A wet sheet and a flowing sea.
_Cunningham_.
Of my country and of my family I have little to say. Ill usage and
length of years have driven me from the one, and estranged me from the
other. Hereditary wealth afforded me an education of no common order,
and a contemplative turn of mind enabled me to methodize the stores
which early study very diligently garnered up. Beyond all things the
works of the German moralists gave me great delight; not from any
ill-advised admiration of their eloquent madness, but from the ease
with which my habits of rigid thought enabled me to detect their
falsities. I have often been reproached with the aridity of my
genius--a deficiency of imagination has been imputed to me as a
crime--and the Pyrrhonism of my opinions has at all times rendered me
notorious. Indeed a strong relish for Physical Philosophy has, I fear,
tinctured my mind with a very common error of this age--I mean the
habit of referring occurrences, even the least susceptible of such
reference, to the principles of that science. Upon the whole, no
person could be less liable than myself to be led away from the severe
precincts of truth by the _ignes fatui_ of superstition. I have
thought proper to premise thus much lest the incredible tale I have to
tell should be considered rather the ravings of a crude imagination,
than the positive experience of a mind to which the reveries of fancy
have been a dead letter and a nullity.
After many years spent in foreign travel, I sailed in the year 18--,
from the port of Batavia, in the rich and populous island of Java, on
a voyage to the Archipelago of the Sunda islands. I went as
passenger--having no other inducement than a kind of nervous
restlessness which haunted me like a fiend.
Our vessel was a beautiful ship of about four hundred tons,
copper-fastened, and built at Bombay of Malabar teak. She was
freighted with cotton-wool and oil, from the Lachadive islands. We had
also on board coir, jaggeree, ghee, cocoa-nuts, and a few cases of
opium. The stowage was clumsily done, and the vessel consequently
crank.
{34} We got under way with a mere breath of wind, and for many days
stood along the eastern coast of Java without any other incident to
beguile the monotony of our course than the occasional meeting with
some of the small grabs of the Archipelago to which we were bound.
One evening, leaning over the taffrail, I observed a very singular,
isolated cloud, to the N. W. It was remarkable, as well for its color,
as from its being the first we had seen since our departure from
Batavia. I watched it attentively until sunset, when it spread all at
once to the Eastward and Westward, girting in the horizon with a
narrow strip of vapor, and looking like a long line of low beach. My
notice was soon afterwards attracted by the dusky red appearance of
the moon, and the peculiar character of the sea. The latter was
undergoing a rapid change, and the water seemed more than usually
transparent. Although I could distinctly see the bottom, yet, heaving
the lead, I found the ship in fifteen fathoms. The air now became
intolerably hot, and was loaded with spiral exhalations similar to
those arising from heated iron. As night came on, every breath of wind
died away, and a more entire calm it is impossible to conceive. The
flame of a candle burned upon the poop without the least perceptible
motion, and a long hair, held between the finger and thumb, hung
without the possibility of detecting a vibration. However, as the
captain said he could perceive no indication of danger, and as we were
drifting in bodily to shore, he ordered the sails to be furled, and
the anchor let go. No watch was set, and the crew, consisting
principally of Malays, stretched themselves deliberately upon deck. I
went below--not without a full presentiment of evil. Indeed every
appearance warranted me in apprehending a Simoom. I told the captain
my fears--but he paid no attention to what I said, and left me without
deigning to give a reply. My uneasiness however prevented me from
sleeping, and about midnight I went upon deck. As I placed my foot
upon the upper step of the companion ladder, I was startled with a
loud, humming noise, like that occasioned by the rapid revolution of a
mill-wheel, and before I could ascertain its meaning, I found the ship
quivering to its centre. In the next instant, a wilderness of foam
hurled us upon our beam-ends, and, rushing over us fore and aft, swept
the entire decks from stem to stern.
The extreme fury of the blast proved in a great measure the salvation
of the ship. Although completely water-logged, yet, as all her masts
had gone by the board, she rose, after a minute, heavily from the sea,
and, staggering awhile beneath the immense pressure of the tempest,
finally righted.
