now dead too; so I did not speak,” answered the other slowly.“Yes, he’s dead and gone to his account! I suppose we need not talk about him any more,” said the captain, deeply moved, adding a minute after, as if unable to keep his emotion to himself, “But, he was a scoundrel! I say, Jackson, you had a lucky escape from him last night!”“Thank God, sir, yes,” replied the young seaman. “He took a grudge to me from the first, before ever you promoted me, and that, of course, made him hate me afterwards more than ever. I did not think, though, he would have tried to take my life. I suppose that was the reason he looked so very strangely when he tried to clutch me before he jumped into the sea?”“Not a doubt of it,” said Mr Marline. “He seemed thunderstruck, I know, for I particularly noticed his look. He must have been surprised at seeing you there alive, when he thought he had already settled you for good and all!”“Well, he has met his own punishment,” answered Jackson; “and I do not bear him any ill-will now—or ever did for that matter. Let him rest.”“Aye,” said Captain Miles; “but, how’s Gottlieb going on—are you better, my man?”But, there was no answer to the captain’s question; and Jackson, bending over the German sailor, found his heart had ceased to beat, his body already becoming cold.“Golly, Mass’ Cap’en,” called out Jake, “him ’peak de trute dat time, suah, him dead as door-nail!”This news made everyone silent, each man thinking how soon his own time might come; and we anxiously awaited the morning.During the sad episode that had occurred the wind had risen, beginning to blow pretty strongly from the westwards. The sea, too, had got up, for short choppy waves were dashing against the stern of the ship and throwing their broken wash over us. This made our situation less comfortable than it had been previously, our worn-out bodies and hunger-stricken frames not being able to stand the exposure so well now as at first.The masts, also, were grinding against the bulwarks and making a horrible din, the crunching of the timber work and splintering noise of the planks almost deadening the noise of the sea and preventing us from hearing each other speak. Not that we felt much inclined for conversation, answering for myself; for, I was chilled to the bone from the cool evening air penetrating my wet clothes, which got more and more saturated as the waves came over the poop, while I was faint with hunger and exhausted from want of sleep.Thus the weary night passed, the sky being clouded over so that even the lights of heaven could not shine down to cheer us up; and, to add to the bitterness of our unhappy plight, our hearts were full of the untimely end of poor Gottlieb, the German sailor who had passed away so suddenly from amongst us, and the shocking disclosure he had made just before his tired spirit sought eternal rest, of the treachery of Davis—whose terrible fate, in front of our very eyes, seemed a just judgment for his murder of Hermann and foiled vengeance on Jackson, the latter of whom had evidently only escaped with his life through the wretched man’s mistake.At last, when it seemed as if we could hold out no longer, a faint gleam appeared in the east lighting up the horizon, and morning dawned gloomily upon us; but, a heavy mist hung over the sea and it took the rays of the rising sun a long time to pierce through this, albeit there was light enough for us to survey the scene around.The ocean now, instead of rising and falling with the sullen swell that had given motion to it the day before, was covered with short broken waves that rolled up from the westwards with the wind, dashing against the partly-submerged vessel and throwing clouds of spray over those portions of the hull above the surface of the water, a large share of which we also came in for.This motion of the sea, we could perceive, had considerably altered the position of the masts that had been cut away, for they were rolling over and grinding down the starboard bulwarks, the inboard ends working themselves gradually fore and aft the ship, the lee side of which had risen quite a couple of feet higher out of the water during the night.“Another good wave or two will send all that hamper adrift,” said Captain Miles, looking round and calculating our chances.“Yes,” replied Mr Marline, “they are coming from the right direction too, for if they broke over us abeam, then the foremast could not free itself. Now it possibly may, from the leverage it has against the fo’c’s’le.”“You’re right,” said the captain; “and here comes a good-sized roller that may finish the job. Look out, lads, and hold on!”Onward, as we gazed astern, came a large green sea, with a white angry crest, swelling larger and larger as it got nearer, until it almost hung above the poop before breaking.“Hold on, lads, hold on!” cried the captain, repeating his previous warning, when, with a dull thud the mass of water broke, covering us all with a sheet of foam that drenched us through and through, almost swept us away from our lashings—the spars that supported us being lifted up from the deck and then dropped again as suddenly.At the same time, there was a heavy crash heard forward, and the ship lurched as if she were going to founder. She quivered all over, and her timbers creaked and groaned.Next, she rolled heavily more over to starboard, as the wave which had broken over us sped onwards, washing the waist and forecastle; and then, with another great crash the mizzen and mainmasts rolled into the sea, and the port side of the ship that was under water rose up clear.The foremast, which had broken away when we heard that great crash forwards had been snapped off just below the slings of the fore-yard, and had followed its companions overboard, although still towed alongside by the stays and starboard rigging that also held the other spars; and, the next instant, with an upward bound theJosephinerighted. At the same moment, the water that had filled the cabin and waist and forecastle poured out on either side through the scuppers and broken bulwarks; while the sunken part of the poop and lower deck rose high and dry again as we looked on, hardly believing that what we had so anxiously awaited and striven for had come to pass at last.“Thank God!” exclaimed Captain Miles in a voice faltering with emotion; while several of the men, quite unnerved, burst into tears.
“Now, men!” cried out Captain Miles, when our excitement had calmed down a little, “we’ve got the axe; but, the next thing we have to do is to use it, so as to release the ship as soon as we can. I think, my lads, I ought to have the first turn.”
So saying, taking the axe from Jake, he made a slash at the end of the hawser which had been rigged up over the head of the foremast, when, the strands being cut through after a couple of heavy strokes, the rope parted, curling up like a whip and flying up in the air with a pretty sharp report.
“Now, Mr Marline, it’s your turn,” said the captain, having thus set an example in commencing the work; and then, the first mate, nothing loth, attacked the main-shrouds, severing them clear to the chain-plates, when he handed over the axe to Jackson, who also did wonders with the weapon towards clearing away the heavy rigging that had so long resisted the efforts of the men with their clasp-knives.
The sea by this time was quite calm, thus greatly facilitating our labour; but, from our not having had any food for two days, all hands were very weak, and it took them a much longer time to free the ship of all her rope hamper and cordage than they would have achieved the task in if they had possessed their proper strength. It was, therefore, quite late on in the afternoon when the rigging on the port side was all detached, although Jake had recovered the axe at noon, and we had set to work immediately afterwards.
This, however, was only a preliminary to the real labour that lay before us—that of cutting away the masts, a much more serious matter.
The ship, it must be recollected, was lying completely over on her starboard side, with all her spars extended horizontally flat along the surface of the sea, which washed up to the hatches; so that, even amidships, the water was too deep for the men to have stood on the deck, even if they could have found foothold; there. Away ahead, the bows were completely submerged right up to the fore-chains, the ocean swell washing right through theJosephinefore and aft, right up to the poop.
Luckily, however, the upper portion of the mainmast bitts projected out of the water, so, Jackson, climbing down on to these and supporting himself as well as he could by balancing his body with his feet | extended outwards straddle-ways, commenced to slash away at the mast here; while the rest of the men, under Mr Marline’s directions, proceeded to clear away the rigging and unreeve those ropes which they were able to reach, in order to leave the spar clear for Jackson to work upon it freely.
It was a terribly tough job, though, the young seaman having to waste a part of each blow in the water that covered the foot of the mast. This neutralised his efforts, but he could not help it, for the axe splashed in the sea before touching the wood.
After a short spell, Jackson, quite feeble from hunger and exhaustion, had to give in, when Moggridge took his place, chopping vigorously at the mast as long as he was able. Then, another sailor took a turn at it, and so on, until each had had his go; when Jackson, rested a bit and refreshed by a long drink of water, began anew, making the chips of the hard wood fly as well as the sea, which he splashed up at every stroke the spray going into his eyes and almost blinding him.
All the men worked with the greatest perseverance in spite of their weak state; and, just before sunset, when the mast was about half cut through, it gave signs of at length yielding, sundry sharp cracks being heard as its natural buoyancy forced it to rise, the different purchases that previously held it to the deck being also now severed.
“Bravo, men, one spell more all round, and we’ll have the spar loose!” cried Captain Miles, going down into the waist himself to head this last attack, and taking a longer turn with the axe than anyone.
Blow after blow was then rained upon the heel of the mast, all working with fresh courage and determination as the ponderous piece of timber gave way before their efforts, a wide gaping hole having been now made in it by the axe.
“Look out and stand clear!” shouted Jackson, catching on to the same old sling he had rove out of the topsail halliards by which he had lowered himself from the bulwarks, and swinging himself out of danger. “It’s coming at last!”
At the same moment, a scrunching, wrenching sound was heard, followed by a long, loud crack; and then, up floated the mainmast cut off close to the deck, although still attached to the ship by the rigging on the starboard side—which could not be reached, of course, at present, being under water, and the sea covering it to the depth of ten or twelve feet.
The effect of this relief to the ship was at once apparent, the forward portion of the wreck sensibly rising out of the sea, and the top of the forecastle being now visible, as well as the whole of the port bulwarks up to the cat-head on that side; while the main-deck below us, and the upper portion of the poop, became slanting at an angle towards the water on the starboard, instead of being almost perpendicular to it as before, thus showing that the centre of gravity was changed and the vessel recovering her stability.
“Bravo, men!” exclaimed Captain Miles joyously, delighted at such confirmatory proofs that his hopes of righting theJosephinewere not unduly sanguine. “As soon as we get the foremast clear she’ll come up all standing, never fear! Can’t you see how the poor thing is trying hard to free herself now?”
As the portion of the floating mast that was inboard now rose out of the water as far as the main-top, a party of the men with Moggridge scrambled on to it and began cutting away the various cross ropes, halliards, clew-lines, and so on, that held it to the fore and mizzen spars. The yards had now floated too, although the upper portion of the mainmast bearing their weight, as it slewed over, pressed on the starboard bulwarks, remaining in that position from the calmness of the sea, which had not motion enough to drift it away.
“If only a slight breeze would spring up now, so as to rouse a little more swell, we’d float clear of this wreck,” observed Mr Marline. “Half the weight of the mast still tends to keep the ship down to leeward.”
“Ah, we don’t want it rough yet,” said the captain. “The foremast is the main thing to get rid of now; and, unless the sea keeps still, we’ll never manage to cut that away, for it is still more under water than the mainmast was.”
“I forgot that,” replied the mate; and then, both went along the bulwarks forwards to where Jackson was beginning operations at the other spar.
If the mainmast had proved stubborn and unyielding, this was twenty times more so, the great difficulty being that there was no vantage-ground to be had, in the shape of a firm footing, from whence to ply the axe.
“It’s no use, sir,” said Jackson, when the captain had come abreast of the spot where he was standing, in the fore-rigging, trying vainly to reach the mast below. “I can’t even touch the timber, much less make a blow at it!”
“Well, all that can be done,” replied Captain Miles, “is to lighten it as much as possible. Cut away what rigging you are able to lay hands on, and if the sea gets up in the night it may work free.”
