I ENCOUNTER A WHALER.
I had been six days and nights at sea, and the morning of the seventh
day had come. With the exception of one day of strong south-westerly
winds, which ran me something to the northwards, the weather had been
fine, bitterly cold indeed, but bright and clear. In this time I had run
a distance of about six hundred and fifty miles to the east, and with no
other cloths upon the schooner than her spritsail.
I confess, as the hours passed away and nothing hove into view, I grew
dispirited and restless; but, on the other hand, I was comforted by the
bright weather and the favourable winds, and particularly by the
vessel's steering herself, which enabled me to get rest, to keep myself
warm with the fire, and to dress my food, yet ever pushing onwards
(however slowly) into the navigated regions of this sea.
On the morning of the seventh day I came on deck, having slept since
four o'clock. The wind was icy keen, pretty brisk, about west by south;
the movement in the sea was from the south, and rolled very grandly;
there was a fog that way, too, that hid the horizon, bringing the
ocean-line to within a league of the schooner; but the other quarters
swept in a dark, clear, blue line against the sky, and there was such a
clarity of atmosphere as made the distances appear infinite.
I went below and lighted the fire and got my breakfast, all very
leisurely, and when I was done I sat down and smoked a pipe. It was so
keen on deck that I had no mind to leave the fire, and, as all was well,
I lounged through the best part of two hours in the cook-house, when,
thinking it was now time to take another survey of the scene I went on
deck.
On looking over the larboard bulwark rail, the first thing I saw was a
ship about two miles off. She was on the larboard tack, under courses,
topsails, and main-topgallant sail, heading as if to cross my bows. The
sunshine made her canvas look as white as snow against the skirts of the
body of vapour that had trailed a little to leeward of her, and her
black hull flashed as though she discharged a broadside every time she
rose wet to the northern glory out of the hollow of the swell with a
curl of silver at her cutwater.
My heart came into my throat; I seemed not to breathe; not to have saved
my life could I have uttered a cry, so amazed and transported was I by
this unexpected apparition. I stared like one in a dream, and my head
felt as if all the blood in my body had surged into it. But then, all on
a sudden, there happened a revulsion of feeling. Suppose she should
prove a privateer--a French war-vessel--of a nation hostile to my own?
Thought so wrought in me that I trembled like an idiot in a fright. The
telescope was too weak to resolve her, I could do better with my eyes;
and I stood at the bulwarks gazing and gazing as if she were the spectre
ship of the Scandinavian legend.
There were flags below and I could have hoisted a signal of distress:
but to what purpose? If the appearance of the schooner did not
sufficiently illustrate her condition, there was certainly no virtue in
the language and declarations of bunting to exceed her own mute
assurance. I watched her with a passion of anxiety, never doubting her
intention to speak to me, at all events to draw close and look at me,
wholly concerning myself with her character. The swell made us both
dance, and the blue brows of the rollers would often hide her to the
height of her rails; but we were closing each other middling fast she
travelling at seven and I at four miles in the hour, and presently I
could see that she carried a number of boats.
A whaler, thought I; and after a little I was sure of it by perceiving
the rings over her top-gallant rigging for the look-out to stand in.
On being convinced of this, I ran below for a shawl that was in my
cabin, and, jumping on to the bulwarks, stood flourishing it for some
minutes to let them know that there was a man aboard. She luffed to
deaden her way, that I might swim close, and as we approached each other
I observed a crowd of heads forward looking at me, and several men aft,
all staring intently.
A man scrambled on to the rail, and with an arm clasping a backstay
hailed me:
"Schooner ahoy!" he bawled, with a strong nasal twang in his cry. "What
ship's that?"
"The _Boca del Dragon_," I shouted back.
"Where are you from, and where are you bound to?"
"I have been locked up in the ice," I cried, "and am in want of help.
What ship are you?"
"The _Susan Tucker_, whaler, of New Bedford, twenty-seven months out,"
he returned. "Where in creation got you that hooker?"
"I'm the only man aboard," I cried, "and have no boat. Send to me, in
the name of God, and let the master come!"
He waved his hand, bawling, "Put your helm down--you're forging ahead!"
and so saying, dismounted.
I immediately cast the tiller adrift, put it hard over, and secured it,
then jumped on to the bulwarks again to watch them. She was Yankee
beyond doubt; I had rather met my own countrymen; but, next to a
British, I would have chosen an American ship to meet. Somehow, despite
the Frenchman, I felt to have been alone throughout my adventure; and so
sore was the effect of that solitude upon my spirits that it seemed
twenty years since I had seen a ship, and since I had held commune with
my own species. I was terribly agitated, and shook in every limb. Life
must have been precious always; but never before had it appeared so
precious as now, whilst I gazed at that homely ship, with her
main-topsail to the mast, swinging stately upon the swell, the faces of
the seamen plain, the smoke of her galley-fire breaking from the
chimney, the sounds of creaking blocks and groaning parrels stealing
from her. Such a fountain of joy broke out of my heart that my whole
being was flooded with it, and had that mood lasted I believe I should
have exposed the treasure in the run, and invited all the men of the
whaler to share in it with me.
