"Whereabouts are we, sir?" I asked.
"We are off the Start, my lad."
"Off the Start!" I exclaimed. "Oh, sir, won't the captain put into
Plymouth to land us as he promised? Do speak to him, sir."
"These lads are very anxious to be landed, Captain Hawkins," he said.
"It is of the greatest importance to young Trawl here, and it would not
much delay us."
The mate spoke in the same way, and entreated the captain even in
stronger language than Dr Cockle had used.
"No, no," he answered. "Very likely they do wish to be put on shore,
but we cannot lose a moment of this fine breeze. The trip won't do them
any harm, and they'll thank me for it by-and-by."
Jim, when he heard this, was too angry on my account to speak, but I
lifted up my hands and implored the captain to have pity on my young
sister, if not on me.
"Very fine, my lad," he answered, with a laugh; "but you are not quite
of so much importance as you suppose. It might delay us not only for a
few hours, but for days, perhaps, and, doctor, I cannot listen to you.
We've got a favourable breeze, and I intend to make the best use of it."
Once more I implored and entreated that the captain would not carry us
away from home. All was of no use; he would not listen either to the
doctor or the mate, or us. At length, growing angry, he said he would
not hear another word on the subject, and Jim and I, by the doctor's
advice, went for'ard to be out of his way. There we stood, watching
with straining eyes the shore, past which we were running, and at length
the Land's End came in sight.
"Cheer up, my lads," said our kind friend, who came for'ard to us. "The
wind may change, and we may be driven back, or we may be able to put you
on board some homeward-bound ship. Cheer up! Cheer up!"
The land, as I stood gazing at it, rapidly sank below the horizon. I
strained my eyes--the last faint line had disappeared. I could have
cried, but my grief was too bitter for tears. Not that I cared for
being carried away on my own account, but I thought of the sorrow my
kind relatives in Shetland would feel--Mr Trail and his daughter, and
dear little Maggie, and more than all how Mary would feel as she waited
day after day for the arrival of the brig which was never to appear, and
then, when all hope was gone, how she would mourn for us, and Nancy also
would, I knew, share her feelings.
If I could have sent but a line to my sister to tell her I was safe,
though I might be long absent, it would not have so much mattered. Mr
Gray would take very good care of her, and she would have written to Mr
Troil to explain what had happened; but as it was I could scarcely bear
it.
"The doctor told us to cheer up, and that's what I say to you, Peter,"
cried Jim, trying to console me. "Maybe we shall fall in with a
homeward-bound ship after all, though I don't think there's much chance
of our seeing the shores of old England again for a long time to come if
we don't, as it looks as if the wind would hold in its present quarter
till we are well out in the Atlantic."
Jim was right. With yards squared and every stitch of canvas the ship
could carry, we bowled along at a rate which soon left our native land
far astern.
I had been too long at sea, and knew the duties of a sailor too well, to
feel for myself so much as many fellows of my age under similar
circumstances would have done. Jim also tried to rouse me up, so
instead of moping I determined to exert myself. I still had the hope to
support me that before long we might fall in with a homeward-bound ship,
and I concluded that the captain would, without hesitation, put Jim and
me on board her.
The day after we took our departure from the Land's End he saw us both
together on deck.
"What are those youngsters idling there for?" he exclaimed, turning to
Mr Griffiths. "Put them in a watch at once, and let me see that they
do their duty. If they don't, let them look out for squalls!"
"Ay, ay, sir!" answered the mate, who, though of a very independent
spirit, always spoke respectfully to the captain.
He considerately placed us both in the same watch, knowing that we
should like it, as we should be able to talk at night when we were on
deck and had no especial duty to perform.
We had no reason to complain of the way the men treated us, rough as
some of them were. The doctor and Mr Griffiths always behaved kindly,
but the captain took no further notice of us, except when he ordered Jim
or me to do something. To my surprise, I found that the ship was the
_Intrepid_--the very one my father and I had put Mr Griffiths and the
doctor on board so many years before. She was then quite a new ship,
and, being strongly-built, she was as sound as ever. I have spoken of
her as a ship, but she was barque-rigged, as almost all whalers are,
barques being more easily handled than ship-rigged craft. The
_Intrepid_ was upwards of three hundred tons burden, with a crew of
thirty hands all told, and stored, I found, for a cruise of two years or
more. She carried six whale-boats, and materials for building others
should any of them be lost. There were three mates, a carpenter and
cooper and their mates; an armourer, a steward, and cook; four
boat-steerers, four able seamen, six ordinary seamen, the doctor, two
apprentices, Jim, and me.
I had never before been on board a whaler, and as I listened to the long
yarns of the men describing their hairbreadth escapes and the exciting
chases after the monsters of the deep, I felt, had I not had such cogent
reasons for returning home, that I would very gladly have gone out to
the South Seas to witness with my own eyes the scenes the men spoke of.
Still I longed as much as ever to get back to England.
Jim and I made it out pretty well with the two apprentices. Horner was
inclined to look down upon Jim for his want of education. Esdale
treated us both alike with gentleness and consideration, and offered to
teach Jim to read and write if he wished to learn. It had never
occurred to me to try and do so. Indeed, although we had been so much
together, I had not had many opportunities.
The second night we were on board I was awakened by feeling some hairy
creature nestling by my side. I sung out, not a little frightened.
"What's up?" cried Horner, who had just come below to rouse Jim and me
out to keep our watch.
