ON THE COROMANDEL COAST.
Freed from that horrible incubus, I had now leisure to look about and
enjoy the varied scenes that presented themselves. The place we were
lying at was, I suppose, a typical native coast village, a big hill
facing the anchorage having a rock-hewn temple upon its sea-front. There
was no harbour or shelter of any kind, so that vessels lay all ready for
sea in case of bad weather setting in. All cargo was brought off in the
crazy "massulah" boats, which have been so often described by visitors
to Madras, and are the only craft able to stand the rough usage of the
surf-beaten beach. The fishermen went out on primitive contrivances of
three logs lashed together without any attempt at hollowing out or
fashioning bow and stern. Kneeling upon the two outer logs in the centre
of the crazy thing, the poor wretch would paddle seaward until out of
sight, his sole equipment a palm-leaf basket secured just in front of
him, and containing his fishing-tackle. Neither food nor water could be
carried, yet in this miserable condition they would remain out for many
hours, at the mercy of every wave that came along, and often being
rolled over several times in succession. The catches of fish they made
were always pitifully small, it seemed to me, sometimes consisting of
only a couple of dozen large prawns, though how they caught _them_ out
there was a mystery to me.
Our cargo was an assorted one. Jaggery, or palm sugar--looking like bags
of black mud, and almost as nice to handle,--buffalo horns and hides,
cases of castor oil, bags of myrabolums (a kind of dye-nut), and sundry
other queer things came off to us in small quantities at a time, and
were flung on board in a most haphazard fashion, owing to the constant
swell, which made the boats tumble about alongside vivaciously. All the
stowage was done by the crew under the direction of Jemmy the Scrubber,
who proved himself as capable a stevedore as he was a seaman. No one
went ashore except the skipper while we lay there, and he would gladly
have avoided the necessity, if possible, since it usually meant a
thorough drenching. On the whole, we were by no means sorry when the
news came that we were to leave and proceed down the coast to Coconada.
As we were always ready to sail, there were none of the usual
preliminaries; we just hauled in the fenders, hove the anchor up, and
started. Here our skipper's local knowledge was of great service. For we
hugged the coast closely all the way down, keeping a favourable wind,
which brought us into Coconada Bay in a few hours, while the
_Andromeda_, a big Liverpool ship that sailed at the same time for the
same port, stood off the land, got into bad weather, and did not arrive
for twenty-eight days. She had also sustained severe damage to both ship
and cargo.
While Coconada was evidently a much more important place than
Bimliapatam, we saw nothing of the town, for we lay a long way off in
the centre of a huge bay. We were near enough, though, to hear the
various cries of the wild beasts, among which the hideous noise of the
hyenas was especially noticeable. Our unhappy painter, who had remained
in Bombay hospital during the whole of our stay there, was again so ill
that he had to be landed here. But, getting convalescent, he and a
fellow patient went for a stroll one day, and, wandering out of the
town, they met a hyena. Barber was so scared that he fainted right away,
but the other man found sufficient vitality to scramble up a tree. He
had not got very high, though, before weakness overcame him, and he
fell, breaking his leg. When Barber came to there was no trace of the
hyena, but he and his fellow were in a pitiable plight. There they would
doubtless have stopped, and had their bones picked clean by the morning,
but for a party of friendly coolies who came along, and, seeing their
condition, fetched a couple of "palkees" and carried them back to
hospital again.
Here, then, we remained for three weeks, filling the hold with a
miscellaneous collection of Indian produce, of which cotton, linseed,
and myrabolums formed the staple, until the great capacity of our ship
for cargo was effectually satisfied, and she was jammed full to the
hatch coamings. Then all hands, released from their stifling labours
below, bent their energies to getting ready for sea. Meanwhile, although
our crew were certainly a most patient set of men, their discontent at
the short-handedness, which ever since leaving home had pressed so
hardly upon us all, gathered to a head, culminating in a visit of all
hands to the quarter-deck with a request to see the skipper. Genial as
ever, Captain Smith appeared, his ruddy face wearing an expression of
benign wonderment at the unusual summons. "Well, what is it, men?" said
he. Then stepped forward an elderly Yankee, who had been a bo'sun's mate
in the American navy, a shrewd, intelligent man with a rich fund of
native humour, and a prime favourite fore and aft. "We've taken the
libbaty, sir, ov comin' aft t'ask ye ef it's yeur intenshun ter sail
'thout shippin' enny more hands?" was his reply. "Well, in the first
place, Nat," answered the skipper, "there's no hands ter be got here,
an' besides, in sech a easy-workin' ship as this is, there's no hardship
in bein' a cupple o' hands short." "The good Lawd fergive ye, sir!"
exclaimed Nat; "ef thishyers a heasy-workin' ship, what mout ye reckon a
_hard_-workin' one 'ud be like? Why, cap'n, it takes two men to haul
thro' the slack ov th' braces, an' it's all a man's work to overhaul the
gear of a to'gantsle. 'Sides, sir, yew know it takes all hands to
shorten her down to the taupsles, 'n what we k'n do with her in a
squall--well, I hain't fergot thet plesant evenin' off the Cape, ef yew
have." At this vigorous reply the old man could only laugh to show his
appreciation of the home-thrusts it contained, but with native
shrewdness he changed his base, still preserving his cheery good temper.
