"ONE PIECEE COCK-FIGHTEE."
The ship had nearly all her canvas spread, so as to take advantage of
the first puff of air which came to waft us beyond the Doldrums towards
the region of the south-east trades, then beginning to blow just below
the calm belt; consequently, it took all hands some time to clew up and
furl all the light upper sails, and squall after squall burst over us
ere we could reduce the ship to her proper fighting trim of reefed
topsails and courses, our outer jib getting torn to shreds before it
could be handed.
"Begorra, it's a buster an' no mishtake!" exclaimed Tim Rooney coming
off the forecastle as soon as he had seen the other head sails attended
to, and setting me free from the lashings with which his whilom tritons
had bound my hands and legs. "Sp'ilin' all av our fun, too, Misther
Gray-ham, jist whin I wor goin' to shave ye!"
I did not regret this, though, I'm sure. Still, I did not stop to
answer him, being in too great a hurry to join Tom Jerrold and the
others aft in taking in the mizzen-royal and topgallant--my fellow
apprentices having had time already to get aloft while I was rolling on
the deck forward like a trussed fowl!
"Take it aisy, me darlint," shouted Tim after me as I rushed up the poop
ladder and swung myself into the shrouds; but, I was half-way up the
ratlines before he could get out the end of his exordium, "Aisy does
it!"
I was too late to help hand the royal, my especial sail since I had got
familiar with my footing aloft; but the mizzen-topgallant sheets,
bowlines and halliards having been hardly a second let go, and the men
on the poop having only just begun to haul on the clewlines and
buntlines, I was quite in time to get out on this yard. My aid, indeed,
came in usefully in assisting to stow the sail; although, in my haste
not to be eclipsed by Tom Jerrold, I nearly got knocked off my perch on
the foot-rope through the canvas ballooning out, in the same way as it
did when Joe Fergusson so narrowly escaped death only three weeks or so
before!
The fright, as I clutched hold of a rope and saved myself, made my heart
come in my mouth; and what with this, and the turmoil of the elements
around me as I clung to the yard, with the deck of the ship so small and
far-away below, and saw the immense area of the swelling sea as far as
the eye could reach--now chopped up into short rolling waves, crowned
with foam, almost in an instant, and the black cloud-covered dome of the
heavens that was almost as dark as at midnight--I could not help
thinking of the grandeur of the works of God, and the insignificance of
man and his pigmy attempts to master the elements.
For, beyond the quick sharp puffs of wind that came with the squalls of
rain from almost every point of the compass in succession, the downpour
which descended from the overcast sky was accompanied with terrible ear-
splitting peals of thunder. This seemed to rattle and roll almost
immediately above our heads, as if the overhanging black vault was about
to burst open every moment; while dazzling forked flashes of bluish
lightning zigzagged across the horizon from the zenith, first blinding
our eyes with its brilliancy for a second and then making the darkness
all around the darker as the vivid glare vanished and the accompanying
thunderbolt sank into the sea--providentially far off to leeward, where
the full force of the tropical storm was spent, and not near our vessel.
The sight was an awful and magnificent one to me suspended there in mid-
air, as it were; but I confess I was not sorry when, presently, the
mizzen-topgallant was snugly stowed, with the gaskets put round it, and
I was able to get down to the more substantial deck below, where I was
not quite so close to the cloud war going on above!
When I reached the poop, as the Silver Queen was now stripped of her
superfluous canvas and ready for anything that might happen should the
squalls last, Mr Mackay seeing that I was wet through told me that I
might go down and change my clothes. This I gratefully did, feeling all
the better on getting into a dry suit, over which I took the precaution
before coming out of the deck-house again of rigging my waterproof and a
tarpaulin hat; for the rain was still coming down in a regular deluge,
"as if the sluice-valve of the water tank above had somehow or other
jammed foul, so that the water couldn't be turned off for a while"--this
being Tom Jerrold's explanation of it.
