BOUND FOR JAMAICA.
All hands had been ordered on board in the afternoon, the tide serving
about five p.m., but from some unexplained cause we did not sail at the
time appointed. This delay led to complications, for although the crew
had, for a wonder, come on board fairly sober, they all rejoiced at the
opportunity afforded them of a last carouse. By some mysterious means
some money was obtained; all hands departed for the purlieus of
Shadwell, with the result that at ten o'clock the officers were scouring
the slums hunting for them. It was a hopeless task, as the event proved,
for by midnight only two had been found, and they were both helplessly
drunk. They were dragged on board like bundles of rags, and hoisted into
their bunks, where they remained in peace. That tide being lost, the
officers had a few hours' rest, turning out again about four a.m. to
renew the search. Meanwhile the vessel was shifted into the Shadwell
Basin, ready to start the moment her crew were on board. The morning
broke cheerlessly enough with a light fall of snow, gradually increasing
to a blinding mist of white, through which occasionally a little party
came dragging some oblivious mariner, who had spent his respite in
filling himself with whatever fire-water he could obtain. At last, weary
of waiting, the skipper determined to go on, although he was still two
men short. Accordingly the warps were cast off, the tug backed in and
took hold of us, and away we went down the river through the thick veil
of snow that made the "mud pilot's" job both difficult and dangerous.
There was another boy besides me, a burly fellow of sixteen, who very
soon made it clear to me that I was not going to lead a pleasant time
with him. He had come from the _Warspite_, and knew nothing of the ways
of merchant-ships, which gave me a little advantage over him in one way.
But he was well provided with plenty of warm clothing, by the bounty of
the Marine Society, while I was so thinly clad that the piercing cold
benumbed all my faculties, and I crawled about like a snail, making a
very bad impression upon the officers. Our arrival at Gravesend came as
a blessed relief, for there was a good hot meal of fresh food ready as
soon as the anchor was down. And as all the seamen were in a deep,
drunken slumber, Bill, my colleague, and myself had a mighty feed all to
ourselves, after which we turned in, and slept unmolested till
supper-time. The skipper had gone ashore to get a couple of men in place
of the defaulters, and did not return till after dark. He brought two
sober seamen with him, who looked as though they had been outward-bound
for a very long time. Their cheeks were quite hollow with hunger, and
they had hardly more clothing than they stood in. Yet they were both
able men, proving indeed the best seamen on board. After they had eaten
a good meal, they were set to keep anchor-watch turn about, until at
midnight all hands were called to man the windlass.
I wish it was possible to give my readers an idea of the misery involved
in this operation under such conditions. First of all, the officers were
obliged to drag the sodden sleepers from their lairs; then to shake, if
possible, some gleam of sense into them, some faint idea of what was
required of them. After nearly an hour's struggle, the miserable men
were at last mustered on the fo'lk'sle head at the windlass levers,
where, exposed to the full fury of the bitter wind, they cowered more
like sheep than men. Their feelings, as the drink died out of them, and
the cold searched their very vitals, must have been horrible.
Occasionally one of them would slip down gently from the fo'lk'sle and
disappear, only to be hunted up again by the vigorous boatswain, who
kept a watchful eye upon any would-be skulkers. More by dint of the
bo'sun's energy, I believe, than any vitality in the limp crew, the
anchor was at last lifted, the hawser passed to the hovering tug, and
away we glided ghost-like down-stream. Ben, the big boy, and myself were
pretty well fagged out with hauling back the big links of cable, and
stowing them in neat fakes abaft the windlass; but the bo'sun believed
in keeping boys on the go, so we got no time to think about being tired.
Luckily for us the wind was dead on end, so that it was useless making
sail. All hands were kept busily employed clearing up the decks,
getting the running-gear into its proper places, and generally preparing
the ship for independent travelling. By daylight the weather grew
better, the wind veered to the eastward a little, and the fore-and-aft
sails were set. So we drew slowly round to the North Foreland, where the
tug slipped our hawser; all sail was set, and we were fairly started on
our voyage. As I got a little warmth into my stiffened limbs, I won back
some of the good opinion I had forfeited by my clumsy, spiritless
movements of the previous day. Being sent aloft to loose some of the
square sails, I was cheered by hearing the elderly mate remark quietly,
"That's a smart little boy," and I must confess I was not displeased to
note that Ben only succeeded in drawing down maledictions on his head
for his clumsiness and general inability to do what was required of him.
