The sudden loss of these two men was not only a terrible shock to us
all, it was also a cruel misfortune; for, exclusive of Sir Edgar, it
left only four of us to handle the ship. It is true that we were now as
snug as it was possible to be, and in a condition to face almost
anything that might befall us in the shape of weather; but when it again
came to a question of making sail, or, still worse, being obliged to
once more shorten sail, perhaps in a hurry, there would be a good deal
of heavy labour, all to be done by four, or at most five men. It was,
however, one of those deplorable accidents that are incidental to the
life of a seaman; and, having in the mean time done all that was
possible for the safety of the ship, it was useless to meet our troubles
half way, and I therefore arranged that during the continuance of the
gale, while there would be really nothing to do but to keep an eye upon
the ship, the regular watches should be taken by the four of us in
rotation, one at a time, which would thus allow the others plenty of
time for rest against the moment when the utmost exertions of all would
be once more demanded.
It was now drawing on toward six o'clock, and the aspect of the coming
night was very threatening. The sky was completely overspread with a
vast unbroken curtain of inky cloud, torn and shredded into a countless
host of ragged, fantastic shapes that came rushing up from the northward
and westward at headlong speed before the breath of the raving gale,
while the air was thick and salt with the ceaseless pelting of the brine
torn from the wave-crests, and swept along in a drenching, pitiless rain
by the mad fury of the wind. The sea was rising fast, and already
presented a formidable and threatening aspect as the towering liquid
hills swept successively down upon the ship, froth-laced, and each
capped by a hissing, roaring crest of milky foam that reared itself
nearly to the height of our foretop over the weather-bow--so steep was
it--ere the barque rose to and surmounted it in a smothering deluge of
spray. Yet we were doing well; for although, under the tremendous
pressure of the wind upon her two close-reefed topsails, the ship was
heeled to her covering-board, while in some of her wild lee rolls she
careened until her topgallant rail was awash and it became impossible to
maintain one's footing on the deck without holding on to something, she
looked well up into the wind, and rode the boiling fury of the sea as
buoyantly as a cork. Her foredeck, it is true, from the knight-heads to
well abaft the galley, was streaming with the water that incessantly
poured over her weather-bow in a torrent of spray; but abaft that the
decks would have been dry but for the drenching spindrift.
The darkness fell upon us with a suddenness that was almost startling.
I had been for some time--ever since we had hove-to, _in fact_--narrowly
watching the ship to see how she met the seas; but at length, finding
that she was taking care of herself, I ordered Joe to lash the wheel,
and gave him permission to go below and join the others at supper in the
forecastle. Before finally releasing him, however, and assuming my
solitary watch, I thought I would have another look at the mercury. I
accordingly went below into the saloon, where the lamps were already
lighted, glanced at the barometer and saw that the mercury was now
stationary, chatted for a minute or two with the occupants of the
apartment, and then went on deck again. When I left the deck a few
minutes before, the horizon and the forms of the flying clouds were
clearly distinguishable; but now, when I returned to it again, the
blackness of impenetrable darkness was all round about me, relieved only
by the ghostly light of the pale seafire in the foaming wave-crests, and
in the tiny stars of phosphorescent light that went careering to leeward
across the deck with every lee roll of the ship. It was a weird and
awe-inspiring sensation to stand there in the blackness upon the wildly
heaving deck, and watch the irresistible, menacing onrush upon the ship
of those furious mountain surges, capped with ghostly green fire, with
the deafening shriek and din of the gale in the unseen rigging overhead
resounding in one's ears--a sensation well calculated to bring home to a
man his own nothingness in presence of the power and majesty of Him Who
causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; Who maketh
lightnings for the rain; Who bringeth forth the wind out of His
treasuries; Who hath His way in the whirlwind and the storm; Who holdeth
the sea in the hollow of His hand. And this feeling was in nowise
lessened--nay, it was rather intensified--by the thrill of exultation I
experienced at the reflection that man, puny as is his strength compared
with the mighty forces of Nature, has been endowed by his Creator with
an intellect capable of devising and framing a structure so subtly
moulded and so strongly put together, that it is able to face and
triumphantly survive such a mad fury of wind and sea as then raged
around me.
Throughout the greater part of that night the gale continued to blow
with unabated fury; but about three o'clock on the following morning a
rapid rise of the barometer commenced, and some two hours later a single
star twinkling brightly for a moment through a small rift in the
hitherto unbroken cloud-rack overhead gave welcome assurance that the
worst of the weather was now over--an assurance which was shortly
afterward strengthened by a slight but unmistakable decrease in the
violence of the wind. Then a few more stars beamed mildly down upon us
for brief but lengthening intervals; and finally, about half an hour
before the time of sunrise, the great pall of cloud broke up into
squadrons of tattered streamers speeding swiftly athwart the sky, which,
away down in the eastern quarter, was rapidly paling before the dawn.
