“You had a close shave the other night,” one of the boatmen remarked to
Frank, as a few days after the adventure he strolled down with Ruthven
and Handcock to talk to the boatman whose boat had been lost, “a very
narrow shave. I had one out there myself when I was just about your
age, nigh forty years ago. I went out for a sail with my father in his
fishing boat, and I didn't come back for three years. That was the only
long voyage I ever went. I've been sticking to fishing ever since.”
“How was it you were away three years?” Handcock asked, “and what was
the adventure? Tell us about it.”
“Well, it's rather a long yarn,” the boatman said.
“Well, your best plan, Jack,” Ruthven said, putting his hand in his
pocket and bringing out sixpence, “will be for you to go across the road
and wet your whistle before you begin.”
“Thank ye, young gentleman. I will take three o' grog and an ounce of
'bacca.”
He went across to the public house, and soon returned with a long clay
in his hand. Then he sat down on the shingle with his back against a
boat, and the boys threw themselves down close to him.
“Now,” he began, when he had filled his pipe with great deliberation and
got it fairly alight, “this here yarn as I'm going to tell you ain't no
gammon. Most of the tales which gets told on the beach to visitors as
comes down here and wants to hear of sea adventures is just lies from
beginning to end. Now, I ain't that sort, leastways, I shouldn't go to
impose upon young gents like you as ha' had a real adventure of your
own, and showed oncommon good pluck and coolness too. I don't say, mind
ye, that every word is just gospel. My mates as ha' known me from a boy
tells me that I've 'bellished the yarn since I first told it, and that
all sorts of things have crept in which wasn't there first. That may
be so. When a man tells a story a great many times, naturally he can't
always tell it just the same, and he gets so mixed up atween what he
told last and what he told first that he don't rightly know which
was which when he wants to tell it just as it really happened. So if
sometimes it appears to you that I'm steering rather wild, just you put
a stopper on and bring me up all standing with a question.”
There was a quiet humor about the boatman's face, and the boys winked
at each other as much as to say that after such an exordium they must
expect something rather staggering. The boatman took two or three hard
whiffs at his pipe and then began.
“It was towards the end of September in 1832, that's just forty years
ago now, that I went out with my father and three hands in the smack,
the Flying Dolphin. I'd been at sea with father off and on ever since
I was about nine years old, and a smarter boy wasn't to be found on the
beach. The Dolphin was a good sea boat, but she wasn't, so to say, fast,
and I dunno' as she was much to look at, for the old man wasn't the sort
of chap to chuck away his money in paint or in new sails as long as the
old ones could be pieced and patched so as to hold the wind. We sailed
out pretty nigh over to the French coast, and good sport we had. We'd
been out two days when we turned her head homewards. The wind was
blowing pretty strong, and the old man remarked, he thought we was in
for a gale. There was some talk of our running in to Calais and waiting
till it had blown itself out, but the fish might have spoil before the
Wind dropped, so we made up our minds to run straight into Dover and
send the fish up from there. The night came on wild and squally, and as
dark as pitch. It might be about eight bells, and I and one of the other
hands had turned in, when father gave a sudden shout down the hatch,
'All hands on deck.' I was next to the steps and sprang up 'em. Just as
I got to the top something grazed my face. I caught at it, not knowing
what it was, and the next moment there was a crash, and the Dolphin went
away from under my feet. I clung for bare life, scarce awake yet nor
knowing what had happened. The next moment I was under water. I still
held on to the rope and was soon out again. By this time I was pretty
well awake to what had happened. A ship running down channel had walked
clean over the poor old Dolphin, and I had got hold of the bobstay. It
took me some time to climb up on to the bowsprit, for every time she
pitched I went under water. However, I got up at last and swarmed along
the bowsprit and got on board. There was a chap sitting down fast asleep
there. I walked aft to the helmsman. Two men were pacing up and down in
front of him. 'You're a nice lot, you are,' I said, 'to go running down
Channel at ten knots an hour without any watch, a-walking over ships and
a-drowning of seamen. I'll have the law of ye, see if I don't.'
“'Jeerusalem!' said one, 'who have we here?'
