A fresh crew came down from London the following morning in charge of a
crimp.
Duckling went ashore to meet them at the railway station, and they came
off in the same boat that had landed the others on the previous day.
They appeared much the same sort of men as those who had left us; badly
clothed for the most part, and but four of them had sea-chests, the
rest bringing bags. There was one very big man among them, a fellow
that dwarfed the others; he held himself erect, wore good boots, and
might very well have passed for an escaped Lifeguardsman, were it not
for the indescribable _something_ in his gait, and the way in which he
hung his hands, that marked him for a Jack.
Another fellow I noticed, as he scrambled over the ship's side,
and sung out, in notes as hoarse as a raven's, to pitch him up his
"blooming portmantey," had a very extraordinary face, altogether out
of proportion with his head, being, I dare say, a full third too
small. The back of the skull was immense, and was covered with hair
coarser than Duckling's--as coarse as hemp-yarns. This hair grew down
beside his ears, and got mixed up with streaky whiskers, which bound
up the lower part of his face like a tar poultice. Out of this circle
of hair looked a face as small as a young boy's; little half-closed
Chinese eyes, a bit of a pug nose, and a square mouth, kept open
so as to show that he wanted four front teeth. The frame belonging
to this remarkable head and face was singularly vigorous though
grievously misshapen. His long arms went far down his legs; his back,
without having a hump, was as round as a shell, and he looked as if he
measured a yard and a half from shoulder to shoulder. I watched this
strange-looking creature with great curiosity until I lost sight of him
in the forecastle.
The men bustled over the side with great alacrity, bawling for their
bags and property to be handed up in a great variety of accents. There
were two Dutchmen and a copper-coloured man, with African features,
among them; the rest were English.
The crimp remained in the boat, watching the men go on board. He was
from the other side of Jordan. His woolly hair was soaked with oil, and
shone resplendent in the sun; the oil seemed to have got into his hat,
too, for that had a most fearful polish. He wore a greatcoat that came
down to his shins, and beneath this he exhibited a pair of blue serge
breeches, terminating in boots as greasy as his hat. He was genteel
enough to wear kid gloves; but the imagination was not to be seduced by
such an artifice from picturing the dirt under the gloves.
I knew something of crimps, and amused myself with an idle speculation
or two whilst watching the man. This was a fellow who would probably
keep a lodging-house for sailors in some dirty little street leading
out of the West India Dock Road. His terms would be very easy: seven
shillings a week for board and lodging, and every gentleman to pay
for extras. He would probably have two or three amiable and obliging
sisters, daughters, or nieces living with him, knowing the generous and
blind confidence Jack reposes in the endearments of the soft sex, and
how very prodigally he will pay for them. So this greasy miscreant's
dirty West India Dock Road lodging-house for sailors would always be
pretty full, and he would never have much difficulty in mustering a
crew when he got an order to raise one. Of course it would pay him as
it pays other crimps to let lodgings to sailors, so as to have them
always about him when a crew is wanted; for will he not obligingly cash
their advance-notes for them, handing them say, thirty shillings for
three pounds ten? "What do I do with this dirty risk?" he will exclaim,
when Jack expostulates. "Supposing you cut stick? I lose my money! I
only do this to obleege you. Go into the street," he cries, pretending
to get into a passion, "and see what you'll get for your dirty piece
of paper. You'll be comin' back to me on your bended knees, with the
tears a tricklin' and runnin' over your cheeks, axing my parding for
wronging me and willin' to say a prayer of thankfulness for me bein'
put in your vay. You'll want a bag for your clothes, and here's one,
dirt cheap, five and a 'arf. And you can't go to sea vith one pair o'
brigs, and you shall have these beauties a bargain--come, fourteen and
six, for _you_, and I'll ask you not to say what you gave for 'em, or
I shall have four hundred and fifty-vun customers comin' in a rage
to tell me I'm a villin for charging of 'em a guinea for the shame
article. And here's a first-class knife and belt--something fit for the
heye to rest upon--honestly vorth 'arf a sovrin, which I'll make you a
present of for a bob, and if you say a vord I'll take everything back,
for I _can't_ stand ingratitood."
