"You one big fool!" Cuffee, the cook, screamed out at hearing Jake's
startling announcement, which made us all laugh in spite of our anxiety.
"How can duppy come in de daylight, hey? You only see yer own black
face in water, an' tink um debbil."
"Duppy," I may explain, is the negro's common name for what they call a
ghost, or anything uncanny.
However, paying no attention to his brother darkey's reasoning as to the
impossibility of such a nocturnal visitor appearing under the searching
rays of the sun, Jake stoutly maintained his own opinion.
"Dere was sumfin' white dere, I swar," he said, as soon as he had
secured his footing on the bulwarks again, well out of the water. "I
see sumfin' white an' cold, an' he grab me by um leg."
"That must have been poor Briggs's body floating about in the
fo'c's'le," observed Captain Miles. "I forgot to tell him of it before
he dived down. Hi, Jake," he added speaking out louder, "you needn't be
afraid. I know what it was you saw."
"D'ye, massa?" said Jake somewhat distrustfully, as if only half
believing this. "Golly, it um berry mysteferious. I'se tink--; but,
Jerrybosalum, look dar, Mass' Cap'en, look dar!" he suddenly exclaimed,
his voice again changing to a tone of intense horror, while he looked
the picture of abject terror, his eyeballs rolling and his teeth
chattering as before. "Duppy come catchee me, for suah! Dere he am
comin' up wid him long claw--dere he am--dere he am!"
We all rose up on the side of the bulwarks, as if with one accord,
looking in the direction to which Jake's trembling hand pointed, where,
between the meshes of the rigging away forward in front of the mainmast
we could dimly discern a long sinuous greenish-white body gradually
rising to the surface of the water that covered the lower part of the
deck.
The mysterious thing seemed to make after the negro, although no
apparent movement was perceptible, while its colour became more luminous
as it got nearer.
Jackson was closer than any of us to Jake; and, as he stood up in the
main-chains to help the negro up, he perceived what the object was that
had frightened him, for he could see down into the water clear of the
rigging, which somewhat hampered our view.
"Why, it's a shark!" he called out. "It is a big fellow too--larger
than the brute that nearly tackled me the other day."
"A shark, Massa Jackson, for true, hey?" said Jake, turning round to
assure himself of the fact; and, then, seeing his pursuer to be of no
supernatural origin, as he had supposed, but only one of the ordinary,
if ugly, denizens of the deep, his alarm disappeared instanter and he
burst into a fit of laughing--his African nature being as susceptible as
that of a child, his moods varying in a moment.
"Yah, yah," he roared, "me no 'fraid ob shark; I'se tink him ider one
duppy or de debbil, for suah, when um touch me on de shin-bone!"
"I'se tole you so, Jake," said Cuffee with great contempt. "You'se
nebber see duppy in de daylight. You'se only big fool to tink so."
"Berry well," rejoined the other, "you hab your 'pinion an' I hab mine!
If you was down dar in water jus' now, an' see dat long ting snouzle by
um leg, lookin' so white an' drefful, I guess you'se frit too!"
If Jake, however, was now pleased at seeing his fancied ghost turn out
to be a shark, this was more than we were. Captain Miles could hardly
conceal his chagrin.
"Confound the hideous brute!" he exclaimed. "He's the very last visitor
I cared to see. He will prevent any further attempt being made to get
that axe out of the fo'c's'le--if it is there, as Adze says."
"It's theer sure enough, cap'en," put in the carpenter hearing this
remark. "I wish I could only swim and I'd precious soon fetch it
myself!"
"All right, Adze, I don't doubt your word," said the captain
apologetically; "but the shark has put an embargo on it now at any
rate."
"I'm afraid it just has," observed Mr Marline, to whom Captain Miles
had really been speaking when the old carpenter overheard him. "You
can't expect any sensible man to dive into the water when such a nasty
sort of neighbour is close at hand. I wouldn't like to venture, for
one, I confess; and I don't think I'm a very great coward."
"No, Marline, no; I'll answer for that," replied the captain warmly.
"Your worst enemy wouldn't accuse you of any want of pluck, and really I
should not' care about undertaking the job either, for that matter."
Jake, though, wanted to make another effort to recover the axe, his
courage rising with the emergency, especially as he could notice how
disappointed we all were.
"Me nebber mind shark," he cried, drawing out a long clasp-knife which
he carried in his belt, and opening the blade, which he now brandished
about in a most ferocious way, showing how he would make mincemeat of
the sea-pirate if it attacked him. "I'se not 'fraid ob him one lilly
bit. I tell you wat, I'se gib him goss if um kick up any bobbery wid
me!"
So saying, he was preparing to plunge again into the water, when Captain
Miles ordered him to refrain, having to repeat his command twice before
the brave fellow would stop from making the venture.
