I can't say what the rest felt; but I know that I, for one, was
frightened when I heard that strange gurgling noise and saw the great
black thing, spinning round like a teetotum and swirling up the water,
coming down on our ship as if to overwhelm her!
The squalls, which succeeded each other from different directions in
rapid sequence, were even more dangerous than the water-spout; but
Captain Miles was too good a seaman to be easily beaten, even by the
most adverse circumstances.
Telling off some of the best hands to the fore and main-braces on either
side, so that these could be let go or hauled taut in an instant as the
wind shifted, thus necessitating the vessel changing her tack with
similar rapidity, he went to the helm himself; and from this point, with
the assistance of Moggridge, he conned the ship as coolly as if he were
in charge of a yacht trying to weather the mark-boat in a race so as to
get to windward of her competitors!
The captain was trying to make as much northing as he could, as well as
endeavouring to run out of reach of the water-spout, which latter,
although it gyrated about in the water so queerly and seemed moving
every way at once, came up more from the eastwards, travelling to the
south of west apparently; and, expert seaman that he was, in spite of
the veering wind, which backed round every moment, he gallantly
manoeuvred so as to gain his object--sailing ahead between the squalls,
as it were.
"Ready about!" he would call out one minute, when the main-topsail was
backed and the fore-yard swung round; and, almost as soon as this was
done and the weather braces handed, the cry "'bout ship!" was again
repeated, when the _Josephine_ was brought once mere back to her
previous bearings.
Such tackings and beatings about, surely, no ship ever underwent before
in so short a time!
"By Jingo, he's a sailor every inch of him!" I heard one of the old
hands of the crew murmur in admiration as he pulled in with a will the
weather braces for about the sixth time in as many minutes; and, truth
to say, I could not help sharing the feeling of respect all the crew had
for our captain, who, easy-going as he was generally in fine weather,
letting the first mate then attend to the working of the ship, he was
"all there," as they said, when the necessity for prompt action in any
emergency called for exertion and made him show himself in his true
colours.
But, struggle to outstrip it as much as he might, the water-spout came
nearer and nearer to us, bearing down still broadside-on upon the ship.
As I stood close to the captain and Moggridge, who alone were on the
poop besides myself, Mr Marline and Davis the second mate being in the
waist, looking after the men at the braces amidships, I noticed that the
pillar of cloud became more transparent in proportion as it decreased in
size from the upper portion, until it seemed almost perfectly so at the
lower extremity where it touched the sea. I observed, too, that a small
inner column of equal diameter, looking like a glass tube, went up the
middle. This, evidently, was the water which was being sucked up into
the mass of vapour above as if by a syphon.
Fortunately, just as it seemed almost touching the ship, when the
whirling waves round its base made us oscillate from side to side, the
_Josephine_, heeling over to her chain-plates from a sudden rush of wind
that appeared to accompany it, the portentous column of vapour darted
off almost at right angles to its former course; and then, the cloud,
having taken up more of the sea-water than it could contain, burst with
a loud hissing sort of report, the contents falling around us in the
form of a heavy downpour of rain which sluiced our decks down, but
happily did no further damage.
"Thank God!" exclaimed Captain Miles reverently, taking off his cap and
looking upwards in grateful recognition of the providential care that
had watched over and protected us from the fearful peril which had
threatened us; and his thanksgiving was participated in by more than one
other, I knew, for I could see Moggridge's lips moving in silent prayer,
while I felt inclined to fall on my knees, my heart was so full of joy
and gladness at our narrow escape.