Outward Bound Part 42

"Yes; without a doubt it is."

"I may not agree to that," suggested the new convert.

"You have already agreed to it. You have promised to obey your superiors."

"But who are my superiors?"

"I am one of them."

"Who appointed you?"

"I appointed myself. I got up the Chain."

"I think I have just as much right to that place as you have. Shuffles."

"I don't see it! Do you expect me to get up this thing, and then take a subordinate position?" demanded Shuffles, indignantly.

"Let the members choose the captain; that's the proper way."

"Perhaps they will choose neither one of us."

"Very well; I will agree to serve under any fellow who is fairly elected."

"When shall he be chosen?" asked Shuffles, who was so sure of a majority that he was disposed to adopt the suggestion.

"When we have thirty links, say."

"I will agree to it."

The conspirators separated, each to obtain recruits as fast as he could.

During the latter part of the day, the gale began to subside, and at sunset its force was broken, but the sea still ran fearfully high. The fore course was shaken out, and the ship filled away again, plunging madly into the savage waves.

On Sunday morning, the gale had entirely subsided; but the wind still came from the same quarter, and the weather was cloudy. The sea had abated its fury, though the billows still rolled high, and the ship had an ugly motion. During the night, the reefs had been turned out of the topsails; the jib, flying-jib, and spanker had been set, and the Young America was making a course east-south-east.

"Sail ho!" shouted one of the crew on the top-gallant forecastle, after the forenoon watch was set.

"Where away?" demanded the officer of the deck.

"Over the lee bow, sir," was the report which came through the officers on duty.

The report created a sensation, as it always does When a sail is seen; for one who has not spent days and weeks on the broad expanse of waters, can form only an inadequate idea of the companionship which those in one ship feel for those in another, even while they are miles apart. Though the crew of the Young America had been shut out from society only about three days, they had already begun to realize this craving for a.s.sociation--this desire to see other people and be conscious of their existence.

After the severe gale through which they had just pa.s.sed, this sentiment was stronger than it would have been under other circ.u.mstances. The ocean had been lashed into unwonted fury by the mad winds. A fierce gale had been raging for full twenty-four hours, and the tempest was suggestive of what the sailor dreads most--shipwreck, with its long train of disaster--suffering, privation, and death. It was hardly possible that such a terrible storm had swept the sea without carrying down some vessels with precious freights of human life.

The Young America had safely ridden out the gale, for all that human art could do to make her safe and strong had been done without regard to expense. No n.i.g.g.ardly owners had built her of poor and insufficient material, or sent her to sea weakly manned and with incompetent officers. The ship was heavily manned; eighteen or twenty men would have been deemed a sufficient crew to work her; and though her force consisted of boys, they would average more than two thirds of the muscle and skill of able-bodied seamen.

There were other ships abroad on the vast ocean, which could not compare with her in strength and appointments, and which had not one third of her working power on board. No ship can absolutely defy the elements, and there is no such thing as absolute safety in a voyage across the ocean; but there is far less peril than people who have had no experience generally suppose. The Cunard steamers have been running more than a quarter of a century, with the loss of only one ship, and no lives in that one--a triumphant result achieved by strong ships, with competent men to manage them. Poorly built ships, short manned, with officers unfit for their positions, const.i.tute the harvest of destruction on the ocean.

Mr. Lowington believed that the students of the Academy Ship would be as safe on board the Young America as they would on sh.o.r.e. He had taken a great deal of pains to demonstrate his theory to parents, and though he often failed, he often succeeded. The Young America had just pa.s.sed through one of the severest gales of the year, and in cruising for the next three years, she would hardly encounter a more terrific storm. She had safely weathered it; the boys had behaved splendidly, and not one of them had been lost, or even injured, by the trying exposure. The princ.i.p.al's theory was thus far vindicated.

The starboard watch piped to breakfast, when the sail was discovered, too far off to make her out. The boys all manifested a deep interest in the distant wanderer on the tempestuous sea, mingled with a desire to know how the stranger had weathered the gale. Many of them went up the shrouds into the tops, and the spy-gla.s.ses were in great demand.

"Do you make her out, Captain Gordon?" asked Mr. Fluxion, as he came up from his breakfast, and discovered the commander watching the stranger through the gla.s.s.

"Yes, sir; I can just make her out now. Her foremast and mainmast have gone by the board, and she has the ensign, union down, hoisted at her mizzen," replied the captain, with no little excitement in his manner.

"Indeed!" exclaimed the teacher of mathematics, as he took the gla.s.s.

"You are right, Captain Gordon, and you had better keep her away."

"Shall I speak to Mr. Lowington first, sir?" asked the captain.

"I think there is no need of it in the present instance. There can be no doubt what he will do when a ship is in distress."

"Mr. Kendall, keep her away two points," said the captain to the officer of the deck. "What is the ship's course now?"

"East-south-east, sir," replied the second lieutenant, who had the deck.

"Make it south-east."

"South-east, sir," repeated Kendall. "Quartermaster keep her away two points," he added to the petty officer conning the wheel.

"Two points, sir," said Bennington, the quartermaster

"Make the course south-east."

"South-east, sir."

After all these repet.i.tions it was not likely that any mistake would occur; and the discipline of the ship required every officer and seaman who received a material order, especially in regard to the helm or the course, to repeat it, and thus make sure that it was not misunderstood.

It was Sunday; and no study was required, or work performed, except the necessary ship's duty. Morning prayers had been said, as usual, and there was to be divine service in the steerage, forenoon and afternoon, for all who could possibly attend; and this rule excepted none but the watch on deck. By this system, the quarter watch on duty in the forenoon, attended in the afternoon; those who were absent at morning prayers were always present at the evening devotions; and blow high or blow low, the brief matin and vesper service were never omitted, for young men in the midst of the sublimity and the terrors of the ocean could least afford to be without the daily thought of G.o.d, "who plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm."

Every man and boy in the ship was watching the speck on the watery waste, which the gla.s.s had revealed to be a dismasted, and perhaps sinking ship. The incident created an intense interest, and was calculated to bring out the finer feelings of the students. They were full of sympathy for her people, and the cultivation of n.o.ble and unselfish sentiments, which the occasion had already called forth, and was likely to call forth in a still greater degree, was worth the voyage over the ocean; for there are impressions to be awakened by such a scene which can be garnered in no other field.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE WRECK OF THE SYLVIA.

The people in the dismasted ship had discovered the Young America, as it appeared from the efforts they were using to attract her attention. The booming of a gun was occasionally heard from her, but she was yet too far off to be distinctly seen.

On the forecastle of the Academy Ship were two bra.s.s guns, four-pounders, intended solely for use in making signals. They had never been fired, even on the Fourth of July, for Mr. Lowington would not encourage their use among the boys. On the present occasion he ordered Peaks, the boatswain, to fire twice, to a.s.sure the ship in distress that her signals were heard.

The top-gallant sails were set, and the speed of the ship increased as much as possible; but the heavy sea was not favorable to rapid progress through the water. At four bells, when all hands but the second part of the port watch were piped to attend divine service in the steerage, the Young America was about four miles distant from the dismasted vessel.

She was rolling and pitching heavily, and not making more than two or three knots an hour.