“All right, sir,” said Jackson; so, he and the gang with him went to work with a will, slashing here and there at the cordage connecting the mast with the port side of the ship.
Meanwhile, Jake had been very busy, proving himself quite as useful as the rest.
Swimming like a fish he had gone into the sea near the wreck of the mainmast; and, with that long knife of his, which had done so much damage to the sharks, he began cutting away the fastenings of the topgallant-yard, although leaving the lee-braces intact, so that the spar could be hauled in by and by.
Moggridge was on the mast, too, and, with his gang of men, was operating on the tressel-trees to free the lower yard; so that, before it was dark, the whole stick of the mainmast was nearly clear. Only the shrouds and stays on the starboard side now held it to the hull; and, consequently, when it felt inclined to shift its position athwart ship it could easily do so.
Jackson, and those with him forward, having now done as much as they could to cast-off the foremast gear, Captain Miles hailed them to come aft.
“I think,” said he, “if we can only contrive to cut away the mizzen, and a breeze springs up, as there seems every prospect of from these clouds to windward, then, through the greater buoyancy now possessed by the ship amidships and astern, the foremast will go of its own accord. At all events, we can try it; for, as you say, there isn’t any chance of our getting rid of it by any unaided efforts of our own.”
The lighter spars that Jake and Moggridge had detached were now hauled in and made into a sort of raft, upon which Jackson and the whole lot of the crew clambered, proceeding to attack the mizzen-mast, the lower part of which spar was just out of the water.
Slash, bang went the axe with a will, wielded by hands nerved with all the strength of desperation, each man cutting away as long as he could, and then another hand taking his turn. Even I was busy with a knife, sawing away at the thick ropes, and doing what I could to help the others.
The mizzen, being of considerably less diameter than the mainmast, took a much less time to conquer; so, soon it gave way with a splintering crash, the jagged heel floating up in the same way as the other, and working about freely as the rigging was severed so that it could easily pass overboard.
“Now, men, we may cry a spell,” said Captain Miles when the task was accomplished. “Nothing more can be done now. We must wait for a breeze to clear away the wreck, when, I’ve no doubt, the ship will right again.”
“I’m sure I hope so, dear captain!” said I fervently. “Do you think she really will?”
“Not a doubt of it, my boy,” he answered. “She would have never come up so far if she had meant to stop on her beam-ends. See, now! Why, I can almost stand up here on the poop, the deck has risen so much already. By the morning, I hope she’ll be right end uppermost again.”
“But, how about our lodging for the night?” suggested Mr Marline. “If we lie along the bulwarks, in the same way as before, and the ship rights suddenly in the night, we’ll be all thrown in the water.”
“I have thought of that,” said Captain Miles. “We’ll brace up this raft of spars here close in under the bulwarks inboard, and then we’ll be on the safe side of the hedge if she comes up while we’re napping! Let us have another drink of water now, Jackson, my lad, and turn in for the night, for I’ve no doubt you’re all pretty tired. I’m sorry I can’t pipe down to supper.”
“You are not more sorry than I am,” put in Mr Marline drily. “I could eat with the greatest gusto the skeleton of my grandmother’s cat now!”
This speech of his had the very effect he wished of making the men laugh at their privation. Judging by my own feelings, they must have felt terribly hungry and empty; for, instead of two days, it seemed two years since I had tasted food.
I was fairly famishing!
There was no chance yet, however, of our getting anything to eat; so, in accordance with Captain Miles’s directions, preparations were now made for our accommodation during the night, as the evening was beginning to close in and darkness to settle down on the face of the deep, veiling the waste of waters from the gaze of us poor shipwrecked fellows.
The loose spars detached from the masts were hauled up lengthwise along the bulwarks on the inner side of the poop, where they were lashed securely so as to form a sort of shelf; and, on this, all hands now settled themselves as comfortably as they could—Captain Miles with Mr Marline and myself being on the after part of the structure, while Jackson with the others bunked down nearer the break of the poop; but, each man was separately tied, for greater precaution, in case of the sea getting up again and the waves breaking over the vessel.
While we had been moving about exerting ourselves, the sense of hunger had not been so apparent, although all experienced its gnawing pain in a greater or less degree; but now, resting quietly, doing nothing and having to bear all the suspense of waiting for what might turn out possibly to be only an uncertainty on the morrow, the ravenous feeling that assailed us became almost unbearable, several of the men moaning and groaning in their sleep.
As for myself, I know that when I dozed off in fragmentary snatches of sleep I dreamed of all sorts of splendid banquets, with nice dishes such as I had often tasted in the West Indies when dad gave a dinner-party; only to waken up in the still darkness and hear the melancholy wash of the sea surging up against the ship’s hull, with the creaking noise the masts made as they surged to and fro on the swell.
Up to midnight, as far as we could tell the time, no breeze came; but, towards morning, a slight wind arose, when the sea became agitated, as we could hear from the sound of it breaking over the hull forwards, the ends of the masts worked to and fro more boisterously, grinding against the starboard bulwarks and tearing the timbers away bit by bit.
“Ah!” I heard Captain Miles say, as if talking to himself, “this is our chance if it only does not get too rough.”
The sound of his voice woke up Gottlieb, the remaining German sailor, who was lying near Jake, the latter being next me as usual.
This man had taken the loss of his countryman a good deal to heart. Our hardships, besides, had affected his health; for, all of us noticed how ill he looked during the day when working at clearing away the masts.
“I vas die!” he now exclaimed.
“Dying? Nonsense, my man, not a bit of it,” cried Captain Miles. “Keep up your courage, and you’ll be worth a hundred dead men yet.”
“Ach nein, I vas die, I knows,” replied the other, speaking solemnly in deep low tones.
His German accent and mode of speech seemed to come out more strongly now than I had noticed before; and it flashed across my mind how I had once read somewhere that, when a man is at his last, though he may have lived amongst strangers for years and spoken a foreign tongue, he will then naturally go back to the language and thoughts of his own country.
“Shall I get you some water?” asked Jackson, who was also awake and heard what Gottlieb had said.
“Nein—no. I want not water, not nothing,” returned the other. “Listen, I’ve got to tell you sometings before I vas die. I did not speak before for fear to make mischief. You remember my poor frients Hermann?”
“Aye,” said Captain Miles, now keenly attentive. “Poor fellow, he fell overboard and got caught by the sharks.”
“Dat is what I vant explain,” painfully whispered the German, his voice failing him. “Hermann vas not fall overboard. He vas throwed over.”
“Thrown over! How—by whom?” exclaimed the captain quite startled.
“He vas throw over by Davis—he one bad man.”
“Davis?” cried Captain Miles, all of us eagerly listening.
“Ye–es. Davis, he grab holt of poor Hermann and say, ‘ah, you rascal, Jackson, I have you now,’ and den he pitch him over the side. Poor Hermann, he give one yell, for he vas sleep and not awaken yet, and den dere vas a splash and de sharks swallow him up!”
“Good heavens, man!” cried Captain Miles, “why did you not tell us of this before?”
“I vas afraid, and de man is now dead too; so I did not speak,” answered the other slowly.
“Yes, he’s dead and gone to his account! I suppose we need not talk about him any more,” said the captain, deeply moved, adding a minute after, as if unable to keep his emotion to himself, “But, he was a scoundrel! I say, Jackson, you had a lucky escape from him last night!”
“Thank God, sir, yes,” replied the young seaman. “He took a grudge to me from the first, before ever you promoted me, and that, of course, made him hate me afterwards more than ever. I did not think, though, he would have tried to take my life. I suppose that was the reason he looked so very strangely when he tried to clutch me before he jumped into the sea?”
“Not a doubt of it,” said Mr Marline. “He seemed thunderstruck, I know, for I particularly noticed his look. He must have been surprised at seeing you there alive, when he thought he had already settled you for good and all!”
“Well, he has met his own punishment,” answered Jackson; “and I do not bear him any ill-will now—or ever did for that matter. Let him rest.”
“Aye,” said Captain Miles; “but, how’s Gottlieb going on—are you better, my man?”
But, there was no answer to the captain’s question; and Jackson, bending over the German sailor, found his heart had ceased to beat, his body already becoming cold.
“Golly, Mass’ Cap’en,” called out Jake, “him ’peak de trute dat time, suah, him dead as door-nail!”
This news made everyone silent, each man thinking how soon his own time might come; and we anxiously awaited the morning.
During the sad episode that had occurred the wind had risen, beginning to blow pretty strongly from the westwards. The sea, too, had got up, for short choppy waves were dashing against the stern of the ship and throwing their broken wash over us. This made our situation less comfortable than it had been previously, our worn-out bodies and hunger-stricken frames not being able to stand the exposure so well now as at first.
The masts, also, were grinding against the bulwarks and making a horrible din, the crunching of the timber work and splintering noise of the planks almost deadening the noise of the sea and preventing us from hearing each other speak. Not that we felt much inclined for conversation, answering for myself; for, I was chilled to the bone from the cool evening air penetrating my wet clothes, which got more and more saturated as the waves came over the poop, while I was faint with hunger and exhausted from want of sleep.
Thus the weary night passed, the sky being clouded over so that even the lights of heaven could not shine down to cheer us up; and, to add to the bitterness of our unhappy plight, our hearts were full of the untimely end of poor Gottlieb, the German sailor who had passed away so suddenly from amongst us, and the shocking disclosure he had made just before his tired spirit sought eternal rest, of the treachery of Davis—whose terrible fate, in front of our very eyes, seemed a just judgment for his murder of Hermann and foiled vengeance on Jackson, the latter of whom had evidently only escaped with his life through the wretched man’s mistake.
At last, when it seemed as if we could hold out no longer, a faint gleam appeared in the east lighting up the horizon, and morning dawned gloomily upon us; but, a heavy mist hung over the sea and it took the rays of the rising sun a long time to pierce through this, albeit there was light enough for us to survey the scene around.
The ocean now, instead of rising and falling with the sullen swell that had given motion to it the day before, was covered with short broken waves that rolled up from the westwards with the wind, dashing against the partly-submerged vessel and throwing clouds of spray over those portions of the hull above the surface of the water, a large share of which we also came in for.
This motion of the sea, we could perceive, had considerably altered the position of the masts that had been cut away, for they were rolling over and grinding down the starboard bulwarks, the inboard ends working themselves gradually fore and aft the ship, the lee side of which had risen quite a couple of feet higher out of the water during the night.
“Another good wave or two will send all that hamper adrift,” said Captain Miles, looking round and calculating our chances.
“Yes,” replied Mr Marline, “they are coming from the right direction too, for if they broke over us abeam, then the foremast could not free itself. Now it possibly may, from the leverage it has against the fo’c’s’le.”
“You’re right,” said the captain; “and here comes a good-sized roller that may finish the job. Look out, lads, and hold on!”
Onward, as we gazed astern, came a large green sea, with a white angry crest, swelling larger and larger as it got nearer, until it almost hung above the poop before breaking.
“Hold on, lads, hold on!” cried the captain, repeating his previous warning, when, with a dull thud the mass of water broke, covering us all with a sheet of foam that drenched us through and through, almost swept us away from our lashings—the spars that supported us being lifted up from the deck and then dropped again as suddenly.
