ALONE ON THE DEEP--NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION--A VALUABLE BOOK
DISCOVERED--NATURAL PHENOMENON--A BRIGHT DAY IN MY HISTORY.
It was with feelings of awe, not unmingled with fear, that I now seated
myself on the cabin skylight and gazed upon the rigid features of my
late comrade, while my mind wandered over his past history and
contemplated with anxiety my present position. Alone in the midst of
the wide Pacific, having a most imperfect knowledge of navigation, and
in a schooner requiring at least eight men as her proper crew! But I
will not tax the reader's patience with a minute detail of my feelings
and doings during the first few days that followed the death of my
companion. I will merely mention that I tied a cannon-ball to his feet,
and with feelings of the deepest sorrow, consigned him to the deep.
For fully a week after that a steady breeze blew from the east, and as
my course lay west and by north, I made rapid progress towards my
destination. I could not take an observation, which I very much
regretted, as the captain's quadrant was in the cabin; but from the day
of setting sail from the island of the savages I had kept a dead
reckoning, and as I knew pretty well now how much leeway the schooner
made, I hoped to hit the Coral Island without much difficulty. In this
I was the more confident that I knew its position on the chart--which, I
understood, was a very good one--and so had its correct bearings by
compass.
As the weather seemed now quite settled and fine, and as I had got into
the trade-winds, I set about preparations for hoisting the topsails.
This was a most arduous task, and my first attempts were complete
failures, owing, in a great degree, to my reprehensible ignorance of
mechanical forces. The first error I made was in applying my apparatus
of blocks and pulleys to a rope which was too weak, so that the very
first heave I made broke it in two, and sent me staggering against the
after-hatch, over which I tripped, and striking against the main-boom,
tumbled down the companion-ladder into the cabin. I was much bruised
and somewhat stunned by this untoward accident. However, I considered
it fortunate that I was not killed. In my next attempt I made sure of
not coming by a similar accident, so I unreeved the tackling and fitted
up larger blocks and ropes. But although the principle on which I acted
was quiet correct, the machinery was now so massive and heavy that the
mere friction and stiffness of the thick cordage prevented me from
moving it at all. Afterwards, however, I came to proportion things more
correctly; but I could not avoid reflecting at the time how much better
it would have been had I learned all this from observation and study,
instead of waiting till I was forced to acquire it through the painful
and tedious lessons of experience.
After the tackling was prepared and in good working order, it took me
the greater part of a day to hoist the main topsail. As I could not
steer and work at this at the same time, I lashed the helm in such a
position that, with a little watching now and then, it kept the schooner
in her proper course. By this means I was enabled, also, to go about
the deck and down below for things that I wanted as occasion required;
also to cook and eat my victuals. But I did not dare to trust to this
plan during the three hours of rest that I allowed myself at night, as
the wind might have shifted, in which case I should have been blown far
out of my course ere I awoke. I was, therefore, in the habit of
heaving-to during those three hours--that is, fixing the rudder and the
sails in such a position as that, by acting against each other, they
would keep the ship stationary. After my night's rest, therefore, I had
only to make allowance for the leeway she had made, and so resume my
course.
Of course I was, to some extent, anxious lest another squall should
come; but I made the best provision I could in the circumstances, and
concluded that by letting go the weather-braces of the topsails and the
topsail halyards at the same time, I should thereby render these sails
almost powerless. Besides this, I proposed to myself to keep a sharp
lookout on the barometer in the cabin; and if I observed at any time a
sudden fall in it, I resolved that I would instantly set about my
multiform appliances for reducing sail, so as to avoid being taken
unawares. Thus I sailed prosperously for two weeks, with a fair wind,
so that I calculated I must be drawing near to the Coral Island, at the
thought of which my heart bounded with joyful expectation.
The only book I found on board, after a careful search, was a volume of
Captain Cook's voyages. This, I suppose, the pirate captain had brought
with him in order to guide him, and to furnish him with information
regarding the islands of these seas. I found this a most delightful
book indeed; and I not only obtained much interesting knowledge about
the sea in which I was sailing, but I had many of my own opinions,
derived from experience, corroborated, and not a few of them corrected.
Besides the reading of this charming book, and the daily routine of
occupations, nothing of particular note happened to me during this
voyage--except once, when on rising one night, after my three hours'
nap, while it was yet dark, I was amazed and a little alarmed to find
myself floating in what appeared to be a sea of blue fire! I had often
noticed the beautiful appearance of phosphorescent light, but this far
exceeded anything of the sort I ever saw before. The whole sea appeared
somewhat like milk, and was remarkably luminous.
I rose in haste, and letting down a bucket into the sea, brought some of
the water on board and took it down to the cabin to examine it; but no
sooner did I approach the light than the strange appearance disappeared,
and when I removed the cabin lamp the luminous light appeared again. I
was much puzzled with this, and took up a little of the water in the
hollow of my hand and then let it run off, when I found that the
luminous substance was left behind on my palm. I ran with it to the
lamp, but when I got there it was gone. I found, however, that when I
went into the dark my hand shone again; so I took the large glass of the
ship's telescope and examined my hand minutely, when I found that there
were on it one or two small patches of a clear, transparent substance
like jelly, which were so thin as to be almost invisible to the naked
eye. Thus I came to know that the beautiful phosphoric light, which I
had so often admired before, was caused by animals; for I had no doubt
that these were of the same kind as the medusa or jelly-fish, which are
seen in all parts of the world.
On the evening of my fourteenth day I was awakened out of a nap into
which I had fallen by a loud cry, and starting up, I gazed around me. I
was surprised and delighted to see a large albatross soaring
majestically over the ship. I immediately took it into my head that
this was the albatross I had seen at Penguin Island. I had, of course,
no good reason for supposing this; but the idea occurred to me, I know
not why, and I cherished it, and regarded the bird with as much
affection as if he had been an old friend. He kept me company all that
day, and left me as night fell.
Next morning, as I stood motionless and with heavy eyes at the helm--for
I had not slept well--I began to weary anxiously for daylight, and
peered towards the horizon, where I thought I observed something like a
black cloud against the dark sky. Being always on the alert for
squalls, I ran to the bow. There could be no doubt it was a squall, and
as I listened I thought I heard the murmur of the coming gale.
Instantly I began to work might and main at my cumbrous tackle for
shortening sail, and in the course of an hour and a half had the most of
it reduced--the topsail yards down on the caps, the topsails clewed up,
the sheets hauled in, the main and fore peaks lowered, and the
flying-jib down. While thus engaged, the dawn advanced, and I cast an
occasional furtive glance ahead in the midst of my labour. But now that
things were prepared for the worst, I ran forward again and looked
anxiously over the bow. I now heard the roar of the waves distinctly;
and as a single ray of the rising sun gleamed over the ocean, I saw--
what! could it be that I was dreaming?--that magnificent breaker with
its ceaseless roar--that mountain-top! Yes, once more I beheld the
Coral Island!