There was no chance yet, however, of our getting anything to eat; so, in
accordance with Captain Miles's directions, preparations were now made
for our accommodation during the night, as the evening was beginning to
close in and darkness to settle down on the face of the deep, veiling
the waste of waters from the gaze of us poor shipwrecked fellows.
The loose spars detached from the masts were hauled up lengthwise along
the bulwarks on the inner side of the poop, where they were lashed
securely so as to form a sort of shelf; and, on this, all hands now
settled themselves as comfortably as they could--Captain Miles with Mr
Marline and myself being on the after part of the structure, while
Jackson with the others bunked down nearer the break of the poop; but,
each man was separately tied, for greater precaution, in case of the sea
getting up again and the waves breaking over the vessel.
While we had been moving about exerting ourselves, the sense of hunger
had not been so apparent, although all experienced its gnawing pain in a
greater or less degree; but now, resting quietly, doing nothing and
having to bear all the suspense of waiting for what might turn out
possibly to be only an uncertainty on the morrow, the ravenous feeling
that assailed us became almost unbearable, several of the men moaning
and groaning in their sleep.
As for myself, I know that when I dozed off in fragmentary snatches of
sleep I dreamed of all sorts of splendid banquets, with nice dishes such
as I had often tasted in the West Indies when dad gave a dinner-party;
only to waken up in the still darkness and hear the melancholy wash of
the sea surging up against the ship's hull, with the creaking noise the
masts made as they surged to and fro on the swell.
Up to midnight, as far as we could tell the time, no breeze came; but,
towards morning, a slight wind arose, when the sea became agitated, as
we could hear from the sound of it breaking over the hull forwards, the
ends of the masts worked to and fro more boisterously, grinding against
the starboard bulwarks and tearing the timbers away bit by bit.
"Ah!" I heard Captain Miles say, as if talking to himself, "this is our
chance if it only does not get too rough."
The sound of his voice woke up Gottlieb, the remaining German sailor,
who was lying near Jake, the latter being next me as usual.
This man had taken the loss of his countryman a good deal to heart. Our
hardships, besides, had affected his health; for, all of us noticed how
ill he looked during the day when working at clearing away the masts.
"I vas die!" he now exclaimed.
"Dying? Nonsense, my man, not a bit of it," cried Captain Miles. "Keep
up your courage, and you'll be worth a hundred dead men yet."
"Ach nein, I vas die, I knows," replied the other, speaking solemnly in
deep low tones.
His German accent and mode of speech seemed to come out more strongly
now than I had noticed before; and it flashed across my mind how I had
once read somewhere that, when a man is at his last, though he may have
lived amongst strangers for years and spoken a foreign tongue, he will
then naturally go back to the language and thoughts of his own country.
"Shall I get you some water?" asked Jackson, who was also awake and
heard what Gottlieb had said.
"Nein--no. I want not water, not nothing," returned the other.
"Listen, I've got to tell you sometings before I vas die. I did not
speak before for fear to make mischief. You remember my poor frients
Hermann?"
"Aye," said Captain Miles, now keenly attentive. "Poor fellow, he fell
overboard and got caught by the sharks."
"Dat is what I vant explain," painfully whispered the German, his voice
failing him. "Hermann vas not fall overboard. He vas throwed over."
"Thrown over! How--by whom?" exclaimed the captain quite startled.
"He vas throw over by Davis--he one bad man."
"Davis?" cried Captain Miles, all of us eagerly listening.
"Ye-es. Davis, he grab holt of poor Hermann and say, `ah, you rascal,
Jackson, I have you now,' and den he pitch him over the side. Poor
Hermann, he give one yell, for he vas sleep and not awaken yet, and den
dere vas a splash and de sharks swallow him up!"
"Good heavens, man!" cried Captain Miles, "why did you not tell us of
this before?"
"I vas afraid, and de man is now dead too; so I did not speak," answered
the other slowly.
"Yes, he's dead and gone to his account! I suppose we need not talk
about him any more," said the captain, deeply moved, adding a minute
after, as if unable to keep his emotion to himself, "But, he was a
scoundrel! I say, Jackson, you had a lucky escape from him last night!"
"Thank God, sir, yes," replied the young seaman. "He took a grudge to
me from the first, before ever you promoted me, and that, of course,
made him hate me afterwards more than ever. I did not think, though, he
would have tried to take my life. I suppose that was the reason he
looked so very strangely when he tried to clutch me before he jumped
into the sea?"
"Not a doubt of it," said Mr Marline. "He seemed thunderstruck, I
know, for I particularly noticed his look. He must have been surprised
at seeing you there alive, when he thought he had already settled you
for good and all!"
