A fortnight was very pleasantly spent by us at the island, during the
progress of the repairs, the good people of Bridgetown vieing with each
other in their efforts for our amusement, a ball also upon a very grand
scale being given in our honour by the officers of the garrison; and
then all defects being made good, we once more put to sea.
We appeared by this time to have come to the end of our run of good
luck, however; for, though we most assiduously worked the entire
archipelago, not a sign of an enemy could we find.
At length, the period of our cruise having expired, we bore up and
returned to Port Royal, where Captain Annesley was received by the
admiral with effusion.
The frigate remained at anchor in the harbour ten days, during which all
hands indulged in a little welcome recreation, the officers attending
quality balls, shooting, and visiting at various estates belonging to
new-made, but most hospitable Kingstonian friends.
I had accepted an invitation from a Mr Finnie--whose acquaintance I had
made on my previous visit to Kingston--to spend a few days on his estate
among the Blue Mountains and enjoy a little shooting on a small lake
adjoining it; and in my indefatigable pursuit of this amusement I
managed to contract a severe attack of yellow fever.
I was most kindly and carefully nursed through it by Mrs Finnie, and it
was chiefly owing to her unceasing attention, under God, that I
recovered at all. I was ill for weeks, what with the fever, a relapse,
and the terrible prostration which followed; and when at length I was
able once more to crawl about, the "Astarte" had been long gone to sea
upon a sort of roving commission, from which it was quite uncertain when
she would return.
Under such circumstances the time soon began to hang heavily on my
hands, and I longed for a sniff of the pure salt sea-breeze, once more.
I was therefore greatly delighted when, on calling at the country house
of the admiral--to whom I had been introduced by Captain Annesley--the
following conversation occurred.
"Ah! Chester," said the admiral, "glad to see you on your pins once
more; you have had a very narrow squeak of it, I hear."
"Indeed I have, sir," I replied. "So narrow was it that they had my
coffin all ready built for me. I have managed to weather upon Yellow
Jack this time, however, thank God; and now, if I could only get to sea
again, I believe I should soon pull round and completely recover my
strength."
"Ah! say you so? It is quite likely." The old gentleman was silent for
a few minutes, and then, turning abruptly to me, he said,--
"Have you heard that the `Juanita'--that pirate brigantine which the
`Astarte' took among the Roccas--has been brought to Port Royal, and
that we are putting a new foremast in her and converting her into a
topsail schooner?"
"No, sir, I have not," I replied. "Indeed I have heard _nothing_ in
connection with naval matters, for I have not yet been as far as
Kingston."
"Umph! Well, we _are_ doing so," he said. "How do you think the change
will affect her?"
"I believe it will be a great improvement. All that heavy gear forward
must, I am sure, have been detrimental to her sailing powers, especially
in a sea-way."
"To be sure it was. Couldn't have been otherwise. Then you approve of
the change?"
"Yes, sir, certainly," I replied, wondering why on earth so great a
personage should attach any importance to the opinion of a midshipman.
"Ah! I am glad of that," returned the admiral; "because, since you have
expressed a wish to go to sea again, the idea has come into my head to
give her to you--that is to say, until the `Astarte' comes in again."
I murmured something--I hardly knew what--by way of thanks, to which the
admiral kindly replied,--
"There, there; don't say a word about it, my dear boy. Annesley has
told me all about you, and if the half of what he says be true, I know
of no one who is better fitted for the trust than yourself. Besides, I
have really nobody else to place in charge. If you feel well enough,
you had better run down on board in the course of a day or two, and see
how matters are going on. Now come away into the other room and have
some lunch."
On the following morning, directly after breakfast, I started in Mr
Finnie's ketureen for Kingston, and, reaching the wharf about noon,
chartered that fast-sailing clipper, the "Fly-by-night," to convey me to
Port Royal. The jabber of the black boatmen and the exhilarating
sensation of being once more afloat had quite a tonic effect upon my
spirits, which rose higher and higher as we tore down past the
Palisades, the boat careening gunwale-to, with the hissing, sparkling
foam seething past and trailing away in a long wake astern.
When I got on board the "Juanita," I found that they had just stepped
the foremast, and a most beautiful spar it was, without a knot in it,
and as straight as a ray of light.