"A great big brute of some sort has come into my bunk; I wonder it
hasn't bitten me," I answered.
"Why, I've got another here!" exclaimed Jim, who just then awoke. "What
in the world is it?"
Horner laughed loudly.
"Why, they're our ferrets," he answered. "Didn't you see them before?"
"No, and I never wish to see them again," answered Jim, as he flung the
creature down on the deck.
Horner then told us that the captain had taken a couple on board at Hull
to kill the rats, and that although a hutch had been made for them the
creatures always managed to get out at night for the sake of obtaining a
warm berth, and that if we put them into their hutch they would be sure
to find their way back again into his or Esdale's bunks before they had
been many minutes asleep.
The truth was the ferrets were more afraid of the rats than the rats
were of them. We bore the annoyance for three nights more, and then, by
the unanimous consent of our mess, we got Horner to carry them down into
the hold, from which they never ascended, and we concluded that they
either got drowned in the bilge water or were eaten up by the rats.
We had not been long at sea before a heavy gale sprang up, but as the
wind was from the westward we were able to lay our course.
To Jim and me it mattered very little, although the waves were much
higher than I had seen them in the North Sea, but poor Esdale suffered
very much, and Horner's conceit was taken down a good many pegs. Jim
and I did our best to look after them, and to try to get them to eat
something, but they could only swallow liquids.
"Oh, let me alone! Let me alone!" cried Horner.
The doctor came to see Esdale frequently, and advised that he should be
taken to a spare berth in the cabin, but the captain would not allow it.
"All lads get sick when they first come to sea if there's a gale of
wind, and he'll come round again by-and-by," he remarked in his usual
off-hand way.
This was not told to Esdale, who said, indeed, that he preferred
remaining where he was.
As the weather was tolerably warm, I believe that he was as well off on
the half-deck as he would have been in the cabin.
At last the gale came to an end--or rather we ran out of it. Esdale got
somewhat better again, but I observed that he had changed greatly in
appearance since we came on board.
I had now to abandon all hopes of the ship putting back, but there was
still a possibility of getting on board a homeward-bound vessel.
Two days after the gale had ceased, while I was below, I heard the cry
of "Sail, ho!" from the man at the masthead.
I hurried on deck. We had the wind abeam, and so had she--a soldier's
wind as it is called. We should meet the approaching vessel before long
and pass each other, with not a cable's length between us.
I watched her eagerly. We drew closer and closer to each other. When
we got nearly abreast I went up to the first mate and asked him what she
was.
"She's from the Brazils, bound for Liverpool," he answered.
Just then I saw the captain come on deck. Forgetting what he was I
rushed up to him.
"Oh, Captain Hawkins, will you put Jim and me on board her?" I
exclaimed. "You don't know how much I want to get home; it won't delay
you ten minutes to put us on board."
"Ten minutes of this fine breeze lost for the sake of a boy like you,"
he answered, with a scornful laugh. "I expended more than ten in
heaving to to pick you up, and that was as much as you are worth. Go
forward, you young monkey, and give me no more of your impudence."
Undaunted by his heartless answer, I again and again implored that he
would put me on board the Liverpool ship, but he stood looking
contemptuously at me without uttering a word, till Jim, seeing that I
was making no way, coming up, hat in hand, exclaimed--
"If you'll put Peter here on board yonder ship, sir, that he may go home
to his young sister and friends, I'll stay here and work for you, and be
your slave for as many years as you may want me. Do, sir--do let poor
Peter go!"
"Off with you for'ard," thundered the captain, with a fierce oath. "How
dare you speak to me? Away, both of you! Somebody has been putting you
up to this, I know." And he glanced angrily at Dr Cockle and the mate.
"If you mean me, Captain Hawkins, I know that the lad has very good
reasons for wishing to return home, but I did not advise him or Jim
Pulley to speak to you. I certainly wish that you would put Peter Trawl
on board that homeward-bound ship."
"You may wish what you like, but I am not going to allow what I choose
to do to be found fault with by you or any other man on board this
ship!" cried the captain, turning on his heel. "So look out for
yourself," he added, glancing half over his shoulder.
The ordinary salutes were exchanged, and the two vessels stood on their
course.
My heart felt as if it would burst with indignation and sorrow. Had the
wind been light, I might, perhaps, have been able to put a letter on
board, even although the captain would not have let me go.
Esdale tried to comfort me, and advised me to have one written ready to
send should another opportunity occur.
The first land we made soon after this was Madeira. Except the coast of
Norway, I had seen no foreign country, and as we passed it within a
quarter of a mile, it struck me as very beautiful and fertile.
The wind being light we tarred down the rigging, and a few days
afterwards, when we were about eight hundred miles from the land, one
morning, on coming on deck, I noticed that the shrouds and every
freshly-tarred rope looked as red as if they had been just painted. I
asked the doctor, who allowed me to speak to him in a familiar way, what
had caused this, and he told me that it was the red sand blown off the
coast of Africa, and that it was a common occurrence in these latitudes.
We passed in sight of the Cape de Verde islands, one of which, called
Fogo, seemed of a prodigious height. The first place we touched at was
the island of Brava, into which the captain put to obtain fresh
provisions.
"Now is my time," I thought. "If I can go on shore here, I shall be
able to get back by the next homeward-bound vessel which calls at the
place."
Jim proposed that we should smuggle ourselves on board some shore-boat,
but to this I would not agree.
"We will go with the captain's leave," I answered, "and he surely will
not refuse it now that he has no excuse for doing so."