I will here pause to describe the ship which, being the theatre of much
that befel me which is related in this book, I should place before your
eyes in as true a picture as I can draw.
The _Grosvenor_, then, was a small, full-rigged ship of five hundred
tons, painted black, with a single white streak below her bulwarks. She
was a soft-wood vessel, built in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her lines were
very perfect. Indeed, the beauty of her hull, her lofty masts, stayed
with as great perfection as a man-of-war's, her graceful figure-head,
sharp yacht-like bows and round stern, had filled me with admiration
when I first beheld her. Her decks were white and well kept. She had a
poop and a top-gallant forecastle, both of which I think the builder
might have spared, as she was scarcely big enough for them. There was
a good deal of brass-work on her after-decks, and more expense than
she deserved, from the perishable nature of the material of which
she was constructed, had been lavished upon her in respect of deck
ornamentation. Her richly carved wheel, brass belaying-pins, brass
capstan, brass binnacle, handsome skylights, and other such details
made her look like a gay pleasure-vessel rather than a sober trader.
Her cuddy, however, was plain enough, containing six cabins, including
the pantry. The woodwork was cheaply varnished mahogany; a fixed table
ran from the mizzen-mast to within a few feet of the cuddy front, and
on either side this table was a stout hair-covered bench. Abaft the
mizzen-mast were the two cabins respectively occupied by Captain Coxon
and Mr. Duckling. My own cabin was just under the break of the poop,
so that from the window in it I could look out upon the main-deck. A
couple of broad skylights, well protected with brass wire-fenders, let
plenty of light into the cuddy; and swinging trays and lamps, and red
curtains to draw across the skylights when the sun beat upon them,
completed the furniture of this part of the vessel.
We could very well have carried a few passengers, and I never learned
why we did not; but it may, perhaps, have happened that nobody was
going our way at the time we were advertised to sail.
We were bound to Valparaiso with a general cargo, consisting chiefly
of toys, hardware, Birmingham and Sheffield cutlery, and metal
goods, and a stock of pianofortes. The ship, to my thinking, was too
deep, as though the owners had compensated themselves for the want
of passenger-money by "taking it out" in freight. I readily foresaw
that we should be a wet ship, and that we should labour, more than was
comfortable, in a heavy sea. The steerage was packed with light goods,
bird-cages and such things, but space was left in the 'tween decks,
though the cargo came flush with the deck in the hold.
However, in spite of being overloaded, the _Grosvenor_ had beaten
everything coming down the river that day. Just off the Reculvers, for
example, when we had drawn the wind a trifle more abeam, we overhauled
a steamer. She was pretty evidently a fast screw, and her people grew
jealous when they saw us coming up astern, and piled up the fires, but
could not stop us from dropping her, as neatly as _she_ dropped an old
coal brig that was staggering near the shore under dirty canvas. But
she smothered us with her smoke as we passed her to leeward, and I dare
say they were glad to see the dose we got for our pains.
I came aft, as I have said, after leaving the baker, with the biscuit
in my pocket, and got upon the poop. The skipper had gone below with
the pilot, and they were having tea. Duckling was walking the poop,
swearing now and again at a couple of ordinary seamen, whom he had set
to work to flemish-coil the ropes along the deck, for no other reason
than that he might put as much work upon them as he could invent--for
this flemish-coiling was of no use under the circumstances, and is only
fit for Sundays on passenger ships when you want to please the ladies
with "tidy" effects, or when a vessel is in port. A watch had been
set forward, and having cast a look up aloft to see that everything
was trim, I went down the companion-ladder to the cuddy, followed by
Duckling.
The interior of the cabin looked like some old Dutch painting, for the
plain mahogany woodwork gave the place an antique air. The lamps were
alight, for it was dusk here, though daylight was still abroad upon the
sea; and the lamplight imparted a grave, old-fashioned colouring to the
things it shone upon. The skipper sat near the mizzen-mast, stirring
the sugar in a cup of tea. He looked better without than with his hat;
his forehead was high, though rather peaked, and his iron-grey hair,
parted amid-ships and brushed carelessly over his ears, gave him a
look of dignity. The coarse little pilot was eating bread and butter
voraciously, his great whiskers moving as he worked his jaws.
Duckling and I seated ourselves at the table, and I had some difficulty
to prevent myself from laughing at the odd figures Duckling and the
pilot made side by side--the one with his whiskers working like a pair
of brushes, and the other with that door-mat of red hair on his head,
and the puzzling cast of the eye that made me always doubt which one I
should address when I tried to look him full in the face.
"There's a breeze coming from the sou'-west, sir," said Duckling to the
captain. "The water's darkish out in that quarter, but I don't think
there's enough of it to swing the ship."
