THE WRECK
Those were glorious holidays for Horace Beveridge. He was seldom at
home; sometimes two of his cousins, the Hendons, accompanied him in
his trips, and they were away for three or four days at a time. Three
times Mr. Beveridge with Zaimes went out for a day’s sail, and Horace
was pleased to see that his father really enjoyed it, talking but
little, but sitting among some cushions Zaimes arranged for him
astern, and basking in the bright sun and fresh air. That he did enjoy
it was evident from the fact that, instead of having the yacht laid up
at the end of the holidays, Mr. Beveridge decided to keep her afloat,
and retained Tom Burdett’s services permanently.
“Do you think, Tom, we shall get any sailing in the winter holidays?”
“We are sure to, sir, if your father has not laid her up by that time.
There are plenty of days on this coast when the sailing is as pleasant
in winter as it is in summer. The harbour is a safe one though it is
so small, and I don’t see any reason why she shouldn’t be kept afloat.
Of course we shall have to put a stove in the cabin to make it snug;
but with that, a good thick pea-jacket, warm gloves, and high boots,
you would be as right as a nail.”
And so at Christmas and through the next summer holidays Horace
enjoyed almost constant sailing. He was now thoroughly at home in the
boat, could steer without the supervision of the skipper, and was as
handy with the ropes as Dick himself.
“This is the best job I ever fell into, Mr. Horace,” Tom Burdett said
at the end of the second summer. “Your father pays liberal; and as for
grub, when that Greek is on board a post-captain could not want
better. It is wonderful how that chap does cook, and he seems
downright to like it. Then you see I have got a first-rate crew. Dick
is as good as a man now; I will say for the Greek, he is a good sailor
as well as a good cook; and then you see you have got a deal bigger
and stronger than you were a year ago, and are just as handy either at
the tiller or the sheets as a man would be, so we are regular
strong-handed, and that makes a wonderful difference in the comfort on
a craft.”
That summer they sailed up to Portsmouth, and cruised for a week
inside the Isle of Wight, and as Horace had one of his school-fellows
spending the holidays with him, he enjoyed himself to the fullest of
his capacity. During the holidays Horace did not see much of his
father, who, quite content that the boy was enjoying himself, and
gaining health and strength, went on in his own way, and only once
went out with him during his stay at home, although, as Marco told
him, he generally went out once a week at other times.
The first morning after his return, at the following Christmas, Horace
did not as usual get up as soon as it was light. The rattle of the
window and the howl of the wind outside sufficed to tell him that
there would be no sailing that day. Being in no hurry to move, he sat
over breakfast longer than usual, talking to Zaimes of what had
happened at home and in the village since he last went away. His
father was absent, having gone up to town a week before, and Horace
had, on his arrival, found a letter from him, saying that he was sorry
not to be there for his return, but that he found he could not get
through the work on which he was engaged for another two days; he
should, however, be down at any rate by Christmas-eve.
After breakfast Horace went out and looked over the sea. The wind was
almost dead on shore, blowing in such violent gusts that he could
scarce keep his feet. The sky was a dull lead colour, the low clouds
hurrying past overhead. The sea was covered with white breakers, and
the roar of the surf, as it broke on the shore, could be heard even
above the noise of the wind. Putting on his pea-jacket and high
boots, he went down to the port. As it had been specially constructed
as a shelter against south-westerly winds, with the western pier
overlapping the other, the sea did not make a direct sweep into it;
but the craft inside were all rolling heavily in the swell.
“How are you, Tom? It is a wild day, isn’t it?”
“Don’t want to see a worse, sir. Glad to see you back again, Mr.
Horace. Quite well, I hope?”
“First-rate, Tom. It is a nuisance this gale the first day of coming
home. I have been looking forward to a sail. I am afraid there is no
chance of one to-day?”
“Well, sir, I should say they would take us and send us all to the
loonatic asylum at Exeter if they saw us getting ready to go out. Just
look at the sea coming over the west pier. It has carried away a bit
of that stone wall at the end.”
