Sailing from Gibraltar with the assistance of her Majesty's tug--The
_Spray's_ course changed from the Suez Canal to Cape Horn--Chased by a
Moorish pirate--A comparison with Columbus--The Canary Islands-The
Cape Verde Islands--Sea life--Arrival at Pernambuco--A bill against
the Brazilian government--Preparing for the stormy weather of the
cape.
Monday, August 25, the _Spray_ sailed from Gibraltar, well repaid for
whatever deviation she had made from a direct course to reach the
place. A tug belonging to her Majesty towed the sloop into the steady
breeze clear of the mount, where her sails caught a volant wind, which
carried her once more to the Atlantic, where it rose rapidly to a
furious gale. My plan was, in going down this coast, to haul offshore,
well clear of the land, which hereabouts is the home of pirates; but I
had hardly accomplished this when I perceived a felucca making out of
the nearest port, and finally following in the wake of the _Spray_.
Now, my course to Gibraltar had been taken with a view to proceed up
the Mediterranean Sea, through the Suez Canal, down the Red Sea, and
east about, instead of a western route, which I finally adopted. By
officers of vast experience in navigating these seas, I was influenced
to make the change. Longshore pirates on both coasts being numerous, I
could not afford to make light of the advice. But here I was, after
all, evidently in the midst of pirates and thieves! I changed my
course; the felucca did the same, both vessels sailing very fast, but
the distance growing less and less between us. The _Spray_ was doing
nobly; she was even more than at her best; but, in spite of all I
could do, she would broach now and then. She was carrying too much
sail for safety. I must reef or be dismasted and lose all, pirate or
no pirate. I must reef, even if I had to grapple with him for my life.
I was not long in reefing the mainsail and sweating it up--probably
not more than fifteen minutes; but the felucca had in the meantime so
shortened the distance between us that I now saw the tuft of hair on
the heads of the crew,--by which, it is said, Mohammed will pull the
villains up into heaven,--and they were coming on like the wind. From
what I could clearly make out now, I felt them to be the sons of
generations of pirates, and I saw by their movements that they were
now preparing to strike a blow. The exultation on their faces,
however, was changed in an instant to a look of fear and rage. Their
craft, with too much sail on, broached to on the crest of a great
wave. This one great sea changed the aspect of affairs suddenly as the
flash of a gun. Three minutes later the same wave overtook the _Spray_
and shook her in every timber. At the same moment the sheet-strop
parted, and away went the main-boom, broken short at the rigging.
Impulsively I sprang to the jib-halyards and down-haul, and instantly
downed the jib. The head-sail being off, and the helm put hard down,
the sloop came in the wind with a bound. While shivering there, but a
moment though it was, I got the mainsail down and secured inboard,
broken boom and all. How I got the boom in before the sail was torn I
hardly know; but not a stitch of it was broken. The mainsail being
secured, I hoisted away the jib, and, without looking round, stepped
quickly to the cabin and snatched down my loaded rifle and cartridges
at hand; for I made mental calculations that the pirate would by this
time have recovered his course and be close aboard, and that when I
saw him it would be better for me to be looking at him along the
barrel of a gun. The piece was at my shoulder when I peered into the
mist, but there was no pirate within a mile. The wave and squall that
carried away my boom dismasted the felucca outright. I perceived his
thieving crew, some dozen or more of them, struggling to recover their
rigging from the sea. Allah blacken their faces!
I sailed comfortably on under the jib and forestaysail, which I now
set. I fished the boom and furled the sail snug for the night; then
hauled the sloop's head two points offshore to allow for the set of
current and heavy rollers toward the land. This gave me the wind three
points on the starboard quarter and a steady pull in the headsails. By
the time I had things in this order it was dark, and a flying-fish had
already fallen on deck. I took him below for my supper, but found
myself too tired to cook, or even to eat a thing already prepared. I
do not remember to have been more tired before or since in all my life
than I was at the finish of that day. Too fatigued to sleep, I rolled
about with the motion of the vessel till near midnight, when I made
shift to dress my fish and prepare a dish of tea. I fully realized
now, if I had not before, that the voyage ahead would call for
exertions ardent and lasting. On August 27 nothing could be seen of
the Moor, or his country either, except two peaks, away in the east
through the clear atmosphere of morning. Soon after the sun rose even
these were obscured by haze, much to my satisfaction.
[Illustration: Chased by pirates.]
The wind, for a few days following my escape from the pirates, blew a
steady but moderate gale, and the sea, though agitated into long
rollers, was not uncomfortably rough or dangerous, and while sitting
in my cabin I could hardly realize that any sea was running at all, so
easy was the long, swinging motion of the sloop over the waves. All
distracting uneasiness and excitement being now over, I was once more
alone with myself in the realization that I was on the mighty sea and
in the hands of the elements. But I was happy, and was becoming more
and more interested in the voyage.
