THE WRECK AND THE RESCUE.
IT was the middle of October, about ten o’clock in the forenoon; there
was no rain falling, but it was blowing—O, how it was blowing!—a
tearing gale from the south-west, which roared through, the tree
tops, and there was a tremendous sea in the bay. But under the lee of
Pleasant Point, entirely sheltered from the wind by the high land and
the woods, a shooting match had just been abruptly broken off by Sol
Chase (a boy of sixteen, who put up the turkeys) declaring that it was
no kind of use to set up, if such marksmen as Joe Griffin and Uncle
Isaac were going to shoot.
“Well, Sol, we won’t fire any more,” said Joe; “you boys may do your
own shooting.”
“Let us do something we can all do,” said Charlie. “Uncle Isaac, let us
play knives. I’ll blaze this pine tree for a mark.”
“Blaze a pine tree! Half of you won’t be able to hit the tree. Take the
barn door.”
“We haven’t got knives,” said Ricker.
“I’ve got my hunting knife,” said Uncle Isaac; “one knife will do for
the whole of us.”
“I’ve got an Indian tomahawk in the house,” said Charlie; “one that you
gave me, Uncle Isaac, long ago.”
A bull’s eye was marked out on the barn door; the knife was held by the
point of the blade, and flung. Uncle Isaac, when, after the first two
trials, he had ascertained his distance, hit the centre of the target
every time; Joe Griffin nearly as often; Charlie, Fred, and John, who
had at other times practised a good deal with Uncle Isaac and each
other, twice out of three times.
“It takes Walter Griffin to throw a knife. He’d hit that mark every
time.”
“I wish he was here,” said Fred. “I feel, since he went to sea, as
though about half of me was gone.”
As to the rest, some hit within six inches; others didn’t hit the door;
and others flung the knife so that it struck flatways, or on the end of
the handle.
“Now let’s throw the tomahawk,” said Charlie.
In this game none of them could approach Uncle Isaac, who flung it with
a force and precision that would soon have made a breach in Charlie’s
barn door; but as the rest could not fling it with any accuracy, they
soon tired of it.
“I’ll put up a mark for you, Uncle Isaac,” said Joe Bradish.
He had a soft hat, bran new; put it on for the first time that day.
“What will you give me for a shot at my hat, at six hundred yards?”
“Three shillings.”
“Done.”
Bradish rolled his hat carefully up, and thrust it into a mortise in
the post of a rail fence.
“I thought I was to have the whole bigness of the hat to fire at;
that’s a small mark for such a long distance.”
“That’s just like him,” said Charlie; “always doing some mean,
underhand trick.”
“You was to fire at the hat. There’s the hat. Now measure off the six
hundred yards,” said Bradish.
“Don’t measure it that way,” said Uncle Isaac to the boys, who were
about to measure in the direction that the hat was shoved into the hole.
“What difference does it make?” asked Bradish.
“’Cause it does. I’ve a right to fire in any direction I like, at six
hundred yards.”
Uncle Isaac fired, and the ball, just grazing the edge of the post,
went through every fold of the hat crossways, the rifle ball whirling
as it went, cutting it all to pieces.
“You’ve spoilt my new hat,” said Bradish, with a rueful face, holding
it up, all full of holes, like a colander.
“That’s what you get by trying to cheat: good enough for you,” was the
cry.
Scarcely had the laugh subsided, when Will Griffin was seen coming on
horseback at full speed, and as he drew near, he bawled out, “Uncle
Isaac, Joe, Master Bell, Captain Rhines wants you to come just as quick
as you can; there’s a vessel cast away—folks going to be drowned on
the Brant rocks.”
When they reached the cove, they found Captain Rhines, in the
Perseverance, her sails close reefed and set, hatches fastened down,
and the vessel hauled in against a perpendicular ledge, while he was
holding her by a rope fast to a tree.
“Jump aboard!” he cried. “There’s people on a raft, coming right in
before the wind and sea, and they will go right into the breakers on
the Brant rocks, except we can get them off. I happened to be looking
with the glass, and saw them.”
“We’ll do what men can do,” said Uncle Isaac. “Hadn’t we better call at
the island, and get Ben? It’s right on our road.”
“That’s a good thought. Wonder I didn’t think of it.”
Ben had not noticed the raft, but he saw the schooner coming, and knew
that it must be a matter of life and death that would bring men to the
island in such a gale. Both he and Sally met them at the shore.
