It was useless to think of heaving the ship to, or otherwise attempting
to save the lives of the unfortunate Malays whose craft we had just
destroyed; the thing was an absolute impossibility, and any such attempt
would only have resulted in our own destruction; we had no option but to
continue our headlong flight to leeward, leaving our enemies to save
themselves, if they could, by clinging to the wreckage.
Immediately after the collision the carpenter came aft, and, without
waiting for orders, carefully sounded the pumps. The result was a
report that the hold was dry; we had therefore apparently sustained no
serious damage to our hull; while, so far as spars and rigging were
concerned, we did not appear to have parted a rope-yarn.
For fully half an hour the squall raged as madly as at the moment when
it first burst upon us; all this while the ship was scudding helplessly
before it, drawing nearer every moment to that deadly lee-shore that I
knew must be close at hand, and which I every instant expected would
bring us up all standing. At length, however, to my intense relief, the
gale slightly but perceptibly moderated its headlong fury; and
determining to at once avail myself of this opportunity, I called the
hands to the braces, and prepared to bring the ship to the wind on the
starboard tack. The moment that everything was ready I signed to the
man at the wheel to put the helm gently over; when, as I was turning
away again to give my orders to the men at the braces, one of them
startled me with the cry of--
"Land ho! ahead and on the port bow!" I caught sight of it at the same
instant, the air having momentarily cleared somewhat of the spindrift
and scud-water that had hitherto circumscribed our horizon and obscured
our view. Yes, there it was, a low, dark shadow against the now clear,
starlit sky right ahead and stretching away to port and starboard on
either bow. It could not be more than three miles distant from us--if
so much--for the air, though somewhat clearer than it had been, was
still thick, yet the loom of the land through it was clear enough;
altogether too much so, indeed, for my liking. What it was like to the
eastward I could not distinguish, for in that direction it faded quickly
into the thick atmosphere that lay that way; but westward it terminated
in a low point that already bore well out upon our larboard beam--a
sight that caused me to most heartily congratulate myself that I had
determined upon rounding-to on the starboard tack; for had I done so
with the ship's head to the westward, without seeing this point, we
could not possibly have weathered it, and must have taken our choice--
when we _did_ discover it--of going ashore upon it, or upon the land to
leeward, should we attempt to wear the ship; for she would never have
tacked in such a sea as was now running, with such a small amount of
canvas as we were showing.
As the ship came to the wind we, for the first time since the outburst
of the gale, gained something like a just idea of its tremendous
strength and violence. With nothing on her but the two close-reefed
topsails and the fore-topmast staysail, the poor little _Esmeralda_
bowed beneath the fury of the blast until her lee rail was awash and her
lee scuppers more than waist-deep in water. The howling and hooting of
the gale aloft, as it tore furiously through the maze of spars and
rigging opposed to it, produced a wild medley of sound that utterly
baffles all attempt at description; while the savage plunges of the ship
into the short, steep sea and the horrible way in which she careened
during her lee rolls almost sickened me with anxiety lest the masts
should go over the side and leave us to drive ashore, a helpless hulk.
