ADRIFT IN SMALL BOATS
The scene was now one of wild excitement. The sailors were working
like Trojans to launch the boats, as it could not be told when the
_Eagle_ would founder. Already she was settling in the water.
For once Mr. Tarbill seemed too stunned to know what to do. Bob
made up his mind to save a few of his own possessions if he could,
and he hurried to his berth.
"Put on a life-preserver, Bob," called the captain to him. The boy
thought of the time when this order had been given before, but not
needed. Now there was real cause for it.
"Oh, Bob! Help me!" pleaded Mr. Tarbill, who was trembling with
terror.
"I will. If there's anything valuable in your cabin, you'd better
get it out."
"Everything I have is valuable."
"Well, you can't take it all. The boat won't hold it."
"Have we got to go in small boats out on this dreadful ocean?"
"It's the only way to save our lives."
Mr. Tarbill selected some of his possessions, as did Bob, and then
the only two passengers on the ship, having donned the cork
jackets, went on deck again.
The sailors were busy putting provisions and water into the small
boats, of which, fortunately, there were enough to hold all, even
with the loss of the one the mast had smashed.
"Is there no way of saving the ship?" asked Bob of the captain as
he stood, calm, yet stern, on the quarter-deck.
"No. Her bows are stove in and the foremast has pounded a big hole
in her quarter. The _Eagle_ is doomed. There must be an uncharted
reef about here, or else we were blown off our course."
"Boats are all ready, sir," reported a sailor, running up.
"Very well, tell the men to get in. Mr. Carr will be in command of
one boat, Mr. Bender the other, and I will go in my gig. Bob, you
and Mr. Tarbill will go with me. Pull well away from the wreck,
men, and lay to until we are all together. Then we'll try to get
our bearings."
It was getting lighter now, but the storm showed no signs of
abating. The _Eagle_ was fairly impaled on a sharp point of the
sunken reef and was immovable, but the waves were dashing high over
the bows.
Suddenly the ship gave a shudder and seemed as if about to tear
herself loose, ready to sink beneath the billows.
"Lively, men!" exclaimed the captain. "She'll not last much
longer!"
The orders were given to lower the boats. Bob went forward to
watch the work, holding on by stray cables that dangled from the
wrecked masts.
As the boat of which Mr. Bender was to take charge was being
lowered, one of the ropes in the davit pulley, that at the bow,
fouled, and, as the sailors at the other davit were letting their
line run free, the boat tilted. There was imminent risk of the
oars, sail, and mast, besides the supplies, being spilled out. Bob
saw the danger and sprang forward with a shout, intending to lend a
hand.
As he did so a big piece of one of the yards of the broken mizzen
mast which had been hanging by splinters was whipped loose by a
gust of wind and fell almost at his feet, missing him by a small
margin. Had it struck him squarely it would have killed him.
Bob only hesitated an instant, though the narrow escape gave him a
faint feeling in his stomach. Then, before he could make the
sailors understand what the trouble was, he grabbed the rope that
was running free and, taking a turn about a cleat, prevented the
further lowering of the boat.
"Good!" shouted Second-Mate Bender, who had seen what had taken
place. "You saved the boat, Bob. In another second all the stuff
would have been afloat. Lively now, men. Straighten out that line
and lower away. She's settling fast."
In the meanwhile Mr. Carr had succeeded in lowering his boat, and
he and his men were in it. The crew of the captain's gig were busy
with that craft, and it was all ready to lower.
"Get in, Bob," said the commander of the _Eagle_. "And you too,
Mr. Tarbill."
"Aren't you coming?" asked Bob.
"I'm the last one in," was the sad answer, and then the boy
understood that the captain is always the last to leave a sinking
ship.
"Shall we get in before you lower it?" asked Bob of the sailors who
stood at the davit ropes.
"Yes. We can lower it with you two in. The captain and we can
slide down the ropes. We're used to it, but it's ticklish business
for land-lubbers." And the man grinned even in that time of terror.
Captain Spark had gone to his cabin for his log book, the ship's
papers, and his nautical instruments. As he came out the red sun
showed for an instant above the horizon.
"If we had seen that a few hours sooner we wouldn't be here now,"
remarked the commander sadly. "But it's too late now."
The other boats had pulled away from the wreck. Bob and Mr.
Tarbill got into the gig and were lowered to the surface of the
heaving ocean.
"Take an oar and fend her away from the ship's side a bit," the
captain advised Bob. "Else a wave may smash the gig."
Bob did so. Mr. Tarbill was shivering too much with fear to be of
any help. A few seconds later the two sailors who had lowered the
boat at the captain's orders leaped into the gig as a wave lifted
it close to the _Eagle's_ rail. Then the commander, carrying a few
of his possessions and with a last look around his beloved ship,
made the same jump and was in his gig.
"Pull away," he commanded sorrowfully, and the sailors rowed out
from the foundered ship.
When they were a little way off they rested on their oars. All
around them was a waste of heaving waters. The two other boats
came up, and the occupants looked at the _Eagle_ settling lower and
lower as the water filled her. The wrecked ship, now sunk almost
to her deck level, seemed, save for the three boats, to be the only
object in sight on the bosom of the tumultuous ocean.
"Well, men, give way!" at length called the captain, with a sigh.
"We may be sighted by some vessel, or we may land on an island.
There are several islands hereabouts, if we are not too far away
from them."
Then, bending to the oars, the sailors sent the boats away from the
wreck. Bob and his friends were afloat on the big ocean in small
boats that, at any moment, might be swamped by a mighty wave, for
the wind was still blowing hard, though the sun shone brightly in
the eastern sky.