They stared fixedly; little wonder that they should be astounded by such
an appearance as my ship exhibited. One of the several boats which hung
at her davits was lowered, the oars flashed, and presently she was near
enough to be hit with a biscuit; but when there the master, as I
supposed him to be, who was steering, sung out, "'Vast rowing!" the boat
came to a stand, and her people to a man stared at me with their chins
upon their shoulders as if I had been a fiend. It was plain as a
pikestaff that they were frightened, and that the superstitions of the
forecastle were hard at work in them whilst they viewed me. They looked
a queer company: two were negroes, the others pale-faced bearded men,
wrapped up in clothes to the aspect of scarecrows. The fellow who
steered had a face as long as a wet hammock, and it was lengthened yet
to the eye by a beard like a goat's hanging at the extremity of his
chin.
He stood up--a tall, lank figure, with legs like a pair of
compasses--and hailed me afresh, but the high swell, regular as the
swing of a pendulum, interposed its brow between him and me, so that at
one moment he was a sharply-lined figure against the sky of the horizon,
and the next he and his boat and crew were sheer gone out of sight, and
this made an exchange of sentences slow and troublesome.
"Say, master," he sung out, "what d'ye say the schooner's name is?"
"The _Boca del Dragon_," I replied.
"And who are _you_, matey?"
"An English sailor who has been cast away on an island of ice," I
answered, talking very shortly that the replies might follow the
questions before the swell sank him.
"Ay, ay," says he, "that's very well; but _when_ was you cast away,
bully?"
I gave him the date.
"That's not a month ago," cried he.
"It's long enough, whatever the time," said I.
Here the crew fell a-talking, turning from one another to stare at me,
and the negroes' eyes showed as big as saucers in the dismay of their
regard.
"See, here, master," sung out the long man, "if you han't been cast away
more than a month, how come you clothed as men went dressed a century
sin', hey?"
The reason of their misgivings flashed upon me. It was not so much the
schooner as my appearance. The truth was, my clothes having been wetted,
I had ever since been wearing such thick garments as I met with in the
cabin, keeping my legs warm with jackboots, and I had become so used to
the garb that I forgot I had it on. You will judge, then, that I must
have presented a figure very nicely calculated to excite the wonder and
apprehension of a body of men whose superstitious instincts were already
sufficiently fluttered by the appearance of the schooner, when I tell
you that, in addition to the jackboots and a great fur cap, my costume
was formed of a red plush waistcoat laced with silver, purple breeches,
a coat of frieze with yellow braiding and huge cuffs, and the cloak that
I had taken from the body of Mendoza.
"Captain," cried I, "if so be you are the captain, in the name of God
and humanity come aboard, sir." Here I had to wait till he reappeared.
"My story is an extraordinary one. You have nothing to fear. I am a
plain English sailor; my ship was the _Laughing Mary_, bound in ballast
from Callao to the Cape." Here I had to wait again. "Pray, sir, come
aboard. There is nothing to fear. I am alone--in grievous distress, and
in want of help. Pray come, sir!"
There was so little of the goblin in this appeal that it resolved him.
The crew hung in the wind, but he addressed them peremptorily. I heard
him damn them for a set of curs, and tell them that if they put him
aboard they might lie off till he was ready to return, where they would
be safe, as the devil could not swim; and presently they buckled to
their oars again and the boat came alongside. The long man, watching his
chance, sprang with great agility into the chains, and stepped on deck.
I ran up to him and seized his hand with both mine.
"Sir," cried I, speaking with difficulty, so great was the tumult of my
spirits and the joy and gratitude that swelled my heart, "I thank you a
thousand times over for this visit. I am in the most helpless condition
that can be imagined. I am not astonished that you should have been
startled by the appearance of this vessel and by the figure I make in
these clothes, but, sir, you will be much more amazed when you have
heard my story."
He eyed me steadfastly, examining me very earnestly from my boots to my
cap, and then cast a glance around him before he made any reply to my
address. He had the gauntness, sallowness of complexion, and
deliberateness of manner peculiar to the people of New England. And
though he was a very ugly, lank, uncouth man, I protest he was as fair
in my sight as if he had been the ambrosial angel described by Milton.
