GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 EDITED BY 
 JOSEPH LEWIS FRENCH 
 
 Editor "Great Ghost Stories," "Masterpieces of Mystery," "The Best 
 Psychic Stories," etc. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 BRENTANO'S 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
t,:i321, by 
 
 ANO'-S 
 
 rights reserved 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Spanish Bloodhounds and English Mastiffs .... 1 
 
 From "Westward Ho!" By CHARLES KINGSLEY 
 
 The Club-Hauling of the Diomede 26 
 
 From "Peter Simple." By CAPTAIN FREDERICK MARRYAT 
 
 The Cruise of the Torch 36 
 
 From "Tom Cringle's Log." By MICHAEL SCOTT 
 
 The Merchantman and the Pirate 75 
 
 From "Hard Cash." By CHARLES READE 
 The Mutiny of the Bounty 99 
 
 From "Chamber's Miscellany." ANONYMOUS 
 
 The Wreck of the Royal Caroline 129 
 
 From "The Red Rover." By JAMES FENNIMORE COOPER 
 
 The Capture of the Great White Whale 145 
 
 From "Moby Dick." By HERMAN MELVILLE 
 
 The Corvette Clay more 181 
 
 From "Ninety-three." By VICTOR HUGO 
 
 The Merchants' Cup 203 
 
 From "Broken Stowage." By DAVID W. BONE 
 
 A Storm and a Rescue 226 
 
 From "The Wreck of the Grosvenor." By W. CLARK RUSSELL 
 
 The Sailor's Wife 250 
 
 From "An Iceland Fisherman." By PIERRE LOTI 
 
 The Salving of the Yan-Shan 263 
 
 From "In Blue Waters." By H. DE VERB STACPOOLE 
 v 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Derelict Neptune 282 
 
 From "Spun Gold." By MORGAN ROBERTSON 
 The Terrible Solomons 306 
 
 From "South Sea Tales." By JACK LONDON 
 
 El Dorado 324 
 
 From "A Tarpaulin Muster." By JOHN MASEFIELD 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 THE theme of the sea is heroic epic. Since the first 
 stirrings of the imagination of man the sea has en- 
 thralled him ; and since the dawn of literature he 
 has chronicled his wanderings upon its vast bosom. 
 
 It is one of the curiosities of literature, a fact that old 
 Isaac Disraeli might have delighted to linger over, that 
 there have been no collectors of sea-tales ; that no man has 
 ever, as in the present instance, dwelt upon the topic with 
 the purpose of gathering some of the best work into a 
 single volume. And yet men have written of the sea 
 since 2500 B.C. when an unknown author set down on 
 papyrus his account of a struggle with a sea-serpent. This 
 account, now in the British Museum, is the first sea-story 
 on record. Our modern sea-stories begin properly with 
 the chronicles of the early navigators in many of which 
 there is an unconscious art that none of our modern 
 masters of fiction has greatly surpassed. For delightful 
 reading the lover of sea stories is referred to Best's account 
 of Frobisher's second voyage to Richard Chancellor's 
 chronicle of the same period to Hakluyt, an immortal 
 classic and to Purchas' "Pilgrimage." 
 
 But from the earliest growth of the art of fiction the 
 sea was frankly accepted as a stirring theme, comparatively 
 rarely handled because voyages were fewer then, and 
 the subject still largely unknown. To the general reader 
 it may seem a rather astounding fact that in "Robinson 
 Crusoe" we have the first classic of this period and in 
 "Colonel Jack" another classic of much the same type. 
 These two stories by the immortal Defoe may be accepted 
 as the foundation of the sea-tale in literary art. 
 
 vii 
 
viii FOREWORD 
 
 A century, however, was to elapse before the sea-tale 
 came into its own. It was not until a generation after 
 Defoe that Smollett, in "Roderick Random," again stirred 
 the theme into life. Fielding in his "Voyage to Lisbon" 
 had given some account of a personal experience, but in 
 the general category it must be set down as simply epi- 
 sodal. Foster's "Voyages," a translation from the German 
 published in England at the beginning of the third quarter 
 of the eighteenth century, a compendium of monumental 
 importance, continued the tradition of Hakluyt and 
 Purchas. By this time the sea-power of England had 
 become supreme, Britannia ruled the waves, and a 
 native sea-literature was the result. The sea-songs of 
 Thomas Dibdin and other writers were the first fruits of 
 this newly created literary nationalism. 
 
 Shortly after the beginning of the nineteenth century 
 the sea-writer established himself with Michael Scott in 
 "Tom Cringle's Log," a forgotten, but ever-fresh classic. 
 Then came Captain Marryat, who was to the sea what 
 Dickens and Thackeray were to land folk. America, too, 
 contributed to this literary movement. Even before 
 Marryat, our own Cooper had essayed the sea with a 
 masterly hand, while in " Moby Dick," as in his other 
 stories, Herman Melville glorified the theme. Conti- 
 nental writers like Victor Hugo and the Hungarian, 
 Maurus Jokai, who had little personal knowledge of the 
 subject, also set their hands to tales of marine adventure. 
 
 Such work as this has established a succession which 
 has been continuous and progressive ever since. The liter- 
 ature of the sea of the past half-century is voluminous, 
 varied and universally known, and whether in the form 
 of personal adventure, or in purely fictional shape, it has 
 grown to be an art cultivated with great care by the best 
 contemporary writers. 
 
 The noble band of singers of the sea, from the days of 
 
FOREWORD- : '-' : i i /'*> ix 
 
 the Elizabethans to the sublime Swinburne, belongs to 
 another volume. It is the sincere hope of the compiler 
 that the present collection offers undisputable evidence 
 that the prose tradition has been fully sustained and that 
 the reader will find in these pages living testimony to the 
 marvelous interest of the theme its virility and its 
 beauty. 
 
 JOSEPH LEWIS FRENCH. 
 
GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS AND ENGLISH 
 MASTIFFS 
 
 From "Westward Ho!" BY CHARLES KINGSLEY 
 
 WHEN the sun leaped up the next morning, and 
 the tropic light flashed suddenly into the tropic 
 day, Amyas was pacing the deck, with dishev- 
 eled hair and torn clothes, his eyes red with rage and 
 weeping, his heart full how can I describe it? Picture 
 it to yourselves, you who have ever lost a brother; and 
 you who have not, thank God that you know nothing of 
 his agony. Full of impossible projects, he strode and 
 staggered up and down, as the ship thrashed and close- 
 hauled through the rolling seas. He would go back and 
 burn the villa. He would take Guayra, and have the life 
 of every man in it in return for his brother's. " We can 
 do it, lads!" he shouted. " If Drake took Nombre de 
 Dios, we can take La Guayra." And every voice shouted, 
 " Yes." 
 
 ;< We will have it, Amyas, and have Frank too, yet," 
 cried Gary; but Amyas shook his head. He knew, and 
 knew not why he knew, that all the ports in New Spain 
 would never restore to him that one beloved face. 
 
 " Yes, he shall be well avenged. And look there ! 
 There is the first crop of our vengeance." And he point- 
 ed toward the shore, where between them and the now 
 distant peaks of the Silla, three sails appeared, not five 
 miles to windward. 
 
 1 There are the Spanish bloodhounds on our heels, the 
 
 i 
 
SEA.'STORIES 
 
 same ships which we saw yesterday off Guayra. Back, 
 lads, and welcome them, if they were a dozen." 
 
 There was a murmur of applause from all around; and 
 if any young heart sank for a moment at the prospect 
 of fighting three ships at once, it was awed into silence 
 by the cheer which rose from all the older men, and by 
 Salvation Yeo's stentorian voice. 
 
 " If there were a dozen, the Lord is with us, who has 
 said, * One of you shall chase a thousand.' Clear away, 
 lads, and see the glory of the Lord this day." 
 
 " Amen !" cried Cary; and the ship was kept still closer 
 to the wind. 
 
 Amyas had revived at the sight of battle. He no 
 longer felt his wounds or his great sorrow as he bustled 
 about the deck; and ere a quarter of an hour had passed, 
 his voice cried firmly and cheerfully as of old 
 
 "Now, my masters, let us serve God, and then to 
 breakfast, and after that clear for action." 
 
 Jack Brimblecombe read the daily prayers, and the 
 prayers before a fight at sea, and his honest voice trem- 
 bled, as, in the Prayer for all Conditions of Men (in spite 
 of Amyas's despair), he added, " and especially for our 
 dear brother Mr. Francis Leigh, perhaps captive among 
 the idolaters;" and so they rose. 
 
 " Now, then," said Amyas, " to breakfast. A French- 
 man fights best fasting, a Dutchman drunk, an English- 
 man full, and a Spaniard when the devil is in him, and 
 that's always." 
 
 " And good beef and the good cause are a match for 
 the devil," said Cary. " Come down, captain; you must 
 eat too." 
 
 Amyas shook his head, took the tiller from the steers- 
 man, and bade him go below and fill himself. Will Cary 
 went down, and returned in five minutes with a plate of 
 bread and beef, and a great jack of ale, coaxed them down 
 
BLOODHOUNDS AND MASTIFFS 
 
 Amyas's throat, as a nurse does with a child, and then 
 scuttled below again with tears hopping down his face. 
 
 Amyas stood still steering. His face was grown seven 
 years older in the last night. A terrible set calm was on 
 him. Woe to the man who came across him that day ! 
 
 " There are three of them, you see, my masters," said 
 he, as the crew came on deck again. " A big ship for- 
 ward, and two galleys astern of her. The big ship may 
 keep; she is a race ship, and if we can but recover the 
 wind of her, we will see whether our height is not a match 
 for her length. We must give her the slip, and take the 
 galleys first." 
 
 " I thank the Lord," said Yeo, " who has given so 
 wise a heart to so young a general; a very David and 
 Daniel, saving his presence, lads. Silas Staveley, smite 
 me that boy over the head, the young monkey; why is 
 he not down at the powder-room door?" 
 
 And Yeo went about his gunnery, as one who knew how 
 to do it, and had the most terrible mind to do it thorough- 
 ly, and the most terrible faith that it was God's work. 
 
 So all fell to; and though there was comparatively 
 little to be done, the ship having been kept as far as could 
 be in fighting order all night, yet there was " clearing of 
 decks, lacing of nettings, making of bulwarks, fitting of 
 waistcloths, arming of tops, tallowing of pikes, slinging 
 of yards, doubling of sheets and tacks." Amyas took 
 charge of the poop, Gary of the forecastle, and Yeo, as 
 gunner, of the main-deck, while Drew, as master, settled 
 himself in the waist; and all was ready, and more than 
 ready, before the great ship was within two miles of 
 them. 
 
 She is now within two musket-shots of the Rose, with 
 the golden flag of Spain floating at her poop; and her 
 trumpets are shouting defiance up the breeze, from a 
 dozen brazen throats, which two or three answer lustily 
 
4 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 from the Rose, from whose poop flies the flag of England, 
 and from her fore the arms of Leigh and Gary side by 
 side, and over them the ship and bridge of the good town 
 of Bideford. And then Amyas calls 
 
 11 Now, silence trumpets, waits, play up ! * Fortune 
 my foe! 7 and God and the Queen be with us!" 
 
 Whereon (laugh not, reader, for it was the fashion 
 of those musical, as well as valiant days) up rose that 
 noble old favorite of good Queen Bess, from cornet and 
 sackbut, fife and drum; while Parson Jack, who had taken 
 his stand with the musicians on the poop, worked away 
 lustily at his violin. 
 
 " Well played, Jack; thy elbow flies like a lamb's tail," 
 said Amyas, forcing a jest. 
 
 " It shall fly to a better fiddle-bow presently, sir, and 
 I have the luck " 
 
 "Steady, helm!" said Amyas. "What is he after 
 now?" 
 
 The Spaniard, who had been coming upon them right 
 down the wind under a press of sail, took in his light 
 canvas. 
 
 " He don't know what to make of our waiting for him 
 so bold," said the helmsman. 
 
 " He does though, and means to fight us," cried an- 
 other. " See, he is hauling up the foot of his mainsail: 
 but he wants to keep the wind of us." 
 
 " Let him try, then," quoth Amyas. " Keep her closer 
 still. Let no one fire till we are about. Man the star- 
 board guns; to starboard, and wait, all small arm men. 
 Pass the order down to the gunner, and bid all fire high, 
 and take the rigging." 
 
 Bang went one of the Spaniard's bow guns, and the 
 shot went wide. Then another and another, while the 
 men fidgeted about, looking at the priming of their 
 muskets, and loosened their arrows in the sheaf. 
 
BLOODHOUNDS AND MASTIFFS 5 
 
 " Lie down, men, and sing a psalm. When I want 
 you I'll call you. Closer still, if you can, helmsman, and 
 we will try a short ship against a long one. We can sail 
 two points nearer the wind than he." 
 
 As Amyas had calculated, the Spaniard would gladly 
 enough have stood across the Rose's bows, but knowing 
 the English readiness dare not for fear of being raked; 
 so her only plan, if she did not intend to shoot past her 
 foe down to leeward, was to put her head close to the 
 wind, and wait for her on the same tack. 
 
 Amyas laughed to himself. " Hold on yet awhile. 
 More ways of killing a cat than choking her with cream. 
 Drew, there, are your men ready?" 
 
 " Ay, ay, sir!" and on they went, closing fast with the 
 Spaniard, till within a pistol-shot. 
 
 " Ready about !" and about she went like an eel, and 
 ran upon the opposite tack right under the Spaniard's 
 stern. The Spaniard, astonished at the quickness of the 
 maneuver, hesitated a moment, and then tried to get 
 about also, as his only chance; but it was too late, and 
 while his lumbering length was still hanging in the wind's 
 eye, Amyas's bowsprit had all but scraped his quarter, 
 and the Rose passed slowly across his stern at ten yards' 
 distance. 
 
 " Now, then !" roared Amyas. " Fire, and with a 
 will! Have at her, archers: have at her, muskets all!" 
 and in an instant a storm of bar and chain-shot, round 
 and canister, swept the proud Don from stem to stern, 
 while through the white cloud of smoke the musket-balls, 
 and the still deadlier clothyard arrows, whistled and 
 rushed upon their venomous errand. Down went the 
 steersman, and every soul who manned the poop. Down 
 went the mizzen topmast, in went the stern-windows and 
 quarter-galleries; and as the smoke cleared away, the 
 golden flag of Spain, which the last moment flaunted 
 
6 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 above their heads, hung trailing in the water. The ship, 
 her tiller shot away, and her helmsman killed, staggered 
 helplessly a moment, and then fell up into the wind. 
 
 ' Well done, men of Devon!" shouted Amyas, as 
 cheers rent the welkin. 
 
 " She has struck," cried some, as the deafening hur- 
 rahs died away. 
 
 " Not a bit," said Amyras. " Hold on, helmsman, and 
 leave her to patch her tackle while we settle the galleys." 
 
 On they shot merrily, and long ere the armada could 
 get herself to rights again, were two good miles to wind- 
 ward, with the galleys sweeping down fast upon them. 
 
 And two venomous-looking craft they were, as they 
 shot through the short chopping sea upon some forty oars 
 apiece, stretching their long sword-fish snouts over the 
 water, as if snuffing for their prey. Behind this long 
 snout, a strong square forecastle was crammed with sol- 
 diers, and the muzzles of cannon grinned out through 
 port-holes, not only in the sides of the forecastle, but 
 forward in the line of the galley's course, thus enabling 
 her to keep up a continual fire on a ship right ahead. 
 
 The long low waist was packed full of the slaves, some 
 five or six to each oar, and down the center, between the 
 two banks, the English could see the slave-drivers walk- 
 ing up and down a long gangway, whip in hand. A raised 
 quarter-deck at the stern held more soldiers, the sunlight 
 flashing merrily upon their armor and their gun-barrels; 
 as they neared, the English could hear plainly the cracks 
 of the whips, and the yells as of wild beasts which an- 
 swered them ; the roll and rattle of the oars, and the loud 
 " Ha I" of the slaves which accompanied every stroke, 
 and the oaths and curses of the drivers; while a sickening 
 musky smell, as of a pack of kenneled hounds, came down 
 the wind from off those dens of misery. No wonder if 
 many a young heart shuddered as it faced, for the first 
 
BLOODHOUNDS AND MASTIFFS 7 
 
 time, the horrible reality of those floating hells, the cruel- 
 ties whereof had rung so often in English ears from the 
 stories of their own countrymen, who had passed them, 
 fought them, and now and then passed years of misery 
 on board of them. Who knew but what there might be 
 English among those sun-browned, half-naked masses of 
 panting wretches? 
 
 " Must we fire upon the slaves?" asked more than one, 
 as the thought crossed him. 
 
 Amyas sighed. 
 
 " Spare them all you can, in God's name : but if they 
 try to run us down, rake them we must, and God forgive 
 
 us." 
 
 The two galleys came on abreast of each other, some 
 forty yards apart. To out-maneuver their oars as he had 
 done the ship's sails, Amyas knew was impossible. To 
 run from them was to be caught between them and the 
 ship. 
 
 He made up his mind, as usual, to the desperate game. 
 
 " Lay her head up in the wind, helmsman, and we will 
 wait for them." 
 
 They were now within musket-shot, and opened fire 
 from their bow-guns; but, owing to the chopping sea, 
 their aim was wild. Amyas, as usual, withheld his fire. 
 
 The men stood at quarters with compressed lips, not 
 knowing what was to come next. Amyas, towering mo- 
 tionless on the quarter-deck, gave his orders calmly and 
 decisively. The men saw that he trusted himself, and 
 trusted him accordingly. 
 
 The Spaniards, seeing him wait for them, gave a shout 
 of joy was the Englishman mad? And the two gal- 
 leys converged rapidly, intending to strike him full, one 
 on each bow. 
 
 They were within forty yards another minute, and 
 the shock would come. The Englishman's helm went up, 
 
8 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 his yards creaked round, and gathering way, he plunged 
 upon the larboard galley. 
 
 " A dozen gold nobles to him who brings down the 
 steersman!" shouted Gary, who had his cue. 
 
 And a flight of arrows from the forecastle rattled upon 
 the galley's quarter-deck. 
 
 Hit or not hit, the steersman lost his nerve, and 
 shrank from the coming shock. The galley's helm went 
 up to port, and her beak slid all but harmless along 
 Amyas's bow; a long dull grind, and then loud crack on 
 crack, as the Rose sawed slowly through the bank of oars 
 from stem to stern, hurling the wretched slaves in heaps 
 upon each other ; and ere her mate on the other side could 
 swing round to strike him in his new position, Amyas's 
 whole broadside, great and small, had been poured into 
 her at pistol-shot, answered by a yell which rent their 
 ears and hearts. 
 
 "Spare the slaves! Fire at the soldiers!" cried 
 Amyas; but the work was too hot for much discrimina- 
 tion; for the larboard galley, crippled but not undaunted, 
 swung round across his stern, and hooked herself venom- 
 ously on to him. 
 
 It was a move more brave than wise ; for it prevented 
 the other galley from returning to the attack without ex- 
 posing herself a second time to the English broadside; 
 and a desperate attempt of the Spaniards to board at 
 once through the stern-ports and up the quarter was met 
 with such a demurrer of shot and steel that they found 
 themselves in three minutes again upon the galley's poop, 
 accompanied, to their intense disgust, by Amyas Leigh 
 and twenty English swords. 
 
 Five minutes' hard cutting, hand to hand, and the poop 
 was clear. The soldiers in the forecastle had been able 
 to give them no assistance, open as they lay to the arrows 
 and musketry from the Rose's lofty stern. Amyas rushed 
 
BLOODHOUNDS AND MASTIFFS 9 
 
 along the central gangway, shouting in Spanish, 
 "Freedom to the slaves! death to the masters!" clam- 
 bered into the forecastle, followed close by his swarm of 
 wasps, and set them so good an example how to use their 
 stings that in three minutes more there was not a Span- 
 iard on board who was not dead or dying. 
 
 " Let the slaves free !" shouted he. ' Throw us a 
 hammer down, men. Hark ! there's an English voice !" 
 
 There is indeed. From amid the wreck of broken oars 
 and writhing limbs, a voice is shrieking in broadest Devon 
 to the master, who is looking over the side. 
 
 " Oh, Robert Drew! Robert Drew! Come down, 
 and take me out of hell !" 
 
 " Who be you, in the name of the Lord?" 
 
 " Don't you mind William Prust, that Captain 
 Hawkins left behind in the Honduras, years and years 
 agone? There's nine of us aboard, if your shot hasn't 
 put 'em out of their misery. Come down, if you've a 
 Christian heart, come down!" 
 
 Utterly forgetful of all discipline, Drew leaps down 
 hammer in hand, and the two old comrades rush into each 
 other's arms, 
 
 Why make a long story of .what took but five min- 
 utes to do? The nine men (luckily none of them wound- 
 ed) are freed, and helped on board, to be hugged and 
 kissed by old comrades and young kinsmen; while the 
 remaining slaves, furnished with a couple of hammers, 
 are told to free themselves and help the English. The 
 wretches answer by a shout; and Amyas, once more safe 
 on board again, dashes after the other galley, which has 
 been hovering out of reach of his guns : but there is no 
 need to trouble himself about her; sickened with what 
 she has got, she is struggling right up wind, leaning over 
 to one side, and seemingly ready to sink. 
 
10 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 " Are there any English on board of her?" asks Amyas, 
 loth to lose the chance of freeing a countryman. 
 
 u Never a one, sir, thank God." 
 
 So they set to work to repair damages; while the lib- 
 erated slaves, having shifted some of the galley's oars, 
 pull away after their comrade; and that with such a will 
 that in ten minutes they have caught her up, and careless 
 of the Spaniard's fire, boarded her en masse, with yells 
 as of a thousand wolves. There will be fearful vengeance 
 taken on those tyrants, unless they play the man this 
 day. 
 
 And in the meanwhile half the crew are clothing, feed- 
 ing, questioning, caressing those nine poor fellows thus 
 snatched from living death ; and Yeo, hearing the news, 
 has rushed up on deck to welcome his old comrades, 
 and 
 
 "Is Michael Heard, my cousin, here among you?" 
 
 Yes, Michael Heard is there, white-headed rather 
 from misery than age; and the embracings and question- 
 ings begin afresh. 
 
 "Where is my wife, Salvation Yeo?" 
 
 "With the Lord." 
 
 "Amen !" says the old man, with a short shudder. "I 
 thought so much; and my two boys?" 
 
 "With the Lord." 
 
 The old man catches Yeo by the arm. 
 
 "How, then?" It is Yeo's turn to shudder now. 
 
 "Killed in Panama, fighting the Spaniards; sailing with 
 Mr. Oxeham; and 'twas I led 'em into it. May God and 
 you forgive me !" 
 
 "They couldn't die better, cousin Yeo." 
 
 The old man covers his face with his hands for a while. 
 
 "Well, I've been alone with the Lord these fifteen 
 years, so I must not whine at being alone awhile longer 
 'twon't be long." 
 
BLOODHOUNDS AND MASTIFFS 11 
 
 "Put this coat on your back, uncle," says some one. 
 
 u No; no coats for me. Naked came I into the world, 
 and naked I go out of it this day, if I have a chance. 
 You'm better go to your work, lads, or the big one will 
 have the wind of us yet." 
 
 "So she will," said Amyas, who had overheard; but so 
 great is the curiosity of all hands that he has some 
 trouble in getting the men to quarters again; indeed, they 
 only go on condition of parting among themselves with 
 them the newcomers, each to tell his sad and strange 
 story. How after Captain Hawkins, constrained by fam- 
 ine, had put them ashore, they wandered in misery till the 
 Spaniards took them; how, instead of hanging them (as 
 they at first intended), the Dons fed and clothed them, 
 and allotted them as servants to various gentlemen about 
 Mexico, where they throve, turned their hands (like true 
 sailors) to all manner of trades, and made much money; 
 so that all went well, until the fatal year 1574, when, 
 much against the minds of many of the Spaniards them- 
 selves, that cruel and bloody Inquisition was established 
 for the first time in the Indies; and how from that mo- 
 ment their lives were one long tragedy; how they were all 
 imprisoned for a year and a half, racked again and again, 
 and at last adjudged to receive publicly, on Good Friday, 
 1575, some three hundred, some one hundred stripes, and 
 to serve in the galleys for six or ten years each; while as 
 the crowning atrocity of the Moloch sacrifice, three of 
 them were burnt alive in the market-place of Mexico. 
 
 The history of the party was not likely to improve the 
 good feeling of the crew towards the Spanish ship which 
 was two miles to leeward of them, and which must be 
 fought with, or fled from, before a quarter of an hour 
 was past. So, kneeling down upon the deck, as many a 
 brave crew in those days did in like case, they "gave God 
 thanks devoutly for the favor they had found," and then 
 
12 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 with one accord, at Jack's leading, sang one and all the 
 ninety-fourth Psalm : 
 
 "Oh, Lord, thou dost revenge all wrong; 
 Vengeance belongs to thee," etc. 
 
 And then again to quarters; for half the day's work, or 
 more than half, still remained to be done; and hardly 
 were the decks cleared afresh, and the damage repaired 
 as best it could be, when she came ranging up to leeward, 
 as closehauled as she could. 
 
 She was, as I said, a long flushed-decked ship of full 
 five hundred tons, more than double the size, in fact, of he 
 Rose, though not so lofty in proportion; and many a bold 
 heart beat loud, and no shame to them, as she began firing 
 away merrily, determined, as all well knew, to wipe out 
 in English blood the disgrace of her late foil. 
 
 "Never mind, my merry masters," said Amyas, "she 
 has quantity and we quality." 
 
 "That's true," said one, "for one honest man is worth 
 two rogues." 
 
 "And one culverin three of their footy little ordnance," 
 said another. "So when you will, captain, and have at 
 her." 
 
 "Let her come abreast of us, and don't burn powder. 
 We have the wind, and can do what we like with her. 
 Serve the men out a horn of ale all round, steward, and all 
 take your time." 
 
 So they waited five minutes more, and then set to work 
 quietly, after the fashion of English mastiffs, though, like 
 those mastiffs, they waxed right mad before three rounds 
 were fired, and the white splinters (sight beloved) be- 
 gan to crackle and fly. 
 
 Amyas, having, as he had said, the wind, and being 
 able to go nearer it than the Spaniard, kept his place at 
 
BLOODHOUNDS AND MASTIFFS 13 
 
 easy point-blank range for his two-eighteen-pounder cul- 
 verins, which Yeo and his mate worked with terrible ef- 
 fect. 
 
 "We are lacking her through and through every shot," 
 said he. "Leave the small ordnance alone yet awhile, and 
 we shall sink her without them." 
 
 "Whing, whing," went the Spaniard's shot, like so 
 many humming-tops, through the rigging far above their 
 heads; for the ill-constructed ports of those days pre- 
 vented the guns from hulling an enemy who was to wind- 
 ward, unless close alongside. 
 
 "Blow, jolly breeze," cried one, "and lay the Don over 
 all thou canst. What the murrain is gone, aloft there?" 
 
 Alas! a crack, a flap, a rattle; and blank dismay! An 
 unlucky shot had cut the foremast (already wounded) in 
 two, and all forward was a mass of dangling wreck. 
 
 "Forward, and cut away the wreck!" said Amyas, un- 
 moved. "Small arm men, be ready. He will be aboard 
 of us in five minutes !" 
 
 It was true. The Rose, unmanageable from the loss of 
 her head-sail, lay at the mercy of the Spaniard; and the 
 archers and musqueteers had hardly time to range them- 
 selves to leeward, when the Madre Dolorosa's chains 
 were grinding against the Rose's, and grapples tossed on 
 board from stem to stern. 
 
 "Don't cut them loose!" roared Amyas. "Let them 
 stay and see the fun ! Now, dogs of Devon, show your 
 teeth, and hurrah for God and the Queen!" 
 
 And then began a fight most fierce and fell : the Span- 
 iards, according to their fashion, attempted to board : the 
 English, amid fierce shouts of "God and the Queen!" 
 "God and St. George for England !" sweeping them back 
 by showers of arrows and musquet balls, thrusting them 
 down with pikes, hurling grenades and stink-pots from 
 the tops; while the swivels on both sides poured their 
 
14 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 grape, and bar, and chain, and the great main-deck guns, 
 thundering muzzle to muzzle, made both ships quiver 
 and recoil, as they smashed the round shot through and 
 through each other. 
 
 So they roared and flashed, fast clenched to each other 
 in that devil's wedlock, under a cloud of smoke beneath 
 the cloudless tropic sky; while all around, the dolphins 
 gamboled, and the flying-fish shot on from swell to swell, 
 and the rainbow-hued jellies opened and shut their cups 
 of living crystal to the sun. 
 
 So it raged for an hour or more, till all arms were 
 weary, and all tongues clove to the mouth. And sick 
 men, rotting with scurvy, scrambled up on deck, and 
 fought with the strength of madness: and tiny powder- 
 boys, handing up cartridges from the hold, laughed and 
 cheered as the shots ran past their ears; and old Salvation 
 Yeo, a text upon his lips, and a fury in his heart as of 
 Joshua or Elijah in old time, worked on, calm and grim, 
 but with the energy of a boy at play. And now and 
 then an opening in the smoke showed the Spanish cap- 
 tain, in his suit of black steel armor, standing cool and 
 proud, guiding and pointing, careless of the iron hail, 
 but too lofty a gentleman to soil his glove with aught 
 but a knightly sword-hilt : while Amyas and Will, after 
 the fashion of the English gentlemen, had stripped them- 
 selves nearly as bare as their own sailors, and were cheer- 
 ing, thrusting, hewing, and hauling, here, there, and 
 everywhere, like any common mariner, and filling them 
 with a spirit of self-respect, fellow-feeling, and personal 
 daring, which the discipline of the Spaniards, more per- 
 fect mechanically, but cold and tyrannous, and crushing 
 spiritually, never could bestow. The black-plumed Serior 
 was obeyed; but the golden-locked Amyas was followed, 
 and would have been followed through the jaws of hell. 
 
 The Spaniards, ere five minutes had passed, poured 
 
BLOODHOUNDS AND MASTIFFS 15 
 
 en masse into the Rose's waist: but only to their de- 
 struction. Between the poop and forecastle (as was 
 then the fashion) the upper-deck beams were left open 
 and unplanked, with the exception of a narrow gangway 
 on either side; and off that fatal ledge the boarders, 
 thrust on by those behind, fell headlong between the 
 beams to the main-deck below, to be slaughtered helpless 
 in that pit of destruction, by the double fire from the 
 bulkheads fore and aft; while the few who kept their 
 footing on the gangway, after vain attempts to force the 
 stockades on poop and forecastle, leaped overboard again 
 amid a shower of shot and arrows. The fire of the 
 English was as steady as it was quick. 
 
 Thrice the Spaniards clambered on board, and thrice 
 surged back before that deadly hail. The decks on both 
 sides were very shambles; and Jack Brimblecombe, who 
 had fought as long as his conscience would allow him, 
 found, when he turned to a more clerical occupation, 
 enough to do in carrying poor wretches to the surgeon, 
 without giving that spiritual consolation which he longed 
 to give, and they to receive. At last there was a lull in 
 that wild storm. No shot was heard from the Spaniard's 
 upper-deck. 
 
 Amyas leaped into the mizzen rigging and looked 
 through the smoke. Dead men he could descry through 
 the blinding veil, rolled in heaps, laid flat; dead men and 
 dying; but no man upon his feet. The last volley had 
 swept the deck clear; one by one had dropped below to 
 escape that fiery shower : and alone at the helm, grinding 
 his teeth with rage, his mustachios curling up to his 
 very eyes, stood the Spanish captain. 
 
 Now was the moment for a counter stroke. Amyas 
 shouted for the boarders, and in two minutes more he 
 was over the side, and clutching at the Spaniard's mizzen 
 rigging. 
 
16 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 What was this? The distance between him and the 
 enemy's side was widening. Was she sheering off? Yes 
 and rising, too, growing bodily higher every moment, 
 as if by magic. Amyas looked up in astonishment and 
 saw what it was. The Spaniard was heeling fast over 
 to leeward away from him. Her masts were all sloping 
 forward, swifter and swifter the end was come, then ! 
 
 "Back! in God's name back, men! She is sinking by 
 the head !" And with much ado some were dragged back, 
 some leaped back all but old Michael Heard. 
 
 With hair and beard floating in the wind, the bronzed 
 naked figure, like some weird old Indian fakir, still 
 climbed on steadfastly up the mizzen-chains of the Span- 
 iard, hatchet in hand. 
 
 "Come back, Michael ! Leap while you may !" shouted 
 a dozen voices. Michael turned 
 
 "And what should I come back for, then, to go home 
 where no one knoweth me? I'll die like an Englishman 
 this day, or I'll know the reason why!" and turning, he 
 sprang in over the bulwarks, as the huge ship rolled up 
 more and more, like a dying whale, exposing all her 
 long black hulk almost down to the keel, and one of her 
 lower-deck guns as if in defiance exploded upright into 
 the air, hurling the ball to the very heavens. 
 
 In an instant it was answered from the Rose by a 
 column of smoke, and the eighteen-pound ball crashed 
 through the bottom of the defenseless Spaniard. 
 
 "Who fired! Shame to fire on a sinking ship!" 
 
 "Gunner Yeo, sir," shouted a voice from the main- 
 deck. "He's like a madman down here." 
 
 "Tell him if he fires again, I'll put him in irons, if he 
 were my own brother. Cut away the grapples aloft, men. 
 Don't you see how she drags us over? Cut away, or we 
 shall sink with her." 
 
 They cut away, and the Rose, released from the strain, 
 
BLOODHOUNDS AND MASTIFFS 17 
 
 shook her feathers on the wave-crest like a freed sea- 
 gull, while all men held their breaths. 
 
 Suddenly the glorious creature righted herself, and 
 rose again, as if in noble shame, for one last struggle 
 with her doom. Her bows were deep in the water, but 
 her after-deck still dry. Righted : but only for a moment, 
 long enough to let her crew come pouring wildly up on 
 deck, with cries and prayers, and rush aft to the poop, 
 where, under the flag of Spain, stood the tall captain, his 
 left hand on the standard-staff, his sword pointed in his 
 right. 
 
 "Back men !" they heard him cry, "and die like valiant 
 
 mariners." 
 
 Some of them ran to the bulwarks, and shouted 
 "Mercy! We surrender!" and the English broke into 
 a cheer and called to them to run her alongside. 
 
 "Silence !" shouted Amyas. "I take no surrender from 
 mutineers. Sefior," cried he to the captain, springing 
 into the rigging and taking off his hat, "for the love of 
 God and these men, strike! and surrender a buena 
 guerra" 
 
 The Spaniard lifted his hat and bowed courteously, 
 and answered. "Impossible, Senor. No guerra is good 
 which stains my honor." 
 
 "God have mercy on you, then !" 
 
 "Amen!" said the Spaniard, crossing himself. 
 
 She gave one awful lunge forward, and dived under 
 the coming swell, hurling her crew into the eddies. 
 Nothing but the point of her poop remained, and there 
 stood the stern and steadfast Don, cap-a-pie in his glis- 
 tening black armor, immovable as a man of iron, while 
 over him the flag, which claimed the empire of both 
 worlds, flaunted its gold aloft and upwards in the glare 
 of the tropic noon. 
 
 "He shall not carry that flag to the devil with him; 
 
18 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 I will have it yet, if I die for it!" said Will Gary, and 
 rushed to the side to leap overboard, but Amyas stopped 
 him. 
 
 "Let him die as he lived, with honor." 
 
 A wild figure sprang out of the mass of sailors who 
 struggled and shrieked amid the foam, and rushed up- 
 ward at the Spaniard. It was Michael Heard. The 
 Don, who stood above him, plunged his sword into the 
 old man's body: but the hatchet gleamed, nevertheless: 
 down went the blade through the headpiece and through 
 head; and as Heard sprang onward, bleeding, but alive, 
 the steel-clad corpse rattled down the deck into the surge. 
 Two more strokes, struck with the fury of a dying man, 
 and the standard-staff was hewn through. Old Michael 
 collected all his strength, hurled the flag far from the 
 sinking ship, and then stood erect one moment and 
 shouted, u God save Queen Bess!" and the English an- 
 swered with a "Hurrah !" which rent the welkin. 
 
 Another moment and the gulf had swallowed his vic- 
 tim, and the poop, and him; and nothing remained of 
 the Madre Dolorosa but a few floating spars and strug- 
 gling wretches, while a great awe fell upon all men, and 
 a solemn silence, broken only by the cry 
 
 "Of some strong swimmer in his agony." 
 
 And then, suddenly collecting themselves, as men 
 awakened from a dream, half-a-dozen desperate gal- 
 lants, reckless of sharks and eddies, leaped overboard, 
 swam towards the flag, and towed it alongside in 
 triumph. 
 
 "Ah !" said Salvation Yeo, as he helped the trophy up 
 over the side; "ah! it was not for nothing that we found 
 poor Michael ! He was always a good comrade. And 
 now, then, my masters, shall we inshore again and burn 
 La Guayra?" 
 
BLOODHOUNDS AND MASTIFFS 19 
 
 "Art thou never glutted with Spanish blood, thou old 
 wolf?" asked Will Gary. 
 
 "Never, sir," answered Yeo. 
 
 "To St. Jago be it," said Amyas, "if we can get 
 there: but God help us!" 
 
 And he looked round sadly enough; while no one 
 needed that he should finish his sentence, or explain his 
 "but." 
 
 The /fore-mast was gone, the main-yard sprung, the 
 rigging hanging in elf-locks, the hull shot through and 
 through in twenty places, the deck strewn with the bodies 
 of nine good men, besides sixteen wounded down below; 
 while the pitiless sun, right above their heads, poured 
 down a flood of fire upon a sea of glass. 
 
 And it would have been well if f aintness and weariness 
 had been all that was the matter ; but now that the excite- 
 ment was over, the collapse came ; and the men sat down 
 listlessly and sulkily by twos and threes upon the deck, 
 starting and wincing when they heard some poor fellow 
 below cry out under the surgeon's knife; or murmuring 
 to each other that all was lost. Drew tried in vain to 
 rouse them, telling them that all depended on rigging a 
 jury-mast forward as soon as possible. They answered 
 only by growls; and at last broke into open reproaches. 
 Even Will Gary's volatile nature, which had kept him 
 up during the fight gave way, when Yeo and the carpenter 
 came aft, and told Amyas in a low voice 
 
 "We are hit somewhere forward, below the water- 
 line, sir. She leaks a terrible deal, and the Lord will not 
 vouchsafe to us to lay our hands on the place, for all our 
 searching." 
 
 "What are we to do now, Amyas, in the devil's name ?" 
 asked Gary, peevishly. 
 
 "What are we to do, in God's name, rather," answered 
 Amyas in a low voice. "Will, Will, what did God make 
 
20 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 you a gentleman for, but to know better than those poor 
 fickle fellows forward, who blow hot and cold at every 
 change of weather !" 
 
 "I wish you'd come forward and speak to them, sir," 
 said Yeo, who had overheard the last words, "or we 
 shall get nought done." 
 
 Amyas went forward instantly. 
 
 "Now then, my brave lads, what's the matter here, 
 that you are all sitting on your tails like monkeys?" 
 
 "Ugh !" grunts one. "Don't you think our day's work 
 has been long enough yet, captain?" 
 
 "You don't want us to go in to La Guayra again, sir? 
 There are enough of us thrown away already, I reckon, 
 about that wench there." 
 
 "Best sit here, and sink quietly. There's no getting 
 home again, that's plain." 
 
 "Why were we brought out here to be killed." 
 
 "For shame, men!" cries Yeo, "murmuring the very 
 minute after the Lord has delivered you from the Egyp- 
 
 tians." 
 
 Now I do not wish to set Amyas up as better, thank 
 God, than many and many a brave and virtuous captain 
 in her Majesty's service at this very day: but certainly 
 he behaved admirably under that trial. Drake had 
 trained him, as he trained many another excellent officer, 
 to be as stout in discipline and as dogged of purpose, 
 as he himself was: but he had trained him also to feel 
 with and for his men, to make allowances for them, and 
 to keep his temper with them, as he did this day. Amyas's 
 conscience smote him (and his simple and pious soul took 
 the loss of his brother as God's verdict on his conduct), 
 because he had set his own private affection, even his own 
 private revenge, before the safety of his ship's company 
 and the good of his country. 
 
 "Ah," said he to himself, as he listened to his men's 
 
BLOODHOUNDS AND MASTIFFS 21 
 
 reproaches, "if I had been thinking, like a loyal soldier, 
 of serving my queen, and crippling the Spaniard, I should 
 have taken that great bark three days ago, and in it the 
 very man I sought!" 
 
 So "choking down his old man," as Yeo used to say, 
 he made answer cheerfully 
 
 "Pooh! pooh! brave lads! For shame, for shame! 
 You were lions half-an-hour ago ; you are not surely turned 
 sheep already! Why, but yesterday evening you were 
 grumbling because I would not run in and fight those 
 three ships under the batteries of La Guayra, and now 
 you think it too much to have fought them fairly out 
 at sea? Nothing venture, nothing win; and nobody goes 
 birdnesting without a fall at times. If any one wants to 
 be safe in this life, he'd best stay at home and keep his 
 bed; though even there who knows but the roof might 
 fall through on him?" 
 
 "Ah, it's all very well for you, captain," said some 
 grumbling younker, with a vague notion that Amyas 
 must be better off than he because he was a gentleman. 
 Amyas's blood rose. 
 
 "Yes, sirrah! Do you fancy that I have nothing to 
 lose? I who have adventured in this voyage all I am 
 worth, and more ; who, if I fail, must return to beggary 
 and scorn? And if I have ventured rashly, sinfully, if 
 you will, the lives of any of you in my own private quar- 
 rel, am I not punished? Have I not lost ?" 
 
 His voice trembled and stopped there, but he recovered 
 himself in a moment. 
 
 "Pish ! I can't stand here chattering. Carpenter ! an 
 ax! and help me to cast these spars loose. Get out of my 
 way, there ! lumbering the scuppers up like so many moult- 
 ing fowls ! Here, all old friends, lend a hand ! Pelican's 
 men, stand by your captain ! Did we sail round the world 
 for nothing?" 
 
22 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 This last appeal struck home, and up leaped half-a- 
 dozen of the old Pelicans, and set to work at his side 
 manfully to rig the jury-mast. 
 
 "Come along I" cried Gary to the malcontents; "we're 
 raw longshore fellows, but we won't be outdone by any 
 old sea-dog of them all." And setting to work himself, 
 he was soon followed by one and another, till order and 
 work went on well enough. 
 
 "And where are we going, when the mast's up?" 
 shouted some saucy hand from behind. 
 
 "Where you daren't follow us alone by yourself, so 
 you had better keep us company," replied Yeo. 
 
 "I'll tell you where we are going, lads," said Amyas, 
 rising from his work. "Like it or leave it as you will, I 
 have no secrets from my crew. We are going inshore 
 there to find a harbor, and careen the ship." 
 
 There was a start and a murmur. 
 
 "Inshore! Into the Spaniards' mouths?" 
 
 "All in the Inquisition in a week's time." 
 
 "Better stay here, and be drowned." 
 
 "You're right in that last," shouts Gary. "That's the 
 right death for blind puppies. Look you ! I don't know 
 in the least where we are, and I hardly know stem from 
 stern aboard ship; and the captain may be right or 
 wrong that's nothing to me; but this I know, that I am 
 a soldier, and will obey orders; and where he goes, I go; 
 and whosoever hinders me must walk up my sword to 
 do it." 
 
 Amyas pressed Gary's hand, and then 
 
 "And here's my broadside next, men. I'll go nowhere, 
 and do nothing without the advice of Salvation Yeo and 
 Robert Drew; and if any man in the ship knows better 
 than these two, let him up, and we'll give him a hearing. 
 Eh, Pelicans?" 
 
BLOODHOUNDS AND MASTIFFS 23 
 
 There was a grunt of approbation from the Pelicans; 
 and Amyas returned to the charge. 
 
 "We have five shots between wind and water, and one 
 somewhere below. Can we face a gale of wind in that 
 state, or can we not?" 
 
 Silence. 
 
 "Can we get home with a leak in our bottom?" 
 
 Silence. 
 
 "Come along now! Here's the wind again round with 
 the sun, and up to the northwest. In shore with her." 
 
 Sulkily enough, but unable to deny the necessity, the 
 men set to work, and the vessel's head was put toward 
 the land; but when she began to slip through the water, 
 the leak increased so fast that they were kept hard at 
 work at the pumps for the rest of the afternoon. 
 
 The current had by this time brought them abreast of 
 the bay of Higuerote. As they ran inward, all eyes were 
 strained greedily to find some opening in the mangrove 
 belt : but none was to be seen for some time. The lead 
 was kept going; and every fresh heave announced shal- 
 lower water. 
 
 "We shall have very shoal work of those mangroves, 
 Yeo," said Amyas; "I doubt whether we shall do aught 
 now, unless we find a river's mouth." 
 
 "If the Lord thinks a river good for us, sir, he'll show 
 us one." So on they w r ent, keeping a southeast course, 
 and at last an opening in the mangrove belt was hailed 
 with a cheer from the older hands, though the majority 
 shrugged their shoulders, as men going open-eyed { to 
 destruction. 
 
 Of the mouth they sent in Drew and Cary with a boat, 
 and watched anxiously for an hour. The boat returned 
 with a good report of two fathoms of water over the bar, 
 impenetrable forests for two miles up, the river sixty 
 
24 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 yards broad, and no sign of man. The river's banks were 
 soft and sloping mud, fit for careening. 
 
 "Safe quarters, sir," said Yeo, privately, u as far as 
 Spaniards go. I hope in God it may be as safe from 
 fevers." 
 
 "Beggars must not be choosers," said Amyas. So in 
 they went. 
 
 They towed the ship up about half-a-mile to a point 
 where she could not be seen from the seaward; and there 
 moored her to the mangrove-stems. Amyas ordered a 
 boat out, and went up the river himself to reconnoiter. 
 He rowed some three miles, till the river narrowed sud- 
 denly, and was all but covered in by the interlacing boughs 
 of mighty trees. There was no sign that man had been 
 there since the making of the world. 
 
 He dropped down the stream again, thoughtfully and 
 sadly. How many years ago was it that he had passed 
 this river's mouth? Three days. And yet how much 
 had passed in them ! Don Guzman found and lost 
 Rose found and lost a great victory gained, and yet 
 lost perhaps his ship lost above all, his brother lost. 
 
 Lost! O God, how should he find his brother? 
 
 Some strange bird out of the woods made mournful 
 answer "Never, never, never !" 
 
 How should he face his mother ? 
 
 "Never, never, never!" wailed the bird again; and 
 Amyas smiled bitterly, and said "Never!" likewise. 
 
 The night mist began to steam and wreath upon the 
 foul beer-colored stream. The loathy floor of liquid 
 mud lay bare beneath the mangrove forest. Upon the 
 endless web of interarching roots great purple crabs were 
 crawling up and down. They would have supped with 
 pleasure upon Amyas's corpse; perhaps they might sup 
 on him after all; for a heavy sickening graveyard smell 
 made his heart sink within him, and his stomach heave ; 
 
BLOODHOUNDS AND MASTIFFS 25 
 
 and his weary body, and more weary soul, gave them- 
 selves up helplessly to the depressing influence of that 
 doleful place. The black bank of dingy leathern leaves 
 above his head, the endless labyrinth of stems and withes 
 (for every bough had lowered its own living cord, to 
 take fresh hold of the foul soil below) ; the web of roots, 
 which stretched away inland till it was lost in the shades 
 of evening all seemed one horrid complicated trap for 
 him and his; and even where, here and there, he passed 
 the mouth of a lagoon, there was no opening, no relief 
 nothing but the dark ring of mangroves. Wailing sadly, 
 sad-colored mangrove-hens ran off across the mud into 
 the dreary dark. The hoarse night-raven, hid among 
 the roots, startled the voyagers with a sudden shout, and 
 then all was again silent as a grave. The loathy alligators 
 lounging in the slime lifted their horny eyelids lazily, and 
 leered upon him as he passed with stupid savageness. 
 Lines of tall herons stood dimly in the growing gloom, 
 like white fantastic ghosts, watching the passage of the 
 doomed boat. All was foul, sullen, weird as witches' 
 dream. If Amyas had seen a crew of skeletons glide 
 down the stream behind him, with Satan standing at the 
 helm, he would scarcely have been surprised. What 
 fitter craft could haunt that Stygian flood? 
 
THE CLUB-HAULING OF THE DIOMEDE 
 From "Peter Simple," BY CAPTAIN FREDERICK MARRYAT 
 
 WE continued our cruise along the coast, until we 
 had run down into the Bay of Arcason, 
 where we captured two or three vessels, and 
 obliged many more to run on shore. And here we had 
 an instance showing how very important it is that the cap- 
 tain of a man-of-war should be a good sailor, and have 
 his ship in such discipline as to be strictly obeyed by his 
 ship's company. I heard the officers unanimously assert, 
 after the danger was over, that nothing but the presence 
 of mind which was shown by Captain Savage could have 
 saved the ship and her crew. We had chased a convoy 
 of vessels to the bottom of the bay: the wind was very 
 fresh when we hauled off, after running them on shore; 
 and the surf on the beach even at that time was so great, 
 that they were certain to go to pieces before they could 
 be got afloat again. We were obliged to double-reef the 
 topsails as soon as we hauled to the wind, and the weather 
 looked very threatening. In an hour afterwards, the whole 
 sky was covered with one black cloud, which sank so low 
 as nearly to touch our mast-heads, and a tremendous sea, 
 which appeared to have risen up almost by magic, rolled 
 in upon us, setting the vessel on a dead lee shore. As the 
 night closed in, it blew a dreadful gale, and the ship was 
 nearly buried with the press of canvas which she was 
 obliged to carry: for had we sea-room, we should have 
 been lying-to under storm staysails; but we were forced 
 to carry on at all risks, that we might claw off shore. The 
 sea broke over us as we lay in the trough, deluging us with 
 water from the forecastle, aft, to the binnacles; and very 
 often as the ship descended with a plunge, it was with such 
 
 26 
 
CLUB-HAULING OF THE DIOMEDE 27 
 
 force that I really thought she would divide in half with 
 the violence of the shock. Double breechings were rove 
 on the guns, and they were further secured with tackles; 
 and strong cleats nailed behind the trunnions; for we 
 heeled over so much when we lurched, that the guns were 
 wholly supported by the breechings and tackles, and had 
 one of them broken loose it must have burst right through 
 the lee side of the ship, and she must have foundered. The 
 captain, first lieutenant, and most of the officers, remained 
 on deck during the whole of the night; and really, what 
 with the howling of the wind, the violence of the rain, the 
 washing of the water about the decks, the working of the 
 chain-pumps, and the creaking and groaning of the timbers, 
 I thought that we must inevitably have been lost; and I 
 said my prayers at least a dozen times during the night, 
 for I felt it impossible to go to bed. I had often wished, 
 out of curiosity, that I might be in a gale of wind; but I 
 little thought it was to have been a scene of this descrip- 
 tion, or anything half so dreadful. What made it more 
 appalling was, that we were on a lee shore, and the con- 
 sultations of the captain and officers, and the eager- 
 ness with which they looked out for daylight, told us that 
 we had other dangers to encounter besides the storm. 
 At last the morning broke, and the look-out man upon the 
 gangway called out, " Land on the lee beam!" I per- 
 ceived the master dash his feet against the hammock-rails, 
 as if with vexation, and walk away without saying a word, 
 looking very grave. 
 
 " Up there, Mr. Wilson," said the captain to the second 
 lieutenant, " and see how far the land trends forward, 
 and whether you can distinguish the point." The second 
 lieutenant went up the main-rigging, and pointed with his 
 hand to about two points before the beam. 
 " Do you see two hillocks, inland?" 
 " Yes, sir," replied the second lieutenant. 
 
28 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 " Then it is so," observed the captain to the master, 
 u and if we weather it we shall have more sea-room. 
 Keep her full, and let her go through the water; do you 
 hear, quartermaster?" 
 
 " Ay, ay, sir." 
 
 ' Thus, and no nearer, my man. Ease her with a spoke 
 or two when she sends; but be careful, or she'll take the 
 wheel out of your hands." 
 
 It really was a very awful sight. When the ship was 
 in the trough of the sea, you could distinguish nothing but 
 a waste of tumultuous water; but when she was borne 
 up on the summit of the enormous waves, you then looked 
 down, as it were, upon a low, sandy coast, close to you, 
 and covered with foam and breakers. " She behaves 
 nobly," observed the captain, stepping aft to the binnacle, 
 and looking at the compass; " if the wind does not baffle 
 us, we shall weather." The captain had scarcely time to 
 make the observation, when the sails shivered and flapped 
 like thunder. " Up with the helm; what are you about, 
 quartermaster? " 
 
 u The wind has headed us, sir," replied the quarter- 
 master, coolly. 
 
 The captain and master remained at the binnacle watch- 
 ing the compass; and when the sails were again full, she 
 had broken off two points, and the point of land was only 
 a little on the lee-bow. 
 
 " We must wear her round, Mr. Falcon. Hands, wear 
 ship ready, oh, ready." 
 
 " She has come up again," cried the master, who was 
 at the binnacle. 
 
 "Hold fast there a minute. How's her head now?" 
 
 " N.N.E., as she was before she broke off, sir." 
 
 " Pipe belay," said the captain. " Falcon," continued 
 he, " if she breaks off again we may have no room to wear; 
 indeed, there is so little room now, that I must run the 
 
CLUB-HAULING OF THE DIOMEDE 29 
 
 risk. Which cable was ranged last night the best 
 bower?" 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Jump down, then, and see it double-bitted and stop- 
 pered at thirty fathoms. See it well done our lives may 
 depend upon it." 
 
 The ship continued to hold her course good; and we 
 were within half a mile of the point, and fully expected 
 to weather it, when again the wet and heavy sails flapped 
 in the wind, and the ship broke off two points as before. 
 The officers and seamen were aghast, for the ship's head 
 was right on to the breakers. " Luff now, all you can, 
 quartermaster," cried the captain. " Send the men aft 
 directly. My lads, there is no time for words I am 
 going to club-haul the ship, for there is no room to wear. 
 The only chance you have of safety is to be cool, watch 
 my eye, and execute my orders with precision. Away to 
 your stations for tacking ship. Hands by the best bower 
 anchor. Mr. Wilson, attend below with the carpenter 
 and his mates, ready to cut away the cable at the moment 
 that I give the order. Silence there, fore and aft. Quar- 
 termaster, keep her full again for stays. Mind you ease 
 the helm down when I tell you." About a minute passed 
 before the captain gave any further orders. The ship 
 had closed-to within a quarter-mile of the beach, and the 
 waves curled and topped around us, bearing us down upon 
 the shore, which presented one continued surface of foam, 
 extending to within half a cable's length of our position. 
 The captain waved his hand in silence to the quartermaster 
 at the wheel, and the helm was put down. The ship 
 turned slowly to the wind, pitching and chopping as the 
 sails were spilling. When she had lost her way, the cap- 
 tain gave the order, " Let go the anchor. We will haul 
 all at once, Mr. Falcon," said the captain. Not a word 
 was spoken; the men went to the fore brace, which had 
 
30 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 not been manned; most of them knew, although I did not, 
 that if the ship's head did not go round the other way, 
 we should be on shore, and among the breakers, in half 
 a minute. I thought at the time that the captain had 
 said that he would haul all the yards at once, there ap- 
 peared to be doubt or dissent on the countenance of Mr. 
 Falcon; and I was afterwards told that he had not agreed 
 with the captain; but he was too good an officer, and knew 
 that there was no time for discussion, to make any remark: 
 and the event proved that the captain was right. At last 
 the ship was head to wind, and the captain gave the signal. 
 The yards flew round with such a creaking noise, that 
 I thought the masts had gone over the side, and the next 
 moment the wind had caught the sails ; and the ship, which 
 for a moment or two had been on an even keel, careened 
 over to her gunwale with its force. The captain, who 
 stood upon the weather hammock-rails, holding by the 
 main-rigging, ordered the helm a-midships, looked full 
 at the sails, and then at the cable, which grew broad upon 
 the weather-bow, and held the ship from nearing the 
 shore. At last he cried, " Cut away the cable ! " A few 
 strokes of the axes were heard, and then the cable flew 
 out of the hawse-hole in a blaze of fire, from the violence 
 of the friction, and disappeared under a huge wave, which 
 struck us on the chesstree, and deluged us with water fore 
 and aft. But we were now on the other tack, and the ship 
 regained her way, and we had evidently increased our dis- 
 tance from the land. 
 
 " My lads," said the captain to the ship's company, 
 " you have behaved well, and I thank you; but I must 
 tell you honestly that we have more difficulties to get 
 through. We have to weather a point of the bay on this 
 tack. Mr. Falcon, splice the main-brace, and call the 
 watch. How's her head, quartermaster? " 
 
 " S.W. by S. Southerly, sir." 
 
CLUB-HAULING OF THE DIOMEDE 31 
 
 "Very well; let her go through the water; " and the 
 captain, beckoning to the master to follow him, went down 
 into the cabin. As our immediate danger was over, I went 
 down into the berth to see if I could get anything for 
 breakfast, where I found O'Brien and two or three more. 
 
 " By the powers, it was as nate a thing as ever I saw 
 done," observed O'Brien: " the slightest mistake as to time 
 or management, and at this moment the flatfish would 
 have been dubbing at our ugly carcasses. Peter, you're 
 not fond of flatfish, are you, my boy? We may thank 
 Heaven and the captain, I can tell you that, my lads; but 
 now, where's the chart, Robinson? Hand me down the 
 parallel rules and compasses, Peter; they are in the corner 
 of the shelf. Here we are now, a devilish sight too near 
 this infernal point. Who knows how her head is? " 
 
 "I do, O'Brien: I heard the quartermaster tell the 
 captain S.W. by S. Southerly." 
 
 " Let me see," continued O'Brien, " variation 2 1 A - 
 leeway rather too large an allowance of that, I'm 
 afraid; but, however, we'll give her 2 % ' points; the 
 Diomede would blush to make any more, under any cir- 
 cumstances. Here the compass now, we'll see;" 
 and O'Brien advanced the parallel rule from the compass 
 to the spot where the ship was placed on the chart. 
 " Bother! you see, it's as much as she'll do to weather the 
 other point now, on this tack, and that's what the captain 
 meant when he told us we had more difficulty. I could 
 have taken my Bible oath that we were clear of every- 
 thing, if the wind held." 
 
 " See what the distance is, O'Brien," said Robinson. 
 It was measured, and proved to be thirteen miles. " Only 
 thirteen miles; and if we do weather, we shall do very 
 well, for the bay is deep beyond. It's a rocky point, you 
 see, just by way of variety. Well, my lads, Fve a piece 
 of comfort for you, anyhow. It's not long that you'll be 
 
32 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 kept in suspense, for by one o'clock this day you'll either 
 be congratulating each other upon your good luck, or 
 you'll be past praying for. Come, put up the chart, for I 
 hate to look at melancholy prospects; and, steward, see 
 what you can find in the way of comfort." Some bread and 
 cheese, with the remains of yesterday's boiled pork, were 
 put on the table, with a bottle of rum, procured at the 
 time they "spliced the main brace," but we were all too 
 anxious to eat much, and one by one returned on deck 
 to see how the weather was, and if the wind at all favored 
 us. On deck the superior officers were in conversation 
 with the captain, who expressed the same fear that O'Brien 
 had in our berth. The men, who knew what they had 
 to expect, were assembled in knots, looking very grave, 
 but at the same time not wanting in confidence. They 
 knew that they could trust to the captain, as far as skill 
 or courage could avail them; and sailors are too sanguine 
 to despair, even at the last moment. As for myself, I felt 
 such admiration for the captain, after what I had witnessed 
 that morning, that, whenever the idea came over me, that 
 in all probability I should be lost in a few hours, I could 
 not help acknowledging how much more serious it was 
 that such a man should be lost to his country. I do not 
 intend to say that it consoled me, but it certainly made me 
 still more regret the chances with which we were 
 threatened. 
 
 Before twelve o'clock the rocky point which we so much 
 dreaded was in sight, broad on the lee bow; and if the 
 low sandy coast appeared terrible, how much more did 
 this, even at a distance. The captain eyed it for some 
 minutes in silence, as if in calculation. 
 
 " Mr. Falcon," said he, at last, " we must put the main- 
 sail on her." 
 
 "She never can bear it, sir." 
 
 " She must bear it," was the reply. " Send the men aft 
 
CLUB-HAULING OF THE DIOMEDE 33 
 
 to the mainshcet. See that careful men attend the bunt- 
 lines." 
 
 The mainsail was set, and the effect of it upon the ship 
 was tremendous. She careened over so that her lee chan- 
 nels were under the water; and when pressed by a sea, 
 the lee side of the quarter-deck and gangway were afloat. 
 She now reminded me of a goaded and fiery horse, mad 
 with the stimulus applied; not rising as before, but forc- 
 ing herself through whole seas, and dividing the waves, 
 which poured in one continual torrent from the forecastle 
 down upon the decks below. Four men were secured to 
 the wheel the sailors were obliged to cling to prevent 
 being washed away the ropes were thrown in confusion 
 to leeward the shot rolled out of the lockers, and every 
 eye was fixed aloft, watching the masts, which were ex- 
 pected every moment to go over the side. A heavy sea 
 struck us on the broadside, and it was some moments 
 before the ship appeared to recover herself; she reeled, 
 trembled, and stopped her way, as if it had stupefied her. 
 The first lieutenant looked at the captain, as if to say, 
 ' This will not do." " It is our only chance," answered 
 the captain to the appeal. That the ship went faster 
 through the water, and held a better wind, was certain; 
 but just before we arrived at the point the gale increased 
 in force. "If anything starts we are lost, sir," observed 
 the first lieutenant again. 
 
 ;< I am perfectly well aware of it," replied the captain, 
 in a calm tone; " but, as I said before, and as you must 
 now be aware, it is our only chance. The consequence of 
 any carelessness or neglect in the fitting and securing of 
 the rigging will be felt now; and this danger, if we escape 
 it, ought to remind us how much we have to answer for 
 if we neglect our duty. The lives of a whole ship's com- 
 pany may be sacrificed by the neglect or incompetence of 
 an officer when in harbor. I will pay you the compli- 
 
34 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 ment, Falcon, to say, that I feel convinced that the masts 
 of the ship are as secure as knowledge and attention can 
 make them." 
 
 The first lieutenant thanked the captain for his good 
 opinion, and hoped that it would not be the last compli- 
 ment which he paid him. 
 
 u I hope not, too; but a few minutes will decide the 
 point." 
 
 The ship was now within two cables' lengths of the 
 rocky point; some few of the men I observed to clasp 
 their hands, but most of them were silently taking off 
 their jackets, and kicking off their shoes, that they might 
 not lose a chance of escape provided the ship struck 
 
 " 'Twill be touch and go, indeed, Falcon," observed the 
 captain (for I had clung to the belaying pins, close to 
 them for the last half-hour that the mainsail had been 
 set). " Come aft, you and I must take the helm. We 
 shall want nerve there, and only there, now." 
 
 The captain and first lieutenant went aft, and took the 
 fore-spokes of the wheel, and O'B'rien, at a sign made by 
 the captain, laid hold of the spokes behind him. An old 
 quartermaster kept his station at the fourth. The roar- 
 ing of the seas on the rocks, with the howling of the 
 wind, were dreadful; but the sight was more dreadful 
 than the noise. For a few minutes I shut my eyes, but 
 anxiety forced me to open them again. As near as I could 
 judge, we were not twenty yards from the rocks, at the 
 time that the ship passed abreast of them. We were in 
 the midst of the foam, which boiled around us; and as 
 the ship was driven nearer to them, and careened with 
 the wave, I thought that our main yard-arm would have 
 touched the rock; and at this moment a gust of wind came 
 on, which laid the ship on her beam-ends, and checked her 
 progress through the water, while the accumulating noise 
 was deafening. A few moments more the ship dragged 
 
CLUB-HAULING OF THE DIOMEDE 35 
 
 on, another wave dashed over her and spent itself upon 
 the rocks, while the spray was dashed back from them, 
 and returned upon the decks. The main rock was within 
 ten yards of the counter, when another gust of wind laid 
 us on our beam-ends, the foresail and mainsail split, and 
 were blown clean out of the bolt-ropes the ship righted, 
 trembling fore and aft. I looked astern: the rocks 
 were to windward on our quarter, and we were safe. I 
 thought at the time that the ship, relieved of her courses, 
 and again lifting over the waves, was not a bad similitude 
 of the relief felt by us all at that moment; and, like her, 
 we trembled as we panted with the sudden reaction, and 
 felt the removal of the intense anxiety which oppressed 
 our breasts. 
 
 The captain resigned the helm, and walked aft to look 
 at the point, which was now broad on the weather-quarter. 
 In a minute or two, he desired Mr. Falcon to get new 
 sails up and bend them, and then went below to his cabin. 
 I am sure it was to thank God for our deliverance : I did 
 most fervently, not only then, but when I went to my 
 hammock at night. We were now comparatively safe 
 in a few hours completely so; for, strange to say, imme- 
 diately after we had weathered the rocks, the gale abated, 
 and before morning we had a reef out of the topsails. 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 
 From "Tom Cringle's Log," BY MICHAEL SCOTT 
 
 HELIGOLAND light north and by west so 
 many leagues wind baffling weather hazy 
 Lady Passengers on deck for the first time. 
 
 Arrived in the Downs ordered by signal from the 
 guardship to proceed to Portsmouth. Arrived at Spit- 
 head ordered to fit to receive a general officer, and six 
 pieces of field artillery, and a Spanish Ecclesiastic, the 
 
 Canon of . Plenty of great guns, at any rate a 
 
 regular park of artillery. 
 
 Received General * * * * and his wife, and aide-de- 
 camp, and two poodle-dogs, one white man-servant, one 
 black ditto, and the Canon of , and the six nine- 
 pound field-pieces, and sailed for the Cove of Cork. 
 
 It was blowing hard as we stood in for the Old Head 
 of Kinsale pilot boat breasting the foaming surge like 
 a sea gull Carrol Cove in her tiny mainsail pilot 
 jumped into the main channel bottle of rum swung by the 
 lead line into the boat all very clever. 
 
 Ran in, and anchored under Spike Island. A line-of- 
 battle ship, three frigates, and a number of merchantmen 
 at anchor men-of-war lovely craft bands playing a 
 good deal of the pomp and circumstances of war. Next 
 forenoon, Mr. Treenail, the second lieutenant, sent for 
 me. 
 
 "Mr. Cringle," said he, "you have an uncle in Cork, 
 I believe?" 
 
 I said I had. 
 
 "I am going there on duty to-night; I daresay, if you 
 asked the captain to let you accompany me, he would do 
 
 36 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 37 
 
 so." This was too good an offer not to be taken advan- 
 tage of. I plucked up courage, made my bow, asked 
 leave, and got it; and the evening found my friend the lieu- 
 tenant, and myself, after a ride of three hours, during 
 which I, for one, had my bottom sheathing grievously 
 rubbed, and a considerable botheration at crossing the 
 Ferry at Passage, safe in our inn at Cork. I soon found 
 out that the object of my superior officer was to gain in- 
 formation amongst the crimp shops, where ten men who 
 had run from one of the West Indiamen, waiting at Cove 
 for convoy, were stowed away, but I was not let further 
 into the secret; so I set out to pay my visit, and after pass- 
 ing a pleasant evening with my friends, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Job Cringle, the lieutenant dropped in upon us about nine 
 o'clock. He was heartily welcomed; and under the plea 
 of our being obliged to return to the ship early next morn- 
 ing, we soon took leave, and returned to the inn. As I 
 was turning into the public room, the door was open, and 
 I could see it full of blowsy-faced monsters, glimmering 
 and jabbering, through the midst of hot brandy grog and 
 gin twist; with poodle Benjamins, and greatcoats, and 
 cloaks of all sorts and sizes, steaming on their pegs, with 
 Barcelonas and comforters, and damp travelling caps of 
 seal-skin, and blue cloth, and tartan, arranged above the 
 same. Nevertheless, such a society in my juvenile estima- 
 tion, during my short escapade from the middy's berth, 
 had its charms, and I was rolling in with a tolerable swag- 
 ger, when Mr. Treenail pinched my arm. 
 
 "Mr. Cringle, come here into my room." 
 
 From the way in which he spoke, I imagined, in my 
 innocence, that his room was at my elbow; but no such 
 thing we had to ascend a long, and not over-clean stair- 
 case, to the fourth floor, before we were shown into a 
 miserable little double-bedded room. So soon as we had 
 entered, the lieutenant shut the door. 
 
38 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 "Tom," said he, "I have taken a fancy to you, and 
 therefore I applied for leave to bring you with me ; but I 
 must expose you to some danger, and I will allow, not 
 altogether in a very creditable way either. You must en- 
 act the spy for a short space." 
 
 I did not like the notion, certainly, but I had little time 
 for consideration. 
 
 "Here," he continued "here is a bundle." He threw 
 it on the floor. "You must rig in the clothes it contains, 
 and make your way into the celebrated crimp-shop in the 
 neighborhood, and pick up all the information you can 
 regarding the haunts of the pressable men at Cove, es- 
 pecially with regard to the ten seamen who have run from 
 the West Indiaman we left below. You know the Ad- 
 miral has forbidden pressing at Cork, so you must con- 
 trive to frighten the blue jackets down to Cove, by rep- 
 resenting yourself as an apprentice of one of the merchant 
 vessels, who had run from his indentures, and that you 
 had narrowly escaped from a press-gang this very night 
 here." 
 
 I made no scruples, but forthwith arrayed myself in the 
 slops contained in the bundle; in a pair of shag trousers, 
 red flannel shirt, coarse blue cloth jacket, and no waist- 
 coat. 
 
 "Now," said Mr. Treenail, "stick a quid of tobacco in 
 your cheek, and^take the cockade out of your hat; or stop, 
 leave it, and ship this striped woollen night cap so and 
 come along with me." 
 
 We left the house, and walked half a mile down the 
 Quay. 
 
 Presently we arrived before a kind of low grog-shop 
 a bright lamp was flaring in the breeze at the door, one 
 of the panes of the glass of it being broken. 
 
 Before I entered, Mr. Treenail took me to one side 
 "Tom, Tom Cringle, you must go into this crimp-shop; 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 39 
 
 pass yourself off for an apprentice of the Guava, bound 
 for Trinidad, the ship that arrived just as we started, and 
 pick up all the knowledge you can regarding the where- 
 abouts of the men, for we are, as you know, cruelly ill 
 manned, and must replenish as we best may." I entered 
 the house, after having agreed to rejoin my superior of- 
 ficer so soon as I considered I had obtained my object. 
 I rapped at the inner door, in which there was a small 
 unglazed aperture cut, about four inches square; and I 
 now, for the first time, perceived that a strong glare of 
 light was cast into the lobby, where I stood, by a large 
 argand with a brilliant reflector, that, like a magazine 
 lantern, had been mortised into the bulkhead, at a height 
 of about two feet above the door in which the spy-hole 
 was cut. My first signal was not attended to: I rapped 
 again, and, looking round, I noticed Mr. Treenail flitting 
 backwards and forwards across the doorway, in the rain, 
 his pale face and his sharp nose, with the sparkling drop 
 at the end on't, glancing in the light of the lamp. I heard 
 a step within, and a very pretty face now appeared at the 
 wicket. 
 
 "Who are you saking here, an' please ye?" 
 
 "No one in particular, my dear; but if you don't let me 
 in, I shall be lodged in jail before five minutes be over." 
 
 "I can't help that, young man," said she; "but where 
 are ye from, darling!" 
 
 "Hush I am run from the Guava, now lying at the 
 Cove." 
 
