The White Squall Part 28

"You're right," said the captain; "and here comes a good-sized roller that may finish the job. Look out, lads, and hold on!"

Onward, as we gazed astern, came a large green sea, with a white angry crest, swelling larger and larger as it got nearer, until it almost hung above the p.o.o.p before breaking.

"Hold on, lads, hold on!" cried the captain, repeating his previous warning, when, with a dull thud the ma.s.s of water broke, covering us all with a sheet of foam that drenched us through and through, almost swept us away from our lashings--the spars that supported us being lifted up from the deck and then dropped again as suddenly.

At the same time, there was a heavy crash heard forward, and the ship lurched as if she were going to founder. She quivered all over, and her timbers creaked and groaned.

Next, she rolled heavily more over to starboard, as the wave which had broken over us sped onwards, washing the waist and forecastle; and then, with another great crash the mizzen and mainmasts rolled into the sea, and the port side of the ship that was under water rose up clear.

The foremast, which had broken away when we heard that great crash forwards had been snapped off just below the slings of the fore-yard, and had followed its companions overboard, although still towed alongside by the stays and starboard rigging that also held the other spars; and, the next instant, with an upward bound the _Josephine_ righted. At the same moment, the water that had filled the cabin and waist and forecastle poured out on either side through the scuppers and broken bulwarks; while the sunken part of the p.o.o.p and lower deck rose high and dry again as we looked on, hardly believing that what we had so anxiously awaited and striven for had come to pa.s.s at last.

"Thank G.o.d!" exclaimed Captain Miles in a voice faltering with emotion; while several of the men, quite unnerved, burst into tears.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

"A BAKER'S DOZEN."

"Do you know what day it is?" observed Captain Miles presently, as we were all busily engaged freeing ourselves from the lashings that held us to the spars, preparing to stand on the deck once more in an upright position and stretch our sadly cramped legs, our movements for so many hours having been much restricted.

"No," replied Mr Marline, taking the question to himself as he stamped his feet vigorously to restore the circulation of the stagnant blood.

"I have lost all count nearly of time during this awful week!--Sat.u.r.day, is it not--or Monday?"

"You are a little behind in one guess and too far ahead in the other!"

said the captain quietly. "It is Sunday, the seventh day since our trials began."

"Well," responded the other; "it is a lucky day for us, whatever it may be, sir. I confess I never expected such a fortunate ending as this to our sad misfortunes. I had made up my mind that we must go to the bottom; and pretty soon too, after the wind rose again!"

"I hoped for the best," answered Captain Miles, shaking himself like a big Newfoundland dog, and stepping gingerly along the p.o.o.p as if half afraid to walk. "I never despaired even in our darkest hour; and I'm glad to say I didn't, for I trusted in Providence! But come," he added, with all his old brisk manner restored in a moment, smiling cheerfully, "we must see about getting things ship-shape around us; for it would be a poor return for the mercy we have received to sit down idly now and do nothing to help ourselves. Look alive, men, there's plenty to see to!"

There was; so much, indeed, that it almost seemed a puzzle where to begin.

Our first consideration was the masts, which were still attached to the hull by all the starboard rigging, and were banging against that side of the vessel with each send of the sea, threatening to knock the lower timbers in; so, a working party being quickly organised under the indefatigable Jackson, the axe was called into use again and the remaining shrouds cut away, the fore and main-braces being pa.s.sed round the stump of the foremast, which stood some twenty feet or so from the deck, in order to prevent the span from going adrift when the shrouds parted.

The lee rigging, tautened by the strain of the masts dependent from it, was soon severed; and then, the ship being more buoyant, floated away some yards leeward--the spars veered out to the length of the braces, serving as a sort of breakwater and keeping the waves from coming in over the bows as she tended, for her stern at once coming round caused her to ride easily, head to wind, just as if she were anch.o.r.ed.

"Now, men," cried Captain Miles when this was managed, and no pressing danger stared us in the face, "we must now see whether we can't get up anything to eat from the after-hold. I daresay you fellows feel a bit hungry, eh?"

You should have only seen the look on every face when he said this!

The very idea of food made all ravenous; and it was as much as Captain Miles could do to prevent the hands from rushing in a body into the cabin.

The men seemed inclined to eat him when he put out his hand to stop them.

"Take it coolly!" he sang out, pushing one or two back that had pressed forwards. "I will see that you've not long to wait. Jake, you know your way below, I believe?"

"Iss, ma.s.sa," replied the darkey with a broad grin. "Harry bery often sen' me down to get stores when um busy."

"Ah, the poor fellow, I had forgotten him," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the captain, entering the cabin at once and going towards the steward's pantry; but he had to pick his steps carefully, the place being heaped up with a variety of things that had been swept out of the different berths by the sea, and were washing up and down for more than two days.

As Captain Miles had surmised, the mulatto had been drowned inside the little apartment devoted to his use; for there his body was now found, the colour of the skin nearly white through the action of the water.

The corpse was brought out and laid reverently under the break of the p.o.o.p by a couple of sailors whom the captain called into the cabin for the purpose; after which he and Jake then proceeded to unfasten the hatches leading down into the after-hold in search of provisions for the living, there being plenty of time to attend to the obsequies of the dead later on when our more urgent needs were supplied.