True, in such a case we might have attempted to anchor, but I had very
grave doubts whether our ground-tackle, good though it was, would have
brought us up in such weather. The masts stood well, however--they were
magnificent sticks, both of them, while our standing rigging was of wire
throughout--and, as to our canvas, had I not seen it, I could not have
believed that any fabric woven by mortal hands would have withstood such
a terrific strain. It did, however, and moreover dragged the ship along
at a speed of which I should never have believed the little craft
capable, under such very short canvas, and close-hauled, had I not been
present to witness her performance. With her steeply heeling decks, her
taunt masts and their intricacy of standing and running rigging taut and
rigid as iron bars to windward, while to leeward they streamed away in
deep, symmetrical curving bights, her braced-up yards, and the straining
canvas of the close-reefed topsails and fore-topmast staysail all
swaying wildly aslant athwart the blue-black expanse of star-spangled
sky; with her lee rail awash; her decks a tumultuous sea in miniature
with the water that came pouring in whole cataracts over her upturned
weather-bow as her keen stem plunged headlong into and clove
irresistibly through the heart of wave after wave, flinging a blinding
deluge of spray right aft as far as the poop, and ploughing up a whole
acre of boiling, luminous foam, to pour, hissing and roaring, far out
from under her lee bow and flash glancing past in a bewildering swirl of
buzzing, gleaming froth, while the din of the wild gale raved aloft, and
its furious buffeting almost distracted one's senses, the gallant little
barque thus fighting for her life would have presented an exhilarating
spectacle to any one; while a seaman's appreciative heart would have
thrilled with exultation at her bearing in the strife. But though
travelling fast through the water, the poor little ship was at the same
time sagging most frightfully to leeward, the staysail seeming to drag
her head two or three points off the wind at every send, and bringing
her almost broadside-on to the sea. And although we were heading fairly
well out toward the open water, I could not conceal from myself the
awkward truth that our excessive leeway was reducing our course to one
practically parallel with the trend of the coast; and sometimes I even
thought that we were slowly but surely setting in toward the land. The
fact was that the ship needed more after-sail to enable her to hold a
good luff; yet it seemed to me that it would be impossible for her to
bear any more. She was indeed rather over-pressed than otherwise, as it
was, and had I had plenty of sea-room I would have endeavoured to
relieve her of the fore-topsail at once, even at the risk of losing the
sail in the attempt to hand it. But with that relentless lee-shore in
plain view I dared not do it; it was imperative that she should carry
every thread we were then showing, and more if possible. While I was
still inwardly debating the question it was settled by the lookout
reporting land ahead! I staggered over to windward at the cry, and at
the expense of a thorough drenching, despite the oilskins I had donned
some time before, made it out, a bold lofty headland, jutting far out to
seaward, and lying dead ahead of us. The ship was embayed! The land
ahead was certainly not more than three miles distant, and the ship was
setting bodily down toward it at every plunge. The time for hesitation
was past; something had to be done, and done promptly, too, or another
half-hour would see the last of the poor little _Esmeralda_. Our main
trysail happened to be a nearly new sail, bent for the first time when
starting on this voyage; it was made of good stout canvas, and was
beautifully cut. I therefore determined to attempt the experiment of
setting it, though I scarcely hoped it would endure the tremendous
strain to which it would be exposed long enough to drag us clear of that
terrible point. Mustering the hands, therefore, we got the sheet aft
and the block hooked on to the eye-bolt; then, all hands tailing on to
the fall, the lower brails were eased gently away, the sheet being
dragged upon at the same time; and in this way we managed to get the
foot of the sail extended without splitting it. The hauling out of the
head was a much simpler matter; and in less than five minutes I had the
satisfaction of seeing the entire sail extended without having parted a
thread. The effect of this added canvas was tremendous; the lee rail
was completely buried, and the deck was now so steeply inclined that
during the lee rolls it was impossible to maintain one's footing without
holding on to something. But we no longer sagged to leeward as before;
the ship now held her luff, and the threatening headland was brought to
bear nearly three points on our lee bow; if the trysail would only hold
out long enough we might yet hope to scrape clear. But would it?
Involuntarily I held my breath every time that the ship rolled to
windward; for then the strain on canvas and spar and rigging was at its
heaviest, and it really seemed to me as though nothing made by mortal
hands could withstand it. Minute after minute passed, however, and
still the good sail stood, while hope every moment grew stronger within
my breast.
We had reached to within half a mile of the point, and I was already
congratulating myself upon the certainty that we should clear it, when I
happened to catch a momentary glimpse, through the driving spray, of
something peculiar in the appearance of the water just off the point.
Surely it could not be--fate would not be so cruel--and yet--
"Breakers on the lee bow!" simultaneously reported the two men on the
lookout.
Then I was _not_ mistaken; it _was_ broken water I had seen. Yes; there
could not be a doubt about it, for while I strained my gaze in an effort
to pierce the darkness a ghostly white gleam shot into the air, such as
is caused by the water breaking heavily upon rocks.
"Ay, ay; I see them," I answered; then, to the man at the wheel--"Watch
your helm carefully, now, my man. Keep her clean full, and let her go
through the water; but do not let her go off a hair's breadth more than
is necessary. You must weather that reef if you have any wish to see
to-morrow's sun rise."
"I'll do my best, sir," answered the fellow, earnestly; and I saw him
brace himself afresh as he fixed his eye more intently upon the weather
leach of the main-topsail.
