Thanks to my darling's devotion, to her unwearied attentions, to her
foresight and care of me, I was strong enough to leave my cabin on the
third day following my restoration to consciousness.
During that time many inquiries were made after my health by the
passengers, and Mary told me that the greatest curiosity prevailed fore
and aft to see me. So misfortune had made a little ephemeral hero of
me, and this, perhaps, was one stroke of compensation which I should
have been very willing to dispense with.
The second officer of the ship, a man of about my height and build,
had very kindly placed his wardrobe at my disposal, but all that I
had chosen to borrow from him was some linen, which, indeed, I stood
greatly in need of; but my clothes, though rather the worse for salt
water, were, in my opinion, quite good enough for me to wear until I
should be able to buy a new outfit ashore.
At twelve o'clock, then, on the third day I rose and leisurely dressed
myself, and then sat waiting for Mary, whose arm to lean on I preferred
to any one's else.
She came to the cabin presently, and when she had entered I folded her
in my arms with so deep a feeling of happiness and love and gratitude
in me, that I had no words to speak to her.
It was when I released her that she said--"Since God has heard our
prayers, dearest, and mercifully preserved us from death, shall we
thank Him now that we are together, and say one prayer for my dear
father, who, I firmly believe, looks down upon us and has still the
power to bless us?"
I took her hand and we knelt together, and first thanking her for
reminding me of my bounden duty, I lifted up my heart to Almighty God,
Father of all men, who had guarded us amid our perils, who had brought
us to the knowledge and love of Him and of each other, by the lesson of
hard trials and sorrowful privation.
And I would ask you to believe that I do not relate such circumstances
as these from any ostentatious wish to parade my piety, of which God
knows I have not so large a store that I need be vain of showing it;
but that I may in some poor fashion justify many good men in my own
profession who, because they are scandalised by persons among us that
are bad, are confounded with these by people ashore who imagine the
typical sailor to be a loose, debauched fellow, with his mouth full
of bad language and his head full of drink. I say earnestly that this
is not so; that a large and generous soul animates many sailors; that
they love God, pray to Him, and in many ways too rough, maybe, to
commend them to fastidious piety, but not surely the less honest for
the roughness, strive to act up to a just standard of goodness; and
that even among the bad--bad, I mean, through the looseness of their
morals and the insanity of their language--there is often found a
hidden instinctive religion and veneration and fear of God not to be
discovered in the classes ashore to which you may parallel them. Nor,
indeed, do I understand how this can fail to be; for no familiarity
with the mighty deep can lessen its ever-appealing grandeur to them as
a symbol of heavenly power and majesty; and the frequent fear of their
lives in which sailors go--the fury of tempests, the darkness of stormy
nights, the fragility of the ship in comparison with the mountainous
waves which menace her, the horror of near and iron coasts--I say that
such things, which are daily presented to them, must inevitably excite
and sustain contemplations which very few events that happen on shore
are calculated to arouse in the minds of the ignorant classes with whom
such sailors as I am speaking of are on a level.
When I quitted the cabin, supported by Mary, I found myself in a very
spacious saloon, most handsomely furnished and decorated, and striking
me the more by the contrast it offered to the plain and small interior
of the _Grosvenor's_ cabin.
The table was being prepared for lunch: smartly dressed stewards
and under-stewards trotted to and fro; there were flowers on the
table, vases of gold fish swinging from the deck, a rich thick carpet
underfoot, comfortable and handsome sofas; a pianoforte stood against
the mizzen-mast, which was covered with a mahogany skin and gilded;
two rows of lamps went the length of the saloon; and what with the
paintings on the cabin doors, the curtains, the rich brasswork about
the spacious skylights, the bright sunshine streaming in upon the whole
scene and kindling a brilliance in the polished woodwork, the crystal
on the table, the looking-glasses at the fore end of the saloon--I
fairly paused with amazement, scarcely conceiving it possible that this
airy, sunshiny, sumptuous drawing-room was actually the interior of a
ship, and that we were on the sea, steaming at the rate of so many
miles an hour towards England.