At the same time, there was a heavy crash heard forward, and the ship lurched as if she were going to founder. She quivered all over, and her timbers creaked and groaned.
Next, she rolled heavily more over to starboard, as the wave which had broken over us sped onwards, washing the waist and forecastle; and then, with another great crash the mizzen and mainmasts rolled into the sea, and the port side of the ship that was under water rose up clear.
The foremast, which had broken away when we heard that great crash forwards had been snapped off just below the slings of the fore-yard, and had followed its companions overboard, although still towed alongside by the stays and starboard rigging that also held the other spars; and, the next instant, with an upward bound theJosephinerighted. At the same moment, the water that had filled the cabin and waist and forecastle poured out on either side through the scuppers and broken bulwarks; while the sunken part of the poop and lower deck rose high and dry again as we looked on, hardly believing that what we had so anxiously awaited and striven for had come to pass at last.
“Thank God!” exclaimed Captain Miles in a voice faltering with emotion; while several of the men, quite unnerved, burst into tears.
Chapter Seventeen.“A Baker’s Dozen.”“Do you know what day it is?” observed Captain Miles presently, as we were all busily engaged freeing ourselves from the lashings that held us to the spars, preparing to stand on the deck once more in an upright position and stretch our sadly cramped legs, our movements for so many hours having been much restricted.“No,” replied Mr Marline, taking the question to himself as he stamped his feet vigorously to restore the circulation of the stagnant blood. “I have lost all count nearly of time during this awful week!—Saturday, is it not—or Monday?”“You are a little behind in one guess and too far ahead in the other!” said the captain quietly. “It is Sunday, the seventh day since our trials began.”“Well,” responded the other; “it is a lucky day for us, whatever it may be, sir. I confess I never expected such a fortunate ending as this to our sad misfortunes. I had made up my mind that we must go to the bottom; and pretty soon too, after the wind rose again!”“I hoped for the best,” answered Captain Miles, shaking himself like a big Newfoundland dog, and stepping gingerly along the poop as if half afraid to walk. “I never despaired even in our darkest hour; and I’m glad to say I didn’t, for I trusted in Providence! But come,” he added, with all his old brisk manner restored in a moment, smiling cheerfully, “we must see about getting things ship-shape around us; for it would be a poor return for the mercy we have received to sit down idly now and do nothing to help ourselves. Look alive, men, there’s plenty to see to!”There was; so much, indeed, that it almost seemed a puzzle where to begin.Our first consideration was the masts, which were still attached to the hull by all the starboard rigging, and were banging against that side of the vessel with each send of the sea, threatening to knock the lower timbers in; so, a working party being quickly organised under the indefatigable Jackson, the axe was called into use again and the remaining shrouds cut away, the fore and main-braces being passed round the stump of the foremast, which stood some twenty feet or so from the deck, in order to prevent the span from going adrift when the shrouds parted.The lee rigging, tautened by the strain of the masts dependent from it, was soon severed; and then, the ship being more buoyant, floated away some yards leeward—the spars veered out to the length of the braces, serving as a sort of breakwater and keeping the waves from coming in over the bows as she tended, for her stern at once coming round caused her to ride easily, head to wind, just as if she were anchored.“Now, men,” cried Captain Miles when this was managed, and no pressing danger stared us in the face, “we must now see whether we can’t get up anything to eat from the after-hold. I daresay you fellows feel a bit hungry, eh?”You should have only seen the look on every face when he said this!The very idea of food made all ravenous; and it was as much as Captain Miles could do to prevent the hands from rushing in a body into the cabin.The men seemed inclined to eat him when he put out his hand to stop them.“Take it coolly!” he sang out, pushing one or two back that had pressed forwards. “I will see that you’ve not long to wait. Jake, you know your way below, I believe?”“Iss, massa,” replied the darkey with a broad grin. “Harry bery often sen’ me down to get stores when um busy.”“Ah, the poor fellow, I had forgotten him,” ejaculated the captain, entering the cabin at once and going towards the steward’s pantry; but he had to pick his steps carefully, the place being heaped up with a variety of things that had been swept out of the different berths by the sea, and were washing up and down for more than two days.As Captain Miles had surmised, the mulatto had been drowned inside the little apartment devoted to his use; for there his body was now found, the colour of the skin nearly white through the action of the water. The corpse was brought out and laid reverently under the break of the poop by a couple of sailors whom the captain called into the cabin for the purpose; after which he and Jake then proceeded to unfasten the hatches leading down into the after-hold in search of provisions for the living, there being plenty of time to attend to the obsequies of the dead later on when our more urgent needs were supplied.Cuffee the cook during this interval had gone forward to look after his old galley; and loud was his lament to find it washed away, its weight having parted the strong lashings that secured it to the ring-bolts in the deck when the ship capsized.“Boderation!” he exclaimed. “How can um cook w’en dere’s nuffin’ to cook, an’ no place to cook in?”“Belay that grumblin’ o’ yourn, darkey,” cried old Moggridge, who had been poking about amongst a heap of the debris of ropes and broken spars and gear that were piled in a heap between the windlass bitts and the top of the topgallant forecastle. “I do believe your blessed old caboose hasn’t been washed overboard arter all! Here it is, only on its beam-ends like the ship was an hour ago; but I daresay all your pots and pans are all right inside.”“Golly, bosun, does you mean dat?” exclaimed Cuffee, going up quickly to where Moggridge was standing, inspecting the mass of heterogeneous things that had fetched up in the corner, consisting of a portion of one of the anchor-stocks, the men’s clothes and traps washed out from their bunks, mess-tins, and all sorts of stray dunnage. “You tell me de galley am right an’ safe, for true, hey?”“Why, there it is, you ugly varmint! Can’t you see it for yourself?” retorted the old seaman, rather nettled at having his word doubted.“Lor’ a mussy, dere it am!” ejaculated Cuffee, highly delighted when his own eyes confirmed the fact. “Golly, Bosun, we can cook sumfin’ now!”“I don’t know how you’re going to manage that as it stands,” said Moggridge sarcastically. “Strikes me you’d better see about rigging it up properly first!”“I’se spec’ you’ll help, Massa Bosun,” hinted the darky cook in an obsequious way; “you clebber man, Massa Moggridge, an’ knows how to bowse tings up.”“Oh, yes; I don’t want any of your blarney now, Cuffee. I fancy we’re all hungry enough to eat anything raw when we gets it, without botherin’ about cooking to-day at any rate!”A grunt of assent came from all the hands standing by at this remark; and I then turned round to see what Captain Miles and Jake were about in the cabin. I had not yet entered that apartment, the finding of the steward’s dead body having scared me away. The pallid corpse looked so ghastly and terrible!As I turned to go to the after portion of the vessel I was almost afraid that I should see the dead body of the steward again; but on reaching the entrance to the cabin I noticed a tarpaulin covering it in the corner, and I went hastily by, turning my face away, and bolting within the swing doors.Here, if the jumble of miscellaneous odds and ends under the break of the forecastle had struck me as strange, the confusion was ever so much worse; for, nothing having been washed out, the entire furniture of every separate berth, as well as of the main saloon, were mixed together in one indistinguishable mass—clothes, books, food and crockery-ware, perishable and imperishable goods alike, all mingled in one inharmonious whole.Blankets, bedding, and pillows were piled on the chairs and benches that had surrounded the centre table, which article, with its legs upstanding, was jammed into the captain’s own sanctum, half in and half out, like the cow had been; while the fragments of plates and dishes, coffee-pots and glass-ware of all description, were scattered on the floor in every direction. Captain Miles’s sextant and the tell-tale compass, that used to hang from the middle of the ceiling of the deck above, reposed peaceably together on the top of a double Gloucester cheese. Every variety of eatable was mixed up higgledy piggledy with articles for table use, and all sorts of known and unknown garments.My trunk had not escaped the general destruction, the new outfit with which I had been provided being all spoilt; while some pictures and various cherished mementoes of my old West Indian home shared the fate of Mr Marline’s wardrobe and the captain’s kit.Indeed, the sea had performed its scouring work so well, that it would have puzzled a wiser man than Solomon to have decided what was each individual’s personal property, the whole having been thrown together like one of the odd lots at an auction sale.After surveying the medley for a few moments, my attention was attracted to Captain Miles and Jake, the latter of whom was down within the store-room under the hatch in the stern-sheets, only his woolly head projecting, handing up several tins of potted meats and bags of biscuit to the captain; while the latter was placing these as he received them on a clear space of the deck from which he had swept the broken refuse away, checking off the things as Jake ferreted them out from below, his head bobbing down and up again each moment.“There,” said Captain Miles, as I came up to the two; “three bags of biscuit, four seven-pound tins of boiled mutton, two tins of preserved vegetables, one ham, one cheese, six pounds of coffee, and one firkin of butter. I think that will do. But, where is the sugar I told you to get out, Jake?”“Here he am,” replied the darkey, handing another bag up. “Dat’s fine sugar, sah, for de cabin table.”“And where is the other sort?” asked the captain.“Um here too; but cask too big for dis chile to lift.”“Then you must get out more in something smaller, for the men’s coffee in the morning,” said Captain Miles. “I don’t want them to be treated differently to myself, and I know I like sugar in mine.”“Yah, yah, massa too good,” laughed Jake; but he proceeded to obey the captain’s orders, and another bag was soon added to the pile on the floor of the cabin awaiting distribution.“Now, Tom,” said Captain Miles to me, “run and call in a couple of the hands to take out their rations. I’m going to serve out the grub at once, and we may as well all eat together.”It should be mentioned that all these preparations, although I have taken so long to describe them, did not take up much time, the captain knowing from his own feeling that the men were all starving, and not keeping them an instant longer without food than he could help.On receipt of his order, therefore, I hastened away, returning almost immediately with one of the sailors and Cuffee, who asserted his right of coming for the food; but, while I was absent Jake had procured a knife that was used for opening the tins of preserved meat out of the steward’s pantry, where, from its being hung on a hook, it had escaped being lost among the other débris. With this useful little article he now proceeded to take off the tops of the cases containing the boiled mutton, Cuffee and his assistant parcelling the same out under the captain’s eye.The cabin table had been set upon its legs again and the provisions placed upon it, when the men being ordered to file in, Captain Miles distributed a small portion of the meat with a couple of biscuits to each. He advised them to eat slowly and moderately, saying that if they did otherwise they would feel very badly afterwards, on account of having gone so long without food.Mr Marline and Jackson and myself were also rationed out in similar fashion, each and all of us, irrespective of position, being treated on an equality and Captain Miles himself only taking the same quantity that he gave us; then, when all had thus broken their fast, the men were dismissed and allowed to carry off away forward the greater portion of the provisions that had been got out for them, although with strict injunctions still to eat sparingly, at all events on this first day of their tasting any nourishment. They were likewise told to be careful not to drink too much water, Jackson, who had charge of the cask, being ordered to use discretion.