Our friend watched the crew over the vessel's side with jealous
eyes, for had they refused at the last moment to remain in the ship,
he would have been a loser to the amount he had given them for their
advance-notes. He looked really happy when the last man was out of the
lugger and her head turned for the shore. He raised his greasy hat to
Duckling, and his hair shone like polished mahogany in the sun.
"Aft here, some of you, and ship this gangway. Boatswain, pipe all
hands to get the ship under weigh," cried Duckling; and turning to me
with a wink, he added, "If the grub is going to bring more rows, we
must fight 'em on the high seas."
There was a little breeze from the south-east; quite enough to keep
the lighter sails full and give us headway against the tide that was
running up Channel. The men, zealous as all new-comers are, hastened
briskly out of the forecastle on hearing Duckling's voice and the
boatswain's whistle, and manned the windlass. The pilot was now on the
poop with the skipper, the latter looking lively enough as he heard
the quick clanking of the palls. The men broke into a song and chorus
presently, and the rude strains chimed in well with the hoarse echo of
the cable coming link by link in-board.
Presently I reported the cable up and down. Then from Duckling, the
pilot's mouthpiece, came the familiar orders--
"Loose the outer jib."
"Lay aloft, some of you, and loose the topsails."
"Up with that jib smartly, my lads."
"A hand aft here to the wheel."
The ship lay with her head pointing to the direction in which she
was going: there was nothing more to do than sheet home the topsails
and trip the anchor. The men were tolerably nimble and smart. The
three topsails were soon set, the windlass again manned, and within a
quarter of an hour from the time when the order was given, the ship was
under way, and pushing quietly through a tide that raced in a hundred
wrinkles around her bows.
We set the fore and main top-gallant sails and spanker presently: the
yards were braced sharp up, for we were heading well south, so as to
give the Foreland a wide berth. This extra canvas sent us swirling
past the red-hulled lightship off this point, and soon the Dover pier
opened, and the great white cliffs with their green heights. Anon, our
course bringing the wind more aft, we set the mainsail and main-royal
and mizzen top-gallant sail, with the staysails and jibs.
The breeze freshened as we stretched seawards; the ship was now
carrying a deal of canvas, and the men seemed pleased with her pace.
The day was gloriously fine. The sea was of an emerald green, alive
with little leaping waves each with its narrow thread of froth: the
breeze was strong enough to lay the vessel over, just so far as to
enable one looking over the weather side to see her copper, shining red
below the green line of water. The brilliant sunshine illuminated the
brass-work with innumerable glories, and shone with fluctuating flashes
in the glass of the skylights, and made the decks glisten like a
yacht's. The canvas, broad and white, towered nobly to the sky, and the
main-royal against the deep blue of the sky seemed like a cloud among
the whiter clouds which swept in quick succession high above. It was
a sight to look over the ship's bows, to see her keen stem shredding
the water, and the permanent pillar of foam leaning away from her
weather-bow.
This part of the Channel was full of shipping, and I know, by the
vividness with which my memory reproduces the scene, how beautiful
was the picture impressed upon it. All on our right were the English
shores, made delicate and even fanciful by distance; here and there
fairy-like groups of houses, standing on the heights among trees or
embosomed in valleys, with silver sands sloping to the sea: deep
shadows staining the purity of the brilliant chalk, and a foreground
of pleasure-boats with sails glistening like pearl and bright flags
streaming. And to our right and left vessels of different rigs and
sizes standing up or down Channel, some running like ourselves, free,
with streaming wakes, others coming up close-hauled, some in ballast
high out of water, stretching their black sides along the sea and
exposing to windward shining surfaces of copper.
At half-past two o'clock in the afternoon, all sail that was required
having been made, and the decks cleared, the hands were divided into
watches, and I, having charge of the port watch, came on deck. The
starboard watch went below; but as the men had not dined, a portion of
my own watch joined the others in the forecastle to get their dinner.
