Every one was on deck at the time--the crew, the officers, the
passengers; but, with the exception of a slight scream from Mrs Major
Negus, which passed unnoticed, not a single exclamation of terror or
alarm was uttered. All seemed completely stupefied by the unexpected
shock, their consternation being too great for words--they stood as if
spell-bound!
Captain Dinks was the first to break the silence.
"God forgive me!" he cried out to everybody's surprise. "It is all my
fault!"
"Your fault!" repeated Mr Meldrum; "how--why?"
"I should have had a man forward, sounding with the lead, but I quite
forgot it--quite forgot it; and this has happened."
"Nonsense, man!" said the other to cheer him up--the captain appearing
to be more concerned at his own neglect, as he regarded it, than he was
at the actual fact of the ship's striking on the reef--"such a
precaution would have been utterly useless! We were probably in deep
water a minute before; and even if a man had been stationed in the
chains, he could scarcely have had time to have swung the lead and sang
out the marks, before she was on the rocks! It is one of those
unforeseen calamities that are inevitable and which can never be
prevented by any human foresight. I for one, and I've no doubt every
one else here agrees with me, entirely exonerate you from all blame."
The captain was endeavouring to make some broken reply, as far as his
deep emotion would allow, when Mrs Major Negus interrupted him.
"Speak for yourself, please, Mr Meldrum," she exclaimed, elbowing
herself forwards in front of the group, her shrill high-pitched voice
sounding almost like another scream, as she waved her arms wildly about
and addressed Mr Meldrum and Captain Dinks alternately. "Speak for
yourself, please, for I don't agree with you at all! I say it is the
captain's fault; and he knows it, though it's rather late in the day for
him to acknowledge it! And I'd like to know, sir, how I and my darling
boy are going to get on shore now in this blinding snowstorm--in such a
bleak and dreary outlandish place, too! A nice captain you are; and you
bargained to take us safe to New Zealand when you took our passage-
money. My poor Maurice, oh my dear boy, you'll never, never see your
father now, for we'll all be drowned, and Captain Dinks is the cause of
it!"
So shrieking, she proceeded to weep and wail in a way that made Mr
Meldrum lose all patience with her.
"Peace, woman!" cried he indignantly. "This is no time for hysterics
and such violent displays: you'd better keep them till the fine weather
comes, and remain quiet now! The best thing you can do if you hope to
escape, is to allow the captain to see about getting the boats ready to
take us off, for the ship will probably break up soon."
His latter remark, while it reduced "the Major" to a state of limp
collapse that made her silent and subdued, had the effect he intended,
of rousing the captain to action--thus causing him to forget for a time
his grief at the _Nancy Bell's_ disaster in having to exert himself so
as to provide for the safety of those on board.
"Main-deck ahoy there!" he shouted.
"Aye, aye, sorr," answered the first mate, who had remained there,
looking to the trimming of the sails while the ship was working up to
the cape.
"Have the men finished storing those things in the boats yet?"
"They're jist at it now, sorr. We were all a bit flabbergasted when the
poor crathur struck; but we're working hard now, sorr, and the boats
will soon be ready to launch into the wather."
"That's right, McCarthy, we've no time to lose. Send one of the hands
forwards to see how her head lies."
"Aye, aye, sorr. Mr Adams has gone already sure: an' I've sint the
carpenter, Boltrope, to sound the well."
"He'd better by far sound alongside, to see what depth of water we're in
and which would be the best side for launching the boats off!" replied
Captain Dinks. "But stay, Harness," he added, "you can do that. Heave
the lead aft here, and then amidships, telling me what soundings you
get."
On returning from his mission forwards, Mr Adams reported that the
vessel's bows were fixed hard and fast between two conical points of
rock, which were covered by about four fathoms of water; while Frank
Harness, who had been sounding round the ship as the captain directed,
stated that there were twenty fathoms of water aft and the same on the
port side amidships, but on the starboard, or right-hand side, the lead
only gave the same depth the second mate had found forward--
consequently, the ship's stern, being so much lighter than the flooded
fore-compartment, had slewed round with the sea towards the reef, on
which therefore the _Nancy Bell_ must have projected herself more than
half her length. Probably, had her bows not been so depressed, she
would have gone over it altogether with a scrape, merely taking off her
false keel and dead-wood without doing any material damage.
As it was, however, there she was; and the question now was whether the
tide was at the ebb or flow at the time she struck. If the former, the
likelihood was that as soon as the tide began to rise, the vessel would
float off and founder, Boltrope having reported that there were eight
feet of water in the hold and that it was gaining fast--the pumping
operations, of course, having long since been stopped, but, should she
have run on the reef at high water, there she was immovably fixed as
long as she held together; and in that case they would be able to get
ashore to the mainland in comfort, almost at their own convenience,
should the weather remain calm, in addition to saving many articles from
the wreck that would be of use to them, and a much larger proportion of
the ship's provisions and stores.
