Immediately the sudden blast of wind struck the ship, the meteor-like
ball of fire, which had previously hovered about our rigging lighting up
the dense gloom of the atmosphere, suddenly disappeared, leaving us for
a moment in darkness; but this was only for a brief spell, as the gale--
at the same time that it forced us to cut and run before its tremendous
impulse, scudding away to the north-west at right angles to what should
have been our proper course, which was to the northwards and eastwards--
dispelled in a very short time the overhanging mass of vapour that
shrouded the sky. The clouds cleared away, as if by magic, disclosing
the blue vault of heaven open above us for the stars to shine down at
their will; while the moon presently coming out, the ocean was displayed
in all its vastness to the extreme limits of the horizon.
But, what a different scene was now presented to our gaze to that which
we had looked upon but an hour agone!
Then, the sea, with the exception of a faint throbbing swell as if
proceeding from the deep breathing of Neptune below the surface, seeming
to rise and fall with rhythmical regularity, was calm and still,
unbroken by even the tiniest ripple; now, as far as the eye could reach,
it was all life and motion, the billows leaping up and tossing their
heads, crowned with wreaths of curling spray and growing larger and
larger each moment in volume as they dashed onward madly before the
wind.
The ocean coursers seemed, indeed, like a pack of hounds pursuing the
ship, gnashing their teeth in surf as they missed their prey, and then
gathering themselves up again together to renew the chase, rolling
against each other, boiling in eddies, clashing, dashing, swelling,
breaking in sheets of foam, and presenting one seething mass of moving
waters.
Nothing is so wonderful as this sudden getting up of the sea after a
spell of calm weather.
It is like the sudden uprising of a giant in his wrath--one moment it is
sleeping quietly, the next far and wide it is in a state of mad
commotion, threatening destruction to those who brave the perils of the
deep.
The _Josephine_ sped bravely before the gale, unmindful of the stormy
billows blustering after her, her speed enabling her easily as yet to
outstrip the rollers, although she was only scudding under close-reefed
topsails. She was not too heavily laden; and, being a good sea-boat,
she rose easily on the lift of the waves, almost skimming the surface
like one of Mother Carey's chickens, and jumping, as it were, from
billow to billow as the wind urged her onward.
"If we keep on long like this," observed Mr Marline grimly to the
captain, "we'll soon lose all our easting, and have to begin our voyage
over again!"
"Never mind that," cheerfully answered Captain Miles. "The gale will
only drive us into the Gulf Stream at the worst; and then, we'll have
the assistance of the easterly current there in making our way home,
when we have the chance of bearing up on our course again. We won't
lose much in the end, you'll see."
"All right, we'll see," said Mr Marline. "But, don't you think, sir,
we may be running into the worst part of the gale?"
"No, Marline, no; I don't believe that," replied the other. "You'll see
that it will blow itself out presently and calm down to a steady breeze,
when we'll be able to haul our wind, making that fair for us."
"Don't you notice, though, captain," urged the mate, "that those clouds
also sheer off in a contrary direction, showing that the upper currents
of air are not affected by this wind at all--a proof that it is a sort
of cyclone or hurricane?"
"And if so," retorted Captain Miles, "it began in the south-east, where
it is still blowing from; so, when it veers, it will be to the south and
west, making a fair wind for us, as I said before."
"Very good; you know best, sir," said Mr Marline in a way that showed
he was still unconvinced.
But the captain had not done with his reasons yet.
"Just consider, Marline," he continued, "we couldn't very well wear the
ship now with this thundering wind and following sea, or try and heave
her to--the only thing left for us to do if we don't scud. Indeed, I
think we must get some more sail on her as it is; for those rollers are
getting too heavy and gaining on us, and, if we don't keep ahead of
them, why, they'll poop us, that's all!"
"Do you think the masts will stand it, sir?" queried the first mate,
glancing aloft, where the spars were bent like whips and the rigging as
taut as fiddle-strings.
"Stand it? Of course they will," replied the captain. "I'll back them
to stand anything, if the stays only hold."
