Under the Meteor Flag Part 38

"No, sir, I have not," I replied. "Indeed I have heard _nothing_ in connection with naval matters, for I have not yet been as far as Kingston."

"Umph! Well, we _are_ doing so," he said. "How do you think the change will affect her?"

"I believe it will be a great improvement. All that heavy gear forward must, I am sure, have been detrimental to her sailing powers, especially in a sea-way."

"To be sure it was. Couldn't have been otherwise. Then you approve of the change?"

"Yes, sir, certainly," I replied, wondering why on earth so great a personage should attach any importance to the opinion of a midshipman.

"Ah! I am glad of that," returned the admiral; "because, since you have expressed a wish to go to sea again, the idea has come into my head to give her to you--that is to say, until the 'Astarte' comes in again."

I murmured something--I hardly knew what--by way of thanks, to which the admiral kindly replied,--

"There, there; don't say a word about it, my dear boy. Annesley has told me all about you, and if the half of what he says be true, I know of no one who is better fitted for the trust than yourself. Besides, I have really n.o.body else to place in charge. If you feel well enough, you had better run down on board in the course of a day or two, and see how matters are going on. Now come away into the other room and have some lunch."

On the following morning, directly after breakfast, I started in Mr Finnie's ketureen for Kingston, and, reaching the wharf about noon, chartered that fast-sailing clipper, the "Fly-by-night," to convey me to Port Royal. The jabber of the black boatmen and the exhilarating sensation of being once more afloat had quite a tonic effect upon my spirits, which rose higher and higher as we tore down past the Palisades, the boat careening gunwale-to, with the hissing, sparkling foam seething past and trailing away in a long wake astern.

When I got on board the "Juanita," I found that they had just stepped the foremast, and a most beautiful spar it was, without a knot in it, and as straight as a ray of light.

Fisher, the dockyard foreman, was on board, superintending operations, and from him I learned that it was intended to make some slight alterations in the armament of the craft; for, whereas when captured she carried four long-sixes of a side, it was now proposed to alter the position of the ports, reducing their number to three, and bringing them more toward the middle or waist of the vessel, and mounting three long- nines on each side instead of the four sixes, thus removing the weight from the two ends, and adding three pounds to the weight of her broadside. It was also proposed to take away the long-nine from forward, and to subst.i.tute for it a long-eighteen between the masts.

These alterations accorded strictly with my own views upon the subject, and were precisely what I should have suggested, had I been asked.

There had been some little talk about increasing the height of her bulwarks, but this, I was glad to hear, had been overruled; for it would certainly have gone far toward spoiling her light, jaunty, graceful appearance.

It took the dockyard people just another week to complete the proposed alterations, during which I visited the craft every morning, returning to my quarters at Mr Finnie's in time for their six o'clock dinner. On the day week after my first visit she was out of Fisher's hands, and as I left her late that afternoon I thought I had never seen a prettier little craft. Her tall, slim, taper spars had a jaunty little rake aft, and were enc.u.mbered with only so much rigging as was absolutely necessary to prevent them from going over the side. Her yards, though light, were of immense spread, and the new suit of sails with which she had been fitted fore and aft, and which had been stretching all the week and were permanently bent only that same morning, gleamed in the brilliant sunshine, white as snow.

Her hull was coppered to about six inches beyond the water-line, and above this she was painted a cool grey up to her rail, this colour being relieved by a narrow scarlet riband along the covering-board. It was a fancy of the admiral, that she should be made as unlike a ship of war as possible, in order that she might be the more thoroughly fitted for her destined work; and, between us all, we certainly managed to meet his wishes in that respect to perfection, for she looked, both in hull and rigging, more like a yacht than anything else.

On the following day the stores and ammunition were shipped, and on the day after I called at the admiral's office for my instructions, joined the ship, and that same evening, as soon as the land breeze set in, proceeded to sea; my orders being to cruise among the Windward Pa.s.sages for the protection of trade and the suppression of piracy until recalled, and to look in at the post office on Crooked Island about once a month for orders.

Keeping close along in under the land, so as to take full advantage of the land breeze, we were off Morant Point by midnight, when we stretched away to seaward, and finally, after being obliged to take to our sweeps to get across the calm belt between the _terral_ and the trade-wind, stood away to the northward, close-hauled upon the starboard tack, toward the Cuban sh.o.r.e.

Weathering in due time Cape Maysi, the eastern extremity of the island of Cuba, we shaped a course for Crooked Island Pa.s.sage, and being then able to get a small pull upon the weather-braces and to ease off the mainsheet a foot or so, we bowled along in a style which filled all hands with delight.