“'My name is Jack Perkins,' says I, 'and I'm the sole survivor, as far
as I knows, of the smack, the Flying Dolphin, as has been run down by
this craft and lost with all hands.'
“'Darn the Flying Dolphin, and you too,' says the man, and he begins
to walk up and down the deck a-puffn' of a long cigar as if nothing had
happened.
“'Oh, come,' says I, 'this won't do. Here you've been and run down a
smack, drowned father and the other three hands, and your lookout fast
asleep, and you does nothing.'
“'I suppose,' said the captain, sarcastic, 'you want me to jump over
to look for 'em. You want me to heave the ship to in this gale and
to invite yer father perlitely to come on board. P'raps you'd like a
grapnel put out to see if I couldn't hook the smack and bring her up
again. Perhaps you'd like to be chucked overboard yourself. Nobody asked
you to come on board, nobody wanted your company. I reckon the wisest
thing you can do is to go for'ard and turn in.' There didn't seem much
for me to do else, so I went forward to the forecastle. There most of
the hands were asleep, but two or three were sitting up yarning. I told
'em my story and what this captain had said.
“'He's a queer hand is the skipper,' one of 'em said, 'and hasn't got a
soft place about him. Well, my lad, I'm sorry for what's happened, but
talking won't do it any good. You've got a long voyage before you, and
you'd best turn in and make yourself comfortable for it.'
“'I ain't going a long voyage,' says I, beginning to wipe my eye, 'I
wants to be put ashore at the first port.'
“'Well, my lad, I daresay the skipper will do that, but as we're bound
for the coast of Chili from Hamburg, and ain't likely to be there for
about five months, you've got, as I said, a long voyage before you. If
the weather had been fine the skipper might have spoken some ship in the
Channel, and put you on board, but before the gale's blown out we shall
be hundreds of miles at sea. Even if it had been fine I don't suppose
the skipper would have parted with you, especially if you told him the
watch was asleep. He would not care next time he entered an English port
to have a claim fixed on his ship for the vally of the smack.'
“I saw what the sailor said was like enough, and blamed myself for
having let out about the watch. However, there was no help for it, and I
turned into an empty bunk and cried myself to sleep. What a voyage that
was, to be sure! The ship was a Yankee and so was the master and mates.
The crew were of all sorts, Dutch, and Swedes, and English, a Yank or
two, and a sprinklin' of niggers. It was one of those ships they call
a hell on earth, and cussing and kicking and driving went on all day. I
hadn't no regular place give me, but helped the black cook, and pulled
at ropes, and swabbed the decks, and got kicked and cuffed all round.
The skipper did not often speak to me, but when his eye lighted on me he
gave an ugly sort of look, as seemed to say, 'You'd better ha' gone down
with the others. You think you're going to report the loss of the smack,
and to get damages against the Potomac, do you? we shall see.' The
crew were a rough lot, but the spirit seemed taken out of 'em by the
treatment they met with. It was a word and a blow with the mates, and
they would think no more of catching up a handspike and stretching a man
senseless on the deck than I should of killing a fly. There was two or
three among 'em of a better sort than the others. The best of 'em was
the carpenter, an old Dutchman. 'Leetle boy,' he used to say to me,
'you keep yourself out of the sight of de skipper. Bad man dat. Me much
surprise if you get to de end of dis voyage all right. You best work
vera hard and give him no excuse to hit you. If he do, by gosh, he kill
you, and put down in de log, Boy killed by accident.'
“I felt that this was so myself, and I did my work as well as I could.
One day, however, when we were near the line I happened to upset a
bucket with some tar. The captain was standing close by.
“'You young dog,' he said, 'you've done that a purpose,' and before I
could speak he caught up the bucket by the handle and brought it down on
my head with all his might. The next thing I remember was, I was lying
in a bunk in the forecastle. Everything looked strange to me, and I
couldn't raise my head. After a time I made shift to turn it round, and
saw old Jans sitting on a chest mending a jacket. I called him, but my
voice was so low I hardly seemed to hear it myself.
“'Ah, my leetle boy!' he said, 'I am glad to hear you speak again. Two
whole weeks you say nothing except talk nonsense.'
“'Have I been ill?' I asked.
