CONCERNING THE MISSING STEAMER.
“There is a steamer coming into port!” shouted one of the idlers in the
fore-top of the American Prince, one morning after the squadron had
been a week at Funchal.
A dozen glasses were brought to bear upon the approaching steamer,
which was coming in from the north-east. She was not a large vessel,
and was square-rigged forward, like the Ville d’Angers; but it could
not yet be determined whether she had two or three masts, as she
was headed directly towards the Loo Rock. The picked-up steamer was
barkentine rigged; and, so far as could be judged at that distance, the
new-comer was about her size.
The American Prince had been out on a three-days’ cruise in search of
the Ville d’Angers. She had spoken several vessels without obtaining
any intelligence of the missing steamer. She had just returned to
Funchal. Mr. Lowington was very much depressed at the ill success of
the expedition; but Mr. Fluxion insisted that the Ville d’Angers was
all right. She had plenty of coal, plenty of provisions, and she was
a good, strongly-built vessel: he had examined her in detail, and he
did not believe that the students could have foundered her if they had
tried to do so. The worst he could conceive that had happened to her
was, that she had broken some of her machinery, and had drifted away
to leeward before the south-east winds which had been prevailing for a
week.
“But you say her sails were in good order and condition,” replied the
principal. “I presume her commander knew enough to get sail upon her if
her engine was disabled.”
“If he did, he has had a head-wind all the time, and will have to beat
his vessel all the way. It is very likely the steamer is not in good
sailing-trim, for such craft as she is don’t work well under sail
alone,” continued Mr. Fluxion.
“But that vessel coming into this port is using steam,” said Mr.
Lowington, as he directed his glass towards her again.
“Of course I can’t tell what has happened to the Ville d’Angers, but
I feel quite confident that she is all right. We have had no very bad
weather since we parted company, and not a great deal of fog near the
islands,” persisted Mr. Fluxion, who felt it “in his bones” that the
steamer and her crew were safe, though he could give no good reason for
his belief.
“I think that is not the steamer you have described,” said Mr.
Lowington, in heavy tones; for he was very sad at heart.
“I don’t think it is, myself,” added the vice-principal. “This one has
only two masts, if I mistake not. She is a very fast sailer though.”
For half an hour longer all hands watched the approaching steamer,
which left a long line of dense black smoke for miles astern of her. It
was settled that it was not the Ville d’Angers, for she was rigged as
a topsail schooner. She was a very jaunty-looking craft, with raking
masts, and smoke-stack; and she cut her way through the water like a
fish, creating hardly any commotion in the waves around her. Outside
she was painted a shining black, while inboard she was milk-white. Her
rigging was hauled taut, and every thing about her was as neat and
ship-shape as on board a man-of-war.
“That is not the Ville d’Angers; but, as she comes down from the
north-east, she may have seen her,” said Mr. Lowington, putting away
his glass, which was no longer needed to observe the approaching craft.
“She is so trim and taut, I think she must be a man-of-war,” added Mr.
Fluxion. “She looks like one of our smaller gunboats. I see she has the
American flag at her peak.”
“She carries a private signal at her foremast head,” continued the
principal, taking his glass from the brackets on the companion-way.
“Can you make it out, Mr. Fluxion?”
“It blows out straight from us, so that I cannot see the letters upon
it.”
“Young gentlemen, can you make out the letters on the private signal of
that steamer?” asked the principal, turning to the students, who were
as much interested in the new-comer as the faculty were.
“I have it, sir,” replied one of the sharp-eyed students, who had been
studying this signal for some time. “It is an arrow, with the word
‘Marian’ above, and an ‘R’ below it.”
“Then it is not the Ville d’Angers, nor a man-of-war,” said Mr.
Lowington very sadly. “I hoped it might be the latter, at least; for
she would have been more likely to be able to give us some information
in regard to the missing vessel.”
“On board the Prince!” shouted Mr. Pelham from the deck of the
Tritonia, which was moored next to the steamer.
“On board of the Tritonia!” returned Carson, the first lieutenant of
the ship.
“That steamer is the Marian, Judge Rodwood’s yacht,” replied Mr. Pelham.
Carson communicated this information to the principal, for neither
he nor Mr. Fluxion knew the name of the judge’s steam-yacht; or they
did not recognize it if they had heard it mentioned. By this time the
Marian had stopped her screw off the Loo Rock; and the government boat
was pulling out to her. As she had a clean bill of health from her last
port, she was subjected to no detention; and the government officers
assigned her a place to moor near the Josephine. As she passed under
the stern of the Prince, two gentlemen were seen on her rail, who
seemed to regard the Prince with great interest. One of them was a tall
man, with a white beard and white hair; he pointed to the name on the
stern, and became quite excited.