I now discovered that the copper-faced man, to whom I have drawn
attention, was the new cook. I heard the men bandying jokes with him as
they went in and out of the galley, carrying the steaming lumps of pork
and reeking dishes of pea-soup into the forecastle, whence I concluded
that they had either not yet discovered the quality of the provisions,
or that they were more easily satisfied than their predecessors had
been.
Among the men in my own watch was the great strapping fellow whom I
had likened to a Lifeguardsman. I had thought the man too big to be
handy up aloft, but was very much deceived; for in all my life I never
witnessed such feats of activity as he performed. His long legs had
enabled him to take two ratlines at a time, and he saved himself the
trouble of getting over the futtock shrouds by very easily making two
steps from the mainshrouds to the mainyard, and from the mainyard to
the maintop. I watched him leave the galley, carrying his smoking
mess; but I also noticed, before I lost sight of him, that he took a
suspiciously long sniff at the steam under his nose, and then violently
expectorated.
The breeze was now very lively; the canvas was stretching nobly to it,
and the shore all along our starboard beam was a gliding panorama,
brilliant with colour and sunshine. They were having dinner in the
cuddy, and as often as I passed the skylight I could see the captain
glancing upwards at the sails with a well-pleased expression.
I presently noticed the cook's copper face, crowned with an odd kind
of knitted cap, protruding from the galley, and his small eyes gazed
intently at me. I paced the length of the poop, and when I returned,
the cook's head was still at its post, and then his body came out and
he stood staring in my direction.
I had to turn abruptly to hide my mirth, for his face was ornamented
with an expression of disgust exquisitely comical with the wrinkled
nose, the arched thick mouth, and the screwed-up eyebrows.
When I again looked he was coming along the deck, swinging a piece
of very fat pork at the end of a string. He advanced close to the
poop-ladder at the top of which I was standing, and holding up the
pork, said--
"You see dis, sar?"
"Yes," I answered.
"Me belong to a country where we no eat pork," he exclaimed, with great
gravity, still preserving his wrinkled nose and immensely disgusted
expression.
"What country is that?" I asked.
"Hot country, sar," he answered. "But me will eat pork on board ship."
"Very proper."
"But me will _not_ eat stinking pork on board ship or anywhere else,"
he cried excitedly.
"Is that piece of pork tainted?" I inquired.
"Don't know nuffen 'bout tainted, sar," he replied; "but it smells
kinder strong. But not so strong as the liquor where t'other porks was
biled in. Nebber smelled de like, sar. Most disgusting. Come and try
it, sar. Make you feel queer."
"Pitch the water overboard, then."
"No good, sar. Fork'sle full of stinks, and men grumblin' like hell. Me
fust-rate cook, too--but no make a stink sweet. Dat beats me."
He held up the pork, with an expression on his face as if he were about
to sneeze, shook his finger at it as though it were something that
could be affected by the gesture, and flung it overboard.
"Dat's my rations," said he. "Shouldn't like to eat de fish dat
swallers it."
And turning jauntily in his frocked canvas breeches he walked off.
A few moments afterwards the extraordinary-looking man with the small
face and large head, and shell-shaped back, came out of the forecastle,
walking from side to side with a springing jerky action of the legs,
they being evidently moved by a force having no reference to his will.
"Ax your pardon, sir," he said, twirling up his thumb in the direction
of his forehead; "but the meat's infernal bad aboard this here wessel."
"I can't help it," I answered, annoyed to be the recipient of these
complaints, which seemed really to justify Coxon's charge of my being
the crew's confidant. "You must talk to the captain about it."
"Ne'er a man among us can eat of the pork; and the cook, as is better
acquainted than us with these here matters, says he'd rather be biled
alive than swaller a ounce of it."
"The captain is the proper person to complain to."
"That may be, sir," said the man, dropping his chin, so that by
projecting his beard his face appeared to withdraw, and grow smaller
still. "But the boatswain says there'll not be much got by complaining
to the skipper."