 "Oh," said my beauty, "come in"; and she opened the 
 door, but still kept it on the chain in such a way, that al- 
 though, by bobbing, I creeped and slid in beneath it, yet 
 a common-sized man could not possibly have squeezed 
 himself through. The instant I entered, the door was 
 once more banged to, and the next moment I was ushered 
 into the kitchen, a room about fourteen feet square, with 
 
40 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 a well-sanded floor, a huge dresser on one side, and over 
 against it a respectable show of pewter dishes in racks 
 against the wall. There was a long stripe of a deal table 
 in the middle of the room but no tablecloth at the bot- 
 tom of which sat a large, bloated, brandy, or rather whisky 
 faced savage, dressed in a shabby greatcoat of the hodden 
 grey worn by the Irish peasantry, dirty swandown vest, 
 and greasy corduroy breeches, worsted stockings, and well- 
 patched shoes ; he was smoking a long pipe. Around the 
 table sat about a dozen seamen, from whose wet jackets 
 and trousers the heat of the blazing fire, that roared up 
 the chimney, sent up a smoky steam that cast a halo round 
 a lamp which depended from the roof, and hung down 
 within two feet of the table, stinking abominably of 
 coarse whale oil. They were, generally speaking, hardy, 
 weather-beaten men, and the greater proportion half, or 
 more than half, drunk. When I entered, I walked up to 
 the landlord. 
 
 u Yo ho, my young un! whence and whither bound, my 
 hearty ?" 
 
 "The first don't signify much to you," said I, "seeing 
 I have wherewithal in my locker to pay my shot; and as 
 to the second, of that hereafter; so, old boy, let's have 
 some grog, and then say if you can ship me with one of 
 them colliers that are lying alongside the quay?" 
 
 "My eye, what a lot of brass that small chap has!" 
 grumbled mine host. "Why, my lad, we shall see to- 
 morrow morning; but you gammons so about the rhino, 
 that we must prove you a bit; so, Kate, my dear," to the 
 pretty girl who had let me in "score a pint of rum against 
 Why, what is your name?" 
 
 "What's that to you?" rejoined I, "let's have the drink, 
 and don't doubt but the shiners shall be forthcoming." 
 
 "Hurrah!" shouted the party, most of them now very 
 tipsy. So the rum was produced forthwith, and as I 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 41 
 
 lighted a pipe and filled a glass of swizzle, I struck in, 
 "Messmates, I hope you have all shipped?" 
 
 "No, we han't," said some of them. 
 
 "Nor shall we be in any hurry, boy," said others. 
 
 "Do as you please, but I shall, as soon as I can, I know; 
 and I recommend all of you making yourselves scarce to- 
 night, and keeping a bright look-out." 
 
 "Why, boy, why?" 
 
 "Simply because I have just escaped a press-gang, by 
 bracing sharp up at the corner of the street, and shoving 
 into this dark alley here." 
 
 This called forth another volley of oaths and un- 
 savoury exclamations, and all was bustle and confusion, 
 and packing up of bundles, and settling of reckonings. 
 
 "Where," said one of the seamen, "where do you go 
 to, my lad?" 
 
 "Why, if I can't get shipped to-night, I shall trundle 
 down to Cove immediately, so as to cross at Passage be- 
 fore daylight, and take my chance of shipping with some 
 of the outward-bound that are to sail, if the wind holds, 
 the day after to-morrow. There is to be no pressing when 
 the blue Peter flies at the fore and that was hoisted this 
 afternoon, I know, and the foretopsail will be loose to- 
 morrow. 
 
 "D n my wig, but the small chap is right,'' roared one. 
 
 "I've a bloody great mind to go down with him," stut- 
 tered another, after several unavailing attempts to weigh 
 from the bench, where he had brought himself to anchor. 
 
 "Hurrah!" yelled a third, as he hugged me, and nearly 
 suffocated me with his maudlin caresses, "I trundles wid 
 you too, my darling, by the piper!" 
 
 "Have with you, boy have with you," shouted half- 
 a-dozen other voices, while each stuck his oaken twig 
 through the handkerchief that held his bundle, and shoul- 
 dered it, clapping his straw or tarpaulin hat, with a slap 
 
42 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 on the crown, on one side of his head, and staggering and 
 swaying about under the influence of the poteen, and slap- 
 ping his thigh, as he bent double, laughing like to split 
 himself, till the water ran over his cheeks from his drunken 
 half-shut eyes, while jets of tobacco-juice were squirting 
 in all directions. 
 
 I paid the reckoning, urging the party to proceed all the 
 while, and indicating Pat Doolan's at the Cove as a good 
 rendezvous; and, promising to overtake them before they 
 reached Passage, I parted company at the corner of the 
 street, and rejoined the lieutenant. 
 
 Next morning we spent in looking about the town- 
 Cork is a fine town contains seventy thousand inhabitants 
 more or less safe in that and three hundred thousand 
 pigs, driven by herdsmen, with coarse grey greatcoats. The 
 pigs are not so handsome as those in England, where the 
 legs are short, and tails curly; here the legs are long, the 
 flanks sharp and thin, and tails long and straight. 
 
 All classes speak with a deuced brogue, and worship 
 graven images; arrived at Cove to a late dinner and 
 here follows a great deal of nonsense of the same kind. 
 
 By the time it was half-past ten o'clock, I was preparing 
 to turn in, when the master at arms called down to me, 
 
 "Mr. Cringle, you are wanted in the gunroom." 
 
 I put on my jacket again, and immediately proceeded 
 thither, and on my way I noticed a group of seamen, stand- 
 ing on the starboard gangway, dressed in pea-jackets, un- 
 der which, by the light of a lantern, carried by one of them, 
 I could see they were all armed with pistols and cutlass. 
 They appeared in great glee, and as they made way for 
 me, I could hear one fellow whisper, "There goes the little 
 beagle." When I entered the gunroom, the first lieuten- 
 ant, master, and purser, were sitting smoking and enjoy- 
 ing themselves over a glass of cold grog the gunner tak- 
 ing the watch on deck the doctor was piping anything 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 43 
 
 but mellifluously on the double flagolet, while the Spanish 
 priest, and aide-de-camp to the general, were playing at 
 chess, and wrangling in bad French. I could hear Mr. 
 Treenail rumbling and stumbling in his stateroom, as he 
 accoutred himself in a jacket similar to those of the armed 
 boat's crew whom I had passed, and presently he stepped 
 into the gunroom, armed also with cutlass and pistol. 
 
 "Mr. Cringle, get ready to go in the boat with me, and 
 bring your arms with you." 
 
 I now knew whereabouts I was, and that my Cork 
 friends were the quarry at which we aimed. I did as I 
 was ordered, and we immediately pulled on shore, where* 
 leaving two strong fellows in charge of the boat, with in- 
 structions to fire their pistols and shove off a couple of 
 boat-lengths should any suspicious circumstances indicat- 
 ing an attack take place, we separated, like a pulk of Cos- 
 sacks coming to the charge, but without the hourah, with 
 orders to meet before Pat Doolan's door, as speedily as 
 our legs could carry us. We had landed about a cable's 
 length to the right of the high precipitous bank up which 
 we stole in straggling parties on which that abominable 
 congregation of the most filthy huts ever pig grunted in 
 is situated, called the Holy Ground. Pat Doolan's dom- 
 ocile was in a little dirty lane, about the middle of the vil- 
 lage. Presently ten strapping fellows, including the lieu- 
 tenant, were before the door, each man with his stretcher 
 in his hand. It was very tempestuous, although moon- 
 light, night, occasionally clear, with the moonbeams at one 
 moment sparkling brightly in the small ripples on the fil- 
 thy puddles before the door, and one the gem-like water 
 drops that hung from the eaves of the thatched roof, and 
 lighting up the dark statue-like figures of the men, and 
 casting their long shadows strongly against the mud wall 
 of the house; at another, a black cloud, as it flew across 
 her disk, cast everything into deep shade; while the only 
 
44 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 noise we heard was the hoarse dashing of the distant surf, 
 rising and falling on the fitful gusts of the breeze. We 
 tried the door. It was fast. 
 
 "Surround the house, men," said the lieutenant in a 
 whisper. He rapped loudly. "Pat Doolan, my man, 
 open the door, will ye?" No answer. "If you don't, we 
 shall make free to break it open, Patrick, dear." 
 
 All this while the light of a fire, or of candles, streamed 
 through the joints of the door. The threat at length ap- 
 peared to have the desired effect. A poor decrepit old 
 man undid the bolt and let us in. Ohon a reel Ohon a 
 reef What make you all this boder for come you to 
 help us to wake poor ould Kate there, and bring }^ou the 
 whisky wid you?" 
 
 "Old man, where is Pat Doolan?" said the lieutenant. 
 
 "Gone to borrow whisky, to wake ould Kate, there; 
 the howling will begin whenever Mother Doncannon and 
 Misthress Conolly come over from Middleton, and I look 
 for dem every minute." 
 
 There was no vestige of any living thing in the miser- 
 able hovel, except the old fellow. On two low trestles, 
 in the middle of the floor, lay a coffin with the lid on, on 
 the top of which was stretched the dead body of an old 
 emaciated woman in her graveclothes, the quality of 
 which was much finer than one could have expected to 
 have seen in the midst of the surrounding squalidness. The 
 face of the corpse was uncovered, the hands were crossed 
 on the breast, and there was a plate of salt on the stomach. 
 
 An iron cresset, charged with coarse rancid oil, hung 
 from the roof, the dull smoky red light flickering on the 
 dead corpse, as the breeze streamed in through the door 
 and numberless chinks in the walls, making the cold, rigid, 
 sharp features appear to move, and glimmer, and gibber 
 as it were, from the changing shades. Close to the head 
 there was a small door opening into an apartment of some 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 45 
 
 kind, but the coffin was placed so near it that one could 
 pass between the body and the door. 
 
 "My good man," said Treenail to the solitary mourner, 
 "I must beg leave to remove the body a bit, and have the 
 goodness to open that door." 
 
 "Door, yere honour! It's no door o' mine and it's 
 not opening that same that old Phil Carrol shall busy him- 
 self wid." 
 
 "Carline," said Mr. Treenail, quick and sharp, "re- 
 move the body." It was done. 
 
 "Cruel heavy the old dame is, sir, for all her wasted 
 appearance," said one of the men. 
 
 The lieutenant now ranged the press-gang against the 
 wall fronting the door, and stepping into the middle of the 
 room, drew his pistol and cocked it. "Messmates," he 
 sang out, as if addressing the skulkers in the other room, 
 "I know you are here; the house is surrounded and un- 
 less you open that door now, by the powers, but I'll fire 
 slap into you!" There was a bustle, and a rumbling 
 tumbling noise within. "My lads, we are now sure of our 
 game," sang out Treenail, with great animation; "sling 
 that clumsy bench there." He pointed to an oaken form 
 about eight feet long and nearly three inches thick. To 
 produce a two-inch rope, and junk it into three lengths, 
 and rig the battering ram, was the work of an instant. 
 "One two, three," and bang the door flew open, and 
 there were our men stowed away, each sitting on the top 
 of his bag, as snug as could be, although looking very 
 much like condemned thieves. We bound eight of them, 
 thrusting a stretcher across their backs, under their arms, 
 and lashing the fins to the same by good stout lanyards, we 
 were proceeding to stump our prisoners off to the boat, 
 when, with the innate deviltry that I have inherited, I 
 know not how, but the original sin of which has more than 
 once nearly cost me my life, I said, without addressing my 
 
46 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 superior officer, or any one else directly, "I should like 
 now to scale my pistol through that coffin. If I miss, I 
 can't hurt the old woman; and an eyelet hole in the coffin 
 itself will only be an act of civility to the worms." 
 
 I looked towards my superior officer, who answered me 
 with a knowing shake of the head. I advanced, while all 
 was silent as death the sharp click of the pistol lock now 
 struck acutely on my own ear. I presented, when crash 
 'the lid of the coffin, old woman and all, was dashed off 
 in an instant, the corpse flying up in the air, and then fall- 
 ing heavily on the floor, rolling over and over, while a 
 tall handsome fellow, in his striped flannel shirt and blue 
 trousers, with the sweat pouring down over his face in 
 streams, sat up in the shell. 
 
 U A11 right," said Mr. Treenail; "help him out of his 
 berth." 
 
 He was pinioned like the rest, and forthwith we walked 
 them all off to the beach. By this time there was an un- 
 usual bustle in the Holy Ground, and we could hear many 
 an anathema curses not loud but deep ejaculated from 
 many a half-opened door as we passed along. We reached 
 the boat, and time it was we did, for a number of stout 
 fellows, who had followed us in a gradually increasing 
 crowd until they amounted to forty at the fewest, now 
 nearly surrounded us, and kept closing in. As the last of 
 us jumped into the boat, they made a rush, so that if we 
 had not shoved off with the speed of light, I think it very 
 likely that we should have been overpowered. However, 
 we reached the ship in safety, and the day following we 
 weighed, and stood out to sea with our convoy. 
 
 It was a very large fleet, nearly three hundred sail of 
 merchant vessels and a noble sight truly. 
 
 A line-of-battle ship led, and two frigates and three 
 sloops of our class were stationed on the outskirts of the 
 fleet, whipping them in, as it were. We made Madeira 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 47 
 
 in fourteen days, looked in, but did not anchor; superb is- 
 land magnificent mountains white town, and all very 
 fine, but nothing particular happened for three weeks. 
 One fine evening (we had by this time progressed into the 
 trades, and were within three hundred miles of Barba- 
 does) the sun had set bright and clear, after a most beau- 
 tiful day, and we were bowling along right before it, roll- 
 ing like the very devil; but there was no moon, and al- 
 though the stars sparkled brilliantly, yet it was dark, and 
 as we were the sternmost of the men-of-war, we had the 
 task of whipping in the sluggards. It was my watch on 
 deck. A gun from the commodore, who showed a num- 
 ber of lights. "What is that, Mr. Kennedy?" said the 
 captain to the old gunner. "The commodore has made 
 the night-signal for the sternmost ships to make more sail 
 and close, sir." We repeated the signal and stood on, 
 hailing the dullest of the merchantmen in our neighbour- 
 hood to make more sail, and firing a musket-shot now and 
 then over the more distant of them. By-and-by we saw 
 a large West Indiamen suddenly haul her wind and stand 
 across our bows. 
 
 "Forward there!" sung out Mr. Splinter; "stand by to 
 fire a shot at that fellow from the boat gun if he does not 
 bear up. What can he be after? Sergeant Armstrong" 
 to a marine, who was standing close by him in the waist 
 "get a musket and fire over him." 
 
 It was done, and the ship immediately bore up on her 
 course again; we now ranged alongside of him on his lar- 
 board quarter. 
 
 "Ho, the ship, ahoy!" "Hillo!" was the reply. 
 "Make more sail, sir, and run into the body of the fleet, 
 or I shall fire into you : why don't you, sir, keep in the 
 wake of the commodore?" No answer. "What meant 
 you by hauling your wind just now, sir?" 
 
48 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 "Yesh, yesh," at length responded a voice from the mer- 
 chantman. 
 
 "Something wrong here," said Mr. Splinter. "Back 
 your maintopsail, sir, and hoist a light at the peak; I shall 
 send a boat on board of you. Boatswain's mate, pipe 
 away the crew of the jolly-boat." We also hove to, and 
 were in the act of lowering down the boat, when the offi- 
 cer rattled out "Keep all fast with the boat; I can't 
 comprehend that chap's manoeuvres for the soul of me. 
 He has not hove to." Once more we were within pistol- 
 shot of him. "Why don't you heave to, sir?" All silent. 
 
 Presently we could perceive a confusion and noise of 
 struggling on board, and angry voices, as if people were 
 trying to force their way up the hatches from below ; and 
 a heavy thumping on the deck, and a creaking of the blocks, 
 and rattling of the cordage, while the mainyard was first 
 braced one way, and then another, as if two parties were 
 striving for the mastery. At length a voice hailed dis- 
 tinctly "we are captured by a ." A sudden sharp 
 
 cry, and a splash overboard, told of some fearful deed. 
 
 "We are taken by a privateer or pirate," sung out an- 
 other voice. This was followed by a heavy crunching 
 blow, as when the spike of a butcher's axe is driven through 
 a bullock's forehead deep into the brain. 
 
 By this time all hands had been called, and the word 
 had been passed to clear away two of the foremost car- 
 ronades on the starboard side, and to load them with 
 grape. 
 
 "On board there get below, all you of the English 
 crew, as I shall fire with grape,'" sung out the captain. 
 
 The hint was now taken. The ship at length came to 
 the wind we rounded to, under her lee and an armed 
 boat, with Mr. Treenail, and myself, and sixteen men, 
 with cutlasses, were sent on board. 
 
 We jumped on deck, and at the gangway Mr. Treenail 
 

 THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 49 
 
 stumbled and fell over the dead body of a man, no doubt 
 the one who had hailed last, with his skull cloven to the 
 eyes, and a broken cutlass-blade sticking in the gash. We 
 were immediately accosted by the mate, who was lashed 
 down to a ring-bolt close by the bits, with his hands tied 
 at the wrists by sharp cords, so tightly that the blood was 
 spouting from beneath his nails. 
 
 "We have been surprised by a privateer schooner, sir; 
 the lieutenant of her, and several men, are now in the 
 cabin." 
 
 "Where are the rest of the crew?" 
 
 "All secured in the forecastle, except the second-mate 
 and boatswain, the men who hailed you just now; the last 
 was knocked on the head, and the former was stabbed and 
 thrown overboard." 
 
 We immediately released the men, eighteen in number, 
 and armed them with boarding-pikes. "What vessel is 
 that astern of us?" said Treenail to the mate. Before he 
 could answer, a shot from the brig fired at the privateer 
 showed she was broad awake. Next moment Captain 
 Deadeye hailed. "Have you mastered the prize crew, 
 Mr. Treenail?" "Ay, ay, sir." "Then bear up on your 
 course, and keep two lights hoisted at your mizzen-peak 
 during the night, and blue Peter at the maintopsail yard- 
 arm when the day breaks : I shall haul my wind after the 
 suspicious sail in your wake." 
 
 Another shot, and another, from the brig the time be- 
 tween each flash and the report increasing with the dis- 
 tance. By this the lieutenant has descended to the cabin, 
 followed by his people, while the merchant crew once more 
 took charge of the ship, crowding sail into the body of the 
 fleet. 
 
 I followed him close, pistol and cutlass in hand, and I 
 shall never forget the scene that presented itself when I 
 entered. The cabin was that of a vessel of five hundred 
 
50 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 tons, elegantly fitted up; the panels filled with crimson 
 cloth, edged with gold mouldings, with superb damask 
 hangings before the stern windows and the side berths, and 
 brilliantly lighted up by the two large swinging-lamps 
 hung from the deck above, which were reflected from, and 
 multiplied in, several plate-glass mirrors in the panels. In 
 the recess, which in cold weather had been occupied by the 
 stove, now stood a splendid grand piano, the silk in the 
 open work above the keys corresponding with the crimson 
 cloth of the panels; it was open, a Leghorn bonnet with a 
 green veil, a parasol, and two long white gloves, as if re- 
 cently pulled off, lay on it, with the very mould of the 
 hands in them. 
 
 The rudder case was particularly beautiful; it was a 
 richly carved and gilded palm-tree, the stem painted white 
 and interlaced with golden fretwork, like the lozenges of 
 a pineapple, while the leaves spread up and abroad on the 
 roof. 
 
 The table was laid for supper, with cold meat, and wine, 
 and a profusion of silver things, all sparkling brightly: 
 but it was in great disorder, wine spilt, and glasses broken, 
 and dishes with meat upset, and knives, and forks, and 
 spoons, scattered all about. She was evidently one of 
 those London West Indiamen, on board of which I knew 
 there was much splendour and great comfort. But, alas, 
 the hand -of lawless violence had been there. The cap- 
 tain lay across the table, with his head hanging over the 
 side of it next to us, and unable to help himself, with his 
 hands tied behind his back, and a gag in his mouth; his 
 face purple from the blood running to his head, and the 
 white of his eyes turned up, while his loud stertorous 
 breathing but too clearly indicated the rupture of a vessel 
 on the brain. 
 
 'He was a stout portly man, and although we released 
 him on the instant, and had him bled, and threw water on 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 51 
 
 his face, and did all we could for him, he never spoke after- 
 wards, and died in half an hour. 
 
 Four gentlemanly-looking men were sitting at table, 
 lashed to their chairs, pale and trembling, while six of the 
 most ruffian-looking scoundrels I ever beheld stood on the 
 opposite side of the table in a row fronting us, with the 
 light from the lamps shining full on them. Three of 
 them were small but very square mulattoes; one was a 
 South American Indian, with the square high-boned vis- 
 age and long, lank, black glossy hair of his caste. These 
 four had no clothing besides their trousers, and stood with 
 their arms folded, in all the calmness of desperate men 
 caught in the very fact of some horrible atrocity, which 
 they knew shut out every hope of mercy. The two others 
 were white Frenchmen, tall, bushy-whiskered, sallow des- 
 peradoes, but still, wonderful to relate, with, if I may so 
 speak, the manners of gentlemen. One of them squinted, 
 and had a hare-lip, which gave him a horrible expression. 
 They were dressed in white trousers and shirts, yellow 
 silk sashes round their waists, and a sort of blue uniform 
 jackets, blue Gascon caps, with the peaks, from each of 
 which depended a large bullion tassel, hanging down on 
 one side of their heads. The whole party had apparently 
 made up their minds that resistance was vain, for their 
 pistols and cutlasses, some of them bloody, had all been 
 laid on the table, with the butts and handles towards us, 
 contrasting horribly with the glittering equipage of steel, 
 and crystal, and silver things, on the snow-white damask 
 tablecloth. They were immediately seized and ironed, to 
 which they submitted in silence. We next released the 
 passengers, and were overpowered with thanks, one danc- 
 ing, one crying, one laughing, and another praying. But, 
 merciful Heaven ! what an object met our eyes ! Draw- 
 ing aside the curtain that concealed a sofa fitted into a 
 recess, there lay, more dead than alive, a tall and most 
 
52 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 beautiful girl, her head resting on her arm, her clothes 
 disordered and torn, blood on her bosom, and foam on 
 her mouth, with her long dark hair loose and dishevelled, 
 and covering the upper part of her deadly pale face, 
 through which her wild sparkling black eyes, protruding 
 from their sockets, glanced and glared with the fire of a 
 maniac's, while her blue lips kept gibbering an incoherent 
 prayer one moment, and the next imploring mercy, as if 
 she had still been in the hands of those who knew not the 
 name; and anon, a low hysterical laugh made our very 
 blood freeze in our bosoms, which soon ended in a long 
 dismal yell, as she rolled off the couch upon the hard deck, 
 and lay in a dead faint. 
 
 Alas the day! a maniac she was from that hour. She 
 was the only daughter of the murdered master of the ship, 
 and never awoke, in her unclouded reason, to the fearful 
 consciousness of her own dishonour and her parent's 
 death. 
 
 The Torch captured the schooner, and we left the pri- 
 vateer's men at Barbadoes to meet their reward, and sev- 
 eral of the merchant sailors were turned over to the guard- 
 ship, to prove the facts in the first instance, and to serve 
 his Majesty as impressed men in the second, but scrimp 
 measure of justice to the poor ship's crew. 
 
 Anchored at Carlisle Bay, Barbadoes. Town seemed 
 built of cards black faces showy dresses of the negroes 
 dined at Mr. C 's capital dinner little breeze- 
 mill at the end of the room, that pumped a solution of 
 salpetre and water into a trough of tin, perforated with 
 small holes, below which, and exposed to the breeze, were 
 ranged the wine and liqueurs, all in cotton bags; the water 
 then flowed into a well, where the pump was stepped, and 
 thus was again pumped up and kept circulating. 
 
 Landed the artillery, the soldiers, officers, and the 
 Spanish Canon discharged the whole battery. 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 53 
 
 Next morning, weighed at day-dawn, with the trade for 
 Jamaica, and soon lost sight of the bright blue waters of 
 Carlisle Bay, and the smiling fields and tall cocoanut trees 
 of the beautiful island. In a week after we arrived off 
 the east end of Jamaica; and that same evening, in obe- 
 dience to the orders of the admiral on the windward Is- 
 land station, we hove to in Bull Bay, in order to land des- 
 patches, and secure our tithe of the crews of the merchant- 
 vessels bound for Kingston, and the ports to leeward, as 
 they passed us. We had fallen in with a pilot canoe of 
 Morant Bay with four negroes on board, who requested us 
 to hoist in their boat, and take them all on board, as the 
 pilot schooner to which they belonged had that morning 
 bore up for Kingston, and left instructions to them to fol- 
 low her in the first vessel appearing afterwards. We did 
 so, and now, as it was getting dark, the captain came up to 
 Mr. Treenail. 
 
 "Why, Mr. Treenail, I think we had better heave to for 
 the night, and in this case I shall want you to go in the 
 cutter to Port Royal to deliver the despatches on board 
 the flag-ship. 
 
 "I don't think the admiral will be at Port Royal, sir," 
 responded the lieutenant; "and, if I might suggest, those 
 black chaps have offered to take me ashore here on the 
 Palisadoes, a narrow spit of land, not above one hundred 
 yards across, that divides the harbour from the ocean, and 
 to haul the canoe across, and take me to the agent's house 
 in Kingston, who will doubtless frank me up to the pen 
 where the admiral resides, and I shall thus deliver the let- 
 ters, and be back again by day-dawn." 
 
 "Not a bad plan," said old Deadeye; "put it in execu- 
 tion, and I will go below and get the despatches immedi- 
 ately." 
 
 The canoe was once more hoisted out; the three black 
 
54 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 fellows, the pilot of the ship continuing on board, jumped 
 into her alongside. 
 
 u Had you not better take a couple of hands with you, 
 Mr. Treenail?" said the skipper. 
 
 "Why, no, sir, I don't think I shall want them; but if 
 you will spare me Mr. Cringle I will be obliged, in case 
 I want any help." 
 
 We shoved off, and as the glowing sun dipped under 
 Portland Point, as the tongue of land that runs out about 
 four miles to the southward, on the western side of Port 
 Royal harbour, is called, we arrived within a hundred 
 yards of the Pallsadoes. The surf, at the particular spot 
 we steered for, did not break on the shore in a rolling 
 curling wave, as it usually does, but smoothed away under 
 the lee of a small sandy promontory that ran out into the 
 sea, about half a cable's length to windward, and then slid 
 up the smooth white sand without breaking, in a deep 
 clear green swell, for the space of twenty yards, gradually 
 shoaling, the colour becoming lighter and lighter until it 
 frothed away in a shallow white fringe, that buzzed as it 
 receded back into the deep green sea, until it was again 
 propelled forward by the succeeding billow. 
 
 "I say, friend Bungo, how shall we manage? You 
 don't mean to swamp us in a shove through that surf, do 
 you?" said Mr. Treenail. 
 
 u No fear, massa, if you and toder leetle man-of-war 
 buccra only keep dem seat when we rise on de crest of de 
 swell dere." 
 
 We sat quiet enough. Treenail was coolness itself, and 
 I aped him as well as I could. The loud murmur, increas- 
 ing to a roar, of the sea, was trying enough as we ap- 
 proached, buoyed on the last long undulation. 
 
 "Now sit still, massa, bote." 
 
 We sank down into the trough, and presently were hove 
 forwards with a smooth sliding motion up on the beach 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 55 
 
 until grit, grit, we stranded on the cream-coloured sand, 
 high and dry. 
 
 u Now, jomp, massa, jomp." 
 
 We leapt with all our strength, and thereby toppled 
 down on our noses; the sea receded, and before the next 
 billow approached we had run the canoe twenty yards 
 beyond high-water mark. 
 
 It was the work of a very few minutes to haul the 
 canoe across the sand-bank, and to launch it once more in 
 the placid waters of the harbour of Kingston. We pulled 
 across towards the town, until we landed at the bottom of 
 Hanover Street ; the lights from the cabin windows of the 
 merchantmen glimmering as we passed, and the town only 
 discernible from a solitary sparkle here and there. But 
 the contrast when we landed was very striking. We had 
 come through the darkness of the night in comparative 
 quietness ; and in two hours from the time we had left the 
 old Torch, we were transferred from her orderly deck to 
 the bustle of a crowded town. 
 
 One of our crew undertook to be the guide to the agent's 
 house. We arrived before it. It was a large mansion, 
 and we could see lights glimmering in the ground-floor; 
 but it was gaily lit up aloft. The house itself stood back 
 about twenty feet from the street, from which it was 
 separated by an iron railing. 
 
 We knocked at the outer gate, but no one answered. 
 At length our black guide found out a bell-pull, and pre- 
 sently the clang of a bell resounded throughout the man- 
 sion. Still no one answered. I pushed against the door, 
 and found it was open, and Mr. Treenail and myself im- 
 mediately ascended a flight of six marble steps, and stood 
 in the lower piazza, with the hall, or vestibule, before us. 
 We entered. A very well-dressed brown woman, who 
 was sitting at her work at a small table, along with two 
 
56 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 young girls of the same complexion, instantly rose to re- 
 ceive us. 
 
 "Beg pardon," said Mr. Treenail, "pray, is this Mr. 
 's house ?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, it is." 
 
 "Will you have the goodness to say if he be at home?" 
 
 "Oh yes, sir, he is dere upon dinner wid company," said 
 the lady. 
 
 "Well," continued the lieutenant, "say to him, that an 
 officer of his Majesty's sloop Torch is below, with des- 
 patches for the admiral." 
 
 "Surely, sir, surely," the dark lady continued; "Follow 
 me, sir; and dat small gentleman [Thomas Cringle, Es- 
 quire, no less!] him will better follow me too." 
 
 We left the room, and turning to <:he right, landed in 
 the lower piazza of the house, fronting the north. A large 
 clumsy stair occupied the eastermost end, with a massive 
 mahogany balustrade, but the whole affair below was very 
 ill lighted. The brown lady preceded us; and, planting 
 herself at the bottom of the staircase, began to shout to 
 some one above 
 
 "Toby! Toby! buccra gentlemen arrive, Toby." 
 But no Toby responded to the call. 
 
 "My dear madam," said Treenail, "I have little time 
 for ceremony. Pray usher us up into Mr. 's presence." 
 
 "Den follow me, gentlemen, please." 
 
 Forthwith we all ascended the dark staircase until we 
 reached the first landing-place, when we heard a noise as 
 of two negroes wrangling on the steps above us. 
 
 "You rascal!" sang out one, "take dat; larn you for 
 teal my wittal!" then a sharp crack, as if he had smote 
 the culprit across the pate ; whereupon, like a shot, a black 
 fellow, in a handsome livery, trundled down, pursued by 
 another servant with a large silver ladle in his hand, with 
 which he was belabouring the fugitive over his flint-hard 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 57 
 
 skull, right against our hostess, with the drumstick of a 
 turkey in his hand, or rather in his mouth. 
 
 "Top, you tief! top, you tief! for me piece dat," 
 shouted the pursuer. 
 
 "You dam rascal!" quoth the dame. But she had no 
 time to utter another word, before the fugitive pitched, 
 with all his weight, against her; and at the very moment 
 another servant came trundling down with a large tray 
 full of all kinds of meats and I especially remember that 
 two large crystal stands of jellies composed part of his 
 load so there we were regularly capsized, and caught 
 all of a heap in the dark landing-place, halfway up the 
 stair; and down the other flight tumbled our guide, with 
 Mr. Treenail and myself, and the two blackies on the top 
 of her, rolling in our descent over, or rather into, another 
 large mahogany tray which had just been carried out, 
 with a tureen of turtle soup in it, and a dish of roast-beef, 
 and platefuls of land-crabs, and the Lord knows what 
 all besides. 
 
 The crash reached the ear of the landlord, who was 
 seated at the head of his table in the upper piazza, a long 
 gallery about fifty feet long by fourteen wide, and he im- 
 mediately rose and ordered his butler to take a light. 
 When he came down to ascertain the cause of the uproar. 
 I shall never forget the scene. 
 
 There was, first of all, mine host, a remarkably neat 
 personage, standing on the polished mahogany stair, three 
 steps above his servant, who was a very well-dressed re- 
 spectable elderly negro, with a candle in each hand; and 
 beneath him, on the landing-place, lay two trays of viands, 
 broken tureens of soup, fragments of dishes, and fractured 
 glasses, and a chaos of eatables and drinkables, and table 
 gear scattered all about, amidst which lay scrambling my 
 lieutenant and myself, the brown housekeeper, and the 
 two negro servants, all more or less covered with gravy 
 
58 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 and wine dregs. However, after a good laugh, we 
 gathered ourselves up, and at length we were ushered on 
 the scene. Mine host, after stifling his laughter the best 
 way he could, again sat down at the head of his table, 
 sparkling with crystal and wax-lights, while a superb lamp 
 hung overhead. The company was composed chiefly of 
 naval and military men, but there was also a sprinkling 
 of civilians, or muftees, to use a West India expression. 
 Most of them rose as we entered, and after they had taken 
 a glass of wine, and had their laugh at our mishap, our 
 landlord retired to one side with Mr. Treenail, while I, 
 poor little middy as I was, remained standing at the end 
 of the room, close to the head of the stairs. The gentle- 
 man who sat at the foot of the table had his back towards 
 me, and was not at first aware of my presence. But the 
 guest at his right hand, a happy-looking, red-faced, well- 
 dressed man, soon drew his attention towards me. The 
 party to whom I was thus indebted seemed a very jovial- 
 looking personage, and appeared to be well known to all 
 hands, and indeed the life of the party, for, like Falstaff, 
 he was not only witty in himself, but the cause of wit in 
 others. 
 
 The gentleman to whom he had pointed me out im- 
 mediately rose, made his bow, ordered a chair, and made 
 room for me beside himself, where, the moment it was 
 known that we were direct from home, such a volley of 
 questions was fired off at me that I did not know which to 
 answer first. At length, after Treenail had taken a glass 
 or two of wine, the agent started him off to the admiral's 
 pen in his own gig, and I was desired to stay where I was 
 until he returned. 
 
 The whole party seemed very happy, my boon ally was 
 fun itself, and I was much entertained with the mess he 
 made when any of the foreigners at table addressed him in 
 French or Spanish. I was particularly struck with a small, 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 59 
 
 thin, dark Spaniard, who told very feelingly how the night 
 before, on returning home from a party to his own lodg- 
 ings, on passing through the piazza, he stumbled against 
 something heavy that lay in his grass-hammock, which 
 usually hung there. He called for a light, when, to 
 his horror, he found the body of his old and faith- 
 ful valet lying in it, dead and cold, with a knife 
 sticking under his fifth rib no doubt intended for 
 his master. The speaker was Bolivar. About mid- 
 night, Mr. Treenail returned, we shook hands with 
 Mr. - , and once more shoved off; and, guided by the 
 lights shown on board the Torch we were safe home again 
 by three in the morning, when we immediately made sail, 
 and nothing particular happened until we arrived within 
 a day's sail of New Providence. It seemed that, about a 
 week before, a large American brig, bound from Havana 
 to Boston had been captured in this very channel by one 
 of our men-of-war schooners, and carried into Nassau; out 
 of which port, for their own security, the authorities had 
 fitted a small schooner, carrying six guns and twenty-four 
 men. She was commanded by a very gallant fellow there 
 is no disputing that and he must needs emulate the con- 
 duct of the officer who had made the capture; for in a fine 
 clear night, when all the officers were below rummaging 
 in their kits for the killing things they should array them- 
 selves in on the morrow, so as to smite the Fair of New 
 Providence to the heart at a blow Whiss a shot flew 
 over our mast-head. 
 
 "A small schooner lying to right ahead, sir," sang out 
 the boatswain from the forecastle. 
 
 Before we could beat to quarters, another sang between 
 our masts. We kept steadily on our course, and as we 
 approached our pigmy antagonist, he bore up. Presently 
 we were alongside of him. 
 
 ''Heave to," hailed the strange sail; "heave to, or I'll 
 
60 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 sink you." The devil you will, you midge, thought I. 
 
 The captain took the trumpet "Schooner, ahoy" no 
 answer "D n your blood, sir, if you don't let every- 
 thing go by the run this instant, I'll fire a broadside. Strike, 
 sir, to his Britannic Majesty's sloop Torch." 
 
 The poor fellow commanding the schooner had by this 
 time found out his mistake, and immediately came on 
 board, where, instead of being lauded for his gallantry, I 
 am sorry to say he was roundly rated for his want of dis- 
 cernment in mistaking his Majesty's cruiser for a Yankee 
 merchantman. Next forenoon we arrived at Nassau. 
 
 In a week after we again sailed for Bermuda, having 
 taken on board ten American skippers, and several other 
 Yankees, as prisoners of war. 
 
 For the first three days after we cleared the Passages, 
 we had fine weather wind at east-south-east; but after 
 that it came on to blow from the north-west, and so con- 
 tinued without intermission during the whole of the pas- 
 sage to Bermuda. On the fourth morning after we left 
 Nassau, we descried a sail in the south-east quarter, and 
 immediately made sail in chase. We overhauled her 
 about noon; she hove to, after being fired at repeatedly; 
 and, on boarding her, we found she was a Swede from 
 Charleston, bound to Havre-de-Grace. All the letters we 
 could find on board were very unceremoniously broken 
 open, and nothing having transpired that could identify 
 the cargo as enemy's property, we were bundling over the 
 side, when a nautical-looking subject, who had attracted 
 my attention from the first, put in his oar. 
 
 "Lieutenant," said he, "will you allow me to put this 
 barrel of New York apples into the boat as a present to 
 Captain Deadeye, from Captain * * * of the United 
 States navy?" 
 
 Mr. Treenail bowed, and said he would; and we shoved 
 off and got on board again, and now there was the devil to 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 61 
 
 pay, from the perplexity old Deadeye was thrown into, as 
 to whether, here in the heat of the American war, he was 
 bound to take this American captain prisoner or not. I 
 was no party to the councils of my superiors, of course, 
 but the foreign ship was finally allowed to continue her 
 course. 
 
 The next day I had the forenoon watch; the weather 
 had lulled unexpectedly nor was there much sea, and the 
 deck was all alive, to take advantage of the fine blink, 
 when the man at the mast-head sang out '"Breakers 
 right ahead, sir." 
 
 "Breakers !" said Mr. Splinter, in great astonishment. 
 "Breakers ! why, the man must be mad ! I say, Jenkins 
 
 'Breakers close under the bows," sang out the boat- 
 
 r ain from forward. 
 
 "The devil!" quoth Splinter, and he ran along the 
 gangway, and ascended the forecastle, while I kept close 
 to his heels. We looked out ahead, and there we cer- 
 tainly did see a splashing, and boiling, and white foam- 
 ing of the ocean, that unquestionably looked very like 
 breakers. Gradually, this splashing and foaming appear- 
 ance took a circular whisking shape, as if the clear green 
 sea, for a space of a hundred yards in diameter, had been 
 stirred about by a gigantic invisible spurtle, until every- 
 thing hissed again ; and the curious part of it was, that the 
 agitation of the water seemed to keep ahead of us, as if the 
 breeze which impelled us had also floated it onwards. At 
 length the whirling circle of white foam ascended higher 
 and higher, and then gradually contracted itself into a 
 spinning black tube, which wavered about for all the world 
 like a gigantic loch-leech held by the tail between the finger 
 and thumb, while it was poking its vast snout about in 
 the clouds in search of a spot to fasten on. 
 
62 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 "Is the boat-gun on the forecastle loaded?" said Cap- 
 tain Deadeye. 
 
 "It is, sir." 
 
 "Then luff a bit that will do fire." 
 
 The gun was discharged, and down rushed the black 
 wavering pillar in a watery avalanche, and in a minute 
 after the dark heaving billows rolled over the spot where- 
 out it arose, as if no such thing had ever been. 
 
 This said troubling of the waters was neither more nor 
 less than a waterspout, which again is neither more nor 
 less than a whirlwind at sea, which gradually whisks the 
 water round and round, and up and up, as you see straws 
 so raised, until it reaches a certain height, when it invari- 
 ably breaks. Before this I had thought that waterspout 
 was created by some next to supernatural exertion of the 
 power of the Deity, in order to suck up water into the 
 clouds, that they, like the wine-skins in Spain, might be 
 filled with rain. 
 
 The morning after, the weather was clear and beauti- 
 ful, although the wind blew half a gale. Nothing partic- 
 ular happened until about seven o'clock in the evening. 
 I had been invited to dine with the gunroom officers this 
 day, and every thing was going on smooth and comfort- 
 able, when Mr. Splinter spoke. " I say, master, don't 
 you smell gunpowder?" 
 
 " Yes, I do," said the little master, " or something 
 deuced like it." 
 
 To explain the particular comfort of our position, it 
 may be right to mention that the magazine of a brig sloop 
 is exactly under the gunroom. Three of the American 
 skippers had been quartered on the gunroom mess, and 
 they were all at table. Snuff, snuff, smelled one, and an- 
 other sniffled, " Gunpowder, I guess, and in a state of 
 ignition." 
 
 "Will you not send for the gunner, sir?" said the 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 63 
 
 third. Splinter did not like it, I saw, and this quailed 
 me. 
 
 The captain's bell rang. " What smell of brimstone 
 is that, steward?" 
 
 " I really can't tell," said the man, trembling from head 
 to foot; " Mr. Splinter has sent for the gunner, sir." 
 
 " The devil!" said Deadeye, as he hurried on deck. 
 We all followed. A search was made. 
 
 " Some matches have caught in the magazine," said 
 one. 
 
 " We shall be up and away like sky-rockets," said 
 another. 
 
 Several of the American masters ran out on the jib- 
 boom, coveting the temporary security of being so far 
 removed from the seat of the expected explosion, and all 
 was alarm and confusion, until it was ascertained that 
 two of the boys, little sky-larking vagabonds, had stolen 
 some pistol cartridges, and had been making lightning, 
 as it is called, by holding a lighted candle between the 
 fingers, and putting some loose powder into the palm of 
 the hand, then chucking it up into the flame. They got 
 a sound flogging, on a very unpoetical part of their cor- 
 puses, and once more the ship subsided into her usual 
 orderly discipline. The northwester still continued, with 
 a clear blue sky, without a cloud overhead by day, and a 
 bright cold moon by night. It blew so hard for the three 
 succeeding days, that we could not carry more than close- 
 reefed topsails to it, and a reefed foresail. Indeed, 
 towards six bells in the forenoon watch of the third day, 
 it came thundering down with such violence, and the sea 
 increased so much, that we had to hand the foretopsail. 
 
 This was by no means an easy job. " Ease her a bit," 
 said the first lieutenant," there shake the wind out of 
 her sails for a moment, until the men get the canvas in" 
 whirl, a poor fellow pitched off the lee foreyardarm 
 
64 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 into the sea. " Up with the helm heave him the bight 
 of a rope." We kept away, but all was confusion, until 
 an American midshipman, one of the prisoners on board, 
 hove the bight of a rope at him. The man got it under 
 his arms, and after hauling him along for a hundred 
 yards at the least and one may judge of the velocity 
 with which he was dragged through the water, by the fact 
 that it took the united strain of ten powerful men to get 
 him in he was brought safely on board, pale and blue, 
 when we found that the running of the rope had crushed 
 in his broad chest, below his arms, as if it had been a 
 girl's waist, indenting the very muscles of it and of his 
 back half an inch deep. He had to be bled before he 
 could breathe, and it was an hour before the circulation 
 could be restored, by the joint exertions of the surgeon 
 and gunroom steward, chafing him with spirits and cam- 
 phor, after he had been stripped and stowed away be- 
 tween the blankets in his hammock. 
 
 The same afternoon we fell in with a small prize to 
 the squadron in the Chesapeake, a dismantled schooner, 
 manned by a prize crew of a midshipman and six men. 
 She had a signal of distress, an American ensign, with 
 the union down, hoisted on the jury-mast, across which 
 there was rigged a solitary lug-sail. It was blowing so 
 hard that we had some difficulty in boarding her, when 
 we found she was a Baltimore pilot-boat-built schooner, 
 of about 70 tons burden, laden with flour, and bound for 
 Bermuda. But three days before, in a sudden squall, they 
 had carried away both masts short by the board, and the 
 only spar which they had been able to rig, was a spare 
 topmast which they had jammed into one of the pumps 
 fortunately she was as tight as a bottle and stayed 
 it the best way they could. The captain offered to take 
 the little fellow who had charge of her, and his crew and 
 cargo, on board, and then scuttle her; but no all he 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 65 
 
 wanted was a cask of water and some biscuit; and having 
 had a glass of grog, he trundled over the side again, and 
 returned to his desolate command. However, he after- 
 wards brought his prize safe into Bermuda. 
 
 The weather still continued very rough, but we saw 
 nothing until the second evening after this. The fore- 
 noon had been even more boisterous than any of the pre- 
 ceding, and we were all fagged enough with " make sail," 
 and " shorten sail," and " all hands," the whole day 
 through; and as the night fell, I found myself, for the 
 fourth time, in the maintop. The men had just lain in 
 from the maintopsail yard, when we heard the watch 
 called on deck, "Starboard watch, ahoy!" which 
 was a cheery sound to us of the larboard, who were thus 
 released from duty on deck, and allowed to go below. 
 
 The men were scrambling down the weather shrouds, 
 and I was preparing to follow them, when I jammed my 
 left foot in the grating of the top, and capsized on my 
 nose. I had been up nearly the whole of the previous 
 night, and on deck the whole of the day, and actively em- 
 ployed too, as during the greater part of it it blew a gale. 
 I stooped down in some pain, to see what had bolted 
 me to the grating; but I had no sooner extricated my foot, 
 than, over-worked and over-fatigued as I was, I fell over 
 in the soundest sleep that ever I have enjoyed before or 
 since, the back of my neck resting on a coil of rope, so 
 that my head hung down within it. 
 
 The rain all this time was beating on me, and I was 
 drenched to the skin. I must have slept for four hours 
 or so, when I was awakened by a rough thump on the side 
 from the stumbling foot of the captain of the top, the 
 word having been passed to shake a reef out of the top- 
 sails, the wind having rather suddenly gone down. It was 
 done; and now broad awake, I determined not to be 
 caught napping again, so I descended, and swung myself 
 
66 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 in on deck out of the main rigging, just as Mr. Treenail 
 was mustering the crew at eight bells. When I landed on 
 the quarterdeck, there he stood abaft the binnacle, with 
 the light shining on his face, his glazed hat glancing, and 
 the rain-drop sparkling at the brim of it. He had noticed 
 me the moment I descended. 
 
 " Heyday, Master Cringle, you are surely out of your 
 watch. Why, what are you doing here, eh?" 
 
 I stepped up to him, and told him the truth, that, being 
 overfatigued, I had fallen asleep in the top. 
 
 u Well, well, boy," said he, " never mind, go below, 
 and turn in ; if you don't take your rest, you never will be 
 a sailor." 
 
 "But what do you see aloft?" glancing his eye up- 
 wards, and all the crew on deck, as I passed them, looked 
 anxiously up also amongst the rigging, as if wondering 
 what I saw there, for I had been so chilled in my snoose, 
 that my neck, from resting in the cold on the coil of rope, 
 had become stiffened and rigid to an intolerable degree; 
 and although, when I first came on deck, I had, by a 
 strong exertion, brought my caput to its proper bearings, 
 yet the moment I was dismissed by my superior officer, 
 I for my own comfort was glad to conform to the con- 
 traction of the muscle, whereby I once more strayed along 
 the deck, glowering up into the heavens, as if I had seen 
 some wonderful sight there. 
 
 1 What do you see aloft?' 1 repeated Mr. Treenail, 
 while the crew, greatly puzzled, continued to follow my 
 eyes, as they thought, and to stare up into the rigging. 
 
 "Why, sir, I have thereby got a stiff neck that's 
 all, sir." 
 
 " Go and turn in at once, my good boy make haste, 
 now; tell our steward to give you a glass of hot grog, and 
 mind your hand that you don't get sick." 
 
 I did as was desired, swallowed the grog, and turned 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 67 
 
 in ; but I could not have been in bed above an hour, when 
 the drum beat to quarters, and I had once more to bundle 
 out on the cold wet deck, where I found all excitement. 
 At the time I speak of, we had been beaten by the Amer- 
 icans in several actions of single ships, and our discipline 
 improved in proportion as we came to learn, by sad 
 experience, that the enemy was not to be undervalued. I 
 found that there was a ship in sight, right ahead of us - 
 apparently carrying all sail, i A group of officers were on 
 the forecastle with night-glasses, the whole crew being 
 stationed in dark clusters round the guns at quarters. 
 Several of the American skippers were forward amongst 
 us, and they were of opinion that the chase was a man-of- 
 war, although our own people seemed to doubt this. One 
 of the skippers insisted that she was the Hornet, from 
 the unusual shortness of her lower masts, and the im- 
 mense squareness of her yards. But the puzzle was, if it 
 were the Hornet, why she did not shorten sail. Still 
 this might be accounted for, by her either wishing to make 
 out what we were before she engaged us, or she might 
 be clearing for action. At this moment a whole cloud of 
 studdingsails were blown from the yards as if the booms 
 had been carrots; and to prove that the chase was keep- 
 ing a bright look-out, she immediately kept away, and 
 finally bore up dead before the wind, under the impres- 
 sion, no doubt, that she would draw ahead of us, from 
 her gear being entire, before we could rig out our light 
 sails again. 
 
 And so she did for a time, but at length we got within 
 gunshot. The American masters were now ordered be- 
 low, the hatches were clapped on, and the word passed 
 to see all clear. Our shot was by this time flying over and 
 over her, and it was evident she was not a man-of-war. 
 We peppered away she could not even be a privateer; 
 we were close under her lee quarter, and yet she had never 
 
68 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 fired a shot ; and her large swaggering Yankee ensign was 
 now run up to the peak, only to be hauled down the next 
 moment. Hurrah I a large cotton-ship from Charlestown 
 to Bordeaux prize to H.M.S. Torch! 
 
 She was taken possession of, and proved to be the 
 Natches, of four hundred tons burden, fully loaded with 
 cotton. 
 
 By the time we got the crew on board, and the second- 
 lieutenant, with a prize crew of fifteen men, had taken 
 charge, the weather began to lour again, nevertheless 
 we took the prize in tow, and continued on our voyage for 
 the next three days, without anything particular happen- 
 ing. It was the middle watch, and I was sound asleep, 
 when I was startled by a violent jerking of my hammock, 
 and a cry " that the brig was amongst the breakers." I 
 ran on deck in my shirt, where I found all hands, and a 
 scene of confusion such as I never had witnessed before. 
 The gale had increased, yet the prize had not been cast 
 off, and the consequence was, that by some mismanage- 
 ment or carelessness, the swag of the large ship had sud- 
 denly hove the brig in the wind, and taken the sails aback. 
 We accordingly fetched stern way, and ran foul of the 
 prize, and there we were, in a heavy sea, with our stern 
 grinding against the cotton-ship's high quarter. 
 
 The mainboom, by the first rasp that took place after 
 I came on deck, was broken short off, and nearly twelve 
 feet of it hove right in over the taffrail ; the vessels then 
 closed, and the next rub ground off the ship's mizzen chan- 
 nel as clean as if it had been sawed away. Officers shout- 
 ing, men swearing, rigging cracking, the vessels crashing 
 and thumping together, I thought we were gone, when the 
 first lieutenant seized his trumpet "Silence, men; hold 
 your tongues, you cowards, and mind the word of com- 
 mand!" 
 
 The effect was magical. " Brace round the fore- 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 69 
 
 yard round with it ; set the jib that's it fore-top- 
 mast staysail haul never mind if the gale takes it 
 out of the bolt-rope " a thundering flap, and away it 
 flew in truth down to leeward, like a puff of white smoke. 
 
 " Never mind, men, the jib stands. Belay all that 
 down with the helm, now don't you see she has stern 
 way yet? Zounds! we shall be smashed to atoms if you 
 don't mind your hands, you lubbers main-topsail sheets 
 let fly there she pays off, and has headway once more 
 
 that's it : right your helm, now never mind his 
 spanker-boom, the fore-stay will stand it: there up 
 with helm, sir we have cleared him hurrah !" And 
 a near thing it was too, but we soon had everything snug; 
 and although the gale continued without any intermission 
 for ten days, at length we ran in and anchored with our 
 prize in Five-Fathom Hole, off the entrance to St. 
 George's Harbour. 
 
 It was lucky for us that we got to anchor at the time 
 we did, for that same afternoon one of the most tremen- 
 dous gales of wind from the westward came on that I 
 ever saw. Fortunately it was steady and did not veer 
 about, and having good ground-tackle down, we rode it 
 out well enough. The effect was very uncommon; the 
 wind was howling over our mast-heads, and amongst the 
 cedar bushes on the cliffs above, while on deck it was 
 nearly calm, and there was very little swell, being a weath- 
 er shore; but half a mile out at sea all was white foam, 
 and the tumbling waves seemed to meet from north and 
 south, leaving a space of smooth water under the lee of 
 the island, shaped like the tail of a comet, tapering away, 
 and gradually roughening and becoming more stormy, 
 until the roaring billows once more owned allegiance to 
 the genius of the storm. 
 
 There we rode, with three anchors ahead, in safety 
 through the night; and next day, availing of a temporary 
 
70 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 lull, we ran up and anchored off the Tanks. Three days 
 after this, the American frigate President was brought in 
 by the Endymion and the rest of the squadron. 
 
 I went on board, in common with every officer in the 
 fleet, and certainly I never saw a more superb vessel; her 
 scantling was that of a seventy-four, and she appeared to 
 have been fitted with great care. I got a week's leave at 
 this time, and, as I had letters to several families, I con- 
 trived to spend my time pleasantly enough. 
 
 Bermuda, as all the world knows, is a cluster of islands 
 in the middle of the Atlantic. There are Lord knows how 
 many of them, but the beauty of the little straits and 
 creeks which divide them no man can describe who has 
 not seen them. The town of St. George's, for instance, 
 looks as if the houses were cut out of chalk; and one eve- 
 ning the family where I was on a visit proceeded to the 
 main island, Hamilton, to attend a ball there. We had 
 to cross three ferries, although the distance was not above 
 nine miles, if so far. The 'Mudian women are unques- 
 tionably beautiful so thought Thomas Moore, a tol- 
 erable judge, before me. By the by, touching this 
 'Mudian ball, it was a very gay affair the women pleas- 
 ant and beautiful; but all the men, when they speak, or 
 are spoken to, shut one eye and spit; a lucid and suc- 
 cinct description of a community. 
 
 The second day of my sojourn was fine the first fine 
 day since our arrival and with several young ladies 
 of the family, I was prowling through the cedar wood 
 above St. George's, when a dark good-looking man 
 passed us; he was dressed in tight worsted net pantaloons 
 and Hessian boots, and wore a blue frockcoat and two 
 large epaulets, with rich French bullion, and a round hat. 
 On passing, he touched his hat with much grace, and in 
 the evening I met him in society. It was Commodore 
 Decatur. He was very much a Frenchman in manner, or, 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 71 
 
 I should rather say, in look, for although very well bred, 
 he, for one ingredient, by no means possessed a French- 
 man's volubility; still, he was an exceedingly agreeable 
 and very handsome man. 
 
 The following day we spent in a pleasure cruise 
 amongst the three hundred and sixty-five islands, many 
 of them not above an acre in extent fancy an island of 
 an acre in extent ! with a solitary house, a small garden, 
 a red-skinned family, a piggery, and all around clear deep 
 pellucid water. None of the islands, or islets, rise to any 
 great height, but they all shoot precipitously out of the 
 water, as if the whole group had originally been one huge 
 platform of rock, with numberless grooves subsequently 
 chiselled out in it by art. 
 
 We had to wind our way amongst these manifold small 
 channels for two hours, before we reached the gentle- 
 man's house where we had been invited to dine; at length, 
 on turning a corner, with both lateen sails drawing beau- 
 tifully, we ran bump on a shoal; there was no danger, and 
 knowing that the 'Mudians were capital sailors, I sat 
 
 still. Not so Captain K , a round plump little homo, 
 
 " Shove her off, my boys, shove her off." She would 
 not move, and thereupon he, in a fever of gallantry, 
 jumped overboard up to the waist in full fig; and one of 
 the men following his example, we were soon afloat. The 
 ladies applauded, and the captain sat in his wet breeks 
 for the rest of the voyage, in all the consciousness of 
 being considered a hero. Ducks and onions are the grand 
 staple of Bermuda, but there was a fearful dearth of both 
 at the time I speak of a knot of young West India 
 merchants, who, with heavy purses and large credits on 
 England, had at this time domiciled themselves in St. 
 George's, to batten on the spoils of poor Jonathan, hav- 
 ing monopolised all the good things of the place. I hap- 
 pened to be acquainted with one of them, and thereby 
 
72 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 had less reason to complain; but many a poor fellow, 
 sent ashore on duty, had to put up with but Lenten fare 
 at the taverns. At length, having refitted, we sailed in 
 company with the Rayo frigate, with a convoy of three 
 transports, freighted with a regiment for New Orleans, 
 and several merchantmen for the West Indies. 
 
 "The still vexed Bermoothes" I arrived at them 
 in a gale of wind, and I sailed from them in a gale of 
 wind. What the climate may be in the summer I don't 
 know; but during the time I was there it was one storm 
 after another. 
 
 We sailed in the evening with the moon at full, and 
 the wind at west-north-west. So soon as we got from 
 under the lee of the land the breeze struck us, and 
 it came on to blow like thunder, so that we were all soon 
 reduced to our storm staysails ; and there we were, trans- 
 ports, merchantmen, and men-of-war, rising on the moun- 
 tainous billows one moment, and the next losing sight of 
 everything but the water and sky in the deep trough of 
 the sea, while the seething foam -was blown over us in 
 showers from the curling manes of the roaring waves. 
 But overhead, all this while, it was as clear as a lovely 
 winter moon could make it, and the stars shone brightly 
 in the deep blue sky; there was not even a thin fleecy shred 
 of cloud racking across the moon's disc. Oh, the glories 
 of a northwester ! 
 
 But the devil seize such glory ! Glory, indeed ! with a 
 fleet of transports, and a regiment of soldiers on board ! 
 Glory ! why, I daresay five hundred rank and file, at the 
 fewest, were all cascading at one and the same moment, 
 a thousand poor fellows turned outside in, like so many 
 pairs of old stockings. Any glory in that? But to 
 proceed. 
 
 Next morning the gale still continued, and when the 
 day broke there was the frigate standing across our bows, 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE TORCH 73 
 
 rolling and pitching, as she tore her way through the 
 boiling sea, under a close-reefed main-topsail and reefed 
 foresail, with top-gallant-yards and royal masts, and 
 everything that could be struck with safety in war-time, 
 down on deck. There she lay, with her clear black bends, 
 and bright white streak, and long tier of cannon on the 
 maindeck, and the carronades on the quarterdeck and 
 forecastle grinning through the ports in the black bul- 
 warks, while the white hammocks, carefully covered by 
 the hammock-cloths, crowned the defences of the gallant 
 frigate fore and aft, as she delved through the green 
 surge one minute rolling and rising on the curling 
 white crest of a mountainous sea, amidst a hissing snow- 
 storm of spray, with her bright copper glancing from 
 stem to stern, and her scanty white canvas swelling aloft, 
 and twenty feet of her keel forward occasionally hove 
 into the air and clean out of the water, as if she had been 
 a sea-bird rushing to take wing and the next, sinking 
 entirely out of sight hull, masts, and rigging behind 
 an intervening sea, that rose in hoarse thunder between 
 us, threatening to overwhelm both us and her. As for 
 the transports, the largest of the three had lost her fore- 
 topmast, and had bore up under her foresail ; another was 
 also scudding under a close-reefed fore-topsail; but the 
 third or head-quarter ship was still lying to windward, 
 under her storm staysails. None of the merchant vessels 
 were to be seen, having been compelled to bear up in the 
 night, and to run before it under bare poles. 
 
 At length, as the sun rose, we got before the wind, 
 and it soon moderated so far that we could carry reefed 
 topsails and oresail; and away we all bowled, with a 
 clear, deep, cold, blue sky, and a bright sun overhead, 
 and a stormy leaden-coloured ocean with whitish green^ 
 crested billows, below. The sea continued to go down, 
 and the wind to slacken, until the afternoon, when the 
 
74 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 commodore made the signal for the Torch to send a 
 boat's crew, the instant it could be done with safety, on 
 board the dismasted ship to assist in repairing damages 
 and in getting up a jury-foretopmast. 
 
 The damaged ship was at this time on our weather- 
 quarter; we accordingly handed the fore-topsail, and pres- 
 ently she was alongside. We hailed her, that we intended 
 to send a boat on board, and desired her to heave-to, as 
 we did, and presently she rounded to under our lee. One 
 of the quarter-boats was manned, with three of the car- 
 penter's crew, and six good men over and above her com- 
 plement; but it was no easy matter to get on board of her, 
 let me tell you, after she had been lowered, carefully 
 watching the rolls, with four hands in. The moment she 
 touched the water, the tackles were cleverly unhooked, 
 and the rest of us tumbled on board, shin leather grow- 
 ing scarce, when we shoved off. With great difficulty, 
 and not without wet jackets, we, the supernumeraries, got 
 on board, and the boat returned to the Torch. The eve- 
 ning when we landed in the lobster-box, as Jack loves to 
 designate a transport, was too far advanced for us to do 
 anything towards refitting that night; and the confusion 
 and uproar and numberless abominations of the crowded 
 craft, were irksome to a greater degree than I expected, 
 after having been accustomed to the strict and orderly 
 discipline of a man-of-war. The following forenoon the 
 Torch was ordered by signal to chase in the south-east 
 quarter, and, hauling out from the fleet, she was soon out 
 of sight. 
 
THE MERCHANTMAN AND THE PIRATE 
 From "Hard Cash," BY CHARLES READE 
 
 NORTH Latitude 23^, Longitude East 113; the 
 time March of this same year; the wind southerly; 
 the port Whampoa in the Canton River. Ships at 
 anchor reared their tall masts here and there; and the 
 broad stream was enlivened and colored by junks and 
 boats of all sizes and vivid hues, propelled on the screw 
 principle by a great scull at the stern, with projecting 
 handles for the crew to work; and at times a gorgeous 
 mandarin boat, with two great glaring eyes set in the bows, 
 came flying, rowed with forty paddles by an armed crew, 
 whose shields hung on the gunwale and flashed fire in the 
 sunbeams; the mandarin, in conical and buttoned hat, sit- 
 ting on the top of his cabin calmly smoking Paradise, alias 
 opium, while his gong boomed and his boat flew fourteen 
 miles an hour, and all things scuttled out of his celestial 
 way. And there, looking majestically down on all these 
 water ants, the huge Agra, cynosure of so many loving 
 eyes and loving hearts in England, lay at her moorings ; 
 homeward bound. 
 
 Her tea not being yet on board, the ship's hull floated 
 high as a castle, and to the subtle, intellectual, doll-faced, 
 bolus-eyed people, that sculled to and fro, busy as bees, 
 though looking forked mushrooms, she sounded like a vast 
 musical shell : for a lusty harmony of many mellow voices 
 vibrated in her great cavities, and made the air ring cheer- 
 ily around her. The vocalists were the Cyclops, to judge 
 by the tremendous thumps that kept clean time to their 
 sturdy tune. Yet it was but human labor, so heavy and 
 
 75 
 
76 
 
 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 so knowing, that it had called in music to help. It was 
 the third mate and his gang completing his floor to receive 
 the coming tea chests. Yesterday he had stowed his dun- 
 nage, many hundred bundles of light flexible canes from 
 Sumatra and Malacca; on these he had laid tons of rough 
 saltpetre, in 200 Ib. gunny-bags : and was now mashing it 
 to music, bags and all. His gang of fifteen, naked to the 
 waist, stood in line, with huge wooden beetles, called com- 
 manders, and lifted them high and brought them down 
 on the nitre in cadence with true nautical power and unison, 
 singing as follows, with ponderous bump on the last note 
 in each bar: 
 
 3 
 
 
 Here goes one, Owe, jiie theVe one; 
 
 One now it is gone, There's an roth- cr yet to 
 
 L 
 
 J, 
 
 come, and a,- way we'll go to Flanders, AN- 
 
 mongst our wood-en commanders, where we'll get wine In 
 
 /^ 
 
 pjen - ty, Bum, bran - dy, and Ge na - vy. 
 Here-goea two. Owe me there two, c, 
 
 And so up to fifteen, when the stave was concluded with 
 a shrill "Spell, oh!" and the gang relieved streaming with 
 
MERCHANTMAN AND THE PIRATE 77 
 
 perspiration. When the saltpetre was well mashed, they 
 rolled ton waterbutts on it, till the floor was like a billiard 
 table. A fleet of chop boats then began to arrive, so many 
 per day, with the tea chests. Mr. Grey proceeded to lay 
 the first tier on his saltpetre floor, and then built the 
 chests, tier upon tier, beginning at the sides, and leaving 
 in the middle a lane somewhat narrower than a tea chest. 
 Then he applied a screw jack to the chests on both sides, 
 and so enlarged his central aperture, and forced the re- 
 maining tea chests in; and behold the enormous cargo 
 packed as tight as ever shopkeeper packed a box 19,806 
 chests, 60 half chests, 50 quarter chests. 
 
 While Mr. Grey was contemplating his work with sin- 
 gular satisfaction, a small boat from Canton came along- 
 side, and Mr. Tickell, midshipman, ran up the side, 
 skipped on the quarter-deck, saluted it first, and then the 
 first mate; and gave him a line from the captain, desiring 
 him to take the ship down to Second Bar for her water 
 at the turn of the tide. 
 
 Two hours after receipt of this order the ship swung 
 to the ebb. Instantly Mr. Sharpe unmoored, and the 
 Agra began her famous voyage, with her head at right 
 angles to her course; for the wind being foul, all Sharpe 
 could do was to set his topsails, driver, and jib, and keep 
 her in the tide way, and clear of the numerous craft, by 
 backing or filling as the case required; which he did with 
 considerable dexterity, making the sails steer the helm for 
 the nonce: he crossed the Bar at sunset, and brought to 
 with the best bower anchor in five fathoms and a half. 
 Here they began to take in their water, and on the fifth 
 
 lay the six-oared gig was ordered up to Canton for the 
 captain. The next afternoon he passed the ship in her, 
 going down the river, to Lin Tin, to board the Chinese 
 
 idmiral for his chop, or permission to leave China. All 
 night the Agra showed three lights at her mizzen peak for 
 
78 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 him, and kept a sharp lookout. But he did not come : he 
 was having a very serious talk with the Chinese admiral; 
 at daybreak, however, the gig was reported in sight: 
 Sharpe told one of the midshipmen to call the boatswain 
 and man the side. Soon the gig ran alongside; two of 
 the ship's boys jumped like monkeys over the bulwarks, 
 lighting, one on the main channels, the other on the mid- 
 ship port, and put the side ropes assiduously in the captain's 
 hands; he bestowed a slight paternal smile on them, the 
 first the imps had ever received from an officer, and went 
 lightly up the sides. The moment his foot touched the 
 deck, the boatswain gave a frightful shrill whistle; the 
 men at the sides uncovered, the captain saluted the quar- 
 ter-deck, and all the officers saluted him, which he returned, 
 and stepping for a moment to the weather side of his deck, 
 gave the loud command, " All hands heave anchor." He 
 then directed Mr. Sharpe to get what sail he could on the 
 ship, the wind being now westerly, and dived into his 
 cabin. 
 
 The boatswain piped three shrill pipes, and " All hands 
 up anchor " was thrice repeateoV forward, followed by 
 private admonitions, " Rouse and bitt! " Show a leg! " 
 etc., and up tumbled the crew with " homeward bound " 
 written on their tanned faces. 
 
 (Pipe.) "Up all hammocks!" 
 
 In ten minutes the ninety and odd hammocks were all 
 stowed neatly in the netting, and covered with a snowy 
 hammock cloth; and the hands were active, unbitting the 
 cable, shipping the capstan bars, etc. 
 
 "All ready below, sir," cried a voice. 
 
 "Man the bars," returned Mr. Sharpe from the 
 quarter-deck. "Play up, fifer. Heave away!" 
 
 Out broke the merry fife with a rhythmical tune, and 
 tramp, tramp, tramp went a hundred and twenty feet 
 round and round, and, with brawny chests pressed tight 
 
MERCHANTMAN AND THE PIRATE 79 
 
 against the capstan bars, sixty fine fellows walked the ship 
 up to her anchor, drowning the fife at intervals with their 
 sturdy song, as pat to their feet as an echo : 
 
 Heave with a will ye jolly boys, 
 
 Heave around: 
 We're off from Chainee, jolly boys, 
 
 Homeward bound. 
 
 " Short stay apeak, sir," roars the boatswain from for- 
 ward. 
 
 " Unship the bars. Way aloft. Loose sails. Let 
 fall!" 
 
 The ship being now over her anchor, and the top- 
 sails set, the capstan bars were shipped again, the men 
 all heaved with a will, the messenger grinned, the anchor 
 was torn out of China with a mighty heave, and then run 
 up with a luff tackle and secured; the ship's head cast to 
 port: 
 
 " Up with a jib ! man the topsail halyards ! all hands 
 make sail! " Round she came slow and majestically; the 
 sails filled, and the good ship bore away for England. 
 
 She made the Bogue forts in three or four tacks, and 
 there she had to come to again for another chop, China 
 being a place as hard to get into as Heaven, and to get 
 out of as Chancery. At three P. M. she was at Macao, 
 and hove to four miles from the land, to take in her passen- 
 gers. 
 
 A gun was fired from the forecastle. No boats came 
 off. Sharpe began to fret: for the wind, though light, 
 had now got to the N.W., and they were wasting it. After 
 a while the captain came on deck, and ordered all the car- 
 ronades to be scaled. The eight heavy reports bellowed 
 the great ship's impatience across the water, and out 
 pulled two boats with the passengers. While they were 
 coming, Dodd sent and ordered the gunner to load the 
 carronades with shot, and secure and apron them. . . . 
 
80 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 The Agra had already shown great sailing qualities : the 
 log was hove at sundown and gave eleven knots; so that 
 with a good breeze abaft few fore-and-aft-rigged pirates 
 could overhaul her. And this wind carried her swiftly 
 past one nest of them at all events ; the Ladrone Isles. At 
 nine P. M. all the lights were ordered out. Mrs. Beresford 
 had brought a novel on board, and refused to comply; the 
 master-at-arms insisted; she threatened him with the ven- 
 geance of the Company, the premier, and the nobility and 
 gentry of the British realm. The master-at-arms, finding 
 he had no chance in argument, doused the glim pitiable 
 resource of a weak disputant then basely fled the rhet- 
 orical consequences. 
 
 The northerly breeze died out, and light variable winds 
 baffled the ship. It was the 6th April ere she passed the 
 Macclesfield Bank in latitude 16. And now they sailed 
 for many days out of sight of land; Dodd's chest expand- 
 ed : his main anxiety at this part of the voyage lay in the 
 state cabin; of all the perils of the sea none shakes a sailor 
 like fire. He set a watch day and night on that spoiled 
 child. 
 
 On the ist of May they passed the great Nantuna, and 
 got among the Bornese and Malay Islands : at which the 
 captain's glass began to sweep the horizon again: and 
 night and day at the dizzy foretop-gallant-masthead he 
 perched an eye. 
 
 They crossed the line in longitude 107, with a slight 
 breeze, but soon fell into the Dolddrums. A dead calm, 
 and nothing to do but kill time. . . . 
 
 After lying a week like a dead log on the calm but 
 heaving waters came a few light puffs in the upper air and 
 inflated the topsails only: the ship crawled southward, the 
 crew whistling for wind. 
 
 At last, one afternoon, it began to rain, and after the 
 
MERCHANTMAN AND THE PIRATE 81 
 
 rain came a gale from the eastward. The watchful skip- 
 per saw it purple the water to windward, and ordered the 
 topsails to be reefed and the lee ports closed. This last 
 order seemed an excess of precaution; but Dodd was not 
 yet thoroughly acquainted with his ship's qualities: and 
 the hard cash round his neck made him cautious. The lee 
 ports were closed, all but one, and that was lowered. Mr. 
 Grey was working a problem in his cabin, and wanted a 
 little light and a little air, so he just dropped his port; 
 but, not to deviate from the spirit of his captain's instruc- 
 tions, he fastened a tackle to it ; that he might have mechan- 
 ical force to close it with should the ship lie over. 
 