“That must be Judge Rodwood,” said Mr. Fluxion. “He has come to look
for his runaway ward.”
“And I wish we had his runaway ward for him,” added the principal.
“However, I do not feel that any one is to blame for what has
transpired.”
“Certainly not,” replied Mr. Fluxion. “We could not bring in the
steamer without the young gentlemen; and that was just the kind of
experience they needed to fit them for the business of life.”
“I have sent the young men away in charge of one of the vessels of
the squadron several times, and this is the first time any of them
has failed to report where he was ordered,” continued the principal.
“Wainwright brought the Tritonia from the Baltic up the Mediterranean
alone, when the vice-principal on board was worse than useless, and
anchored her safely in the Golden Horn.”
“Yes, sir; and you may depend upon it that O’Hara will do as well on
the present occasion as Wainwright did,” replied the vice-principal
cheerfully.
“I hope he will; but I would give a thousand dollars at this moment to
know that he and his shipmates are safe and well.”
“Possibly this steam-yacht will be able to afford us some information,”
suggested Mr. Fluxion.
“There is a remote chance that she may have seen her. The judge
telegraphed to his ward at Gibraltar from London: as he got no answer
to his letter or despatch, possibly he went to Gibraltar on his way to
Funchal. If O’Hara could not make his way against the head-wind, after
he broke his machinery, he may have headed his vessel for the nearest
port, which is Lisbon or Cadiz. The Marian may have seen the Ville
d’Angers,” reasoned Mr. Lowington.
“But that steamer has not had time to go to Gibraltar, and then come
down to Madeira, since we sailed from that port. I don’t believe she
has been to Gib.”
“We shall soon know; for here comes a boat from the steam-yacht,”
added Mr. Lowington, as a dashing barge, with crimson velvet cushions
in her stern-sheets, pulled up to the accommodation steps.
The six seamen who were at the oars were dressed in uniform, and had
the word “Marian” in gold letters on their hats. Every thing about
the boat was very stylish, as it was about the yacht itself. The tall
gentleman with the white hair and beard, who wore the uniform of the
New York Yacht Club, led the way up the stairs, and was the first to
come upon the deck of the Prince. He was followed by the captain of the
yacht and a gentleman in civilian’s dress. Mr. Lowington was at the
gangway to receive the visitors. The judge touched his cap, and so did
the principal.
“Are you the captain of this steamer?” asked the judge.
“No, sir; but I am principal of the academy squadron, of which this is
the chief vessel; and I am really, though not nominally, the commander
of the ship,” replied Mr. Lowington, who usually allowed the captain to
answer such questions, in order to give him the needed experience in
all affairs relating to the vessel.
“Then you are the gentleman I wish to see,” continued Judge Rodwood,
introducing himself, and then presenting Capt. Goodwin, the commander
of the Marian.
“Capt. Goodwin!” exclaimed the principal, as he glanced at the person
named. “I ought to know him, for he was formerly one of my pupils,” and
he grasped the hand of the captain.
“I am very glad indeed to meet you again, Mr. Lowington,” replied Capt.
Goodwin. “You see that I am making use of the practical knowledge I
obtained in the Young America; and I was very sorry to hear that the
old ship had gone to the bottom.”
“Capt. Goodwin has told me all about your academy; and he always speaks
of you with the highest respect and regard,” interposed Judge Rodwood.
“But have you a young man among your students by the name of Thomas
Speers?”
“We have such a name on our books; but I regret to say that he is
away just now, and we are not a little anxious about him and his
companions,” answered Mr. Lowington very seriously.
The principal then detailed all the circumstances connected with the
absence of Tom Speers. Mr. Pelham was sent for; and he was very glad
to meet Goodwin, who had been a pupil with him when the Young America
first crossed the Atlantic. He explained more particularly why the
despatch and the letter had not been opened sooner.
“Then the young rascal has purposely kept away from me,” said Judge
Rodwood. “His uncle has left him three millions of dollars; and he
makes me chase him all over the world to put him in possession of his
fortune. As Tom is nearly twenty-one, I thought I should be doing him
a good turn if I took him out of school. The Marian really belonged to
Tom’s uncle; and, as the boy is fond of the sea, I thought I would give
him the benefit of it. I used to keep the best state-room on board for
Mr. Speers; and I still reserve it for his heir.”
“I should have discharged the young man if I had received your letter
in season to do so before we sailed from Gibraltar, and sent him on to
London,” added Mr. Lowington.
“But it seems that he does not wish to be sent off; and in that case
I am willing that he should remain in your academy,” observed Judge
Rodwood. “If he had telegraphed to me that he did not wish to leave his
vessel, I should have been perfectly satisfied, and permitted him to
remain. In fact, I am not legally his guardian yet, for the young man
has a voice in the business himself.”