We were _flying_ through the water--it could scarcely be called
sailing--for the poor little ship was being so bitterly pressed that she
scarcely rose at all to the seas now; she simply drove her sharp bows
straight into the body of every sea as it came at her and ploughed her
way through it, shipping at every plunge tons of water that poured in a
continuous cataract over her forecastle and down into the seething swirl
to leeward under which her lee rail was buried. She must have been
travelling very fast, or she would not have behaved in this fashion; yet
in the agony of my suspense she scarcely seemed to move at all. Despite
this feeling it was sufficiently apparent that we were nearing that
awful reef at headlong speed; and with every desperate forward plunge of
the ship the frightful amount of lee drift we were making became also
more unmistakable, momentarily increasing the doubt as to the
possibility of our escape. We were now, and had been for some time, so
close to the land that any attempt to wear the ship round must have
inevitably resulted in her destruction; and, as to staying, that was
equally out of the question under such short canvas in such a heavy
sea--for the outer line of breakers was now close aboard of us; we dared
not attempt to anchor in the face of that wild fury of wind and wave;
and we had therefore absolutely no alternative but to keep on as we were
going.
Our situation, in short, had become so critical that I felt it my duty
to acquaint Sir Edgar with it forthwith; and I was on my way toward the
companion in search of him when he emerged from it and joined me, the
two seamen who had conveyed the inanimate body of the mate below
following him and making their way forward, dodging the seas as best
they might during the journey.
"I have been all this time in the mate's cabin," said the baronet,
"using my utmost endeavours to restore animation, but, I keenly regret
to say, without success. Captain, the poor fellow is dead!"
"I never thought otherwise from the first," said I, with a keen pang at
this confirmation of my worst forebodings. "It is more than kind of
you, Sir Edgar, to have taken so much trouble in the matter, and I am
deeply grateful to you, the more so that it has been impossible for me
to do anything for the poor fellow myself, the ship having demanded my
whole attention from the moment when the squall first struck us. Well,
he is at rest; his troubles are over; I believe he was a true and devout
Christian, though he never made any ostentatious parade of his religion;
and God will surely be gracious to him and accept his service of
faithfully discharged duty and gentleness and blamelessness of life."
"Yes," said Sir Edgar, "assuredly He will. After the story you told me
of his trouble in the earlier hours of this eventful night I cannot help
thinking that the very manner of the poor fellow's death was an evidence
of God's mercy. It was His hand that struck him down; and I feel sure
that the stroke was dealt in pity rather than in anger. One has only to
look upon the dead man's face and observe the perfect tranquillity of
its expression to be convinced that death was absolutely painless; he
must have passed the dread portal without knowing it. Meanwhile, how
are we faring, captain? It seems to be blowing more furiously than
ever; and are we not dangerously near the land?"
"I was seeking you to speak to you on the matter when you came on deck,"
said I. "It is my painful duty to inform you, Sir Edgar, that the ship
is in a situation of extreme peril, and the time has arrived for us to
prepare for the worst. I must ask you, therefore, to go below, arouse
your family, bid them don a life-belt each--which they will find on a
shelf at the head of their berths--wrap themselves in whatever they can
lay hands on as a protection from the weather, and come on deck without
delay. There is a formidable reef ahead of us; and, unless we can
contrive to weather it, the ship will be on it and breaking-up within
the next quarter of an hour!"
With an ejaculation of dismay Sir Edgar darted from my side and rushed
to the cabin; and as he did so I gave the order to call the watch below.
The outer extremity of the reef--so far as we could trace it--now bore
barely a point on our lee bow; and every sea that met us seemed to be
sending us a good two fathoms to leeward. The hoarse voice of the
seaman forward who was calling the watch reached me brokenly through the
deep bellowing of the gale and the loud seething of the boiling sea; and
presently I could see, by the increased bulk of the group of crouching
figures under the lee of the deck-house, that everybody was now out of
the forecastle. The saloon party were scarcely less expeditious; for in
a few minutes they, too, appeared on deck, wrapped in rugs and blankets
snatched hastily from the beds upon which they had been sleeping; and I
at once disposed them as comfortably as I could on the deck, under the
lee of the companion and skylight, where they would be in a measure
sheltered from the flying spray.
