The White Squall Part 9

As he pa.s.sed by close to where the cow was tethered, whether the smell of the savoury compound aroused the animal's hunger, or because Harry, coming too near, reminded her of the recent indignities to which she had been subjected, the cow all at once made a plunge at him with her head.

Harry sheered off, spilling a portion of the soup; and he was so frightened that he ran full speed with the remainder into the cabin.

He was not, however, quick enough for Mrs Brindle; for the sudden dive she made, throwing her whole might on the halter, caused the rope to snap like a piece of pack-thread. The next instant, the cow made a plunge after the mulatto steward, giving him a lift by the stern-post as he was entering the cuddy door which pitched him right on to the cabin table, where he fell amidst all the plates and dishes. There was a terrible smash, all the dinner things coming to grief, as well as the soup tureen, which he still held in his hands, the boiling contents pa.s.sing over the second mate's head, and scalding his face, besides making him in a pretty pickle.

"Oh Lord, oh Lord, I'm blinded!" screamed Davis, the thick pea-soup having gone into his eyes; while the captain had scarcely time to use his favourite e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n, "By Jingo!" before the cow, which had followed up her successful attack on the steward by galloping after him into the cabin, catching the arm-chair that Captain Miles was ensconced in sideways, started the lashings that held it to the deck, hurling the terrified occupant in a heap in the corner--the captain being utterly ignorant of the cause of the whole catastrophe, for he was sitting with his back to the door and so had not seen the steward's somersault nor the approach of the animal like I did from the beginning of the affair.

As for me, being on the other side of the table, I escaped any harm, although I immediately bolted into the steward's pantry near me, where, shutting the half-door, I looked out from this coign of vantage surveying the scene of havoc which the cabin presently presented, for the cow tossed about everything she could reach bellowing like one of the wild bulls of Bashan all the while.

The steward had fainted away, from fright I believe; and he lay stretched on the table as if he were practising swimming in Doctor Johnson's fashion. As for Davis, the second mate, he had his face bent down in his hands, apparently unmindful of everything but his own pain, but Captain Miles speedily sprang to his feet and was starting to attack the cause of the uproar with one of the broken legs of his chair when just at that moment Mr Marline poked his nose down the open skylight from the p.o.o.p above.

"What's the matter?" he asked suavely. "What is all the row about?"

"Come down and see," said Captain Miles savagely. "Talk of a bull in a china-shop; why, that would be child's play to a cow in a cabin!"

Mr Marline burst out laughing at this, and so too did Captain Miles himself as soon as he had spoken the words, while I couldn't help joining in, it was all so funny. Then the first mate came down with two or three of the hands to remove the violent animal, which had now jammed itself under Captain Miles' own cot in his private sanctum beyond the cuddy.

But, Mrs Brindle was not so easily dislodged, one of the sailors having to get through the stern port in order to raise the cot while the other men pulled at her legs.

She was evidently determined not to be moved against her will; for, on being lugged out again into the main cabin, she quickly shook off the grasp of her captors, cantering out of the sliding-doors, with her tail in the air, bellowing still furiously and b.u.t.ting at those in her way.

Her course was soon arrested, however. As she bounded forwards along the deck she came to the open hatchway leading to the hold, where tumbling down on top of the rum puncheons, before anyone could interpose, she broke her neck instanter.

"It's an ill wind that blows n.o.body any good," says the old proverb, the truth of which was exemplified in this instance. If the captain lost his milk, the crew gained a plentiful supply of fresh meat by the accident, faring sumptuously for many days afterwards on roast beef and all sorts of delicate dishes which Cuffee concocted out of the carca.s.s of the unfortunate animal.

"I wouldn't have lost her for twenty pounds!" said Captain Miles on the p.o.o.p later on, when he and the first mate were talking over the strange way in which the thing all happened.

"Humph!" observed Mr Marline slyly in his dry way; "I think she gave you one or two on account before she performed the happy despatch, eh?"

"Funny dog!" exclaimed Captain Miles, giving him a dig in the ribs by way of acknowledging the allusion to the thumps poor Brindle had treated him to, before she came on board and after; and, there, the matter ended, as far as everybody was concerned, the steward recovering from his fainting fit, and the eyes of Davis the second mate being none the worse as it turned out for their deluge of hot pea-soup, while the damages in the cabin were soon repaired. Only the poor cow came to grief!

