AN OPEN BOAT AT SEA.
Flora's spirits rose in proportion to the novelty and danger of her
situation. All useless regrets and repinings were banished from her
breast the moment she embarked upon that stormy ocean. The parting,
which, when far off, had weighed so heavily on her heart, was over; the
present was full of excitement and interest; the time for action had
arrived; and the consciousness that they were actually on their way to a
distant clime, braced her mind to bear with becoming fortitude this
great epoch of her life.
The gale lulled for a few minutes, and Flora looked up to the leaden
sky, in the hope of catching one bright gleam from the sun. He seemed to
have abdicated his throne that day, and refused to cast even a glimpse
upon the dark, storm-tossed waters, or cheer with his presence the
departure of the emigrants.
The gentlemen made an effort to be lively. The conversation turned on
the conduct of women under trying circumstances--the courage and
constancy they had shown in situations of great peril--animating the
men to fresh exertions by their patient endurance of suffering and
privation. Mr. Hawke said, "That all travellers had agreed in their
observations upon the conduct of females to strangers; and that, when
travelling, they had never had occasion to complain of the women."
At this speech, Lyndsay, who began to feel all the horrible nausea of
sea-sickness, raised his head from between his hands, and replied with a
smile, "That it was the very reverse with women, for, when they
travelled, they had most reason to complain of the men."
The effects of the stormy weather soon became very apparent among the
passengers in the pilot-boat--sickness laid its leaden grasp upon all
the fresh-water sailors. Even Lyndsay, a hardy Islander, and used to
boats and boating all his life, yielded passively to the attacks of the
relentless fiend of the salt waters, with rigid features, and a face
pale as the faces of the dead. He sat with his head bowed between his
hands, as motionless as if he had suddenly been frozen into stone. Flora
often lifted the cape of the cloak which partially concealed his face,
to ascertain that he was still alive.
The anxiety she felt in endeavouring to protect her infant from the
pouring rain, perhaps acted as an antidote to this distressing malady,
for, though only just out of a sick bed, she did not feel the least
qualmish.
Hannah, the servant, lay stretched at the bottom of the boat, her head
supported by the ballast-bags, in a state too miserable to describe;
while James Hawke, the lad who was to accompany them in their long
voyage, had sunk into a state of happy unconsciousness, after having
vainly wished, for the hundredth time, that he was safe on shore,
scampering over the village green with his twelve brothers and sisters,
and not tempting the angry main in an open boat, with the windows of
heaven discharging waters enough upon his defenceless head to drown
him--without speaking of the big waves that every moment burst into the
boat, giving him a salt bath upon a gigantic scale.
After an hour's hard rowing, the _King William_ (for so their boat was
called), cast anchor in the roadstead, distant about eight miles from
the town, and lay to, waiting for the coming-up of the steamer.
Hours passed away,--the day wore slowly onward,--but still the vessel
they expected did not appear. The storm, which had lulled till noon,
increased in violence, until it blew "great guns," to use the sailors'
nautical phraseology; and signs of uneasiness began to be manifested by
the hardy crew of the pilot-boat.
"Some accident must have befallen the steamer," said Palmer, the captain
of the boat, to Craigie, a fine, handsome young seaman, as he handed him
the bucket to bale the water from their vessel. "I don't like this;
I'll be ---- if I do! If the wind increases, and remains in the present
quarter, a pretty kettle of fish it will make of us. We may be thankful
if we escape with our lives."
"Is there any danger?" demanded Flora eagerly, as she clasped her wet,
cold baby closer to her breast. The child had been crying piteously for
the last hour.
"Yes, Madam," he replied respectfully; "we have been in considerable
danger all day. The wind is increasing with the coming in of the tide;
and I see no prospect of its clearing up. As the night comes on, do ye
see, and if we do not fall in with the _Soho_, we shall have to haul up
the anchor, and run before the gale; and, with all my knowledge of the
coast, we may be driven ashore, and the boat swamped in the surf."
Flora sighed, and wished herself safe at home, in her dear, snug, little
parlour; the baby asleep in the cradle, and Lyndsay reading aloud to her
as she worked, or playing on his flute.
The rain again burst down in torrents,--the thunder roared over their
heads,--and the black, lurid sky, looked as if it contained a second
deluge. Flora shivered with cold and exhaustion, and bent more closely
over the child, to protect her as much as possible, by the exposure of
her own person, from the drenching rain and spray.
"Ah! this is sad work for women and children!" said the honest tar,
drawing a large tarpaulin over the mother and child. Blinded and
drenched by the pelting of the pitiless shower, Flora crouched down in
the bottom of the boat, in patient endurance of what might befal. The
wind blew piercingly cold; and the spray of the huge billows which burst
continually over them, enveloped the small craft in a feathery cloud,
effectually concealing from her weary passengers the black waste of
raging waters which roared around and beneath them.
The poor infant was starving with hunger, and all Flora's efforts to
keep it quiet proved unavailing. The gentlemen were as sick and helpless
as the baby, and nothing could well increase their wretchedness. They
had now been ten hours at sea; and, not expecting the least detention
from the non-arrival of the steamer, nothing in the way of refreshment
had formed any part of their luggage. Those who had escaped the horrors
of sea-sickness, of which Flora was one, were suffering from thirst,
while the keen air had sharpened their appetites to a ravenous degree.