"Let it come favourable, and we'll get under way at once," answered
Coxon. "I had a spell of this sort of thing last year--for ten days,
wasn't it, Duckling?--because I neglected a light air that sprang up
south-easterly. I thought it couldn't have held ten minutes, but it
would have carried me well away to the French side before it failed,
and made me a free passage down, for the wind came fresh from south by
west and dead-locked me here. Mr. Royle, what's going forwards among
the men? I heard them cursing pretty freely when they were up aloft."
"They are complaining of the ship's provisions, sir," I replied. "The
cook gave me a biscuit just now, and I promised to show it to you."
Saying which, I pulled the biscuit out of my pocket and put it upon the
table. He contracted his bushy eyebrows, and, without looking at the
biscuit, stared angrily at me.
"Hark you, Mr. Royle," said he, in a voice I found detestable for the
sneering contempt it conveyed. "I allow no officer that sails under me
to become a confidant of my crew. Do you understand?"
I flushed up as I answered that I was no confidant of the crew: that
the cook had stopped me to explain the men's grievance, and that I had
asked him for a biscuit to show the captain as a sample of the ship's
bread which the steward was serving out.
"It's very good bread," said the obsequious pilot, taking up the
biscuit whilst he wiped the butter out of the corners of his mouth.
"Eat it, then!" I exclaimed.
"Damnation! eat it yourself!" cried Coxon, furiously. "You're used to
that kind of fare, I should think, and like it, or you wouldn't be
bringing it into the cuddy in your pocket, would you, sir?"
I made him no answer. I could see by the expression in Duckling's
face that he sided with the skipper, and I thought it would be a bad
look-out for me to begin the voyage with a quarrel.
"I'll trouble you to put that biscuit where you took it from," the
captain continued, with an enraged nod in the direction of my pocket,
"and return it to the blackguard who gave it, and tell him to present
Captain Coxon's respects to the men, and inform them that if they
object to the ship's bread, they're welcome to take their meals along
with the pigs in the long-boat. The butcher 'll serve them."
"Mr. Royle tells me they find the meat worse than the bread," said Mr.
Duckling. "I guess the hounds who grumble most are men who have shipped
out of workhouses, where their grub was burnt burgoo twice a day, and a
lick of brimstone to make it easy."
He laughed loudly at his own humour, and was joined by the pilot, who
rubbed his hands and swore that he hadn't heard a better joke for
years.
I made what despatch I might with my tea, not much desiring to remain
in company with Coxon in his present temper. I fancy he grew a little
ashamed of himself presently, for he softened his voice and now and
again glanced across at me. The pilot, looking up through the skylight,
called attention to the vane at the main-royal masthead, which was
fluttering to a light air from the south-west, as had been predicted,
and as I could tell by referring to the tell-tale compass, which was
swung just over where Coxon was seated. Then Coxon and his chief mate
talked of the time they meant to occupy in the run to Valparaiso. I
understood the former to say that his employers had given him eight
weeks to do it in. I should like to have said that had they added
another two to that, they would still have been imposing enough upon us
all to keep us alive. But at this point I quitted the table, giving
Coxon a bow as I rose, which he returned with a sort of half-ashamed
stiffness, and repaired to my cabin to get my pipe for a half-hour's
enjoyment of the beautiful autumn evening on deck.
I don't think tobacco has the same flavour ashore that it has at sea.
Something in the salt air brings out the full richness and aroma of it.
A few whiffs on the main-deck came like oil upon the agitation of my
mind, ruffled by Coxon's impertinence and temper. I stepped on to the
forecastle to see that the riding-lamps were all right, and that there
was a man on the look-out. The crew were in the forecastle talking in
subdued voices, and the hot air that came up through the fore-scuttle
was intolerable as I passed it. I then regained the poop, and seated
myself on the rail among the shadows of the backstays leading from the
main-royal and top-gallant masts.
The sun had gone down some time now, and only faint traces of daylight
lowered in the westward. The light on the South Foreland emitted a
most beautiful, clear, and brilliant beam, and diffused a broad area
of misty radiance on the land around. The light-beacons were winking
along the Goodwin Sands, and pretty close at hand were the lights of
Deal, a pale, fine constellation, which made the country all the darker
for their presence. The moon would not rise until after nine, but
the heavens were spangled with stars, some so lustrous that the calm
sea mirrowed them in cones of silver; and from time to time flashing
shooting-stars chased across the sky, and with their blue fires offered
a peculiar contrast to the eye with the yellow and red lights on the
water.
There was a little air moving from the southward, but so light as
scarcely to be noticeable to any man but a sailor awaiting a change.