“Yes. I didn’t really think of going out, Tom, though I suppose if we
had been caught out in it we should have managed somehow.”
“We should have done our best, in course,” the sailor said, “and I
have that belief in the boat that I think she might weather it; but I
would not take six months’ pay to be out a quarter of an hour.”
“What would you do, Tom, if you were caught in a gale like this?”
“If there weren’t land under our lee I should lay to, sir, under the
storm-jib and a try-sail. Maybe I would unship the main-sail with the
boom and gaff, get the top-mast on deck and lash that to them; then
make a bridle with a strong rope, launch it overboard, lower all sail,
and ride to that; that would keep us nearer head on to the sea than we
could lie under any sail. That is what they call a floating anchor. I
never heard of a ship being hove-to that way; but I was out on boat
service in the Indian Ocean when we were caught in a heavy blow, and
the lieutenant who was in charge made us lash the mast and sails and
oars together and heave them overboard, and we rode to them right
through the gale. We had to bale a bit occasionally, but there was
never any danger, and I don’t think we should have lived through it
any other way. I made a note of it at the time, and if ever I am
caught in the same way again that is what I shall do, and what would
be good for a boat would be good for a craft like the _Surf_.”
This conversation was carried on with some difficulty, although they
were standing under the lee of the wall of a cottage.
“She rolls about heavily, Tom.”
“She does that, sir. It is lucky we have got our moorings in the
middle of the harbour, and none of the fishing-boats are near enough
to interfere with her. You see most of them have got their sails and
nets rolled up as fenders, but in spite of that they have been ripping
and tearing each other shocking. There will be jobs for the carpenter
for some time to come. Five or six of them have torn away their
bulwarks already.”
After waiting down by the port for an hour Horace returned to the
house. When luncheon was over he was just about to start again for the
port, when Marco said to him:
“Dick has just been in, sir. There is going to be a wreck. There are a
lot of fishermen gathered on the cliff half a mile away to the right.
They say there is a ship that will come ashore somewhere along there.”
“Come on, then, Marco. Did you hear whether they thought that anything
could be done?”
“I did not hear anything about it. I don’t think they know where she
will go ashore yet.”
In a few minutes they reached the group of fishermen standing on the
cliff. It was a headland beyond which the land fell away, forming a
bay some three miles across. A large barque was to be seen some two
miles off shore. She was wallowing heavily in the seas, and each wave
seemed to smother her in spray. Tom Burdett was among the group, and
Horace went up to him at once.
“What’s to prevent her from beating off, Tom? She ought to be able to
work out without difficulty.”
“So she would at ordinary times,” the skipper said; “but she is
evidently a heavy sailer and deep laden. She could do it now if they
could put more sail on her, but I expect her canvas is all old. You
see her topsails are all in ribbons. Each of them seas heaves her
bodily to leeward. She is a doomed ship, sir, there ain’t no sort of
doubt about that; the question is, Where is she coming ashore?”
“Will it make much difference, Tom?”
“Well, it might make a difference if her master knew the coast. The
best thing he could do would be to get her round and run straight in
for this point. The water is deeper here than it is in the bay, and
she would get nearer ashore before she struck, and we might save a few
of them if they lashed themselves to spars and her coops and such
like. Deep as she is she would strike half a mile out if she went
straight up the bay. The tide is nearly dead low, and in that case not
a man will get ashore through that line of breakers. Then, again, she
might strike near Ram’s Head over there, which is like enough if she
holds on as she is doing at present. The Head runs a long way out
under water, and it is shallower half a mile out than it is nearer the
point. There is a clump of rocks there.”
“I don’t remember anything about them, Tom, and we have sailed along
there a score of times.”
“No, sir, we don’t take no account of them in small craft, and there
is a fathom and a half of water over them even in spring-tides.
Springs are on now, and there ain’t much above nine foot just now; and
that craft draws two fathom and a half or thereabouts, over twelve
foot anyhow. But it don’t make much difference; wherever she strikes
she will go to pieces in this sea in a few minutes.”