Anon the pallor became tinged with a chilly hue of yellow, against which
the mountainous sea reared itself in vast sharply defined ridges of
blackest indigo, paling, as the eye travelled round the horizon toward
the western quarter, into a deep blue-grey, capped with lofty, curling
crests of pallid foam. Quickly the cold yellow along the eastern
horizon became flushed with streaks of angry red; the flying squadrons
of rent grey cloud became fringed along their lower edges with dyes of
purple and crimson; and presently the upper rim of the sun's disc,
copper-hued and fiery, gleamed through the flying rack low down upon the
horizon, flashing a cheerless ray of angry orange across the mountain
waste of waters, changing it into a heaving, turbulent surface of sickly
olive-green.
It was as dreary, cheerless a sunrise, I think, as I had ever seen. The
air, still full of spindrift, was, despite our position only a few
degrees north of the Line, chill enough to set one shuddering; the
maindeck was all awash with the water that flew incessantly over the
weather-bow and poured aft with the heaving of the ship, breaking into
miniature cascades among the booms lashed in the waist, and over the
lengths of cable stretched along the decks from the windlass to the
chain-locker, swirling round the pumps and the foot of the mainmast, and
gurgling and sobbing in the lee scuppers; the weather bulwarks were
streaming with water; even the topsails were dark with wet: miniature
showers were blowing away to leeward off the top of the galley and
forward deck-house; and the few dry spots that were to be found here and
there about the decks in sheltered places were white with encrusted
salt. It was still blowing heavily; the ship was plunging furiously,
and rolling so wildly that it was impossible to maintain one's footing
without clinging to something; the continuous raving of the wind among
the maze of spars and rigging, especially when the ship rolled to
windward, was most depressing to listen to; and the appalling
proportions of the vast liquid mountain ranges that, with dreary,
persistent, remorseless monotony, came sweeping down upon us from the
northward and westward, piling their hissing crests high around us,
completed a picture which, for dreary sublimity, I had never seen
equalled.
I was tired, and wet, and cold; for, notwithstanding our arrangement of
the watches, I had been on deck, off and on, the whole night. I was not
sorry, therefore, when Forbes came on deck to relieve me at eight
o'clock, thus affording me an opportunity to shift into dry clothes
before sitting down to breakfast. We were rather a small company that
morning, Sir Edgar and Miss Merrivale being the only members of the
saloon party who felt equal to the putting in of an appearance; and
after breakfast I was obliged--rather unwillingly, I confess--to go on
deck again to secure an observation of the sun, which observation, when
worked out, showed that we were nearly thirty miles to the eastward of
our proper position. This ascertained, I retired to my cabin, and,
flinging myself upon the bunk, "all standing," instantly sank into a
dreamless, refreshing sleep.
It appeared to me that I had not been in my berth more than five minutes
when, about a quarter of an hour before noon, Forbes called me in order
that we might together take the meridian altitude of the sun; and I was
no sooner on my feet than it became apparent that the ship's motion was
by no means so violent as it had been when I lay down; which was
sufficiently accounted for by the information imparted to me by the mate
that the gale had broken, and that in another hour or two the weather
would probably have moderated sufficiently to permit of our filling away
upon our course. This news was fully confirmed by the general aspect of
affairs when I reached the deck; for the sun was now shining brilliantly
in a cloudless sky, and the air was genially warm; while the wind,
though still blowing heavily enough to justify us in retaining the close
reefs in the topsails, had abated its violence so far that it now blew
steadily, instead of beating upon the ship in gusts of headlong fury.
The sea, moreover, though it still seemed to run as high as ever, was no
longer so steep as it had been; the great mountains of water moving more
slowly, and carrying a good wholesome slope on their lee sides, that
enabled the ship to ride them easily and comfortably without the
provocation of a constantly recurring feeling that each great menacing
wall of water was about to overwhelm her.