The vessels at anchor near us loomed large in the starlit gloom that
overspread the face of the sea. Lights flitted upon them; and the
voices of men singing, the jingling of a concertina or a fiddle, the
rumbling of yards lowered aboard some new-comers which could not be
descried, and now and again the measured splash of oars, were sounds
which only served to give a deeper intensity to the solemn calm of the
night.
The inmates of the cuddy still kept their seats, and their voices came
out through the open skylights. I heard Captain Coxon say--
"I should like to know what sort of a fellow they have given me for a
second mate. He strikes me as coming the gentleman a trifle, don't he,
Duckling?"
To which the other replied, "He seems a civil-spoken young man, and up
to his work. But I guess there's too much molasses mixed with his blood
to suit my book. He wants a New Orleans training, as my old skipper
used to say. Do you know what that means, sir?" evidently addressing
the pilot. "Well, it means a knife in your ribs when you're not
disposed to hurry, and a knuckle-duster in the shape of a marlin-spike
down your throat if you stop to arguefy."
The pilot laughed and said, "Here's your health, sir. Men of your kind
are wanted nowadays, sir."
It was plain from this speech that the pilot had exchanged his tea for
something stronger. The captain here began to speak, but I couldn't
catch his words, though I strained my ears, as I was anxious to gain
all the insight I could into his character that I might know how to
shape my behaviour.
I say this for a very weighty reason--I was entirely dependent on the
profession I had adopted. I knew it was in the power of any captain I
sailed with to injure me, and perhaps ruin my prospects. Everything
in seafaring life depends upon reports and testimonials; and in these
days, when the demand for officers is utterly disproportionate to the
immense supply, owners are only too willing to listen to objections,
and take any skipper's word as an excuse to decline your services or
get rid of you.
Neither the captain nor Mr. Duckling appeared on deck again. The pilot
came up shortly after one bell (half-past eight) and looked about
him for a few minutes. The tide had swung the ship with her stern up
Channel. He went and looked over the side, and then had a stare at
Deal, but took no notice of me, whom he could very plainly see, and
returned below.
I lingered three quarters of an hour on deck, during which time the
little sigh of wind that had come from the south-west died out, and a
most perfect calm fell. The larger stars burned with amazing brilliancy
and power, and I thought it possible that the wind might go to the
eastward. This idea detained me on deck longer than I had meant to
stop, as I thought it would do me no ill service if I should be the
first to report a fair wind to the skipper, and show myself smart in
getting the hands up. Perhaps the moon would bring a breeze with her,
and as she rose at twenty minutes past nine, I filled another pipe to
await her coming.
As I struck a match, the steward came half-way up the poop-ladder to
tell me that the spirits were on the table.
"Did the captain send you?" I asked.
"No, sir," he answered. "I thought I'd let you know, as they'll be
cleared away after nine, and my orders are not to serve them again when
once they're stowed away for the night. That's the captain's rule."
"All right," said I. Another time I should have gone below and had
my glass of grog; but I considered it my best policy to keep clear
of Coxon until the temper that had been excited by my unfortunate
production of the ship's biscuit was cooled down.
I took some turns along the deck, and shortly after nine one of the
lamps in the cuddy was extinguished, and on looking through the
skylight I found that the three men had left the table. There was a
man pacing to and fro the forecastle, and I could just make out his
figure against the stars which gleamed and throbbed right down to the
horizon. The rest of the crew had evidently turned in, for I heard no
voices, and now that the talking which had been going on in the cuddy
no longer vexed the ear with rough accents, a profound silence and
peace came down upon the ship. Around me, the anchored vessels gloomed
like phantoms; the sea unrolled its dark, unbreathing surface into the
visionary distances; nothing sounded from the shore but the murmur of
the summer surf upon the shingle. One might have said that the spirit
of life had departed from the earth; that nothing lived but the stars,
which looked down upon a scene as impalpable and elusive as a dream.
At last uprose the moon. She made her coming apparent by paling the
stars in the southern sky, then by projecting a white mist of light
over the horizon. Anon her upper limb, red as fire, jetted upwards,
and the full orb, vast and feverish as the setting sun, sailed out
of the sea, most slowly and solemnly, lifting with her a black mist
that belted her like a circle of smoke: this vanished, and by degrees,
perceptible to the eye, her colour changed; the red chastened into
pearl, her disc grew smaller, and soon she was well above the horizon,
shining with a most clear and silvery splendour, and making the sea
beneath her lustrous with mild light. But not a breath of air followed
her coming. The ships in the Downs caught the new light, and their
yards showed like streaks of pearl against the night. The red lights of
the Goodwin Sands dwindled before the pure, far-reaching radiance into
mere floating sparks of fire. The heavens were cloudless, and the sea
a wonderful calm. I might keep watch all night, and still have nothing
to report; so, knocking the ashes out of my pipe, I descended the
poop-ladder and entered my cabin.