"No, Jake," said the captain, "I can't allow you to risk your life in
such a foolhardy way for what may be only a wild-goose chase. Wait
awhile and see if the brute is going to remain here. Perhaps, too,
there may be some more of his comrades about; they generally hunt in
couples in stormy weather."
"All right, massa, me wait an' see," responded Jake submissively,
sitting down on the bulwarks again; and then, we all watched the shark
to see what he would do, and whether, as the captain had suggested,
there were any more of his species about, coming up to help him in
keeping us prisoners.
Unfortunately, Captain Miles's fears proved but too well founded. Very
shortly afterwards, no less than three other sharks appeared, hovering
about the stern of the ship and swimming immediately under the counter,
where we were clustered together, as if keeping guard over us. The one
that had pursued Jake took up his station within the interior part of
the submerged vessel, patrolling backwards and forwards in the water
that covered the deck of the poop up to the mizzen-mast. This fellow,
the first in the field, seemed to say to us grimly, "You sha'n't escape
me here, at all events!"
"Oh, Captain Miles!" I cried. "The sharks are going to wait until we
drop off into the sea one by one, and then they will eat us all!"
"Not a bit of it, my boy," said he hopefully, to cheer me up. "They'll
soon be tired out and will then swim away and leave us to see about
righting the ship. Don't think of them, Tom; they can't touch any of us
where we are."
"But how long can we stop like this?" I asked despairingly.
"Long enough to bother the sharks," he replied. "They haven't pluck
enough to wait when they see they've got no chance; for, they're born
cowards at heart, as all sneaking things are!"
Jake also sidled up to me at the same time and somewhat restored my
equanimity, saying in his light-hearted way, "Golly, Mass' Tom, we kill
um all first wid um knife 'fore dey touch you!"
The afternoon waned on; so, as the sharks exhibited no signs of yet
leaving us, and the evening was closing in, Captain Miles ordered the
men to lash themselves again to the rigging for fear of their tumbling
off in the night and so falling a prey to the brutes--otherwise, there
was no great need of the precaution, for the sea was almost now calm,
the waves having quite ceased to break. Only a heavy swell lifted the
ship up at intervals, letting her roll down again, and swaying gently to
and fro with a gentle rocking motion which would have sent us all to
sleep but for the hunger which now kept us awake with a nasty, gnawing
pain at the pit of our stomachs.
Our thirst was appeased, Jackson having swung himself down to the water-
cask and served out another drink all round shortly after the sharks had
made their appearance, as they could not approach near enough to the
waist of the ship to interfere with his movements, the deck there being
clear of water. But, oh, we did feel hungry!
"I believe I could a'most eat anything now," said Moggridge plaintively,
chewing away at a piece of leather which he had torn off one of his
boots.
"Only hold out and we'll get something soon," replied the captain, who
tried nobly to keep up the spirits of the men. "We've got water, and
that is more than many a poor fellow has had when in as bad a plight as
ours. Let us be thankful for what we have got and for having our lives
spared so far! To-morrow, if the sea be calm, as there is every reason
to hope it will be, we'll probably be able to fetch something out of the
cabin; while, if the worst comes to the worst, I've no doubt we'll be
able to pick up some crabs and shell-fish from the Gulf-weed floating
around."
"Right you are, sir," said Moggridge, ashamed of having spoken. "I see
lots of the stuff about us now."
"Is that the Gulf-weed you told me about, captain?" I asked, pointing
to some long strings of what looked like the broken-off branches of
trees, with berries on them, that were washing past the hull of the
_Josephine_ on the top of the rolling swell.
"Yes, Tom, we're now in the Sargasso Sea, its own especial home.
Indeed, this region is especially so called on account of the
`Sargassum,' or weed, in the Portuguese tongue. You ask Mr Marline and
he'll tell you all about it, being learned in such matters."
The first mate, however, did not wait for me to question him.
Taking the captain's observation as a hint to say something to occupy
the attention of the men and myself, and so keep us from thinking of the
sharks and our painful position, he proceeded to narrate all he knew
about this curious marine fungus. He had a good deal to say, too, for
Mr Marline was a well-read man and took a great interest in all matters
of science.
It was certainly a very novel situation in which to give a lecture, but
the sailors were glad enough to listen to anything to make the time
pass. They were very attentive auditors, even Jake appearing
interested, although he could not have understood much of what he heard.
