WRECKED!

How long I slept I have no means of knowing. All I can remember is that

from a sound, dreamless sleep, I was startled into sudden wakefulness by

experiencing a shock of such tremendous violence that my first real

consciousness of anything being amiss was caused by me finding myself

hurled headlong out of my bunk to the deck of my cabin. I fell so

awkwardly that I seemed to land fair upon my right temple, and, after an

instant of sharp pain, I forthwith lost all consciousness for a length

of time that must have been considerable, although I never had the means

to guess it even approximately. But I remember one thing distinctly.

Even as I was in the very act of falling, a terrific rending crash

sounded in my ears, and the thought flashed through my brain: "There go

the masts by the board!"

The return of consciousness manifested itself in a hazy and quite

detached perception that I was being violently shaken by the shoulder;

while a voice, pitched in aggrieved and petulant tones--which I

presently recognised as those of the lad, Julius--exhorted me to "Wake

up!" At first these exhortations produced no particular effect upon me.

I was aware of them, but that was all; they had no definite meaning so

far as I was concerned. I did not even trouble to ask myself why I

should wake up. Then after a period of silence, during which I perhaps

slipped back into unconsciousness, I became aware that water was being

vigorously dashed in my face, while Julius's voice resumed its petulant

appeal.

"Oh, I say, dash it all! do wake up, Leigh," I heard the boy exclaim.

"Wake up, I tell you! Momma's blocked into her cabin, and Sis and I

can't get her out. And you're the only one of the crew left!"

I suppose my wits must have been reasserting themselves by that time,

for these words conveyed some sort of definite meaning to me, especially

that last statement: "You're the only one of the crew left." The only

one of the crew! What crew? Why, of course, the crew of the _Stella

Maris_, in which I had some recollection of having spent a very pleasant

time. Then, as memory began to work, I recalled the tremendous shock

which had hurled me, scarcely awake, out of my bunk, and the jarring,

rending crash that had reached my ears in the very act of falling. What

did these things mean? I asked myself, and the answer came without much

groping for. What could they mean, except that some disaster had

overtaken the yacht?

I opened my eyes, and by the light of a rapidly growing dawn perceived,

first, that I was still in my own cabin, and secondly, that Julius was

bending over me with a water jug in one hand and a tumbler in the other,

from the latter of which he had just dashed a quantity of water in my

face. Also I was conscious of a splitting headache, and a burning,

smarting sensation in the right temple. I put up my hand, passed it

over the seat of the pain, and was immediately conscious of an increased

smart. As I lowered my hand I looked at it stupidly: it was smeared

with blood.

"Oh, that's nothing!" commented the boy, as I looked questioningly at

the ruddy stain; "you've cut your forehead a bit, that's all. Thank

goodness, you've woke up at last! I thought at first you'd handed in

your checks. Now, I say, just get up and come with me to the

drawing-room. Momma's somehow pinned in her cabin, and I want you to

get her out."

"All right!" I said; "I'll come. But what has happened to the ship?

She seems to be--"

"I dunno," replied the boy. "She's wrecked, that's all that I can tell

you. Her three masts are broken; and, exceptin' Momma, 'Thea, and I,

you're the only person left."

"The only person left!" I ejaculated, as I staggered to my feet. "Good

Heavens, boy, what do you mean?"

"Just exactly what I say," returned Master Julius. "And see here, you,"

he continued aggressively, "don't you dare to call me `boy' again. I

don't like it, and I won't have it. See?"

"Certainly," I replied, with a smile at the lad's astonishing touchiness

at such a moment; "I both see and hear. All right! I apologise. And

now, what is this you say about your mother? She is jammed in her cabin

and can't get out? I will go and attend to her first; and when she has

been released I must look into that other matter of the missing crew."

"I guess the first thing you'll do after you've got Momma out of her

cabin will be to get my breakfast ready, and don't you forget it!"

retorted the boy.

While we talked I had been hastily dressing, and until I had finished I

said nothing. I suppose it was the blow on the head that I had

received, coupled with the growing consciousness that some disaster, far

more frightful than I had thus far dreamed of, had befallen us, that

made me suddenly irritable and short-tempered then. Anyhow, the lad's

manner jarred upon me at the moment to such an extent that, as I was

about to lead the way through the doorway of my cabin, I halted and

turned upon the youngster.