CHAPTER SEVEN.

AMONGST THE ISLANDS.

In spite of all Captain Miles' endeavours to effect an early start from Saint Vincent, we were not really able to weather the island that evening until many hours after our anchor was tripped and all plain sail made.

This was not due, however, either to the delay caused in hoisting the obstreperous cow on board or to the embarra.s.sing episode that occurred after she was shipped. It was entirely owing to the failure of our moving spirit the wind; for we lay becalmed until morning under the lee of the giant Souffriere, whose dark shadow prevented the land breeze from reaching the vessel, while the next day was far advanced before we could gain an offing so as to take advantage of the light airs that then sprang up from seaward. But, then, the _Josephine_, bellying out her canvas, bore away on her voyage.

The wide gulf of sea which we were traversing--named after the aboriginal Caribs who ruled over its domain lang syne, and hedged in from the Atlantic Ocean by the semicircular group of the Lesser Antilles, or "Windward Islands" of the West Indies--presents great difficulties to the navigators of sailing ships; as, while the wind throughout its extent blows almost constantly in one direction, a series of cross currents set in another, making it a hard task for even experienced seamen to preserve a straight course towards any particular point when going to windward, the result of which is that "the longest way round," as in other matters pertaining to sh.o.r.e life, is frequently "the shortest way home!"

Taking up the chart casually, a novice would imagine that our direct route from our port of departure to the English Channel would be indicated by a line drawn between the two points and pa.s.sing through the Azores; but, a sailor accustomed to tropical lat.i.tudes would know that, however feasible this might appear in theory, we could not possibly have adopted such a course. It would have presupposed, in the first case, our possessing the ability to sail straight in the teeth of the north- east trade wind, and, in the second case, that we took no account of the influence of the equatorial current, the stream of which setting westwards into the Caribbean Sea, would have drifted as so far to leeward that at the end of the day's run we must have been pretty nearly where we started from, any progress we made ahead being neutralised by the action of the stream carrying us in a lateral direction.

For these reasons, all navigators up to their work, when making the pa.s.sage home from the West Indies and _vice versa_, instead of fighting against the forces of nature as some old seamen of the past used to do, now make both winds and tides run harmoniously in their favour by meeting them half-way, so to speak. Captain Miles, in our instance, therefore, did not wear out his crew by trying to beat to windward in order to get to the open Atlantic immediately. On the contrary, he kept his vessel well away to leeward, shaping a course for Saint Christopher's, so as to pa.s.s afterwards through the Anegada Channel, between the Virgin Islands, and reach the ocean in that way. In other words, following the example of the ready-witted Irishman who drove an obstinate pig to market by pulling him back by the tail, he deliberately steered to the north-west while really wanting to go to the north-east.

But, circuitous as such a route looked, the captain was in the end a gainer by it; for, not only did he keep the wind well abeam of the ship all the way on the starboard tack, but he had the additional advantage of having the strong north-westerly current in his favour in lieu of trying to work against it.

During this portion of our voyage the weather was beautifully fine, the sky being of a clear transparent opal tint without a cloud and the sea of the purest ultramarine blue, with little merry dancing wavelets occasionally flecking its changing surface into foam.

The air, too, was balmy, and not unpleasantly warm, a fine healthy breeze blowing, which filled our good ship's sails, so that they expanded to the furthest limits of the bolt-ropes, speeding her on her way at the rate of some eight knots an hour, as rising and falling she surged through the sparkling water and left a foaming wake astern that spread out in the shape of a fan behind her track, widening until it was lost in the distance.

When I mentioned my going to visit the _Josephine_ as she lay at anchor while taking in cargo at Grenville Bay, I think I said that I had never before been in a vessel. This, however, was not strictly accurate, for when dad came out to the West Indies from England with my mother and sisters some few years previously, I, of course, accompanied them; and as we had to cross the Atlantic in order to reach Grenada, and there was no other mode of overcoming the three thousand odd miles of ocean that lay between us and our destination except by our adventuring the pa.s.sage in the ordinary way, I was then really for the first time taken on board a ship. But it must be remembered that I was only at that period a tiny baby about the size of my little sister Tot; and, therefore, my recollections of the time being rather hazy, my first real experiences of the sea and all the incidents of the voyage came upon me with all that novelty and interest which unfamiliarity alone can produce. It is, nevertheless, only right that I should make this correction of my former mis-statement, for I wish to give a true and impartial account of all that happened to me from first to last. I am not "spinning a yarn"

merely, as sailor's say, but telling a true story of my life with all its haps and mishaps.