"Well, cook my gizzard," he exclaimed presently, through his nose, and
after another good look at me and along the decks and up aloft, "if this
ain't mi-raculous, tew. Durned if we didn't take this hooker for some
ghost ship riz from the sea, in charge of a merman rigged out to fit her
age. Y' are all alone, air you?"
"All alone," said I.
"Broach me every barrel aboard if ever I see sich a vessel," he cried,
his astonishment rising with the searching glances he directed aloft and
alow. "How old be she?"
"She was cast away in seventeen hundred and fifty-three," said I.
"Well, I'm durned. She's froze hard, sirree; I reckon she'll want a hot
sun to thaw her. Split me, mister, if she ain't worth sailing home as a
show-box."
I interrupted his ejaculations by asking him to step below, where we
could sit warm whilst I related my story, and I asked him to invite his
boat's crew into the cabin that I might regale them with a bowl of such
liquor as I ventured to say had never passed their lips in this life. On
this he went to the side, and, hailing the men, ordered all but one to
step aboard and drink to the health of the lonesome sailor they had come
across. The word "drink" acted like a charm; they instantly hauled upon
the painter and brought the boat to the chains and tumbled over the
side, one of the negroes remaining in her. They fell together in a body,
and surveyed me and the ship with a hundred marks of astonishment.
"My lads," said I, "my rig is a strange one, but I'll explain all
shortly. The clothes I was cast away in are below, and I'll show you
them. I'm no spectre, but as real as you; though I have gone through so
much that, if I am not a ghost, it is no fault of old ocean, but owing
to the mercy of God. My name is Paul Rodney, and I'm a native of London.
You, sir," says I, addressing the long man, "are, I presume, the master
of the _Susan Tucker_?"
"At your sarvice--Josiah Tucker is my name, and that ship is my wife
Susan."
"Captain Tucker, and you, men, will you please step below," says I. "The
weather promises fair; I have much to tell, and there is that in the
cabin which will give you patience to hear me."
I descended the companion-stairs, and they all followed, making the
interior that had been so long silent ring with their heavy tread,
whilst from time to time a gruff, hoarse whisper broke from one of them.
But superstition lay strong upon their imagination, and they were awed
and quiet. The daylight came down the hatch, but for all that the cabin
was darksome.
I waited till the last man had entered, and then said, "Before we settle
down to a bowl and a yarn, captain, I should like to show you this ship.
It'll save me a deal of description and explanation if you will be
pleased to take a view."
"Lead on, mister," said he; "but we shall have to snap our eyelids and
raise fire in that way, for durned if I, for one, can see in the dark."
I fetched three or four lanthorns, and, lighting the candles,
distributed them among the men, and then, in a procession, headed by the
captain and me, we made the rounds. I had half-cleared the arms-room,
but there were weapons enough left, and they stared at them like yokels
in a booth. I showed them the cook-house and the forecastle, where the
deck was still littered with clothes, and chests, and hammocks; and,
after carrying them aft to the cabins, gave them a sight of the hold. I
never saw men more amazed. They filled the vessel with their
exclamations. They never offered to touch anything, being too much awed,
but stepped about with their heads uncovered, as quietly as they could,
as though they had been in a crypt, and the influence of strange and
terrifying memorials was upon them. I also showed them the clothes I had
come away from the _Laughing Mary_ in; and, that I might submit such an
aspect to them as should touch their sympathies, I whipped off the cloak
and put on my own pilot-cloth coat.
There being nothing more to see, I led them to the cook-room, and there
brewed a great hearty bowl of brandy-punch, which I seasoned with lemon,
sugar, and spices into as relishable a draught as my knowledge in that
way could compass, and, giving every man a pannikin, bade him dip and
welcome, myself first drinking to them with a brief speech, yet not so
brief but that I broke down towards the close of it, and ended with a
dry sob or two.
They would have been unworthy their country and their calling not to
have been touched by my natural manifestation of emotion; besides, the
brandy was an incomparably fine spirit, and the very perfume of the
steaming bowl was sufficient to stimulate the kindly qualities of
sailors who had been locked up for months in a greasy old ship, with no
diviner smells about than the stink of the try-works. The captain,
standing up, called upon his men to drink to me, promising me that he
was very glad to have fallen in with my schooner, and then, looking at
the others, made a sign, whereupon they all fixed their eyes upon me and
drank as one man, every one emptying his pot and inverting it as a
proof, and fetching a rousing sigh of satisfaction.