“We are only thirteen all told now aft—a baker’s dozen, men,” said the captain, “and I wish to carry you home in good health with me to England; so, mind what you are after, for my sake if not for your own! We have weathered the gale, and stuck to the ship though bottom upwards, for nigh on three days, braving the perils of the deep in the way of sharks and such like; consequently I think it would be hard lines on me if I couldn’t fetch you safe into port in the end.”“You’re a real good sort, Cap’en Miles, that’s what you are!” cried Moggridge—acting as spokesman for the rest by general consent apparently, for the others gave a subdued sort of cheer that seemed to intimate their acquiescence in his remarks—“and I thinks as how we’d be no better nor brute beasts if we weren’t to act as how you advises, eh, lads?”“Aye, aye,” chorused the rest affirmatively.“That’s all right then,” said Captain Miles. “You can see I don’t want to stint you, for I’ve only given you these few supplies to carry you on until we can get to the ship’s stores in the main hold. You may go forward now, and I’d recommend you to get out all your duds and hang ’em out to dry as soon as you can, so as to have a shift bye and bye, and that’ll do you as much good as the grub.”The hands then retired from the cabin, leaving only the captain and Mr Marline and I there, Jackson going out into the waist too, in order to draw some water and serve it out by the captain’s directions.“Oh, Captain Miles!” I exclaimed when we were thus left together, “all my clothes are spoilt.”“And oh, Master Tom!” he retorted, “how about my poor chronometers? They’ve stopped and will never go again, I suppose, till they’ve been put in dry dock in London and had a thorough overhaul, salt water not agreeing with their constitutions as it does with some folk. By Jove, though, Marline, I never thought of that before. I shall be puzzled how to get my longitude bye and bye, I fancy.”“My old watch is going, sir,” said the mate. “I set it by the ship’s time before our capsize, and it goes pretty correctly, for I didn’t forget to wind it up all the time we were spread-eagling on the bulwarks.”“You didn’t?” cried the captain. “You’re a wonderful fellow, Marline, and you ought to be Archbishop of Canterbury or something! You say you set it by the ship’s time on Thursday?”“I don’t know what day it was, sir, but it was the last time you took the sun,” replied the other.“Then, at that time, I recollect, we were in 32 degrees north latitude and 40 degrees west longitude. Ha, humph, I see! That will give us pretty well the time at Greenwich, with a little deduction. It’s all right, Marline, I have it. Mind, though, you don’t let the old turnip run down.”“Turnip, indeed!” exclaimed Mr Marline in pretended indignation, winking at me. “Just you hear him, Master Tom!”“Well, well, I beg its pardon and yours,” said the captain laughing; “but, let us get out of this disgraceful hole and go out on deck to see what the weather is like. Jake!”“Iss, massa,” replied the darkey, who, I forgot to mention, remained behind when the rest of the crew went forwards.“I’m going to make you steward in poor Harry’s place,” said Captain Miles.“Iss, massa,” responded Jake, greatly pleased at the honour thus bestowed on him, and making a low how with a scrape back of his left foot, according to negro etiquette, in acknowledgment of the favour.“Look out, my lad, and make matters snug here as well as you can. You may call in your brother darkey the cook to help you, if you like.”“Golly, massa, me do him much betterer own self,” replied Jake grinning hugely. “Dat Cuffee bery lazy sometimes.”“Well, well, that’s like the pot calling the kettle black, I fancy,” said Captain Miles smiling. “However, you can please yourself, and get any of the hands you may want to assist in lifting back the bunks and so on in their proper places—some of the things may be too heavy for you. At all events, make the saloon presentable before we come down again, and swab up the deck.”“That’s a willing fellow,” he added to Mr Marline, as we went out and mounted the poop-ladder. “I never saw a negro so handy, so plucky, and so willing.”“Thank you, Captain Miles,” I said, taking the compliment to myself, as having a sort of family ownership in Jake.“Why, what have you got to do with it, Tom Eastman?” he asked in his humorous way, poking fun at me.“Well, captain, I don’t think you’d ever have seen him on board if it hadn’t been for me,” I retorted.“You’re right there, but I’ll thank you for his passage-money, then, Master Tom,” said he, laughing at his joke and I too joining in, our wonderful good fortune having restored all our spirits amazingly.The sun now came out and the day became bright and cheerful, with a gentle soft breeze blowing from the south-west which was just sufficient to curl the crests of the waves and make the sea sparkling, the heavy waves of the morning having lessened considerably and the whole expanse of the ocean dancing before our eyes in the warm light of the noontide.“I see,” observed Mr Marline, “the hands have quickly acted on your advice about drying their clothes.”“Aye, poor fellows; and time enough, too, for they haven’t had a dry rag on them, I believe, since last Monday.”“You forget you have been in the same plight,” replied the other, as we looked at the long strings of shirts and trousers and guernsey frocks hanging from ropes that were stretched from the stump of the foremast across the deck forwards, all fluttering in the wind and making the ship look as if she were dressed with bunting in honour of some royal birthday.“And so have you too, Marline, as well as this young shaver,” returned the captain good-humouredly; “but I was not thinking of ourselves; for, we’re both young fellows, like Master Tom here, and able to brave anything. Hasn’t the ship suffered, though, poor old thing!” he added as he glanced sympathetically over her and saw all the damage, which, first the gale, and then our subsequent cutting away of the masts, had effected.“Aye, she doesn’t look as trim as when she left port,” said Mr Marline.Nor did she by a long way!The mizzen and mainmasts had been cut down close to the deck, while the butt-end of the foremast stood up only some twenty feet or so above the forecastle—a jagged broken piece of timber, with the stays and other ropes stretching away from its head to the wreck of the spars tumbling about in the sea in front of us. The bowsprit alone remained intact of all our sticks, the gale having even spared the jib-boom; while the martingale and dolphin striker, with the shrouds on either side of the projecting spar were still all standing.Looking inboards, the helm and steering apparatus were undamaged, as was also the binnacle, although this had a severe list to starboard; but, the skylight in the centre of the poop had been swept away, as well as a portion of the bulwarks on the side that had been under water, the rasping of the mizzen-mast having sawn them off flush with the deck.This was the case, too, below in the waist, where the starboard timbers had been carried away nearly to the fore-chains, which probably had acted as a buffer and stayed further destruction in that direction; and it was only owing to this that the galley and pump-box had been saved, as otherwise both would have been swept overboard along with the dunnage I had noticed collected under the lee of the forecastle.“Well, we mustn’t grumble,” said Captain Miles after meditating a bit over the damage with a serious face. “Our lives have been spared and the ship floats; so, there you have two things to the good, to balance our account on the other side of the ledger!”“You’re right, sir,” replied Mr Marline; “but have you sounded her yet to see if we have shipped much water?”“Aye, I did that a long time ago, while you were dreaming,” said the captain with a chuckle. “Old Adze the carpenter saw to the matter as soon as we righted. She has taken in very little in the main hold; but the fore-peak is full, as I thought, through some careless fellow not putting on the hatch and battening it down again after we got up these new sails. However, we can’t see about clearing it out yet, for the pumps are smashed and it will take Adze all day to-morrow to get them in working order again. Besides, I don’t want the men to do more than is absolutely necessary to-day, for it is Sunday, as I told you before; and we ought, in more ways than one, considering all we have gone through, to observe it as a day of rest.”“I quite agree with you, sir,” replied Mr Marline; “and if I had not thought so, you would have seen me long ere this on the fo’c’s’le, getting up a jury-mast or something.”“Let you alone for that,” said Captain Miles. “But, Marline,” he added the next moment, “there is one thing we must do presently. I thought it best to leave it until sunset, before letting all hands turn in and have a good night’s rest; and that is—”“To bury the steward,” suggested the other.“You’ve guessed rightly,” said he; “so now, as I see the men taking in their clothes, which are by this time dry enough, I should fancy, from their exposure to the sun and wind, I think I’ll give them a hail.”This he did; and bye and bye, as the orb of day sank below the sea, the body of Harry, tied up in a piece of tarpaulin and with a heavy piece of chain-cable attached to the feet to make it sink, was committed to the deep, Captain Miles reading the impressive burial service, for those lost at sea, out of a prayer-book which he had recovered from the debris of the cabin and put in his pocket for the purpose.This was our religious observance of the day. It was a great contrast to the prayers on the poop which we had on the previous Sunday, when the ship, in all the glory of her fine proportions, with her lofty masts towering into the skies, was rolling on the calm bosom of the ocean, with her idle sails spread vainly to the breeze that would not come; now, she was but a battered and dismantled hulk. The breeze we had wished for had come at last and waxed into a strong wind, which had ultimately developed into the hurricane that had done all the mischief—the final result of which was the present burial of our drowned comrade!“Lads,” cried Captain Miles when he had finished reading the service and the body had disappeared below the surface of the restless sea, “you can go and turn in now, all that like. Mind, you have a good caulk until early to-morrow morning, when you’ll have to rouse out sharp, all hands, for there be lots to be done!”We who were on the poop also went below soon afterwards to the cabin, where we found that Jake had cleared out all the debris and arranged the place so neatly that one would scarcely have imagined it had ever been in the state of confusion we noticed when first entering it.Our bunks, too, were all arranged comfortably, with dry blankets spread in each; and I know that I, for one, was so glad to lie down on anything like a bed again after the two nights’ exposure outside the ship, that I dropped off to sleep the moment I turned into my cot—the remark the captain had made about our being now thirteen in number, or a “baker’s dozen,” running in my head as a refrain to my dreams, although my rest was not in any way disturbed. The baker’s dozen, however, made me think of bread on my waking up in the morning; for, I felt more hungry then than on the previous day, when the first morsel of food I tasted almost choked me.
“Do you know what day it is?” observed Captain Miles presently, as we were all busily engaged freeing ourselves from the lashings that held us to the spars, preparing to stand on the deck once more in an upright position and stretch our sadly cramped legs, our movements for so many hours having been much restricted.
“No,” replied Mr Marline, taking the question to himself as he stamped his feet vigorously to restore the circulation of the stagnant blood. “I have lost all count nearly of time during this awful week!—Saturday, is it not—or Monday?”
“You are a little behind in one guess and too far ahead in the other!” said the captain quietly. “It is Sunday, the seventh day since our trials began.”
“Well,” responded the other; “it is a lucky day for us, whatever it may be, sir. I confess I never expected such a fortunate ending as this to our sad misfortunes. I had made up my mind that we must go to the bottom; and pretty soon too, after the wind rose again!”
“I hoped for the best,” answered Captain Miles, shaking himself like a big Newfoundland dog, and stepping gingerly along the poop as if half afraid to walk. “I never despaired even in our darkest hour; and I’m glad to say I didn’t, for I trusted in Providence! But come,” he added, with all his old brisk manner restored in a moment, smiling cheerfully, “we must see about getting things ship-shape around us; for it would be a poor return for the mercy we have received to sit down idly now and do nothing to help ourselves. Look alive, men, there’s plenty to see to!”
There was; so much, indeed, that it almost seemed a puzzle where to begin.