"And I'll guarantee that they will not carry away," retorted Mr
Marline, who had specially seen to the setting up of the rigging and was
confident of the job being well done, being rather proud of his
handiwork.
"Well, then, we'll have the mainsail on her," said the captain, to put
an end to the discussion. "You'd better go and rouse up the other
watch, Mr Jackson; it will be a rough bit of work, I fancy."
The second mate then went forwards, shouting, "All hands, ahoy!" and,
shortly afterwards, the men were clustering in the shrouds, making their
way as well as they could against the force of the wind, up the ratlines
to the main-yard, the whole watch being employed on the job so as to get
it done quickly.
As they lay out along the foot-rope they were almost blown away; but,
holding on "by the skin of their teeth," they managed to cast-off the
gaskets, when, the clew-lines and bunt-lines being let fly, the huge
sail at once bellied out in puckered folds, banging about as if it would
soon thump the mast out of the ship.
"Now, tumble down smart, men!" cried the captain. "Look alive and bring
the sheets to the capstan."
Then, in a few more minutes, foot by foot, the clew-garnet blocks
rattling the while like a lot of tin kettles, the ends of the mainsail
were hove in nearer the deck, when it became fairly distended before the
powerful breeze, which, catching it now full, seemed to make the
_Josephine_ leap out of the water as if she were going to fly--although,
the next instant, she dived down with a heavy plunge forwards that sent
a great green sea right over her bows on to the forecastle, whence it
poured down like a cataract into the waist, flooding the main-deck and
floating aft everything movable into the cabin.
We had already two men at the wheel, a vessel running before the wind
being always more unmanageable than when sailing close-hauled or on a
bowline; but this additional sail-power made the ship yaw and break off
so continuously that two more hands had to come and help the others in
the steering. It was ticklish work; for, if she were once allowed to
broach to, one of the pursuing waves would soon leap over the taffrail,
and then it would be a case for us!
The rest of the crew, too, were set to work rigging up relieving tackle,
in case the tiller ropes should part; for, one moment the stern would be
lifted high out of the water and the next sunk in the trough of the sea,
causing a great strain on the rudder, which banged from port to
starboard every instant, causing constant work in putting the helm up
and down so as to preserve a straight course.
Preventer stays were also set up to take away some of the leverage from
the masts, everything being made as snug as possible under the
circumstances; and so, we drove on before the gale, going wheresoever it
liked, until, as the captain said, it had time to blow itself out--
although there did not seem any early prospect of this at present!
During all the bustle that was going on, I had managed to remain on deck
unperceived; but now that matters had calmed down and nothing more
urgent called for attention, Captain Miles, looking round the poop,
caught sight of me.
"Hullo, Tom!" he cried, "what are you doing here? You ought to have
been in your bunk hours ago."
"I only stopped up to see the storm," I said. "Mr Marline saw me on
deck some time since and said I might remain."
"Did he? Well, then, it's all over now, and there'll be nothing fresh
till morning; so you can go below like a brace of shakes."
With these words, he hustled me off the poop, good-naturedly, not losing
sight of me until he had seen me go down the ladder and into the cabin--
much against my inclination, I must confess, as I wanted to see all that
was going on.
Of course, as I had to go down, there was no use in my not turning in
when I got there; but I stayed awake for a long time, listening to the
thumping of the sea against the sides of the ship and the creaking of
the timbers; while my cot swayed to and fro, hoisting me up to the deck
planking one second, and then almost capsizing me on to the floor, until
I at last sank to rest, wearied out with the motion and longing for the
morning to come.
Harry, the steward, awakened me quite late.
"Here, you sah, Mass' Tom, rouse up!" he sang out close to my ears,
making me jump out of my bunk in a brace of shakes. "It am gone eight
bells an' break-fuss ready long time."
Captain Miles had already had his early meal, I found, when I had
dressed and got out into the cabin saloon; so, after making a hurried
repast, for I was anxious to see how the ship was getting on, I followed
him on deck.
The sea looked awful!