“I want you, my little boy,” cried Captain Rhines, as the schooner
luffed up beside the wharf, in the still water of Elm Island harbor.
“There’s a raft coming before the wind and sea, with people on it, and
a signal of distress flying. It’s breaking thirty feet high on the
Brant rocks, and they will soon be in that surf, unless we take them
off.”
No more was said. Ben jumped aboard, and the schooner, close hauled,
stood boldly out into that tremendous sea. The men all commenced to
lash themselves. Charlie was forward. He had made the end of a rope
fast to the foremast, and put it around his waist; but, before he could
secure the other end, she shipped a sea over the bows, that filled her
all full, and bore Charlie before it like a feather. In another instant
it would have taken him overboard, when nothing could have saved him;
but Joe caught him as he was going over the rail.
“A miss is as good as a mile,” said Captain Rhines. “She shakes off the
water like a Newfoundland dog. Ben, take the axe, and knock off the
waist boards, and then the sea can have a fair chance to get out as
fast as it comes in.”
They were now nearing the raft, as it came rapidly down before the sea,
while the crew of the schooner were endeavoring to cut athwart its
path. Catching glimpses of it in moments when the raft and the schooner
both chanced to be on the top of a sea at the same instant, they
perceived that it was constructed of the yards and smaller spars of a
vessel, with an elevation amid-ships, where an upright spar was secured
by shrouds, on which an English flag was flying. On this elevation
were dark objects, that Captain Rhines (at home) had made out, with his
glass, to be human beings.
“If they are people, father,” said Ben, who, confident to hold himself
against the sea, had gone into the bows, “they are dead; for there’s
nothing moves, only as the sea moves it.”
“Perhaps not, Ben. They are lashed, chilled, and most dead, but I’ve
seen men brought to that apparently had but a few more breaths to draw.”
In a few moments Ben shouted, “There’s folks there, four or six, I
can’t tell which. I see one move his arm a little.”
“What are we going to do?” asked Captain Rhines. “I thought there would
be some one able to take a line and make it fast, and then we might
tow them clear of the breakers and into some lee, where we could get
them off; but if there’s nobody to take a line, we’ve got to carry one
ourselves.”
“Let the raft go by us,” said Ben, “and follow it up astern with the
schooner. I’ll take a line in the canoe.”
“I’ll go with you,” said Joe; but Charlie insisted upon sharing the
peril with his father. They took in all but the foresail, reefed to the
smallest possible dimensions, leaving only a little of the peak, as it
was difficult to make the schooner go slow enough to keep from running
on to the raft and knocking her to pieces; but by luffing into the wind
they managed to keep her clear till Ben and Charlie got into the canoe,
and with a small line reached the raft, to which was made fast a larger
one, which they hauled to them and secured.
There was no such thing as returning against that sea; they must take
their chance with those they came to save. If the rope parted, or the
little vessel failed to tow her charge clear of the surf, they were
lost. During the interval occupied in fastening to the raft, it had
made fearful progress towards the rocks, that could now be plainly seen
ahead, the sea breaking on them in sheets of foam. Never was the clear
judgment and resolute nature of Captain Rhines put to a severer test
than now. He must carry sail enough to drive the Perseverance through
the water with sufficient speed to clear the rocks. On the other hand,
there was danger, if he carried too much sail, of either parting the
rope, in which case Ben and Charlie, with those they went to save,
would perish, or of taking the masts out of the schooner; and also
danger of the seas boarding her over the stern.
It was most fortunate for the crew of the schooner, that when they
grappled to the raft they were a long distance off, and well over to
the edge of the breakers, consequently had to work the raft but very
little to windward. Every time the little vessel rose on one of those
tremendous seas, when the raft was perhaps in the hollow of another,
she quivered and trembled, and it seemed as if she must be crushed
bodily down beneath the sea.
“Isaac,” said the captain, who had one hand on the rope, “I think this
will bear more strain. Unless we go ahead a little faster, we shall
hardly clear that ragged point making out to the leeward.”
“I’m afraid, Benjamin, it will take the mast out of her.”
“So am I, but we must risk it. There’s no other way. It’s sartain death
to go into that surf.”
There was one other way. A stroke of the axe upon the “taut” rope, and
the schooner, freed from her encumbrance, would have gone off like a
bird from the ragged reef and boiling surf, leaving their comrades to
perish; but no such thought could find lodgment in the bosoms of the
men on board the Perseverance.
“Give her the sail, Isaac,” said the captain; “it’s the only way.”
