"He that tholes o'ercomes."
"Tak' your venture, as mony a gude ship has done."
_Scotch Proverbs_.
I am disposed to think that a ship is a place where one has occasional
moments of excitement and enthusiasm that are rare elsewhere, but that
it is not to be beaten (if approached) for the deadliness of the
despondency to be experienced therein.
For perhaps a quarter of an hour after our start I felt much excited,
and so, I think, did my companion. Shoulder to shoulder we were glued to
the little round window, pinching each other when the hurrying steps
hither and thither threatened to come down our way. We did not talk
much, we were too busy looking out, and listening to the rushing water,
and the throbbing of the screw. The land seemed to slip quickly by,
countless ships, boats, and steamers barely gave us time to have a look
at them, though Alister (who seemed to have learned a good deal during
his four days in the docks) whispered little bits of information about
one and another. Then the whole shore seemed to be covered by enormous
sheds, and later on it got farther off, and then the land lay distant,
and it was very low and marshy and most dreary-looking, and I fancied it
was becoming more difficult to keep my footing at the window; and just
when Alister had been pointing out a queer red ship with one stumpy mast
crowned by a sort of cage, and telling me that it was a light-ship, our
own vessel began to creak and groan worse than ever, and the floor under
our feet seemed to run away from them, and by the time you had got used
to going down, it caught you and jerked you up again, till my head
refused to think anything about anything, and I half dropped and was
half helped by Alister on to the flat of my back as before.
As to him, I may as well say at once, that I never knew him affected at
sea by the roughest wind that could blow, and he sat on a box and looked
at me half pityingly, and half, I suppose, with the sort of curiosity I
had felt about him.
"I'm feared the life 'll be a bit over rough for ye," he said kindly.
"Would ye think of going up and disclosing yourself before we're away
from all chance of getting ashore?"
"No, no!" said I, vehemently, and added more feebly, "I dare say I shall
be all right soon."
"Maybe," said the Scotchman.
He went back to the window and gazed out, seeing, I have no doubt,
plenty to interest him; though my eyes, if opened for a moment, only
shrank back and closed again instinctively, with feelings of
indescribable misery. So indefinite time went on, Alister occasionally
making whispered comments which I did not hear, and did not trouble
myself to ask questions about, being utterly indifferent to the answers.
But I felt no temptation to give in, I only remember feeling one intense
desire, and it amounted to a prayer, that if these intolerable
sensations did not abate, I might at any rate become master enough of
them to do my duty in their teeth. The thought made me more alert, and
when the Scotch lad warned me that steps were coming our way, I implored
him to hide deeper under the sails, if he wished, without consideration
for me, as I had resolved to face my fate at once, and be either killed
or cured.
"Thank ye kindly," said Alister, "but there's small use in hiding now.
They can but pitch us overboard, and I've read that drowning is by far
an easier death than being starved, if ye come to that."
It was in this frame of mind that a sailor found us, and took us
prisoners with so little difficulty that he drew the scarcely fair
conclusion that we were the cheekiest, coolest hands of all the nasty,
sneaking, longshore loafers he had ever had to deal with in all his
blessed and otherwise than blessed born days. And wrathful as this
outburst was, it was colourless to the indignation in his voice, when
(replying to some questions from above) he answered,
"Two on 'em!"
Several other sailors came to the help of our captor, and we were
dragged up the ladder and on deck, where the young Scotchman looked to
better advantage than down below, and where I made the best presentment
of myself that my miserable condition would allow. We were soon hauled
before the captain, a sensible-faced, red-bearded man, with a Scotch
accent rather harsher than Alister's, in which he harangued us in very
unflattering phrases for our attempt to "steal a passage," and described
the evil fate of which we were certain, if we did not work uncommonly
hard for our victuals.