By what miracle I escaped destruction, it is impossible to say.
Stunned by the shock of the water, I found myself upon recovery,
jammed in between the stern-post and rudder. With great difficulty I
gained my feet, and looking dizzily around, was, at first, struck with
the idea of our being among breakers, so terrific beyond the wildest
imagination was the whirlpool of mountainous and foaming ocean within
which we were engulfed. After a while, I heard the voice of an old
Swede, who had shipped with us at the moment of our leaving port. I
hallooed to him with all my strength, and presently he came reeling
aft. We soon discovered that we were the sole survivors of the
accident. All on deck, with the exception of ourselves, had been swept
overboard, and the captain and mates must have perished as they slept,
for the cabins were deluged with water. Without assistance, we could
expect to do little for the security of the ship, and our exertions
were at first paralyzed by the momentary expectation of going down.
Our cable had, of course, parted like pack-thread, at the first breath
of the hurricane, or we should have been instantaneously overwhelmed.
We scudded with frightful velocity before the sea, and the water made
clear breaches over us. The frame-work of our stern was shattered
excessively, and, in almost every respect, we had received
considerable injury--but to our extreme joy we found the pumps
unchoked, and that we had no great difficulty in keeping free. The
main fury of the Simoom had already blown over, and we apprehended
little danger from the violence of the wind--but we looked forward to
its total cessation with dismay, well believing, that, in our
shattered condition, we should inevitably perish in the tremendous
swell which would ensue. But this very just apprehension seemed by no
means likely to be soon verified. For five entire days and
nights--during which our only subsistence was a small quantity of
jaggeree, procured with great difficulty from the forecastle--the hulk
flew at a rate defying computation, before rapidly succeeding flaws of
wind, which, without equalling the first violence of the Simoom, were
still more terrific than any tempest I had before encountered. Our
course for the first four days was, with trifling variations, S. E.
and by South; and we must have run down the coast of New Holland. On
the fifth day the cold became extreme, although the wind had hauled
round a point more to the Northward. The sun arose with a sickly
yellow lustre, and clambered a very few degrees above the
horizon--emitting no decisive light. There were no clouds whatever
apparent, yet the wind was upon the increase, and blew with a fitful
and unsteady fury. About noon, as nearly as we could guess, our
attention was again arrested by the appearance of the sun. It gave out
no light, properly so called, but a dull and sullen glow unaccompanied
by any ray. Just before sinking within the turgid sea its central
fires suddenly went out, as if hurriedly extinguished by some
unaccountable power. It was a dim, silver-like rim, alone, as it
rushed down the unfathomable ocean.
We waited in vain for the arrival of the sixth day--that day to me has
not yet arrived--to him, never did arrive. Thenceforward we were
enshrouded in pitchy darkness, so that we could not have seen an
object at twenty paces from the ship. Eternal night continued to
envelop us, all unrelieved by the phosphoric sea-brilliancy to which
we had been accustomed in the tropics. We observed too, that, although
the tempest continued to rage with unabated violence, there was no
longer to be discovered the usual appearance of surf, or foam, which
had hitherto attended us. All around was horror, and thick gloom, and
a black sweltering desert of ebony. Superstitious terror crept by
degrees into the spirit of the old Swede, and my own soul was wrapped
up in silent wonder. We neglected all care of the ship, as worse than
useless, and securing ourselves as well as possible to the stump of
the mizen-mast, looked out bitterly into the world of ocean. We had no
means of calculating time, nor could we form any guess of our
situation. We were however well aware {35} of having made farther to
the Southward than any previous navigators, and felt extreme amazement
at not meeting with the usual impediments of ice. In the meantime
every moment threatened to be our last--every mountainous billow
hurried to overwhelm us. The swell surpassed any thing I had imagined
possible, and that we were not instantly buried is a miracle. My
companion spoke of the lightness of our cargo, and reminded me of the
excellent qualities of our ship--but I could not help feeling the
utter hopelessness of hope itself, and prepared myself gloomily for
that death which I thought nothing could defer beyond an hour, as,
with every knot of way the ship made, the swelling of the black
stupendous seas became more dismally appalling. At times we gasped for
breath at an elevation beyond the Albatross--at times became dizzy
with the velocity of our descent into some watery Hell, where the air
grew stagnant, and no sound disturbed the slumbers of the Kraken.
