The little haven of Stromness was ever a quiet place, but never did
it seem so quiet as during the calm which succeeded the storm of
the past week, especially as that calm came on a Sunday, that
quietest of all days in the North. Even the twittering of the
sparrows on the quaint housetops seemed less noisy than usual, and
the women who stood in groups in the narrow street, with their
clean mutch caps, their crimson hubbie jackets and coarse blue
gowns, suppressed their voices almost into whispers as they talked
of the growing quarrel between my father and his new rival, Carver
Kinlay. The solemn stillness of the June Sabbath was everywhere
apparent. The healthy scent of the peat smoke, mingled with a
certain fishy odour, permeated the little town, while the cool,
fresh smell of the seaweed, and the sweet perfume of the Dutch
clover, came from the shores of the bay. The few men who were in
port lounged about in sight of the sea, looking lazily outward at
the anchored ships.
On the little jetty at the Anchor Close my father sat on an
upturned herring creel, smoking his pipe, and watching a flock of
sea mews floating gracefully on the green water. Occasionally these
birds would rise in the sunny air with long outstretched wings, and
give utterance to cries not unlike the mewing of kittens. Some
wind-bound vessels lay at anchor in their own reflections, keel to
keel, with gay colours streaming from their mastheads. I had never
before seen the bay looking so still and beautiful. But from the
outer shores of the Ness came the prolonged murmur of the Atlantic
waves, falling upon the ear like an everlasting sigh.
I was seated in the stern of the Curlew, as the boat lay against
the pier upon which my father sat smoking. Looking over her side
down into the clear water, I could see the small fish dart about
like flashes of silver light in the emerald depths, where the
many-coloured seaweeds swayed softly to and fro with the motion of
the tide; while far below, on their sandy bed, the bright shells,
the sea urchins, and the green mossy stones gleamed like brilliant
gems. And the low swish of the tide against the stone pier made a
pleasant, sleepy sound.
Sometimes, as I sat there dreamily, my eyes would wander across the
smooth blue water to the distant hills, following the steady,
swooping flight of an eagle. Nearer at hand, the flight of a flock
of sea larks along the links of the shore would attract my
attention, while once I heard the splash of a solan goose diving in
the bay, and saw the spray rise in a glittering column high above
the water.
Suddenly my dreamy meditations were interrupted. Hurried footsteps
sounded in the silent street, and looking up the passage of the
Anchor Close I saw a company of men quickly passing. Among them
were Carver Kinlay and his son Tom.
I told my father who they were, at which he expressed much wonder,
and tried to assign a cause for their hurrying. But soon our
questioning was fully answered by the unexpected appearance of my
sister Jessie.
"Father!" said she, very much out of breath, for she had walked
very quickly from Lyndardy, where she had been staying during the
whole of that past week.
"Well, lass?" said my father, looking round at the girl's agitated
face. "What have you seen that you look so scared?"
"I've seen from the cliffs," gasped Jessie. "I've seen the Lydia
makin' for Stromness. She has surely put back, for her masts are
away, and her bulwarks are wrecked."
"The Lydia! What, Captain Gordon's ship? Ay, lass, but ye're
telling me a strange thing. You'd better gang and tell Mansie to
get the men out. There'll be a race wi' the new pilot, I'm
thinking."
And he knocked the ashes from his pipe, and came down into the boat
to get her ready.
Jessie, however, had no need to go and tell the crew to get ready,
for she had hardly turned away when my uncle Mansie and the men
hurried down the jetty and sprang into the Curlew.
The day was so fine and bright that my heart yearned for a sail in
the boat, and I was about to ask my father if I might go out with
him, when he forestalled me by ordering me to be seated among the
ropes in the bow.
The quietude of the Sabbath was now changed to bustle and
excitement. The oars and rowlocks were put in place, the sail made
ready for hoisting, and soon all was trim and ready to start.
My father's pilot boat, the Curlew, was strongly built and of great
breadth of beam. It was of a pattern and rig peculiar to the
Orkneys, much after the fashion of a whaling boat, and called a
"sixter," from having a crew of six men. It was propelled by either
sail or oars, as either was most convenient, but the Orcadian
boatmen never employed the oars when the sail could be used.
The boat's crew was a picked one, and seldom could six finer men be
seen together. The skipper, my father, was himself a picture of
manly strength, handsome and agile. His father and grandfather had
been pilots; the latter, indeed, had been the chief pilot of
Stromness in the year 1780, when Captain Cook's ships, the
Discovery and the Resolution, lay in the harbour on their return
from the South Seas.