"Mind ye, I don't say we ain't short-handed," he said--"very
short-handed; but we're gettin' out ov the Bay o' Bengal 'fore the
sou-west monsoon sets in, 'n yew know 's well 's me that it's fine
weather 'mos' all the way ter the Cape once we cross the line. 'N if we
git enny dirt offn the Cape I'll keep her under easy sail, 'n let the
'Gulhas current sweep her roun', 'n then we'll jest be home in no time.
Yew leav' it t' me. We hain't been eight months together 'thout knowin'
each other, 'n yew all know yew k'n depend on me to do the best I k'n
ter make ye comfortable. But I _can't_ get any hands in this
God-forsaken place if we only had two left forrard." That speech settled
it. If Captain Smith had been an irritable man, inclined to put on airs
of outraged dignity because his crew asked him a perfectly reasonable
question, and to rate them like a set of fractious children, there would
have been an instant refusal of duty on the part of the men, followed by
much suffering and loss on both sides, for the chaps were thoroughly in
earnest. But the skipper's frank good-humour and acceptance of the
situation disarmed them, and they returned forward with minds made up to
see the voyage out as best they could. Next day we weighed anchor and
sailed for London, the windlass revolving to the time-honoured tune of
"Good-bye, fare-you-well; hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound."
Just prior to our departure we received on board some two or three
hundred fowls and two goats, which, added to about twenty pigs--mostly
bred on board, two large dogs, two monkeys, sundry parrots and two cats,
made the ship bear no bad resemblance to Noah's Ark. None of these
animals had any settled abiding place; they just roamed about the decks
whithersoever they would, except on the sacred precincts of the poop,
which were faithfully guarded by one of the dogs, who allowed no
intrusion by any of the grunting, clucking, or chattering crowd. But
this state of things was a great trial to all concerned. For one of the
cardinal necessities of British or American ships is cleanliness, which
is secured by copious floods of salt water, and vigorous scrubbing every
morning. Under present conditions keeping the vessel clean was
manifestly impossible, the crowd of animals even invading the men's
quarters, as well as every nook into which they could possibly squeeze
themselves. There was a great deal of dissatisfaction forward at this
state of things, and fowls were continually flying overboard, being
chased and smitten by angry men, who found everything under their hands
befouled and stinking. Still the nuisance was unabated until we were ten
days out. Just off Cape Comorin we got our first stiff breeze of the
homeward passage, and very soon, in accordance with her invariable
custom, the old ship began to take sufficient water over the rail to
flood the decks fore and aft. Then there was a commotion in the
farmyard. The watch, up to their waists in water, splashed about
collecting the squawking chickens, and driving the bewildered swine into
a temporary shelter, rigged up under the topgallant forecastle. Next
morning at least four dozen dead fowls were flung overboard, in addition
to many that had fled blindly into the sea on the previous day. This
loss so disgusted the skipper that he ordered all hands to be fed on
poultry until the stock was exhausted. At first this benevolent (?)
command gave a good deal of delight, but when the miserable, leathery
carcases, boiled in salt water, unclean and unsavory, were brought into
the forecastle, there was almost a riot. A deputation waited upon the
captain to protest and demand their proper rations of "salt horse." They
were received by the skipper with a very ill grace, and the usual
senseless remarks about sailors' fastidiousness in the matter of food
were freely indulged in by the "old man," who seemed quite out of
temper. We got no more Coromandel poultry, though, which was a blessing,
albeit they were served up to the cabin as usual. Being prepared in a
civilized fashion, I suppose, the officers found them eatable. But in
various ways the flock of fowls diminished rapidly, much to our relief,
and gradually the decks began to assume their normal cleanliness. The
pigs, numerous as they were, could be kept within bounds forward; in
fact, the dogs rarely permitted them to come abaft the foremast. As for
the two goats, they grew so mischievous, gnawing the ends of all the
ropes, and nibbling at everything except iron, that orders for their
execution went forth, and since no one would eat them, their bodies were
flung overboard.