VII.

I had met in my travels with but one specimen of such weather as this;

it was off the Cape of Good Hope to the westward; the ship was under

topmast and topgallant studdingsails, when, without an interval of so

much as twenty seconds of calm, she was taken right aback by a wind that

came with the temper of half a gale in it, whilst as if by magic a fog,

white and dense as wool, was boiling and shrieking all about her.

For some time my consternation was so heavy that I sat mechanically

staring into that part of the thickness where the boat had disappeared,

without giving the least heed to the sea or to the wreck. It was _then_

blowing in earnest, the ocean still densely shrouded with flying vapor,

and an ugly bit of a sea racing over the swell that rolled its volumes

to windward. A smart shock and fall of water on to the forecastle

startled me into sudden perception of a real and imminent danger. The

fore-scuttle was closed, but the main and companion hatchways yawned

opened to the weather; there were no bulwarks worth talking of to

increase the wreck’s height of side, and to hinder the free tumbling of

the surge on to the decks, so if the wind increased and the sea grew

heavier, the hulk must inevitably fill and go down like a thunderbolt!

It would be idle to try to express the thoughts which filled me. I was

like one stunned: now casting an eye at the sea to observe if the

billows were increasing, now with a heart of lead watching the water

frothing upon the deck, as the hull heaved from one side to another;

then straining my sight with a mad passion of eagerness into the vapor

that shut off all view of the ocean to within a cable’s length of me.

There was nothing to be done. Even could I have met with tarpaulins,

there was no sailor’s skill in me to spread and secure them over the

open hatches. However, when an hour had passed in this way, I took

notice of a small failure of the wind, though there was no lightening of

the impenetrable mist. The folds of the swell had diminished, and the

sea was running steadily; the hull with her broadside dead on, rose and

fell with regularity, and though at long intervals the surge struck her

bow, and blew in crystals over the head, or fell in scores of bucketfuls

upon the deck, nothing more than spray wetted the after-part of her.

It was now about six o’clock in the evening. In two hours time the night

would have come down, and if the weather did not clear, the blackness

would be that of the tomb. What would the _Ruby_ do? Remain hove-to and

await for moonlight or for daybreak to seek for me? A fragment of

comfort I found in remembering that the wreck’s position would be known

to Captain Bow and his mates, so that their search for me, if they

searched at all, ought not to prove fruitless; though to be sure much

would depend upon the drift of the hulk. Presently, fearing that there

might be no water or provisions on board, I was seized with a sudden

thirst, bred by the mere apprehension that I might come to want a drink.

There was still light enough to enable me to search the interior, and

now I suppose something of my manhood must have returned to me, for I

made up my mind to waste no moment of the precious remaining time of day

in imaginations of horror and of death and in dreams of desperate

despondency. I went on my hands and knees to the hatch, lest if I stood

up I should be knocked down by the abrupt rolling of the craft, and

entered the cabin. On deck all was naked and sea-swept from the taffrail

to the “eyes,” and if there were aught of drink or of food to be had it

must be sought below. I recollected that one of the forward berths or

cabins, which the second mate and I had looked into, had shown in the

gloom as a sort of pantry; that is to say, in peering over my

companion’s shoulders, I had caught a glimpse of crockery on shelves,

the outlines of jars and so forth. But the inspection had been very

swift, scarce more than a glance. I made for this cabin now, very well

remembering that it was the last of a row of three or four on the

starboard side. I opened the door, and secured it by its hook to the

bulkhead that I might see, and after rummaging a little I found a cask

of ship’s bread, a small cask (like a harness cask) a quarter full of

raw pickled pork, a jar of vinegar, two large jars of red wine, and best

of all, a small barrel about half full of fresh water, slung against the

bulkhead, with a little wooden tap fixed in it, for the convenience as I

supposed of drawing for cabin use. There were other articles of food,

such as flour, pickles, dried fruit, and so on; the catalogue would be

tedious, nor does my memory carry them.

I poured some wine into a tin pannikin, and found it a very palatable,

sound claret. I mixed me a draught with cold water, and ate a biscuit

with a little slice of some kind of salt sausage, of which there lay a

lump in a dish, and found myself extraordinarily refreshed. I cannot

tell you indeed how comforted I was by this discovery of provisions and

fresh water, for now I guessed that if the weather did not drown the

wreck, I might be able to support life on board of her until the _Ruby_

took me off, which I counted upon happening that night if the moon

shone, or most certainly next morning at latest. My heart however sank

afresh when I regained the deck. The sudden change from the life, the

cheerfulness, the security of the Indiaman, to _this_--“Oh, my God! my

God!” I remember exclaiming as I sank down under the lee of the fragment

of bulwark, with a wild look around into the thickness and along the

spray-darkened planks of the heaving and groaning derelict. The

loneliness of it! no sounds saving the dismal crying of the wind

sweeping on high through the atmosphere, and the ceaseless seething and

hissing of the dark-green frothing seas swiftly chasing one another out

of sight past the wall of vapor that circled the wreck, with the blank

and blinding mist itself to tighten as with a sensible ligature into

unbearable concentration the dreadful sense of solitude in my soul.

Slowly the wind softened down, very gradually the sea sank, and their

worrying note of snarling melted into a gentler tone of fountain-like

creaming. But the vapor still filled the air, and so thick did it hang

that, though by my watch I knew it to be the hour of sundown, I was

unable to detect the least tinge of hectic anywhere, no faintest

revelation of the fiery scarlet light which I knew must be suffusing the

clear heavens down to the easternmost of the confines above this

maddening blindness of mist.

Then came the blackness of the night. So unspeakably deep a dye it was

that you would have thought every luminary above had been extinguished,

and that the earth hung motionless in the sunless opacity of chaos out

of which it had been called into being. The hours passed. I held my seat

on the deck with my back against a bulwark stanchion. It was a warm

night with a character as of the heat of steam owing to the moisture

that loaded and thick-ened the atmosphere. Sometimes I dozed,

repeatedly starting from a snatch of uneasy slumber to open my eyes with

ever-recurring horror and astonishment upon the blackness. Gleams of the

sea-fire shot out fitfully at times from the sides of the wreck, and

there was nothing else for the sight to rest upon. At midnight it was

blowing a small breeze of wind and the sea running gently--at midnight I

mean as I could best reckon; but the darkness remained unchanged, and I

might know that the fog was still thick about me by no dimmest spectre

of moon or star showing.