Rollo on the Atlantic Part 7

So Rollo and Jane went to see if they could find their way up on deck alone. Rollo went before, and Jane followed. They ascended the steep stairs where they had gone up at first, and then walked aft upon the deck until they came to the settees where they had been sitting before the luncheon. They sat down upon one of these settees, where they had a fine view, not only of the wide expanse of sea on every hand, but also of the whole extent of the decks of the ship. They remained here nearly two hours, observing what was going on around them, and they saw a great many things that interested them very much indeed.

The first thing that attracted their attention was the sound of a bell, which struck four strokes very distinctly, and in a very peculiar manner, near where the helmsman stood in steering the ship. This bell has already been mentioned. It hung directly before the helmsman's window, and it had a short rope attached to the clapper of it. The helmsman, or _the man at the wheel_, as he is sometimes called, from the fact that he steers the ship by means of a wheel, with handles all around the periphery of it, had opened his window just after Rollo and Jane had taken their seats, and had pulled this clapper so as to strike four strokes upon the bell, the strokes being in pairs, thus:--

Ding--ding! Ding--ding!

In a minute afterward, Rollo and Jane heard the sound repeated in precisely the same manner from another bell, that seemed to be far in the forward part of the ship.

Ding--ding! Ding--ding!

"I wonder what that means?" said Rollo.

"I expect it means that it is four o'clock," said Jane.

"I should not think it could be so late as four o'clock," said Rollo.

"I have a great mind to go and ask the helmsman what it means," he added, after a moment's pause.

"No," said Jane, "you must not go."

It is difficult to say precisely why Jane did not wish to have Rollo go and ask the helmsman about the bell, but she had an instinctive feeling that it was better not to do it. So Rollo sat still. His attention was very soon turned away from the bell by Jane's calling out to him to see some sailors go up the rigging. There were regular _shrouds_, as they are called, that is, ladders formed of ropes, which led up on each side of the masts part way to where the sailors seemed to wish to go. Above the top of the shrouds there were only single ropes, and Rollo wondered what the sailors would do when they came to these. They found no difficulty, however, for when they reached the top of the shrouds they continued to mount by the ropes with very little apparent effort. They would take hold of two of the ropes that were a little distance apart with their hands, and then, curling their legs round them in a peculiar manner below, they would mount up very easily. They thus reached the _yard_, as it is called, which is a long, round beam, extending along the upper edge of the sail, and, spreading themselves out upon it in a row, they proceeded to do the work required upon the sail, leaning over upon the yard above, and standing upon a rope, which was stretched for the purpose along the whole length of it below.

"I wonder if _I_ could climb up there," said Rollo. "Do you suppose they would let me try?"

"No, indeed!" said Jane, very earnestly; "you must not try, by any means."

"I believe that I _could_ climb up there," said Rollo; "that is, if the vessel would stop rocking to and fro, and hold still."

Presently, however, a boy, who appeared to be about eighteen or nineteen years of age, and who was upon another mast, accomplished a feat which even Rollo himself admitted that he should not dare to undertake. It seemed that he had some operation to perform upon a part of the rigging down some fifteen feet from where he was; so, with a rope hung over his shoulder, he came down hand over hand, by a single rope or cable called a _stay_, until he reached the place where the work was to be performed.

Here he stopped, and, clinging to the rope that he had come down upon with his legs and one hand, he contrived with the other hand to fasten one end of the short rope which he had brought with him to the stay, and then, carrying the other end across, he fastened it to another cable which was near. He then seated himself upon this cross rope as upon a seat, and clinging to his place by his legs, he had his hands free for his work. When he had finished his work he untied the cross rope, and then went up the cable hand over hand a he had come down.

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"I am sure I could not do that," said Rollo. "And I should not think that any body but a monkey could do it, or a spider."

In fact, the lines of rigging, as seen from the place where Rollo and Jane were seated, looked so fine, and the men appeared so small, that the whole spectacle naturally reminded one of a gigantic spider's web, with black spiders of curious forms ascending and descending upon them, so easily and adroitly did the men pa.s.s to and fro and up and down, attaching new lines to new points, and then running off with them, as a spider would do with her thread, wherever they were required. But after all, in respect to the power of running about among lines and rigging, the spider is superior to man. She can not only run up and down far more easily and readily wherever she wishes to go, but she can make new attachments with a touch, and make them strong enough to bear her own weight and all other strains that come upon them; while the sailor, as Rollo and Jane observed on this occasion, was obliged in his fastenings to wind his ropes round and round, and tie them into complicated knots, and then secure the ends with "spun yarn."