Columbus, in the _Santa Maria_, sailing these seas more than four
hundred years before, was not so happy as I, nor so sure of success in
what he had undertaken. His first troubles at sea had already begun.
His crew had managed, by foul play or otherwise, to break the ship's
rudder while running before probably just such a gale as the _Spray_
had passed through; and there was dissension on the _Santa Maria_,
something that was unknown on the _Spray_.
After three days of squalls and shifting winds I threw myself down to
rest and sleep, while, with helm lashed, the sloop sailed steadily on
her course.
September 1, in the early morning, land-clouds rising ahead told of
the Canary Islands not far away. A change in the weather came next
day: storm-clouds stretched their arms across the sky; from the east,
to all appearances, might come a fierce harmattan, or from the south
might come the fierce hurricane. Every point of the compass threatened
a wild storm. My attention was turned to reefing sails, and no time
was to be lost over it, either, for the sea in a moment was confusion
itself, and I was glad to head the sloop three points or more away
from her true course that she might ride safely over the waves. I was
now scudding her for the channel between Africa and the island of
Fuerteventura, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, for which I was
on the lookout. At 2 P.M., the weather becoming suddenly fine, the
island stood in view, already abeam to starboard, and not more than
seven miles off. Fuerteventura is twenty-seven hundred feet high, and
in fine weather is visible many leagues away.
The wind freshened in the night, and the _Spray_ had a fine run
through the channel. By daylight, September 3, she was twenty-five
miles clear of all the islands, when a calm ensued, which was the
precursor of another gale of wind that soon came on, bringing with it
dust from the African shore. It howled dismally while it lasted, and
though it was not the season of the harmattan, the sea in the course
of an hour was discolored with a reddish-brown dust. The air remained
thick with flying dust all the afternoon, but the wind, veering
northwest at night, swept it back to land, and afforded the _Spray_
once more a clear sky. Her mast now bent under a strong, steady
pressure, and her bellying sail swept the sea as she rolled scuppers
under, courtesying to the waves. These rolling waves thrilled me as
they tossed my ship, passing quickly under her keel. This was grand
sailing.
September 4, the wind, still fresh, blew from the north-northeast, and
the sea surged along with the sloop. About noon a steamship, a
bullock-droger, from the river Plate hove in sight, steering
northeast, and making bad weather of it. I signaled her, but got no
answer. She was plunging into the head sea and rolling in a most
astonishing manner, and from the way she yawed one might have said
that a wild steer was at the helm.
On the morning of September 6 I found three flying-fish on deck, and a
fourth one down the fore-scuttle as close as possible to the
frying-pan. It was the best haul yet, and afforded me a sumptuous
breakfast and dinner.
The _Spray_ had now settled down to the tradewinds and to the business
of her voyage. Later in the day another droger hove in sight, rolling
as badly as her predecessor. I threw out no flag to this one, but got
the worst of it for passing under her lee. She was, indeed, a stale
one! And the poor cattle, how they bellowed! The time was when ships
passing one another at sea backed their topsails and had a "gam," and
on parting fired guns; but those good old days have gone. People have
hardly time nowadays to speak even on the broad ocean, where news is
news, and as for a salute of guns, they cannot afford the powder.
There are no poetry-enshrined freighters on the sea now; it is a prosy
life when we have no time to bid one another good morning.
My ship, running now in the full swing of the trades, left me days to
myself for rest and recuperation. I employed the time in reading and
writing, or in whatever I found to do about the rigging and the sails
to keep them all in order. The cooking was always done quickly, and
was a small matter, as the bill of fare consisted mostly of
flying-fish, hot biscuits and butter, potatoes, coffee and
cream--dishes readily prepared.
On September 10 the _Spray_ passed the island of St. Antonio, the
northwesternmost of the Cape Verdes, close aboard. The landfall was
wonderfully true, considering that no observations for longitude had
been made. The wind, northeast, as the sloop drew by the island, was
very squally, but I reefed her sails snug, and steered broad from the
highland of blustering St. Antonio. Then leaving the Cape Verde
Islands out of sight astern, I found myself once more sailing a lonely
sea and in a solitude supreme all around. When I slept I dreamed that
I was alone. This feeling never left me; but, sleeping or waking, I
seemed always to know the position of the sloop, and I saw my vessel
moving across the chart, which became a picture before me.
One night while I sat in the cabin under this spell, the profound
stillness all about was broken by human voices alongside! I sprang
instantly to the deck, startled beyond my power to tell. Passing close
under lee, like an apparition, was a white bark under full sail. The
sailors on board of her were hauling on ropes to brace the yards,
which just cleared the sloop's mast as she swept by. No one hailed
from the white-winged flier, but I heard some one on board say that he
saw lights on the sloop, and that he made her out to be a fisherman. I
sat long on the starlit deck that night, thinking of ships, and
watching the constellations on their voyage.