Fisher, the dockyard foreman, was on board, superintending operations,
and from him I learned that it was intended to make some slight
alterations in the armament of the craft; for, whereas when captured she
carried four long-sixes of a side, it was now proposed to alter the
position of the ports, reducing their number to three, and bringing them
more toward the middle or waist of the vessel, and mounting three long-
nines on each side instead of the four sixes, thus removing the weight
from the two ends, and adding three pounds to the weight of her
broadside. It was also proposed to take away the long-nine from
forward, and to substitute for it a long-eighteen between the masts.
These alterations accorded strictly with my own views upon the subject,
and were precisely what I should have suggested, had I been asked.
There had been some little talk about increasing the height of her
bulwarks, but this, I was glad to hear, had been overruled; for it would
certainly have gone far toward spoiling her light, jaunty, graceful
appearance.
It took the dockyard people just another week to complete the proposed
alterations, during which I visited the craft every morning, returning
to my quarters at Mr Finnie's in time for their six o'clock dinner. On
the day week after my first visit she was out of Fisher's hands, and as
I left her late that afternoon I thought I had never seen a prettier
little craft. Her tall, slim, taper spars had a jaunty little rake aft,
and were encumbered with only so much rigging as was absolutely
necessary to prevent them from going over the side. Her yards, though
light, were of immense spread, and the new suit of sails with which she
had been fitted fore and aft, and which had been stretching all the week
and were permanently bent only that same morning, gleamed in the
brilliant sunshine, white as snow.
Her hull was coppered to about six inches beyond the water-line, and
above this she was painted a cool grey up to her rail, this colour being
relieved by a narrow scarlet riband along the covering-board. It was a
fancy of the admiral, that she should be made as unlike a ship of war as
possible, in order that she might be the more thoroughly fitted for her
destined work; and, between us all, we certainly managed to meet his
wishes in that respect to perfection, for she looked, both in hull and
rigging, more like a yacht than anything else.
On the following day the stores and ammunition were shipped, and on the
day after I called at the admiral's office for my instructions, joined
the ship, and that same evening, as soon as the land breeze set in,
proceeded to sea; my orders being to cruise among the Windward Passages
for the protection of trade and the suppression of piracy until
recalled, and to look in at the post office on Crooked Island about once
a month for orders.
Keeping close along in under the land, so as to take full advantage of
the land breeze, we were off Morant Point by midnight, when we stretched
away to seaward, and finally, after being obliged to take to our sweeps
to get across the calm belt between the _terral_ and the trade-wind,
stood away to the northward, close-hauled upon the starboard tack,
toward the Cuban shore.
Weathering in due time Cape Maysi, the eastern extremity of the island
of Cuba, we shaped a course for Crooked Island Passage, and being then
able to get a small pull upon the weather-braces and to ease off the
mainsheet a foot or so, we bowled along in a style which filled all
hands with delight.
On our arrival at Crooked Island we called at the post office, and I
left a letter for the admiral, reporting progress. There was a fine
full-rigged ship lying there when we arrived, bound for London; she had
been there two days, waiting and hoping for the arrival of a man-of-war,
under the protection of which to get safely through the Passage. She
carried a very rich cargo and some sixteen passengers, most of whom were
ladies, and as she only mounted four small guns, and carried no more
than just sufficient men to work the ship, her skipper was willing to
lose a day or two upon the chance of getting a safe convoy clear of the
islands, among which there had been of late some very daring cases of
piracy.
Finding that the "Centurion"--as his ship was named--was perfectly ready
for sea, I arranged with her skipper to sail again that afternoon, which
we accordingly did. The "Centurion" proving to be a slow sailer, we
were four days taking her out clear of everything, when, having done so
without molestation, the two ships parted company, and we bore up for a
regular cruise to the southward among the various passages.
We fell in with a good many ships, all English, pushing through the
various passages, and a few of them asked for convoy; but of pirates,
slavers, or French privateers--any of which would have been game for our
bag--we saw nothing.
At length, having made the circuit of the archipelago once, calling at
the post office on reaching it, but finding no orders, we had proceeded
so far on our cruise as to have arrived off the Square Handkerchief
Shoal on our second round, and were about to bear up through the Silver
Kay Passage, when, toward the end of the afternoon watch, the wind
suddenly dropped, and by sun-down it had fallen stark calm.
The air turned close and hot as the breath of an oven, and as the
evening wore on a heavy bank of black cloud worked up from to leeward
and slowly overspread the sky, gradually settling down until the vapour
appeared to touch our mast-heads.