Far and wide, it was covered with broken waves and sheets of foam, the
huge billows fighting and struggling together in mad turmoil; while the
wind shrieked as it tore through the vessel's cordage and almost blew me
back as I essayed to mount up the poop-ladder.
The _Josephine_ was still plunging on before the gale, as I had last
seen her the night before, only that the mainsail had been torn away,
although the tattered fragments were left clinging round the yard-arms,
one or two longer pieces streaming out like pennants from the leech at
each end of the spar, and some other strips had clung to the fore-
rigging as they were blown away.
The foretop-sail had been furled, and the ship was driving on with only
her close-reefed main-topsail set; but preparations were being made as I
got on deck for hoisting the mizzen staysail, so that we might more
easily bring her head round to the wind in case of its showing any sign
of shifting.
This, however, was but a last resource, which could only be adopted in
the extreme peril of being taken aback. There is no more ticklish
operation than that of wearing a ship in a heavy sea where there is a
strong following wind; and Captain Miles, for one, I could see, intended
to let the vessel drive on as long as the gale lasted, unless it should
try to head us, when of course he would have no alternative left but
that of laying-to.
He did not seem a bit uneasy as yet, though; for he greeted me quite
cheerily when I at last managed to clamber up on the poop and make my
way aft to where he was standing, holding on to everything I could
clutch to maintain my footing. The ship was rolling from side to side
like a porpoise, and the wind nearly blew the hair off my head, my cap
having gone away to leeward the first step I took up the ladderway on
emerging from the cabin after breakfast.
"Well, Master Tom!" the captain shouted in my ear, the noise being so
great that it almost required a speaking trumpet to make anyone hear at
a great distance--"how do you like this weather, eh?"
"A jolly sight better than the calm," I said joyously. The wind seemed
to get in my head and make me excited in a similar way as it is supposed
to affect cats; for I felt inclined to sing with glee as I braced myself
up against the blast and clung to the binnacle rail, surveying the wild
scene around in a perfect frenzy of delight. Sea and sky were mingled
together; and the ship presented a grand spectacle as she nobly
struggled against and overcame the combined strength of the elements
trying to vanquish her efforts at escape!
"A good breeze is certainly better than a calm, Tom," observed Mr
Marline in response to my jubilant remark; "but, it all depends what
sort of a wind it is, for, if it blows your vessel the wrong way, the
question arises whether the former state of things be not preferable."
"Belay that sea-lawyering, Marline," interposed Captain Miles. "I never
saw such a fellow for taking a gloomy view of everything! Here we were
rolling about in a calm for days upon days as if they would never end,
while now we are bowling away before a brisk south-easter; and yet you
are not happy!"
"But in what direction are we going, eh, captain?" slyly inquired Mr
Marline.
"A point or two off our course, I admit," replied the other; "but still
we are going, and that is the great thing. We are not lying still like
a log on the ocean."
"How far have we run, sir, do you think, since last night?" I asked
Captain Miles when Mr Marline made no further attempt at conversation.
"I shall take a sight of the sun presently, my boy," he answered, with
one of his odd winks, giving a quizzical glance at Mr Marline, as if
telling me he thought he had shut him up for the time; "then I shall be
better able to tell you. However, as we've been running twelve knots an
hour good since four bells in the first watch, we ought to have made
over a hundred miles or so from our last stopping place."
"And where shall we get to if we continue running on the same as now?"
I next inquired, thinking of what Mr Marline had said.
"To the Banks of Newfoundland, I suppose, if the same wind holds; but,
I'm of opinion that we'll have a change as soon as we fetch the Gulf
Stream, when we shall be able to shape a straight course for the
Channel."
"And what is the Gulf Stream, captain?" I then asked.
