For perhaps half a dozen seconds I stood there motionless in the cockpit
of the dancing boat, paralysed with dismay. There we were, six people,
adrift in a contraption of a craft that I could not even be sure was
water-tight, and about the behaviour of which I was absolutely ignorant.
We were without mast or sail, and had only a small quantity of
provisions and about fourteen gallons of water, to furnish us with food
and drink for Heaven alone knew how long!
Recognising the vital necessity for instant action, however, I groped
for an oar, found it, and threw it out over the lee quarter of the boat,
at the same time staring into the darkness in an endeavour to locate the
sandbank. That, now, was our only hope, for to drive out to sea in such
a craft as ours on such a night as that simply meant our speedy
destruction. The boat, low as she sat on the water, without even so
much as a naked mast for the wind to act upon, was skimming along at a
surprising speed, and would soon be in the open ocean unless I could
find the sandbank and secure her to it.
I thought for a moment of the bearings of the bank in relation to the
position of the ship and the direction of the wind, and then, having
decided this point, I brought the boat to the wind on the starboard
tack, so to speak, found that she answered her helm better than I had
dared to hope, forging ahead with the pressure of the wind on her
weather side, and some ten minutes later had the satisfaction of feeling
her ground and bring up dead upon something that could be none other
than the bank which I was so anxious to reach. But the moment that she
grounded, the waves, although they were not very much more than mere
ripples here, began to slop in over her weather side. That, I knew,
would never do, for if it did nothing worse it would at least interfere
with the comfort of my passengers. Therefore, since I was already wet
through to the skin, I nipped over the side into knee-deep water, put my
shoulder under the boat's slanting bow, shoved her afloat again and,
with the broken painter in my hand, waded along the margin of the bank,
towing the boat after me, until presently I had worked her round to the
lee side of the bank. For a few yards' breadth the water here was
perfectly smooth, and I grounded her afresh, dragging her up as high as
I could on the bank and anchoring her by her painter to an oar thrust as
deep into the sand as I could force it. I clambered back into the boat,
thrust my head in under the deck, and shouted:
"Are you all here?"
"Yes; we are all here, and quite safe--so far," answered Mrs
Vansittart. "But what has happened, Walter? We have been washed off
the wreck, have we not?"
"Yes," I replied, "and are now grounded on the lee margin of the
sandbank, where I believe we are reasonably safe, provided that we don't
strike adrift--and I think there is not much fear of that. We must
remain here for the rest of the night, and indeed until the gale
subsides; then, if the wreck is still above water, we will return to her
and complete the equipment of this boat and our preparations for a
voyage."
"You say, `if the wreck is still above water'. Is there any possibility
that she may not be?" demanded Mrs Vansittart.
"I very greatly fear so," I said. "When we involuntarily left her she
was being steadily driven ever nearer to the edge of the reef; and if
she passes that point I believe she will sink like a stone. Still,
there is no use in anticipating the worst. I would recommend you to
compose yourselves to sleep, if you can, until daylight; then we shall
know for certain exactly how we stand. By the way, is the boat leaking
at all?"
For a few seconds there was no reply; Mrs Vansittart was evidently
feeling round for indications of a leak. Presently she spoke.
"There has been a little water here, Walter," she replied, "but I
believe it all came in through the cockpit, in the form of spray, and
now no doubt it has all run aft with the tilt of the boat. There is
nothing worse now than a little damp."
"I am sorry," I said; "but I am afraid you will have to make the best of
things as they are. Luckily it is anything but cold, and if you can but
get to sleep you will soon forget your discomforts. I will keep a
look-out."
So saying I backed out from under the deck, and in the first place
proceeded to search for the water complained of. I found it right aft,
as Mrs Vansittart had suggested, and in order to test the tightness of
the boat I baled it all out, or at least as much of it as could be got
rid of with the baler, leaving no more than perhaps half a tumblerful.
Then, wading ashore, I sat down on the sand, with my back against the
upright oar to which the boat was moored, and began to review the
situation. Five minutes later, despite my soaked clothing and my
general state of discomfort, I was fast asleep.