Hawsepipe, a master's-mate, who was acting as master, had been very
fidgety for some time, and at last, "What do you think all this means,
Mr Chester?" said he.
"I scarcely know _what_ to make of it," I replied. "I have never seen
anything quite like it before. It looks more like an impending thunder-
storm than anything else; but it _may_ be something very different, and
I was about to give the order to shorten sail when you spoke."
"I really think we had better," he returned. "I see no sign of wind as
yet, certainly; still, as we are in no hurry, it would be just as well
to be prepared for anything and everything that can possibly happen.
What sail shall we get her under?"
"Well, being, as you remark, in no sort of hurry, I think we will make
our precautions as complete as possible by stowing everything except the
fore-trysail and staysail. Let the men commence with the mainsail, as
it is the largest and least manageable sail in a breeze."
"All hands, shorten sail!" sang out Hawsepipe.
The boatswain's pipe sounded, his gruff voice reiterated the order, and
the men, who had been grouped together on the forecastle discussing the
singular appearance of the weather, sprang to their stations.
"Main and peak halliards let go! Man the main-tack tricing-line and
down with the throat of the sail; round-in upon the mainsheet! Now,
then, is there no one to attend to the peak downhaul? That's right.
Now roll up the sail snugly and put the coat on. In with the whole of
your square canvas forward. Royal, topgallant, and topsail halliards
and sheets let go; man the clewlines, and clew them up cheerily, my
lads. Haul down and stow both jibs. Lay aloft there! and see that you
stow your canvas snugly, although it _is_ too dark at present for me to
see what you are about." Thus Mr Hawsepipe, in as authoritative a tone
as though he were the first luff of a 120-gun ship.
Sail was shortened in considerably less time than it has taken to write
the above description; for though this was the first cruise wherein
Hawsepipe had been placed in a position of actual authority, he was
anything but a tyro in the science of seamanship, and insisted on
_everything_ on board being done as thoroughly well as it was possible
to do it, and the schooner was soon ready for whatever might come.
The night grew hotter and hotter, and still the glassy calm continued.
The darkness was so intense, so opaque, that on placing my hand close
before my eyes, I was quite unable to see it; and the stillness of the
air was such that the flame of a lamp brought on deck burned straight up
and down, merely swaying a trifle with the heave of the ship upon the
long, sluggish swell.
This state of things continued until nearly four bells in the first
watch, when a startling phenomenon occurred. The curtain of vapour grew
more dense even than it had been before, entirely precluding the
possibility of any light penetrating from above; notwithstanding which,
the atmosphere very gradually became luminous with a ghastly, blue,
sulphurous light, until it was possible, not only to see distinctly
every object on board the schooner, but also to distinguish the gleaming
surface of the water for a distance on every side of some three miles or
so.
The faces of the men huddled together on the forecastle looked ghastly
and death-like in this unearthly light, and the hull, spars, rigging and
canvas of the schooner assumed such a weird and supernatural appearance
when illumined by it, that she might easily have been mistaken for a
cruiser from Phlegethon.
But this was not all. About half-an-hour after this singular luminosity
of the atmosphere first became apparent, and before the startled seamen
had recovered their self-possession, in an instant, without any
premonition whatever, there appeared at each mast-head and yardarm, at
the jibboom-end--in fact, at the end of every spar on board the
schooner--a globe of greenish-coloured light, about the size of an
ordinary lamp-globe, each of which wavered and swayed, elongated and
flattened, as the ship gently rose and fell over the glassy sea.
The men were now thoroughly terrified.
"See that, Tom?" exclaimed one. "What d'ye call all them things?"
"Why, they be Davy Jones' lanterns, _they_ be," returned Tom; "and right
sorry am I to see 'em."
"Davy Jones' lanterns?" echoed the questioner. "What--you don't mean as
them lights has been h'isted aboard here by the real old genuine Davy
hisself, eh?"
"That's just what I _do_ mean, then, and no mistake. My eyes! there's a
show of 'em, too; never seed so many afore in my life. You mark my
words, Dick, and see if something out o' the common don't happen to this
here little barkie afore four-and-twenty hours is over our heads."
"What sort of a _somethin'_ d'ye mean, Tom, bo'?" asked another.
"Why, harm or damage o' some kind," replied the oracle. "I've heerd say
as how when them lanterns is showed aboard of a craft, that it's a sure
sign as she's a doomed ship. I remembers one time when I was in the
Chinee seas in the old--Lord ha' mercy on us! what's that?"