"Look here, my lad," I said. "If what you say is true, that only your

mother, your sister, you and I are left aboard this ship, somebody will

have to take charge of things, and that somebody will be myself. There

will be a multitude of things to be done, and you will have to lend a

hand. And I will see that you do so. Henceforth it will be I who will

give orders; and--understand me, my young friend--if I give you an

order, you will execute it, or I'll know the reason why. Hitherto, it

seems to me, you have been spoiled by too much indulgence; but if this

ship proves to be a wreck, as I more than suspect is the case, there

will be no more spoiling for you, and I'll see if I cannot make

something like a man of you. Now, just turn that saying over in your

mind, and don't let me have any more of your nonsense. Now we will go

and see what can be done for your mother. Come along!"

For a moment I really thought that the boy meant to strike me, but I

kept my eyes steadily staring into his, and presently I saw that I had

mastered him, for the moment at all events. The gleam of mingled anger

and defiance faded out of his eyes, and he muttered: "All right! let's

go."

As we wended our way from my cabin to the drawing-room, abaft which Mrs

Vansittart's cabin was situate, I had time to note several matters. The

first of these was that the ship was evidently hard and fast aground;

for although she rolled slightly from time to time the motion was not

continuous like that of a floating ship, but intermittent, with

intervals when she did not move at all, but lay motionless with a list

to starboard. Also, when she moved, there was a gritty, grinding sound,

which at once suggested to me that she was lying upon a bed of coral.

There was also another sound, a bumping sound, accompanied by a

perceptible jar of the hull, recurring at frequent and pretty regular

intervals, which I set down to the bumping of wreckage alongside. The

next thing I observed was that the lee side of the deck was about a foot

or more deep in water, showing that a very considerable quantity must

have come below, the greater part of it probably through the hatchways,

although some had no doubt come in through the open ports.

Then I went up the hatchway ladder to the main-deck. Heavens! what a

picture of wreck and ruin I there beheld! The three hollow steel masts

were snapped off close to the deck, and now, with all attached, were

over the starboard side, still fast to the hull by the standing and

running gear, which lay, a confused raffle of wire and hemp, across the

deck. The mizenmast, heel upward, leaned against the side of the poop

in a slanting position, showing that it had fallen forward as well as

sideways; and immediately to leeward, in the water that heaved and

seethed round us, rose and fell a tangle of wrecked spars, sails, and

rigging. Every inch of the bulwarks, from poop to topgallant forecastle

on both sides, had disappeared, leaving only the bent and broken steel

stanchions standing here and there. The deckhouses were gone, as were

every one of the boats except the motor launch, and even she was

represented only by a shattered, fragmentary skeleton. Four of the six

main-deck guns in the starboard battery were either smashed or missing

altogether; and, in short, the whole appearance of the main-deck was

such as to suggest that the ship had been repeatedly swept from end to

end by a succession of tremendously heavy seas.

All these things I observed during my brief passage from the after

hatchway to the face of the poop. I also observed that no land was in

sight from the main-deck; therefore, if we had hit an unknown atoll

during the night, it must be so small as to be entirely hidden by the

poop.

Followed submissively enough by the boy, who now seemed tongue-tied, I

passed through the cabin into the drawing-room; and it gave me quite a

sharp pain to see the dreadful havoc that had been wrought in that

splendid apartment since I had left it only a few hours before. For not

only had all the ports been left open during the night, for the sake of

coolness, but the skylight and companion had both been swept away, and,

from the appearance of things, tons of water must have flooded the

place. Even now, when it had had time to drain away to a small extent,

the lee side of the room was flooded to the depth of fully four feet,

and chairs, ottomans, table, grand piano, organ--the latter capsized--in

fact, everything movable had settled away to leeward, and now lay in a

confused heap in the water. The rich carpet was everywhere sodden,

several of the electric-light shades were smashed, two or three of the

pictures had fallen; in short, the destruction was practically complete.

And there, in the midst of all the ruin, stood poor little Anthea, a

most forlorn and pathetic-looking object.

I hastened toward her with the idea of saying something comforting,

though what I could have said I am sure I don't know. Happily, she

forestalled me by coming to meet me with outstretched hands.

"Oh! Mr Leigh," she exclaimed, "isn't this just awful! I am so glad

you are here, for Momma is in her cabin and can't get out; and Jule and

I haven't been strong enough to help her. She says that the wardrobe

has fallen across her door, and she cannot move it."

"All right!" I said; "I will see what I can do to help her;" and I

moved toward the door in question.

"But don't you think you had better get some of the men to help you?"

demanded the girl. "I guess that wardrobe is a pretty heavy piece of

furniture and--But what are you looking at me like that for? And what

have you done to your head?"