Our first consideration was the masts, which were still attached to the hull by all the starboard rigging, and were banging against that side of the vessel with each send of the sea, threatening to knock the lower timbers in; so, a working party being quickly organised under the indefatigable Jackson, the axe was called into use again and the remaining shrouds cut away, the fore and main-braces being passed round the stump of the foremast, which stood some twenty feet or so from the deck, in order to prevent the span from going adrift when the shrouds parted.
The lee rigging, tautened by the strain of the masts dependent from it, was soon severed; and then, the ship being more buoyant, floated away some yards leeward—the spars veered out to the length of the braces, serving as a sort of breakwater and keeping the waves from coming in over the bows as she tended, for her stern at once coming round caused her to ride easily, head to wind, just as if she were anchored.
“Now, men,” cried Captain Miles when this was managed, and no pressing danger stared us in the face, “we must now see whether we can’t get up anything to eat from the after-hold. I daresay you fellows feel a bit hungry, eh?”
You should have only seen the look on every face when he said this!
The very idea of food made all ravenous; and it was as much as Captain Miles could do to prevent the hands from rushing in a body into the cabin.
The men seemed inclined to eat him when he put out his hand to stop them.
“Take it coolly!” he sang out, pushing one or two back that had pressed forwards. “I will see that you’ve not long to wait. Jake, you know your way below, I believe?”
“Iss, massa,” replied the darkey with a broad grin. “Harry bery often sen’ me down to get stores when um busy.”
“Ah, the poor fellow, I had forgotten him,” ejaculated the captain, entering the cabin at once and going towards the steward’s pantry; but he had to pick his steps carefully, the place being heaped up with a variety of things that had been swept out of the different berths by the sea, and were washing up and down for more than two days.
As Captain Miles had surmised, the mulatto had been drowned inside the little apartment devoted to his use; for there his body was now found, the colour of the skin nearly white through the action of the water. The corpse was brought out and laid reverently under the break of the poop by a couple of sailors whom the captain called into the cabin for the purpose; after which he and Jake then proceeded to unfasten the hatches leading down into the after-hold in search of provisions for the living, there being plenty of time to attend to the obsequies of the dead later on when our more urgent needs were supplied.
Cuffee the cook during this interval had gone forward to look after his old galley; and loud was his lament to find it washed away, its weight having parted the strong lashings that secured it to the ring-bolts in the deck when the ship capsized.
“Boderation!” he exclaimed. “How can um cook w’en dere’s nuffin’ to cook, an’ no place to cook in?”
“Belay that grumblin’ o’ yourn, darkey,” cried old Moggridge, who had been poking about amongst a heap of the debris of ropes and broken spars and gear that were piled in a heap between the windlass bitts and the top of the topgallant forecastle. “I do believe your blessed old caboose hasn’t been washed overboard arter all! Here it is, only on its beam-ends like the ship was an hour ago; but I daresay all your pots and pans are all right inside.”
“Golly, bosun, does you mean dat?” exclaimed Cuffee, going up quickly to where Moggridge was standing, inspecting the mass of heterogeneous things that had fetched up in the corner, consisting of a portion of one of the anchor-stocks, the men’s clothes and traps washed out from their bunks, mess-tins, and all sorts of stray dunnage. “You tell me de galley am right an’ safe, for true, hey?”
“Why, there it is, you ugly varmint! Can’t you see it for yourself?” retorted the old seaman, rather nettled at having his word doubted.
“Lor’ a mussy, dere it am!” ejaculated Cuffee, highly delighted when his own eyes confirmed the fact. “Golly, Bosun, we can cook sumfin’ now!”
“I don’t know how you’re going to manage that as it stands,” said Moggridge sarcastically. “Strikes me you’d better see about rigging it up properly first!”
“I’se spec’ you’ll help, Massa Bosun,” hinted the darky cook in an obsequious way; “you clebber man, Massa Moggridge, an’ knows how to bowse tings up.”
“Oh, yes; I don’t want any of your blarney now, Cuffee. I fancy we’re all hungry enough to eat anything raw when we gets it, without botherin’ about cooking to-day at any rate!”
A grunt of assent came from all the hands standing by at this remark; and I then turned round to see what Captain Miles and Jake were about in the cabin. I had not yet entered that apartment, the finding of the steward’s dead body having scared me away. The pallid corpse looked so ghastly and terrible!
As I turned to go to the after portion of the vessel I was almost afraid that I should see the dead body of the steward again; but on reaching the entrance to the cabin I noticed a tarpaulin covering it in the corner, and I went hastily by, turning my face away, and bolting within the swing doors.
Here, if the jumble of miscellaneous odds and ends under the break of the forecastle had struck me as strange, the confusion was ever so much worse; for, nothing having been washed out, the entire furniture of every separate berth, as well as of the main saloon, were mixed together in one indistinguishable mass—clothes, books, food and crockery-ware, perishable and imperishable goods alike, all mingled in one inharmonious whole.
Blankets, bedding, and pillows were piled on the chairs and benches that had surrounded the centre table, which article, with its legs upstanding, was jammed into the captain’s own sanctum, half in and half out, like the cow had been; while the fragments of plates and dishes, coffee-pots and glass-ware of all description, were scattered on the floor in every direction. Captain Miles’s sextant and the tell-tale compass, that used to hang from the middle of the ceiling of the deck above, reposed peaceably together on the top of a double Gloucester cheese. Every variety of eatable was mixed up higgledy piggledy with articles for table use, and all sorts of known and unknown garments.
My trunk had not escaped the general destruction, the new outfit with which I had been provided being all spoilt; while some pictures and various cherished mementoes of my old West Indian home shared the fate of Mr Marline’s wardrobe and the captain’s kit.
Indeed, the sea had performed its scouring work so well, that it would have puzzled a wiser man than Solomon to have decided what was each individual’s personal property, the whole having been thrown together like one of the odd lots at an auction sale.
After surveying the medley for a few moments, my attention was attracted to Captain Miles and Jake, the latter of whom was down within the store-room under the hatch in the stern-sheets, only his woolly head projecting, handing up several tins of potted meats and bags of biscuit to the captain; while the latter was placing these as he received them on a clear space of the deck from which he had swept the broken refuse away, checking off the things as Jake ferreted them out from below, his head bobbing down and up again each moment.
“There,” said Captain Miles, as I came up to the two; “three bags of biscuit, four seven-pound tins of boiled mutton, two tins of preserved vegetables, one ham, one cheese, six pounds of coffee, and one firkin of butter. I think that will do. But, where is the sugar I told you to get out, Jake?”
“Here he am,” replied the darkey, handing another bag up. “Dat’s fine sugar, sah, for de cabin table.”
“And where is the other sort?” asked the captain.
“Um here too; but cask too big for dis chile to lift.”
“Then you must get out more in something smaller, for the men’s coffee in the morning,” said Captain Miles. “I don’t want them to be treated differently to myself, and I know I like sugar in mine.”
“Yah, yah, massa too good,” laughed Jake; but he proceeded to obey the captain’s orders, and another bag was soon added to the pile on the floor of the cabin awaiting distribution.
“Now, Tom,” said Captain Miles to me, “run and call in a couple of the hands to take out their rations. I’m going to serve out the grub at once, and we may as well all eat together.”
It should be mentioned that all these preparations, although I have taken so long to describe them, did not take up much time, the captain knowing from his own feeling that the men were all starving, and not keeping them an instant longer without food than he could help.
On receipt of his order, therefore, I hastened away, returning almost immediately with one of the sailors and Cuffee, who asserted his right of coming for the food; but, while I was absent Jake had procured a knife that was used for opening the tins of preserved meat out of the steward’s pantry, where, from its being hung on a hook, it had escaped being lost among the other débris. With this useful little article he now proceeded to take off the tops of the cases containing the boiled mutton, Cuffee and his assistant parcelling the same out under the captain’s eye.
The cabin table had been set upon its legs again and the provisions placed upon it, when the men being ordered to file in, Captain Miles distributed a small portion of the meat with a couple of biscuits to each. He advised them to eat slowly and moderately, saying that if they did otherwise they would feel very badly afterwards, on account of having gone so long without food.
Mr Marline and Jackson and myself were also rationed out in similar fashion, each and all of us, irrespective of position, being treated on an equality and Captain Miles himself only taking the same quantity that he gave us; then, when all had thus broken their fast, the men were dismissed and allowed to carry off away forward the greater portion of the provisions that had been got out for them, although with strict injunctions still to eat sparingly, at all events on this first day of their tasting any nourishment. They were likewise told to be careful not to drink too much water, Jackson, who had charge of the cask, being ordered to use discretion.
“We are only thirteen all told now aft—a baker’s dozen, men,” said the captain, “and I wish to carry you home in good health with me to England; so, mind what you are after, for my sake if not for your own! We have weathered the gale, and stuck to the ship though bottom upwards, for nigh on three days, braving the perils of the deep in the way of sharks and such like; consequently I think it would be hard lines on me if I couldn’t fetch you safe into port in the end.”
“You’re a real good sort, Cap’en Miles, that’s what you are!” cried Moggridge—acting as spokesman for the rest by general consent apparently, for the others gave a subdued sort of cheer that seemed to intimate their acquiescence in his remarks—“and I thinks as how we’d be no better nor brute beasts if we weren’t to act as how you advises, eh, lads?”
“Aye, aye,” chorused the rest affirmatively.
“That’s all right then,” said Captain Miles. “You can see I don’t want to stint you, for I’ve only given you these few supplies to carry you on until we can get to the ship’s stores in the main hold. You may go forward now, and I’d recommend you to get out all your duds and hang ’em out to dry as soon as you can, so as to have a shift bye and bye, and that’ll do you as much good as the grub.”
The hands then retired from the cabin, leaving only the captain and Mr Marline and I there, Jackson going out into the waist too, in order to draw some water and serve it out by the captain’s directions.
“Oh, Captain Miles!” I exclaimed when we were thus left together, “all my clothes are spoilt.”
“And oh, Master Tom!” he retorted, “how about my poor chronometers? They’ve stopped and will never go again, I suppose, till they’ve been put in dry dock in London and had a thorough overhaul, salt water not agreeing with their constitutions as it does with some folk. By Jove, though, Marline, I never thought of that before. I shall be puzzled how to get my longitude bye and bye, I fancy.”
“My old watch is going, sir,” said the mate. “I set it by the ship’s time before our capsize, and it goes pretty correctly, for I didn’t forget to wind it up all the time we were spread-eagling on the bulwarks.”
“You didn’t?” cried the captain. “You’re a wonderful fellow, Marline, and you ought to be Archbishop of Canterbury or something! You say you set it by the ship’s time on Thursday?”
“I don’t know what day it was, sir, but it was the last time you took the sun,” replied the other.
“Then, at that time, I recollect, we were in 32 degrees north latitude and 40 degrees west longitude. Ha, humph, I see! That will give us pretty well the time at Greenwich, with a little deduction. It’s all right, Marline, I have it. Mind, though, you don’t let the old turnip run down.”
“Turnip, indeed!” exclaimed Mr Marline in pretended indignation, winking at me. “Just you hear him, Master Tom!”