We had taken the sun, and made it eight bells, and I was on the point of
leaving the deck again to work out the sights in my own cabin, when,
while exchanging some remarks with Forbes, I thought I caught a
momentary glimpse of _something_--what, I knew not--as the ship hung
poised for an instant upon the crest of an unusually heavy wave. It was
but the barest, most fleeting glimpse; for before I could direct
Forbes's attention to it by so much as a word, we were plunging headlong
down the weather slope of the wave, with our horizon on either hand
bounded by a hissing crest that was rearing itself as high as our
maintop, and the barque taking a weather roll of such portentous extent
that both of us instinctively made a dash for the mizzen shrouds and
clung to them for dear life in anticipation of the coming--and
correspondingly abnormal--lee roll; while the roar of the bow wave and
the wind aloft created such a din that I could not have made myself
heard even had I been foolish enough to have attempted it. But I was
confident that I had seen something; and when the ship reached the
bottom of the abyss, where we on deck were becalmed, and the roar of the
surge under our bows had died away, I mentioned the matter to the mate;
so that when we were swung aloft again both of us were eagerly on the
lookout for the object. As almost invariably happens, however, after
the passage of an usually heavy wave, the two or three that now
succeeded were only of moderate height, and higher crests each time
intervened between us and the spot where the object was last seen; it
was also probable enough that the object, whatever it might be, would be
sunk in the trough of the sea just at the moment when we happened to be
hanging on a wave-crest; and it thus happened that several minutes
elapsed without my again catching sight of it. To cut the matter short,
therefore, I handed Forbes my sextant to hold; and, seizing a favourable
opportunity, sprang into the weather main rigging and swarmed aloft as
far as the maintop, from which elevation I knew that I should soon sight
it if it were still above water.
It was not until I was halfway up the shrouds that I fully realised how
heavily it was still blowing, or how violent still was the motion of the
ship. With every lee roll that we took I was involuntarily forced to
cling with all my strength to the rigging, for it seemed to me that
unless I did so I should infallibly be pitched head-foremost into the
top; while when the ship rolled to windward the pressure of the air upon
my body was so great that I was literally jammed hard and fast against
the rigging, unable to move hand or foot. This was even more apparent
when I reached the futtock-shrouds and was surmounting the edge of the
top, the wind sustaining me so completely that I am confident I might
have relaxed my hand-grasp for several seconds without the slightest
danger of falling. However, I gained my lofty perch at last, and, lying
prone in the top in order that I might see under the foot of the
fore-topsail, soon again caught sight of the object.
It was distant about seven miles from the ship, bearing about
north-north-east by compass, and floated very low in the water; a
circumstance which, from the thick mist still overspreading the surface
of the water, rendered it impossible at that distance to determine
precisely what it was. It looked as much like a dead whale as anything
else, and had I felt quite certain that it was really this, I should of
course have troubled no more about it. But there were moments when,
probably from some slight change in its position with regard to us, the
resemblance I have mentioned ceased, and the conviction forced itself
upon me that, whatever it might be, it was _not_ a whale, living or
dead; and at length, to set the matter at rest, I determined to fill
upon the ship and get a nearer look at it. I accordingly descended to
the deck, and, Forbes rousing out Joe and San Domingo, we all went to
work, and, with some difficulty, succeeded in setting the fore-topmast
staysail without splitting it, after which we filled the fore-topsail
and headed the ship for the mysterious object.
We were now close-hauled upon the larboard tack, with the object a bare
three points upon the lee bow, and it soon became apparent that, as we
were making fully that amount of leeway, it would require some rather
fine steering to fetch it without breaking tacks--an operation which I
was particularly anxious to avoid, short-handed as we were. Forbes,
however, was at the wheel, and as he was a splendid helmsman, it was
pretty certain that if the thing could be done he would do it.
When luncheon was announced we had drawn up to within about four miles
of the object; but so heavily was the sea still running that, even at
that distance, it was only occasionally that we could catch sight of it,
presenting now, as looked at through the ship's telescope, the
appearance of a large fragment of floating wreck.
The news which I took to the luncheon table, that a mysterious floating
something of considerable size had been sighted ahead, and that we were
making for it, had a very stimulating effect upon the occupants of the
saloon, who, enveloping themselves in mackintoshes, followed me on deck
when I rose from the table, with an eagerness born of the longing for
some occurrence to break the monotony of and make them forget for a time
the wearisome pitching and rolling of the ship, the monotonous,
unceasing clank and jar of the cabin-doors on their hooks, the
continuous creaking of the bulkheads, the thump of the wheel-chains on
the deck, the never-ending wash of the water, and the howling of the
wind in the rigging. And, despite the merciless buffeting of the wind,
and the ceaseless drenching showers of spray that flew over us, the
change from the saloon to the deck was unanimously voted an improvement;
for it involved a transition from a close, oppressive atmosphere to an
exhilarating breeze, redolent of the strong salt odour of the brine, and
bracing by reason of its very violence; while the brilliant sunshine,
sparkling upon the deep, windy blue of the vast mountain surges that
surrounded us, and converting every spray-shower, into a gorgeous
rainbow, constituted an ever-changing picture of rich and splendid
colour and wild, tumultuous movement that was not to be easily
forgotten. I thought Miss Merrivale had never looked so lovely as she
did then, enveloped in a thin, soft, silky-looking mackintosh, with a
dainty little, close-fitting hat upon her head, her beautiful hair all
blown adrift and streaming, a long golden web of ringlets, in the fiery
breeze, her cheeks flushed to a delicate pink with the rude buffeting of
wind and sea, and her eyes fairly blazing with excitement and
exhilaration at the wild scene around her.