With one breath I and my companion asserted our willingness to do
anything, and that to get a free passage as idlers was our last wish and
intention. To this, amid appreciating chuckles from the crew, the
captain replied, that, so sneaks and stowaways always _said_; a taunt
which was too vulgar as repartee to annoy me, though I saw Alister's
thin hands clenching at his sides. I don't know if the captain did, but
he called out--"Here! you lanky lad there, show your hands."
"They're no idle set," said Alister, stretching them out. He lifted his
eyes as he said it, and I do not think he could have repressed the flash
in them to save his life. Every detail of the scene was of breathless
interest to me, and as I watched to see if the captain took offence, I
noticed that (though they were far less remarkable from being buried in
a fat and commonplace countenance) his eyes, like Alister's, were of
that bright, cold, sea-blue common among Scotchmen. He did not take
offence, and I believe I was right in thinking that the boy's wasted
hands struck him much as they had struck me.
"Don't speak unless I question you. How long will ye have been hanging
round the docks before ye'd the impudence to come aboard here?"
"I slept four nights in the docks, sir."
"And where did ye take your meals?"
A flush crept over Alister's bony face. "I'm no' a great eater, sir," he
said, with his eyes on the deck: and then suddenly lifting a glance at
me out of the corner of them, he added, "The last I had was just given
me by a freen'."
"That'll do. Put your hands down. Can you sew?"
"I ask your pardon, sir?"
"Is the fool deaf? Can ye use a needle and thread?"
"After a rough fashion, sir, and I can knit a bit."
"Mr. Waters?"
A man with a gold band round his cap stepped forward and touched it.
"Take him to the sail-maker. He can help to patch the old fore-stay-sail
on the forecastle. And you can--"
The rest of the order was in a low voice, but Mr. Waters saluted again
and replied, "Yes, sir."
The captain saluted Mr. Waters, and then as Alister moved off, he said,
"You're not sick, I see. Have you sailed before?"
"From Scotland, sir."
Whether, being a Scotchman himself, the tones of Alister's voice, as it
lingered on the word "Scotland," touched a soft corner in the captain's
soul, or whether the blue eyes met with an involuntary feeling of
kinship, or whether the captain was merely struck by Alister's
powerful-looking frame, and thought he might be very useful when he was
better fed, I do not know; but I feel sure that as he returned my new
comrade's salute, he did so in a softened humour. Perhaps this made him
doubly rough to me, and I have no doubt I looked as miserable an object
as one could (not) wish to see.
"_You're_ sick enough," he said; "stand straight, sir! we don't nurse
invalids here, and if you stop you'll have to work for your food,
whether you can eat it or not."
"I will, sir," said I.
"Put out your hands."
I did, and he looked keenly, first at them, and then, from head to foot,
at me. And then to my horror, he asked the question I had been asked by
the man who robbed me of my shilling.
"Where did you steal your slops?"
I hastened to explain. "A working-man, sir, in Liverpool, who was kind
enough to advise me, said that I should have no chance of getting work
on board ship in the clothes I had on. So I exchanged them, and got
these, in a shop he took me to," and being anxious to prove the truth of
my tale, and also to speak with the utmost respect of everybody in this
critical state of my affairs, I added: "I don't remember the name of the
street, sir, but the shop was kept by a--by a Mr. Moses Cohen."
"By Mister--_who_?"
"Mr. Moses Cohen, sir."
When I first uttered the name, I fancied I heard some sniggering among
the sailors who still kept guard over me, and this time the captain's
face wrinkled, and he turned to another officer standing near him and
repeated,
"Mister Moses Cohen!" and they both burst into a fit of laughter, which
became a roar among the subordinates, till the captain cried--"Silence
there!" and still chuckling sardonically, added, "Your suit must have
been a very spic and span one, young gentleman, if _Mister_ Moses Cohen
accepted it in lieu of that rig out."
"I paid ten shillings as well," said I.
The laughter recommenced, but the captain looked wrathful. "Oh, you paid
ten shillings as well, did you? And what the thunder and lightning have
you tried to steal a passage for when you'd money to pay for one?"