"I can't make the ship's stores better than they are," I replied,
moving a step, for I now perceived that some of the crew were watching
us, and I did not want the captain to come on deck and find me talking
to this man about the provisions. But it so happened that at this
particular moment the captain emerged from the companion hatchway. The
man did not stir, and the captain said--
"What does that fellow want?"
"He is complaining of the pork, sir. I have referred him to you."
He gave me a sharp look, and leaning forwards, said in a quiet, mild
voice--
"What's the matter, my man?"
"Why, sir, I've been asked to come and say that the pork that's been
served to the men is in a werry bad state, to be sure. It's more smell
than meat, and what ain't smell is brine."
"I am sorry to hear that," said the captain in a most benignant manner.
"Look into the cuddy and tell the steward I want him."
The steward stepped on to the quarter-deck and looked up at his master
in a way that made me suspect he had got his cue.
"What's the matter with the pork, steward?"
"Nothing, sir, that I know of."
"The men say it smells strong--that's what you say, I think?" remarked
the captain, addressing the man.
"Werry strong, sir--strong enough to sit upon, sir."
"I don't know how that can be," exclaimed the steward, looking very
puzzled indeed. "It's sweet enough in the cask. Perhaps it's the fault
of the biling."
"Nothing to do with the biling, mate," said the man, shaking his
extraordinary head, at the same time surveying the steward indignantly.
"Biling clears away smells as a rule."
"Perhaps you've opened a bad cask. If so," said the captain, "fling it
overboard, for I'll not have the men poisoned. Let the cook boil me a
sample from the next cask you open, and put it upon my table--do you
hear?"
"Yes, sir."
"That will do," continued the captain, addressing the man. "You may go
forward and tell your mates what I have said."
And away straggled the man to inform the crew, no doubt, that the
skipper was a brick, and that he'd like to punch the steward's head.
At seven o'clock next morning we were abreast the Isle of Wight, having
carried a strong south-easterly breeze with us as far as Eastbourne,
when the wind lulled and remained light all through the middle watch;
but after four it freshened again from the same quarter, and came on to
blow strong; but we kept the fore and main royals on her all through,
and only furled them to heave the ship to off Ventnor, where we landed
the pilot.
There was a nasty lump of a sea on just here, and some smacks making
for Portsmouth carried half sails soaking and their decks running with
water. The _Grosvenor_, owing to her weight, lay steady enough; a
little too steady, I thought, for she shipped water over her starboard
bow without rising, reminding me of a deep-laden barge, along which
you will see the swell running and washing, whilst she herself goes
squashing through with scarcely a roll.
A dandy-rigged boat put off, in response to our signal, and I enjoyed
the pretty picture she made as she came foaming, close hauled, towards
the ship, burying herself in spray as she shoved her keen nose into
the sea, and hopping nimbly out of one trough into another, so that
sometimes you could see her forefoot right out of water.
I was glad when the pilot got over the side. He was a mean toady, and
had done me no good with the captain. The gangway ladder had been
thrown over to enable him to descend, and the boat washed high and low,
up and down, alongside, sometimes level with the deck, sometimes twelve
or fourteen feet in a hollow.
"Now's your time," said I, mischievously, as he hung on to the man-rope
with one leg out to catch the boat as she rose. He took me at my word
and let go; but the boat was sinking, and down he went with her, and I
had the satisfaction of seeing him roll right into the boat's bottom,
and there get so hopelessly entangled with the pump and some trawling
gear, that it took two boatmen to pull him out and set him on his feet.
Then away they went, the pilot waving his hat to the skipper, who
cries--
"Man the lee main braces."
The great yards were swung around, and the ship lay over to the immense
weight of canvas.
"Ease off those jib-sheets there, and set the mainsail."
The ship, feeling the full breeze, surged slowly forwards, parting the
toppling seas with thundering blows of her bows. She had as much sail
on her as she could well carry, and a trifle to spare, for the breeze
had freshened whilst we had been lying to, a couple of vessels to
windward were taking in their fore and mizzen top-gallant sails, and
ahead was a smart brig with a single reef in her fore-topsail. The wind
was well abeam, perhaps half a point abaft, and every sail was swollen
like the cheeks of rude Boreas in the picture of that bleak worthy.