Then, calling Mr Forbes, I bade him take two hands below to collect and
bring on deck all the life-belts we could muster, and serve one out to
each man. This was soon done; the life-buoys were cut loose and piled
in a safe and convenient position on the poop; and we were ready for any
emergency. Nor were we any too soon; for we were now close upon the
reef, while we had settled so far to leeward that it had become apparent
to everybody that nothing short of a miracle could save us.
It was a bitter thought to me that, having brought the ship so far on
her voyage, safely and prosperously, I was now about to lose her through
what appeared to be nothing less than a cruel and malicious stroke of
fortune. For if the gale had broken upon us during the hours of
daylight, instead of in the darkness of night, we should undoubtedly
have discovered the hazard of our position in time to have avoided
running, as we had, blindly into this horrible death-trap. And not only
should I lose the ship--a loss, it is true, that was to a great extent
covered by insurance--but every scrap of property that any of us
possessed on board her would also undoubtedly become the prey of the
devouring sea--for there was no hope of saving anything out of the ship
if she once touched that reef--and, worst of all, there was only too
great a probability that many precious lives would be lost; it seemed,
indeed, very questionable whether _any_ of us could hope to escape the
fury of that raging surf.
It was, however, no time for repining; still less for any yielding on my
part to a feeling of despondency. I therefore called the hands under
the lee of the long-boat, and in a few brief words stated to them our
position, exhorted them with all the earnestness of which I was master
to be cool and self-possessed at the critical moment, and to put their
trust in the mercy of God; impressing upon them that only by such
self-possession, coupled with promptest obedience to orders, could there
be any hope of saving their lives; and I wound up by reminding them that
there were women and children on board whose only hope of preservation
lay in the courage and obedience which I now exhorted them to exercise.
As I completed my brief address the deep, thunderous boom of the sea
upon the reef broke for the first time upon our ears, as though to warn
us that the moment of trial was at hand; and, looking anxiously ahead, I
saw that the outer extremity of the white water was already dead ahead
of us, and that the ship was doomed!
"We shall never weather it, lads," I shouted; "we cannot possibly do it.
Stand by the braces, fore and main, and be ready to square the yards
when I give the word to bear up. We shall have to run her in upon the
beach, and take our chance of its being softer ground than the reef. As
soon as you have squared the yards and caught a turn with the braces,
come up on the poop, all of you, and group yourselves well aft; it will
be the safest part of the ship when she broaches to, and you will be out
of the way of the falling masts. Take a firm grip of the most solid
thing you can lay hold of, or the first sea that breaks over us will
wash you overboard."
So saying, I sprang aft and stationed myself close to the little group
of cowering women and children who were huddled together under the lee
of the skylight, in readiness to afford such protection and help to them
as might be possible in the impending desperate and almost hopeless
struggle for life.
The final moment had now arrived; the white water was almost under the
bows of the ship; another plunge or two would put the poor little craft
plump upon the reef; and with a heavy heart I turned to the helmsman to
give him the fatal sign. As I did so, a loud flap overhead and the
simultaneous righting of the ship caused me to glance aloft in amazement
and wonder as to what was happening. Could it be? By Heaven, yes! The
wind had dropped, as if by magic, or a miracle, and for the moment there
was a breathless calm, leaving us within fifty fathoms of the reef and,
with the momentum of our rapid progress through the water, rushing
straight at it. Instinctively I bounded with one mad spring to the
wheel, and, shouting to the bewildered man who held it, "_Hard down_,
for your life!" I grasped the spokes, throwing the momentary strength
of ten men into a frantic effort that sent the wheel whirling over at
lightning speed. The noble little ship quickly and gallantly answered
to the impulse, and, though pitching so desperately that she completely
smothered herself as far aft as the foremast, her bows gradually swept
round until they pointed straight out to seaward and away from the
boiling surf that actually swirled and seethed about her cutwater, as
though the poor little overdriven craft had suddenly realised her awful
peril and had swerved from it like a sentient thing.
"Man the braces, fore and main!" I shouted with frenzied eagerness.
"Round-in upon the starboard main and topsail braces, for your lives,
men; shift over the trysail-sheet like lightning! Hurrah, lads! over
with it before the gale strikes us again! Well there with the starboard
main-braces; haul taut and make fast to port; swing your head-yards; and
get the starboard staysail sheet aft. Here comes the wind again; but,
thank God, _we are saved_!"