“Well, well, I beg its pardon and yours,” said the captain laughing; “but, let us get out of this disgraceful hole and go out on deck to see what the weather is like. Jake!”
“Iss, massa,” replied the darkey, who, I forgot to mention, remained behind when the rest of the crew went forwards.
“I’m going to make you steward in poor Harry’s place,” said Captain Miles.
“Iss, massa,” responded Jake, greatly pleased at the honour thus bestowed on him, and making a low how with a scrape back of his left foot, according to negro etiquette, in acknowledgment of the favour.
“Look out, my lad, and make matters snug here as well as you can. You may call in your brother darkey the cook to help you, if you like.”
“Golly, massa, me do him much betterer own self,” replied Jake grinning hugely. “Dat Cuffee bery lazy sometimes.”
“Well, well, that’s like the pot calling the kettle black, I fancy,” said Captain Miles smiling. “However, you can please yourself, and get any of the hands you may want to assist in lifting back the bunks and so on in their proper places—some of the things may be too heavy for you. At all events, make the saloon presentable before we come down again, and swab up the deck.”
“That’s a willing fellow,” he added to Mr Marline, as we went out and mounted the poop-ladder. “I never saw a negro so handy, so plucky, and so willing.”
“Thank you, Captain Miles,” I said, taking the compliment to myself, as having a sort of family ownership in Jake.
“Why, what have you got to do with it, Tom Eastman?” he asked in his humorous way, poking fun at me.
“Well, captain, I don’t think you’d ever have seen him on board if it hadn’t been for me,” I retorted.
“You’re right there, but I’ll thank you for his passage-money, then, Master Tom,” said he, laughing at his joke and I too joining in, our wonderful good fortune having restored all our spirits amazingly.
The sun now came out and the day became bright and cheerful, with a gentle soft breeze blowing from the south-west which was just sufficient to curl the crests of the waves and make the sea sparkling, the heavy waves of the morning having lessened considerably and the whole expanse of the ocean dancing before our eyes in the warm light of the noontide.
“I see,” observed Mr Marline, “the hands have quickly acted on your advice about drying their clothes.”
“Aye, poor fellows; and time enough, too, for they haven’t had a dry rag on them, I believe, since last Monday.”
“You forget you have been in the same plight,” replied the other, as we looked at the long strings of shirts and trousers and guernsey frocks hanging from ropes that were stretched from the stump of the foremast across the deck forwards, all fluttering in the wind and making the ship look as if she were dressed with bunting in honour of some royal birthday.
“And so have you too, Marline, as well as this young shaver,” returned the captain good-humouredly; “but I was not thinking of ourselves; for, we’re both young fellows, like Master Tom here, and able to brave anything. Hasn’t the ship suffered, though, poor old thing!” he added as he glanced sympathetically over her and saw all the damage, which, first the gale, and then our subsequent cutting away of the masts, had effected.
“Aye, she doesn’t look as trim as when she left port,” said Mr Marline.
Nor did she by a long way!
The mizzen and mainmasts had been cut down close to the deck, while the butt-end of the foremast stood up only some twenty feet or so above the forecastle—a jagged broken piece of timber, with the stays and other ropes stretching away from its head to the wreck of the spars tumbling about in the sea in front of us. The bowsprit alone remained intact of all our sticks, the gale having even spared the jib-boom; while the martingale and dolphin striker, with the shrouds on either side of the projecting spar were still all standing.
Looking inboards, the helm and steering apparatus were undamaged, as was also the binnacle, although this had a severe list to starboard; but, the skylight in the centre of the poop had been swept away, as well as a portion of the bulwarks on the side that had been under water, the rasping of the mizzen-mast having sawn them off flush with the deck.
This was the case, too, below in the waist, where the starboard timbers had been carried away nearly to the fore-chains, which probably had acted as a buffer and stayed further destruction in that direction; and it was only owing to this that the galley and pump-box had been saved, as otherwise both would have been swept overboard along with the dunnage I had noticed collected under the lee of the forecastle.
“Well, we mustn’t grumble,” said Captain Miles after meditating a bit over the damage with a serious face. “Our lives have been spared and the ship floats; so, there you have two things to the good, to balance our account on the other side of the ledger!”
“You’re right, sir,” replied Mr Marline; “but have you sounded her yet to see if we have shipped much water?”
“Aye, I did that a long time ago, while you were dreaming,” said the captain with a chuckle. “Old Adze the carpenter saw to the matter as soon as we righted. She has taken in very little in the main hold; but the fore-peak is full, as I thought, through some careless fellow not putting on the hatch and battening it down again after we got up these new sails. However, we can’t see about clearing it out yet, for the pumps are smashed and it will take Adze all day to-morrow to get them in working order again. Besides, I don’t want the men to do more than is absolutely necessary to-day, for it is Sunday, as I told you before; and we ought, in more ways than one, considering all we have gone through, to observe it as a day of rest.”
“I quite agree with you, sir,” replied Mr Marline; “and if I had not thought so, you would have seen me long ere this on the fo’c’s’le, getting up a jury-mast or something.”
“Let you alone for that,” said Captain Miles. “But, Marline,” he added the next moment, “there is one thing we must do presently. I thought it best to leave it until sunset, before letting all hands turn in and have a good night’s rest; and that is—”
“To bury the steward,” suggested the other.
“You’ve guessed rightly,” said he; “so now, as I see the men taking in their clothes, which are by this time dry enough, I should fancy, from their exposure to the sun and wind, I think I’ll give them a hail.”
This he did; and bye and bye, as the orb of day sank below the sea, the body of Harry, tied up in a piece of tarpaulin and with a heavy piece of chain-cable attached to the feet to make it sink, was committed to the deep, Captain Miles reading the impressive burial service, for those lost at sea, out of a prayer-book which he had recovered from the debris of the cabin and put in his pocket for the purpose.
This was our religious observance of the day. It was a great contrast to the prayers on the poop which we had on the previous Sunday, when the ship, in all the glory of her fine proportions, with her lofty masts towering into the skies, was rolling on the calm bosom of the ocean, with her idle sails spread vainly to the breeze that would not come; now, she was but a battered and dismantled hulk. The breeze we had wished for had come at last and waxed into a strong wind, which had ultimately developed into the hurricane that had done all the mischief—the final result of which was the present burial of our drowned comrade!
“Lads,” cried Captain Miles when he had finished reading the service and the body had disappeared below the surface of the restless sea, “you can go and turn in now, all that like. Mind, you have a good caulk until early to-morrow morning, when you’ll have to rouse out sharp, all hands, for there be lots to be done!”
We who were on the poop also went below soon afterwards to the cabin, where we found that Jake had cleared out all the debris and arranged the place so neatly that one would scarcely have imagined it had ever been in the state of confusion we noticed when first entering it.
Our bunks, too, were all arranged comfortably, with dry blankets spread in each; and I know that I, for one, was so glad to lie down on anything like a bed again after the two nights’ exposure outside the ship, that I dropped off to sleep the moment I turned into my cot—the remark the captain had made about our being now thirteen in number, or a “baker’s dozen,” running in my head as a refrain to my dreams, although my rest was not in any way disturbed. The baker’s dozen, however, made me think of bread on my waking up in the morning; for, I felt more hungry then than on the previous day, when the first morsel of food I tasted almost choked me.
Chapter Eighteen.We beat up for the Azores.It was early dawn when the unwonted sound of feet bustling about over my head on the deck, which I had not heard now it seemed for an unconscionable length of time, roused me up to the realisation of our having at last been relieved from our terrible peril and the privations we had suffered whilst the ship was on her beam-ends.Oh, what joy it was to think we were all safe on board theJosephineagain!Hunger, one of the most painful of the sufferings we had experienced, and indeed the one which I felt the most of any, was now banished completely to the realms of the past; and I had presently trustworthy evidence of this, Jake appearing at the door of my cabin and bringing in a steaming bowl of coffee and some biscuits, as a sort of “little breakfast” before the larger and more substantial meal was ready—the galley being already fixed up properly and Cuffee having resumed his culinary duties with all his paraphernalia in train.When I got out on the poop, I noticed that the hands had not been idle while I was sleeping, so much already having been accomplished in the way of restoring the ship to an effective condition that the men must have set to work long before daylight, I was certain.Moggridge was just going down the poop-ladder as I mounted it, on his way forward to execute some order Captain Miles had given him.“Fine morning, Master Tom,” he said.“It is,” I responded, “a regular jolly one; but, how busy you all are!”“Aye, aye, young master, we can’t afford to wait when there’s so much to be done and so precious little time to do it in.”And then he was off in a jiffey.Captain Miles was sitting on the port bulwarks, which were intact, polishing up his sextant.“Good morning, captain,” I said.“Morning,” he answered absently, so much engrossed with one of the eye-pieces of the instrument that he couldn’t even look up.I felt like the idle little boy in the story-book, who went and asked, first, the horse to play with him, and then, when that sagacious animal refused to accede to his request, on the plea of having his master’s business to attend to, he tried to induce various other quadrupeds to come and amuse him, only to meet with a constant refusal—the idle boy having in the end to go to work himself, finding idleness, without companions to share it, the reverse of pleasure.Everybody on board seemed too much engrossed with some task in hand to attend to me; even Jake, when I went below again, could hardly spare me a word, for he was intent on polishing up the saloon table again, trying to efface the effects of its long immersion in the water from the surface of the mahogany—a somewhat vain task, I may add, as the wood never recovered its original tone.I then went forwards, only to see the men there working like bees. Not a soul even raised his head to glance at me as I passed by.Adze, the carpenter, was up to his ears in the pump casing, which he had fixed again over the well amidships, after first taking out the valves and fitting new suckers to them. Cuffee, too, was blowing away at the galley fire till his black face looked like that of a red Indian; and, as for Mr Marline, he was in his element, as he always was when overseeing anything connected with the rigging of the ship, enjoying himself to his heart’s content in setting up a jury-mast to take the place of our broken foremast. He had made the men lash the topmast and topgallant-mast to the fragment left of the original spar, securing it with back-stays and preventers on the port and starboard sides before getting up the shrouds. These latter, of course, would have now to be reduced, in order to suit the diminished height of the new mast, whereon the topsail-yard would have to do duty for the old fore-yard, and the topgallant one be transferred into a topsail-yard.Mr Marline seemed rather proud of his handiwork; so, this made him more conversational than anyone I had yet tried to talk to.“Ha, Tom,” he said, “you’re just in time to see us cross our yards again—not a bad job, eh?”“No, sir,” I replied; “have you been long over it?”“Ever since daylight.”“And have all of you been equally busy?” I asked.“Bless you, yes! As for Cuffee, he roused out poor Moggridge early in the middle watch, to help him to fix the galley, bribing him with the promise of some hot coffee. That started the hands; for, the boatswain must needs hail Adze to see after the pumps, and hearing them stirring about, I came on deck and employed the idlers in getting the spars alongside, as the sea was as calm as a pond. Then, I set them to work unreeving the gear and making things snug for setting up our jury-masts, of which this is the first—a downright seamanlike piece of work I call it.”“So it is, sir,” said I to please him, seeing him looking up at the new foremast admiringly; “and, I suppose, Mr Marline, when you’ve finished rigging this, you’ll begin setting up a new mainmast.”