"I didn't mean to steal a passage, sir," said I, "and I don't mean it
now. I tried to get taken as a sailor-lad, but they seemed to expect me
to have been to sea before, and to have some papers to show it. So I
stowed away, and I'm very sorry if you think it dishonest, sir, but I
meant to work for my passage, and I will work hard."
"And what do you suppose an ignorant land-lubber like you can do, as we
don't happen to be short of public speakers?"
"I thought I could clean things, and carry coals, and do rough work till
I learnt my trade, sir."
"Can you climb?" said the captain, looking at the rigging.
"I've never climbed on board ship, sir, but I was good at athletics when
I was at school, and I believe I could."
"We'll see," said the captain significantly. "And supposing you're of no
use, and we kick ye overboard, can ye swim?"
"Yes, sir, and dive. I'm at home in the water."
"It's more than you are _on_ it. Bo'sun!"
"Yes, sir."
"Take this accomplished young gentleman of fortune, and give him
something to do. Give him an oil-rag and let him rub some of our brass,
and stow his own. And, bo'sun!"
"Yes, sir."
"Take him first to Mr. Johnson, and say that I request Mr. Johnson to
ascertain how much change Mister Moses Cohen has left him, and to take
charge of it."
"Yes, sir."
The captain's witticisms raised renewed chuckling among the crew, as I
followed the boatswain, duly saluting my new master as I passed him, and
desperately trying to walk easily and steadily in my ordinary boots upon
the heaving deck.
Mr. Johnson was the third mate, and I may as well say at once that his
shrewdness and kindness, his untiring energy and constant cheerfulness,
make his memory very pleasant to me and to all who served with him, and
whose reasons for being grateful to him belong to all hours of the day
and night, and to every department of our work and our play.
I was far too giddy to hear what the boatswain said to Mr. Johnson, but
I was conscious that the third mate's eyes were scanning me closely as
he listened. Then he said, "_Have_ you got any money, youngster?"
"Here, sir," said I; and after some struggles I got the leather bag from
my neck, and Mr. Johnson pocketed it.
"Ran away from school, I suppose?"
I tried to reply, and could not. Excitement had kept me up before the
captain, but the stress of it was subsiding, and putting my arms up to
get my purse had aggravated the intense nausea that was beginning to
overpower me. I managed to shake my head instead of speaking, after
which I thought I must have died then and there of the agony across my
brow. It seemed probable that I should go far to pay for my passage by
the amusement I afforded the crew. Even Mr. Johnson laughed, as he said,
"He seems pretty bad. Look after him, and then let him try his hand on
those stanchions--they're disgraceful. Show him how, and see that he
lays on--"
"Aye, aye, sir."
"And, bo'sun! don't be too rough on him just yet. We've all of us made
our first voyage."
"Very true, sir."
I could have fallen at the man's feet for those few kind words, but his
alert step had carried him far away; and the boatswain had gripped me by
the arm, and landed me on a seat, before I could think of how to express
my thanks.
"Stay where ye are, young stowaway," said he, "and I'll fetch the oil
and things. But don't fall overboard; for we can't afford to send a
hexpedition on a voyage of discovery harter ye."
Off went the boatswain, and by the time he came back with a bundle of
brass rods under his arm, and an old sardine-tin full of a mixture of
oil, vinegar, and sand, and a saturated fragment of a worn-out worsted
sock, I had more or less recovered from a violent attack of sickness,
and was trying to keep my teeth from being chattered out of my aching
head in the fit of shivering that succeeded it.
"Now, my pea-green beauty!" said he, "pull yourself together, and bear a
hand with this tackle. I'll carry the stanchions for you." I jumped up,
thanked him, and took the oil-tin and etceteras, feeling very grateful
that he did carry the heavy brass rods for me on to the poop, where I
scrambled after him, and after a short lesson in an art the secret of
which appeared to be to rub hard enough and long enough, he left me with
the pointed hint that the more I did within the next hour or two, the
better it would be for me. "And _wicee the worser_--hif ye learnt what
_that_ means when ye wos at school," he added.
