_In Which the Capes of Virginia Are In Sight_
We had a stiff wind blowing--half a gale, indeed--and when we raised
other sailing ships, their canvas was clewed down and some of them were
running under little more than stormsails. But neither the captain of
the Seamew nor of the Gullwing had any intention of losing a breath of
such a favorable breeze.
Our ship heeled over until her rail was under water; and she was laden
so heavily that this sort of sailing was perilous. Suppose some of the
cargo should shift? Where would we be? Well, just about there, I guess!
“Some day the old man will carry the sticks out of her completely,”
growled Mr. Gates to Mr. Barney.
“Well, let him!” exclaimed the second mate. “We’ve got to win this
time.”
“What for?” I heard the other ask, curiously. “Just so Cap’n Joe will
win his greening apple?”
Mr. Barney cursed the captain and his apple.
“You want us to win anyway, eh?” pursued Mr. Gates, in his slow,
thoughtful way. “No matter what happens to the Gullwing?”
“She’s insured; so’s her freight,” snapped Mr. Barney.
“It doesn’t matter if both good ships should founder and be lost?”
“I don’t give a hang!” exclaimed the younger man, bitterly, “as long as
the Gullwing goes down fifty fathoms nearer Baltimore than the Seamew.”
“And how about the crews?”
“Who’s thinking of men--or ships--just now?” demanded Mr. Barney.
“Aren’t both captains risking lives and property for a silly
competition? I’m no worse than they are.”
“And so, the rivalry of Cap’n Joe and Cap’n Si will excuse your own mad
determination to get to port first?” suggested Mr. Gates, quietly. “I
don’t believe you’ll feel that way, young man, twelve months from now.
And how about the little girl?”
“Pshaw! there’s no danger,” said Mr. Barney, lightly.
“I hope there will be no danger--no more than there is now, at least,”
said the mate, significantly. Then he saw me on lookout and said,
irritably: “Come away! This is no place to talk.”
I wondered what the mate thought Mr. Barney would do for the sake of
helping the Gullwing to win the race; but I heard nothing more of their
conversation. This occurred in the evening when we could just see the
ghostly sails of the Seamew as she stood on for us. Mr. Barney soon
after took the wheel himself, it being the captain’s watch. From that
point on to the end the second mate was more frequently at the wheel
than at any previous time during the cruise.
Day and night the two huge schooners ran almost even. Our skipper was
seldom off the deck. I don’t know when he found time to sleep. He never
lost a chance to make the most of a puff of wind. The men worked for
him eagerly and well; but they stood double watches.
Some of the small sails Cap’n Joe even had us dip overboard so that,
well wetted, they would better hold the wind. It was four bells in the
morning watch when the Seamew crossed our bow. She had been trying for
it for twenty-four hours, or more. And when she cut us off and we had
to take her white water, a groan of derision was raised by her crew.
We were sore--every man Jack of us. Cap’n Joe and Cap’n Si had it hot
and heavy from their respective stations.
“Better give us a line aboard so’t we can tow ye in, Joe!” bawled Cap’n
Si.
“You air mighty willin’ to give a helpin’ hand jest now, Si,” returned
our skipper, with scorn. “But it warn’t allus so.”
I saw Mr. Alf Barney at the Seamew’s wheel. He handled the ship
splendidly. When the Seamew came about on the other tack, her helmsman
met the waves just right and swung her over so that the sails scarcely
shook at all. She reared up on one tack, turned as it were on her heel,
and swept away on the other tack at a speed that sent the spray flying
high above her rail. It was a pretty sight.
Our Mr. Barney stood right beside me as I manipulated the Gullwing’s
helm. He watched the handling of our rival with lowering brow.
“Gimme that wheel!” he snapped, pushing me away and seizing the spokes.
The Gullwing was right in the eye of the wind. Cap’n Bowditch was
shouting his orders. If the Seamew had rounded prettily, the Gullwing
went her one better. We wasted less time hanging in the wind than the
Seamew.