Now, therefore, as the _Josephine_ dashed along, all was new and strange to me; the limitless expanse of blue water shimmering in the summer sun, with flocks of flying-fish rising in the air occasionally to seek refuge from their enemies of the deep, only to fall back again below the surface after a short curving flight, to avoid the grey pelicans hovering above to attack them there; the fresh bracing breeze, which blew in my face so exhilaratingly; the swaying motion of the vessel that gave a lurch now and then, heeling over when the wind took her suddenly on the quarter as she rose on the swell; the whistling of the cordage and creaking of timbers and rattling of blocks, combined with the cheery yo-ho-hoing of the sailors as they slacked a sheet here and tightened a brace there. Really, I was so pleased, excited, and delighted with the whole scene and its surroundings that it seemed as if I were in the ship of a dream sailing on an enchanted sea!

Presently there arose out of the deep on our starboard bow the Pitons of Saint Lucia, two twin conical rocks like the Needles, only ever so much bigger, being over three thousand feet in height. They were festooned from base to summit with beautiful evergreen foliage; and the entrance to the harbour of the island was to be seen within and beyond these outlying sentinels, stretching up inland towards a ma.s.s of purple mountains from a beach of yellow sand.

Next, we pa.s.sed to the leeward of Martinique; and, then, towards sunset of the same day, as we approached Saint Kitts, islet after islet jumped up out of the sea in front of us, to the right hand and to the left.

They were all misty at first, but changed their colours from slaty grey to green as we approached them nearer, although their shape was all pretty much the same--tall sugar-loaf peaks surrounded by verdure sloping down in graceful curves to the water's edge, the surf breaking against the sh.o.r.e of those to leeward in clouds of spray, while the waves washed the rocky feet of those on the windward side without a ripple.

When the sun disappeared below the western horizon, Montserrat, Redonda, Nevis, Saint Christopher, and Saint Eustatius were all in sight around us; and, just at ten o'clock at night, when the moon was at the full, lighting up the scene with its silvery beams as brightly almost as if it were day, we pa.s.sed between Saint Eustatius and the island of Saba. We approached the latter within two miles, but when its north point bore west we steered for Dog Island, clearing the reefs somewhere about the middle watch.

Soon after sunrise next morning we weathered Sombrero, the last of the Antilles, and thus got fairly out into the Atlantic, leaving the West Indies behind us as we hauled our wind and bore away for the Azores-- although a long stretch of ocean had to be crossed ere we might hope to reach this half-way port on our voyage.

But I have not yet described our ship and those on board.

The _Josephine_ was an old-fashioned barque of about five hundred tons burden, built with a high p.o.o.p and a topgallant forecastle, "or fo'c's'le," as seamen call it.

She was a roomy vessel, possessing great breadth of beam, which made her a staunch sea-boat in rough weather, for she could tumble about as much as she pleased without causing much damage to her timbers or risk of her stability; and this roominess, besides, allowed good accommodation aft for a large number of pa.s.sengers, although in this instance I was the single solitary "landsman" aboard--that is, if a young shaver of thirteen can be dignified with such a high-sounding t.i.tle!

Her officers and crew consisted of eighteen hands all told; and amongst the former Captain Miles, her master, a st.u.r.dy old sea-dog of forty-five or thereabouts, is ent.i.tled to be the first described. He had a broad honest face, with a pair of bushy, reddish-brown mutton-chop whiskers, for, unlike the sailors of to-day, the captain was always clean shaven as to his chin and upper lip, esteeming a moustache an abomination, "which only one of those French Johnny c.r.a.paud lubbers ever think of wearing."

The next officer in rank after Captain Miles was Mr Marline, the first mate, a thin wiry north countryman, with a lot of latent fun and dry humour in him; and then came Davis, the second mate, a thick-set bull- necked dark-haired Welshman, not more than twenty-four or five years of age. He had been promoted from the foremast on account of his predecessor having died on the pa.s.sage out. Davis was a very good seaman and up to his work; otherwise, his education being sadly deficient, as even I, a boy, could perceive, and his temper and disposition being none of the best, he was certainly not very well fitted to command those with whom he had formerly a.s.sociated as an equal.