A dazzling, blinding flash, which seemed to set both sky and sea on
fire, and a simultaneous crash of thunder of so terrific a character
that my ears rang and tingled, and I was stone-deaf for a few minutes
afterwards, interrupted the speaker. I reeled under the awful
concussion, as though I had received a crushing blow, and for a minute
or two I felt dazed to the verge of unconsciousness. Then I became
sensible that Hawsepipe was grasping my hand and trying to direct my
attention forward; he seemed, too, to be anxious to say something, for
his lips were moving rapidly in an excited manner.
I looked forward, and--behold!--there lay our foremast, with all
attached, over the side; the stump--standing about four feet above the
deck--being nothing but a mass of charred and blackened splinters. This
was bad enough, but, letting my glance travel forward, I saw that the
whole of the men on the forecastle had been struck to the deck by the
electric fluid.
Hawsepipe, the surgeon, the quarter-master, and I, all rushed forward in
a body to the assistance of the unfortunate men, and to ascertain the
extent of their injuries. We raised the poor fellows, as we came to
them, into a sitting position against the bulwarks, while the surgeon
hastily examined them. To our horror it was found that all but four had
been killed by that tremendous discharge, the dead men's bodies being in
some cases blackened and charred as if by fire; while, in other cases,
their knives and the coin in their pockets were fused into shapeless
lumps of metal. The living were carried aft to the cabin, where the
surgeon, assisted by Hawsepipe, devoted all his energies to their
restoration, while the quarter-master and I returned to the deck to look
after the safety of the ship.
In the meantime a terrific thunder-storm heralded by that first
destructive discharge, had set in, the green and baleful glare of the
livid lightning illuminating the scene until it became almost as light
as day; while the crashing roll of the thunder was absolutely
continuous, and so deafening that I felt stunned and stupefied by it.
There was no rain, neither was there any wind, properly speaking, the
dead calm being only interrupted now and then by a momentary gust of
wind, hot as the blasting breath of a furnace, which passed over us and
was gone almost before we had time to realise its presence. These
fitful and transient gusts of wind came from all quarters of the
compass. I had never before experienced weather of at all a similar
character, nor had Simpson, the quarter-master, and we were equally
puzzled as to what to expect. The heavens were black as ink, and the
clouds, rendered visible by the unearthly bluish-green glare of the
lightning, were seen to be writhing and working like tortured serpents;
but there was nothing to indicate a probable breeze.
There was plenty of work to be done, the clearing away of the wreck
being our first task. Simpson and I accordingly armed ourselves with a
tomahawk each, and went forward to make a commencement. Simpson began
at the jibboom-end, cutting away the stays attached thereto, and working
his way in, while I made an attack upon the shrouds and backstays. Our
intention was to cut away everything in the first instance, in case of
bad weather coming on, and afterwards to save as much of the wreck as we
could.
I had scarcely begun my task when I fancied I smelt a smell of burning,
but for the first minute or so I paid little attention to it, as the air
had been for a long time pervaded by a strong choking sulphurous odour.
I had struck but a few strokes with my tomahawk however, when a very
strong whiff assailed my nostrils, and at the same instant a thin wreath
of smoke appeared hovering over the fore-scuttle. Dropping my tomahawk,
I darted toward the opening, and, looking down, found the place full of
smoke, which appeared to be prevented from rising by the peculiar
condition of the atmosphere.
"Lay in, Simpson," I shouted to the quarter-master; "the ship is on
fire!"
The old fellow, with his arm raised in the act of striking at the jib-
stay, turned, and, catching sight of the smoke, bundled inboard in a
trice. We descended to the forecastle together, and found it so full of
dense pungent smoke that it was impossible to remain there a moment
without adopting precautions of some kind to escape suffocation; we
accordingly returned to the deck, and, removing our black silk
handkerchiefs from our throats saturated them with water, and then bound
them tightly about the lower part of our faces, leaving our eyes only
uncovered. Thus protected, we once more descended, and were then
enabled to remain long enough to assure ourselves that the forecastle
was not the seat of the fire. As we returned to the deck up the steep
ladder, I detected smoke issuing into the forecastle in dense jets
through the joints in the bulkhead, and this, together with the odour,
which at that moment became very strong, led me to suspect that the fire
was located in the store-room.