“'You haf been vera bad,' he said. 'De captain meant to kill you, I haf
no doubt, and he pretty near do it. After he knock you down he said you
dead. He sorry for accident, not mean to hit you so hard, but you dead
and better be tossed overboard at once. De mates they come up and take
your hands and feet. Den I insist dat I feel your wrist. Two or three of
us dey stood by me. Captain he vera angry, say we mutinous dogs. I say
not mutinous, but wasn't going to see a boy who was only stunned thrown
overboard. We say if he did dat we make complaint before consul when we
get to port. De skipper he cuss and swear awful. Howebber we haf our way
and carry you here. You haf fever and near die. Tree days after we
bring you here de captain he swear you shamming and comed to look at you
hisself, but he see that it true and tink you going to die. He go away
wid smile on his face. Every day he ask if you alive, and give grunt
when I say yes. Now you best keep vera quiet. You no talk 'cept when no
one else here but me. Other times lie wid your face to the side and your
eyes shut. Best keep you here as long as we can, de longer de better. He
make you come on deck and work as soon as he think you strong enough to
stand. Best get pretty strong before you go out.'
“For another three weeks I lay in my bunk. I only ate a little gruel
when others were there, but when the skipper was at dinner Jans would
bring me strong soup and meat from the caboose. The captain came several
times and shook me and swore I was shamming, but I only answered in a
whisper and seemed as faint as a girl. All this time the Potomac was
making good way, and was running fast down the coast of South America.
The air was getting cool and fresh.
“'I tink,' Jans said one evening to me, 'dat dis not go on much much
longer. De crew getting desperate. Dey talk and mutter among demselves.
Me thinks we have trouble before long.'
“The next day one of the mates came in with a bucket of water. 'There!
you skulking young hound,' he said as he threw it over me; 'you'd best
get out, or the skipper will come and rouse you up himself.'
“I staggered on to the floor. I had made up my mind to sham weak, but
I did not need to pretend at first, for having been six weeks in bed, I
felt strange and giddy when I got up. I slipped on my clothes and went
out on deck, staggered to the bulwarks and held on. The fresh air soon
set me straight, and I felt that I was pretty strong again. However, I
pretended to be able to scarce stand, and, holding on by the bulwark,
made my way aft.
“'You young dog,' the skipper said, 'you've been shamming for the last
six weeks. I reckon I'll sharpen you up now,' and he hit me a heavy blow
with a rattan he held in his hand. There was a cry of 'Shame!' from some
of the men. As quick as thought the skipper pulled a pistol from his
pocket.
“'Who cried “Shame”?'” he asked looking round.
“No one answered. Still holding the pistol in his hand he gave me
several more cuts, and then told me to swab the deck. I did it,
pretending all the time I was scarce strong enough to keep my feet. Then
I made my way forward and sat down against the bulwark, as if nigh done
up, till night came. That night as I lay in my bunk I heard the men
talking in whispers together. I judged from what they said that they
intended to wait for another week, when they expected to enter Magellan
Straits, and then to attack and throw the officers overboard. Nothing
seemed settled as to what they would do afterwards. Some were in favor
of continuing the voyage to port, and there giving out that the captain
and officers had been washed overboard in a storm; when, if all stood
true to each other, the truth could never be known, although suspicions
might arise. The others, however, insisted that you never could be sure
of every one, and that some one would be sure to peach. They argued
in favor of sailing west and beaching the ship on one of the Pacific
islands, where they could live comfortably and take wives among the
native women. If they were ever found they could then say that the ship
was blown out of her course and wrecked there, and that the captain and
officers had been drowned or killed by the natives. It seemed to me
that this party were the strongest. For the next week I was thrashed and
kicked every day and had I been as weak as I pretended to be, I'm sure
they would have killed me. However, thanks to the food Jans brought
me, for I was put on bread and water, I held on. At last we entered the
straits. The men were very quiet that day, and the captain in a worse
temper than usual. I did not go to sleep, and turned out at the midnight
watch, for I was made to keep watch although I was on duty all day.
As the watch came in I heard them say to the others, 'In ten minutes'
time.' Presently I saw them come out, and joining the watch on deck they
went aft quietly in a body. They had all got handspikes in their hands.
