At noon on our second day out, running right before the north-east by
east wind all the while and making but little southing, with our royals
and studding-sails set, and everything that could draw--the _Esmeralda_
averaging nearly ten knots an hour every time we hove the log from the
time of our clearing the Bristol Channel--we had reached the meridian of
12 degrees 15 minutes west; for Captain Billings wisely took advantage
of such a favourable breeze, as I've remarked before, to get well to
windward of the French coast, knowing well that we might shortly meet
with westerly winds of a variable nature that would probably put us
quite as far to the eastward as we should want--in the event of our
making too much westing.
However, having now gained such a good offing, we hauled our wind, and
steered a west-sou'-west course, as previously mentioned, towards
Madeira.
Up to this time we had not started a brace, or loosed a sheet, the wind
being fair from aft while we were steering to the west, and now well
abeam, on our bearing up to the southward on the port tack; but, we had
hardly made a couple of days' sail in our new direction, running down to
the parallel of 45 degrees north, which we crossed in 15 degrees west,
before the wind began to come in light puffs. Shortly afterwards, it
shifted round to the westward, backing occasionally to the east and
south-east and causing us plenty of work in the way of tacking, first to
starboard, and then to port again--the skipper striving all the while to
keep all the westing he had made, and preserve a diagonal course for the
Line; although the set of the Gulf Stream, in towards the coast of
Portugal, gave us a lot of leeway to add to our dead reckoning.
What with the baffling breezes and occasional calms, it took us another
four days to get to the southwards of the Azores, passing them much
further to the eastwards than Captain Billings had calculated on; but
then a fresh wind sprang up from the north-west, bidding fair to last,
which took us down to the thirty-fifth parallel in fine style, the
_Esmeralda_ covering over three hundred miles between the morning of one
day and noon the next.
All hands now began hoping we were going to make a quick run of it after
all, in spite of the tedious delays of the last few days; but it was a
very fallacious hope, as we quickly found out.
The favourable north-wester lasted another twelve hours, driving us down
our latitudes on the starboard tack, the ship sailing pretty free, with
the wind nearly abeam and all her canvas set that could draw, racing
through the water like a crack cutter at a regatta; when, on the evening
of our eleventh day out, by which time we had nearly reached the
parallel of Madeira, although forty miles or so to the westward of the
island, the breeze failed us all of a sudden, just close on to midnight,
a dead calm setting in, accompanied by a heavy rolling swell.
"Ah," said Jorrocks, who was sharing the first watch with me--Mr
Ohlsen, the second mate, being ill and excused from duty--"we're now in
the Hoss Latitudes, Mister Leigh, and may know what we've got to
expect!"
"Horse Latitudes?" I repeated after him, inquiringly, thinking he was
having a little joke at my expense, and taking advantage of my
ignorance.
"Aye, I ain't trying to bamboozle you, my lad! They calls them so,
'cause, in the old days, the West India traders that carried out hosses
to the Windward Islands had frequently to throw 'em overboard during the
shifts of wind and changes they had when they got hereabouts; for the
weather can't be depended on for an hour at a time, it being calm, just
as now, one minute, and the next a gale springing up strong enough to
blow the masts out o' your ship 'fore you can let the sheets fly."
"Oh!" I exclaimed; "and, do you think there's any likelihood of a
hurricane now?"
"Can't say," replied Jorrocks, sententiously. "We'd better give the
skipper a hail; he left orders to be called if the wind dropped, or in
case of any change."
"All right," said I, turning to leave the poop. "I will go down and
rouse him at once, and I may as well knock up Mr Macdougall at the same
time to relieve the deck, for it's past eight bells."
"Aye, aye, do so, sir," responded the boatswain; so I hastened below to
perform my mission, leaving him in charge until I returned.
Captain Billings answered my call almost the instant I rapped at his
door, coming from his cabin fully dressed, having turned in to his bunk
"all standing," as if prepared for the summons; but the first mate was a
heavy sleeper, and it took me more than ten minutes to rouse him, so
that when I had gained the deck again the port watch had come on duty,
the "starbowlines" having gone to their bunks as soon as relieved by the
fresh hands. Jorrocks, however, I noticed, remained still on the poop;
and, knowing that he would not thus inconvenience himself by going
without his proper "caulk," like the rest, unless there was some urgent
reason--for he dearly loved his sleep when duty did not interfere with
the indulgence--I stayed behind, too, the more especially as I
remembered what he had said about there being the chance of a "blow."
