Looking round he saw Mr. Timmins clinging to the bulwarks, and making
his way along with the greatest difficulty until he reached the sailor
stationed with the axe at the mizzen-shrouds. He saw the man rise from
his crouching position, and, holding on to the bulwarks, strike three
blows on the lanyards. Then there was a crash, and the mizzen-mast
broke suddenly off four feet above the deck, and fell into the sea.
Jack thought that the vessel lifted a little, for he could see one more
streak of the deck planking. Mr. Timmins looked round towards the
captain, who was clinging to the wheel. The latter waved his hand, and
the mate again began to make his way forward.
He passed the boys without a word, for the loudest shout would have been
inaudible in the howling of the wind. He stopped at the main-shrouds
again, the axe descended, and the mainmast went over the side. The
relief from the weight of the mast and the pressure of the wind upon it
was immediate; the _Wild Wave_ rose with a surge and her lee-rail
appeared above the surface, then she rose no further.
Mr. Timmins looked back again at the captain, but the latter made no
sign. He could see that the pressure of the wind upon the foremast was
beginning to pay the vessel's head off before it; as it did so she
slowly righted until, when fairly before the wind, she was upon a level
keel. Then there was a dull explosion heard even above the gale, and
the fore-topsail split into ribbons.
But the ship was now before the gale, and was scudding, from the effect
of the wind on the bare pole and hull alone, at great speed through the
water. As soon as she had righted the lads threw off their lashings,
but still clung tight to the rail, and struggled aft till they stood
under shelter of the poop.
"This is something like!" Jim roared at the top of his voice into Jack's
ear. Even then his words could scarcely be heard.
Jack nodded. At present, even had conversation been possible, he would
have had no inclination for it, for he felt stunned and bewildered. It
had all taken place in ten minutes. It was but that time since the ship
had been lying motionless on a still ocean. Now she was rushing with one
mast only standing, before a furious gale, and had had the narrowest
possible escape from destruction. As yet the sea had scarce begun to
rise, but seemed flattened under the terrific pressure of the wind,
which scooped hollows in it and drove the water before it in fine spray.
Jack had read in the papers about tornadoes in America, and how houses
were sometimes bodily lifted with their contents and carried long
distances, and how everything above the surface was swept away as if a
scythe had passed over it. He had heard these accounts discussed by the
fishermen, and the general opinion in Leigh (Jack's home) was that there
was mighty little truth in them. The Leigh men thought they knew what a
gale was, and what it could do. They knew that chimney-pots and tiles
could be carried some distance with the wind, that arms of trees could
be twisted off, and that an empty boat could be carried a considerable
distance. But that a house could be bodily whirled away was going so
far beyond anything that came within their experience as to be wholly
disbelieved.
But Jack knew now as he looked round that this and more was possible.
He felt the whole vessel leap and quiver as each gust struck her, and
this with only one bare pole standing, and he would have been scarcely
surprised now had the ship herself been lifted bodily from the water.