“Surely there is something to be done, Tom?”
“Some of us are just going down to get ropes and go along the shore,
Mr. Horace; but Lor’ bless you, one just does it for the sake of doing
something. One knows well enough that it ain’t likely we shall get a
chance of saving a soul.”
“But couldn’t some of the boats go out, Tom? There would be plenty of
water for them where she strikes.”
“The fishermen have been talking about it, sir; but they are all of
one opinion; the sea is altogether too heavy for them.”
“But the _Surf_ could go, couldn’t she, Tom? You have always said she
could stand any sea.”
“Any reasonable sort of sea, Mr. Horace, but this is a downright
onreasonable sort of sea for a craft of her size, and it is a deal
worse near shore where the water begins to shallow than it would be
out in the channel.”
But though Tom Burdett spoke strongly, Horace noticed that his tone
was not so decided as when he said that the fishing-boats could not go
out.
“Look here, Tom,” he said, “I suppose there must be thirty hands on
board that ship. We can’t see them drowned without making a try to
save them. We have got the best boat here on the coast. We have been
out in some bad weather in her, and she has always behaved splendidly.
I vote we try. She can fetch out between the piers all right from
where she is moored; and if, when we get fairly out, we find it is
altogether too much for her, we could put back again.”
Tom made no answer. He was standing looking at the ship. He had been
already turning it over in his mind whether it would not be possible
for the _Surf_ to put out. He had himself an immense faith in her
sea-going qualities, and believed that she might be able to stand even
this sea.
“But you wouldn’t be thinking of going in her, Mr. Horace?” he said
doubtfully at last.
“Of course I should,” the lad said indignantly. “You don’t suppose
that I would let the _Surf_ go out if I were afraid to go in her
myself.”
“Your father would never agree to that if he were at home, sir.”
“Yes, he would,” Horace said. “I am sure my father would say that
if the _Surf_ went out I ought to go in her, and that it would be
cowardly to let other people do what one is afraid to do one’s self.
Besides, I can swim better than either you or Dick, and should have
more chance of getting ashore if she went down; but I don’t think she
would go down. I am nearly sixteen now; and as my father isn’t here I
shall have my own way. If you say that you think there is no chance of
the _Surf_ getting out to her there is an end of it; but if you say
that you think she could live through it, we will go.”
[Illustration: HORACE SUGGESTS A RESCUE]
“I think she might do it, Mr. Horace; I have been a saying so to the
others. They all say that it would be just madness, but then they
don’t know the craft as I do.”
“Well, look here, Tom, I will put it this way: if the storm had been
yesterday, and my father and I had both been away, wouldn’t you have
taken her out?”
“Well, sir, I should; I can’t say the contrary. I have always said
that the boat could go anywhere, and I believe she could, and I ain’t
going to back down now from my opinion; but I say as it ain’t right
for you to go.”
“That is my business,” Horace said. “Marco, I am going out in the
_Surf_ to try to save some of the men on board that ship. Are you
disposed to come too?”
“I will go if you go,” the Greek said slowly; “but I don’t know what
your father would say.”
“He would say, if there was a chance of saving life it ought to be
tried, Marco. Of course there is some danger in it, but Tom thinks she
can do it, and so do I. We can’t stand here and see thirty men drowned
without making an effort to save them. I have quite made up my mind to
go.”
“Very well, sir, then I will go.”
Horace went back to Tom Burdett, who was talking with Dick apart from
the rest.
“We will take a couple of extra hands if we can get them,” the skipper
said. “We shall want to be strong-handed.”
He went to the group of fishermen and said:
“We are going out in the _Surf_ to see if we can lend a hand to bring
some of those poor fellows ashore. Young Mr. Beveridge is coming, but
we want a couple more hands. Who will go with us?”
