THE REEFS OF PALEGROSSA.
No French girl, waiting for her lover, was ever more impatient than I
to see the enemy, yet it was my fate never to plough the waters of
the Euxine.
In company with the _Mahmoudieh_, a small Osmanli steam-brig of ten
guns, we had left astern the narrow channel of the Hellespont, and
the lights of Gallipoli had sunk into haze and darkness on our
larboard quarter, as we steamed, but slowly, into the sea of Marmora.
The night, at first, was calm, but intensely dark, yet on we
glided--on, on--over the waste of waters, our almost noiseless speed
forming a strange contrast to the silence and sleep of the hundreds
on board, who were borne forward through the seething foam and
whirling water, as the revolving screw urged on the sharp-prowed
frigate--an even course before us, a long white wake of froth astern;
no light visible, save a faint ray near the binnacle, or that red and
dusky gleam which shoots at times upward from the engine-room, when
the iron jaws of the hot furnace are unclosed for a moment, and a
flash of fiery radiance falls on the mysterious intricacies of the
clanking machinery, and on the dark and swarthy visages of the
engineer and his mates.
So thought Belton and I, as we trod the deck together, cigar in
mouth, while gliding over the darkened waters of the Propontis.
Our coal was becoming scarce, for after an hour the engines almost
ceased, and every stitch of canvas she could carry was set upon the
vessel; but this was continued only for a time, as before midnight a
gale came on, and the sails were rapidly reduced, and we lost sight
of the _Mahmoudieh_, with her crescent and lantern glittering at her
foremast-head.
Jack Belton was officer of the watch, and about fifty of our men were
on deck in their forage-caps and greatcoats, ready to bear a hand
whenever they were required, in working the ship and general deck
duty. As he scanned the horizon of the dark sea of Marmora, and saw
a peculiar white streak at its utmost verge, Captain Crank swore a
few nautical oaths, and bent his piercing solitary eye aloft on every
yard and rope and sail, to see, as he said, 'if she drawed properly.'
'What headland is that, now rising like a dark cloud upon our
larboard bow?' I inquired, with great suavity, as our skipper was not
in a mood to be trifled with.
'Cape St. George--and a d--ned unpleasant place it may prove to _us_,
if the wind shifts, and we find it on our lee,' he answered, in a
voice not unlike a growl, as he turned his red and weather-beaten
visage to windward. 'How's her head?' he snappishly asked the
midshipman of the watch.
'East and by north, sir.'
'Keep her so, and if the wind veers round, call me;' and, with a
general scowl round about him, he entered the poop.
As the night waxed older, the seamen, who generally have peculiar and
intuitive instincts about the weather--mysterious forebodings which
they cannot account for or explain, looked anxiously ahead, as the
dark clouds deepened on our ocean path, and the hurrying scud tore
the foam from the tops of the lifted billows. The crew seemed
restless, and gathered together in whispering groups about the
forecastle and lee side of the main deck.
'I think we will have a rough night, sir,' said the middy of the
watch, in a low voice, to old Crank, who had come again upon deck.
'And a dangerous one, too,' he answered, adding, to the chief mate,
'let both watches be kept on deck, for I don't think it worth their
while to turn in now; double reef the foresail and
main-top-sail--quick, Mr. Gasket! Send all the topgallant-yards on
deck--handsomely a bit--bravo! Now make all fast, and keep a sharp
look out there forward.'
With these words, and a last glance at the compass, in the light of
which his red face glowed like a stormy moon, our gallant skipper
again descended from the poop and entered his cabin, to consult the
chart through the mellowing influence of a glass of stiff brandy grog.
At nine o'clock an order had been given to batten all the port-lids,
and ship the dead-lights.