Saturating our handkerchiefs afresh and readjusting them upon our faces,
we rushed aft and descended the main hatchway. Here--that is to say,
immediately in the wake of the hatchway--there was very little smoke,
but with _every_ step forward it became more and more dense, and as we
approached the store-room the heat and smoke became so stifling that we
could only proceed with the utmost difficulty.
At length, however, we managed to reach the store-room door, and then
the heat, the heavy smoke, the dull roar and crackling of the flames,
gave us unmistakable assurance that we had found the seat of the
mischief. I placed my hand upon the thick planking of the bulkhead and
found it to be scorching hot.
We were unable to remain a moment where we were, so intense was the
smoke and heat. We accordingly returned to the deck and summoned
Hawsepipe and the doctor to our assistance. We informed them in a few
words of this new catastrophe, or rather of the unexpected result of the
original one--for I had no doubt whatever that it was the lightning
which had set the ship on fire,--and received from them in return the
news that the four men had been restored to consciousness, but had not
yet recovered the use of their limbs; we then at once set about cutting
a hole through the deck into the store-room, hoping that by means of the
fire-engine and hose we might yet be able to conquer the flames.
A hole was first cut in the deck large enough to admit the end of the
hose; the hose was then inserted, and packed carefully round with wet
canvas where it passed through the deck, so as to prevent, as far as
possible, the access of fresh air to the fire, and we four then manned
the engine and proceeded with all our energy to pump water down upon the
flames.
We had been thus engaged for about a quarter of an hour, the lightning
raging round us all the while in undiminished fury, when, in an instant,
down came the rain in a perfect flood.
"Shut the ports!" yelled Hawsepipe.
We understood in a moment the object he had in view, and, leaving the
engine, went round the decks, closing the ports and stopping up the
scuppers with pieces of canvas, so as to prevent the water from flowing
off the deck. The rain was descending in such copious torrents that in
a few minutes we were up to our knees in warm, fresh water, when the
hose was withdrawn from the hole in the deck and the water allowed to
stream down into the store-room. A dense jet of steam rushed up through
the hole immediately that we withdrew the hose and its packing.
We now had a moment in which to take a look below, and see what result
had attended our labours. A glance at the fore-scuttle was anything but
reassuring, dense clouds of steam and smoke issuing by this time from
the opening, and as we looked the smoke suddenly became tinged with the
lurid reflection of flames. I darted to the opening, and looking down
as well as I could through the blinding suffocating clouds which rushed
up in denser volumes every instant, saw that the bulkhead was burned
through, and the flames already spreading in every direction.
The fire-engine was instantly started once more, the hose being this
time directed down into the forecastle, and for twenty minutes we played
upon the fire there--the rain all the while rushing down in sheets and
fast filling our decks--without result; at the end of that time it
became apparent that the ship was doomed.
Hawsepipe and the doctor had meanwhile pressed their investigations
farther aft, soon reappearing with the alarming news that the fire was
spreading aft with great rapidity.
"Then there is nothing for it but to take to the boat without further
delay," said I.
And we set about getting her over the side forthwith, our motions being
considerably accelerated by the increasing loudness of the roaring
crackling sound of the fire, the dense cloud of smoke which now
enveloped the ship, and the almost unbearable heat of the deck. The
flames spread so rapidly that by the time we had got the boat into the
water, with her oars, sails, etcetera, a couple of breakers of water, a
bag or two of biscuits, and a miscellaneous collection of small stores
from the cabin lockers, the heat and smoke had become so unendurable
that we could not remain still a moment, indeed so sorely pressed were
we that the poor fellows who had been injured by the lightning, and who
had been brought on deck some time before to save them from suffocation,
were almost _thrown_ over the side into the boat; we scrambled in after
them, and casting off got out the oars, and pulled as fast as we could
from the ship, which in another minute was blazing from stem to stern,
notwithstanding the still pouring rain.
We pushed off in dead silence, and, having pulled far enough away to be
clear of the scorching heat, laid with one consent upon our oars to
watch the conflagration. We had been lying thus motionless upon the
water some three or four minutes, when the mainmast swayed slowly to and
fro for a moment, and then fell with a hissing splash into the water
alongside, a shower of sparks shooting up at the same moment from the
burning bulwarks which had been crushed out by the mast in its fall. We
were watching and remarking upon the way in which the planks of the
topsides were twisting up and opening out from the timbers under the
influence of the tremendous heat, when suddenly an awful recollection
flashed upon me.
"Pull! pull for your lives!" I screamed. "We have forgotten to drown
out the magazine."
