The launch, under the command of Captain Staunton, carried Mrs
Staunton, her little daughter May, Violet Dudley, Blanche Lascelles, the
bosom friends Rex and Lance, Bob and his three fellow apprentices, and
the steward--twelve in all.
The pinnace, commanded by Mr Bowles, had on board Mr Forester Dale,
Brook, the carpenter, the sailmaker, and two of the seamen, numbering
seven all told.
The whaleboat gig, the smartest boat of the fleet, was manned, as
already stated, by Mr Dashwood and six picked hands; she was to act as
tender to the launch.
The second gig, of which the boatswain was given charge, carried the
remainder of the crew, five in number, or six including the boatswain.
Captain Staunton was of course the last man to leave the ship, and it
was not until the moment had actually arrived for him to do so that the
full force of the calamity appeared to burst upon him. Up to that
moment he had been working harder than any other man on board; and
whilst his body had been actively engaged, his mind was no less busy
devising expedients for the preservation of the noble ship with the
lives and cargo which she carried, and for the safety of all of which he
was responsible. But now all that was done with; the ship and cargo
were hopelessly lost, and the time had come when they must be abandoned
to their fate. It was true that many precious lives were still, as it
were, held in his hands; that upon his skill and courage depended to a
very large extent their preservation; but that was a matter for the
future--the _immediate_ future, no doubt, but at that supreme moment
Captain Staunton seemed unable to think of anything but _the present_--
that terrible present in which he must abandon to the devouring flames
the beautiful fabric which had borne them all so gallantly over so many
thousand leagues of the pathless ocean, through light and darkness,
through sunshine and tempest, battling successfully with the wind and
the wave in their most unbridled fury, to succumb helplessly at last
under the insidious attack of that terrible enemy _fire_.
The last of the crew had passed down over the side and had been received
into the boat to which he was appointed; the boats had all (excepting
the launch) shoved off from the ship's side and retired to a distance at
which the fierce heat of the victorious flames were no longer a
discomfort, and it was now high time that the skipper himself should
also leave. The flames were roaring and leaping below, above, and
around him; the scorching air was surging about him, torrents of sparks
were whirling around him, yet he seemed unable to tear himself away.
There he stood in the gangway, his head bare, with his cap in his hand,
and his eyes roving lingeringly and lovingly fore and aft, and then
aloft to the blazing spars and sails. At length the fore-mast was seen
to tremble and totter, it wavered for a moment, and then with a crash
and in a cloud of fiery sparks plunged hissing over the side, the
opposite side, fortunately, to that on which the launch lay. This
aroused Captain Staunton; he gazed about him a single moment longer in a
dazed bewildered way, and then, as the ship rolled and the launch rose
upon a sea, sprang lightly down into the boat, and in a voice stern with
emotion, gave the order to shove off.
"Oh, papa," cried little May, "I's so glad you's come; I sought you
_weren't_ coming;" and the sweet little creature threw her arms lovingly
about her father's neck.
Do not deem him unmanly that he hid his eyes for a moment on his child's
shoulder, perchance to pray for her safety in the trials, the troubles,
and the dangers which now lay before them. Then handing the little one
back to her mother, he hailed in a cheery voice the rest of the boats to
close round the launch as soon as she had withdrawn to a safe distance.
In a few minutes the little fleet lay on their oars close together, at a
distance of about a hundred yards from the blazing ship. Captain
Staunton then in a few well-chosen words first thanked all hands for the
strenuous efforts they had made to save the ship; and then explained to
them his plans for the future. He proposed in the first place, he said,
to remain near the _Galatea_ as long as she floated; because if any
other craft happened to be in their neighbourhood, her crew would be
certain to notice the light of the fire and bear down to see what it
meant, in which case they would be spared the necessity for a long
voyage in the boats. But if no friendly sail appeared within an hour or
two of the destruction of their own ship, it was his intention to
continue in the boats the course to Valparaiso which they had been
steering when the fire broke out. By his reckoning they were a trifle
over eighteen hundred miles from this port--a long distance, no doubt;
but he reminded them that they were in the Pacific, and might reasonably
hope for moderately fine weather; their boats were all in perfect order,
well supplied, and in good sailing trim, instead of being loaded down to
the gunwale, as was too often the case when a crew were compelled to
abandon their ship; and he believed that, unless some unforeseen
circumstance occurred to delay them, they could make the passage in a
fortnight. And finally he expressed a hope that all hands would
maintain strict discipline and cheerfully obey the orders of their
officers, as upon this would to a very great extent depend their
ultimate safety.
His address was responded to with a ringing cheer; after which the
occupants of the various boats subsided into silence and sat watching
the burning ship.
The _Galatea_ was by this time a mass of flame fore and aft. Her masts
were gone, her decks had fallen in, and her hull above water was in
several places red-hot; while as she rolled heavily on the long swell,
burying her heated sides gunwale-deep in the water, great clouds of
steam rose up like the smoke of a broadside, and hid her momentarily
from view.
The fire continued to blaze more and more fiercely as it spread among
the cargo, until about a couple of hours after the boats had left the
ship, when the intense and long-continued heat appeared to cause some
rivets to give way, or to destroy some of the iron plates; for a great
gap suddenly appeared in the _Galatea's_ side, a long strip of plating
curling up and shrivelling away like a sheet of paper, and momentarily
revealing the white-hot contents of the glowing told; then the water
poured in through the orifice; there was a sudden upbursting of a vast
cloud of steam accompanied by a mighty hissing sound; the hull appeared
to writhe like a living thing in mortal agony; and then--darkness upon
the face of the waters. The scorched and distorted shell of iron which
had once been as gallant a ship as ever rode the foam was gone from
sight for ever.