 Down came the gale with a whoo, and made all crack. 
 The ship lay over pretty much, and the sea poured in at 
 Mr. Grey's port. He applied his purchase to close it. 
 But though his tackle gave him the force of a dozen hands, 
 he might as well have tried to move a mountain: on the 
 contrary, the tremendous sea rushed in and burst the port 
 wide open. Grey, after a vain struggle with its might, 
 shrieked for help; down tumbled the nearest hands, and 
 hauled on the tackle in vain. Destruction was rushing on 
 the ship, and on them first. But meantime the captain, 
 with a shrewd guess at the general nature of the danger 
 he could not see, had roared out, " Slack the main sheet! " 
 The ship righted, and the port came flying to, and terror- 
 stricken men breathed hard, up to their waists in water and 
 floating boxes. Grey barred the unlucky port, and went 
 aft, drenched in body, and wrecked in mind, to report his 
 own fault. He found the captain looking grim as death. 
 He told him, almost crying, what he had done, and how 
 he had miscalculated the power of the water. 
 
 Dodd looked and saw his distress. " Let it be a lesson 
 sir," said he, sternly. "How many ships have been lost by 
 this in fair weather, and not a man saved to tell how the 
 craft was fooled away?" 
 
82 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 "Captain, bid me fling myself over the side, and I'll 
 do it." 
 
 "Humph! I'm afraid I can't afford to lose a good 
 officer for a fault he will never repeat." 
 
 It blew hard all night and till twelve the next day. The 
 Agra showed her weak point : she rolled abominably. A 
 dirty night came on. At eight bells Mr. Grey touched by 
 Dodd's clemency, and brimful of zeal, reported a light in 
 Mrs. Beresford's cabin. It had been put out as usual by 
 the master-at-arms ; but the refractory one had relighted it. 
 
 " Go and take it away," said Dodd. 
 
 Soon screams were heard from the cabin. " Oh! mercy! 
 mercy! I will not be drowned in the dark." 
 
 Dodd, who had kept clear of her so long, went down 
 and tried to reassure her. 
 
 " Oh, the tempest! the tempest!" she cried. " AND TO 
 
 BE DROWNED IN THE DARK ! " 
 
 "Tempest? It is blowing half a gale of wind; that 
 is all." 
 
 u Half a gale! Ah, that is the way you always talk to 
 us ladies. Oh, pray give me my light, and send me a 
 clergyman ! " 
 
 Dodd took pity, and let her have her light, with a mid- 
 shipman to watch it. He even made her a hypocritical 
 promise that, should there be one grain of danger, he 
 would lie to; but said he must not make a foul wind 
 of a fair one for a few lurches. The Agra broke plenty 
 of glass and crockery though with her fair wind and her 
 lee lurches. 
 
 Wind down at noon next day, and a dead calm. 
 
 At two P.M. the weather cleared; the sun came out high 
 in heaven's centre ; and a balmy breeze from the west. 
 
 At six twenty-five, the grand orb set calm and red, and 
 the sea was gorgeous with miles and miles of great ruby 
 dimples : it was the first glowing smile of southern latitude. 
 
MERCHANTMAN AND THE PIRATE 83 
 
 The night stole on so soft, so clear, so balmy, all were 
 loth to close their eyes on it : the passengers lingered long 
 on deck, watching the Great Bear dip, and the Southern 
 Cross rise, and overhead a whole heaven of glorious stars 
 most of us have never seen, and never shall see in this 
 world. No belching smoke obscured, no plunging paddles 
 deafened; all was musical; the soft air sighing among the 
 sails; the phosphorescent water bubbling from the ship's 
 bows; the murmurs from little knots of men on deck sub- 
 dued by the great calm: home seemed near, all danger 
 far ; Peace ruled the sea, the sky, the heart : the ship, mak- 
 ing a track of white fire on the deep, glided gently yet 
 swiftly homeward, urged by snowy sails piled up like ala- 
 baster towers against a violet sky, out of which looked a 
 thousand eyes of holy tranquil fire. So melted the sweet 
 night away. 
 
 Now carmine streaks tinged the eastern sky at the 
 water's edge: and that water blushed; now the streaks 
 turned orange, and the waves below them sparkled. 
 Thence splashes of living gold flew and settled on the 
 ship's white sails, the deck, and the faces; and with no more 
 prologue, being so near the line, up came majestically a 
 huge, fiery, golden sun, and set the sea flaming liquid 
 topaz. 
 
 Instantly the lookout at the foretop-gallant-masthead 
 hailed the deck below. 
 
 "STRANGE SAIL! RIGHT AHEAD!" 
 
 The strange sail was reported to Captain Dodd, then 
 dressing in his cabin. He came soon after on deck and 
 hailed the lookout: " Which way is she standing? " 
 " Can't say, sir. Can't see her move any." 
 Dodd ordered the boatswain to pipe to breakfast; and 
 taking his deck glass went lightly up to the foretop-gallant- 
 
84 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 mast-crosstrees. Thence, through the light haze of a 
 glorious morning, he espied a long low schooner, lateen- 
 rigged, lying close under Point Leat, a small island about 
 nine miles distant on the weather bow; and nearly in the 
 Agra's course then approaching the Straits of Caspar, 4 
 Latitude S. 
 
 " She is hove to," said Dodd, very gravely. 
 
 At eight o'clock, the stranger lay about two miles to 
 windward; and still hove to. 
 
 By this time all eyes were turned upon her, and half a 
 dozen glasses. Everybody, except the captain, delivered 
 an opinion. She was a Greek lying to for water : she was 
 a Malay coming north with canes, and short of hands: 
 she was a pirate watching the Straits. 
 
 The captain leaned silent and sombre with his arms on 
 the bulwarks, and watched the suspected craft. 
 
 Mr. Fullalove joined the group, and levelled a powerful 
 glass, of his own construction. His inspection was long 
 and minute, and, while the glass was at his eye, Sharpe 
 asked him half in a whisper, could he make out anything? 
 
 ;< Wai," said he, " the varmint looks considerably 
 snaky." Then, without moving his glass, he let drop a 
 word at a time, as if the facts were trickling into his tele- 
 scope at the lens, and out at the sight. " One two 
 four seven, false ports." 
 
 There was a momentary murmur among the officers all 
 round. But British sailors are undemonstrative: Colonel 
 Kenealy, strolling the deck with a cigar, saw they were 
 watching another ship with maritime curiosity, and making 
 comments; but he discerned no particular emotion nor 
 anxiety in what they said, nor in the grave low tones they 
 said it in. Perhaps a brother seaman would though. 
 
 The next observation that trickled out of Fullalove's 
 tube was this: " I judge there are too few hands on deck, 
 
MERCHANTMAN AND THE PIRATE 85 
 
 and too many white eyeballs glittering at the 
 portholes." 
 
 " Confound it! " muttered Bayliss, uneasily; " how can 
 you see that? " 
 
 Fullalove replied only by quietly handing his glass to 
 Dodd. The captain, thus appealed to, glued his eye to 
 the tube. 
 
 ;t Well, sir; see the false ports, and the white eye- 
 brows? " asked Sharpe, ironically. 
 
 " I see this is the best glass I ever looked through," said 
 Dodd doggedly, without interrupting 'his inspection. 
 
 "I think he is a Malay pirate," said Mr. Grey. 
 
 Sharpe took him up very quickly, and, indeed, angrily : 
 " Nonsense ! And if he is, he won't venture on a craft of 
 this size." 
 
 " Says the whale to the swordfish," suggested Fullalove, 
 with a little guttural laugh. 
 
 The captain, with the American glass at his eye, turned 
 half round to the man at the wheel : " Starboard !" 
 
 " Starboard it is." 
 
 "Steer South South East." 
 
 " Ay, ay, sir." And the ship's course was thus altered 
 two points. 
 
 This order lowered Dodd fifty per cent in Mr. Sharpens 
 estimation. He held his tongue as long as he could: but 
 at last his surprise and dissatisfaction burst out of him, 
 ;< Won't that bring him out on us?" 
 4 Very likely, sir," replied Dodd. 
 
 "Begging your pardon, captain, would it not be wiser 
 to keep our course, and show the blackguard we don't fear 
 him?" 
 
 "When we do? Sharpe, he has made up his mind an 
 hour ago whether to lie still, or bite; my changing my 
 course two points won't change his mind; but it may make 
 
86 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 him declare it; and 7 must know what he does intend, be- 
 fore I run the ship into the narrows ahead." 
 
 " Oh, I see," said Sharpe, half convinced. 
 
 The alteration in the Agra? s course produced no move- 
 ment on the part of the mysterious schooner. She lay to 
 under the land still, and with only a few hands on deck, 
 while the Agra edged away from her and entered the 
 straits between Long Island and Point Leat, leaving the 
 schooner about two miles and a half distant to the N.W. 
 
 Ah ! The stranger's deck swarms black with men. 
 
 His sham ports fell as if by magic, his guns grinned 
 through the gaps like black teeth; his huge foresail rose 
 and filled, and out he came in chase. 
 
 The breeze was a kiss from Heaven, the sky a vaulted 
 sapphire, the sea a million dimples of liquid, lucid, 
 gold. .... 
 
 The way the pirate dropped the mask, showed his black 
 teeth, and bore up in chase, was terrible: so dilates and 
 bounds the sudden tiger on his unwary prey. There were 
 stout hearts among the officers of the peaceful Agra; but 
 danger in a new form shakes the brave ; and this was their 
 first pirate: their dismay broke out in ejaculations not loud 
 but deep. . . . 
 
 " Sharpe," said Dodd, in a tone that conveyed no sus- 
 picion of the newcomer, "set the royals, and flying jib. 
 Port!" 
 
 " Port it is," cried the man at the helm. 
 
 "Steer due South!" And, with these words in his 
 mouth, Dodd dived to the gun deck. 
 
 By this time elastic Sharpe had recovered the first shock ; 
 and the order to crowd sail on the ship galled his pride 
 and his manhood; he muttered, indignantly, " The white 
 
MERCHANTMAN AND THE PIRATE 87 
 
 feather!" This eased his mind, and he obeyed orders 
 briskly as ever. While he and his hands were setting every 
 rag the ship could carry on that tack, the other officers, 
 having unluckily no orders to execute, stood gloomy and 
 helpless, with their eyes glued, by a sort of sombre fasci- 
 nation, on that coming fate. . . . 
 
 Realize the situation, and the strange incongruity be- 
 tween the senses and the mind in these poor fellows ! The 
 day had ripened its beauty ; beneath a purple heaven shone, 
 sparkled, and laughed a blue sea, in whose waves the trop- 
 ical sun seemed to have fused his beams; and beneath that 
 fair, sinless, peaceful sky, wafted by a balmy breeze over 
 those smiling, transparent, golden waves, a bloodthirsty 
 Pirate bore down on them with a crew of human tigers; 
 and a lady babble babble babble babble babble babble 
 babbled in their quivering ears. 
 
 But now the captain came bustling on deck, eyed the 
 loftier sails, saw they were drawing well, appointed four 
 midshipmen in a staff to convey his orders; gave Bayliss 
 charge of the carronades, Grey of the cutlasses, and direct- 
 ed Mr. Tickell to break the bad news gently to Mrs. 
 Beresford, and to take her below to the orlop deck; order- 
 ed the purser to serve out beef, biscuit, and grog to all 
 hands, saying, "Men can't work on an empty stomach: 
 and fighting is hard work;" then beckoned the officers to 
 come round him. "Gentlemen," said he, confidentially, 
 " in crowding sail on this ship I had no hope of escaping 
 that fellow on this tack, but I was, and am, most anxious 
 to gain the open sea, where I can square my yards and run 
 for it, if I see a chance. At present I shall carry on till 
 he comes up within range: and then, to keep the Com- 
 pany's canvas from being shot to rags, I shall shorten sail; 
 and to save ship and cargo and all our lives, I shall fight 
 while a plank of her swims. Better to be killed in hot 
 blood than walk the plank in cold." 
 
88 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 The officers cheered faintly: the captain's dogged res- 
 olution stirred up theirs. . . . 
 
 " Shorten sail to the taupsles and jib, get the colors 
 ready on the halyards, and then send the men aft. . ; ., . " 
 
 Sail was no sooner shortened, and the crew ranged, than 
 the captain came briskly on deck, saluted, jumped on a 
 carronade, and stood erect. He was not the man to show 
 the crew his forebodings. 
 
 (Pipe.) "Silence fore and aft." 
 
 " My men, the schooner coming up on our weather 
 quarter is a Portuguese pirate. His character is known; 
 he scuttles all the ships he boards, dishonors the women, 
 and murders the crew. We cracked on to get out of the 
 narrows, and now we have shortened sail to fight this 
 blackguard, and teach him not to molest a British ship. 
 I promise, in the Company's name, twenty pounds prize 
 money to every man before the mast if we beat him off or 
 out manoeuvre him; thirty if we sink him; and forty if we 
 tow him astern into a friendly port. Eight guns are clear 
 below, three on the weather side, five on the lee; for, if 
 he knows his business, he will come up on the lee quarter: 
 if he doesn't, that is no fault of yours nor mine. The mus- 
 kets are all loaded, the cutlasses ground like razors " 
 
 "Hurrah!" 
 
 " We have got women to defend " 
 
 "Hurrah!" 
 
 "A good ship under our feet, the God of justice over- 
 head, British hearts in our bosoms, and British colors fly- 
 ing run 'em up! over our heads." (The ship's 
 colors flew up to the fore, and the Union Jack to the miz- 
 zen peak.) " Now lads, I mean to fight this ship while a 
 plank of her (stamping on the deck) swims beneath my 
 foot and WHAT DO YOU SAY? " 
 
MERCHANTMAN AND THE PIRATE 89 
 
 The reply was a fierce " hurrah ! " from a hundred 
 throats, so loud, so deep, so full of volume, it made the 
 ship vibrate, and rang in the creeping-on pirate's ears. 
 Fierce, but cunning, he saw mischief in those shortened 
 sails, and that Union Jack, the terror of his tribe, rising 
 to a British cheer; he lowered his mainsail, and crawled 
 up on the weather quarter. Arrived within a cable's 
 length, he double reefed his foresail to reduce his rate of 
 sailing nearly to that of the ship ; and the next moment a 
 tongue of flame, and then a gash of smoke, issued from his 
 lee bow, and the ball flew screaming like a seagull over 
 the Agra* s mizzen top. He then put his helm up, and 
 fired his other bow-chaser, and sent the shot hissing and 
 skipping on the water past the ship. This prologue made 
 the novices wince. Bayliss wanted to reply with a carron- 
 ade; but Dodd forbade him sternly, saying, " If we keep 
 him aloof we are done for." 
 
 The pirate drew nearer, and fired both guns in suc- 
 cession, hulled the Agra amidships, and sent an eighteen 
 pound ball through her foresail. Most of the faces were 
 pale on the quarter-deck ; it was very trying to be shot at, 
 and hit, and make no return. The next double discharge 
 sent one shot smash through the stern cabin window, and 
 splintered the bulwark with another, wounding a seaman 
 slightly. 
 
 " LIE DOWN FORWARD ! " shouted Dodd, through his 
 trumpet. " Bayliss, give him a shot." 
 
 The carronade was fired with a tremendous report, but 
 no visible effect. The pirate crept nearer, steering in and 
 out like a snake to avoid the carronades, and firing those 
 two heavy guns alternately into the devoted ship. He 
 hulled the Agra now nearly every shot. 
 
 The two available carronades replied noisily, and 
 jumped as usual ; they sent one thirty-two pound shot clean 
 
90 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 through the schooner's deck and side ; but that was literally 
 all they did worth speaking of. 
 
 " Curse them! " cried Dodd; " load them with grape! 
 They are not to be trusted with ball. And all my eigh- 
 teen-pounders dumb ! The coward won't come alongside 
 and give them a chance." 
 
 At the next discharge the pirate chipped the mizzen 
 mast, and knocked a sailor into dead pieces on the fore- 
 castle. Dodd put his 'helm down ere the smoke cleared, 
 and got three carronades to bear, heavily laden with 
 grape. Several pirates fell, dead or wounded, on the 
 crowded deck, and some holes appeared in the foresail; 
 this one interchange was quite in favor of the ship. 
 
 But the lesson made the enemy more cautious; he crept 
 nearer, but steered so adroitly, now right astern, now on 
 the quarter, that the ship could seldom bring more than 
 one carronade to bear, while he raked her fore and aft 
 with grape and ball. 
 
 In this alarming situation, Dodd kept as many of the 
 men below as possible ; but, for all he could do four were 
 killed and seven wounded. 
 
 Fullalove's word came too true: it was the swordfish 
 and the whale: it was a fight of hammer and anvil; one 
 hit, the other made a noise. Cautious and cruel, the pirate 
 hung on the poor hulking creature's quarters and raked her 
 at point blank distance. He made her pass a bitter time. 
 And her captain ! To see the splintering hull, the part- 
 ing shrouds, the shivered gear, and hear the shrieks and 
 groans of his wounded ; and 'he unable to reply in kind ! 
 The sweat of agony poured down his face. Oh, if he 
 could but reach the open sea, and square his yards, and 
 make a long chase of it; perhaps fall in with aid. Winc- 
 ing under each heavy blow, he crept doggedly, patiently 
 on, towards that one visible hope. 
 
 At last, when the s'hip was cloven with shot, and pep- 
 
MERCHANTMAN AND THE PIRATE 91 
 
 pered with grape, the channel opened: in five minutes 
 more he could put her dead before the wind. 
 
 No. The pirate, on whose side luck had been from the 
 first, got half a broadside to bear at long musket shot, 
 killed a midshipman by Dodd's side, cut away two of the 
 Agra's mizzen shrouds, wounded the gaff: and cut the 
 jib stay; down fell the powerful sail into the water, and 
 dragged across the ship's forefoot, stopping her way to 
 the open sea she panted for, the mates groaned; the 
 crew cheered stoutly, as British tars do in any great dis- 
 aster; the pirates yelled with ferocious triumph, like the 
 devils they looked. 
 
 But most human events, even calamities, have two sides. 
 The Agra being brought almost to a standstill, the pirate 
 forged ahead against his will, and the combat took a new 
 and terrible form. The elephant gun popped, and the 
 rifle cracked, in the Agra? s mizzen top, and the man at 
 the pirate's helm jumped into the air and fell dead : both 
 Theorists claimed him. Then the three carronades pep- 
 pered him hotly; and he hurled an iron shower back with 
 fatal effect. Then at last the long 1 8-pounders on the gun- 
 deck got a word in. The old Niler was not the man to 
 miss a vessel alongside in a quiet sea; he sent two round 
 shot clean through him; the third splintered his bulwark, 
 and swept across his deck. 
 
 " His masts! fire at his masts!" roared Dodd to 
 Monk, through his trumpet; he then got the jib clear, and 
 made what sail he could without taking all the hands from 
 the guns. 
 
 This kept the vessels nearly alongside a few minutes, 
 and the fight was hot as fire. The pirate now for the first 
 time hoisted his flag. It was black as ink. His crew yelled 
 as it rose : the Britons, instead of quailing, cheered with 
 fierce derision: the pirate's wild crew of yellow Malays, 
 black chinless Papuans, and bronzed Portuguese, served 
 
92 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 their side guns, 12-pounders, well and with ferocious cries; 
 the white Britons, drunk with battle now, naked to the 
 waist, grimed with powder, and spotted like leopards with 
 blood, their own and their mates', replied with loud un- 
 daunted cheers, and deadly hail of grape from the quarter- 
 deck; while the master gunner and his mates load- 
 ing with a rapidity the mixed races opposed could not 
 rival, hulled the schooner well between wind and water, 
 and then fired chain shot at her masts, as ordered, and be- 
 gan to play the mischief with her shrouds and rigging. 
 Meantime, Fullalove and Kenealy, aided by Vespasian, 
 who loaded, were quietly butchering the pirate crew two 
 a minute, and hoped to settle the question they were fight- 
 ing for; smooth-bore v. rifle: but unluckily neither fired 
 once without killing; so "there was nothing proven." 
 
 The pirate, bold as he was, got sick of fair fighting first ; 
 he hoisted his mainsail and drew rapidly ahead, with a 
 slight bearing to windward, and dismounted a carronade 
 and stove in the ship's quarter-boat, by way of a parting 
 kick. 
 
 The men hurled a contemptuous cheer after him; they 
 thought they had beaten him off. But Dodd knew better. 
 He was but retiring a little way to make a more deadly 
 attack than ever: he would soon wear, and cross the 
 Agra* s defenceless bows, to rake her fore and aft at pistol- 
 shot distance; or grapple, and board the enfeebled ship 
 two hundred strong. 
 
 Dodd flew to the helm, and with his own hands put it 
 hard aweather, to give the deck guns one more chance, 
 the last, of sinking or disabling the Destroyer. As the ship 
 obeyed, and a deck gun bellowed below him, he saw a 
 vessel running out from Long Island, and coming swiftly 
 up on his lee quarter. 
 
 It was a schooner. Was she coming to his aid? 
 
 Horror ! A black flag floated from her foremast head. 
 
MERCHANTMAN AND THE PIRATE 93 
 
 While DodcTs eyes were staring almost out of his head 
 at this death-blow to hope, Monk fired again ; and just then 
 a pale face came close to Dodd's, and a solemn voice whis- 
 pered in his ear: " Our ammunition is nearly done ! " 
 
 Dodd seized Sharpe's hand convulsively, and pointed 
 to the pirate's consort coming up to finish them ; and said, 
 with the calm of a brave man's despair, " Cutlesses ! and 
 lie hard!" 
 
 At that moment the master gunner fired his last gun. 
 [t sent a chain shot on board the retiring pirate, took off a 
 'ortuguese head and spun it clean into the sea ever so far 
 to windward, and cut the schooner's foremast so nearly 
 trough that it trembled and nodded, and presently 
 tapped with a loud crack, and came down like a broken 
 
 je, with the yard and sail ; the latter overlapping the deck 
 ind burying itself, black flag and all, in the sea ; and there, 
 in one moment, lay the Destroyer buffeting and wriggling 
 like a heron on the water with its long wing broken > 
 an utter cripple. 
 
 The victorious crew raised a stunning cheer. 
 
 "Silence!" roared Dodd, with his trumpet. "All 
 hands make sail !" 
 
 He set his courses, bent a new jib, and stood out to 
 windward close hauled, in hopes to make a good offing, 
 and then put his ship dead before the wind, which was now 
 rising to a stiff breeze. In doing this he crossed the crip- 
 pled pirate's bows, within eighty yards; and sore was the 
 temptation to rake him; but his ammunition being short, 
 and his danger being imminent from the other pirate, he 
 had the self-command to resist the great temptation. 
 
 He hailed the mizzen top : " Can you two hinder them 
 from firing that gun? " 
 
 " I rather think we can," said Fullalove, " eh, colonel? " 
 and tapped his long rifle. 
 
 The ship no sooner crossed the schooner's bows than 
 
94 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 a Malay ran forward with a linstock. Pop went the 
 colonel's ready carbine, and the Malay fell over dead, 
 and the linstock flew out of his hand. A tall Portuguese, 
 with a movement of rage, snatched it up, and darted to 
 the gun; the Yankee rifle cracked, but a moment too late. 
 Bang! went the pirate's bow-chaser, and crashed into the 
 Agra* s side, and passed nearly through her. 
 
 "Ye missed him! Ye missed him!" cried the rival 
 theorist, joyfully. He was mistaken: the smoke cleared, 
 and there was the pirate captain leaning wounded against 
 the mainmast with a Yankee bullet in his shoulder, and his 
 crew uttering yells of dismay and vengeance. They 
 jumped, and raged, and brandished their knives and made 
 horrid gesticulations of revenge ; and the white eyeballs of 
 the Malays and Papuans glittered fiendishly; and the 
 wounded captain raised his sound arm and had a signal 
 hoisted to his consort, and she bore up in chase, and jam- 
 ming her fore lateen flat as a board, lay far nearer the 
 wind than the Agra could, and sailed three feet to her two 
 besides. On this superiority being made clear, the situa- 
 tion of the merchant vessel, though not so utterly desper- 
 ate as before Monk fired his lucky shot, became pitiable 
 enough. If she ran before the wind, the fresh pirate 
 would cut her off : if she lay to windward, she might post- 
 pone the inevitable and fatal collision with a foe as strong 
 as that she had only escaped by a rare piece of luck; but 
 this would give the crippled pirate time to refit and unite 
 to destroy her. Add to this the failing ammunition, and 
 the thinned crew! 
 
 Dodd cast his eyes all around the horizon for help. 
 
 The sea was blank. 
 
 The bright sun was hidden now; drops of rain fell, and 
 the wind was beginning to sing; and the sea to rise a little. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said he, " let us kneel down and pray for 
 wisdom, in this sore strait." 
 
MERCHANTMAN AND THE PIRATE 95 
 
 He and his officers kneeled on the quarter-deck. When 
 they rose, Dodd stood rapt about a minute; his great 
 thoughtful eye saw no more the enemy, the sea, nor any- 
 thing external ; it was turned inward. His officers looked 
 at him in silence. 
 
 Sharpe," said he, at last, " there must be a way out 
 >f them with such a breeze as this is now; if we could but 
 it." 
 
 " Ay, */," groaned Sharpe. 
 
 Dodd mused again. 
 
 " About ship ! " said he, softly, like an absent man. 
 
 "Ay, ay, sir!" 
 
 " Steer due north ! " said he, still like one whose mind 
 was elsewhere. 
 
 While the ship was coming about, he gave minute orders 
 
 the mates and the gunner, to ensure co-operation in the 
 lelicate and dangerous manoeuvres that were sure to be on 
 land. 
 
 The wind was W.N.W. : he was standing north: one 
 >irate lay on his lee beam stopping a leak between wind 
 ind water, and hacking the deck clear of his broken masts 
 ind yards. The other fresh, and thirsting for the easy 
 >rey, came up to weather on him and hang on his quarter, 
 >irate fashion. 
 
 When they were distant about a cable's length, the fresh 
 )irate, to meet the ship's change of tactics, changed his 
 >wn, luffed up, and gave the ship a broadside, well aimed 
 mt not destructive, the guns being loaded with ball. 
 
 Dodd, instead of replying immediately, put his helm 
 lard up and ran under the pirate's stern, while he was 
 jammed up in the wind, and with his five eighteen-pound- 
 ers raked him fore and aft, then paying off, gave him three 
 carronades crammed with grape and canister; the almost 
 simultaneous discharge of eight guns made the ship trem- 
 ble, and enveloped her in thick smoke; loud shrieks and 
 
96 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 groans were heard from the schooner; the smoke cleared; 
 the pirate's mainsail hung on deck, his jib-boom was cut 
 off like a carrot and the sail struggling; his foresail looked 
 lace, lanes of dead and wounded lay still or writhing on 
 his deck and his lee scuppers ran blood into the sea. Dodd 
 squared his yards and bore away. 
 
 The ship rushed down the wind, leaving the schooner 
 staggered and all abroad. But not for long; the pirate 
 wore and fired his bow chasers at the now flying Agra, 
 split one of the carronades in two, and killed a Lascar, and 
 made a hole in the foresail; this done, he hoisted his main- 
 sail again in a trice, sent his wounded below, flung his dead 
 overboard, to the horror of their foes, and came after the 
 flying ship, yawning and firing his bow chasers. The ship 
 was silent. She had no shot to throw away. Not only did 
 she take these blows like a coward, but all signs of life 
 disappeared on her, except two men at the wheel, and the 
 captain on the main gangway. 
 
 Dodd had ordered the crew out of the rigging, armed 
 them with cutlasses, and laid them flat on the forecastle. 
 He also compelled Kenealy and Fullalove to come down 
 out of harm's way, no wiser on the smooth-bore question 
 than they went up. 
 
 The great patient ship ran environed by her foes; one 
 destroyer right in her course, another in her wake, follow- 
 ing her with yells of vengeance, and pounding away at her 
 - but no reply. 
 
 Suddenly the yells of the pirates on both sides ceased, 
 and there was a moment of dead silence on the sea. 
 
 Yet nothing fresh had happened. 
 
 Yes, this had happened: the pirates to windward, and 
 the pirates to leeward, of the Agra, had found out, at one 
 and the same moment, that the merchant captain they had 
 lashed, and bullied, and tortured, was a patient but tre- 
 mendous man. It was not only to rake the fresh schooner 
 
! 
 
 MERCHANTMAN AND THE PIRATE 97 
 
 e had put his ship before the wind, but also by a double, 
 aring, master-stroke to hurl his monster ship bodily on 
 the other. Without a foresail she could never get out of 
 his way. Her crew had stopped the leak, and cut away 
 and unshipped the broken foremast, and were stepping 
 a new one, when they saw the huge ship bearing down in 
 full sail. Nothing easier than to slip out of her way could 
 they get the foresail to draw; but the time was short, the 
 deadly intention manifest, the coming destruction swift. 
 After that solemn silence came a storm of cries and curses, 
 as their seamen went to work to fit the yard and raise the 
 sail; while their fighting men seized their matchlocks and 
 trained the guns. They were well comm'anded by an 
 heroic able villian. Astern the consort thundered ; but the 
 Agra's response was a dead silence more awful than 
 broadsides. 
 
 For then was seen with what majesty the enduring 
 Anglo-Saxon fights. 
 
 One of the indomitable race on the gangway, one at 
 the foremast, two at the wheel, conned and steered the 
 great ship down on a hundred matchlocks, and a grinning 
 broadside, just as they would have conned and steered her 
 into a British 'harbor. 
 
 " Starboard ! " said Dodd, in a deep calm voice, with 
 a motion of his hand. 
 
 " Starboard it is." 
 
 The pirate wriggled ahead a little. The man forward 
 made a silent signal to Dodd. 
 
 " Port! " said Dodd, quietly. 
 
 " Port it is." 
 
 But at this critical moment the pirate astern sent a 
 mischievous shot, and knocked one of the men to atoms at 
 the helm. 
 
 Dodd waved his hand without a word, and another man 
 rose from the deck, and took his place in silence, and laid 
 
\ 
 
 98 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 his unshaking hand on the wheel stained with that man's 
 warm blood whose place he took. 
 
 The high ship was now scarce sixty yards distant: she 
 seemed to know, she reared her lofty figurehead with 
 great awful shoots into the air. 
 
 But now the panting pirates got their new foresail hoist- 
 ed with a joyful shout: it drew, the schooner gathered way, 
 and their furious consort close on the Agra's heels just 
 then scourged her deck with grape. 
 
 " Port! " said Dodd, calmly. 
 
 " Port it is." 
 
 The giant prow darted at the escaping pirate. That 
 acre of coming canvas took the wind out of the swift 
 schooner's foresail; it flapped: oh, then she was doomed! 
 . . . CRASH ! the Indiaman's cut-water in thick smoke 
 beat in the schooner's broadside : down went her masts to 
 leeward like fishing-rods whipping the water; there was a 
 horrible shrieking yell; wild forms leaped off on the Agra, 
 and were hacked to pieces almost ere they reached the 
 deck a surge, a chasm in the ear, filled with an instant 
 rush of engulfing waves, a long, awful, grating, grinding 
 noise, never to be forgotten in this world, all along under 
 the ship's keel and the fearful majestic monster passed 
 on over the blank she had made, with a pale crew standing 
 silent and awestruck on her deck; a cluster of wild heads 
 and staring eyeballs bobbing like corks in her foaming 
 wake, sole relic of the blotted-out Destroyer; and a 
 wounded man staggering on the gangway, with hands up- 
 lifted and staring eyes. 
 
NARRATIVE OF THE MUTINY OF THE 
 BOUNTY 
 
 From "Chamber's Miscellany," ANONYMOUS 
 
 A BOUT the year 1786, the merchants and planters 
 A\ interested in the West India Islands became anx- 
 ious to introduce an exceedingly valuable plant, 
 the bread-fruit tree, into these possessions, and as this 
 could best be done by a government expedition, a request 
 was preferred to the crown accordingly. The ministry at 
 the time being favorable to the proposed undertaking, a 
 vessel, named the Bounty, was selected to execute the 
 desired object. To the command of this ship Captain W. 
 Bligh was appointed, Aug. 16, 1787. The burden of the 
 Bounty was nearly two hundred and fifteen tons. The 
 establishment of men and officers for the ship was as fol- 
 lows: 1 lieutenant to command, 1 master, 1 boatswain, 
 1 gunner, 1 carpenter, 1 surgeon, 2 master's mates, 2 
 midshipmen, 2 quarter-masters, 1 quarter-master's mate, 
 1 boatswain's mate, 1 gunner's mate, 1 carpenter's mate, 
 1 carpenter's crew, 1 sailmaker, 1 armourer, 1 corporal, 1 
 clerk and steward, 23 able seamen total, 44. The ad- 
 dition of two men appointed to take care of the plants, 
 made the whole ship's crew amount to 46. The ship was 
 stored and victualled for eighteen months. 
 
 Thus prepared, the Bounty set sail on the 23d of 
 December, and what ensued will be best told in the lan- 
 guage of Captain Blight. 
 
 Monday, 21th April 1789. The wind being north- 
 erly in the evening, we steered to the westward, to pass 
 to the south of Tofoa. I gave directions for this course 
 
 99 
 
100 , , ; ; , ; , : GREAT SEA: STORIES 
 
 to be continued during the night. The master had the 
 first watch, the gunner the middle watch, and Mr. Chris- 
 tian the morning watch. 
 
 Tuesday, 28th. Just before sunrising, while I was 
 yet asleep, Mr. Christian, with the master-at-arms, gun- 
 ner's mate, and Thomas Burkitt, seaman, came into my 
 cabin, and seizing me, tied my hands with a cord behind 
 my back, threatening me with instant death if I spoke or 
 made the least noise. I, however, called as loud as I 
 could, in hopes of assistance ; but they had already jsecured 
 the officers who were not of their party, by placing senti- 
 nels at their doors. There were three men at my cabin 
 door, besides the four within; Christian had only a cutlass 
 in his hand, the others had muskets and bayonets. I was 
 pulled out of bed, and forced on deck in my shirt, suffering 
 great pain from the tightness with which they had tied my 
 hands. I demanded the reason of such violence, but re- 
 ceived no other answer than abuse for not holding my 
 tongue. The master, the gunner, the surgeon, Mr. 
 Elphinstone, master's mate, and Nelson, were kept con- 
 fined below, and the fore-hatchway was guarded by sen- 
 tinels. The boatswain and carpenter, and also the clerk, 
 Mr. Samuel, were allowed to come upon deck. The boat- 
 swain was ordered to hoist the launch out, with a threat if 
 he did not do it instantly to take care of himself. 
 
 When the boat was out, Mr. Hayward and Mr. Hallett, 
 two of the midshipmen, and Mr. Samuel, were ordered 
 into it. I demanded what their intention was in giving 
 this order, and endeavored to persuade the people near 
 me not to persist in such acts of violence ; but it was to no 
 effect. Christian changed the cutlass which he had in his 
 hand for a bayonet that was brought to him, and holding 
 me with a strong grip by the cord that tied my hands, he 
 with many oaths threatened to kill me immediately if I 
 would not be quiet; the villains round me had their pieces 
 
THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY 101 
 
 cocked and bayonets fixed. Particular people were called 
 on to go into the boat, and were hurried over the side, 
 whence I concluded that with these people I was to be set 
 adrift. I therefore made another effort to bring about 
 a change, but with no other effect than to be threatened 
 with having my brains blown out. 
 
 The boatswain and seamen who were to go in the boat 
 were allowed to collect twine, canvas, lines, sails, cordage, 
 an eight-and-twenty-gallon cask of water, and Mr. 
 Samuel got a hundred and fifty pounds of bread, with a 
 small quantity of rum and wine, also a quadrant and com- 
 pass; but he was forbidden, on pain of death, to touch 
 either map, ephemeris, book of astronomical observations, 
 sextant, time-keeper, or any of my surveys or drawings. 
 
 The officers were next called upon deck, and forced 
 over the side into the boat, while I was kept apart from 
 every one abaft the mizzen-mast. 
 
 Isaac Martin, one of the guard over me, I saw had an 
 inclination to assist me, and, as he fed me with shaddock 
 (my lips being quite parched), we explained our wishes 
 to each other by our looks; but this being observed, Martin 
 was removed from me. He then attempted to leave the 
 ship, for which purpose he got into the boat; but with 
 many threats they obliged him to return. The armorer, 
 Joseph Coleman, and two of the carpenters, M'Intosh and 
 Norman, were also kept contrary to their inclination; and 
 they begged of me, after I was astern in the boat, to 
 remember that they declared that they had no hand in 
 the transaction. Michael Byrne, I am told, likewise 
 wanted to leave the ship. 
 
 It appeared to me that Christian was some time in doubt 
 whether he should keep the carpenter or his mates; at 
 length he determined on the latter, and the carpenter was 
 ordered into the boat. He was permitted, but not with- 
 out some opposition, to take his tool-chest. The officers 
 
102 /t . . , : ,, : GEAT SEA STORIES 
 
 and men being in the boat, they only waited for me, of 
 which the master-at-arms informed Christian; who then 
 said, " Come, Captain Bligh, your officers and men are 
 now in the boat, and you must go with them; if you 
 attempt to make the least resistance, you will instantly be 
 put to death: " and without further ceremony, with a tribe 
 of armed ruffians about me, I was forced over the side, 
 where they untied my hands. Being in the boat, we were 
 veered astern by a rope. A few pieces of pork were 
 thrown to us, and some clothes, also four cutlasses; and 
 it was then that the armorer and carpenters called out to 
 me to remember that they had no hand in the transaction. 
 After having undergone a great deal of ridicule, and hav- 
 ing been kept some time to make sport for these unfeeling 
 wretches, we were at length cast adrift in the open ocean. 
 
 I had eighteen persons with me in the boat. There 
 remained on board the Bounty twenty-five hands, the most 
 able men of the ship's company. Having little or no wind, 
 we rowed pretty fast towards Tofoa, which bore north- 
 east about ten leagues from us. While the ship was in 
 sight, she steered to the west-north-west; but I considered 
 this only as a feint; for when we were sent away, " Huzza 
 for Otaheite ! " was frequently heard among the 
 mutineers. 
 
 It will very naturally be asked, What could be the reason 
 for such a revolt? In answer to which, I can only con- 
 jecture that the mutineers had flattered themselves with 
 the hopes of a more happy life among the Otaheitans than 
 they could possibly enjoy in England; and this, joined to 
 some female connections, most probably occasioned the 
 whole transaction. The women at Otaheite are handsome, 
 mild and cheerful in their manners and conversation, pos- 
 sessed of great sensibility, and have sufficient delicacy to 
 make them admired and beloved. The chiefs were so 
 much attached to our people, that they rather encouraged 
 
. 
 
 THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY 103 
 
 eir stay among them than otherwise, and even made 
 them promises of large possessions. Under these, and 
 many other attendant circumstances equally desirable, it 
 is now perhaps not so much to be wondered at, though 
 scarcely possible to have been foreseen, that a set of sailors, 
 most of them void of connections, should be led away: 
 especially when, in addition to such powerful inducements, 
 they imagined it in their power to fix themselves in the 
 midst of plenty, on one of the finest islands in the world, 
 where they need not labor, and where the allurements of 
 dissipation are beyond anything that can be conceived. 
 
 FATE OF THE CASTAWAYS 
 
 My first determination was to seek a supply of bread- 
 fruit and water at Tofoa, and afterwards to sail for Ton- 
 gataboo, and there risk a solicitation to Poulaho, the king, 
 to equip our boat, and grant us a supply of water and pro- 
 visions, so as to enable us to reach the East Indies. The 
 quantity of provisions I found in the boat was a hundred 
 and fifty pounds of bread, sixteen pieces of pork, each piece 
 weighing two pounds, six quarts of rum, six bottles of 
 wine, with twenty-eight gallons of water, and four empty 
 barrecoes. 
 
 We got to Tofoa when it was dark, but found the shore 
 so steep and rocky that we could not land. We were 
 obliged, therefore, to remain all night in the boat, keep- 
 ing it on the lee-side of the island, with two oars. Next 
 day (Wednesday, April 29) we found a cove, where we 
 landed. I observed the latitude of this cove to be 19 
 degrees 41 minutes south. This is the northwest part of 
 Tofoa, the north-westernmost of the Friendly Islands. As 
 I was resolved to spare the small stock of provisions we 
 had in the boat, we endeavored to procure something 
 towards our support on the island itself. For two days 
 we ranged through the island in parties, seeking for water, 
 
104 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 and anything in the shape of provisions, subsisting, mean- 
 while, on morsels of what we had brought with us. The 
 island at first seemed uninhabited, but on Friday, May 1, 
 one of our exploring parties met with two men, a woman, 
 and a child: the men came with them to the cove, and 
 brought two cocoanut shells of water. I endeavored to 
 make friends of these people, and sent them away for 
 bread-fruit, plantains, and water. Soon after, other 
 natives came to us; and by noon there were thirty about 
 us, from whom we obtained a small supply. I was much 
 puzzled in what manner to account to the natives for the 
 loss of my ship: I knew they had too much sense to be 
 amused with a story that the ship was to join me, when 
 she was not in sight from the hills. I was at first doubt- 
 ful whether I should tell the real fact, or say that the ship 
 had overset and sunk, and that we only were saved: the 
 latter appeared to be the most proper and advantageous 
 for us, and I accordingly instructed my people, that we 
 might all agree in one story. As I expected, inquiries were 
 made about the ship, and they seemed readily satisfied with 
 our account; but there did not appear the least symptom 
 of joy or sorrow in their faces, although I fancied I dis- 
 covered some marks of surprise. Some of the natives 
 were coming and going the whole afternoon. 
 
 Towards evening, I had the satisfaction to find our stock 
 of provisions somewhat increased ; but the natives did not 
 appear to have much to spare. What they brought was in 
 such small quantities, that I had no reason to hope we 
 should be able to procure from them sufficient to stock us 
 for our voyage. At night, I served a quarter of a bread- 
 fruit and a cocoanut to each person for supper; and a 
 good fire being made, all but the watch went to sleep. 
 
 Saturday, 2d. As there was no certainty of our being 
 supplied with water by the natives, I sent a party among 
 the gullies in the mountains, with empty shells, to see what 
 
THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY 105 
 
 could be found. In their absence the natives came about 
 us, as I expected, and in greater numbers; two canoes also 
 came in from round the north side of the island. In one 
 of them was an elderly chief, called Macca-ackavow. Soon 
 after, some of our foraging party returned, and with them 
 came a good-looking chief, called Egijeefow, or Eefow. 
 
 Their affability was of short duration, for the natives 
 began to increase in number, and I observed some symp- 
 toms of a design against us. Soon after, they attempted 
 to haul the boat on shore, on which I brandished my cut- 
 lass in a threatening manner, and spoke to Eefow to desire 
 them to desist: which they did, and everything became 
 quiet again. My people, who had been in the mountains, 
 now returned with about three gallons of water. I kept 
 buying up the little bread-fruit that was brought to us, 
 and likewise some spears to arm my men with, having 
 only four cutlasses, two of which were in the boat. As 
 we had no means of improving our situation, I told our 
 people I would wait till sunset, by which time, perhaps, 
 something might happen in our favor; for if we attempted 
 to go at present, we must fight our way through, which we 
 could do more advantageously at night; and that, in the 
 meantime, we would endeavor to get off to the boat what 
 we had bought. The beach was lined with the natives, 
 and we heard nothing but the knocking of stones together, 
 which they had in each hand. I knew very well this was 
 the sign of an attack. At noon I served a cocoanut and 
 a bread-fruit to each person for dinner, and gave some to 
 the chiefs, with whom I continued to appear intimate and 
 friendly. They frequently importuned me to sit down, 
 but I as constantly refused; for it occurred both to Nelson 
 and myself that they intended to seize hold of me, if I 
 gave them such an opportunity. Keeping, therefore, con- 
 stantly on our guard, we were suffered to eat our uncom- 
 fortable meal in some quietness. 
 
106 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 After dinner, we began, by little and little, to get our 
 things into the boat, which was a troublesome business, on 
 account of the surf. I carefully watched the motions of 
 the natives, who continued to increase in number; and 
 found that, instead of their intention being to leave us, 
 fires were made, and places fixed on for their stay during 
 the night. Consultations were also held among them, and 
 everything assured me we should be attacked. I sent 
 orders to the master that, when he saw us coming down, 
 he should keep the boat close to the shore, that we might 
 the more readily embark. 
 
 The sun was near setting when I gave the word, on 
 which every person who was on shore with me boldly took 
 up his proportion of things and carried them to the boat. 
 The chiefs asked me if I would not stay with them all 
 night. I said " No, I never sleep out of my boat; but in 
 the morning we will again trade with you, and I shall 
 remain till the weather is moderate, that we may go, as we 
 have agreed, to see Poulaho, at Tongataboo." Macca- 
 ackavow then got up and said, " You will not sleep on 
 shore, then, Mattie?" (which directly signifies, we will 
 kill you) ; and he left me. The onset was now preparing: 
 every one, as I have described before, kept knocking 
 stones together; and Eefow quitted me. All but two or 
 three things were in the boat, when we walked down the 
 beach, every one in a silent kind of horror. We all got 
 into the boat, except one man, who, while I was getting on 
 board, quitted it, and ran up the beach to cast the stern- 
 fast off, notwithstanding the master and others called to 
 him to return, while they were hauling me out of the 
 water. 
 
 I was no sooner in the boat than the attack began by 
 about two hundred men; the unfortunate poor man who 
 had run up the beach was knocked down, and the stones 
 flew like a shower of shot. Many Indians got hold of the 
 

 THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY 107 
 
 stern rope, and were near hauling the boat on shore, which 
 they would certainly have effected, if I had not had a knife 
 in my pocket, with which I cut the rope. We then hauled 
 off to the grapnel, every one being more or less hurt. At 
 this time I saw five of the natives about the poor man they 
 had killed, and two of them were beating him about the 
 head with stones in their hands. 
 
 We had no time to reflect, for, to my surprise, they filled 
 their canoes with stones, and twelve men came off after 
 us to renew the attack; which they did so effectually, as to 
 nearly disable us all. We were obliged to sustain the 
 attack without being able to return it, except with such 
 stones as lodged in the boat. I adopted the expedient of 
 throwing overboard some clothes, which, as I expected, 
 they stopped to pick up ; and as it was by this time almost 
 dark, they gave over the attack, and returned towards the 
 shore, leaving us to reflect on our unhappy situation. 
 
 The poor man killed by the natives was John Norton : 
 this was his second voyage with me as a quarter-master, 
 and his worthy character made me lament his loss very 
 much. He has left an aged parent, I am told, whom he 
 supported. 
 
 We set our sails, and steered along shore by the west 
 side of the island of Tofoa, the wind blowing fresh from 
 the eastward. My mind was employed in considering what 
 was best to be done, when I was solicited by all hands to 
 take them towards home; and when I told them that no 
 hopes of relief for us remained, except what might be 
 found at New Holland, till I came to Timor, a distance 
 of full twelve hundred leagues, where there was a Dutch 
 settlement, but in what part of the island I knew not, they 
 all agreed to live on one ounce of bread and a quarter of 
 a pint of water per day. Therefore, after examining our 
 stock of provisions, and recommending to them, in the 
 most solemn manner, not to depart from their promise, we 
 
108 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 bore away across a sea where the navigation is but little 
 known, in a small boat, twenty-three feet long from stem 
 to stern, deep laden with eighteen men. I was happy, how- 
 ever, to see that every one seemed better satisfied with our 
 situation than myself. 
 
 Our stock of provisions consisted of about one hundred 
 and fifty pounds of bread, twenty-eight gallons of water, 
 twenty pounds of pork, three bottles of wine, and five 
 quarts of rum. The difference between this and the quan- 
 tity we had on leaving the ship was principally owing to 
 our loss in the bustle and confusion of the attack. A few 
 cocoanuts were in the boat, and some bread-fruit, but the 
 latter was trampled to pieces. 
 
 Sunday, 3d. At daybreak the gale increased; the sun 
 rose very fiery and red a sure indication of a severe gale 
 of wind. At eight it blew a violent storm, and the sea ran 
 very high, so that between the seas the sail was becalmed, 
 and when on the top of the sea, it was too much to have 
 set; but we could not venture to take in the sail, for we 
 were in very imminent danger and distress, the sea curling 
 over the stern of the boat, which obliged us to bail with all 
 our might. A situation more distressing has perhaps sel- 
 dom been experienced. 
 
 Our bread was in bags, and in danger of being spoiled 
 by the wet: to be starved to death was inevitable, if this 
 could not be prevented. I therefore began to examine 
 what clothes there were in the boat, and what other things 
 could be spared; and having determined that only two 
 suits should be kept for each person, the rest was thrown 
 overboard, with some rope and spare sails, which light- 
 ened the boat considerably, and we had more room to bail 
 the water out. 
 
 Fortunately the carpenter had a good chest in the boat, 
 in which we secured the bread the first favorable moment. 
 His tool-chest also was cleared, and the tools stowed in 
 
THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY 109 
 
 the bottom of the boat, so that this became a second con- 
 venience. 
 
 I served a teaspoonful of rum to each person (for we 
 were very wet and cold), with a quarter of a bread-fruit, 
 which was scarce eatable, for dinner. Our engagement 
 was now strictly to be carried into execution, and I was 
 fully determined to make our provisions last eight weeks, 
 let the daily proportion be ever so small. 
 
 Monday, 4th. At daylight our limbs were so be- 
 numbed, that we could scarcely find the use of them. At 
 this time I served a teaspoonful of rum to each person, 
 from which we all found great benefit. Just before noon, 
 we discovered a small flat island, of a moderate height, 
 bearing west-south-west four or five leagues. I observed 
 our latitude to be 18 degrees 58 minutes south; our longi- 
 tude was, by account, 3 degrees 4 minutes west from the 
 island of Tofoa, having made a north 72 degrees west 
 course, distance ninety-five miles, since yesterday noon, 
 divided five small cocoanuts for our dinner, and every 
 me was satisfied. During the rest of that day we dis- 
 :overed ten or twelve other islands, none of which we ap- 
 proached. At night I served a few broken pieces of bread- 
 fruit for supper, and performed prayers. 
 
 Tuesday, 5th. The night having been fair, we awoke 
 after a tolerable rest, and contentedly breakfasted on a 
 few pieces of yams that were found in the boat. After 
 breakfast we examined our bread, a great deal of which 
 was damaged and rotten ; this, nevertheless, we were glad 
 to keep for use. We passed two islands in the course of the 
 day. For dinner I served some of the damaged bread, and 
 a quarter of a pint of water. 
 
 Wednesday, 6th. We still kept our course in the 
 direction of the North of New Holland, passing numerous 
 islands of various sizes, at none of which I ventured to 
 land. Our allowance for the day was a quarter of a pint 
 
110 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 of cocoanut milk, and the meat, which did not exceed two 
 ounces to each person. It was received very contentedly, 
 but we suffered great drought. To our great joy we 
 hooked a fish, but we were miserably disappointed by its 
 being lost in trying to get it into the boat. 
 
 As our lodgings were very miserable, and confined for 
 want of room, I endeavored to remedy the latter defect by 
 putting ourselves at watch and watch ; so that one-half al- 
 ways sat up while the other lay down on the boat's bottom, 
 or upon a chest, with nothing to cover us but the heavens, 
 our limbs were dreadfully cramped, for we could not 
 stretch them out; and the nights were so cold, and we so 
 constantly wet, that after a few hours' sleep, we could 
 scarcely move. 
 
 Thursday, 1th. Being very wet and cold, I served a 
 spoonful of rum and a morsel of bread for breakfast. We 
 still kept sailing among the islands, from one of which two 
 large canoes put out in chase of us ; but we left them behind. 
 Whether these canoes had any hostile intention against us 
 must remain a doubt : perhaps we might have benefited by 
 an intercourse with them ; but, in our defenceless situation, 
 to have made the experiment would have been risking too 
 much. 
 
 I imagine these to be the islands called Feejee, as their 
 extent, direction, and distance from the Friendly Islands 
 answer to the description given of them by those islanders. 
 Heavy rain came on at four o'clock, when every person 
 did their utmost to catch some water, and we increased our 
 stock to thirty-four gallons, besides quenching our thirst 
 for the first time since we had been at sea ; but an attendant 
 consequence made us pass the night very miserably, for, 
 being extremely wet, and having no dry things to shift or 
 cover us, we experienced cold shiverings scarcely to be con- 
 ceived. Most fortunately for us, the forenoon, Friday 
 8th, turned out fair, and we stripped and dried our clothes. 
 
THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY 111 
 
 The allowance I issued to-day was an ounce and a half of 
 pork, a teaspoonful of rum, half a pint of cocoanut milk, 
 and an ounce of bread. The rum, though so small in quan- 
 tity, was of the greatest service. A fishing-line was gen- 
 erally towing from the stern of the boat, but though we 
 saw great numbers of fish, we could never catch one. 
 
 In the afternoon we cleaned out the boat, and it em- 
 ployed us till sunset to get everything dry and in order. 
 Hitherto I had issued the allowance by guess, but I now 
 made a pair of scales with two cocoanut shells, and having 
 accidentally some pistol-balls in the boat, twenty-five of 
 which weighed one pound, or sixteen ounces, I adopted 
 one ball as the proportion of weight that each person 
 should receive of bread at the times I served it. I also 
 amused all hands with describing the situation of New 
 Guinea and New Holland, and gave them every informa- 
 tion in my power, that, in case any accident happened to 
 me, those who survived might have some idea of what 
 they were about, and be able to find their way to Timor, 
 which at present they knew nothing of more than the 
 name, and some not even that. At night I served a quar- 
 ter of a pint of water and half an ounce of bread for 
 supper. 
 
 Saturday, 9th. About nine in the evening the clouds be- 
 gan to gather, and we had a prodigious fall of rain, with 
 severe thunder and lightning. By midnight we caught 
 about twenty gallons of water. Being miserably wet and 
 cold, I served to the people a teaspoonful of rum each, to 
 enable them to bear with their distressed situation. The 
 weather continued extremely bad, and the wind increased ; 
 we spent a very miserable night, without sleep, except such 
 as could be got in the midst of rain. The day brought no 
 relief but its light. The sea broke over us so much, that 
 two men were constantly bailing; and we had no choice 
 
1 1 2 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 how to steer, being obliged to keep before the waves, for 
 fear of the boat filling. 
 
 The allowance now regularly served to each person was 
 i -2 5th of a pound of bread, and a quarter of a pint of 
 water, at eight in the morning, at noon, and at sunset. To- 
 day I gave about half an ounce of pork for dinner, which, 
 though any moderate person would have considered only 
 as a mouthful, was divided into three or four. 
 
 All Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 
 and Friday, the wet weather continued, with heavy seas 
 and squalls. As there was no prospect of getting our 
 clothes dried, my plan was to make every one strip, and 
 wring them through the salt water, by which means they 
 received a warmth that, while wet with rain, they could not 
 have. We were constantly shipping seas and bailing, and 
 were very wet and cold during the night. The sight of the 
 islands which we were always passing served only to in- 
 crease the misery of our situation. We were very little 
 better than starving, with plenty in view; yet to attempt 
 procuring anyrelief was attended with so much danger, 
 that prolonging of life, even in the midst of misery, was 
 thought preferable, while there remained hopes of being 
 able to surmount our hardships. For my own part, I con- 
 sider the general run of cloudy weather to be a blessing of 
 Providence. Hot weather would have caused us to have 
 died with thirst, and probably being so constantly covered 
 with rain or sea protected us from that dreadful calamity. 
 
 Saturday, idth. The sun breaking out through the 
 clouds gave us hopes of drying our wet clothes; but the 
 sunshine was of short duration. We had strong breezes 
 at south-east by south, and dark gloomy weather, with 
 storms of thunder, lightning, and rain. The night was 
 truly horrible, and not a star to be seen, so that our steer- 
 age was uncertain. 
 
 Sunday, ijth. At dawn of day I found every person 
 
THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY 113 
 
 complaining, and some of them solicited extra allowance, 
 which I positively refused. Our situation was miserable; 
 always wet, and suffering extreme cold during the night, 
 without the least shelter from the weather. Being con- 
 stantly obliged to bail, to keep the boat from filling, was 
 perhaps not to be reckoned an evil- as it gave us 'exercise. 
 
 The little rum we had was of great service. When our 
 nights were particularly distressing, I generally served a 
 teaspoonful or two to each person; and it was always 
 joyful tidings when they heard of my intentions. 
 
 The night was dark and dismal, the sea constantly 
 breaking over us, and nothing but the wind and waves to 
 direct our steerage. It was my intention, if possible, to 
 make to New Holland, to the southwest of Endeavor 
 Straits, being sensible that it was necessary to preserve such 
 a situation as would make a southerly wind a fair one; that 
 we might range along the reefs till an opening should be 
 found into smooth water, and we the sooner be able to pick 
 up some refreshments. 
 
 Monday and Tuesday were terrible days, heavy rain 
 with lightning. We were always bailing. On Wednesday 
 the 2oth, at dawn of day, some of my people seemed half 
 dead. Our appearance was horrible, and I could look no 
 way but I caught the eye of some one in distress. Extreme 
 hunger was now too evident; but no one suffered from 
 thirst, nor had we much inclination to drink that desire, 
 perhaps, being satisfied through the skin. The little sleep 
 we got was in the midst of water, and we constantly awoke 
 with severe cramps and pains in our bones. 
 
 Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we were in the same 
 distressed condition, and I began to fear that such another 
 night or two would put an end to us. On Saturday, how- 
 ever, the wind moderated in the evening, and the weather 
 looked much better, which rejoiced all hands, so that they 
 ate their scanty allowance with more satisfaction than for 
 
114 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 some time past. The night also was fair ; but being always 
 wet with the sea, we suffered much from the cold. 
 
 Sunday, 24th. A fine morning, I had the pleasure to 
 see produce some cheerful countenances; and the first time, 
 for fifteen days past, we experienced comfort from the 
 warmth of the sun. We stripped, and hung our clothes up 
 to dry, which were by this time become so threadbare, that 
 they would not keep out either wet or cold. 
 
 This afternoon we had many birds about us which are 
 never seen far from land, such as boobies and noddies. As 
 the sea began to run fair, and we shipped but little water, 
 I took the opportunity to examine into the state of our 
 bread, and found that, according to the present mode of 
 issuing, there was a sufficient quantity remaining for twenty- 
 nine days' allowance, by which time I hoped we should be 
 able to reach Timor; but as this was very uncertain, and it 
 was possible that, after all, we might be obliged to go to 
 Java, I determined to proportion the allowance so as to 
 make our stock hold out six weeks. I was apprehensive 
 that this would be ill received, and that it would require my 
 utmost resolution to enforce it; for small as the quantity 
 was which I intended to take away for our future good, yet 
 it might appear to my people like robbing them of life ; and 
 some, who were less patient than their companions, I ex- 
 pected would very ill brook it. However, on my represent- 
 ing the necessity of guarding against delays that might be 
 occasioned in our voyage by contrary winds or other causes, 
 and promising to enlarge upon the allowance as we got on, 
 they cheerfully agreed to my proposal. It was accordingly 
 settled that every person should receive l-25th of a pound 
 of bread for breakfast, and the same quantity for dinner; 
 so that, by omitting the proportion for supper, we had 
 forty-three days* allowance. 
 
 Monday, 2$th. At noon some noddies came so near to 
 us, that one of them was caught by hand. This bird was 
 
THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY 115 
 
 about the size of a small pigeon. I divided it, with its en- 
 trails, into eighteen portions and by a well-known method 
 at sea, of "Who shall have this?" 1 it was distributed, with 
 the allowance of bread and water for dinner, and ate up, 
 bones and all, with salt water for sauce. I observed the 
 latitude 13 degrees 32 minutes south; longitude made 35 
 degrees 19 minutes west, course north 89 degrees west, dis- 
 tance one hundred and eight miles. 
 
 In the evening, several boobies flying very near to us, 
 we had the good fortune to catch one of them. This bird is 
 as large as a duck. I directed the bird to be killed for sup- 
 per, and the blood to be given to three of the people who 
 were most distressed for want of food. The body, with 
 the entrails, beak, and feet, I divided into eighteen shares, 
 and, with an allowance of bread, which I made a merit of 
 granting, we made a good supper, compared with our usual 
 fare. 
 
 Sailing on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I at 
 length became satisfied that we were approaching New 
 Holland. This was actually the case ; and after passing the 
 reefs which bound that part of the coast, we found our- 
 selves in smooth water. Two islands lay about four miles to 
 the west by north, and appeared eligible for a resting-place, 
 if for nothing more; but on our approach to the nearest is- 
 land, it proved to be only a 'heap of stones, and its size too 
 inconsiderable to shelter the boat. We therefore proceed- 
 ed to the next, which was close to it, and towards the main. 
 We landed to examine if there were any signs of the na- 
 tives being near us : we saw some old fireplaces, but nothing 
 to make me apprehend that this would be an unsafe situa- 
 
 *One person turns his back on the object that is to be divided; another 
 then points separately to the portions, at each of them asking aloud, "Who 
 shall have this?" to which the first answers by naming somebody. This 
 impartial method of division gives every man an equal chance of the 
 
 best share. 
 
1 1 6 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 tion for the night. Every one was anxious to find some- 
 thing to eat and it was soon discovered that there were 
 oysters on these rocks, for the tide was out; but it was 
 nearly dark, and only a few could be gathered. I de- 
 termined, therefore, to wait till the morning, when I should 
 know better how to proceed. 
 
 Friday , 29th. As there were no appearances to make 
 me imagine that any of the natives were near us, I sent 
 out parties in search of supplies, while others of the people 
 were putting the boat in order. The parties returned, 
 highly rejoiced at having found plenty of oysters and fresh 
 water. I had also made a fire by the help of a small mag- 
 nifying glass; and, what was still more fortunate, we 
 found among a few things which had been thrown into the 
 boat, and saved, a piece of brimstone and a tinder-box, so 
 that I secured fire for the future. 
 
 One of the people had been so provident as to bring 
 away with him from the ship a copper pot: by being in 
 possession of this article, we were enabled to make a 
 proper use of the supply we now obtained; for, with a 
 mixture of bread, and a little pork, we made a stew that 
 might have been relished by people of far more delicate 
 appetites, and of which each person received a full pint. 
 The general complaints of disease among us were a dizzi- 
 ness in the head, great weakness of the joints, and violent 
 tenesmus. 
 
 The oysters which we found grew so fast to the rocks, 
 that it was with difficulty they could be broken off, and at 
 length we discovered it to be the most expeditious way to 
 open them where they were fixed. They were of a good 
 size, and well tasted. To add to this happy circumstance, 
 in the hollow of the land there grew some wire-grass, which 
 indicated a moist situation. On forcing a stick about three 
 feet long into the ground, we found water, and with little 
 
THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY 117 
 
 trouble dug a well, which produced as much as our neces- 
 sities required. 
 
 As the day was the anniversary of the restoration of 
 King Charles II., I named the island Restoration Island. 
 Our short stay there, with the supplies which it afforded 
 us, made a visible alteration for the better in our appear- 
 ance. Net day, Saturday the 30th, at four o' clock, we were 
 preparing to embark, when about twenty of the natives 
 appeared, running and hallooing to us, on the oposite shore. 
 They were each armed with a spear or lance, and a short 
 weapon which they carried in their left hand. They made 
 signs for us to come to them, but I thought it prudent to 
 make the best of our way. They were naked, and appar- 
 ently black, and their hair or wool bushy and short. 
 
 Sunday, 31 st. Many small islands were in sight to the 
 northeast. We landed at one of a good height, bearing 
 north one-half west. The shore was rocky, but the water 
 was smooth, and we landed without difficulty. I sent two 
 parties out, one to the northward, and the other to the 
 southward, to seek for supplies, and others I ordered to 
 stay by the boat. On this occasion fatigue and weakness so 
 far got the better of their sense of duty, that some of the 
 people expressed their discontent at having worked harder 
 than their companions, and declared that they would rather 
 be without their dinner than go in search of it. One person, 
 in particular, went so far as to tell me, with a mutinous 
 look, that he was as good a man as myself. It was not 
 possible for me to judge where this might have an end, 
 if not stopped in time ; therefore, to prevent such disputes 
 in future, I determined either to preserve my command, or 
 die in the attempt; and seizing a cutlass, I ordered him to 
 take hold of another and defend himself, on which he 
 called out that I was going to kill him, and immediately 
 made concessions. I did not allow this to interfere further 
 with the harmony of the boat's crew and everything soon 
 
1 1 8 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 became quiet. We here procured some oysters and clams, 
 also some dog-fish caught in the holes of the rocks, and a 
 supply of water. 
 
 Leaving this island, which I named Sunday Island, we 
 continued our course towards Endeavor Straits. During 
 our voyage Nelson became very ill, but gradually recovered. 
 Next day we landed at another island, to see what we could 
 get. There were proofs that the island was occasionally 
 visited by natives from New Holland. Encamping on the 
 shore, I sent out one party to watch for turtle, and another 
 to try to catch birds. About midnight the bird party re- 
 turned, with only twelve noddies, birds which I have already 
 described to be about the size of pigeons; but if it had not 
 been for the folly and obstinacy of one of the party, who 
 separated from the other two, and disturbed the birds, they 
 might have caught a great number. I was so much pro- 
 voked at my plans being thus defeated, that I gave this 
 offender a good beating. This man afterwards confessed 
 that, wandering away from his companions, he had eaten 
 nine birds raw. Our turtling party had no success. 
 
 Tuesday and Wednesday we still kept our course north- 
 west, touching at an island or two for oysters and clams. 
 We had now been six days on the coast of New Holland, 
 and but for the refreshment which our visit to its shore 
 afforded us, it is all but certain that we must have perished. 
 Now, however, it became clear that we were leaving it 
 behind, and were commencing our adventurous voyage 
 through the open sea to Timor. 
 
 On Wednesday, June 3rd, at eight o'clock in the eve- 
 ning, we once more launched into the open ocean. Mis- 
 erable as our situation was in every respect, I was secretly 
 surprised to see that it did not appear to affect any one so 
 strongly as myself. I encouraged every one with hopes 
 that eight or ten days would bring us to a land of safety; 
 and after praying to God for a continuance of His most 
 
THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY 119 
 
 gracious protection, I served an allowance of water for 
 supper, and directed our course to the west-south-west, to 
 counteract the southerly winds in case they should blow 
 strong. For six days our voyage continued; a dreary re- 
 petition of those sufferings which we had experienced before 
 reaching New Holland. In the course of the night we were 
 constantly wet with the sea, and exposed to cold and shiver- 
 ings ; and in the daytime we had no addition to our scanty 
 allowance, save a booby and a small dolphin that we caught, 
 the former on Friday the 5th, and the latter on Monday 
 the 8th. Many of us were ill, and the men complained 
 heavily. On Wednesday the 10th, after a very comfort- 
 less night, there was a visible alteration for the worse in 
 many of the people, which gave me great apprehensions. 
 An extreme weakness, swelled legs, hollow and ghastly 
 countenances, a more than common inclination to sleep, 
 with an apparent debility of understanding, seemed to me 
 the melancholy presages of an approaching dissolution. 
 
 Thursday, 1 1 th. Every one received the customary 
 allowance of bread and water, and an extra allowance of 
 water was given to those who were most in need. At noon 
 I observed in latitude 9 degrees 41 minutes south; course 
 south 77 degrees west, distance 109 miles; longitude made 
 13 degrees 49 minutes west. I had little doubt of having 
 now passed the meridian of the eastern part of Timor, 
 which is laid down in 128 degrees east. This diffused uni- 
 versal joy and satisfaction. 
 
 Friday, 12 th. At three in the morning, with an excess 
 of joy, we discovered Timor bearing from west-south-west 
 to west-north-west, and I hauled on a wind to the north- 
 north-east till daylight, when the land bore from south-west 
 by south to north-east by north; our distance from the 
 shore two leagues. It is not possible for me to describe the 
 pleasure which the blessing of the sight of this land diffused 
 among us. It appeared scarcely credible to ourselves that, 
 
120 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 in an open boat, and so poorly provided, we should have 
 been able to reach the coast of Timor in forty-one days 
 after leaving Tofoa, having in that time run, by our log, a 
 distance of 3,618 miles and that, notwithstanding our ex- 
 treme distress, no one should have perished in the voyage. 
 
 I have already mentioned that I knew not where the 
 Dutch settlement was situated, but I had a faint idea that 
 it was at the south-west part of the island. I therefore, 
 after daylight, bore away along shore to the south-south- 
 west, which I was the more readily induced to do, as the 
 wind would not suffer us to to go towards the north-east 
 without great loss of time. 
 
 We coasted along the island in the direction in which 
 I conceived the Dutch settlement to lie, and next day, 
 about two o'clock, I came to a grapnel in a small sandy 
 bay, where we saw a hut, a dog, and some cattle. Here 
 I learned that the Dutch governor resided at a place 
 called Coupang, which was some distance to the north- 
 east. I made signs for one of the Indians who came 
 to the beach to go in the boat and show us the way 
 to Coupang, intimating that I would pay him for his 
 trouble; the man readily complied, and came into the 
 boat. The Indians, who were of a dark tawny color, 
 brought us a few pieces of dried turtle and some ears 
 of Indian corn. This last was the most welcome, for 
 the turtle was so hard, that it could not be eaten with- 
 out being first soaked in hot water. They offered to 
 bring us some other refreshments, if I would wait; but, 
 as the pilot was willing, I determined to push on. It 
 was about half-past four when we sailed. 
 
 Sunday, 14/ft. At one o'clock in the morning, after 
 the most happy and sweet sleep that ever men enjoyed, 
 we weighed, and continued to keep the east shore on 
 board, in very smooth water. The report of two can- 
 non that were fired gave new life to every one; and 
 

 THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY 121 
 
 soon after, we discovered two square-rigged vessels and 
 a cutter at anchor to the eastward. After hard rowing, 
 we came to a grapnel near daylight, off a small fort and 
 town, which the pilot told me was Coupang. 
 
 On landing, I was surrounded by many people, Indi- 
 ans and Dutch, with an English sailor among them. A 
 Dutch captain, named Spikerman, showed me great 
 kindness, and waited on the governor, who was ill, to 
 know at what time I could see him. Eleven o'clock 
 having been appointed for the interview, I desired my 
 people to come on shore, which was as much as some of 
 them could do, being scarce able to walk; they, however, 
 were helped to Captain Spikerman's house, and found 
 tea, with bread and butter, provided for their breakfast. 
 
 The abilities of a painter, perhaps, could seldom have 
 been displayed to more advantage than in the delinea- 
 tion of the two groups of figures which at this time pre- 
 sented themselves to each other. An indifferent spec- 
 tator would have been at a loss which most to admire 
 the eyes of famine sparkling at immediate relief, or 
 the horror of their preservers at the sight of so many 
 spectres, whose ghastly countenances, if the cause had 
 been unknown, would rather have excited terror than 
 pity. Our bodies were nothing but skin and bone, our 
 limbs were full of sores, and we were clothed in rags: 
 in this condition, with tears of joy and gratitude flow- 
 ing down our cheeks, the people of Timor beheld us 
 with a mixture of horror, surprise, and pity. 
 
 The governor, Mr. William Adrian Van Este, not- 
 withstanding extreme ill health, became so anxious 
 about us, that I saw him before the appointed time. 
 He received me with great affection, and gave me the 
 fullest proofs that he was possessed of every feeling of 
 a humane and good man. Though his infirmity was 
 so great that he could not do the office of a friend him- 
 
122 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 self, he said he would give such orders as I might be 
 certain would procure us every supply we wanted. A 
 house should be immediately prepared for me, and with 
 respect to my people, he said that I might have room 
 for them either at the hospital or on board of Captain 
 Spikerman's ship, which lay in the road. . . . 
 
 FATE OF THE MUTINEERS COLONY OF 
 
 PITCAIRN'S ISLAND 
 
 The intelligence of the mutiny, and the sufferings of 
 Bligh and his companions, naturally excited a great 
 sensation in England. Bligh was immediately pro- 
 moted to the rank of commander, and Captain Edwards 
 was despatched to Otaheite, in the Pandora frigate, with 
 instructions to search for the Bounty and her mutinous 
 crew, and bring them to England. The Pandora 
 reached Matavai Bay on the 23d of March, 1791; and 
 even before she had come to anchor, Joseph Coleman, 
 formerly armorer of the Bounty, pushed off from shore 
 in a canoe, and came on board. In the course of two 
 days afterwards, the whole of the remainder of the 
 Bounty's crew (in number sixteen) then on the island 
 surrendered themselves, with the exception of two, who 
 fled to the mountains where, as it afterwards appeared, 
 they were murdered by the natives. 
 
