It was early dawn when the unwonted sound of feet bustling about over my
head on the deck, which I had not heard now it seemed for an
unconscionable length of time, roused me up to the realisation of our
having at last been relieved from our terrible peril and the privations
we had suffered whilst the ship was on her beam-ends.
Oh, what joy it was to think we were all safe on board the _Josephine_
again!
Hunger, one of the most painful of the sufferings we had experienced,
and indeed the one which I felt the most of any, was now banished
completely to the realms of the past; and I had presently trustworthy
evidence of this, Jake appearing at the door of my cabin and bringing in
a steaming bowl of coffee and some biscuits, as a sort of "little
breakfast" before the larger and more substantial meal was ready--the
galley being already fixed up properly and Cuffee having resumed his
culinary duties with all his paraphernalia in train.
When I got out on the poop, I noticed that the hands had not been idle
while I was sleeping, so much already having been accomplished in the
way of restoring the ship to an effective condition that the men must
have set to work long before daylight, I was certain.
Moggridge was just going down the poop-ladder as I mounted it, on his
way forward to execute some order Captain Miles had given him.
"Fine morning, Master Tom," he said.
"It is," I responded, "a regular jolly one; but, how busy you all are!"
"Aye, aye, young master, we can't afford to wait when there's so much to
be done and so precious little time to do it in."
And then he was off in a jiffey.
Captain Miles was sitting on the port bulwarks, which were intact,
polishing up his sextant.
"Good morning, captain," I said.
"Morning," he answered absently, so much engrossed with one of the eye-
pieces of the instrument that he couldn't even look up.
I felt like the idle little boy in the story-book, who went and asked,
first, the horse to play with him, and then, when that sagacious animal
refused to accede to his request, on the plea of having his master's
business to attend to, he tried to induce various other quadrupeds to
come and amuse him, only to meet with a constant refusal--the idle boy
having in the end to go to work himself, finding idleness, without
companions to share it, the reverse of pleasure.
Everybody on board seemed too much engrossed with some task in hand to
attend to me; even Jake, when I went below again, could hardly spare me
a word, for he was intent on polishing up the saloon table again, trying
to efface the effects of its long immersion in the water from the
surface of the mahogany--a somewhat vain task, I may add, as the wood
never recovered its original tone.
I then went forwards, only to see the men there working like bees. Not
a soul even raised his head to glance at me as I passed by.
Adze, the carpenter, was up to his ears in the pump casing, which he had
fixed again over the well amidships, after first taking out the valves
and fitting new suckers to them. Cuffee, too, was blowing away at the
galley fire till his black face looked like that of a red Indian; and,
as for Mr Marline, he was in his element, as he always was when
overseeing anything connected with the rigging of the ship, enjoying
himself to his heart's content in setting up a jury-mast to take the
place of our broken foremast. He had made the men lash the topmast and
topgallant-mast to the fragment left of the original spar, securing it
with back-stays and preventers on the port and starboard sides before
getting up the shrouds. These latter, of course, would have now to be
reduced, in order to suit the diminished height of the new mast, whereon
the topsail-yard would have to do duty for the old fore-yard, and the
topgallant one be transferred into a topsail-yard.
Mr Marline seemed rather proud of his handiwork; so, this made him more
conversational than anyone I had yet tried to talk to.
"Ha, Tom," he said, "you're just in time to see us cross our yards
again--not a bad job, eh?"
"No, sir," I replied; "have you been long over it?"
"Ever since daylight."
"And have all of you been equally busy?" I asked.
"Bless you, yes! As for Cuffee, he roused out poor Moggridge early in
the middle watch, to help him to fix the galley, bribing him with the
promise of some hot coffee. That started the hands; for, the boatswain
must needs hail Adze to see after the pumps, and hearing them stirring
about, I came on deck and employed the idlers in getting the spars
alongside, as the sea was as calm as a pond. Then, I set them to work
unreeving the gear and making things snug for setting up our jury-masts,
of which this is the first--a downright seamanlike piece of work I call
it."
"So it is, sir," said I to please him, seeing him looking up at the new
foremast admiringly; "and, I suppose, Mr Marline, when you've finished
rigging this, you'll begin setting up a new mainmast."
"Aye, my boy, and a mizzen too after that! You shall see the old
barquey spreading her canvas bravely again before I have done with her."
Presently, Adze called out that he had made the pumps act at last.
This brought down Captain Miles from the poop; when, a party of the
sailors at once setting to work, the bilge-water soon rose from below
and flowed in a stream in the scuppers.
