Afloat at Last Part 8

"Goo-goo-oo-ah!" I murmured drowsily, falling asleep in the middle both of a yawn and of my sentence, only to wake again the next moment--it seemed to me--from a horrible dream, in which I was a.s.sailed by a crowd of savages, who were dancing round me with terrible cries and just going to make an end of me, for they were pulling and hauling away at me and shaking me to pieces!

And, strange to say, my first waking impression appeared to confirm the story of my dream; for there really was an awful noise going on all round and a yellow tawny face was bending over me looking into mine, all the yellower from the bright sunlight that streamed through the open door of the cabin fall upon it, while the owner of the face was shaking me and calling out close to my ear in a strange dialect, "Hi, lilly pijjin, rousee and bittee!"

CHAPTER SIX.

THE STARLING.

Rubbing my eyes and then opening them to the full, wide awake at last, I at once recollected where I was, and who was speaking to me as he shook me.

It was Ching w.a.n.g, the Chinese cook, smiling all over his round yellow face, and holding out a tin pannikin with something steaming in it, that sent forth a fragrant smell which made my mouth water.

"Hi me wakee can do," he said in his broken pigeon English, although from having been several voyages he spoke more intelligibly than the majority of his countrymen, "Ma.s.s' Looney me axee lookee after lilly pijjin, and so me fetchee piecee coffee number one chop. You wanchee-- hey?"

"Thank you," I cried gratefully, drinking the nice hot coffee, which seemed delicious though there was no milk in it. Then, forgetting I was in the top bunk, I sprang off the mattress on which I had been lying, falling further than I thought, it being quite six feet to the deck below; and, knocking down the good-natured Chinaman, with whom I tumbled over amongst the things scattered about the floor and landed finally outside the door of the deck-house in a heap, rolled up with him in the blanket I had clutched as I fell!

Fortunately, however, neither of us was injured by this little scrimmage, which somehow or other seemed to smooth over the awkwardness of our making acquaintance, both of us grinning over the affair as a piece of good fun.

"Chin-chin, lilly pijjin," said my new friend, as he picked himself up from the deck and made his way back to his galley with the empty pannikin, whose contents I was glad to have swallowed before jumping out of the bunk, or else it would have been spilt in another fashion. "When you wanchee chow-chow you comee Ching w.a.n.g and he givee you first chop."

"Thank you," I replied again, not knowing then what he meant by his term "chow-chow," although I fancied he intended something kind, and probably of an edible nature, as he was the cook. But all thoughts of him and his intentions were quickly banished from my mind the moment I looked around me, and saw and heard all the bustle going on in the ship; for, men were racing here and there, and ropes were being thrown down with heavy bangs, the captain and Mr Mackay both on the p.o.o.p were yelling out queer orders that I couldn't understand, and Mr Saunders and the boatswain on the forecastle were also shouting back equally strange answers, while, to add to the effect, blocks were creaking and canvas flapping aloft, and groups of sailors everywhere were hauling and pulling as if their lives depended on every tug they gave.

It was broad daylight and more; the sun having, unlike me, been up long since, it being after eight o'clock and a bright beautiful morning, with every prospect of fine weather before us for the run down the Channel.

We had come through the Bullock Channel, emerging from the estuary of the Thames ahead of the North Foreland, which proudly raised its head away on our starboard bow, the sun shining on its bare scarp and picking out every detail with photographic distinctness. Further off in the distance, on our port quarter, lay the French coast hazily outlined against the clear blue sky, from which the early mists of dawn that had at first hung over the water had withdrawn their veil, the fresh nor'- easterly breeze sweeping them away seaward with the last of the ebb.

The tide was just on the turn, and the dead low water showed up the sandbanks at the river's mouth.

The little tug Arrow was right ahead; but she had eased her paddles and stopped towing us, preparatory to casting off her hawser and leaving the Silver Queen to her own devices. The good ship on her part seemed nothing loth to this; for, those on board were bustling about as fast as they could to make sail, so that they might actually start on their voyage--all the preliminary work of towing down the river by the aid of the tug being only so much child's play, so to speak, having nothing to do with the proper business of the gallant vessel.

