CHAPTER II.
NED PROPOSES TO IMPROVE THE DIVINE PLAN.
It was the intention of Captain Brown to wait till a gale of windscattered the blockading fleet, and, taking advantage of theopportunity thus afforded, run into Marseilles, as the distance wasshort, and the course along shore.
The crew, having little or nothing to do, except that they hauled thebrigantine ashore, cleaned her bottom, and covered it with a fresh coatof soap and tallow, mended the sails, and overhauled the rigging, spentthe time in the manner most agreeable to their own inclinations, mendedand made clothes and hats, lounged, bathed, or slept. Boys so wellconditioned and full of life as Walter and Ned, could not pass theirtime in any such way as that.
The first thing they set themselves about after the vessel's bottom wascleaned, was to make a rope ladder and fasten it to one of the lowerlimbs of a large, evergreen oak, that stood on the highest part of thebluff; the ladder was made in this manner: they fastened three partsof a rope to a large branch near the body of the tree; a studding-sailboom was placed upon the ground and lashed to the roots of othertrees; to this they fastened three old bull's eyes, rove the riggingthrough them, and set up their shrouds by the end taut with a Spanishwindlass--an extemporaneous machine, but of considerable power, made bysailors with two levers and a piece of small rope; they then rattledthe shrouds down (fastened small ropes across to step on), and wereprovided with an excellent method of ascent.
They next made fast a single block to the top of the tree, rigged awhip, with it hoisted up poles and planks, laid a platform, and railedit in with poles lashed to the limbs of the tree. It was a project ofNed's, Walter having told him about Charlie Bell and his boy companionsconstructing one somewhat similar in the top of the big maple, onElm Island. This, however, far exceeded that, inasmuch as they werepossessed of rigging and all requisite materials to work with.
Walter, who at first did not feel much interested in the effort, butengaged in it to gratify Ned, soon became very much so in consequenceof working on it, and proposed a great many additions to the originalconception of Ned, which was merely to construct a lookout, fromwhich, with the excellent glass of the captain, they might see a greatdistance, and watch the motions of the blockading fleet.
"Ned," said he, "let us make some chairs to sit in; we don't want tosit down flat on the platform."
"Well, that will be nice; but what shall we make them of?"
"Empty bread barrels," replied Walter, who, a Griffin, inherited allthe mechanical ingenuity of his race. Forthwith they "roused" thegrindstone out of the long-boat, the rusty tools from the tool chest,ground a chisel, draw-shave, and plane-irons, and Walter filed thehandsaw.
The tools in order, Ned set to work planing some pieces of boards onone side. Walter took a barrel, and after nailing well the hoops,sawed it across, just above the second hoops, to a depth which leftsufficient wood to form the back, being careful to stop at a joint inthe staves. He then made a cut of the same depth and height from theground on the other end and the other side.
All that held the barrel together now was the bilge hoops of each end;these he cut through, when the barrel dropped apart, making two chairs,as far as backs and legs were concerned, but minus the seat. He nowtook a flat hoop, bent it round the inside of the barrel to the heightof the saw-cut, fastened the ends together with a nail, and gave it toNed. "There, Ned, is the measure of your bottom."
He then by a mark which he had made along the edge of the hoop,proceeded to nail on supports for the seat; Ned, in the mean while,putting the pieces of board side by side, laid the hoop on them, markedout and sawed off the pieces he had planed, trimmed the edge with adraw-shave, fayed in the bottom, and nailed it, while Walter was atwork upon another barrel; he then nailed a piece of hoop around thetop edge of the back to keep the staves in place, and cut a hole forthe hand to move it by. When they had made four they hoisted them tothe platform, and sat down with the greatest satisfaction imaginable.The backs were rather low, and perfectly straight; but so were all thechairs of that period; and there was not the least danger of the legsof their chairs coming out. People in those days had not time to loll;there were not so many inventions for the comfort of lazy folks as atthe present.
They were soon convinced that their labors possessed a practical value,and were appreciated: the captain, finding the platform an excellentlookout, easy of access, the chairs convenient, took his telescope up,and would sit there and smoke. Walter, noticing this, made a box andfastened it to the railing to keep the telescope in, and protect itfrom the weather. The crew also went up there; so they made four morechairs to accommodate their company. Mr. Hadlock, the second mate, wasvery partial to the tree.
"O, Walter," said Ned, as they sat conversing after dinner, "I wishJames Peterson was here."
"So do I; he is such a good man, and could tell us so many things, forhe knows so much more than Bernoux, and is well acquainted in thiscountry."
"O, isn't he good, Walter! How much he did for me when I was sick!"
"Do you know, Ned, one of the first things I can remember is going downto Peterson's with mother or grandsir (when he was able to walk about),and Luce baking me turnovers, and Peterson making playthings for me. Itell you there wasn't a spear of grass in the path that ran across lotsfrom our house to James's. I used to eat half my meals there; victualstasted better there than anywhere else. I tell you, Ned, it takes Luceto cook. I heard Lion Ben tell father that if Peterson had received aneducation, there wouldn't be many ahead of him."