"The Sargasso, or weedy, Sea," said Mr Marline, "so called from the
berries, like grapes, `sarga' in Portuguese, extends from about the
eleventh parallel of latitude to 45 degrees north, and from 30 degrees
west longitude to the Bermudas, and even further west, so that we are
about in the middle of it now. Almost the entire portion of this space
of the ocean is covered by a peculiar species of sea-weed, termed by
botanists the `fucus natans,' which is found nowhere else in any great
abundance except in the Gulf Stream, which, skirting along the edge of
the Sargasso Sea, bears away portions of the floating substance in its
progress from the Gulf of Florida eastwards. The western current to the
south of this region also sometimes detaches masses of the weed; but its
main habitat is the Sargasso Sea, where, there being no eddies or
streams either way and little or no wind generally, the sargassum
accumulates in great masses, presenting frequently the aspect of an
immense marine meadow."
"I think, sir," I interposed at this point, "I read once in the Life of
Columbus, that, when on his first voyage beyond seas from Spain, his
sailors almost mutinied and wanted him to put back on account of their
fancying they could never pass through the weed?"
"They did," replied Mr Marline. "The men thought Columbus had sold his
soul to the spirits of evil, and that they were in an enchanted sea, but
the brave old Genoese navigator surmounted their fears in the end! I
can better, perhaps, explain, Tom, the reason for the weed accumulating
so hereabouts, by likening, as Maury did, the Atlantic Ocean to a basin.
Now, if you put a few small pieces of cork or any other light substance
into a basin, and move your hand round it so as to give the water it
contains a circular motion, the bits of cork will be found to float to
the centre and remain there. Well, here, the Gulf Stream is the
circular motion of our great basin, while the Sargasso Sea is the
centre, and it is in consequence of the continual current circling round
it that the weed stops there in such quantities--as you will see most
likely in a day or two, when the ocean gets rested after the great storm
we have had, which has somewhat put things out of their proper trim."
"And does the weed grow to the bottom?" I asked.
"Bottom? Why, there are no soundings here under four miles, and it
would take a pretty long root to stretch to such a depth! No, the
sargasso weed floats and lives on the surface. When examined closely,
it is found to have an oblong narrow serrated leaf of a pale yellow
colour, resembling somewhat in form a cauliflower stripped of its
leaves, the nodules being composed of a vast number of small branches,
about half an inch long, which shoot out from each other at a sharp
angle, and hence multiply continually towards the outer circumference of
the plant, each extreme point producing a round seed-vessel like a
berry. A great number of little crabs, barnacles, and small shell-fish
are generally found attached to the weed, as Captain Miles mentioned
just now when he said we might find something to eat amidst the branches
of it in an emergency. It is wonderful sometimes to see with what
regularity the weed is arranged across the ocean when the wind blows.
It looks then exactly like a meadow does after it has been fresh mown
and the grass is left upon it in long swathes by the scythe at equal
distances apart."
"There, Master Tom," put in Captain Miles here, "I think you know now
all that Mr Marline can tell you about the Sargasso Sea and the weed to
be found there. It's about time we all turned in now for the night, for
the sun has set and it will soon be dark. Have all you men," he called
out aloud, "lashed yourselves securely?"
"Aye, aye, sir," they answered one by one, Moggridge coming last.
"Then good night, and good cheer, my lads!" he cried. "Keep your
peckers up, and to-morrow morning. I daresay, we'll see our way out of
this predicament. I don't think it is going to blow any more, so you
may compose yourselves to rest as cosily, my lads, as if you were in
your bunks here, without fear of anything much troubling you, for the
sharks can't harm you!"
The sun had set by this time and the evening grew gradually dark, for
there was no moon, as the heavens were overcast; but still, the wind did
not get up again, and the motion of the ship being easy enough we lay
along the side of the ship very comfortably, most of the men soon
falling asleep, and I soon following their example.
It must have been towards morning, for a dim sort of light was beginning
to be perceptible in the east, we were wakened up by a terrible yell.
A moment afterwards a heavy splash sounded in the water alongside.
"Good heavens! what is that?" cried Captain Miles, starting up and
trying to peer through the darkness, so as to see who was missing.
"Anyone gone overboard?"
"Yes, sir," answered Jackson's voice presently, as if he had waited to
reconnoitre, "it is one of the German sailors, poor Hermann. He has
probably slipped his lashings and slid down the side. I'm afraid the
sharks have taken him, for he has never called out once!"
"Poor fellow!" exclaimed the captain, raising a hail.
"Hi, hullo!"
But, there came no response; and so, Jackson's surmise must have been
correct. The man had evidently fallen in his sleep, through the
slipping of the rope which had secured him to the rigging; and he must
either have been drowned at once or fallen a victim to the maw of one of
the sharks, whose movements we could hear in the water still below us.
The accident, however, wakened us all up thoroughly, and we waited
anxiously for daylight.
When this came, however, a terrible scene was enacted before our eyes.
No sooner had the rising sun lit up the ocean and enabled us all to see
each other distinctly, than I noticed Davis, who was close to Jackson,
staring at him in a most peculiar manner.