“Do you hail from Gibraltar now, sir?” asked the principal.
“No, sir: I have not been anywhere near Gibraltar. When I received no
reply to my despatch or letter, I telegraphed to a correspondent of our
banking-house, and learned that your squadron had sailed for Funchal,
and that young Speers had undoubtedly gone in the vessel to which he
belonged. I am off on a cruise; and I was rather pleased with the idea
of going to Madeira in search of my ward.”
“Then you are direct from England?”
“I am: the Marian is six days from Southampton. As I was anxious to
find young Speers before you left these islands, I required the captain
to hurry her; and I think we made fifteen knots an hour a good part of
the voyage.”
“I am very anxious indeed about the safety of Speers and his
shipmates,” continued Mr. Lowington; “and I hoped, when I saw your
steamer, that you would be able to give us some information in regard
to the steamer picked up by the Tritonia.”
“We haven’t seen her; have we, Capt. Goodwin?” asked the judge,
turning to the commander of the Marian.
“Think not: indeed, we have seen but one steamer during the trip, at
least after we got off into blue water,” replied Capt. Goodwin.
“We saw a steamer towing a dismasted vessel, you remember,” interposed
Dr. Phelps, the other gentleman of the party from the Marian, who was
making the voyage for his health with his friend the judge.
“True: I did not think of her. The other was a P. and O. steamer, bound
into Southampton,” added Goodwin. “What sort of a vessel was it the
Tritonia picked up?”
“She is a screw steamer of about six hundred tons, three masts,
square-rigged forward,” replied Mr. Pelham. “She is painted black; and
her cabin is under a poop-deck. She is long, and very narrow for her
length. Her name is the Ville d’Angers, and she has a French register.
She was abandoned by her ship’s company, for she had a hole stove in
her starboard bow by a collision with another vessel; but her damages
had been thoroughly repaired.”
“The steamer that was towing the dismasted vessel corresponds to the
description you give of the Ville d’Angers,” said Capt. Goodwin. “But I
suppose half the steamers that ply between the ports of England and the
Continent would fill the bill as well.”
“I was looking through the glass at that steamer for half an hour,”
interposed Dr. Phelps. “I was sitting on deck with nothing else to do;
and I was trying to ascertain the condition of things on board of the
dismasted vessel.”
“Did you notice any thing particular about her?” asked Capt. Goodwin.
“But we didn’t go within two miles of her; though I noted in my log the
fact that we passed a steamer towing a dismasted vessel.”
“The glass was a very powerful one; and I tried to make out the people
on board of the wreck and of the steamer, but I could not.”
“Did the steamer sit low in the water, or was she well up?” asked Mr.
Pelham.
“I am not a nautical man, and I am not a competent judge; but I should
say she was more out of the water than the Marian,” replied the doctor.
“Could you tell what color she was painted?”
“Black, while the vessel she was towing was green; and I noticed
this fact particularly, for it was an odd color for a vessel, as I
understood the matter. I was going to say, in regard to the steamer,
that she was not black the whole length of her, on the side next to me.”
“On which hand did you leave the steamer and her tow, Goodwin?” asked
Mr. Pelham, beginning to be a little excited over the matter.
“This was off Ushant; and we were on the shore hand of her.”
“You left her on the starboard hand; and the steamer was headed which
way?”
“She was going a little east of north; and I concluded that she
intended to make either Plymouth or Southampton. She may have gone
more to the eastward when she was well up with the cape,” added Capt.
Goodwin.
“Then it was the starboard side of the steamer that was seen by Dr.
Phelps?”
“Certainly it was: she was on our starboard, headed to the northward,”
replied Goodwin.
“You said the steamer was not black the whole length of her, Dr.
Phelps?” continued the vice-principal of the Tritonia, warming up still
more as the investigation proceeded.
“I said so; but, if you give me any nautical conundrums, I can’t guess
them,” answered the passenger, laughing.
“What color was the part of the steamer that was not black, if you
please, Dr. Phelps?” asked Mr. Pelham.
“It was a kind of straw-color; possibly yellow. It was a sort of an
irregular patch at the forward part of the vessel. If it had been on
the roof of an old barn in the country, I should say that it had a lot
of new shingles laid among the old ones,” answered the doctor.
“Precisely so! and that part of the steamer’s side near the forward
part of her--and that was on her starboard bow--was the new planking of
the Ville d’Angers,” exclaimed Mr. Pelham excitedly. “I would not give
any one ten cents to insure my statement that the steamer towing the
dismasted vessel was the Ville d’Angers!”
“It may be,” replied the principal, musing.
“I am confident I am right.”