"He thinks a great deal of you, Walter. Don't you remember, the nightyou was going to be landed on that rock right in the ocean, and leftthere all alone, how he came forward and insisted on going in yourroom?"
"There's another I wish was here," said Walter, in a subdued tone, "andwho will not be there to shake hands with us when we get home from thisvoyage."
"Uncle Isaac," said Ned, his eyes filling.
Walter made no answer, and the conversation dropped. After sittinga while in silence, the boys, saddened by the tender and touchingassociations invoked, left the spot, went on board the vessel, and setto work stopping a leak in the coating of the mainmast. The next day apeasant brought along a straw hive of honey to sell. The boys boughtsome, and, on going to the tree to eat it, found there the captain andsecond mate, with whom they shared, as they had purchased no smallquantity.
While they were talking and eating, wishing for a gale of wind--a realGulf of Lyons gale--to scatter the fleet, they saw a man-o'-war getunder way, evidently for England, convoying two supply-ships.
The captain ascertained her name through Jacques; and it afterwardsappeared that Nelson wrote to his brother by the man-o'-war that theinhabitants of Marseilles and Toulon were starving; that the blockadehad been so strict, not even a boat could get into either place or onthe coast with provisions. While this brave seaman was battling withthe furious gales, heavy seas, thunder, lightning, and squalls ofthe Mediterranean, Captain Brown, Walter Griffin, Ned Gates, and SamHadlock were lying among the foliage of the oak, eating honey and softbread, or watching him through the glass, and counting the very buttonson his coat, as he stood back and forth along the coast, patient,resolute, faithful to his weary, harassing task, and congratulatinghimself upon the strictness of the blockade.
"For nineteen weeks," writes he, "my crew have not had a morsel offresh meat or vegetables; only salt junk, hard bread, and lime-juice."
During all this time, a Yankee brigantine, loaded to the bends withwheat and good yellow corn raised by Captain Rhines, Uncle Isaac, LionBen, Charlie Bell, and their neighbors, and pork, beef, saltpetre, andarms bought in England or the British provinces, was lying, almostwithin gunshot, in a _cul-de-sac_, where she could not escape ifdiscovered, and coining money for her officers, crew, and owners.
While thus eating and chatting, they were joined by Jacques, who hadreturned from a visit to his family.
"Pilot," said the captain, "is there any good place near here where wecan fil
l water?"
"Yes, captain; never a better."
The next morning, the water-casks were put into a boat, and Jacquespiloted them to the place. It was a lovely spot. Over the edge ofa precipice crowned with pines poured, in one broad sheet, a swiftmountain torrent into a rocky basin, from which the white froth floatedoff into the cove. The water was of sufficient depth to enable them toapproach with the boat to the edge of the basin, from which they dippedthe clear, cool water--every instant renewed, and through which thewhite pebbles were gleaming--in buckets, and, passing them from hand tohand, filled the casks without taking them from the boat.
"We must be lively, boys," said Walter, "and get it in before the tidefalls. O, I forgot; there is no tide here; so we can take our time."
Our young readers will recollect there is no tide in the Mediterranean,or but very little, except as influenced by storms.
As they were returning, Ned said, "Wouldn't it be nice if it was soat home, Mr. Griffin?" (putting on the Mr. before the crew.) "There'sCaptain Rhines's Cove: the water ebbs way out, quarter of a mile ofmud. If you want to go out at low water, you must shove off a skiff,and wade in the mud. Only think how nice it would be to be able to gojust when you pleased! no bother about the tide, and having to work inthe night to save it; and only think what an everlasting sight of workand expense it would save in building those great long wharves, thatvessels may lie afloat at low water!"
"I don't know about that, Ned. I think there's something to be said infavor of the tide. Just call to mind what an abominable dirty hole theport of Marseilles is; all the filth of the city pouring into it; nomotion only in a gale of wind, and not much then; all that foul stuffstewing and simmering under a southern sun. If there was a tide to makea current, bring in a fresh supply of water, and carry off this slimeevery six hours, how much better it would be!"
"I never thought of that, Mr. Griffin."
"There's another thing I should think you would have thought of, Ned,"said Mr. Hadlock.
"What is that, sir?"
"Why, in respect to cleaning, calking, or graving a vessel's bottom,repairing, or stopping a leak. See what a fuss we had here the otherday, cleaning and putting tallow on this vessel's bottom; had to heaveher out, and work and wade in the water at that. Now, if we had been athome, all we need to have done would have been to haul her on to thebeach in Captain Rhines's Cove that you despise so much, at high water,ground her, and have eight or ten hours to work, on a good sand beach,too."
"I guess," said Ned, "I should have done better to have held my tongue."
