IN WHICH BRAMBLE POINTS OUT TO ME THAT SINGING IS PART OF THE PROFESSION
OF A PILOT.
In about a fortnight from the time that Bramble commenced his tuition, I
was quite perfect with the compass; his method certainly was very good,
for by such reiterated catechising what you had to learn was graven on
your memory. All day long the same system was pursued. Even if dinner
was on the table, the compass was on a chair close by, and as I was
putting my fork to my mouth, much to Bessy's amusement, out would come
the question, "How's her head, Tom?" Bramble soon gained his point; I
could answer like lightning. But whether I was by the fire indoors, or
on the shingle beach, his system was ever the same: every time that
Bramble opened his lips I gained some information; he was never
wearying, and often very amusing.
One morning we were out on the beach--we had been conversing with the
other pilots, and examining the vessels in the offing with my glass--
when he pointed out to me, it being low neap tide, that the Goodwin
Sands were partially dry. "Tom," continued he, "of all the dangers, not
only of the Channel, but in the wide ocean, there is none to be compared
with those sands:--the lives that have been lost on them, the vessels
that have been wrecked, and the property that has been sucked into them,
would be a dozen kings' ransoms; for, you see, Tom, they are quicksands,
and the vessel which goes on shore does not remain to be broken up, but
in two tides she disappears, sinking down into the sands, which never
give her or her cargo up again. There must be a mighty deal of wealth
buried there, that is certain. They say that once they were a
flourishing fertile island, belonging to an Earl Godwin, whose name they
now bear; it may be so--the sea retreats from one place while it
advances at another. Look at Romney Marshes, where so many thousands of
sheep are now fed; they run up many miles inland; and yet formerly those
very marshes were an arm of the sea, which vessels rode in deep water,
and sea-fights, I am told, took place. Howsomever, when the sea took
the Godwin island to itself, it made the best trap for vessels that old
Neptune now possesses, and he may consider it as the most productive
spot in his dominions. Lord help us! what a deal of gold and
merchandise must there be buried below you yellow patch!"
"Do you never save anything when vessels are run on shore there?"
"When they only tail on, we occasionally get them off again; but when
once fixed, there's an end of it. Yes, we save life occasionally, but
at great risk of our own. I saved little Bessy from a vessel ashore on
these sands."
"Indeed! Pray tell me how it was."
"Why, you see, Tom, it was just at the breaking out of the war. It was
in this very month of October, '93, that I was out in a galley with some
others, looking for vessels. I had just then left off privateering, and
got my warrant as pilot (for you know I did serve my 'prenticeship
before I went a-privateering, as I told you the other night). Well, it
was a blowing night, and we were running in for the Downs, intending to
beach the galley and sleep on shore, for we had been out five days, and
only put a pilot on board of one vessel. We were just to windward of
the Sands, out there, where I am now pointing: the sea was very rough,
but the night was clear, and the moon shone bright, when we saw a brig
running down before the wind, under foresail, and close-reefed topsails.