There was silence for a minute, and then a young fisherman said:
“I will go, Tom. My brother Nat is big enough to take my place in the
boat if I don’t come back again. I am willing to try it with you,
though I doubt if the yacht will get twice her own length beyond the
pier.”
“And I will go with you, Tom,” an older man said. “If my son Dick is
going, I don’t see why I should hang back.”
“That will do, then, that makes up our crew. Now we had best be
starting at once. That barque will be ashore in another hour, and she
will go to pieces pretty near as soon as she strikes. So if we are
going to do anything, there ain’t no time to be lost. The rest of you
had better go along with stout ropes as you was talking of just now;
that will give us a bit of a chance if things go wrong.”
The six hurried along the cliff and then down to the port, followed by
the whole of the fishermen. A couple of trips with the dinghy took
them on board.
“Now, then,” Tom Burdett said to Dick’s father, “we will get the
fore-sail out and rig it as a try-sail. Dick, you cut the lashings and
get the main-sail off the hoops. We will leave it and the spars here;
do you lend him a hand, Jack Thompson.”
In five minutes the main-sail with its boom and gaff was taken off the
mast and tied together. A rope was attached to them and the end flung
ashore, where they were at once hauled in by the fishermen, who
crowded the wharf, every soul in the village having come down at the
news that the _Surf_ was going out. By this time holes had been made
along the leach of the sail, and by these it was lashed to the
mast-hoops. The top-mast was sent down to the deck, launched
overboard, and hauled ashore; the mizzen was closely reefed, but not
hoisted.
“We will see how she does without it,” Tom said; “she may like it and
she may not. Now, up with the try-sail and jib, and stand by to cast
off the moorings as she gets weigh on her; I will take the tiller.
Marco, do you and Mr. Horace stand by the mizzen-halliards ready to
hoist if I tell you.”
As the _Surf_ began to move through the water a loud cheer broke from
the crowd on shore, followed by a dead silence. She moved but slowly
as she was under the lee of the west pier.
“Ben, do you and the other two kick out the lower plank of the
bulwark,” Tom Burdett said; “we shall want to get rid of the water as
fast as it comes on board.”
The three men with their heavy sea-boots knocked out the plank with a
few kicks.
“Now, the one on the other side,” Tom said; and this was done just as
they reached the entrance between the piers. She was gathering way
fast now.
“Ease off that jib-sheet, Dick,” the skipper cried. “Stand by to haul
it in as soon as the wind catches the try-sail.”
Tom put down the helm as he reached the end of the pier, but a great
wave caught her head and swept her half round. A moment later the wind
in its full force struck the try-sail and she heeled far over with the
blow.
“Up with the mizzen!” Tom shouted. “Give her more sheet, Dick!” As the
mizzen drew, its action and that of the helm told, and the _Surf_
swept up into the wind. “Haul in the jib-sheet, Dick. That is enough;
make it fast. Ease off the mizzen-sheet a little, Marco! That will do.
Now lash yourselves with lines to the bulwark.”
For the first minute or two it seemed to Horace that the _Surf_, good
boat as she was, could not live through those tremendous waves, each
of which seemed as if it must overwhelm her; but although the water
poured in torrents across her deck it went off as quickly through the
hole in the lee bulwark, and but little came over her bow.
“She will do, sir!” Tom, close to whom he had lashed himself,
shouted. “It will be better when we get a bit farther out. She is a
beauty, she is, and she answers to her helm well.”
Gradually the _Surf_ drew out from the shore.
“Are you going to come about, Tom?”
“Not yet, sir; we must get more sea-room before we try. Like enough
she may miss stays in this sea. If she does we must wear her round.”
“Now we will try,” he said five minutes later. “Get those lashings
off. Mr. Horace, you will have to go up to the other side when she is
round. Get ready to go about!” he shouted. “I will put the helm down
at the first lull. Now!”
The _Surf_ came round like a top, and had gathered way on the other
tack before the next big wave struck her.
“Well done!” Tom Burdett shouted joyously, and the others echoed the
shout. In ten minutes they were far enough out to get a sight of the
ship as they rose on the waves.