This cracking on delighted Duckling, whose head turned so violently
about as he stared first at these sails, then at those, then forward,
then aft, that I thought he would end in putting a kink into his neck.
"This is proper!" he exclaimed, in his hoarse voice, after ordering
some hands "to clap the watch-tackle on to the main-tack and rouse it
down." "We'll teach 'em how to froth this blessed Channel! I guess
we've had enough of calms, and if the Scilly ain't some miles astern by
the second dog-watch to-morrow I'll turn a monk, you see!"
We were heading well west-south-west, and the water was flying in
sheets of foam from the ship's bows. By this time it was dark, and the
sky thick with the volume of wind that swept over it; the stars shone
hazily, but it was as much as I could do to trace the outlines of the
main-royal and top-gallant sail.
The vessel was rushing through the water at a great pace. I felt as
exhilarated as one new to the life when I looked astern and saw the
broad path of foam churned by the ship rising and falling and fading
upon the desolate gloom of the hilly horizon. Blue fires burnt in
the water; but, by-and-by, when by stretching out we had got into
the broader sea, and the vessel plunged to the heavier waves which
were running, big flakes of phosphorescent light were hurled up with
the water every time the ship pitched, and for twenty fathoms astern
the water was as luminous as the Milky Way. The roaring of the wind
on high, the creaking of the spars, the clanking and grinding of the
chain-sheets, the squeal of sheaves working on rusty pins, the hissing
and spitting of the seething foam, and ever and anon the sullen thunder
of a sea striking the ship, filled the ear with a wonderful volume of
sound. The captain was cracking on to make up for lost time, and he
was on deck when I went below at ten o'clock to get some rest before
relieving Duckling at midnight. There were then two hands at the wheel,
and a couple on the look-out; our lamps were burning bravely, but we
had long ago outrun all sight of shore and of lights ashore.
I slept soundly, and at eight bells Duckling roused me up. The
unpleasantest part of a sailor's life is this periodical turning out
of warm blankets to walk the deck for four hours. The rawness of
the night air is anything but stimulating to a man just awake and
very sleepy. Let the wind be never so steady, the decks are full of
powerful draughts rushing out of the sails and blowing into your eyes
and ears and up the legs of your trousers, and down the collar of your
shirt, turn where you will: and you think, as your hair is blown over
your eyes and a shower of spray comes pattering upon your oilskins
and annoying your face, of your sheltered cabin and warm cot, and
wonder what, in the name of common sense, caused you to take to this
uncomfortable profession. The crew in this respect are better off than
their officers; for the watch on deck at night can always manage to
sneak into the forecastle and dose upon their chests, or on the deck
and keep under shelter; whereas the mate in charge must be always wide
awake and on his legs throughout his watch, and shirk nothing that the
heavens may choose to pour upon his defenceless person.
I had four hours before me when I went on deck, and I may perhaps have
wished myself ashore in a quiet bed. The captain stood near the wheel.
It was blowing very fresh indeed, the wind about east-southeast, with
a strong following sea. The yards had been braced further aft, but no
other alteration had been made since I had gone below. If I had thought
that the vessel was carrying too much sail then, I certainly thought
that she was carrying a great deal too much sail now. She could have
very well dispensed with the main-royal and two top-gallant sails, and
in my opinion would have made the same way with a single reef in the
topsails. The press of canvas was burying her. Well aft as the wind
was, the vessel lay over to starboard under it, and she was dragging
her heavy channels sluicing and foaming through the water. The moon
was weak, with a big ring round her, and the sky was obscured by the
scud which fled swiftly away to the north-west. The horizon was thick,
and the troubled sheen of the moon upon the jumping seas made the dark
waters, with their ghastly lines of phosphorescent foam, a most wild
and weird panorama.
