On Board the Esmeralda Part 25

"Aye, but she will, though," I replied, as she was nearing us so fast that I could now see her hull, which had before been invisible; and, almost as I spoke the words, she rose higher and higher, until I could make out an object at the mast-head like a man on the look-out for us and signalling, for I could see his arms move.

"Hurrah! she's coming up fast now!" I cried, to convince Mr Macdougall; when, seeing my excitement, he at last believed the good news, the effect on him being to cause him to burst into a pa.s.sion of tears, of which I took no notice, leaving him to recover himself.

Presently, I could not only perceive the _Esmeralda_, but a boat also ahead, to which the man I had noticed in the foretop was making motions.

"We're all right now, Mr Macdougall," I said.

"I thought they wouldn't desert us! They have launched a boat, and it is pulling towards us now. Let us give them a hail; raise your voice, sir--one, two, three--now then. Boat ahoy!"

The mate did not help the chorus much, his voice being too weak as yet, and his lungs probably half full of salt water; but still, he joined in my shout, although those in the boat were too far off to hear it.

"We must hail them again," I said, "or else they'll pa.s.s to windward of us. Come, Mr Macdougall, one more shout!"

This time our feeble cry was heard; and a hearty cheer was borne back down on the breeze to us, in response, the men in the boat pulling for us as soon as they caught our hail.

In another five minutes, it seemed, but perhaps it was much less--the tension on one's nerves sometimes making an interval of suspense appear much longer than it really is--the _Esmeralda's_ jolly-boat was alongside our little raft, with the two of us tumbled into the stern- sheets, amidst a chorus of congratulations and handshakings from Jorrocks, who was acting as c.o.xswain; and, before we realised almost that we were rescued, we were safe on board the old ship again.

It was all like a dream, pa.s.sing quite as rapidly!

The skipper, when I climbed the side ladder which had been put over for us, a.s.sisted up by a dozen pairs of willing hands, almost hugged me, and the crew gave me three cheers, which of course gratified my pride; but, what I valued beyond the praises bestowed on me for jumping overboard after Mr Macdougall--which was a mere act of physical courage which might have been performed by any water-dog, as I told Jorrocks--was the consciousness that I had made a friend of one who had previously been my enemy, returning good for evil. It was owing to this only, I fervently believe, that my life was preserved in that perilous swim!

Mr Macdougall was ill for some days afterwards, the shock and exposure nearly killing him; still, before the end of the week he was able to return to duty, a much changed man in every respect. Thenceforth, he treated the men with far greater consideration than previously, and he was really so painfully humble to me that I almost wished once or twice that he would be his b.u.mptious, dogmatic old self again. However, it was all for the best, perhaps, for we all got on very sweetly together now, without friction, and harmony reigned alike on the p.o.o.p and in the fo'c's'le.

The south-easterly wind, which had sprung up so fortunately for our rescue, lasted the _Esmeralda_ until she had run down the coast of Patagonia to Cape Tres Puntas, some three hundred and twenty miles to the northward of the Virgins, as the headlands are called that mark the entrance to the Straits of Magellan.

Of course, our skipper did not intend to essay this short cut into the Pacific, which is only really practicable for steamers, as the currents through the different channels are dangerous in the extreme, and the winds not to be relied on, chopping round at a moment's notice, and causing a ship to drop her anchor in all sorts of unexpected places; but he intended to go through the Straits of Le Maire, instead of going round Staten Island, and thus shorten his pa.s.sage of Cape Horn in that way.

However, when, on our fifty-ninth day out, we were nearing the eastern end of Staten Island, the wind, which had of late been blowing pretty steadily from the northward of west, hauled round more to the southward, and being dead against the Le Maire channel, we were forced to give the island a wide berth, and stand to the outside of it.

It was fine light weather, with clear nights, all the time we had been sailing down the coast; for we could see the Magellan clouds, as they are called, every evening. These are small nebulae, like the Milky Way, which occupy the southern part of the heavens, immediately above Cape Horn, whose proximity they always indicate.

Shortly after our pa.s.sing Staten Island, however, a change came, the wind blowing in squalls, accompanied by snow and sleety hail, and the sea running high as it only can run in these lat.i.tudes; but still, everything went well with us until we were about 55 degrees South and 63 degrees West, when a violent gale sprang up from the north-west.

Everything was hauled down and clewed up, the ship lying-to under her reefed main-topsail and fore-topmast staysail, and Captain Billings was just saying to me that I was now going to have "a specimen of what Cape Horn weather was like," when I noticed Mr Macdougall--who had been making an inspection of the ship forwards--come up the p.o.o.p ladder with his face much graver than usual, although, as a rule, his expression of countenance was not the most cheerful at any time.

"Whatever is the matter with Mr Macdougall?" I said to Captain Billings. "I'm certain something has happened, or he would not look so serious!"

"Bless you, Martin, you mustn't judge by his phiz. I daresay the men have only been skylarking in the fo'c's'le, and it doesn't please him."

But it was something far more important than that which had occasioned the gravity of the mate's face, as the skipper soon heard; for, on Mr Macdougall coming up close to us, he whispered something in the skipper's ear which made him turn as white as a sheet.