“Just as I thought,” Ben muttered; “he thinks he will weather Ram’s
Head, and he will go ashore somewhere on that reef of rocks to a
certainty.”
In another five minutes the course was again changed, and the _Surf_
bore directly for the barque. In spite of the small sail she carried
the water was two feet up the lee planks of her deck, and she was
deluged every time by the seas, which struck her now almost abeam. But
everything was battened down, and they heeded the water but little.
“What do you think of her now?” Tom shouted to his brother-in-law.
“Didn’t I tell you she would stand a sea when your fishing-boats dare
not show their noses out of the port?”
“She is a good ’un and no mistake, Tom. I did not think a craft her
size could have lived in such a sea as this. You may brag about her as
you like in future, and there ain’t a man in Seaport as will
contradict you.”
They were going through the water four feet to the barque’s one, and
they were but a quarter of a mile astern of her when Horace
exclaimed, “She has struck!” and at the same moment her main and
foremast went over the side.
“She is just about on the shallowest point of the reef,” Ben Harper
said. “Now, how are you going to manage this job, Tom?”
“There is only one way to do it,” the skipper said. “There is water
enough for us. Tide has flowed an hour and a half, and there must be
two fathoms where she is lying. We must run up under her lee close
enough to chuck a rope on board. Get a light rope bent on to the
hawser. They must pull that on board, and we will hang to it as near
as we dare.”
“You must go near her stern, Tom, or we shall get stove in with the
masts and spars.”
“Yes, it is lucky the mizzen is standing, else we could not have gone
alongside till they got rid of them all, and they would never do that
afore she broke up.”
Horace, as he watched the ship, expected to see her go to pieces every
moment. Each wave struck her with tremendous force, sending cataracts
of water over her weather gunwale and across her deck. Many of the
seas broke before they reached her, and the line of the reef could be
traced far beyond her by the white and broken water.
“Now, then,” the skipper shouted, “I shall keep the _Surf_ about twice
her own length from the wreck, and then put the helm hard down and
shoot right up to her.”
“That will be the safest plan, Tom. There are two men with ropes
standing ready in the mizzen-shrouds.”
“I shall bring her in a little beyond that, Ben, if the wreck of the
mainmast isn’t in the way; the mizzen may come out of her any moment,
and if it fell on our decks it would be good-bye to us all.”
A cheer broke from the men huddled up under shelter of the weather
bulwark as the little craft swept past her stern.
“Mind the wreck!” a voice shouted.
Tom held up his hand, and a moment later put the helm down hard. The
_Surf_ swept round towards the ship, and her way carried her on until
the end of the bowsprit was but five or six yards distant. Then Tom
shouted:
“Now is your time, Dick;” and the rope was thrown right across the
barque, where it was grasped by half a dozen hands.
“Haul in till you get the hawser,” Dick shouted; “then make it fast.”
At the same moment two ropes from the ship were thrown, and caught by
Marco and Ben. Tom left the tiller now and lowered the try-sail. By
the time the hawser was fast on board, the _Surf_ had drifted twice
her own length from the ship. “That will do, Ben; make the hawser fast
there.” Two strong hawsers were hauled in from the ship and also made
fast.
“Now you can come as soon as you like,” Tom shouted. As the hawsers
were fastened to the weather-side of the vessel, which was now heeled
far over, it was a sharp incline down to the deck of the _Surf_, and
the crew, throwing their arms and legs round the hawsers, slid down
without difficulty, the pressure of the wind on the yacht keeping the
ropes perfectly taut. As the men came within reach, Tom Burdett and
Ben seized them by the collars and hauled them on board.
“Any woman on board?” he asked the first.
“No, we have no passengers.”
“That is a comfort. How many of a crew?”
“There were thirty-three all told, but four were killed by the falling
mast, and three were washed overboard before we struck, so there are
twenty-six now.”
