The White Squall Part 25

"The Sarga.s.so, or weedy, Sea," said Mr Marline, "so called from the berries, like grapes, 'sarga' in Portuguese, extends from about the eleventh parallel of lat.i.tude to 45 degrees north, and from 30 degrees west longitude to the Bermudas, and even further west, so that we are about in the middle of it now. Almost the entire portion of this s.p.a.ce of the ocean is covered by a peculiar species of sea-weed, termed by botanists the 'fucus natans,' which is found nowhere else in any great abundance except in the Gulf Stream, which, skirting along the edge of the Sarga.s.so Sea, bears away portions of the floating substance in its progress from the Gulf of Florida eastwards. The western current to the south of this region also sometimes detaches ma.s.ses of the weed; but its main habitat is the Sarga.s.so Sea, where, there being no eddies or streams either way and little or no wind generally, the sarga.s.sum acc.u.mulates in great ma.s.ses, presenting frequently the aspect of an immense marine meadow."

"I think, sir," I interposed at this point, "I read once in the Life of Columbus, that, when on his first voyage beyond seas from Spain, his sailors almost mutinied and wanted him to put back on account of their fancying they could never pa.s.s through the weed?"

"They did," replied Mr Marline. "The men thought Columbus had sold his soul to the spirits of evil, and that they were in an enchanted sea, but the brave old Genoese navigator surmounted their fears in the end! I can better, perhaps, explain, Tom, the reason for the weed acc.u.mulating so hereabouts, by likening, as Maury did, the Atlantic Ocean to a basin.

Now, if you put a few small pieces of cork or any other light substance into a basin, and move your hand round it so as to give the water it contains a circular motion, the bits of cork will be found to float to the centre and remain there. Well, here, the Gulf Stream is the circular motion of our great basin, while the Sarga.s.so Sea is the centre, and it is in consequence of the continual current circling round it that the weed stops there in such quant.i.ties--as you will see most likely in a day or two, when the ocean gets rested after the great storm we have had, which has somewhat put things out of their proper trim."

"And does the weed grow to the bottom?" I asked.

"Bottom? Why, there are no soundings here under four miles, and it would take a pretty long root to stretch to such a depth! No, the sarga.s.so weed floats and lives on the surface. When examined closely, it is found to have an oblong narrow serrated leaf of a pale yellow colour, resembling somewhat in form a cauliflower stripped of its leaves, the nodules being composed of a vast number of small branches, about half an inch long, which shoot out from each other at a sharp angle, and hence multiply continually towards the outer circ.u.mference of the plant, each extreme point producing a round seed-vessel like a berry. A great number of little crabs, barnacles, and small sh.e.l.l-fish are generally found attached to the weed, as Captain Miles mentioned just now when he said we might find something to eat amidst the branches of it in an emergency. It is wonderful sometimes to see with what regularity the weed is arranged across the ocean when the wind blows.

It looks then exactly like a meadow does after it has been fresh mown and the gra.s.s is left upon it in long swathes by the scythe at equal distances apart."

"There, Master Tom," put in Captain Miles here, "I think you know now all that Mr Marline can tell you about the Sarga.s.so Sea and the weed to be found there. It's about time we all turned in now for the night, for the sun has set and it will soon be dark. Have all you men," he called out aloud, "lashed yourselves securely?"

"Aye, aye, sir," they answered one by one, Moggridge coming last.

"Then good night, and good cheer, my lads!" he cried. "Keep your p.e.c.k.e.rs up, and to-morrow morning. I daresay, we'll see our way out of this predicament. I don't think it is going to blow any more, so you may compose yourselves to rest as cosily, my lads, as if you were in your bunks here, without fear of anything much troubling you, for the sharks can't harm you!"

The sun had set by this time and the evening grew gradually dark, for there was no moon, as the heavens were overcast; but still, the wind did not get up again, and the motion of the ship being easy enough we lay along the side of the ship very comfortably, most of the men soon falling asleep, and I soon following their example.

It must have been towards morning, for a dim sort of light was beginning to be perceptible in the east, we were wakened up by a terrible yell.

A moment afterwards a heavy splash sounded in the water alongside.

"Good heavens! what is that?" cried Captain Miles, starting up and trying to peer through the darkness, so as to see who was missing.

"Anyone gone overboard?"

"Yes, sir," answered Jackson's voice presently, as if he had waited to reconnoitre, "it is one of the German sailors, poor Hermann. He has probably slipped his lashings and slid down the side. I'm afraid the sharks have taken him, for he has never called out once!"

"Poor fellow!" exclaimed the captain, raising a hail.

"Hi, hullo!"

But, there came no response; and so, Jackson's surmise must have been correct. The man had evidently fallen in his sleep, through the slipping of the rope which had secured him to the rigging; and he must either have been drowned at once or fallen a victim to the maw of one of the sharks, whose movements we could hear in the water still below us.

The accident, however, wakened us all up thoroughly, and we waited anxiously for daylight.

When this came, however, a terrible scene was enacted before our eyes.

No sooner had the rising sun lit up the ocean and enabled us all to see each other distinctly, than I noticed Davis, who was close to Jackson, staring at him in a most peculiar manner.