 Nearly twenty years elapsed after the period of the 
 above occurrences, and all recollection of the Bounty 
 and her wrecked crew had passed away, when an 
 accidental discovery, as interesting as unexpected, once 
 more recalled public attention to that event. The 
 captain of an American schooner having, in 1808, 
 accidentally touched at an island up to that time sup- 
 posed to be uninhabited, called Pitcairn's Island, found 
 a community speaking English, who represented them- 
 selves as the descendants of the mutineers of the 
 
THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY 123 
 
 Bounty, of whom there was still one man, of the name 
 of Alexander Smith, alive amongst them. Intelli- 
 gence of this singular circumstance was sent by the 
 American captain (Folger) to Sir Sydney Smith at Val- 
 paraiso, and by him transmitted to the Lords of the 
 Admiralty. But the government was at that time 
 perhaps too much engaged in the events of the conti- 
 nental war to attend to the information, nor was any- 
 thing further heard of this interesting little society 
 until 1814. In that year two British men-of-war, 
 cruising in the Pacific, made Pitcairn's Island, and on 
 nearing the shore, saw plantations regularly and orderly 
 laid out. Soon afterwards they observed a few natives 
 coming down a steep descent, with their canoes on their 
 loulders, and in a few minutes perceived one of these 
 tittle vessels darting through a heavy surf, and paddling 
 towards the ships. But their astonishment may be 
 lagined when, on coming alongside, they were hailed 
 in good English with, "Wont you heave us a rope 
 
 low?" This being done, a young man sprang up the 
 >ide with extraordinary activity, and stood on the 
 
 leek before them. In answer to the question "Who 
 
 ire you?" he replied that his name was Thursday 
 October Christian, son of the late Fletcher Christian, 
 
 >y an Otaheitan mother; that he was the first born on 
 the island, and was so named because he was born on 
 a Thursday in October. All this sounded singular and 
 incredible in the ears of the British captains, Sir 
 Thomas Staines and Mr. Pipon; but they were soon 
 satisfied of its truth. Young Christian was at this 
 time about twenty-four years old, a tall handsome 
 youth, fully six feet high, with black hair, and an 
 open interesting English countenance. As he wore no 
 clothes, except a piece of cloth round his loins, and a 
 straw-hat ornamented with black cock's feathers, his 
 
124 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 fine figure and well-shaped muscular limbs were dis- 
 played to great advantage, and attracted general ad- 
 miration. His body was much tanned by exposure 
 to the weather; but although his complexion was 
 somewhat brown, it wanted that tinge of red peculiar 
 to the natives of the Pacific. He spoke English cor- 
 rectly both in grammar and pronunciation; and his 
 frank and ingenuous deportment excited in every one 
 the liveliest feelings of compassion and interest. His 
 com'panion was a fine handsome youth, of seventeen or 
 eighteen years of age, named George Young, son of one 
 of the Bounty's midshipmen. 
 
 The youths expressed great suprise at everything 
 they saw, especially a cow, which they supposed to be 
 either a huge goat or a horned sow, having never seen 
 any other quadrupeds. When questioned concerning 
 the Bounty, they referred the captains to an old man 
 on shore, the only surviving Englishman, whose name, 
 they said, was John Adams, but who proved to be the 
 identical Alexander Smith before-mentioned, having 
 changed his name from some caprice or other. The 
 officers went ashore with the youths, and were received 
 by old Adams (as we shall now call him), who con- 
 ducted them to his house, and treated them to an ele- 
 gant repast of eggs, fowl, yams, plantains, bread-fruit, 
 etc. They now learned from him an account of the fate of 
 his companions, who, with himself, preferred accompa- 
 nying Christian in the Bounty to remaining at Otaheite 
 which account agreed with that he afterwards gave at 
 greater length to Captain Beechey in 1828. Our limits 
 will not permit us to detail all the interesting particulars 
 at length, as we could have wished, but they are in sub- 
 stance as follows: 
 
 ^It was Christian's object, in order to avoid the ven- 
 geance of the British law, to proceed to some unknown 
 
THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY, 125 
 
 and uninhabited island, and the Marquesas Islands were 
 first fixed upon. But Christian, on reading Captain Car- 
 taret's account of Pitcairn's Island, thought it better 
 adapted for the purpose, and shaped his course thither. 
 Having landed and traversed it, they found it every way 
 suitable to their wishes, possessing water, wood, a good 
 soil, and some fruits. Having ascertained all this, they 
 returned on board, and having landed their hogs, goats, 
 and poultry, and gutted the ship of everything that could 
 be useful to them, they set fire to her, and destroyed every 
 vestige that might lead to the discovery of their retreat. 
 This was on the 23d of January 1790. The island was 
 
 icn divided into nine equal portions amongst them a 
 mitable spot of neutral ground being reserved for a vil- 
 lage. The poor Otaheitans now found themselves re- 
 luced to the condition of mere slaves; but they patiently 
 
 ibmitted, and everything went on peacefully for two 
 rears. About that time Williams, one of the seamen, 
 having the misfortune to lose his wife, forcibly took the 
 
 r ife of one of the Otaheitans, which, together with their 
 :ontinued ill-usage, so exasperated the latter that they 
 : ormed a plan for murdering the whole of their oppres- 
 
 >rs. The plot, however, was discovered, and revealed 
 
 >y the Englishmen's wives, and two of the Otaheitans 
 
 rere put to death. But the surviving natives soon after- 
 ds matured a more successful conspiracy, and in one 
 
 [ay murdered five of the Englishmen, including Christian. 
 
 idams and Young were spared at the intercession of their 
 
 rives, and the remaining two, M'Koy and Quintal (two 
 desperate ruffians), escaped to the mountains, whence, 
 however, they soon rejoined their companions. 'But the 
 
 irther career of these two villains was short. M'Koy, 
 having been bred up in a Scottish distillery, succeeded in 
 extracting a bottle of ardent spirits from the tee root; 
 from which time he and Quintal were never sober, until 
 
126 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 the former became delirious, and committed suicide by 
 jumping over a cliff. Quintal being likewise almost in- 
 sane with drinking, made repeated attempts to murder 
 Adams and Young, until they were absolutely compelled, 
 for their own safety, to put him to death, which they did 
 by felling him with a hatchet. 
 
 Adams and Young were at length the only surviving 
 males who had landed on the island, and being both of 
 a serious turn of mind, and having time for reflection and 
 repentance, they became extremely devout. Having 
 saved a Bible and prayer-book from the Bounty, they 
 now performed family worship morning and evening, and 
 addressed themselves to training up their own children 
 and those of their unfortunate companions in piety and 
 virtue. Young, however, was soon carried off by an asth- 
 matic complaint, and Adams was thus left to continue his 
 pious labors alone. At the time Captains Staines and Pi- 
 pon visited the island, this interesting little colony con- 
 sisted of about forty-six persons, mostly grown-up young 
 people, all living in harmony and happiness together ; and 
 not only professing, but fully understanding and practic- 
 ing, the precepts and principles of the Christian religion. 
 Adams had instituted the ceremony of marriage, and he 
 assured his visitors that not one instance of debauchery 
 and immoral conduct had occurred amongst them. 
 
 The visitors having supplied these interesting people with 
 some tools, kettles, and other articles, took their leave. 
 The account which they transmitted home of this newly- 
 discovered colony was, strange to say, as little attended 
 to by government as that of Captain Folger, and nothing 
 more was heard of Adams and his family for nearly 
 twelve years, when, in 1825, Captain Beechey, in the Blos- 
 som, bound on a voyage of discovery to Behring Strait, 
 touched at Pitcairn's Island. On the approach of the 
 Blossom, a boat came off under all sail towards the ship, 
 
THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY 127 
 
 containing old Adams and ten of the young men of the is- 
 land. After requesting and obtaining leave to come on 
 board, the young men sprung up the side, and shook every 
 officer cordially by the hand. Adams, who was grown 
 very corpulent, followed more leisurely. He was dressed 
 in a sailor's shirt and trousers, with a low-crowned hat, 
 which he held in his hand in sailor fashion, while he 
 smoothed down his bald forehead when addressed by the 
 officers of the Blossom. The little colony had now in- 
 creased to about sixty-six, including an English sailor of 
 the name of John Buffett, who, at his own earnest desire, 
 had been left by a whaler. In this man the society luck- 
 ily found an able and willing schoolmaster. He instructed 
 the children in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and de- 
 voutly co-operated with old Adams in affording religious 
 instruction to the community. The officers of the Blos- 
 som went ashore, and were entertained with a sumptuous 
 repast at young Christian's, the table being spread with 
 plates, knives and forks. Buffett said grace in an em- 
 phatic manner ; and so strict were they in this respect, that 
 it was not deemed proper to touch a morsel of bread with- 
 out saying grace both before and after it. The officers 
 slept in the house all night, their bedclothing and sheets 
 consisting of the native cloth made of the native mulberry- 
 tree. The only interruption to their repose was the melody 
 of the evening hymn, which was chanted together by 
 the whole family after the lights were put out; and they 
 were awakened at early dawn by the same devotional 
 ceremony. On Sabbath the utmost decorum was at- 
 tended to, and the day was passed in regular religious ob- 
 servances. 
 
 In consequence of a representation made by Captain 
 Beechey, the British government sent out Captain Walde- 
 grave in 1830, in the Seringapatam, with a supply of sail- 
 ors' blue jackets and trousers, flannels, stockings and 
 
128 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 shoes, women's dresses, spades, mattocks, shovels, pick- 
 axes, trowels, rakes, etc. He found their community in- 
 creased to about seventy-nine, all exhibiting the same un- 
 sophisticated and amiable characteristics as we have before 
 described. Other two Englishmen had settled amongst 
 them; one of them, called Nobbs, a low-bred, illiterate 
 man, a self-constituted missionary, who was endeavoring 
 to supersede Buffett in his office of religious instruction. 
 The patriarch Adams, it was found, had died in March, 
 1829, aged sixty-five. While on his deathbed, he had 
 called the heads of families together, and urged upon 
 them to elect a chief; which, however, they had not yet 
 done; but the greatest harmony still prevailed amongst 
 them, notwithstanding Nobb's exertions to form a party 
 of his own. Captain Waldegrave thought that the is- 
 land, which is about four miles square, might be able to 
 support a thousand persons, upon reaching which number 
 they would naturally emigrate to other islands. 
 
 Such is the account of this most singular colony, origin- 
 ating in crime and bloodshed. Of all the repentant crim- 
 inals on record, the most interesting, perhaps, is John 
 Adams; nor do we know where to find a more beautiful 
 example of the value of early instruction than in the his- 
 tory of this man, who, having run the full career of 
 nearly all kinds of vice, was checked by an interval of lei- 
 surely reflection, and the sense of new duties awakened by 
 the power of natural affections. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE ROYAL CAROLINE 
 
 From "The Red Rover," BY JAMES FENNIMORE COOPER 
 
 OUR watchful adventurer captain was not blind to 
 these sinister omens. No sooner did the peculiar at- 
 mosphere by which the mysterious image that he 
 so often examined was suddenly surrounded, catch his 
 eye, than his voice was raised in the clear, powerful, and 
 exciting notes of warning. 
 
 " Stand by," he called aloud, " to in-all-studding-sails ! 
 Down with them ! " he added, scarcely giving his former 
 words time to reach the ears of his subordinates. "Down 
 with every rag of them, fore and aft the ship ! Man the 
 top-gallant clew-lines, Mr. Earing. Clew up, and clew 
 down ! In with every thing, cheerily, men ! In ! " 
 
 This was a language to which the crew of the Caroline 
 were no strangers, and it was doubly welcome, since the 
 meanest seaman amongst them had long thought that his 
 unknown commander had been heedlessly trifling with the 
 safety of the vessel, by the hardy manner in which he dis- 
 regarded the wild symptoms of the weather. But they 
 undervalued the keen-eyed vigilance of Wilder. He had 
 certainly driven the Bristol trader through the water 
 at a rate she had never been known to go before; but, 
 thus far, the facts themselves gave evidence in his favour, 
 since no injury was the consequence of what they deemed 
 temerity. At the quick sudden order just given, however, 
 the whole ship was in an uproar. A dozen seamen called 
 to each other, from different parts of the vessel, each 
 striving to lift his voice above the roaring ocean; and 
 there was every appearance of a general and inextricable 
 confusion; but the same authority which had so un- 
 
 129 
 
130 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 cxpectedly aroused them into activity, produced order 
 from their ill-directed though vigorous efforts. 
 
 Wilder had spoken, to awaken the drowsy and to excite 
 the torpid. The instant he found each man on the alert, he 
 resumed his orders with a calmness that gave a direction 
 to the powers of all, and yet with an energy that he well 
 knew was called for by the occasion. The enormous 
 sheets of duck, which had looked like so many light clouds 
 in the murky and threatening heavens, were soon seen 
 fluttering wildly, as they descended from their high places, 
 and, in a few minutes, the ship was reduced to the action 
 of her more secure and heavier canvas. To effect this 
 object, every man in the ship exerted his powers to the 
 utmost, under the guidance of the steady but rapid man- 
 dates of their commander. Then followed a short and 
 apprehensive pause. All eyes were turned towards the 
 quarter where the ominous signs had been discovered; 
 and each individual endeavored to read their import, with 
 an intelligence correspondent to the degree of skill he 
 might have acquired, during his particular period of serv- 
 ice on that treacherous element which was now his home. 
 
 The dim tracery of the stranger's form had been swal- 
 lowed by the flood of misty light, which, by this time, 
 rolled along the sea like drifting vapour, semi-pellucid, 
 preternatural, and seemingly tangible. The ocean itself 
 appeared admonished that a quick and violent change was 
 nigh. The waves ceased to break in their former foam- 
 ing and brilliant crests, and black masses of the water 
 lifted their surly summits against the eastern horizon, no 
 longer shedding their own peculiar and lucid atmosphere 
 around them. The breeze which had been so fresh, and 
 which had even blown with a force that nearly amounted 
 to a gale, was lulling and becoming uncertain, as it might 
 be awed by the more violent power that was gathering 
 along the borders of the sea, in the direction of the neigh- 
 
WRECK OF THE ROYAL CAROLINE 131 
 
 bouring continent. Each moment, the eastern puffs of air 
 lost their strength, becoming more and more feeble, until, 
 in an incredibly short period, the heavy sails were heard 
 flapping against the masts. A frightful and ominous calm 
 succeeded. At this instant, a gleam flashed from the fear- 
 ful obscurity of the ocean, and a roar, like that of a 
 sudden burst of thunder, bellowed along the waters. The 
 seamen turned their startled looks on each other, stand- 
 ing aghast, as if a warning of what was to follow had 
 come out of the heavens themselves. But their calm and 
 more sagacious commander put a different construction 
 on the signal. His lip curled, in high professional pride, 
 and he muttered with scorn, 
 
 " Does he imagine that we sleep? Ay, he has got it 
 himself, and would open our eyes to what is coming? 
 What does he conjecture we have been about, since the 
 middle watch was set? " 
 
 Wilder made a swift turn or two on the quarter-deck, 
 turning his quick glances from one quarter of the heavens 
 to another; from the black and lulling water on which 
 his vessel was rolling, to the sails; and from his silent 
 and profoundly expectant crew, to the dim lines of spars 
 that were waving above his head, like so many pencils 
 tracing their curvilinear and wanton images over the 
 murky volumes of the superincumbent clouds. 
 
 " Lay the after-yards square ! " he said, in a voice which 
 was heard by every man on deck, though his words were 
 apparently spoken but little above his breath. The 
 creaking of the blocks, as the spars came slowly and heav- 
 ily round to the indicated position, contributed to the 
 imposing character of the moment, sounding like notes 
 of fearful preparation. 
 
 " Haul up the courses ! " resumed Wilder with the same 
 eloquent calmness of manner. Then, taking another 
 glance at the threatening horizon, he added slowly but 
 
132 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 with emphasis, " Furl them furl them both. Away 
 aloft, and hand your courses!" he continued in a shout; 
 "roll them up, cheerily; in with them, boys, cheerily; in!" 
 
 The conscious seamen took their impulses from the 
 tones of their commander. In a moment, twenty dark 
 forms were leaping up the rigging, with the alacrity of so 
 many quadrupeds. In another minute, the vast and pow- 
 erful sheets of canvas were effectually rendered harmless, 
 by securing them in tight rolls to their respective spars. 
 The men descended as swiftly as they had mounted to 
 the yards; and then succeeded another breathing pause. 
 At this appalling moment, a candle would have sent its 
 flame perpendicularly towards the heavens. The ship, 
 missing the steadying power of the wind, rolled heavily in 
 the troughs of the seas, which began to lessen at each 
 instant, as if the startled element was recalling into the 
 security of its own vast bosom that portion of its particles 
 which had so lately been permitted to gambol madly 
 over its surface. The water washed sullenly along the 
 side of the ship, or, as she labouring rose from one of 
 her frequent falls into the hollows of the waves, it shot 
 back into the ocean from her decks in glittering cascades. 
 Every hue of the heavens, every sound of the element, 
 and each dusky and anxious countenance, helped to pro- 
 claim the intense interest of the moment. In this brief 
 interval of expectation and inactivity, the mates again 
 approached their commander. 
 
 " It is an awful night, Captain Wilder! " said Earing, 
 presuming on his rank to be the first to speak. 
 
 " I have known far less notice given of a shift of wind," 
 was the answer. 
 
 " We have had time to gather in our kites, 'tis true, 
 sir; but there are signs and warnings that come with this 
 change which the oldest seaman must dread! " 
 
 " Yes," continued Knighthead, in a voice that' sounded 
 
WRECK OF THE ROYAL CAROLINE 133 
 
 hoarse and powerful, even amid the fearful accessories of 
 that scene; "yes, it is no trifling commission that can 
 call people that I shall not name out upon the water in 
 such a night as this. It was in just such weather that I 
 saw the Vesuvius ketch go to a place so deep, that her 
 own mortar would not have been able to have sent a 
 bomb into the open air, had hands and fire been there fit 
 to let it off ! " 
 
 "Ay; and it was in such a time that the Greenlandman 
 was cast upon the Orkneys, in as flat a calm as ever lay 
 on the sea." 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Wilder, with a peculiar and per- 
 haps an ironical emphasis on the word, " what would ye 
 have? There is not a breath of air stirring and the ship 
 is naked to her topsails ! " 
 
 It would have been difficult for either of the two mal- 
 contents to give a very satisfactory answer to this ques- 
 tion. Both were secretly goaded by mysterious and 
 superstitious apprehensions, that were powerfully aided 
 by the more real and intelligible aspect of the night; 
 but neither had so far forgotten his manhood, and his 
 professional pride, as to lay bare the full extent of his 
 own weakness, at a moment when he was liable to be 
 called upon for the exhibition of qualities of a more posi- 
 tive and determined character. The feeling that was 
 uppermost betrayed itself in the reply of Earing, though 
 in an indirect and covert manner. 
 
 "Yes, the vessel is snug enough now," he said, "though 
 eyesight has shown us it is no easy matter to drive a 
 freighted ship through the water as fast as one of those 
 flying craft aboard which no man can say who stands 
 at the helm, by what compass she steers, or what is her 
 draught ! " 
 
 u Ay," resumed Knighthead, "I call the Caroline fast 
 for an honest trader. There are few square-rigged boats 
 
134 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 who do not wear the pennants of the king, that can eat 
 her out of the wind on a bowline, or bring her into their 
 wake with studding-sails set. But this is a time and an 
 hour to make a seaman think. Look at yon hazy light, 
 here in with the land, that is coming so fast down upon 
 us, and then tell me whether it comes from the coast of 
 America, or whether it comes from out of the stranger 
 who has been so long running under our lee, but who has 
 got, or is fast getting, the wind of us at last, while none 
 here can say how, or why. I have just this much, and 
 no more, to say : give me for consort a craft whose cap- 
 tain I know, or give me none ! " 
 
 " Such is your taste, Mr. Knighthead," said Wilder, 
 coldly; "mine may, by some accident, be different." 
 
 * Yes, yes," observed the more cautious and prudent 
 Earing, " in time of war, and with letters of marque 
 aboard, a man may honestly hope the sail he sees should 
 have a stranger for her master; or otherwise he would 
 never fall in with an enemy. But, though an Englishman 
 born myself, I should rather give the ship in that mist a 
 clear sea, seeing that I neither know her nation nor her 
 cruise. Ah, Captain Wilder, this is an awful sight for 
 the morning watch! Often and often have I seen the 
 sun rise in the east, and no harm done; but little good 
 can come of a day when the light first breaks in the west. 
 Cheerfully would I give the owners the last month's pay, 
 hard as it has been earned, did I but know under what flag 
 the stranger sails." 
 
 "Frenchman, Don, or Devil, yonder he comes! " cries 
 Wilder. Then, turning towards the attentive crew, he 
 shouted, in a voice that was appalling by its vehemence 
 and warning, " Let run the after-halyards ! round with 
 the fore-yard; round with it, men, with a will! " 
 
 These were cries that the startled crew but too well un- 
 derstood. Every nerve and muscle were exerted to exe- 
 
WRECK OF THE ROYAL CAROLINE 135 
 
 cute the orders, to be in readiness for the tempest. No 
 man spoke; but each expended the utmost of his power 
 and skill in direct and manly efforts. Nor was there, in 
 verity, a moment to lose, or a particle of human strength 
 expended here, without a sufficient object. 
 
 The lurid and fearful-looking mist, which, for the last 
 quarter of an hour, had been gathering in the north-west, 
 was driving down upon them with the speed of a race- 
 horse. The air had already lost the damp and peculiar 
 feeling of an easterly breeze; and little eddies were be- 
 ginning to flutter, among the masts precursors of the 
 coming squall. Then, a rushing, roaring sound was heard 
 moaning along the ocean, whose surface was first dim- 
 pled, next ruffled, and finally covered with a sheet of 
 clear, white, and spotless foam. At the next moment, 
 the power of the wind fell upon the inert and labouring 
 Bristol trader. 
 
 While the gust was approaching, Wilder had seized 
 the slight opportunity afforded by the changeful puffs of 
 air to get the ship as much as possible before the wind; 
 but the sluggish movement of the vessel met neither the 
 wishes of his own impatience nor the exigencies of the 
 moment. Her bows slowly and heavily fell off from the 
 north, leaving her precisely in a situation to receive the 
 first shock on her broadside. Happy it was, for all who 
 had life at risk in that defenceless vessel, that she was 
 not fated to receive the whole weight of the tempest at 
 a blow. The sails fluttered and trembled on their massive 
 yards, bellying and collapsing alternately for a minute, 
 and then the rushing wind swept over them in a hurricane. 
 
 The Caroline received the blast like a stout and buoy- 
 ant ship as she was, yielding to its impulse until her side 
 lay nearly incumbent on the element; and then, as if the 
 fearful fabric were conscious of its jeopardy, it seemed 
 
136 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 to lift its reclining masts again, struggling to work its 
 way through the water. 
 
 "Keep the helm a-weather! Jam it a-weather, for 
 your life !" shouted Wilder, amid the roar of the gust. 
 
 The veteran seaman at the wheel obeyed the order 
 with steadiness, but in vain did he keep his eyes on the 
 margin of his head sail, to watch the manner in which the 
 ship would obey its power. Twice more, in as many 
 moments, the giddy masts fell towards the horizon, wav- 
 ing as often gracefully upward, and then they yielded to 
 the mighty pressure of the wind, until the whole ma- 
 chine lay prostrate on the water. 
 
 " Be cool ! " said Wilder, seizing the bewildered Earing 
 by the arm, as the latter rushed madly up the steep of 
 the deck; "it is our duty to be calm; bring hither an 
 
 axe." 
 
 Quick as the thought which gave the order, the ad- 
 monished mate complied, jumping into the mizzen-chan- 
 nels of the ship, to execute with his own hands the man- 
 date that he knew must follow. 
 
 " Shall I cut?" he demanded, with uplifted arms, and 
 in a voice that atoned for his momentary confusion, by 
 its steadiness and force. 
 
 " Hold! Does the ship mind her helm at all?" 
 
 " Not an inch, sir." 
 
 " Then cut," Wilder clearly and calmly added. 
 
 A single blow sufficed for the discharge of this im- 
 portant duty. Extended to the utmost powers of endur- 
 ance, by the vast weight it upheld, the lanyard struck 
 by Earing no sooner parted, than each of its fellows 
 snapped in succession, leaving the mast dependent on its 
 wood for the support of all the ponderous and compli- 
 cated hamper it upheld. The cracking of the spar came 
 next; and the whole fell, like a tree that had been 
 snapped at its foundation. 
 
WRECK OF THE ROYAL CAROLINE 137 
 
 " Does she fall off ?" called Wilder, to the observant 
 seaman at the wheel. 
 
 " She yielded a little, sir ; but this new squall is bringing 
 her up again." 
 
 " Shall I cut?" shouted Earing from the main-rigging, 
 whither he had leaped, like a tiger who had bounded on 
 his prey. 
 
 " Cut." 
 
 A louder and more imposing crash succeeded this or- 
 der, though not before several heavy blows had been 
 struck into the massive mast itself. As before, the sea 
 received the tumbling maze of spars, rigging, and sails; 
 the vessel surging at the same instant, from its recum- 
 bent position, and rolling far and heavily to windward. 
 
 " She rights ! she rights !" exclaimed twenty voices 
 which had been mute, in a suspense that involved life and 
 death. 
 
 " Keep her dead away!" added the calm but authorita- 
 tive voice of the young commander. " Stand by to furl 
 the fore-top-sail let it hang a moment to drag the ship 
 clear of the wreck cut, cut cheerily, men hatchets 
 and knives cut with all, and cut of all !" 
 
 As the men now worked with the vigour of hope, the 
 ropes that still confined the fallen spars to the vessel were 
 quickly severed; and the Caroline, by this time dead 
 before the gale, appeared barely to touch the foam that 
 covered the sea. The wind came over the waste in gusts 
 that rumbled like distant thunder, and with a power that 
 seemed to threaten to lift the ship from its proper ele- 
 ment. As a prudent and sagacious seaman had let fly 
 the halyards, of the solitary sail that remained, at the mo- 
 ment the squall approached, the loosened but lowered 
 topsail was now distended in a manner that threatened 
 to drag after it the only mast which still stood. Wilder 
 
138 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 saw the necessity of getting rid of the sail, and he also 
 saw the utter impossibility of securing it. Calling Earing 
 to his side, he pointed out the danger, and gave the neces- 
 sary order. 
 
 " The spar cannot stand such shocks much longer," 
 he concluded; " should it go over the bows, some fatal 
 blow might be given to the ship at the rate she is moving. 
 A man or two must be sent aloft to cut the sail from the 
 yards." 
 
 " The stick is bending like a willow whip," returned 
 the mate, " and the lower mast itself is sprung. There 
 would be great danger in trusting a hand in that top, 
 while these wild squalls are breathing around us." 
 
 " You may be right," returned Wilder, with a sudden 
 conviction of the truth of what the other had said. " Stay 
 you then here; if any thing befall me, try to get the 
 vessel into port as far north as the Capes of Virginia, at 
 least; on no account attempt Hatteras, in the present 
 condition of " 
 
 "What would you do, Captain Wilder?" interrupted 
 the mate, laying his hand on the shoulder of his com- 
 mander, who had already thrown his sea-cap on the deck, 
 and was preparing to divest himself of some of his outer 
 garments. 
 
 " I go aloft to ease the mast of that topsail, without 
 which we lose the spar, and possibly the ship." 
 
 "I see that plain enough; but, shall it be said that 
 another did the duty of Edward Earing? It is your 
 business to carry the vessel into the Capes of Virginia, 
 and mine to cut the topsail adrift. If harm comes to me, 
 why, put it in the log, with a word or two about the man- 
 ner in which I played my part. That is the most proper 
 epitaph for a sailor." 
 
 Wilder made no resistance. He resumed his watchful 
 and reflecting attitude, with the simplicity of one who 
 
WRECK OF THE ROYAL CAROLINE 139 
 
 had been too long trained to the discharge of certain 
 obligations himself, to manifest surprise that another 
 should acknowledge their imperative character. In the 
 mean time, Earing proceeded steadily to perform what 
 he had just promised. Passing into the waist of the 
 ship, he provided himself with a suitable hatchet, and 
 then, without speaking a syllable to any of the mute but 
 attentive seamen, he sprang into the fore-rigging, every 
 strand and rope-yarn of which was tightened by the 
 strain nearly to snapping. The understanding eyes of 
 his observers comprehended his intention; and with pre- 
 cisely the same pride of station as had urged him to the 
 dangerous undertaking four or five of the oldest mariners 
 jumped upon the rattlings, to mount into an air that ap- 
 parently teemed with a hundred hurricanes. 
 
 " Lie down out of that fore-rigging," shouted Wilder, 
 through a deck trumpet; "lie down; all, but the mate, 
 lie down!" His words were borne past the inattentive 
 ears of the excited and mortified followers of Earing, 
 but for once they failed of their effect. Each man was 
 too earnestly bent on his purpose to listen to the sounds 
 of recall. In less than a minute, the whole were scat- 
 tered along the yards, prepared to obey the signal of 
 their officer. The mate cast a look about him; perceiv- 
 ing that the time was comparatively favorable, he struck 
 a blow upon the large rope that confined one of the 
 lower angles of the distended and bursting sail to the 
 yard. The effect was much the same as would be pro- 
 duced by knocking away the key-stone of an ill-cemented 
 arch. The canvas broke from its fastenings with a loud 
 explosion, and, for an instant, it was seen sailing in the 
 air ahead of the ship, as if it were sustained on wings. 
 The vessel rose on a sluggish wave the lingering re- 
 mains of the former breeze and settled heavily over 
 the rolling surge, borne down alike by its own weight 
 
140 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 and the renewed violence of the gusts. At this critical 
 instant, while the seamen aloft were still gazing in the 
 direction in which the little cloud of canvas had disap- 
 peared, a lanyard of the lower rigging parted, with a 
 crack that reached the ears of Wilder. 
 
 " Lie down!" he shouted wildly through his trumpet; 
 " down by the backstays; down for your lives; every 
 man of you, down !" 
 
 A solitary individual profited by the warning gliding 
 to the deck with the velocity of the wind. But rope parted 
 after rope, and the fatal snapping of the wood followed. 
 For a moment, the towering maze tottered, seeming to 
 wave towards every quarter of the heavens; and then, 
 yielding to the movements of the hull, the whole fell, with 
 a heavy crash, into the sea. Cord, lanyard, and stay 
 snapped like thread, as each received in succession the 
 strain of the ship, leaving the naked and despoiled hull 
 of the Caroline to drive before the tempest, as if nothing 
 had occurred to impede its progress. 
 
 A mute and eloquent pause succeeded the disaster. It 
 seemed as if the elements themselves were appeased by 
 their work, and something like a momentary lull in the 
 awful rushing of the winds might have been fancied. 
 Wilder sprang to the side of the vessel, and distinctly 
 beheld the victims, who still clung to their frail support. 
 He even saw Earing waving his hand in adieu with a 
 seaman's heart, like a man who not only felt how des- 
 perate was his situation, but who knew how to meet it 
 with resignation. Then the wreck of spars, with all who 
 clung to it, was swallowed up in the body of the frightful, 
 preternatural-looking mist which extended on every side 
 of them, from the ocean to the clouds. 
 
 " Stand by, to clear away a boat I" shouted Wilder, 
 without pausing to think of the impossibility of one's 
 
 
WRECK OF THE ROYAL CAROLINE 141 
 
 swimming, or of effecting the least good, in so violent a 
 tornado. 
 
 But the amazed and confounded seamen who re- 
 mained needed no instruction in this matter. Not a man 
 moved, nor was the smallest symptom of obedience 
 given. The mariners looked wildly around them, each 
 endeavouring to trace in the dusky countenance of some 
 shipmate his opinion of the extent of the evil; but not 
 a mouth opened among them all. 
 
 "It is too late it is too late!" murmured Wilder; 
 " human skill and human efforts could not save them!" 
 
 " Sail, ho !" Knighthead shouted in a voice that was 
 teeming with superstitious awe. 
 
 " Let him come on," returned his young commander, 
 bitterly; "the mischief is ready done to his hands!" 
 
 " Should this be a true ship, it is our duty to the owners 
 and the passengers to speak her, if a man can make his 
 voice heard in this tempest," the second mate continued, 
 pointing, through the haze, at the dim object that was 
 certainly at hand. 
 
 " Speak her ! passengers !" muttered Wilder, in- 
 voluntarily repeating his words. "No; any thing is 
 better than speaking her. Do you see the vessel that 
 is driving down upon us so fast?" he sternly demanded of 
 the watchful seaman who still clung to the wheel of the 
 Caroline. 
 
 "Ay, ay, sir." 
 
 " Give her a berth sheer away hard to port 
 perhaps he may pass us in the gloom, now we are no 
 higher than our decks. Give the ship a broad sheer, 
 I say, sir." 
 
 The usual laconic answer was given; and, for a few 
 moments, the Bristol trader was seen diverging a little 
 from the line in which the other approached; but a second 
 glance assured Wilder that the attempt was useless. The 
 
142 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 strange ship (every man on board felt certain it was the 
 same that had so long been seen hanging in the north- 
 western horizon) came on through the mist, with a swift- 
 ness that nearly equalled the velocity of the tempestuous 
 winds themselves. Not a thread of canvas was seen 
 on board her. Each line of spars, even to the tapering 
 and delicate top-gallant masts, was in its place, preserving 
 the beauty and symmetry of the whole fabric; but no- 
 where was the the smallest fragment of a sail opened to 
 the gale. Under her bows rolled a volume of foam 
 that was even discernible amid the universal agitation 
 of the ocean; and, as she came within sound, the sullen 
 roar of the water might have been likened to the noise 
 of a cascade. At first, the spectators on the decks of the 
 Caroline believed they were not seen, and some of the 
 men called madly for lights, in order that the disasters 
 of the night might not terminate in an encounter. 
 
 " Too many see us there already!' 1 said Wilder. 
 
 "No, no," muttered Knighthead; "no fear but we are 
 seen; and by such eyes, too, as never yet looked out of 
 mortal head!" 
 
 The seamen paused. In another instant, the long- 
 seen and mysterious ship was within a hundred feet of 
 them. The very power of that wind, which was wont 
 usually to raise the billows, now pressed the element, with 
 the weight of mountains, into its bed. The sea was every 
 where a sheet of froth, but the water did not rise above 
 the level of the surface. The instant a wave lifted itself 
 from the security of the vast depths, the fluid was borne 
 away before the tornado in glittering spray. Along this 
 frothy but comparatively motionless surface, then, the 
 stranger came booming with the steadiness and grandeur 
 with which a cloud is seen sailing in the hurricane. No 
 sign of life was discovered about her. If men looked 
 out from their secret places, upon the straitened and dis- 
 

 WRECK OF THE ROYAL CAROLINE 143 
 
 comfited wreck of the Bristol trader, it was covertly, and 
 as darkly as the tempest before which they drove. Wilder 
 held his breath, for the moment the stranger was nighest, 
 in the very excess of suspense, but, as he saw no signal 
 of recognition, no human form, nor any intention to ar- 
 rest, if possible, the furious career of the other, a smile 
 gleamed across his countenance, and his lips moved 
 rapidly, as if he found pleasure in being abandoned to his 
 distress. The stranger drove by, like a dark vision; and, 
 ere another minute, her form was beginning to grow less 
 distinct, in the body of spray to leeward. 
 
 "She is going out of sight in the mist!" exclaimed 
 Wilder, when he drew his breath, after the fearful sus- 
 pense of the few last moments. 
 
 " Ay, in mist or clouds," responded Knighthead, who 
 low kept obstinately at his elbow, watching with the 
 lost jealous distrust, the smallest movement of his un- 
 lown commander. 
 
 "In the heavens, or in the sea, I care not, provided 
 ic be gone." 
 
 4< Most seamen would rejoice to see a strange sail, 
 From the hull of a vessel shaved to the deck like this." 
 
 u Men often court their destruction, from ignorance 
 
 >f their own interests. Let him drive on, say I, and pray 
 
 I! He goes four feet to our one; and I ask no better 
 
 favour than that this hurricane may blow until the sun 
 
 shall rise." 
 
 Knighthead started, and cast an oblique glance, which 
 resembled denunciation, at his companion. To his super- 
 stitious mind, there was profanity in thus invoking the 
 tempest, at a moment when the winds seemed already to 
 be pouring out their utmost wrath. 
 
 " This is a heavy squall, I will allow," he said, " and 
 such a one as many mariners pass whole lives without 
 
144 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 seeing; but he knows little of the sea who thinks there is 
 not more wind where this comes from." 
 
 " Let it blow!" cried the other, striking his hands to- 
 gether a little wildly; "I pray for wind!" 
 
 All the doubts of Knighthead, as to the character of 
 the young stranger who had so unaccountably got posses- 
 sion of the office of Nicholas Nichols, if any remained, 
 were now removed. He walked forward among the 
 silent and thoughtful crew, with the air of a man whose 
 opinion was settled. Wilder, however, paid no atten- 
 tion to the movements of his subordinate, but continued 
 pacing the deck for hours; now casting his eyes at the 
 heavens, and now sending frequent and anxious glances 
 around the limited horizon, while the Royal Caroline 
 still continued drifting before the wind, a shorn and 
 naked wreck. 
 
THE CAPTURE OF THE GREAT WHITE 
 WHALE 
 
 From "Moby Dick," BY HERMAN MELVILLE 
 
 THAT night, in the mid-watch, when the old man 
 as his wont at intervals stepped forth from the 
 scuttle in which he leaned, and went to his pivot- 
 hole, he suddenly thrust out his face fiercely, snuffing 
 up the sea air as a sagacious ship's dog will, in drawing 
 nigh to some barbarous isle. He declared that a whale 
 must be near. Soon that peculiar odor, sometimes to a 
 great distance given forth by the living sperm whale, was 
 palpable to all the watch; nor was any mariner surprised 
 when, after inspecting the compass, and then the dog- 
 vane, and then ascertaining the precise bearing of the 
 odor as nearly as possible, Ahab rapidly ordered the ship's 
 course to be slightly altered, and the sail to be shortened. 
 The acute policy dictating these movements was suffi- 
 ciently vindicated at daybreak, by the sight of a long 
 sleek on the sea directly and lengthwise ahead, smooth as 
 oil, and resembling in the pleated watery wrinkles border- 
 ing it, the polished metallic-like marks of some swift tide- 
 rip, at the mouth of a deep, rapid stream. 
 "Man the mast-heads! Call all hands!" 
 Thundering with the butts of three clubbed handspikes 
 on the forecastle deck, Daggoo roused the sleepers with 
 such judgment claps that they seemed to exhale from 
 the scuttle, so instantaneously did they appear with their 
 clothes in their hands. 
 
 145 
 
146 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 "What d'ye see?" cried Ahab, flattening his face to 
 the sky. 
 
 " Nothing, nothing, sir !" was the sound hailing down 
 in reply. 
 
 ' T'gallant sails ! stunsails ! alow and aloft, and on 
 both sides!" 
 
 All sail being set, he now cast loose the life-line, re- 
 served for swaying him to the main royal-mast head; and 
 in a few moments they were hoisting him thither, when, 
 while but two-thirds of the way aloft, and while peering 
 ahead through the horizontal vacancy between the main- 
 top-sail and top-gallant-sail, he raised a gull-like cry in 
 the air, "There she blows! there she blows! A hump 
 like a snow-hill ! It is Moby Dick !" 
 
 Fired by the cry which seemed simultaneously taken 
 up by the three look-outs, the men on deck rushed to the 
 rigging to behold the famous whale they had so long 
 been pursuing. Ahab had now gained his final perch, 
 some feet above the other look-outs, Tashtego standing 
 just beneath him on the cap of the top-gallant-mast, so 
 that the Indian's head was almost on a level with Ahab's 
 heel. From this height the whale was now seen some 
 mile or so ahead, at every roll of the sea revealing his 
 high sparkling hump, and regularly jetting his silent spout 
 into the air. To the credulous mariners it seemed the 
 same silent spout they had so long ago beheld in the moon- 
 lit Atlantic and Indian Oceans. 
 
 " And did none of ye see it before?" cried Ahab, hail- 
 ing the perched men all around him. 
 
 "I saw him almost that same instant, sir, that Captain 
 Ahab did, and I cried out," said Tashtego. 
 
 "Not the same instant; not the same no, the 
 doubloon is mine, Fate reserved the doubloon for me. / 
 only; none of ye could have raised the White Whale 
 first There she blows! there she blows! there she 
 
CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 147 
 
 blows! There again there again!" he cried, in long- 
 drawn, lingering, methodic tones, attuned to the gradual 
 prolongings of the whale's visible jets. " He's going to 
 sound! In stunsails! Down top-gallant-sails! Stand 
 by three boats. Mr. Starbuck, remember, stay on board, 
 and keep the ship. Helm there! Luff, luff a point! 
 So; steady, man, steady! There go flukes! No, no; 
 only black water ! All ready the boats there? Stand by, 
 stand by! Lower me, Mr. Starbuck; lower, lower, 
 quick, quicker !" and he slid through the air to the deck. 
 
 " He is heading straight to leeward, sir," cried Stubb, 
 " right away from us ; cannot have seen the ship yet." 
 
 "Be dumb, man! Stand by the braces! Hard down 
 them helm! brace up! Shiver her! shiver her! So; 
 well that ! Boats, boats !" 
 
 Soon all the boats but Starbuck' s were dropped; all 
 the boat-sails set all the paddles plying; with rippling 
 swiftness, shooting to leeward; and Ahab heading the 
 onset. A pale, death-glimmer lit up Fedallah's sunken 
 eyes; a hideous motion gnawed his mouth. 
 
 Like noiseless nautilus shells, their light prows sped 
 through the sea; but only slowly they neared the foe. 
 As they neared him, the ocean grew stiil more smooth; 
 seemed drawing a carpet over its waves; seemed a noon- 
 meadow, so serenely it spread. At length the breathless 
 hunter came so nigh his seemingly unsuspecting prey, 
 that his entire dazzling hump was distinctly visible, slid- 
 ing along the sea as if an isolated thing, and continually 
 set in a revolving ring of finest, fleecy, greenish foam. 
 He saw the vast, involved wrinkles of the slightly pro- 
 jecting head beyond. Before it, far out on the soft Turk- 
 ish-rugged waters, went the glistening white shadow from 
 his broad, milky forehead, a musical rippling playfully 
 accompanying the shade; and behind, the blue waters 
 interchangeably flowed over into the moving valley of his 
 
148 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 steady wake; and on either hand bright bubbles arose 
 and danced by his side. But these were broken again by 
 the light toes of hundreds of gay fowl softly feathering 
 the sea, alternate with their fitful flight; and like to some 
 flag-staff rising from the painted hull of an argosy, the 
 tall but shattered pole of a recent lance projected from 
 the white whale's back; and at intervals one of the cloud 
 of soft-toed fowls hovering, and to and fro skimming 
 like a canopy over the fish, silently perched and rocked 
 on this pole, the long tail feathers streaming like pennons. 
 
 A gentle joyousness a mighty mildness of repose in 
 swiftness, invested the gliding whale. Not the white 
 bull Jupiter swimming away with ravished Europa cling- 
 ing to his graceful horns; his lovely, leering eyes side- 
 ways intent upon the maid; with smooth bewitching 
 fleetness, rippling straight for the nuptial bower in Crete; 
 not Jove, not that great majesty Supreme! did surpass 
 the glorified White Whale as he so divinely swam. 
 
 On each soft side coincident with the parted swell, 
 that but once leaving him, then flowed so wide away on 
 each bright side, the whale shed off enticings. No won- 
 der there had been some among the hunters who name- 
 lessly transported and allured by all this serenity, had 
 ventured to assail it ; but had fatally found that quietude 
 but the vesture of tornadoes. Yet calm, enticing calm, 
 oh, whale ! thou glidest on, to all who for the first time 
 eye thee, no matter how many in that same way thou 
 may'st have bejuggled and destroyed before. 
 
 And thus, through the serene tranquillities of the trop- 
 ical sea, among waves whose hand-clappings were sus- 
 pended by exceeding rapture, Moby Dick moved on, still 
 withholding from sight the full terrors of his submerged 
 trunk, entirely hiding the wrenched hideousness of his 
 jaw. But soon the fore part of him slowly rose from the 
 water; for an instant his whole marbleized body formed 
 
CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 149 
 
 a high arch, like Virginia's Natural Bridge, and warn- 
 ingly waving his bannered flukes in the air, the grand god 
 revealed himself, sounded, and went out of sight. Hover- 
 ingly, halted, and dipping on the wing, the white sea-fowls 
 longingly lingered over the agitated pool that he left. 
 
 With oars apeak, and paddles down, the sheets of 
 their sails adrift, the three boats now stilly floated, await- 
 ing Moby Dick's reappearance. 
 
 "An hour," said Ahab, standing rooted in his boat's 
 stern; and he gazed beyond the whale's place, toward 
 the dim blue spaces and wide wooing vacancies to lee- 
 ward. It was only an instant; for again his eyes seemed 
 whirling round in his head as he swept the watery circle. 
 The breeze now freshened; the sea began to swell. 
 
 "The birds! the birds!" cried Tashtego. 
 
 In long Indian file, as when herons take wing, the white 
 birds were now all flying towards Ahab's boat ; and when 
 within a few yards began fluttering over the water there, 
 wheeling round and round, with joyous, expectant cries. 
 Their vision was keener than man's ; Ahab could discover 
 no sign in the sea. But suddenly as he peered down and 
 down into its depths, he profoundly saw a white living 
 spot no bigger than a white weasel, with wonderful celer- 
 ity uprising, and magnifying as it rose, till it turned, and 
 then there were plainly revealed two long crooked rows 
 of white, glistening teeth, floating up from the undiscover- 
 able bottom. It was Moby Dick's open mouth and 
 scrolled jaw; his vast, shadowed bulk still half blending 
 with the blue of the sea. The glittering mouth yawned 
 beneath the boat like an open-doored marble tomb ; and 
 giving one sidelong sweep with his steering oar, Ahab 
 whirled the craft aside from this tremendous apparition. 
 Then, calling upon Fedallah to change places with him, 
 went forward to the bows, and seizing Perth's harpoon, 
 
150 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 commanded his crew to grasp their oars and stand by to 
 stern. 
 
 Now, by reason of this timely spinning round the boat 
 upon its axis, its bow, by anticipation, was made to face 
 the whale's head while yet under water. But as if perceiv- 
 ing this stratagem, Moby Dick, with that malicious in- 
 telligence ascribed to him, sidelingly transplanted himself, 
 at it were, in an instant, shooting his pleated head length- 
 wise beneath the boat. 
 
 Through and through ; through every plank and each 
 rib, it thrilled for an instant, the whale obliquely lying 
 on his back, in the manner of a biting shark, slowly and 
 feelingly taking its bows full within his mouth, so that 
 the long, narrow, scrolled lower jaw curled high up into 
 the open air, and one of the teeth caught in a row-lock. 
 The bluish pearl-white of the inside of the jaw was within 
 six inches of Ahab's head, and reached higher than that. 
 In this attitude the White Whale now shook the slight 
 cedar as a mildly cruel cat her mouse. With unastonished 
 eyes Fedallah gazed, and crossed his arms; but the tiger- 
 yellow crew were tumbling over each other's heads to gain 
 the uttermost stern. 
 
 And now, while both elastic gunwales were springing 
 in and out, as the whale dallied with the doomed craft in 
 this devilish way; and from his body being submerged 
 beneath the boat, he could not be darted at from the bows, 
 for the bows were almost inside of him, as it were; and 
 while the other boats involuntarily paused, as before 
 a quick crisis impossible to withstand, then it was that 
 monomaniac Ahab, furious with this tantalizing vicinity of 
 his foe, which placed him all alive and helpless in the very 
 jaws he hated; frenzied with all this, he seized the long 
 bone with his naked hands, and wildly strove to wrench 
 it from its gripe. As now he thus vainly strove, the jaw 
 slipped from him; the frail gunwales bent in, collapsed, 
 
CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 151 
 
 and snapped, as both jaws, like an enormous shears, 
 sliding further aft, bit the craft completely in twain, and 
 locked themselves fast again in the sea, midway between 
 the two floating wrecks. These floated aside, the broken 
 ends drooping, the crew at the stern-wreck clinging to the 
 gunwales, and striving to hold fast to the oars to lash 
 them across. 
 
 At that preluding moment, ere the boat was yet 
 snapped, Ahab, the first to perceive the whale's intent, by 
 the crafty upraising of his head, a movement that loosed 
 his hold for the time; at that moment his hand had 
 made one final effort to push the boat out of the bite. 
 But only slipping further into the whale's mouth, and 
 tilting over sideways as it slipped, the boat had 
 shaken off his hold on the jaw; spilled him out of it, 
 as he leaned to the push; and so he fell flat-faced upon 
 the sea. 
 
 Rippingly withdrawing from his prey, Moby Dick now 
 lay at a little distance, vertically thrusting his oblong 
 white head up and down in the billows; and at the same 
 time slowly revolving his whole spindled body; so that 
 when his vast wrinkled forehead rose some twenty or 
 more feet out of the water the now rising swells, with 
 all their confident waves, dazzlingly broke against it; 
 vindictively tossing their shivered spray still higher into 
 the air.* So, in a gale, the but half baffled Channel bil- 
 lows only recoil from the base of the Eddy-stone, tri- 
 umphantly to overleap its summit with their scud. 
 
 But soon resuming his horizontal attitude, Moby 
 Dick swam swiftly round and round the wrecked crew; 
 sideways churning the water in his vengeful wake, as if 
 
 * This motion is peculiar to the sperm whale. It receives its designa- 
 tion (pitchpoling) from its being likened to that preliminary up-and-down 
 poise of the whale-lance, in the exercise called pitchpoling previously 
 described. By this motion the whale must best and most comprehensively 
 view whatever objects may be encircling him. 
 
152 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 lashing himself up to still another and more (deadly as- 
 sault. The sight of the splintered boat seemed to madden 
 him, as the blood of grapes and mulberries cast before 
 Antiochus's elephants in the book of Maccabees. Mean- 
 while Ahab half smothered in the foam of the whale's 
 insolent tail, and too much of a cripple to swim, 
 though he could still keep afloat, even in the heart of such 
 a whirlpool as that; helpless Ahab's head was seen, like 
 a tossed bubble which the least chance shock might burst. 
 From the boat's fragmentary stern, Fedallah incuriously 
 and mildly eyed him ; the clinging crew, at the other drift- 
 ing end, could not succor him ; more than enough was it 
 to look to themselves. For so revolvingly appalling was 
 the White Whale's aspect, and so planetarily swift the 
 ever-contracting circles he made, that he seemed horizon- 
 tally swooping upon them. And though the other boats 
 unharmed, still hovered hard by; still they dared not pull 
 into the eddy to strike, lest that should be the signal for 
 the instant destruction of the jeopardized castaways, 
 Ahab and all ; nor in that case could they themselves hope 
 to escape. With straining eyes, then, they remained on 
 the outer edge of the direful zone, whose centre had now 
 become the old man's head. 
 
 Meantime, from the beginning all this had been des- 
 cried from the ship's mast heads; and squaring her yards, 
 she had borne down upon the scene ; and was now so nigh, 
 that Ahab in the water hailed her: "Sail on the" but 
 that moment a breaking sea dashed on him from Moby 
 Dick, and whelmed him for the time. But struggling out 
 of it again, and chancing to rise on a towering crest, he 
 shouted, "Sail on the whale! Drive him off!" 
 
 The Pequod's prows were pointed; and breaking up the 
 charmed circle, she effectually parted the whale from his 
 victim. As he suddenly swam off, the boats flew to the 
 rescue. 
 
CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 153 
 
 Dragged into Stubb's boat with blood-shot, blinded 
 eyes, the white brine caking in his wrinkles; the long ten- 
 sion of Ahab's bodily strength did crack, and helplessly 
 he yielded to his body's doom : for a long time, lying all 
 crushed in the bottom of Stubb's boat, like one trodden 
 under foot of herds of elephants. Far inland, nameless 
 wails came from him, as desolate sounds from out ravines. 
 
 But this intensity of his physical prostration did but 
 so much the more abbreviate it. In an instant's com- 
 pass, great hearts sometimes condense to one deep pang, 
 the sum total of those shallow pains kindly diffused 
 through feebler men's whole lives. And so, such hearts, 
 though summary in each one suffering; still, if the gods 
 decree it, in their life-time aggregate a whole age of woe, 
 wholly made up of instantaneous intensities; for even in 
 their pointless centres, those noble natures contain the 
 entire circumferences of inferior souls. 
 
 "The harpoon," said Ahab, half way rising, and drag- 
 gingly leaning on one bended arm "is it safe !" 
 
 "Aye, sir, for it was not darted; this is it," said Stubb, 
 showing it. 
 
 "Lay it before me; any missing men!" 
 
 "One, two, three, four, five ; there were five oars, sir, 
 and here are five men." 
 
 "That's good. Help me, man; I wish to stand. So, 
 so, I see him ! there ! there ! going to leeward still ; what 
 a leaping spout ! Hands off from me ! The eternal sap 
 runs up in Ahab's bones again! Set the sail; out oars; 
 the helm!" 
 
 It is often the case that when a boat is stove, its crew, 
 being picked up by another boat, help to work that sec- 
 ond boat; and the chase is thus continued with what is 
 called double-banked oars. It was thus now. But the 
 added power of the boat did not equal the added power 
 of the whale, for he seemed to have treble-banked his 
 
154 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 every fin ; swimming with a velocity which plainly showed, 
 that if now, under these circumstances, pushed on, the 
 chase would prove an indefinitely prolonged, if not a hope- 
 less one; nor could any crew endure for so long a period, 
 such an unintermitted, intense straining at the oar; a 
 thing barely tolerable only in some one brief vicissitude. 
 The ship itself, then, as it sometimes happens, offered 
 the most promising intermediate means of overtaking the 
 chase. Accordingly, the boats now made for her, and 
 were soon swayed up to their cranes the two parts of 
 the wrecked boat having been previously secured by her 
 and then hoisting everything to her side, and stacking 
 her canvas high up, and sideways outstretching it with 
 stun-sails, like the double-jointed wings of an albatross; 
 the Pequod bore down in the leeward wake of Moby 
 Dick. At the well known, methodic intervals, the whale's 
 glittering spout was regularly announced from the 
 manned mast-heads; and when he would be reported as 
 just gone down, Ahab would take the time, and then pac- 
 ing the deck, binnacle-watch in hand, so soon as the last 
 second of the allotted hour expired, his voice was heard. 
 "Whose is the doubloon now? D'ye see him?" and 
 if the reply was, No, sir ! straightway he commanded them 
 to lift him to his perch. In this way the day wore on; 
 Ahab, now aloft and motionless; anon, unrestingly pacing 
 the planks. 
 
 As he was thus walking, uttering no sound, except to 
 hail the men aloft, or to bid them hoist a sail still higher, 
 or to spread one to a still greater breadth thus to and 
 fro pacing, beneath his slouched hat, at every turn he 
 passed his own wrecked boat, which had been dropped 
 upon the quarter-deck, and lay there reversed; broken 
 bow to shattered stern. At last he paused before it; and 
 as in an already over-clouded sky fresh troops of clouds 
 
CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 155 
 
 will sometimes sail across, so over the old man's face 
 there now stole some such added gloom as this. 
 
 Stubb saw him pause; and perhaps intending, not 
 vainly, though, to evince his own unabated fortitude, and 
 thus keep up a valiant place in his Captain's mind, he ad- 
 vanced, and eyeing the wreck exclaimed "The thistle 
 the ass refused; it pricked his mouth too keenly, sir; ha! 
 ha!" 
 
 "What soulless thing is this that laughs before a wreck? 
 Man, man ! did I not know thee brave as fearless fire 
 (and as mechanical) I could swear thou wert a poltroon. 
 Groan nor laugh should be heard before a wreck." 
 
 u Aye, sir," said Starbuck drawing near, "'tis a sol- 
 emn sight; an omen, and an ill one." 
 
 u Omen ? omen ? the dictionary ! If the gods think to 
 speak outright to man, they will honorably speak out- 
 right; not shake their heads, and give an old wives' dark- 
 ling hint. Begone! Ye two are the opposite poles of 
 one thing; Starbuck is Stubb reversed, and Stubb is Star- 
 buck; and ye two are all mankind; and Ahab stands alone 
 among the millions of the peopled earth, nor gods nor 
 men his neighbors! Cold, cold I shiver! How now? 
 Aloft there! D'ye see him? Sing out for every spout, 
 though he spout ten times a second!" 
 
 The day was nearly done; only the hem of his golden 
 robe was rustling. Soon, it was almost dark, but the 
 look-out men still remained unset. 
 
 "Can't see the spout now, sir; too dark" cried a 
 voice from the air. 
 
 "How heading when last seen?" 
 
 "As before, sir, straight to leeward." 
 
 "Good! he will travel slower now 'tis night. Down 
 royals and top-gallant stun-sails, Mr. Starbuck. We 
 must not run over him before morning; he's making a 
 passage now, and may heave-to a while. Helm there! 
 
156 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 keep her full before the wind! Aloft! come down! 
 Mr. Stubb, send a fresh hand to the fore-mast head, and 
 see it manned till morning." Then advancing towards 
 the doubloon in the main-mast "Men, this gold is mine, 
 for I earned it; but I shall let it abide here till the White 
 Whale is dead; and then, whosoever of ye first raises 
 him, upon the day he shall be killed, this gold is that 
 man's; and if on that day I shall again raise him, then, 
 ten times its sum shall be divided among all of ye ! Away 
 now ! the deck is thine, sir." 
 
 And so saying, he placed himself half way within the 
 scuttle, and sloucliing his hat, stood there till dawn, ex- 
 cept when at intervals rousing himself to see how the 
 night wore on. 
 
 SECOND DAY. 
 
 AT day-break, the three mast-heads were punctually 
 manned afresh. 
 
 "D'ye see him?" cried Ahab, after allowing a little 
 space for the light to spread. 
 
 "See nothing, sir." 
 
 "Turn up all hands and make sail! he travels faster 
 than I thought for ; the top-gallant sails ! aye, they 
 should have been kept on her all night. But no matter 
 'tis but resting for the rush." 
 
 Here be it said, that this pertinacious pursuit of one 
 particular whale, continued through day into night, and 
 through night into day, is a thing by no means unprece- 
 dented in the South sea fishery. For such is the wonder- 
 ful skill, prescience of experience, and invincible confidence 
 acquired by some great natural geniuses among the Nan- 
 tucket commanders; that from the simple observation of 
 a whale when last descried, they will, under certain given 
 circumstances, pretty accurately foretell both the direc- 
 tion in which he will continue to swim for a time, while 
 
CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 157 
 
 out of sight, as well as his probable rate of progression 
 during that period. And, in these cases, somewhat as 
 a pilot, when about losing sight of a coast, whose general 
 trending he well knows, and which he desires shortly 
 to return to again, but at some further point ; like as this 
 pilot stands by his compass, and takes the precise bearing 
 of the cape at present visible, in order the more certainly 
 to hit aright the remote, unseen headland, eventually to 
 be visited: so does the fisherman, at his compass, with 
 the whale ; for after being chased, and diligently marked, 
 through several hours of daylight, then, when night ob- 
 scures the fish, the creature's future wake through the 
 darkness is almost as established to the sagacious mind 
 of the hunter, as the pilot's coast is to him. So that to 
 this hunter's wondrous skill, the proverbial evanescence 
 of a thing writ in water, a wake, is to all desired purposes 
 well-nigh as reliable as the steadfast land. And as the 
 mighty iron Leviathan of the modern railway is so fa- 
 miliarly known in its every pace, that, with watches in 
 their hands, men time his rate, as doctors that of a baby's 
 pulse ; and lightly say of it, the up train or the down train 
 will reach such or such a spot, at such or such an hour; 
 even so, almost, there are occasions when these Nantuck- 
 eters time that other Leviathan of the deep, according to 
 the observed humor of his speed ; and say to themselves, 
 so many hours hence this whale will have gone two hun- 
 dred miles, will have about reached this or that degree of 
 latitude or longitude. But to render this acuteness at all 
 successful in the end, the wind and the sea must be the 
 whaleman's allies; for of what present avail to the be- 
 calmed or windbound mariner is the skill that assures him 
 he is exactly ninety-three leagues and a quarter from his 
 port? Inferable from these statements, are many col- 
 lateral subtile matters touching the chase of whales. 
 The ship tore on ; leaving such a furrow in the sea as 
 
158 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 when a cannon-ball, missent, becomes a ploughshare and 
 turns up the level field. 
 
 "By salt and hemp !" cried Stubb, "but this swift mo- 
 tion of the deck creeps up one's legs and tingles at the 
 heart. This ship and I are two brave fellows! Ha! 
 ha ! Some one take me up, and launch me, spine-wise, 
 on the sea, for by live-oaks! my spine's a keel. Ha, 
 ha ! we go the gait that leaves no dust behind !" 
 
 "There she blows she blows! she blows! right 
 ahead I" was now the mast-head cry. 
 
 "Aye, aye!" cried Stubb, "I knew it ye can't escape 
 
 blow on and split your spout, O whale ! the mad fiend 
 
 himself is after ye ! blow your trump blister your lungs ! 
 
 Ahab will dam off your blood, as a miller shuts his 
 
 water-gate upon the stream !" 
 
 And Stubb did but speak out for well-nigh all that crew. 
 The frenzies of the chase had by this time worked them 
 bubblingly up, like old wine worked anew. Whatever 
 pale fears and forebodings some of them might have felt 
 before ; these were not only now kept out of sight through 
 the growing awe of Ahab, but they were broken up, and 
 on all sides routed, as timid prairie hares that scatter be- 
 fore the bounding bison. The hand of Fate had snatched 
 all their souls; and by the stirring perils of the previous 
 day; the rack of the past night's suspense; the fixed, un- 
 fearing, blind, reckless way in which their wild craft went 
 plunging towards its flying mark; by all these things, their 
 hearts were bowled along. The wind that made great 
 bellies of their sails, and rushed the vessel on by arms 
 invisible as irresistible; this seemed the symbol of that un- 
 seen agency which so enslaved them to the race. 
 
 They were one man, not thirty. For as the one ship 
 that held them all; though it was put together of all 
 contrasting things oak, and maple, and pine wood; iron, 
 and pitch, and hemp yet all these ran into each other in 
 
CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 159 
 
 the one concrete hull, which shot on its way, both bal- 
 anced and directed by the long central keel ; even so, all 
 the individualities of the crew, this man's valor, that 
 man's fear; guilt and guiltiness, all varieties were welded 
 into oneness, and were all directed to that fatal goal 
 which Ahab their one lord and keel did point to. 
 
 The rigging lived. The mast-heads, like the tops of 
 tall palms, were outspreadingly tufted with arms and legs. 
 Clinging to a spar with one hand, some reached forth the 
 other with impatient wavings; others, shading their eyes 
 from the vivid sunlight, sat far out on the rocking yards ; 
 all the spars in full bearing of mortals, ready and ripe for 
 their fate. Ah! how they still strove through that in- 
 finite blueness to seek out the thing that might destroy 
 them! 
 
 "Why sing ye not out for him, if ye see him?" cried 
 Ahab, when, after the lapse of some minutes since the first 
 cry, no more had been heard. "Sway me up, men; ye 
 have been deceived; not Moby Dick casts one odd jet 
 that way, and then disappears." 
 
 It was even so; in their headlong eagerness, the men 
 had mistaken some other thing for the whale-spout, as 
 the event itself soon proved; for hardly had Ahab reached 
 his perch ; hardly was the rope belayed to its pin on deck, 
 when he struck the keynote to an orchestra, that made 
 the air vibrate as with the combined discharge of rifles. 
 The triumphant halloo of thirty buckskin lungs was heard, 
 as much nearer to the ship than the place of the imag- 
 inary jet, less than a mile ahead Moby Dick bodily 
 burst into view ! For not by any calm and indolent spout- 
 ings! not by the peaceable gush of that mystic fountain 
 in his head, did the White Whale now reveal his vicinity; 
 but by the far more wondrous phenomenon of breaching. 
 Rising with his utmost velocity from the furthest depths, 
 the Sperm Whale thus booms his entire bulk into the 
 
160 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 pure element of air, and piling up a mountain of dazzling 
 foam, shows his place to the distance of seven miles and 
 more. In those moments, the torn, enraged waves he 
 shakes off, seem his mane; in some cases, this breaching is 
 his act of defiance. 
 
 "There she breaches! there she breaches!" was the cry, 
 as in his immeasurable bravadoes the White Whale tossed 
 himself salmon-like to Heaven. So suddenly seen in the 
 blue plain of the sea, and relieved against the still bluer 
 margin of the sky, the spray that he raised, for the mo- 
 ment, intolerably glittered and glared like a glacier; and 
 stood there gradually fading and fading away from its 
 first sparkling intensity, to the dim mistiness of an ad- 
 vancing shower in a vale. 
 
 "Aye, breach your last to the sun, Moby Dick!" cried 
 Ahab, "thy hour and thy harpoon are at hand! Down! 
 down all of ye, but one man at the fore. The boats ! 
 standby!" 
 
 Unmindful of the tedious rope-ladders of the shrouds, 
 the men, like shooting stars, slid to the deck, by the iso- 
 lated backstays and halyards ; while Ahab, less dartingly, 
 but still rapidly was dropped from his perch. 
 
 "Lower away," he cried, so soon as he had reached 
 his boat a spare one, rigged the afternoon previous. 
 "Mr. Starbuck, the ship is thine keep away from the 
 boats, but keep near them. Lower, all !" 
 
 As if to strike a quick terror into them, by this time be- 
 ing the first assailant himself, Moby Dick had turned, 
 and was now coming for the three crews. Ahab's boat 
 was central; and cheering his men, he told them he would 
 take the whale head-and-head, that is, pull straight up 
 to his forehead, a not uncommon thing; for when with- 
 in a certain limit, such a course excludes the coming onset 
 from the whale's sidelong vision. But ere that close 
 limit was gained, and while yet all three boats were plain 
 
CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 161 
 
 as the ship's three masts to his eye; the White Whale 
 churning himself into furious speed, almost in an instant 
 as it were, rushing among the boats with open jaws, and 
 a lashing tail, offered appalling battle on every side; and 
 heedless of the irons darted at him from every boat, 
 seemed only intent on annihilating each separate plank of 
 which those boats were made. But skillfully manoeuvred, 
 incessantly wheeling like trained charges in the field; the 
 boats for a while eluded him; though, at times, but by a 
 plank's breadth ; while all the time, Ahab's unearthly slo- 
 gan tore every other cry but his to shreds. 
 
 But at last in his untraceable evolutions, the White 
 Whale so crossed and recrossed, and in a thousand ways 
 entangled the clack of the three lines now fast to him, 
 that they foreshortened, and, of themselves, warped the 
 devoted boats towards the planted irons in him; though 
 now for a moment the whale drew aside a little, as if to 
 rally for a more tremendous charge. Seizing that op- 
 portunity, Ahab first paid out more line: and then was 
 rapidly hauling and jerking in upon it again hoping that 
 way to disencumber it of some snarls when lo I a sight 
 more savage than the embattled teeth of sharks ! 
 
 Caught and twisted corkscrewed in the mazes of the 
 line, loose harpoons and lances, with all their bristling 
 barbs and points, came flashing and dripping up to the 
 chocks in the bows of Ahab's boat. Only one thing could 
 be done. Seizing the boat-knife, he critically reached 
 within through and then, without the rays of steel; 
 dragged in the line beyond, passed it inboard, to the bows- 
 man, and then, twice sundering the rope near the chocks 
 dropped the intercepted fagot of steel into the sea; 
 and was all fast again. That instant, the White Whale 
 made a sudden rush among the remaining tangles of the 
 other lines; by so doing, irresistibly dragged the more in- 
 volved boats of Stubb and Flack towards his flukes ; dash- 
 
162 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 ed them together like two rolling husks on a surf-beaten 
 beach, and then, diving down into the sea, disappeared in 
 a boiling maelstrom, in which, for a space, the odorous 
 cedar chips of the wrecks danced round and round, like 
 grated nutmeg in a swiftly stirred bowl of punch. 
 
 While the two crews were yet circling in the waters, 
 reaching out after the revolving line-tubs, oars, and other 
 floating furniture, while aslope little Flask bobbed up and 
 down like an empty vial, twitching his legs upwards to es- 
 cape the dreaded jaws of sharks; and Stubb was lustily 
 singing out for some one to ladle him up ; and while the 
 old man's line now parting admitted of his pulling 
 into the creamy pool to rescue whom he could; in that 
 wild simultaneousness of a thousand concreted perils, 
 Ahab's yet unstricken boat seemed drawn up towards 
 Heaven by invisible wires, as, arrow-like, shooting per- 
 pendicularly from the sea, the White Whale dashed his 
 broad forehead against its bottom, and sent it, turning 
 over and over, into the air; till it fell again gunwale 
 downwards and Ahab and his men struggled out from 
 under it, like seals from a sea-side cave. 
 
 The first uprising momentum of the whale modifying 
 its direction as he struck the surface involuntarily 
 launched him along it, to a little distance from the centre 
 of the destruction he had made; and with his back to it, 
 he now lay for a moment slowly feeling with his flukes 
 from side to side ; and whenever a stray oar, bit of plank, 
 the least chip or crumb of the boats touched his skin, his 
 tail swiftly drew back, and came sideways smiting the sea. 
 But soon, as if satisfied that his work for that time was 
 done, he pushed his pleated forehead through the ocean, 
 and trailing after him the intertanglcd lines, continued 
 his leeward way at a traveller's methodic pace. 
 
 As before, the attentive ship having descried the whole 
 fight, again came bearing down to the rescue, and drop- 
 
CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 163 
 
 ping a boat, picked up the floating manners, tubs, oars, 
 and whatever else could be caught at, and safely landed 
 them on her decks. Some sprained shoulders, wrists, and 
 ankles; livid contusions; wrenched harpoons and lances; 
 inextricable intricacies of rope ; shattered oars and planks ; 
 all these were there ; but no fatal or even serious ill seemed 
 to have befallen any one. As with Fedallah the day be- 
 fore, so Ahab was now found grimly clinging to his boat's 
 broken half, which afforded a comparatively easy float; 
 nor did it so exhaust him as the previous day's mishap. 
 
 But when he was helped to the deck, all eyes were fas- 
 tened upon him; as instead of standing by himself he still 
 half-hung upon the shoulder of Starbuck, who had thus 
 far been the foremost to assist him. His ivory leg had 
 been snapped off, leaving but one short sharp splinter. 
 
 "Aye aye, Starbuck, 'tis sweet to lean sometimes, be 
 the leaner who he will; and would old Ahab had leaned 
 oftener than he has." 
 
 "The ferrule has not stood, sir," said the carpenter, 
 now coming up ; "I put good work into that leg." 
 
 "But no bones broken, sir, I hope," said Stubb with 
 true concern. 
 
 "Aye ! and all splintered to pieces, Stubb ! d'ye see it. 
 But even with a broken bone, old Ahab is untouched ; 
 and I account no living bone of mine one jot more me, than 
 this dead one that's lost. Nor white whale, nor man, 
 nor fiend, can so much as graze old Ahab in his own proper 
 and inaccessible being. Can any lead touch yonder floor, 
 any mast scrape yonder roof? Aloft there I which way?" 
 
 "Dead to leeward, sir." 
 
 "Up helm, then; pile on the sail again, ship keepers! 
 down the rest of the spare boats and rig them Mr. Star- 
 buck away, and muster the boat's crews." 
 
 "Let me first help thee towards the bulwarks, sir." 
 
 "Oh, oh, oh! how this splinter gores me now! Ac- 
 
164 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 cursed fate! that the unconquerable captain in the soul 
 should have such a craven mate !" 
 
 "Sir?" 
 
 "My body, man, not thee. Give me something for a 
 cane there, that shivered lance will do. Muster the 
 men. Surely I have not seen him yet. By heaven it can- 
 not be! missing? quick! call them all." 
 
 The old man's hinted thought was true. Upon muster- 
 ing the company, the Parsec was not there. 
 
 "The Parsee!" cried Stubb "he must have been 
 caught in " 
 
 "The black vomit wrench thee ! run all of ye above, 
 alow, cabin, forecastle find him not gone not gone !" 
 