"Bless the boy!" he exclaimed, "I never saw such a chap for questions;
why, you're almost as bad as Mr Marline! Well, if you must know, the
Gulf Stream, or `Florida Current' as it is frequently called, is
something very like a river of warm water, some eighty to three hundred
miles wide, flowing through the surrounding ocean from the Gulf of
Mexico to Europe in a circular nor'-east by east direction. Starting
from between the Dry Tortugas and Cuba, it skirts the eastern shores of
the United States, then passing across the Atlantic to the south of the
Banks of Newfoundland, where it branches off into two currents in mid
ocean, near the Azores. One of these streams steers north, along the
shores of Norway, while the other leg sweeps onward to the English
Channel, circling round the Bay of Biscay and then pursuing a southerly
course along the Spanish coast until it meets the great equatorial
current coming up from the south Atlantic. Uniting now with this, the
double current flows back westwards to the place of its birth, only to
renew its onward course again from the Caribbean Sea."
"But what causes it?" I said.
"Well, that is a disputed point," replied the captain. "One authority
says that the Gulf Stream `is caused by the motion of the sun in the
ecliptic,' and I think there is a good deal of reason in this. Another
philosopher puts it down to the influence of the anti-trade and passage
winds blowing from the west to the east along the zone in which the
stream travels; and I think much might be said about that argument,
especially as the westerly current south of the tropic of Cancer is
undoubtedly caused by the trade-wind. A third scientific gentleman
ascribes the stream to the fact, that the earth being a globe, the water
on the equator is higher than that of the tropics, and the lower stratum
of fluid circles round constantly in its endeavour to reach into the
bigger volume beyond its reach; but I can't say much for this theory
myself, Tom."
"But how do you know the Gulf Stream from the rest of the ocean?" I
here asked.
"As easily as you can distinguish a marlinespike from a capstan-bar,"
answered Captain Miles. "It is not only bluer than the surrounding
water, through which it flows, as I've told you, like a river, but it is
also several degrees warmer; for, when a ship is close to the stream and
sailing in the same direction in which it is running, a bucket of water
dipped from the sea on one side of the vessel will show an appreciable
difference of temperature to that procured from the other. Besides, my
boy, there's the Gulf-weed to tell you when you are within the limits of
the current; however, you'll see lots of the weed by and by, no doubt,
before we finish our voyage."
"You said, captain," I observed, "that the great currents of the ocean
are produced by the trade-winds?"
"Undoubtedly," he replied. "Blowing with regular force on the surface
of the sea, they cause it to move in the same direction in which they
are travelling; and, this motion once acquired, the ocean stream keeps
up its course far beyond where its original propelling power directly
acted upon it. The `Great Equatorial Current' is produced by the south-
east trade, the Gulf Stream, as I've just explained to you, by the
western or passage winds; and the branch of the latter current that
skirts the British Isles and Southern Europe, until it falls in again
with the northern portion of the Equatorial Current, by the north-east
trade-winds. Thus, the circle is completed, the water being ever in
motion round the centre of the tropic of Cancer, just in the same way as
the winds of this region are."
"But what causes the trade-winds?" I next asked.
"You young rascal!" said Captain Miles, shaking his fist at me in a
jocular manner, "I'll have you keel-hauled if you utter another
question! I will answer you this one, however--but it is the last time,
though, mind that! The sun, my lad, is the source of the winds of the
globe, as it is the prime agent of heat and life. The atmospheric air
being heated by the solar orb at the equator, where its force is
necessarily the greatest, ascends. This creates a vacuum, which the
surrounding air hastens to fill, causing thus a constant indraught from
both the north and south towards the equator; and the fact of the
opposing winds meeting at this point produces those very calms which vex
us poor mariners. There, Master Tom, that's all I can tell you; for, I
must see about my sextant now to consult the great luminary we have been
talking of, so as to see where our scudding has taken us to."
Captain Miles's mission after his sextant, however, was a vain quest to-
day, for a mass of fleeting clouds were continually passing to and fro
across the zenith, obscuring the heavens so much that not a single peep
of the sun could be had either at noon or later on.
The wind now, too, began to come in violent gusts, striking the ship
every now and then with a force that seemed to bury her in the water;
while the sea got rougher and rougher, looking as angry as it was
possible to conceive.
Presently, with a loud report, the main-topsail split in half, and then
the pieces blew away bit by bit ahead of the ship like paper kites, the
useful foretop-sail which had been again set in the afternoon being now
the only sail left on her; but, still, on she plunged through the waste
of waters as madly as ever, the sky getting more and more overcast as
the day wore on, and a heavy bank of blue-black clouds gathered together
right in front, to the north-west, whither we were trending.