Fully determined to do my best, I rubbed for the dear life, my bones and
teeth still shuddering as I did so; but whatever virtue there was in my
efforts was soon its own reward, for the vigorous use of my arms began
to warm me, so greatly to the relief of my headache and general misery,
that I began to hold myself up, and drink in the life-giving freshness
of the salt breezes with something that came quite close to hope, and
was not far off enjoyment. As to the stanchions, I was downright proud
of them, and was rubbing away, brightening the brass, and getting the
blood comfortably circulated through my body, when, with the usual
running and shouting, a crowd of men poured on to the poop with
long-handled scrubbing-brushes and big tubs, &c., followed by others
dragging a fire-hose. No time was lost in charging the hose with water
(a plentiful commodity!), and this was squirted into every hole and
cranny in all directions, whilst the first lot of men rubbed and
scrubbed and brushed most impartially all over the place.
I went quietly on with my work, but when the stream threatened a group
of stanchions, so highly polished that I could not endure the notion of
a speck on their brightness, I lifted them out of harm's way, and with
the clatter of this movement drew the attention of the plier of the
hose.
"Why, bless my stars, garters, and hornaments of hall sorts!" said he;
"if 'ere ain't the young gentleman of fortin on the poop deck in his
Sunday pumps!" and without more ado he let fly the water, first at my
feet and then upwards, till I was soused from head to foot, and the
scrubbers and swabbers laughed at my gasps as I know I could not have
moved their sense of humour if I had had the finest wit in the world.
However, I suppose they had had to take as well as give such merriment
in their time; and I keenly remember Biddy's parting hint that the
"good-nature of my ways" would be my best friend in this rough society.
So I laughed and shook myself, and turning up my sleeves to my elbows,
and my trousers to my knees, I also denuded myself of boots and socks
and put them aside.
"Is this the correct fashion?" I inquired--a joke which passed muster
for very good humour; and I was squirted at no more on that occasion.
The chill had made me feel most miserable again, but I had found by
experience that the great thing was to keep my blood circulating, and
that rubbing-up the ship's brass answered this purpose exceedingly well.
I rubbed it so bright, that when the boatswain came to summon me to
dinner, he signified his approval in his own peculiar fashion, which
appeared to be that of an acknowledged wit.
"H'm!" said he, "I'll say that for ye, young shore-loafer, that you've
learnt that the best part of polishing-paste is elbow-grease. It wasn't
all _parley-voo_ and the pianner where you was at boarding-school!"
I said I hoped not, and laughed as respectfully as it becomes the small
to do at the jokes of the great.
But when I was fairly squatted in a corner of the forecastle, with my
plate on my lap, in friendly proximity to Alister, I received a far
worse shock than the ship's hose had given me. For under cover of the
sailors' talk (and they were even noisier at their dinner than at their
work) my comrade contrived to whisper in my ear, "The pilot is still on
board."
I got what comfort I could out of hearing the sail-maker praise Alister
as "an uncommon handy young chap," a compliment which he enforced by a
general appeal to some one to "give him" a lad that had been brought up
to make himself useful, and anybody else was welcome "for him" to fine
gentlemen with no learning but school learning. For this side attack on
me roused the boatswain to reproduce his jokes about elbow-grease
_versus parley-voo_ and the _pianner_, and to add a general principle on
his own account to the effect that it was nothing to him if a lad had
been "edicated" in a young ladies' boarding-school, so long as he'd been
taught to rub brass till you could "see something more of your face than
thumbmarks in it." The general and satisfactory conclusion being (so I
hoped) that we were neither of us quite useless, and might possibly be
spared the ignominy of a return voyage with the pilot.
About an hour and a half after dinner, when I was "rubbing-up" some
"bright things" in the cook's galley, Alister looked in, and finding me
alone, said, "Would ye dare to come on deck? We're passing under bonny
big rocks, with a lighthouse perched up on the height above our heads,
for all the world like a big man keeping his outlook with glowering
eyes."