In five minutes from the ropes being thrown the captain, who was last
man, was on board the yacht. The _Surf’s_ own hawser had been thrown
off by him before he left, drawn in, and coiled down, and as soon as
he was safe on board the other two hawsers were thrown off.
“Haul the jib a-weather, Dick,” Tom Burdett shouted as he took the
helm again. “Slack the mizzen-sheet off altogether, Marco; up with the
try-sail again.”
For a short distance the yacht drifted astern, and then, as the
pressure of the jib began to make itself felt, her head gradually
payed off. “Haul in the try-sail and jib-sheets. Let go the
weather-sheet, Dick, and haul in the other. That is it, now she begins
to move again.”
“You are only just in time,” the captain said to Tom; “she was just
beginning to part in the middle when I left. You have saved all our
lives, and I thank you heartily.”
“This is the owner of the yacht, sir,” Tom said, motioning to Horace.
“It is his doing that we came out.”
“Oh, that is all nonsense, Tom! You would have come just the same if I
hadn’t been there.”
“Well, sir, it has been a gallant rescue,” the captain said. “I could
hardly believe my eyes when I saw your sail coming after us, and I
expected every moment to see it disappear.”
“Now, captain,” Tom said, “make all your men sit down as close as they
can pack under the weather bulwark; we ain’t in yet.”
It was an anxious time as they struggled through the heavy sea on the
way back, but the _Surf_ stood it bravely, and the weight to windward
enabled her to stand up more stiffly to her canvas. When they were
abreast of the port half the men went over to the other side, the helm
was put up, and she rushed towards the shore dead before the wind. The
extra weight on deck told on her now, and it needed the most careful
steering on Tom’s part to keep her straight before the waves, several
of which broke over her taffrail and swept along the deck, one of them
bursting out her bulwarks at the bow.
“Get ready to haul in the sheets smartly,” Tom shouted as they neared
the pier.
He kept her course close to the pier-head, and as the _Surf_ came
abreast of it jammed down the tiller, while Ben and Dick hauled in the
mizzen-sheet. A moment later she was shooting along under the shelter
of the wall, while a loud shout of welcome rose above the howling of
the wind from those on shore.
“Now, sir, I will see about getting her moored,” Tom said, “if you
will run down and get some rum bottles out of the locker; I am pretty
well frozen and these poor fellows must be nigh perished, but it would
never have done to open the hatchway in that sea.”
“Come down, men,” Horace cried, as he dived below. “We had no time to
light the fire before starting, but a glass of spirits will do you
good all round.”
Two or three of the fishermen rowed out as soon as the yacht was
moored, and in a few minutes all were ashore.
“Now you had better run up to the house and change, Mr. Horace,” Tom
Burdett said. “We will look after the men here and get them some dry
things, and put them up amongst us. We have done a big thing, sir, and
the _Surf_ has been tried as I hope she will never be tried again as
long as we have anything to do with her.”
“All right, Tom! Will you come up with me, captain? There is no one at
home but myself, and we will manage to rig you up somehow.”
The captain, however, declined the invitation, saying that he would
rather see after his men and put up himself at the public-house on the
beach.
“I will come up later, sir, when I have seen everything all snug
here.”
Horace had some difficulty in making his way up through the crowd, for
both men and women wished to shake hands with him. At last he got
through, and, followed by Marco, ran up through the village to the
house. Zaimes had been among the crowd assembled to see the _Surf_
re-enter the port; and when Horace changed his things and came down
stairs he found a bowl of hot soup ready for him.
“You have given me a nice fright, Mr. Horace,” the Greek said as he
entered the room. “I have been scolding Marco, I can tell you.”
“It was not his fault, Zaimes. I made up my mind to go, and told him
so, and he had the choice whether he would go or stay behind, and he
went.”
“Of course he went,” Zaimes said; “but he ought to have come and told
me. Then I should have gone too. How could I have met your father, do
you think, if you had been drowned?”
“Well, you would not have been to blame, Zaimes, as you knew nothing
about it until after we had started.”