Then there was a rush. Two pistol shots were fired, and then there was
a splash, and I knew that the officer on watch was done for. Then they
burst into the aft cabins. There were pistol shots and shouts, and for
three or four minutes the fight went on. Then all was quiet. Then they
came up on deck again and I heard three splashes, that accounted for
the captain and the two other mates. I thought it safe now to go aft. I
found that six of the men had been killed. These were thrown overboard,
and then the crew got at the spirit stores and began to drink. I looked
about for Jans, and found him presently sitting on the deck by the
bulwark.
“'Ah, my leetle boy!' he said, 'you have just come in time. I have been
shot through the body. I was not in de fight, but was standing near when
dey rushed at de officer on watch. De first pistol he fire missed de man
he aim at and hit me. Well, it was shust as well. I am too old to care
for living among de black peoples, and I did not want a black wife at
all. So matters haf not turned out so vera bad. Get me some water.'
“I got him some, but in five minutes the poor old Dutchman was dead.
There was no one on deck. All were shouting and singing in the captain's
cabin, so I went and turned in forward. Morning was just breaking when
I suddenly woke. There was a great light, and running on deck I saw
the fire pouring out from the cabin aft. I suppose they had all drunk
themselves stupid and had upset a light, and the fire had spread and
suffocated them all. Anyhow, there were none of them to be seen. I got
hold of a water keg and placed it in a boat which luckily hung out on
its davits, as Jans had, the day before, been calking a seam in her side
just above the water's edge. I made a shift to lower it, threw off the
falls, and getting out the oars, rowed off. I lay by for some little
time, but did not see a soul on deck. Then, as I had nowhere particular
to go, I lay down and slept. On getting up I found that I had drifted
two or three miles from the ship, which was now a mere smoking shell,
the greater part being burnt to the Water's edge. Two miles to the
north lay the land, and getting out an oar at the stern I sculled her
to shore. I suppose I had been seen, or that the flames of the ship had
called down the people, for there they were in the bay, and such a lot
of creatures I never set eyes on. Men and women alike was pretty nigh
naked, and dirt is no name for them. Though I was but a boy I was taller
than most. They came round me and jabbered and jabbered till I was nigh
deafened. Over and over again they pointed to the ship. I thought they
wanted to know whether I belonged to it, but it couldn't have been that,
because when I nodded a lot of 'em jumped into some canoes which was
lying ashore, and taking me with them paddled off to the ship. I suppose
they really wanted to know if they could have what they could find. That
wasn't much, but it seemed a treasure to them. There was a lot of burned
beams floating about alongside, and all of these which had iron or
copper bolts or fastenings they took in tow and rowed ashore. We hadn't
been gone many hundred yards from the vessel when she sunk. Well, young
gentlemen, for upwards of two years I lived with them critturs. My
clothes soon wore out, and I got to be as naked and dirty as the rest
of 'em. They were good hands at fishing, and could spear a fish by the
light of a torch wonderful. In other respects they didn't seem to have
much sense. They lived, when I first went there, in holes scratched in
the side of a hill, but I taught 'em to make huts, making a sort of
ax out of the iron saved. In summer they used to live in these, but
in winter, when it was awful cold, we lived in the holes, which were a
sight warmer than the huts. Law, what a time that was! I had no end
of adventures with wild beasts. The way the lions used to roar and the
elephants--”
“I think, Jack,” Ruthven interrupted, “that this must be one of the
embellishments which have crept in since you first began telling the
tale. I don't think I should keep it in if I were you, because the fact
that there are neither lions or elephants in South America throws a
doubt upon the accuracy of this portion of your story.”