On our arrival at Crooked Island we called at the post office, and I left a letter for the admiral, reporting progress. There was a fine full-rigged ship lying there when we arrived, bound for London; she had been there two days, waiting and hoping for the arrival of a man-of-war, under the protection of which to get safely through the Pa.s.sage. She carried a very rich cargo and some sixteen pa.s.sengers, most of whom were ladies, and as she only mounted four small guns, and carried no more than just sufficient men to work the ship, her skipper was willing to lose a day or two upon the chance of getting a safe convoy clear of the islands, among which there had been of late some very daring cases of piracy.

Finding that the "Centurion"--as his ship was named--was perfectly ready for sea, I arranged with her skipper to sail again that afternoon, which we accordingly did. The "Centurion" proving to be a slow sailer, we were four days taking her out clear of everything, when, having done so without molestation, the two ships parted company, and we bore up for a regular cruise to the southward among the various pa.s.sages.

We fell in with a good many ships, all English, pushing through he various pa.s.sages, and a few of them asked for convoy; but of pirates, slavers, or French privateers--any of which would have been game for our bag--we saw nothing.

At length, having made the circuit of the archipelago once, calling at the post office on reaching it, but finding no orders, we had proceeded so far on our cruise as to have arrived off the Square Handkerchief Shoal on our second round, and were about to bear up through the Silver Kay Pa.s.sage, when, toward the end of the afternoon watch, the wind suddenly dropped, and by sun-down it had fallen stark calm.

The air turned close and hot as the breath of an oven, and as the evening wore on a heavy bank of black cloud worked up from to leeward and slowly overspread the sky, gradually settling down until the vapour appeared to touch our mast-heads.

Hawsepipe, a master's-mate, who was acting as master, had been very fidgety for some time, and at last, "What do you think all this means, Mr Chester?" said he.

"I scarcely know _what_ to make of it," I replied. "I have never seen anything quite like it before. It looks more like an impending thunder- storm than anything else; but it _may_ be something very different, and I was about to give the order to shorten sail when you spoke."

"I really think we had better," he returned. "I see no sign of wind as yet, certainly; still, as we are in no hurry, it would be just as well to be prepared for anything and everything that can possibly happen.

What sail shall we get her under?"

"Well, being, as you remark, in no sort of hurry, I think we will make our precautions as complete as possible by stowing everything except the fore-trysail and staysail. Let the men commence with the mainsail, as it is the largest and least manageable sail in a breeze."

"All hands, shorten sail!" sang out Hawsepipe.

The boatswain's pipe sounded, his gruff voice reiterated the order, and the men, who had been grouped together on the forecastle discussing the singular appearance of the weather, sprang to their stations.

"Main and peak halliards let go! Man the main-tack tricing-line and down with the throat of the sail; round-in upon the mainsheet! Now, then, is there no one to attend to the peak downhaul? That's right.

Now roll up the sail snugly and put the coat on. In with the whole of your square canvas forward. Royal, topgallant, and topsail halliards and sheets let go; man the clewlines, and clew them up cheerily, my lads. Haul down and stow both jibs. Lay aloft there! and see that you stow your canvas snugly, although it _is_ too dark at present for me to see what you are about." Thus Mr Hawsepipe, in as authoritative a tone as though he were the first luff of a 120-gun ship.

Sail was shortened in considerably less time than it has taken to write the above description; for though this was the first cruise wherein Hawsepipe had been placed in a position of actual authority, he was anything but a tyro in the science of seamanship, and insisted on _everything_ on board being done as thoroughly well as it was possible to do it, and the schooner was soon ready for whatever might come.

The night grew hotter and hotter, and still the gla.s.sy calm continued.

The darkness was so intense, so opaque, that on placing my hand close before my eyes, I was quite unable to see it; and the stillness of the air was such that the flame of a lamp brought on deck burned straight up and down, merely swaying a trifle with the heave of the ship upon the long, sluggish swell.

This state of things continued until nearly four bells in the first watch, when a startling phenomenon occurred. The curtain of vapour grew more dense even than it had been before, entirely precluding the possibility of any light penetrating from above; notwithstanding which, the atmosphere very gradually became luminous with a ghastly, blue, sulphurous light, until it was possible, not only to see distinctly every object on board the schooner, but also to distinguish the gleaming surface of the water for a distance on every side of some three miles or so.

The faces of the men huddled together on the forecastle looked ghastly and death-like in this unearthly light, and the hull, spars, rigging and canvas of the schooner a.s.sumed such a weird and supernatural appearance when illumined by it, that she might easily have been mistaken for a cruiser from Phlegethon.

