Ocean Waifs no longer, the crew of the _Catamaran_ became embodied with
that of the ship, and her little passenger found kindness and protection
in the cabin of the whaler.
The _Catamaran_ herself was not "cut loose" in the nautical sense of the
term, and abandoned, but she was cut loose in a literal sense, and in
pieces hoisted aboard the ship to be employed for various purposes,--her
ropes, spars, and sail to be used at some time as they had been
originally intended--her other timbers to go to the stock of the
carpenter, and her casks to the cooper, to be eventually filled with the
precious sperm-oil which the ship's crew were engaged in trying out.
The old whalesman was not long aboard before getting confirmed in his
conjecture that the ship was the same whose boats had harpooned and
"drogued" the _cachalot_, the carcass of which had been encountered by
the _Catamaran_. It was one of a large "pod" of whales, of which the
boats had been in pursuit, and these, along with the ship, having
followed its companions to a great distance, and killed several of them
in the chase, had lost all bearings of the one first struck.
It had been their intention to go in search of it, as soon as they
should try out the others that had been captured; and the information
now given by Ben Brace to the captain of the whaler would enable the
latter the more easily to discover the lost prize, which he estimated at
the value of seventy or eighty barrels of oil, and therefore well worth
the trouble of going back for. On the day after the castaways had been
taken aboard, the whale-ship, having extinguished the fires of her
try-works, started in search of the drogued whale.
The ex-crew of the _Catamaran_ had by this time given a full account of
their adventures to the whalesmen; at the same time expressing their
belief that the ruffians on the big raft would be found by the carcass
they were in search of. The prospect of such an encounter could not
fail to interest the crew of the whaler; and as they advanced in the
direction in which they expected to find the drogued _cachalot_, all
eyes were bent searchingly upon the sea.
So far as the dead whale was concerned, they were successful in their
search. Just as the sun was going down, they came in sight of it; and
before the twilight had passed they "hove to" along side of it. The
vast flock of sea birds perched upon the floating mass, and that rose
into the air as the ship approached them, proclaimed the absence of
human beings. The great raft was not there, nor were there any
indications that it had revisited the carcass. On the contrary, that
curious structure, the crane, which the Catamarans had erected on the
summit of the floating mass, was still standing just as they had left
it; only that the flakes of shark's flesh were scorched to the hue and
texture of a cinder, and the fire that had burnt them was no longer
blazing beneath.
The fate of the slaver's castaway crew did not long remain a mystery.
Three days after, when the carcass of the _cachalot_ had been "flensed"
and tried out, and the whaler had once more proceeded upon her cruise,
she chanced upon a spot where the sea was strewn with a variety of
objects, among which were two or three spars of a ship, and several
empty water-casks. In these objects there was no difficulty in
recognising the wreck of the _Pandora's_ raft, which was drifting at no
great distance from the place where they had been cutting up the
_cachalot_.
The conclusion was easily arrived at. The gale, which had been
successfully weathered by the carefully constructed _Catamaran_, had
proved too violent for the larger embarkation, loosely lashed together,
and negligently navigated as it was. As a consequence it had gone to
pieces; while the wretches who had occupied it, not having the strength
to cling either to cask or spar, had indubitably gone to the bottom. As
little William afterwards related--
"So perished the slaver's crew. Not one of them,--either those in the
gig or on the raft, ever again saw the shore. They perished upon the
face of the wide ocean--miserably perished, without hand to help or eye
to weep over them!"
In truth did it seem as if their destruction had been an act of the
Omnipotent Himself, to avenge the sable-skinned victims of their
atrocious cruelty!
Were it our province to write the after history of the Catamarans, we
could promise ourselves a pleasant task, perhaps pleasanter than
recording the cruise of that illustrious craft.
We have space only to epitomise. The day after setting foot upon the
deck of the whale-ship, Snowball was appointed _chef de caboose_, in
which distinguished office he continued for several years; and only
resigned it to accept of a similar situation on board a fine bark,
commanded by _Captain Benjamin Brace_, engaged in the African trade.
But not _that African trade_ carried on by such ships as the _Pandora_.
No; the merchandise transported in Captain Brace's bark was not black
men, but white ivory, yellow gold-dust, palm-oil, and ostrich-plumes;
and it was said, that, after each "trip" to the African coast, the
master, as well as owner, of this richly laden bark, was accustomed to
make a trip to the Bank of England, and there deposit a considerable sum
of money.
After many years spent thus professionally, and with continued success,
the _ci-devant_ whalesman, man-o'-war's-man, ex-captain of the
_Catamaran_, and master of the African trader, retired from active life;
and, anchored in a snug craft in the shape of a Hampstead Heath villa,
is now enjoying his pipe, his glass of grog, and his _otium cum
dignitate_.
As for "Little William," he in turn ceased to be known by this
designation. It was no longer appropriate when he became the captain of
a first-class clipper-ship in the East Indian trade,--standing upon his
own quarter-deck full six feet in his shoes, and finely proportioned at
that,--so well as to both face and figure, that he had no difficulty in
getting "spliced" to a wife that dearly loved him.
She was a very beautiful woman, with a noble round eye, jet black waving
hair, and a deep brunette complexion. Many of his acquaintances were
under the impression that she had Oriental blood in her veins, and that
he had brought her home from India on one of his return voyages from
that country. Those more intimate with him could give a different
account,--one received from himself; and which told them that his wife
was a native of Africa, of Portuguese extraction, and that her name was
_Lalee_.
They had heard, moreover, that his first acquaintance with her had
commenced on board a slave bark; and that their friendship as
children,--afterwards ripening into love,--had been cemented while both
were castaways upon a raft--Ocean Waifs in the middle of the Atlantic.