A DESPERATE STRUGGLE WITH THE RUSHING WATERS.
The water had risen so that the Sylvania had swung around and drifted
half-way up to the knoll, or to the houses on the highest part of it.
As soon as we were under way, I had a chance to look over our large
number of passengers. Three-quarters of them were negroes, mostly
house-servants. I was told that the field hands had escaped in another
direction before the water rose high enough to prevent it. The
inundation was only partly due to the crevasse, for the water had
broken in at some unknown point in the rear of the plantations.
We had taken off the four families that occupied the mansion houses.
They were all highly cultivated people, ladies and gentlemen in the
highest sense of the words. I had conducted them all to the main cabin;
but they were not disposed to remain there. They wanted to see how the
Sylvania was to return to the Mississippi River, and expressed many
doubts as to her being able to make her way through the crevasse
against the strong current. I had some painful doubts myself in this
direction. I had told the engineer about them, and hinted that we
should want all the steam he could carry. But it was only a question of
the power of the engine to force the vessel against the current. There
would be no pitching and plunging, such as we had experienced in coming
the other way.
We had not long to deliberate upon the matter of our exit from the
fields over which we had been sailing. As the water had risen about a
foot inside of the levee, I considered our chances good of going
through without much difficulty. I went to the wheel, and took a place
by the pilot. I saw that several steamers had arrived during our
absence, and the pilot said they were attached to the levee force, and
had come to close the breach. I could not see how it was to be done,
but I had no time to think of the matter. I rang the gong one stroke
when we were within a hundred yards of the crevasse, as I had arranged
with the engineer to do.
The Sylvania soon began to shake and quiver as though she were in the
hands of an angry giant, under the pressure of the steam. I had sent
all the passengers to the after part of the vessel, giving the planters
and their families places on the hurricane-deck. I desired to trim her
aft, as we had hardly coal enough in the bunkers to keep the screw
entirely under water. I regarded it as an excellent thing to have so
much "live ballast" on board. I gave Buck and Hop strict orders not to
let a single person come on the forecastle.
I put Cobbington and Ben Bowman on the hurricane-deck, to keep the
passengers there on the after part. If a few went forward, they would
all do so, for it was the best place to see the operation of the
steamer. By these means I hoped to keep the propeller entirely under
water, and thus get the full benefit of its action on the swift
current. It was still a torrent, but by no means so terrible as when we
had gone through before.
Moses Brickland had never shaken the Sylvania as he was shaking her
now. He was a prudent young man, and I never had occasion to criticise
what he did. He understood the present situation as well as I did. The
levee force was waiting to close the gap, and thus save many more lives
miles from the scene of its operations. We must get through at once, or
the gap would be closed. The abrupt fall was not more than a foot now,
and I had strong hopes that we could overcome it.
It seemed to me that the water was rushing through the crevasse at the
rate of twenty miles an hour. The arithmetic of the situation was
therefore all against me. Moses had never run the Sylvania more than
twelve knots an hour, and he was obliged to hurry her to do that. He
had told me he could get fifteen miles an hour out of her on a great
emergency, but he had never been disposed to try it. He had overhauled
the boiler at New Orleans, and reported it in first-rate condition. Yet
I could not, mathematically, see how a vessel going fifteen miles an
hour could stem a current of twenty miles.
But the force of the current was merely guesswork. It might be twenty,
and it might be no more than ten miles. Mr. Bell agreed with me on the
former figure, while Washburn and Ben Bowman insisted that it was not
more than ten at the present time. If I "split" the difference between
the two estimates, it would leave just the result which the engineer
could obtain on an emergency like the present.
The Sylvania went into the rapid current, which we began to feel at
fifty yards from the gap. But it did not stop, or even sensibly detain
us, for the water was scattered as soon as it passed through the
opening. We made our course at a right angle with the levee, and kept
the helm firmly against any tendency to "wabble;" for if the swift tide
had struck her on the side, it would have hurled her around in spite of
us.
At twenty yards from the levee we began to slacken our speed, for here
we got almost the full force of the current. But she still went ahead,
though she quivered as if the struggle would shake her in pieces. Not
one of us said a word in the pilot-house. I directed the helm, for I
was more accustomed to the working of the steamer than any of my
companions.
The bow went up abreast of the inside of the dike. The Sylvania
trembled like a race-horse after his first heat. We held her head
steadily up to the work, but I could not see that she gained a single
inch. The propeller whirled like a circular saw, such as I had often
observed in the lumber-mills at home. I almost fancied that I could
hear it buzz.
I watched the edge of the crevasse, but I could not see that we either
gained or lost. For several minutes we struggled against the savage
tide. It was a desperate situation. The people on the levee, now
swelled into a crowd by the arrival of several steamers, were watching
us with intense interest. No one spoke a word.
"Look out sharp for the helm, Mr. Bell," I shouted, so as to be heard
above the roar of the rushing waters and the clang of the engine.