And here I suddenly became confronted with one of the discomforts of board-ship life, which contrasted vividly with the conveniences to which I had been accustomed at home ever since childhood.

Before presenting myself amongst the others I naturally thought of dressing, or rather, as I had gone to sleep in my clothes, of performing some sort of toilet and making myself as tidy as I could; but, lo and behold, when I looked round the cabin of the deck-house, nothing in the shape of a washhand-stand was to be seen, while my sea-chest being underneath a lot of traps, I was unable to open the lid of it and make use of the little basin within, as I wished to do if only to "christen it."

I was completely nonplussed at first; but, a second glance showing me Tom Jerrold, one of my berthmates who had turned out before me, washing his face and hands in a bucket of sea-water in the scuppers, I followed suit, drying myself with a very dirty and ragged towel which he lent me in a friendly way, albeit I felt inclined to turn up my nose at it.

"You thought, I suppose," observed Jerrold with a grin, "that you'd have a nice bath-room and a shampooing establishment for your accommodation-- eh?"

"No, I didn't," said I, smiling too, and quite cheerful under the circ.u.mstances, having determined to act on my father's advice, which Tim Rooney had subsequently confirmed, of never taking umbrage at any joke or chaff from my shipmates, but to face all my disagreeables like a man; "I think, though, we might make some better arrangement than this. I've got a little washhand-basin fixed up inside my chest under there, only I can't get at it."

"So have I in mine, old fellow," he rejoined familiarly; "and it was only sheer laziness that prevented me rigging it up. The fact is, as you'll soon find out, being at sea gets one into terribly slovenly habits, sailors generally making a shift of the first thing that comes to hand."

"I see," said I meditatively; looking no doubt awfully wise and solemn, for he laughed in a jolly sort of way.

"I tell you what, Graham," he remarked affably as he proceeded to plaster his hair down on either side with the moistened palm of his hand in lieu of a brush. "You're not half a bad sort of chap, though Weeks thought you too much of a stuck-up fine gentleman for us; and, d'you know, I'll back you up if you like to keep our quarters in the deck- house here tidy, and set a better example for imitation than Master Weeks, or Matthews--though the latter has left us now, by the way, for a cabin in the saloon, the skipper having promoted him to third mate, as I heard him say just now. Do you agree, eh, to our making order out of chaos?"

"All right! I'll try if you'll help me," I answered, reciprocating his friendly advances, as he seemed a nice fellow--much nicer, I thought, than that little sn.o.b Sam Weeks, with his vegetable-marrow sort of face, my original dislike to the latter being far from lessened by the observation Jerrold told me he had made about me! "I like things to be neat and tidy; and as my father used to say, 'cleanliness is next to G.o.dliness.'"

"I'm afraid, then," chuckled Tom Jerrold, "we poor sailors are in a bad way; for, although we live on the water and have the ocean at command, I don't believe there's a single foremast hand that washes himself oftener than once a week, at least while he's at sea, from year's end to year's end."

"Oh!" I exclaimed, making him laugh again at my expression of horror.

"Aye, it is so; I'm telling the truth, as you'll find if you ask the boatswain, whom I see you've got chummy with already. But, by Jove, they're just going to set the tops'les; and we'll have the skipper or old Sandy Saunders after us with a rope's-end if we stop jawing here any longer."

From the way he spoke you would think we had been talking for a very long time; but, really, our conversation had only lasted a couple of minutes or so at the outside, while I was making myself tidy, using a little pocket-comb my mother had given me just before I left home, to arrange my hair, instead of imitating Jerrold with his palm brush. I also utilised the bucket of sea-water as an improvised looking-gla.s.s so as to get the parting of my hair straight and fix my collar.

The ropes I had heard thrown about the decks were the halliards and clewlines, buntlines, and other gear belonging to the topsails being let go, the gaskets having been thrown off before I was awake; and now at a quick word of command from Mr Mackay--"Sheet home!"--the sails on the fore and main-topsail yards were hauled out to the ends of the clews and set, the canvas being thus extended to its full stretch.