"Martin, Martin," he said to me, dropping his voice, however, so that the men might not hear the terrible news before it was absolutely necessary to tell them, "the coals are on fire in the main hold!"

CHAPTER TWENTY.

THE LAST DISASTER.

After the first shock of surprise at the alarming intelligence--the most awful that can be circulated on board a ship, and one that fills up the seaman's cup of horrors to the brim--Captain Billings quickly recovered his usual equanimity. He was his own clear-headed, calm, collected self again in a moment.

"How did you discover it?" he asked the mate, in a low tone.

"I was ganging forwarts," said Mr Macdougall, in the same hushed key, so that only Captain Billings and I could catch his words, "when a' at once I smeelt somethin'--"

"Ah, that raking flying jibboom of yours wasn't given you for nothing!"

whispered the skipper, alluding to the mate's rather "p.r.o.nounced" nose.

"Aye, mon, it sairves me weel," said Mr Macdougall, feeling the ridge of his nasal organ with much apparent satisfaction, and then proceeding to finish his statement. "But I could no meestake the smeel, the noo."

"Something burning, I suppose?" said the skipper interrogatively.

"You're right, Cap'en; the smeel was that o' boornin' wood and gas."

"What did you do then?" asked Captain Billings.

"I joost slippet off the main hatch, and the smeel was quite overpowerin', enough to choke one! so I e'en slippet the hatch on again, walking forwarts so as not to alarm the crew; and then I cam' aft to tell your ain sel'."

"You did right," said the skipper. "I'll go presently and have a look myself."

Captain Billings' inspection proved that the mate's fears were but too well-founded; so he immediately had the pumps rigged by the watch on duty--"all hands" not being called yet, as the vessel was lying-to, and there was not much work to be done. But a lot of water was pumped into the hold, after which the hatches were battened down, and we hoped the fire would die out from being smothered in this way.

Meanwhile the north-westerly gale increased to almost a hurricane, the ship taking in great seas over her bows that deluged the decks, so that the waist sometimes was all awash with four feet of water on it; but this did not trouble us much, for of the two elements the sea was now the least feared, as we hoped that the one would check the spread of the other.

Next day, however, when the gale lightened a little, and the _Esmeralda_ rode easier, still head to sea, the men complained that the fo'c'sle was getting too hot for them to live in it, although the temperature of the exterior air was nearly down to freezing point.

This looked ominous; so Captain Billings, determining to adopt more stringent measures to check the conflagration that must be raging below in the cargo, caused the hatches to be opened; but such dense thick volumes of smoke and poisonous gas rolled forth the moment the covers were taken off, that they were quickly battened down again, holes now being bored to insert the hose pipes, and another deluge of water pumped into the hold, forwards as well as amidships.

"I don't know what to do," said the skipper to Mr Macdougall. "If it were not for this gale I would try to run for Sandy Point, where we might get a.s.sistance, as I've heard of the captain of a collier once, whose ship caught fire in the cargo like mine, careening his ship ash.o.r.e there, when, taking out the burning coals, he saved the rest of his freight and stowed it again, so that he was able to resume his voyage and deliver most of the cargo at its destination. But this wind is right in one's teeth, either to get to Sandy Point or fetch any other port within easy reach."

"We moost ae just trust to Proveedence!" replied the mate.

"Oh, yes, that's all very well," said the skipper, impatiently. "But, still, Providence expects us to do something to help ourselves--what do you suggest?"

"I canna thaenk o' naught, Cap'en," replied Mr Macdougall, in his lugubrious way.

"Hang it, neither can I!" returned the skipper, as if angry with himself because of no timely expedient coming to his mind; but just at that moment the gale suggested something to him--at all events in the way of finding occupation!

All at once, the wind, which had been blowing furiously from the northwards, shifted round without a moment's warning to the south-west, catching the ship on her quarter, and heeling her over so to leeward that her yard-arms dipped in the heavy rolling sea.

For a second, it seemed as if we were going over; for the _Esmeralda_ remained on her beam ends without righting again, the waves breaking clean over her from windward, and sweeping everything movable from her decks fore and aft; but then, as the force of the blast pa.s.sed away, she slowly laboured up once more, the masts swaying to and fro as if they were going by the board, for they groaned and creaked like living things in agony.

"Put the helm up--hard up!" shouted the skipper to the man at the wheel; but, as the poor fellow tried to carry out the command, the tiller "took charge," as sailors say, hurling him right over the wheel against the bulwarks, which broke his leg and almost pitched him over the side. Had this occurred it would have been utterly impossible to have saved him.

Mr Macdougall and I immediately rushed aft; and, the two of us grasping the spokes, managed to turn the wheel round with our united strength; but it was too late to get the ship to pay off, for, a fresh blast of wind striking her full b.u.t.t, she was taken aback, the foremast coming down with a crash across the deck, carrying with it the bowsprit and maintopmast, the mizzen-topmast following suit a minute afterwards.

This was bad enough in all conscience, without our having the consciousness that besides this loss of all our spars, making the vessel a hopeless log rolling at the mercy of the winds and waves, our cargo of coals was on fire in the hold, forming a raging volcano beneath our feet!