When I awoke, the sun was just showing on the eastern horizon. The sky
was clear, save for a few tattered fragments of ragged-looking scud that
speedily disappeared, the wind had died down to a piping, topsail
breeze, and the sea-birds, which had evidently been driven out to sea by
the gale, were wearily winging their way back to the sandbank, filling
the brisk, clean morning air with their mournful cries. I looked for
the wreck, but the reef was bare. She had vanished, leaving not a trace
behind her, save a few planks remaining of the stock from which I had
built the boat; these, upon looking more carefully about me, I saw
floating in a little bunch near the middle of the lagoon. My clothes
had dried upon me during my sleep, and I was feeling just a trifle
chilled, but the air was already warming up, and a brisk walk along the
edge of the water and back again soon restored my circulation.
I climbed aboard the boat and, barefooted, padded softly along the deck
until I reached the cockpit, into which I dropped softly; then, peering
in under the deck, I looked to see whether any of the occupants were
stirring. They all appeared to be asleep except the boy, who, as soon
as my eyes became accustomed to the obscurity, I saw was sitting up,
rubbing his eyes and yawning. He presently saw me and was evidently
about to speak, but I silenced him with a gesture, and beckoned him to
come to me in the cockpit. He obeyed, and when he was standing beside
me, staring round him in wonderment, I pointed out the floating planks
to him and said:
"It has just occurred to me, Julius, that one of those planks, or
rather, a small portion of one of them, will be exceedingly useful to
us. I am therefore going to swim off and fetch one; and I want you to
stand here and keep watch while I am gone. If anyone wakes and wants to
come out from below, just tell them that I am having a swim, and that I
shall be much obliged if they will stay below until I return and am
dressed. My clothes are dry now, and I don't want to wet them again, so
I shall strip. You understand?"
"Sure! I get you all right," answered the lad. "I won't let any of
them out until you are ready to be seen again. Better `git' as quickly
as you can, hadn't you?"
I nodded, and, springing up on the deck, quickly threw off my clothes,
spread them in the sun so that any lingering moisture might be dried out
of them during my absence, and, dropping lightly to the sand, dashed
into the water and struck out. I was gone about half an hour, and it
was not until I was returning with my captured plank that the thought of
possible sharks occurred to me. However, I saw none, and got safely
back to the bank, where, having hauled up my plank, I at once proceeded
to dress in my now thoroughly dry clothes. The swim had greatly
refreshed me and I felt in excellent form for a good hearty breakfast.
But alas! I remembered our slender stock of provisions, and stifled my
longings as best I could.
Presently the women folk emerged, one after the other, and, standing in
the cockpit, looked about them in something approaching amazement at the
change which the passage of a few hours had effected. When they entered
the boat about midnight, a black hurricane was raging; and now it was a
brilliantly beautiful morning. But Mrs Vansittart was greatly
concerned on account of the disappearance of the wreck. She realised as
clearly as I did all that it involved; and leaping down upon the sand
with my assistance, she walked with me to the highest point of the bank,
and intently surveyed the aspect of the sea. The question which we had
to decide was whether or not it was yet safe for us to put to sea. Had
we been provided with a mast and sails, I would not have hesitated a
moment; indeed the breeze, if a trifle fresh, would have swept us along
at a merry pace and soon brought land of some sort into our ken. But in
our present condition the risk of being overrun and swamped was as yet
too great. It was, however, of vital importance that we should make a
start at the earliest possible moment, for our stock of food and water
was exceedingly meagre, though it would have to suffice until we were
either picked up or could reach a more kindly shore than the sandbank.
But in any case we could not make a start for at least half an hour, for
my experience of the previous night, during our brief passage from the
wreck to the sandbank, had shown me that, in the absence of a rudder--
which I had not yet made--provision for a steering oar was an absolute
necessity. Hence my anxiety, a little earlier, to secure one of the
floating planks.
We were by this time all eager for breakfast, therefore before doing
anything else we took careful account of our stock of food and water,
and estimated that, with care, it might be made to last us all a week.
