"Yet more! The billows and the depths have more:
High hearts and brave are gathered to thy breast!
* * * * * * *
Keep thy red gold and gems, thou stormy grave!
Give back the true and brave!"--FELICIA HEMANS.
"To them their duty was clear, and they did it successfully; and
the history of the island is written briefly in that little
formula!"--_Daily Telegraph_, Dec. 5, 1878.
I did not feel as if I had been asleep five minutes, when I was rudely
awakened, of course by noise, whistling, and inarticulate roaring, and I
found that it was morning, and that the boatswain's mate was "turning
the hands up" to wash decks. Alister was ready, and I found that my
toilet was, if possible, shorter than at Snuffy's in winter.
"We puts hon our togs fust, and takes our shower-baths harterwards," the
boatswain humorously explained, as he saw me trying to get the very
awkward collar of my "slops" tidy as I followed with the crowd.
The boatswain was a curious old fellow. He was born in London, "within
sound of Bow bells," as he told me; but though a Cockney by birth, he
could hardly be called a native of anywhere but the world at large. He
had sailed in all seas, and seemed to have tried his hand at most
trades. He had at one time been a sort of man-of-all-work in a boys'
school, and I think it was partly from this, and partly out of
opposition to the sail-maker, that he never seemed to grudge my not
having been born a poor person, or to fancy I gave myself airs (which I
never did), or to take a pleasure in making me feel the roughest edge of
the menial work I had to do, like so many of the men. But he knew very
well just where things did feel strangest and hardest to me, and showed
that he knew it by many a bit of not unkindly chaff.
His joke about the shower-bath came very strictly true to me. We were
all on the main deck, bare-armed and bare-legged, mopping and slopping
and swabbing about in the cold sea-water, which was liberally supplied
to us by the steam-pump and hose. I had been furnished with a _squeegee_
(a sort of scraper made of india-rubber at the end of broom-stick), and
was putting as much "elbow-grease" into my work as renewed sea-sickness
left me strength for, when the boatswain's mate turned the hose upon me
once more. I happened to be standing rather loosely, and my thoughts had
flown home on the wings of a wonder what Martha would think of this way
of scrubbing a floor--all wedded as the domestic mind is to hairy
flannel and sticky soap and swollen knees,--when the stream of sea-water
came in full force against my neck, and I and my squeegee went
head-over-heels into the lee scuppers. It was the boatswain himself who
picked me out, and who avenged me on his subordinate by a round of abuse
which it was barely possible to follow, so mixed were the metaphors, and
so cosmopolitan the slang.
On the whole I got on pretty well that day, and began to get accustomed
to the motion of the ship, in spite of the fact that she rolled more
than on the day before. The sky and sea were grey enough when we were
swabbing the decks in the early morning; as the day wore on, they only
took the deeper tints of gathering clouds which hid the sun.
If the weather was dull, our course was not less so. We only saw one
ship from the deck, a mail-steamer, as neat and trim as a yacht, which
passed us at a tremendous pace, with a knot of officers on the bridge.
Some black objects bobbing up and down in the distance were pointed out
to me as porpoises, and a good many sea-gulls went by, flying landwards.
Not only was the sky overcast, but the crew seemed to share the
depression of the barometer, which, as everybody told everybody else,
was falling rapidly. The captain's voice rang out in brief but frequent
orders, and the officers clustered in knots on the bridge, their gold
cap-bands gleaming against the stormy sky.
I worked hard through the day, and was sick off and on as the ship
rolled, and the great green waves hit her on the bows, and ran away
along her side, and the wind blew and blew, and most of the sails were
hauled in and made fast, and one or two were reefed up close, and the
big chimney swayed, and the threatening clouds drifted forwards at a
different pace from our own, till my very fingers felt giddy with
unrest; but not another practical joke did I suffer from that day, for
every man's hand was needed for the ship.
In the afternoon she had rolled so heavily in the trough of the large
waves, that no one made any pretence of finding his sea-legs strong
enough to keep him steady without clutching here and there for help, and
I had been thankful, in a brief interval when nobody had ordered me to
do anything, to scramble into a quiet corner of the forecastle and lie
on the boards, rolling as the ship rolled, and very much resigned to
going down with her if she chose to go.