“No, you had been gone half an hour before someone from the village
came up and told them in the kitchen. Then one of the servants brought
me the news, and I ran down like a madman, without even stopping to
get a hat. Then I found that most of the men had gone up to the cliff
to keep you in sight, and I went up there and waited with them until
you were nearly back again. Once or twice, as you were running in to
the pier, I thought the yacht was gone.”
“That was the worst bit, Zaimes. The sea came tumbling over her stern,
and I was washed off my feet two or three times. I almost thought that
she was going down head-foremost. Well, I am glad I was at home this
morning. I would not have missed it for anything.”
“No, it is a good thing, now it is done, and something to be proud of.
I am told very few of the fishermen thought that you would ever come
back again.”
“They didn’t know the boat as we did, Zaimes. I felt sure she would go
through anything; and, besides, Tom kicked out the lower plank of the
bulwarks on each side, so as to help her to free herself from water as
it came on board, and flush-decked as she is, there was nothing to
carry away; but she hasn’t taken a cupful of water down below.”
In the evening the captain of the barque came up, and Horace learned
from him that she was on her way from New Orleans laden with cotton.
“The ship and cargo are insured,” the captain said; “and, as far as
that goes, it is a good thing she is knocked into match-wood. She was
a dull sailer at the best of times, and when laden you could not get
her to lay anywhere near the wind. She would have done better than she
did, though, hadn’t her rudder got damaged somehow in the night. She
ought to have clawed off the shore easy enough; but, as you saw, she
sagged to leeward a foot for every foot she went for’ard. I was
part-owner in her, and I am not sorry she has gone. We tried to sell
her last year, but they have been selling so many ships out of the
navy that we could not get anything of a price for her; but as she was
well insured, I shall get a handier craft next time. I was well off
shore when the storm began to get heavy last night, and felt no
anxiety about our position till the rudder went wrong. But when I saw
the coast this morning, I felt sure that unless there was a change in
the weather nothing could save her. Well, if it hadn’t been for the
loss of those seven hands, I should, thanks to you, have nothing to
complain of.”
Fires had been lit on the shore as night came on; but except fragments
of the wreck and a number of bales of cotton nothing was recovered. In
the morning the captain and crew left Seaport, two hands remaining
behind to look after the cotton and recover as much as they could. Two
days later Mr. Beveridge returned home.
“I saw in the paper before I left town, Horace, an account of your
going out to the wreck and saving the lives of those, on board. I am
very glad I was not here, my lad. I don’t think I should have let you
go; but as I knew nothing about it until it was all over, I had no
anxiety about it, and felt quite proud of you when I read the account.
The money was well laid out on that yacht, my boy. I don’t say that I
didn’t think so before, but I certainly think so now. However,
directly I read it I wrote to the Lifeboat Society and told them that
I would pay for a boat to be placed here. Then there will be no
occasion to tempt Providence the next time a vessel comes ashore on
this part of the coast. You succeeded once, Horace, but you might not
succeed another time; and knowing what a sea sets in here in a
south-westerly gale, I quite tremble now at the thought of your being
out in it in that little craft.”
The news that Mr. Beveridge had ordered a lifeboat for the port gave
great satisfaction among the fishermen, not so much perhaps because it
would enable them to go out to wrecks, as because any of their own
craft approaching the harbour in bad weather, and needing assistance,
could then receive it.
Horace became very popular in Seaport after the rescue, and was spoken
of affectionately as the young squire, although they were unable to
associate the term with his father; but the latter’s interest in the
sea, and his occasionally going out in the yacht, seemed to have
brought him nearer to the fishing people. There had before been
absolutely nothing in common between them and the studious recluse,
and even the Greeks, who had before been held in marked disfavour in
the village as outlandish followers, were now regarded with different
eyes when it was learned that Marco had been a fisherman too in his
time, and his share in the adventure of the _Surf_ dissipated the last
shadow of prejudice against them.