In the short time I had been away, a change was apparent, even to my
unaccustomed eyes, unused as they were as yet to many nautical
phenomena.
The stillness of the atmosphere I had noticed when I quitted the deck to
summon the skipper, had been succeeded by a series of light puzzling
puffs of air; while, although the night was clear, with a few stars
shining overhead, fleecy fragments of cloud were whirling about in
eddies, some settling in heavy masses on the water and banking
themselves round the horizon.
But, the sea itself showed much the greatest sign of coming disturbance.
The waves, no longer following each other in long heaving rollers, were
curving upwards and jostling each other--like so many fiery coursers,
suddenly thrown back on their haunches, by reason of being reined in
when in the full burst of their mad career, and now champing their bits
with angry impatience!
There was, likewise, an alteration in the aspect of the ship.
Captain Billings had already reduced his canvas, the topgallant sails
having been taken in and the courses clewed up; and now, pretty nearly
stripped of all her "drapery," like a gladiator entering the arena, the
_Esmeralda_ appeared awaiting the issue of whatever decision the
elements might arrive at--ready to take her part in the conflict should
strife ensue between the opposing forces of the wind and waves; or, in
the event of a contest being avoided through the disinclination of the
storm fiend to "come to the scratch," equally prepared to spread her
wings again and proceed on her voyage.
"It's just a toss up now, whether we'll have it or not," whispered
Jorrocks to me as we stood side by side together on the poop, watching
the skipper, whose eyes were as intently riveted on the dog-vane at the
main truck above.
Just at this moment, Mr Macdougall came lazily sauntering up the poop
ladder. He did not see that Captain Billings was on deck; and, eyeing
the change in the ship's appearance, exclaimed, angrily, with that
Scottish burr of his, which was always more pronounced when he was
excited--
"Hoot, mon, wha' the dickens hae ye takken the sails off her--who
ordered ye, I'd like ta ken?"
He was addressing Jorrocks; but the skipper, who was annoyed by his late
arrival to relieve the watch, answered him sharply--
"I gave the order, Mr Macdougall, which you should have been up in time
to have seen carried out; and, if you're a seaman and will just give a
glance round, you'll soon see the reason why!"
The first mate made no reply to this save to follow out the captain's
suggestion of looking over the side; and what he saw there did not
appear to give him any excuse for controverting the skipper's words;
for, the clouds had now spread over the horizon--except to the
southward, where it was still clear, and from which a short sharp gust
of wind came every now and then, filling out the loose folds of the
courses, and then, as it died away, letting them flap against the masts
with a heavy dull sound as of distant thunder, an occasional streak of
pale lightning darting across the sky to the north-west, where the
heavens were most obscured, as if to bear out the illusion.
"We're in for it now, for certain," said Captain Billings presently,
noticing a faint stir in the air above amidst the whizzing clouds, the
upper strata of which were going in a contrary direction to that in
which the vane pointed, which was still to the south-east. "Boatswain,
rouse out the watch below!"
Jorrocks thereupon immediately went forward towards the fo'c's'le,
knocking with a marlinspike three times on the deck, and shouting out
the well-known hail that every sailor knows but too well.
"Tumble up there! All hands shorten sail!"
The men, who had hardly shifted their clothes and turned in, after being
relieved by the port watch at eight bells, came tumbling up on deck
hurriedly, and the skipper at once ordered the topsail and foresail to
be reefed, spanker to be brailed up, and the main course furled; while
the vessel was kept with her head to the southward, that is, as well as
the cross sea and the fitful gusts of wind would allow, under her jib,
fore and main-topsails and forecourse.
Presently there was an ominous hum in the surrounding atmosphere, when
the waves calmed down as if by magic; and then, a large rent disclosed
itself in the sombre curtain of cloud to the north-west, the heavy
masses of vapour that had been previously piling themselves along the
horizon there and spreading up to the zenith falling back again and
scurrying away in a retrograde direction, like skirmishers on a battle-
field driven-in on to their supports by a rush of cavalry trying to cut
them off.