Towards evening it was thick and foggy, but as the sun set it began to
clear, and I heard the men saying that the moon (which was nearly at
the full) would make a clear night of it. It was unquestionably clearer
overhead, and the waves ran smoother, as if the sea were recovering its
temper, and Alister and I went below at 9 P.M. and turned into our
hammocks for a few hours' sleep, before taking our part in the
night-watch that lasts from 12 midnight till 4 A.M.
It is astonishing what a prompt narcotic the knowledge that you'll have
to be up again in an hour or two is. Alister and I wasted no time in
conversation. He told me the fall in the barometer was "by-ordinar"
(which I knew as well as he); and I told him the wind was undoubtedly
falling (which he knew as well as I): and after this inevitable
interchange of the uppermost news and anxieties of the occasion, we bade
GOD bless each other, and I said the prayers of my babyhood because they
were shortest, and fell fast asleep.
The noises that woke us were new noises, but they made up the whole of
that peculiar sound which is the sum of human excitement. "We are going
down this time," was my thought, and I found myself less philosophical
about it than I had imagined. Neither Alister nor I were long in putting
on our clothes, and we rushed up on deck without exchanging a word. By
the time we got there, where the whole ship's crew had gone before us,
we were as wildly excited as any one of them, though we had not a notion
what it was all about. I knew enough now for the first glance to tell me
that the ship was in no special danger. Even I could tell that the gale
had gone down, the night was clear, and between the scudding of black
clouds with silver linings, the moon and stars shone very beautifully,
though it made one giddy to look at them from the weird way in which the
masts and yards seemed to whip across the sky.
We still rolled, and when the side of the ship went up, it felt almost
overhead, and I could see absolutely nothing of the sea, which was
vexatious, as that was obviously the point of interest. The rigging on
that side was as full of men as a bare garden-tree might be of sparrows,
and all along the lee bulwarks they sat and crouched like sea-birds on a
line of rock. Suddenly we rolled, down went the leeside, and I with it,
but I caught hold of the lowest step of the forecastle ladder and sat
fast. Then as we dipped I saw all that they were seeing from the masts
and rigging--the yet restless sea with fast-running waves, alternately
inky black, and of a strange bright metallic lead-colour, on which the
scud as it drove across the moon made queer racing shadows. And it was
on this stormy sea that every eye from the captain's to the cook's was
strained.
Roll! down we went again to starboard, and up went the bulwarks and I
could see nothing but the sky and the stars, and the masts and yards
whipping across them as before, though the excitement grew till I could
bear it no longer, and scrambled up the ladder on to the forecastle, and
pushed my way to the edge and lay face downwards, holding on for my life
that I might not be blown away, whilst I was trying to see what was to
be seen.
I found myself by Alister once more, and he helped me to hold on, and
pointed where every one else was pointing. There was a lull in the eager
talking of the men, and the knot of captain and the officers on the
bridge stood still, and Alister roared through the wind into my
ear--"Bide a wee, the moon 'll be out again."
I waited, and the cloud passed from her face or she sailed from beneath
it, and at the same instant I saw a streak of light upon the water in
which a black object bobbed up and down as the porpoises had bobbed, and
all the men burst out again, and a crowd rushed up on to the forecastle.
"It's half-a-mile aft."--"A bit of wreck."--"An old sugar
hogshead."--"The emperor of the porpoises."--"Is it the sea sarpint
ye're maning?"--"Will hany gentleman lend me 'is hopera-glass?"--"I'm
blessed if I don't think we're going to go half speed. I sailed seven
years in the _Amiable_ with old Savage, and I'm blessed if he ever put
her a point out of her course for anything. 'Every boat for herself, and
the sea for us all,' he used to say, and allus kept his eyes forwards in
foul weather."--"Aisy, Tom, aisy, ye're out of it entirely. It's the
Humane Society's gold medal we'll all be getting for saving
firewood."--"Stow your jaw, Pat, _that's_ not wreck, it's--"
At this moment the third mate's voice rang through the ship--
"A boat bottom up!"
The men passed from chaff to a silence whose eagerness could be felt,
through which another voice came through the wind from the
poop--"_there's something on her_!" and I turned that way, and saw the
captain put down his glass, and put his hand to his mouth; and when he
sang out "A MAN!" we all sprang to our feet, and opened our lips, but
the boatswain put up his hand, and cried, "Silence, fore and aft!