On the following day, September 13, a large four-masted ship passed
some distance to windward, heading north.
The sloop was now rapidly drawing toward the region of doldrums, and
the force of the trade-winds was lessening. I could see by the ripples
that a counter-current had set in. This I estimated to be about
sixteen miles a day. In the heart of the counter-stream the rate was
more than that setting eastward.
September 14 a lofty three-masted ship, heading north, was seen from
the masthead. Neither this ship nor the one seen yesterday was within
signal distance, yet it was good even to see them. On the following
day heavy rain-clouds rose in the south, obscuring the sun; this was
ominous of doldrums. On the 16th the _Spray_ entered this gloomy
region, to battle with squalls and to be harassed by fitful calms; for
this is the state of the elements between the northeast and the
southeast trades, where each wind, struggling in turn for mastery,
expends its force whirling about in all directions. Making this still
more trying to one's nerve and patience, the sea was tossed into
confused cross-lumps and fretted by eddying currents. As if something
more were needed to complete a sailor's discomfort in this state, the
rain poured down in torrents day and night. The _Spray_ struggled and
tossed for ten days, making only three hundred miles on her course in
all that time. I didn't say anything!
On September 23 the fine schooner _Nantasket_ of Boston, from Bear
River, for the river Plate, lumber-laden, and just through the
doldrums, came up with the _Spray_, and her captain passing a few
words, she sailed on. Being much fouled on the bottom by shell-fish,
she drew along with her fishes which had been following the _Spray_,
which was less provided with that sort of food. Fishes will always
follow a foul ship. A barnacle-grown log adrift has the same
attraction for deep-sea fishes. One of this little school of deserters
was a dolphin that had followed the _Spray_ about a thousand miles,
and had been content to eat scraps of food thrown overboard from my
table; for, having been wounded, it could not dart through the sea to
prey on other fishes. I had become accustomed to seeing the dolphin,
which I knew by its scars, and missed it whenever it took occasional
excursions away from the sloop. One day, after it had been off some
hours, it returned in company with three yellowtails, a sort of cousin
to the dolphin. This little school kept together, except when in
danger and when foraging about the sea. Their lives were often
threatened by hungry sharks that came round the vessel, and more than
once they had narrow escapes. Their mode of escape interested me
greatly, and I passed hours watching them. They would dart away, each
in a different direction, so that the wolf of the sea, the shark,
pursuing one, would be led away from the others; then after a while
they would all return and rendezvous under one side or the other of
the sloop. Twice their pursuers were diverted by a tin pan, which I
towed astern of the sloop, and which was mistaken for a bright fish;
and while turning, in the peculiar way that sharks have when about to
devour their prey, I shot them through the head.
Their precarious life seemed to concern the yellowtails very little,
if at all. All living beings, without doubt, are afraid of death.
Nevertheless, some of the species I saw huddle together as though they
knew they were created for the larger fishes, and wished to give the
least possible trouble to their captors. I have seen, on the other
hand, whales swimming in a circle around a school of herrings, and
with mighty exertion "bunching" them together in a whirlpool set in
motion by their flukes, and when the small fry were all whirled nicely
together, one or the other of the leviathans, lunging through the
center with open jaws, take in a boat-load or so at a single mouthful.
Off the Cape of Good Hope I saw schools of sardines or other small
fish being treated in this way by great numbers of cavally-fish. There
was not the slightest chance of escape for the sardines, while the
cavally circled round and round, feeding from the edge of the mass. It
was interesting to note how rapidly the small fry disappeared; and
though it was repeated before my eyes over and over, I could hardly
perceive the capture of a single sardine, so dexterously was it done.
Along the equatorial limit of the southeast trade winds the air was
heavily charged with electricity, and there was much thunder and
lightning. It was hereabout I remembered that, a few years before, the
American ship _Alert_ was destroyed by lightning. Her people, by
wonderful good fortune, were rescued on the same day and brought to
Pernambuco, where I then met them.
On September 25, in the latitude of 5 degrees N., longitude 26 degrees
30' W., I spoke the ship _North Star_ of London. The great ship was
out forty-eight days from Norfolk, Virginia, and was bound for Rio,
where we met again about two months later. The _Spray_ was now thirty
days from Gibraltar.
The _Spray's_ next companion of the voyage was a swordfish, that swam
alongside, showing its tall fin out of the water, till I made a stir
for my harpoon, when it hauled its black flag down and disappeared.
