"Sure an' you must bear in mind, messmates," commenced Pat, coming
outside his galley and leaning against the side in free-and-easy
fashion, "when I wint aboord that vessel in Noo Yark, I was a poor
gossoon, badly off for clothes, having no more slops than I could carry
handy in a hankercher."
"Not like your splendiferous kit now," observed Sails, the sail-maker,
with a nudge in Jorrocks' ribs to point the joke--the cook's gear in the
way of raiment being none of the best.
"No, not a ha'porth ov it," proceeded the Irishman, taking no notice of
the sarcastic allusion to his wardrobe. "To till the truth, I'd only
jist what I stood up in, for I'd hard times ov it in the States, an' was
glad enough to ship in the schooner to git out ov the way ov thim rowdy
Yankees, bad cess to 'em! They trate dacint Irishmen no betther nor if
they were dirthy black nayghurs, anyhow! How so be it, as soon as I got
afloat ag'in, I made up my mind to git some traps togither as soon as I
could."
"Let you alone for that!" interposed Sails again, maliciously.
"Arrah, be aisy now, old bradawl and palm-string, or I'll bring ye up
with a round turn!" exclaimed Pat, getting nettled at the remark.
"Why can't you let him be?" cried the rest, thereupon. "Heave ahead,
cooky;" and, so encouraged, the Irishman once more made a fresh start,
declaring, however, that if he were once more interrupted they'd "never
hear nothing" of what he was going to tell them, "at all, at all!"
Peace being then restored, he resumed the burden of his tale.
"As soon as the ould schooner was riddy to start with all thim mules
aboard, we got a tugboat to take us in tow down the harbour out to the
Narrows, as they calls the entrance to Noo Yark Bay; and whin the tug's
hawser was fetched over our bows to be fastened to the bollards I sees
that the rope's a bran-new Manilla one.
"`Aha,' thinks I, `that's a foine pace of rope anyhow! I'll have a bit
ov you, me lad, to stow away with my duds; mayhap ye'll come in handy
by-and-bye!' and so saying to meeself, I sings out to the chap on the
tugboat a-paying out the hawser, to give me some more slack, and he
heaves over a fathom or two more, which allowed me to cut off a good
length, lavin' plenty yit to belay around the bollards; an' whin no one
was lookin' I takes the pace ov cable below and kicks it away in the
forepeak, so as I could know where to foind it forenenst the time I
wanted for to use it.
"Well, we sailed away from Sandy Hook down to the Line, an' sailed and
sailed, losin' most of our mules, and making no headway, as I've tould
you, until at last we got into the south-east Trades, same as this ship
is now, and fetched down the coast to Cape Horn.
"Presently, it begins to get so could, that for want of clothing I was
nearly blue-mouldy with the frost in the nights, until I could stand it
no longer; but none ov the chaps had any duds to spare, an' I was clane
out of me head what for to do.
"One evening, howsoever, whin I were that blue with could as I could
have sarved for a Blue Pater if triced up to the mast-head, a sinsible
kind ov idea sthruck me.
"`Be jabers,' sez I to mesilf, `I'm forgettin' that pace of Manilla
hawser I've got stowed away; sure an' it'll make an illigant overall!'
"No sooner I thinks that, than down I goes to the forepeak, where I
found me rope all right; and thin, thin and there, boys, I unreaves the
strands, making it all into spun yarn--you know, I s'pose, as how I'm a
sail-maker by rights, like Sails here, and not a reg'ler cook?"
"The deuce you are!" ejaculated Sails; "you never told us that before."
"No fear," replied Pat. "Faix, I don't till you iverythin' I knows--I
larnt better nor that from the monkeys in Brazil, old ship!"
"But what did you do with the Manilla hemp arter you unrove the hawser?"
asked Jorrocks, his curiosity now roused by the matter-of-fact way in
which the Irishman told his story--relating it as if every word was "the
true truth," according to the French idiom.
"Why, you omahdaun, I jist worked it into a guernsey, knitting it from
the nick downwards, the same as the ladies, bless 'em! do them woollen
fallals that they wear round theirselves."