While Rollo and Jane were watching the sailors, they saw them unfurl one after another of the sails, and spread them to the wind; for the wind was now fair, and it was fresh enough to a.s.sist the engines considerably in propelling the ship through the water. Still, as the ship was going the same way with the wind, the breeze was scarcely felt upon the deck.

The air was mild and balmy, and the surface of the sea was comparatively smooth, so that the voyage was beginning very prosperously. Rollo looked all around the horizon, but he could see no land in any direction. There was not even a ship in sight; nothing but one wide and boundless waste of waters.

"I should think that there would be some other ships going to England to-day," he said, "besides ours."

Jane did not know what to think on such a subject, and so she did not reply.

"Let us watch for whales," said Rollo. "Perhaps we shall see a whale.

You watch the water all along on that side, and I will on this side; and if you see any whale spout, tell me."

So they both kept watch for some time, but neither of them saw any spouting. Jane gave one alarm, having seen some large, black-looking monsters rise to the surface not far from them on one side of the ship.

She called out eagerly to Rollo to look. He did so, but he said that they were not whales; they were porpoises. He had seen porpoises often before, in bays and harbors.

Just then the bell near the helmsman's window struck again, though in a manner a little different from before; for after the two pairs of strokes which had been heard before there came a single stroke, making five in all, thus:--

Ding--ding! Ding--ding! Ding.

Immediately afterward the sound was repeated in the forward part of the ship, as it had been before.

Ding--ding! Ding--ding! Ding,

"I wonder what that means," said Rollo.

Just then an officer of the ship, in his walk up and down the deck, pa.s.sed near to where Rollo was sitting, and Rollo instinctively determined to ask him.

"Will you please tell me, sir, what that striking means?"

"It's five bells," said the man; and so walked on.

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CHAPTER VI.

A CONVERSATION.

Rollo at first felt quite disappointed that the officer seemed so little disposed to give him information; but immediately after the officer had gone another man came by, one of the pa.s.sengers, as Rollo supposed, who proved to be more communicative. He wore a glazed cap and a very s.h.a.ggy greatcoat. He sat down by the side of Jennie, Rollo being on the other side, and said,--

"He does not seem inclined to tell you much about the bells, does he, Rollo?"

"No, sir," replied Rollo; "but how did you know that my name was Rollo?"

"O, I heard about you down in the cabin," replied the stranger; "and about _you_ too, Jennie, and your beautiful little kitten. But I will explain the meaning of the bells to you. I know all about them. I belong on board this ship. I am the surgeon."

"Are you?" said Rollo. "I did not know that there was any surgeon in the ship."

"Yes," replied the gentleman. "It is quite necessary to have a surgeon.

Sometimes the seamen get hurt, and require attendance; and then sometimes there are cases of sickness among the pa.s.sengers. I have got quite a little apothecary's shop in my state room. I will show it to you by and by. But now about the bells.

"You must know," continued the surgeon, "that people strike the time at sea in a very different manner from that which is customary on land. In the first place, they have a man to strike it; they cannot have a clock."

"I do not see why not," said Rollo.

"Because at sea," rejoined the surgeon, "the time changes every day, and no clock going regularly can keep it. Time depends upon the sun, and when the ship is going east she goes to meet the sun; and it becomes noon, that is, midday, earlier. When the ship is going west, she goes away from the sun, and then it becomes noon later. Thus noon has to be fixed every day anew, and a clock going regularly all the time would be continually getting wrong. Then, besides the rolling and pitching of the ship would derange the motion of the weights and pendulum of the clock.

In fact, I don't believe that a clock could be made to go at all--unless, indeed, it were hung on _gimbals_."

"What are gimbals?" asked Rollo.

"They are a pair of rings," replied the surgeon, "one within the other, and each mounted on pivots in such a manner that any thing hung within the inner ring will swing any way freely. The lamps down in the cabin are hung on gimbals."