We were at the bottom of one of these abysses, when a quick scream
from my companion broke fearfully upon the night. 'See! see!'--cried
he, shrieking in my ears,--'Almighty God! see! see!' As he spoke, I
became aware of a dull, sullen glare of light which rolled, as it
were, down the sides of the vast chasm where we lay, and threw a
fitful brilliancy upon our deck. Casting my eyes upwards, I beheld a
spectacle which froze the current of my blood. At a terrific height
directly above us, and upon the very verge of the precipitous descent,
hovered a gigantic ship of nearly four thousand tons. Although
upreared upon the summit of a wave of more than a hundred times her
own altitude, her apparent size still exceeded that of any ship of the
line or East Indiaman in existence. Her huge hull was of a deep dingy
black, unrelieved by any of the customary carvings of a ship. A single
row of brass cannon protruded from her open ports, and dashed off from
their polished surfaces the fires of innumerable battle-lanterns,
which swung to and fro about her rigging. But what mainly inspired us
with horror and astonishment, was that she bore up under a press of
sail in the very teeth of that supernatural sea, and of that
ungovernable hurricane. When we first discovered her, her stupendous
bows were alone to be seen, as she rose up, like a demon of the deep,
slowly from the dim and horrible gulf beyond her. For a moment of
intense terror she paused upon the giddy pinnacle, as if in
contemplation of her own sublimity, then trembled and tottered,
and--came down.
At this instant, I know not what sudden self-possession came over my
spirit. Staggering as far aft as I could, I awaited fearlessly the
ruin that was to overwhelm. Our own vessel was at length ceasing from
her struggles, and sinking with her head to the sea. The shock of the
descending mass struck her, consequently, in that portion of her frame
which was already under water, and the inevitable result was to hurl
me with irresistible violence upon the rigging of the stranger.
As I fell, the ship hove in stays, and went about, and to the
confusion ensuing, I attributed my escape from the notice of the crew.
With little difficulty I made my way unperceived to the main hatchway,
which was partially open, and soon found an opportunity of secreting
myself in the hold. Why I did so I can hardly tell. A nameless and
indefinite sense of awe, which at first sight of the navigators of the
ship had taken hold of my mind, was perhaps the principle of my
concealment. I was unwilling to trust myself with a race of people who
had offered, to the cursory glance I had taken, so many points of
vague novelty, doubt, and apprehension. I therefore thought proper to
contrive a hiding-place in the hold. This I did by removing a small
portion of the shifting-boards in such a manner as to afford me a
convenient retreat between the huge timbers of the ship.
I had scarcely completed my work, when a footstep in the hold forced
me to make use of it. A man passed by my place of concealment with a
feeble and unsteady gait. I could not see his face, but had an
opportunity of observing his general appearance. There was about it an
evidence of great age and infirmity. His knees tottered beneath a load
of years, and his entire frame quivered under the burthen. He muttered
to himself in a low broken tone, some words of a language which I
could not understand, and groped in a corner among a pile of
singular-looking instruments, and decayed charts of navigation. His
manner was a wild mixture of the peevishness of second childhood, and
the solemn dignity of a God. He at length went on deck, and I saw him
no more.
* * * * *
A feeling, for which I have no name, has taken possession of my
soul--a sensation which will admit of no analysis, to which the
lessons of by-gone time are inadequate, and for which I fear futurity
itself will offer me no key. To a mind constituted like my own the
latter consideration is an evil. I shall never,--I know that I shall
never--be satisfied with regard to the nature of my conceptions. Yet
it is not wonderful that these conceptions are indefinite, since they
have their origin in sources so utterly novel. A new sense, a new
entity is added to my soul.
