The White Squall Part 29

"Now, Tom," said Captain Miles to me, "run and call in a couple of the hands to take out their rations. I'm going to serve out the grub at once, and we may as well all eat together."

It should be mentioned that all these preparations, although I have taken so long to describe them, did not take up much time, the captain knowing from his own feeling that the men were all starving, and not keeping them an instant longer without food than he could help.

On receipt of his order, therefore, I hastened away, returning almost immediately with one of the sailors and Cuffee, who a.s.serted his right of coming for the food; but, while I was absent Jake had procured a knife that was used for opening the tins of preserved meat out of the steward's pantry, where, from its being hung on a hook, it had escaped being lost among the other debris. With this useful little article he now proceeded to take off the tops of the cases containing the boiled mutton, Cuffee and his a.s.sistant parcelling the same out under the captain's eye.

The cabin table had been set upon its legs again and the provisions placed upon it, when the men being ordered to file in, Captain Miles distributed a small portion of the meat with a couple of biscuits to each. He advised them to eat slowly and moderately, saying that if they did otherwise they would feel very badly afterwards, on account of having gone so long without food.

Mr Marline and Jackson and myself were also rationed out in similar fashion, each and all of us, irrespective of position, being treated on an equality and Captain Miles himself only taking the same quant.i.ty that he gave us; then, when all had thus broken their fast, the men were dismissed and allowed to carry off away forward the greater portion of the provisions that had been got out for them, although with strict injunctions still to eat sparingly, at all events on this first day of their tasting any nourishment. They were likewise told to be careful not to drink too much water, Jackson, who had charge of the cask, being ordered to use discretion.

"We are only thirteen all told now aft--a baker's dozen, men," said the captain, "and I wish to carry you home in good health with me to England; so, mind what you are after, for my sake if not for your own!

We have weathered the gale, and stuck to the ship though bottom upwards, for nigh on three days, braving the perils of the deep in the way of sharks and such like; consequently I think it would be hard lines on me if I couldn't fetch you safe into port in the end."

"You're a real good sort, Cap'en Miles, that's what you are!" cried Moggridge--acting as spokesman for the rest by general consent apparently, for the others gave a subdued sort of cheer that seemed to intimate their acquiescence in his remarks--"and I thinks as how we'd be no better nor brute beasts if we weren't to act as how you advises, eh, lads?"

"Aye, aye," chorused the rest affirmatively.

"That's all right then," said Captain Miles. "You can see I don't want to stint you, for I've only given you these few supplies to carry you on until we can get to the ship's stores in the main hold. You may go forward now, and I'd recommend you to get out all your duds and hang 'em out to dry as soon as you can, so as to have a shift bye and bye, and that'll do you as much good as the grub."

The hands then retired from the cabin, leaving only the captain and Mr Marline and I there, Jackson going out into the waist too, in order to draw some water and serve it out by the captain's directions.

"Oh, Captain Miles!" I exclaimed when we were thus left together, "all my clothes are spoilt."

"And oh, Master Tom!" he retorted, "how about my poor chronometers?

They've stopped and will never go again, I suppose, till they've been put in dry dock in London and had a thorough overhaul, salt water not agreeing with their const.i.tutions as it does with some folk. By Jove, though, Marline, I never thought of that before. I shall be puzzled how to get my longitude bye and bye, I fancy."

"My old watch is going, sir," said the mate. "I set it by the ship's time before our capsize, and it goes pretty correctly, for I didn't forget to wind it up all the time we were spread-eagling on the bulwarks."

"You didn't?" cried the captain. "You're a wonderful fellow, Marline, and you ought to be Archbishop of Canterbury or something! You say you set it by the ship's time on Thursday?"

"I don't know what day it was, sir, but it was the last time you took the sun," replied the other.

"Then, at that time, I recollect, we were in 32 degrees north lat.i.tude and 40 degrees west longitude. Ha, humph, I see! That will give us pretty well the time at Greenwich, with a little deduction. It's all right, Marline, I have it. Mind, though, you don't let the old turnip run down."

"Turnip, indeed!" exclaimed Mr Marline in pretended indignation, winking at me. "Just you hear him, Master Tom!"

"Well, well, I beg its pardon and yours," said the captain laughing; "but, let us get out of this disgraceful hole and go out on deck to see what the weather is like. Jake!"

"Iss, ma.s.sa," replied the darkey, who, I forgot to mention, remained behind when the rest of the crew went forwards.

"I'm going to make you steward in poor Harry's place," said Captain Miles.

"Iss, ma.s.sa," responded Jake, greatly pleased at the honour thus bestowed on him, and making a low how with a sc.r.a.pe back of his left foot, according to negro etiquette, in acknowledgment of the favour.

"Look out, my lad, and make matters snug here as well as you can. You may call in your brother darkey the cook to help you, if you like."

"Golly, ma.s.sa, me do him much betterer own self," replied Jake grinning hugely. "Dat Cuffee bery lazy sometimes."

"Well, well, that's like the pot calling the kettle black, I fancy,"

said Captain Miles smiling. "However, you can please yourself, and get any of the hands you may want to a.s.sist in lifting back the bunks and so on in their proper places--some of the things may be too heavy for you.

At all events, make the saloon presentable before we come down again, and swab up the deck."

