"Well, Anderson has given you a good character, mind you don't lose it.
D'ye think you'll like to be a pilot?"
"Yes," replied I.
"Have you sharp eyes, a good memory, and plenty of nerve?"
"I believe I've got the two first, I don't know about the other."
"I suppose not, it hasn't been tried yet. How far can you see through a
fog?"
"According how thick it is."
"I see you've a glass there: tell me what you make of that vessel just
opening from Blackwall Reach."
"What, that ship?"
"Oh, you can make it out to be a ship, can you, with the naked eye?
Well, then, you have good eyes."
I plied my glass upon the vessel, and, after a time, not having
forgotten the lessons so repeatedly given me by Spicer, I said, "She has
no colours up, but she's an Embden vessel by her build."
"Oh," said he, "hand me the glass. The boy's right; and a good glass,
too. Come, I see you do know something--and good knowledge, too, for a
pilot. It often saves us a deal of trouble when we know a vessel by her
build; them foreigners sail too close to take pilots. Can you stand
cold? Have you got a P-jacket?"
"Yes, father bought me one."
"Well, you'll want it this winter, for the wild geese tell us that it
will be a sharp one. Steady, starboard!"
"Starboard it is."
"D'ye know the compass?"
"No."
"Well, stop till we get down to Deal. Now, stand by me, and keep your
eyes wide open; for, d'ye see, you've plenty to learn, and you can't
begin too soon. We must square the mainyard, captain, if you please,"
continued he as we entered Blackwall Reach. "What could make the river
so perverse as to take these two bends in Limehouse and Blackwall
Reaches, unless to give pilots trouble, I can't say."
The wind being now contrary from the sharp turn in the river, we were
again tiding it down; that is, hove-to and allowing the tide to drift us
through the Reach; but as soon as we were clear of Blackwall Reach, we
could lay our course down the river. As we passed Gravesend, Bramble
asked me whether I was ever so low down.
"Yes," replied I, "I have been down as far as Sea Reach;" which I had
been when I was upset in the wherry, and I told him the story.
"Well, Tom, that's called the river now; but do you know that, many
years ago, where we now are used to be considered as the mouth of the
river, and that fort there" (pointing to Tilbury Fort) "was built to
defend it? for they say the French fleet used to come and anchor down
below."
"Yes," replied I; "and they say, in the History of England, that the
Danes used to come up much higher, even up to Greenwich; but that's a
very long while ago."
"Well, you beat me, Tom! I never heard that; and I think, if ever they
did do so, they won't do it again in a hurry. What water have you got,
my man? Port there!"
"Port it is."
"Steady--so."
"Shall we get down to the Nore to-night, pilot?" said the captain.
"Why, sir, I'm in hopes we shall; we have still nearly three hours'
daylight; and now that we are clear of the Hope, we shall lay fairly
down Sea Reach; and if the wind will only freshen a little (and it looks
very like it), we shall be able to stem the _first_ of the flood, at all
events."
I ought to observe that Bramble, as soon as he had passed any shoal or
danger, pointed it out to me; he said, "I tell it to you, because you
can't be told too often. You won't recollect much that I tell you, I
daresay; I don't expect it; but you may recollect a little, and every
little helps."
The tide had flowed more than an hour when we passed the Nore Light and
came to an anchor.
"What lights are those?" inquired I.
"That's Sheerness," replied Bramble. "We were talking of the French and
Danes coming up the river. Why, Tom, it is not much more than one
hundred and fifty years ago when the Dutch fleet came up to Sheerness,
destroyed the batteries, and landed troops there; howsomever, as I said
of the French and the other chaps, they won't do so again in a hurry."
As soon as they had veered out sufficient cable, Bramble accepted the
invitation of the captain to go down in the cabin, when I went and
joined the men, who were getting their supper forwards. I was soon on
good terms with them; and after supper, as it was cold, they went down
to the fore-peak, got out some beer and grog, and we sat round in a
circle, with the bottles and mugs and a farthing candle in the centre.