After the first bumping and scraping that had immediately succeeded her
stranding, the _Nancy Bell_ had remained quiet, as if the old ship was
glad to be at rest after all the buffeting about and bruisings she had
received from the boisterous billows. Hence, the natural alarm that had
been excited by the ship's striking had calmed down, there being nothing
in her present situation to heighten the sense of danger; for the vessel
was sheltered from the wind under the lee of the cape, and the sea, in
comparison with the rough water she had recently passed through and the
stormy waves she had battled with when beating round the point, was
almost calm. Everybody, therefore, inspired by the example set them by
Mr Meldrum and the captain, remained perfectly cool and collected, the
crew obeying the orders given them with alacrity and working as heartily
as if the poor old _Nancy Bell_ were still the staunch clipper of yore,
careering over the ocean in the full panoply of her canvas plumage and
prosecuting her voyage, instead of lying, a broke and battered hulk,
hard and fast ashore on an outlying reef of rocks at Kerguelen Land, the
"Desolation Island"--name of ominous import--of Antarctic whaling ships!
Even Bill Moody, mutinous as he had shown himself before and lazy to a
degree, now appeared metaphorically to "put his shoulder to the wheel,"
as if to make amends for the past, lending a willing hand to the
preparations that were being made by Mr McCarthy for equipping the
boats and laying down ways for launching them from the main-deck--there
being no davits now, nor any means for rigging a derrick to lift them
over the side. Indeed, when Mr Adams ordered a gang to man the pumps
again on the carpenter's reporting that the water was gaining in the
hold, the whilom mutineer was one of the first to step forwards for the
duty, although Captain Dinks at once countermanded the order, seeing its
inutility, and saying that there was no use in working a willing horse
to death!
"They could never clear her now, Adams," said he, "pump as hard as they
could; and if they did it would be useless, for she'll never float
again. However, if you want to give the men something to do, you can
set to work breaking cargo and lightening her amidships, for then we'll
swing further up on the reef and get fixed more firmly."
"Very good, sir," replied the second mate; and the hands were therefore
at once started to open the hatches, getting out some of the heavy goods
from the hold below, especially the dead-weight from just abaft the
main-mast, that had so deducted from the ship's buoyancy when sailing on
a wind during the earlier part of her voyage.
Moody's change of demeanour had not escaped the notice of the captain;
and he commented on it to Mr Meldrum, saying that he thought the lesson
he had given him had had a very satisfactory result. "There is
nothing," said he, "so persuasive as a knock-down argument!"
The other, however, did not believe in the rapid conversion.
"I've heard of shamming Abraham before," said he. "The rascal may have
something to gain, and wishes to put you off your guard by his apparent
alacrity and willingness to work. If you had seen the scowl he gave you
when your back was turned that time after you knocked him down, you
wouldn't trust him further than you could help! I believe all this good
behaviour of his is put on, and that you'll see the real animal come out
by and by."
"All right!" said Captain Dinks as cheerfully as if the matter were of
no moment to him; "we'll see! But we must first observe the tide and
the ship's position on the rocks; I think we'll be able to decide those
points before the other matter can be settled, by a long way!"
When the _Nancy Bell_ struck, it had been close upon six bells in the
second dog-watch--seven o'clock in the evening--the entire afternoon
having passed away so rapidly while those on board were anxiously
watching the struggle of the vessel against the wind and sea in her
endeavours to weather the cape, that, in their intense excitement as
they awaited the denouement which would solve all their hopes and fears,
they took no heed of the flight of time. It seemed really but a few
brief minutes, instead of hours, from the period when Captain Dinks had
taken the sun at noon to the terrible moment of the catastrophe.
Now, it was midnight, or approaching to it, the intervening period
having glided by much more speedily through the fact of everybody having
been engaged in doing something towards the common safety of all. Not
even the lady passengers had been exempted from the task, Mr Meldrum
having told Kate to go below and collect whatever she saw in the cabins
that might be of use to them on the island; while Mrs Negus, dropping
her dignity for once, cordially assisted. As for Florry and Maurice
they participated in the work with the greatest glee, looking upon the
wreck as if it had been specially brought about for their enjoyment,
like an impromptu picnic--it was the realisation of their wildest
childish dreams.
All this while the ship lay quiet, as has been stated, save that after a
time she took a slight list to starboard, as if settling down on the
rocks, a fact which confirmed the captain in his belief that it had been
high water when she went on the reef. This increased his satisfaction.
"She won't move now," said he to Mr Meldrum. "She's wedged as securely
forwards as if she were on her cradle; and, unless a storm comes, she'll
last for a week."
"How about when the tide flows again?" asked the other.
"Oh, she can't float off. That weight of water in the fore compartment
has regularly nailed her on the rocks, thus preventing the only danger I
feared--that of her slipping off into deep water as the tide ebbed. As
she struck when it was flood and jammed herself firmly then on the reef,
there she'll remain when it flows again; so, we have plenty of time
before us to transport the whole cargo ashore if we like!"
"I hope so, I'm sure," replied Mr Meldrum; "but you should recollect
that, from the experience we've already had, the weather is not to be
trusted for very long hereabouts. If it comes on to blow again from the
south and the sea should get up, we'll be in a nasty position."
"Don't croak," said Captain Dinks, who seemed to have quite recovered
his spirits as the others around him became despondent. "Look, the
snowstorm has ceased already and the sea-fog is rising and drifting
away. Why, we'll have a fine bright night after all!"