 But quickly they returned to him with the tidings that 
 the Parsee was nowhere to be found. 
 
 "Aye, sir," said Stubb "caught among the tangles of 
 your line I thought I saw him dragging under." 
 
 "My line! my line? Gone? gone? What means 
 that little word? What death-knell rings in it, that old 
 Ahab shakes as if he were the belfry. The harpoon, too ! 
 toss over the litter there, d'ye see it? the forged 
 iron, men, the white whale's no, no, no, blistered fool ! 
 this hand did dart it! 'tis in the fish! Aloft there! 
 Keep him nailed Quick! all hands to the rigging of 
 the boats collect the oars harpooners! the irons, the 
 irons! hoist the royals higher a pull on all the sheets! 
 helm there ! steady, steady for your life ! I'll ten-times 
 girdle the unmeasured globe; yea and dive straight 
 through it, but I'll slay him yet!" 
 
 "Great God ! but for one single instant show thyself," 
 cried Starbuck; "never, never will thou capture him, old 
 man In Jesus' name no more of this, that's worse than 
 devil's madness. Two days chased; twice stove to splin- 
 ters; thy very leg once more snatched from under thee; 
 thy evil shadow gone all good angles mobbing thee with 
 
CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 165 
 
 warnings: what more wouldst thou have? Shall we 
 keep chasing this murdeous fish till he swamps the last 
 man? Shall we be dragged by him to the bottom of the 
 sea? Shall we be towed by him to the infernal world? 
 Oh, oh, Impiety and blasphemy to hunt him more!" 
 
 "Starbuck, of late IVe felt strangely moved to thee; 
 ever since that hour we both saw thou know'st what, in 
 one another's eyes. But in this matter of the whale, be 
 the front of thy face to me as the palm of this hand a 
 lipless, unfeatured blank. Ahab is for ever Ahab, man. 
 This whole act's immutably decreed. 'Twas rehearsed 
 by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled. 
 Fool ! I am the Fates' lieutenant ; I act under orders. Look 
 thou, underling! that thou obeyest mine. Stand round 
 me, men. Ye see an old man cut down to the stump; 
 leaning on a shivered lance ; propped up on a lonely foot. 
 'Tis Ahab his body's part ; but Ahab's soul's a centipede, 
 that moves upon a hundred legs. I feel strained, half- 
 stranded, as ropes that tow dismasted frigates in a gale ; 
 and I may look so. But ere I break, ye'll hear me crack; 
 and till ye hear that, know that Ahab's hawser tows his 
 purpose yet. Believe ye, men, in the things called omens ? 
 Then laugh aloud, and cry encore ! For ere they drown, 
 drowning things will twice rise to the surface; then rise 
 again, to sink for evermore. So with Moby Dick two 
 days he's floated to-morrow will be the third. Aye, 
 men, he'll rise once more, but only to spout his last! 
 D'ye feel brave men, brave?" 
 
 "As fearless fire," cried Stubb. 
 
 "And as mechanical," muttered Ahab. Then as the 
 men went forward, he muttered on: "The things called 
 omens! And yesterday I talked the same to Starbuck 
 there, concerning my broken boat. Oh! how valiantly I 
 seek to drive out of others' hearts what's clinched so fast 
 in mine! The Parsee the Parsee! gone, gone? and 
 
166 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 he was to go before : but still was to be seen again ere 
 I could perish How's that? There's a riddle now 
 might baffle all the lawyers backed by the ghosts of the 
 whole line of judges: like a hawk's beak it pecks my 
 brain. /'//, I'll solve it, though !" 
 
 When dusk descended, the whale was still in sight to 
 leeward. 
 
 So once more the sail was shortened, and everything 
 passed nearly as on the previous night; only, the sound 
 of hammers, and the hum of the grindstone was heard 
 till nearly daylight, as the men toiled by lanterns in the 
 complete and careful rigging of the spare boats and sharp- 
 ening their fresh weapons for the morrow. Meantime, of 
 the broken keel of Ahab's wrecked craft the carpenter 
 made him another leg; while still as on the night before, 
 slouched Ahab stood fixed within his scuttle ; his hid, helio- 
 trope glance anticipatingly gone backward on its dial; sat 
 due eastward for the earliest sun. 
 
 THIRD DAY. 
 
 THE morning of the third day dawned fair and fresh, 
 and once more the solitary night-man at the fore-mast- 
 head was relieved by crowds of the daylight lookouts, 
 who dotted every mast and almost every spar. 
 
 u D'ye see him?" cried Ahab; but the whale was not 
 yet in sight. 
 
 "In his infallible wake, though; but follow that wake, 
 that's all. Helm there; steady, as thou goest, and hast 
 been going. What a lovely day again! were it a new- 
 made world, and made for a summer-house to the angels, 
 and this morning the first of its throwing open to them, 
 a fairer day could not dawn upon that world. Here's 
 food for thought, had Ahab time to think; but Ahab 
 never thinks; he only feels, feels, feels; that's tingling 
 
CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 167 
 
 enough for mortal man ! to think's audacity. God only 
 has that right and privilege. Thinking is, or ought to 
 be, a coolness and a calmness; and our poor hearts throb, 
 and our poor brains beat too much for that. And yet, 
 I've sometimes thought my brain was very calm frozen 
 calm, this old skull cracks so, like a glass in which the 
 contents turned to ice, and shiver it. And still this hair 
 is growing now; this moment growing, and the heat must 
 breed it; but no, it's like that sort of common grass that 
 will grow anywhere, between the earthly clefts of Green- 
 land ice or in Vesuvius lava. How the wild winds blow; 
 they whip about me as the torn shreds of split sails lash 
 the tossed ship they cling to. A vile wind that has no 
 doubt blown ere this through prison corridors and cells, 
 and wards of hospitals, and ventilated them, and now 
 comes blowing hither as innocent as fleeces. Out upon 
 it ! it's tainted. Were I the wind, I'd blow no more on 
 such a wicked, miserable world. I'd crawl somewhere 
 to a cave, and slink there. And yet, 'tis a noble and he- 
 roic thing, the wind! who ever conquered it? In every 
 fight it has the last and bitterest blow. Run tilting at it, 
 and you but run through it. Ha ! a coward wind that 
 strikes stark naked men, but will not stand to receive a 
 single blow. Even Ahab is a braver thing a nobler 
 thing than that. Would now the wind but had a body; 
 but all the things that most exasperate and outrage mortal 
 man, all these things are bodiless, but only bodiless as 
 objects, not as agents. There's a most special, a most 
 cunning, oh, a most malicious difference! And yet, I 
 say again, and swear it now, that there's something all 
 glorious and gracious in the wind. These warm Trade 
 Winds, at least, that in the clear heavens blow straight 
 on, in strong and steadfast, vigorous mildness ; and veer 
 not from their mark, however the baser currents of the 
 sea may turn and tack, and mightiest Mississipies of the 
 
168 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 land swift and swerve about, uncertain where to go at 
 last. And by the eternal Poles ! these same Trades that 
 so directly blow my good ship on; these Trades, or some- 
 thing like them something so unchangeable, and full as 
 strong, blow my keeled soul along ! To it ! Aloft there ! 
 What d'ye see?" 
 
 "Nothing, sir." 
 
 "Nothing! and noon at hand! The doubloon goes 
 a-begging ! See the sun ! Aye, aye, it must be so. I've 
 oversailed him. How, got the start? Aye, he's chas- 
 ing me now; not I, him that's bad; I might have known 
 it, too. Fool ! the lines the harpoons he's towing. Aye, 
 aye, I have run him by last night. About ! about ! Come 
 down, all of ye, but the regular lookouts! Man the 
 braces!" 
 
 Steering as she had done, the wind had been some- 
 what on the Pequod's quarter, so that now being pointed 
 in the reverse direction, the braced ship sailed hard upon 
 the breeze as she rechurned the cream in her own white 
 wake. 
 
 "Against the wind he now steers for the open jaw," 
 murmured Starbuck to himself, as he coiled the new- 
 hauled mainbrace upon the rail. "God keep us, but al- 
 ready my bones feel damp within me, and from the in- 
 side wet my flesh. I misdoubt me that I disobey by God 
 in obeying him!" 
 
 "Stand by to sway me up !" cried Ahab, advancing to 
 the hempen basket. "We should meet him soon." 
 
 "Aye, aye, sir," and straightway Starbuck did Ahab's 
 bidding, and once more Ahab swung on high. 
 
 A whole hour now passed; gold-beaten out to ages. 
 Time itself now held long breaths with keen suspense. 
 But at last, some three points off the weather bow, Ahab 
 descried the spout again, and instantly from the three 
 

 CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 169 
 
 mast-heads three shrieks went up as if the tongues of fire 
 had voiced it. 
 
 "Forehead to forehead I meet thee, this third time, 
 Moby Dick ! On deck there I brace sharper up ; crowd 
 her into the wind's eye. He's too far off to lower yet, 
 Mr. Starbuck. The sails shake ! Stand over that helms- 
 man with a top-maul ! So, so ; he travels fast, and I must 
 down. But let me have one more good round look aloft 
 here at the sea; there's time for that. An old, old sight, 
 and yet somehow so young; aye, and not changed a wink 
 since I first saw it, a boy, from the sand-hills of Nan- 
 tucket! The same! the same! the same to Noah as 
 to me. There's a soft shower to leeward. Such lovely 
 leewardings! They must lead somewhere to some- 
 thing else than common land, more palmy than the palms. 
 Leeward! the white whale goes that way; look to wind- 
 ward, then; the better if the bitterer quarter. But good 
 bye, good bye, old mast-head! What's this? green? 
 aye, tiny mosses in these warped cracks. No such green 
 weather stains on Ahab's head! There's the difference 
 now between man's old age and matter's. But aye, old 
 mast, we both grow old together; sound in our hulls, 
 though, are we not my ship ? Aye, minus a leg, that's all. 
 By heaven this dead wood has the better of my live flesh 
 every way. I can't compare with it; and I've known 
 some ships made of dead trees outlast the lives of men 
 made of the most vital stuff of vital fathers. What's that 
 he said? he should still go before me, my pilot; and yet 
 to be seen again? But where? Will I have eyes at the 
 bottom of the sea, supposing I descend those endless 
 stairs? and all night I've been sailing from him, wher- 
 ever he did sink to. Aye, aye, like many more thou 
 told'st direful truth as touching thyself, O Parsee; but, 
 Ahab, there thy shot fell short. Good by, mast-head 
 keep a good eye upon the whale, the while I'm gone. 
 
170 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 We'll talk to-morrow, nay, to-night, when the white whale 
 lies down there, tied by head and tail." 
 
 He gave the word! and still gazing round him, was 
 steadily lowered through the cloven blue air to the deck. 
 
 In due time the boats were lowered; but as standing 
 in his shallop's stern, Ahab just hovered upon the point 
 of the descent, he waved to the mate, who held one of 
 the tackle-ropes on deck and bade him pause. 
 
 "Starbuck!" 
 
 "Sir?" 
 
 "For the third time my soul's ship starts upon this voy- 
 age, Starbuck." 
 
 "Aye, sir, thou wilt have it so." 
 
 "Some ships sail from their ports, and ever afterwards 
 are missing, Starbuck!" 
 
 "Truth, sir: saddest truth." 
 
 "Some men die at ebb tide; some at low water; some 
 at the full of the flood; and I feel now like a billow 
 that's all one crested comb, Starbuck. I am old; shake 
 hands with me, man." 
 
 Their hands met; their eyes fastened; Starbuck's tears 
 the glue. 
 
 "Oh, my captain, my captain! noble heart go not 
 go not! see, it's a brave man that weeps; how great the 
 agony of the persuasion then!" 
 
 "Lower away!" cried Ahab, tossing the mate's arm 
 from him. "Stand by the crew!" 
 
 In an instant the boat was pulling round close under 
 the stern. 
 
 "The sharks! the sharks!" cried a voice from the low 
 cabin-window there; "O master, my master, come back!" 
 
 But Ahab heard nothing; for his own voice was high- 
 lifted then; and the boat leaped on. 
 
 Yet the voice spake true; for scarce had he pushed 
 from the ship, when numbers of sharks, seemingly rising 
 
CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 171 
 
 from out the dark waters beneath the hull, maliciously 
 snapped at the blades of the oars, every time they dipped 
 in the water ; and in this way accompanied the boat with 
 their bites. It is a thing not uncommonly happening to 
 the whale-boats in those swarming seas; the sharks at 
 times apparently following them in the same prescient 
 way that vultures hover over the banners of marching 
 regiments in the east. But these were the first sharks 
 that had been observed by the Pequod since the White 
 Whale had been first descried; and whether it was that 
 Ahab's crew were all such tiger-yellow barbarians, and 
 therefore their flesh more musky to the senses of the 
 sharks a matter sometimes well known to affect them, 
 however it was, they seemed to follow that one boat with- 
 out molesting the others. 
 
 "Heart of wrought steel !" murmured Starbuck, gazing 
 over the side and following with his eyes the receding 
 boat u canst thou yet ring boldly to that sight? lower- 
 ing thy keel among ravening sharks, and followed by 
 them, open-mouthed to the chase; and this the critical 
 third day? For when three days flow together in one 
 continuous intense pursuit; be sure the first is the morn- 
 ing, the second the noon, and the third the evening and 
 the end of that thing be that end what it may. Oh ! my 
 God! what is this that shoots through me, and leaves me 
 so deadly calm, yet expectant, fixed at the top of a shud- 
 der! Future things swim before me, as in empty out- 
 lines and skeletons; all the past is somehow grown dim. 
 Mary, girl! thou fadest in pale glories behind me; boy! 
 I seem to see but thy eyes grown wondrous blue. Strang- 
 est problems of life seem clearing; but clouds sweep be- 
 tween Is my journey's end coming ? My legs feel faint ; 
 like his who has footed it all day. Feel thy heart, beats 
 it yet? Stir thyself, Starbuck! stave it off move, 
 move ! speak aloud ! Mast-head there. See ye my boy's 
 
172 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 hand on the hill? Crazed; aloft there! keep thy 
 keenest eye upon the boats: mark well the whale! 
 Ho ! again ! drive off that hawk ! see ! he pecks he 
 tears the vane" pointing to the red flag flying at the 
 main-truck "Ha ! he soars away with it ! Where's the 
 old man now? sees't thou that sight, oh Ahab ! shudder, 
 shudder!" 
 
 The boats had not gone very far, when by a signal 
 from the mast-heads a downward pointed arm, Ahab 
 knew that the whale had sounded; but intending to be 
 near him at the next rising, he held on his way a little 
 sideways from the vessel; the becharmed crew maintain- 
 ing the profoundest silence, as the head-beat waves ham- 
 mered and hammered against the opposing bow. 
 
 "Drive, drive in your nails, oh ye waves! to their utter- 
 most heads drive them in ! ye but strike a thing without a 
 lid; and no coffin and no hearse can be mine: and hemp 
 only can kill me ! Ha ! ha !" 
 
 Suddenly the waters around them slowly swelled in 
 broad circles; then quickly upheaved, as if sideways slid- 
 ing from a submerged berg of ice, swiftly rising to the 
 surface. A low rumbling sound was heard; a subterra- 
 neous hum; and then all held their breaths; as bedraggled 
 with trailing ropes, and harpoons, and lances, a vast form 
 shot lengthwise, but obliquely from the sea. Shrouded in 
 a thin drooping veil of mist, it hovered for a moment in 
 the rainbowed air; and then fell swamping back into the 
 deep. Crushed thirty feet upwards, the waters flashed 
 for an instant like heaps of fountains, then brokenly sank 
 in a shower of flakes, leaving the circling surface creamed 
 like new milk round the marble trunk of the whale. 
 
 "Give way!" cried Ahab to the oarsmen, and the boats 
 darted forward to the attack; but maddened by yester- 
 day's fresh irons that corroded in him, Moby Dick seemed 
 combinedly possessed by all the angels that fell from 
 
CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 173 
 
 heaven. The wide tiers of welded tendons overspread- 
 ing his broad white forehead, beneath the transparent 
 skin, looked knitted together ; as head on, he came churn- 
 ing his tail among the boats; and once more flailed them 
 apart; spilling out the irons and lances from the two 
 mates' boats, and dashing in one side of the upper part 
 of their bows, but leaving Ahab's almost without a scar. 
 
 While Daggoo and Queequeg were stopping the 
 strained planks; and as the whale swimming out from 
 them, turned, and showed one entire flank as he shot by 
 them again ; at that moment a quick cry went up. Lashed 
 round and round to the fish's back; pinioned in the turns 
 upon turns in which, during the past night, the whale had 
 reeled the involutions of the lines around him, the half 
 torn body of the Parsee was seen ; his sable raiment frayed 
 to shreds; his distended eyes turned full upon old Ahab. 
 
 The harpoon dropped from his hand. 
 
 "Befooled, befooled!" drawing in a long lean breath 
 u Aye, Parsee ! I see thee again. Aye, and thou goest 
 before; and this, this then is the hearse that thou didst 
 promise. But I hold thee to the last letter of thy word. 
 Where is the second hearse? Away, mates, to the ship! 
 those boats are useless now; repair them if ye can in time, 
 and return to me; if not, Ahab is enough to die Down, 
 men ! the first thing that but offers to jump from this boat 
 I stand in, that thing I harpoon. Ye are not other men, 
 but my arms and my legs ; and so obey me. Where's the 
 whale? gone down again?" 
 
 But he looked too nigh the boat; for as if bent upon 
 escaping with the corpse he bore, and as if the particular 
 place of the last encounter had been but a stage in his 
 leeward voyage, Moby Dick was now again steadily swim- 
 ming forward; and had almost passed the ship, which 
 thus far had been sailing in the contrary direction to him, 
 though for the present her headway had been stopped. 
 
174 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 He seemed swimming with his utmost velocity, and now 
 only intent upon pursuing his own straight path in the sea. 
 
 "Oh! Ahab," cried Starbuck, u not too late is it, even 
 now, the third day, to desist. See! Moby Dick seeks 
 thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him !" 
 
 Setting sail to the rising wind, the lonely boat was, 
 swiftly impelled to leeward, by both oars and canvas. 
 And at last when Ahab was sliding by the vessel, so near 
 as plainly to distinguish Starbuck's face as he leaned over 
 the rail, he hailed him to turn the vessel about, and follow 
 him, not too swiftly, at a judicious interval. Glancing 
 upwards, he saw Tashtego, Queequeg, and Daggoo, 
 eagerly mounting to the three mast-heads ; while the oars- 
 men were rocking in the two staved boats which had but 
 just been hoisted to the side, and were busily at work in 
 repairing them. One after the other, through the port- 
 holes, as he sped, he also caught flying glimpses of Stubb 
 and Flack, busying themselves on deck among bundles of 
 new irons and lances. As he saw all this ; as he heard the 
 hammers in the broken boats ! far other hammers seemed 
 driving a nail into his heart. But he rallied. And now 
 marking that the vane or flag was gone from the main- 
 mast-head, he shouted to Tashtego, who had just gained 
 that perch, to descend again for another flag, and a ham- 
 mer and nails, and so nail it to the mast. 
 
 Whether fagged by the three days' running chase, and 
 the resistance to his swimming in the knotted hamper he 
 bore; or whether it was some latent deceitfulness and 
 malice in him: whichever was true, the White Whale's 
 way now began to abate, as it seemed, from the boat so 
 rapidly nearing him once more ; though indeed the whale's 
 last start had not been so long a one as before. And 
 still as Ahab glided over the waves the unpitying sharks ac- 
 companied him; and so pertinaciously stuck to the boat; 
 and so continually bit at the plying oars, that the blades 
 

 CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 175 
 
 ecame jagged and crunched, and left small splinters in 
 the sea, at almost every dip. 
 
 "Heed them not! those teeth but give new rowlocks 
 to your oars. Pull on ! 'tis the better rest, the shark's 
 jaw than the yielding water." 
 
 "But at every bite, sir, the thin blades grow smaller and 
 smaller!" 
 
 "They will last long enough! pull on! But who can 
 tell" he muttered "whether these sharks swim to feast 
 on the whale or on Ahab? But pull on ! Aye, all alive, 
 now we near him. The helm! take the helm; let me 
 pass," and so saying, two of the oarsmen helped him for- 
 ward to the bows of the still flying boat. 
 
 At length as the craft was cast to one side, and ran 
 ranging along with the White Whale's flank, he seemed 
 strangely oblivious of its advance as the whale some- 
 times will and Ahab was fairly within the smoky moun- 
 tain mist, which, thrown off from the whale's spout, curled 
 round his great, Monadnock rump ; he was even thus close 
 to him; when, with body arched back, and both arms 
 lengthwise high-lifted to the poise, he darted his fierce 
 iron, and his far fiercer curse into the hated whale. As 
 both steel and curse sank to the socket, as if sucked into a 
 morass, Moby Dick sideways writhed; spasmodically 
 rolled his nigh flank against the bow, and, without stav- 
 ing a hole in it, so suddenly canted the boat over, that 
 had it not been for the elevated part of the gunwale to 
 which he then clung, Ahab would once more have been 
 tossed into the sea. As it was, three of the oarsmen 
 who foreknew not the precise instant of the dart, and 
 were therefore unprepared for its effects these were 
 flung out; but so fell, that, in an instant two of them 
 clutched the gunwale again, and rising to its level on a 
 combining wave, hurled themselves bodily inboard again ; 
 
176 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 the third man helplessly dropping astern, but still afloat 
 and swimming. 
 
 Almost simultaneously, with a mighty volition of un- 
 graduated, instantaneous swiftness, the White Whale 
 darted through the weltering sea. But when Ahab cried 
 out to the steersman to take new turns with the line, and 
 hold it so; and commanded the crew to turn round on 
 their seats, and tow the boat up to the mark; the moment 
 the treacherous line felt that double strain and tug, it 
 snapped in the empty air! 
 
 "What breaks in me ? Some sinew cracks ! 'tis whole 
 again; oars! oars! Burst in upon him!" 
 
 Hearing the tremendous rush of the sea-crashing boat, 
 the whale wheeled round to present his blank forehead 
 at bay; but in that evolution, catching sight of the near- 
 ing black hull of the ship ; seemingly seeing in it the source 
 of all his persecutions; bethinking it it may be a larger 
 and nobler foe; of a sudden, he bore down upon its ad- 
 vancing prow, smiting his jaws amid fiery showers of 
 foam. 
 
 Ahab staggered; his hand smote his forehead. "I 
 grow blind; hands! stretch out before me that I may yet 
 grope my way. Is't night?" 
 
 "The whale ! The ship !" cried the cringing oarsmen. 
 
 "Oars! oars! Slope downwards to thy depths, O sea, 
 that ere it be forever too late, Ahab may slide this last, 
 last time upon his mark! I see: the ship! the ship! 
 Dash on, my men! Will ye not save my ship?" 
 
 But as the oarsmen violently forced their boat through 
 the sledge-hammering seas, the before whale-smitten bow- 
 ends of two planks burst through, and in an instant al- 
 most, the temporarily disabled boat lay nearly level with 
 the waves; its halfwading, splashing crew, trying hard 
 to stop the gap and bale out the pouring water. 
 
 Meantime, for that one beholding instant, Tashtego's 
 
CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 177 
 
 mast-head hammer remained suspended in his hand; and 
 the red flag, half-wrapping him as with a plaid, then 
 streamed itself straight out from him, as his own for- 
 ward-flowing heart; while Starbuck and Stubb, standing 
 upon the bowsprit beneath, caught sight of the down- 
 coming monster just as soon as he. 
 
 "The whale, the whale ! Up helm, up helm ! Oh, all 
 ye sweet powers of air, now hug me close! Let not 
 Starbuck die, if die he must, in a woman's fainting fit. 
 Up helm, I say ye fools, the jaw! the jaw! Is this the 
 end of all my bursting prayers? all my life-long fidelities? 
 Oh, Ahab, Ahab, lo, thy work. Steady! helmsman, 
 steady. Nay, nay! Up helm again! He turns to meet 
 us ! Oh, his unappeasable brow drives on towards one, 
 whose duty tells him he cannot depart. My God, stand 
 by me now!" 
 
 "Stand not by me, but stand under me, whoever you 
 are that will now help Stubb ; for Stubb, too, sticks here. 
 I grin at thee, thou grinning whale ! Who ever helped 
 Stubb, or kept Stubb awake, but Stubb's own unwinking 
 eye? And now poor Stubb goes to bed upon a mattress 
 that is all too soft; would it were stuffed with brushwood ! 
 I grin at thee, thou grinning whale ! Look ye, sun, moon, 
 and stars I I call ye assassins of as good a fellow as ever 
 spouted up his ghost. For all that, I would yet ring 
 glasses with ye, would ye but hand the cup ! Oh, oh ! 
 oh, oh! thou grinning whale, but there'll be plenty of 
 gulping soon! Why fly ye not, O Ahab! For me, off 
 shoes and jacket to it; let Stubb die in his drawers! A 
 most mouldy and over-salted death, though; cherries! 
 cherries! cherries! Oh, Flask, for one red cherry ere 
 we die!" 
 
 "Cherries? I only wish that we were where they 
 grow. Oh, Stubb, I hope my poor mother's drawn my 
 
178 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 part-pay ere this; if not, few coppers will now come to 
 her, for the voyage is up." 
 
 From the ship's bows, nearly all the seamen now hung 
 inactive; hammers, bits of plank, lances, and harpoons, 
 mechanically retained in their hands, just as they had 
 darted from their various employments; all their en- 
 chanted eyes intent upon the whale, which from side to 
 side strangely vibrating his predestinating head, sent a 
 broad band of overspreading semicircular foam before 
 him as he rushed. Retribution, swift vengeance, eternal 
 malice were in his whole aspect, and spite of all that 
 mortal man could do, the solid white buttress of his fore- 
 head smote the ship's starboard bow, till men and 
 timbers reeled. Some fell flat upon their faces. Like 
 dislodged trucks, the heads of the harpooners aloft shook 
 on their bull-like necks. Through the breach, they heard 
 the waters pour, as mountain torrents down a flume. 
 
 "The ship ! The hearse ! the second hearse !" cried 
 Ahab from the boat; "its wood could only be American !" 
 
 Diving beneath the settling ship, the whale ran quiver- 
 ing along its keel; but turning under water, swiftly shot 
 to the surface again, far off the other bow, but within 
 a few yards of Ahab's boat, where, for a time, he lay 
 quiescent. 
 
 "I turn my body from the sun. What ho, Tashtego ! 
 let me hear thy hammer. Oh! ye three unsurrendered 
 spires of mine ; thou uncracked keel ; and only god-bullied 
 hull ; thou firm deck, and haughty helm, and Pole-pointed 
 prow, death-glorious ship ! must ye then perish, and 
 without me? Am I cut off from the last fond pride of 
 meanest shipwrecked captains? Oh, lonely death on 
 lonely life! Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies 
 in my topmost grief. Ho, ho! from all your furthest 
 bounds, pour ye now in, ye bold billows of my whole fore- 
 gone life, and top this one piled comber of my death! 
 
CAPTURE GREAT WHITE WHALE 179 
 
 Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering 
 whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart 
 I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at 
 thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool ! 
 and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, 
 while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned 
 whale ! Thus, I give up the spear !" 
 
 The harpoon was darted; the stricken whale flew for- 
 ward; with igniting velocity the line ran through the 
 groove; ran foul. Ahab stooped to clear it; he did 
 clear it ! but the flying turn caught him round the neck, 
 and voicelessly as Turkish mutes bowstring their victim, 
 he was shot out of the boat, ere the crew knew he was 
 gone. Next instant, the heavy eye-splice in the rope's 
 final end flew out of the stark-empty tub, knocked down 
 an oarsmen, and smiting the sea, disappeared in its depths. 
 
 For an instant, the tranced boat's crew stood still; 
 then turned. "The ship ! Great God, where is the ship ?" 
 >oon they through dim, bewildering mediums saw her 
 jidelong fading phantom, as in the gaseous Fata Mor- 
 lana; only the uppermost masts out of water; while fixed 
 >y infatuation, or fidelity, or fate, to their once lofty 
 perches, the pagan harpooners still maintained their sink- 
 ing lookouts on the sea. And now, concentric circles 
 seized the lone boat itself, and all its crew, and each float- 
 ing oar, and every lance-pole, and spinning, animate and 
 inanimate, all round and round in one vortex, carried the 
 smallest chip of the Pequod out of sight. 
 
 But as the last whelmings intermixingly poured them- 
 selves over the sunken head of the Indian at the main- 
 mast, leaving a few inches of the erect spar yet visible, 
 togethep with long streaming yards of the flag, which 
 calmly undulated, with ironical coincidings, over the de- 
 stroying billows they almost touched; at that instant, a 
 red arm and a hammer hovered backwardly uplifted in 
 
180 
 
 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 the open air, in the act of nailing the flag faster and yet 
 faster to the subsiding spar. A sky-hawk that tauntingly 
 had followed the main-truck downwards from its natural 
 home among the stars, pecking at the flag, and incommod- 
 ing Tashtego there; this bird now chanced to intercept its 
 broad fluttering wing between the hammer and the wood; 
 and simultaneously feeling that ethereal thrill, the sub- 
 merged savage beneath, in his death-gasp, kept his ham- 
 mer frozen there; and so the bird of heaven, with arch- 
 angelic shrieks, and his imperial beak thrust upwards, an< 
 his whole captive form folded in the flag of Ahab, went 
 down with his ship, which, like Satan, would not sink t( 
 hell till she had dragged a living part of heaven alonj 
 with her, and helmeted herself with it. 
 
 Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning 
 gulf; a sullen white surf beat against its steep sides; thei 
 all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled 01 
 as it rolled five thousand years ago. 
 
THE CORVETTE CLAYMORE 
 From "Ninety-three," BY VICTOR HUGO 
 
 THE corvette, instead of sailing south, in the direc- 
 tion of St. Catherine, headed to the north, then, 
 veering towards the west, had boldly entered that 
 arm of the sea between Sark and Jersey called the Pas- 
 sage of the Deroute. There was then no lighthouse at 
 any point on either coast. It had been a clear sunset; 
 the night was darker than summer nights usually are; it 
 was moonlight, but large clouds, rather of the equinox 
 than of the solstice overspread the sky, and, judging by 
 appearances, the moon would not be visible until she 
 reached the horizon at the moment of setting. A few 
 clouds hung low near the surface of the sea and covered 
 it with vapor. 
 
 All this darkness was favorable. Gacquoil, the pilot, 
 intended to leave Jersey on the left, Guernsey on the right, 
 and by boldly sailing between Hanois and Dover, to 
 reach some bay on the coast near St. Malo, a longer 
 but safer route than the one through Minquiers; for the 
 French coaster had standing orders to keep an unusually 
 sharp lookout between St. Helier and Granville. 
 
 If the wind were favorable, and nothing happened, by 
 dint of setting all sail Gacquoil hoped to reach the coast 
 of France at daybreak. 
 
 All went well. The corvette had just passed Gros Nez. 
 Towards nine o'clock the weather looked sullen, as the 
 sailors express it, both wind and sea rising; but the wind 
 was favorable, and the sea was rough, yet not heavy, 
 the waves now and then dashing over the bow of the 
 corvette. "The peasant" whom Lord Balcarras had 
 
 181 
 
182 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 called general, and whom the Prince de La Tour d'Au- 
 vergne had addressed as cousin, was a good sailor, and 
 paced the deck of the corvette with calm dignity. He 
 did not seem to notice that she rocked considerably. 
 From time to time he took out of his waistcoat pocket 
 a cake of chocolate, and breaking off a piece, munched 
 it. Though his hair was gray, his teeth were sound. 
 
 He spoke to no one, except that from time to time 
 he made a few concise remarks in an undertone to the 
 captain, who listened to him deferentially, apparently 
 regarding his passenger as the commander, rather than 
 himself. Unobserved in the fog, and skilfully piloted, 
 the Claymore coasted along the steep shore to the 
 north of Jersey, hugging the land to avoid the formid- 
 able reef of Pierres-de-Leeq, which lies in the middle 
 of the strait between Jersey and Sark. Gacquoil, at 
 the helm, sighting in turn Greve de Leeq, Gros Nez, 
 and Plermont, making the corvette glide in among those 
 chains of reefs, felt his way along to a certain extent 
 but with the self-confidence of one familiar with the 
 ways of the sea. 
 
 The corvette had no light forward, fearing to betray 
 its passage through these guarded waters. They con- 
 gratulated themselves on the fog. The Grande Etape 
 was reached; the mist was so dense that the lofty out- 
 lines of the Pinnacle were scarcely visible. They heard 
 it strike ten from the belfry of Saint-Ouen, a sign 
 that the wind was still aft. All was going well; the 
 sea grew rougher, because they were drawing near La Cor- 
 biere. 
 
 A little after ten, the Count Boisberthelot and the 
 Chevalier de la Vieuville escorted the man in the peas- 
 ant garb to the door of his cabin, which was the cap- 
 tain's own room. As he was about to enter, he re- 
 marked, lowering his voice : 
 
THE CORVETTE CLAYMORE 183 
 
 "You understand the importance of keeping the se- 
 cret, gentlemen. Silence up to the moment of explo- 
 sion. You are the only ones here who know my name." 
 
 "We will carry it to the grave," replied Boisberthe- 
 lot. 
 
 "And for my part, I would not reveal it were I face 
 to face with death," remarked the old man. 
 
 And he entered his stateroom. 
 
 The commander and the first officer returned on 
 deck, and began to pace up and down side by side, talk- 
 ing as they walked. The theme was evidently their 
 passenger; and this was the substance of the conversa- 
 tion which the wind wafted through the darkness. Bois- 
 berthelot grumbled half audibly to La Vieuville, 
 
 "It remains to be seen whether or no he is a leader." 
 
 La Vieuville replied, 
 
 "Meanwhile he is a prince." 
 
 "Almost." 
 
 "A nobleman in France, but a prince in Brittany." 
 
 "Like the Tremouilles and the Rohans." 
 
 "With whom he is connected." 
 
 Boisberthelot resumed, 
 
 "In France and in the carriages of the king he is a 
 marquis, as I am a count, and you a chevalier." 
 
 "The carriages are far away!" exclaimed Vieuville. 
 "We are living in the time of the tumbril." 
 
 A silence ensued. 
 
 Boisberthelot went on, 
 
 "For lack of a French prince we take one from Brit- 
 tany." 
 
 "For lack of thrushes No: since an eagle is not to 
 be found, we take a crow." 
 "I should prefer a vulture," remarked Boisberthelot. 
 
 La Vieuville replied, * 
 
184 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 "Yes, indeed, with a beak and talons." 
 
 "We shall see." 
 
 "Yes, replied Vieuville, "it is time there was a leader. 
 I agree with Tinteniac, a leader and gunpowder! See 
 here, commander, I know nearly all the possible and 
 impossible leaders, those of yesterday, those of to- 
 day, and those of to-morrow. Not one of them has the 
 head required for war. In this cursed Vendee a gen- 
 eral is needed who would be a lawyer as well as a leader. 
 He must harass the enemy, dispute every bush, 
 ditch, and stone; he must force unlucky quarrels upon 
 him, and take advantage of everything; vigilant and 
 pitiless, he must watch incessantly, slaughter freely, and 
 make examples. Now, in this army of peasants there 
 are heroes, but no captains. D'Elbee is a nonentity, 
 Lescure an invalid; Bonchamps is merciful, he is 
 kind, and that implies folly; La Rochejaquelein is a su- 
 perb sub-lieutenant; Silz is an officer good for the open 
 field, but not suited for a war that needs a man of ex- 
 pedients; Cathelineau is a simple teamster; Stofflet is a 
 crafty game-keeper; Berard is inefficient; Boulainvillers 
 is absurd; Charette is horrible. I make no mention of 
 Gaston the barber. Mordemonbleu ! what is the use 
 of opposing revolution, and what is the difference be- 
 tween ourselves and the republicans, if we set barbers 
 over the heads of noblemen! The fact is, that this 
 beastly revolution has contaminated all of us." 
 
 "It is the itch of France." 
 
 "It is the itch of the Tiers etat," rejoined Boisberthe- 
 lot. "England alone can help us." 
 
 "And she will, captain, undoubtedly." 
 
 "Meanwhile it is an ugly state of affairs." 
 
 "Yes, rustics everywhere. A monarchy that has 
 Stofflet, the game-keeper of M. de Maulevrier, for a 
 commander has no reason to envy a republic whose 
 
THE CORVETTE CLAYMORE 185 
 
 minister is Pache, the son of the Duke de Castries' por- 
 ter. What men this Vendean war brings face to face, 
 on one side Santerre the brewer; on the other Gaston 
 the hairdresser!" 
 
 "My dear La Vieuville, I feel some respect for this 
 Gaston. He behaved well in his command of Gueme- 
 nee. He had three hundred Blues neatly shot after 
 making them dig their own graves." 
 
 "Well enough done; but I could have done quite as 
 well as he." 
 
 "Pardieu, to be sure; and I too." 
 
 "The great feats of war," said Vieuville, "require 
 noble blood in those who perform them. These are 
 matters for knights, and not for hairdressers." 
 
 "But yet there are estimable men in this 'Third Es- 
 tate,' ' rejoined Vieuville. "Take that watchmaker, 
 Joly, for instance. He was formerly a sergeant in a 
 Flanders regiment; he becomes a Vendean chief and 
 commander of a coast band. He has a son, a republi- 
 can ; and while the father serves in the ranks of the Whites, 
 the son serves in those of the Blues. An encounter, a 
 battle: the father captures the son and blows out his 
 brains." 
 
 "He did well," said La Vieuville. 
 
 "A royalist Brutus," answered Boisberthelot. 
 "Nevertheless, it is unendurable to be under the com- 
 mand of a Coquereau, a Jean-Jean, a Moulin, a Focart, 
 a Bouju, a Chouppes!" 
 
 "My dear chevalier, the opposite party is quite as 
 indignant. We are crowded with plebeians; they have 
 an excess of nobles. Do you think the sansculottes like 
 to be commanded by the Count de Canclaux, the Vis- 
 count de Miranda, the Viscount de Beauharnais, the 
 Count de Valence, the Marquis de Custine, and the 
 Duke de Biron?" 
 
186 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 "What a combination!" 
 
 "And the Duke de Chartres!" 
 
 "Son of Egalite. By the way, when will he be king?'* 
 
 "Never!" 
 
 "He aspires to the throne, and his very crimes serve 
 to promote his interests." 
 
 "And his vices will injure his cause," said Boisber- 
 thelot. 
 
 Then, after another pause, he continued, 
 
 "Nevertheless, he was anxious to be reconciled. He 
 came to see the king. I was at Versailles when some 
 one spit on his back." 
 
 "From the top of the grand staircase?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "I am glad of it." 
 
 "We called him Bourbon le Bourbeaux." 
 
 "He is bald-headed; he has pimples; he is a regicide. 
 Poh!" 
 
 And La Vieuville added : 
 
 "I was with him at Ouessant." 
 
 "On the Saint Esprit?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Had he obeyed Admiral d'Orvillier's signal to keep 
 to the windward, he would have prevented the English 
 from passing." 
 
 "True." 
 
 "Was he really hidden in the bottom of the hold?" 
 
 "No; but we must say so all the same." 
 
 And La Vieuville burst out laughing. 
 
 Boisberthelot continued : 
 
 "Fools are plentiful. Look here, I have known this 
 Boulainvilliers of whom you were speaking; I knetl 
 him well. At first the peasants were armed with pikes; 
 would you believe it, he took it into his head to form j 
 them into pike-men. He wanted to drill them in cross- j 
 
THE CORVETTE CLAYMORE 187 
 
 ing pikes and repelling a charge. He dreamed of trans- 
 forming these barbarians into regular soldiers. He 
 undertook to teach them how to round in the corners 
 of their squares, and to mass battalions with hollow 
 squares. He jabbered the antiquated military dialect 
 to them; he called the chief of a squad a cap d'escade, 
 which was what corporals under Louis XIV, were 
 called. He persisted in forming a regiment of all those 
 poachers. He had regular companies whose sergeants 
 ranged themselves in a circle every evening, and, re- 
 ceiving the sign and countersign from the colonel's ser- 
 geant, repeated it in a whisper to the lieutenant's ser- 
 geant, who repeated it to his next neighbor, who in his 
 turn transmitted it to the next man, and so on from 
 ear to ear until it reached the last man. He cashiered 
 an officer for not standing bareheaded to receive the 
 watchword from the sergeant. You may imagine how 
 he succeeded. This simpleton could not understand 
 that peasants have to be led peasant fashion, and that 
 it is impossible to transform rustics into soldiers. Yes, 
 I have known Boulainvilliers." 
 
 They walked along a few steps, each one engrossed 
 in his own thoughts. 
 
 Then the conversation was resumed: 
 
 "By the way, has the report of Dampierre's death 
 been confirmed?" 
 
 "Yes, commander." 
 
 "Before Conde?" 
 
 "At the camp of Pamars; he was hit by a cannon- 
 ball." 
 
 Boisberthelot sighed. 
 
 "Count Dampierre, another of our men, who took 
 sides with them." 
 
 "May he prosper wherever he may be!" said Vieu- 
 Ville. 
 
188 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 "And the ladies, where are they?" 
 
 "At Trieste." 
 
 "Still there?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Ah, this republic!" exclaimed La Vieuville. "What 
 havoc from so slight a cause ! To think that this revo- 
 lution was the result of a deficit of only a few millions!" 
 
 "Insignificant beginnings are not always to be trust- 
 ed." 
 
 "Everything goes wrong," replied La Vieuville. 
 
 "Yes; La Rouarie is dead. Du Dresnay is an idiot. 
 What wretched leaders are all those bishops, this 
 Coucy, bishop of La Rochelle; Beaupoil Saint-Aulaire, 
 bishop of Poitiers; Mercy, bishop of Luzon, a lover of 
 Madame de 1'Eschasserie " 
 
 "Whose name is Servanteau, you know, commander. 
 Eschasserie is the name of an estate." 
 
 "And that false bishop of Agra, who is a cure of I 
 know not what !" 
 
 "Of Dol. His name is Guillot de Folleville. But 
 then he is brave, and knows how to fight." 
 
 "Priests when one needs soldiers! bishops who are 
 no bishops at all! generals who are no generals!" 
 
 La Vieuville interrupted Boisberthelot. 
 
 "Have you the Moniteur in your stateroom, com- 
 mander?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "What are they giving now in Paris ?" 
 
 " 'Adele and Pauline' and 'La Caverne.' " 
 
 "I should like to see that." 
 
 "You may. We shall be in Paris in a month." 
 
 Boisberthelot thought a moment, and then added: 
 
 "At the latest, so Mr. Windham told Lord Hood." 
 
 "Then, commander, I take it affairs are not going 
 so very badly?" 
 
THE CORVETTE CLAYMORE 189 
 
 "All would go well, provided that the Breton war 
 were well managed." 
 
 De Vieuville shook his head. 
 
 "Commander," he said, "are we to land the marines?" 
 
 "Certainly, if the coast is friendly, but not otherwise. 
 In some cases war must force the gates; in others it can 
 slip through them. Civil war must always keep a false 
 key in its pocket. We will do all we can; but one must 
 have a chief." 
 
 And Boisberthelot added thoughtfully, 
 
 "What do you think of the Chevalier de Dieuzie, La 
 Vieuville?" 
 
 "Do you mean the younger?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "For a commander?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "He is only good for a pitched battle in the open 
 field. It is only the peasant who knows the under- 
 brush." 
 
 "In that case, you may as well resign yourself to 
 Generals Stofflet and Cathelineau." 
 
 La Vieuville mediated for a moment; then he said, 
 
 "What we need is a prince, a French prince, a 
 prince of the blood, a real prince." 
 
 "How can that be? He who says 'prince' " 
 
 "Says 'coward.' I know it, commander. But we 
 need him for the impression he would produce upon 
 the herd." 
 
 "My dear chevalier, the princes don't care to come." 
 
 "We will do without them." 
 
 Boisberthelot pressed his hand mechanically against 
 his forehead, as if striving to evoke an idea. He re- 
 sumed, 
 
 "Then let us try this general." 
 
 "He is a great nobleman." 
 
190 
 
 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 "Do you think he will do?" 
 
 "If he is one of the right sort," said La Vieuville. 
 
 "You mean relentless?" said Boisberthelot. 
 
 The count and the chevalier looked at each other. 
 
 "Monsieur Boisberthelot, you have defined the mean- 
 ing of the word. Relentless, yes, that's what we 
 need. This is a war that shows no mercy. The blood- 
 thirsty are in the ascendant. The regicides have be- 
 headed Louis XVI ; we will quarter the regicides. Yes, 
 the general we need is General Relentless. In Anjou 
 and Upper Poitou the leaders play the magnanimous; 
 they trifle with generosity, and they are always defeated. 
 In the Marais and the country of Retz, where the leaders 
 are ferocious, everything goes bravely forward. It is 
 because Charette is fierce that he stands his ground 
 against Parrein, hyena pitted against hyena." 
 
 Boisberthelot had no time to answer. Vieuville's 
 words were suddenly cut short by a desperate cry, and 
 at the same instant they heard a noise unlike all other 
 sounds. This cry and the unusual sounds came from 
 the interior of the vessel. 
 
 The captain and the lieutenant rushed to the gun-deck, 
 but were unable to enter. All the gunners came running 
 up, beside themselves with terror. 
 
 A frightful thing had just happened. 
 
 One of the carronades of the battery, a twenty-four 
 pound cannon, had become loose. 
 
 This is perhaps the most dreadful thing that can take 
 place at sea. Nothing more terrible can happen to a 
 man-of-war under full sail. 
 
 A cannon that breaks loose from its fastenings is sud- 
 denly transformed into a supernatural beast. It is a 
 monster developed from a machine. This mass runs 
 along on its wheels as easily as a billiard ball; it rolls 
 with the rolling, pitches with the pitching, comes and 
 
THE CORVETTE CLAYMORE 191 
 
 goes, stops, seems to meditate, begins anew, darts like an 
 arrow from one end of the ship to the other, whirls 
 around, turns aside, evades, rears, hits out, crushes, kills, 
 exterminates. It is a ram battering a wall at its own 
 pleasure. Moreover, the battering-ram is iron, the wall 
 is wood. It is matter set free; one might say that this 
 eternal slave is wreaking its vengeance; it would seem as 
 though the evil in what we call inanimate objects had 
 found vent and suddenly burst forth; it has the air of 
 having lost its patience, and of taking a mysterious, dull 
 revenge; nothing is so inexorable as the rage of the in- 
 animate. The mad mass leaps like a panther; it has 
 the weight of an elephant, the agility of a mouse, the ob- 
 stinacy of the axe; it takes one by surprise, like the 
 surge of the sea; it flashes like lightning; it is deaf as 
 the tomb; it weighs ten thousand pounds, and it bounds 
 like a child's ball; it whirls as it advances, and the circles 
 it describes are intersected by right angles. And what 
 help is there? How can it be overcome? A calm suc- 
 ceeds the tempest, a cyclone passes over, a wind dies 
 away, we replace the broken mass, we check the leak, 
 we extinguish the fire; but what is to be done with this 
 enormous bronze beast? How can it be subdued? You 
 can reason with a mastiff, take a bull by surprise, fasci- 
 nate a snake, frighten a tiger, mollify a lion; but there is 
 no resource with the monster known as a loosened gun. 
 You cannot kill it, it is already dead; and yet it lives. 
 It breathes a sinister life bestowed on it by the Infinite. 
 The plank beneath sways it to and fro; it is moved by 
 the ship ; the sea lifts the ship, and the wind keeps the 
 sea in motion. This destroyer is a toy. Its terrible vital- 
 ity is fed by the ship, the waves, and the wind, each lend- 
 ing its aid. What is to be done with this complication? 
 How fetter this monstrous mechanism of shipwreck? 
 How foresee its coming and goings, its recoils, its halts, 
 
192 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 its shocks? Any one of those blows may stave in the 
 side of the vessel. How can one guard against these 
 terrible gyrations? One has to do with a projectile that 
 reflects, that has ideas, and changes its direction at any 
 moment. How can one arrest an object in its course, 
 whose onslaught must be avoided? The dreadful cannon 
 rushes about, advances, recedes, strikes to right and to 
 left, flies here and there, baffles their attempts at capture, 
 sweeps away obstacles, crushing men like flies. 
 
 The extreme danger of the situation comes from the 
 unsteadiness of the deck. How is one to cope with the 
 caprices of an inclined plane? The ship had within its 
 depths, so to speak, imprisoned lightning struggling for 
 escape; something like the rumbling of thunder during 
 an earthquake. In an instant the crew was on its feet. 
 It was the chief gunner's fault, who had neglected to 
 fasten the screw-nut of the breeching chain, and had not 
 thoroughly chocked the four trucks of the carronade, 
 which allowed play to the frame and the bottom of the 
 gun-carriage, thereby disarranging the two platforms 
 and parting the breeching. The lashings were broken, 
 so that the gun was no longer firm on its carriage. The 
 stationary breeching which prevents the recoil was not 
 in use at that time. As a wave struck the ship's side the 
 cannon, insufficiently secured, had receded, and having 
 broken its chain, began to wander threateningly over the 
 deck. In order to get an idea of this strange sliding, 
 fancy a drop of water sliding down a pane of glass. 
 
 When the fastening broke, the gunners were in the bat- 
 tery, singly and in groups, clearing the ship for action. 
 The carronade, thrown forward by the pitching, dashed 
 into a group of men, killing four of them at the first blow; 
 then, hurled back by the rolling, it cut in two an unfortu- 
 nate fifth man, and struck and dismounted one of the guns 
 of the larboard battery. Hence the cry of distress which 
 
THE CORVETTE CLAYMORE 193 
 
 had been heard. All the men rushed to the ladder. The 
 gun-deck was empty in the twinkling of an eye. 
 
 The monstrous gun was left to itself. It was its own 
 mistress, and mistress of the ship. It could do with it 
 whatsoever it wished. This crew, accustomed to laugh in 
 battle, now trembled. It would be impossible to describe 
 their terror. 
 
 Captain Boisberthelot and Lieutenant la Vieuville, 
 brave men though they were, paused at the top of the 
 ladder, silent, pale, and undecided, looking down on the 
 deck. Some one pushed them aside with his elbow, and 
 descended. It was their passenger, the peasant, the man 
 about whom they were talking a moment ago. 
 
 Having reached the bottom of the ladder he halted. 
 
 THE cannon was rolling to and fro on the deck. It 
 might have been called the living chariot of the Apoca- 
 lypse. A dim wavering of lights and shadows was added 
 to this spectacle by the marine lantern, swinging under the 
 deck. The outlines of the cannon were indistinguish- 
 able, by reason of the rapidity of its motion; sometimes 
 it looked black when the light shone upon it, then again 
 it would cast pale, glimmering reflections in the darkness. 
 
 It was still pursuing its work of destruction. It had 
 already shattered four other pieces, and made two 
 breaches in the ship's side, fortunately above the water- 
 line, but which would leak in case of rough weather. It 
 rushed frantically against the timbers; the stout riders 
 resisted, curved timbers have great strength; but one 
 could hear them crack under this tremendous assault 
 brought to bear simultaneously on every side, with a cer- 
 tain omnipresence truly appalling. 
 
 A bullet shaken in a bottle could not produce sharper 
 or more rapid sounds. The four wheels were passing 
 and repassing over the dead bodies, cutting and tearing 
 
194 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 them to pieces, and the five corpses had become five 
 trunks rolling hither and thither; the heads seemed to cry 
 out; streams of blood flowed over the deck, following 
 the motion of the ship. The ceiling, damaged in several 
 places, had begun to give way. The whole ship was 
 filled with a dreadful tumult. 
 
 The captain, who had rapidly recovered his self- 
 possession, had given orders to throw down the hatchway 
 all that could abate the rage and check the mad onslaught 
 of this infuriated gun; mattresses, hammocks, spare sails, 
 coils of rope, the bags of the crew, and bales of false 
 assignats, with which the corvette was laden, that in- 
 famous stratagem of English origin being considered a 
 fair trick in war. 
 
 But what availed these rags? No one dared to go 
 down to arrange them, and in a few moments they were 
 reduced to lint. 
 
 There was just sea enough to render this accident as 
 complete as possible. A tempest would have been wel- 
 come. It might have upset the cannon, and which its 
 four wheels once in the air, it could easily have been mas- 
 tered. Meanwhile the havoc increased. There were 
 even incisions and fractures in the masts, that stood like 
 pillars grounded firmly in the keel, and piercing the sev- 
 eral decks of the vessel. The mizzen-mast was split, and 
 even the main-mast was damaged by the convulsive blows 
 of the cannon. The destruction of the battery still went 
 on. Ten out of the thirty pieces were useless. The frac- 
 tures in the side increased, and the corvette began to leak. 
 
 The old passenger, who had descended to the gun-deck, 
 looked like one carved in stone as he stood motionless 
 at the foot of the stairs and glanced sternly over the 
 devastation. It would have been impossible to move a 
 step upon the deck. 
 
 Each bound of the liberated carronade seemed to 
 
THE CORVETTE CLAYMORE 195 
 
 threaten the destruction of the ship. But a few moments 
 longer, and shipwreck would be inevitable. 
 
 They must either overcome this calamity or perish; 
 some decisive action must be taken. But what? 
 
 What a combatant was this carronade! 
 
 Here was this mad creature to be arrested, this flash 
 of lightning to be seized, this thunderbolt to be crushed. 
 Boisberthelot said to Vieuville : 
 
 " Do you believe in God, chevalier? " 
 
 " Yes and no, sometimes I do ! " replied La Vieuville. 
 
 " In a tempest? " 
 
 " Yes, and in moments like these." 
 
 " Truly God alone can save us," said Boisberthelot. 
 
 All were silent, leaving the carronade to its horrible 
 uproar. 
 
 The waves beating the ship from without answered the 
 blows of the cannon within, very much like a couple of 
 hammers striking in turn. 
 
 Suddenly in the midst of this inaccessible circus, where 
 the escaped cannon was tossing from side to side, a man 
 appeared, grasping an iron bar. It was the author of 
 the catastrophe, the chief gunner, whose criminal negli- 
 gence had caused the accident, the captain of the gun. 
 Having brought about the evil, his intention was to re- 
 pair it. Holding a handspike in one hand, and in the 
 other a tiller rope with the slip-noose in it, he had jumped 
 through the hatchway to the deck below. 
 
 Then began a terrible struggle; a titanic spectacle; 
 a combat between cannon and cannoneer; a contest be- 
 tween mind and matter; a duel between man and the 
 inanimate. The man stood in one corner in an attitude 
 of expectancy, leaning on the rider and holding in his 
 hands the bar and the rope; calm, livid, and tragic, he 
 stood firmly on his legs, that were like two pillars of 
 steel. 
 
196 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 He was waiting for the cannon to approach him. 
 
 The gunner knew his piece, and he felt as though it 
 must know him. They had lived together a long time. 
 How often had he put his hand in its mouth. It was 
 his domestic monster. He began to talk to it as he would 
 to a dog. " Come," said he. Possibly he loved it. 
 
 He seemed to wish for its coming, and yet its ap- 
 proach meant sure destruction for him. How to avoid 
 being crushed was the question. All looked on in terror. 
 
 Not a breath was drawn freely, except perhaps by the 
 old man, who remained on the gun-deck gazing sternly 
 on the two combatants. 
 
 He himself was in danger of being crushed by the 
 piece; still he did not move. 
 
 Beneath them the blind sea had command of the battle. 
 When, in the act of accepting this awful hand-to-hand 
 struggle, the gunner approached to challenge the cannon, 
 it happened that the surging sea held the gun motion- 
 less for an instant, as though stupefied. " Come on I " 
 said the man. It seemed to listen. 
 
 Suddenly it leaped towards him. The man dodged. 
 Then the struggle began, a contest unheard of; the 
 fragile wrestling with the invulnerable ; the human war- 
 rior attacking the brazen beast; blind force on the one 
 side, soul on the other. 
 
 All this was in the shadow. It was like an indistinct 
 vision of a miracle. 
 
 A soul! strangely enough it seemed as if a soul 
 existed within the cannon, but one consumed with 
 hate and rage. The blind thing seemed to have eyes. It 
 appeared as though the monster were watching the man. 
 There was, or at least one might have supposed it, cun- 
 ning in this mass. It also chose its opportunity. It w; 
 as though a gigantic insect of iron was endowed with th< 
 will of a demon. Now and then this colossal grass- 
 
THE CORVETTE CLAYMORE 197 
 
 hopper would strike the low ceiling of the gun-deck, then 
 falling back on its four wheels, like a tiger on all fours, 
 rush upon the man. He supple, agile, adroit 
 writhed like a serpent before these lightning movements. 
 He avoided encounters; but the blows from which he 
 escaped fell with destructive force upon the vessel. A 
 piece of broken chain remained attached to the carron- 
 ade. This bit of chain had twisted in some incompre- 
 hensible way around the breech button. 
 
 One end of the chain was fastened to the gun-carriage; 
 the other end thrashed wildly around, aggravating the 
 danger with every bound of the cannon. The screw held 
 it as in a clenched hand, and this chain, multiplying the 
 strokes of the battering-ram by those of the thong, made 
 a terrible whirlwind around the gun, a lash of iron 
 in a fist of brass. This chain complicated the combat. 
 
 Despite all this, the man fought. He even attacked 
 the cannon at times, crawling along by the side of the 
 ship and clutching his handspike and the rope; the 
 cannon seemed to understand his movements, and fled as 
 though suspecting a trap. The man, nothing daunted, 
 pursued his chase. 
 
 Such a struggle must necessarily be brief. Suddenly 
 the cannon seemed to say to itself: Now, then, there 
 must be an end to this. And it stopped. A crisis was 
 felt to be at hand. The cannon, as if in suspense, seemed 
 to meditate, or for to all intents and purposes it was 
 a living creature it really did meditate, some furious 
 design. All at once it rushed on the gunner, who sprang 
 aside with a laugh, crying out, "Try it again! " as the 
 cannon passed him. The gun in its fury smashed one of 
 the larboard carronades; then, by the invisible sling in 
 which it seemed to be held, it was thrown to the star- 
 board, towards the man, who escaped. Three carron- 
 ades were crushed by its onslaught; then, as though blind 
 
198 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 and besides itself it turned from the man, and rolled from 
 stern to stem, splintering the latter, and causing a breach 
 in the walls of the prow. The gunner took refuge at the 
 foot of the ladder, a short distance from the old man, 
 who stood watching. He held his handspike in readiness. 
 The cannon seemed aware of it, and without taking the 
 trouble to turn, it rushed backward on the man, as swift 
 as the blow of an axe. The gunner, if driven up against 
 the side of the ship, would be lost. 
 
 One cry arose from the crew. 
 
 The old passenger who until this moment had stood 
 motionless sprang forward more swiftly than all those 
 mad swirls. He had seized a bale of the false assignats, 
 and at the risk of being crushed succeeded in throwing it 
 between the wheels of the carronade. This decisive anc 
 perilous manoeuvre could not have been executed witl 
 more precision and adroitness by an adept in all the exer- 
 cises given in the work of Durosel's " Manual of Nav; 
 Gunnery." 
 
 The bale had the effect of a plug. A pebble may blo< 
 a log; a branch sometimes changes the course of ai 
 avalanche. The carronade stumbled, and the gunnei 
 availing himself of the perilous opportunity, thrust hii 
 iron bar between the spokes of the back wheels. Pitcl 
 ing forward, the cannon stopped; and the man, using 
 his bar for a lever, rocked it backward and forward. The 
 heavy mass upset, with the resonant sound of a bell that 
 crashes in its fall. The man, reeking with perspiration, 
 threw himself upon it, and passed the slip-noose of the 
 tiller-rope around the neck of the defeated monster. 
 
 The combat was ended. The man had conquered. 
 The ant had overcome the mastodon; the pygmy had 
 imprisoned the thunderbolt. 
 
 The soldiers and sailors applauded. 
 
THE CORVETTE CLAYMORE 199 
 
 The crew rushed forward with chains and cables, and 
 in an instant the cannon was secured. 
 
 Saluting the passenger, the gunner exclaimed, 
 
 " Sir, you have saved my life ! " 
 
 The old man had resumed his impassible attitude, and 
 made no reply. 
 
 THE man had conquered; but it might be affirmed that 
 the cannon also had gained a victory. Immediate ship- 
 wreck was averted ; but the corvette was still in danger. 
 The injuries the ship had sustained seemed irreparable. 
 There were five breaches in the sides, one of them a 
 very large one in the bow, and twenty carronades out 
 of thirty lay shattered in their frames. The recaptured 
 gun, which had been secured by a chain, was itself dis- 
 abled. The screw of the breech-button being wrenched, 
 it would consequently be impossible to level the cannon. 
 The battery was reduced to nine guns ; there was a leak- 
 age in the hold. All these damages must be repaired 
 without loss of time, and the pumps set in operation. 
 Now that the gun-deck had become visible, it was fright- 
 ful to look upon. The interior of a mad elephant's cage 
 could not have been more thoroughly devastated. How- 
 ever important it might be for the corvette to avoid ob- 
 servation, the care for its immediate safety was still 
 more imperative. They were obliged to light the deck 
 with lanterns placed at intervals along the sides. 
 
 In the meantime, while this tragic entertainment had 
 lasted, the crew, entirely absorbed by a question of life 
 and death, had not noticed what was going on outside of 
 the ship. The fog had thickened, the weather had 
 changed, the wind had driven the vessel at will ; they were 
 out of their course, in full sight of Jersey and Guernsey, 
 much farther to the south than they ought to have been, 
 and confronting a tumultuous sea. The big waves kissed 
 
200 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 the wounded sides of the corvette with kisses that savored 
 of danger. The heaving of the sea grew threatening; 
 the wind had risen to a gale; a squall, perhaps a tempest, 
 was brewing. One could not see four oars* length before 
 one. 
 
 While the crew made haste with their temporary re- 
 pairs on the gun-deck, stopping the leaks and setting up 
 the cannons that had escaped uninjured, the old passen- 
 ger returned to the deck. 
 
 He stood leaning against the main-mast. 
 
 He had taken no notice of what was going on in the 
 ship. The Chevalier de la Vieuville had drawn up the 
 marines on either side of the main-mast, and at a signal- 
 whistle of the boatswain the sailors, who had been busy 
 in the rigging, stood up on the yards. Count Boisberthe- 
 lot approached the passenger. The captain was followed 
 by a man, who, haggard and panting, with his dress in 
 disorder, still wore on his countenance an expression of 
 content. 
 
 It was the gunner who had so opportunely displayed 
 his power as a tamer of monsters, and gained the victory 
 over the cannon. 
 
 The count made a military salute to the old man in 
 the peasant garb, and said to him: 
 
 " Here is the man, general." 
 
 The gunner, with downcast eyes, stood erect in a mili- 
 tary attitude. 
 
 " General," resumed Count Boisberthelot, "'consider- 
 ing what this man has done, do you not think that his 
 superiors have a duty to perform? " 
 
 " I think so," replied the old man. 
 
 " Be so good as to give your orders," resumed Bois- 
 berthelot. 
 
 "It is for you to give them; you are the captain." 
 
 "But you are the general," answered Boisberthelot. 
 
THE CORVETTE CLAYMORE 201 
 
 The old man looked at the gunner. 
 " Step forward," he said. 
 The gunner advanced a step. 
 
 Turning to Count Boisberthelot, the old man removed 
 the cross of Saint Louis from the captain's breast, and 
 fastened it on the jacket of the gunner. The sailors 
 cheered, and the marines presented arms. 
 
 Then pointing to the bewildered gunner he added: 
 " Now let the man be shot! " 
 Stupor took the place of applause. 
 Then, amid a tomb-like silence, the old man, raising his 
 voice, said: 
 
 'The ship has been endangered by an act of careless- 
 ness, and may even yet be lost. It is all the same whether 
 one be at sea or face to face with the enemy. A ship at 
 is like an army in battle. The tempest, though un- 
 jen, is ever present; the sea is an ambush. Death is the 
 fit penalty for every fault committed when facing the 
 memy. There is no fault that can be retrieved. Cour- 
 ige must be rewarded and negligence be punished." 
 These words fell one after the other slowly and 
 avely, with a certain implacable rhythm, like the strokes 
 >f the axe upon an oak-tree. Looking at the soldiers, 
 ic old man added, 
 "Do your duty!" 
 
 The man on whose breast shone the cross of Saint 
 ,ouis bowed his head, and at a sign of Count Boisberthe- 
 lot two sailors went down to the gun-deck, and presently 
 :turned bringing the hammock-shroud, the two sailors 
 accompanied by the ship's chaplain, who since the 
 leparture had been engaged in saying prayers in the 
 )fficers' quarters. A sergeant detached from the ranks 
 r elve soldiers, whom he arranged in two rows, six men 
 in a row. The gunner placed himself between the two 
 lines. The chaplain, holding a crucifix, advanced and 
 
202 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 took his place beside the man. " March ! " came from 
 the lips of the sergeant; and the platoon slowly moved 
 towards the bow, followed by two sailors carrying the 
 shroud. 
 
 A gloomy silence fell on the corvette. In the distance 
 a hurricane was blowing. A few moments later, a re- 
 port echoed through the gloom; one flash, and all was 
 still. Then came the splash of a body falling into the 
 water. The old passenger, still leaning against the main- 
 mast, his hands crossed on his breast, seemed lost in 
 thought. Boisberthelot, pointing towards him with the 
 forefinger of his left hand, remarked in an undertone to 
 La Vieuville, 
 
 " The Vendee has found a leader." 
 
THE MERCHANTS' CUP 
 From "Broken Stowage," BY DAVID W. BONE 
 
 I 
 
 "TTjlATTY" REID burst into the half-deck with a 
 
 M whoop of exultation. "Come out, boys," he 
 
 yelled. "Come out and see what luck! The 
 
 James Flint comin' down the river, loaded and ready for 
 
 sea ! Who-oop ! What price the Hilda now for the 
 
 Merchants' Cup?" 
 
 "Oh, come off," said big Jones. "Come off with your 
 Merchants' Cup. Th' James Flint's a sure thing, and 
 she wasn't more than half-loaded when we were up at 
 Crockett on Sunday!" 
 
 "Well, there she comes anyway! James Flint, sure 
 enough! Gracie's house-flag up, and the Stars and 
 Stripes!" 
 
 We hustled on deck and looked over by the Sacra- 
 mento's mouth. "Fatty" was right. A big barque was 
 towing down beyond San Pedro. The James Flint! 
 Nothing else in 'Frisco harbour had spars like hers; no 
 ship was as trim and clean as the big Yankee clipper that 
 Bully Nathan commanded. The sails were all aloft, the 
 boats aboard. She was ready to put to sea. 
 
 Our cries brought the captain and mate on deck, and 
 the sight of the outward-bounder made old man B'urke's 
 face beam like a nor'west moon. 
 
 "A chance for ye now, byes," he shouted. "An open 
 race, bedad ! Ye've nothin' t' be afraid of if th' James 
 Flint goes t' sea by Saturday!" 
 
 203 
 
204 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 Great was our joy at the prospect of the Yankee's sail- 
 ing. The 'Frisco Merchants' Cup was to be rowed for 
 on Saturday. It was a mile-and-half race for ships' 
 boats, and three wins held the Cup for good. Twice, on 
 previous years, the Hilda's trim gig had shot over the 
 line a handsome winner. If we won again, the Cup was 
 ours for keeps! But there were strong opponents to be 
 met this time. The James Flint was the most formid- 
 able. It was open word that Bully Nathan was keen on 
 winning the trophy. Every one knew that he had deliber- 
 ately sought out boatmen when the whalers came in from 
 the north. Those who had seen the Yankee's crew at 
 work in their snaky carvel-built boat said that no one 
 else was in it. What chance had we boys in our clinker- 
 built against the thews and sinews of trained whalemen? 
 It was no wonder that we slapped our thighs at the pros- 
 pect of a more open race. 
 
 Still, even with the Yankee gone, there were others in 
 the running. There was the Rhondda that held the Cup 
 for the year, having won when we were somewhere off 
 the Horn; then the Hedwig Rickmers a Bremen four- 
 master which had not before competed, but whose 
 green-painted gig was out for practice morning and night. 
 We felt easy about the Rhondda (for had we not, time 
 and again, shown them our stern on the long pull from 
 Green St. to the outer anchorage?), but the Germans 
 were different. Try as we might, we could never pull 
 off a spurt with them. No one knew for certain what 
 they could do, only old Schenke, their skipper, and he 
 held his tongue wisely. 
 
 The James Flint came around the bend, and our eager 
 eyes followed her as she steered after the tug. She was 
 making for the outer anchorage, where the laden ships lie 
 in readiness for a good start off. 
 
 "Th* wind's 'bout west outside," said Jones. "A 
 
THE MERCHANTS' CUP 205 
 
 'dead muzzier 1 ! She'll not put t' sea tonight, even if she 
 has all her 'crowd' aboard." 
 
 "No, worse luck! mebbe she'll lie over till Saturday 
 after all. They say Bully's dead set on getting th' Cup. 
 He might hang back. . . . Some excuse short-handed or 
 something!" Gregson was the one for "croaking." 
 
 "No hands?" said Fatty. "Huh! How could he be 
 short-handed when everybody knows that Daly's boardin'- 
 house is chock-full of fightin' Dutchmen? No, no! It'll 
 be the sack for Mister Bully B. Nathan if he lets a cap- 
 ful o j fair wind go by and his anchor down. Grade's 
 agents '11 watch that!" 
 
 "Well! He's here for th' night, anyway. . . . There 
 goes her mudhook!" 
 
 We watched her great anchor go hurtling from the 
 bows and heard the roar of chain cable as she paid out 
 and swung round to the tide. 
 
 "Come roun', yo' boys dere! Yo' doan' want no tea, 
 eh?" The nigger cook, beating tattoo on a saucepan lid, 
 called us back to affairs of the moment, and we sat down 
 to our scanty meal in high spirits, talking all at one time 
 of our chances of the Cup. 
 
 The Hilda had been three months at San Francisco, 
 waiting for the wheat crop and a profitable charter. We 
 had come up from Australia, and most of our crew, hav- 
 ing little wages due to them, had deserted soon after our 
 arrival. Only we apprentices and the sail-maker re- 
 mained, and we had work enough to set our muscles up in 
 the heavy harbour jobs. Trimming coal and shovelling 
 ballast may not be scientific training, but it is grand work 
 for the back and shoulders. 
 
 We were in good trim for rowing. The old man had 
 given us every opportunity, and nothing he could do was 
 wanting to make us fit. Day and daily we had set our 
 stroke up by the long pull from the anchorage to the 
 
206 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 wharves, old Burke coaching and encouraging, checking 
 and speeding us, till we worked well together. Only last 
 Sunday he had taken us out of our way, up the creek, to 
 where we could see the flag at the Rhondda's masthead. 
 The old man said nothing, but well we knew he was think- 
 ing of how the square of blue silk, with Californian em- 
 blem worked in white, would look at his trim little 
 Hilda's fore-truck! This flag accompanied the Cup, anc 
 now (if only the Yankee and his hired whalemen were 
 safely at sea) we had hopes of seeing it at our masthead 
 again. 
 
 Tea over still excited talk went on. Some one re- 
 called the last time we had overhauled and passed th< 
 Rhondda's gig. 
 
 "It's all very well your bucking about beating th< 
 Rhondda" said Gregson; u but don't think we're goinj 
 to have it all our own way! Mebbe they were 'playing 
 'possum' when we came by that time!" 
 
 "Maybe," said Jones. "There's Peters and H. Dob- 
 son in her crew. Good men ! Both rowed in the Wor- 
 cester boat that left the Conways' at the start, three years 
 ago. . . . And what about the Rickmersf. . . . No, no! It 
 won't do to be too cocksure!. . . .Eh, Takia?" 
 
 Takia was our cox-n, a small wiry Jap. Nothing great 
 in inches, but a demon for good steering and timing a 
 stroke. He was serving his apprenticeship with us and 
 had been a year in the Hilda. Brute strength was not 
 one of his points, but none was keener or more active in 
 the rigging than our little Jap. 
 
 He smiled, he always smiled, he found it the eas- 
 iest way of speaking English. "Oh, yes," he said. "Lit- 
 tle cocksu' good! Too much cocksu' no good!" 
 
 We laughed at the wisdom of the East. 
 
