The White Squall Part 20

Jake was a handy chap, indeed, all round, for he was of very considerable a.s.sistance to Cuffee in the galley when the stormy weather interfered with the cooking; so, Captain Miles did not object to his coming to look after me in this way. He "winked at it," as he said.

During the evening of the day on which the wind shifted round to the north-west, the sky somewhat cleared and the night was fine and starlight; but the gale seemed to blow with all the greater vehemence as the clouds dispersed. It increased to the strength of a hurricane towards one o'clock in the morning, when, the fore-topsail and mizzen staysail blowing away, the ship had to content herself with running under bare poles, careering through the water faster than ever. She had certainly never realised such speed since she had been launched.

I was awake when Captain Miles came down at this time to consult the barometer, and I could hear what he said to Jackson, who had accompanied him below for something or other, the two talking together just outside my bunk.

"I'm sure I can't make it out at all," the captain said in rather a hopeless way. "Here's the gla.s.s keeping as high as possible, and yet the gale shows no token of lessening. What can it mean?"

"These cyclones are queer things, sir," responded Jackson. "I was in two while in a China trader, and sha'n't forget them in a hurry."

"I could understand it," continued Captain Miles as if reasoning with himself, "keeping on like this if we were in the Gulf of Mexico now, for it looks like what they call a norther there; but I've never heard of one of those winds being met in the Atlantic."

"It's something out of the common, sir," observed Jackson. "It's a cyclone, or hurricane, if I ever was in one, and I don't see as how we can do better than we are doing, sir."

"Well, we simply can't," said the captain. "We are running before it as hard as we can with only our bare sticks showing, for the vessel won't stand a rag of sail; so, it is utterly impossible to lay to and brave it out."

"Quite so, sir," responded the other. "All we can do is to carry on and trust to running out of it into calm weather. We ought to have made a long stretch to the southwards by now."

"So we have, Jackson," said Captain Miles. "We're now, I fancy, pretty well back where we lay so long in the calm, although perhaps a trifle more to the eastwards; but, if we run on much further, I'm sure I don't know where we'll bring up!"

There the conversation ended and I went off to sleep soon afterwards, although the creaking of the timbers and roar of the sea sounded terrific, making noise enough to drown the sound of everything else. I couldn't hear a footstep on the deck above me--all was hushed but the terrible turmoil of the elements.

I got up about six o'clock. I knew the hour by striking a match and looking at a little watch my father had given me just before I left home; for, it was all dark in the cabin, the ports and scuttles being closed and the dead-lights in the stern being up, while the doors in the bulkheads were drawn to, so as to keep out the sea from rushing in when a wave came over the forecastle.

Opening one of the sliding panels with some difficulty and pushing it back far enough for my body to get through, I emerged on the main-deck, thence managed to scramble on the p.o.o.p, where the captain and Mr Marline were standing as well as Jackson, all holding on to the rigging.

None of the officers had turned in all night, but I noticed that none of the hands were visible except the men at the helm, the captain allowing the rest to keep snug in the forecastle until they were wanted, for heavy seas were washing over the rails every now and then or coming in from the bows and sweeping the ship fore and aft, so there was no use in exposing the men unnecessarily when there was nothing really for them to do, as was the case now--no sail being set and only the wheel having to be attended to.

Ahead, astern, to the right hand and to the left, the sea was nothing but a ma.s.s of foam, while the air was thick with flying scud that was chopped off the heads of the great rolling waves every instant and whirled to leeward by the wind. This seemed sometimes actually to beat down the water and make it level with its tremendous strength, the billows springing up, after each gust, like india-rubber b.a.l.l.s that had been pressed flat and then suddenly released, for they spirted up into the air, flinging their crests aloft one brief moment only to be decapitated the next by the sweeping scythe-like blast.

Far and wide, the ocean presented a magnificent picture of awful grandeur and howling desolation.

Above, the sky was of a dull leadenish hue, and there was nothing anywhere to be seen beyond sky and water save the poor _Josephine_ tearing along through the chaotic maelstrom, labouring and groaning heavily as she rolled from side to side, dipping her yard-arms from time to time with each lurch, with the wind shrieking and whistling the most wonderful harp music through the rigging--nothing to be seen but the restless, roaring, heaving sea stretching away, like a boiling cauldron of soap-suds, to where the gloomy heavens met the angry horizon.

At mid-day, more from curiosity than anything else, as we had lost all track of our dead reckoning, Captain Miles had the log hove, when it was found that the vessel under her bare poles was going close on fourteen knots an hour. The force of the wind on her hull and spars was quite sufficient alone to achieve this speed, for the yards were braced square and the helm kept as steady amidships as the send of the waves would allow and the four men in charge of the spokes could manage.

And so, we continued all that day and night, the gale still keeping up to the same pitch when the fourth morning broke, with never a sign of cessation, while the sea was, if possible, rougher than before, causing us to ship the water over our bows continually.

Captain Miles was fairly cornered.

"I tell you what, Marline," he said towards the afternoon, "I don't think there is now any possible chance of the wind backing again; so, as she's taking in such a lot over the bows, we must try and get some sail on her, to rise out of the trough of the sea."

"I don't believe the mast will stand a rag, should we be able to hoist without its being blown to pieces," replied the first mate despondingly.

