The White Squall Part 23

Poor faithful Jake lay close to me so as to protect me as much as possible from the wash of the sea; and I found out, when morning light came once more to cheer us, that he had actually stripped off a guernsey vest, which Captain Miles had given him to save him from exposure on the night of the thunder-storm, and had fastened this round my shoulders in order to keep me warm!

I shall never forget Jake's thoughtful action, I believe, as long as I live, for it made a great impression on me when I discovered such a striking proof of his devotion; and, as I now retrace the incidents of the past, the incident stands out prominently in evidence of a negro's brotherly love.

Why, his black skin always seemed white to me ever after. Aye, although born an African, his heart was truer than that of many a European, whose complexion is only a trick of colour!

During the night we were all silent; but, when the sun rose in the east, flooding the sea with the rosy tint of dawn, hope came back to us and our tongues were unloosed--the more especially as the force of the waves had considerably lessened, hardly a sc.r.a.p of spray being now washed over us, while the blows of the billows against the side of the ship were no longer heard.

The sea really was calming down at last.

G.o.d was watching over us!

"Say, captain," said Mr Marline, who was the first to bestir himself, "do you think there's any prospect of our righting the ship?"

The captain was asleep, I believe, for the first mate had to repeat his question twice before he could get an answer.

"I'm sure I hope so," at last sleepily muttered Captain Miles, with a portentous yawn--"only wait till the swell calms down and we'll see about it."

"But it is calm now," rejoined the other.

"Then wake me again when it is calmer," replied Captain Miles; and then, he turned on his side and proceeded with his nap as coolly as if he were comfortably tucked up in his nice swinging cot in the cabin.

"Well!" exclaimed Mr Marline, "of all the cool, self-possessed men I ever met in my life, you beat the lot!"

He was talking to himself, but the hands heard him, and there was a general sn.i.g.g.e.r all round, the captain's very composure having given confidence to all. The men believed that he would not have taken things so quietly unless he had some sure hope of our speedy release from such a precarious position.

"He is a rare brave un," put in Moggridge. "I've sailed with him man and boy for many a v'y'ge afore this, and I allers found him the same, calm and plucky in danger, and keeping a stiff upper lip when in perils that frighten other folk. Captain Miles, sir, is a man as a sailor should be proud to sail under--that's what I says!"

"Eh, what, what?" murmured the captain, half waking up on hearing his name spoken, and lifting his head from between his clasped hands.

"I was a-saying, sir, as how you knew what's what," replied the boatswain, "and I don't know of any other man I'd say sich of."

"Belay that," said Captain Miles, rousing up now and rubbing his eyes.

"Ah, it's morning, I see! Well, Mr Marline, and how goes it?"

"As well as can be expected under the circ.u.mstances," answered the other.

"Bother circ.u.mstances," rejoined the captain; "we must make the best of them we can. Now, let us see what's to be done."

"Do you think we can right her, sir?" asked the mate repeating his old query.

"Right her? yes, certainly, if we can cut away the masts. She's not water-logged, and all sound below, I fancy, as far as I can see; for the hatches have been battened down since Monday."

"But she's rather down by the head, sir," said Mr Marline, as the two rose on their feet and proceeded to look round the vessel as well as they could from the top of the p.o.o.p bulwarks, whence they surveyed her position and surroundings.

"Ah!" exclaimed Captain Miles, "the fore-peak must have been left open when those spare sails were got out, so that she has taken in some water there. Never mind, though, there's a stout bulkhead separating the compartment from the main hold, and, if there's no leak below, we'll be all right."

"But, the masts have been working the decks all this time," suggested the mate, "and if the sea has got in through the straining of the timbers we must sink in time."

"Sink your grandmother, Marline!" retorted the captain, "you forget that our main cargo is rum, which is ever so much lighter than water, and more buoyant. As long as we have that below we'll float, never you fear! But, the job is to cut away the masts if we can; she'll never right, of course, till that is done. A pity your rigging was so well set up, Marline! If the sticks had only gone by the board when the squall struck us we'd be all right now."

"I don't know that, captain," replied the other. "If the masts had been badly stayed they would have gone in the height of the hurricane; and then, where would we be now?"

"Not in the Sarga.s.so Sea, I fancy," said Captain Miles with a hearty laugh. "But we can't do anything yet, though, till the sea has gone down more. Men," he added, "keep your p.e.c.k.e.r up! Providence having watched over us thus far will now not desert us, I am confident, and we'll yet weather on Mr Marline's circ.u.mstances!"

All hands gave a cheer at this hopeful speech, and the sun having by this time dried our soddened clothes besides warming us, we began to feel more comfortable and easy, the captain's words giving us fresh courage.