September 30, at half-past eleven in the morning, the _Spray_ crossed
the equator in longitude 29 degrees 30' W. At noon she was two miles
south of the line. The southeast trade-winds, met, rather light, in
about 4 degrees N., gave her sails now a stiff full sending her
handsomely over the sea toward the coast of Brazil, where on October
5, just north of Olinda Point, without further incident, she made the
land, casting anchor in Pernambuco harbor about noon: forty days from
Gibraltar, and all well on board. Did I tire of the voyage in all that
time? Not a bit of it! I was never in better trim in all my life, and
was eager for the more perilous experience of rounding the Horn.
It was not at all strange in a life common to sailors that, having
already crossed the Atlantic twice and being now half-way from Boston
to the Horn, I should find myself still among friends. My
determination to sail westward from Gibraltar not only enabled me to
escape the pirates of the Red Sea, but, in bringing me to Pernambuco,
landed me on familiar shores. I had made many voyages to this and
other ports in Brazil. In 1893 I was employed as master to take the
famous Ericsson ship _Destroyer_ from New York to Brazil to go against
the rebel Mello and his party. The _Destroyer_, by the way, carried a
submarine cannon of enormous length.
In the same expedition went the _Nictheroy_, the ship purchased by the
United States government during the Spanish war and renamed the
_Buffalo_. The _Destroyer_ was in many ways the better ship of the
two, but the Brazilians in their curious war sank her themselves at
Bahia. With her sank my hope of recovering wages due me; still, I
could but try to recover, for to me it meant a great deal. But now
within two years the whirligig of time had brought the Mello party
into power, and although it was the legal government which had
employed me, the so-called "rebels" felt under less obligation to me
than I could have wished.
During these visits to Brazil I had made the acquaintance of Dr.
Perera, owner and editor of "El Commercio Jornal," and soon after the
_Spray_ was safely moored in Upper Topsail Reach, the doctor, who is a
very enthusiastic yachtsman, came to pay me a visit and to carry me up
the waterway of the lagoon to his country residence. The approach to
his mansion by the waterside was guarded by his armada, a fleet of
boats including a Chinese sampan, a Norwegian pram, and a Cape Ann
dory, the last of which he obtained from the _Destroyer_. The doctor
dined me often on good Brazilian fare, that I might, as he said,
"salle gordo" for the voyage; but he found that even on the best I
fattened slowly.
Fruits and vegetables and all other provisions necessary for the
voyage having been taken in, on the 23d of October I unmoored and made
ready for sea. Here I encountered one of the unforgiving Mello faction
in the person of the collector of customs, who charged the _Spray_
tonnage dues when she cleared, notwithstanding that she sailed with a
yacht license and should have been exempt from port charges. Our
consul reminded the collector of this and of the fact--without much
diplomacy, I thought--that it was I who brought the _Destroyer_ to
Brazil. "Oh, yes," said the bland collector; "we remember it very
well," for it was now in a small way his turn.
Mr. Lungrin, a merchant, to help me out of the trifling difficulty,
offered to freight the _Spray_ with a cargo of gunpowder for Bahia,
which would have put me in funds; and when the insurance companies
refused to take the risk on cargo shipped on a vessel manned by a crew
of only one, he offered to ship it without insurance, taking all the
risk himself. This was perhaps paying me a greater compliment than I
deserved. The reason why I did not accept the business was that in so
doing I found that I should vitiate my yacht license and run into more
expense for harbor dues around the world than the freight would amount
to. Instead of all this, another old merchant friend came to my
assistance, advancing the cash direct.
While at Pernambuco I shortened the boom, which had been broken when
off the coast of Morocco, by removing the broken piece, which took
about four feet off the inboard end; I also refitted the jaws. On
October 24,1895, a fine day even as days go in Brazil, the _Spray_
sailed, having had abundant good cheer. Making about one hundred miles
a day along the coast, I arrived at Rio de Janeiro November 5, without
any event worth mentioning, and about noon cast anchor near
Villaganon, to await the official port visit. On the following day I
bestirred myself to meet the highest lord of the admiralty and the
ministers, to inquire concerning the matter of wages due me from the
beloved _Destroyer_. The high official I met said: "Captain, so far as
we are concerned, you may have the ship, and if you care to accept her
we will send an officer to show you where she is." I knew well enough
where she was at that moment. The top of her smoke-stack being awash
in Bahia, it was more than likely that she rested on the bottom there.
I thanked the kind officer, but declined his offer.
The _Spray_, with a number of old shipmasters on board, sailed about
the harbor of Rio the day before she put to sea. As I had decided to
give the _Spray_ a yawl rig for the tempestuous waters of Patagonia, I
here placed on the stern a semicircular brace to support a jigger
mast. These old captains inspected the _Spray's_ rigging, and each one
contributed something to her outfit. Captain Jones, who had acted as
my interpreter at Rio, gave her an anchor, and one of the steamers
gave her a cable to match it. She never dragged Jones's anchor once on
the voyage, and the cable not only stood the strain on a lee shore,
but when towed off Cape Horn helped break combing seas astern that
threatened to board her.