There was a vengeful gleam in his eye, as he saw how inferior he was in
smartness to myself, which boded no good to me, and from the first day
out he never lost an opportunity of doing me an ill turn.
The captain was a fine, manly specimen of a seaman, with glowing red
hair and beard, and a voice of thunder. Fiery tempered, yet easily
pacified, he was also one of the most energetic of men, and I never saw
a skipper better liked by his crew. The mate was a middle-aged man, at
least ten years the captain's senior, rather slow and sedate, but a
thorough seaman and navigator. The bo'sun, who was acting second mate,
was an old shipmate of the skipper's, and quite his equal in energy. He
was one of that fast-decaying type of seamen, a Blackwall rigger, to
whom every detail of sailorizing was as familiar as eating his
breakfast. Besides this, he was a born leader of men, who would enforce
his will regardless of consequences. No man durst give him "slack lip"
on pain of being instantly knocked endways; a feat of which, by reason
of his size and strength, he was fully capable. As a result we were a
well-disciplined crowd, from whom no growling was heard whatever the
work imposed. There were eight A.B.'s, out of whom only three were
foreigners; but not one of them calls for any special description from
me. They all had the bad old idea that boys were born slaves, who must
do all the dirty work on deck, and when below be content with their
leavings, wait upon them hand and foot, and take uncomplainingly all the
ill-treatment it was their prerogative to bestow. Being at the bottom of
the scale, I had a wretched life. For I was no match for Ben, who
unfailingly passed on his share of blows to me, so that I was seldom
without some visible marks of ill-usage. But the food was certainly
above the average. The skipper had the provisioning of the ship, and,
being a just man, he did not do as so many would have done under the
same circumstances: starve the men to fatten his own pocket. What with
the decent meals, and the masterfulness of the bo'sun, she was a
contented ship, and more work was done in a day on board than I have
ever seen before or since. As usual on this passage, fine weather
prevailed, the wind being so steady that for days together we never
touched a brace. This was taken advantage of by the skipper to
practically refit the ship, all hands being kept at work all day long
splicing, turning-in blocks, serving shrouds, fitting new running-gear,
and doing rigger's work generally. At night they all slept, with the
exception of the helmsman, the look-out man, the officer of the watch
and a boy, who had to keep near the officer to carry his commands to the
sleepers should the need arise. Really I was kept so constantly at work
that, for all I saw of the sea and its marvels, I might as well have
been ashore. Except at night, and then I was always half asleep through
getting so little legitimate opportunity for rest.
Twenty-eight days flew rapidly past without a single incident worth
noting, the same blue sky overhead, and steady breeze astern, until one
morning the beautiful shores of Jamaica loomed up ahead. A few hours
later we sailed in between the points of a sheltering coral reef to an
anchorage in the pretty little harbour of Falmouth, pompously announcing
our arrival by the firing of a four-pounder gun as the anchor was
dropped. While we were furling sails and clearing up the decks, visitors
were arriving from the four vessels in harbour as well as from the
shore, so that by the time work was over our decks were thronged. The
skipper seemed a prime favourite here, judging by the number of people
who came to see him and congratulate him upon his new command--the
largest vessel that had yet entered the little port. There were high
times forrard as well as aft, for canoe-loads of good things were
brought, and all hands invested recklessly on credit, forgetting that
as yet they had no money owing to them by the ship. Not only eatables
but sundry bottles of new rum made their appearance, which potent fluid
soon made things exceedingly lively in the fo'lk'sle. Matters
culminated, of course, in a free fight, which so alarmed me that I crept
into a corner under the heel of the bowsprit, out of the way of the
revellers. There I went to sleep so soundly that it was morning when I
again emerged at the hoarse cry of the boatswain calling us to "turn
to."
