He was the only 'soundser' I ever knew who understood farming. He had
inherited a farmstead of some twenty-five or thirty acres, and this he
soon had blooming as the rose. When occasion required, he wrought on
it, day and night. He divided it, with truest judgment, into proper
fields, experimented successfully with various kinds of novel manures
(most of which he obtained from the sea), grew stock, planted, in
rotation, and, with only here and there a sympathizer, gave in his full
adherence to the theory of root culture. And he was a mechanic. He could
build house or barn to the last beam, and ship or boat to the last
joint; nay, he once devised the model of a self-righting life-boat,
which I have often heard shipmasters, and even real shipwrights, descant
upon in the highest terms of praise. Moreover, I can affirm that he was
a navigator. It is true that the _science_ of seamanship, as set forth
in books, he had never mastered. But he knew right well what winds of a
certain force and direction foretold, what waves of a certain height and
aspect meant; and this knowledge, combined with a squint, now and then,
at his pocket compass, sufficed to enable him to take a vessel with
safety anywhere along our coast.
But while my old pal showed high abilities in other arts, as a
'soundser' and wrecker he was not to be matched. He brought to the first
of these pursuits a clearness of observation which would have met the
approbation of many an acknowledged man of science. He knew every sort
of food which bird and fish fed upon, where it was to be found, and the
circumstances favorable to its production. He knew why the game resorted
to certain spots yesterday, and avoided them to-day; what
circumstances--and they are very many--impelled it to joyousness or
quietude; and what were most of its minor instincts. And all this was
done _thoroughly_, withal. There was no haphazard or uncertainty in any
of his conclusions. Taking thought of sundry conditions, he could tell
at any time when such a thing was applicable; how many sheepsheads one
could catch in the sounds; whether the _honk_ of the wild goose, flying
overhead, announced that he was on his way to a fresh-water pool or a
bar of gravel; whether the black ducks were cooling their thirsty
gizzards in a woodland pond, sitting scattered about the marshes, or
huddling together on the bosom of the sea. In a word, his mind had
gathered unto itself every law, of the least importance, affecting the
existence of such wild creatures about us as cost any pains to bring to
hand; and thus he was literally master over them, and held their lives
subject to his will. That this power was really surprising, will hardly
be disputed; and since we, his associates, could in no way possess
ourselves of the like, it passed among us for something almost
miraculous.
Still, brilliant 'soundser' as old Bill was, he was far greater as a
wrecker; since I am now about to relate an occurrence in the line which
proves him a veritable hero. As is perfectly well known, our American
coast is often the scene of fearful storms, which deal out wide-spread
destruction to mariners. With us, these gales are commonest in February,
and hence this month is held in marked dread. Some years ago, in the
season referred to, a storm burst upon our shores, whose like only a few
of the older among us had ever known. After fitfully moaning from the
northward and eastward for a day or two, the wind, one morning, finally
settled due north-east,--thus sweeping directly upon the land,--and blew
a hurricane. It was excessively cold, too, yet not so cold but that a
fine, dry snow was falling, though from the fury of the wind this could
settle nowhere, but was driven, whirling and surging, before the blast
in dense clouds. In short, it was a time of truly unearthly wildness;
and our hearts sank the deeper in us, since we knew what ere long must
inevitably occur. At last, within an hour or two of nightfall, the sound
of a ship's bell, rung hurriedly, pealed towards us along the uproar of
the tempest, and by this we were made aware that a vessel had been
wrecked on a certain shoal rising up in the ocean, about two miles from
that part of the beach nearest our village. To go to the rescue of this
vessel, at this time, was absolutely impossible. For, to say nothing of
the wrath of the winds, the air was so thick with snow that, in the
speedily advancing hours of darkness, in which we should not fail to be
entrapped, we would be powerless to find our way at sea a foot. There
was no help for it; the poor victims of the shipwreck must that very
night know death in one or another most terrifying shape, 'if it was the
will of the Lord.' With this mournful conviction, about twenty of us
gathered at old Bill's house with the closing in of a darkness as of
Tartarus, and kept its watches. The anger of the storm abated in no way
whatever till morning, and then the sole change that took place was a
somewhat thinner aspect of the driving snow. Yet, even when this was
discerned, every man of us hastened to draw over his ordinary winter
garb an oil-cloth suit which enveloped him from head to foot, and
soberly announced himself ready to do his duty in the strait. That we
should be exposed to the greatest dangers was absolutely certain; and
whether a single survivor of the terrors of that awful night yet clung
to the few frail timbers in the sea, for us to rescue, none but Heaven
knew; still, the manhood of each demanded that what was possible to be
done in the matter we should at least attempt.