"Here it comes!" shouted out Captain Billings, ordering the hands at the
same time to "stand by" the braces and topsail halliards; and, almost
ere the crew could get to their respective posts, the clouds had
disappeared, with what seemed a supernatural celerity from the heavens,
letting the clear blue sky be seen again and the bright twinkling stars
peep down to see what all the fuss was about, all being calm and easy up
there!
Thanks to the skipper's precautions, the outburst of the gale did not
take the _Esmeralda_ aback, as would most probably have been the case if
the first mate had been in charge of the deck, when we should have most
likely lost our spars, if the vessel had not foundered, as frequently
happens when a ship is caught unprepared; as it was, she only winced
slightly, with a shiver through her frame, as the wind struck her on the
quarter, the masts and yards creaking and the topsails expanding with a
sound like that of an explosion as they were blown out to their fullest
extent, almost jumping from the bolt-ropes, and then her hull lay over
to leeward while she began to push through the water, driven along
before the blast at racehorse speed.
"Ease off those starboard braces there, and haul in to leeward?" cried
out Captain Billings, directing the man at the wheel by a wave of his
hand to put the helm down slightly, so as to bring her head more up to
the wind; but this was more than the steersman could do unaided, the
vessel--carrying out the analogy I recently used--resembling a vicious
charger that had taken the bit between his teeth--so, Mr Macdougall at
once sprang to help the steersman, when the two together managed, by
exerting all their united strength, to jam the spokes round so that the
ship's head was brought over to the south-west, bearing off then with
the wind before the beam.
The north-west gale was then blowing with tremendous force and
increasing to the power of a hurricane each instant as it whistled
through the cordage, wailing and shrieking like the lost souls in
Dante's "Inferno." The momentarily quiet sea, too, had got up again,
and was now covered with huge broken waves--raised aloft in pyramids one
moment, and the next scooped out into yawning valleys, into which the
vessel plunged, with a shock that made her timbers vibrate with the
sledge-hammer thud of the bows meeting the billows full butt, the
concussion causing columns of spray to be thrown up that came in over
the cathead, drenching the fo'c's'le and pouring in a cascade into the
waist, whence the broken water, washing aft along the deck, forming a
lake on the lee-side, where the scuppers were level with the sea, from
the ship's heeling over.
We were still carrying too much sail; and this the skipper was as quick
as any one to perceive, although he was anxious to pursue his course as
long as he could, and make as much capital as he could out of the north-
wester in his way to the Line.
"Hands shorten sail!" accordingly was the repeated cry; and, knowing
what was wanted, the crew were soon racing up the shrouds to close-reef
the topsails, although the force of the wind nearly pinned them to the
rigging like spread eagles, and they had hard difficulty in gaining the
yards, and working out along the foot-ropes, especially on those to
windward.
The topsail halliards had of course been let go before this, and the
loose sails were filled out like balloons, so that it took some time to
get in the bunt and tie the reef points; but it was at last done, and we
returned to the deck--I being especially triumphant at having out-paced
one of the smartest topmen in the ship, in gaining the weather earing of
the foretop sail before him, and completing my task so quickly as to get
down on deck before some of the rest had yet left the yard.
Captain Billings, I was pleased to see, noticed my activity, giving me
an approving smile, which more than counterbalanced the scowl that
Macdougall greeted my reappearance with below; but all such thoughts
were soon banished by the skipper's fresh order to go aloft and take in
the topsail we had only just close-reefed, the vessel being buried too
much by the head.
Away up the rattlins we all climbed again; while those below, on the
halliards being started by the run, began hauling on the clewlines and
buntlines, bagging up the sail so that we could hand it easier. It was
stiffer work furling it than the reefing had been; but, at length this,
too, was accomplished, albeit I nearly narrowly got knocked off the
yard-arm by the flapping back of the folds of canvas in my face as the
wind caught the leech sideways. We then returned once more to the more
substantial platform of the deck, glad enough to get down safe again.
"Let go the jib halliards!" was the next command, some of the hands
starting forwards to man the down haul; but the moment the halliards
were cast loose, the accommodating sail saved us any further trouble in
the way of stowing it, by blowing clean away to leeward with a report as
if a small cannon had been fired off on the fo'c's'le--floating out
against the dark background of the sky like a child's kite whose string
has parted and let it go to grief, tumbling down from its soaring
height, and disappearing in the dim distance to leeward, where the
clouds had already vanished.