Half an hour's spell served to make the pumps suck dry, showing that the
main hold of the ship was clear; and, seeing this, the captain turned
round and hailed Mr Marline with a triumphant shout.
"There, Marline," he cried, "what do you think of that, eh? Who was
right and who was wrong?"
"Well, sir, you were a true prophet this time," replied the first mate
equally well pleased at the result, although it went against his own
prognostication; "I only hope you'll get the fore-peak free as easily;
for, then, we'll float on an even keel."
"All right, my boy, so we will," said Captain Miles; and he then ordered
the hands to bend the end of the hose down into the forepart of the ship
below that part of the forecastle where the men bunked, the other end of
the hose being attached to the pump cylinder.
This job was a heavier one than that of clearing the main hold, the men
having to be relieved in spells; but, after several hours' hard work,
the bows of the ship were sensibly lightened of the extra water ballast
we had carried here, and by the afternoon this part of the vessel was
also clear.
Meanwhile, however, Jake had announced that breakfast was ready and on
the cabin table. This was the first hot meal we had had the chance of
partaking of now for four days, and it may be imagined with what gusto
we all enjoyed it I should add that, Captain Miles, liking good living
himself, took care that the men all round had an equally good spread,
sharing his own private stores liberally, so that those in the
forecastle fared as sumptuously as we did.
The captain did this out of his own innate good nature; but, had he been
generous merely as an act of policy, it could not have served him in
better stead, the sailors working all the afternoon and far into the
night with all the greater willingness in setting the ship to rights as
a return for the kindness he had displayed. None wanted driving to make
them stick to their several tasks.
Mr Marline had believed that when the fore-peak was clear of water the
_Josephine_, which until then had her bows almost level with the sea,
would have recovered her proper floatation; but, although her head now
rose, she displayed a decided list to starboard that became the more
apparent as her head became elevated more and more.
"Some of the cargo must have shifted," said Captain Miles; and with him,
true sailor as he was, to discover a fault was to suggest a remedy.
"We must take off the battens of the main hatch," he cried. "Mr
Marline, stop rigging those sticks for a bit. It is far more important
for our stowage to be true before we take any more of the heavy spars on
board; for, if we meet with any bad weather, we may turn the turtle
again and not come out of it so cleverly as we managed on the first
occasion!"
"All right, sir," replied the mate, ordering the hands under his orders
on the forecastle to move aft, where, under the captain's directions,
the hatches were taken off and the cargo exposed to view.
A pair of shears were then rigged up over the hold, on which a running
tackle with blocks and falls was rigged; when, after several puncheons
of rum had been hoisted out, it was found that the lover tier of the
cargo had lurched over at the time the ship careened.
It took many hours to alter the arrangement of the sugar casks below,
the rum having to be all hoisted on deck first; but, the hands working
zealously, the job was at last accomplished, the ship soon afterwards
righting properly, with her deck now horizontal to the plane of the
water instead of being at an angle with it as before.
The puncheons of rum were then again lowered down and stowed securely
and the hatches put on again. The men after this ceased their toils for
the day, it being close on to sunset.
On the third day, the rigging of the jury foremast was completed and the
head-gear all attached to it, new sails being bent to the yards in the
place of those that had been blown away. Fresh halliards and running
ropes were also rove, so that on an emergency, if the wind arose
suddenly, we could have made sail on the one mast, and thus made a shift
of battling with the elements.
Fortunately, however, the weather remained beautifully calm, only a
slight breeze springing up for a short time during the first hours of
the morning watch. The light wind had hardly sufficient power to give
motion to the bull of the vessel, and so the task of setting up the
other masts and rigging was satisfactorily proceeded with.
The mainmast caused the greatest trouble, the remains of the heel having
first to be taken out; although Mr Marline luckily thought of this when
we were re-stowing the cargo on the previous day. Otherwise, we would
have had a second sorting out of the contents of the hold.
The shears used for raising the rum puncheons not being strong enough to
lift the mainmast, which was a very heavy piece of timber weighing
several hundredweights, the main and fore-yards, with the mizzen
topmast, were set up as a triangle over the place where the spar had to
be stepped--the ends of the yards being fixed firmly against the
bulwarks on either side and lashed together at the top. This "crab" was
then raised in the air by a tackle and purchase, the falls of which were
brought to the capstan and run up by the crew as if they were weighing
anchor.
Then, the mainmast was slung just about its balancing centre and hauled
inboard through the broken bulwarks--which had not yet been restored on
purpose until all the spars were hoisted in.
