It was a lovely dawn the morning after the storm in the Bay of Biscay.
Even Mr Adams, plain, matter-of-fact, simple, and unsympathetic sailor
as he was, without a particle of poetry or imagination about him, could
not but gaze with admiration at the glory of God's handiwork, as he
noticed the grand panorama of change that marked the progress from
darkness to light, from night to day!
Soon after his watch began, the twinkling stars had gone to rest,
putting out their tiny lanterns, as they had arisen, one be one; and
now, the violet blue of the firmament paled gradually into sea-green and
grey, soft neutral tints mixed on the great palette of Nature to receive
the roseate hue that presently illumined the whole eastern sky,
heralding the approach of the glorious orb of day. Next, streaks of
light salmon-coloured clouds shot across the horizon, their edges
decorated with a fringe of gold that gleamed brighter and more intense
each moment, the water glowing beneath the reflection as if wakening
into life: and then, the majestic sun stepping up from his ocean bed--
all radiant--"like a bridegroom out of his chamber," and moving with
giant strides higher and higher up the heavens, as if "anxious to run
his course," and make up for the lost time of the night--shone through
the transparent purple mist of the morning like a blush rose behind a
glittering veil of dewdrops!
By the time the breakfast hour arrived--"eight bells"--the blue sea was
dancing merrily in the sunshine, the waves calming down to only a
crisping curl of their foam-flecked summits, and the _Nancy Bell_ was
speeding along under a pile of canvas fore and aft from deck to truck,
Mr Adams having made good use of his time while others were sleeping to
get up the spare topgallant-mast forward and set all the upper sail he
could; so the passengers, roused up to new life by the cheery influence
of the bright summer day, coming after all the gloom and misery and
storm and tempest of the past, mustered round the cuddy table in full
force.
Mr Meldrum and the American were there as a matter of course; but, by
the side of her father, on the right of the skipper, appeared now for
the first time at the table since the ship had left port, the graceful
form of Kate Meldrum accompanied by the slighter figure of Florry,
supported on the other side of the table by Mrs Major Negus and her
young hopeful; while Mr Adams faced Captain Dinks--it being the chief
mate's turn of duty on deck--having brave Frank Harness close alongside.
They formed a very joyous coterie altogether, and enjoyed themselves all
the more from their natural revulsion of spirits after all the
discomfort and misery they had passed through, Captain Dinks himself
setting an example and provoking the merry laughter of the girls with
his absurd jokes, although the young ladies seemed brimful of fun,
especially Miss Florry, who the skipper said might make a good match for
mischievousness with Master Negus--whereat a grim smile was seen to
steal across the face of "the Major," lightening up her sallow
countenance and making her "come out in new colours."
As for Mr Zachariah Lathrope, he was too busy with the ham and eggs to
do much talking; although, like the monkeys, he probably thought the
more, for ever and anon he would pass encomiums on the viands and pass
up his plate for a fresh helping, the steward having enough to do in
supplying his wants quickly enough.
After breakfast, a visit was paid to "Snowball," the darkey Stowaway,
who was found much better and progressing so favourably that the captain
ordered his removal to the "fokesail," to complete his convalescence;
which it may be here added he satisfactorily accomplished in a few days,
when he was installed in the galley as cook, in the place of a Maltese
sailor who was glad to get forward again before the mast. The negro had
slept continually from the time he had been released from durance vile
in the after-hold, neither the racket below nor the turmoil on deck
during the storm having disturbed his slumbers. This, no doubt, had
hastened his recovery, for Mr McCarthy was positive that three of his
ribs at least had been broken.
"Why is Snowball like a worm, Miss Meldrum?" said Captain Dinks to Kate,
after telling her that he intended installing the darkey in the galley
as cook; "do you know, eh!"
"Oh, if that's a conundrum, captain," replied she with a piquant laugh
that lit up her whole face, making it quite beautiful, Frank Harness
thought, "I give it up at once. I'm a bad hand at guessing riddles."
"Well, you see," said Captain Dinks, with that cheery "ho, ho!" of a
laugh of his, which always preceded any of his good things, "the worm or
grub develops into the butterfly; but Snowball made the butter fly when
he tumbled over that cask in the steerage, and now he is going to
develop into the grub line and turn cook!"
"That's too bad!" said Kate laughing. "I never heard a worse sort of
pun in my life."
"Then it's all the better, my dear," replied he; and as everybody else
laughed too, they possibly shared the captain's opinion.
After this, there was a move on deck--not before it was needed perhaps!
At noon, Captain Dinks, after manipulating his sextant and adjusting the
sights, seemed to be much longer taking his observation than usual; and
when he went below to his cabin to work out the reckoning he certainly
remained a most unconscionable time.
By and by, however, he came up the companion again, his face beaming
with delight.
"What do you think, Mr Meldrum?" said he, somewhat excitedly, to that
gentleman, who, along with the remainder of the saloon party, was
standing on the poop leaning over the taffrail to windward, looking over
the apparently limit less expanse of water, that stretched away to the
horizon, and basking in the sunshine, which was tempered by a mellow
breeze that seemed just sufficient to keep the sails of the _Nancy Bell_
full--and that was all.
"I'm sure I can't say," replied Mr Meldrum good-humouredly. "Found
another ghost in the cabin, eh?"
"No, no; couldn't have two in one voyage," said the skipper.