Being right in the _eyes_ of her, as it is termed, we could plainly hear
the water slapping against the bends outside of her, as it was divided
by the keelson, and borne away by the strong flood tide. It was a
melancholy sound; I had never heard it before; and during a pause, as I
listened to it, one of the men observed, "Queer sound, boy, ain't it?
You'd think that the water was lapping in right among us. But noises
aboard ship don't sound as they do on shore; I don't know why." No more
did I at that time; the fact is that nothing conveys sound better than
wood, and every slight noise is magnified, in consequence, on board of a
vessel.
"I recollect when I was on a Mediterranean voyage how we were frightened
with noises, sure enough," observed one of the men.
"Come, that's right, Dick, give us a yarn," said the others.
"Yes," replied Dick, "and it's a true yarn too, and all about a ghost."
"Well, I stop a moment," said one of the men, "and let us top this glim
a bit before you begin, for it seemed to get dimmer the moment you
talked about a ghost."
Dick waited till a little more light was obtained, and then commenced.
"I had shipped on board of a vessel bound to Smyrna, now about seven
years ago. We had gone down to Portsmouth, where we waited for one of
the partners of the house by which we had been freighted, and who was
going out as passenger. We were a man short, and the captain went on
shore to get one from the crimps, whom he knew very well, and the
fellows promised to send one on board the next morning. Well, sure
enough a wherry came off with him just before break of day, and he and
his traps were taken on board; but it was not perceived at the time what
he had in his arms under his grego, and what do you think it proved to
be at daylight? Why, a large black tom cat."
"What, a black one?"
"Yes, as black as the enemy himself. The fellow came down forward with
it, and so says I, `Why, messmate, you're not going to take that animal
to sea with us?'
"`Yes, I am,' said he, very surlily; `it's an old friend of mine, and I
never parts with him.'
"`Well,' says I, `you'll find the difference when the captain hears on
it, I can tell you, and, for the matter of that, I won't promise you
that it will be very safe if it comes near me when I've a handspike in
my hand.'
"`I tell you what,' says he, `it ain't the taking of a cat on board what
brings mischief, but it's turning one out of a ship what occasions ill
luck. No cat ever sunk a ship till the animal was hove overboard and
sunk first itself, and then it does drag the ship down after it.'
"Well, one of the boys who did not care about such things, for he was
young and ignorant, put his hand to the cat's head to stroke it, and the
cat bit him right through the fingers, at which the boy gave a loud cry.
"`Now, that will teach you to leave my cat alone,' said the man.
"`He won't come near nobody but me, and he bites everybody else, so I
give you fair warning.'
"And sure enough the brute, which was about as big as two common cats,
was just as savage as a tiger. When the first mate called the man on
deck, the fellow left his cat behind him in the fore peak, just as if it
were now here, and it got into a dark corner, growling and humping its
back, with its eyes flashing fire at every one of us as we came anigh
it. `Oh!' says we, `this here won't never do; wait till the captain
comes on board, that's all.' Well, the hatches were off, and we were
busy re-stowing the upper tier of the cargo, which we had thrown in very
carelessly in our hurry to get down the river; just putting the bales in
order (it wasn't breaking bulk, you see), and we were at it all day. At
last, towards evening, the captain comes on board with the gentleman
passenger, a mighty timorsome sort of young chap he appeared for to be,
and had never before set his foot upon the plank of a vessel. So as
soon as the captain was on deck we all broke off our work, and went to
him to tell him about this cat, and the captain he gets into a great
rage as soon as he hears on it, and orders the man to send the cat on
shore, or else he'd threw it overboard. Well, the luau, who was a
sulky, saucy sort of chap, and no seaman, I've a notion, gives cheek,
and says he won't send his cat on shore for no man, whereupon the
captain orders the cat to be caught, that he might send it in the boat;
but nobody dared to catch it, for it was so fierce to everybody but its
master. The second mate tried, and he got a devil of a bite, and came
up from the fore-peak without the cat, looking very blue indeed. And
then the first mate went down, and he tried; but the cat flew at him,
and he came up as white as a sheet. And then the cat became so savage
that it stood at the foot of the ladder, all ready to attack whoever
should come down, and the man laughed heartily, and told us to fetch the
cat. `Well,' says the first mate, `I can't touch the cat, but I can
you, you beggar, and I will too, if it costs me twenty pounds;' so he
ups with a handspike and knocks the fellow down senseless on the deck,
and there he laid. And it sarved him right.