My father's shipmates, as he called them, were also fine stalwart
men, each of them competent to take the skipper's place, but each
willing to sacrifice anything for Sandy Ericson. My uncle Mansie
was mate, and sat forward in the bow. The stroke oar was usually
taken by Tom Hercus, a man of singular daring. Willie Slater was an
old whaler, who could stand any hardships with perfect indifference.
Then there was Jock Eunson, a good-humoured Orphir man, who, on many
a dark night, had kept his mates merry as they beat about in the
outer sea in search of ships; and Ringan Storlsen, of Finstown, who
had been at school with my father, and with whom he had had many an
adventure.
"Hurry along, my lads; there's Kinlay started," said my father,
seating himself in the stern sheets.
With that the ropes were cast off and the sail hoisted. Then the
boat was pushed off from the pier, and as she caught the light
breeze she glided slowly into the bay among the sailing shadows of
the summer clouds.
When we were out in the deep water I looked along the line of the
shore for the opposition boat; but I found she was already further
out than ourselves, looking like a pleasure yacht, with her newly
painted hull and clean white canvas--a contrast to the dingy brown
sail and the scratched and worn hull of the Curlew.
My uncle Mansie, who sat quite near to me, told me that the new
boat was called the St. Magnus--after the patron saint of
Orkney--and I noticed that he spoke very lightly of her as a
sailer. I asked him if he did not think she would beat us in this
race; but he assured me there was no fear of it, for that though
Kinlay had the start of us, yet he had not the advantage of a well
trained and disciplined crew, and his ropes were too new to run
free.
There was little chance of a race, however, in the calm bay, and my
uncle, not wishing Kinlay to see that we were taking any interest
in his movements, drew my attention away from the St. Magnus by
asking me some questions about my viking's stone. He said that, now
I had made a start in coming out in the boat, I might stand a
better chance of proving the virtue of my talisman, more especially
if I should be bold enough to come out on some dark, stormy night,
when there would be some danger. Then some of the other men,
hearing us, asked me to show them the magic stone, and it went
round the whole company for inspection.
By the time they had all had a good look at it, and I had hung it
round my neck again, we had got full into the breeze of the outer
bay. My father, who held the tiller, managed to get to the weather
side of the St. Magnus, and when we reached the Ness point, where a
number of people had already gathered from the town to watch the
expected race, the two boats were bow to bow.
Beyond the point we brought up at the same moment as the St.
Magnus, and steered westward on the starboard tack, with a
southwesterly breeze swelling our sails. The Curlew now bent over
to leeward, our bow plunging into the waves, dashing them aside and
sending the foam surging in a long track far astern. With a strong
outrunning current in our favour we sped through the channel
between Stromness and Graemsay, the St. Magnus being now to
windward of us and several lengths behind.
Tom Kinlay was sitting on the weather gunwale near his father, who
was steering. It was easy to see that they were all suppressing
their excitement in the race; yet their craft was brought bravely
along in our track, and there was still a chance of their reaching
the ship before us. The result depended upon good steering, and
upon the readiness of each crew to lower sail at the right moment.
From watching the St. Magnus I turned my attention to the
approaching barque, which, by her green-painted hull, I soon enough
recognized as the Lydia. She was struggling slowly onward against
the rapids of Hoy Sound, with the wind on her starboard quarter,
and as we got nearer her I could see the extent of the damage she
had sustained in the late storm. She had lost her fore and main
topgallant masts, and her port bulwarks were stove in. The quarter
boat was missing and her jolly boat was gone.
She came along at the rate of about two knots, under close-reefed
topsails, storm trysails, and spanker. We could hear Captain
Gordon's voice directing the working of the ship, and once I saw
him on the quarterdeck, leaning over the rail to watch us. His head
was bandaged as if from some accident. On the forecastle deck the
mate and some men stood watching our approach, with ropes ready to
throw out to us.
I became inwardly excited when the moment came that was to
determine everything; and even my father was a little pale as he
steered us steadily towards the lee side of the Lydia. We came
within a hundred yards of her when he cried out, "Lower away!" and
I heard the same order given on the St. Magnus.
Down came our sail in quick obedience, and at the same time oars
were put out to prevent the strong stream and the way we had on us
from sweeping us past the vessel.
The Lydia was now in a most dangerous part of the channel, where
the rapid tide was met by the equally rapid stream of Burra Sound
from the south side of Graemsay island. They formed a wide, swift
current of broken water, which swirled and eddied about with a
rough irregular motion. As our boat passed the bowsprit of the
Lydia, my father turned her head towards the ship, and my uncle
Mansie was alert and ready to catch the coil of rope that was at
that moment thrown down to us from the barque's forecastle.