This ceremony ended, I began my story, beginning with the loss of the
_Laughing Mary_, and proceeding step by step. I told them of the dead
body of Mendoza, but said nothing about the Frenchman and the mate, and
the Portugal boatswain, lest I should make them afraid of the vessel,
and so get no help to work her. As to acquainting them with my recovery
of Tassard, after his stupor of eight-and-forty years, I should have
been mute on that head in any case, for so extraordinary a relation
could, from such people, have earned me but one of two opinions: either
that I was mad and believed in an impossibility, or that I was a rogue
and dealt in magic, and to be vehemently shunned. Yet there were wonders
enough in my story without this, and I recited it to a running
commentary of all sorts of queer Yankee exclamations.
There were seven seamen and the captain and I made nine, and we pretty
nearly filled the cook-room. 'Twas a scene to be handled by a Dutch
brush. We were a shaggy company, in several kinds of rude attire, and
the crimson light of the furnace, whose playing flames darted shadows
through the steady light of the lanthorns, caused us to appear very
wild. The mariners' eyes gleamed redly as their glances rove round the
place, and, had you come suddenly among us, I believe you would have
thought this band of pale, fire-touched, hairy men, with the one ebon
visage among them, rendered the vessel a vast deal more ghostly than
ever she could have shown when sailing along with me alone on board.
They were a good deal puzzled when I told them of the mines I had made
and sprung in the ice. They reckoned the notion fine, but could not
conceive how I had, single-handed, broken out the powder-barrels, got
them over the side, and fixed them.
"Why," said I, "'twas slow, heavy work, of course; but a man who labours
for his life will do marvellous things. It is like the jump of a hunted
stag."
"True for you," says the captain. "A swim of two miles spends me in
pleasurin'; but I've swum eight mile to save my life, and stranded fresh
as a new-hooked cod. What's your intentions, sir?"
"To sail the schooner home," said I, "if I can get help. She's too good
to abandon. She'll fetch money in England."
"Ay, as a show."
"Yes, and as a coalman. Rig her modernly, and carry your forecastle deck
into the head, captain, and she's a brave ship, fit for a Baltimore
eye."
He stroked down the hair upon his chin.
"Dip, captain, dip, my lads; there's enough of this to drown ye in the
hold," said I, pointing to the bowl. "Come, this is a happy meeting for
me; let it be a merry one. Captain, I drink to the _Susan Tucker_."
"Sir, your servant. Here's to your sweetheart, be she wife or maid.
Bill, jump on deck and take a look round. See to the boat."
One of the men went out.
"Captain," said I, "you are a full ship?"
"That's so."
"Bound home?"
"Right away."
"You have men enough and to spare. Lend me three of your hands to help
me to the Thames, and I'll repay you thus; there should be near a
hundred tons of wine and brandy, of exquisite vintage, and choice with
age beyond language in the hold. Take what you will of that freight;
there'll be ten times the value of your lay in your pickings, modest as
you may prove. Help yourself to the clothes in the cabin and forecastle;
they will turn to account. For the men you will spare, and who will
volunteer to help me, this will be my undertaking: the ship and all that
is in her to be sold on her arrival, and the proceeds equally divided.
Shall we call it a thousand pounds apiece? Captain, she's well found:
her inventory would make a list as long as you; I'd name a bigger sum,
but here she is, you shall overhaul her hold and judge for yourself."
I watched him anxiously. No man spoke, but every eye was upon him. He
sat pulling down the hair on his chin, then, jumping up on a sudden and
extending his hand, he cried, "Shake! it's a bargain, if the men 'll
jine."
"I'll jine!" exclaimed a man.
There was a pause.
"And me," said the negro.
I was glad of this, and looked earnestly at the others.
"Is she tight?" said a man.
"As a bottle," said I.
They fell silent again.
"Joe Wilkinson and Washington Cromwell--them two jines," said the
captain. "Bullies, he wants a third. Don't speak all together."
The man named "Bill" at this moment returned to the cook-room, and
reported all well above. My offer was repeated to him, but he shook his
head.
"This is the Horn, mates," said he. "There's a deal o' water 'tween this
and the Thames. How do she sail?--no man knows."
"I want none but willing men," said I. "Americans make as good sailors
as the English. What an English seaman can face any of you can. There is
another negro in the boat. Will you let him step aboard, captain? He may
join."
A man was sent to take his place. Presently he arrived, and I gave him a
cup of punch.
"'Splain the business to him, sir," said the captain, filling his
pannikin; "his name's Billy Pitt."
I did so; and when I told him that Washington Cromwell had offered, he
instantly said, "All right, massa, I'll be ob yah."
This was exactly what I wanted, and had there been a third negro I'd
have preferred him to the white man.
"But how are you going to navigate this craft home with three men?" said
the man "Bill" to me.
"There'll be four; we shall do. The fewer the more dollars, hey,
Wilkinson?"
He grinned, and Cromwell broke into a ventral laugh.
They seemed very well satisfied, and so was I.