My old friend Moggridge, the boatswain, and Adze, the carpenter, completed the list of those in authority; and, besides these, must be enumerated Cuffee, the king of the cook's galley; Jake, who had been put on the muster-roll as an ordinary hand; Harry, the captain's tawny mulatto steward; and ten able seamen--the finest and strongest of all these being Jackson, a smart young Cornishman hailing from Plymouth, who stood some six feet two in his stockings and gloried in such a broad pair of shoulders that he was worth any three of the other hands put together.

To complete the description of our ship, the lower portion of our cargo, stowed in the ground tier of the hold above the dunnage, was sugar and coffee, with some odd bags of cocoa from my father's plantation to make weight; but our chief freight, fortunately for us, as you will learn later on, was rum. The puncheons containing this were packed as tightly as possible fore and aft the ship above the heavy produce, reaching up amidships to the level of the main hatch, all the s.p.a.ces between being so compactly filled in with the lighter samples of cargo that not even a c.o.c.kroach could have squeezed itself in sideways.

In the waist of the vessel on the upper deck, ranged along the inside of the bulwarks on either hand, from the entrance to the cabin under the break of the p.o.o.p to right away forwards just abaft the foremast, was a row of water-casks. A couple of these had their tops sawn off lengthwise and contained several live turtle which Captain Miles was hopeful of carrying home safely in time for the next ensuing banquet at the Mansion House on lord mayor's day, an enterprising ship's chandler in the Minories having given him an order to that effect before he left England on his voyage out to the West Indies. In a similar way, against the sides of the p.o.o.p were fixed what looked at first sight to be benches for sitting down upon, but which on closer inspection I discovered to be hen-coops,--their occupants projecting their long necks and heads therefrom, in much perplexity evidently at their strange fate in being thus brought to sea; for, as was the case with myself, this was their first experience of what life on board ship was like, and the exigencies of the cabin table would most probably cause it to be their last!

It was not until the fourth day after we had set sail from Grenada that I was able to note all these particulars. Up to that time I had been too much interested with the moving panorama around me to notice things inboard; and, besides, the motion of the _Josephine_, when she got lively in the seaway amongst the islands, produced an uneasy feeling which led me ere long to retire below and bewail my old home and those from whom I had been so ruthlessly severed with greater grief than I had felt before. I suffered from that fearful nausea which Father Neptune imposes as a penance on the majority of his votaries, and it was wonderful how very melancholy the sensation made me.

However, I struggled gallantly against the fell foe, and, one morning, I crawled out of my bunk early, just as the men began to wash down the decks, the first work of the day aboard ship. This was shortly after we had cleared the island of Sombrero, and when the _Josephine_ was working her way out to sea.

At first I stopped in the waist, near the entrance to the cabin, but Davis, the second mate, who stood with his trousers tucked up showing his bare feet and legs, superintending the hands sluicing the water about from the hose attached to the head pump out on the forecastle, told me politely to sheer off, as they wanted no idlers in the way; so, I ascended the p.o.o.p-ladder, and was commiserating the poor fowls in the hen-coops along the rails, when Captain Miles, who was standing close to the helmsman at the wheel, addressed me.

"Hallo, Master Tom," said he, "got your sea-legs again?"

"Yes, captain," I replied, "I'm all right now, thank you."

"Beginning to feel peckish, eh?"

"Not very," said I, for I was qualmish still, although the fresh air had considerably revived me even in the short time since I had come out of the close cabin.

"Ah, but you must eat, though, my boy," observed Captain Miles kindly, giving me a kindly pat on the back. "An empty stomach is the worst thing in the world to voyage on. Why, you haven't hardly eaten a bite since the other evening when that poor cow knocked our dinner all into the middle of next week! Never mind, though, breakfast will be ready at eight bells, and we'll see whether we can't get some lining upon your ribs, my little skillygalee."

"I have already asked Jake to get me a cup of coffee, sir," I said in reply to this; but, before the captain could answer me again, we both had our attention drawn to the deck below. There seemed to be some sort of commotion going on in the cook's galley away forward, for all the men had their faces turned in that direction, and they were laughing as if at some good joke.