These warnings and precautions detained me long, and somewhat
anxiously, on deck, till the bellowing wind and the bitter spray,
which showered over the ship like rain, fairly drove me below; but
knowing less, or caring less, about the actual risk we ran, after
playing chess for an hour or two with Major Catanagh, and hearing
some prosy old stories about the Mahrattah war and Bob Clavering of
the 5th, I 'turned in,' and wearied by a long day spent in the keen
sea-breeze, after a prayer that Laura might be happy though she had
deserted me for ever, I was soon fast asleep and dreaming of
Sebastopol.
From this comfortable state I was suddenly awakened by a frightful
uproar on deck, the bellowing of the wind through the rigging; the
creaking of the timbers; the grating and straining of the guns in
their lashings; the jarring, swaying, and pitching of the ship, as
she rose on one billow, and plunged surging deeply into the dark
watery trough of another. The lamp in my cabin swung madly about in
its brass slings; at last the crystal globe was clashed to pieces;
the light went out, and I was in darkness.
I thought of that dreadful storm in the Euxine, which in the
preceding November had nearly destroyed an entire fleet of transports
and store-ships, strewing the shores of the Crimea with shattered
wrecks and unburied bodies; and with a new sensation of alarm in my
heart, I sprang from bed and proceeded to dress; at that moment I
heard the excited voice of Jack Belton in the great cabin.
'Gentlemen! gentlemen!' cried he, 'turn out--breakers are ahead! Mac
Innon---Mac Pherson--Major, on deck--on deck, for heaven's sake; the
ship will strike in ten minutes!'
The appalling announcement brought every officer from his cabin in
such garments as he could grasp and don on the instant; and we
hurried to the poop. It was only by clinging to the rail and
stanchions that we could retain our footing on the lofty poop, over
which the white foam was sweeping. The waist seemed full of water;
the strong cordage bent or snapped, and streamed about like whipcord;
the foresail, main-topsail, and gib strained and flapped like
thunder, for the ship would not obey her helm; four men stood by the
wheel, and a chaos of darkness, water, foam, noise, and uproar, were
around me; and I had no distinct impression of anything, but that our
large ship, borne by the stormy wind and furious current, with all
her deck crowded by human beings, was drifting, at the rate of nine
knots an hour, towards a line of foam ahead, that marked where the
breakers curled on the beach. But what beach--whether it was the
classic shore of Roumelia, of Asia Minor, the Isle of Marmora, or the
rocks of Coudouri, we knew not, for the binnacle, with its compasses,
had been swept away by a wave which made a clean breach over the ship
about midnight, sweeping three men away, with the poor middy of the
watch.
The black sky was moonless and starless.
I looked upon Major Catanagh, who stood near me shivering, half clad
and clinging to a timber-head, his grey hair matted to his face by
the drifting spray. Old Duncan was brave as a lion; but he was a
husband--he was a father, and from the wild black tumult of the waves
that boiled around us--
'His eyes
Were with his heart, and that was far away,'
in a little cottage half buried among roses and woodbine, on the
western bank of Loch Lomond, where, at that hour so terrible to him,
his poor wife lay perhaps sleepless on her pillow, listening to the
wind that soughed round the craigs of Ross Dhu, and thinking of him,
with their little ones hushed in dreamless slumber around her. Poor
Duncan's softer soul was stirred within him. His face was pale; his
eyes were stern and sad; and if his spirit quailed in that awful
hour, it was not with fear, for he had faced death on many a field.
Those and those only who have been in such a place, where every wave
swept some brave soul into eternity, and where every gust of wind
bore the cry of despair and the knell of death, can tell what
Catanagh felt; and I read his thoughts rightly, for he turned to me
abruptly, and warmly pressing my hand, said,--
'Thank heaven, Allan, that you have none left behind you to love or
to regret--none to weep for you! no wife to leave to the starvation
of a widow's pension--no puir wee ones to cast upon a cold and
faithless world!'
I thought more of Laura than of this thankfulness; and as my heart
swelled with the bitter knowledge that my fate might never be
regretted, all fear and anxiety died away within it. I became
totally indifferent, and felt myself really the only unconcerned
spectator present.