"That's a willing fellow," he added to Mr Marline, as we went out and mounted the p.o.o.p-ladder. "I never saw a negro so handy, so plucky, and so willing."

"Thank you, Captain Miles," I said, taking the compliment to myself, as having a sort of family ownership in Jake.

"Why, what have you got to do with it, Tom Eastman?" he asked in his humorous way, poking fun at me.

"Well, captain, I don't think you'd ever have seen him on board if it hadn't been for me," I retorted.

"You're right there, but I'll thank you for his pa.s.sage-money, then, Master Tom," said he, laughing at his joke and I too joining in, our wonderful good fortune having restored all our spirits amazingly.

The sun now came out and the day became bright and cheerful, with a gentle soft breeze blowing from the south-west which was just sufficient to curl the crests of the waves and make the sea sparkling, the heavy waves of the morning having lessened considerably and the whole expanse of the ocean dancing before our eyes in the warm light of the noontide.

"I see," observed Mr Marline, "the hands have quickly acted on your advice about drying their clothes."

"Aye, poor fellows; and time enough, too, for they haven't had a dry rag on them, I believe, since last Monday."

"You forget you have been in the same plight," replied the other, as we looked at the long strings of shirts and trousers and guernsey frocks hanging from ropes that were stretched from the stump of the foremast across the deck forwards, all fluttering in the wind and making the ship look as if she were dressed with bunting in honour of some royal birthday.

"And so have you too, Marline, as well as this young shaver," returned the captain good-humouredly; "but I was not thinking of ourselves; for, we're both young fellows, like Master Tom here, and able to brave anything. Hasn't the ship suffered, though, poor old thing!" he added as he glanced sympathetically over her and saw all the damage, which, first the gale, and then our subsequent cutting away of the masts, had effected.

"Aye, she doesn't look as trim as when she left port," said Mr Marline.

Nor did she by a long way!

The mizzen and mainmasts had been cut down close to the deck, while the b.u.t.t-end of the foremast stood up only some twenty feet or so above the forecastle--a jagged broken piece of timber, with the stays and other ropes stretching away from its head to the wreck of the spars tumbling about in the sea in front of us. The bowsprit alone remained intact of all our sticks, the gale having even spared the jib-boom; while the martingale and dolphin striker, with the shrouds on either side of the projecting spar were still all standing.

Looking inboards, the helm and steering apparatus were undamaged, as was also the binnacle, although this had a severe list to starboard; but, the skylight in the centre of the p.o.o.p had been swept away, as well as a portion of the bulwarks on the side that had been under water, the rasping of the mizzen-mast having sawn them off flush with the deck.

This was the case, too, below in the waist, where the starboard timbers had been carried away nearly to the fore-chains, which probably had acted as a buffer and stayed further destruction in that direction; and it was only owing to this that the galley and pump-box had been saved, as otherwise both would have been swept overboard along with the dunnage I had noticed collected under the lee of the forecastle.

"Well, we mustn't grumble," said Captain Miles after meditating a bit over the damage with a serious face. "Our lives have been spared and the ship floats; so, there you have two things to the good, to balance our account on the other side of the ledger!"

"You're right, sir," replied Mr Marline; "but have you sounded her yet to see if we have shipped much water?"

"Aye, I did that a long time ago, while you were dreaming," said the captain with a chuckle. "Old Adze the carpenter saw to the matter as soon as we righted. She has taken in very little in the main hold; but the fore-peak is full, as I thought, through some careless fellow not putting on the hatch and battening it down again after we got up these new sails. However, we can't see about clearing it out yet, for the pumps are smashed and it will take Adze all day to-morrow to get them in working order again. Besides, I don't want the men to do more than is absolutely necessary to-day, for it is Sunday, as I told you before; and we ought, in more ways than one, considering all we have gone through, to observe it as a day of rest."

"I quite agree with you, sir," replied Mr Marline; "and if I had not thought so, you would have seen me long ere this on the fo'c's'le, getting up a jury-mast or something."

"Let you alone for that," said Captain Miles. "But, Marline," he added the next moment, "there is one thing we must do presently. I thought it best to leave it until sunset, before letting all hands turn in and have a good night's rest; and that is--"

"To bury the steward," suggested the other.

"You've guessed rightly," said he; "so now, as I see the men taking in their clothes, which are by this time dry enough, I should fancy, from their exposure to the sun and wind, I think I'll give them a hail."

This he did; and bye and bye, as the orb of day sank below the sea, the body of Harry, tied up in a piece of tarpaulin and with a heavy piece of chain-cable attached to the feet to make it sink, was committed to the deep, Captain Miles reading the impressive burial service, for those lost at sea, out of a prayer-book which he had recovered from the debris of the cabin and put in his pocket for the purpose.

This was our religious observance of the day. It was a great contrast to the prayers on the p.o.o.p which we had on the previous Sunday, when the ship, in all the glory of her fine proportions, with her lofty masts towering into the skies, was rolling on the calm bosom of the ocean, with her idle sails spread vainly to the breeze that would not come; now, she was but a battered and dismantled hulk. The breeze we had wished for had come at last and waxed into a strong wind, which had ultimately developed into the hurricane that had done all the mischief-- the final result of which was the present burial of our drowned comrade!