It was as the captain had stated. The fog had lifted up and the snow
stopped falling; but, his hopes of a fine night were doomed to be
disappointed, for, although the sky above cleared for a short spell and
allowed a few stray stars to peep out, while an occasional gleam of
moonshine lit up the ship's surroundings, the heavens were soon obscured
again with thick driving clouds, the wind shifting to the southward and
westward and blowing right into the bay behind Cape Saint Louis, where
the _Nancy Bell_ was aground.
Presently, a heavy rolling sea began to sweep in upon her from the
offing; and as the tide rose again, her stern swung more to the
starboard side, being driven up higher on the rocks, while her whole
frame became uneasy, rocking to and fro and quivering from abaft the
main hatch, the fore part of her grinding and working about in a way
that threatened to tear her soon to pieces.
"I'm afraid she won't last till morning," said Mr Meldrum, who had
never left the deck, but was watching the course of events. "We'd
better take to the boats while we can. By and by it may be too late!"
"Oh no," replied Captain Dinks, "she'll hold out all right, and it's
best for us to land by daylight. Besides, I've allowed the hands to
turn in, save two or three who are keeping a sort of anchor watch, and
I'm not going to rouse them out again unnecessarily--poor fellows,
they've had a hard time of it the last few days!"
"Not many of them have taken advantage of your permission," said Mr
Meldrum drily. "I fancy they feel like myself, too uneasy to sleep,
with this fresh gale springing up again and the ship rocking about so!"
As he spoke, he pointed to a group amidships, where at least half the
crew were gathered about the boats, while some others were standing by
Snowdrop's galley and having a warm, for the night was intensely cold.
"They can please themselves," replied the captain sententiously. "If
they don't choose to turn in, they needn't; but I'm not going to launch
the boats yet and leave the ship while it is safe. I'm considering what
is best for us all, Mr Meldrum; and, excuse me, but as long as the
vessel holds together I'm captain of her, and don't intend to give over
my duty to anybody else."
This was speaking pretty plainly, so Mr Meldrum had perforce to remain
silent and nurse his uneasiness; the two pacing up and down the poop on
opposite sides, without ever a word passing between them for some time,
just as if each ignored the other's presence.
At two o'clock in the morning, however, the wind increased and the heavy
waves began to break against the windward side of the ship, dashing over
her amidships in columns of spray. She also lurched more to starboard,
as if thrown on her bilge, the deck inclining to an angle of forty-five
degrees.
At the same time, too, the group of men forward could be dimly seen in
the half light moving about excitedly. They were evidently tired of
their forced inaction; for, their voices could be heard occasionally
between the lulls of the breaking waves and sound of the wind whistling
by. They were grumbling in tones of dissatisfaction.
The climax was put to the matter by the sudden rushing up on deck of Mr
McCarthy, whom Captain Dinks had told to go below until the morning
watch.
"Be jabers, cap'en," he exclaimed, "she's druv in her starboard streeks
against the rocks, and the wather is pouring in like winking. Faix, it
is breaking up she'll be before were out of her, sure!"
Thus urged, the captain at length gave the order to launch the boats.
This was, now, a very difficult task, for the water was boiling in
eddies round the ship to leeward even on her sheltered side, although a
couple of hours before it had been as calm there as a mill-pond, so that
a Thames outrigger might have been floated off in safety.
As soon as the men heard the tardy word of command, there was a tussle
and a rush towards the long-boat, seeing which Captain Dinks, who was
standing just over the break of the poop, ran down the ladder-way and
stood amongst the excited group, with his arm uplifted to enforce his
orders.
"Avast there!" cried he; "get away from that long-boat, and prepare to
run in the jolly-boat. I want that launched first for the ladies and
passengers, and I must see them all safely out of the ship before a man
Jack amongst you leaves her! Go down, McCarthy," he added to the first
mate, "and ask the ladies to come on deck, sharp; we'll have the boat
prepared by the time you come up with them."
The crew still hustled round the long-boat, however, and showed signs of
insubordination, whilst a voice called out, "Let the passengers be! I
say every man for himself now!"
"What is that I hear?" exclaimed the captain. "Are you men--are you
British seamen--to abandon women and children in time of peril and seek
your own safety?"
"My life's as good as anyone else's, passenger or no passenger," cried
out Bill Moody defiantly, pressing closer to Captain Dinks.
"Ah!" ejaculated the latter, "I thought it was you--what! you haven't
learnt your lesson yet, eh?" and he made a grab at the man's neck as if
to grasp it.
But, Bill Moody was prepared this time. The captain did not catch him
unawares, as he had done on the previous occasion when he had knocked
him down with the butt-end of his pistol.
Raising a sheath-knife, which he must have had ready drawn for the
purpose in his hand, the man plunged it with all his force into the
breast of the captain as he approached him.
Captain Dinks was borne back and half turned round by the strength with
which the blow was delivered. Then, staggering first on to his knees,
and exclaiming, "Murder! I'm a dead man! The villain has stabbed me!"
he fell forwards on the deck in a pool of blood.