"I don't think I dare," said I. "The cook told me not to stir till these
were done. Are we going slower? That pumping noise is slower than it
was, I'm sure."
"We are so," said Alister; "I'm wondering if--" He ran out without
finishing his sentence, but soon returned with a face rather more
colourless than usual with repressed excitement. "Jack!" he gasped,
"they're lowering a boat. _The pilot's going ashore._"
He remained with me now, sitting with his head on his hands. Suddenly a
shout of two or three voices from the water was answered by a hearty
cheer from the deck. By one impulse, Alister and I sprang to our feet
and gripped each other by the hand; and I do not believe there were any
two sailors on board who sped the parting pilot with more noise than we
two made in the cook's galley.
It was gloriously true. They had kept us both. But, though I have no
doubt the captain would have got rid of us if we had proved feckless, I
think our being allowed to remain was largely due to the fact that the
vessel had left Liverpool short of her full complement of hands. Trade
was good at the time, and one man who had joined had afterwards
deserted, and another youngster had been taken to hospital only the day
before we sailed. He had epileptic fits, and though the second mate
(whose chief quality seemed to be an impartial distrust of everybody but
himself, and a burning desire to trip up his fellow-creatures at their
weak points and jump upon them accordingly) expressed in very strong
language his wish that the captain had not sent the lad off, but had
kept him for him (the second mate) to cure, the crew seemed all of
opinion that there was no "shamming" about it, and that the epileptic
sailor-boy would only have fallen from one of the yards in a fit, and
given more trouble than his services were worth over picking him up.
The afternoon was far from being as fine as the morning had been. Each
time I turned my eyes that way it seemed to me that the grey sea was
looking drearier and more restless, but I stuck steadily to some
miscellaneous and very dirty work that I had been put to down below;
and, as the ship rolled more and more under me, as I ran unsteadily
about with buckets and the like, I began to wonder if this was the way
storms came, gradually on, and whether, if the ship went down to-night
"with all on board," I should find courage to fit my fate.
I was meditating gloomily on this subject, when I heard a shrill
whistle, and then a series of awful noises, at the sound of which every
man below left whatever he was at, and rushed on deck. I had read too
many accounts of shipwrecks not to know that the deck is the place to
make for, so I bolted with the rest, and caught sight of Alister flying
in the same direction as we were. When we got up I looked about me as
well as I could, but I saw no rocks or vessels in collision with us. The
waves were not breaking over us, but four or five men standing on the
bulwarks were pulling things like monstrous grubs out of a sort of
trough, and chucking them with more or less accuracy at the heads of the
sailors who gathered round.
"What is it, Alister?" I asked.
"It's just the serving out of the hammocks that they sleep in," Alister
replied. "I'm thinking we'll not be entitled to them."
"What's that fellow yelling about?"
"He's crying to them to respond to their names and numbers. Whisht, man!
till I hear his unchristian lingo and see if he cries on us."
But in a few minutes the crowd had dispersed, and the hammock-servers
with them, and Alister and I were left alone. I felt foolish, and I
suppose looked so, for Alister burst out laughing and said--"Hech,
laddie! it's a small matter. We'll find a corner to sleep in. And let me
tell ye I've tried getting into a hammock myself, and--"
"Hi! you lads!"
In no small confusion at having been found idle and together, we started
to salute the third mate, who pointed to a sailor behind him, and
said--"Follow Francis, and he'll give you hammocks and blankets, and
show you how to swing and stow them."
We both exclaimed--"Thank you, sir!" with such warmth that as he
returned our renewed salutations he added--"I hear good accounts of
both of you. Keep it up, and you'll do."