Steady, lads! Look to the captain!"
The gold cap-bands glittered close together, and then, clear to be seen
in a sudden gleam of moonlight, the captain leaned forward and shouted
to the crew, "Fo'cs'le there!" And they sang out, "Aye, aye, sir!"
"Volunteers for the whaleboat!"
My heart was beating fast enough, but I do not think I could have
counted a dozen throbs, before, with a wild hurrah, every man had leaped
from the forecastle, Alister among them, and I was left alone.
I was just wondering if I could possibly be of use, when I heard the
captain's voice again. (He had come down, and was where the whaleboat
was hanging, which, I learned, was fitted like a lifeboat, and the crew
were crowding round him.)
"Steady, lads! Stand back. Come as you're called. Thunder and lightning,
we want to man the boat, not sink her. Mr. Johnson!"
"Aye, aye, sir!"
"A! B! C! D!" &c.
"Here, sir!" "Here, sir!" "Here, sir!"
"Fall back there! Thank you all, my lads, but she's manned."
A loud cheer drowned every other sound, and I saw men busy with the
boat, and Alister coming back with a dejected air, and the captain
jumping up and down, and roaring louder than the wind: "Steward! rum,
and a couple of blankets. Look sharp. Stand back; in you go; steady!
Now, mind what I say; I shall bear up towards the boat. Hi, there!
Stand by the lowering-tackle, and when I say 'Now!' lower away
handsomely and steadily. Are you ready, Mr. Johnson? Keep steady, all,
and fend her off well when you touch the water. Mr. Waters! let her go
off a point or two to the north'ard. Half speed; port a little--steady!
All ready in the boat?"
"Aye, aye, sir!"
"GOD bless you. Steady--ready--Now!"
I hardly know which more roused my amazement and admiration--the
behaviour of the men or the behaviour of the whaleboat. Were these alert
and silent seamen, sitting side by side, each with his oar held upright
in his hand, and his eyes upon his captain, the rowdy roughs of the
forecastle? And were those their like companions who crowded the
bulwarks, and bent over to cheer, and bless, and _envy_ them?
As to boats--the only one I had been accustomed to used to be launched
on the canal with scraping and shoving, and struggling and balancing,
and we did occasionally upset her--but when the captain gave the word,
the ship's whaleboat and its crew were smoothly lowered by a patent
apparatus till it all but touched the big black waves that ran and
roared at it. Then came a few moments of intense anxiety till the boat
was fairly clear of the ship; but even when it was quite free, and the
men bending to their oars, I thought more than once that it had gone
down for ever on the other side of the hills and dales of water which
kept hiding it completely from all except those who were high up upon
the masts. It was a relief when we could see it, miserable speck as it
looked, and we all strained our eyes after it, through many difficulties
from the spiteful ways of the winds and waves and clouds, which blinded
and buffeted and drenched us when we tried to look, and sent black veils
of shadow to hide our comrades from our eyes. In the teeth of the
elements, however, the captain was bearing up towards the other boat,
and it was now and then quite possible to see with the naked eye that
she was upside down, and that a man was clinging to her keel. At such
glimpses an inarticulate murmur ran through our midst, but for the most
part we, who were only watching, were silent till the whaleboat was
fairly alongside of the object of her gallant expedition. Then by good
luck the moon sailed forth and gave us a fair view, but it was rather a
disappointing one, for the two boats seemed to do nothing but bob about
like two burnt corks in the moonlight, and we began to talk again.
"What's she doing?"--"The LORD knows!"--"Something's gone wrong."--"Why
doesn't she go nearer?"--"'Cos she'd be stove in, ye fool!"--"Gude save
us! they're both gone."--"Not they, they're to the left; but what the
winds and waves they're after ----"--"They're trying to make him hear,
likely enough, and they might as well call on my grandmother. He's as
dead as a herring."--"Whisht! whisht! He's a living soul! Hech, sirs!
there's nought but the grip o' despair would haud a man on the keel of
's boat in waves like yon."--"Silence, all!"
We turned our heads, for a voice rang from the look-out--
"Man overboard from the whaleboat!"
The men were so excited, and crowded so together, that I could hardly
find a peeping-place.