In spite of their forlorn situation, Flora could not help being amused
by the gay, careless manner, in which the crew of the boat contended
with these difficulties.
"Well, I'll be blowed if I arn't hungry!" cried Craigie, as he stood up
in the boat, with his arms folded, and his nor'wester pulled over his
eyes, to ward off the drenching rain. "Nothin' would come amiss to me
now, in the way of prog. I could digest a bit of the shark that
swallowed Jonah, or pick a rib of the old prophet himself, without
making a wry face."
"I wonder which would prove the tougher morsel of the two," said Mr.
Hawke, raising his languid head from the bench before him, and whose
love of fun overcame the deadly pangs of sea-sickness.
"A dish of good beefsteaks from the Crown Inn would be worth them both,
friend," said Adam Mansel, who, getting better of the sea-sickness, like
Craigie, began to feel the pangs of hunger.
"You may keep the dish, mister," returned Craigie, laughing; "give me
the grub."
"Ah, how bitter!" groaned James Hawke, raising himself up from the
furled sail which had formed his bed, and yielding to the terrible
nausea that oppressed him.
"Ay, ay, my lad," said an ancient mariner, on whose tanned face time and
exposure to sun and storm had traced a thousand hieroglyphics;
"nothing's sweet that's so contrary to natur'. Among the bitter things
of life, there's scarcely a worse than the one that now troubles you.
Sick at sea,--well on shore; so there's comfort for you!"
"Cold comfort," sighed the boy, as he again fell prostrate on the wet
sail. A huge billow broke over the side of the boat, and deluged him
with brine. He did not heed it, having again relapsed into his former
insensible state.
"The bucket aft," shouted Palmer. "It's wanted to bale the boat."
"The bucket's engaged," said Craigie, bowing with ludicrous politeness,
to poor Hannah, whose head he was supporting, "I must first attend to
the lady."
The patience of the handsome young Quaker, under existing difficulties,
was highly amusing. He bore the infliction of the prevailing malady with
such a benign air of resignation, that it was quite edifying. Wiping the
salt water from his face with a pocket-handkerchief of snowy whiteness,
he exclaimed, turning to Flora, who was sitting at his feet with Josey
in her arms, "Friend Flora, this sea-sickness is an evil emetic. It
tries a man's temper, and makes him guilty of the crime of wishing
himself at the bottom of the sea."
"If you could rap out a good round oath or two, Mister Quaker, without
choking yourself, it would do you a power of good," said Craigie.
"What's the use of a big man putting up with the like o' that, like a
weak gall--women were made to bear--man to resist."
"The Devil, and he will flee from them," said Adam.
"You smooth-faced, unshaved fellows, have him always at your elbow,"
said Craigie. "He teaches you long prayers--us big oaths. I wonder which
cargo is the best to take to heaven."
"Two blacks don't make a white, friend," said Adam, good-naturedly.
"Blasphemy, or hypocrisy either, is sufficient to sink the ship."
Night was now fast closing over the storm-tossed voyagers. The boat was
half full of water, which flowed over Flora's lap, and she began to feel
very apprehensive for the safety of her child. At this moment, a large
retriever dog which belonged to the captain of the boat, crept into her
lap; and she joyfully placed the baby upon his shaggy back, and the
warmth of the animal seemed greatly to revive the poor shivering Josey.
It was nearly dark when Palmer roused Lyndsay from his stupor, and
suggested the propriety of their return to ----. "You see, Sir," he
said, "I am quite willing to wait for the arrival of the _Soho_, but
something must have gone wrong with her, or she would have been down
before this. The crew of the boat have been now ten hours exposed to
the storm, without a morsel of food, and if the wind should change, we
should have to run in for the Port of Y----, twenty miles distant from
this. Under existing circumstances, I think it advisable to return."
"By all means," said Lyndsay. "This might have been done three hours
ago;" and the next minute, to Flora's inexpressible joy, the anchor
was hoisted, and the gallant boat once more careering over the mighty
billows.
Her face was once more turned towards that dear home, to which she
had bidden adieu in the morning; as she then imagined, for
ever--"England"--she cried, stretching her arms towards the dusky
shore. "Dear England! The winds and waves forbid our leaving you.
Welcome,--oh, welcome, once more."
As they neared the beach, the stormy clouds parted in rifted masses; and
the deep blue heavens, studded here and there with a pale star, gleamed
lovingly down upon them; the rain ceased its pitiless pelting, the very
elements seemed to smile upon their return.
The pilot boat had been reported during the day as lost, and the beach
was crowded with anxious men and women to hail its return. The wives and
children of her crew pressed forward to meet them with joyful
acclamations; and Flora's depressed spirits rose with the excitement of
the scene.
"Hold fast your baby, Mrs. Lyndsay, while the boat clears the surf,"
cried Palmer. "I'll warrant that you both get a fresh ducking."
As he spoke, the noble boat cut like an arrow through the line of
formidable breakers which thundered on the beach; the foam flew in
feathery volumes high above their heads, drenching them with a misty
shower; the keel grated upon the shingles, and a strong arm lifted
Flora once more upon her native land.
Benumbed and cramped with their long immersion in salt water, her limbs
had lost the power of motion, and Lyndsay and old Kitson carried her
between them up the steps which led from the beach to the top of the
cliffs, and deposited her safely on the sofa in the little parlour of
her deserted home.