This was better than I had dared to hope; for it would be strange indeed
if in the course of a week we did not fall in with a craft of some sort,
or reach solid earth which would afford us at least the means of
sustaining life. We measured out an allowance of food sufficient to
serve for one meal in accordance with the scale agreed upon, and quickly
disposed of it. Upon opening the water breaker, however, I was vexed to
find that it was not full to the bung-hole, as I had confidently
expected to find it. On the contrary, there was quite a gallon short,
which I supposed must have been lost while rolling it along the wreck's
deck the previous night. That missing gallon or so we should have to
make up by slightly curtailing each person's allowance, unless indeed we
were blessed with a shower or two of rain during our voyage.
Having quickly disposed of my rather meagre breakfast, I got out the
tool chest, and, using the plank which I had retrieved, made a cleat for
the reception of a rowlock. This I firmly fixed to the boat's transom,
so that, when necessary, we could use one of the oars to steer with; or
for sculling purposes. The job occupied me for the best part of an
hour; and when it was finished I suggested that, since we were doing no
good where we were, it might be worth our while to take a cruise about
the lagoon and see whether we could find any flotsam from the wreck that
would be of any value to us. This we did, but we found nothing except a
few planks, half a dozen of which we hauled in and laid on the boat's
deck to dry, upon the off-chance of their eventually proving useful to
us.
Then we made our way to the spot where we thought the wreck had sunk,
and eventually found her submerged within about forty fathoms of the
inner edge of the reef, showing that she must have gone down almost
immediately after being washed clear. There was about a fathom and a
half of water over her poop, and as we gazed down upon the craft,
clearly visible through the crystal waters of the lagoon, poor Mrs
Vansittart shed a few pardonable tears over the grave of the ship of
which she had been so proud, and which she had loved so well.
We were agreeably surprised to find that our so-called boat, bulky and
clumsy as she looked to the eye, proved quite easy to propel with a pair
of oars handled by Julius and myself--except, indeed, when we tried to
force her to windward. Then she became decidedly heavy and sluggish in
her movements, which showed us that it would be hopeless to dream of
shaping a course other than to leeward, or at best with the wind abeam.
The wind was, at the moment, blowing briskly from the southward, which
was a fair wind for the Caroline group, in one of which--if we could
only manage to hit the right one--we might hope to meet with hospitality
at least, if not the actual means to return to civilisation. After some
discussion, therefore, we determined, as the wind seemed inclined to
moderate a little, to risk a start without further delay, since, if our
boat was to be of any real service to us, she ought to be able to live
in such a sea as was now running outside.
It was about eleven o'clock in the morning when we reached the open sea;
and the first discovery which we made with regard to our boat was that,
thanks to her double keel, she would forge ahead with the wind anywhere
at all abaft the beam--not at any great speed, certainly, with the wind
only about one point free, but still fast enough to enable us to control
her with a steering oar. When we bore up before the wind, she moved
under the impetus of the breeze almost as fast as we had been able to
row her in the lagoon. Our second discovery with regard to her was no
less pleasing. Owing to the peculiar shape of her floor, which, it will
be remembered, sloped up fore and aft somewhat after the fashion of that
of a fishing punt, she rode the seas with extraordinary buoyancy, and as
dry as a bone.
Being without either chart or compass, we could not, of course, steer
any definite course, and therefore kept our craft dead before the wind
and sea. Julius and I each wielded an oar until the boy was tired, when
Susie, the second stewardess, who was a fine, strong, strapping girl,
took a spell, and soon picked up the trick of rowing. When she was
tired, Lizette, the chief stewardess, must needs try her hand; but she
proved much less adaptable than her assistant, and did little more than
blister her hands. Julius then took another spell, and by the time he
was tired I was tired too. We therefore gave up rowing for a bit, and
Mrs Vansittart undertook to steer the boat by means of an oar over the
stern. By this time we had dropped the reef out of sight astern, and
were beginning to realise fully that we were veritable castaways--a fact
which I think had never hitherto quite come home to any of us.