The ship was now only under her close-reefed main-topsail and reefed
foresail, all the rest of her canvas having been taken off her by
degrees; still, she laboured so greatly, and got such a list to
leeward--with the topmasts bent like fishing rods under the strain,
while the weather shrouds were as taut as fiddle-strings, and those on
the port side hung limp and loose through the stretching of the
rigging--that the skipper saw she would not stand driving any more. The
only thing now to be done, he thought, was to lay her to, so that, as he
could not get her any further on her forward journey, she should not, at
all events, lose the progress she had already made save by leeway drift,
which of course was unavoidable.
"Ease down the helm!" he cried to the two men, who were now necessary at
the wheel, while the fore-tack was boarded, the lee braces hauled aft,
and the mainyard braced in, when the ship was brought up to the wind,
bowing and scraping, and taking in tons of water over the fo'c's'le, in
this operation, that washed everybody off their legs in the waist,
bundling them away to leeward in a bunch.
For a time the _Esmeralda_ now behaved very well, the mizen trysail
being set to steady her, although, being hove to on the starboard tack,
she drifted sideways, before the fierce north-west gale, making as much
leeway towards the south and east as if she had been running free; but,
presently, there was a loud crack heard forwards, and Haxell, the
carpenter, came up to the skipper on the poop, looking even more serious
than usual as he crawled aft under shelter of the bulwarks.
"The foremast is sprung, sir," said he in a melancholy tone of voice, as
if he were announcing the fact of his just going to be hanged.
"Is it serious?" asked Captain Billings.
"Aye, aye, sir, it's all that," replied Haxell. "There's a big flaw
close under the slings of the foreyard. It won't stand the pressure of
that foresail ag'in it much longer, Cap'; and it'll be safe to carry
away presently."
"Then we must relieve it before that happens," said the skipper, giving
orders for us to furl the foresail and hoist the fore-topmast staysail
in its place, for that would serve to keep control of the helm, he
thought. The ship required some headsail, and this would not try the
damaged mast so severely as the foresail had done, with its wide extent
of canvas.
By the time all these different manoeuvres had been essayed and effected
it was broad daylight. It was a fine morning, too, although the wind
was still blowing a hurricane and the sea was fearfully high and choppy,
for there wasn't a cloud to be seen in the heavens, while the sun was
shining down with almost tropical heat; but, in spite of its looking so
bright, we hadn't done with the nor'-wester yet.
Towards mid-day, when we found from observation that we were in latitude
27 degrees North and longitude 18 degrees West--nearly abreast of the
island of Palma in the Canaries, and a terrible distance to the eastward
of our position on the previous day, thus showing all the leeway we had
lost--the wind increased so much in strength that it blew now with even
greater force than at its first onset the evening before on the breaking
out of the gale.
This was not all, either.
The heavy waves that dashed against the ship as she headed them, broke
upon her bows with such fury that it seemed every moment as if they
would beat in the timbers; while, every now and then, some billow
mightier than its fellows would force her head away, making her fall
off, and then, the succeeding sea would take her broadside on, hurling
tons of broken water on her decks that would have soon filled her had
not the hatches been battened down, which precaution had been taken when
we first reduced sail.
The situation became serious on this being repeated several times during
the afternoon, for there was great danger of the vessel being any moment
thrown on her beam ends, when there would certainly be a clean sweep
made of everything on board and the _Esmeralda_ be speedily converted
into a floating wreck!
Captain Billings accordingly called a council of his officers, I
standing by and listening to what Mr Macdougall and Jorrocks advised
should be done in the emergency. These both, however, came to the same
opinion as the skipper, that scudding would be the best course to pursue
under the circumstances--although, like him, they were well aware that
the difficulty which faced us all consisted, not so much in running
before the wind, as in managing to get the vessel's head round so as to
do it without broaching or letting her to.
Still, the manoeuvre had to be tried as a last resource.
"I don't see that anything else can be done," said Captain Billings,
with a more anxious look on his face than I had ever noticed there
before. "I only hope we'll manage it successfully; for, if we once get
broadside on in the trough of this sea, she'll never rise out of it,
with the heavy cargo she carries, and so it will be a case of Davy
Jones' locker for the lot of us!"