Feeling chilled from the damp after the great heat of the morning, as
soon as I had doffed my wet things I went round to the galley to see if
I could discover a drop of hot coffee knocking about, as it was getting
on for tea-time, being now late in the afternoon; but when I got there,
instead of finding Ching Wang, who was always punctuality itself in the
matter of meal-times, busy with the coppers, there he was flat on his
stomach on the floor of his caboose, with a hideous little brass image
or idol, which might have been Buddha for all that I know to the
contrary, set up in the corner--the Chinese cook being so actively
engaged in salaaming in front of this image, by touching the deck with
his forehead and burning bits of gilt paper before it, as incense I
suppose, that he did not notice me.
"Hullo, Ching Wang," I said, "what are you about?"
"Me chin chin joss, lilly pijjin," he answered, turning to me his round,
unconscious, and imperturbable face as if he were engaged in some
ordinary occupation of everyday life. "Me askee him me watchee if
kyphong catchee ship, no sabey?"
The poor fellow evidently believed more in his god than I did in mine;
for here he was in a moment of danger, as he thought, praying for help,
while I, who had almost lost my life when I so nearly escaped tumbling
from the topgallant yard only a moment or so since, had thoughtlessly
forgotten Him who had saved me!
I think of this now, but I didn't then. Nay, I even laughed at Ching
Wang's ignorance when speaking to Tim Rooney, whom I met as I retreated
from the galley, telling him that I wondered how the generally astute
Chinaman could really fancy he was propitiating Buddha, or whoever else
he believed in as his sovereign deity, by burning a few scraps of tinsel
paper to do honour to the senseless image.
"Be jabers, though," argued Tim on my giving him this opinion of mine,
"I can't say, sorr, as how we Christians be any the betther."
"Why!" I exclaimed indignantly. "How can you say so?"
"Begorra, sure we all thry to have our ray-ligion as chape as we can,"
replied he coolly. "Don't we, Cath'lics an' Protistints aloike, for
there's little to choose atwane us on the p'int, contint oursilves wid
as little as we can hilp, goin' once to chapel or church, mebbe, av a
Sunday an' thinkin' we've wiped out all the avil we may a-done in the
wake, an' have a clane sheet for the nixt one--jist as this poor ig'rant
haythin booms his goold paper afore his joss an' thinks that clears off
all his ould scores. I say no differ, sure, mesilf, Misther Gray-ham,
atwane us, that same, as I tould ye."
I did not answer Tim, but his words affected me more than any sermon I
ever heard from the pulpit; and, as I went back to my cabin I determined
to try and keep to something I had promised father before parting from
him, and which I had neglected up to then--my promise being never to
forget my daily prayer to "Him who rules the waves," even should I have
no time to look at my Bible.
The weather cleared up before sunset, and the wind subsequently began to
blow steadily from the southward and eastward, showing that we had at
length got into the wished-for "trade;" so the ship soon had all plain
sail set on her again, now heading, though, sou'-sou'-west on the port
tack, and making a bee-line almost for the island of Trinidad off the
South American coast.
Having lost our outer jib, however, from its blowing away in the first
squall, a new one had to be fitted and bent on; and as we were hoisting
studding sails, too, the jewel block on the main-topsail yard carried
away. So, another block had to be got up and secured to the end of the
yard-arm before the halliards could be rove afresh for getting up the
stu'n'sail; and, I had opportunities in both instances for acquiring
better knowledge of seamanship--gaining more by watching Adams the
sailmaker and Tim Rooney at work on their respective jobs, than I could
have obtained in a twelvemonth by the perusal of books or from oral
information.