I mustered the watch, and a couple of them went to relieve their mates
on the forecastle. A night-glass lay on one of the skylights, and I
swept the horizon with it, but nothing was to be seen. I walked aft to
see how she was steering, for these heavy following seas lumping up
against a ship's quarter play the deuce with some vessels, making the
compass-card swing wildly and setting the square sails lifting; but
found her steering very steadily, though the rush of some of the seas
under her counter might have bewildered a two-thousand-ton ship. She
rose, too, better than I thought she would, though she was sluggish
enough, for some of the seas ran past her with their crests curling
above her lee bulwarks, and she had received one souser near the
galley; but her decks to windward were dry.
Coxon was smoking a big Dutch pipe, holding it with one hand and the
rail with the other. He had a hair cap on with flaps over his ears,
and sea-boots, and all that he was doing was first to blow a cloud and
then look up at the sails, and then blow another cloud and then look up
again. This would appear to have been going on since nine o'clock. I
thought he must be pretty tired of his diversion by this time.
"She bears her canvas well, sir," said I.
"Yes," he answered gruffly, "I have lost twenty-four hours. I ought to
have been clear of the Channel by this."
"She is a fast vessel, sir. We are doing good twelve, I should say."
He cast his eyes over the stern, then looked up aloft, but made no
answer. I was moving away when he exclaimed--
"Go forward and tell the men to keep a bright look-out. And keep your
weather-eye lifting yourself, sir."
I did as he bade me, and got upon the forecastle. I found the two men
who were indistinguishable from the poop, wrapped in oilskins leaning
against the forecastle rail. It blew harder here than it did aft, for
a power of wind rushed slanting from the fore-topmast stay-sail and
whirled up from under the foot of the foresail. The crashing sound of
the vessel's bows, urged through the heavy water by the great power
that was bellowing overhead, was wonderful to hear: an uproar of
thunder was all around, mingled with wild shrieking cries and the
strange groaning of straining timbers. The moon stood away to windward
of the mizzen royal-mast head, and it was a sight to look up and see
the grey canvas, full like balloons, soaring into the sky, and to hear
the mighty rush of the wind among the rigging as the vessel rolled
against it, making the moon whirl across her spars to and fro, to and
fro.
I had been on deck three quarters of an hour when, feeling the wind
very cold, I dived into my cabin for a shawl to wrap round my neck.
I had hardly left the cuddy door to return, when I heard a loud cry
from the forecastle, and both hands roared out simultaneously, "A sail
right ahead!"
Coxon walked quickly forward to the poop-rail to try to see the vessel
to windward. Then he went over to the other side and peered under the
mainsail; after which he said, "I see nothing. Where is she?"
I shouted through my hands, "On which bow is she?"
"Right ahead!" came the reply.
"There was a short pause, and then one of the men roared out, "Hard
over! we're upon her! She's cutter rigged! she's a smack!"
"Hard a-port! hard a-port!" bawled Coxon.
I saw the spokes of the wheel fly round, but almost at the same moment,
I felt a sudden shock--an odd kind of _thud_, the effect of which upon
my senses was to produce the impression of a sudden lull in the wind.
"God Almighty!" bellowed a voice, "we've run her down!"
In a second I had bounded to the weather-side of the poop and
looked over, and what I saw sliding rapidly past, was a mast and a
dark-coloured sail, which in the daylight would probably be red,
stretched flat upon the wilderness of foam which our ship was sweeping
off her sides. Upon this ghastly white ground the sail and mast were
distinctly outlined--for a brief moment only--they vanished even as I
watched, swallowed up in the seething water. And then all overhead the
sails of the ship began to thunder, and the rigging quivered and jerked
as though it must snap.
"Hard over! hard over!" bellowed Coxon.
I saw him rush to the wheel, thrust away one of the men, and pull the
spokes over with all his force. The vessel answered splendidly, swerved
nobly round like a creature of instinct, and was again rushing headlong
with full sail over the sea.