"Made another conundrum?" again inquired the other slily, poking fun at
the captain's previous attempt in the riddle line.
"Oh, no," said Captain Dinks, laughing out at this. "That was too good
to be repeated: I've got better news than that, Mr Meldrum--something
really to surprise you!"
"I'm all attention," said Mr Meldrum, "but pray do not keep us long in
suspense. Don't you see we're all anxious!"
"Why," exclaimed Captain Dinks triumphantly, "the _Nancy Bell_ has made
nearly five degrees of latitude since I last took the sun, there!"
"Oh dear!" said Florry ruefully; "I thought you were going to tell us
something funny!" and she looked so disappointed that Kate laughed at
her and Master Maurice Negus grinned; whereupon Florry, in a pet,
smacked the young gentleman's face, for which she was reproved by her
father and ordered below, although the sentence of banishment was
remitted later on at Mrs Major Negus's especial request.
This little interlude over, the captain proceeded with his explanation.
"Yes," said he, "we're now in latitude 44 degrees 56 minutes north, and
longitude 9 degrees 42 minutes west; so that we've run pretty close on
four hundred miles since yesterday at noon. Just think of that, now!"
"A pretty good distance," said Mr Meldrum; "but, you must recollect we
had the gale to drive us on."
"Aye, sorr," said Mr McCarthy, joining in the conversation, "and didn't
it droive us too! Begorrah, there was some times that the wind tuck the
ship clane out of the wather and carried us along in the air like one of
them flying-fish you'll say when we gits down to the line!"
"It was fortunate it was in our favour," observed the captain
reflectively. "We couldn't have tried to beat against it; and, heavily-
laden as we are, it would have been madness to have tried to lay-to!"
"You're right," said Mr Meldrum, "and it was equally fortunate that the
gale carried us so far and no further! Another twelve hours of it and
we would have been high and dry ashore on the Spanish coast."
"I think you're not far out," replied the captain, scratching his head
and pondering over the matter, "for we'll only just shave past Cape
Finisterre now keeping our course; and if we hadn't made so much westing
when we got out of the Channel I don't know where we should have been!"
"Faix and it was grumbling at it you were all the toime, cap'en!" said
McCarthy with a knowing wink; "though you do now say it was all for the
best, as the man said when they buried his wife's grandmother!"
"Aye, you're right," said Captain Dinks more seriously, "all is for the
best, if we could only know it at the time!"
Thenceforward, the weather kept fine; and the fates seemed favourable to
the _Nancy Bell_ in her pilgrimage across the sea.
There was no lack of incident in the voyage, however.
One day, about a week after they had bidden farewell to the Bay of
Biscay with all its terrors and troubled waters, as the ship was
approaching that region of calms which lies adjacent to the Tropic of
Cancer, her rate of progression had grown so "small by degrees and
beautifully less," that she barely drifted southward with the current,
until at length she came to a dead stop, so far as those on board could
judge, lying motionless on the surface of the water "like a painted ship
upon a painted ocean," as the situation is described in Coleridge's
_Ancient Mariner_.
Round about the vessel, dolphins disported themselves, and "Portuguese
men-of-war" floated over the sea with their gelatinous sails unfurled,
and everything seemed lazy and enjoyable to the passengers--although the
captain and crew did not evidently relish the state of inaction which
the calm brought about, for they were looking out in all quarters for
the wished-for wind.
Not a ship was in sight--nothing happening to break the peaceful repose
of the deep for hours.
The captain was "having a stretch" below; the men snoozing away on the
deck forwards in all sorts of odd corners; the officer of the watch
blinking as he squinted aloft to see if the dog-vane stirred with any
passing breath of air; even the steersman was nodding over the helm, as
the wheel rotated round to port or starboard as it listed, according as
the ship rose or fell on the long heavy rolling swell that undulated
over the bosom of the deep; and most of the passengers were in the same
somnolent state--when all at once an event occurred that soon broke the
monotony of the afternoon, waking up the sleepy ones to fresh vitality,
for an object of interest had at last arisen in the uneventful day
sufficient for the moment to enchain their attention.
The listless lotus eaters had to thank Master Negus for the excitement,
in the first instance.
That young gentleman was possessed of a keen desire for knowledge, which
his more prosaic seniors were in the habit of misconstruing, deeming it
to arise, as they said, from an insatiable and impertinent curiosity
combined with an inherent love of mischief. Be that as it may, this
desire for knowledge on Master Maurice's part frequently led him into
places where, to put it delicately, his presence was undesirable in many
ways; his love for investigation taking him especially to certain
dangerous localities whither he was peremptorily forbidden to go both by
his mother and the captain.
Among such tabooed spots in the ship was the forecastle; and here,
consequently, as a matter of course, Master Maurice most delighted to
steal away when neither the maternal eye of Mrs Major Negus was upon
him nor any of the other people aft were watching him. He did not mind
the sailors, for they made a point of encouraging him forward and took
much pleasure in developing his propensities for mischief.
This afternoon, he was enjoying himself after the desire of his heart-
climbing about the rigging in a way that would have made his mother
faint, when, in one of his scrambles up to the foretop, he saw something
in the water which was hidden from the sight of the others on board,
through the head-sails of the ship shutting out their line of view.
"Oh, crickey," shouted out Master Negus at the top of his voice, at once
betraying his whereabouts in his excitement, "there's a fight going on
in the water, and two whales are leathering each other like fun!"