The thing that worried me most was the absence of sail on the boat. Now
that we had definitely and irretrievably embarked ourselves and our
fortunes in her, I wanted to get over the ground at a good pace instead
of drifting snail-like before wind and sea; and I set myself to consider
whether, with the materials at my command, I could not rig up something
that would serve the purpose of a mast and sail. I had the best part of
a coil of good useful line in the boat, half a dozen three-by-nine-inch
planks, each of which was twelve feet in length--and that was all,
excepting of course that priceless treasure, the carpenter's chest.
As I stood looking contemplatively at the planks it occurred to me that
three of them, say, placed edge to edge, and reared upright on the
boat's deck, would catch quite an appreciable amount of wind, and no
sooner had the idea suggested itself to me than I got to work. My first
act was to take one of the planks and saw off an end two feet six inches
in length. This piece I next sawed into six equal strips, or battens, a
task which occupied me much longer than I had anticipated, chiefly on
account of the limited space in which I was obliged to work, and because
I had nothing but the boat's gunwale to steady the plank against. But I
got my six battens at last, and four of them I nailed at equal intervals
of about two feet three inches across three planks laid close together
side by side, while I nailed a fifth athwartships on the deck at the
point where I intended to rear my planks. The length of the battens
being three inches more than the combined width of the three planks, the
projecting ends of the top batten afforded me a very convenient shoulder
for the support of my shrouds and stay, which I cut from my coil of
line.
Having got these all fixed and seized, I reared my structure on end
against the deck batten, with the assistance of Julius and the two
stewardesses, set up the shrouds and stay, nailed another batten in
front of the contraption, to keep it in place, and behold! I had a mast
and sail in one, twelve feet long and two feet three inches wide,
capable of catching and holding quite an appreciable amount of wind.
That this was actually the case at once became apparent, the boat's
speed quickly rising to about three knots, while she did not now lose
way when she sank into the trough of the sea.
I was so pleased with the success of my experiment that I immediately
began to elaborate the original idea. My new scheme was to saw one of
the planks into very thin veneer-like sheets, nail them together at the
edges, and make veritable sails out of them; but an hour's work sufficed
to convince me that to saw a three-inch plank into even quarter-inch
boards with an ordinary handsaw demanded far more skill in carpentry
than I possessed.
The afternoon and night passed quietly; and shortly after sunrise the
feminine members of the party made their appearance. Upon enquiry I was
informed that they had all passed a comfortable night and slept well.
They were quite cheerful and courageous; indeed, I was amazed to see how
quickly and thoroughly they all adapted themselves to circumstances,
although, in the case of Mrs Vansittart and her daughter at least, this
was their first experience of anything in the nature of real hardship.
We breakfasted early that morning, all of us declaring ourselves to be
more than ready for the meal. Then we experienced a most unpleasant
shock, for upon serving out the first allowance of water for the day, we
discovered that our stock had suffered a further mysterious depletion
during the night, which, upon investigation, proved to be due to a leaky
breaker. The leak was not a very serious one, certainly, and the staves
seemed to be taking up a bit and the leak growing less; still, we had
lost about three pints, which was half a pint apiece, and it was not
difficult to picture conditions under which this might make all the
difference to us between life and death.
The day passed like the night, uneventfully. The breeze held steady,
and we continued to blow along northward, Mrs Vansittart and her
daughter taking spell and spell at the steering oar while I endeavoured
to make up my arrears of sleep. Of course a sharp look-out was
maintained, in the hope that either a sail or land might be sighted; but
although the air was crystal-clear the horizon remained bare throughout
its entire circle. Toward nightfall the wind manifested a tendency to
drop, and shortly after midnight it fell dead, so that when Julius
aroused me at two o'clock in the morning I found the boat heaving gently
upon an oil-smooth swell.
This calm, if it should last for any length of time, would be nothing
short of a disaster. It was of vital importance that we should find
either a ship or a shore capable of providing us with sustenance within
the next four or five days, or we should all be subjected to the horrors
of starvation. I positively dreaded to think of what might be the
effect of this upon the women; therefore, that we might not lie there
absolutely helpless, I started to scull the boat with the steering oar.
But she was heavy for this style of propulsion, and I estimated that our
progress did not amount to more than three-quarters of a mile per hour.