"He's got him."--"Nay, they're both gone."--"Man! I'm just thinking that
it's ill interfering with the designs of Providence. We may lose Peter
and not save Paul."--"Stow your discourses, Sandy!"--"They're hauling in
our man, and time they did."
The captain's voice now called to the first mate--
"Do you make it one or both, Mr. Waters?"
"_Both_, sir!"
"Thank GOD!"
We hurrahed again, and the whaleboat-men replied--but their cheer only
came faintly to us, like a wail upon the wind.
Several men of our group were now called to work, and I was ordered
below to bring up a hammock, and swing it in the steerage. I was vexed,
as I would have given anything to have helped to welcome the whaleboat
back.
When the odd jobs I had been called to were done with, and I returned to
the deck, it was just too late to see her hauled up. I could not see
over the thick standing group of men, and I did not, of course, dare to
push through them to catch sight of our heroes and the man they had
saved. But a little apart from the rest, two Irish sailors were standing
and bandying the harshest of brogues with such vehemence that I drew
near, hoping at least to hear something of what I could not see. It was
a spirited, and one would have guessed an angry dialogue, so like did it
sound to the yapping and snapping of two peppery-tempered terriers. But
it was only vehement, and this was the sum of it.
"Bedad! but it's quare ye must have felt at the time."
"I did not, unless it would be when Tom stepped out into the water, GOD
bless him! with the rope aisy round his waist, and the waves drowning
him intirely, and the corpse holding on to the boat's bottom for the
dear life."
"Pat!" said the other in mysterious tones, "would that that's hanging
round his neck be the presarving of him, what?"
"And why wouldn't it? But isn't he the big fool to be having it dangling
where the wash of a wave, or a pickpocket, or a worse timptation than
either might be staling it away from him?"
"And where else would he put it?"
"Did ye ever git the sight of mine?"
"I did not."
"On the back of me?"
"What?"
"Look here, now!" cried Pat, in the tones of one whose patience was
entirely exhausted. His friend drew nearer, and I also ventured to
accept an invitation not intended for me, so greatly was my curiosity
roused by what the men said.
Pat turned his back to us as rapidly as he had spoken, and stooping at
about half-leap-frog-angle, whipped his wet shirt upwards out of his
loosely-strapped trousers, baring his back from his waist to his
shoulder-blades. The moon was somewhat overcast, but there was light
enough for us to see a grotesque semblance of the Crucifixion tattooed
upon his flesh in more than one colour, and some accompanying symbols
and initials which we could hardly distinguish.
"Now am I safe for Christian burial or not, in the case I'd be
misfortunate enough to be washed up on the shores of a haythen
counthry?"
"Ye are so!"
I never saw a funnier sight than Pat craning and twisting his head in
futile efforts to look at it under his own arm.
"It's a foin piece of work, I'm told," said he.
"They tould ye no less than the truth that said that, Pat. It's a mighty
foin piece of work."
"They all say so that see it," sighed Pat, tucking his shirt in again,
"and that'll be ivry soul but meself, worse luck!"
"Shaughnessey!"
"Sir!"
Pat ran off, and as I turned I saw that the crew of the whaleboat were
going below with a crowd of satellites, and that a space was cleared
through which I could see the man they had saved still lying on the
deck, with the captain kneeling at his head, and looking back as if he
were waiting for something. And at that moment the moon shone out once
more, and showed me a sight that I'll forget when I forget you--Dennis
O'Moore!
* * * * *
It was a lad that they had saved, not a full-grown man, except in the
sense of his height, which was nearly an inch beyond Alister's. He was
insensible, and I thought he was dead, so death-like was the pallor of
his face in contrast with the dark curls of his head and the lashes of
his closed eyes. We were dipping to leeward, his head rolled a little on
the rough pillow that had been heaped to raise him, and his white face
against the inky waves reminded me of the face of the young lord in
Charlie's father's church, who died abroad, and a marble figure of him
was sent home from Italy, with his dog lying at his feet. His shoulders
were raised as well as his head, and his jacket and shirt had both been
washed open by the waves.
And that was how I got the key to the Irishmen's dialogue. For round the
lad's throat was a black ribbon, pendant from which a small cross of
ebony was clear to be seen upon his naked breast; and on this there
glittered in the moonlight a silver image of the Redeemer of the World.