No one but a sailor--and probably no sailor but he who has passed
through such an unique experience as I have just been endeavouring to
describe--can possibly understand the startling suddenness and the
astounding rapidity with which such an utterly unhoped-for and
unexpected change had been wrought in our situation. The whole thing
had happened with the breathless rapidity characteristic of the headlong
rush of succeeding events in a dream. At the very moment when I was
about to give the order which would have sent the ship flying before
wind and sea towards the beach, and insured her destruction, there had
occurred one of those sudden and unaccountable "breaks," or total
cessations of wind, that occasionally, though very rarely, occur for a
few brief moments in the midst of a raging tempest, and which are
sometimes succeeded by a total change in the direction of the wind when
it recommences to blow. These "breaks" are very similar in their
character and duration to the passage of "the eye" of a cyclone, with
which phenomenon, indeed, they are often confounded; and it was during
that brief lull that the helm had been put down, and the ship, by God's
mercy--though plunging so wildly in the seas that met her that I fully
expected to see her masts go over the bows--had been got round on the
other tack, with her head pointing to seaward before the recurrence of
the gale.
In the ecstasy of my delight and gratitude at such a sudden and
unlooked-for change in our situation I had cried aloud that we were
saved; without waiting to see from what point the gale would come when
it again struck us. Had it happened to have veered two or three points
we should, as a matter of fact, have been just as badly off as before,
for in that case the other headland or horn of the bay would soon have
brought us up. Fortunately, however, the wind came away a trifle more
free for us than it had hitherto been, so that when it again struck us
the ship headed fairly well for the open sea. That sudden break,
however, proved to be the beginning of the end; for though for perhaps a
quarter of an hour it blew as furiously as ever, it then began to
moderate rapidly; and the glorious, unclouded sun rose upon us as we
were once more mast-heading our topsail-yards after loosing and setting
the courses.
The safety of the ship once assured, I went below and entered the chief
mate's cabin, to view the body and assure myself, beyond all possibility
of doubt, of the fact of dissolution. A single look sufficed for this;
for although only some six hours had elapsed since the poor fellow had
been alive and hearty, there was already a distinct discolouration of
the skin, to say nothing of other unmistakable signs that death had
really taken place. Sailors are not, as a rule, given to much
sentimentalism; they are so constantly being brought face to face with
death that in a comparatively short time it loses much of that
impressiveness with which it affects the landsman; but this man had been
a true friend and comrade as well as a faithful servant to me, and I am
not ashamed to acknowledge that the tears sprang to my eyes as I knelt
by the side of the body and offered up a short prayer ere I looked my
last upon him. This done, I returned to the deck and gave the necessary
orders to have the body sewn in a hammock, and made ready for burial
with all expedition.
I was by this time feeling somewhat fagged, having been on deck for
fully twenty-four hours, one-third of which time had been passed in a
state of great anxiety; having therefore answered for the present every
call upon my attention, and satisfied myself that I could very well be
spared for a few hours, I retired to my cabin, giving the steward orders
to call me at four bells, at which hour I had arranged for the burial of
poor Roberts having long before acquired the sailor's habit of falling
asleep at a moment's notice, my head no sooner pressed the pillow than I
sank into a sound and dreamless slumber.
At the appointed hour the steward awoke me; and on reaching the deck I
was much moved and gratified to observe that not only were all hands on
deck, "cleaned and shifted" in anticipation of the mournful ceremony
that lay before us, but also that Sir Edgar and his whole family
intended to pay the last tribute of respect to the dead man, they having
mustered upon the poop in the nearest approach to mourning attire that
their resources permitted. It is not my intention to here enter into a
long and detailed description of the solemn and impressive rite that
quickly followed; it has been done more than once or twice by far abler
pens than mine, and is to be found in books that are read the wide world
over. There is therefore no need for me to attempt to inform my readers
upon a subject with which they are doubtless already sufficiently well
acquainted; suffice it to say that no form or detail was omitted which
could in any wise testify to our respect and esteem for our lost comrade
and friend, or add to the decency and solemnity with which we consigned
his body to its last resting-place _in_ the depths of the illimitable
ocean. This done, I promoted Forbes to the position of chief mate;
raised the boatswain to the dignity of "second officer;" and so brought
the incident of poor Roberts's tragic fate to a close.