Keeping my eyes on the companion way, I popped into the galley, and
fished a huge junk of salt beef out of the boiler in which I had seen
the cook place it the night before, for the purpose of soaking it to
remove some of the super-abundant salt with which it was saturated. A
bucket of doubtfully clean water stood in a corner; I tasted it, and
found it was fresh, poured it into a large stone bottle, spilling half
of it in my hurry, rammed a dirty cloth into the neck by way of cork,
and put bottle and beef into the boat.
I hastened to lower the jolly-boat from the davits, but before she
touched the water one of the falls jammed, the forward one luckily,
and, as I lowered away on the aft one, the stern rested in the water,
while the bows remained a couple of feet above it, in a dangerous
position. This is not at all an uncommon occurrence, but my nerves were
so shaken by the terrible ordeal I had passed through, that I fancied
I heard the noise of feet on deck, so seizing my knife I cut away
like a madman, making a dozen random cuts where one well-directed one
would have sufficed. The boat swung round before I could unhook the
other fall, and I was within an ace of meeting a watery grave when she
righted, and bumped against the brig’s black side.
From the taffrail, as I swept past, depended a thin line, which I
mechanically clutched and held, but as the ship was going some three
knots an hour the boat rapidly dropped astern. I still held on as
fathom after fathom paid out over the taffrail, till quite twenty
fathoms hung in the water; then came a jerk, which threw me on my face,
but I still hung on, and made the end fast round the forward thwart, as
the other end was evidently fast on the _Ladybird_.
I sat in the bows for what seemed like hours, knife in hand, ready to
cut myself adrift on the first signs of a human being appearing on
deck. I saw the moon set and the night grow inky dark, and the volume
of smoke from the fo’castle increase, and then I saw the glow of the
extending fire reflected on the sails, but no human form was visible.
Then I heard a crash and a subdued roar, and saw tongues of flame
shoot up above the deck, catching the foresail and setting it in a
blaze; then up and up it mounted till the whole suite of sails on the
foremast were ablaze, and as I sat there I remember thinking to myself
how pretty it looked. I felt secure, and my nerves were soothed by the
sight before me, and I looked on calmly from my seat in the bows at the
gallant ship, which from being my home had nearly become my tomb. Could
I but have looked at the men in the strong-room, then, come what might,
I am afraid I must have released them, for evidently they were still
prisoners, and my sympathetic heart would have been my body’s ruin.
I tried to find some mode for their release and my own safety, but
although I racked my brain, I could devise no practical plan; beside,
by this time they were probably suffocated.
While thus cogitating, the flames took hold upon the sails of the
mizzen-mast, and they too were soon destroyed, leaving the yards and
masts blazing. The air grew hotter and hotter; the deck was in a
blaze, and great pieces of burning wood and tarry rope began to fall in
and around the boat, and although I wished to hang on to witness the
last of the _Ladybird_, I was at last compelled to cut the rope and
drop quietly astern, as the heat, smoke, and fiery drift had become
quite unbearable.
The good ship was now alight from stem to stern, and without her sails
made very little progress through the water, but drifted gradually
before the faint breeze, so slowly, in fact, that with the paddles I
could manage to keep up with her. She presented a splendid appearance
as, clothed in fire, she rose and fell on the roll of the sea; her
reflection, mirrored in the waves, made the water glow with an
incandescent lustre that riveted my boyish attention as intently as the
finest pyrotechnic display could possibly have done.
Day at last began to dawn, and when light fairly broke, I was alone
on the ocean; for the poor old hull with its stumpy black masts
swerved from side to side, and, with a sidelong movement, sank like a
tea-saucer, sending up, with a sudden puff, a great cloud of vapour,
and leaving many charred fragments floating in the swirling waters
where she disappeared. I pulled in all directions, to see if perchance
the bodies of any of the villainous trio might float to the surface,
but nothing met my eyes but broken and burnt wood, and the usual
flotsam from a scuttled vessel.
And that was the last I ever saw of the good ship _Ladybird_.
Now that should really be the end of my yarn, for I am not going to
tell you how I drifted about for three days, wet to the skin, and
unable to protect myself from the pouring rain; and I need not tell
you how I cut my raw salt beef in strips and washed it down with the
dirty water I had in the bottle. Suffice it to say that on the evening
of the third day I was picked up, more dead than alive, by a brig bound
to Rekiavick, in Iceland; and from thence was given a passage to Hull,
from which port I walked home to Yarmouth.
When I quietly entered the bar of the “Jolly Waggoner,” I nearly
frightened my father out of his senses at my unexpected appearance.
But to tell of that would make my yarn too long.
What I want to wind up with is the proof of its truth; and this is how
I vouch for its accuracy, by quoting the following extract, taken from
the columns of the _Daily Telegraph_ (London).
Look up that newspaper for Monday, January 15th, 1894, and on page 3,
near the bottom of the 6th column, you will find this paragraph:--
“A STRANGE DISCOVERY.--A Plymouth correspondent telegraphs that advices
have been received of the arrival in Galveston of the Norwegian barque
_Elsa Anderson_, having in tow the hull of an English-built brig, which
had apparently been burned at sea more than fifty years ago, and which
appeared on the surface of the ocean after a submarine disturbance
off the Faroe Islands. The hull of the strange derelict was covered
with sea-shells, but the hold and under decks contained very little
water. In the captain’s cabin were found several iron-bound chests, the
contents of which had been reduced to pulp except a leather bag, which
required an axe to open it. In it were guineas bearing date 1809, and
worth over £1000. There were also several watches and a stomacher of
pearls blackened and rendered valueless by the action of the water.
Three skeletons were also found, one of a man about seven feet high.”
There, that is my yarn, and I may just add that my first experience of
the sea was my last, for my maiden voyage contained enough excitement
during its very brief duration to last for the term of my natural life.
“What do you ask? How came the pearl stomacher and the watches in the
hands of the miscreants?”
Well, that I must leave, for I did not see them in their possession,
but doubtless they were the proceeds of robberies ashore.