 "Talk about being cocky," said Gregson; "you should 
 hear Captain Schenke bragging about the way he brought 
 
THE MERCHANTS' CUP 207 
 
 the Hedwig Rickmers out. I heard 'em and the old man 
 at it in the ship-chandler's yesterday. Hot .... Look 
 here, you chaps! I don't think the old man cares so 
 much to win the Cup as to beat Schenke ! The big 
 'squarehead' is always ramming it down Burke's throat 
 how he brought his barque out from Liverpool in a hun- 
 dred and five days, while the Hilda took ten days more 
 on her last run out!" 
 
 "That's so, I guess," said Jones. (Jones had the 
 Yankee "touch.") "Old Burke would dearly love to put 
 a spoke in his wheel, but it'll take some doing. They say 
 that Schenke has got a friend down from Sacramento- 
 gym. -instructor or something to a college up there. He'll 
 be training the 'Dutchy' crew like blazes. They'll give 
 us a hot time, I'll bet!" 
 
 Gregson rose to go on deck. "Oh, well" he said, "it 
 wont be so bad if the James Flint only lifts his hook by 
 Saturday. Here's one bloomin' hombre that funks racin' 
 a fancy whaler! . . . An' doesn't care who knows it, 
 either!" 
 
 II 
 
 Thursday passed and now Friday still there was 
 no sign of the wind changing, and the big Yankee barque 
 lay quietly at anchor over by the Presidio. 
 
 When the butcher came off from the shore with the 
 day's stores, we eagerly questioned him about the pros- 
 pects of the James Flint's sailing. "Huh! I guess yew're 
 nat the only 'citizens' that air concarned 'bout that!" he 
 said. "They're talkin' 'bout nuthin' else on every 'lime- 
 juicer' in the Bay!. . . .An' th' Rickmers! Gee! Schenkie's 
 had his eye glued ter th' long telescope ever since day- 
 break, watchin' fer th' Flint heavin' up anchor!" 
 
 The butcher had varied information to give us. Now 
 it was that BWly Nathan had telegraphed to his New 
 
208 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 York owners for permission to remain in port over Sun- 
 day. Then again, Bully was on the point of being dis- 
 missed his ship for not taking full advantage of a puff of 
 nor'-west wind that came and went on Thursday night. 
 
 . . . The Flint was short of men ! . . . The Flint had a 
 full crew aboard ! Rumours and rumours ! "All sorts o' 
 talk," said the butcher; "but I know this fer certain 
 she's got all her stores aboard. Gosh ! I guess she 
 has! I don't like to wish nobody no harm, byes, but I 
 hope Bully Nathan's first chop '11 choke him, fer th' way 
 he done me over the beef! . . . Scorch 'im!" 
 
 In the forenoon we dropped the gig and put out for 
 practice. Old Burke and the mate came after us in the 
 dinghy, the old man shouting instruction and encourage- 
 ment through his megaphone as we rowed a course or 
 spurted hard for a furious three minutes. Others were 
 out on the same ploy, and the backwaters of the Bay had 
 each a lash of oars to stir their tideless depths. Near us 
 the green boat of the Rickmers thrashed up and down in 
 style. Time and again we drew across "just for a 
 friendly spurt" but the "Dutchies" were not giving any- 
 thing away, and sheered off as we approached. We spent 
 an hour or more at practice and were rowing leisurely 
 back to the ship when the green boat overhauled us, then 
 slowed to her skipper's orders. 
 
 "How you vass, Cabtin Burke?" said Schenke, an enor- 
 mous fair-headed Teuton, powerful-looking, but run sadly 
 to fat in his elder years. "You t'ink you get a chanst now, 
 heinl . . . Now de Yankee is goin' avay!" He pointed 
 over to the Presidio, where the Flint lay at anchor. We 
 followed the line of his fat forefinger. At anchor, yes, 
 but the anchor nearly a-weigh. Her flags were hoisted, 
 the blue peter fluttering at the fore, and the Active tug 
 was passing a hawser aboard, getting ready to tow her 
 out. The smoke from the tugboat's funnel was whirling 
 
THE MERCHANTS' CUP 209 
 
 and blowing over the low forts that guard the Golden 
 Gates. Good luck! A fine nor'-west breeze had come 
 that would lift our dreaded rival far to the south'ard on 
 her way round Cape Horn ! 
 
 Schenke saw the pleased look with which old Burke 
 regarded the Yankee's preparations for departure. 
 
 u Goot bizness, eh?" he said. "You t'ink you fly de 
 flack on de Hilda nex' Sonndag, Cabtin? Veil! Ah wish 
 you goot look, but you dond't got it all de same !" 
 
 "Oh, well, Captain Schenke, we can but thry," said 
 the old man. u We can but thry, sorr! . . . Shure, she's 
 a foine boat that o' yours. . . . An* likely-looking 
 lads, too !" No one could but admire the well-set figures 
 of the German crew as they stroked easily beside us. 
 
 "Schweinehunden" said Schenke brutally. We noticed 
 more than one stolid face darkling as they glanced aside. 
 Schenke had the name of a "hard case." "Schweine- 
 hunden" he said again. "Dey dond't like de hard vork, 
 Cabtin. . . . Dey dond't like it but ve takes der Coop, 
 all de same ! Dey pulls goot und strong, oder" he 
 rasped a short sentence in rapid Low German "Sher- 
 mans dond't be beat by no durn lime-juicer, nein !" 
 
 Old Burke grinned. "Cocky as ever, Captain Schenke ! 
 Bedad now, since ye had the luck of yeVe last passage 
 there's no limit to ye !" 
 
 "Luck! Luck! Alvays de luck mit you, Cabtin!" 
 
 "An' whatt ilse? . . . Sure, if I hadn't struck a bilt 
 of calms an' had more than me share of head winds off 
 the Horn, I'd have given ye a day or two mesilf ! n 
 
 "Ho I Ho ! Ho ! Das 1st gut!" The green boat 
 rocked with Schenke's merriment. He laughed from his 
 feet up every inch of him shook with emotion. "Ho I 
 Ho ! Hoo ! Das 1st ganz gut. You t'ink you beat de 
 Hedwig Rickmers too, Cabtin? You beat 'm mit dot 
 
210 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 putty leetle barque? You beat 'm mit de Hilda, nicht- 
 wahr?" 
 
 "Well, no," said our old man. "I don't exactly say 
 I beat the Rickmers, but if I had the luck o' winds that 
 ye had, bedad, I'd crack th' Hilda out in a hundred an' 
 five days too !" 
 
 "Now, dot is not drue, Cabtin! Aber ganz und gar 
 nicht! You know you haf bedder look von de vind as 
 Ah got. Ah sail mein sheep! Ah dond't vait for de 
 fair winds nor not'ings !" 
 
 "No," said Burke, "but ye get 'em, all the same. 
 Everybody knows ye've th' divil's own luck, Schenke !" 
 
 "Und so you vas! Look now, Cabtin Burke. You 
 t'nk you got so fast a sheep as mein, eh? Veil! Ah 
 gif you a chanst to make money. Ah bet you feefty dol- 
 lars to tventig, Ah take mein sheep home quicker as you 
 vass!" 
 
 "Done wit' ye," said stout old Taddy' Burke, though 
 well he know the big German barque could sail round 
 the little Hilda. "Fifty dollars to twenty, Captain 
 Schenke , an' moind y've said it!" 
 
 The green boat sheered off and forged ahead, Schenke 
 laughing and waving his hand derisively. When they 
 had pulled out of earshot, the old man turned ruefully to 
 the mate : "Five pounds clean t'rown away, mister ! 
 Foine I know the Rickmers can baate us, but I wasn't 
 goin' t' let that ould 'squarehead' have it all his own 
 way! Divil th' fear!" 
 
 We swung under the Hilda's stern and hooked on to 
 the gangway. The old man stepped out, climbed a pace 
 or two, then came back. 
 
 "Look ye here, byes," he said, "I'll give ye foive 
 dollars a man an' a day's 'liberty' t' spind it if ye only 
 baate th' 'Dutchmen.' . . . Let th' Cup go where it 
 will !" 
 
THE MERCHANTS' CUP 211 
 
 III 
 
 The Bay of San Francisco is certainly one of the finest 
 natural harbours in the world, let Sydney and Rio and 
 Falmouth all contest the claim. Land-locked to every 
 wind that blows, with only a narrow channel open to the 
 sea, the navies of the world could lie peacefully together 
 in its sheltered waters. The coast that environs the 
 harbour abounds in natural beauties, but of all the 
 wooded creeks fair stretches of undulating downs or 
 stately curves of winding river, none surpasses the little 
 bay formed by the turn of Benita, the northern postern 
 of the Golden Gates. Here is the little township of San- 
 cilito, with its pretty white houses nestling among the 
 dark green of the deeply wooded slopes. In the bay there 
 is good anchorage for a limited number of vessels, and 
 fortunate were they who manned the tall ships that lay 
 there, swinging ebb and flood, waiting for a burthen of 
 golden grain. 
 
 On Saturday the little bay was crowded by a muster 
 of varied craft. The ships at 'anchor were "dressed" to 
 the mastheads with gaily-coloured flags. Huge ferry- 
 boats passed slowly up and down, their tiers of decks 
 crowded with sightseers. Tug-boats and launches darted 
 about, clearing the course, or convoying racing boats to 
 the starting lines. Ships' boats of all kinds were massed 
 together close inshore : gigs and pinnances, lean whale- 
 boats, squat dinghys, even high-sided ocean lifeboats 
 with their sombre broad belts of ribbed cork. A gay 
 scene of colour and animation. A fine turn-out to see 
 the fortune of the Merchants' Cup. 
 
 At two the Regatta began. A race for longshore craft 
 showed that the boarding-house "crimps" were as skillful 
 at boatman's work as at inducing sailormen to desert 
 their ships. Then two outriggers flashed by, contesting 
 
212 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 a heat for a College race. We in the Hilda's gig lay 
 handily at the starting line and soon were called out. 
 There were nine entries for the Cup, and the judges had 
 decided to run three heats. We were drawn in the first, 
 and, together with the Ardlea's and Compton's gigs, went 
 out to be inspected. The boats had to race in sea-service 
 conditions, no lightening was allowed. At the challenge 
 of the judges we showed our gear. "Spare oar right! 
 Rowlocks right ! Sea-anchor right ! Bottom boards 
 and stern grating right. Painter, ten fathoms; hemp. 
 . . . A bit short there, Compton! Eh? . . . Oh all 
 right," said the official, and we manoeuvred into position, 
 our sterns held in by the guard-boats. Some of the ships' 
 captains had engaged a steam-launch to follow the heats, 
 and old Burke was there with his trumpet, shouting en- 
 couragement already. 
 
 "Air yew ready?" 
 
 A pause: then, pistol shot! We struck water and 
 laid out ! Our task was not difficult. The Ardlea's gig 
 was broad-bowed and heavy; they had no chance; but the 
 Compton's gave us a stiff pull to more than midway. Had 
 they been like us, three months at boat-work, we had not 
 pulled so easily up to the mark, but their ship was just 
 in from Liverpool, and they were in poor condition for 
 a mile and a half at pressure. We won easily, and scarce 
 had cheered the losers before the launch came fussing up. 
 
 "Come aboard, Takia," shouted old Burke. "Ye come 
 down wit* me an' see what shape the German makes, 
 He's drawn wit' th' Rhondda in this heat!" 
 
 Takia bundled aboard the launch and we hauled in- 
 shore to watch the race. There was a delay at the start. 
 Schenke, nlchts verstehen, as he said, was for sending 
 his boat away without a painter or spare gear. He 
 was pulled up by the judges, and had to borrow. 
 
 Now they were ready. The Rickmers outside, Rhondda 
 
THE MERCHANTS' CUP 213 
 
 in the middle berth, and the neat little Slieve Donard in- 
 shore. At the start the Rhonddas came fair away from 
 the German boat, but even at the distance we could see 
 that the "Dutchmen" were well in hand. At midway the 
 Rhondda was leading by a length, still going strong, but 
 they had shot their bolt, and the green boat was surely 
 pulling up. The Slieve Donard, after an unsteady course, 
 had given up. Soon we could hear old Schenke roaring 
 oaths and orders, as his launch came flying on in the 
 wake of the speeding boats. 
 
 The Germans spurted. 
 
 We yelled encouragement to the Rhonddas. "Give 
 'em beans, old sons! ..." 
 
 "Rhondda! Rhondda! . . . Shake 'er up" Gallantly 
 the white boat strove to keep her place, but the greens 
 were too strong. With a rush, they took the lead and 
 held it to the finish, though two lengths from the line 
 their stroke faltered, the swing was gone, and they were 
 dabbling feebly when the shot rang out. 
 
 "A grand race," said every one around. "A grand 
 race" but old Burke had something to say when he 
 steamed up to put our cox'n among us. u Byes, byes," 
 he said, "if there had been twinty yards more the 
 Rhondda would have won. Now d'ye moind, Takia, ye 
 divil . . . d'ye moind! Keep th' byes in hand till I 
 give ye th' wurrd ! . . . An' whin ye get th' wurrd, byes ! 
 . . . Oh, Saints ! Shake her up when ye get th' wurrd !" 
 
 The third heat was closely contested. All three boats, 
 two Liverpool barques and a Nova Scotiaman, came on 
 steadily together. A clean race, rowed from start to 
 finish, and the Tuebrook winning by a short length. 
 
 The afternoon was well spent when we stripped for 
 the final, and took up our positions on the line. How 
 big and muscular the Germans looked! How well the 
 green boat sat the water 1 With what inward quakings 
 
214 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 we noted the clean fine lines of stem and stern! . . . 
 Of the Tuebrook we had no fear. We knew they could 
 never stand the pace the Germans would set. Could we? 
 
 Old Burke, though in a fever of excitement when we 
 came to the line, had little to say. "Keep the byes in hand, 
 Takia till ye get th' wurrd," was all he muttered. We 
 swung our oar-blades forward. 
 
 "Ready?" The starter challenged us. 
 
 Suddenly Takia yelped! We struck and lay back as 
 the shot rang out! A stroke gained! Takia had taken 
 the flash; the others the report! 
 
 The Jap's clever start gave us confidence and a lead. 
 Big Jones at stroke worked us up to better the advantage. 
 The green boat sheered a little, then steadied and came 
 on, keeping to us, though nearly a length astern. The 
 Tuebrook had made a bad start, but was thrashing away 
 pluckily in the rear. 
 
 So we hammered at it for a third of the course, when 
 Takia took charge. Since his famous start he had left 
 us to take stroke as Jones pressed us, but now he saw 
 signs of the waver that comes after the first furious 
 burst shifting grip or change of foothold. 
 
 "'Trok! 'trok/ 'trok!" he muttered, and steadied 
 the pace. "'Troke! 'troke! 'trokef" in monotone, 
 good for soothing tension. 
 
 Past midway the green boat came away. The ring 
 of the German's rowlocks rose to treble pitch. Slowly 
 they drew up, working at top speed. Now they 
 were level level ! and Takia still droning " 'troke! 
 'troke! 'troke!" as if the lead was ours! 
 
 Wild outcry came from the crowd as the green boat 
 forged ahead! Deep roars from Schenke somewhere in 
 the rear! Now, labouring still to Takia's 'troke! 
 'troke! we had the foam of the German's stern wash at 
 our blades! "Come away, Hilda's!" . . . "Shake her 
 
THE MERCHANTS' CUP 215 
 
 up, there!" . . . "Hilda-h! Hilda-h/" Tiki* took no 
 outward heed of the cries. He was staring stolidly 
 ahead, bending to the pulse of the boat. No outward 
 heed but 'trokef 'trokef came faster from his lips. 
 We strained, almost holding the Germans' ensign at level 
 with our bow pennant. 
 
 Loud over the wild yells of the crowd we heard the 
 voice we knew old Burke's bull-roar: "Let 'er rip, 
 Taki'l Let y er rip, bye!" 
 
 Takia's eyes gleamed as he sped us up up up! 
 'Troke became a yelp like a wounded dog's. He crouched, 
 standing, in the sternsheets, and lashed us up to a furious 
 thrash of oars! Still quicker! . . . The eyes of him 
 glared at each of us, as if daring us to fail! The yelp 
 became a scream as we drew level the Germans still at 
 top speed. "Upl Up! Up!" yells Takia, little yellow 
 devil with a white froth at his lips! "Up! Up! Up!" 
 swaying unsteadily to meet the furious urging. 
 
 The ring of the German rowlocks deepens deepens 
 we see the green bow at our blades again. Her number 
 two falters jars recovers again and pulls stubbornly 
 on. Their "shot" is fired! They can do no more! 
 Done! 
 
 And so are we ! Takia drops the yoke ropes and leans 
 forward on the gunwale ! Oars jar together ! Big Jones 
 bends forward with his mouth wide wide ! Done ! 
 
 But not before a hush a solitary pistol shot then 
 roar of voices and shrilling of steamer syrens tell us that 
 the Cup is ours ! 
 
 IV 
 
 A month later there was a stir in the western seaports. 
 No longer the ships lay swinging idly at their moorings. 
 The harvest of grain was ready for the carriers, and 
 every day sail was spread to the free wind outside the 
 
216 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 Golden Gates, and laden ships went speeding on their 
 homeward voyages. The days of boat-races and pleasant 
 time-passing harbour jobs were gone; it was now work 
 work to get the ship ready for her burden, and, swaying 
 the great sails aloft, to rig harness for the power that 
 was to bear us home. From early morning till late eve- 
 ning we were kept hard at it; for Captain Burke and the 
 mate were as keen on getting the Hilda to sea after her 
 long stay in port as they were on jockeying us up to win 
 the Cup. Often, when we turned to in the morning, we 
 would find a new shipmate ready to bear a hand with us. 
 The old man believed in picking up a likely man when he 
 offered. Long experience of Pacific ports had taught 
 him how difficult it is to get a crew at the last moment. 
 
 So when at length the cargo was stowed, we were quite 
 ready to go to sea, while many others the Hedwlg Rick- 
 mers among them were waiting for men. 
 
 On the day before sailing a number of the ship captains 
 were gathered together in the chandler's store, talking 
 of freights and passages, and speculating on the runs 
 they hoped to make. Burke and Schencke were the 
 loudest talkers, for we were both bound to Falmouth "for 
 orders," and the Rickmers would probably sail three days 
 after we had gone. 
 
 "Vat 'bout dot bett you make mit me, Cabtin?" said 
 Schenke. "Dot is all recht, no ?" 
 
 "Oh, yess," answered the old man, but without en- 
 thusiasm. "That stands." 
 
 "Hoo ! Hoo I Hoo ! Tventig dollars to feefty dot 
 you goes home quicker as me, no?" Schencke turned to 
 the other men. Vat you tinks, yenthelmen ? Ah tinks Ah 
 sbend der tventig dollars now so sure Ah vass." 
 
 The others laughed. "Man, man," said Findlayson of 
 the Rhondda. "You don't tell me Burke's been fool 
 
THE MERCHANTS' CUP 217 
 
 enough to take that bet. Hoo ! You haven't tKe gHost 
 of a chance, Burke." 
 
 "Och, ye never know," said the now doleful sportsman. 
 "Ye never know ye're luck." 
 
 "Look here, Cabtin," said Schencke (good-humoured 
 by the unspoken tribute to his vessel's sailing powers) 
 "Ah gif you a chanst. Ah make de bett dis vay look. 
 Ve goes to Falmouth you und me, heinf Now, de first 
 who comes on de shore vins de money. Dot vill gif you 
 t'ree days' start, no?" 
 
 "That's more like it," said the other captains. "I wish 
 you luck, Burke," said Findlayson. "Good luck you'll 
 need it too if you are to be home before the big 
 German." 
 
 So the bet was made. 
 
 At daybreak next morning we put out to sea. The 
 good luck that the Rhondda wished us came our way from 
 the very first. When the tug left us we set sail to a fine 
 fair wind, and soon were bowling along in style. We 
 found the nor'-east Trades with little seeking; strong 
 Trades, too, that lifted us to the Line almost before the 
 harbour dust was blown from our masts and spars. There 
 calms fell on us for a few days, but we drifted south in 
 the right current, and in less than forty days had run 
 into the "westerlies" and were bearing away for the 
 Horn. 
 
 Old Burke was "cracking on" for all the Hilda could 
 carry canvas. Every morning when he came on deck 
 the first question to the mate would be: "Any ships in 
 sight, mister?" . . . "Any ships astern," he meant, for 
 his first glance was always to where the big green four- 
 master might be expected to heave in sight. Then, when 
 nothing was reported, he would begin his day-long strut 
 up and down the poop, whistling "Garryowen" and rub- 
 bing his hands. 
 
 Nor was the joy at our good progress his alone. W. 
 
218 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 in the half-deck knew of the bet, and were keen that the 
 ship which carried the Merchants' Cup should not be 
 overhauled by the runner-up! We had made a fetish 
 of the trophy so hardly won. The Cup itself was safely 
 stowed in the ship's strong chest, but the old man had 
 let us have custody of the flag. Big Jones had particular 
 charge of it; and it had been a custom while in 'Frisco 
 to exhibit it on the Saturday nights to admiring and en- 
 vious friends from other ships. This custom we con- 
 tinued when at sea. True, there were no visitors to set 
 us up and swear what lusty chaps we were, but we could 
 frank one another and say, "If you hadn't done this or 
 that, we would never have won the race." 
 
 On a breezy Saturday evening we were busy at these 
 rites. The Hilda was doing well before a steady nor'- 
 west wind, but the weather though nothing misty was 
 dark as a pall. Thick clouds overcast the sky, and there 
 seemed no dividing line between the darkling sea and the 
 windy banks that shrouded the horizon. A dirty night 
 was in prospect; the weather would thicken later; but that 
 made the modest comforts of the half-deck seem more 
 inviting by comparison; and we came together for our 
 weekly "sing-song"^all but Gregson, whose turn it was 
 to stand the lookout on the foVsle-head. 
 
 The flag was brought out and hung up Jones stand- 
 ing by to see that no pipe-lights were brought near 
 and we ranted at "Ye Mariners of England" till the 
 mate sent word that further din would mean a "work-up" 
 job for all of us. 
 
 Little we thought that we mariners would soon be fac- 
 ing dangers as great as any we so glibly sang about. 
 Even as we sang, the Hilda was speeding on a fatal 
 course ! Across her track the almost submerged hull of 
 a derelict lay drifting. Black night veiled the danger 
 from the keenest eyes. 
 
THE MERCHANTS' CUP 219 
 
 A frenzied order from the poop put a stunning period 
 to our merriment. "Helm up, f'r God's sake! . . . 
 Up! oh God! Up! Up!" A furious impact dashed 
 us to the deck. Staggering, bruised, and bleeding, we 
 struggled to our feet. Outside the yells of fear-stricken 
 men mingled with hoarse orders, the crash of spars 
 hurtling from aloft vied with the thunder of canvas, as 
 the doomed barque swung round broadside to the wind 
 and sea. 
 
 Even in that dread moment Jones had heed of his 
 precious flag. As we flew to the door, he tore the flag 
 down, stuffing it in his jumper as he joined us at the boats. 
 
 There was no time to hoist out the life-boats it was 
 pinnance and gig or nothing. Already the bows were low 
 in the water. "She goes. She goes!" yelled some one. 
 "Oh, Christ! She's going I" 
 
 We bore frantically on the tackles that linked the gig, 
 swung her out, and lowered by the run; the mate had the 
 pinnace in the water, men were swarming into her. As 
 the gig struck water, the barque heeled to the rail awash. 
 We crowded in, old Burke the last to leave her, and 
 pushed off. Our once stately Hilda reeled in a swirl of 
 broken water, and the deep sea took her ! 
 
 Sailor work ! No more than ten minutes between "Ye 
 Mariners" and the foundering of our barque! 
 
 We lay awhile with hearts too full for words; then 
 the pinnace drew near, and the mate called the men. All 
 there but one! "Gregson!" . . .No Gregson! The 
 bosun knew. He had seen what was Gregson lying still 
 under the wreck of the topmost spars. 
 
 The captain and mate conferred long together. We 
 had no sail in the gig, but the larger boat was fully 
 equipped. It's the only chance, mister," said Burke at 
 last. "No food no water ! We can't hold out for long. 
 Get sail on your boat and stand an hour or two to the 
 
220 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 eastward. Ye may fall in with a ship ; she w'was right 
 in th' track whin she s-struck. We can but lie to in th' 
 gig an' pray that a ship comes by." 
 
 "Aye, aye, sir." They stepped the mast and hoisted 
 sail. "Good-bye all: God bless ye, captain," they said 
 as the canvas, swelled. "Keep heart!" For a time we 
 heard their voices shouting us God-speed then silence 
 came! 
 
 Daybreak ! 
 
 Thank God the bitter night was past. Out of the 
 east the long-looked-for light grew on us, as we lay to 
 sea-anchor, lurching unsteadily in the teeth of wind and 
 driving rain. At the first grey break we scanned the 
 now misty horizon. There was no sign of the pinnace; 
 no God-sent sail in all the dreary round ! 
 
 We crouched on the bottom boards of the little gig 
 and gave way to gloomy thoughts. What else could be 
 when we were alone and adrift on the broad Pacific, 
 without food or water, in a tiny gig already perilously 
 deep with the burden of eight of us? What a difference 
 to the gay day when we manned the same little boat and 
 set out in pride to the contest ! Here was the same spare 
 oar that we held up to the judges the long oar that 
 Jones was now swaying over the stern, keeping her head 
 to the wind and sea ! Out there in the tumbling water 
 the sea-anchor held its place; the ten fathoms of good 
 hemp "painter" was straining at the bows ! 
 
 The same boat! The same gear! The same crew, 
 but how different! A crew of bent heads and wearied 
 limbs! Listless-eyed, despairing! A ghastly crew, with 
 black care riding in the heaving boat with us ! 
 
 Poor old Burke had hardly spoken since his last order 
 to the mate to sail the pinnace to the east in search of 
 
THE MERCHANTS' CUP 221 
 
 help. When anything was put to him, he would say, 
 "Aye, aye, b'ye," and take no further heed. He was 
 utterly crushed by the disaster that had come so sud- 
 denly on the heels of his "good luck." He sat staring 
 stonily ahead, deaf to our hopes and fears. 
 
 Water we had in plenty as the day wore on. The 
 rain-soaked clothes of us were sufficient for the time, but 
 soon hunger came and added a physical pain to the tor- 
 ture of our doubt. Again and again we stood up on the 
 reeling thwarts and looked wildly around the sea-line. No 
 pinnace no ship nothing ! Nothing, only sea and sky, 
 and circling sea-birds that came to mock at our misery 
 with their plaintive cries. 
 
 A bitter night! A no less cruel day! Dark came on 
 us again, chill and windy, and the salt spray cutting at us 
 like a whiplash. 
 
 Boo-m-m I 
 
 Big Jones stood up in the stern-sheets, swaying un- 
 steadily. "D'ye hear anything there? . . . Like a gun?" 
 
 A gun? Gun? . . . Nothing new! . . . We had 
 been hearing guns, seeing sails in our minds all the 
 day ! All day . . . guns . . . and sail ! Boom-m-m-m ! 
 
 "Gun! Oh God ... a gun! Capt'n, a gun, d'ye 
 hear! Hay Hay-H. Out oars, there! A gun!" 
 Hoarse in excitement Jones shook the old man and called 
 at his ear. "Aye, aye, b'ye. Aye, aye," said the broken 
 old man, seeming without understanding. 
 
 Jones ceased trying to rouse him, and, running out the 
 steering oar, called on us to haul the sea-anchor aboard. 
 We lay to our oars, listening for a further gunfire. 
 
 Whooo-o. . . . Boom-m-m. 
 
 A rocket! They were looking for us then! The 
 pinnace must have been picked up! A cheer what a 
 cheer! came brokenly from our lips; and we lashed 
 
222 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 furiously at the oars, steering to where a glare in the 
 mist had come with the last report. 
 
 Roused by the thrash of our oars, the old man sat up. 
 "Whatt now, b'ye ? Whatt now ?" 
 
 "Ship firm' rockets, sir," said Jones. "Rockets . . . 
 no mistake." As he spoke, another coloured streamer 
 went flaming through the eastern sky. "Give way, there! 
 We'll miss her if she's running south ! Give way, all !" 
 The glare of the rocket put heart into our broken old 
 skipper. "Steady now, b'yes," he said, with something 
 of his old enthusiasm. 
 
 We laboured steadily at the oars, but our strength 
 was gone. The sea too, that we had thought moderate 
 when lying to sea-anchor, came at us broadside on and 
 set our light boat to a furious dance. Wave crests broke 
 and lashed aboard, the reeling boat was soon awash, and 
 the spare men had to bale frantically to keep her afloat. 
 But terror of the ship running south from us nerved our 
 wearied arms, and we kept doggedly swinging the oars. 
 Soon we made out the vessel's sidelight the gleam of 
 her starboard light, that showed that she was hauled to 
 the wind, not running south as we had feared. They could 
 not see on such a night, we had nothing to make a signal, 
 but the faint green flame gave us heart in our distress. 
 
 The old man, himself again, was now steering, giving 
 us Big Jones to bear at the oars. As we drew on we 
 made out the loom of the vessel's sails a big ship under 
 topsails only, and sailing slowly to the west. We pulled 
 down wind to cross her course, shouting together as we 
 rowed. Would they never hear? . . . Again! . . . 
 Again ! 
 
 Suddenly there came a hail from the ship, a roar of 
 orders, rattle of blocks and gear, the yards swung round 
 and she layed up in the wind, while the ghostly glare of 
 a blue light lit up the sea around. 
 
THE MERCHANTS' CUP 223 
 
 A crowd of men were gathered at the waist, now 
 shouting and cheering as we laboured painfully into the 
 circle of vivid light. Among them a big man (huge he 
 looked in that uncanny glare) roared encouragement in 
 hoarse gutturals. 
 
 Old Schenke? The Hedwlg Rickmers? 
 
 Aye Schenke! But a different Schenke to the big, 
 blustering, overbearing ''Square-head" we had known in 
 'Frisco. Schenke as kind as a brother a brother of the 
 sea indeed. Big, fat, honest Schenke, passing his huge 
 arm through that of our broken old skipper, leading him 
 aft to his own bed, and silencing his faltering story by 
 words of cheer. "Ach, du lieber Gott! It is all right, 
 no? All right, Cabtin, now you come on board. Ah 
 know all 'bout it I . . .Ah pick de oder boat up in de morn- 
 ing, und dey tells me. You come af ' mit me, Cabtin .... 
 Goot, no?" 
 
 "Ninety-six days, Schenke, and here we are at the 
 mouth of the Channel !" Old Burke had a note of regret 
 in the saying. "Ninety-six days ! Sure, this ship o' yours 
 can sail. With a bit o' luck, now, ye'll be in Falmouth 
 under the hundred." 
 
 "So. If de vind holds goot. Oh, de Hedwig Rickmers 
 is a goot sheep, no? But if Ah dond't get de crew of de 
 poor lettle Hilda to work mein sheep, Ah dond't t'ink 
 ve comes home so quick as hundert days, no?'" 
 
 "God bless us, man. Shure, it's the least they cud do, 
 now. An' you kaaping' us in food an' drink an' clothes, 
 bedad all the time." 
 
 "Vat Ah do, Cabtin. Ah leaf you starf e, no ?" 
 
 "Oh. Some men would have put into the Falklands 
 and landed " 
 
 "Und spoil a goot bassage, eh? Ach nein. More 
 better to go on. You know dese men Ah get in 'Frisco 
 
224 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 is no goot. Dem "hoodlums," they dond't know de 
 sailorman vork. But your beoble is all recht, eh ! Gott ! 
 If Ah dond't haf dem here, it is small sail ve can carry 
 on de sheep." 
 
 "Och, now, ye just say that, Schenke, ye just say that ! 
 But it's glad I am if we're any use t' ye." 
 
 "Hundert days to Falmouth, eh?" Schenke grinned as 
 he said it. "Vat 'bout dot bett now, Cabtin?" 
 
 "Oh that," said Burke queerly. "You win, of course. 
 I'm not quite broke yet, Captain Schenke. I'll pay the 
 twenty dollars all right." 
 
 "No, no. De bett is not von. No? De bett vass 
 'who is de first on shore come,' Heimf Goot. Ven de 
 sheep comes to Falmouth ve goes on shore, you und me, 
 together. Like dis, eh?" He seized Burke by the arm 
 and made a motion that they two should thus step out 
 together. 
 
 Burke, shamefacedly, said: "Aye, aye, b'ye." 
 
 "Ah dond't care about de bett," continued the big 
 German. "De bett is noting, but, look here, Cabtin 
 Ah tell you Ah look to vin dot Merchants' Cup. Gott! 
 Ah vass verrickt ven your boys come in first. Ach so! 
 Und now de Cup iss at de bottom of de Pacific." He 
 sighed regretfully. "Gott! I van't t' be de first Sherman 
 to vin dot Cup too !" 
 
 The mate of the Rickmers came on the poop and said 
 something to his captain. Schenke turned to the old man 
 in some wonderment. . . . "Vat dis is, eh? My mate 
 tell me dot your boys is want to speak mit me. Vat it is, 
 Cabtin? No troubles I hope?" 
 
 Burke looked as surprised as the other. "Send them 
 up, Heinrich," he said. We, the crew of the Hilda's gig, 
 filed on to the poop, looking as hot and uncomfortable 
 as proper sailorfolk should do when they come on a 
 
THE MERCHANTS 7 CUP 225 
 
 deputation. Jones headed us, and he carried a parcel 
 under his arm. 
 
 "Captain Schenke," he said. u We are all here the 
 crew of the Hilda's gig, that you picked up when when 
 we were in a bad way. All here but poor Gregson." 
 The big lad's voice broke as he spoke of his lost watch- 
 mate. "An, if he was here he would want t' thank ye 
 too for the way you've done by us. I can't say any more, 
 Captain Schenke but we want you to take a small pres- 
 ent from us the crew of the Hilda's gig." He held out 
 the parcel. 
 
 Only half understanding the lad's broken words, 
 Schenke took the parcel and opened it. "Ach Gott. 
 Lieber Gott" he said, and turned to show the gift to 
 old Burke. Tears stood in the big "squarehead's" eyes; 
 stood, and rolled unchecked down his fat cheeks. Tears 
 of pleasure! Tears of pity! Stretched between his 
 hands was a weather-beaten flag, its white emblem stained 
 and begrimed by sea-water ! 
 
 A tattered square of blue silk the flag of the Mer- 
 chants' Cup! 
 
A STORM AND A RESCUE 
 
 From "The Wreck of the Grosvenor" 
 BY W. CLARK RUSSELL 
 
 A~JL that night it blew terribly hard, and raised as 
 wild and raging a sea as ever I remember hearing 
 or seeing described. During my watch that is, 
 from midnight until four o'clock the wind veered a 
 couple of points, but had gone back again only to blow 
 harder; just as though it had stepped out of its way a 
 trifle to catch extra breath. 
 
 I was quite worn out by the time my turn came to go 
 below; and though the vessel was groaning like a live 
 creature in its death agonies, and the seas thumping against 
 her with such shocks as kept me thinking that she was 
 striking hard ground, I fell asleep as soon as my head 
 touched the pillow, and never moved until routed out by 
 Duckling four hours afterward. 
 
 All this time the gale had not bated a jot of its vio- 
 lence, and the ship labored so heavily that I had the ut- 
 most difficulty in getting out of the cuddy on to the poop. 
 When I say that the decks fore and aft were streaming 
 wet, I convey no notion of the truth: the main deck was 
 simply afloat, and every time the ship rolled, the water on 
 her deck rushed in a wave against the bulwarks and shot 
 high in the air, to mingle sometimes with fresh and heavy 
 inroads of the sea, both falling back upon the deck with 
 the boom of a gun. 
 
 I had already ascertained from Duckling that the well 
 had been sounded and the ship found dry; and therefore, 
 since we were tight below, it mattered little what water 
 
 226 
 
A STORM AND A RESCUE 227 
 
 was shipped above, as the hatches were securely battened 
 down fore and aft, and the mast-coats unwrung. But still 
 she labored under the serious disadvantage of being over- 
 loaded; and the result was, her fore parts were being in- 
 cessantly swept by seas which at times completely hid her 
 forecastle in spray. 
 
 Shortly after breakfast, Captain Coxon sent me for- 
 ward to dispatch a couple of hands on to the jib-boom to 
 snug the inner jib, which looked to be rather shakily 
 stowed. I managed to dodge the water on the main-deck 
 by waiting until it rolled to the starboard scuppers and 
 then cutting ahead as fast as I could; but just as I got 
 upon the forecastle, I was saluted by a green sea which 
 carried me off my legs, and would have swept me down 
 on the main-deck had I not held on stoutly with both hands 
 to one of the fore-shrouds. The water nearly drowned 
 me, and kept me sneezing and coughing for ten minutes 
 afterward. But it did me no further mischief; for I was 
 incased in good oilskins and sou'-wester, which kept me as 
 dry as a bone inside. 
 
 Two ordinary seamen got upon the jib-boom, and I 
 bade them keep a good hold, for the ship sometimes 
 danced her figurehead under water and buried her sprit- 
 sail-yard; and when she sunk her stern, her flying jib-boom 
 stood up like the mizzenmast. I waited until this job of 
 snugging the sail was finished, and then made haste to get 
 off the forecastle, where the seas flew so continuously and 
 heavily that had I not kept a sharp lookout, I should sev- 
 eral times have been knocked overboard. 
 
 Partly out of curiosity and partly with a wish to hearten 
 the men, I looked into the forecastle before going aft. 
 There were sliding-doors let into the entrance on either 
 side the windlass, but one of them was kept half open to 
 admit air, the forescuttle above being closed. The dark- 
 ness here was made visible by an oil lamp, in shape re- 
 
228 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 sembling a tin coffee-pot with a wick in the spout, whi 
 burned black and smokily. The deck was up to my ankles 
 in water, which gurgled over the pile of swabs that lay 
 at the open entrance. It took my eye some moments to 
 distinguish objects in the gloom; and then by degrees the 
 strange interior was revealed. A number of hammocks 
 were swung against the upper deck and around the fore- 
 castle were two rows of bunks, one atop the other. Here 
 and there were sea-chests lashed to the deck; and these, 
 with the huge windlass, a range of chain cable, lengths of 
 rope, odds and ends of pots and dishes, with here a pair 
 of breeches hanging from a hammock, and there a row of 
 oilskins swinging from a beam, pretty well made up all 
 the furniture that met my eye. 
 
 The whole of the crew were below. Some of the men 
 lay smoking in their bunks, others in their hammocks with 
 their boots over the edge ; one was patching a coat, another 
 greasing his boots; others were seated in a group talking; 
 while under the lamp were a couple of men playing at 
 cards upon a chest, three or four watching and holding on 
 by the hammocks over their heads. 
 
 A man, lying in his bunk with his face toward me, 
 started up and sent his legs, incased in blanket trousers 
 and brown woolen stockings, flying out. 
 
 "Here's Mr. Royle, mates!" he called out. "Let's 
 ask him the name of the port the captain means to touch 
 at for proper food, for we aren't goin' to wait much 
 longer." 
 
 " Don't ask me any questions of that kind, my lads," 
 I replied promptly, seeing a general movement of heads 
 in the bunks and hammocks. " I'd give you proper vic- 
 tuals if I had the ordering of them; and I have spoken to 
 Captain Coxon about you, and I am sure he will see this 
 matter put to rights." 
 
 I had difficulty in making my voice heard, for the strik- 
 
 
A STORM AND A RESCUE 229 
 
 ing of the seas against the ship's bows filled the place with 
 an overwhelming volume of sound; and the hollow, deaf- 
 ening thunder was increased by the uproar of the ship's 
 straining timbers. 
 
 :< Who the devil thinks," said a voice from a hammock, 
 " that we're going to let ourselves be grinded as we was 
 last night without proper wittles to support us ? I'd rather 
 have signed articles for a coal-barge, with drowned rats 
 to eat from Gravesend to Whitstable, than shipped in this 
 here cursed vessel, where the bread's just fit to make sav- 
 ages retch! " 
 
 I had not bargained for this, but had merely meant to 
 address them cheerily, with a few words of approval of 
 the smart way in which they had worked the ship in the 
 night. Seeing that my presence would do no good, I 
 turned about and left the forecastle, hearing, as I came 
 away, one of the Dutchmen cry out : 
 
 " Look here, Mister Rile, vill you be pleashed to ssay 
 when we are to hov' something to eat? for by Gott! 
 ve vill kill te dom pigs in the long-boat if the skipper don't 
 mindt so look out !" 
 
 As ill-luck would have it, Captain Coxon was at the 
 break of the poop, and saw me come out of the forecastle. 
 He waited until he had got me alongside of him, when he 
 asked me what I was doing among the men. 
 
 " I looked in to give them a good word for the work 
 they did last night," I answered. 
 
 " And who asked you to give them a good word, as 
 you call it?" 
 
 " I have never had to wait for orders to encourage a 
 
 crew." 
 
 " Mind what you are about, sir! " he exclaimed, in a 
 voice tremulous with rage. " I see through your game, 
 and I'll put a stopper upon it that you won't like." 
 
 " What game, sir? Let me have your meaning." 
 
230 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 "An infernal mutinous game!" he roared. "Don't 
 talk to me, sir ! I know you ! I've had my eye upon you ! 
 You'll play false if you can, and are trying to smother up 
 your d d rebel meanings with genteel airs! Get away, 
 sir !" he bellowed, stamping his foot. "Get away aft ! 
 You're a lumping useless incumbrance! But by thunder! 
 I'll give you two for every one you try to give me ! So 
 stand by! " 
 
 And apparently half mad with his rage, he staggered 
 away in the very direction in which he had told me to go, 
 and stood near the wheel, glaring upon me with a white 
 face, which looked indescribably malevolent in the fur cap 
 and ear-protectors that ornamented it. 
 
 I was terribly vexed by this rudeness, which I was 
 powerless to resist, and regretted my indiscretion in enter- 
 ing the forecastle after the politic resolutions I had formed. 
 However, Captain Coxon's ferocity was nothing new to 
 me; truly I believed he was not quite right in his mind, 
 and expected, as in former cases, that he would come 
 round a bit by-and-by when his insane temper had passed. 
 Still his insinuations were highly dangerous, not to speak 
 of their offensiveness. It was no joke to be charged, even 
 by a madman, with striving to arouse the crew to mutiny. 
 Nevertheless I tried to console myself as best I could by 
 reflecting that he could not prove his charges ; that I need 
 only to endure his insolence for a few weeks, and that 
 there was always a law to vindicate me and punish.- him, 
 should his evil temper betray him into any acts of cruelty 
 against me. 
 
 The gale, at times the severest that I was ever in, lasted 
 three days; during which the ship drove something like 
 eighty miles to the northwest. The sea on the afternoon 
 of the third day was appalling: had the ship attempted 
 to run, she would have been pooped and smothered in 
 a minute; but lying close, she rode fairly well, though 
 
A STORM AND A RESCUE 231 
 
 there were moments when I held my breath as she sunk 
 in a hollow like a coal-mine, filled with the astounding 
 noise of boiling water, really believing that the im- 
 mense waves which came hurtling towards us with solid, 
 sharp, transparent ridges, out of which the wind tore 
 lumps of water and flung them through the rigging of the 
 ship, must overwhelm the vessel before she could rise 
 to it. 
 
 The fury of the tempest and the violence of the sea, 
 which the boldest could not contemplate without feeling 
 that the ship was every moment in more or less peril, kept 
 the crew subdued ; and they eat as best they could the pro- 
 visions, without complaint. However, it needed nothing 
 less than a storm to keep them quiet: for on the second 
 day a sea extinguished the galley fire, and until the gale 
 abated no cooking could be done; so that the men had 
 to put up with cold water and biscuit. Hence all hands 
 were thrown upon the ship's bread for two days; and the 
 badness of it, therefore, was made even more apparent 
 than heretofore, when its wormy moldiness was in some 
 degree qualified by the nauseousness of bad salt pork and 
 beef and the sickly flavor of damaged tea. 
 
 As I had anticipated, the captain came round a little 
 a few hours after his insulting attack upon me. I think 
 his temper frightened him when it had reference to me. 
 Like others of his breed, he was a bit of a cur at the bot- 
 tom. My character was a trifle beyond him; and he was 
 ignorant enough to hate and fear what he could not under- 
 stand. Be this as it may, he made some rough attempts 
 at a rude kind of politeness when I went below to get 
 some grog, and condescended to say that when I had been 
 to sea as long as he, I would know that the most ungrate- 
 ful rascals in the world were sailors; that every crew he 
 had sailed with had always taken care to invent some 
 grievance to growl over: either the provisions were bad, 
 
232 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 or the work too heavy, or the ship unseaworthy; and that 
 long ago he had made up his mind never to pay attention 
 to their complaints, since no sooner would one wrong be 
 redressed than another would be coined and shoved under 
 his nose. 
 
 I took this opportunity of assuring him that I had never 
 willingly listened to the complaints- of the men, and that 
 I was always annoyed when they spoke to me about the 
 provisions, as I had nothing whatever to do with that mat- 
 ter; and that so far from my wishing to stir up the men 
 into rebellion, my conduct had been uniformly influenced 
 by the desire to conciliate them and represent their con- 
 ditions as very tolerable, so as to repress any tendency to 
 disaffection which they might foment among themselves. 
 
 To this he made no reply, and soon we parted ; but all 
 the next day he was sullen again, and never addressed me 
 save to give an order. 
 
 On the evening of the third day the gale broke; the 
 glass had risen since the morning; but until the first dog- 
 watch the wind did not bate one iota of its violence, and 
 the horizon still retained its stormy and threatening aspect. 
 The clouds then broke in the west, and the setting sun 
 shone forth with deep crimson light upon the wilderness 
 of mountainous waters. The wind fell quickly, then went 
 round to the west and blew freshly; but there was a re- 
 markable softness and sweetness in the feel and taste 
 of it. 
 
 A couple of reefs were at once shaken out of the main- 
 topsail, and a sail made. By midnight the heavy sea had 
 subsided into a deep, long, rolling swell, still (strangely 
 enough) coming from the south; but the fresh westerly 
 wind held the ship steady, and for the first time for nearly 
 a hundred hours we were able to move about the decks 
 with comparative comfort. Early the next morning the 
 watch were set to wash down and clear up the decks; and 
 
A STORM AND A RESCUE 233 
 
 when I left my cabin at eight o'clock, I found the weather 
 bright and warm, with a blue sky shining among heavy, 
 white, April-looking clouds, and the ship making seven 
 knots under all plain sail. The decks were dry and com- 
 fortable, and the ship had a habitable and civilized look, 
 by reason of the row of clothes hung by the seamen to dry 
 on the forecastle. 
 
 It was half past nine o'clock, and I was standing near 
 the taffrail looking at a shoal of porpoises playing some 
 hundreds of feet astern, when the man who was steering 
 asked me to look in the direction to which he pointed 
 that was, a little to the right of the bowsprit and say if 
 there was anything to be seen there; for he had caught 
 sight of something black upon the horizon twice, but could 
 not detect it now. 
 
 I turned my eyes toward the quarter of the sea indicated, 
 but could discern nothing whatever; and telling him that 
 what he had seen was probably a wave, which, standing 
 higher than his fellows, will sometimes show black a long 
 distance off, walked to the fore part of the poop. 
 
 The breeze still held good; and the vessel was slipping 
 easily through the water, though the southerly swell made 
 her roll and at times shook the wind out of the sails. The 
 skipper had gone to lie down, being pretty well ex- 
 hausted, I daresay; for he had kept the x d C k f r the 
 greater part of three nights running. Duckling was also 
 below. Most of my watch were on the forecastle, sitting 
 or lying in the sun, which shone very warm upon the decks ; 
 the hens under the long-boat were chattering briskly, and 
 the cocks crowing, and the pigs grunting, with the com- 
 fort of the warmth. 
 
 Suddenly, as the ship rose, I distinctly beheld some- 
 thing black out away upon the horizon, showing just under 
 the foot of the foresail. It vanished instantly; but I was 
 not satisfied, and went for the glass which lay upon the 
 
234 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 brackets just under the companion. I then told the man 
 who was steering to keep her away a couple of points for 
 a few moments ; and resting the glass against the mizzen- 
 royal backstay, pointed it toward the place where I had 
 seen the black object. 
 
 For some moments nothing but sea or sky filled the 
 field of the glass as the ship rose and fell; but all at once 
 there leaped into this field the hull of a ship, deep as her 
 main-chains in the water, which came and went before 
 my eye as the long seas lifted or dropped in the fore- 
 ground. I managed to keep her sufficiently long in view 
 to perceive that she was totally dismasted. 
 
 " It's a wreck," said I, turning to the man : " let her 
 come to again and luff a point. There may be living crea- 
 tures aboard of her." 
 
 Knowing what sort of man Captain Coxon was, I do 
 not think that I should have had the hardihood to luff 
 the ship a point out of her course had it involved the brac- 
 ing of the yards; for the songs of the men would certainly 
 have brought him on deck, and I might have provoked 
 some ugly insolence. But the ship was going free, and 
 would head more westerly without occasioning further 
 change than slightly slackening the weather-braces of the 
 upper yards. This I did quietly; and the dismantled hull 
 was brought right dead on end with our flying jib-boom. 
 The men now caught sight of her, and began to stare and 
 point; but did not sing out, as they saw by the telescope 
 in my hand that I perceived her. The breeze unhappily 
 began to slacken somewhat, owing perhaps to the gathering 
 heat of the sun; our pace fell off: and a full hour passed 
 before we brought the wreck near enough to see her per- 
 manently, for up to this she had been constantly van- 
 ishing under the rise of the swell. She was now about two 
 miles off, and I took a long and steady look at her through j 
 the telescope. It was a black hull with painted ports. I 
 
A STORM AND A RESCUE 235 
 
 The deck was flush fore and aft, and there was a good- 
 sized house just before where the mainmast should have 
 been. This house was uninjured, though the galley was 
 split up, and to starboard stood up in splinters like the 
 stump of a tree struck by lightning. No boats could be 
 seen aboard of her. Her jib-boom was gone, and so were 
 all three masts, clean cut off at the deck, as though a 
 hand-saw had done it; but the mizzenmast was alongside, 
 held by the shrouds and backstays, and the port main and 
 fore shrouds streamed like serpents from her chains into 
 the water. I reckoned at once that she must be loaded 
 with timber, for she never could keep afloat at that depth 
 with any other kind of cargo in her. 
 
 She made a most mournful and piteous object in the 
 sunlight, sluggishly rolling to the swell which ran in trans- 
 parent volumes over her sides and foamed around the 
 deck-house. Once when her stern rose. I read the name 
 Cecilia in broad white letters. 
 
 I was gazing intently, in the effort to witness some in- 
 dication of living thing on board, when, to my mingled 
 consternation and horror, I witnessed an arm projecting 
 through the window of the deck-house and frantically 
 waving what resembled a white handkerchief. As none 
 of the men called out, I judged the signal was not percep- 
 tible to the naked eye; and in my excitement I shouted, 
 * There's a living man on board of her, my lads!" 
 dropped the glass, and ran aft to call the captain. 
 
 I met him coming up the companion ladder. The first 
 thing he said was, " You're out of your course," and 
 looked up at the sails. 
 
 ' There's a wreck yonder," I cried, pointing eagerly, 
 " with a man on board signaling to us." 
 
 " Get me the glass," he said sulkily; and I picked it up 
 and handed it to him. 
 
 He looked at the wreck for some moments; and address- 
 
236 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 ing the man at the wheel, exclaimed, making a movement 
 with his hand, " Keep her away! Where in the devil are 
 you steering to? " 
 
 " Good heaven!" I ejaculated: "there's a man on 
 board there may be others ! " 
 
 " Damnation! " he exclaimed between his teeth: " what 
 do you mean by interfering with me? Keep her away! " 
 he roared out. 
 
 During this time we had drawn sufficiently near to 
 the wreck to enable the sharper-sighted among the hands 
 to remark the signal, and they were calling out that there 
 was somebody flying a handkerchief aboard the hull. 
 
 " Captain Coxon," said I, with as firm a voice as I could 
 command, for I was nearly in as great a rage as he, 
 and rendered insensible to all consequences by his inhu- 
 manity, " if you bear away and leave that man yonder 
 to sink with that wreck when he can be saved with very 
 little trouble, you will become as much a murderer as any 
 ruffian who stabs a man asleep." 
 
 When I had said this, Coxon turned black in the face 
 with passion. His eyes protruded, his hands and fingers 
 worked as though he were under some electrical process, 
 and I saw for the first time in my life a sight I had always 
 laughed at as a bit of impossible novelist description, - 
 a mouth foaming with rage. He rushed aft, just over 
 Duckling's cabin, and stamped with all his might. 
 
 " Now," thought I, " they may try to murder me! " 
 And without a word I pulled off my coat, seized a belay- 
 ing-pin, and stood ready; resolved that happen what might, 
 I would give the first man who should lay his fingers on 
 me something to remember me by while he had breath 
 in his body. 
 
 The men, not quite understanding what was happening, 
 but seeing that a " row " was taking place, came to the 
 forecastle and advanced by degrees along the main-deck. 
 
A STORM AND A RESCUE 237 
 
 Among them I noticed the cook, muttering to one or the 
 other who stood near. 
 
 Mr. Duckling, awakened by the violent clattering over 
 his head, came running up the companion-way with a be- 
 wildered, sleepy look in his face. The captain grasped 
 him by the arm, and pointing to me, cried out with an oath 
 that " that villain was breeding a mutiny on board, and 
 he believed wanted to murder him and Duckling/' 
 
 I at once answered, " Nothing of the kind ! There is 
 a man miserably perishing on board that sinking wreck, 
 Mr. Duckling, and he ought to be saved. My lads! " I 
 cried, addressing the men on the main-deck, " is there a 
 sailor among you all who would have the heart to leave 
 that man yonder without an effort to rescue him? " 
 
 " No, sir!" shouted one of them. " We'll save the 
 man; and if the skipper refuses, we'll make him! " 
 
 " Luff ! " I called to the man at the wheel. 
 
 " Luff at your peril !" screamed the skipper. 
 
 " Aft here, some hands," I cried, u and lay the main- 
 yard aback. Let go the port main-braces ! " 
 
 The captain came running toward me. 
 
 " By the living God ! " I cried in a fury, grasping the 
 heavy brass belaying-pin, " if you come within a foot of 
 me, Captain Coxon, I'll dash your brains out! " 
 
 My attitude, my enraged face and menacing gesture, 
 produced the desired effect. He stopped dead, turned a 
 ghastly white, and looked round at Duckling. 
 
 " What do you mean by this (etc.) conduct, you (etc.) 
 mutinous scoundrels?" roared Duckling, with a volley of 
 foul language. 
 
 " Give him one for himself if he says too much, Mr. 
 Royle ! " sung out some hoarse voice on the main-deck ; 
 " we'll back yer ! " And then came cries of " They're a 
 cursed pair o' murderers!" "Who run the smack 
 down? " " Who lets men drown? " " Who starves hon- 
 
238 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 est men ? " This last exclamation was followed by a roar. 
 
 The whole of the crew were now on deck, having been 
 aroused by our voices. Some of them were looking on 
 with a grin, others with an expression of fierce curiosity. 
 It was at once understood that I was making a stand 
 against the captain and chief mate; and a single glance 
 at them assured me that by one word I could set the whole 
 of them on fire to do my bidding, even to shedding blood. 
 
 In the meantime, the man at the wheel had luffed until 
 the weather leeches were flat and the ship scarcely moving. 
 And at this moment, that the skipper might know their 
 meaning, a couple of hands jumped aft and let go the 
 weather main-braces. I took care to keep my eyes on 
 Coxon and the mate, fully prepared for any attack that 
 one or both might make on me. Duckling eyed me furi- 
 ously but in silence, evidently baffled by my resolute air 
 and the position of the men. Then he said something 
 to the captain, who looked exhausted and white and hag- 
 gard with his useless passion. They walked over to the 
 lee side of the poop; and after a short conference, the ca] 
 tain to my surprise went below, and Duckling came foi 
 ward. 
 
 " There's no objection," he said, " to your saving the 
 man's life, if you want. Lower away the starboard qi 
 ter-boat, and you go along in her," he added to * 
 uttering the last words in such a thick voice that I thcu, 
 he was choking. 
 
 " Come along, some of you ! " I cried out, hastily put- 
 ting on my coat ; and in less than a minute I was in th( 
 boat with the rudder and thole-pins shipped, and foui 
 hands ready to out oars as soon as we touched the water. 
 
 Duckling began to fumble at one end of the boat's 
 falls. 
 
 " Don't let him lower away! n roared out one of the 
 
A STORM AND A RESCUE 239 
 
 men in the boat. " He'll let us go with a run. He'd like 
 to see us drowned ! " 
 
 Duckling fell back, scowling with fury; and shoving 
 his head over as the boat sunk quietly into the water, he 
 discharged a volley of execrations at us, saying that he 
 would shoot some of us, if he swung for it, before he was 
 done, and especially applying a heap of abusive terms to 
 me. 
 
 The fellow pulling the bow oar laughed in his face; 
 and another shouted out, " We'll teach you to say your 
 prayers yet, you ugly old sinner!" 
 
 We got away from the ship's side cleverly, and in a 
 short time were rowing fast for the wreck. The excite- 
 ment under which I labored made me reckless of the issue 
 of this adventure. The sight of the lonely man upon the 
 wreck, coupled with the unmanly, brutal intention of 
 Coxon to leave him to his fate, had goaded me into a 
 state of mind infuriate enough to have done and dared 
 anything to compel Coxon to save him. He might call 
 it mutiny, but I called it humanity; and I was prepared 
 to stand or fall by my theory. The hate the crew had for 
 their captain and chief mate was quite strong enough to 
 guarantee me against any foul play on the part of Coxon ; 
 otherwise I might have prepared myself to see the ship 
 
 and stand away, and leave us alone on the sea with the 
 
 ck. One of the men in the boat suggested this; but 
 iinother immediately answered, " They'd pitch the skipper 
 overboard if he gave such an order, and glad o' the chance. 
 There's no love for 'em among us, I can tell you; and by 
 
 ! there'll be bloody work done aboard the Grosvenor 
 
 if things aren't mended soon, as you'll see." 
 
 They all four pulled at their oars savagely as these 
 words were spoken; and I never saw such sullen and fe- 
 rocious expressions on men's faces as came into theirs, as 
 they fixed their eyes as with one accord upon the ship. 
 
240 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 She, deep as she was, looked a beautiful model on the 
 mighty surface of the water, rolling with marvelous grace 
 to the swell, the strength and volume of which made me 
 feel my littleness and weakness as it lifted the small boat 
 with irresistible power. There was wind enough to keep 
 her sails full upon her graceful, slender masts, and the 
 brass-work upon her deck flashed brilliantly as she rolled 
 from side to side. 
 
 Strange contrast, to look from her to the broken and 
 desolate picture ahead! My eyes were riveted upon it 
 now with new and intense emotion, for by this time I could 
 discern that the person who was waving to us was a female, 
 woman or girl I could not yet make out, ' and that 
 her hair was like a veil of gold behind her swaying arm. 
 
 " It's a woman! " I cried in my excitement; " it's no 
 man at all. Pull smartly, my lads! pull smartly, for God's 
 sake!" 
 
 The men gave way stoutly, and the swell favoring us, 
 we were soon close to the wreck. The girl, as I now per- 
 ceived she was, waved her handkerchief wildly as we ap- 
 proached; but my attention was occupied in considering 
 how we could best board the wreck without injury to the 
 boat. She lay broadside to us, with her stern on our right, 
 and was not only rolling heavily with wallowing, squelch- 
 ing movements, but was swirling the heavy mizzenmast 
 that lay alongside through the water each time she went 
 over to starboard; so that it was necessary to approach 
 her with the greatest caution to prevent our boat from 
 being stove in. Another element of danger was the great 
 flood of water which she took in over her shattered bul- 
 warks, first on this side, then on that, discharging the tor- 
 rent again into the sea as she rolled. This water came 
 from her like a cataract, and in a second would fill and 
 sink the boat, unless extreme care were taken to keep clear 
 of it. 
 
A STORM AND A RESCUE 241 
 
 I waved my hat to the poor girl, to let her know that 
 we saw her and had come to save her, and steered the boat 
 right around the wreck, that I might observe the most 
 practical point for boarding her. 
 
 She appeared to be a vessel of about seven hundred 
 tons. The falling of her masts had crushed her port bul- 
 warks level with the deck, and part of her starboard bul- 
 warks was also smashed to pieces. Her wheel was gone, 
 and the heavy seas that had swept her deck had carried 
 away capstans, binnacle, hatchway gratings, pumps 
 everything, in short, but the deck-house and the remnants 
 of the galley. I particularly noticed a strong iron boat's- 
 davit twisted up like a corkscrew. She was full of water, 
 nnd lay as deep as her main-chains; but her bows stood 
 high, and her fore-chains were out of the sea. It was mi- 
 raculous to see her keep afloat as the long swell rolled over 
 her in a cruel, foaming succession of waves. 
 
 Though these plain details impressed themselves upon 
 my memory, I did not seem to notice anything, in the 
 anxiety that possessed me to rescue the lonely creature in 
 the deck-house. It would have been impossible to keep 
 a footing upon the main-deck without a life-line or some- 
 thing to hold on by; and seeing this, and forming my res- 
 olutions rapidly, I ordered the man in the bow of the boat 
 to throw in his oar and exchange places with me, and head 
 the boat for the starboard port-chains. As we approached 
 I stood up with one foot planted on the gunwale ready to 
 spring; the broken shrouds were streaming aft and along- 
 side, so that if I missed the jump and fell into the water 
 there was plenty of stuff to catch hold of. 
 
 "Gently Vast rowing ready to back astern 
 smartly ! " I cried as we approached. I waited a mo- 
 ment: the hull rolled toward us, and the succeeding swell 
 threw up our boat; the deck, though all aslant, was on a 
 line with my feet. I sprung with all my strength, and got 
 
242 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 well upon the deck, but fell heavily as I reached it. How- 
 ever, I was up again in a moment, and ran forward out of 
 the water. 
 
 Here was a heap of gear stay-sail, and jib-halyards, 
 and other ropes, some of the ends swarming overboard. 
 I hauled in one of these ends, but found I could not clear 
 the raffle; but looking round, I perceived a couple of coils 
 of line spare stun'-sail tacks or halyards I took them 
 to be lying close against the foot of the bowsprit. I 
 immediately seized the end of one of these coils, and flung 
 it into the boat, telling them to drop clear of the wreck 
 astern; and when they found they had backed as far as 
 the length of the line permitted, I bent on the end of the 
 other coil, and paid that out until the boat was some 
 fathoms astern. I then made my end fast, and sung out 
 to one of the men to get on board by the starboard mizzen- 
 chains, and to bring the end of the line with him. After 
 waiting a few minutes, the boat being hidden, I saw the 
 fellow come scrambling over the side with a red face, 
 his clothes and hair streaming, he having fallen overboard. 
 He shook himself like a dog, and crawled with the line, 
 on his hands and knees, a short distance forward, then 
 hauled the line taut and made it fast. 
 
 " Tell them to bring the boat round here," I cried, " and 
 lay off on their oars until we are ready. And you get hold 
 of this line and work yourself up to me." 
 
 Saying which, I advanced along the deck, clinging 
 tightly with both hands. It very providentially happened 
 that the door of the deck-house faced the forecastle with- 
 in a few feet of where the remains of the galley stood. 
 There would be, therefore, less risk in opening it than 
 had it faced beamwise : for the water, as it broke against 
 the sides of the house, disparted clear of the fore and 
 after parts; that is, the great bulk of it ran clear, though 
 
A STORM AND A RESCUE 243 
 
 of course a foot's depth of it as least surged against the 
 door. 
 
 I called out to the girl to open the door quickly, as it 
 slid in grooves like a panel, and was not to be stirred from 
 the outside. The poor creature appeared mad; and I re- 
 peated my request three times without inducing her to 
 leave the window. Then, not believing that she under- 
 stood me, I cried out, " Are you English? " 
 
 ' Yes," she replied. " For God's sake, save us ! " 
 
 " I cannot get you through that window," I exclaimed. 
 " Rouse yourself and open that door, and I will save 
 you." 
 
 She now seemed to comprehend, and drew in her head. 
 By this time the man out of the boat had succeeded in 
 sliding along the rope to where I stood, though the poor 
 devil was nearly drowned on the road; for when about 
 half-way, the hull took in a lump of swell which swept 
 him right off his legs, and he was swung hard a-starboard, 
 holding on for his life. However, he recovered himself 
 smartly when the water was gone, and came along hand 
 over fist, snorting and cursing in wonderful style. 
 
 Meanwhile, though I kept a firm hold of the life-line, 
 I took care to stand where the inroads of water were not 
 heavy, waiting impatiently for the door to open. It shook 
 in the grooves, tried by a feeble hand; then a desperate 
 effort was made, and it slid a couple of inches. 
 
 " That will do ! " I shouted. " Now then, my lad, catch 
 hold of me with one hand, and the line with the other." 
 
 The fellow took a firm grip of my monkey-jacket, and 
 I made for the door. The water washed up to my knees, 
 but I soon inserted my fingers in the crevice of the door 
 and thrust it open. 
 
 The house was a single compartment, though I had ex- 
 pected to find it divided into two. In the centre was a table 
 that traveled on stanchions from the roof to the deck, 
 
244 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 On either side were a couple of bunks. The girl stood 
 near the door. In a bunk to the left of the door lay an 
 old man with white hair. Prostrate on his back, on the 
 deck, with his arms stretched against his ears, was the 
 corpse of a man, well dressed ; and in a bunk on the right 
 sat a sailor, who, when he saw me, yelled out and snapped 
 his fingers, making horrible grimaces. 
 
 Such, in brief, was the coup d'oeil of that weird interior 
 as it met my eyes. 
 
 I seized the girl by the arm. 
 
 "You first," said I. "Come; there is no time to be 
 lost." 
 
 But she shrunk back, pressing against the door with 
 her hand to prevent me from pulling her, crying in a 
 husky voice, and looking at the old man with the white 
 hair, "My father first! my father first!" 
 
 "You shall all be saved, but you must obey me. Quickly 
 now!" I exclaimed passionately; for a heavy sea at that 
 moment flooded the ship, and a rush of water swamped 
 the house through the open door and washed the corpse 
 on the deck up into a corner. 
 
 Grasping her firmly, I lifted her off her feet, and went 
 staggering to the life-rope, slinging her light body over my 
 shoulder as I went. Assisted by my man, I gained the 
 bow of the wreck, and hailing the boat, ordered it along- 
 side. 
 
 "One of you," cried I, "stand ready to receive this lady 
 when I give the signal." 
 
 I then told the man who was with me to jump into the 
 forechains, which he instantly did. The wreck lurched 
 heavily to port. "Stand by, my lads !" I shouted. Over 
 she came again, with the water swooping along the main- 
 deck. The boat rose high, and the forechains were sub- 
 merged to the height of the man's knees. "Now!" I 
 called, and lifted the girl over. She was seized by the 
 
A STORM AND A RESCUE 245 
 
 man in the chains, and pushed toward the boat; the fel- 
 low standing in the bow of the boat caught her, and at 
 the same moment down sunk the boat, and the wreck rolled 
 wearily over. But the girl was safe. 
 
 "Hurrah, my lad!" I sung out. "Up with you, 
 there are others remaining;" and I went sprawling along 
 the line to the deck-house, there to encounter another 
 rush of water, which washed as high as my thighs, and 
 fetched me such a thump in the stomach that I thought 
 I must have died of suffocation. 
 
 I was glad to find that the old man had got out of his 
 bunk, and was standing at the door. 
 
 "Is my poor girl safe, sir?" he exclaimed, with the 
 same huskiness of voice that had grated so unpleasantly 
 in the girl's tone. 
 
 "Quite safe; come along." 
 
 "Thanks be to Almighty God!" he ejaculated, and 
 burst into tears. 
 
 I seized hold of his thin cold hands, but shifted my 
 fingers to catch him by the coat collar, so as to exert more 
 power over him; and handed him along the deck, telling 
 my companion to lay hold of the seaman and fetch him 
 away smartly. We managed to escape the water, for the 
 poor old gentleman bestired himself very nimbly, and I 
 helped him over the fore-chains; and when the boat rose, 
 tumbled him into her without ceremony. I saw the 
 daughter leap toward him and clasp him in her arms; but 
 I was soon again scrambling on to the deck, having heard 
 cries from my man, accompanied with several loud curses, 
 mingled with dreadful yells. 
 
 "He's bitten me, sir!" cried by companion, hauling him- 
 self away from the deck-house. "He's roaring mad." 
 
 "It can't be helped," I answered. "We must get him 
 out." 
 
 He saw me pushing along the life-line, plucked up heart, 
 
246 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 and went with myself through a sousing sea to the door. I 
 caught a glimpse of a white face glaring at me from the 
 interior: in a second a figure shot out, fled with incredible 
 speed toward the bow, and leaped into the sea just where 
 our boat lay. 
 
 "They'll pick him up," I exclaimed. "Stop a second;" 
 and I entered the house and stooped over the figure of the 
 man on the deck. 
 
 I was not familiar with death, and yet I knew it was 
 here. I cannot describe the signs in his face; but such as 
 they were, they told me the truth. I noticed a ring upon 
 his finger, and that his clothes were good. His hair was 
 black, and his features well shaped, though his face had 
 a half-convulsed expression, as if something frightful had 
 appeared to him, and he had died of the sight of it. 
 
 "This wreck must be his coffin," I said. "He is a 
 corpse. We can do no more." 
 
 We scrambled for the last time along the life-line and 
 got into the fore-chains ; but to our consternation, saw the 
 boat rowing away from the wreck. However, the fit of 
 rage and terror that possessed me lasted but a moment or 
 two; for I now saw they were giving chase to the mad- 
 man, who was swimming steadily away. Two of the 
 men rowed, and the third hung over the bows, ready to 
 grasp the miserable wretch. The Grosvenor stood steady, 
 about a mile off, with her mainyards backed; and just as 
 the fellow over the boat's bows caught hold of the swim- 
 mer's hair, the ensign was run up on board the ship and 
 dipped three times. 
 
 "Bring him along 1" I shouted. "They'll be off without 
 us if we don't bear a hand." 
 
 They nearly capsized the boat as they dragged the luna- 
 tic, streaming like a drowned rat, out of the water ; and 
 one of the sailors tumbled him over on his back, and 
 knelt upon him, while he took some turns with the boat's 
 
A STORM AND A RESCUE 247 
 
 painter round his body, arms and legs. The boat then 
 came alongside; and watching our opportunity, we 
 jumped into her and shoved off. 
 
 I had now leisure to examine the persons whom we had 
 saved. 
 
 They father and daughter, as I judged them by the 
 girl's exclamation on the wreck sat in the stern-sheets, 
 their hands locked. The old man seemed nearly insens- 
 ible ; leaning backward with his chin on his breast and his 
 eyes partially closed. I feared he was dying; but could 
 do no good until we reached the Grosvenor, as we had no 
 spirits in the boat. 
 
 The girl appeared to be about twenty years of age ; very 
 fair, her hair of golden straw color, which hung wet and 
 streaky down her back and over her shoulders, though a 
 portion of it was held by a comb. She was deadly pale, 
 and her lips blue; and in her fine eyes was such a look of 
 mingled horror and rapture as she cast them around her, 
 first glancing at me, then at the wreck, then at the Gros- 
 venor, that the memory of it will last me to my death. 
 Her dress, of some dark material, was soaked with salt 
 water up to her hips, and she shivered and moaned inces- 
 santly, though the sun beat so warmly upon us that the 
 thwarts were hot to the hand. 
 
 The mad sailor lay at the bottom of the boat, looking 
 straight into the sky. He was a horrid-looking object, 
 with his streaming hair, pasty features, and red beard, his 
 naked shanks and feet protruding through his soaking, 
 clinging trousers, which figured his shin-bones as though 
 they clothed a skeleton. Now and again he would give 
 himself a wild twirl and yelp out fiercely; but he was well- 
 nigh spent with his swim, and on the whole was quiet 
 enough. 
 
 I said to the girl, "How long have you been in this 
 dreadful position?" 
 