The weather continued more or less broken through the whole of the
holidays, and Horace had but little sailing. He spent a good deal of
his time over at his cousins’, rode occasionally after the hounds with
them, and did some shooting. A week after coming home his father had
again gone up to town, and remained there until after Horace had
returned to Eton. He was, the lad observed, more abstracted even than
usual, but was at the same time restless and unsettled. He looked
eagerly for the post, and received and despatched a large number of
letters. Horace supposed that he must be engaged in some very sharp
and interesting controversy as to a disputed reading, or the meaning
of some obscure passage, until the evening before he went away his
father said:
“I suppose, Horace, you are following with interest the course of
events in Thessaly?”
“Well, father, we see the papers of course. There seems to be a row
going on there; they are always fighting about something. From what I
could understand of it, Ali Pasha of Janina has revolted against the
Sultan, and the Turks are besieging him. What sort of a chap is he? He
is an Albanian, isn’t he?”
“Yes, with all the virtues and vices of his race--ambitious,
avaricious, revengeful, and cruel, but brave and astute. He has been
the instrument of the Porte in breaking down the last remnants of
independence in the wide districts he rules. As you know, very many of
the Christian and Mussulman villages possessed armed guards called
armatoli, who are responsible not only for the safety of the village,
but for the security of the roads; the defence of the passes was
committed to them, and they were able to keep the numerous bands of
brigands within moderate bounds. This organization Ali Pasha set
himself to work to weaken as soon as he came into power. He played off
one party against the other--the Mussulmans against the Christians,
the brigands against the armatoli, one powerful chief against another.
He crushed the Suliots, who possessed a greater amount of
independence, perhaps, than any of the other tribes, and who, it must
be owned, were a scourge to all their neighbours. He took away all
real power from the armatoli, crippled the Mussulman communities as
well as weakened the Christian villages; inspired terror in the whole
population by the massacre of such as resisted his will, and those
whom he could not crush by force he removed by poison; finally, he
became so strong that it was evident his design was to become
altogether independent of the Sultan. But he miscalculated his power,
his armies fled almost without striking a blow; his sons, who
commanded them, are either fugitives or prisoners; and now we hear
that he is besieged in his fortress, which is capable of withstanding
a very long siege.”
“He must be a thorough old scoundrel, I should say, father.”
“Yes,” Mr. Beveridge assented somewhat unwillingly. “No doubt he is a
bad man, Horace; but he might have been--he may even yet be, useful to
Greece. When it first became evident that matters would come to a
struggle between him and the Porte he issued proclamations calling
upon the Christians to assist him and make common cause against the
Turks, and specially invited Greece to declare her independence of
Turkey, and to join him.”
“But I should say, father, the Albanians would be even worse masters
than the Turks.”
“No doubt, Horace, no doubt. The Turks, I may own, have not on the
whole been hard masters to the Christians. They are much harder upon
the Mussulman population than upon the Christian, as the latter can
complain to the Russians, who, as their co-religionists, claim to
exercise a special protection over them. But, indeed, all the
Christian powers give protection, more or less, to the Christian
Greeks, who, especially in the Morea, have something approaching
municipal institutions, and are governed largely by men chosen by
themselves. Therefore the pashas take good care not to bring trouble
on themselves or the Porte by interfering with them so long as they
pay their taxes, which are by no means excessive; while the Mussulman
part of the population, having no protectors, are exposed to all sorts
of exactions, which are limited only by the fear of driving them into
insurrection. Still this rebellion of Ali Pasha has naturally excited
hopes in the minds of the Greeks and their friends that some results
may arise from it, and no better opportunity is likely to occur for
them to make an effort to shake off the yoke of the Turks. You may
imagine, Horace, how exciting all this is to one who, like myself, is
the son of a Greek mother, and to whom, therefore, the glorious
traditions of Greece are the story of his own people. As yet my hopes
are faint, but there is a greater prospect now than there has been for
the last two hundred years, and I would give all I am worth in the
world to live to see Greece recover her independence.”