On Board the Esmeralda Part 18

These orders were executed as rapidly as they were given, the hands being ready at the braces, and only waiting for the word of command to ease the yards round. When these were squared, however, the fore- topmast staysail fluttered and filled with a jerk that made the foremast crack and tremble, the vibration shaking the ship to her centre and penetrating even as far as to the deck beneath our feet as we stood awaiting the issue of the operation--the very planks "creeping" with the concussion caused by this and the bows meeting the send of the sea.

But the power of the little staysail forward, and the effect of the exposed surface of the boatswain's body in the rigging, both catching the wind at the same time, settled the matter.

Without making any further opposition to our wishes, the _Esmeralda_ payed off handsomely; and, rising up on the crest of an enormous green roller, that had swept up to overwhelm her, but which now pa.s.sed harmlessly under her keel instead, she surged through the water, gathering way every moment as she showed her heels to the gale, careering over the stormy billows before the blast like a mad thing, as if rejoicing in her freedom after so long being forced to lay to-- although the fore-topmast staysail, which had done such good work in getting her head round, parted company as soon as the yards were braced round, blowing away to atoms, and floating off in the distance in the same kite-like fashion in which the jib had previously disappeared.

The loss, however, seemed to affect the ship's speed but little, for she scudded off under bare poles at as great a rate as if she had all her canvas set, and was running before a ten-knot breeze.

"Thank Heaven!" I heard Captain Billings exclaim in a low voice, taking off his cap reverently, as soon as we were safely round before the wind; and I could see his lips move as if in silent prayer. In this, I confess, I joined with all my heart; for, if ever in my life I experienced the feeling of religious emotion which causes us to express our grat.i.tude for rescue from peril, I had that feeling then!

The _Esmeralda_, though, was not out of all danger yet.

There was still the fear of her being p.o.o.ped by the following waves, which now raced after, in anger at her having escaped their clutches; so, to lessen this possibility, the skipper had the reefed main-topsail set again, and the mizzen trysail once more hoisted, so that the ship might get through the water faster than the pursuing rollers. The strain on the masts was tremendous; but, fortunately, everything held, and under the impetus of this additional sail power she doubled her speed, bidding defiance to the harpies of the ocean that had so nearly worsted her in the combat.

It was just four bells in the afternoon watch when we got her head round before the wind, although it was not until nearly midnight that the hurricane blew itself out, the wind then dropping almost as suddenly as it had sprung up twenty-four hours before.

During all this time, only one of the watches had a short spell below, and neither the skipper, Jorrocks, nor I, had ever left the deck after the gale had begun--the only exception being Mr Macdougall, who had turned in for a caulk when we were lying-to. Had it not been, however, for the praiseworthy exertions of Pat Doolan, the Irish cook, I do not believe we should have been able to hold out so long.

The willing fellow, despite the series of liquid avalanches that were constantly flooding the ship as she took in the green seas over her bows, managed in some wonderful way or other to keep his galley fire alight, supplying us with a grateful cup of hot coffee at intervals through the hara.s.sing night; and, late in the afternoon, when we were all utterly exhausted, he served out to each of us, much to our surprise, a pannikin apiece of the most delicious pea-soup I ever tasted--"It was enough," as one of the men said on receiving the welcome refreshment, "to have put life in a post!"

This was while our struggle with the elements yet lasted; but as soon as that was over, and when all fear of peril was dispelled by the lulling of the gale, the inevitable reaction after such protracted exertions without any recuperative rest became painfully apparent, and I was not at all sorry when Captain Billings told the hands belonging to the port watch that they might go below.

"And I fancy, Mister Leigh," said Jorrocks to me, "we can go down and turn in too; for we ain't a going to have another such a blow in a hurry again for a month of Sundays!"

Nor did it look like it either, the stars twinkling away in a cloudless sky, and the night being perfectly bright and clear, although there was no moon, while the rollers were rolling less angrily, as if the ocean were hushing itself down into repose at last.