“I think you are, Pelham,” added Mr. Fluxion, who was particularly
pleased to have his hopeful theory substantiated.
“But the Ville d’Angers must have made good time, towing a wreck, to
have been off Ushant when you saw her there,” suggested the principal.
“It is hardly possible it was she.”
“It took us three days to make Funchal after we lost sight of the Ville
d’Angers,” said Mr. Fluxion, figuring with a pencil on the back of a
letter. “When did you see this steamer, Capt. Goodwin?”
“In the first part of our second day out,” replied the captain of the
Marian.
“Then the Ville d’Angers had five days to make Ushant; and she could
easily do it in that time: she had the wind with her all the way.”
“And she had all her sails set; and it was blowing fresh when we saw
her. They had a jury-mast on the wreck, with some sail on it,” added
Capt. Goodwin.
“It blew a gale in the Bay of Biscay the next day, and I have no doubt
it extended up to the coast of England,” said Judge Rodwood. “Do I
understand you, Mr. Lowington, that you send these boys off on such
expeditions as this one?”
“Some of these boys, as you call them, judge, are older than I was
when I had the command of a full-rigged ship for a time. No, I do not
send them off on such expeditions when I can avoid it. I have told you
that our friend Mr. Frisbone was on board of the steamer; and my young
gentlemen had the alternative of leaving him and his ladies on board,
or taking possession of her. I think they acted wisely, though I cannot
explain the conduct of the present commander of the Ville d’Angers in
towing this wreck to England.”
“In my judgment he had a good reason for doing so,” added Mr. Fluxion.
“O’Hara is twenty years old; Gregory, his first officer, is nineteen;
Speers is the second officer, and he is nearly twenty-one. The other
two officers are about the same age. There isn’t a fellow among them
that is not fit to take that steamer to any port in the world; and no
officers, even in the navy, have been so thoroughly trained in the
discharge of their duties.”
Mr. Fluxion got just a little excited in the defence of the policy of
the principal. He had been an instructor in the institution since it
was organized, and he knew the nature of the training the students had
received; and any one who was fit to be an officer had been obliged to
work his way up to the position.
“You think the steamer was bound to Southampton, do you, Capt.
Goodwin?” asked Mr. Pelham.
“I have not the least idea for what port she was bound; but she was
going east of north when I saw her last, so that she could not have
been bound for Liverpool, or any port up the west coast,” replied Capt.
Goodwin. “I should judge that she would be most likely to go into
Southampton; for she would find the least difficulty in the navigation
in making that her destination.”
“Then she probably got into Southampton four days ago,” added Mr.
Pelham. “Very likely she put about immediately, and sailed for Funchal.
She may be here by to-morrow or next day.”
“Unless the agents or the owners happen to see her, and put in a claim
upon her,” suggested Mr. Fluxion: “her case has to be settled in the
courts yet.”
“Southampton will be a good place for the business,” said the
principal; “but that will leave her ship’s company in England without a
vessel.”
“Leave that to O’Hara; and Tom Speers has money enough to pay the
passage of all his shipmates to Madeira in the next steamer,” said the
judge, laughing. “But Frisbone is with them; and I am sure he will see
them through all right. It is hardly worth while to worry about them.
I desire to see young Speers very much indeed; and, if he prefers to
retain his place in the Tritonia as first master, I shall make no
objection. If I thought I should find him at Southampton, I would
return there at once. Can you advise me what to do, Mr. Lowington?”
“The chances are, as Mr. Pelham suggests, that the Ville d’Angers will
return to Funchal at once; and you had better remain here a few days at
least. If the steamer does not appear in three days, I am inclined to
think I shall run over to Lisbon, or some other port, where I shall be
likely to obtain some intelligence of the missing vessel. If we could
get at the ship-news for the last week, we should know whether this
steamer had gone into Southampton or not.”
“Then I will remain here a short time,” said the judge. “The African
mail-steamer is due here in a few days; and she will bring the latest
ship-news.”
“We have almost taken it for granted that the steamer towing the
dismasted vessel was the Ville d’Angers; but we may be mistaken, after
all. Any other vessel may have had her side planked up; and it is not a
very unusual thing for a steamer to have her bow stove in,” added the
principal. But he was hopeful that the vessel described would prove to
be the missing steamer; and it removed in a measure a heavy load from
his mind.
After breakfast the principal and some of the young officers visited
the Marian by invitation. In the afternoon Scott and his party visited
the quinta of Don Roderigue; and the second lieutenant of the Tritonia
felt sufficiently at home there to invite the judge and the doctor to
accompany them, for he had been assured that any of his friends would
be welcome there.
Three days passed away in the enjoyment of the scenery and the
hospitalities of Madeira; but the Ville d’Angers did not arrive.