Alister's sentence had been left unfinished, but I learnt the rest of it by
experience. We scrambled down after Francis till we seemed to be about the
level where we had stowed away. I did not feel any the better for the
stuffiness of the air and an abominable smell of black beetles, but I
stumbled along till we arrived in a very tiny little office where the
purser sat surrounded by bags of ships' biscuits (which they pleasantly
call "bread" at sea) and with bins of sugar, coffee, &c., &c. I dare say
the stuffiness made him cross (as the nasty smells used to make us in Uncle
Henry's office), for he used a good deal of bad language, and seemed very
unwilling to let us have the hammocks and blankets. However, Francis got
them and banged us well with them before giving them to us to carry. They
were just like the others--canvas-coloured sausages wound about with tarred
rope; and warning us to observe how they were fastened up, as we should
have to put them away "ship-shape" the following morning, Francis helped us
to unfasten and "swing" them in the forecastle. There were hooks in the
beams, so that part of the business was easy enough, but, when bedtime
came, I found that getting into my hammock was not as easy as getting it
ready to get into.
The sail-maker helped Alister out of his difficulties at once, by
showing him how to put his two hands in the middle of his hammock and
wriggle himself into it and roll his blankets round him in seaman-like
fashion. But my neighbours only watched with delight when I first sent
my hammock flying by trying to get in at the side as if it were a bed,
and then sent myself flying out on the other side after getting in. As I
picked myself up I caught sight of an end of thick rope hanging from a
beam close above my hammock, and being a good deal nettled by my own
stupidity and the jeers of the sailors, I sprang at the rope, caught it,
and swinging myself up, I dropped quietly and successfully into my new
resting-place. Once fairly in and rolled in my blanket, I felt as snug
as a chrysalis in his cocoon, and (besides the fact that lying down is a
great comfort to people who are not born with sea-legs) I found the
gentle swaying of my hammock a delightful relief from the bumping,
jumping, and jarring of the ship. I said my prayers, which made me think
of my mother, and cost me some tears in the privacy of darkness; but, as
I wept, there came back the familiar thought that I had "much to be
thankful for," and I added the General Thanksgiving with an "especially"
in the middle of it (as we always used to have when my father read
prayers at home, after anything like Jem and me getting well of scarlet
fever, or a good harvest being all carried).
I got all through my "especially," and what with thinking of the
workman, and dear old Biddy, and Alister, and Mr. Johnson, and the
pilot, it was a very long one; and I think I finished the Thanksgiving
and said the Grace of our LORD after it. But I cannot be quite sure, for
it was such a comfort to be at peace, and the hammock swung and rocked
till it cradled me to sleep.
A light sleep, I suppose, for I dreamed very vividly of being at home
again, and that I had missed getting off to sea after all; and that the
ship had only been a dream. I thought I was rather sorry it was not
real, because I wanted to see the world, but I was very glad to be with
Jem, and I thought he and I went down to the farm to look for Charlie,
and they told us he was sitting up in the ash-tree at the end of the
field. In my dream I did not feel at all surprised that Cripple Charlie
should have got into the ash-tree, or at finding him there high up among
the branches looking at a spider's web with a magnifying-glass. But I
thought that the wind was so high I could not make him hear, and the
leaves and boughs tossed so that I could barely see him; and when I
climbed up to him, the branch on which I sat swayed so deliciously that
I was quite content to rock myself and watch Charlie in silence, when
suddenly it cracked, and down I came with a hard bang on my back.
I woke and sat up, and found that the latter part of my dream had come
true, as a lump on the back of my head bore witness for some days.
Francis had playfully let me down "with a run by the head," as it is
called; that is, he had undone my hammock-cord and landed me on the
floor. He left Alister in peace, and I can only think of two reasons for
his selecting me for the joke. First that the common sailors took much
more readily to Alister from his being more of their own rank in birth
and upbringing, though so vastly superior by education. And secondly,
that I was the weaker of the two; for what I have seen of the world has
taught me that there are plenty of strong people who will not only let
the weaker go to the wall, but who find an odd satisfaction in shoving
and squeezing them there.
However, if I was young and sea-sick, I was not quite helpless, happily;
I refastened my hammock, and got into it again, and being pretty well
tired out by the day's work, I slept that sleep of the weary which knows
no dream.