Harper's Young People, April 27, 1880 Part 1

Harper's Young People, April 27, 1880.

by Various.

ACROSS THE OCEAN; OR, A BOY'S FIRST VOYAGE.

A True Story.

BY J. O. DAVIDSON.

CHAPTER VIII.

A "WHITE SQUALL."

Hurrah for the Mediterranean! Hurrah for the tideless sea! with its sunny skies and sparkling waters, blue and bright as ever, while English moors and German forests are being buried in snow by a bitter January storm! Well might one think that these handsome, olive-cheeked, barefooted fellows in red caps and blue shirts, who cruise about this "summer sea" in their trim little lateen-rigged fruit boats, must be the happiest men alive. Yet there was once an English sailor who, plunging into a raw Channel fog on his return from a twelvemonth's cruise in the Mediterranean, rubbed his hands, and cried, gleefully, "Ah, this is what _I_ calls weather! None o' yer lubberly blue skies _here_!"

Frank, having seen for himself that the Straits of Gibraltar are thirteen miles wide, instead of being (as he had always thought) no broader than the East River, was prepared for surprises; but he could not help staring a little when Herrick told him that this bright, beautiful, gla.s.sy sea is at times one of the stormiest in the world, and that many a good ship has gone down there like a bullet, "as you'll see afore long, mayhap," added the old sailor, warningly.

The sunset that evening, however, seemed to contradict him point-blank.

It was so magnificent that even the careless sailors, used as most of them were to the glories of the Southern sky, stood still to admire it, and p.r.o.nounced it "the finest show they'd ever seen, by a long way." Not a cloud above, not a ripple below; the steamer's track lay across the gla.s.sy water like a broad belt of light. All was so calm, so clear, so bright, that it was hard to tell where the sea ended and the sky began.

The ship seemed to be floating in the centre of a vast bubble.

Suddenly the sun plunged below the horizon like a red-hot ball, and a deep voice muttered in Frank's ear,

"We're a-goin' to catch it!"

At that moment, as if to bear out this gloomy prophecy, the boatswain's hoa.r.s.e call was heard:

"Stand by topsail sheets and halyards! Man the down-hauls! Clear away, and make all snug!"

Instantly all was bustle and activity. While some stripped the yards and clewed up the sails, others battened down the hatches, looked to the lashings of the boats, and made everything fast. Still, though he strained his eyes to the utmost, not the least sign of a storm could Frank see, and at last he whispered to Herrick,

"How _can_ they tell that it's going to be rough?"

"The gla.s.s is falling, lad, and that's always enough for a sailor; but there'll be more'n _that_ afore long. Ay, sure enough--see yonder!"

A streak of pale phosph.o.r.escent mist had just appeared on the port bow, which spread and spread till it blotted out sea and sky, and all was one dim, impenetrable pall. From the far distance came a strange, ghostly whisper, while the sea-birds, which had hitherto kept close to the vessel, flew away with dismal shrieks.

"Below there!" roared the boatswain. "Tumble up there, smart!"

Up flew the men, each darting at once to his own post--and not an instant too soon. A huge white cloud seemed to leap upward through the inky sky like smoke from a cannon, a long line of foam glanced like a lightning flash across the dark sea, and then came a rush and a roar, and over went the ship on her beam ends, and every man on board was blinded, deafened, and strangled, all in one moment, while crash followed crash, as doors, sky-lights, and port-shutters were torn away or dashed to atoms.

Frank, who was just stepping out of one of the deck-houses when the storm burst, was spun across the forecastle like a top, and would have gone overboard had not a sailor clutched his arm, and pressed him down on the deck by main force till the ship righted.

"Lie snug, young 'un," said his rescuer, "for them 'white squalls' ain't to be sneezed at, that's a fact. Look at my shirt."

This was easier said than done, for honest Bill had no shirt left to look at, except the collar and wristbands, all the rest having been torn clean away.

But as Austin glanced round him he saw other proofs of the wind's force even more convincing than this. Two of the boats had been literally smashed to pieces, the strong-iron davits that held them being twisted like pin-wire. Down in the engine-room the flying open of the furnace doors had flooded the whole room with blazing coal, and four of the tubes had burst at once, scalding several firemen so severely that they had to be carried to the surgeon forthwith.

Suddenly a cry for help was heard from the wheel-house. Three or four brave fellows rushed across the reeling deck at the risk of their lives, and tearing open the door, found one quartermaster lying senseless and bleeding in a corner, while the other, with a broken arm, was actually keeping the wheel steady with _the remaining hand and his knee_, which he had thrust between the spokes!

But the stout-hearted crew, not a whit daunted, coolly set about repairing damages. The injured men were carried below, the decks cleared of the fragments of wreck, and the coals drawn from the furnaces, into which the firemen, swathed in wet blankets, crept by turns along a plank (relieving one another as the stifling heat overpowered them) to close the flues again by hammering strong wooden plugs into the leaks.

By twelve o'clock the gale was at its height. Even with four men at the wheel, the _Arizona_ could barely hold her own against the tremendous seas that came thundering upon her like falling rocks, and old Herrick himself began to look grave.