Beneath the increased canvas, the schooner plunged and quivered, as
though every timber would part company.
They were near the breakers; the roar of the surf was terrible; every
time the great wave rolled back, the black, ragged points of the rock
could be seen for a moment. It was now but a couple of gunshots from
them, and they were in the outer edge of the breaker. Not a word was
spoken. Captain Rhines coolly eyed the surf, while he managed the helm
with consummate skill. Slowly the noble little vessel drew along by the
reef, but the raft was the length of the hawser farther in.
“If that sea breaks on them, they are gone,” cried Captain Rhines, as
a huge wall of water, thirty feet in height, came sweeping along, its
overhanging edge white with foam.
Ben and Charlie each seized one edge of the canoe, evidently hoping,
that though full of water, its buoyancy might support and aid them in
swimming; but the wave broke just before it reached them, lifting the
raft almost on end, flooding it with spray, buried them to their necks
in water, and almost tore them from the raft, to which they clung by
the shrouds of the upright spar, while the canoe was swept away. So
near were they to the reef, that one end of the wave broke upon the
rock, and the raft was covered with kelp torn from it by the force of
the sea. While they were yet in the very edge of the broken water, the
foremast breaking off four or five feet above deck, went over the bows.
“Thank God!” exclaimed Captain Rhines; “had it gone three minutes
sooner, we had all been lost.”
Drifting along before the wind and sea, they gradually came into
smoother water, when Ben, flinging himself overboard, swam to the
schooner. With his aid they raised the broken spar, lashed it to the
stump, and contrived to spread a portion of the sail.
“Ben,” asked his father, “what have you got on the raft? Are they dead
or alive?”
“There’s four of them, father; one a black man, the cook or steward,
for his hands are soft, a sailor, a boy fifteen or sixteen, and a young
man, I should judge about twenty, who, I think, was mate of the vessel,
by his dress. They have got just the breath of life in them; starved
with cold and hunger, and nothing but skin and bones. I thought that
sea would have killed them, but they are alive yet.”
“God help them, but we can’t get to the island, or my cove, with this
broken spar. We must run for Charlie’s.”
“Let us run under the lee of Smutty Nose,” said Ben, “get rid of this
raft, and take the bodies on board, then we can go faster, else they
will be dead before we get there.”
They luffed up under the island in smooth water, took Charlie on board,
the dead and the living, and permitting the raft to go adrift, made all
the sail they could spread for Pleasant Cove. They carried the nearly
lifeless bodies into the cuddy, put them in berths, and covered them
with clothes. There were flint, steel, and tinder aboard, but no wood.
They took the bottom boards out of a berth and split them up to kindle,
and Ben cut up the handspikes, which were white oak, and split up the
windlass.
“Father,” said Charlie, “I’ll make a new and better one.”
With this supply they soon had the little place warm enough. When they
reached the cove they found John Rhines there. He had been away, and
arriving home just after the party set out, had kept watch of their
movements. It was twelve o’clock at night when they landed. The gale
was over, the clouds had disappeared, and a clear moonlight made it
nearly as light as day. The wet clothing was instantly stripped from
the chilled limbs of the seamen; they were put into warm blankets,
and hot applications made. So affecting was the sight of these living
skeletons that Mary burst into tears.
“Poor creatures! What they must have suffered!” she exclaimed. “They
will die; they are as good as dead now.”
“No, they ain’t,” replied the captain, who had been putting cold water
down their throats with a spoon, and found that they swallowed. “Kill a
chicken, Charlie; we’ll give them some broth by and by; too much would
kill them as dead as a stone. Now, Mary, a little supper or breakfast,
whichever you call it, wouldn’t hurt the rest of us, after all we’ve
been through this day and night.”
The rising sun was pouring its light into the windows, as with grateful
hearts they sat down to eat, the captain rising every few minutes to
administer a spoonful of the warm broth to his patients. The clergyman
and neighbors were sent for, and funeral services performed. Then the
American flag was put over the coffins, and they were borne to the
grave.
“I wish we could have saved them,” said the captain; “but we will do
all we can—give them Christian burial.”
Charlie and Uncle Isaac made the coffins for the two who died, and
Captain Rhines and John dug their graves. On the eastern side of the
cove a perpendicular cliff rose abruptly from the soil, with a little
strip of green turf between it and the beach. Here they were buried.
The white man had the name of “J. Watts” tattooed on his right arm;
the name of the black was afterwards ascertained to be John Davis, and
Charlie cut the names into the cliff—a most enduring memorial.