Callum Dhu having sprung to my side, threw his strong arm round me,
as if to break the force of the waves which every instant flooded the
deck; several soldiers followed him, and came crowding on the poop,
for as death seemed before us, discipline and etiquette seemed alike
to be forgotten.
The rudder chains had given way, and the ship was driving alternately
broadside and stern on, towards the line of breakers, above which we
could discern the outline of a dark and rocky shore.
'She will strike in ten minutes!' cried one of the mates.
The men became excited, and tumultuous cries ascended from the waist.
'Clew up--cut away the masts--lower the boats!'
Then followed shouts, disputes and struggles for spars, booms, and
hen-coops.
'Silence fore and aft--silence!' cried old Crank, through his
trumpet; 'boatswain, pipe away the barge and cutter--be ready to
lower away the boats, man the pumps, and stand by to cut away the
masts the moment she strikes!'
'Be cool, Highlanders--be cool, and fall into your ranks, my lads!'
cried Major Catanagh, perceiving that the crowding of the soldiers
upon the deck impeded the movements of the seamen; 'fall in here
across the main-deck: bugler sound the assembly--sound, my boy.'
Long and loudly blew the little bugle-boy the familiar barrack-yard
call, and strangely and wildly, at that terrible moment, it rang upon
the roaring wind, which seemed to tear the very notes off at the
bugle mouth, and sweep them to leeward with the hissing foam.
'Fall in, my lads--fall in, and keep in order. If the boats can save
us, we shall be saved the more readily by being in order to leave the
ship. If she splits below us, then we shall die in our ranks like
British soldiers, and like our father's sons--hoping everything from
a gracious God and fearing nothing. Remember your discipline, my
lads, and keep up your hearts--mine has not sunk yet, though like
many among you, I have a dear wife and bairns at home in Scotland.
Close in, shoulder to shoulder, and remember the glorious example of
Seton and his Highlanders in the _Birkenhead_.'
A faint hurrah responded to this brief speech, and like a dark mass
in their soaked great coats, the poor fellows immediately formed in
their ranks, four deep across the deck in front of the poop, where
they stood in silence and in order awaiting either death or
deliverance with that calmness and fortitude for which no soldiers in
Europe can surpass our own braves.
I took my place on the left flank, and Callum Dhu was close beside
me, with a coil of rope in his hand, and a small hen-coop which he
had torn from a part of the ship, and which he defended from all by
his drawn bayonet; but not for his own use or safety. Amid all the
terrors of that awful night, Callum's whole anxiety was for me. The
crews of the boats stood by the davits and hoisting-tackles, ready to
lower away on the order being given, though there was little hope of
either cutter, dingy, or whale-boat living in such a sea. The well
was sounded; and now we began to hear the clank of the pumps, while a
group of men stood by the masts ready to cut away everything fore and
aft; but the carpenter and his mates were saved that trouble, for
just as the huge ship surged broadside on among the white breakers,
she gave two fearful lurches--there was a shock that made her vibrate
from her trucks to her keel, and snapping like a hazel twig, the
strong mainmast, though built of Meniel fir, and cramped with forty
iron rings, went by the board with a crash like thunder.
The main-topmast of course, and the fore and mizen-topmasts, with all
their debris of yards, ropes, blocks and chain-sheets, came
clattering down in ruin and confusion among us, killing two men and
wounding others. The shrouds snapped like threads, and then all this
wilderness of top-hamper was swept away to leeward, and dashed to
shreds upon the rocky shore.
Father Neptune and old Æolus had proved alike inimical to us, and
thus in a moment did our once-gallant old frigate become a hideous
and hopeless wreck, dismasted, defaced, and bulged upon a coast
unknown.