It is long since I first trod the deck of this terrible ship, and the
rays of my destiny are, I think, gathering to a focus.
Incomprehensible men! Wrapped up in meditations of a kind which I
cannot divine, they pass me by unnoticed. Concealment is utter folly
on my part, for the people _will not_ see. It was but just now that I
passed directly before the eyes of the mate,--it was no long while ago
that I ventured into the captain's own private cabin, and took thence
the materials with which I write, and have written. I shall from time
to time continue this journal. It is true that I may not find an
opportunity of transmitting it to the world, but I will not fail to
make the endeavor. At the last moment I will enclose the MS. in a
bottle, and cast it within the sea.
An incident has occurred which has given me new room for meditation.
Are such things the operations of ungoverned Chance? I had ventured
upon deck and thrown myself down, without attracting any notice, among
a pile of ratlin-stuff and old sails in the bottom of the yawl. While
musing upon the singularity of my fate, I unwittingly daubed with a
tar-brush the edges of a neatly-folded studding-sail which lay near me
on a barrel. The studding-sail is now bent upon the ship, and the
thoughtless touches of the brush are spread out into the word
DISCOVERY.
I have made many observations lately upon the structure of the vessel.
Although well armed, she is not, I think, a ship of war. Her rigging,
build, and general equipment, all negative a supposition of this kind.
{36} What she _is not_ I can easily perceive, what she _is_ I fear it
is impossible to say. I know not how it is, but in scrutinizing her
strange model and singular cast of spars, her huge size and overgrown
suits of canvass, her severely simple bow and antiquated stern, there
will occasionally flash across my mind a sensation of familiar things,
and there is always mixed up with such shadows, as it were, of
recollection, an unaccountable memory of old foreign chronicles and
ages long ago.
I have been looking at the timbers of the ship. She is built of a
material to which I am a stranger. There is a peculiar character about
the wood which strikes me as rendering it unfit for the purpose to
which it has been applied. I mean its extreme _porousness_, considered
independently of the worm-eaten condition which is a consequence of
navigation in these seas, and apart from the rottenness attendant upon
age. It will appear perhaps an observation somewhat over-curious, but
this wood has every characteristic of Spanish oak, _if Spanish oak
were distended or swelled by any unnatural means_.
In reading the above sentence a curious apothegm of an old
weather-beaten Dutch navigator comes full upon my recollection. 'It is
as sure,' he was wont to say, when any doubt was entertained of his
veracity, 'as sure as there is a sea where the ship itself will grow
in bulk like the living body of the seaman.'
About an hour ago I made bold to thrust myself among a group of the
crew. They paid me no manner of attention, and, although I stood in
the very midst of them all, seemed utterly unconscious of my presence.
Like the one I had at first seen in the hold, they all bore about them
the marks of a hoary old age. Their knees trembled with infirmity,
their shoulders were bent double with decrepitude, their shrivelled
skins rattled in the wind, their voices were low, tremulous, and
broken, their eyes glistened with the rheum of years, and their gray
hairs streamed terribly in the tempest. Around them on every part of
the deck lay scattered mathematical instruments of the most quaint and
obsolete construction.
I mentioned some time ago the bending of a studding-sail. From that
period the ship, being thrown dead off the wind, has held her terrific
course due South, with every rag of canvass packed upon her from her
trucks to her lower-studding-sail booms, and rolling every moment her
top-gallant yard-arms into the most appalling hell of water, which it
can enter into the mind of man to imagine. I have just left the deck,
where I find it impossible to maintain a footing, although the crew
seem to experience little inconvenience. It appears to me a miracle of
miracles that our enormous bulk is not buried up at once and forever.