But this was not all. About half-an-hour after this singular luminosity of the atmosphere first became apparent, and before the startled seamen had recovered their self-possession, in an instant, without any premonition whatever, there appeared at each mast-head and yardarm, at the jibboom-end--in fact, at the end of every spar on board the schooner--a globe of greenish-coloured light, about the size of an ordinary lamp-globe, each of which wavered and swayed, elongated and flattened, as the ship gently rose and fell over the gla.s.sy sea.

The men were now thoroughly terrified.

"See that, Tom?" exclaimed one. "What d'ye call all them things?"

"Why, they be Davy Jones' lanterns, _they_ be," returned Tom; "and right sorry am I to see 'em."

"Davy Jones' lanterns?" echoed the questioner. "What--you don't mean as them lights has been h'isted aboard here by the real old genuine Davy hisself, eh?"

"That's just what I _do_ mean, then, and no mistake. My eyes! there's a show of 'em, too; never seed so many afore in my life. You mark my words, d.i.c.k, and see if something out o' the common don't happen to this here little barkie afore four-and-twenty hours is over our heads."

"What sort of a _somethin'_ d'ye mean, Tom, bo'?" asked another.

"Why, harm or damage o' some kind," replied the oracle. "I've heerd say as how when them lanterns is showed aboard of a craft, that it's a sure sign as she's a doomed ship. I remembers one time when I was in the Chinee seas in the old--Lord ha' mercy on us! what's that?"

A dazzling, blinding flash, which seemed to set both sky and sea on fire, and a simultaneous crash of thunder of so terrific a character that my ears rang and tingled, and I was stone-deaf for a few minutes afterwards, interrupted the speaker. I reeled under the awful concussion, as though I had received a crushing blow, and for a minute or two I felt dazed to the verge of unconsciousness. Then I became sensible that Hawsepipe was grasping my hand and trying to direct my attention forward; he seemed, too, to be anxious to say something, for his lips were moving rapidly in an excited manner.

I looked forward, and--behold!--there lay our foremast, with all attached, over the side; the stump--standing about four feet above the deck--being nothing but a ma.s.s of charred and blackened splinters. This was bad enough, but, letting my glance travel forward, I saw that the whole of the men on the forecastle had been struck to the deck by the electric fluid.

Hawsepipe, the surgeon, the quarter-master, and I, all rushed forward in a body to the a.s.sistance of the unfortunate men, and to ascertain the extent of their injuries. We raised the poor fellows, as we came to them, into a sitting position against the bulwarks, while the surgeon hastily examined them. To our horror it was found that all but four had been killed by that tremendous discharge, the dead men's bodies being in some cases blackened and charred as if by fire; while, in other cases, their knives and the coin in their pockets were fused into shapeless lumps of metal. The living were carried aft to the cabin, where the surgeon, a.s.sisted by Hawsepipe, devoted all his energies to their restoration, while the quarter-master and I returned to the deck to look after the safety of the ship.

In the meantime a terrific thunder-storm heralded by that first destructive discharge, had set in, the green and baleful glare of the livid lightning illuminating the scene until it became almost as light as day; while the crashing roll of the thunder was absolutely continuous, and so deafening that I felt stunned and stupefied by it.

There was no rain, neither was there any wind, properly speaking, the dead calm being only interrupted now and then by a momentary gust of wind, hot as the blasting breath of a furnace, which pa.s.sed over us and was gone almost before we had time to realise its presence. These fitful and transient gusts of wind came from all quarters of the compa.s.s. I had never before experienced weather of at all a similar character, nor had Simpson, the quarter-master, and we were equally puzzled as to what to expect. The heavens were black as ink, and the clouds, rendered visible by the unearthly bluish-green glare of the lightning, were seen to be writhing and working like tortured serpents; but there was nothing to indicate a probable breeze.

There was plenty of work to be done, the clearing away of the wreck being our first task. Simpson and I accordingly armed ourselves with a tomahawk each, and went forward to make a commencement. Simpson began at the jibboom-end, cutting away the stays attached thereto, and working his way in, while I made an attack upon the shrouds and backstays. Our intention was to cut away everything in the first instance, in case of bad weather coming on, and afterwards to save as much of the wreck as we could.

I had scarcely begun my task when I fancied I smelt a smell of burning, but for the first minute or so I paid little attention to it, as the air had been for a long time pervaded by a strong choking sulphurous odour.

I had struck but a few strokes with my tomahawk however, when a very strong whiff a.s.sailed my nostrils, and at the same instant a thin wreath of smoke appeared hovering over the fore-scuttle. Dropping my tomahawk, I darted toward the opening, and, looking down, found the place full of smoke, which appeared to be prevented from rising by the peculiar condition of the atmosphere.