The darkies here were even merrier than my old friends of Demerara. Such
a jovial, musical lot I never saw. Living from hand to mouth on the
coarsest food, and with the oddest assortment of rags for clothing
possible to be imagined, they really seemed to be perfectly happy. The
feeblest joke was sufficient to send them into convulsions of laughter,
and the gift of an old shirt or pair of pants would keep them on the
broad grin for a couple of days. My life was so consistently miserable
from harsh treatment, that I continually envied them their careless
existence, wondering all the time how they managed to be so jolly under
what I often saw to be painful circumstances. To crown my misfortunes I
fell ill. After suffering for two or three days, I was sent ashore to
hospital. Then I was thankful for what I had thought the climax of my
misery. For in the hospital I was allowed to do pretty well as I liked.
There was no discipline, no rule of any kind. The doctor, as we called
him (I think he must have been the dispenser), was a mulatto, or
quadroon, with a comical notion of his vast importance, but a kindly
young fellow enough. Sometimes I had medicine; but only by accident, I
believe. At any rate, I soon got better, and rambled about the great
building or played on the beach outside with the darky boys of about my
own age, forgetting that such a place as the _Bonanza's_ fo'lk'sle
existed. At last I began to hope that the captain had forgotten my
existence, having some dim idea, I suppose, that I might be allowed to
spend an indefinite time in this pleasant way. But I was to be rudely
undeceived. One day, when I was presiding with much importance over a
game at cricket (much I knew about it), with twenty or thirty youngsters
of almost as many shades of colour around me, I suddenly heard my
captain calling me, with an angry note in his voice that boded me no
good. He had come up from the town to inquire about me, and had caught
me unaware. "You lazy young sodjer!" he cried, "this is how sick you
are, is it? I'll give you a lesson for this! Get down to the boat!" The
thought of returning to the ship was so terrible to me that I actually
dared to ask him to let me go--to discharge me. In a voice that shook
with fear and anxiety I told him how I had been treated, and implored
him not to take me back with him. I believe he was half-melted, but his
anger at what he thought was my skulking got the better of him. "Serve
you very well right," he said. "I'll give you a rope's-ending myself
when I've got time. Now be off with you, straight down to the boat."
With that he strode on to the hospital, while I, feeling as if I was
going to the scaffold, trudged through the sand down to the
landing-place. In about an hour he returned, but said no word more to me
as the boat danced over the wavelets back to that hateful prison. It was
"knock-off" time, and I busied myself in sweeping up decks with all the
alacrity I could muster, until I was free to fetch my many masters their
tea from the galley. They hailed me with many sarcastic queries after my
health, and the noble time they supposed I had enjoyed ashore at their
expense, commiserating Ben exceedingly for having been obliged to do my
work, as they said, while I had been loafing ashore. Happily I got over
the evening without anything worse than hard words being thrown at me.
Some grievance or another had excited the anger of a big Irishman, and
he soon monopolized all attention by a recital of his wrongs. It
appeared that the bo'sun had "got a down on him," in his opinion; but if
the bo'sun thought that he, Mike, was going to be played with, that was
just where he was all adrift. He, Mike, was a blank Fenian, so he was,
an' he'd just shwim in blood before he was put upon by any blank
dock-walloper that ever mooched around Blackwall, so he would. In the
fervour of his harangue he omitted to notice how he had raised his
voice; but he was presently reminded of it by the voice of the bo'sun at
the fo'lk'sle door, calling, "Mike, I want you a minute!" There was
complete silence in a moment, which reigned until the bo'sun repeated
his words, with the quiet addition, "You don't want me to fetch you
out, I s'pose?" Then Mike protested feebly that it was his watch below,
that he was having his supper, that various reasons, in fact, prevented
him from emerging. Like a tiger the bo'sun leapt into the crowded space.
There was a medley of arms, heads, and legs, a hubbub of inarticulate
noises, but out of it all the bo'sun and Mike emerged on deck. How they
got there, I don't believe any one knew. I heard the bo'sun imploring
Mike to stand up to him like a man, and Mike piteously reminding him
that he was by no means his match, that he was twenty years older (which
was nearly true). "Very well, then," said the boss, "not so much of your
slack next time. If you're an old man, behave like one, an' don't open
your mouth so wide, in case anybody jumps down your throat." There was
peace after that. Not even a word was said to me when I ventured to
crawl into the raffle of rags which was my bunk.