The night was as dark as if we were in the bowels of the earth; yet
from the whiteness of the foam that covered all the waves which
boiled over the ghastly reef, there came a species of reflected light
that revealed the horrors of our situation. The wind still blew
furiously in fierce and heavy gusts; drenching us with spray; yet
there stood our little band in their ranks, orderly and calm, as if
upon parade--brave, firm, and God-fearing men--expecting every
instant that the ship would go to pieces!
The fall of the masts and top-hamper greatly eased the _Vestal_, and
she gave no immediate indications of that general breaking up which
we had all so much reason to dread.
'Where are we--on what coast?' was the question we asked of each
other a hundred times.
'Daylight will show,' was the invariable answer, and watches were
impatiently consulted, and the horizon scanned for the first
indication of dawn. Some brandy was hoisted up from below; an
allowance per man was served round, and, as old Crank said, 'Never
was a raw nip more welcome.'
As the wind lulled on the approach of morning, the sea went down; the
spray ceased to deluge the deck, and we all sought our cabins to
procure such warm and dry clothing as might have escaped the
invasions made by the waves into our premises.
A faint streak that glittered along the far verge of the horizon,
marked the quarter of the sky where the sun would appear, and never
was its gleam more welcome, for now the storm had completely lulled,
and as the ship remained firmly bulged upon the rock, with her lower
hold half filled with water, we felt ourselves comparatively safe.
An order was given to lower away the boats; and having now fairly
escaped the horrors of the shipwreck, we began to look calmly about
us.
A flood of saffron light spread over the eastern quarter of the sky;
then, radiating like the points of a mighty star, the sun's rays shot
upward and played upon the dispersing clouds which turned to deep
crimson, and then the sea beneath them seemed to roll in alternate
waves of sapphires and rubies, till he rose in all his splendour, and
then one long and mighty blaze of dazzling light flashed steadily
from the horizon to the shore, filling with a sunny glory all the sea
of Marmora.
Now we could perceive the land distant about a mile; the shore was
green and fertile; to the eastward rose the towers of an old
fortified town, the domes and tall slender minarets of which were
glittering in the sun. A little lower down lay a promontory covered
with ruins. To the westward was a cape, under the lee of which were
a number of Levantine craft with long lateen-yards that tapered away
aloft, and their striped or brown shoulder-of-mutton sails, creeping
out from the creeks and inlets where they had found shelter during
the squall of the past night.
The carpenter reported, that without powerful assistance, there was
no possibility of getting the ship off, and as no British, French, or
Sardinian steamer was in sight, Crank stamped about the deck in a
high state of mental excitement and irritation, while fear of Greek
pirates and Natolian robbers, whose armed boats are ever on the prowl
in these seas, made Catanagh, at his suggestion, order our men to
accoutre and parade with their arms and ammunition on deck, where an
inspection was made, and our two hundred Highlanders were found to be
in complete fighting order.
'What say you now, Captain?' asked Catanagh; 'do you know the coast?'
'Only too well, Major--it is Roumelia, and we are in the gulf of
Salonica.'
'That town on the promontory--'
'Is Heraclea, with the ruins of some old devilish Greek place close
by.'
'Then we are on classic ground?'
'Damned deal too classic for my taste!' grumbled Crank; 'we are
ashore, sir, on the Palegrossa rocks.'
'Is there a Turkish garrison in Heraclea?'
'Undoubtedly, for there is a population of about seven
thousand--principally fishermen--and the town is fortified.'
'All right--let me get my men ashore, and we shall march in. The
officer commanding must find us quarters. I long to stretch my legs
on dry land again.'
Old Crank proved right; we were really wrecked upon those dangerous
rocks which lie about the two little isles of Venetica, in the Bay of
Salonica, about ninety miles from the mouth of the Dardanelles, and
fifty from Constantinople, by the coast road.