`Why, Bill, as she steers she'll be right between the Calipers,' said I
to the man sitting by me. `There's no mistake about that,' replied he:
`let's haul the fore-sheet to windward, and lay to, to hail him; he's
coming right down upon us.' Well, we did so, and we hailed some time
without any answer. At last a man looked over the gunnel, just as she
was flying past us, and told us in Dutch to go to the devil. `I think
you'll go there if you don't look sharp,' replied Bill. `Come, my lads,
we may as well follow, her, and see if we cannot prevent mischief.' So
we bore up after her, and hailed her several times, for we sailed very
fast, and there was a scuffling on deck: I think that the captain was
drunk. All this passed in less than five minutes; and then, as I knew
would be the case, she struck on the sands, and with such force that all
her masts went over the side immediately. Now, the sea rolls awfully
over the shallow water of those sands, Tom. We had kept with her as far
as we dared, and then hove-to about two cables' lengths to windward of
her, when she struck, for the ebb was still running strong under our
lee, which only made the sea more cross and heavy. The waves made a
clean breach over her, and we knew that she would go to pieces in less
than half an hour; but we did not like to leave so many to perish
without a trial to save them; so we kept away, so as to get abreast of
them, and then lowered our sails and got out our oars. We pulled close
to them, but it was impossible to board: we should have been stove to
pieces and swamped immediately. The moon still shone bright, and we saw
them as plain as we could wish,--and we made every attempt to save them,
for they were all crowded together forward. Once the sea drove the boat
so close that we touched her sides, and then a woman pressed before the
men, and reached over the gunnel, extending her arms which held the
child, while several others attempted to get in; but the return of the
wave carried us back so quick from the vessel, that, as they attempted
to jump in, they all went to the water, and never appeared again; but I
had caught hold of the child, and laid it down in the stern-sheets. We
made a second and third attempt, but in vain. At last the vessel broke
up, as it were, all at once--there was one loud cry, and all was still,
except the roaring and breaking waves which buried them. It wasn't a
scene to make us very lively, Tom: we hoisted the sail, and ran on to
the beach in silence. I took the child in my arms--it had been snatched
out of its warm bed, poor thing, and had nothing on but a calico night
gown. I took it up to the cottage, which was then Maddox's (I bought it
afterwards of the widow with the money I made a-privateering), and I
gave it in charge to Mrs Maddox. I did intend to have sent it to the
workhouse, or something of that sort; but Mrs Maddox took a fancy to
it, and so did I, and so I thought I would take care of it, and I
christened it by the name of Betsy Godwin."
"You have no idea who she may be?"
"Not a half one: her cotton gown and cap told nothing; the vessel was
Dutch, that's all I know. She may be the child of the Stadtholder or
the child of the ship's cook. What's the matter?"
"But did you notice any marks upon her person by which she might be
reclaimed?"
"Not I. I only axed Mrs Maddox whether it were a boy or a girl."
"How old was she then?"
"Well, how can I tell? that's not in my way; but the knowing ones in
these matters said that she must be about eighteen months old, so we
have taken that for a _departure_ as to her age. I love her now as if
she were my own child, and so will you, Tom, like, a sister, when you
know her. She calls me her father, and you may do the same, Tom, if you
like, for I will be as good as a father to you, if you are as good a boy
as you now seem to be. I like to be called father, somehow or another--
it sounds pleasant to my ears. But come in now, I think you have
compassed the compass, so you must learn something else.
"There is another way, Tom," said Bramble, as he seated himself in his
large chair, "in which a smart 'prentice may be useful to his master,
and it is of quite as much importance as the compass, which is in
heaving the lead. You see, Tom, the exact soundings being known will
often enable a pilot to run over the tail of a bank and save a tide;
that is, when he knows that he can trust the man in the chains. Some
seamen are very particular in giving exact soundings, but all are not;
they care more for the song than they do for anything else, and though
the song is very musical, yet it won't get a ship off when she's on
shore. Now, two-thirds of the seamen who are sent in the chains will
not give the soundings within half a fathom, and, moreover, they do not
give them quick enough for the pilot in many cases; if, therefore, you
learn to heave the lead well, be correct in your soundings and quick in
giving them, you will become of great use to me. You understand, don't
you?"
"Yes," replied I.
"Well, go up into my room, and hanging on the nail behind the door you
will see a lead-line--bring it me down here."
I did so, and then Bramble explained to me how the fathoms were marked
on the line, and how the soundings were given out.
"You see," said he, "wherever there is a mark with a piece of leather or
bunting, whether it be white or red, it is called a mark; and if you had
five fathoms of water, you would cry out by the _mark_ five; but at the
other depths there are no marks, but so many knots tied as there are
fathoms, as here at nine; and then you would say by the _deep_ nine.
Now run the line through your hand, and see if you can repeat the marks
and deeps as they pass."