"Well, he has met his own punishment," answered Jackson; "and I do not
bear him any ill-will now--or ever did for that matter. Let him rest."
"Aye," said Captain Miles; "but, how's Gottlieb going on--are you
better, my man?"
But, there was no answer to the captain's question; and Jackson, bending
over the German sailor, found his heart had ceased to beat, his body
already becoming cold.
"Golly, Mass' Cap'en," called out Jake, "him 'peak de trute dat time,
suah, him dead as door-nail!"
This news made everyone silent, each man thinking how soon his own time
might come; and we anxiously awaited the morning.
During the sad episode that had occurred the wind had risen, beginning
to blow pretty strongly from the westwards. The sea, too, had got up,
for short choppy waves were dashing against the stern of the ship and
throwing their broken wash over us. This made our situation less
comfortable than it had been previously, our worn-out bodies and hunger-
stricken frames not being able to stand the exposure so well now as at
first.
The masts, also, were grinding against the bulwarks and making a
horrible din, the crunching of the timber work and splintering noise of
the planks almost deadening the noise of the sea and preventing us from
hearing each other speak. Not that we felt much inclined for
conversation, answering for myself; for, I was chilled to the bone from
the cool evening air penetrating my wet clothes, which got more and more
saturated as the waves came over the poop, while I was faint with hunger
and exhausted from want of sleep.
Thus the weary night passed, the sky being clouded over so that even the
lights of heaven could not shine down to cheer us up; and, to add to the
bitterness of our unhappy plight, our hearts were full of the untimely
end of poor Gottlieb, the German sailor who had passed away so suddenly
from amongst us, and the shocking disclosure he had made just before his
tired spirit sought eternal rest, of the treachery of Davis--whose
terrible fate, in front of our very eyes, seemed a just judgment for his
murder of Hermann and foiled vengeance on Jackson, the latter of whom
had evidently only escaped with his life through the wretched man's
mistake.
At last, when it seemed as if we could hold out no longer, a faint gleam
appeared in the east lighting up the horizon, and morning dawned
gloomily upon us; but, a heavy mist hung over the sea and it took the
rays of the rising sun a long time to pierce through this, albeit there
was light enough for us to survey the scene around.
The ocean now, instead of rising and falling with the sullen swell that
had given motion to it the day before, was covered with short broken
waves that rolled up from the westwards with the wind, dashing against
the partly-submerged vessel and throwing clouds of spray over those
portions of the hull above the surface of the water, a large share of
which we also came in for.
This motion of the sea, we could perceive, had considerably altered the
position of the masts that had been cut away, for they were rolling over
and grinding down the starboard bulwarks, the inboard ends working
themselves gradually fore and aft the ship, the lee side of which had
risen quite a couple of feet higher out of the water during the night.
"Another good wave or two will send all that hamper adrift," said
Captain Miles, looking round and calculating our chances.
"Yes," replied Mr Marline, "they are coming from the right direction
too, for if they broke over us abeam, then the foremast could not free
itself. Now it possibly may, from the leverage it has against the
fo'c's'le."
"You're right," said the captain; "and here comes a good-sized roller
that may finish the job. Look out, lads, and hold on!"
Onward, as we gazed astern, came a large green sea, with a white angry
crest, swelling larger and larger as it got nearer, until it almost hung
above the poop before breaking.
"Hold on, lads, hold on!" cried the captain, repeating his previous
warning, when, with a dull thud the mass of water broke, covering us all
with a sheet of foam that drenched us through and through, almost swept
us away from our lashings--the spars that supported us being lifted up
from the deck and then dropped again as suddenly.
At the same time, there was a heavy crash heard forward, and the ship
lurched as if she were going to founder. She quivered all over, and her
timbers creaked and groaned.
Next, she rolled heavily more over to starboard, as the wave which had
broken over us sped onwards, washing the waist and forecastle; and then,
with another great crash the mizzen and mainmasts rolled into the sea,
and the port side of the ship that was under water rose up clear.
The foremast, which had broken away when we heard that great crash
forwards had been snapped off just below the slings of the fore-yard,
and had followed its companions overboard, although still towed
alongside by the stays and starboard rigging that also held the other
spars; and, the next instant, with an upward bound the _Josephine_
righted. At the same moment, the water that had filled the cabin and
waist and forecastle poured out on either side through the scuppers and
broken bulwarks; while the sunken part of the poop and lower deck rose
high and dry again as we looked on, hardly believing that what we had so
anxiously awaited and striven for had come to pass at last.
"Thank God!" exclaimed Captain Miles in a voice faltering with emotion;
while several of the men, quite unnerved, burst into tears.