248 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 "Since yesterday morning," she answered, in a choking 
 voice painful to hear, and gulping after each word. "We 
 have not had a drop of water to drink since the night be- 
 fore last. He is mad with thirst, for he drank the water 
 on the deck; n and she pointed to the man in the bottom 
 of the boat. 
 
 "My God!" I cried to the men, "do you hear her? 
 They have not drunk water for two days ! For the love 
 of God, give way!" 
 
 They bent their backs to the oars, and the boat foamed 
 over the long swell. The wind was astern and helped us. 
 I did not speak again to the poor girl; for it was cruel to 
 make her talk, when the words lacerated her throat as 
 though they were pieces of burning iron. 
 
 After twenty minutes, which seemed as many hours, we 
 reached the vessel. The crew pressing round the gangway 
 cheered when they saw we had brought people from the 
 wreck. Duckling and the skipper watched us grimly from 
 the poop. 
 
 "Now then, my lads," I cried, "up with this lady first. 
 Some of you on deck get water ready, as these people are 
 dying of thirst." 
 
 In a few minutes, both the girl and the old man were 
 handed over the gangway. I cut the boat's painter adrift 
 from the ringbolt so that we could ship the madman with- 
 out loosening his bonds, and he was hoisted up like a bale 
 of goods. Then four of us got out of the boat, leaving 
 one to drop her under the davits and hook on the falls. 
 
 At this moment a horrible scene took place. 
 
 The old man, tottering on the arms of two seamen, 
 was being led into the cuddy, followed by the girl, who 
 walked unaided. The madman, in the grasp of the big 
 sailor named Johnson, stood near the gangway; and as I 
 scrambled on deck, one of the men was holding a pannikin 
 full of water to his face. The poor wretch was shrinking 
 
A STORM AND A RESCUE 249 
 
 away from it, with his eyes half out of their sockets; but 
 suddenly tearing his arm with a violent effort from the rope 
 that bound him, he seized the pannikin and bit clean 
 through the tin; after which, throwing back his head, he 
 swallowed the whole draught dashed the pannikin down, 
 his face turned black and he fell dead on the deck. 
 
 The big sailor sprung aside with an oath, forced from 
 him by his terror; and from every looker-on there broke 
 a groan. They all shrunk away and stood staring with 
 blanched faces. Such a piteous sight as it was, lying 
 doubled up, with the rope pinioning the miserable limbs, 
 the teeth locked, and the right arm uptossed ! 
 
 "Aft here and get the quarter-boat hoisted up !" shouted 
 Duckling, advancing on the poop ; and seeing the man dead 
 on the deck, he added, "Get a tarpaulin and cover him up, 
 and let him lie on the fore-hatch." 
 
 "Shall I tell the steward to serve out grog to the men 
 who went with me?" I asked him. 
 
 He stared at me contemptuously, and walked away 
 without answering. 
 
THE SAILOR'S WIFE 
 From "An Iceland Fisherman," BY PIERRE LOTI 
 
 THE Icelanders were all returning now. Two ships 
 came in the second day, four the next, and twelve 
 during the following week. And all through the 
 country joy returned with them; and there was happiness 
 for the wives and mothers, and junkets in the taverns 
 where the beautiful barmaids of Paimpol served out 
 drink to the fishers. 
 
 The Leopoldine was among the belated; there were 
 yet another ten expected. They would not be long now; 
 and allowing a week's delay so as not to be disappointed, 
 Gaud waited in happy, passionate joy for Yann, keeping 
 their home bright and tidy for his return. When every- 
 thing was in good order there was nothing left for her to 
 do; and besides, in her impatience, she could think of 
 nothing else but her husband. 
 
 Three more ships appeared; then another five. There 
 were only two lacking now. 
 
 "Come, come," they said to her cheerily, "this year 
 the Leopoldine and the Marie-Jeanne will be the last, to 
 pick up all the brooms fallen overboard from the other 
 craft." 
 
 Gaud laughed also. She was more animated and beau- 
 tiful than ever, in her great joy of expectancy. 
 
 But the days succeeded one another without result. 
 
 She still dressed up every day, and with a joyful look 
 went down to the harbor to gossip with the other wives. 
 She said that this delay was but natural: was it not the 
 
 250 
 
THE SAILOR'S WIFE 251 
 
 same event every year? These were such safe boats, and 
 had such capital sailors. 
 
 But when at home alone, at night, a nervous anxious 
 shiver of apprehension would run through her whole 
 frame. 
 
 Was it right to be frightened already? Was there 
 even a single reason to be so? but she began to tremble at 
 the mere idea of grounds for being afraid. 
 
 The 10th of September came. How swiftly the days 
 flew by! 
 
 One morning a true autumn morning, with cold mist 
 falling over the earth in the rising sun she sat under the 
 porch of the chapel of the shipwrecked mariners, where 
 the widows go to pray; with eyes fixed and glassy, and 
 throbbing temples tightened as by an iron band. 
 
 These sad morning mists had begun two days before; 
 and on this particular day Gaud had awakened with a still 
 more bitter uneasiness, caused by the forecast of advancing 
 winter. Why did this day, this hour, this very moment, 
 seem to her more painful than the preceding? Often 
 ships are delayed a fortnight; even a month, for that mat- 
 ter. 
 
 But surely there was something different about this 
 particular morning; for she had come to-day for the first 
 time to sit in the porch of this chapel and read the names 
 of the dead sailors, perished in their prime. 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 GAOS YVON 
 
 Lost at Sea 
 
 NEAR THE NORDEN-FJORD 
 
 Like a great shudder, a gust of wind rose from the sea, 
 and at the same time something fell like rain upon the 
 
252 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 roof above. It was only the dead leaves, though ; many 
 were blown in at the porch; the old wind-tossed trees of 
 the graveyard were losing their foliage in this rising gale, 
 and winter was marching nearer. 
 
 Lost at Sea 
 
 NEAR THE NORDEN-FJORD 
 In the storm of the 4th and 5th of August, 1880 
 
 She read mechanically under the arch of the doorway; 
 her eyes sought to pierce the distance over the sea. That 
 morning it was untraceable under the gray mist, and a 
 dragging drapery of clouds overhung the horizon like a 
 mourning veil. 
 
 Another gust of wind, and other leaves danced in 
 whirls. A stronger gust still; as if the western storm which 
 had strewn those dead over the sea wished to deface the 
 very inscriptions which kept their names in memory with 
 the living. 
 
 Gaud looked with involuntary persistency at an empty 
 space upon the wall which seemed to yawn expectant. 
 By a terrible impression, she was pursued by the thought 
 of a fresh slab which might soon perhaps be placed there, 
 with another name which she did not even dare think 
 of in such a spot. 
 
 She felt cold, and remained seated on the granite bench, 
 her head reclining against the stone wall. 
 
 NEAR THE NORDEN-FJORD 
 
 In the storm of the 4th and 5th of August, 1880 
 t the age of 23 years 
 Requiescat in pace! 
 
 Then Iceland loomed up before her, with its little ceme- 
 tery lighted up from below the sea-line by the midnight 
 
THE SAILOR'S WIFE 253 
 
 sun. Suddenly, in the same empty space on the wall, with 
 horrifying clearness she saw the fresh slab she was think- 
 ing of; a clear white one, with a skull and crossbones, 
 and in a flash of foresight a name, the worshiped name 
 of "Yann Gaos" ! Then she suddenly and fearfully drew 
 herself up straight and stiff, with a hoarse wild cry in her 
 throat like a mad creature. 
 
 Outside, the gray mist of the dawn fell over the land, 
 and the dead leaves were again blown dancingly into the 
 porch. 
 
 Steps on the footpath! Somebody was coming? She 
 rose, and quickly smoothed down her cap and composed 
 her face. Nearer drew the steps. She assumed the air 
 of one who might be there by chance ; for above all, she 
 did not wish to appear yet like the widow of a shipwrecked 
 mariner. 
 
 It happened to be Fante Floury, the wife of the second 
 mate of the Leopoldine. She understood immediately 
 what Gaud was doing there: it was useless to dissemble 
 with her. At first each woman stood speechless before 
 the other. They were angry and almost hated each other 
 for having met holding a like sentiment of apprehension. 
 
 "All the men of Treguier and Saint-Brieuc have been 
 back for a week," said Fante at last, in an unfeeling, muf- 
 fled, half-irritated voice. 
 
 She carried a blessed taper in her hand, to offer up a 
 prayer. Gaud did not wish yet to resort to that extreme 
 resource of despairing wives. Yet silently she entered 
 the chapel behind Fante, and they knelt down together 
 side by side like two sisters. 
 
 To the Star of the Sea they offered ardent imploring 
 prayers, with their whole soul in them. A sound of sob- 
 bing was alone heard, as their rapid tears swiftly fell upon 
 the floor. They rose together, more confident and softened. 
 
254 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 Fante held up Gaud, who staggered; and taking her in 
 her arms, kissed her. 
 
 Wiping their eyes and smoothing their disheveled hair, 
 they brushed off the salt dust from the flag-stones which 
 had soiled their gowns, and went away in opposite direc- 
 tions without another word. 
 
 This end of September was like another summer, only 
 a little less lively. The weather was so beautiful that had 
 it not been for the dead leaves which fell upon the roads, 
 one might have thought that June had come back again. 
 Husbands and sweethearts had all returned, and every- 
 where was the joy of a second springtime of love. 
 
 At last, one day, one of the missing ships was signaled. 
 Which one was it? 
 
 The groups of speechless and anxious women had 
 rapidly formed on the cliff. Gaud, pale and trembling, 
 was there, by the side of her Yann's father. 
 
 "I'm almost sure," said the old fisher, "I'm almost sure 
 it's them. A red rail and a topsail that clews up, it's 
 very like them, anyhow. What do you make it, Gaud?" 
 
 u No, it isn't," he went on, with sudden discouragement : 
 "we've made a mistake again; the boom isn't the same, 
 and ours has a jigger-sail. Well, well, it isn't our boat this 
 time, it's only the Marie-Jeanne. Never mind, my lass, 
 surely they'll not be long now." 
 
 But day followed day, and night succeeded night, with 
 uninterrupted serenity. 
 
 Gaud continued to dress up every day; like a poor 
 crazed woman, always in fear of being taken for the widow 
 of a shipwrecked sailor, feeling exasperated when others 
 looked furtively and compassionately at her, and glancing 
 aside so that she might not meet those glances which froze 
 her very blood. 
 
 She had fallen into the habit of going at the early morn- 
 ing right to the end of the headland, on the high cliffs of 
 
THE SAILOR'S WIFE 255 
 
 Pors-Even; passing behind Yann's old home, so as not to 
 be seen by his mother or little sisters. She went to the 
 extreme point of the Ploubazlanec land, which is outlined 
 in the shape of a reindeer's horn upon the gray waters of 
 the Channel, and sat there all day long at the foot of the 
 lonely cross which rises high above the immense waste of 
 the ocean. There are many of these crosses hereabout; 
 they are set up on the most advanced cliffs of the sea- 
 bound land, as if to implore mercy, and to calm that rest- 
 less mysterious power which draws men away, never to 
 give them back, and in preference retains the bravest and 
 noblest. 
 
 Around this cross stretches the evergreen waste, strewn 
 with short rushes. At this great height the sea air was 
 very pure ; it scarcely retained the briny odor of the weeds, 
 but was perfumed with all the exquisite ripeness of Sep- 
 tember flowers. 
 
 Far away, all the bays and inlets of the coast were firmly 
 outlined, rising one above another; the land of Brittany 
 terminated in jagged edges, which spread out far into the 
 tranquil surface. 
 
 Near at hand the reefs were numerous; but out beyond, 
 nothing broke its polished mirror, from which arose a 
 soft caressing ripple, light and intensified from the depths 
 of its many bays. Its horizon seemed so calm, and its 
 depths so soft ! The great blue sepulchre of many Gaoses 
 hid its inscrutable mystery; whilst the breezes, faint as 
 human breath, wafted to and fro the perfume of the 
 stunted gorse, which had bloomed again in the latest 
 autumn sun. 
 
 At regular hours the sea retreated, and great spaces 
 were left uncovered everywhere, as if the Channel was 
 slowly drying up; then with the same lazy slowness the 
 waters rose again, and continued their everlasting com- 
 ing without any heed of the dead. 
 
256 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 At the foot of the cross Gaud remained, surrounded by 
 these tranquil mysteries, gazing ever before her until the 
 night fell and she could see no more. 
 
 September had passed. The sorrowing wife took 
 scarcely any nourishment, and could no longer sleep. 
 
 She remained at home now, crouching low with her 
 hands between her knees, her head thrown back and rest- 
 ing against the wall behind. What was the good of get- 
 ting up or going to bed now ? When she was thoroughly 
 exhausted she threw herself, dressed, upon her bed. Other- 
 wise she remained in the same position, chilled and be- 
 numbed; in her quiescent state, only her teeth chattered 
 with the cold ; she had that continual impression of a band 
 of iron round her brows; her cheeks looked wasted; her 
 mouth was dry. with a feverish taste, and at times a pain- 
 ful hoarse cry rose from her throat and was repeated in 
 spasms, whilst her head beat backwards against the granite 
 wall. Or else she called Yann by his name in a low, ten- 
 der voice, as if he were quite close to her; whispering 
 words of love to her. 
 
 Sometimes she occupied her brain with thoughts of quite 
 insignificant things; for instance, she amused herself by 
 watching the shadow of the china Virgin lengthen slowly 
 over the high woodwork of the bed, as the sun went down. 
 And then the agonized thoughts returned more horribly; 
 and her wailing cry broke out again as she beat her head 
 against the wall. 
 
 All the hours of the day passed; and all the hours of 
 evening, and of night ; and then the hours of the morning. 
 When she reckoned the time he ought to have been back, 
 she was seized with a still greater terror; she wished to 
 forget all dates and the very names of the days. 
 
 Generally, there is some information concerning the 
 wrecks off Iceland; those who return have seen the tragedy 
 from afar, or else have found some wreckage or bodies, 
 
THE SAILOR'S WIFE 257 
 
 or have an indication to guess the rest. But of the Leo- 
 poldine nothing had been seen, and nothing was known. 
 The Marie-Jeanne men the last to have seen it on the 2d 
 of August said that she was to have gone on fishing far- 
 ther towards the north ; and beyond that the secret was un- 
 fathomable. 
 
 Waiting, always waiting, and knowing nothing ! When 
 would the time come when she need wait no longer? She 
 did not even know that; and now she almost wished that 
 it might be soon. Oh ! if he were dead, let them at least 
 have pity enough to tell her so ! 
 
 Oh to see her darling, as he was at this very moment, 
 that is, what was left of him ! If only the much-implored 
 Virgin, or some other power, would do her the blessing to 
 show her by second-sight her beloved! either living and 
 working hard to return a rich man, or else as a corpse sur- 
 rendered by the sea, so that she might at least know a 
 certainty. 
 
 Sometimes she was seized with the thought of a ship ap- 
 pearing suddenly upon the horizon: the Leopoldine has- 
 tening home. Then she would suddenly make an instinctive 
 movement to rise, and rush to look out at the ocean, to see 
 whether it were true. 
 
 But she would fall back. Alas! where was this Leo- 
 poldine now? Where could she be? Out afar, at that 
 awful distance of Iceland, forsaken, crushed, and lost. 
 
 All ended by a never-fading vision appearing to her, 
 an empty, sea-tossed wreck, slowly and gently rocked by 
 the silent gray and rose-streaked sea; almost with soft 
 mockery, in the midst of the vast calm of deadened waters. 
 
 Two o'clock in the morning. 
 
 It was at n'^ght especially that she kept attentive to ap- 
 proaching footsteps; at the slightest rumor or unaccus- 
 tomed noise her temples vibrated : by dint of being strained 
 to outward things, they had become fearfully sensitive. 
 
258 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 Two o'clock in the morning. On this night as on others, 
 with her hands clasped and her eyes wide open in the dark, 
 she listened to the wind sweeping in never-ending tumult 
 over the heath. 
 
 Suddenly a man's footsteps hurried along the path ! At 
 this hour who would pass now? She drew herself up, 
 stirred to the very soul, her heart ceasing to beat. 
 
 Some one stopped before the door, and came up the 
 small stone steps. 
 
 He ! O God ! he ! Some one had knocked, it 
 could be no other than he! She was up now, barefooted; 
 she, so feeble for the last few days, had sprung up aa 
 nimbly as a kitten, with her arms outstretched to wind 
 round her darling. Of course the Leopoldine had arrived 
 at night, and anchored in Pors-Even Bay, and he had 
 rushed home; she arranged all this in her mind with the 
 swiftness of lightning. She tore the flesh off her fingers 
 in her excitement to draw the bolt, which had stuck. 
 
 "Eh?" 
 
 She slowly moved backward, as if crushed, her head 
 falling on her bosom. Her beautiful insane dream 
 was over. She could just grasp that it was not her hus- 
 band, her Yann, and that nothing of him, substantial or 
 spiritual, had passed through the air; she felt plunged 
 again into her deep abyss, to the lowest depths of her 
 terrible despair. 
 
 Poor Fantec for it was he stammered many excuses : 
 his wife was very ill, and their child was choking in its 
 cot, suddenly attacked with a malignant sore throat; so he 
 had run over to beg for assistance on the road to fetch 
 the doctor from Paimpol. 
 
 What did all this matter to her? She had gone mad in 
 her own distress, and could give no thoughts to the 
 troubles of others. Huddled on a bench, she remained 
 before him with fixed glazed eyes, like a dead woman's; 
 
THE SAILOR'S WIFE 259 
 
 without listening to him, or even answering at random 
 or looking at him. What to her was the speech the man 
 was making? 
 
 He understood it all, and guessed why the door had 
 been opened so quickly to him; and feeling pity for the 
 pain he had unwittingly caused, he stammered out an ex- 
 cuse. 
 
 u just so: he never ought to have disturbed her her 
 in particular." 
 
 "I!" ejaculated Gaud quickly, u why should I not be 
 disturbed particularly, Fantec?" 
 
 Life had suddenly come back to her; for she did not 
 wish to appear in despair before others. Besides, she pitied 
 him now; she dressed to accompany him, and found the 
 strength to go and see to his little child. 
 
 At four o'clock in the morning, when she returned to 
 throw herself on the bed, sleep subdued her, for she was 
 tired out. But that moment of excessive joy had left an 
 impression on her mind, which in spite of all was perma- 
 nent; she awoke soon with a shudder, rising a little and 
 partially recollecting she knew not what. News had 
 come to her about her Yann. In the midst of her confu- 
 sion of ideas, she sought rapidly in her mind what it could 
 be ; but there was nothing save Fantec's interruption. 
 
 For the second time she fell back into her terrible 
 abyss, nothing changed in her morbid, hopeless waiting. 
 
 Yet in that short, hopeful moment, she had felt him so 
 near to her that it was as if his spirit had floated over 
 the sea unto her, what is called a foretoken (pressigne) 
 in Breton land; and she listened still more attentively to 
 the steps outside, trusting that some one might come to 
 her to speak of him. 
 
 Just as the day broke, Yann's father entered. He took 
 off his cap, and pushed back his splendid white locks, 
 
260 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 which were in curls like Yann's, sat down by Gaud's bed- 
 side. 
 
 His heart ached heavily too; for Yann, his tall, hand- 
 some Yann, was his first-born, his favorite and his pride : 
 but he did not despair yet. He comforted Gaud in his 
 own blunt, affectionate way. To begin with, those who 
 had last returned from Iceland spoke of the increasing 
 dense fogs, which might well have delayed the vessel ; and 
 then too an idea struck him, they might possibly have 
 stopped at the distant Faroe Islands on their homeward 
 course, whence letters were so long in traveling. This had 
 happened to him once forty years ago, and his own poor 
 dead and gone mother had had a mass said for his soul. 
 The Leopoldine was such a good boat, next to new, 
 and her crew were such able-bodied seamen. 
 
 Granny Moan stood by them shaking her head : the dis- 
 tress of her granddaughter had almost given her back 
 her own strength and reason. She tidied up the place, 
 glancing from time to time at the faded portrait of Syl- 
 vestre, which hung upon the granite wall with its anchor 
 emblems and mourning-wreath of black bead-work. Ever 
 since the sea had robbed her of her own last offspring, she 
 believed no longer in safe returns; she only prayed 
 through fear, bearing Heaven a grudge in the bottom of 
 her heart. 
 
 But Gaud listened eagerly to these consoling reason- 
 ings; her large sunken eyes looked with deep tenderness 
 out upon this old sire, who so much resembled her be- 
 loved one; merely to have him near her was like a host- 
 age against death having taken the younger Gaos; and 
 she felt reassured, nearer to her Yann. Her tears fell 
 softly and silently, and she repeated again her passionate 
 prayers to the Star of the Sea. 
 
 A delay out at those islands to repair damages was a 
 very likely event. She rose and brushed her hair, and 
 
THE SAILOR'S WIFE 261 
 
 then dressed as if she might fairly expect him. All then 
 was not lost, if a seaman, his own father, did not yet 
 despair. And for a few days she resumed looking out 
 for him again. 
 
 Autumn at last arrived, a late autumn too, its 
 gloomy evenings making all things appear dark in the old 
 cottage; and all the land looked sombre too. 
 
 The very daylight seemed a sort of twilight; immeas- 
 urable clouds, passing slowly overhead, darkened the 
 whole country at broad noon. The wind blew constantly 
 with the sound of a great cathedral organ at a distance, 
 but playing profane, despairing dirges; at other times 
 the noise came close to the door, like the howling of wild 
 beasts. 
 
 She had grown pale, aye, blanched, and bent more 
 than ever; as if old age had already touched her with its 
 featherless wing. Often did she finger the wedding 
 clothes of her Yann, folding them and unfolding them 
 again and again like some maniac, especially one of his 
 blue woolen jerseys which still had preserved his shape: 
 when she threw it gently on the table, it fell with the 
 shoulders and chest well defined; so she placed it by itself 
 in a shelf of their wardrobe, and left it there, so that it 
 might forever rest unaltered. 
 
 Every night the cold mists sank upon the land, as she 
 gazed over the depressing heath through her little win- 
 dow, and watched the thin puffs of white smoke arise 
 from the chimneys of other cottages scattered here and 
 there on all sides. There the husbands had returned, like 
 wandering birds driven home by the frost. Before their 
 blazing hearths the evenings passed, cozy and warm; 
 for the springtime of love had begun again in this land of 
 North Sea fishermen. 
 
 Still clinging to the thought of those islands where he 
 
262 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 might perhaps have lingered, she was buoyed up by a 
 kind hope, and expected him home any day. 
 
 * * * 
 
 But he never returned. One August night, out off gloomy 
 Iceland, mingled with the furious clamor of the sea, his 
 wedding with the sea was performed. It had been his 
 nurse; it had rocked him in his babyhood and had after- 
 wards made him big and strong; then, in his superb man- 
 hood, it had taken him back again for itself alone. Pro- 
 foundest mystery had surrounded this unhallowed union. 
 While it went on, dark curtains hung pall-like over it as 
 if to conceal the ceremony, and the ghoul howled in an 
 awful, deafening voice to stifle his cries. He, thinking 
 of Gaud, his sole, darling wife, had battled with giant 
 strength against this deathly rival, until he at last sur- 
 rendered, with a deep death-cry like the roar of a dying 
 bull, through a mouth already filled with water; and his 
 arms were stretched apart and stiffened forever. 
 
 All those he had invited in days of old were present at 
 his wedding. All except Sylvestre, who had gone to sleep 
 in the enchanted gardens far, far away, at the other side 
 of the earth. 
 
THE SALVING OF THE YAN-SHAN 
 From u ln Blue Waters," BY H. DE VERB STACPOOLE 
 
 I 
 
 THE Heart of Ireland was spreading her wings to 
 the north-west trades, making a good seven knots, 
 with the coast of California a vague line on the 
 horizon to port and all the blue Pacific before her. 
 
 Captain Blood was aft with his mate, Billy Harman, 
 leaning on the rail and watching the foam boosting away 
 from the stern and flowing off in creamy lines on the 
 swirl of the wake. Ginnell, owner and captain of the 
 Heart of Ireland, shanghaied and reduced to deck hand, 
 was forward on the look-out, and one of the coolie crew 
 was at the wheel. 
 
 " I'm not given to meeting trouble half-way," said 
 Blood, shifting his position and leaning with his left arm 
 on the rail, "but it 'pears -to me Pat Ginnell is taking 
 his set down a mighty sight too easy. He's got something 
 up his sleeve." 
 
 " SoVe we," replied Harman. "What can he do? 
 He laid out to shanghai you, and by gum, he did it. I 
 don't say I didn't let him down crool, playin' into his 
 hands and pretendin' to help and gettin' Captain Mike as 
 a witness, but the fac' remains he got you aboard this 
 hooker by foul play, shanghaied you were, and then you 
 turns the tables on him, knocks the stuffin' out of him 
 and turns him into a deck hand. How's he to com- 
 plain? I'd start back to 'Frisco now and dare him to 
 come ashore with his complaints. We've got his ship, 
 well, that's his fault. He's no legs to stand on, that's 
 truth. 
 
 263 
 
264 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 u Leavin' aside this little bisness, he's known as a 
 crook from Benicia right to San Jose. The bay stinks 
 with him and his doin's; settin' Chinese sturgeon lines, 
 Captain Mike said he was, and all but nailed, smugglin' 
 and playin' up to the Greeks, and worse. The Bay- 
 side's hungry to catch him an' stuff him in the peniten- 
 tiary, and he hasn't no friends. I'm no saint, I owns it, 
 but I'm a plaster John the Baptis' to Ginnell, and I've 
 got friends, so have you. Well, what are you bothering 
 about?" 
 
 " Oh, I'm not bothering about the law," said Blood, 
 " only about him. I'm going to keep my eye open and 
 not be put asleep by his quiet ways and I'd advise you 
 to do the same." 
 
 " Trust me," said Harman, " and more especial when 
 we come to longsides with the Yan-Shan." 
 
 Now the Yan-Shan had started in life somewhere early 
 in the nineties as a twelve hundred ton cargo boat in the 
 Bullmer line; she had been christened the Robert Bull- 
 mer, and her first act when the dog-shores had been 
 knocked away was a bull charge down the launching slip, 
 resulting in the bursting of a hawser, the washing over 
 of a boat and the drowning of two innocent spectators; 
 her next was an attempt to butt the Eddystone over in a 
 fog, and, being unbreakable, she might have succeeded 
 only that she was going dead slow* She drifted out of 
 the Bullmer line on the wash of a law-suit owing to the 
 ramming by her of a Cape boat in Las Palmas harbour; 
 engaged herself in the fruit trade in the service of the 
 Corona Capuella Syndicate, and got on to the Swimmer 
 rocks with a cargo of Jamaica oranges, a broken screw 
 shaft and a blown-off cylinder cover. The ruined cargo, 
 salvage and tow smashed the Syndicate, and the Robert 
 Bullmer found new occupations till the See-Yup-See Com- 
 pany of Canton picked her up, and, rechristening, used her 
 
THE SALVING OF THE YAN-SHAN 265 
 
 for conveying coffins and coolies to the American sea- 
 board. They had sent her to Valdivia on some business, 
 and on the return from the southern port to 'Frisco she 
 had, true to her instincts and helped by a gale, run on San 
 Juan, a scrap of an island north of the Channel Islands 
 of the California coast. Every soul had been lost with 
 the exception of two Chinese coolies, who, drifting on a 
 raft, had been picked up and brought to San Francisco. 
 
 She had a general cargo and twenty thousand dollars 
 in gold coin on board, but the coolies had declared her to 
 be a total wreck, said, in fact, when they had last sighted 
 her she was going to pieces. 
 
 That was the yarn Harman heard through Clancy, 
 with the intimation that the wreck was not worth two 
 dollars, let alone the expenses of a salvage ship. 
 
 The story had eaten into Harman's mind; he knew 
 San Juan better than any man in 'Frisco, and he con- 
 sidered that a ship once ashore there would stick; then 
 Ginnell turned up, and the luminous idea of inducing 
 Ginnell to shanghai Blood so that Blood might with 
 his, Harman's, assistance shanghai Ginnell and use the 
 Heart of Ireland for the picking of the Yan-Shan's 
 pocket, entered his mind. 
 
 " It's just when we come alongside the Yan-Shan we 
 may find our worst bother," said Blood. 
 
 'Which way?" asked Harman. 
 
 " Well, they're pretty sure to send some sort of a 
 wrecking expedition to try and salve some of the cargo, 
 let alone those dollars." 
 
 " See here," said Harman, " I had the news from 
 Clancy that morning, and it had only just come to 'Frisco, 
 it wasn't an hour old; we put the cap on Ginnell and 
 were out of the Golden Gate before sundown same day. 
 A wrecking ship would take all of two days to get her 
 legs under her, supposing anyone bought the wreck, so we 
 
266 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 have two days' start ; we've been makin' seven knots and 
 maybe a bit over, they won't make more. So we have 
 two days to our good when we get there." 
 
 " They may start a quick ship out on the job," said 
 Blood. 
 
 " Well, now, there's where my knowledge comes in," 
 said Harman. " There's only two salvage ships at pres- 
 ent in 'Frisco, and rotten tubs they are. One's the Mary- 
 land, she's most a divin' and dredgin' ship, ain't no good 
 for this sort of work, sea-bottom scrapin' is all she's good 
 for, and little she makes at it. The other's the Port of 
 Amsterdam, owned by Gunderman. She's the ship they'd 
 use; she's got steam winches and derricks 'nough to 
 discharge the Ark, and stowage room to hold the cargo 
 down to the last flea, but she's no good for more than 
 eight knots; she steams like as if she'd a drogue behind 
 her, because why? she's got beam engines she's 
 that old, she's got beam engines in her. I'm not denyin' 
 there's somethin' to be said for them, but, there you are, 
 there's no speed in them." 
 
 " Well, beam engines or no beam engines, we'll have a 
 pretty rough time if she comes down and catches us 
 within a cable's length of the Yan-Shan," said Blood. 
 " However, there's no use in fetching trouble; let's go 
 and have a look at the lazaret, I want to see how we 
 stand for grub." 
 
 Chop-stick Charlie was the name Blood had chris- 
 tened the coolie who acted as steward and cabin hand. 
 He called him now, and out of the opium-tinctured gloom 
 of the fo'c'sle Charlie appeared, received his orders and 
 led them to the lazaret. 
 
 None of the crew had shown the slightest emotion on 
 seeing Blood take over command of the schooner and 
 Ginnell swabbing decks. The fight, that had made Blood 
 master of the Heart of Ireland and Ginnell's revolver, 
 
THE SALVING OF THE YAN-SHAN 267 
 
 had occurred in the cabin and out of sight of the coolies, 
 but even had it been conducted in full view of them, it 
 is doubtful whether they would have shown any feeling 
 or lifted a hand in the matter. 
 
 As long as their little privileges were regarded, as long 
 as opium bubbled in the evening pipe, and pork, rice and 
 potatoes were served out, one white skipper was the 
 same as another to them. 
 
 The overhaul of the stores took half an hour and was 
 fairly satisfactory, and, when they came on deck, Blood, 
 telling Charlie to take Ginnell's place as lookout, called 
 the latter down into the cabin. 
 
 " We want to have a word with you," said Blood, whilst 
 Harman took his seat on a bunk edge opposite him. 
 
 " It's time you knew our minds and what we intend do- 
 ing with the schooner and yourself." 
 
 " Faith," said Ginnell, " I think it is." 
 
 " I'm glad you agree. Well, when you shanghaied me 
 on board this old shark-boat of yours, there's little doubt 
 as to what you intended doing with me. Harman will 
 tell you, for we've talked on the matter." 
 
 " He'd a' worked you crool hard, fed you crool bad, 
 and landed you after a six months' cruise doped or drunk, 
 with two cents in your pocket and an affidavit up his sleeve 
 that you'd tried to fire his ship," said Harman. " I know 
 the swab." 
 
 Ginnell said nothing for a moment in answer to this 
 soft impeachment, he was cutting himself a chew of to- 
 bacco ; then at last he spoke : 
 
 " I don't want no certifikit of character from either the 
 pair of you," said he. l You've boned me ship and 
 you've blacked me eye and you've near stove me ribs in 
 sittin' on me chest and houldin' me revolver in me face; 
 what I wants to know is your game. Where's your 
 profits to come from on this job?" 
 
268 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 " I'll tell you," replied Blood. "There's a hooker 
 called the Yan-Shan piled on the rocks down the coast 
 and we're going to leave our cards on her savvy? " 
 
 " Oh, Lord! "said Ginnell. 
 
 " What's the matter now? " asked Harman. 
 
 u What's the matter, d'you say?" cried Ginnell. 
 " Why, it's the Yan-Shan I was after meself." 
 
 Blood stared at the owner of the Heart of Ireland for 
 a moment, then he broke into a roar of laughter. 
 
 " You don't mean to say you bought the wreck? " he 
 asked. 
 
 " Not me," replied Ginnell. " Sure, where d'you think 
 I'd be findin' the money to buy wrecks with? I had news 
 that mornin' she was lyin' there derelick, and I was just 
 slippin' down the coast to have a look at her when you 
 two spoiled me lay by takin' me ship." 
 
 It was now that Harman began to laugh. 
 
 " Well, if that don't beat all," said he. " And maybe, 
 since you were so keen on havin' a look at her, you've 
 brought wreckin' tools with you in case they might come 
 in handy? " 
 
 " That's as may be," replied Ginnell. " What you 
 have got to worry about isn't wreckin' tools, but how to 
 get rid of the boodle if it's there. Twenty thousand 
 dollars, that's the figure." 
 
 " So you know of the dollars? " said Blood. 
 
 "Sure, what do you take me for?" asked Ginnell. 
 " D'you think I'd have bothered about the job only for 
 the dollars? What's the use of general cargo to the like 
 of me? Now what I'm thinkin' is this, you want a fence 
 to help you to get rid of the stuff. Supposin' you find it, 
 how are you to cart this stuff ashore and bank it? You'll 
 be had, sure, but not if I'm at your back. Now, gents, 
 I'm willin' to wipe out all differences and help in the 
 salvin' on shares, and I'll make it easy for you. You'll 
 
THE SALVING OF THE YAN-SHAN 269 
 
 each take seven thousand and I'll take the balance, and I 
 won't charge nuthin' for the loan you've took of the 
 Heart of Ireland. It's a losin' game for me, but it's bet- 
 ter than bein' done out entirely." 
 
 Blood looked at Harman and Harman looked at 
 Blood. Then telling Ginnell that they would consider the 
 matter, they went on deck to talk it over. 
 
 There was truth in what Ginnell said. They would 
 want help in getting the coin ashore in safety, and unless 
 they marooned or murdered Ginnell, he, if left out, 
 would always be a witness to make trouble. Besides, 
 though engaged on a somewhat shady business, neither 
 Blood nor Harman were scoundrels. Ginnell up to this 
 had been paid out in his own coin, the slate was clean, 
 and it pleased neither of them to take profit from this 
 blackguard beyond what they considered their due. 
 
 It was just this touch of finer feeling that excluded 
 them from the category of rogues and made their persons 
 worth considering and their doings worth recounting. 
 
 " We'll give him what he asks," said Blood, when the 
 consultation was over, " and mind you, I don't like giving 
 it him one little bit, not on account of the money but 
 because it seems to make us partners with that swab. I 
 tell you this, Billy Harman, I'd give half as much again 
 if an honest man was dealing with us in this matter in- 
 stead of Pat Ginnell." 
 
 " And what honest man would deal with us? " asked 
 the ingenuous Harman. " Lord ! one might think the 
 job we was on was tryin' to sell a laundry. It's safe 
 enough, for who can say we didn't hit the wreck cruisin' 
 round promiscuous, but it won't hold no frills in the way 
 of Honesty and such. Down with you, and close the 
 bargain with that chap and tip him the wink that, though 
 we're mugs enough to give him six thousand dollars for 
 the loan of his old shark-boat, we're men enough to put a 
 
270 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 pistol bullet in his gizzard if he tries any games with us. 
 Down you go." 
 Blood went. 
 
 II 
 
 NEXT morning, an hour after sunrise, through the blaze 
 of light striking the Pacific across the far-off Californian 
 coast, San Juan showed like a flake of spar on the horizon 
 to southward. 
 
 The sea all there is of an impossible blueness, the 
 Pacific blue deepened by the Kuro Shiwo current, that 
 mysterious river of the sea which floods up the coast of 
 Japan, crosses the Pacific towards Alaska, and sweeps 
 down the West American seaboard to fan out and lose 
 itself away down somewhere off Chile. 
 
 Harman judged the island to be twenty miles away, 
 and as they were making six and a half knots, he reckoned 
 to hit it in three hours if the wind held. 
 
 They went down and had breakfast, and after the meal 
 Ginnell, going to the locker where he had stowed the 
 wrecking tools, fetched them out and laid them on deck. 
 There were two crow-bars and a jemmy, not to mention a 
 flogging hammer, a rip saw, some monstrous big chisels 
 and a shipwright's mallet. They looked like a collection 
 of burglar's implements from the land of Brobdingnag. 
 
 " There you are," said Ginnell. " You never know 
 what you may want on a job like this, with bulkheads, 
 maybe, to be cut through and chests broke open; get a 
 spare sail, Misther Harman, and rowl the lot up in it so's 
 they'll be aisier for thransport." 
 
 He was excited, and the Irish in him came out when 
 he was like that; also, as the most knowledgeable man 
 in the business, he was taking the lead. You never could 
 have fancied from his cheerful manner and his appear- 
 ance of boss that Blood was the real master of the situa- 
 
THE SALVING OF THE YAN-SHAN 271 
 
 tion, or that Blood, only a few days ago, had nearly 
 pounded the life out of him, captured his revolver, and 
 taken possession of the Heart of Ireland. 
 
 The schooner carried a whale-boat, and this was now 
 got in readiness for lowering, with provisions and water 
 for the landing-party, and when that was done the island, 
 now only four miles distant, showed up fine, a sheer 
 splinter of volcanic rock standing up from the sea and 
 creamed about with foam. 
 
 Not a sign of a wreck was to be seen, though Ginnell's 
 glasses were powerful enough to show up every detail 
 from the rock fissures to the roosting gulls. 
 
 Gloom fell upon the party, with the exception of 
 Harman. 
 
 " It'll be on the other side if it's there at all," said he. 
 " She'd have been coming up from the s'uthard, and if 
 the gale was behind her it would have taken her right on 
 to the rocks; she couldn't be on this side, anyhow, be- 
 cause why? there's nuthin' to hold her. It's a mile 
 deep water off them cliffs, but on the other side it shoals 
 gradual from tide marks to ten fathoms water, which 
 holds for a quarter of a mile keep her as she is, you 
 could scrape them cliffs with a battleship without danger 
 of groundin'." 
 
 After a minute or two, he took the wheel himself and 
 steered her whilst the fellows stood by the halyards ready 
 to let go at a moment's notice. 
 
 . It was an impressive place, this north side of the island 
 of San Juan; the heavy swell came up smacking right 
 on to the sheer cliff wall, jetting green water and foam 
 yards high to the snore and boom of caves and cut outs in 
 the rock. Gulls haunted the place. The black petrel, 
 the Western gull and the black-footed albatross all were 
 to be found here; long lines of white gulls marked the 
 cliff edges, and far above, in the dazzling azure of the 
 
 
272 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 sky, a Farallone cormorant circled like the spirit of the 
 place, challenging the newcomers with its cry. 
 
 Harman shifted his helm, and the Heart of Ireland 
 with main boom swinging to port came gliding past the 
 western rocks and opening the sea to southward where, 
 far on the horizon, lovely in the morning light like vast 
 ships under press of sail, the San Lucas Islands lay 
 remote in the morning splendour. 
 
 Away to port the line of the Californian coast showed 
 beyond the heave of the sea from Point Arguello to 
 Point Conception, and to starboard and west of the San 
 Lucas's a dot in the sun-dazzle marked the peaks of the 
 island of San Nicolas. 
 
 Then, as the Heart of Ireland came around and the 
 full view of the south of San Juan burst upon them, the 
 wreck piled on the rocks came in sight, and, anchored 
 quarter of a mile off the shore a Chinese junk ! 
 
 " Well, I'm damned," said Harman. 
 
 Ginnell, seizing his glasses, rushed forward and 
 looked through them at the wreck. 
 
 " It's swarmin' with chows," cried he, coming aft. 
 :< They seem to have only just landed, be the look of 
 them. Keep her as she goes and be ready with the anchor 
 there forrard; we'll scupper them yet. Mr. Harman, be 
 plazed to fetch up that linth of lead pipe you'll find on the 
 cabin flure be the door. Capt'in, will you see with Charlie 
 here to the boat while I get the anchor ready for droppin' ; 
 them coolies is all thumbs." 
 
 He went forward, and the Heart of Ireland, with the 
 wind spilling out of her mainsail, came along over the 
 heaving blue swell, satin-smooth here in the shelter of 
 the island. 
 
 Truly the Yan-Shan, late Robert Bullmer, had made a 
 masterpiece of her last business; she had come stem 
 on, lifted by the piling sea, and had hit the rocks, smash- 
 
THE SALVING OF THE YAN-SHAN 273 
 
 ing every bow-plate from the keel to within a yard or 
 two of the gunnel, then a wave had taken her under the 
 stern and lifted her and flung her broadside on just as she 
 now lay, pinned to her position by the rock horns that had 
 gored her side, and showing a space of her rust-red bottom 
 to the sun. 
 
 The water was squattering among the rocks right up 
 to her, the phosphor-bronze propeller showed a single 
 blade cocked crookedly at the end of the broken screw 
 shaft; rudder there was none, the funnel was gone, spar 
 deck and bridge were in wrack and ruin, whilst the cowl 
 of a bent ventilator turned seaward seemed contemplat- 
 ing with a languid air the beauty of the morning and the 
 view of the far distant San Lucas Islands. 
 
 The Heart of Ireland picked up a berth inside the junk, 
 and as the rasp and rattle of the anchor chain came back 
 in faint echoes from the cliff, a gong on the junk woke to 
 life and began to snarl and roar its warning to the fellows 
 on the wreck. 
 
 " Down with the boat," cried Ginnell. With the 
 " linth of lead pipe," a most formidable weapon, sticking 
 from his pocket, he ran to help with the falls; the whaJ<e- 
 boat smacked the water, the crew tumbled in, and, with 
 Ginnell in the bow, it started for the shore. 
 
 The gong had done its work. The fellows who had 
 been crawling like ants over the dead body of the Yan- 
 Shan came slithering down on ropes, appeared running 
 and stumbling over the rocks abaft the stern, some haul- 
 ing along sacks of loot, others brandishing sticks or bits 
 of timber, and all shouting and clamouring with a noise 
 like gulls whose nests are being raided. 
 
 There was a small scrap of shingly beach off which the 
 Chinamen's scow was lying anchored with a stone and 
 with a China boy for anchor watch. The whale-boat 
 passed the scow, dashed nose end up the shelving beach, 
 
274 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 and the next moment Ginnell and his linth of lead pipe 
 was amongst the Chinamen, whilst Blood, following him, 
 was firing his revolver over their heads. Harman, with 
 a crowbar carried at the level, was aiming straight at 
 the belly of the biggest of the foe, when they parted right 
 and left, dropping everything, beaten before they were 
 touched, and making for the water over the rocks. 
 
 Swimming like rats, they made for the scow, scrambled 
 on board her, howked up the anchor stone and shot out 
 the oars. 
 
 " They're off for the junk," cried Ginnell. " Faith, 
 that was a clane bit of work; look at thim rowin' as if 
 the divil was after thim." 
 
 They were, literally, and now on board the junk they 
 were hauling the boat in, shaking out the lateen sail 
 and dragging up the anchor as though a hundred pair 
 of hands were at work instead of twenty. 
 
 Then, as the huge sail bellied gently to the wind and 
 the junk broke the violet breeze shadow beyond the calm 
 of the sheltered water, a voice came over the sea, a voice 
 like the clamour of a hundred gulls, thin, rending, fierce 
 as the sound of tearing calico. 
 
 " Shout away, me boys," said Ginnell. " You've got 
 the shout and we've got the boodle, and good day to ye." 
 
 Ill 
 
 HE turned with the others to examine the contents of 
 the sacks dropped by the vanquished ones and lying 
 amongst the rocks. They were old gunny bags and they 
 were stuffed with all sorts of rubbish and valuables, 
 musical instruments, bits of old metal, cabin curtains, 
 and even cans of bully beef there was no sign of 
 dollars. 
 
 " The fools were so busy picking up everything they 
 
THE SALVING OF THE YAN-SHAN 275 
 
 could find lying about, they hadn't time to search for 
 the real stuff," said Blood. " Didn't know of it." 
 
 " Well," said Ginnell, " stick the ould truck back in 
 the bags with the insthruments ; we'll sort it out when 
 we get aboard and fling the rubbish over and keep what's 
 worth keepin'." 
 
 Helped by the coolies, they refilled the bags and left 
 them in position for carrying off, and then, led by Ginnell, 
 they made round the stern of the wreck to the port side. 
 
 Now, on the sea side the Yan-Shan presented a bad 
 enough picture of desolation and destruction, but here on 
 the land side the sight was terrific. 
 
 The great yellow funnel had crashed over on to the 
 rocks and lay with lengths of the guys still adhering to 
 it; a quarter boat with bottom half out had gone the 
 way of the funnel; crabs were crawling over all sorts 
 of raffle, broken spars, canvas from the bridge screen 
 and woodwork of the chart-house, whilst all forward of 
 amidships the plates, beaten and twisted and ripped 
 apart, showed cargo, held, or in the act of escaping. 
 One big packing case, free of the ship, had resolved itself 
 into staves round its once contents, a piano that r.ppeared 
 perfectly uninjured. 
 
 A rope ladder hung from the bulwarks amidships, and 
 up it Ginnell went, followed by the others, reaching a 
 roofless passage that had once been the part alley-way. 
 
 Here on the slanting deck one got a full picture of the 
 ruin that had come on the ship; the masts were gone, 
 as well as the funnel ; boats, ventilators with the ex- 
 ception of the twisted cowl looking seaward bridge, 
 chart-house, all had vanished wholly or in part, a picture 
 made more impressive by the calm blue sky overhead 
 and the brilliancy of the sunlight. 
 
 The locking bars had been removed from the cover 
 of the fore hatch and the hatch opened, evidently by 
 
276 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 the Chinese in search of plunder. Ginnell scarcely turned 
 an eye on it before he made aft, followed by the others, 
 he reached the saloon companion-way and dived down 
 it. 
 
 If the confusion on deck was bad, it was worse below. 
 The cabin doors on either side were either open or off 
 their hinges, bunk bedding, mattresses, an open and rifled 
 valise, some women's clothes, an empty cigar-box and 
 a cage with a dead canary in it lay on the floor. 
 
 The place looked as if an army of pillagers had been 
 at work for days, and the sight struck a chill to the 
 hearts of the beholders. 
 
 " We're dished," said Ginnell. "Quick, boys, if the 
 stuff's anywhere it'll be in the old man's cabin, there's no 
 mail room in a packet like this. If it's not there, we're 
 done." 
 
 They found the captain's cabin, they found his papers 
 tossed about, his cash-box open and empty, and a strong 
 box clamped to the deck by the bunk in the same condi- 
 tion. They found, to complete the business, an English 
 sovereign on the floor in a corner. 
 
 Ginnell sat down on the edge of the bunk. 
 
 "They've got the dollars," said he. "That's why 
 they legged it so quick and we let them go. Twenty 
 thousand dollars in gold coin and we let them go. Tear 
 an' ages! Afther them! " He sprang from the bunk 
 and dashed through the saloon, followed by the others. 
 On deck they strained their eyes seaward towards a brown 
 spot on the blue far, far away to the sou'-west. It was 
 the junk making a soldier's wind of it, every inch of 
 sail spread. Judging by the distance she had covered, 
 she must have been makfng at least eight knots, and the 
 Heart of Ireland under similar wind conditions was in- 
 capable of more than seven. 
 
 " No good chasing her," said Blood. 
 
THE SALVING OF THE YAN-SHAN 277 
 
 
 
 " Not a happorth," replied Ginnell. Then the quarrel 
 began. 
 
 " If you hadn't held us pokin' over them old sacks on 
 the rocks there we'd maybe have had a chance of over- 
 haulin' her," said Ginnell. 
 
 "Sacks," cried Blood, "what are you talking about; 
 it was you who let them go, shouting good day to them 
 and telling them we'd got the boodle ! " 
 
 " Boodle, b'g-d! " cried Ginnell. " You're a nice chap 
 to talk about boodle. You did me in an' collared me boat, 
 and now you're let down proper, and serve you right." 
 
 Blood was about to reply in kind, when the dispute 
 was cut short by a loud yell from the engine-room hatch. 
 
 Harman, having satisfied himself with a glance that 
 all was up with the junk, had gone poking about and 
 entered the engine-room hatchway. He now appeared, 
 shouting like a maniac. 
 
 " The dollars," he cried, " two dead Chinkies an' the 
 dollars." 
 
 He vanished again with a shout, they rushed to the 
 hatch, and there, on the steel grating leading to the 
 ladder, curled together like two cats that had died in bat- 
 tle, lay the Chinamen, Harman kneeling beside them, his 
 hands at work on the neck of a tied sack that chinked 
 as he shook it with the glorious rich, mellow sound that 
 gold in bulk and gold in specie alone can give. 
 
 The lanyard came away, and Harman, plunging his 
 big hand in, produced it filled with British sovereigns. 
 
 Not one of them moved or said a word for a moment, 
 then Ginnell suddenly squatted down on the grating be- 
 side Harman, and, taking a sovereign between finger and 
 thumb gingerly, as though he feared it might burn him, 
 examined it with a laugh. T^eh he bit it, spun it in the 
 air, caught it in his left hand and brought his great right 
 palm down on it with a bang. 
 
278 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 " Hids or tails ! " cried Ginnell. "Hids I win, tails 
 you lose." He gave a coarse laugh as he opened his 
 palm, where the coin lay tail up. 
 
 " Hids it is," he cried, then he tossed it back into the 
 bag and rose to his feet. 
 
 " Come on, boys," said he, "let's bring the stuff down 
 to the saloon and count it." 
 
 " Better get it aboard," said Blood. 
 
 Harman looked up. The grin on his face stamped 
 by the finding of the gold was still there, and in the light 
 coming through the hatch his forehead showed beaded 
 with sweat. 
 
 " I'm with Ginnell," said he, " let's get down to the 
 saloon for an overhaul. I can't wait whiles we row off 
 to the schooner. I wants to feel the stuff and I wants 
 to divide it, b'g-d, right off and now. Boys, we're rich, 
 we sure are. It's the stroke of my life, and I can't wait 
 for no rowin' on board no schooners before we divide up." 
 
 " Come on, then," said Blood. 
 
 The sack was much bigger than its contents, so there 
 was plenty of grip for him as he seized one corner. Then, 
 Harman grasping it by the neck, they lugged it out and 
 along the deck and down the saloon companionway, 
 Ginnell following. 
 
 The Chinese had opened nearly all the cabin port-holes 
 for the sake of light to assist them in their plundering, 
 and now as Blood and Harman placed the sack on the 
 slanting saloon table, the crying of gulls came clearly 
 and derisively from the cliffs outside, mixed with the 
 hush of the sea and the boost of the swell as it broke 
 creaming and squattering among the rocks. The lacka- 
 daisical ventilator cowl, which took an occasional move- 
 ment from stray puffs of air, added its voice now and 
 then, whining and complaining like some lost yet 
 inconsiderable soul. 
 
THE SALVING OF THE YAN-SHAN 279 
 
 No other sound could be heard as the three men ranged 
 themselves, Ginnell on the starboard, and Blood and 
 Harman on the port side of the table. 
 
 The swivel seats, though all aslant, were practicable, 
 and Harman was in the act of taking his place in the 
 seat he had chosen when Ginnell interposed. 
 
 " One moment, Mr. Harman," said the owner of the 
 Heart of Ireland. "I've a word to say to you and Mr. 
 Blood sure, I beg your pardon I mane Capt'in 
 Blood." 
 
 " Well," said Blood, grasping a chair-back. " What 
 have you to say? " 
 
 " Only this," replied Ginnell with a grin. " I've got 
 back me revolver." 
 
 Blood clapped his hand to his pocket. It was empty. 
 
 " I picked your pocket of it," said Ginnell, producing 
 the weapon, " two minits back; you fired three shots 
 over the heads of them chows and there's three ca'tridges 
 left in her. I can hit a dollar at twinty long paces. Move 
 an inch either the one or other of you, and I'll lay your 
 brains on the table fornint you." 
 
 They did not move, for they knew that he was in earn- 
 est. They knew that if they moved he would begin to 
 shoot, and if he began to shoot he would finish the job, 
 leave their corpses on the floor, and sail off with the 
 dollars and his Chinese crew in perfect safety. There 
 were no witnesses. 
 
 " Now," said Ginnell, " what the pair of you have to 
 do is this. Misther Harman, you'll go into that cabin 
 behind you, climb on the upper bunk, stick your head 
 through the port-hole and shout to the coolies down 
 below there with the boat to come up. It'll take two men 
 to get them dollars on deck and down to the wather side. 
 When you've done that, the pair of you will walk into 
 the ould man's cabin an' say your prayers, thanking the 
 
280 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 saints you've got off so easy, whiles I puts the bolt on you 
 till the dollars are away. And remimber this, one word 
 or kick from you and I shoot the Chinamen will 
 never tell." 
 
 " See here," said Harman. 
 
 " One word! " shouted Ginnell, suddenly dropping the 
 mask of urbanity and levelling the pistol. 
 
 It was as though the tiger-cat in his grimy soul had 
 suddenly burst bonds and mastered him. His finger 
 pressed on the trigger and the next moment Harman's 
 brains, or what he had of them, might have been literally 
 forenint him on the table, when suddenly, tremendous as 
 the last trumpet, paralysing as the inrush of a body of 
 armed men, booing and bellowing back from the cliffs 
 in a hundred echoes came a voice the blast of a ship's 
 syren. 
 
 " Huroop, Hirrip, Hurop, Haar Haar Haar ! " 
 
 Ginnell's arm fell. Harman, forgetting everything, 
 turned, dashed into the cabin behind him, climbed on the 
 upper bunk, and stuck his head through the port-hole. 
 
 Then he dashed back into the saloon. 
 
 " It's the Port of Amsterdam" cried Harman, " it's 
 the salvage ship, she's there droppin' her anchor; we're 
 done, we're dished and we foolin' like this and they 
 crawlin' up on us." 
 
 "And you said she'd only do eight knots!" cried 
 Blood. 
 
 Ginnell flung the revolver on the floor. Every trace 
 of the recent occurrence had vanished, and the three men 
 thought no more of one another than a man thinks of 
 petty matters in the face of dissolution. Gunderman was 
 outside, that was enough for them. 
 
 " Boys," said Ginnell, " ain't there no way out with 
 them dollars? S'pose we howk them ashore?" 
 
THE SALVING OF THE VAN-SHAN 281 
 
 " Cliffs two hundred foot high," said Harman, " not a 
 chanst. We're dished." 
 
 Said Blood: " There's only one thing left. We'll 
 walk the dollars down to the boat and row off with them. 
 Of course we'll be stopped; still, there's the chance that 
 Gunderman may be drunk or something. It's one chance 
 in a hundred billion it's the only one." 
 
 But Gunderman was not drunk, nor were his boat 
 party; and the court-martial he held on the beach in 
 broken English and with the sack of coin beside him as 
 chief witness would form a bright page of literature had 
 one time to record it. 
 
 Ginnell, as owner of the Heart of Ireland, received the 
 whole brunt of the storm; there was no hearing for him 
 when, true to himself, he tried to cast the onus of the busi- 
 ness on Blood and Harman. He was told to get out and 
 be thankful he was not brought back to 'Frisco in irons, 
 and he obeyed instructions, rowing off to the schooner, 
 he and Harman and Blood, a melancholy party with the 
 exception of Blood, who was talking to Harman with 
 extreme animation on the subject of beam engines. 
 
 On deck it was Blood who gave orders for hauling up 
 the anchor and setting sail. He had recaptured the 
 revolver. 
 
THE DERELICT NEPTUNE* 
 From "Spun Gold," BY MORGAN ROBERTSON 
 
 ACROSS the Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Guinea 
 to Cape St. Roque moves a great body of water 
 the Main Equatorial Current which can be con- 
 sidered the motive power, or mainspring, of the whole 
 Atlantic current system, as it obtains its motion directly 
 from the ever-acting push of the tradewinds. At Cape St. 
 Roque this broad current splits into two parts, one turning 
 north, the other south. The northern part contracts, in- 
 creases its speed, and, passing up the northern coast of 
 South America as the Guiana Current, enters through the 
 Caribbean Sea into the Gulf of Mexico, where it circles 
 around to the northward ; then, colored a deep blue from 
 the fine river silt of the Mississippi, and heated from 
 its long surface exposure under a tropical sun to an aver- 
 age temperature of eighty degrees, it emerges into the 
 Florida Channel as the Gulf Stream. 
 
 From here it travels northeast, following the trend 
 of the coast line, until, off Cape Hatteras, it splits into 
 three divisions, one of which, the westernmost, keeps on 
 to lose its warmth and life in Baffin's Bay. Another im- 
 pinges on the Hebrides, and is no more recognizable as 
 a current; and the third, the eastern and largest part of 
 the divided stream, makes a wide sweep to the east and 
 south, enclosing the Azores and the deadwater called the 
 Sargasso Sea, then, as the African Current, runs down 
 the coast until, just below the Canary Isles, it merges 
 into the Lesser Equatorial Current, which, parallel to 
 the parent stream, and separated from it by a narrow 
 
 * Reprinted by courtesy of Harper & Brothers. 
 
 282 
 
THE DERELICT NEPTUNE 283 
 
 band of backwater, travels west and filters through the 
 West Indies, making puzzling combinations with the 
 tides, and finally bearing so heavily on the young Gulf 
 Stream as to give to it the sharp turn to the northward 
 through the Florida Channel. 
 
 In the South Atlantic, the portion of the Main Equa- 
 torial Current split off by Cape St. Roque and directed 
 south leaves the coast at Cape Frio, and at the latitude 
 of the River Plate assumes a due easterly direction, cross- 
 ing the ocean as the Southern Connecting Current. At 
 the Cape of Good Hope it meets the cold, northeasterly 
 Cape Horn Current, and with it passes up the coast of 
 Africa to join the Equatorial Current at the starting-point 
 in the Gulf of Guinea, the whole constituting a circula- 
 tory system of ocean rivers, of speed value varying from 
 eighteen to ninety miles a day. 
 
 On a bright morning in November, 1894, .a curious- 
 looking craft floated into the branch current which, skirt- 
 ing Cuba, fiows westward through the Bahama Channel. 
 A man standing on the highest of two points enclosing a 
 small bay near Cape Maisi, after a critical examination 
 through a telescope, disappeared from the rocks, and in 
 a few moments a light boat, of the model used by whalers, 
 emerged from the mouth of the bay, containing this man 
 and another. In the boat also was a coil of rope. 
 
 The one who had inspected the craft from the rocks 
 was a tall young fellow, dressed in flannel shirt and 
 trousers, the latter held in place by a cartridge-belt, such 
 as is used by the American cowboy. To this was hung a 
 heavy revolver. On his head was a broad-brimmed cork 
 helmet, much soiled, and resembling in shape the Mexi- 
 can sombrero. Beneath this head-gear was a mass of 
 brown hair, which showed a non-acquaintance with bar- 
 bers for, perhaps, months, and under this hair a sun- 
 tanned faqe, lighted by serious gray eyes. The most no- 
 
284 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 ticeable feature of this face was the extreme arching of 
 the eyebrows a never-failing index of the highest form 
 of courage. It was a face that would please. The face 
 of the other was equally pleasing in its way. It was red, 
 round, and jolly, with twinkling eyes, the whole borrow- 
 ing a certain dignity from closely cut white hair and mus- 
 taches. The man was about fifty, dressed and armed 
 like the other. 
 
 "What do you want of pistols, Boston ?" he said to 
 the younger man. "One might think this an old-fash- 
 ioned, piratical cutting out." 
 
 "Oh, I don't know, Doc. It's best to have them. That 
 hulk may be full of Spaniards, and the whole thing no- 
 thing but a trick to draw us out. But she looks like a 
 derelict. I don't see how she got into this channel, un- 
 less she drifted up past Cape Maisi from the southward, 
 having come hi with the Guiana Current. It's all rocks 
 and shoals to the eastward." 
 
 The boat, under the impulse of their oars, soon passed 
 the fringing reef and came in sight of the strange craft, 
 which lay about a mile east and half a mile off shore. 
 "You see," resumed the younger man, called Boston, 
 "there's a back-water inside Point Mulas, and if she gets 
 into it she may come ashore right here." 
 
 "Where we can loot her. Nice business for a respect- 
 able practitioner like me to be engaged in! Doctor 
 Bryce, of Havana, consorting with Fenians from Canada, 
 exiled German socialists, Cuban horse-thieves who would 
 be hung in a week if they went to Texas, and a long-leg- 
 ged sailor man who calls himself a retired naval officer, 
 but who looks like a pirate; and all shouting for Cuba 
 Libre! Cuba Libre! It's plunder you want." 
 
 "But none of us ever manufactured dynamite," an- 
 swered Boston, with a grin. "How long did they have 
 you in Moro Castle, Doc?" 
 
THE DERELICT NEPTUNE 285 
 
 "Eight months/' snapped the doctor, his face clouding. 
 "Eight months in that rathole, with the loss of my prop- 
 erty and practice all for devotion to science. I was on 
 the brink of the most important and beneficent discovery 
 in explosives the world ever dreamed of. Yes, sir, 
 'twould have made me famous and stopped all warfare." 
 
 "The captain told me this morning that he'd heard 
 from Marti," said Boston, after an interval. "Good 
 news, he said, but that's all I learned. Maybe it's from 
 Gomez. If he'll only take hold again we can chase the 
 Spanish off the island now. Then we'll put some of your 
 stuff under Moro and lift it off the earth." 
 
 In a short time, details of the craft ahead, hitherto 
 hidden by distance, began to show. There was no sign 
 of life aboard; her spars were gone, with the exception 
 of the foremast, broken at the hounds, and she seemed 
 to be of about a thousand tons burden, colored a mixed 
 brown and dingy gray, which, as they drew near, was 
 shown as the action of iron rust on black and lead-colored 
 paint. Here and there were outlines of painted ports. 
 Under the stump of a shattered bowsprit projected from 
 between bluff bows a weather-worn figurehead, repre- 
 senting the god of the sea. Above on the bows were 
 wooden-stocked anchors stowed inboard, and aft on the 
 quarters were iron davits with blocks intact but no falls. 
 In a few of the dead-eyes in the channels could be seen 
 frayed rope-yarns, rotten with age, and, with the stump 
 of the foremast, the wooden stocks of the anchors, and 
 the teak-wood rail, of a bleached gray color. On the 
 round stern, as they pulled under it, they spelled, in raised 
 letters, flecked here and there with discolored gilt, the 
 name "Neptune, of London." Unkempt and forsaken, 
 she had come in from the mysterious sea to tell her story. 
 
 The climbed the channels, fastened the painter, and 
 peered over the rail. There was no one in sight, and they 
 
286 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 sprang down, finding themselves on a deck that was soft 
 and spongy with time and weather. 
 
 "She's an old tub," said Boston, scanning the gray 
 fabric fore and aft; "one of the first iron ships built, I 
 should think. They housed the crew under the t'gallant 
 forecastle. See the doors forward, there? And she has 
 a full-decked cabin that's old style. Hatchers are all 
 battened down, but I doubt if this tarpaulin holds water." 
 He stepped on the main hatch, brought his weight on the 
 ball of one foot, and turned around. The canvas crum- 
 bled to threads, showing the wood beneath. "Let's go be- 
 low. If there were any Spaniards here they'd have shown 
 themselves before this." The cabin doors were latched 
 but not locked, and they opened them. 
 
 "Hold on," said the doctor, "this cabin may have been 
 closed for years, and generated poisonous gases. Open 
 that upper door, Boston." 
 
 Boston ran up the shaky poop ladder and opened the 
 companion-way above, which let a stream of the fresh 
 morning air and sunshine into the cabin, then, after a 
 moment or two, descended and joined the other, who had 
 entered from the main-deck. They were in an ordinary 
 ship's cabin, surrounded by staterooms, and with the 
 usual swinging lamp and tray; but the table, chairs, and 
 floor were covered with fine dust. 
 
 "Where the deuce do you get so much dust at sea?" 
 coughed the doctor. 
 
 "Nobody knows, Doc. Let's hunt for the manifest and 
 the articles. This must have been the skipper's room." 
 They entered the largest stateroom, and Boston opened 
 an old-fashioned desk. Among the discolored docu- 
 ments it contained, he found one and handed it to the 
 doctor. "Articles," he said ; "look at it." Soon he took 
 out another. "I've got it. Now we'll find what she has 
 in her hold, and if it's worth bothering about." 
 
THE DERELICT NEPTUNE 287 
 
 "Great Scott!" exclaimed the doctor; u this paper is 
 dated 1844, fifty years ago." Boston looked over his 
 shoulder. 
 
 "That's so ; she signed her crew at Boston, too. Where 
 has she been all this time? Let's see this one." 
 
 The manifest was short, and stated that her cargo was 
 3000 barrels of lime, 8000 kids of tallow, and 2500 car- 
 boys of acid, 1700 of which were sulphuric, the rest of 
 nitric acid. "That cargo won't be much good to us, Doc. 
 I'd hope to find something we could use. Let's find the 
 log-book, and see what happened to her." Boston rum- 
 maged what seemed to be the first-mate's room. "Plenty 
 of duds here," he said; "but they're ready to fall to 
 pieces. Here's the log." 
 
 He returned with the book, and, seated at the dusty 
 table, they turned the yellow leaves. "First departure, 
 Highland Light, March 10, 1844," read Boston. "We'll 
 look in the remarks column." 
 
 Nothing but the ordinary incidents of a voyage were 
 found until they reached the date June 1st, where entry was 
 made of the ship being "caught aback" and dismasted off 
 the Cape of Good Hope in a sudden gale. Then followed 
 daily "remarks" of the southeasterly drift of the ship, the 
 extreme cold (which, with the continuance of the bad 
 weather, prevented saving the wreck for jury-masts), and 
 the fact that no sails were sighted. 
 
 June 6th told of her being locked in soft, slushy ice, 
 and still being pressed southward by the never-ending 
 gale; June 10th said that the ice was hard, and at June 
 15th was the terrible entry: "Fire in the hold!" 
 
 On June 16th was entered this: "Kept hatches bat- 
 tened down and stopped all air-holes, but the deck is too 
 hot to stand on, and getting hotter. Crew insist on low- 
 ering the boats and pulling them northward over the ice 
 to open water in hopes of being picked up. Good-bye." 
 
288 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 In the position columns of this date the latitude was given 
 as 62 degrees 44 minutes S. and the longitude as 30 de- 
 grees 50 minutes E. There were no more entries. 
 
 "What tragedy docs this tell of?" said the doctor. 
 "They left this ship in the ice fifty years ago. Who can 
 tell if they were saved?" 
 
 "Who indeed?" said Boston. "The mate hadn't 
 much hope. He said 'Good-bye/ But one thing is 
 certain; we are the first to board her since. I take it she 
 stayed down there in the ice until she drifted around 
 the Pole, and thawed out where she could catch the Cape 
 Horn current, which took her up to the Hope. Then 
 she came up with the South African Curent till she got 
 into the Equatorial drift, then west, and up with the 
 Guiana Current into the Caribbean Sea to the southward 
 of us, and this morning the flood-tide brought her 
 through. It isn't a question of winds; they're too vari- 
 able. It's currents, though it may have taken her years 
 to get here. But the surprising part of it is that she 
 hasn't been boarded. Let's look in the hold and see 
 what the fire has done." 
 
 When they boarded the hulk, the sky, with the ex- 
 ception of a filmy haze overhanging the eastern end of 
 the island, was clear. Now, as they emerged from the 
 cabin, this haze had solidified and was coming one of 
 the black and vicious squalls of the West India seas. 
 
 "No man can tell what wind there is in them," re- 
 marked Boston, as he viewed it. "But it's pretty close 
 to the water, and dropping rain. Hold on, there, Doc. 
 Stay aboard. We couldn't pull ashore in the teeth of 
 it." The doctor had made a spasmodic leap to the rail. 
 "If the chains were shackled on, we might drop one of 
 the hooks and hold her; but it's two hours work for a 
 full crew." 
 
THE DERELICT NEPTUNE 289 
 
 "But we're likely to be blown away, aren't we?" asked 
 the doctor. 
 
 "Not far. I don't think it '11 last long. We'll make 
 the boat fast astern and get out of the wet." They did 
 so, and entered the cabin. Soon the squall, coming with 
 a shock like that of a solid blow, struck the hulk broad- 
 side to and careened her. From the cabin door they 
 watched the nearly horizontal rain as it swished across the 
 deck, and listened to the screaming of the wind, which 
 prevented all conversation. Silently they waited one 
 hour two hours then Boston said: "This is getting 
 serious. It's no squall. If it wasn't so late in the sea- 
 son I'd call it a hurricane. I'm going on deck." 
 
 He climbed the companionway stairs to the poop, 
 and shut the scuttle behind him for the rain was flood- 
 ing the cabin then looked around. The shore and hor- 
 izon were hidden by a dense wall of gray, which seemed 
 not a hundred feet distant. From to windward this 
 wall was detaching great waves or sheets of almost solid 
 water, which bombarded the ship in successive blows, to 
 be then lost in the gray whirl to leeward. Overhead 
 was the same dismal hue, marked by hurrying masses of 
 darker cloud, and below was a sea of froth, white and 
 flat; for no waves could rise their heads in that wind/ 
 Drenched to the skin, he tried the wheel and found it 
 free in its movements. In front of it was a substantial 
 binnacle, and within a compass, which, though sluggish, 
 as from a well-worn pivot, was practically in good con- 
 dition. "Blowing us about nor'west by west," he mut- 
 tered, as he looked at it "straight up the coast. It's 
 better than the beach in this weather, but may land us 
 in Havana." He examined he boat. It was full of 
 water, and tailing to windward, held by its painter. 
 Making sure that this was fast, he went down. 
 
 "Doc," he said, as he squeezed the water from his 
 
290 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 limp cork helmet and flattened it on the table, "have 
 you any objections to being rescued by some craft going 
 into Havana?" 
 
 "I have decided objections." 
 
 "So have I; but this wind is blowing us there side- 
 ways. Now, such a blow as this, at this time of year, 
 will last three days at least, and I've an idea that it'll 
 haul gradually to the south, and west towards the end 
 of it. Where'll we be then? Either piled up on one 
 of the Bahama keys or interviewed by the Spaniards. 
 Now I've been thinking of a scheme on deck. We can't 
 get back to camp for a while that's settled. This iron 
 hull is worth something, and if we can take it into an 
 American port we can claim salvage. Key West is the 
 nearest, but Fernandina is the surest. We've got a 
 stump of a foremast and a rudder and a compass. If 
 we can get some kind of sail up forward and bring her 
 'fore the wind, we can steer any course within thirty de- 
 grees of the wind line." 
 
 "But I can't steer. And how long will this voyage 
 take? What will we eat?" 
 
 "Yes, you can steer good enough. And, of course, 
 it depends on food, and water, too. We'd better catch 
 some of this that's going to waste." 
 
 In what had been the steward's storeroom they found 
 a harness-cask with bones and dry rust in the bottom. 
 "It's salt meat, I suppose," said the doctor, "reduced 
 to its elements." With the handles of their pistols they 
 carefully hammered down the rusty hoops over the 
 shrunken staves, which were well preserved by the brine 
 they had once held, and taking the cask on deck, cleaned 
 it thoroughly under the scuppers or drain-holes of 
 the poop, and let it stand under the stream of water 
 to swell and sweeten itself. 
 
 "If we find more casks we'll catch some more," said 
 
THE DERELICT NEPTUNE 291 
 
 Boston; "but that will last us two weeks. Now we'll 
 hunt for her stores. I've eaten salt-horse twenty years 
 old, but I can't vouch for what we may find here." They 
 examined all the rooms adjacent to the cabin, but found 
 nothing. 
 