A careful inspection of the _Vestal_ proved that our carpenter's idea
of getting her safely off, under any circumstances, was quite
impracticable. She was firmly wedged and bulged between two masses
of rock, and was so seriously injured that even were steam power
procured sufficient to drag her into deep water, she would instantly
sink. Thus all hope of preserving the shattered hull of our old
donkey-frigate was abandoned; and as the sea was now calm, and she
might be some weeks of going to pieces, we prepared to hoist up the
battery guns, the ship's carronades, the stores, &c., and make other
arrangements for disembarking by the boats with all due order and
regularity.
Our men were paraded on deck, accoutred in heavy marching order, with
their knapsacks, wooden canteens, greatcoats, and haversacks. The
luggage, spare arm-chests, and squad-bags, were all brought up from
below, and everything in the form of stores, clothing, and articles
of value, were prepared for landing. Captain Crank, with Major
Catanagh and an interpreter, were pulled ashore in the pinnace, with
a well-armed crew, to make arrangements with the Turkish authorities
for our reception and transmission to Constantinople.
With considerable interest--if not with some anxiety--we watched them
and the pinnace disappear round a wooded promontory; and evening had
almost deepened on the land and sea before they returned with
intelligence that they had despatched tidings of our situation to the
officer commanding at Scutari, and had made arrangements with Mir
Alai Said, a Turkish colonel, who commanded in Heraclea, to afford us
quarters in the barrack of that town.
We passed that night in the wreck. She was firm and motionless as
the rocks on which she lay; but the occasional surging of the sea
against her shattered sides, and the gurgling of the water, as it
ebbed and flowed in the lower hold, together with the natural fear
that some portion of her might give way in the night, kept us all
anxious and wakeful; though Jack Belton was the life of our little
party, and favoured us with his usual ditty--
'To be sad about trifles is trifling and folly,
Since the chief end of life is to live and be jolly.'
Though, like myself, he had only his pay, Jack was the most heedless
of all heedless fellows. His father had been ruined, or nearly so,
by a plea which had been before the Scottish Lords of Council and
Session for the last fifty years; and which, in the hands of an able
advocate and sharp-practising agent, like our friend the
late-lamented Snaggs, bade fair to go on for another half century.
We idled away the chilly hours, muffled in our cloaks, regimental
plaids, and paletots or bernous, à la Bedouin, over cigars, wine, and
brandy-and-water, singing songs, telling stories, and practising the
Highland feat of sheathing and unsheathing the claymore with both
hands turned outwards, and playing other pranks, till again the
bright sun of Asia shone upon the sea of Marmora, and after tiffin of
biscuit, brandy, and junk, we paraded, to disembark upon the old
historic shore of Roumelia.
I went off in the first boat with Mac Pherson (the captain of our
Light Company), Jack Belton, Callum Dhu, and about thirty privates.
We pulled away clear of the wreck into blue water, and then steered
towards the shore, where three Turkish officers, on horseback, were
waiting to receive us. After pulling for more than a mile through a
sea which shone like burnished gold, and the transparent waves of
which enabled us to perceive, at a vast depth below, the rank
luxuriance of its dark green weeds, spreading their broad and
tremulous leaves over a bed of snow-white sand, we reached the point
indicated by Captain Crank as our landing-place. It was a rough and
barren part of the coast, where the rocks were piled over each other
in confusion, with a coarse bulbous plant, like a crocus, which
spread its crooked leaves between the gaping interstices of the
stones. No bushes or trees were there; but there were vultures,
storks, and cranes, that hovered over the ruins of an old Roman wall,
and flapped their wings upon the prostrate columns of a Corinthian
temple, that lay half-merged among the waters of the encroaching sea.
As our boat grounded, the three Turkish officers--each of whom wore
the scarlet _fez_ (which is named from the city of Fez), with its
gold military button, the tight blue surtout, and crooked sabre,
which make up the invariable costume of all in the service of the
Sultan--brought their horses near, and as we sprang ashore, accorded
to us the usual military salute; and one--a lieutenant--in very
tolerable French, bade us welcome to the land of the Osmanli.