We had long lost sight of our old friend the North Star and his
pointers, who guide the mariner, should he be without a compass, in
northern latitudes, making acquaintance now with a new constellation,
the Southern Cross, which grew more brilliant each night as we ran
further and further below the Equator. Other stars, too, of surpassing
brightness made the heavens all radiant as soon as the sun set each
evening, there being no twilight to speak of--the night and its glories
coming upon us as quickly as the last scrap of daylight fled. In the
morning it was the same, the firmament being still bright with starlight
when the glorious orb of day rose in all his majesty and paled into
insignificance his lesser rivals, who, however, twinkled up to the very
last.
This was by far the jolliest part of our voyage; for, although the
weather was nice and warm, it had not that disagreeable, clammy heat we
experienced at the Line, on account of the fresh south-east breeze
tempering the effect of the sun, which, however, still shone down on us
at noon with tropical force, its rays being as potent almost as at the
Equator.
But the sea had lost all that glassy brazen look it had in the calm
latitudes, now dancing with life and as blue as the heavens above it;
while as our gallant ship sailed on, running pretty large on the port
tack with everything set that could draw--skysails being hoisted on top
of the royals and staysails, and trysails on every mast, with the
foretopmast staysail, jib and flying jib forward, and upper and lower
stu'n'sails spread out to windward--she looked like some beautiful bird
in full flight with outstretched wings, her motion through the water
being so easy and graceful, while the sparkling spray was tossed up
sometimes over the sprit-sail yard as she ever and anon dipped her bows,
as if curtsying to Neptune. It seemed to me the most delightful thing
in the world to be there, ship and sea and air and sky being all alike
in harmony, expressing the poetry of progression!
My work, too, although we had plenty to do, to "keep us out of
mischief," as the captain said, was not too hard, especially at this
period.
In the morning, after an early coffee, when few thought of turning in
again although it might be their watch below, the weather was so
enjoyable, the order was given for "brooms and buckets aft," and the
first duty of the day was attended to. This was to scrub decks, just as
in a well-ordered household the servant cleans the door-step before
anyone is astir; the decks of a ship giving as good a notion of what her
commander is like, as the door-step of a house does of its mistress!
For this job the men forward rigged the head pump and sluiced the
forecastle and main-deck; while we apprentices had to wash down the
poop, having a fine time over it dowsing one another with buckets of
water, and chasing each other round the mizzen-mast and binnacle, or
else dodging the expected deluge behind the skylight--sometimes awaking
Captain Gillespie up, and making him come up the companion in a towering
rage to ask "what the dickens" we were "kicking up all that row for?"
Once, as he came up in this way, Tom Jerrold caught him full in the face
with a bucket of water he was pitching at me; and wasn't there a shindy
over it, that's all! "Old Jock" was unable to find out who did it, for
of course none of us would tell on Tom, and the water in the captain's
eyes prevented him from seeing who was his assailant; but, he
immediately ordered Tom, as well as Weeks and I, all up into the cross-
trees, Tom at the fore, Sam at the main, and I on the mizzen-mast, to
"look out for land," instead of having our breakfast.
As we were some hundreds of miles off the nearest coast, our task of
looking out for land was entirely a work of supererogation; still, we
did not realise this, and strained our eyes vainly until we were called
down from aloft at "two bells," after the hands had all had their
breakfast and there was nothing left for us. This was "Jock's"
satisfaction in return for the shower bath he had been treated to so
unceremoniously. Tom Jerrold afterwards said that he did not notice
Jock coming up the companion way, and that of course he would never have
dreamt of treating the captain so disrespectfully; but, as Master Tom
invariably grinned whenever he made this declaration, Weeks and I, as
well as Tim Rooney, who somehow or other got hold of the yarn, all had
our suspicions on the point.
However, this is a digression from the description of our daily duties.
After scrubbing decks, each watch alternately had breakfast; and then,
as now, when the wind was fair and hardly a brace or rope required to be
handed from morning till night or from night till morning, we and the
rest of the crew were set to work unravelling ends of junk and picking
oakum, like convicts.
After being thus disintegrated, the tow was spun into sennit or fine
twine and yarn which is always of use on board, quantities of it being
used in "serving" and "parcelling" for chafing gear.