Our readers will bear in mind that there were no railways in thosedays by which vessels are hauled out of the water, or dry docks intowhich they are floated at high water, and the water pumped out; but ourforefathers grounded them across logs or blocks, or, if they wanted toget at the keel, hove them down on one side, by means of tackles madefast to the mast-heads, till the keel was out of water.
"That is not all, either, Ned," said the second mate. "If the tidedidn't ebb, there wouldn't be any clams; and that would be a veryserious affair indeed to the fishermen who want bait. Once it wouldhave caused starvation in some cases, and might again."
"How could that be, sir?"
"I'll tell you, my boy. You were born and have grown up in Salem, anddon't, perhaps, realize the value of clams; but I do. I've heard oldMr. Griffin, the mate's grandfather, say, that when he was cutting downthe trees on his place, before he could raise anything, and met withbad luck in hunting, he had been, the first summer or two, so put toit for food, that he had to boil beech leaves, the ends of the branchesand the tops of the pine trees (that are very tender in June, when theyare growing fast), to preserve life, and that if it had not been forclams, he and his family must have starved. I'm sure they were a greathelp to us after my father died, for we were very poor. I was young,not strong enough to do much work; but I could dig clams, and my littlesister picked them up. I could, with them for bait, catch fish andlobsters, and with a little rye and Indian bread and some bean broth,mother got along, and kept us all together. Had it not been for theclam flats, I don't know what we should have done."
"I can say amen to that," said Willard Lancaster; "and I know that whenPeterson used to drink so bad, and brought little or nothing home tohis family, that Luce and the children got most of their living out ofthe clam flats."
"It is not only the value of the clams as food," said Walter, "but agood part of the fish that are cured and exported to all parts of theworld to feed thousands, are caught with clam bait."
"That, indeed," said the captain. "What vast quantities of fish areexported from Salem to the West Indies and other places! and that isbut a trifle compared with the whole amount."
"Yes, indeed, sir. I didn't think of all these uses for the tide. I wasthinking only how convenient it would be to have it always high waterfor a few things."
"There are many other things," said Walter, "that the ebb and flow ofthe tide are very convenient for. Three years ago, father was buildinga wharf in our cove: the logs were master great ones; it would havetaken twenty men to place them where we wanted them; but father and Icut the scores in the other logs to receive them, rolled them into thewater with the oxen, then tied a rope to them, floated them at highwater to the spot, held them till the tide ebbed, and they settled intothe grooves just as easy as a cat would lick her ear. We didn't lift anounce; the tide lifted all those big logs for us. Did you ever see theCasco, Ned?"
"No, sir; she was always away when I was at Pleasant Cove, but I'veheard say she is a monster."
"So she is--seven hundred tons; you may judge what her anchors must be.Well, I can tell you what they are: the best bower is 3000, and thesmall bower 2700."
"O, my! What a junk of iron that must be!"
"We rode out a gale of wind in Cadiz, with both anchors ahead and allthe scope out. It blew a gale, I tell you, and the anchors were wellbedded. When we came to get under way for home, we hove up the smallanchor; but the other we hove, and hove, and hove, and couldn't startit. At last the captain said, 'Avast heaving; let the tide take itout.' We waited till low water, hove her down as long as we could catcha pawl on the windlass, and made all fast. At length the tide began toflow, the ship began to bury forward; down she went, till the waterwas coming into the hawse-holes, the cable sung, and the tar began tostand in drops on it with the strain, when all at once the anchor letgo with a surge that threw every man from his feet. The tide was veryconvenient then; if it had not been for it, we must have gone ashore,got a grappling, and grappled to the fluke of the anchor, or left it.Again the tide is very convenient for a timepiece; if you keep the runof the tide, you have the time of day."
"It is about as well to take things as the Lord has arranged them,"said the captain, "and be contented and thankful."
"That," said Ned, "brings to my mind a piece mother read to me once,about a man who thought, if the disposition of affairs had beencommitted to him, he could have arranged them a great deal better thanthey now are; that it was not at all proper that so large and noble athing as a pumpkin should be attached to a vine lying upon the ground,while so insignificant a thing as an acorn or beech-nut grew upon alofty tree: but falling asleep one day under an oak, an acorn fallingon his nose awoke him, when he exclaimed, 'Wretch that I am! Had itbeen a pumpkin it would have dashed my brains out.' I don't know as Irecollect it aright, but that was the amount of it."
"It is certainly better, Ned, to be in the hands of a wise and goodProvidence, than to be left to plan for ourselves. If the disposal ofevents had been committed to you or me, we never should have sufferedthe Madras to spring a leak, and endured what we did upon the raft; yetit carried us to Pleasant Cove, to Captain Rhines and Charlie Bell,and was the best thing that could have happened to either of us. Wayenough, men; fend off, Jacques."
The Young Deliverers of Pleasant Cove Page 3