 "Where's the lazarette in this kind of a ship?" asked 
 Boston. "The cabin runs right aft to the stern. It 
 must be below us." He found that the carpet was not 
 tacked to the floor, and, raising the after end, discovered 
 a hatch, or trap-door, which he lifted. Below, when 
 their eyes were accustomed to the darkness, they saw 
 boxes and barrels all covered with the same fine dust 
 which filled the cabin. 
 
 "Don't go down there, yet, Boston," said the doctor. 
 "It may be full of carbonic acid gas. She's been afire, 
 you know. Wait." He tore a strip from some bedding 
 in one of the rooms, and, lighting one end by means of 
 a flint and steel which he carried, lowered the smoulder- 
 ing rag until it rested on the pile below. It did not go 
 out. 
 
 "Safe enough, Boston," he remarked. "But you go 
 down; you're younger." 
 
 Boston smiled and sprang down on the pile, from 
 which he passed up a box. "Looks like tinned stuff, 
 Doc. Open it, and I'll look over here." 
 
 The doctor smashed the box with his foot, and found, 
 as the other had thought, that it contained cylindrical 
 cans; but the labels were faded with age. Opening one 
 with his jack-knife, he tasted the contents. It was a 
 mixture of meat and a fluid, called by sailors "soup-and- 
 bully," and as fresh and sweet as though canned the day 
 before. 
 
 "We're all right, Boston," he called down the hatch. 
 "Here's as good a dish as I've tasted for months. Ready 
 cooked, too." 
 
292 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 Boston soon appeared. ''There are some beef or 
 pork barrels over in the wing," he said, "and plenty of 
 this canned stuff. I don't know what good the salt meat 
 is. The barrels seem tight, but we won't need to broach 
 one for a while. There's a bag of coffee gone to dust, 
 and some hard bread that isn't fit to eat; but this'll do." 
 He picked up the open can. 
 
 "Boston," said the doctor, "if those barrels contain 
 meat, we'll find it cooked boiled in its own brine, like 
 this." 
 
 "Isn't it strange," said Boston, as he tasted the con- 
 tents of the can, "that this stuff should keep so long?" 
 
 "Not at all. It was cooked thoroughly by the heat, 
 and then frozen. If your barrels haven't burst from 
 the expansion of the brine under the heat or cold, you'll 
 find the meat just as good." 
 
 "But rather salty, if I'm a judge of salt-horse. Now, 
 where's the sail-locker? We want a sail on that fore- 
 mast. It must be forward." 
 
 In the forecastle they found sailor's chests and cloth- 
 ing in all stages of ruin, but none of the spare sails that 
 ships carry. In the boatswain's locker, in one corner 
 of the forecastle, however, they found some iron- 
 strapped blocks in fairly good condition, which Boston 
 noted. Then they opened the main-hatch, and discov- 
 ered a mixed pile of boxes, some showing protruding 
 necks of large bottles, or carboys, others nothing but 
 the circular opening. Here and there in the tangled heap 
 were sections of canvas sails rolled and unrolled, but 
 all yellow and worthless. They closed the hatch and 
 returned to the cabin, where they could converse. 
 
 "They stowed their spare canvas in the 'tween-deck 
 on top of the cargo," said Boston; "and the carboys " 
 
 "And the carboys burst from the heat and ruined the 
 
THE DERELICT NEPTUNE 293 
 
 sails, " broke in the doctor. "But another question is, 
 what became of that acid?" 
 
 "If it's not in the 'tween-deck yet, it must be in the 
 hold leaked through the hatches." 
 
 "I hope it hasn't reached the iron in the hull, Boston, 
 my boy. It takes a long time for cold acids to act on 
 iron after the first oxidation, but in fifty years mixed 
 nitric and sulphuric will do lots of work." 
 
 "No fear, Doc; It had done its work when you were 
 in your cradle. What '11 we do for canvas? We must 
 get this craft before the wind. How'll the carpet do?" 
 Boston lifted the edge, and tried the fabric in his fingers. 
 "It '11 go," he said; "we'll double it. I'll hunt for a 
 palm-and-needle and some twine." These articles he 
 found in the mate's room. "The twine's no better than 
 yarn," said he, "but we'll use four parts." 
 
 Together they doubled the carpet diagonally* and with 
 long stitches joined the edges. Then Boston sewed into 
 each corner a thimble an iron ring and they had a 
 triangular sail of about twelve feet hoist. "It hasn't 
 been exposed to the action of the air like the ropes in 
 the locker forward," said Boston, as he arose and took 
 off the palm; "and perhaps it '11 last till she pays off. 
 Then we can steer. You get the big pulley-blocks from 
 the locker, Doc, and I'll get the rope from the boat. 
 It's lucky I thought to bring it; I expected to lift things 
 out of the hold with it." 
 
 At the risk of his life Boston obtained the coil from 
 the boat, while the doctor brought the blocks. Then, 
 together, they rove off a tackle. With the handles of 
 their pistols they knocked bunk-boards to pieces and 
 saved the nails; then Boston climbed the foremast, as 
 a painter climbs a steeple by nailing successive billets 
 of wood above his head for steps. Next he hauled up 
 and secured the tackle to the forward side of the mast, 
 
294 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 with which they pulled up the upper corner of their sail, 
 after lashing the lower corners to the windlass and fife- 
 rail. 
 
 It stood the pressure, and the hulk paid slowly off and 
 gathered headway. Boston took the wheel and steadied 
 her at northwest by west dead before the wind while 
 the doctor, at his request, brought the open can of soup 
 and lubricated the wheel-screw with the only substitute 
 for oil at their command; for the screw worked hard 
 with the rust of fifty years. 
 
 Their improvised sail, pressed steadily on but one 
 side, had held together, but now, with the first flap as 
 the gale caught it from another direction, appeared 1 a 
 rent ; with the next flap the rag went to pieces. 
 
 "Let her go!" sang out Boston gleefully; "we can 
 steer now. Come here, Doc, and learn to steer." 
 
 The doctor came; and when he left that wheel, three 
 days later, he had learned. For the wind had blown 
 a continuous gale the whole of this time, which, with 
 the ugly sea raised as the ship left the lee of the land, 
 necessitated the presence of both men at the helm. Only 
 occasionally was there a lull during which one of them 
 could rush below and return with a can of soup. Dur- 
 ing one of these lulls Boston had examined the boat, 
 towing half out of water, and concluded that a short 
 painter was best with a water-logged boat, had rein- 
 forced it with a few turns of his rope from forward. 
 In the three days they had sighted no craft except such 
 as their own helpless hove-to or scudding. 
 
 Boston had judged rightly in regard to the wind. It 
 had hauled slowly to the southward, allowing him to 
 make the course he wished through the Bahama and 
 up the Florida Channel with the wind over the stern. 
 During the day he could guide himself by landmarks, 
 but at night, with a darkened binnacle, he could only 
 
THE DERELICT NEPTUNE 295 
 
 steer blindly on with the wind at his back. The storm 
 centre, at first to the south of Cuba, had made a wide 
 circle, concentric with the curving course of the ship, and 
 when the latter had reached the upper end of the Flor- 
 ida channel, had spurted ahead and whirled out to sea 
 across her bows. It was then that the undiminished 
 gale, blowing nearly west, had caused Boston, in despair, 
 to throw the wheel down and bring the ship into the 
 trough of the sea to drift. Then the two wet, ex- 
 hausted, hollow-eyed men slept the sleep that none but 
 sailors and soldiers know; and when they awakened, 
 twelve hours later, stiff and sore, it was to look out on 
 a calm, starlit evening, with an eastern moon silvering 
 the surface of the long, northbound rollers, and show- 
 ing in sharp relief a dark horizon, on which there was 
 no sign of land or sail. 
 
 They satisfied their hunger; then Boston, with a rusty 
 iron pot from the galley, to which he fastened the end 
 of his rope, dipped up some of the water from over the 
 side. It was warm to the touch, and, aware that they 
 were in the Gulf Stream, they crawled under the musty 
 bedding in the cabin berths and slept through the night. 
 In the morning there was no promise of the easterly 
 wind that Boston hoped would come to blow them to 
 port, and they secured their boat reeving off davit- 
 tackles, and with the plug out, pulling it up, one end at 
 a time, while the water drained out through the hole in 
 the bottom. 
 
 "Now, Boston," said the doctor, u here we are, as 
 you say, on the outer edge of the Gulf Stream, drifting 
 out into the broad Atlantic at the rate of four miles an 
 hour. We've got to make the best of it until something 
 comes along; so you hunt through that store-room and 
 see what else there is to eat, and I'll examine the cargo. 
 I want to know where that acid went." 
 
296 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 They opened all the hatches, and while Boston de- 
 scended to the lazarette, the doctor, with his trousers 
 rolled up, climbed down the notched steps in a stanchion. 
 In a short time he came up with a yellow substance in 
 his hand, which he washed thoroughly with fresh water 
 in Boston's improvised draw-bucket, and placed in 
 the sun to dry. Then he returned to the 'tween-deck. 
 After a while, Boston, rumaging the lazarette, heard 
 him calling through the bulkhead, and joined him. 
 
 "Look here, Boston," said the doctor; "I've cleared 
 away the muck over this hatch. It's 'corked,' as you 
 sailormen call it. Help me get it up." 
 
 They dug the compacted oakum from the seams with 
 their knives, and by iron rings in each corner, now eaten 
 with rust to almost the thinness of wire, they lifted the 
 hatch. Below was a filthy-looking layer of whitish sub- 
 stance, protruding from which were charred, half- 
 burned staves. First they repeated the experiment with 
 the smouldering rag, and finding that it burned, as be- 
 fore, they descended. The whittish substance was hard 
 enough to bear their weight, and they looked around. 
 Overhead, hung to the under side of the deck and ex- 
 tending the length of the hold, were wooden tanks, 
 charred, and in some places burned through. 
 
 "She must have been built for a passenger or troop 
 ship," said Boston. "Those tanks would water a regi- 
 ment." 
 
 "Boston," answered the doctor, irrelevantly, "will 
 you climb up and bring down an oar from the boat? 
 Carry it down don't throw it, my boy." Boston 
 obliged him, and the doctor, picking his way forward, 
 then aft, struck each tank with the oar. "Empty all 
 of them," he said. 
 
 He dug out with his knife a piece of the whitish sub- 
 
THE DERELICT NEPTUNE 297 
 
 stance under foot, and examined it closely in the light 
 from the hatch. 
 
 "Boston," he said, impressivly, "this ship was loaded 
 with lime, tallow, and acids acids above, lime and tal- 
 low down here. This stuff is neither; it is lime-soap. 
 And, moreover, it had not been touched by acids." The 
 doctor's ruddy face was ashen. 
 
 "Well?" asked Boston. 
 
 "Lime soap is formed by the cauticizing action of lime 
 on tallow in the presence of water and heat. It is easy 
 to understand this fire. One of those tanks leaked and 
 dribbled down on the cargo, attacking the lime which 
 was stowed underneath, as all these staves we see on top 
 are from tallow-kids. The heat generated by the slak- 
 ing lime set fire to the barrels in contact, which in turn 
 set fire to others, and they burned until the air 
 was exhausted, and then went out. See, they are but 
 partly consumed. There was intense heat in this hold, 
 and expansion of the water in all the tanks. Are tanks 
 at sea filled to the top?" 
 
 "Chock full, and a cap screwed down on the upper 
 end of the pipes." 
 
 "As I thought. The expanding water burst every 
 tank in the hold, and the cargo was deluged with water, 
 which attacked every lime barrel in the bottom layer, 
 at least. Result the bursting of those barrels from 
 the ebullition of slaking lime, the melting of the tallow 
 which could not burn long in the closed-up-space 
 and the mixing of it in the interstices of the lime barrels 
 with water and lime a boiling hot mess. What hap- 
 pens under such conditions?" 
 
 "Give it up," said Boston, laconically. 
 
 "Lime soap is formed, which rises, and the water 
 beneath is in time all taken up by the lime." 
 
 "But what of it?" interrupted the other. 
 
298 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 "Wait. I see that this hold and the 'tween-deck are 
 lined with wood. Is that customary in iron ships?" 
 
 "Not now. It used to be a notion that an iron skin 
 damaged the cargo; so the first iron 'ships were ceiled 
 with wood." 
 
 "Are there any drains in the 'tween-deck to let water 
 out, in case it gets into that deck from above a sea, 
 for instance?" 
 
 "Yes, always; three or four scupper-holes each side 
 amidships. They lead the water into the bilges, where 
 the pumps can reach it." 
 
 "I found up there," continued the doctor, "a large 
 piece of wood, badly charred by acid for half its length, 
 charred to a lesser degree for the rest. It was oval 
 in cross section, and the largest end was charred most." 
 
 "Scupper plug. I suppose they plugged the 'tween- 
 deck scuppers to keep any water they might ship out of 
 the bilges and away from the lime." 
 
 "Yes, and those plugs remained in place for days, if 
 not weeks or months, after the carboys burst, as indi- 
 cated by the greater charring of the larger end of the 
 plug. I burrowed under the debris, and found the hole 
 which that plug fitted. It was worked loose, or knocked 
 out of the hole by some internal movement of the broken 
 carboys, perhaps. At any rate, it came out, after re- 
 maining in place long enough for the acids to become 
 thoroughly mixed and for the hull to cool down. She 
 was in the ice, remember. Boston, the mixed acid went 
 down that hole, or others like it. Where is it now?" 
 
 "I suppose," said Boston, thoughtfully, "that it 
 soaked up into the hold, through the skin." 
 
 "Exactly. The skin is calked with oakum, is it not?" 
 Boston nodded. 
 
 "That oakum would contract with the charring ac- 
 tion, as did the oakum in the hatch, and every drop of 
 
THE DERELICT NEPTUNE 299 
 
 that acid ten thousand gallons, as I have figured has 
 filtered up into the hold, with the exception of what re- 
 mained between the frames under the skin. Have you 
 ever studied organic chemistry?" 
 
 "Slightly." 
 
 "Then you can follow me. When tallow is saponi- 
 fied there is formed, from the palmitin, stearin, and 
 olein contained, with the cauticizing agent in this case, 
 lime a soap. But there are two ends to every equation, 
 and at the bottom of this immense soap vat, held in so*- 
 lution by the water, which would afterwards be taken 
 up by the surplus lime, was the other end of this equa- 
 tion; and as the yield from tallow of this other product 
 is about thirty per cent., and as we start with eight thou- 
 sand fifty-pound kids four hundred thousand pounds 
 all of which has disappeared, we know that, sticking to 
 the skin and sides of the barrels down here, is or was 
 once one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, or 
 sixty tons, of the other end of the equation glycerine I" 
 
 u Do you mean, Doc," asked Boston, with a startled 
 look, "that " 
 
 "I mean," said the doctor, emphatically, "that the 
 first thing the acids mixed in the 'tween-deck to just 
 about the right proportions, mind you would attack, 
 on oozing through the skin, would be this glycerine ; and 
 the certain product of this union under intense cold 
 this hull was frozen in the ice, remember would be 
 nitro-glycerine ; and, as the yield of the explosive is two 
 hundred and twenty per cent, of the glycerine, we can 
 be morally sure that in the bottom of this hold, each 
 minute globule of it held firmly in a hard matrix of sul- 
 phate or nitrate of calcium which would be formed 
 next when the acids met the hydrates and carbonates 
 of lime is over one hundred and thirty tons of nitro- 
 glycerine, all the more explosive from not being washed 
 
300 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 of free acids. Come up on deck. I'll show you some- 
 thing else." 
 
 Limp and nerveless, Boston followed the doctor. 
 This question was beyond his seamanship. 
 
 The doctor brought the yellow substance now well 
 dried. "I found plenty of this in the 'tween-deck," he 
 said; "and I should judge they used it to pack between 
 the carboy boxes. It was once cotton-batting. It is 
 now, since I have washed it, a very good sample of 
 gun-cotton. Get me a hammer crowbar something 
 hard." 
 
 Boston brought a marline-spike from the locker, and 
 the doctor, tearing off a small piece of the substance and 
 placing it on the iron barrel of a gipsy-winch, gave it a 
 hard blow with the marline spike, which was nearly torn 
 from his hand by the explosion that followed. 
 
 "We have in the 'tween-deck," said the doctor, as he 
 turned, "about twice as many pounds of this stuff as they 
 used to pack the carboys with; and, like the nitro-gly- 
 cerine, is the more easily exploded from the impurities and 
 free acids. I washed this for safe handling. Bos- 
 ton, we are adrift on a floating bomb that would pulverize 
 the rock of Gibraltar!" 
 
 "But, doctor," asked Boston, as he leaned against the 
 rail for support, "wouldn't there be evolution of heat 
 from the action of the acids on the lime enough to ex- 
 plode the nitro-glycerine just formed?" 
 
 "The best proof that it did not explode is the fact 
 that this hull still floats. The action was too slow, and 
 it was very cold down there. But I can't yet account 
 for the acids left in the bilges. What have they been 
 doing all these fifty years?" 
 
 Boston found a sounding-rod in the locker, which he 
 scraped bright with his knife, then, unlaying a strand 
 of the rope for a line, sounded the pump-well. The 
 
THE DERELICT NEPTUNE 301 
 
 rod came up dry, but with a slight discoloration on the 
 lower end, which Boston showed to the doctor. 
 
 "The acids have expended themselves on the iron 
 frames and plates. How thick are they?" 
 
 "Plates, about five-eighths of an inch; frames, like 
 railroad iron." 
 
 "This hull is a shell! We won't get much salvage. 
 Get up some kind of distress signal, Boston." Some- 
 how the doctor was now the master-spirit. 
 
 A flag was nailed to the mast, union down, to be 
 blown to pieces with the first breeze; then another, and 
 another, until the flag locker was exhausted. Next they 
 hung out, piece after piece, all they could spare of the 
 rotten bedding, until that too was exhausted. Then 
 they found, in a locker of their boat, a flag of Free 
 Cuba, which they decided not to waste, but to hang out 
 only when a sail appeared. 
 
 But no sail appeared, and the craft, buffeted by gales 
 and seas, drifted eastward, while the days became weeks, 
 and the weeks became months. Twice she entered the 
 Sargasso Sea the graveyard of derelicts to be blown 
 out by friendly gales and resume her travels. Occa- 
 sional rains replenished the stock of fresh water, but the 
 food they found at first, with the exception of some cans 
 of fruit, was all that came to light; for the salt meat 
 was leathery, and crumbled to a salty dust on exposure 
 to the air. After a while their stomachs revolted at the 
 diet of cold soup, and they ate only when hunger com- 
 pelled them. 
 
 At first they had stood watch-and-watch, but the lonely 
 horror of the long night vigils in the constant apprehen- 
 sion of instant death had affected them alike, and they 
 gave it up, sleeping and watching together. They had 
 taken care of their boat and provisioned it, ready to 
 lower and pull into the track of any craft that might 
 
302 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 approach. But it was four months from the beginning 
 of this strange voyage when the two men, gaunt and 
 hungry with ruined digestions and shattered nerves 
 saw, with joy which may be imagined, the first land and 
 the first sail that gladdened their eyes after the storm in 
 the Florida Channel. 
 
 A fierce gale from the southwest had been driving 
 them, broadside on, in the trough of the sea, for the 
 whole of the preceding day and night; and the land 
 they now saw appeared to them a dark, ragged line of 
 blue, early in the morning. Boston could only surmise 
 that it was the coast of Portugal or Spain. The sail 
 which lay between them and the land, about three miles 
 to leeward proved to be the try-sail of a black craft, 
 hove-to, with bows nearly towards them. 
 
 Boston climbed the foremast with their only flag and 
 secured it; then, from the high poop-deck, they watched 
 the other craft, plunging and wallowing in the immense 
 Atlantic combers, often raising her forefoot into plain 
 view, again descending with a dive that hid the whole 
 forward half in a white cloud of spume. 
 
 "If she was a steamer I'd call her a cruiser," said 
 Boston; u one of England's black ones, with a storm- 
 sail on her military mainmast. She has a ram bow, and 
 yes, sponsors and guns. That's what she is, with her 
 funnels and bridge carried away." 
 
 "Isn't she right in our track, Boston?" asked the doc- 
 tor, excitedly. "Hadn't she better get out of our way?" 
 
 "She's got steam up a full head; sec the escape-jet? 
 She isn't helpless. If she don't launch a boat, we'll take 
 to ours and board her." 
 
 The distance lessened rapidly the cruiser plunging 
 up and down in the same spot, the derelict heaving to 
 leeward in great, swinging leaps, as the successive seas 
 caught her, each one leaving her half a length farther 
 
THE DERELICT NEPTUNE 303 
 
 on. Soon they could make out the figures of men. 
 
 "Take us off," screamed the doctor, waving his arms, 
 u and get out of our way!" 
 
 "We'll clear her," said Boston; "see, she's started her 
 engine." 
 
 As they drifted down on the weather-side of the 
 cruiser they shouted repeatedly words of supplication 
 and warning. They were answered by a solid shot from 
 a secondary gun, which flew over their heads. At the 
 same time, the ensign of Spain was run up on the flag- 
 staff. 
 
 "They're Spanish, Boston. They're firing on us. In- 
 to that boat with you! If a shot hits our cargo, we 
 won't know what struck us." 
 
 They sprang into the boat, which luckily hung on the 
 lee side, and cleared the falls fastened and coiled in 
 the bow and stern. Often during their long voyage 
 they had rehearsed the launching of the boat in a seaway 
 an operation requiring quick and concerted action. 
 
 "Ready, Doc?" sang out Boston. "One, two, three 
 let go!" The falls overhauled with a whir, and the 
 falling boat, striking an uprising sea with a smack, sank 
 with it. When it raised they unhooked the tackle blocks, 
 and pushed off with the oars just as a second shot 
 hummed over their heads. 
 
 "Pull, Boston; pull hard straight to windward!" 
 cried the doctor. 
 
 The tight whaleboat shipped no water, and though 
 they were pulling in the teeth of a furious gale, the hulk 
 was drifting away from them, so, in a short time, they 
 were separated from their late home by a full quarter- 
 mile of angry sea. The cruiser had forged ahead in 
 plain view, and, as they looked, took in the try-sail. 
 
 "She's going to wear," said Boston. "See, she's pay- 
 ing off." 
 
304 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 "I don't know what 'wearing' means, Boston," panted 
 the doctor, "but I know the Spanish nature. She's go- 
 ing to ram that hundred and thirty tons of nitro. Don't 
 stop. Pull away. Hold on, there; hold on, you fools!" 
 he shouted. "That's a torpedo; keep away from her!" 
 
 Forgetting his own injunction to "pull away," the 
 doctor stood up, waving his oar frantically, and Boston 
 assisted. But if their shouts and gestures were under- 
 stood aboard the cruiser, they were ignored. She slowly 
 turned in a wide curve and headed straight for the 
 Neptune which had drifted to leeward of her. 
 
 What was in the minds of the officers on that cruiser's 
 deck will never be known. Cruisers of all nations hold 
 roving commissions in regard to derelicts, and it is fit- 
 ting and proper for one of them to gently prod a "va- 
 grant of the sea" with the steel prow and send her below 
 to trouble no more. But it may be that the sight of 
 the Cuban flag, floating defiantly in the gale, had some- 
 thing to do with the full speed at which the Spanish 
 ship approached. When but half a length separated the 
 two craft, a heavy sea lifted the bow of the cruiser high 
 in air; then it sank, and the sharp steel ram came down 
 like a butcher's cleaver on the side of the derelict. 
 
 A great semicircular wall of red shut out the gray of 
 the sea and sky to leeward, and for an instant the horri- 
 fied men in the boat saw as people see by a lightning 
 flash dark lines radiating from the centre of this red wall, 
 and near this centre poised on end in mid-air, with deck 
 and sponsons still intact, a bowless, bottomless remnant 
 of the cruiser. Then, and before the remnant sank into 
 the vortex beneath, the spectacle went out in the darkness of 
 unconsciousness; for a report, as of concentrated thunder, 
 struck them down. A great wave had left the crater- 
 like depression in the sea, which threw the boat on end, 
 and with the inward rush of surrounding water rose a 
 
THE DERELICT NEPTUNE 305 
 
 mighty gray cone, which then subsided to a hollow, while 
 another wave followed the first. Again and again this 
 gray pillar rose and fell, each subsidence marked by the 
 sending forth of a wave. And long before these con- 
 centric waves had lost themselves in the battle with the 
 storm-driven combers from the ocean, the half-filled boat, 
 with her unconscious passengers, had drifted over the 
 spot where lay the shattered remnant, which, with the 
 splintered fragments of wood and iron strewn on the 
 surface and bottom of the sea for a mile around, and the 
 lessening cloud of dust in the air, was all that was left 
 of the derelict Neptune and one of the finest cruisers in 
 the Spanish navy. 
 
 A few days later, two exhausted, half-starved men 
 pulled a whaleboat up to the steps of the wharf at Cadiz, 
 where they told some lies and sold their boat. Six 
 months after, these two men, sitting at a camp-fire of the 
 Cuban army, read from a discolored newspaper, brought 
 ashore with the last supplies, the following: 
 
 "By cable to the 'Herald.' 
 
 "CADIZ, March 13, 1895. Anxiety for the safety of the Reina Regente 
 has grown rapidly to-day, and this evening it is feared, generally, that 
 she went down with her four hundred and twenty souls in the storm 
 which swept the southern coast on Sunday night and Monday morning. 
 Despatches from Gibraltar say that pieces of a boat and several sema- 
 phore flags belonging to the cruiser came ashore at Ceuta and Tarifa this 
 afternoon." 
 
THE TERRIBLE SOLOMONS* 
 From "South Sea Tales," BY JACK LONDON 
 
 THERE is no gainsaying that the Solomons are a 
 hard-bitten bunch of islands. On the other hand, 
 there are worse places in the world. But to the 
 new chum who has no constitutional understanding of 
 men and life in the rough, the Solomons may indeed prove 
 terrible. 
 
 It is true that fever and dysentery are perpetually on 
 the walk-about, that loathsome skin diseases abound, that 
 the air is saturated with a poison that bites into every pore, 
 cut, or abrasion and plants malignant ulcers, and that 
 many strong men who escape dying there return as 
 wrecks to their own countries. It is also true that the 
 natives of the Solomons are a wild lot, with a hearty ap- 
 petite for human flesh and a fad for collecting human 
 heads. Their highest instinct of sportsmanship is to 
 catch a man with his back turned and to smite him a cun- 
 ning blow with a tomahawk that severs the spinal column 
 at the base of the brain. It is equally true that on some 
 islands, such as Malaita, the profit and loss account of 
 social intercourse is calculated in homicides. Heads are 
 a medium of exchange, and white heads are extremely 
 valuable. Very often a dozen villages make a jack-pot, 
 which they fatten moon by moon, against the time 
 when some brave warrior presents a white man's head, 
 fresh and gory, and claims the pot. 
 
 All the foregoing is quite true, and yet there are white 
 men who have lived in the Solomons a score of years and 
 who feel homesick when they go away from them. A 
 
 * Reprinted by courtesy of the Macmillan Co. 
 
 306 
 
THE TERRIBLE SOLOMONS 307 
 
 man needs only to be careful and lucky to live a long 
 time in the Solomons; but he must also be of the right 
 sort. He must have the hall-mark of the inevitable white 
 man stamped upon his soul. He must be inevitable. He 
 must have a certain grand carelessness of odds, a certain 
 colossal self-satisfaction, and a racial egotism that con- 
 vinces him that one white is better than a thousand nig- 
 gers every day in the week, and that on Sunday he is able 
 to clean out two thousand niggers. For such are the 
 things that have made the white man inevitable. Oh, 
 and one other thing the white man who wishes to be 
 inevitable, must not merely despise the lesser breeds and 
 think a lot of himself; he must also fail to be too long 
 on imagination. He must not understand too well the 
 instincts, customs and mental processes of the blacks, the 
 yellows, and the browns; for it is not in such fashion 
 that the white race has tramped its royal road around 
 the world. 
 
 Bertie Arkwright was not inevitable. He was too sen- 
 sitive, too finely strung, and he possessed too much imag- 
 ination. The world was too much with him. He pro- 
 jected himself too quiveringly into his environment. 
 Therefore, the last place in the world for him to come 
 was the Solomons. He did not come, expecting to stay. 
 A five-weeks' stop-over between steamers, he decided, 
 would satisfy the call of the primitive he felt thrumming 
 the strings of his being. At least, so he told the lady 
 tourists on the Makembo, though in different terms; and 
 they worshipped him as a hero, for they were lady tour- 
 ists and they would know only the safety of the steamer's 
 deck as she threaded her way through the Solomons. 
 
 There was another man on board, of whom the ladies 
 took no notice. He was a little shriveled wisp of a man, 
 with a withered skin the color of mahogany. His name 
 on the passenger list does not matter, but his other name, 
 
308 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 Captain Malu, was a name for niggers to conjure with, 
 and to scare naughty pickaninnies to righteousness, from 
 New Hanover to the New Hebrides. He had farmed 
 savages and savagery, and from fever and hardship, the 
 crack of Sniders and the lash of the overseers, had 
 wrested five millions of money in the form of beche-de- 
 mer, sandalwood, pearl-shell and turtle-shell, ivory nuts 
 and copra, grasslands, trading stations, and plantations. 
 Captain Malu's little finger, which was broken, had more 
 inevitableness in it than Bertie Arkwright's whole carcass. 
 But then, the lady tourists had nothing by which to 
 judge save appearances, and Bertie certainly was a fine- 
 looking man. 
 
 Bertie talked with Captain Malu in the smoking-room, 
 confiding to him his intention of seeing life red and bleed- 
 ing in the Solomons. Captain Malu agreed that the in- 
 tention was ambitious and honorable. It was not until 
 several days later that he became interested in Bertie, 
 when that young adventurer insisted on showing him an 
 automatic 44-calibre pistol. Bertie explained the mech- 
 anism and demonstrated by slipping a loaded magazine 
 up the hollow butt. 
 
 "It is so simple," he said. He shot the outer barrel back 
 along the inner one. "That loads it, and cocks it, you see. 
 And then all I have to do is pull the trigger, eight times, 
 as fast as I can quiver my finger. See that safety clutch. 
 That's what I like about it. It is safe. It is positively 
 fool-proof." He slipped out the magazine. "You see 
 how safe it is." 
 
 As he held it in his hand, the muzzle came in line with 
 Captain Malu's stomach. Captain Malu's blue eyes 
 looked at it unswervingly. 
 
 "Would you mind pointing it in some other direction?" 
 he asked. 
 
 "It's perfectly safe," Bertie assured him. "I withdrew 
 
THE TERRIBLE SOLOMONS 309 
 
 the magazine. It's not loaded now, you know.'* 
 
 "A gun is always loaded." 
 
 "But this one isn't." 
 
 "Turn it away just the same." 
 
 Captain Malu's voice was flat and metallic and low, 
 but his eyes never left the muzzle until the line of it was 
 drawn past him and away from him. 
 
 "I'll bet a fiver it isn't loaded," Bertie proposed 
 warmly. 
 
 The other shook his head. 
 
 "Then I'll show you." 
 
 Bertie started to put the muzzle to his own temple 
 with the evident intention of pulling the trigger. 
 
 "Just a second," Captain Malu said quietly, reaching 
 out his hand. "Let me look at it." 
 
 He pointed it seaward and pulled the trigger. A 
 heavy explosion followed, instantaneous with the sharp 
 click of the mechanism that flipped a hot and smoking 
 cartridge sidewise along the deck. Bertie's jaw dropped 
 in amazement. 
 
 "I slipped the barrel back once, didn't I?" he ex- 
 plained. "It was silly of me, I must say." 
 
 He giggled flabbily, and sat down in a steamer chair. 
 The blood had ebbed from his face, exposing dark circles 
 under his eyes. His hands were trembling and unable 
 to guide the shaking cigarette to his lips. The world 
 was too much with him, and he saw himself with dripping 
 brains prone upon the deck. 
 
 "Really," he said, "... really." 
 
 "It's a pretty weapon," said Captain Malu, returning 
 the automatic to him. 
 
 The Commissioner was on board the Makembo, re- 
 turning from Sydney, and by his permission a stop was 
 made at Ugi to land a missionary. And at Ugi lay the 
 ketch Aria, Captain Hansen, skipper. Now the Aria 
 
310 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 was one of many vessels owned by Captain Malu, and 
 it was at his suggestion and by his invitation that Bertie 
 went aboard the Aria as guest for a four-days' recruiting 
 cruise on the coast of Malaita. Thereafter the Aria 
 would drop him at Reminge Plantation (also owned by 
 Captain Malu), where Bertie could remain for a week, 
 and then be sent over to Tulgai, the seat of government, 
 where he would become the Commissioner's guest. Cap- 
 tain Malu was responsible for two other suggestions, 
 which given, he disappears from this narrative. One 
 was to Captain Hansen, the other to Mr. Harriwell, 
 manager of Reminge Plantation. Both suggestions were 
 similar in tenor, namely, to give Mr. Bertram Arkwright 
 an insight into the rawness and redness of life in the 
 Solomons. Also, it is whispered that Captain Malu 
 mentioned that a case of Scotch would be coincidental 
 with any particularly gorgeous insight Mr. Arkwright 
 might receive. 
 
 "Yes, Swartz always was too pig-headed. You see, 
 he took four of his boat's crew to Tulagi to be flogged 
 officially, you know then started back with them in the 
 whale-boat. It was pretty squally, and the boat cap- 
 sized just outside. Swartz was the only one drowned. 
 Of course it was an accident." 
 
 "Was it? Really?" Bertie asked, only half-interested, 
 staring hard at the black man at the wheel. 
 
 Ugi had dropped astern, and the Aria was sliding 
 along through a summer sea toward the wooded ranges 
 of Malaita. The helmsman who so attracted Bertie's 
 eyes sported a tenpenny nail, stuck skewerwise through 
 his nose. About his neck was string of pants buttons. 
 Thrust through holes in his ears were a can-opener, the 
 broken handle of a tooth-brush, a day pipe, the brass 
 wheel of an alarm clock, and several Winchester rifle 
 
THE TERRIBLE SOLOMONS 311 
 
 cartridges. On his chest, suspended from around his 
 neck hung the half of a china plate. Some forty similarly 
 apparelled blacks lay about the deck, fifteen of which 
 were boat's crew, the remainder being fresh labor 
 recruits. 
 
 "Of course it was an accident," spoke up the drla's 
 mate, Jacobs, a slender, dark-eyed man who looked more 
 a professor than a sailor. "Johnny Bedlip nearly had 
 the same kind of accident. He was bringing back several 
 from a flogging, when they capsized him. But he knew 
 how to swim as well as they, and two of them were 
 drowned. He used a boat-stretcher and a revolver. Of 
 course it was an accident." 
 
 "Quite common, them accidents," remarked the skip- 
 per. "You see that man at the wheel, Mr. Arkwright? 
 He's a man-eater. Six months ago, he and the rest of 
 the boat's crew drowned the then captain of the Aria. 
 They did it on deck, sir, right aft there by the mizzen- 
 traveller." 
 
 "The deck was in a shocking state," said the mate. 
 
 "Do I understanad ?" Bertie began. 
 
 "Yes, just that," said Captain Hansen. "It was acci- 
 dental drowning." 
 
 "But on deck?" 
 
 "Just so. I don't mind telling you, in confidence, of 
 course, that they used an axe." 
 
 "This present crew of yours?" 
 
 Captain Hansen nodded. 
 
 "The other skipper always was too careless," ex- 
 plained the mate. "He but just turned his back, when 
 they let him have it." 
 
 "We haven't any show down here," was the skipper's 
 complaint. "The government protects a nigger against 
 a white every time. You can't shoot first. You've got 
 to give the nigger first shot, or else the government calls 
 
312 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 it murder and you go to Fiji. That's why there's so many 
 drowning accidents." 
 
 "Dinner was called, and Bertie and the skipper went 
 below, leaving the mate to watch on deck. 
 
 "Keep an eye out for that black devil, Auiki," was the 
 skipper's parting caution. "I haven't liked his looks for 
 several days." 
 
 "Right O," said the mate. 
 
 Dinner was part way along, and the skipper was in 
 the middle of his story of the cutting out of the Scottish 
 Chiefs. 
 
 "Yes," he was saying, "she was the finest vessel on 
 the coast. But when she missed stays, and before ever 
 she hit the reef, the canoes started for her. There were 
 five white men, a crew of twenty Santa Cruz boys and 
 Samoans, and only the super-cargo escaped. Besides, 
 there were sixty recruits. They were all kai-kai'd. 
 Kaikai? oh, I beg your pardon. I mean they were 
 eaten. Then there was the James Edwards, a dandy- 
 rigged " 
 
 But at that moment there was a sharp oath from the 
 mate on deck and a chorus of savage cries. A revolver 
 went off three times, and then was heard a loud splash. 
 Captain Hansen had sprung up the companionway on 
 the instant, and Bertie's eyes had been fascinated by a 
 glimpse of him drawing his revolver as he sprung. Bertie 
 went up more circumspectly, hesitating before he put 
 his head above the companionway slide. But nothing 
 happened. The mate was shaking with excitement, his 
 revolver in his hand. Once he startled, and half-jumped 
 around, as if danger threatened his back. 
 
 "One of the natives fell overboard," he was saying, 
 in a queer tense voice. "He couldn't swim." 
 
 "Who was it?" the skipper demanded. 
 
 "Auiki," was the answer. 
 
THE TERRIBLE SOLOMONS 313 
 
 "But I say, you know, I heard shots," Bertie said, in 
 trembling eagerness, for he scented adventure, and ad- 
 venture that was happily over with. 
 
 The mate whirled upon him, snarling: 
 
 "It's a damned lie. There ain't been a shot fired. The 
 nigger fell overboard." 
 
 Captain Hansen regarded Bertie with unblinking, lack- 
 lustre eyes. 
 
 "I I thought " Bertie was beginning. 
 
 "Shots? Did you hear any shots, Mr. Jacobs?" 
 
 "Not a shot," replied Mr. Jacobs. 
 
 The skipper looked at his guest triumphantly, and 
 said: 
 
 "Evidently an accident. Let us go down, Mr. Ark- 
 wright, and finish dinner." 
 
 Bertie slept that night in the captain's cabin, a tiny 
 stateroom off the main-cabin. The for'ard bulkhead was 
 decorated with a stand of rifles. Over the bunk were 
 three more rifles. Under the bunk was a big drawer, 
 which when he pulled it out, he found filled with am- 
 munition dynamite, and several boxes of detonators. He 
 elected to take the settee on the opposite side. Lying 
 conspicuously on the small table, was the Aria's log. 
 Bertie did not know that it had been especially prepared 
 for the occasion by Captain Malu, and he read therein 
 how on September 21, two boat's crew had fallen over- 
 board and been drowned. Bertie read between the lines 
 and knew better. He read how the Aria's whale-boat 
 had been bushwacked at Stilu and had lost three men; of 
 how the skipper discovered the cook stewing human flesh 
 on the galley fire flesh purchased by the boat's crew 
 ashore in Fui; of how an accidental discharge of dyna- 
 mite, while signalling, had killed another boat's crew; 
 of night attacks; ports fled from between the dawns; 
 attacks by bushmen in mangrove swamps and by fleets of 
 
314 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 salt-water men in the larger passages. One item that 
 occurred with monotonous frequency was death by dysen- 
 tery. He noticed with alarm that two white men had so 
 died guests, .like himself on the Aria. 
 
 "I say, you know," Bertie said next day to Captain 
 Hansen. "I've been glancing through your log." 
 
 The skipper displayed quick vexation that the log had 
 been left lying about. 
 
 "And all that dysentery, you know, that's all rot, just 
 like the accidental drownings," Bertie continued. "What 
 does dysentery really stand for?" 
 
 The skipper openly admired his guest's acumen, stif- 
 fened himself to make indignant denial, then gracefully 
 surrendered. 
 
 "You see, it's like this, Mr. Arkwright. These islands 
 have got a bad enough name as it is. It's getting harder 
 every day to sign on white men. Suppose a man is killed. 
 The company has to pay through the nose for another 
 man to take the job. But if the man merely dies of 
 sickness, it's all right. The new chums don't mind dis- 
 ease. What they draw the line at is being murdered. 
 I thought the skipper of the Aria had died of dysentery 
 when I took his billet. Then it was too late. I'd signed 
 the contract." 
 
 "Besides," said Mr. Jacobs, "there's altogether too 
 many accidental drownings anyway. It don't look right. 
 It's the fault of the government. A white man hasn't 
 a chance to defend himself from the niggers." 
 
 "Yes, look at the Princess and that Yankee mate," the 
 skipper took up the tale. "She carried five white men 
 besides a government agent. The captain, the agent, 
 and the supercargo were ashore in the two boats. They 
 were killed to the last man. The mate and bosun, with 
 about fifteen of the crew Samoans and Tongans were 
 on board. A crowd of niggers came off from the shore. 
 
THE TERRIBLE SOLOMONS 315 
 
 First thing the mate knew, the bosun and the crew were 
 killed in the first rush. The mate grabbed three car- 
 tridge-belts and two Winchesters and skinned up to the 
 cross-trees. He was the sole survivor, and you can't 
 blame him for being mad. He pumped one rifle till it 
 got so hot he couldn't hold it, then he pumped the other. 
 The deck was black with niggers. He cleaned them out. 
 He dropped them as they went over the rail, and he 
 dropped them as fast as they picked up their paddles. 
 Then they jumped into the water and started to swim 
 for it, and, being mad, he got half a dozen more. And 
 what did he get for it?" 
 
 "Seven years in Fiji," snapped the mate. 
 
 "The government said he wasn't justified in shoot- 
 ing after they'd taken to the water," the skipper explained. 
 
 "And that's why they die of dysentery nowadays," the 
 mate added. 
 
 "Just fancy," said Bertie, as he felt a longing for the 
 cruise to be over. 
 
 Later on in the day he interviewed the black who had 
 been pointed out to him as a cannibal. This fellow's 
 name was Sumasai. He had spent three years on a 
 Queensland plantation. He had been to Samoa, and Fiji, 
 and Sydney; and as a boat's crew had been on recruiting 
 schooners through New Britain, New Ireland, New 
 Guinea, and the Admiralties. Also, he was a wag, and 
 he had taken a line on his skipper's conduct. Yes, he had 
 eaten many men. How many? He could not remember 
 the tally. Yes, white men, too; they were very good, 
 unless they were sick. He had once eaten a sick one. 
 
 "My word!" he cried, at the recollection. "Me sick 
 plenty along him. My belly walk about too much." 
 
 Bertie shuddered, and asked about heads. Yes, Sum- 
 asai had several hidden ashore, in good condition, sun- 
 dried, and smoke-cured. One was of the captain of 
 
316 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 a schooner. It had long whiskers. He would sell it 
 for two quid. Black men's heads he would sell for one 
 quid. He had some pickaninny heads, in poor condition, 
 that he would let go for ten bob. 
 
 Five minutes afterward, Bertie found himself sitting 
 on the companionway-slide alongside a black with a hor- 
 rible skin disease. He sheered off, and on inquiry was told 
 that it was leprosy. He hurried below and washed him- 
 self with antiseptic soap. He took many antiseptic washes 
 in the course of the day, for every native on board was 
 afflicted with malignant ulcers of one sort or another. 
 
 As the Aria drew in to an anchorage in the midst of 
 mangrove swamps, a double row of barbed wire was 
 stretched around above her rail. That looked like business 
 and when Bertie saw the shore canoes alongside, armed 
 with spears, bows and arrows, and Sniders, he wished 
 more earnestly than ever that the cruise was over. 
 
 That evening the natives were slow in leaving the 
 ship at sundown. A number of them checked the mate 
 when he ordered them ashore. 
 
 "Never mind, I'll fix them," said Captain Hansen, 
 diving below. 
 
 When he came back, he showed Bertie a stick of dyna- 
 mite attached to a fish-hook. Now it happens that a 
 paper-wrapped bottle of chlorodyne with a piece of harm- 
 less fuse projecting can fool anybody. It fooled Bertie, 
 and it fooled the natives. When Captain Hansen lighted 
 the fuse and hooked the fish-hook into the tail-end of a 
 native's loin-cloth, that native was smitten with so ardent 
 a desire for the shore that he forgot to shed the loin- 
 cloth. He started for'ard, the fuse sizzling and splut- 
 tering at his rear, the natives in his path taking headers 
 over the barbed wire at every jump. Bertie was horror- 
 stricken. So was Captain Hansen. He had forgotten 
 his twenty-five recruits, on each of which he had paid 
 
THE TERRIBLE SOLOMONS 317 
 
 thirty shillings advance. They went over the side along 
 with the shore-dwelling folk and followed by him who 
 trailed the sizzling chlorodyne bottle. 
 
 Bertie did not see the bottle go off; but the mate op- 
 portunely discharging a stick of real dynamite aft where 
 it would harm nobody, Bertie would have sworn in any 
 admiralty court to a nigger blown to flinders. 
 
 The flight of the twenty-five recruits had actually cost 
 the Aria forty pounds, and, since they had taken to the 
 bush, there was no hope of recovering them. The skipper 
 and his mate proceeded to drown their sorrow in cold 
 tea. The cold tea was in whiskey bottles, so Bertie did 
 not know it was cold tea they were mopping up. All he 
 knew was that the two men got very drunk and argued 
 eloquently and at length as to whether the exploded 
 nigger should be reported as a case of dysentery or as 
 an accidental drowning. When they snored off to sleep, 
 he was the only white man left, and he kept a perilous 
 watch till dawn, in fear of an attack from shore and an 
 uprising of the crew. 
 
 Three more days the Aria spent on the coast, and three 
 more nights the skipper and the mate drank overfondly 
 of cold tea, leaving Bertie to keep watch. They knew 
 he could be depended upon, while he was equally certain 
 that if he lived, he would report their drunken conduct 
 to Captain Malu. Then the Aria dropped anchor at 
 Reminge Plantation, on Guadalcanar, and Bertie landed 
 on the beach with a sigh of relief and shook hands with 
 the manager. Mr. Harriwell was ready for him. 
 
 "Now you mustn't be alarmed if some of our fellows 
 seem downcast," Mr. Harriwell said, having drawn him 
 aside in confidence. There's been talk of an outbreak, 
 and two or three suspicious signs I'm willing to admit, 
 but personally I think it's all poppycock." 
 
3 1 8 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 u How how many blacks have you on the planta- 
 tion?" Bertie asked, with a sinking heart. 
 
 "We're working four hundred just now," replied Mr. 
 Harriwell, cheerfully; "but the three of us, with you, of 
 course, and the skipper and mate of the Aria, can handle 
 them all right." 
 
 Bertie turned to meet one McTavish, the storekeeper, 
 who scarcely acknowledged the introduction, such was 
 his eagerness to present his resignation. 
 
 "'It being that I'm a married man, Mr. Harriwell, I 
 can't very well afford to remain on longer. Trouble is 
 working up, as plain as the nose on your face. The 
 niggers are going to break out, and there'll be another 
 Hohono horror here.'" 
 
 "What's a Hohono horror?" Bertie asked, after the 
 storekeeper had been persuaded to remain until the end 
 of the month." 
 
 "Oh, he means Hohono Plantation, on Ysabel," said 
 the manager. "The niggers killed the five white men 
 ashore, captured the schooner, killed the captain and mate, 
 and escaped in a body to Malaita. But I always said they 
 were careless on Hohono. They won't catch us napping 
 here. Come along, Mr. Arkwright, and see our view 
 from the veranda." 
 
 Bertie was too busy wondering how he could get away 
 to Tulagi to the Commissioner's house, to see much of 
 the view. He was still wondering, when a rifle exploded 
 very near to him behind his back. At the same moment 
 his arm was nearly dislocated, so eagerly did Mr. Harri- 
 well drag him indoors. 
 
 "I say, old man, that was a close shave," said the 
 manager, pawing him over to see if he had been hit. 
 "I can't tell you how sorry I am. But it was broad day- 
 light, and I never dreamed." 
 
 Bertie was beginning to turn pale. 
 
THE TERRIBLE SOLOMONS 319 
 
 "They got the other manager that way," McTavish 
 vouchsafed. u And a dashed fine chap he was. Blew his 
 brains out all over the veranda. You noticed that dark 
 stain there between the steps and the door?" 
 
 Bertie was ripe for the cocktail which Mr. Harriwell 
 pitched in and compounded for him ; but before he could 
 drink it, a man in riding trousers and puttees entered. 
 
 "What's the matter now?" the manager asked, after 
 one look at the newcomer's face. "Is the river up again?" 
 
 "River be blowed it's the niggers. Stepped out of 
 the cane-grass not a dozen feet away, and whopped at 
 me. It was a Snider, and he shot from the hip. Now 
 what I want to know is where'd he get the Snider? Oh, 
 I beg your pardon. Glad to know you, Mr. Arkwright." 
 
 "Mr. Brown is my assistant," explained Mr. Harriwell. 
 "And now let's have that drink." 
 
 "But where'd he get that Snider?" Mr. Brown in- 
 sisted. "I always objected to keeping those guns on the 
 premises?" 
 
 "They're still there," Mr. Harriwell said, with a show 
 of heat. 
 
 Mr. Brown smiled increduously. 
 
 "Come along and see," said the manager. 
 
 Bertie joined the procession into the office, where Mr. 
 Harriwell pointed triumphantly at a big packing-case in 
 a dusty corner. 
 
 "Well, then, where did the beggar get that Snider?" 
 harped Mr. Brown. 
 
 But just then McTavish lifted the packing-case. The 
 manager started then tore off the lid. The case was 
 empty. They gazed at one another in horrified silence. 
 Harriwell dropped wearily. 
 
 Then McVeigh cursed. 
 
 "What I contended all along the house-boys are not 
 to be trusted." 
 
320 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 "It does look serious," Harriwell admitted, "but we'll 
 come through it all right. What the sanguinary niggers 
 need is a shaking up. Will you gentlemen please bring 
 your rifles to dinner, and will you, Mr. Brown, kindly 
 prepare forty or fifty sticks of dynamite. Make the fuses 
 good and short. We'll give them a lesson. And now, 
 gentlemen, dinner is served." 
 
 One thing that Bertie detested was rice and curry, so 
 it happened that he alone partook of an inviting omelet. 
 He had quite finished his plate, when Harriwell helped 
 himself to the omelet. One mouthful he tasted, then spat 
 out vociferously. 
 
 "That's the second time," McTavish announced omi- 
 nously. 
 
 Harriwell was still hawking and spitting. 
 
 " Second time, what?" Bertie quavered. 
 
 " Poison," was the answer. " That cook will be 
 hanged yet." 
 
 " That's the way the bookkeeper went out at Cape 
 Marsh," Brown spoke up. " Died horribly. They said 
 on the Jessie that they heard him screaming three miles 
 away." 
 
 " I'll put the cook in irons," sputtered Harriwell. 
 " Fortunately we discovered it in time." 
 
 Bertie sat paralysed. There was no color in his face. 
 He attempted to speak, but only an inarticulate gurgle 
 resulted. All eyed him anxiously. 
 
 " Don't say it, don't say it," McTavish cried in a tense 
 voice. 
 
 " Yes, I ate it, plenty of it, a whole plateful!" Bertie 
 cried explosively, like a diver suddenly regaining breath. 
 
 The awful silence continued half a minute longer, and 
 he read his fate in their eyes. 
 
 " Maybe it wasn't poison after all," said Harriwell, 
 dismally. 
 
THE TERRIBLE SOLOMONS 321 
 
 " Call in the cook," said Brown. 
 
 In came the cook, a grinning black boy, nose-spiked 
 and ear-plugged. 
 
 " Here, you, Wi-wi, what name that?" Harriwell bel- 
 lowed, pointing accusingly at the omelet. 
 
 Wi-wi was very naturally frightened and embarrassed. 
 
 " Him good fella kai-kai," he murmured apologetically. 
 
 " Make him eat it," suggested McTavish. " That's a 
 proper test." 
 
 Harriwell filled a spoon with the stuff and jumped for 
 the cook, who fled in panic. 
 
 ' That settles it," was Brown's solemn pronouncement. 
 " He won't eat it." 
 
 " Mr. Brown, will you please go and put the irons on 
 him?" Harriwell turned cheerfully to Bertie. " It's all 
 right, old man, the Commissioner will deal with him, 
 and if you die, depend upon it, he will be hanged." 
 
 " Don't think the government'll do it," objected Mc- 
 Tavish. 
 
 " But gentlemen, gentlemen," Bertie cried. " In the 
 meantime think of me." 
 
 Harriwell shrugged his shoulders pityingly. 
 
 " Sorry, old man, but it's a native poison, and there 
 are no known antidotes for native poisons. Try and com- 
 pose yourself, and if " 
 
 Two sharp reports of a rifle from without, inter- 
 rupted the discourse, and Brown, entering, reloaded his 
 rifle and sat down to table. 
 
 " The cook's dead," he said. " Fever. A rather sud- 
 den attack." 
 
 " I was just telling Mr. Arkwright that there are no 
 antidotes for native poisons " 
 
 " Except gin," said Brown. 
 
 Harriwell called himself an absent-minded idiot and 
 rushed for the gin bottle. 
 
322 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 " Neat, man, neat," he warned Bertie, who gulped 
 down a tumbler two-thirds full of the raw spirits, and 
 coughed and choked from the angry bite of it till the 
 tears ran down his cheeks. 
 
 Harriwell took his pulse and temperature, made a show 
 of looking out for him, and doubted that the omelet 
 had been poisoned. Brown and McTavish also doubted; 
 but Bertie discerned an insincere ring in their voices. His 
 appetite had left him, and he took his own pulse stealthily 
 under the table. There was no question but what it 
 was increasing, but he failed to ascribe it to the gin he 
 had taken. McTavish, rifle in hand, went out on the 
 veranda to reconnoitre. 
 
 "They're massing up at the cook-house," was his re- 
 port. " And they've no end of Sniders. My idea is to 
 sneak around on the other side and take them in flank. 
 Strike the first blow, you know. Will you come along, 
 Brown?" 
 
 Harriwell ate on steadily, while Bertie discovered that 
 his pulse had leaped up five beats. Nevertheless, he 
 could not help jumping when the rifles began to go off. 
 Above the scattering of Sniders could be heard the pump- 
 ing of Brown's and McTavish's Winchesters all against 
 a background of demoniacal screeching and yelling. 
 
 " They've got them on the run," Harriwell remarked, 
 as voices and gunshots faded away in the distance. 
 
 Scarcely were Brown and McTavish back at the table 
 when the latter reconnoitred. 
 
 "They've got dynamite," he said. 
 
 " Then let's charge them with dynamite," Harriwell 
 proposed. 
 
 Thrusting half a dozen sticks each into their pockets 
 and equipping themselves with lighted cigars, they started 
 for the door. And just then it happened. They blamed 
 McTavish for it afterward, and he admitted that the 
 
THE TERRIBLE SOLOMONS 323 
 
 charge had been a trifle excessive. But at any rate it 
 went off under the house, which lifted up corner-wise 
 and settled back on its foundations. Half the china on 
 the table was shattered, while the eight-day clock stopped. 
 Yelling for vengeance, the three men rushed out into 
 the night, and the bombardment began. 
 
 When they returned, there was no Bertie. He had 
 dragged himself away to the office, barricaded himself 
 in, and sunk upon the floor in a gin-soaked nightmare, 
 wherein he died a thousand deaths while the valorous 
 fight went on around him. In the morning, sick and 
 headachy from the gin, he crawled out to find the sun 
 still in the sky and God presumably in heaven, for his 
 hosts were alive and uninjured. 
 
 Harriwell pressed him to stay on longer, but Bertie 
 insisted on sailing immediately on the Aria for Tulagi, 
 where, until the following steamer day, he stuck close 
 by the Commissioner's house. There were lady tour- 
 ists on the outgoing steamer, and Bertie was again a 
 hero, while Captain Malu, as usual, passed unnoticed. 
 But Captain Malu sent back from Sydney two cases of 
 the best Scotch whiskey on the market, for he was not 
 able to make up his mind as to whether it was Captain 
 Hansen or Mr. Harriwell who had given Bertie Ark- 
 wright the more gorgeous insight into life in the 
 Solomons. 
 
EL DORADO 
 
 From "A Tarpaulin Muster," BY JOHN MASEFIELD 
 
 THE night had fallen over the harbour before the 
 winch began to rattle. The stars came out, calm 
 and golden, shaking little tracks in the sea. In 
 the tiers of ships shone the riding-lights. To the west- 
 ward, where the Point jutted out, the great golden light 
 of Negra winked and glimmered as it revolved. It was 
 a beat continually, like the marching of an army, along 
 the line of the coast. In one of the tiers of ships there 
 was a sing-song. A crew had gathered on the fore- 
 castle head, to beat their pannikins to the stars. The 
 words of their song floated out into the darkness, full of 
 a haunting beauty which thrilled and satisfied me. There 
 was something in the night, in the air, in the beauty of 
 the town, and in the sweetness of the sailors' singing, 
 which made me sorry to be leaving. I should have liked 
 to have gone ashore again, to the Calle del Inca, where 
 the cafes and taverns stood. I should have liked to have 
 seen those stately pale women, in their black robes, with 
 the scarlet roses in their hair, swaying slowly on the stage 
 to the clicking of the castenets. I should have liked to 
 have taken part in another wild dance among the tables 
 of the wine shops. I was sorry to be leaving. 
 
 When the winch began to clank, as the cable was hove 
 in, I gathered up my lead-line, and went to the leadsman's 
 dicky, or litle projecting platform, on the starboard side. 
 I was to be the leadsman that night, and as we should 
 soon be moving, I made the breast-rope secure, and stood 
 by. 
 
 Presently the bell of the engine-room clanged, and 
 
 324 
 

 EL DORADO 325 
 
 there came a wash abaft as the screws thrashed. The 
 ship trembled, as the turbulent trampling of the engines 
 shook her. The bell clanged again; the water below 
 me gleamed and whitened; the dark body of the steamer, 
 with her lines of lit ports, swept slowly across the lights 
 in the harbour. The trampling of the engines steadied, 
 and took to itself a rhythm. We were off. I cast an 
 eye astern at the little town I was so sad to leave, and 
 caught a glimpse of a path of churned water, broaden- 
 ing astern of us. A voice sounded from the promenade 
 deck behind me. " Zat light, what you call 'eem?" 
 
 I could not answer. My orders were to keep strict 
 silence. The point of an umbrella took me sharply be- 
 low the shoulders. "What you call 'eem zat light? 
 Ze light zere?" 
 
 I wondered if I could swing my lead on to him; it was 
 worth trying. Again came the umbrella; and again the 
 bell of the engine-room clanged. 
 
 " Are you ready there with the lead? " came the mate's 
 voice above me. " All ready with the lead, sir." "What 
 have we now?" I gathered forward and swung the lead. 
 I could not reach the umbrella-man, even with my spare 
 line. Once, twice, thrice I swung, and pitched the plum- 
 met well forward into the bow wash. 
 
 " By the deep, eight, sir." 
 
 Again the bell clanged; the ship seemed to tremble 
 and stop. " Another cast now, quickly." " And a half, 
 seven, sir." As I hauled in, I again tasted the um- 
 brella, and another question came to me: 'What 'ave 
 you do? Why 'ave you do zat?" I swore under my 
 breath. " Are you asleep there leadsman? " The mate 
 was biting his finger-ends. I sent the lead viciously into 
 the sea. " Quarter less seven, sir." " Another cast, 
 smartly, now." Rapidly I hauled in, humming an old 
 ballad to myself. "We'll have the ship ashore," I re- 
 
326 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 peated. There was a step on the deck behind me, and 
 again came the voice, "Ze man, ze man zere what 'ave he 
 do? Why 'ave 'e go like so?" "Won't you pass further 
 aft, sir?" said a suave voice. "You're interrup'in' the 
 leadsman." It was one of the quartermasters. Once 
 again the lead flew forward. "By the mark, seven, sir." 
 
 There was a pause; then came the voice again. "I go 
 zees way," said the quartermaster. The steps of the 
 umbrella-man passed away aft. "Zees way," said the 
 quartermaster, under his breath, "zees way! You gaw- 
 dem Dago !" I could have hugged the fellow. 
 
 "What now?" said the old man, leaning over from 
 the bridge. I cast again. " And a half, eight, sir." 
 
 " We're clear," said the voice above me. " Speed 
 ahead, Mr. Jenkins." I gathered up my line. The 
 engine-room bell clanged once more; the ship seemed to 
 leap suddenly forward. In a few seconds, even as I 
 coiled my line, the bow wash broadened to a roaring 
 water. The white of it glimmered and boiled, and spun 
 away from us streaked with fires. Across the stars above 
 us the mists from the smoke-stack stretched in a broad 
 cloud. Below me the engines trampled thunderously. 
 Ahead there were the lights, and the figure of the look- 
 out, and the rush and hurry of the water. Astern, far 
 astern already, were the port, the ships at anchor, and 
 the winking light on the Point. A bugle abaft called the 
 passengers to dinner, and I watched them as they went 
 from their cabins. A lady, in blue gown, with a shawl 
 round her head, was talking to a man in evening dress. 
 " Isn't it interesting," she remarked, " to hear them 
 making the soundings?" The white shirt was politely 
 non-committal. " Aft there, two of you," said a hard 
 voice, " and trice the ladder up. Smartly now." The 
 lady in the blue dress stopped to watch us. 
 
 I did not see the umbrella-man again until the next day, 
 
EL DORADO 327 
 
 when I passed him on the hurricane deck. He was look- 
 ing at the coast through a pair of binoculars. We were 
 running to the north, in perfect Pacific weather, under 
 a soft blue sky that was patrolled by little soft white 
 clouds. The land lay broad to starboard, a land of yel- 
 low hills with surf-beaten outliers of black reef. Here 
 and there we passed villages in the watered valleys, each 
 with its whitewashed church and copper smeltry. The 
 umbrella-man was looking beyond these, at the hills. 
 
 He was a little man, this man who had prodded me, 
 with a long, pale face and pale eyes, a long reddish 
 beard, and hair rather darker, both hair and beard be- 
 ing sparse. He was a fidgety person, always twitching 
 with his hands, and he walked with something of a strut, 
 as though the earth belonged to him. He snapped-to 
 the case of his binoculars as though he had sheathed a 
 sword. 
 
 Later in the day, after supper, in the second dog- 
 watch, as I sat smoking on the fore-coamings, he came 
 up to me and spoke to me. "You know zees coas' ?" he 
 asked. Yes, I knew the coast. "What you zink?" de 
 asked ; "you like 'eem ?" No, I didn't like 'eem. "Ah," 
 he said, "You 'ave been wizzin?" I asked him what he 
 meant. "Wizzin," he repeated, "wizzen, in ze contry. 
 You 'ave know ze land, ze peoples?" I growled that I 
 had been within, to Lima, and to Santiago, and that I had 
 been ashore at the Chincha Islands. "Ah," he said, 
 with a strange quickening of interest, "you 'ave been to 
 Lima; you like 'eem?" No, I had not. "I go wizzen," 
 he said proudly. "It is because I go; zat is why I ask. 
 Zere is few 'ave gone wizzen." An old quartermaster 
 walked up to us. "There's very few come back, sir," 
 
 he said. "Them Indians " "Ah, ze Indians," said 
 
 the little man scornfully, "ze Indians; I zeenk nozzin of 
 ze Indians." "Beg pardon, sir," said the old sailor, 
 
328 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 "They're a tough crowd, them copper fellers." "I no 
 understan' ;" said the Frenchman. "They pickle peo- 
 ple's heads," said the old sailor, "in the sand or some- 
 thin'. They keep for ever pretty near when once they're 
 pickled. They pickle every one's head and sell 'em in 
 Lima : I've knowed 'em get a matter of three pound for 
 a good head." "Heads?" said another sailor. "I had 
 one myself once. I got it at Tacna, but it wasn't prop- 
 erly pickled or something it was a red-headed beg- 
 gar the chap as owned it I had to throw it away. 
 
 It got too strong for the crowd," he explained. "Ah 
 zose Indians," said the Frenchman. "I 'ave 'card; zey 
 tell me, zey tell me at Valparaiso. But ah, it ees a fool; 
 it ees a fool; zere is no Indians." u Beg pardon, sir," 
 said the old sailor, "but if you go up among them jokers, 
 you'll have to look slippy with a gun, sir," "Ah, a gon," 
 he answered, "a gon. I was not to be bozzered wiz a 
 gon. I 'ave what you call 'eem peestol." He pro- 
 duced a boy's derringer, which might have cost about 
 ten dollars, Spanish dollars, in the pawnshops of San- 
 tiago. "Peestol," murmured a sailor, gasping, as he 
 shambled forward to laugh, "peestol, the gawdem Dago's 
 balmy." 
 
 During the next few days I saw the Frenchman fre- 
 quently. He was a wonder to us, and his plans were 
 discussed at every meal, and in every watch below. In 
 the dog-watches he would come forward, with his eter- 
 nal questions: "What is wizzin? In ze contry?" We 
 would tell him, "Indians, or highwaymen," or "a push 
 of highbinders;" and he would answer: "It ees nozzin, 
 it ees a fool." Once he asked us if we had heard of 
 any gold being found "wizzen." "Gold?" said one of 
 us. "Gold? O' course there's gold, any God's quan- 
 tity. Them Incas ate gold; they're buried in it." ' 'Ave 
 you know zem, ze Incas? he asked eagerly. "I seen 
 
EL DORADO 329 
 
 a tomb of theirs once," said the sailor; "it were in a cove, 
 like the fo'c'sle yonder, and full of knittin'-needles." 
 "What is zem?" said the Frenchman. The sailor sham- 
 bled below to his chest, and returned with a handful of 
 little sticks round which some balls of coloured threads 
 were bound. "Knittin'-needles," said the sailor. "Them 
 ain't no knittin'-needles. Writin'? How could them be 
 writin'? "Well, I heard tell once." replied the other. 
 "It ees zeir way of writing," said the Frenchman; "I 'ave 
 seen; zat is zeir way of writing; ze knots is zeir letters." 
 "Bleedin' funny letters, I call 'em," said the needles-the- 
 orist. "You and your needles," said the other. "Now, 
 what d'ye call 'em?" The bell upon the bridge clanged. 
 "Eight bells," said the company; "aft to muster, boys." 
 The bugle at the saloon-door announced supper. 
 
 We were getting pretty well to the north Mol- 
 
 lendo, or thereabouts when I had my last conversa- 
 tion with the Frenchman. He came up to me one night, 
 as I sat on the deck to leeward of the winch, keeping the 
 first watch as snugly as I could. "You know zees coast 
 long?" he asked. I had not. Then came the never- 
 ceasing, "'Ave you know of ze Incas?" Yes, lot of 
 general talk; and I had seen Incas curios, mostly earth- 
 ware, in every port in Peru. "You 'ave seen gold?" 
 No; there was never any gold. The Spaniards made a 
 pretty general average of any gold there was. "It ees 
 a fool," he answered. "I tell you," he went on, "it ees 
 a fool. Zay have say zat; zey 'ave all say zat; it ees a 
 fool. Zere is gold. Zere is a hundred million pounds; 
 zere is twenty tousan' million dollars; zere is El Dorado. 
 Beyond ze mountains zere is El Dorado; zere is a town 
 of gold. Zay say zere is no gold? Zere is. I go to 
 find ze gold; zat is what I do; I fin' ze gold, I, Paul Bac." 
 "Alone?" I asked. "I, Paul Bac," he answered. 
 
 I looked at him a moment. He was a little red-haired 
 
330 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 man, slightly made, but alert and active-looking. He 
 knew no Spanish, no Indian dialects, and he had no com- 
 rade. I told him that I thought he didn't know what he 
 was doing. "Ha!" he said. "Listen: I go to Payta; 
 I go by train to Chito; zen I reach ze Morona River; 
 from zere I reach Marinha. Listen: El Dorado is be- 
 tween ze Caqueta and ze Putumayo Rivers, in ze forest." 
 I would have asked him how he knew, but I had to break 
 away to relieve the lookout. I wished the little man 
 good night; I never spoke with him again. 
 
 I thought of him all that watch, as I kept scanning the 
 seas. I should be going up and down, I thought, land- 
 ing passengers through surf, or swaying bananas out of 
 launches, or crying the sounds as we came to moorings. 
 He would be going on under the stars, full of unquench- 
 able hope, stumbling on the bones of kings. He would 
 be wading across bogs, through rivers and swamps, 
 through unutterable and deathly places, singing some 
 songs, and thinking of the golden city. He was a pil- 
 grim, a poet, a person to reverence. And if he got 
 
 there, if he found El Dorado but that was absurd. 
 
 I thought of him sadly, with the feeling that he had 
 learned how to live, and that he would die by applying 
 his knowledge. I wondered how he would die. He 
 would be alone there, in the tangle, stumbling across 
 creepers. The poisoned blow-pipe, such as I had seen 
 from the long, polished blow-pipe, such as I had seen 
 in the museums. He would fall on his face, among the 
 jungle. Then the silent Indian would hack off his head 
 with a flint, and pickle it for the Lima markets. He 
 would never get to the Caqueta. Or perhaps he would 
 be caught in an electric storm, an aire, as they call them, 
 and be stricken down among the hills on his way to Chito. 
 More probably he would die of hunger or thirst, as so 
 many had died before him. I remembered a cowboy 
 
EL DORADO 331 
 
 whom I had found under a thorn bush in the Argentine. 
 Paul Bac would be like that cowboy; he would run short 
 of water, and kill his horse for the blood, and then go 
 mad and die. 
 
 I was in my bunk when he went ashore at Payta, but 
 a fellow in the other watch told me how he left the ship. 
 There was a discussion in the forecastle that night as 
 to the way the heads were prepared. Some said it was 
 sand; some said it was the leaf of the puro bush; one 
 or two held out for a mixture of pepper and nitrate. 
 One man speculated as to the probable price the head 
 would fetch; and the general vote was for two pounds, 
 or two pounds ten. "It wouldn't give me no pleasure," 
 said one of us, "to have that ginger-nob in my chest." 
 "Nor me, it wouldn't," said another; "I draw the line at 
 having a corpse on my tobacker." "And I do," said sev- 
 eral. Clearly the Frenchman was destined for a town 
 museum. 
 
 It was more than a year after that I heard of the end 
 of the El Dorado hunter. I was in New York when I 
 heard it, serving behind the bar of a saloon. One eve- 
 ning, as I was mixing cocktails, I heard myself hailed by 
 a customer; and there was Billy Neeld, one of our quar- 
 termasters, just come ashore from an Atlantic Transport 
 boat. We had a drink together, and yarned of old 
 times. The names of our old shipmates were like incan- 
 tations. The breathing of them brought the past be- 
 fore us; the past which was so recent, yet so far away; 
 the past which is so dear to a sailor and so depressing 
 to a landsman. So and so was dead, and Jimmy had 
 gone among the Islands, and Dick had pulled out for 
 home because "he couldn't stick that Mr. Jenkins." Very 
 few of them remained on the Coast; the brothers of the 
 Coast are a shifty crowd. 
 
 "D'ye remember the Frenchman," I asked, "the man 
 
332 GREAT SEA STORIES 
 
 who was always asking about the Incas?" u The ginger- 
 headed feller ?" "Yes, a little fellow." "A red-headed, 
 ambitious little runt? I remember him, 1 ' said Billy; u he 
 left us at Payta, the time we fouled the launch," "That's 
 the man," I said; "have you heard anything of him?" 
 "Oh, he's dead all right," said Billy. "His mother came 
 out after him; there was a piece in the Chile Times 
 about him." "He was killed, I suppose?" "Yes, them 
 Indians got him, somewhere in Ecuador, Tommy Hains 
 told me. They got his head back, though. It was be- 
 ing sold in the streets; his old mother offered a reward, 
 and the Dagoes got it back for her. He's dead all 
 right, he is; he might ha' known as much, going alone 
 among them Indians. Dead? I guess he is dead; none 
 but a red-headed runt'd have been such a lunk as to try 
 it." "He was an ambitious lad," I said. "Yes," said 
 Billy, "he was. Them ambitious fellers, they want the 
 earth, and they get their blooming heads pickled; that's 
 what they get by it. Here's happy days, young feller." 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 OV 14193 
 
 OCT 6 
 
 JUM 5 1946 
 
 
 LD 21-100m-7,'33 
 
iYCI08301 
 
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