At noon, the crew had their dinner, watch in and watch out, but we
apprentices had to wait till the captain and mates had theirs; although,
as I've already mentioned, we saw little of the delicacies of the cabin
table except occasionally of a Sunday, on which day, sometimes, Captain
Gillespie's heart was more benevolently inclined towards us apparently.
During the afternoon watch on week-days we were allowed to amuse
ourselves as we liked, and I frequently took advantage of this
opportunity to learn all that Tim Rooney and Adams could teach me
forward--the two being great cronies, and busying themselves at this
period of the day, if there were nothing to call their attention
elsewhere, in doing odd jobs on the forecastle, the one in the
sailmaking line and the other attending to his legitimate occupation of
looking after the weak points of the rigging, all concerning which came
within his special province as boatswain.
After tea, all hands were allowed to skylark about the decks below and
aloft until the end of the second dog-watch at "eight bells;" when, the
night being fairly on us in the southern latitudes we were traversing,
those whose turn it was to go below turned in, and the others having the
"first watch" took the deck until they were relieved at midnight and
retired to their well earned rest. But, of course, should "all hands"
be called to take in sail, on account of the wind shifting or a sudden
squall breaking over the ship, which fortunately did not happen at the
time of which I am speaking, those who might only have just turned in
had to turn out again instanter. In the same way, I may add, had the
weather been stormy and changeable all of us would have had plenty to do
in taking in and setting sail, without leisure for sennit reeving and
yarn spinning and playing "Tom Cox's traverse" about the decks from
morning till night, as we did in those halcyon days between the tropics.
We sighted Martin Vas Rocks, to the eastward of Trinidad Islands, in
latitude 20 degrees 29 minutes south and longitude 28 degrees 51 minutes
west, a little over a week from our leaving the Line, having made a very
good passage so far from England, this being our thirty-sixth day out.
Soon after this, the south-east trades failing us and varying westerly
breezes taking their place, we hauled our wind, altering our course to
south-east by south, and making to pass the meridian on the forty-
seventh parallel of latitude. This we did so as to get well to the
southward of the Cape of Good Hope, between which and ourselves a long
stretch of some three thousand miles of water lay; although both Captain
Gillespie and Mr Mackay appeared to make nothing of this, looking upon
it as the easiest part of our journey.
Indeed, the latter told me so.
"Now, it's all plain sailing, my boy, and we ought to run that distance
in a fortnight or so from here, with the strong westerly and sou'-
western winds we'll soon fetch into on this tack," said he; "but, wait
till we come to the region of the Flying Dutchman's Cape, and then
you'll make acquaintance with a sea such as you have never seen before,
all that we've gone through as yet being merely child's play in
comparison."
"What, worse than the Bay of Biscay?" I cried.
"Why, that was only a fleabite, youngster," he replied laughing. "I
suppose you magnified it in your imagination from being sea-sick. The
weather off the Cape of Storms, however; is a very different matter. It
is quite in keeping with its name!"
But, still, for the next few days, at first proceeding close-hauled on
the starboard tack and then, as the wind veered more round to the west,
running free before it, with all our flying kites and stu'n'sails set,
the time passed as pleasantly as before; and we had about just as little
to do in the way of seamanship aboard, the ship almost steering herself
and hardly a tack or a sheet needing to be touched. I noticed, though,
Adams a little later on with a couple of men whom he requisitioned as
sailmakers' mates busy cutting out queer little triangular pieces of
canvas, which he told me were "storm staysails," the old ones having
been blown away last voyage; while I saw that Tim Rooney, besides
assuring himself of the security of the masts and setting up preventer
stays for additional strength by the captain's orders, rigging up life-
lines fore and aft, saying when I asked him what they were for, "To
hould on wid, sure, whin we toombles into Cape weather, me darlint!"