There were a couple of well-dressed women sewing or doing some kind of
needlework and conversing on one of the sofas, and on another sofa a
gentleman sat reading. These, with the stewards, were all the people in
the saloon.
The gentleman and the ladies looked at us when we approached, and all
three of them rose.
The ladies came and shook hands with Mary, who introduced me to them;
but I forget their names.
They began to praise me; the gentleman struck in, and asked permission
to shake me by the hand. They had heard my story: it was a beautiful
romance; in short, they overpowered me with civilities, and made me so
nervous that I had scarcely the heart to go on deck.
Of course it was all very kindly meant; but then what were my exploits?
Nothing to make money out of, nothing to justify my appearance on the
boards of a London theatre, nothing to furnish a column of wild writing
to a newspaper, nothing to merit even the honour of a flattering
request from a photographic company. I very exactly knew what I _had_
done, and was keenly alive to the absurdity of any heroizing process.
However, I had sense enough to guess that what blushing honours were
thrust upon me would be very short-lived. Who does not thank God at
some time or other in his life that there _is_ such a thing as oblivion?
So we went on deck; I overhearing one of the ladies talk some nonsense
about her never having read or heard of anything more deliciously
romantic and exciting than the young sailor rescuing a pretty girl
from a wreck and falling in love with her.
"Did you hear that, Mary?" I whispered.
"Yes," she answered.
"Was it romantic?"
"I think so."
"And exciting?"
"Dreadfully."
"And did they live happily ever afterwards?"
"We shall see."
"Darling, it _is_ romantic, and it _is_ exciting, to us, and to no
one else. Yes, very romantic now that I come to think of it; but all
has come about so gradually that I have never thought of the romance
that runs through our story. What time did we have to think? Mutineers
out of Wapping are no polite garnishers to a love story; and romance
must be pretty stoutly bolt-roped not to be blown to smithereens by a
hurricane."
There were a number of passengers on deck, men, women, and children,
and when I ran my eye along the ship (the _Grosvenor_ would have made
a neat long-boat for her) and observed her dimensions, I thought that
a city might have gone to sea in her without any inconvenience arising
from overcrowding. In a word, she was a magnificent Clyde-built iron
boat of some four thousand tons burden, and propelled by eight hundred
horse-power engines; her decks white as a yacht's, a shining awning
forward and aft; a short yellow funnel, towering masts and broad yards,
and embodying every conceivable "latest improvement" in compasses,
capstans, boat-lowering gear, blocks, gauges, logs, windlass, and the
rest of it. She was steaming over a smooth sea and under a glorious
blue sky at the rate of thirteen knots, or nearly fifteen miles an
hour. Cool draughts of air circled under the awning and fanned my
hollow cheeks, and invigorated and refreshed me like cordials.
The captain was on deck when we arrived, and the moment he saw me he
came forward and shook my hand, offering me many kindly congratulations
on my recovery; and with his own hands placed chairs for me and Mary
near the mizzen-mast. Then the chief officer approached, and most,
indeed I think all, of the passengers; and I believe that had I been as
cynical as old Diogenes I should have been melted into a hearty faith
in human nature by the sympathy shown me by these kind people.
They illustrated their goodness best, perhaps, by withdrawing, after
a generous salutation, and resuming their various employments or
discussions, so as to put me at my ease. The doctor and the chief
officer stayed a little while talking to us; and then presently the
tiffin-bell rang, and all the passengers went below, the captain having
previously suggested that I should remain on deck, so as to get the
benefit of the air, and that he would send a steward to wait upon me.
Mary would not leave my side; and the officer in charge taking his
station on the bridge before the funnel, we, to my great satisfaction,
had the deck almost to ourselves.
"You predicted, Mary," I said, "that our lives would be spared. Your
dream has come true."
"Yes; I knew my father would not deceive me. Would to God he had been
spared!"