At daylight next morning all hands were called to get under way. In the
cabin the skipper had been entertaining a large party of friends, who
had been keeping up an extensive carouse all night. Uproariously they
departed their several ways as we toiled at the windlass, while boats
from all the other vessels in port came and fastened on to us to assist
us out from between the reefs. Such aid was absolutely necessary unless
the miserably slow method of warping out by a kedge-anchor was resorted
to. For in these West Indian ports there is invariably, during the
night, a gentle air from the land, which soon after daybreak dies away
to a complete calm, lasting perhaps an hour, and succeeded by the
invigorating "doctor," or sea-breeze. This latter soon gathers strength
and blows more or less forcibly all day long. In consequence of this it
becomes imperative to gain an offing before the "doctor" begins, in
order that the vessel may be able to fetch off the land in the teeth of
an increasing breeze.
Having assisted us to get about two miles out, the boats cast off from
us, and with many hearty farewells returned to port, taking with them
our pilot. A stark calm succeeded as usual, during which all hands
lounged about and whistled for a breeze, until some of the keener
observers noticed that the strong undertow was sweeping us rapidly
towards a long spit of sand that stretched seaward, about three miles to
the northward of us. Presently the mate's anxiety constrained him to
approach the captain, who, with flushed face and abstracted air, was
pacing the poop, and suggest that the anchors might be prepared for
letting go. Strange to say, the skipper received this hint with a bad
grace, answering his officer so abruptly and angrily that his words were
distinctly audible all over the ship. The mate, whose age and
experience, apart from his other undeniably good qualities, entitled him
to very different treatment, bowed and retired, evidently much hurt. A
short period of silence followed, while the vessel, her sails hanging as
if carved in stone, and her hull motionless, as if in dry dock, was
being carried along over the now visible coral bottom at the rate of
nearly four knots an hour. At last the bo'sun, unable to contain
himself, strode up to the captain and said boldly, "Cap'n----, if you
don't anchor this ship'll be ashore in another ten minutes." "Get off my
poop, you impudent rascal! How dare you come an' speak to me like that!
For two pins I'd put you in irons. D'ye think I don't know my duty? I
never heard such cheek in my life!" and he stamped with fury. But the
bo'sun simply said, "Well, don't you say you wasn't warned, that's all,"
and, turning on his heel, left the angry, unreasonable man to himself.
By this time all hands were fully possessed of the idea that only a
miracle could save the ship, for the reef seemed to be actually touching
the keel through the clear water which was carrying us so swiftly over
it. And the idea of the vessel's loss filled me with unholy joy. No one
could realize how terribly I dreaded the homeward passage, and, now that
deliverance seemed so near, I could hardly restrain my feelings.
Slinking into the empty forecastle, I waited breathlessly for the crash
I felt sure was imminent. It came, a long grinding sensation, like a
boat grounding on a pebbly beach magnified a thousand times. Almost
delirious, I danced about the place, in the middle of which unpardonable
exercise I was discovered by the bo'sun. Outraged beyond speech, he
dealt me one savage kick, which put all dancing out of my power for many
a day, and for the present stretched me motionless on the deck. Not,
however, to lie there long, for hearing my name shouted outside, I
dragged myself up, mustering all my energy, and hobbled off to obey the
call before some worse thing should befall me.
I found all hands toiling like ants, getting out anchors and hawsers,
and doing all that experience could suggest to free the vessel from the
position of danger into which she had been brought so recklessly. But
the calm was over, the sea-breeze had commenced, and was increasing so
fast that already the hitherto placid sea was beginning to foam.
Breakers, too, born of the jagged reef so close to the surface, were
rolling in steadily, although as yet they were of puny height and
weight. Being at so short a distance from the port we had left, our
plight was plainly visible to those on shore. Consequently, in a couple
of hours, every boat of sufficient size in the place was alongside.