"Get out a drag!" shouted the officer of the watch.

The boatswain repeated the order, to the no small amazement of our hero, who, having always a.s.sociated a drag with the wheel of a coach, was puzzled to imagine how it could be applied to a ship.

But he was not long in finding out. Pieces of timber from the broken boats, worn out sails, old iron, and various odds and ends were hastily gathered into a heap, lashed together with chains, and launched overboard, with two strong hawsers attached. The chains and pieces of iron made the buoyant ma.s.s sink just deep enough, to steady the vessel, and keep her head up to the wind, which toward night-fall began to show signs of abating.

Just before darkness set in, a Spanish bark crossed their bows. The storm had left its mark on her upper spars, which were terribly shattered; but the crew, instead of clearing away the wreck, were groaning and praying around a little doll-like image of the Virgin, while their officers vainly urged them to return to their duty.

"Skulkin' lubbers!" growled old Herrick; "they should git what that feller in the song got. D'ye mind it, Frank, my boy?

"'The boatswain he rope's-ended him, and "Now," says he, "just work!

I read my Bible often, but it don't tell men to _shirk_; The pumps they are not choked as yet, so let us not despair: When all is up, or when we're saved, we'll join with you in prayer."'"

The next morning they sighted the craggy islet of Zembra, which Jack Dewey, the wit of the forecastle, said should be called "Zebra," for its cliffs were curiously veined with stripes of blue, red, and black, as regular as if painted with a brush. A few hours later appeared the larger island of Partellaria, standing boldly up from the sea in one great ma.s.s of cloud-capped mountain, with the trim white houses of the little toy town scattered along its base like a game of dominoes.

By sunset that evening the gale seemed to have fairly blown itself out.

But now came another enemy almost as dangerous. A little after midnight the ship was hemmed in by a perfect wall of fog, through which neither moon nor star was to be seen; and all that could be done was to set the bells and fog-horns to work, making an uproar worthy of a Chinese concert.

About three in the morning came a faint answering chime of church bells; and the _Arizona_, "porting" her helm, kept circling about the same spot for two hours more ("playin' circus," as Jack Dewey said), till the morning breeze suddenly parted the fog, displaying to Frank's eager eyes the rocky sh.o.r.es of Malta, and the entrance of Valetta Harbor.

"There's _one_ thing here as you're bound to see, lad," said Herrick, "and that's a sort o' under-ground tunnel, like ever so many streets buried alive, and pitch-dark every one of 'em. They calls it the Cat-and-Combs [Catacombs]. I never could tell why, for it ain't got nothin' to do with combs, nor yet with cats neither. But you've got to take guides and lights with yer, and stick mighty close to 'em, or ye're a gone 'c.o.o.n. Guess _I_ ought to know that!"

"Why, did _you_ ever get lost there?"

"That's jist what I did, sonny, though I can't think how; but, anyway, there I was, all to once, right away from the rest, and all alone in the dark. I tried to holler, but my throat was so dry with the dust and what not that I made no more noise nor a frog with a sore throat. 'Twarn't pleasant neither, I can tell ye, to feel my feet kickin' agin skulls and bones in the dark, and to think how _my_ bones 'ud be added to the collection 'fore long, when the rats had picked 'em clean. At last I concluded that I'd jist make matters worse by steerin' at hap-hazard, and that my best way was to anchor, and wait for the rest o' the convoy.

"Jist then I spied _two eyes_ a-shinin' in the darkness, and 'fore I could say 'Knife,' slap came somethin' right in my face, givin' me sich a start that I jumped five ways at once. But by the soft, furry feel, I guessed what 'twas; so I sang out, 'Puss! puss!' and the thing came rubbin' agin my feet, and what should it be but a stray cat! Thinks I, 'Here's somethin' to keep off the rats, anyhow!' and I sat down in a corner, and took the cat in my lap, and, if you'll b'lieve me, off I went sound asleep! Fust thing I knew after that, all my mates was around me agin, laughin' like anythin' to find me nussin' a cat that way. But I wouldn't go that job over agin, not to be made a Cap'n!"

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

SOMETHING ABOUT FANS.

Kan Si was the first lady who carried a fan. She lived in ages which are past, and for the most part forgotten, and she was the daughter of a Chinese Mandarin. Who ever saw a Mandarin, even on a tea-chest, without his fan? In China and j.a.pan to this day every one has a fan; and there are fans of all sorts for everybody. The j.a.panese waves his fan at you when he meets you, by way of greeting, and the beggar who solicits for alms has the exceedingly small coin "made on purpose" for charity presented to him on the tip of the fan.

In ancient times, amongst the Greeks and Romans, fans seem to have been enormous; they were generally made of feathers, and carried by slaves over the heads of their masters and mistresses, to protect them from the sun, or waved about before them to stir the air.

Catherine de Medicis carried the first folding fan ever seen in France; and in the time of Louis the Fourteenth the fan was a gorgeous thing, often covered with jewels, and worth a small fortune. In England they were the fashion in the time of Henry the Eighth. All his many wives carried them, and doubtless wept behind them. A fan set in diamonds was once given to Queen Elizabeth upon New-Year's Day.