"Yet God has been very good to us, Mary. What a change is this, from
the deck of the _Grosvenor_--the seas beating over us, the ship
labouring as though at any moment she must go to pieces--ourselves
fagged to death, and each of us in our hearts for hours and hours
beholding death face to face. I feel as though I had no right to be
alive after so much hard work. It is a violation of natural laws and an
impertinent triumphing of vitality over the whole forces of Nature."
"But you are alive, dear, and that is all I care about."
I pressed her hand, and after looking around me asked her if she knew
whether this vessel went direct to Glasgow.
"Yes."
"Have you any friends there?"
"None. But I have friends here. The captain has asked me to stay with
his wife until I hear from home."
"To whom shall you write?"
"To my aunt in Leamington. She will come to Glasgow and take me home.
And you?"
"I?"
I looked at her and smiled.
"I! Why, your question puts a matter into my head that I must think
over."
"You are not strong enough to think. If you begin to think I shall grow
angry."
"But I must think, Mary."
"Why?"
"I must think how I am to get to London, and what I am to do when I get
there."
"When we were on the _Grosvenor_," she said, "you did all the thinking
for me, didn't you? And now that we are on the _Peri_ I mean to do
all the thinking for you. But I need not say that. I have thought my
thoughts out. I have done with them."
"Look here, Mary, I am going to be candid----"
"Here comes one of the stewards to interrupt you."
A very civil fellow came with a tray, which he placed on the skylight,
and stood by to wait on us. I told him he need not stay, and,
addressing Mary, I exclaimed--
"This recalls our farewell feast on the _Grosvenor_."
"Yes; and there is the boatswain watching us, as if he would like to
come to us again and congratulate us on having found each other out. Do
catch his eye, dear, and wave your hand. He dare not come here."
I waved my hand to him and he flourished his cap in return, and so did
three or four men who were around him.
"I am going----" I began.
"You will eat your lunch first," she interrupted.
"But why will you not listen?"
"Because I have made my arrangements."
"But I wish to speak of myself, dear."
"I am speaking of you--my arrangements concern you--and me."
I looked at her uneasily, for somehow the sense of my own poverty came
home to me very sharply, and I had a strong disinclination to hear what
my foolish pride might smart under as a mortification.
She read my thoughts in my eyes; and blushing, yet letting me see her
sweet face, she said in a low voice, "I thought we were to be married?"
"I hope so. It is my dearest wish, Mary. I have told you I love you. It
would break up my life to lose you now."
"You shall not lose me--but neither will I lose you. I shall never
release you more."
"Mary, _do_ let me speak my thoughts out. I am very poor. The little
that I had has gone down in the _Grosvenor_. I could not marry you
as I am. I could not offer you the hand of a pauper. Let me tell you
my plans. I shall write, on reaching Glasgow, to the owners of the
_Grosvenor_, relate the loss of the ship, and ask for payment of the
wages that are due to me. With this money I will travel to London and
go to work at once to obtain a berth on another ship. Perhaps, when
the owners of the _Grosvenor_ hear my story, they will give me a post
on board one of their other vessels. At all events I must hope for the
best. I will work very hard----"
"No, no, I cannot listen!" she exclaimed, impetuously. "You are going
to tell me that you will work very hard to become captain and save a
little money; and you will then say that several years must pass before
your pride will suffer you to think yourself in a proper position to
make me your wife."
"Yes, I was going to say that."
"Oh, where is your clever head which enabled you to triumph over the
mutineers? Has the shipwreck served you as it has the poor steward?"
"My darling----"
"Were you to work twenty years, what money could you save out of this
poor profession of the sea that would justify your pride--your cruel
pride?"
I was about to speak.
"What money could you save that would be of service when you know that
I am rich, when you know that what is mine is yours?"
"Not much," said I.
"Would you have loved me the less had you known me to be poor? Would
you not have risked your life to save mine though I had been a beggar?
You loved me because--because I am Mary Robertson; and I love you
because you are Edward Royle--dear to me for your own dear sake, for my
poor dead father's sake, because of my love for you. Would you go away
and leave me because you are too proud to make us both happy? I will
give you all I have--I will be a beggar and you shall be rich that you
need not leave me. Oh, do not speak of being poor! Who is poor that
acts as you have done? Who is poor that can enrich a girl's heart as
you have enriched mine?"