This was a close shave. At the speed at which she was travelling she
had obeyed the rudder in the first instance so promptly as to come
round close to the wind. A few moments more and she would have been
taken aback; and this, taking into consideration the amount of canvas
she was carrying, must infallibly have meant the loss of most, if not
of all, her spars.
Horrified by the thoughts of living creatures drowning in our wake, I
cried out to the skipper--
"Won't you make an effort to save them, sir?"
"Save them be hanged!" he answered fiercely. "Why the devil didn't they
get out of our road?"
I was so much shocked by the coarse inhumanity of this reply, that I
turned on my heel; but yet was constrained by an ugly fascination to
turn again and cast shuddering glances at the spot where I pictured
the drowning wretches battling with the waves.
Captain Coxon was too intent upon the compass to notice my manner; he
was giving directions to the men in a low voice, with his eyes fixed on
the card.
Presently he exclaimed, in his gruffest voice, "Call the carpenter to
sound the well."
This was soon despatched, and I returned and reported a dry bottom.
"Heave the log, sir."
I called a couple of hands aft and went through the tiresome and
tedious job of ascertaining the speed by the measured line and
sand-glass. The reel rattled furiously in the hands of the man who held
it: I thought the whole of the line would go away overboard before the
fellow who was holding the glass cried, "Stop!"
"What do you make it?" demanded Coxon.
"Thirteen knots, sir."
He looked over the side as though to assure himself that the
computation was correct, then called out--
"Clew up the main-royal, and furl it!"
This was a beginning, and it was about time that a beginning was made.
The breeze had freshened into a strong wind, this had grown into half a
gale, and the look of the sky promised a whole gale before morning. The
main-royal halliards were let go, and a couple of hands went up to stow
the bit of canvas that was thumping among the clouds.
Presently, "Furl the fore and mizzen top-gallant sails."
This gave occupation to the watch; and now the decks began to grow
lively with the figures of men running about, with songs and choruses,
with cries of "Belay, there!"--"Up with it smartly, my lads!" and with
the heavy flapping of canvas.
All this, however, was no very great reduction of sail. The _Grosvenor_
carried the old-fashioned single topsails, and these immense spaces
of canvas were holding a power of wind. Overhead the scud flew fast
and furious, and all to windward the horizon was very thick. We took
in the main-top-gallant sail; and while the hands were aloft we
came up hand over fist with a big ship, painted white. She was to
leeward, stretching away under double-reefed topsails, and showed out
quite distinctly upon the dark sea beyond, and under the struggling
moonshine. We ran close enough to take the wind out of her sails, and
could easily have hailed her had there been any necessity to do so; but
we could discern no one on deck but a single hand at the wheel. She
showed no lights, and with her white hull and glimmering sails, and
fragile naked yards and masts, she looked as ghostly as anything I ever
saw on the water. She rolled and plunged solemnly among the seas, and
threw up her own swirling outline in startling relief upon the foam she
flung from her side, and which streamed away in pyramid-shape. She went
astern like a buoy, and in a few minutes had vanished as utterly from
our sight as if she had foundered.
I now stood waiting for an order which I knew must soon come. It is one
thing to "carry on," but it is another thing to rip the masts out of a
ship. I don't think we had lost half a knot in speed through the canvas
that had been taken in: the vessel seemed to be running very nearly as
fast as the seas. But the wind was not only increasing, but increasing
with squalls, so that there were times when you would have thought
that the inmates of forty mad-houses had got among the rigging and out
upon the yards, and were screeching, yelling, and groaning with all the
force they were master of.
At last the captain gave the order I awaited.
"All hands reef topsails."
