With Cochrane the Dauntless Part 5

The captain nodded, then the mate gave the word, and the boat pushed off from the ship. Four men rowed, two sat in the bow, Mr. Towel and the two apprentices sat aft. They were some three miles from sh.o.r.e. There was a ripple on the water, but the wind was very light. There was, however, a ground-swell that had caused the _Tiger_ to roll, but which was scarcely perceptible in the boat. Steve remarked on this.

"No," the mate said, "these long swells do not affect a boat in the least.

I have often gone ash.o.r.e on the west coast of Africa, when one was scarcely conscious in the boat of there being any swell on at all, and yet the vessels at anchor outside were rolling almost gunwale under. Still, I would rather that we had not got it, it is a sign that there is wind somewhere, and I agree with the skipper that it is an unnatural-looking sky. Still, it may be hours yet before there is any change."

Half an hour's rowing took them to sh.o.r.e. "She could not have picked out a worse place, lads," the mate said when they approached the wreck. "You see there are black heads sticking out of the water all round, and it must have been a tremendous sea to have carried that ship right through them and chucked her up there where there are not two feet of water."

"The _Lady Vernon_, London," Joyce exclaimed at this moment, "I can make out her name plainly."

"Then your eyes are better than mine, Joyce, for I can't say I can read it yet. Row easy, men, and you in the bow keep a sharp look-out on the water.

If we were to come bow-on to a hidden rock we should have to wait ash.o.r.e until another boat came out to fetch us."

Rowing very gently the boat kept on her course until within half a length of the ship, then she ran quietly up on a flat rock some seven or eight inches under water. They could see now that the captain's conjecture was correct. The ship had broken her back, having, as she was carried in on the crest of a great wave, dropped on a sharp ledge of rocks about amidships. The sea had rushed in through the hole in her side, and had torn away all her planking and most of her timbers forward, while the after part of the ship had held together. The hold, however, was gutted of its contents.

"The natives have not been here since," Steve said as he pointed ahead where, apparently far out of reach of the water, lay a quant.i.ty of wreckage, splinters of planks, bits of timber, bales of goods, and a great litter of loose cargo.

"It is of no use climbing up above," the mate said in answer to an offer on Joyce's part to endeavour to reach the deck. "The waves, you see, have rushed in through the stern windows, and have made a clean sweep of everything. Half the deck has burst up and gone. We will have a look at the things on sh.o.r.e. Step out, lads, and pull the boat a bit higher up."

This was done, and they waded through the water knee-deep to sh.o.r.e. The wreckage lay a hundred yards further up, on ground quite twenty feet higher than that on which they were standing. The bales were all marked with the ship's name. There were no signs of casks or boxes, these had doubtless been smashed into splinters. Among the wreckage five skeletons were found. They searched further inland, but could discover no sign whatever of life between the sh.o.r.e and a dense forest that began four or five hundred yards away.

"It is certain that no one has escaped," the mate said. "In the first place, no living creature could have ever gained his feet if cast up by such a sea as that must have been. The first wave that struck her after she was thrown up there must have swept the decks clean and finished them all at one blow. In the next place, if by a miracle any of them did get safely ash.o.r.e, you may be sure that they would have buried their comrades the next morning. You see, it is sand up there where the wreckage lies, and it would not have taken long to sc.r.a.pe a hole deep enough and large enough to bury them. Ah! the captain is getting impatient," he exclaimed, as the sound of a gun came across the water. "No wonder," he went on as he looked at the sky.

They had been about an hour on sh.o.r.e, and had been so fully occupied in examining the wreckage, and in looking for some signs that might tell them if any of the crew had gained the sh.o.r.e, that they had paid no attention whatever to the weather. A great change had taken place since they had left the ship. The wind had entirely died away, and a darkness had crept over the sky; it was not a cloud, but a sort of dull vapour.

"Quick, lads, to the boat," the mate said, "there is not a moment to be lost. There is a storm brewing, and the sooner we are on board the better."

They ran through the water, got into the boat, and pushed her off.