And so we started; the leader being old Bill, who to some end, that I
could not then divine, bore a boat-sail bundled on his back. Our first
business was to make way to our surf or life boat. This lay about three
miles from the village, reckoning as the crow flies, and was sheltered
under a rude house which stood on the shores of a bay opening by an
inlet into the sea. Our common way of gaining this house was through a
circuitous passage of the sounds; but these we soon discovered, in
consonance with a previous prediction of old Bill's, were entirely
frozen over save in certain parts of their channels; and hence, this
route being unnavigable for such boats as were at hand, which, without
exception, were light gunning and fishing skiffs, we were forced to
avail ourselves of a barely practicable land track of which we knew, and
which, as it led about among the marshes, was also circuitous. And the
necessity of choosing this land path added to our difficulties, in that
we were forced to provide ourselves with a small batteau and drag it
behind us, to be able to cross many ditches and sloughs with which it
was barred, and which, particularly along their edges, were never really
frozen. After toiling and battling for a long period, and at the same
time having to face the most painfully cutting wind that burst
unobstructedly over the level area of the marshes, we at last reached
the house wherein the life-boat lay, and when old Bill had scrutinized
its oars, and stored it with a mingled collection of cordage, canvas and
spars, we ran it into the water. But now another trouble arose. The bay,
like the sounds of which indeed it formed a part, was covered with
ice,--either in solid sheets, or that thick slush, peculiar to ocean
estuaries, which is chiefly known as 'porridge ice,'--and, from its
comparative shallowness, covered so densely, too, that if we had trusted
to getting our boat out of it by sheer rowing, it would have taken us
the entire day so to do. In this emergency nothing would serve but that
we must advance bodily into the water, and, crushing and clearing away
the ice with our feet, drag the boat, in a depth at least sufficient for
her to float, to the entrance of the inlet, where the current ran so
strongly that no ice could gather. After a severely trying amount of
labor, this point was finally gained, and we stood fairly in front of
the tall, thundering breakers; whereupon each man nimbly jumped to his
place in the craft, that of steersman being the post of old Bill.
As we gave way on our oars, we shot along the inlet without much
difficulty; and presently old Bill announced that, he caught a faint
sight of the wreck in the distance--to all appearance 'most all gone but
the hull.' But we had little or no opportunity to indulge in speculation
or remark on the discovery, for in a moment or two we began to oppose
the wildness of the open main, and the hour of our real trial set in.
For the first time we could now appreciate the full force of the gale.
Good Heavens, how it blew! The waters seemed alive and in direst
convulsion. Everywhere huge walls of breakers were constantly upheaved
to be felled and shattered with a roar as of some terrific cannonade;
while the air became the arena for a helter-skelter tossing of sheets of
spray, clots of froth, and spirts of brine, which plentifully assailed
our poor boat in their madness, and, besides partially filling her with
slush, encased every man in a complete coating of ice. If our craft had
not been modeled with the very highest degree of skill, and if our
steersman had not been one of a thousand, we could have made no headway
at all in this appalling tumult. As it was, our advance was of the
weakest, and its success seemed very doubtful, let our efforts be what
they might. Not but what we could sufficiently hold our own in the swirl
of the vanquished waves; but when they swooped upon us in their full
stature, they not only sent the boat back as if she had been a mere
feather, but with a second's awkwardness on the part of old Bill they
would have flung her clean over from stem to stern, and our places among
the living would have been vacant. Having strained every nerve for
nearly two hours, we were still but part way through the breakers, while
some of the men began to complain of fatigue; with which old Bill seized
a favorable opportunity to put the boat about, and we were swept ashore
on the beach as in the twinkling of an eye. Here, we secured our boat by
hauling her high and dry on the strand; freed her from the slush and
water which had gained in her bottom; and then retired to the leeward of
a range of sand hills near by, to recruit our energies.
With full leisure to ponder over the difficulties confronting our
expedition, some few of the crew now began to 'speak it foully,' and
even to emit gruff proposals to return homewards. But to these waverers
old Bill at once administered the sternest rebuke; and, as they at last
held their peace, he averred with a gay smile (for he dearly loved the
presence of danger, and could never be brought to look on it other than
as a rough sort of irresponsible horse-play, over which he was sure in
one way or another to gain the mastery), that he had now weighed all the
conditions of the pass, and that the next time we attempted it we should
assuredly prevail. This assertion, coming from such a source, encouraged
one and all very greatly; and ere long we cheerfully launched our boat
once more, and again began to tug at the quivering oars. In a very
little while it became apparent enough that the tactics that Bill
intended to adopt in our present venture were very different from those
put in practice with the last. Instead of boldly facing the breakers as
he had heretofore done, he now began his maneuvering by laying us
directly in the trough of the sea,--planting the boat a little
crosswise, however, so as to prevent an untoward swell from riding over
her side and thus filling her,--and the instant he saw an advancing
breaker beginning to fracture, as a prelude to its downfall and
destruction, he boldly sped us, when the thing was at all practicable,
straight in the teeth of the gap, and as it proceeded to widen, we shot
through it, with the surf leaping and tossing on either hand high above
our heads. This stroke could have been possible only to a steersman
possessed of herculean strength, combined with the rarest daring and
coolness; and, as the result of these qualities, it was exceedingly
effective. It lessened the danger of our being capsized almost entirely.