In a few minutes the boatswain's pipe sounded, and the watch below came
tumbling out of the forecastle. Now came a scene familiar to every man
who has been to sea, whether as a sailor or a passenger. In a ship of
war the crew go to work to the sound of fiddles or silver whistles;
every man knows his station; everything is done quickly, quietly, and
completely. But in a merchantman the men go to work to the sound of
their own voices: these voices are, as a rule, uncommonly harsh and
hoarse; and as every working party has its own solo and chorus, and
as all working parties sing together, the effect upon the ear, to say
the very least, is hideous. But also in a merchantman the crew is
always less in number than they ought to be. Hence, when the halliards
are let go, the confusion below and aloft becomes overwhelming; for
not more, perhaps, than a couple of sails can be handled at a time,
and, meanwhile, the others waiting to be furled are banged about by
the wind, and fling such a thunder upon the ear that orders are scarce
audible for the noise.
All this to a certain degree happened in the present instance. The
captain having carried canvas with fool-hardy boldness, now ran into
the other extreme. The quick fierce gusts which ran down upon the
ship frightened him, and his order was to let go all three topsail
halliards, and double-reef the sails. The halliards were easily let
go; but then, the working hands being few, confusion must follow. The
yards coming down upon the caps, the sails stood out in bellies hard
as iron. A whole watch upon each reef-tackle could hardly bring the
blocks together. When the mizzen-topsail was reefed, it was found that
the fore-topsail would require all hands; the helm had to be put down
to shake the sail, so as to enable the men to make the reef-points
meet. The main-topsail lifted as well as the fore-topsail, and both
sails rattled in unison; and the din of the pealing canvas, furiously
shaken by the howling wind, the cries of the men getting the sail over
to windward, the booming of the seas against the ship's bows, the
groaning of her timbers, the excited grunting of terrified pigs, and
the rumbling of an empty water-cask, which had broken from its lashings
and was rolling to and fro the main-deck, constituted an uproar of
which no description, however elaborate, could even faintly express
the overwhelming character.
When the dawn broke it found the _Grosvenor_ under reefed topsails,
fore-topmast, staysail, foresail, main-trysail, and spanker, snug
enough, but with streaming decks, for the gale had raised a heavy
beam sea, and the deep-laden ship was sluggish, and took the water
repeatedly over her weather-bulwarks.
The watch below had turned in again, but it was already seven bells,
and at four o'clock my turn would come to go to bed. I had charge of
the ship, for the captain having passed the night in observing his
vessel's sailing powers under all canvas, had gone below, and I was not
sorry to get rid of him, for his continued presence aft had become a
nuisance to my eyes.
The sea under the gathering light in the east was a remarkable sight.
The creaming arching surfaces of the waves took the pale illumination,
but the troughs or hollows were livid, and looking along the rugged
surface as the ship rose, one seemed to behold countless lines of
yawning caverns opening in an illimitable waste of snow. Nothing could
surpass the profound desolation of the scene surveyed in the faint
struggling dawn, the pallid heaven, bearing its dim and languishing
stars, over which were swept long lines of smoke-coloured clouds torn
and mangled by the wind; the broken ocean pouring and boiling away to
a melancholy horizon, still dark, save where the dawn was creeping
upwards with its chilly light, and making the eastern sea and sky
leaden-hued.
I had now leisure to recall the fatal accident I have related, and
the inhumanity of Captain Coxon's comment upon it. I hugged myself in
my thick coat as I looked astern at the cold and rushing waters, and
thought of the bitter sudden deaths of the unfortunates we had run
down. With what appalling rapidity had the whole thing happened! not
even a dying shriek had been heard amid the roar of the wind among the
masts. For many a day the memory of that dark-coloured sail, prone
upon the foaming water, haunted me. The significance of it was awful
to think upon. But for the men on the look-out, never a soul among us
would have known that living beings had been hurled into sudden and
dreadful death, that the ship in which we sailed had perchance made
widows of sleeping wives, had made children fatherless, and that ruin
and beggary and sorrow had been churned up out of the deep by our
unsparing bows.
Our voyage had begun inauspiciously enough, God knows: and as I looked
towards the east where the morning light was kindling over the livid,
rugged horizon, a strange depression fell upon my spirits, and the
presentiment then entered my mind and never afterwards quitted it, that
perils and suffering and death were in store for us, and that when I
had looked on the English coast last night I was unconsciously bidding
farewell to scenes I should never behold again.