Towards noon, however, the heat brought on a most terrific thirst, which was all the more painful from our not seeing any chance of relieving it; for, although, like the "ancient mariner," we saw "water, water everywhere," there was not a drop of the wholesome fluid, as far as we knew, that we could drink.

In this dire calamity, Jackson proved our guardian angel.

"I say, captain," he called out, after climbing along the bulwarks down into that part of the waist of the ship which was clear of the sea, letting himself swing down by the end of the topsail halliards which were belayed to the side, "there's one of the water-casks lashed here that did not fetch away to leeward with the rest when she canted over; and it's full too. If anyone has got a hat, or anything that I can draw off the water in, I will start the bung and we can all splice the main- brace."

"Hurrah!" shouted Captain Miles. "That's the best news I have heard for many a day. Here, Marline, pa.s.s him down my wide-awake. Mind how you drive out the bung, Jackson, and have something ready to close up the hole again; or else, all the contents of the cask will be wasted 'fore the hands are served round."

"I'll take care, sir," replied the young seaman, who had now turned the end of the topsail halliards into a bight round his body, so that he could swing down in front of the water-cask and yet have his hands free.

Then, taking out a marlinespike, which had caught in the rigging somehow or other, he managed, after several blows on either side of the cask, to start the bung. This, from the position in which the ship was lying, was now horizontal instead of perpendicular; so, as soon as it came out, the water flowed at once into the captain's wide-awake hat, which Jackson had under the bung-hole, stopping up this again with the cork as soon as the hat was full.

Mr Marline was bending down from the bulwarks above him to receive the strange jug when the other handed it up to him, and he pa.s.sed it on to Captain Miles, who allowed me to have the first drink.

It tasted like nectar--better than any draught I had ever had before or since!

Captain Miles himself then took a gulp of the grateful contents of his old hat, pa.s.sing it on to Moggridge; and, when emptied, as it very soon was, the wide-awake was filled and refilled by Jackson until every man had satisfied his thirst--the last to enjoy the water which he had been the means of procuring being the brave young seaman himself, just in the same way as he had been the last to quit the post of danger when helping his shipmates out of the main-chains.

Quenching our thirst gave us all new life; so, later on in the afternoon, Captain Miles set the men to work casting off the ropes as best they could with the idea of freeing the masts. However, we could do nothing without an axe, for no man had anything handier than his clasp-knife, which naturally was of no use in helping to cut away the cordage and heavy spars that kept the ship down on her beam-ends.

What was to be done?

We were all in a dilemma, one man suggesting one thing, and another proposing a fresh plan for getting rid of the masts; when, Adze, the carpenter, who had said nothing as yet, spoke for the first time.

"I left a large axe o' mine," he said quietly, as if saying nothing particularly worthy of notice--"I left a large axe o' mine in my bunk in the fo'c's'le; and if ary a one can git down theer, he'll find it on the top side to his starboard hand as he goes in."

"But, the fo'c's'le's full of water," said Mr Marline, "and a man must be a good diver to creep in there and get the axe under eight or twelve foot of sea! Besides, I daresay it will have been washed away from where Adze put it in his bunk, the lurch of the ship having shifted everything to leeward."

"It war to leeward already in the top bunk, I tell 'ee," rejoined the carpenter; "an', bein' that heavy, I spec's it's theer right enough.

Only I can't dive, nor swim above water for that matter, so it's no use my going after it."

"I'll go, ma.s.sa captain," shouted out Jake, who had been listening eagerly to this conversation. "I'se dibe like porpuss an' swim like fiss."

"I know that," said Captain Miles laughing. "I recollect the way you came aboard my ship. But you can try if you like, darkey. If you find that axe, you'll be the saving of all of us, and give a fair return for your pa.s.sage, my hearty!"

Jake did not need any further persuasion.

Making his way along the bulwarks, he clambered on to the main rigging, now lying flat across the capsized vessel, until he came to a clear s.p.a.ce between the mainmast and the forecastle, from whence the boats and cook's galley had been washed away. Jumping into the water at this point, he swam towards the spot where he thought the entrance to the forecastle should lie, for the sea was washing about forward, and nothing to be seen above the surface but a small portion of the port bulwarks near the dead-eyes of the fore-shrouds and a bit of the port cat-head.

Jake then dived below the water, disappearing from our view for a few seconds that seemed interminable as we waited.

"I hope he hasn't come to grief," said Captain Miles anxiously. "So many things have been carried away and jumbled up in a ma.s.s there forwards, that the poor fellow might get fixed in and be drowned, without the chance of saving himself."