There was nothing, therefore, to keep me on deck any longer; so, following the example of my old friend Jorrocks, I speedily sought my bunk, and, turning in, did not wake again until nearly noon on the following day--the good-natured skipper having given orders to Mr Macdougall not to disturb me when the starboard watch was relieved in the early morning, saying that I had earned my rest fairly by rolling two days' duty into one, which, indeed, I believe I had!

I was up on deck again, however, in time to "tak' the soon," as the Scottish mate termed it in his north-country accent, for I was anxious to see how far the gale had driven the vessel off her proper course.

It was our thirteenth day out, counting from the time we "took our departure," as navigators say, from Lundy Island; and both the skipper and I made it out, after working the reckoning, that we were as far down as the twenty-fifth parallel, although a good deal to the eastward of what our true position should be--the leeway we had made while lying-to, and our subsequent scudding for nearly twelve hours before the north- wester, having taken us much too close in towards the African continent, thus causing us to lose all that westing we had secured on our first start from the Bristol Channel, and which we had afterwards so carefully preserved, even amidst the baffling winds of the middle lat.i.tudes.

Still, this mortifying conclusion had a redeeming feature.

If we were too far to the eastwards, we were as a.s.suredly beyond the region specially designated by Jorrocks as the "Horse Lat.i.tudes," where the calms of Cancer hold sway; for, now, setting all plain sail before a steady breeze from off the land, we soon managed to run into the regular north-east Trades, picking them up in the next degree or two we ran down to the southward.

From this point, keeping on the starboard tack again, with the wind well on our beam, we ran for the Line; but before crossing the equator, Mr Macdougall and I, between whom relations had been somewhat strained almost from our first introduction, came to an open rupture, the "little unpleasantness" happening in this wise.

Mr Ohlsen, the second mate--"Old son of a gun," as the crew called him, from his taciturn manner of going about his work--was still on the sick list; and Captain Billings, who had expressed himself much pleased with my behaviour since I was on board, especially during the storm, had a.s.signed the performance of this gentleman's duties to me.

At this Mr Macdougall was extremely indignant, remonstrating with the skipper for putting so young a lad as myself in such an important post as that of second mate.

"What are your reasons for objecting to him?" asked Captain Billings.

"Why, the loon's but a bairn," said Mr Macdougall, at a nonplus for some objection to my promotion.

"If he's young," answered the skipper, "he's got a man's courage and a seaman's apt.i.tude, which is more than I can say for some aboard here!"

"Hoot, mon, d'ye mean to eenseenuate?"

"I insinuate nothing," interrupted Captain Billings, hotly. "If the cap fits you, why, you can wear it! Leigh is a strong, st.u.r.dy fellow, worth any two hands on a yard; and, as for navigating, he can work out a reckoning better than--than myself!"

"That mebbe, that mebbe, I dinna gang for to denee that stat'ment, Cap'en," said the Scotsman, sneeringly, implying that I or anybody else might easily eclipse the skipper's powers of calculation; "but I hae my doots, mon, I hae my doots."

"You can 'hay' your grandmother if you like," retorted Captain Billings, decisively; "still, it's my order that Leigh acts as second mate until Mr Ohlsen is able to return to duty. I'm captain of this ship, Mr Macdougall, please remember!"

This was the invariable expression the skipper always made use of when he had made up his mind to anything, so the mate knew that there was no use in his trying to argue the point any further, and he left the p.o.o.p, where the altercation had taken place, in a towering rage. This his freckles plainly showed, his equanimity not being restored by the ill- concealed t.i.tters of the men standing by, for they had overheard most of what had been said, and repeated the substance of the conversation to me afterwards.