"Be careful, men; paddle quietly until we are well beyond the rocks. Keep a sharp look out forward." Another gun was fired from the ship as he spoke. "Steady, men, steady!" he said; "you can row as hard as you like when we get outside, but it is of no use knocking a hole in her to start with."

As soon as they were beyond the rocks they bent to the oars. At the mate's orders, the two apprentices and the sailors in the bow took their seats by the rowers and double-banked the oars.

"The skipper is getting every rag of sail off her," the mate said, as he looked ahead. "There is another gun! It is getting darker and darker, I don't suppose they can make us out. Give way, lads."

The gloom deepened rapidly. The ship continued to fire guns every minute or two, and it was well she did so, for the mate had now lost sight of her.

"Which way do you think it will come, sir?" Stephen, who was at the stroke-oar, asked.

The mate shook his head. "There is no knowing," he said. "If it is insh.o.r.e, the _Tiger_ will lay her bones by that wreck behind us. We can't be above a mile away from her by the sound of that last gun. But it will be a close thing, I can hear the wind coming."

Even those rowing were conscious of a low moaning sound.

"It comes from behind I think," the mate said in answer to a look from Stephen. Suddenly a puff of wind from behind rippled the water round them and then died away again. "Row, lads," the mate exclaimed, "I can see the ship now, she is not half a mile away; five minutes will do it."

The men strained at the oars and the boat sprang forward at every stroke.

They could hear the moaning sound growing louder and louder.

"The captain has got her head off sh.o.r.e," the mate said; "he has been towing her round. They have just hoisted the boat up. He has got the little storm-jib on her. Now, lads, another four or five hundred yards and we shall be alongside."

It was a race with the storm, but the odds were too great. They were but a hundred yards from the ship when the roar rose into a wild scream, and a line of white water sprang towards them with fearful velocity.

"In oars, men!" the mate shouted. "Throw yourselves flat in the bottom of the boat,-quick!"

The order was executed almost as soon as given. The mate, too, slipped off his seat on to the floor-board, while still retaining hold of the tiller.

The next moment the storm struck them. It was well that the boat was still flying through the water with the way full on her; had she been lying motionless she would probably have sunk like a stone under the force of the blow. As it was she leapt forward like a horse under a spur. They pa.s.sed but half a length or so from the ship. The latter had not yet gathered way, but lay pressed down until her bow was well-nigh level with the water. As the mate looked up he saw the captain holding on by the shrouds. Each waved a hand and then the boat flew on, and in a minute the ship was out of sight. The mate shouted in the ear of the sailor who rowed the stroke-oar and who was lying next to him:

"Crawl forward and try and fix the floor-board there, so as to show a few inches above the bow to act as a head-sail. If she broaches to, it is all up with us. As you go along tell each man to shift himself a bit more aft.

Her stern must be well down or I can never keep her straight. If you can't fix the floor-board, get up the mast; tie up the foresail in a roll, and then hoist it, that will give hold enough to the wind."

The man nodded and made his way forward; he endeavoured to carry out the first part of his orders, but the moment he raised the floor-board above the level of the gunwale it was wrenched from his hands and blown ahead.

With the aid of two other men he managed to step the mast. The mate waved his hand to him to say that that would do for the present. The man, however, prepared the sail ready for hoisting, rolling it up tightly and winding a cord round and round it; then he hooked the head on to the traveller on the mast, and lay down at its foot, holding the halliard in readiness to hoist it. The water was still perfectly smooth, and the boat flew straight before the wind without any tendency to broach to. Stephen, after the stroke-oar had gone forward, crept aft until he was beside the mate, and there lay for a time, feeling half-stupefied by the tremendous roar of the cyclone.