Our first glances were naturally directed ahead in search of the
mysterious object for which we were steering, and it was quickly
discovered about two miles distant, and a good point on the lee bow. To
the unaided eye its character still remained uncertain, but a single
glance through the ship's telescope now sufficed to satisfy us that it
was a wreck, or a portion of one. It had all the appearance of a small
craft, capsized; for the telescope enabled one to see a small strip of
wet, black side showing above water, with a considerably greater expanse
of copper-sheathed planking. But, even now that we had so greatly
decreased the distance between us and it, there was still great
difficulty in determining its precise character; for it was only when we
and it happened to be upon the top of a sea at the same moment that it
came within our ken, and those moments were comparatively rare.
As we continued to close, however, our glimpses of it became
increasingly frequent; and at length, when we had approached to within
half a mile, the heave of the sea having meanwhile flung it round into a
more favourable position, it became apparent that it was a small craft
of some sort--seemingly a brig--that had capsized, and now lay with her
masts prone along the water, for we could now and then catch a glimpse
of the spars, with the canvas still set, lifting a foot or two out of
the water with the heave of the sea, only to settle back again the next
moment, however. What interested us most keenly of all, however, and
excited our profoundest astonishment, was the fact that a dark patch in
her main rigging--for which I could not at first account--soon
afterwards proved to be a group of men! for we presently saw one of them
scramble along the shrouds until he reached the vessel's upturned side,
and then--despite the heavy masses of water that were continually
breaking over the hull--rise to his feet and wave something that looked
like a man's jacket, by way of a signal, in answer to which I
immediately ran our ensign up to the gaff-end.
The excitement of the fairer occupants of our poop was now intense,
especially that of Miss Merrivale, who, in the extremity and oblivion of
her enthusiasm, not only addressed me as "Jack," but also volunteered to
do all sorts of impossible things by way of assisting in the rescue that
she took for granted. But how was such a thing to be achieved? We were
only five men on board the _Esmeralda_, all told, and what could our
united efforts accomplish? We certainly could not launch a boat, even
had we dared to hope that so small a craft would live in such a wild and
fearful sea; for the lightest of our gigs--the only boat it would have
been possible to launch, under the circumstances--would need at least
four men to do anything with her in such weather, which would leave only
one man on board to look after and handle the ship during the process of
rescue--which amounted to a physical impossibility.
I was, however, determined to save the men, if it could be done; we
therefore steered the barque as close up under the lee of the wreck as
we dared, and backed our mainyard, with the brig's royal-mastheads
showing just awash not ten feet to windward of us. It was an
extraordinary and appalling picture that we now looked upon. The
vessel--a brig of about one hundred and eighty tons--had been thrown
over on her starboard side, and now lay submerged to about halfway up
her hatchways, with her masts prone along the water, into and out of
which they dipped and rose two or three feet with the wash of the sea
and the roll of the hull. She was a wooden vessel, apparently American
built, and was under whole topsails, foresail, spanker, and jib, which
sufficiently accounted for her present predicament if, as seemed
probable, she had been caught under that canvas in the outburst of the
previous day. She had no quarter davits, and the chocks over the main
hatchway--where the long-boat, and sometimes the jolly-boat as well, is
usually stowed--were missing; but the gripes were still there, showing
that the boat or boats that had been stowed there had evidently been
washed away. There was, moreover, the remains of what had once been a
gig on her gallows. She appeared to have been generously fitted up;
for, as she rose and fell, we caught the flash of brass work about her
skylight and companion, and when her stern lifted high enough out of the
water a handsome brass binnacle, securely bolted to the deck, became
exposed to our view. Lastly, huddled in her weather main rigging, about
twelve or fifteen feet from the rail--where they were tolerably clear of
the seas that constantly broke over the vessel's upturned side--was a
group of nine men, most of them bareheaded, clad in garments that clung
to their bodies with the tenacity of clothing that has been soaked for
many consecutive hours in water.