Mir Alai Said and the Mulazim (_i.e._, lieutenant) Ahmed were both
handsome men, with keen Asiatic features, and dark eyes that
glittered with somewhat of the cunning expression peculiar to all of
Oriental blood; but the third, of whom the reader will hear more in
future chapters, the Hadjee Hussein Ebn al Ajuz, was a Yuze Bashi, or
captain of artillery, and wore the blue uniform, gold epaulettes, and
laced belt and trousers of the corps of Bombardiers. He was a
punchy, shaggy-browed, solemn, stately, and sulky-looking old Turk,
with a heavy grizzled moustache; a skin of the hue of mahogany, and
an eye that seemed to be for ever watching you, and you only.
Besides, he spoke a little absurd broken English, which he picked up
at Acre, during the war against Mehemet Ali.
While our men were scrambling ashore from the boats, as each in
succession came in and grounded, we asked the Mir Alai what were the
news from the seat of war?
'We have fought a brave battle on the Ingour,' replied the colonel,
rather haughtily, as it is not the etiquette of the Turkish service
for juniors to question a senior. 'Omar Pasha, with 20,000 Osmanlis,
crossed the river in Mingrelia, in the face of a desperate fire of
cannon and musketry; and fighting, with the water up to their
armpits, stormed the position from 16,000 Russians, whom they forced
to retreat.'
'And the Czar, whom God confound, has left the Crimea,' added the fat
Captain Hussein Ebn al Ajuz; 'may the Prophet burn the Russian liars,
who eat blood and swine's-flesh, and take usury! May he transform
their young men into apes, and their old ones into swine, as he did
those who, of old, offered incense to idols!'
'Amaum! Amaum!' muttered the other two, under their thick moustaches.
Mac Pherson, who had served long in India, retained his gravity; but
Belton, on catching a twinkle of my eye, laughed aloud at these
quaint expressions of hatred, which were uttered in a strong jargon
of Turkish and queer French.
'And Kars--does it still hold out?'
'Mashallah! have you not heard?' they exclaimed.
'No--we have been at sea.'
'Kars is valueless as the cleft of a date-stone!' said the Mir Alai.
'Then it has fallen!' we exclaimed together.
'It capitulated through famine to that dog and son of a dog,
Mouravieff. The garrison of the brave Ingleez Pasha marched out with
the honours of war, and delivered themselves up to the Russians as
prisoners; thus 8,000 true Believers are detained; but a number of
militia-men have been liberated by Mouravieff, who found in the city
one hundred and thirty pieces of cannon.'
'And Sebastopol?'
'Still holds out manfully and desperately,' said the Mir Alai; 'but
what do I see?--women coming ashore--and, oh, Mohammed! without the
vestige of a yashmack to cover their faces.'
'Your soldiers,' said the Yuze Bashi, 'are kilted like Arnaouts, and
all giant in stature as Og the son of Anak. Your Mir Alai says he
has two hundred of them--how many wives have they?'
'Four,' said I.
'Four!' reiterated the Mir Alai; 'O, Mohammed! what do we hear?'
'Our government permitted only two women per company in the
transport.'
'Four wives for two hundred men!' exclaimed the punchy old Yuze Bashi
of the Bombardiers, turning up his round black eyes in wonderment,
and gathering the most peculiar ideas from my words; 'one wife for
fifty men! It is enough to make every hair in the beards of the
seventy imaums stand on end with astonishment!'
'Hush,' whispered the Mir Alai, in a tone of rebuke; 'beware what you
say, Hussein; they have come to fight with us against the Muscovites,
and may the Prophet--he who knoweth all things--shed a ray of light
upon the darkness of their souls!'
'Amaum!' mumbled the lieutenant, who, as in duty bound, applauded all
that the Mir Alai said; 'but oh, Allah! only _two_ wives per company!'