"You wove it into a guernsey?" cried Sails, in astonishment.
"Aye, I did that so," returned Pat; "and wore it, too, all round Cape
Horn!"
"Then let me look at you a little closer," cried the sail-maker, pulling
Doolan towards him, and passing his hand over his nose.
"What the blazes are ye afther, man?" asked Pat, not being able to make
out what the other meant by handling him in that fashion.
"Only seeing if you had my mark," said Sails, calmly; "and here it is,
by all that's powerful!"
"Your mark, Sails? What on airth d'ye mane?"
"Why, whenever I sews up a chap in his hammock as dies at sea, which
I've often had to do as part of the sail-maker's duty in the many ships
I've been in, I allers makes a p'int of sticking my needle through the
corpse's nose, to prevent him slipping out of his covering."
"What!" ejaculated the Irishman, startled for the moment out of his
native keenness of wit; "an' is it m'aning to say as it's a could corpus
I've been, an' that I've bin did an' buried in the bottom of the say?"
"Aye, aye, my hearty," answered Sails, with great nonchalance. "And
I've sewed you up in your hammock, too, for sarten--that is, just as
sure as you fetched across that there streaky mule of yourn, arter
sailing over the ocean for three weeks, and made a guernsey frock out of
a Manilla hawser!"
There was a regular shout of laughter from all hands at the sail-maker
thus turning the tables so completely on the Irishman, who got so angry
at our merriment for the moment that he retired within his caboose,
slamming the half-door too, and declaring that not a single mother's son
of those present should have the taste of hot coffee again in the
morning watch!
However, Pat's fits of temper were as evanescent as they were quickly
produced, and presently he was laughing and talking away as if he had
not been offended, enjoying the joke Sails had against him almost as
much as any of the others.
Two days after crossing the Line we sighted the Rocas, on passing the
parallel of Fernando Noronha, where the Brazilians have a penal
settlement; and, on the third day, we cleared the Cape of Saint Roque,
which is the most projecting point of the South American continent--
stretching out, as it does, miles into the Atlantic Ocean, while the
coast-line on either side of it trends away in a wide sweep, away
westwards, north and south, back from the sea.
After passing Saint Roque, we ran down our latitudes rapidly, the south-
east Trades keeping with us until we had reached the twentieth parallel;
and we fetched Rio on our forty-second day out. This was not bad time,
considering the great distance we were driven out of our way by the
gale, and the fact of our subsequently knocking about for a week in the
Doldrums.
With regard to matters on board the ship, I may state here, that, from
the date of that eventful night when the _Esmeralda_ had so
providentially escaped being wrecked on the Rocks of Saint Paul, and
Captain Billings, after "dressing down" the mate, had restored me to my
former position aft, Mr Macdougall had not spoken a single word to me,
although I had made many overtures of peace towards him, wishing the
matter to drop--nothing being so unpleasant as to be on awkward terms
with any one with whom one is brought in constant contact, especially
when the daggers-drawn parties are cooped up together in a vessel on the
high seas.
But, no; he would not accept the olive branch.
When it was time for me to relieve his watch, the mate invariably sent
one of the hands to summon me, telling me through the same medium the
course to be steered, and giving what orders were necessary for the
working of the ship, so that there should be no occasion for any
conversation between us; and it likewise happened that when we were on
deck together, as was frequently the case during the day, he always
walked on the weather side of the poop, while I took the leeward place--
that is, unless the skipper was there too, when of course the latter
promenaded the more honourable beat, and I walked by his side, while Mr
Macdougall had the lee-side then all to himself.
At meal-times also, in the cabin, he took care that we should not meet,
never coming in until after I had left the table, and always rising up
to go on deck should I enter while he was there.
The mate held aloof in a similar fashion from the skipper, the two never
interchanging a word save with reference to the navigation of the
vessel. He seemed, indeed, to have sent us both to Coventry, although
Captain Billings made no comment to me on his conduct; but I did not
fail to notice--what indeed was the popular belief through the ship--
that, if the first mate was paying us out in this way, he did not forget
to "take it out of the crew" in another and very practical mode of his
own, which was by driving them as hard as a workhouse superintendent in
charge of a lot of poor paupers.