Scores of willing hands plied every means by which good might be done,
but the steady increase in wind and sea, driving directly shoreward,
mocked all efforts at heaving the ship off. There were no steam vessels
either in Falmouth or the adjacent ports, so that, when every purchase
that could be got upon the anchors and cables laid out astern was
brought to a standstill, that branch of the work was perforce abandoned.
Then the cargo was attacked at all three hatches, everybody working as
if their very lives depended upon their labours. The negroes especially
seemed to regard the whole affair as a gigantic spree, for without
abating one jot of their labours, they yelled, sang, danced about, and
behaved generally like a pack of schoolboys just let loose without any
supervision. As the day wore on the wind increased to a strong gale, and
the rollers attained so formidable a height that at times they lifted
the vessel bodily from her jagged bed of rock, letting her fall again
with a crash that threatened to shake all her stout timbers apart. After
each of these blows she seemed to slide seawards a little, but all her
buoyancy was gone--the stern went down at an increasing angle, and the
water rose in the hold so freely that it was evident there were some
serious gaps in the hull. Still the work went on. Drogher after drogher
left us filled with salvage, while others crowded as near as they dared
to receive the bags, cases and bundles, that were constantly being
hurled overside. By nightfall all our own crew were worn out, and
transferred to one of the small craft which clung to our side receiving
the salved cargo. Each man secured what he could of his poor belongings,
but I, being unable in the scramble and confusion to get hold of the few
rags composing my stock of clothing, contented myself with carrying off
an old wide-awake hat containing five blind kittens. The anxious mother
kept me close company, much to the amusement of the toiling darkies.
All through the night the wind maintained a most unusual force, and hour
by hour the work of salvage became increasingly difficult. Every package
had to be dived for into the blackness of the hold, which was quite full
of water up to the hatch-coamings. Great torches of tarred rope, lashed
to conspicuous points, roared and flared in the gale. By their uncertain
glare the black toilers darted hither and thither with astounding energy
and a deafening incessant tumult of wild song. Every one was
mother-naked, and their ebony skins shone like those of a school of
gambolling porpoises. At each tremendous lift and heave of the doomed
vessel all hands would make a frantic rush to the side, leaping with
blood-curdling yells into the waiting droghers. But the instant it was
seen that she yet survived the shock, back they all came and attacked
the cargo with renewed vigour. At last a bigger breaker than ever came
along, rearing its hoary crest against the paling sky. Reaching the
vessel, it enwrapped her in masses of shining foam, lifting her at the
same time with such power that for half a minute she seemed all afloat.
As it receded, the ill-used hulk, as if loth to leave its embrace, slid
along the reef with a rending crash, nor stopped until all that remained
visible of her was the jibboom, pointing upward to the sky like a
warning beacon. In the whirl of weltering foam left by her sudden exit,
the droghers danced like mad things, all having been cut adrift as the
yelling crowd sprang from the sinking ship. As nothing more could
possibly be done for the present, the little fleet made sail, and stood
in towards the town with their spoil. In every conceivable and
inconceivable position the utterly wearied negroes lay about asleep,
regardless of the flying spray or such minor inconveniences as being
trampled upon by the crews. I found a snug corner out of everybody's
way, and there, cuddling my cats, I, too, fell into sweet oblivion. When
I awoke, the vessel was just taking the beach in front of the town. The
sun was only just rising, but all the population of Falmouth appeared to
be there, and intensely solicitous for our welfare. We were
immediately taken to the "hotel," only a few hundred yards away, and all
manner of creature comforts pressed upon us with kindly persistence, as
if we had been adrift for a month. Suddenly I realized that I was quite
a centre of attraction--the fact of my having rescued the kittens
appearing to appeal to all the visitors in a way that I should hardly
have believed possible. But, indeed, our reception generally was so kind
that we were all in danger of being spoiled. Within the memory of the
oldest inhabitant no wreck of such importance had occurred near the
port, and consequently, I suppose, we reaped the benefit of
long-suppressed benevolence.
[Illustration: At each tremendous lift and heave of the doomed vessel
all hands would make a frantic rush to the side.]