He seemed to have lost all heart, unlike the captain and Jackson, who were both still brave and cheerful, keeping up the spirits of the men.

These latter, I could see, were beginning to lose their courage too, going about their duties with a sort of dogged stubbornness unlike their old ready way.

"Well, we'll try it at any rate. But, first, we must see to securing the masts. Get up a spare hawser and we'll rig a fresh stay round the head of the foremast, and then we'll set the foresail. That will lift her bows out of the water, if it only holds."

So saying, Captain Miles yelled out for the watch below, and the men presently came out from the forecastle, Davis, the whilom second mate, along with them, the lot shambling unwillingly along the deck to the galley, where they cl.u.s.tered in a body.

"Now, men," said the captain, "we must try and get some sail on the ship, or else we'll have all our timbers crushed in forwards by these seas; who'll volunteer to go aloft and help stay the foremast? It's risky work, and I don't like to order anyone to go."

Not a soul spoke in answer for a minute or so, and then Davis stepped out a pace in front of the others.

For a moment I was lost in admiration of what I conceived to be his pluck; but, the next instant, I perceived I had been too hasty in jumping at this conclusion.

"What do you take us for, Cap'en Miles?" Davis sang out sullenly. "Do you think that men are dogs to waste their lives for nothing? Why don't you go aloft yourself, if you are so anxious about the job?"

Captain Miles turned quite white, as he always did when his temper was up. He was then ready to dare anything, like most men of a deep nature.

"So I will, you mutinous scoundrel!" he cried; and he was just making his way down the p.o.o.p-ladder to go forwards, when Jackson, almost jumping over his head, outstripped him, being down in the waist and up to the loiterers in a jiffey.

"Come on, you cowards!" the brave fellow exclaimed, clambering up into the fore-rigging and making for the top. "Who's man enough to follow me?"

There was no lack of volunteers now.

First one, and then another, scrambled likewise into the shrouds and climbed up after Jackson, only Davis being left below in his glory out of the whole watch.

Even he too was following; but, on Jackson shouting out something about his "not wanting any lubbers to help him," Davis sneaked back into the forecastle.

The others then set to work vigorously, rousing up the end of a spare hawser, which had been coiled round the mainmast bitts, and securing it round the foremast head. The ends of this stout rope were then hauled aft and made fast to the main-chains on either side, when, a purchase being rigged up and brought to the capstan, the hawser was hove taut-- thus serving as a double preventer stay, to support the great strain there would be on the foremast when the fore course should be set, the mast even now bending before the gale although no sail was as yet on it.

"Now, men, loose the foresail!" shouted Captain Miles, much pleased with the sharp way in which the task had been accomplished through the men's prompt.i.tude. "Mind, though, and come down as soon as you've done it, for one doesn't know what may happen!"

"Aye, aye, sir, all right," sang out Jackson in reply; and under his orders the gaskets were quickly cast-off and the bunt dropped, when the men shinned down the rigging and ran the sheet aft, the sail blowing out like a big white cloud over the forecastle before the tacks could be belayed.

Fortunately, while taking in sail on the night of the thunder-storm, Jackson had caused the foresail to be reefed before being clewed up, and this precaution now stood us in good stead, as, instead of its being spread to its full extent, only a portion of the sail was exposed to the wind. This, however, was quite sufficient; for, small as it was, it tugged at the restraining ropes like a giant endeavouring to free himself from his bonds, flying out from the yards with spasmodic jerks and pulling at the mast in a way that showed that, if the spar had not had additional support, it would probably have been torn bodily away out of the ship.

The _Josephine_, though, soon felt the difference of having the sail on her; for, instead of now bowing to the seas and taking them in over her head, she rose buoyantly, dashing along, of course, with greater speed than before.

Captain Miles was quite triumphant over it.

"There, Marline, what do you think of that?" he said, rubbing his hands with much gusto. "Didn't I tell you so?"

"Yes, sir, so you did," answered the other; "but we'll wait and see how long it lasts."

"Bah! it will last our turn," said the captain, with a laugh at Mr Marline's obstinate retention of his own opinion. "Anyhow, it has eased the ship already."

"It hasn't eased the steering, though," retorted the mate. "We'll want six men at the helm if she goes on jumping like this. She's worse than a kangaroo now."

"Better leap over the waves than under them, having a ton of green water come over our bows every minute. Steady, there!"

"Steady it is, sir," replied Moggridge, who was acting as quartermaster.

"Keep her so, and mind to let her off when she seems inclined to broach to. I think we've seen the worst of it now, and can pipe down to dinner."

"I'm sure I sha'n't be sorry to have a fair mouthful to-day," said Mr Marline with a melancholy smile. "I haven't known what a good square meal was since the gale began, and think I could do justice to one now."

"So could I," replied the captain; and he went below to give Harry the steward some especial orders on the subject, the result being that the last pair of fowls occupying the nearly tenantless hen-coops were removed screaming to the cook's galley, to reappear an hour afterwards on the cabin table at the first regular dinner we were able to sit down to together for four days. The ship, although racing on still before the gale, was now riding more easily and rolling less, while no heavy seas came dashing aft from the forecastle to wash us all up in a heap pell-mell into the stern-sheets, as had hitherto been the case at meal- times--a moving ma.s.s of legs and arms, crockery-ware, savoury dishes, and table furniture in general!