Captain Pinder was, as every good officer should be, most particular about his boats, and always had them built specially from his own design. They were broader than usual, and had a flat floor and a deep keel, thus they were extremely buoyant, their lines resembling those of the surf-boats on the west coasts of India and Africa, while their deep keels enabled them to sail close to the wind. The men chafed sometimes when, on their way to sh.o.r.e, they found themselves pa.s.sed by the narrow boats of other ships; but the captain was perfectly indifferent to this, and used to say to other skippers who laughed at him for what they called his "walnut sh.e.l.ls":

"A boat is not made for racing; she is made to carry her crew in a heavy sea. My boats will live where yours would be swamped in five minutes, and with their great beam they will carry all sail, while you would not dare show a shred of canvas. It makes no difference to me whether I get to sh.o.r.e five minutes earlier or later; properly handled, the smallest of my boats ought to weather any ordinary gale, while the long-boat would be as safe to cross the Atlantic in as the _Tiger_ herself, though I don't say that she would be as comfortable."

The crew, every one of whom had many a time grumbled at the contrast between their beamy craft and the smart gigs of most other ships, now felt the advantage. The boat sped lightly along, raising her head higher and higher out of the water whenever a fresh blast of wind added to her speed, and, save for the sound of the rushing water against the sides, might have been at rest, for any motion that could be perceived. In half an hour the sea began to get up; as soon as it did so the mate made a signal to the man at the halliards, and the sail was drawn up. Tightly as it was rolled, the difference was at once perceptible, and the boat flew along faster than before. The men were now sitting up in the bottom of the boat; they knew that the battle with the storm had as yet scarcely begun, and that when the sea once got up they would have a terrible time of it. In an ordinary ship's-boat the prospect would have been absolutely hopeless; but the Norwegian pilot-boats-whose model the captain had pretty closely followed-are able successfully to ride out the heaviest gale in the North Sea, and the mate and the two apprentices, the latter of whom had often heard from Captain Pinder, with whom the matter was a pet hobby, of the wonderful power of these craft in a gale, entertained a strong hope that she would live through whatever might come. As the sea rose, a small portion of the foresail was loosed, then more was freed, until the whole of the little sail was drawing, and the speed with which it dragged the boat along saved her from being swamped by the following waves. But in another hour the water no longer ran in waves, it was broken up in a confused and tumultuous sea; the greater part of the sail was again bound up, for there was no longer the same risk of being swamped, and it was necessary to moderate the boat's speed in such a tumult of water.

"What makes it like this?" Stephen shouted.

"The circular motion of the wind," the mate replied in a similar tone of voice. "I dare say we have made two or three circles already."

"There is a compa.s.s in the locker behind you, sir."

The mate nodded.

"That may be useful when the storm is over, but would not help us now, and might get broken."

That Stephen could quite understand, for the motions of the boat were so sudden and unexpected that the crew often grasped at the thwarts and gunwale, fearing they would be thrown right out of her. At one moment a wave seemed to rise underneath her, and almost chuck her into the air, then she would sink between two ma.s.ses of water, that looked as if they would tumble over and fill her, then she would dash head-forward at a wave that rose suddenly in front of her. For a time it seemed to all on board as if her destruction was imminent, but as the buoyant little craft struggled bravely on,-shipping no more water than one man with the bailer could free her of as fast as it came aboard, in the shape of spray,-they began to breathe again more freely.

It was now nine hours since the gale had burst upon them, and there were no signs of an abatement, when, as they were on the top of a wave, the mate shouted:

"There are breakers ahead."

Every head was lifted, and when the boat rose again on a wave they could see a line of white foam ahead of them as far on either side as the eye could see through the mist.

"Keep a look-out for a break in the line, Wilc.o.x," the mate shouted.

The man forward waved his hand, and, holding to the mast, stood up. A minute later he turned and shouted something to the man next to him, and the message was pa.s.sed from mouth to mouth to the mate.

"It is not a reef, sir; it is a low sandy coast."

"Take your places on the thwarts," the mate shouted, "and get your oars out."

The men did so. Then, in a momentary lull in the blast, the officer said:

"Get ready to pull for your lives when I give the word. Our only chance is to go in on the top of a wave. The instant we touch the ground and she loses her way, jump out and stick your heels in the sand."

They approached the edge of the surf rapidly.