"Don't you think, captain," said Mr Marline, who had returned to the
poop after having a short rest below--he having remained on deck while
the captain had turned in during the early part of the morning watch--"I
say, don't you think we're running into the very jaws of the gale
again?"
"It certainly looks like it," replied Captain Miles shaking his head.
"We must try and lay her to, if we can, though I dread the job! See to
the hands being ready to set that mizzen staysail; it will help her head
round when we ease off the yards."
This sail had been bent all ready the night before, and now with great
difficulty was hoisted; but then came a greater difficulty, that of
getting the ship about--for, what with the gusty wind and the heavy sea
it was a very perilous proceeding, the vessel running the risk of being
pooped as well as broaching-to.
"We'll have to wear her!" said the captain, after thinking over the
matter a bit. "Send a hand or two forwards to see to the fore-staysail,
so as to be ready for hoisting it when I give the word!"
Jackson, to whom this latter order was addressed, immediately went
forwards on the forecastle, accompanied by a couple of other men;
although the three found it a serious matter to escape the thick green
seas the vessel took in over her bows as she dived into the trough of
the waves, washing the decks fore and aft. After a struggle, however,
they managed to climb out to their station, getting the fore-staysail
ready to haul up as the captain had commanded, although he only meant to
use it in case the topsail carried away as we wore ship, which was very
possible.
Then, watching our opportunity when the _Josephine_ was rising on the
crest of a gigantic wave that had rolled up astern to poop her, but had
fortunately instead passed underneath her keel, the helm was put up and
the fore-yards easied round.
She answered the rudder; but one sea came in over her quarter just when
she was fully exposed to the side force of the wind. Luckily, however,
everything held; and, as the foretop-sail got gradually taken aback the
mizzen staysail drew, casting her stern round, so that her head at last
faced the wind and sea. The vessel plunged fearfully, but held her own
grandly, not falling off again as we all expected.
"By Jingo, she's a beauty!" exclaimed the captain in high delight at the
success of the manoeuvre. "I never saw a ship behave better in my life!
I was frightened of her at one time, I confess."
"So was I," said Mr Marline, much relieved by our now being hove-to and
better prepared to meet any change of wind. "She's all right now,
though!"
He had spoken too quickly, however, "counting his chickens before they
were hatched," according to the old proverb; for, no sooner had he got
out the words than for one single instant the gale lulled, coming to a
dead stand-still, and the very next moment it began to blow from the
exactly opposite direction--the storm proceeding now from the north-west
quadrant instead of the south-east, and the headquarters of our fresh
assailant being the thick bank of black clouds we had noticed in front
of our previous position before wearing ship low down on the horizon.
We had evidently only got round in the very nick of time.
Otherwise, there is little doubt that the _Josephine_, meeting the wind
from this new quarter full butt, would have been taken aback. Now, from
her change of position it struck her aft, making her scud again before
it as she had previously done--strangely enough causing her to retrace
the very same course she had just passed over, in almost a straight
line!
"Square away the yards!" shouted out Captain Miles, while the men at the
wheel shifted the helm to prevent the vessel from broaching-to; and, in
another moment we were pitching and tossing through the choppy head-sea
which we had now to meet, the ship rolling from side to side, and
tumbling about like a whale in its death flurry, as she raced on ahead
again before the stiff north-western blast.
"Well!" exclaimed Captain Miles presently, "of all the sudden changes of
wind I ever encountered on the ocean, this beats everything! It has
literally jumped round the compass."
"I fancy it is the tail-end of the hurricane," said Mr Marline. "It is
a very lucky thing we wore ship in time."
"Lucky, you call it?" rejoined Captain Miles gravely, eyeing the
foremast anxiously the while, fearful of anything being carried away,
when we would be left to the mercy of the cruel waves. "Man alive, it
is only through the mercy of Providence that we are not now sunk fathoms
deep below the sea!"