I was, it is true, only sixteen at the time; but, being a st.u.r.dy, broad- shouldered chap, I looked all two years older; and I really do not think the skipper complimented me too strongly when he said I was worth a couple of hands on a yard, for, during my experience in the coal brig under Jorrocks' tuition, I had acquired considerable proficiency and dexterity in most of a seaman's functions, which apt.i.tude I had further improved while sailing in Sam Pengelly's schooner between the various ports between Plymouth and the Land's End for two years nearly at a stretch afterwards.

My nautical education, too, as I have already mentioned, had not been neglected all the time I had been waiting to get on board a sea-going ship, for since I had joined the _Esmeralda_ I had not lost a single opportunity for developing my book learning by practical examples in seamanship, Captain Billings encouraging me to persevere whenever he saw me inclined to laziness, and giving me all the advantage of his own training and experience; so that, by this time, I believe I was almost as competent to take charge of the ship on an emergency and navigate her to her destination, as if I had pa.s.sed the Trinity House examination and received a first mate's certificate like Mr Macdougall, whom in the mathematical part of navigation I could beat easily.

Of course, I was not up in sailor lore as to atmospheric changes and those signs and tokens which it takes a long apprenticeship to the sea thoroughly to learn; but in the ordinary work of the ship I was second to none, the men, with whom I was a prime favourite, thanks to Jorrocks, acknowledging that I could reef, hand, and steer, with any of them.

Mr Macdougall was jealous of me--that was the reason of his animosity; so he took advantage of every chance he had to discount the captain's favour by making me in the wrong, to prove his a.s.sertion as to my incompetence to take charge of a watch.

One day I had taken an observation at noon as usual, the skipper of late leaving that operation entirely to me, for he knew Mr Macdougall would be certain to get a sight too, if only in order to have a wrangle with me as to the right position of the ship. Having made out the reckoning with a stop watch, I was busily engaged marking out our place on the chart on top of the cabin sky-light, as it was a fine day, with a pair of callipers and parallel rulers, when the Scottish mate came up to me.

"And whaur d'ye find us the noo?" said he, insinuatingly, to me.

"We're in 1 degree 35 minutes north, and 28 degrees west; and I think ought to alter our course a trifle more to the southward to avoid the Saint Paul islets, which we must be heading for direct, steering south- west as we are now."

"Whaur d'ye mean, bairn? There's no land near us, I ween, save the Rocas, and that is far awa' to the westwar'."

"I tell you," said I, positively, with perhaps a good deal of b.u.mptiousness, "we're heading on straight for those rocks there marked on the chart!"

"Why, ye're mad--a stork staring loon!" retorted Mr Macdougall, in the most irritating way; "ye'd better gang awa' to schule again."

"I think you had," I answered; "I have forgotten more than you ever learned!"

Now this was very rude and impertinent for me to remark to a man so much older than myself, and my superior officer; but I did not reflect at the moment what I said to my tormentor, for he used to nag at me every day about the very same point--my taking the sun and working out the reckoning. It was a very sore subject with him ever since the skipper praised me at his expense on our first day out.

At all events, rude or not, my reply had the desired effect of exasperating Mr Macdougall to the last pitch of endurance, for he was very easily excited.

"Gin you say that ag'in, ye onmannerly loon," said he, foaming with pa.s.sion, his pale complexion becoming paler, which made the freckles stand out prominently, "I'll knock ye doon."

"Will you?" I cried, "you just try it, that's all!"

He did; and down I went on the deck, as flat as a pancake, from a well- directed blow of his brawny fist!

I was not beaten, however.

Jumping up, I faced him again, only to undergo a repet.i.tion of the flooring process; when, seeing that I with my boy's strength was no match for him as yet, and losing my temper quite as much as he had done, I seized a large s.n.a.t.c.h-block which was lying by on the deck close to my hand, hurling it at his head with all my force.

The mate started back in terror, for the missile only missed him by half an inch, and if it had struck him would most certainly have killed him on the spot, although I did not think of that when I pitched it at him; and, just at that moment, I heard Captain Billings' voice behind us.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.