Cuffee the cook during this interval had gone forward to look after his old galley; and loud was his lament to find it washed away, its weight having parted the strong lashings that secured it to the ring-bolts in the deck when the ship capsized.

"Boderation!" he exclaimed. "How can um cook w'en dere's nuffin' to cook, an' no place to cook in?"

"Belay that grumblin' o' yourn, darkey," cried old Moggridge, who had been poking about amongst a heap of the debris of ropes and broken spars and gear that were piled in a heap between the windla.s.s bitts and the top of the topgallant forecastle. "I do believe your blessed old caboose hasn't been washed overboard arter all! Here it is, only on its beam-ends like the ship was an hour ago; but I daresay all your pots and pans are all right inside."

"Golly, bosun, does you mean dat?" exclaimed Cuffee, going up quickly to where Moggridge was standing, inspecting the ma.s.s of heterogeneous things that had fetched up in the corner, consisting of a portion of one of the anchor-stocks, the men's clothes and traps washed out from their bunks, mess-tins, and all sorts of stray dunnage. "You tell me de galley am right an' safe, for true, hey?"

"Why, there it is, you ugly varmint! Can't you see it for yourself?"

retorted the old seaman, rather nettled at having his word doubted.

"Lor' a mussy, dere it am!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Cuffee, highly delighted when his own eyes confirmed the fact. "Golly, Bosun, we can cook sumfin' now!"

"I don't know how you're going to manage that as it stands," said Moggridge sarcastically. "Strikes me you'd better see about rigging it up properly first!"

"I'se spec' you'll help, Ma.s.sa Bosun," hinted the darky cook in an obsequious way; "you clebber man, Ma.s.sa Moggridge, an' knows how to bowse tings up."

"Oh, yes; I don't want any of your blarney now, Cuffee. I fancy we're all hungry enough to eat anything raw when we gets it, without botherin'

about cooking to-day at any rate!"

A grunt of a.s.sent came from all the hands standing by at this remark; and I then turned round to see what Captain Miles and Jake were about in the cabin. I had not yet entered that apartment, the finding of the steward's dead body having scared me away. The pallid corpse looked so ghastly and terrible!

As I turned to go to the after portion of the vessel I was almost afraid that I should see the dead body of the steward again; but on reaching the entrance to the cabin I noticed a tarpaulin covering it in the corner, and I went hastily by, turning my face away, and bolting within the swing doors.

Here, if the jumble of miscellaneous odds and ends under the break of the forecastle had struck me as strange, the confusion was ever so much worse; for, nothing having been washed out, the entire furniture of every separate berth, as well as of the main saloon, were mixed together in one indistinguishable ma.s.s--clothes, books, food and crockery-ware, perishable and imperishable goods alike, all mingled in one inharmonious whole.

Blankets, bedding, and pillows were piled on the chairs and benches that had surrounded the centre table, which article, with its legs upstanding, was jammed into the captain's own sanctum, half in and half out, like the cow had been; while the fragments of plates and dishes, coffee-pots and gla.s.s-ware of all description, were scattered on the floor in every direction. Captain Miles's s.e.xtant and the tell-tale compa.s.s, that used to hang from the middle of the ceiling of the deck above, reposed peaceably together on the top of a double Gloucester cheese. Every variety of eatable was mixed up higgledy piggledy with articles for table use, and all sorts of known and unknown garments.

My trunk had not escaped the general destruction, the new outfit with which I had been provided being all spoilt; while some pictures and various cherished mementoes of my old West Indian home shared the fate of Mr Marline's wardrobe and the captain's kit.

Indeed, the sea had performed its scouring work so well, that it would have puzzled a wiser man than Solomon to have decided what was each individual's personal property, the whole having been thrown together like one of the odd lots at an auction sale.

After surveying the medley for a few moments, my attention was attracted to Captain Miles and Jake, the latter of whom was down within the store- room under the hatch in the stern-sheets, only his woolly head projecting, handing up several tins of potted meats and bags of biscuit to the captain; while the latter was placing these as he received them on a clear s.p.a.ce of the deck from which he had swept the broken refuse away, checking off the things as Jake ferreted them out from below, his head bobbing down and up again each moment.

"There," said Captain Miles, as I came up to the two; "three bags of biscuit, four seven-pound tins of boiled mutton, two tins of preserved vegetables, one ham, one cheese, six pounds of coffee, and one firkin of b.u.t.ter. I think that will do. But, where is the sugar I told you to get out, Jake?"

"Here he am," replied the darkey, handing another bag up. "Dat's fine sugar, sah, for de cabin table."

"And where is the other sort?" asked the captain.

"Um here too; but cask too big for dis chile to lift."

"Then you must get out more in something smaller, for the men's coffee in the morning," said Captain Miles. "I don't want them to be treated differently to myself, and I know I like sugar in mine."

"Yah, yah, ma.s.sa too good," laughed Jake; but he proceeded to obey the captain's orders, and another bag was soon added to the pile on the floor of the cabin awaiting distribution.