To return to the ship and her voyage, I should observe that, after the
south-east Trades failed us--succeeded for a short spell by light
variable winds, as we kept well away from the coast, and so perhaps
missed the land breeze that we might have had--we picked up the south-
west monsoon, which carried us past Rio Janeiro.
The term monsoon, or "monsun," I may explain, is derived from an Arabic
word, _mausim_, meaning "a set time, or season of the year;" and is
generally applied to a system of regular wind currents, like the Trades,
blowing in different hemispheres beyond the range of those old customers
with which ordinary voyagers are familiar.
From Rio we ran down in five days to the Plate River, having fine
weather and making pretty good sailing all the time, as indeed we had
done since crossing the Line; but, arrived off Monte Video, we soon had
warning that our quiet days of progress through the water on one tack,
without shifting a brace or starting a sheet, were numbered with the
fortunate things of the past.
One morning, just when we were in latitude 34 degrees 55 minutes south,
and 55 degrees 10 minutes West, or nearly a hundred miles off the wide
estuary of the Rio de la Plata, I noticed a peculiar phenomenon.
The wind was blowing from the northward of west, while the atmosphere
was bright and clear, so that the horizon was extended to almost double
its ordinary distance; but, although no land was to be seen anywhere in
sight, myriads of little winged insects began all at once to hover over
us, just as if we were close in shore under the lee of some tropical
forest, while our hands, clothes, faces, and the ship's rigging as well,
began to be covered with long, white, hair-like webs, similar to those
woven by spiders in a garden shrubbery! I couldn't make it out at all,
feeling inclined to view the matter as one of those extraordinary freaks
of Nature, which even science is unable to throw any light on--phenomena
that are every now and then exhibited to us, as if only to show our
ignorance of the workings of the invisible Power around us guiding the
movements and physical cosmogony of our sphere; but Jorrocks, who was a
thorough seaman, believing in portents, and thinking that everything
unusual at sea was sent for a purpose, and "meant something," advised my
calling the skipper.
"I 'specs, Mister Leigh," said he, "as how there's a squall brewing, or
summat, for they're pretty plentiful down here when the wind bears round
to the west."
"All right, Jorrocks; I'll give him a hail," I replied; and leaving the
boatswain in charge of the deck, it being my watch, I went down to wake
up the skipper, he having only turned in just before I came on duty.
"How's the glass?" asked Captain Billings, as soon as I had roused him
and told him what I had observed.
"I didn't think of looking at it, sir," I replied.
"Then do so at once," he said; "a sailor should never fail to consult
his barometer, even when the weather is apparently fine, for it gives
warning of any change hours, perhaps, before it may occur. It is an
unswerving guide--more so than the wind and sky in some latitudes."
I hastened now to look at the instrument, and noticing that it had
fallen, I reported the fact to the skipper as he was dressing.
"Ah," said he, "then that has occurred since I turned in;" and,
completing his toilet rapidly, he soon followed me on deck, whither I
returned at once.
In the short interval of my absence below, however, there was a marked
alteration in the scene.
The wind had dropped to the faintest breeze, which presently, too, died
away, succeeded by a dead stillness of the atmosphere, while the sea
became like glass, except where an occasional heave of the unbroken
surface betrayed the restless force beneath that seeming calm; and,
instead of the clear sky and wide-stretching horizon melting into the
azure distance, which had previously struck me with admiration, a thick
haze had crept up over the heavens from the westwards, which, extending
right up to the zenith, had soon shut out the bright sunlight, making it
darker than night--the air becoming at the same time chill and cold.
I had not much leisure, though, to note the pictorial effects of the
scene; for I heard the skipper's voice behind me.
"By Jove, Leigh!" he exclaimed, "we're going to have one of those
pamperos, as they call them, that come off the mouth of the Plate; and
we'll have all our work cut out for us to be ready in time. Call the
other watch, boatswain!"
"Aye, aye, sir," replied Jorrocks; and quickly his familiar hail rang
out fore and aft, as he rapped on the scuttle forwards--
"All ha-a-ands take in sail!"