"Hasn't Julius told you?" I asked, ignoring the last question.

"Told me what?" returned Anthea. Then, without waiting for a reply, she

continued. "No, he hasn't told me a thing. In fact, I haven't seen him

since he left me nearly an hour ago to get help. Of course I know that

we're wrecked, and goodness knows that's bad enough. There's nothing

worse than that to tell, is there?"

"I don't know for certain," I said, "but I fear so. Julius says that we

three and your mother are all that remain of the entire ship's company;

but I pray Heaven that he may be mistaken. However, we will free your

mother; and then I will take a good look round. I have scarcely had a

chance to see anything yet."

I walked up to the closed door of Mrs Vansittart's cabin, Anthea and

Julius accompanying me, and knocked.

"It is Walter Leigh," I cried. "Julius tells me that you are blockaded

in your room, madam, and cannot force your way out. May I see what I

can do?"

"Pray do, if you please," was the response. "I have been shut up here

for hours, terrified and half-drowned, and I want to get out. Have you

anybody there to help you?"

"Only Julius," I replied. "But I daresay we can manage, between us."

"I don't believe you can," retorted Mrs Vansittart. "There is a

wardrobe right across the door, and it is so heavy that I cannot move

it. Still, you may try."

"Right!" I replied. "Stand clear, if you please. Now, Julius, put

your shoulder to the door, close to the frame, and throw your whole

weight upon it. I will help you."

But the door would not move, strive as we might, and soon I realised

that the lad was a hindrance rather than a help. So I told him to stand

aside, and was then able to bring my whole weight and strength to bear.

Presently I felt the door move, ever so little; I had started it, and

after some minutes of strenuous heaving I managed to force it so far

open that, with a little tight squeezing, I might push myself through

the aperture. This I did, having first asked permission; and, once

inside the room, I managed to shift the blockading wardrobe without very

much difficulty, and so to release the imprisoned lady.

When I had hooked back the door, so that the way was open, Mrs

Vansittart turned to me and said:

"Thank you, ever so much, Walter! And now, tell me, what dreadful thing

has happened? We are stranded, are we not, and--What is the matter with

your head? You are bleeding! Tell me the worst, Walter! Whatever it

is, I believe I can bear it."

"To confess the truth, madam," I said, "I scarcely know yet what is the

full extent of our misfortune. That the ship is ashore--on a coral

reef, as I believe--and totally dismasted, is certain; and I fear that

that is not the worst of it. Julius tells me that we four are the only

survivors of the entire ship's company, but I can hardly believe that.

There must be some of the crew left somewhere in the ship, although I

saw no sign of them when I came here from my cabin. Probably I should

not have been here now but for the fact that when the ship struck I was

hurled out of my bunk with such violence that I was stunned; and it was

Julius who found and revived me. With your permission, I will now take

a thorough look round, and then return to you with my report."

"Please do so," assented Mrs Vansittart. "Search the ship thoroughly

from end to end, and then let me know exactly how matters stand. I am

sure it cannot be anything like so bad as you say. Some of the poor

fellows may have been, indeed probably were, swept away by those awful

seas that broke over the ship when she first struck; but all of them!

Oh, no, it cannot be so bad as that; it would be too terrible!"

"I will go at once," I said. "But I beg that you will prepare yourself

for bad news; for, from what I saw on deck just now, on my way here, I

am afraid my report will be a very distressing one."

Therewith I hurried away, for I saw that the poor lady was quite

overwhelmed, and would probably be relieved to find herself alone for a

time. I searched the ship thoroughly, penetrating to every part of her

in which it was possible for a man to hide himself, but found nobody,

until at length I made my way to the stewardesses' quarters. There,

huddled up in the cabin which they shared between them, I discovered the

chief and assistant stewardess, quite unhurt but half-crazy with

terror--so frightened, indeed, that it was only with the greatest

difficulty I at length succeeded in persuading them that all danger was

over for the present, and induced them to join their mistress in the

drawing-room.

Then I proceeded to investigate the condition of the wreck. The yacht

had been constructed like a liner, with a double bottom; and the

conclusion at which I arrived was that the actual bottom of the ship was

so seriously damaged that she would never float again, but that the

inner skin was intact; and that the water in her interior, of which

there was a very considerable quantity, had all come in through the

hatchways and ports.