The falls were now again manned; and, the sailors heaving away with one
of their animating choruses, up went the spar in the air above the
vacant hole in the deck from where the old part of the heel had been
removed--guys being belayed on either side to make it drop in true when
it was right over the place for its reception.
It did not take long to fix it now perpendicularly; although, as the
spar had been severed some feet from the deck, the new end of it was
more slender than the old, and so required packing round with pieces of
wood driven in by mallets to make it secure.
Next, the standing rigging was set up after being first shortened; and
Adze had a good deal of blacksmith's work to do in making fresh bolts
and eyes, converting Cuffee's galley into a temporary forge for this
purpose. All the ropes and blocks having been carefully collected
beforehand and sorted, this labour did not consume half the time that
one would have thought.
On the fifth day, the mizzen-mast was also got back into its place.
Then the yards were crossed and sails bent on the mainmast; and the
_Josephine_ appeared to show nearly as much top-hamper as she did before
the gale, only that all the masts were much shorter than before, the
foremast especially being only an apology for the former spar.
However, the change made a wonderful improvement in the appearance of
the ship; and when the broken bulwarks were patched up, which was done
on the last day of the week, she was herself again.
On the Sunday that followed the righting of the ship we had our prayers
on the poop as usual, Captain Miles returning especial thanks to the
great Ruler of the deep for all the mercies we had received; and, as a
fair wind sprung up in the evening of the same day from the south, we
set sail once more, moving away from the spot where we had been
refitting.
"I don't think," said Captain Miles, "that we've drifted twenty miles
either way since this day week; for there's no current hereabout, and
we've had little or no wind."
"We're then still about the centre of the Sargasso Sea," observed Mr
Marline.
"Aye," responded the other; "so Master Tom will have ample opportunities
within the next fortnight or so for studying all you told him about the
Gulf-weed, for I've no doubt we'll presently pass through lots of it."
"Shall you shape a straight course for the Channel, sir?" asked the
first mate, looking at his watch as he did so in a very self-satisfied
sort of way, it seemed.
"You may well observe that time-piece of yours carefully," said the
captain with a sigh, although he smiled as he spoke. "On that little
article depends all our navigation--that is, until we meet with some
passing vessel to correct our reckoning, and I don't suppose we shall
come across many of these, for we're out of the track of all voyaging
over this part of the Atlantic save those homeward-bound from the Cape.
I intend to make for Flores, the westernmost island of the Azores, as
we're short of water; besides, by my pursuing that course we shall get
up into the trades, and bye and bye fetch the Gulf Stream, which will
render our passage shorter to the Channel."
"Very well, we'll see," said Mr Marline, unconsciously using his old
stereotyped form of answer to almost everything.
"I believe," cried Captain Miles laughing, "that if anybody asked you to
accept a thousand pounds you'd reply, `I'll see about it!'"
"You just try me and see," replied the first mate drily to this remark,
joining in the captain's laugh; but I noticed that the other did not
take up the offer.
Through our detention by the calm, in addition to the scurrying to and
fro we had during the hurricane and the long time we remained a helpless
log on the waters, it was now considerably more than two months since we
had left the West Indies; and, as the _Josephine_ did not sail so well
now, besides having light and variable winds, it took us more than
another fortnight to reach Flores and sight the Morro Grande--a mountain
some three thousand feet in height, rising high in the clouds above
Santa Cruz, the capital of the island.
But, for days before this, we sailed through that wonderful Sargasso
Sea, the circumstances of whose being Mr Marline had explained to me
during the fearful night we passed clinging to the capsized hull of the
ship, exposed to the cruel wash of the pitiless waves; and, as we
ploughed over this submerged meadow of sea-weed in the centre of the
Atlantic, I could not help recalling the mangrove swamps and lagoons of
the tropic island in which my childhood had been passed, wondering the
while, too, whether the _Josephine_ would not be reported as lost
through the protraction of her voyage--for she was expected to reach
England by the middle of September at the latest, and it was now
October.
Why, if news came to Grenada that we were given up at Lloyd's, poor dad
and mother would be in a terrible way about me, I knew!
The day of the receipt of such intelligence would be a sad one at Mount
Pleasant, where all had loved me and would miss me now more than ever.
These thoughts, however, were but idle fancies, I reflected when we
sighted Flores; for, even if we had been given up, the news would now
soon be sent on that the old ship was still to the fore. So, when
Captain Miles had taken in fresh water and provisions, besides buying a
new chronometer, and then shaped a course direct for the English
Channel, I looked forward anxiously to relieving my parent's anxiety as
much as I did at the realisation of my boyhood's dream of seeing London
and going to school.