“That’s the way to do it!” bawled our skipper, dancing on the quarter.
“By jinks, Mr. Barney, you handled that wheel well. Keep her so!
Steady.”
The second mate let me take the wheel again after a minute or two;
and his face had remained unsmiling all the time. He had merely been
determined to show them all that he could handle the big ship’s helm as
well in every particular as did his brother.
Our course was west-northwest now to the Capes of Virginia. The fresh
gale was out of the same quarter. Therefore we had to beat to windward
all the remainder of the race, and although the Seamew had gotten
a little the start of us, the Gullwing had a slight advantage. She
handled better to windward than her sister ship.
The Seamew stood off on one tack, we on the other. She disappeared
beyond the sea line, but standing in some hours later we found her
again--and finding her were pleased more than a little in seeing that
we had made something up on her. Our skipper’s shrewdness was telling.
I knew how it was with Cap’n Si; when things broke wrong for him he
paddled about the deck, cursing the hands and the wind and various
other things, altogether irrational. Whereas our skipper never lost a
trick, kept his head, and never gave an order he was sorry for--and
that last is saying a good deal.
We filled away once more and stood back to her. We were making distance
fast. Had we held on this time we should have crossed her wake almost
under her stern. The man aloft suddenly sang out:
“Land, ho!”
I heard the cry repeated in the Seamew’s tops.
“Cape Henry, sir!” shouted our man to the skipper.
“Aye, aye,” said Cap’n Joe, eagerly. “And when we tack back again we’re
going to cross ahead of the Seamew’s bow--and the race will be over.”
He said it with enormous satisfaction. He believed it, too.
“Why will the race be over, Clint?” asked Phillis, who stood beside
me at the moment. “I looked at the chart. We’re a long way yet from
Baltimore. We are not in sight of the opening into Chesapeake Bay.”
“There are tugs waiting up there in the roads for us,” I told her.
“You’ll soon see their smoke. _They_ will race out for us, as we race
in for the port. We shall go up to Baltimore under steam.”
And my statement was scarcely made ere we saw in the far distance the
pillars of smoke from the stacks of the ocean-going tugs. The land
that had been merely a hazy line, grew more clearly defined, although
we were not approaching it directly. Soon I could point out to my
little friend the other cape guarding the mouth of the Chesapeake--Cape
Charles.
The tugs steamed out to meet us under forced draught. More quickly to
get in tow of the tug nearest us, which was coming already hooked up,
Cap’n Bowditch put the Gullwing about earlier than he had originally
intended. As we tacked, so did the Seamew.
“She’s afraid to give us an inch,” laughed Mr. Barney, taking his place
beside the wheel again, and looking up at Mr. Gates.
“It’s nip and tuck,” returned the first mate. Then to the skipper he
said: “Shall I make ready to take the tug’s hawser, sir?”
“Right-oh!” declared Captain Bowditch. “And be lively with it. We’re
too close to fool away a moment. I hope we get the fastest tug.”
“She’s the Sea Horse, Cap’n!” bawled down the man aloft.
“Smart tug, she is,” agreed the skipper.
“And I believe that’s the Comet makin’ to meet the Seamew.”
“Both Norfolk Tug Company’s craft--and good ones. I wouldn’t give a
dollar bonus either way on ’em, would you, Mr. Gates?”
“They’re just as near alike as the Seamew and the Gullwing are alike,”
agreed the mate, and went forward.
We were standing in now directly for the channel. The Seamew was headed
likewise. We were bound to pass close to our sister ship--so close
that, as the moments slipped past, I began to feel some disturbance of
mind.
Heaven knows the ocean was broad enough; but the two skippers were
obstinate and eager. One would not be likely to want to give way to the
other. And moment after moment the two great ships, their canvas filled
and the white water split in great waves from their prows, rushed
closer and closer together.