Not another word was needed. With one accord the oars dashed into the
water, and you may rest assured that we threw our entire weight and
strength into each stroke, bending the stout ash staves as though they
were pliant whalebone, and all but lifting the boat clear out of the
water.
We had not pulled more than a dozen strokes before there was a violent
concussion, as though we had run stem-on upon a sandbank, the schooner's
sides burst apart, the flaming planks of the deck, with its fittings,
the guns, and everything else upon it, soared into the air in the midst
of a blinding sheet of flame, and then came the dull, heavy roar of the
explosion, and--black darkness.
We ceased pulling as the explosion took place, struck powerless for the
moment at this sudden and terrible destruction which had befallen the
craft so lately our home and ark of safety, and it was only when the
fiery fragments began to fall thickly round us that we took to our oars
once more.
But our troubles had scarcely yet begun, for our oars had hardly dipped
in the water when--_crash_!--there fell a ponderous fragment of one of
the schooner's timbers down upon the boat, literally cutting her in two
and killing poor old Simpson on the spot.
The boat at once sank from under us, leaving us all struggling for our
lives in the water. Hawsepipe was a famous swimmer, and he immediately
seized the doctor--who could not swim a stroke--and placed him in a
position of temporary safety upon the floating piece of timber which had
inflicted upon us this fresh disaster, while I looked after the injured
men who, probably owing to the shock of immersion, had suddenly so far
recovered the use of their limbs as to be able with very little
assistance to gain the same refuge.
We now found, what we had been too busy to notice before, that the
thunder-storm had nearly worn itself out; an occasional flash, low down
upon the horizon, and its long, rumbling accompaniment of distant
thunder being all that remained to remind us of it, except the frequent
gleam of sheet lightning which continued to play all round the horizon
and behind the great banks of cloud into which the black canopy overhead
had now broken.
The question calling for immediate attention was, how best to provide
for our safety. Clinging to the floating timber we were safe only as
long as it remained calm; a very gentle sea would be sufficient to wash
us from our hold. Looking round me, I perceived that we were at no
great distance from the wreck of the foremast, and I thought if all
hands could only reach it, we might be able to construct from it and the
spars attached to it a raft of sufficient capacity to accommodate us all
in some degree of comfort and safety. I mentioned my idea to Hawsepipe,
who approved of it greatly; whereupon I left him to look after the
survivors while I went to the spar. Reaching it, I was able without
much difficulty to form from the halliards of the various sails and the
other running-gear still attached to the spars a warp long enough to
reach from the foremast to the timber to which the others were clinging,
with which I swam back. Bending the end of this warp securely to the
piece of timber, Hawsepipe and I then swam to the foremast, and hauling
upon the warp, soon had the rest of the party there also.
Hawsepipe undertaking with the assistance of the others to cut the yards
adrift and separate the topmast from the lower-mast, I took another
cruise with the warp, and was fortunate enough, after swimming about for
over an hour, to bag a half-burned hen-coop with four dead fowls still
therein, three hatches, and the remains of the mainmast with topmast
attached, the latter spar being still in good enough condition to be
serviceable, and the jibboom. All these things I contrived to get
alongside the foremast without interrupting the labours of the others.
Hawsepipe evidently knew how to construct a raft upon scientific
principles. The foremast he took for a sort of foundation or keel,
laying the two topmasts, one on each side and parallel to it, at a
distance of about ten feet. The ends of these spars were then crossed
by and lashed to the two yardarms of the fore-yard at the end of the
raft which he intended for its stern, and to the topsail yardarms at the
fore end. This formed a rectangular staging, with the lower-mast
running fore and aft through its centre. This staging was then
strengthened by lashing the jibboom across it in the middle, and upon
the top of all, the hatches and the hen-coop were firmly secured,
forming a small platform, upon which, however, there was room for us all
with a little crowding. The topgallant yard with the sail still
attached was then got on end, one arm being lashed to the foremast, and
the other sustained aloft by means of shrouds and stays. The topgallant
sail we cut in two diagonally, and thus treated it formed a tolerably
serviceable leg-of-mutton sail.
It took us so long to do all this, that by the time we had finished, day
was breaking; and as the sun rose the clouds cleared away, and the
trade-wind once more resumed its sway, the fresh, cool breeze greatly
reviving our exhausted energies, while it bore us, at the rate of about
a knot and a half per hour, away from the scene of the catastrophe.