Then followed the next order.

"Man the topsail halliards!"

Thereupon the yards were swung up and the sails expanded to the breeze; and then, the outer jib being hoisted at the same time and the lee- braces hauled in, the man at the wheel putting the helm up the while, the ship payed off on the port tack, making over towards the French coast so as to take advantage of the tide running down Channel on that side. At the same time, the towing-hawser which had up to now still attached us to the tug, was dropped over the bows as we got under weigh.

The Silver Queen seemed to rejoice in her freedom, tossing her bowsprit in the air as she cast off from the tug; and then, heeling over to leeward as she felt the full force of the breeze on her quarter, she gave a plunge downwards, ploughing up the water, now beginning to be crested with little choppy waves as the wind met the current, and sending it sparkling and foaming past her bulwarks, and away behind her in a long creamy wake, that stretched out like a fan astern till it touched Margate sands in the distance.

I now went up on the p.o.o.p, avoiding the weather side, which Tim Rooney had told me the previous evening was always sacred to the captain or commanding officer on duty; for I noticed that the thin pilot in the monkey-jacket, who had just mounted the companion stairs from the cuddy after having his late breakfast, was walking up and down there with Captain Gillespie, the latter smiling and rubbing his hands together, evidently in good humour at our making such a fine start.

"Good morning!" said Mr Mackay, who was standing at the head of the lee p.o.o.p ladder, accosting me as I reached the top. "I hope you had a sound, healthy sleep, my boy?"

"Oh yes, thank you, sir," I replied. "I'm ashamed of being so late when everybody else has been so long astir. Isn't there something I can do, sir?"

"No, my boy, not at present," cried he, laughing at my eagerness to be useful, which arose from my seeing Jerrold nimbly mounting up the after- shrouds with Matthews and a couple of other hands to loosen the mizzen- topsail. "You haven't got your sea-legs yet, nor learnt your way about the ship; and so you would be more a hindrance than a help on a yard up aloft."

"But I may go up by and by?" I asked, a little disappointed at not being allowed to climb with the others, they looked so jolly swinging about as if they enjoyed it; with Tom Jerrold nodding and grinning at me over the yard. "Sha'n't I, sir?"

"Aye, by and by, when there's no fear of your tumbling overboard, youngster," he answered good-naturedly. "You must be content with looking on for a while and picking up information. Use your eyes and ears, my lad; and then we'll see you shortly reefing a royal in a gale!

You needn't be afraid of our not making you work when the time comes."

"I'll be very glad, sir," I said. "I do not like being idle when others are busy."

"A very good sentiment that, my boy; and I only hope you'll stick to it," he replied earnestly. "That desire to be doing something shows that you're no skulker, but have the makings of a sailor in you, as I told the captain last night; so, you see, you mustn't go back on the character I've given you."

"I won't, sir, if I can help it," said I, with my heart in my words; and, from Mr Mackay's look I'm sure he believed me, but just at that moment he crossed over to the other side of the p.o.o.p, Captain Gillespie calling him and telling him what he wanted before he could take a step to reach him.

"We'd better get some more sail on her," said the captain, still rubbing his hand as if rolling pills between them; "the pilot thinks so, and so do I."

"All right, sir!" replied Mr Mackay; and going to the front by the rail, he shouted out forwards:

"Hands make sail!"

"Aye, aye, sorr," I heard the boatswain answer in his rich Irish brogue, supplemented by his hail to the crew of: "Tumble up there, ye spalpeens!

Show a leg now, smart!"

"Lay out aloft there and loose the fore and main topgallants, my men!"

cried Mr Mackay, as soon as he saw the sailors out on the deck. "And, some of you, come aft here to set the spanker!"

Up the ratlines of the rigging clambered the men, racing against each other to see who would be up first, while others below cast off the ropes holding up the bunt and leech of the sail, as soon as the smart fellows had unloosed the gaskets; and then, the folds of the sails being dropped, were sheeted home with a "one, two, three, and a yo heave ho!"

by those on deck, before the top men were half-way down the shrouds.