She had raised her voice unconsciously, and overhearing herself, as it
were, she stopped on a sudden, and bowed her head with a sob.
"Mary," I whispered, "I will put my pride away. Let no man judge me
wrongly. I talk idly--God knows how idly--when I speak of leaving you.
Yes, I could leave you--but at what cost? at what cost to us both?
What you have said--that I loved you as Mary Robertson--is true. I know
in my own heart that my love cannot dishonour us--that it cannot gain
nor lose by what the future may hold in store for me with you, dear
one, as my wife."
"Now you are my own true sailor boy!" was all she said.
* * * * *
I began this story on the sea, and I desire to end it on the sea; and
though another yarn, which should embrace my arrival at Glasgow, my
introduction to Mary's aunt, my visit to Leamington, my marriage, and
divers other circumstances of an equally personal nature, could easily
be spun to follow this--yet the title of this story must limit the
compass of it, and with the "Wreck of the _Grosvenor_" my tale should
have had an end.
And yet I should be doing but poor justice to the faithful and
beautiful nature of my dear wife, if I did not tell you that the plans
which she had unfolded to me, and which I have made to appear as
though they only concerned myself, included the boatswain and the poor
steward. For both a provision was contemplated which I knew her too
well to doubt that she had the power to make, or that she would forget:
a provision that, on the one hand, would bring the boatswain alongside
of us even in our own home, and make him independent of his calling,
which, to say the least, considering the many years he had been to
sea, had served him but ill, and still offered him but a very scurvy
outlook; whilst, on the other hand, it would enable the steward to
support himself and his wife and child, without in the smallest degree
taxing those unfortunate brains which we could only hope the shipwreck
had not irreparably damaged.
Thus much, and this bit of a yarn is spun.
And now I ask myself, is it worth the telling? Well, however it goes
as a piece of work, it may teach a lesson: that good sailors may be
made bad, and bad sailors may be made outrageous, and harmless men may
be converted into criminals by the meanness of shipowners. Every man
knows, thanks to one earnest, eloquent, and indefatigable voice that
has been raised among us, what this country thinks of the rascals who
send rotten ships to sea. And it is worth while to acquaint people
with another kind of rottenness that is likewise sent to sea, which in
its way is as bad as rotten timbers--a rottenness which is even less
excusable, inasmuch as it costs but a trifling sum of money to remedy,
than rotten hulls:
I mean rotten food.
Sailors have not many champions, because I think their troubles and
wrongs are not understood. You must live and suffer their lives to
know their lives. Go aloft with them, man the pumps with them, eat
their biscuit and their pork, and drink their water with them; lodge
with crimps along with them; be of their nature, and experience their
shore-going temptations, the harpies in trousers and petticoats who
prey upon them, who drug them and strip them.
And however deficient a man may be in those qualifications of mind
which go to the making of popular novels, I hope no person will charge
such a writer with impertinence for drawing a quill on behalf of a
race of men to whom Britain owes the greatest part of her wealth and
prosperity, who brave death, who combat the elements, who lead in
numerous instances the lives of mongrel dogs, who submit, with few
murmurs that ever reach the shore-going ear, to privations which blanch
the cheek to read, that our tables and our homes may be abundantly
furnished, our banking balances large, and our national importance
supreme.
THE END.
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET
AND CHARING CROSS.
Transcriber's Notes:
Cover and Table of Contents created by Transcriber and placed in the
Public Domain.
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
preference was found in the three volumes of this novel, or to remedy
simple typographical errors; otherwise they were not changed.
Dialect and other non-standard spellings have not been changed.
Spaces before the contraction "'ll" (for "will") have been retained.
Such spacing was inconsistent in this volume
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines have been retained.
Page 107: "gauge" was misprinted as "guage".
Page 180: "so that speaking one of these vessels" was printed that way.
Page 213: "never was there less bombast" was misprinted as "their";
changed here.