We are surely doomed to hover continually upon the brink of Eternity,
without taking a final plunge into the abyss. From billows a thousand
times more stupendous than any I have ever seen, we glide away with
the facility of the arrowy sea-gull, and the colossal waters rear
their heads above us like demons of the deep, but like demons confined
to simple threats and forbidden to destroy. I am led to attribute
these frequent escapes to the only natural cause which can account for
such effect. I must suppose the ship to be within the influence of
some strong current, or impetuous under-tow.
I have seen the captain face to face, and in his own cabin--but, as I
expected, he paid me no attention. Although in his appearance there
is, to a casual observer, nothing which might bespeak him more or less
than man--still a feeling of irrepressible reverence and awe mingled
with the sensation of wonder with which I regarded him. In stature he
is nearly my own height, that is, about five feet eight inches. He is
of a well-knit and compact frame of body, neither robust nor
remarkably otherwise. But it is the singularity of the expression
which reigns upon the face, it is the intense, the wonderful, the
thrilling evidence of old age so utter, so extreme, which strikes upon
my soul with the shock of a Galvanic battery. His forehead, although
little wrinkled, seems to bear upon it the stamp of a myriad of years.
His gray hairs are records of the past, and his grayer eyes are Sybils
of the future. The cabin floor was thickly strewn with strange,
iron-clasped folios, and mouldering instruments of science, and
obsolete, long-forgotten charts. His head was bowed down upon his
hands, and he pored with a fiery unquiet eye over a paper which I took
to be a commission, and which, at all events, bore the signature of a
monarch. He muttered to himself, as did the first seaman whom I saw in
the hold, some low, peevish syllables of a foreign tongue, and
although the speaker was close at my elbow, yet his voice seemed to
reach my ears from the distance of a mile.
The ship and all in it are imbued with the spirit of Eld. The crew
glide to and fro like the ghosts of buried centuries, their eyes have
an eager and uneasy meaning, and when their figures fall athwart my
path in the wild glare of the battle-lanterns, I feel as I have never
felt before, although I have been all my life a dealer in antiquities,
and have imbibed the shadows of fallen columns at Balbec, and Tadmor,
and Persepolis, until my very soul has become a ruin.
When I look around me I feel ashamed of my former apprehensions. If I
trembled at the blast which has hitherto attended us, shall I not
stand aghast at a warring of wind and ocean, to convey any idea of
which the words tornado and Simoom are trivial and ineffective! All in
the immediate vicinity of the ship is the blackness of eternal night,
and a chaos of foamless water; but, about a league on either side of
us, may be seen, indistinctly and at intervals, stupendous ramparts of
ice, towering away into the desolate sky, and looking like the walls
of the Universe.
As I imagined, the ship proves to be in a current, if that appellation
can properly be given to a tide which, howling and shrieking by the
white ice, thunders on to the Southward with a velocity like the
headlong dashing of a cataract.
To conceive the horror of my sensations is, I presume, utterly
impossible--yet a curiosity to penetrate the mysteries of these awful
regions predominates even over my despair, and will reconcile me to
the most hideous aspect of death. It is evident that we are hurrying
onwards to some exciting knowledge--some never-to-be-imparted secret,
whose attainment is destruction. Perhaps this current leads us to the
Southern Pole itself--it must be confessed that a supposition
apparently so wild has every probability in its favor.
The crew pace the deck with unquiet and tremulous step, but there is
upon their countenances an expression more of the eagerness of hope
than of the apathy of despair.
{37} In the meantime the wind is still in our poop, and as we carry a
crowd of canvass, the ship is at times lifted bodily from out the
sea--Oh, horror upon horror! the ice opens suddenly to the right, and
to the left, and we are whirling dizzily in immense concentric
circles, round and round the borders of a gigantic amphitheatre, the
summit of whose walls is lost in the darkness and the distance. But
little time will be left me to ponder upon my destiny--the circles
rapidly grow small--we are plunging madly within the grasp of the
whirlpool--and amid a roaring, and bellowing, and shrieking of ocean
and of tempest, the ship is quivering, oh God! and--going down.