There were no signs of any change yet, though; and the hands got so hard
up for amusement with the small amount of work they had to perform, in
spite of Captain Gillespie hunting up all sorts of odd jobs for them to
do in the way of cleaning the brass-work of the ship and polishing the
ring-bolts, that they got into that "mischief," which, the proverb tells
us, Satan frequently "finds for idle hands" to do.
Tom Jerrold and I were in the boatswain's cabin one afternoon teaching
the starling to speak a fresh sentence--the bird having got quite tame
and learnt to talk very well already, saying "Bad cess to ye" and "Tip
us yer flipper," just like Tim Rooney, with his brogue and all; when,
all at once, we heard some scrambling going on in the long-boat above
the deckhouse, and the sound of men's voices whispering together.
"Some of the fellows forrud are having a rig with the skipper's pigs,"
cried Tom. "Let us watch and see what they're up to."
"They can't be hurting the poor brutes," said I, speaking in the same
subdued tone, so as not to alarm the men and make them think anyone was
listening; "I'm sure of that, or they would soon make a noise!"
"I suppose I was mistaken," observed Tom presently, when we could not
hear the sailor's whispering voices any longer nor any grunting from the
pigs; although we kept our ears on the alert. "I fancy, though, they
were up to something, from a remark I heard just now when I passed by
the fo'c's'le as the starboard watch were having their tea."
"What was that?" I asked. "Did they speak of doing anything?"
"No-o," replied Tom hesitatingly, as if he did not quite like telling me
all he knew, being afraid perhaps of my informing Mr Mackay, from the
latter and I being now known to be close friends albeit I was only an
apprentice and he the first mate. "I only heard them joking about that
beastly marmalade the skipper has palmed off on them, and us, too, worse
luck, in lieu of our proper rations of salt junk; and one of them said
he'd `like to swap all his lot for the voyage for a good square meal of
roast pork,' that's all."
"Why, any of us might have said that," cried I laughing, and not seeing
any harm in the observation. "I'm sure I would not object to a change
of diet."
Later on in the evening, though, what Tom had related was brought back
to me with much point; for, a curious circumstance occurred shortly
after "four bells," when it was beginning to get dark after sunset, the
night closing in so rapidly.
The captain was then on the poop talking to Mr Saunders about something
or other in which they both seemed deeply interested, the one sniffing
and twitching his long nose about, and the other wagging his red beard
as he moved his jaws in talking. I was just above their heads in the
mizzen-top, my favourite retreat of an evening, whither I had taken up a
book to read, although I could barely distinguish the print by this
time, daylight had disappeared so quickly on the sun's sinking in the
deep astern; when, all at once, a violent squealing and grunting broke
out from the long-boat, sufficient for more than a herd of porkers all
in their last agony, instead of its coming from one or even all three of
the pigs Captain Gillespie had stowed there, fattening them up until he
thought them big enough to kill for the table.
"Who the dickens is that troubling my pigs?" roared the captain,
clutching hold of the brass rail of the poop in front of him, and
squinting forwards as well as he could in the dim light to where the
clew of the main-sail just lifting disclosed the fore part of the deck-
house with the long-boat on top. "None of your sky-larking there, d'ye
hear? Leave 'em alone!"
But, there was no one to be seen either on top of the deck-house or in
the long-boat, although the squealing still continued.
"D'ye hear me there, forrud?" shouted Captain Gillespie again in a voice
of thunder, having now worked himself up into one of his tornado-like
rages. "Leave those pigs alone, I tell ye!"
"Sure, sorr, there's nobody there," said Tim Rooney, who was on the
main-deck below, just under the break of the poop. "There's divil a
sowl botherin' the blissid pigs, sorr, as ye can say for y'rsilf. Faix,
they're ownly contrary a bit, sorr, an' p'raps onaisy in their moind!"
"Nonsense, man!" cried Captain Gillespie stamping his foot. "It is some
of those mutinous rascals carrying on their games, I--I know! Just
look, will ye, bosun?"