“Aye, my boy, and a mizzen too after that! You shall see the old barquey spreading her canvas bravely again before I have done with her.”Presently, Adze called out that he had made the pumps act at last.This brought down Captain Miles from the poop; when, a party of the sailors at once setting to work, the bilge-water soon rose from below and flowed in a stream in the scuppers.Half an hour’s spell served to make the pumps suck dry, showing that the main hold of the ship was clear; and, seeing this, the captain turned round and hailed Mr Marline with a triumphant shout.“There, Marline,” he cried, “what do you think of that, eh? Who was right and who was wrong?”“Well, sir, you were a true prophet this time,” replied the first mate equally well pleased at the result, although it went against his own prognostication; “I only hope you’ll get the fore-peak free as easily; for, then, we’ll float on an even keel.”“All right, my boy, so we will,” said Captain Miles; and he then ordered the hands to bend the end of the hose down into the forepart of the ship below that part of the forecastle where the men bunked, the other end of the hose being attached to the pump cylinder.This job was a heavier one than that of clearing the main hold, the men having to be relieved in spells; but, after several hours’ hard work, the bows of the ship were sensibly lightened of the extra water ballast we had carried here, and by the afternoon this part of the vessel was also clear.Meanwhile, however, Jake had announced that breakfast was ready and on the cabin table. This was the first hot meal we had had the chance of partaking of now for four days, and it may be imagined with what gusto we all enjoyed it I should add that, Captain Miles, liking good living himself, took care that the men all round had an equally good spread, sharing his own private stores liberally, so that those in the forecastle fared as sumptuously as we did.The captain did this out of his own innate good nature; but, had he been generous merely as an act of policy, it could not have served him in better stead, the sailors working all the afternoon and far into the night with all the greater willingness in setting the ship to rights as a return for the kindness he had displayed. None wanted driving to make them stick to their several tasks.Mr Marline had believed that when the fore-peak was clear of water theJosephine, which until then had her bows almost level with the sea, would have recovered her proper floatation; but, although her head now rose, she displayed a decided list to starboard that became the more apparent as her head became elevated more and more.“Some of the cargo must have shifted,” said Captain Miles; and with him, true sailor as he was, to discover a fault was to suggest a remedy.“We must take off the battens of the main hatch,” he cried. “Mr Marline, stop rigging those sticks for a bit. It is far more important for our stowage to be true before we take any more of the heavy spars on board; for, if we meet with any bad weather, we may turn the turtle again and not come out of it so cleverly as we managed on the first occasion!”“All right, sir,” replied the mate, ordering the hands under his orders on the forecastle to move aft, where, under the captain’s directions, the hatches were taken off and the cargo exposed to view.A pair of shears were then rigged up over the hold, on which a running tackle with blocks and falls was rigged; when, after several puncheons of rum had been hoisted out, it was found that the lover tier of the cargo had lurched over at the time the ship careened.It took many hours to alter the arrangement of the sugar casks below, the rum having to be all hoisted on deck first; but, the hands working zealously, the job was at last accomplished, the ship soon afterwards righting properly, with her deck now horizontal to the plane of the water instead of being at an angle with it as before.The puncheons of rum were then again lowered down and stowed securely and the hatches put on again. The men after this ceased their toils for the day, it being close on to sunset.On the third day, the rigging of the jury foremast was completed and the head-gear all attached to it, new sails being bent to the yards in the place of those that had been blown away. Fresh halliards and running ropes were also rove, so that on an emergency, if the wind arose suddenly, we could have made sail on the one mast, and thus made a shift of battling with the elements.Fortunately, however, the weather remained beautifully calm, only a slight breeze springing up for a short time during the first hours of the morning watch. The light wind had hardly sufficient power to give motion to the bull of the vessel, and so the task of setting up the other masts and rigging was satisfactorily proceeded with.The mainmast caused the greatest trouble, the remains of the heel having first to be taken out; although Mr Marline luckily thought of this when we were re-stowing the cargo on the previous day. Otherwise, we would have had a second sorting out of the contents of the hold.The shears used for raising the rum puncheons not being strong enough to lift the mainmast, which was a very heavy piece of timber weighing several hundredweights, the main and fore-yards, with the mizzen topmast, were set up as a triangle over the place where the spar had to be stepped—the ends of the yards being fixed firmly against the bulwarks on either side and lashed together at the top. This “crab” was then raised in the air by a tackle and purchase, the falls of which were brought to the capstan and run up by the crew as if they were weighing anchor.Then, the mainmast was slung just about its balancing centre and hauled inboard through the broken bulwarks—which had not yet been restored on purpose until all the spars were hoisted in.The falls were now again manned; and, the sailors heaving away with one of their animating choruses, up went the spar in the air above the vacant hole in the deck from where the old part of the heel had been removed—guys being belayed on either side to make it drop in true when it was right over the place for its reception.It did not take long to fix it now perpendicularly; although, as the spar had been severed some feet from the deck, the new end of it was more slender than the old, and so required packing round with pieces of wood driven in by mallets to make it secure.Next, the standing rigging was set up after being first shortened; and Adze had a good deal of blacksmith’s work to do in making fresh bolts and eyes, converting Cuffee’s galley into a temporary forge for this purpose. All the ropes and blocks having been carefully collected beforehand and sorted, this labour did not consume half the time that one would have thought.On the fifth day, the mizzen-mast was also got back into its place.Then the yards were crossed and sails bent on the mainmast; and theJosephineappeared to show nearly as much top-hamper as she did before the gale, only that all the masts were much shorter than before, the foremast especially being only an apology for the former spar.However, the change made a wonderful improvement in the appearance of the ship; and when the broken bulwarks were patched up, which was done on the last day of the week, she was herself again.On the Sunday that followed the righting of the ship we had our prayers on the poop as usual, Captain Miles returning especial thanks to the great Ruler of the deep for all the mercies we had received; and, as a fair wind sprung up in the evening of the same day from the south, we set sail once more, moving away from the spot where we had been refitting.“I don’t think,” said Captain Miles, “that we’ve drifted twenty miles either way since this day week; for there’s no current hereabout, and we’ve had little or no wind.”“We’re then still about the centre of the Sargasso Sea,” observed Mr Marline.“Aye,” responded the other; “so Master Tom will have ample opportunities within the next fortnight or so for studying all you told him about the Gulf-weed, for I’ve no doubt we’ll presently pass through lots of it.”“Shall you shape a straight course for the Channel, sir?” asked the first mate, looking at his watch as he did so in a very self-satisfied sort of way, it seemed.“You may well observe that time-piece of yours carefully,” said the captain with a sigh, although he smiled as he spoke. “On that little article depends all our navigation—that is, until we meet with some passing vessel to correct our reckoning, and I don’t suppose we shall come across many of these, for we’re out of the track of all voyaging over this part of the Atlantic save those homeward-bound from the Cape. I intend to make for Flores, the westernmost island of the Azores, as we’re short of water; besides, by my pursuing that course we shall get up into the trades, and bye and bye fetch the Gulf Stream, which will render our passage shorter to the Channel.”“Very well, we’ll see,” said Mr Marline, unconsciously using his old stereotyped form of answer to almost everything.“I believe,” cried Captain Miles laughing, “that if anybody asked you to accept a thousand pounds you’d reply, ‘I’ll see about it!’”“You just try me and see,” replied the first mate drily to this remark, joining in the captain’s laugh; but I noticed that the other did not take up the offer.Through our detention by the calm, in addition to the scurrying to and fro we had during the hurricane and the long time we remained a helpless log on the waters, it was now considerably more than two months since we had left the West Indies; and, as theJosephinedid not sail so well now, besides having light and variable winds, it took us more than another fortnight to reach Flores and sight the Morro Grande—a mountain some three thousand feet in height, rising high in the clouds above Santa Cruz, the capital of the island.But, for days before this, we sailed through that wonderful Sargasso Sea, the circumstances of whose being Mr Marline had explained to me during the fearful night we passed clinging to the capsized hull of the ship, exposed to the cruel wash of the pitiless waves; and, as we ploughed over this submerged meadow of sea-weed in the centre of the Atlantic, I could not help recalling the mangrove swamps and lagoons of the tropic island in which my childhood had been passed, wondering the while, too, whether theJosephinewould not be reported as lost through the protraction of her voyage—for she was expected to reach England by the middle of September at the latest, and it was now October.Why, if news came to Grenada that we were given up at Lloyd’s, poor dad and mother would be in a terrible way about me, I knew!The day of the receipt of such intelligence would be a sad one at Mount Pleasant, where all had loved me and would miss me now more than ever.These thoughts, however, were but idle fancies, I reflected when we sighted Flores; for, even if we had been given up, the news would now soon be sent on that the old ship was still to the fore. So, when Captain Miles had taken in fresh water and provisions, besides buying a new chronometer, and then shaped a course direct for the English Channel, I looked forward anxiously to relieving my parent’s anxiety as much as I did at the realisation of my boyhood’s dream of seeing London and going to school.
It was early dawn when the unwonted sound of feet bustling about over my head on the deck, which I had not heard now it seemed for an unconscionable length of time, roused me up to the realisation of our having at last been relieved from our terrible peril and the privations we had suffered whilst the ship was on her beam-ends.
Oh, what joy it was to think we were all safe on board theJosephineagain!
Hunger, one of the most painful of the sufferings we had experienced, and indeed the one which I felt the most of any, was now banished completely to the realms of the past; and I had presently trustworthy evidence of this, Jake appearing at the door of my cabin and bringing in a steaming bowl of coffee and some biscuits, as a sort of “little breakfast” before the larger and more substantial meal was ready—the galley being already fixed up properly and Cuffee having resumed his culinary duties with all his paraphernalia in train.
When I got out on the poop, I noticed that the hands had not been idle while I was sleeping, so much already having been accomplished in the way of restoring the ship to an effective condition that the men must have set to work long before daylight, I was certain.
Moggridge was just going down the poop-ladder as I mounted it, on his way forward to execute some order Captain Miles had given him.
“Fine morning, Master Tom,” he said.
“It is,” I responded, “a regular jolly one; but, how busy you all are!”
“Aye, aye, young master, we can’t afford to wait when there’s so much to be done and so precious little time to do it in.”
And then he was off in a jiffey.
Captain Miles was sitting on the port bulwarks, which were intact, polishing up his sextant.
“Good morning, captain,” I said.
“Morning,” he answered absently, so much engrossed with one of the eye-pieces of the instrument that he couldn’t even look up.
I felt like the idle little boy in the story-book, who went and asked, first, the horse to play with him, and then, when that sagacious animal refused to accede to his request, on the plea of having his master’s business to attend to, he tried to induce various other quadrupeds to come and amuse him, only to meet with a constant refusal—the idle boy having in the end to go to work himself, finding idleness, without companions to share it, the reverse of pleasure.