I thought he did not respond to my movements with the wheel as promptly
as was necessary. I felt that the least turn to the right or the left
would be fatal to us, for by this time I realized that the situation
was vastly more perilous than when we went into the current before. The
least "wabble" might cause the current to strike her on the side, and
send her over on her beam ends in the vortex below us.
"Can't you crowd her a little more, Moses," I called through the
speaking-tube.
"Not much more," he promptly replied.
"We are not losing anything," said the pilot, holding his breath.
"Mind the helm," I replied, for I felt that I could not hold her alone.
"If we get the bow half a degree across the current, it is all up with
us."
"I can hold her alone, but you take the feeling off my hands," he
answered, warmly.
He meant that I began to move the wheel before he felt the pressure on
his hands, for one steers a vessel very much as he drives a horse, and
depends quite as much upon feeling as upon sight. My feeling was much
quicker than his, and I would not give up the helm to him, but told him
he must watch my movements.
"We have gained an inch!" exclaimed the pilot.
"What is an inch going through such a torrent as this?" I replied,
though I felt encouraged by the fact, if it was a fact, for I dared not
look to the right or the left, as he did.
It seemed to me that the steamer would soon go through the crevasse or
shake herself to pieces in the struggle. The jar and the quivering were
so much increased that I was sure Moses was doing something more than
he ordinarily considered his best. In a few minutes more we had worried
up the little fall, which indicated the difference between the height
of the water on either side of the levee. We had gained several yards,
but I don't think we made more than an inch a minute; and those minutes
seemed like hours.
Suddenly the Sylvania began to increase her speed through the water,
and I concluded that we had passed the swiftest part of the current.
Washburn informed me that the stern of the steamer was inside of the
cut, and I felt that the battle was won. Still I kept my eyes fixed on
the flagpole forward, in order to hold the vessel in the middle of the
gap.
"I think we shall fetch it," said Mr. Bell.
"No doubt of it, if we don't lose our chances by talking about them," I
replied.
The pilot said no more. I did not want him to abate his zeal until we
were outside of the levee, for it would have been the easiest thing in
the world to lose all we had gained by the struggle of the last hour.
We kept it up half an hour longer. When the bow was outside of the
levee, I was afraid Bell would think we were safe, while it was still
possible to be carried back. But the steamer increased her speed every
moment now, and we were soon out in the broad river. I kept her on her
course, and as soon as she was clear of the treacherous current, she
darted off at a furious speed.
"All right, Moses!" I shouted through the tube. The next instant I
heard the steam escaping furiously through the safety-valve. I had no
doubt that the chief-engineer felt an intense relief when he heard my
voice the last time, for no money or any consideration short of the
safety of the Sylvania would have permitted him to put on such a press
of steam.
"Excuse me, Mr. Bell, if I spoke sharply to you, or said anything that
hurt your feelings, for I meant nothing of the kind," I said to the
pilot, when we were in the middle of the river.
"Don't mention it, captain," he replied, warmly. "I can say, and I
reckon I know something about steamboats, I never saw a boat better
handled than this one has been from first to last. I thought I had only
a boy for a captain, but I find that you understand your business."
"Thank you, Mr. Bell; you are very kind to say so," I replied, with a
blush. "I think I know the feeling of this vessel's helm rather better
than any one in these parts, and I was a little afraid you might not
see the necessity of keeping her up, without any wabbling."
"You were right every time, captain. I never handled a craft of the
sort before, and it was quite right for you to trust her to no one but
yourself."
As soon as we were fairly out in the river, the people on the levees
set up a volley of cheers, which was taken up by the negroes on board.
I saw the Islander had made fast to a steamer a little below the
breach, and I asked the pilot to lay the Sylvania alongside of her.
"Young man, you are a brave boy," said Colonel Hungerford, the planter
who had first come on board of the steamer. "I was on the point of
telling you before you started back, that you could never get through
that hole; and I was going to tell you of a way by which you could have
got through the lakes and streams into the Bayou la Fourche, and up
that to the Mississippi. But I see you need no advice from me. We are
all very grateful to you."
"I beg you will not feel under any obligation to us, for we are sort of
sea-knights, roaming about in quest of adventures; and we were very
glad of the opportunity to render you and others any assistance. I
believe you and your family were in no particular danger."
"I don't know about that, my young captain," replied the planter,
shaking his head. "My mansion is surrounded with verandahs, and the
water was beginning to lift it off its foundations."
I took my glass and looked at the house. One end of it appeared to be
lifted up.
"I would not have staid in it two hours more for half the state. I have
been through three inundations before, and I know something about
them," replied the planter. "I hope I shall see more of you."
As we came up to the Islander, the passengers of both vessels, on board
of her, began to clap their hands. I was embarrassed by this
demonstration, and after asking Washburn to see that we were made fast
to our consort, I sat down in the pilot-house where they could not see
me.