“It may be, sir,” the sailor said, with a twinkle of his eyes, “that the
elephants and lions may not have been in the first story. Now I think
of it, I can't recall that they were; but, you see, people wants to
know all about it. They ain't satisfied when I tell 'em that I lived two
years among these chaps. They wants to know how I passed my time, and
whether there were any wild beasts, and a lot of such like questions,
and, in course, I must answer them. So then, you see, naturally,
'bellishments creeps in; but I did live there for two years, that's
gospel truth, and I did go pretty nigh naked, and in winter was pretty
near starved to death over and over again. When the ground was too hard
to dig up roots, and the sea was too rough for the canoes to put out, it
went hard with us, and very often we looked more like living skelingtons
than human beings. Every time a ship came in sight they used to hurry me
away into the woods. I suppose they found me useful, and didn't want to
part with me. At last I got desperate, and made up my mind I'd make a
bolt whatever came of it. They didn't watch me when there were no ships
near. I suppose they thought there was nowhere for me to run to, so one
night I steals down to the shore, gets into a canoe, puts in a lot of
roots which I had dug up and hidden away in readiness, and so makes
off. I rowed hard all night, for I knew they would be after me when they
found I had gone. Them straits is sometimes miles and miles across;
at other times not much more than a ship's length, and the tide runs
through 'em like a mill race. I had chosen a time when I had the tide
with me, and soon after morning I came to one of them narrow places. I
should like to have stopped here, because it would have been handy for
any ship as passed; but the tide run so strong, and the rocks were
so steep on both sides, that I couldn't make a landing. Howsomdever,
directly it widened out, I managed to paddle into the back water and
landed there. Well, gents, would you believe me, if there wasn't two
big allygaters sitting there with their mouths open ready to swallow me,
canoe and all, when I came to shore.”
“No, Jack, I'm afraid we can't believe that. We would if we could, you
know, but alligators are not fond of such cold weather as you'd been
having, nor do they frequent the seashore.”
“Ah, but this, you see, was a straits, Master Ruthven, just a narrow
straits, and I expect the creatures took it for a river.”
“No, no, Jack, we can't swallow the alligators, any more than they could
swallow you and your canoe.”
“Well,” the sailor said with a sigh, “I won't say no more about the
allygaters. I can't rightly recall when they came into the story.
Howsomdever, I landed, you can believe that, you know.”
“Oh yes, we can quite believe, Jack, that, if you were there, in that
canoe, in that back water, with the land close ahead, you did land.”
The sailor looked searchingly at Ruthven and then continued:
“I hauled the canoe up and hid it in some bushes, and it were well I
did, for a short time afterwards a great--” and he paused. “Does the
hippypotybus live in them ere waters, young gents?”
“He does not, Jack,” Ruthven said.
“Then it's clear,” the sailor said, “that it wasn't a hippypotybus. It
must have been a seal.”
“Yes, it might have been a seal,” Ruthven said. “What did he do?”
“Well he just took a look at me, gents, winked with one eye, as much as
to say, 'I see you,' and went down again. There warn't nothing else as
he could do, was there?”
“It was the best thing he could do anyhow,” Ruthven said.
“Well, gents, I lived there for about three weeks, and then a ship
comes along, homeward bound, and I goes out and hails her. At first they
thought as I was a native as had learned to speak English, and it wasn't
till they'd boiled me for three hours in the ship's copper as they got
at the color of my skin, and could believe as I was English. So I came
back here and found the old woman still alive, and took to fishing
again; but it was weeks and weeks before I could get her or any one else
to believe as I was Jack Perkins. And that's all the story, young gents.
Generally I tells it a sight longer to the gents as come down from
London in summer; but, you see, I can't make much out of it when ye
won't let me have 'bellishments.”
“And how much of it is true altogether, Jack?” Frank asked. “Really how
much?”
“It's all true as I have told you, young masters,” the boatman said. “It
were every bit true about the running down of the smack, and me being
nearly killed by the skipper, and the mutiny, and the burning of the
vessel, and my living for a long time--no, I won't stick to the two
years, but it might have been three weeks, with the natives before a
ship picked me up. And that's good enough for a yarn, ain't it?”
“Quite good enough, Jack, and we're much obliged to you; but I should
advise you to drop the embellishments in future.”
“It ain't no use, Master Hargate, they will have 'bellishments, and if
they will have 'em, Jack Perkins isn't the man to disappint 'em; and,
Lord bless you, sir, the stiffer I pitches it in the more liberal they
is with their tips. Thank ye kindly all round, gentlemen. Yes, I do feel
dry after the yarn.”