We were carrying a full spread of canvas at the time; but the men,
tumbling out of their bunks with a will, not having had much of that
sort of work lately, were soon clambering up the rigging, furling the
royals and topgallant sails--I amongst them, you may be sure, having
been the first, as usual, on the main royal yard.
"Now, men, take in the flying jib," cried Captain Billings, when we had
come below, having so far stripped the ship for the coming fight; and
the headsail was stowed, the spanker and trysail were brailed, the
courses hauled up and the yards squared, when we awaited the attack of
the pampero.
"It'll soon be on us now," said the skipper, seeing that the heavens
became blacker and blacker to the westwards; and presently it came!
A streak of vivid lightning shot out from the blue-black storm-clouds
that were hung over the ship like a funeral pall, lighting up the
surrounding gloom and making it appear all the more sombre afterwards
from the momentary illumination; and then, with a crash of thunder--that
seemed as if the sky above was riven open, it was so awfully loud and
reverberating--the tornado burst upon us, accompanied by a fierce blast
of wind, that almost took the ship aback, and would have sent her down
beneath the water in an instant to a certainty if we had been under
sail.
"Let fly everything!" shouted the skipper; and the halliards being cast
loose, the topsails came down on the caps by the run; when the
_Esmeralda_, paying off from the wind, began to exhibit her old form of
showing her heels to the enemy--tearing away through the sea with all
her sheets flying.
Along with the pampero came a terrific shower of hail that lacerated our
faces and almost took away our breath for the moment; but, never heeding
this, on the skipper issuing his orders, we were up aloft again reefing
topsails in a jiffey, and, as soon as the halliards had been manned and
the yards rehoisted, the courses were furled and the jib hauled down,
the fore-topmast staysail being set in its place. Everything being now
made snug, the vessel was brought once more round to her course on the
starboard tack, heading a little to the westward of south.
To the hail succeeded a heavy storm of rain; and then, the pampero
having blown itself out by its sudden frenzy, a short calm now came on,
after which the wind chopped round to the old quarter, the southwards
and eastwards, bringing us back again to the port tack as we steered
between the Falkland Islands and the South American continent--keeping
in closer to the land now, for any fresh wind that might spring up would
be certain to come from off shore.
The day of the pampero, however, did not pass by before another incident
happened on board the _Esmeralda_.
When "all hands" were called, of course Mr Macdougall came up too; and,
although he did not go aloft the same as I did to help in reefing
topsails and furl the canvas--for he was neither so young nor so active
as myself, and besides, it was not his place as first mate of the ship
thus to aid the crew in doing the practical part of their duty--yet, on
deck, he was of much assistance to the skipper in seeing that his
different orders were promptly executed at the moment required; being
not chary either of lending a hand at a brace when help was necessary,
and exerting himself as much as any one, in a way very unusual for him.
So now, when the pampero had passed away and the excitement was over,
Captain Billings, in his joyful exuberance of feeling at the _Esmeralda_
having weathered the peril, went up to him and shook hands cordially.
"Hurrah, Macdougall!" he exclaimed, "the old barquey has been too much
for my River Plate bully of a pampero."
"Aye, mon, she's weethered it weel, I ween," replied the mate, accepting
the proffered pledge of restored friendship; and he was shaking away at
the skipper's fist as if he was never going to relinquish its grasp,
when, suddenly, the calm came on that I have mentioned, and the sails
flapped against the masts heavily, shaking the ship and making the
rigging vibrate.
Both Mr Macdougall and the skipper looked aloft, impelled by the same
instinct, as they stood aft, the mate close to the taffrail; when, at
that instant, the spanker boom swinging round, the lee sheet--not being
hauled taut--caught the mate athwart his chest and swept him
incontinently over the side!
I was on the opposite side of the deck, witnessing with much
satisfaction the mode in which he and the skipper had made up their
differences, the feud having lasted for over a fortnight; but, on seeing
the accident, was for a moment horror-struck.
However, I soon recovered myself.
"Man overboard!" I shouted out, with all the power of my lungs; and
then, without hesitation, I plunged after Mr Macdougall into the sea.