"Well, then the captain thought to shoot the cat, for it was for all the
world like a wild beast, and one proposed one thing and one another; at
last Jim, the cabin-boy, comes forward with some brimstone matches in a
pan, and he lights them and lowers them down into the fore-peak by a
rope-yarn, to smother it out. And so it did sure enough, for all of a
sudden the cat made a spring up to the deck, and then we all chased it
here and there, until at last it got out to the end of the flying
jib-boom, and then Jim, the cabin-boy, followed it out with a handspike,
and poked at it as hard as he could, until at last it lost its hold, and
down it went into the water, and Jim and the handspike went along with
it, for Jim, in his last poke at the cat, lost his balance, so away they
went together. Well, there was a great hurry in manning the boat, and
picking up poor Jim and the handspike; but the cat we saw no more, for
it was just dark at the time. Well, when it was all over, we began to
think what we had done, and as soon as we had put on the hatches and
secured the hold we went down below into the fore-peak, where the smell
of brimstone did not make us feel more comfortable, I can tell you, and
we began to talk over the matter, for you see the cat should not have
been thrown overboard, but put on shore; but we were called away to man
the boat again, for the fellow had come to his senses, and swore that he
would not stay in the ship, but go on shore and take the law of the
first mate, and the first mate and captain thought the sooner he was out
of the ship the better, for we were to sail before daylight, and there
might not be a wherry for him to get into; so the fellow took his kit,
and we pulled him on shore and landed him on Southsea beach, he swearing
vengeance the whole way; and as he stepped out on the beach he turned
round to us and said, as he shook his fist, `You've thrown overboard a
_black tom cat_, recollect that! and now you'll see the consequence; a
pleasant voyage to you. I wouldn't sail in that vessel if you were to
offer her to me as a present as soon as she got to Smyrna; because why,
you've thrown overboard a _black tom cat_, and you'll never get there--
never!' cried he again, and off he ran with his bundle.
"Well, we didn't much like it, and if the second mate hadn't been in the
boat, I'm not sure that we shouldn't all have gone on shore rather than
sail in the vessel; but there was no help for it. The next morning
before daylight we started, for the captain wouldn't wait to get another
hand, and we were soon out of soundings, and well into the Bay of
Biscay.
"We had just passed Cape Finisterre, when Jim, the cabin-boy says one
morning, `I'm blessed if I didn't hear that cat last night, or the ghost
on it!' So we laughed at him; for, you see, he slept abaft, just
outside the cabin door, close to the pantry, and not forward with the
rest of us.
"`Well,' says he, `I heard her miaul, and when I awoke I think I seed
two eyes looking at me.'
"`Well, Jim,' said I, for we had got over our fears, `it was you who
knocked her overboard, so it's all right that she should haunt you and
nobody else.' Jim, however, could not laugh, but looked very grave and
unhappy. A few days afterwards the captain and passenger complained
that they could not sleep for the noise and racket that was kept up all
night between the timbers and in the run aft. They said it was as if a
whole legion of devils were broken loose and scampering about; and the
captain was very grave; and as for the passenger, he was frightened out
of his wits. Still we laughed, because we had heard nothing ourselves,
and thought that it must only be fancy on their parts, particularly as
the captain used to _bowse his jib_ up pretty taut every night. Well,
all went on very well; we arrived at the Rock, got our fresh provisions
and vegetables, and then made sail again. The captain complained of no
more noises, and Jim of no more eyes, and the whole matter was almost
forgotten."
Here the narrator was interrupted by the thumping of a hand-spike on the
deck above. "Halloo! what's the matter now?"
"Come, tumble up, my lads, and pump the ship out," said the mate from
above; "we had almost forgotten that. Be smart, now; it's but a ten
minutes' job."
Thus broke off the story, much to my annoyance; but it could not be
helped--ships must be pumped out--so the men went on deck, and I
followed them.