Everybody on board seemed too much engrossed with some task in hand to attend to me; even Jake, when I went below again, could hardly spare me a word, for he was intent on polishing up the saloon table again, trying to efface the effects of its long immersion in the water from the surface of the mahogany—a somewhat vain task, I may add, as the wood never recovered its original tone.
I then went forwards, only to see the men there working like bees. Not a soul even raised his head to glance at me as I passed by.
Adze, the carpenter, was up to his ears in the pump casing, which he had fixed again over the well amidships, after first taking out the valves and fitting new suckers to them. Cuffee, too, was blowing away at the galley fire till his black face looked like that of a red Indian; and, as for Mr Marline, he was in his element, as he always was when overseeing anything connected with the rigging of the ship, enjoying himself to his heart’s content in setting up a jury-mast to take the place of our broken foremast. He had made the men lash the topmast and topgallant-mast to the fragment left of the original spar, securing it with back-stays and preventers on the port and starboard sides before getting up the shrouds. These latter, of course, would have now to be reduced, in order to suit the diminished height of the new mast, whereon the topsail-yard would have to do duty for the old fore-yard, and the topgallant one be transferred into a topsail-yard.
Mr Marline seemed rather proud of his handiwork; so, this made him more conversational than anyone I had yet tried to talk to.
“Ha, Tom,” he said, “you’re just in time to see us cross our yards again—not a bad job, eh?”
“No, sir,” I replied; “have you been long over it?”
“Ever since daylight.”
“And have all of you been equally busy?” I asked.
“Bless you, yes! As for Cuffee, he roused out poor Moggridge early in the middle watch, to help him to fix the galley, bribing him with the promise of some hot coffee. That started the hands; for, the boatswain must needs hail Adze to see after the pumps, and hearing them stirring about, I came on deck and employed the idlers in getting the spars alongside, as the sea was as calm as a pond. Then, I set them to work unreeving the gear and making things snug for setting up our jury-masts, of which this is the first—a downright seamanlike piece of work I call it.”
“So it is, sir,” said I to please him, seeing him looking up at the new foremast admiringly; “and, I suppose, Mr Marline, when you’ve finished rigging this, you’ll begin setting up a new mainmast.”
“Aye, my boy, and a mizzen too after that! You shall see the old barquey spreading her canvas bravely again before I have done with her.”
Presently, Adze called out that he had made the pumps act at last.
This brought down Captain Miles from the poop; when, a party of the sailors at once setting to work, the bilge-water soon rose from below and flowed in a stream in the scuppers.
Half an hour’s spell served to make the pumps suck dry, showing that the main hold of the ship was clear; and, seeing this, the captain turned round and hailed Mr Marline with a triumphant shout.
“There, Marline,” he cried, “what do you think of that, eh? Who was right and who was wrong?”
“Well, sir, you were a true prophet this time,” replied the first mate equally well pleased at the result, although it went against his own prognostication; “I only hope you’ll get the fore-peak free as easily; for, then, we’ll float on an even keel.”
“All right, my boy, so we will,” said Captain Miles; and he then ordered the hands to bend the end of the hose down into the forepart of the ship below that part of the forecastle where the men bunked, the other end of the hose being attached to the pump cylinder.
This job was a heavier one than that of clearing the main hold, the men having to be relieved in spells; but, after several hours’ hard work, the bows of the ship were sensibly lightened of the extra water ballast we had carried here, and by the afternoon this part of the vessel was also clear.
Meanwhile, however, Jake had announced that breakfast was ready and on the cabin table. This was the first hot meal we had had the chance of partaking of now for four days, and it may be imagined with what gusto we all enjoyed it I should add that, Captain Miles, liking good living himself, took care that the men all round had an equally good spread, sharing his own private stores liberally, so that those in the forecastle fared as sumptuously as we did.
The captain did this out of his own innate good nature; but, had he been generous merely as an act of policy, it could not have served him in better stead, the sailors working all the afternoon and far into the night with all the greater willingness in setting the ship to rights as a return for the kindness he had displayed. None wanted driving to make them stick to their several tasks.
Mr Marline had believed that when the fore-peak was clear of water theJosephine, which until then had her bows almost level with the sea, would have recovered her proper floatation; but, although her head now rose, she displayed a decided list to starboard that became the more apparent as her head became elevated more and more.
“Some of the cargo must have shifted,” said Captain Miles; and with him, true sailor as he was, to discover a fault was to suggest a remedy.
“We must take off the battens of the main hatch,” he cried. “Mr Marline, stop rigging those sticks for a bit. It is far more important for our stowage to be true before we take any more of the heavy spars on board; for, if we meet with any bad weather, we may turn the turtle again and not come out of it so cleverly as we managed on the first occasion!”
“All right, sir,” replied the mate, ordering the hands under his orders on the forecastle to move aft, where, under the captain’s directions, the hatches were taken off and the cargo exposed to view.
A pair of shears were then rigged up over the hold, on which a running tackle with blocks and falls was rigged; when, after several puncheons of rum had been hoisted out, it was found that the lover tier of the cargo had lurched over at the time the ship careened.
It took many hours to alter the arrangement of the sugar casks below, the rum having to be all hoisted on deck first; but, the hands working zealously, the job was at last accomplished, the ship soon afterwards righting properly, with her deck now horizontal to the plane of the water instead of being at an angle with it as before.
The puncheons of rum were then again lowered down and stowed securely and the hatches put on again. The men after this ceased their toils for the day, it being close on to sunset.
On the third day, the rigging of the jury foremast was completed and the head-gear all attached to it, new sails being bent to the yards in the place of those that had been blown away. Fresh halliards and running ropes were also rove, so that on an emergency, if the wind arose suddenly, we could have made sail on the one mast, and thus made a shift of battling with the elements.
Fortunately, however, the weather remained beautifully calm, only a slight breeze springing up for a short time during the first hours of the morning watch. The light wind had hardly sufficient power to give motion to the bull of the vessel, and so the task of setting up the other masts and rigging was satisfactorily proceeded with.
The mainmast caused the greatest trouble, the remains of the heel having first to be taken out; although Mr Marline luckily thought of this when we were re-stowing the cargo on the previous day. Otherwise, we would have had a second sorting out of the contents of the hold.
The shears used for raising the rum puncheons not being strong enough to lift the mainmast, which was a very heavy piece of timber weighing several hundredweights, the main and fore-yards, with the mizzen topmast, were set up as a triangle over the place where the spar had to be stepped—the ends of the yards being fixed firmly against the bulwarks on either side and lashed together at the top. This “crab” was then raised in the air by a tackle and purchase, the falls of which were brought to the capstan and run up by the crew as if they were weighing anchor.
Then, the mainmast was slung just about its balancing centre and hauled inboard through the broken bulwarks—which had not yet been restored on purpose until all the spars were hoisted in.
The falls were now again manned; and, the sailors heaving away with one of their animating choruses, up went the spar in the air above the vacant hole in the deck from where the old part of the heel had been removed—guys being belayed on either side to make it drop in true when it was right over the place for its reception.
It did not take long to fix it now perpendicularly; although, as the spar had been severed some feet from the deck, the new end of it was more slender than the old, and so required packing round with pieces of wood driven in by mallets to make it secure.
Next, the standing rigging was set up after being first shortened; and Adze had a good deal of blacksmith’s work to do in making fresh bolts and eyes, converting Cuffee’s galley into a temporary forge for this purpose. All the ropes and blocks having been carefully collected beforehand and sorted, this labour did not consume half the time that one would have thought.
On the fifth day, the mizzen-mast was also got back into its place.
Then the yards were crossed and sails bent on the mainmast; and theJosephineappeared to show nearly as much top-hamper as she did before the gale, only that all the masts were much shorter than before, the foremast especially being only an apology for the former spar.
However, the change made a wonderful improvement in the appearance of the ship; and when the broken bulwarks were patched up, which was done on the last day of the week, she was herself again.
On the Sunday that followed the righting of the ship we had our prayers on the poop as usual, Captain Miles returning especial thanks to the great Ruler of the deep for all the mercies we had received; and, as a fair wind sprung up in the evening of the same day from the south, we set sail once more, moving away from the spot where we had been refitting.
“I don’t think,” said Captain Miles, “that we’ve drifted twenty miles either way since this day week; for there’s no current hereabout, and we’ve had little or no wind.”
“We’re then still about the centre of the Sargasso Sea,” observed Mr Marline.
“Aye,” responded the other; “so Master Tom will have ample opportunities within the next fortnight or so for studying all you told him about the Gulf-weed, for I’ve no doubt we’ll presently pass through lots of it.”
“Shall you shape a straight course for the Channel, sir?” asked the first mate, looking at his watch as he did so in a very self-satisfied sort of way, it seemed.
“You may well observe that time-piece of yours carefully,” said the captain with a sigh, although he smiled as he spoke. “On that little article depends all our navigation—that is, until we meet with some passing vessel to correct our reckoning, and I don’t suppose we shall come across many of these, for we’re out of the track of all voyaging over this part of the Atlantic save those homeward-bound from the Cape. I intend to make for Flores, the westernmost island of the Azores, as we’re short of water; besides, by my pursuing that course we shall get up into the trades, and bye and bye fetch the Gulf Stream, which will render our passage shorter to the Channel.”
“Very well, we’ll see,” said Mr Marline, unconsciously using his old stereotyped form of answer to almost everything.
“I believe,” cried Captain Miles laughing, “that if anybody asked you to accept a thousand pounds you’d reply, ‘I’ll see about it!’”
“You just try me and see,” replied the first mate drily to this remark, joining in the captain’s laugh; but I noticed that the other did not take up the offer.
Through our detention by the calm, in addition to the scurrying to and fro we had during the hurricane and the long time we remained a helpless log on the waters, it was now considerably more than two months since we had left the West Indies; and, as theJosephinedid not sail so well now, besides having light and variable winds, it took us more than another fortnight to reach Flores and sight the Morro Grande—a mountain some three thousand feet in height, rising high in the clouds above Santa Cruz, the capital of the island.
But, for days before this, we sailed through that wonderful Sargasso Sea, the circumstances of whose being Mr Marline had explained to me during the fearful night we passed clinging to the capsized hull of the ship, exposed to the cruel wash of the pitiless waves; and, as we ploughed over this submerged meadow of sea-weed in the centre of the Atlantic, I could not help recalling the mangrove swamps and lagoons of the tropic island in which my childhood had been passed, wondering the while, too, whether theJosephinewould not be reported as lost through the protraction of her voyage—for she was expected to reach England by the middle of September at the latest, and it was now October.
Why, if news came to Grenada that we were given up at Lloyd’s, poor dad and mother would be in a terrible way about me, I knew!
The day of the receipt of such intelligence would be a sad one at Mount Pleasant, where all had loved me and would miss me now more than ever.
These thoughts, however, were but idle fancies, I reflected when we sighted Flores; for, even if we had been given up, the news would now soon be sent on that the old ship was still to the fore. So, when Captain Miles had taken in fresh water and provisions, besides buying a new chronometer, and then shaped a course direct for the English Channel, I looked forward anxiously to relieving my parent’s anxiety as much as I did at the realisation of my boyhood’s dream of seeing London and going to school.