"There ar'n't a sowl thare, I tell ye, sorr," protested Tim, rather a
bit vexed at his word being doubted, as he turned to go forward where
the row was still going on. "Ain't I jist come from there, sorr, an'
can't I say now wid me own eyes there ain't nobody not nigh the long-
boat nor the pigs neither--bad cess to 'em!"
He muttered the last words below his breath, and getting up into the
main-rigging he climbed half-way up the shrouds, so as to be able to
drop from thence on to the deck-house, this being his quickest mode of
reaching the roof of that structure; and from thence, as he knew, he
would of course be able to see right into the long-boat as well as
inspect its four-footed tenants.
"There's not a sowl in the boat or near it, sorr, at all, at all, cap'en
dear, barrin' the pigs sure, as I towld ye," he repeated on getting so
far; and he was just proceeding to lower himself down to the top of the
deck-house by a loose rope that was hanging from aloft, when he swung
himself back into the rigging in alarm as a dark body jumped out of the
long-boat right across his face, uttering the terrified ejaculation,
"Murther in Irish! Howly Moses, what is that?"
It was one of the pigs, which, giving vent to a most diabolical yell,
appeared to leap from the long-boat deliberately over the port side of
the ship into the sea, sinking immediately with a stifled grunt,
alongside.
Then more weird squeaking was heard, and a second pig imitated his
comrade's example, jumping also from the boat overboard--just as if they
were playing the game of "follow my leader" which we often indulged in
when sky-larking in the second dog-watch!
This was no sky-larking, however, for the captain on the poop, as well
as Mr Saunders and myself up in the mizzen-top, had witnessed the whole
of the strange occurrence the same as Tim Rooney, and all of us were
equally astonished.
As for Captain Gillespie, being a very superstitious man, he seemed
strongly impressed by what had happened. His voice quite trembled as he
called out to Tim Rooney after a moment's pause, during which he was too
much startled to speak:
"Wha--what's the matter with them, bosun?"
"Sorry o' me knows," replied Tim in an equally awestruck voice, either
full of real or very well assumed terror, "barrin' that the divil's got
howld av 'em; an' it's raal vexed I am, sorr, av spakin' so moighty
disrespectful av his honour jist now. Aye, take me worrud for it,
cap'en, they're possiss'd, as sure as eggs is mate!"
"I think the same, and that the deil's got into 'em," said Captain
Gillespie gravely, wrinkling up his nose so much and nodding his head,
and looking so like an old owl in the bright light of the moon which had
rapidly risen, and was already shining with all the fulness and
brilliancy it has in these southern latitudes, that it was as much as I
could do to keep from bursting out laughing and so betraying my presence
in the top above his head. I was all the more amused, too, when "Old
Jock" turned to the second mate and added: "I look upon this as a
visitation, and am glad I never killed the animals; for I would not
touch one now for anything! Have the remaining brute chucked overboard,
Saunders; it would be unlucky to keep it after what has happened. I'm
sure I could not bear the sight of it or to hear it grant again!"
So saying, Captain Gillespie went below and took a stiff glass of grog
to recover his nerves. He must then have got into his cot for he did
not appear on deck again until the middle watch--a most unusual thing
for him to do.
"It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good," however, and the aptness
of the adage was well illustrated in the present instance, the men
feasting on roast pork, besides putting by some tit-bits salted down for
a rainy day, at the expense of "Old Jock's" superstitious fears.
It was wonderful, though, how many legs were owned by that one "last
pig" which the captain had ordered to be chucked overboard, and which
Mr Saunders had, instead, given over to Ching Wang's tender mercies for
the benefit of himself and the crew, stipulating, however, that he was
to have one of the best pieces stuffed and baked, the second mate being
a great glutton always, and fond of good living. Yes, it was wonderful
for one pig to have no less than twelve legs!