They were in a miserable and most precarious plight, indeed; and I could
not help wondering how they had possibly managed to cling for so many
hours to so insecure a refuge--assuming, of course, that the brig had
capsized on the previous afternoon, as I surmised.
The first thing was to communicate with them; and this I first attempted
by means of the speaking trumpet. But the roar of the wind and the wash
of the sea, together with our drift--which was, of course, much more
rapid than that of the wreck--rendered my voice inaudible; so it became
necessary to resort to other methods. There happened to be a
"bull-board" kicking about the poop; and setting this up on the
skylight, where it could be distinctly seen, with its black face towards
the wreck, I got a piece of chalk, and hastily wrote upon it the
following words, one after the other, receiving a wave of the hand from
those on the wreck in token that they had deciphered each word before I
obliterated it and wrote the next:--
"Only--four--men--on--board--so--cannot--send--boat--Will--stand--by--
and--take--you--off--if--possible."
By the time that the last word of this communication had been written
and acknowledged we were some distance to leeward of the wreck, and it
became necessary to fill upon the ship once more. This done, the next
matter for determination was the means whereby we were to get the people
away from the wreck, and safe on board the barque--a problem which, had
we been fully manned, would have proved sufficiently puzzling; while,
circumstanced as we were, it seemed all but impossible.
At length, however, I hit upon a scheme that I thought might be worth
trying; and we proceeded forthwith to put it into practical shape
without more ado, since the unfortunate people on the wreck were in a
perilously exposed situation, and evidently in such a terribly exhausted
state that they might relax their hold, and be washed away at any
moment.
There were, as I have already mentioned, nine men to be rescued. Now,
the _Esmeralda_ having been, ever since she was launched, a
passenger-ship, was well found in life-saving appliances, life-buoys
among the number, of which we carried no less than twelve; eight being
stowed away in one of the cutters on the gallows, while the remainder
were distributed about the poop, ready for immediate use.
The first thing done was to get up on deck two good stout warps, and
bend them end to end, so that we might have plenty of length to work
with; and the inner end of this long line was then made fast inboard at
the fore-rigging. To the other end nine life-buoys were next securely
bent, in the form of a chain, with a length of about a fathom between
the buoys; and, finally, a long light heaving-line was bent on to the
extreme outer end of the warp. The warp was then carefully coiled down
on deck, ready for paying out; the buoys piled on the top of it; and the
spare part of the heaving-line carried out to the flying-jib-boom end,
where it was snugly coiled and stopped, ready for use.
Our preparations were now complete; and, having meanwhile been plying to
windward, the helm was put up, and we wore round to return to the wreck.
This operation provided work for us all, including Sir Edgar; and when
at length we got the ship round upon the starboard tack we found, to our
extreme vexation, that the circle we had made was so large that we
should be unable to fetch the wreck. This was terribly annoying at a
time when every minute lost might mean a human life; but we could do
nothing to rectify the matter except stand on far enough upon the new
tack to insure that when we next wore we should not again under-shoot
our mark. And if it was vexatious for us, what must it have been for
the poor fellows who, standing as it were within the very jaws of death,
were anxiously watching our every movement?
To our eagerness and anxiety the minutes seemed hours; but at length we
felt that we had reached far enough to justify another attempt; and upon
getting the ship round again we had the satisfaction of seeing that we
had measured our distance just right, and should be about able to fetch
the wreck, with little or nothing to spare. As we approached the brig,
the negro--who, now that he was separated from his late companions,
proved himself to be not only a first-rate seaman, but also a very
willing, good-natured fellow--most earnestly besought me to entrust to
him the task of manipulating the heaving-line, vehemently asserting his
ability to cast it further and straighter than any of the rest of us;
and I accordingly deputed that duty to him, whereupon he laid out to the
flying-jib-boom end and, placing himself astride the spar, outside the
royal stay, clinched himself there in the most extraordinary manner by
means of his feet and legs, and then calmly took the coil of
heaving-line in his hand and held himself ready for a cast. The ease
with which the fellow clung to the bare end of that dancing spar was a
revelation to me; for the motion out there was, proportionately, as
violent as it would have been in the maintop; yet there he sat, as
composedly as though he had been in an easy-chair, while most white men
would have found it difficult enough to maintain such a position with
the aid of hands as well as feet, leaving out of the question any
possibility of executing such a manoeuvre as that of throwing a line to
windward against a whole gale of wind.
San Domingo thus safely established at his station, Joe and Sir Edgar
placed themselves at the braces, standing by to back the main-topsail at
the instant that I should give the word; while I climbed into the
weather fore-rigging, as the best position from which to con the ship;
and in this order we edged gradually and warily down toward the wreck.