Indeed, the sole mishap that was threatened by so doing, was the
liability to being swamped by the falling fragments of the breakers;
but this peril old Bill declared we might safely trust he would also
avert. It being the nature of humanity to experience a mood of high
exaltation with the surmounting of any serious obstacle, we now worked
our way with minds light and cheery, and with all thoughts of anything
like fatigue completely forgotten. Though our course was on the whole a
zigzag one, and though we certainly met with one or two serious rebuffs,
we were constantly gaining headway, and in something over an hour forced
the last line of the breakers, and stemmed what on ordinary occasions
would have been simply the blue body of the Atlantic. But even here a
huge commotion was reigning, though our progress was far less tedious
than it had previously been; and with about another hour's labor we were
alongside the wreck, and had climbed to her deck.
The plight of the vessel was mournful enough. She had evidently been
built for a three-masted schooner, but, as Bill had observed when he
first obtained a view of her, everything about her was well-nigh gone
save her hull. Her bulwarks had been thoroughly crushed, and so the sea
had successively torn away her boats, shivered her galley and
wheelhouse, and filled her cabin and hold. Her masts were also
destroyed, the fore and mizzen masts being carried away from their
steppings, and the main-mast broken completely in twain just above the
cross-trees. But a sight still more desolate, as well as harrowing, yet
awaited us, as, in overhauling the sail-encumbered shrouds of the
partially standing mast, we discovered several ice-bound figures rigidly
hanging therein, which, being cut away and lowered to our boat, proved
to be the body of a negro perfectly stark and dead, and three most
pitiable white sailors, whose life was so far extinguished that they
could neither move hand nor foot, nor utter more than the feeblest
moans.
When we had covered the face of the dead and sheltered the well-nigh
dead as best we could in the bottom of our boat, of course our chief
thought was to return to the shore as swiftly as possible. But on this
head there was no call to entertain the smallest solicitude; for after
old Bill, from a motive that we could not yet name, had 'stepped' a mast
through one of the foremost thwarts of the boat, and rigged a sail all
ready to be spread, we cast off from the wreck, and presently, dropping
into the full strength of the wind, were swept onward like an arrow,
with scarce the least use of any other oar than that in the hands of our
stalwart steersman. Speedily crossing the outer waters, we leaped and
bounded over the breakers; and when old Bill, as we were rushing along
the inlet, gave orders for the hoisting of the sail, we not only
hastened to obey him, but immediately saw an all-important reason for
the command. For we were now about entering the ice of the sounds; and
as the boat flew in its midst, her stiff, tight sail drove her through
the stubborn obstruction as easily and in much the same manner as the
steam plow rips up the matted bosom of the prairies. In due season we
reached the landing where we usually disembarked from the sounds, and
where we found a wagon awaiting us, to which we bore our sad freightage,
and led the way for old Bill's house. On arriving, we laid the corpse in
an outbuilding and carried the sailors into a bedroom. But what was to
be next done? To tell the truth, most of us knew no more than so many
children. But here our leader again showed his knowledge. Strongly
condemning the lighting of a fire in the apartment,--which some one was
about to do,--he set us busily at work bringing him a good supply of
tubs, and buckets of cold water, into which he dipped the naked persons
of the sufferers; and as this treatment, combined with a patient, gentle
chafing, which was also administered, at last restored the flow of their
vital forces, he gave them a few spoonfuls of broth apiece, and, while
they looked a gratefulness they could nowise express, lifted them like
babes with his giant arms to warm beds, where they fell into what was
at first a fitful, broken slumber, but finally a childlike, placid
sleep. They were saved!