I think the rope was awkwardly thrown, or the man throwing it had
miscalculated the rate at which we were driving past. Howbeit, the
rope fell across our stern, beyond Mansie's reach. Leaving the
tiller my father seized it with the intention of passing it forward
to my uncle, holding the coil in one hand and the line in the
other. As he rose from his seat, however, the rope was by some
stupid mistake suddenly made secure on board the ship instead of
being paid out, and my father was instantly jerked into the sea.
"Let go the rope!" Tom Hercus shouted to my father.
But the seaman in charge of the line on the ship's deck, taking the
order as meant for himself, cast off the rope, the end of which
dropped overboard before the error was discovered. Thus the rope my
father held was fastened neither to the ship nor to the boat. He
was a powerful swimmer, but he soon became entangled in the coil of
rope in such a manner that the more he struggled to free himself
the worse became the tangle, so that his very efforts to swim made
his position more difficult than if he had remained still.
This could all be seen from the Lydia, and ropes and life buoys,
which he failed to catch, were thrown to him as he rose for a
moment to the surface and finally disappeared.
Now this unhappy incident threw us all into such confusion and
consternation aboard the Curlew, dividing our men's attention
between attempting to reach the drowning skipper and endeavouring
to secure another rope thrown from the ship, that all control of
the boat was lost. The Curlew was capsized by the treacherous
current, and we were all engulfed without a moment's warning.
An awful exclamation of "Oh, God!" was the last thing I heard as I
sank below the waves, and then the water rushed into my open mouth,
and I felt my cap torn from my head. Down, down I sank, struggling,
yet with my eyes open, while the water became dark around me and I
was drawn along by the whirling undercurrent.
I raised my hands above my head and tried to regain the surface and
get breath; but it was many moments before my eyes were gladdened
at seeing the water grow greener and brighter. Then I could see the
sunlight above me glancing and dancing in the surrounding water;
then at last I felt that my hands had reached the surface, my head
rose up into the open air, where I gasped and got breath. I swam
about for a little, thinking only of keeping myself above water,
but when I got my full breath again and found that I could keep
afloat without great effort, I looked around me and remembered what
had happened.
There was the ship, the Lydia, lying athwart the channel, ten
fathoms or so away from me, and I could see the St. Magnus beating
down towards me. I looked for my father and my uncle Mansie and the
other men, but could see none of them anywhere. Probably my own
lightness, and the fact that I was not, like them, encumbered with
heavy sea boots, had aided me in coming up to the surface before
them. But I could not have helped them, even had they stood in need
of such help as mine, and I knew that they were all good swimmers,
so I turned round on my breast with the current and continued
swimming towards the Curlew, which now floated, bottom up, to the
seaward side of me.
The St. Magnus very soon came within hail, drifting with the rapid
stream. The men were at the oars, though they only used them to
steady the boat and hold her back.
Just as they were abreast of me the man at the bow cried out,
"There's old Slater! Port your helm!" and the boat's head was
turned away from my direction, for they had not seen me.
As she slewed round, however, Tom Kinlay. who sat at the stern,
caught sight of me swimming close under the boat's side. So near to
him was I, indeed, that by stretching out his arm he might have
caught my upraised hand. Our eyes met, and a smile of triumph
played about his lips. The boat was rowed away from me without his
uttering a word or once attempting to save me.
I kept steadily on my way, swimming towards the Curlew, nor did I
once look round again for the St. Magnus.
The upturned boat was floating outward with the stream, and it took
me a very long time and a strong swim, that tired my arms more than
I can say, before I could be sure that I was shortening the
distance that separated me from this one refuge. But at last the
boat got into a whirling eddy that turned her round and round, and
so kept her back until I was within a fathom of her. Yet even this
short distance seemed more than I could now swim, for, with my
clothes on and my jacket buttoned over me, my arms were not free
enough to let me swim with any ease, and I began to despair and to
flounder about in such eagerness to reach the boat, that I sank
twice under the waves and got my mouth filled with the briny water.
In my growing fear, however, I thought of the viking's stone that
hung under my waistcoat. Surely now was a time to test its power, I
thought, and the thought gave me courage. Renewing my efforts, I at
length reached the boat and grasped the rudder. But the rudder came
away in my hand, having been displaced in the capsizing of the
boat. This, however, aided me in keeping afloat till I was enabled
to reach the boat again and cling to the keel.
Now was I in comparative safety, for I did not doubt that Carver
Kinlay would see me and bear down to rescue me.
When, after many failures, I managed to climb up the side of the
boat and get astride of her keel, I began to feel sick with the sea
water I had swallowed and weak after my long swim. Then my head
grew dizzy, a mist came over my eyes, and I fainted away.