With regard to the loss of the crew, I believed I could understand

exactly how it had come about; for, wherever I went, whether to the

men's berthage in the 'tween decks or to the officers' cabins, the

indications were the same, and pointed to the conviction that when the

ship struck, every man below leaped out of his bunk or hammock and

dashed up on deck in something of a panic, where they were washed

overboard, with the watch already on deck, by the terrific seas that

must at once have swept the ship from stem to stern, their awful power

being sufficiently evidenced by the scene of destruction presented by

the decks.

Having completed my investigation below, I ascended to the poop,

shinning up by one of the port mizen shrouds, which trailed across the

deck and hung down over the face of the poop, both ladders being

missing; and when I got up there and was able to see all round the ship,

I thought I began to understand a little more clearly what had happened

during the darkness of the preceding night.

I found that the ship had piled herself up on a small atoll, some two

miles in diameter, only a very small portion of which--less than a

hundred yards in length--showed above water. This portion, consisting

of a low bank of sand, the highest point of which could not, I

estimated, be more than three feet above the level of the ocean's

surface, lay directly astern of the ship, distant about half a mile.

From the position which the wreck then occupied I surmised that in the

darkness of the preceding night we must have rushed headlong upon the

weathermost portion of the reef, and beaten through the terrific surf

that everlastingly broke upon it. Our decks had been swept of

everything animate and inanimate in the process, until the vessel had

settled down on the top of the reef in the comparatively smooth water

that then surrounded us, which, though it boiled and seethed all round

the wreck, had power only to cause her to stir gently and at intervals

upon her coral bed when an extra heavy swell swept across the reef.

Of course the wreck ought not to have occurred; but Parker, the

boatswain, who was in charge of the ship when she piled herself up,

unfortunately happened to overhear Mrs Vansittart remark, only the day

before the disaster, that we were then in a part of the ocean which was

not only very sparsely used, but, according to the charts, was supposed

to be absolutely void of dangers. Hence I imagine he must not only have

grown careless himself, but must also have permitted the look-outs to

become so also; with the result that, on such a pitch-dark night as the

preceding one had been, the ship would be absolutely on top of the

danger, and escape from it impossible, before its existence was

discovered.

Well, our plight, although bad enough in all conscience, might easily

have been a good deal worse. For if the ship had remained afloat a few

minutes longer than she actually did, she would have driven completely

across the reef and sunk in the lagoon, when probably the whole of us

who happened to be below would have gone down with her, and the disaster

would have been complete. As it was, there were half a dozen of us who

had escaped drowning, although our prospects for the future were

anything but brilliant. To start with, the diminutive sandbank astern

of the wreck was impossible as a place of prolonged residence, though we

might, perhaps, if driven to it, contrive to exist for a few days upon

the shellfish which no doubt might be collected along the margin of the

inner beach, assisted, perhaps, by a few sea-birds' eggs. But there was

no fresh water, so far as I could discover with the aid of the ship's

telescope, nor was there so much as a blade of grass in the way of

shelter.

Therefore it was perfectly evident that we must stick to the wreck until

something came along to take us off, or until I could put together

something in the nature of a craft or raft capable of being handled

under sail and of making a voyage to the nearest civilised land. That,

as anyone who has used the sea will know, was a pretty tall order for a

young fellow like myself, with such assistance only as four women and a

boy could afford me. Of course there was the possibility that the wreck

might break up during the next gale. But I hardly thought she would,

because she must have driven to her present berth while last night's

breeze was at its height, and from the look of things generally I

doubted whether a sea heavy enough to destroy her would ever reach us

where we then lay. The reef would break it up and render it practically

harmless before it could get so far as the spot which we occupied.

Still, I realised that it would not be wise to trust too much to that

belief; and I determined to get to work upon some sort of craft at the

earliest moment possible. Meanwhile, however, since under the most

favourable circumstances the wreck must obviously be our home for some

time to come, unless indeed we should be lucky enough to be seen and

taken off, the first thing to be done was to clear the ship of water and

get the cabins dry again as speedily as possible; and I determined that

I would make that my first job.

Having now decided upon something in the nature of a plan of campaign, I

returned to the drawing-room, descending to it by way of the companion--

the stairway of which was still intact--with the object of making my

report to Mrs Vansittart and submitting my plans for her approval. But

when I reached the apartment I found the occupants in the very act of

descending to the dining-room, in order to partake of breakfast. This

had been prepared by the two stewardesses, the senior of whom--the young

Frenchwoman, Lizette Charpentier, who also acted as Mrs Vansittart's

maid--had just made her appearance with the information that the meal

was ready. I therefore decided to postpone what I had to say until

after breakfast, believing that everybody would be the better able to

listen to bad news if they were first fortified with a good meal.