If the reader is now curious to know why a man like old Bill was not a
patrician and captain in the campaign of life, rather than the mere
private and plebeian he was, I can answer that there were several things
which impeded that consummation. His character, though of wonderful
height and force in some respects, was, after all, without true
discipline, and presented many glaring incongruities. Thus, whatever he
had of what could really be named ambition was satisfied when he had
surprised us 'soundsers;' and our praise--and we lavished it upon him in
full measure, as we knew he liked it--was all the praise he seemed to
desire. Then, he was altogether one of us in his notions of pleasure and
recreation. Like the rest of us, he cordially appreciated the sparkling
product of the New England distilleries, and far more than any of us--to
such a pitch did his animal spirits rule--he relished our broad sea-side
jokes and songs, and as well our rattling jigs and hornpipes. As for
others attempting to elevate him to a more exalted station, the thing
was simply impossible. When led of his own accord to seek other society
than ours, he could by no means content himself with the companionship
of staid practical persons, who on account of his latent worth would
have readily countenanced, and with the least opportunity even served
him, but he invariably paid his court to adventurers; such creatures,
for instance, as seedy 'professors' of one kind or another, who, in the
inevitable shawl and threadbare suit of black, were constantly
dismounting at the village tavern, with proposals either to 'lecture' on
something, or 'teach' somewhat, as the case might happen to be, and who,
having no affinity whatever with the brawny, awkward Viking who fondly
hung on their shabby-genteel skirts, amused themselves at his greenness,
or pooh-pooh'd him altogether, as they saw fit. And when, as it not
unfrequently happened, official and influential individuals at a
distance were moved by the story of his renown to pay him their respects
in person, and listen courteously and gravely to his opinions, his
discrimination stood him in no better stead, for as soon as he possibly
could he bent the conference towards a sailor's revel, and astonished
his stately visitants by singing the spiciest songs, and sometimes even
by a Terpsichorean display in full costume; for he was excessively proud
of his accomplishments in this line, and implicitly believed that the
shaking of his elephantine limbs, and the whirling of his broad,
coatless flanks, formed a spectacle so tasteful and entertaining, that
no one could fail to enjoy it to the utmost. Assuredly I have now said
enough as to old Bill's incapacities for a grander role in life. In
reality that part of a lofty manhood to which he at first sight seemed
fitted, was not his; for, properly speaking, he was not an actual man,
but a boy--a grand and glorious boy, if you will, but yet a very boy;
and at length he met the fate of a boy, as we shall learn.
Once more we were engaged upon a wreck. But this time it was in no
hyperborean tempest that we were called forth, but when the very
sweetest airs of June were blowing. The case demanding our aid was that
of a wrecking schooner which had gaily left her moorings in New York
harbor to pick up a summer's living along the coast, but had
inadvertently cut up some of her capers rather too near our beach, and
so with one fine ebb tide found herself stranded. As it was an instance
of sickness in the regularly graduated and scientific college itself,
our whole shore was intensely 'tickled' at the accident. And again, as
this doctress, like many another ailing leech, was quite incapable of
curing her own suffering, her toddy-blossom-faced bully of a New York
captain was pleased to salute old Bill with cup high in air, and beg
that he would take a sufficient force and heave the distressed craft
into deep water. Thus a crew of us were called together and set to work
at the vessel. As the weather was so warm and beautiful, and as bed and
board were at this time to be had on the beach, we agreed among us that
our convenience would be the better served by taking up our temporary
quarters near the scene of our labors. Now, the place where we were
offered the necessary accommodation consisted of an ancient plank-built
tenement, which stood behind a sand-ridge that a far younger Atlantic
than ours had piled up, and then, retreating, abandoned. In winter this
rude domicile was bare and tenantless; but in the summer months it was
usually occupied by some thriftless gammer or gaffer from the main-land,
who, having stocked it with a few of the coarsest household goods, and
whatever provisions came to hand, offered entertainment to such wreckers
and 'soundsers' as happened to be in its vicinity. The present incumbent
of the hostel was a woman, claiming to be a widow, of the name of Rose;
bearing in most respects no resemblance whatever to any of her
predecessors. Where she was born, or had hitherto resided, none of us
knew: all that gossip could, gather was that she had unexpectedly
descended from a passing vessel with her effects and entered directly
the abandoned house. When questioned as to the scene of her earlier
life, she vaguely gave answer that she had disported herself largely in
'Philadelphy;' but as no 'Philadelphy' woman that ever walked through a
doorway was or is able to compound a chowder or bake a clam pie worthy
of the name, and as Madame Rose understood how to prepare both these
luxuries to a charm, her statement must have been false; she was,
undoubtedly, a 'coast-wise' lady, and one who knew who Jack was as well
as he himself did. Her appearance was, on the whole, agreeable. She was
tall, slender, of regular features, and, though indisputably on the
shady side of forty, was still free from any signs that would proclaim
her charms to be on the wane. I remember in particular that she had
long, white and regular teeth, thereby strongly contrasting with our
native women, who as a rule lose their teeth early. Her manners were
very novel to us. She was invariably of a simpering, ducking turn, and
interlarded her curt speech with curiously hard words. In dress she
carried matters with an incomparably high hand. She wore hoops 'all day
long,'--a freak then never even so much as thought of in our
village,--adorned her fingers with many rings, and her throat with large
florid brooches, and in the evening, after having brought her household
duties to a close, sat here or there with her sewing, in silks (though
perhaps not of the newest), or other highly-civilized stuffs.