I never saw in anyone before such a fixed steady glare!

The man seemed out of his senses or bewildered by something, for his eyes moved about strangely, although with a savage gleam in them, while his hair appeared to bristle up.

"Well, what is the matter?" said Jackson at length, after enduring his gaze for a moment or two, waiting for the other to speak. "Do you want water? Shall I get you some?"

This apparently broke the spell which was upon the wretched man, whose const.i.tution had been much enfeebled by his drinking habits--making him thus less able to contend against the exposure and privations we had been subjected to than the rest of us.

The minute Jackson spoke, he uttered a queer sort of half-groan, half- shriek; and having previously, I suppose, untied the rope with which he had been lashed to the rigging, he made a dash at the second mate with both his hands, trying to grip his throat and strangle him.

"You devil!" he cried, foaming at the mouth with pa.s.sion, "you've taken my place and brought me to this."

Jackson easily repulsed his struggles to do him any injury; but, before he and the other sailors could secure the madman, he sprang to his feet and, shouting out something which we could not distinguish, jumped right down among the group of sharks that were still swimming about under the stern.

There was a heavy plunge, followed by a wild scurrying to and fro in the water of the moving fins; and, a moment after, when the sea had got still again, a circle of blood on the surface alone told of the unhappy man's fate.

The incident saddened us all very much, taking away our hopeful thoughts and courage alike; so we waited on listlessly for what we now believed must shortly be our own doom, not a soul speaking a word or even looking at his neighbour for some time afterwards.

Jackson was the first to recover himself.

The sight of the cruel sharks under the ship's counter and the memory of our two shipmates, whom they had already devoured, appeared to prey on his mind and make him furious.

"I can't stand this any longer," he cried. "I must try and kill one of these brutes, captain, or die in the attempt!"

Captain Miles thought he had gone out of his senses too and spoke soothingly to him; but Jackson soon showed that if he had become insane there was a method in his madness.

Rising on his feet, he walked on the top of the bulwarks to the main- shrouds, and clambering out on his hands and knees along these, made his way to where a long wooden handspike, that had been used for heaving round the windla.s.s, was floating under the rigging.

Picking up this and cutting off a good length of the topsail halliards, he came back to where we all were, and proceeded to make a running noose at the end of the rope.

"What are you going to do?" asked Captain Miles, not quite certain yet of Jackson's sanity.

"I'm going to try to get one of the sharks to come close enough to give him a taste of this handspike," said the stalwart young fellow, drawing himself up to his full height, and looking round with a determined expression on his face that I had never seen there before. "If I can only get them all to come to the inside of the ship, I shall do for one or two, I know."

"Golly, Ma.s.sa Jackson, me help you wid um knife," exclaimed Jake, entering with much animation in the other's project. "S'pose we fiss for um wid sumfin', so as make um swim roun' t'oder side ob ship, hey?"

"That's a good idea," said Captain Miles, and he offered Jake his hat to use as a bait, but the darkey shook his head at this.

"No, tankee, Ma.s.s' Cap'en, I'se got sumfin' better nor dat," he exclaimed, pulling off the guernsey with which he had sheltered me the first night we were exposed on the wreck. "Dis do ebber so much betterer. Shark smell um, an' tink he hab dis n.i.g.g.ah, yah, yah!"

As he laughed, he tied one end of a bit of the signal halliards, which he had used to lash himself to the rigging, to the guernsey, lowering it down to a short distance above the surface of the water, where he kept it dangling.

One of the sharks rose towards it, another coming up soon after in its train; and then Jake kept continually shifting the rope round that portion of the taffrail of the p.o.o.p which was above the sea, the sharks following in chase of the deceptive bait until he had lured them round to the inside part of the ship to join the one who was still on sentry there.

This was just what Jackson wanted; so he now proceeded to climb out along the mizzen rigging until he reached the point where the sea lapped it, when he arranged his running noose underneath, tying the loose end of the rope to the shrouds in a double hitch.

Jake then manoeuvred the baited line nearer to where the second mate had stationed himself, climbing out into the mizzen rigging too; when, as the leading shark turned over on its back and bit at the guernsey, Jackson slipped the running knot over its tail, pulling the noose in so that it held tightly. Then, seizing the handspike, he began belabouring the monster in a way that must pretty well have astonished its weak nerves, Jake the while stabbing it in the tail-end of the body with his long-bladed knife.

There was a terrific scuffle in which the water was tossed high in the air; but, after a minute or two, the shark broke the rope and managed to get away, although it was so seriously injured that it still remained on its back, and a quant.i.ty of blood poured out from the wounds it had received.

This made the crippled animal's comrades set upon it, tearing it to pieces between them; and, while they were gorging themselves with the dissevered carca.s.s, Jake dived into the sea under the fierce creatures, stabbing them wherever he could with such effect that his onslaught frightened the whole lot away--not a shark being visible in the vicinity within a few minutes after the commencement of the fray!

"Jerryboosalum!" exclaimed Jake, when, presently, he emerged all dripping and triumphant from the blood-stained waters. "We pay out dem debbels for ebberybody now. You nebber see dem come back hyar agin, I'se bet."

Nor did we.

There was no doubt of the rapacious brutes having been finally scared away.