THE SARGASSO SEA
OCTOBER 8 to October 13.--The wind is blowing hard from the northeast,
and the Chancellor, under low-reefed top-sail and fore-sail, and
laboring against a heavy sea, has been obliged to be brought ahull. The
joists and girders all creak again until one's teeth are set on edge. I
am the only passenger not remaining below; but I prefer being on deck
notwithstanding the driving rain, fine as dust, which penetrates to the
very skin. We have been driven along in this fashion for the best part
of two days; the "stiffish breeze" has gradually freshened into "a
gale"; the topgallants have been lowered, and, as I write, the wind is
blowing with a velocity of fifty or sixty miles an hour. Although the
Chancellor has many good points, her drift is considerable, and we have
been carried far to the south; we can only guess at our precise
position, as the cloudy atmosphere entirely precludes us from taking
the sun's altitude.
All along, throughout this period, my fellow-passengers are totally
ignorant of the extraordinary course that we are taking. England lies
to the northeast, yet we are sailing directly southeast, and Robert
Curtis owns that he is quite bewildered; he cannot comprehend why the
captain, ever since this northeasterly gale has been blowing, should
persist in allowing the ship to drive to the south, instead of tacking
to the northwest until she gets into better quarters.
I was alone with Robert Curtis to-day upon the poop, and could not help
saying to him, "Curtis, is your captain mad?"
"Perhaps, sir, I might be allowed to ask what YOU think upon that
matter," was his cautious reply.
"Well, to say the truth," I answered. "I can hardly tell; but I confess
there is every now and then a wandering in his eye, and an odd look on
his face that I do not like. Have you ever sailed with him before?"
"No; this is our first voyage together. Again last night I spoke to him
about the route we were taking, but he only said he knew all about it,
and that it was all right."
"What do Lieutenant Walter and your boatswain think of it all?" I
inquired.
"Think; why, they think just the same as I do," replied the mate; "but
if the captain chooses to take the ship to China we should obey his
orders."
"But surely," I exclaimed, "there must be some limit to your obedience!
Suppose the man is actually mad, what then?"
"If he should be mad enough, Mr. Kazallon, to bring the vessel into any
real danger, I shall know what to do."
With this assurance I am forced to be content. Matters, however, have
taken a different turn to what I bargained for when I took my passage
on board the Chancellor. The weather has become worse and worse. As I
have already said, the ship under her large low-reefed top-sail and
fore stay-sail has been brought ahull, that is to say, she copes
directly with the wind, by presenting her broad bows to the sea; and so
we go on still drift, drift, continually to the south.
How southerly our course has been is very apparent; for upon the night
of the 11th we fairly entered upon that portion of the Atlantic which
is known as the Sargasso Sea. An extensive tract of water is this,
inclosed by the warm current of the Gulf Stream, and thickly covered
with the wrack, called by the Spaniards "sargasso," the abundance of
which so seriously impeded the progress of Columbus's vessel on his
first voyage.
Each morning at daybreak the Atlantic has presented an aspect so
remarkable, that at my solicitation, M. Letourneur and his son have
ventured upon deck to witness the unusual spectacle. The squally gusts
make the metal shrouds vibrate like harp-strings; and unless we were on
our guard to keep our clothes wrapped tightly to us, they would have
been torn off our backs in shreds. The scene presented to our eyes is
one of strangest interest. The sea, carpeted thickly with masses of
prolific fucus, is a vast unbroken plain of vegetation, through which
the vessel makes her way as a plow. Long strips of seaweed caught up by
the wind become entangled in the rigging, and hang between the masts in
festoons of verdure; while others, varying from two to three hundred
feet in length, twine themselves up to the very mast-head, from whence
they float like streaming pennants. For many hours now, the Chancellor
has been contending with this formidable accumulation of algae; her
masts are circled with hydrophytes; her rigging is wreathed everywhere
with creepers, fantastic as the untrammeled tendrils of a vine, and as
she works her arduous course, there are times when I can only compare
her to an animated grove of verdure making its mysterious way over some
illimitable prairie.