by G. A. Henty
Chapter 4: Run Down.
William Gale was astonished at the fury of the tempest, and thewildness of the sea. Although, at the workhouse, he had often heardthe wind roaring round the walls, there was nothing to show him theforce that was being exerted. There were but few trees in theneighborhood, and William had hardly ever been without the walls,except in fine summer weather. He was, therefore, almost bewilderedby the force and fury of the gale; and by the noise, as it shriekedthrough the rigging, and howled across the water. The occasionalflapping of the sails, and the rattling of the heavy blocks addedto the din; and it seemed to him that the Kitty which, like allfishing smacks, was very deep in the water, must be completelyengulfed by the great waves which swept down upon her.
Several times, indeed, he was obliged to leap down into the cabin,to avoid being swept away by the great masses of green waterwhich--pouring over her bows--swept aft, carrying away all beforethem. But the Yarmouth smacks are admirable sea boats and, poundedand belabored as she was, the Kitty always shook off the water thatsmothered her, and rose again for the next wave. In twenty-fourhours the gale abated, the scattered fleet were assembled--eachflying its flag--and it was found that three were missing, havingeither foundered, or been driven away from their consorts.
With the return of fine weather the fishing began again, andWilliam thoroughly enjoyed his life. The skipper was kind andforbearing; he neither ill treated the boys, himself, nor permittedany of the crew to do so; and everything went on regularly andcomfortably. There were a few books on board and, of an evening,after the trawl was lowered and before the watch below turned intotheir bunks, William--who was the best reader on board--would beasked to read aloud for an hour. Sometimes there were songs and, asthe Kitty was fortunate, and her taking of fish good, the men wereall cheerful and good tempered.
Once every three or four days, the collecting steamer came insight; then there was a general race, in the fleet, to put thetrunks of fish on board her. Each did his best to be in good timefor, when the catch had been heavy, the steamer was sometimesunable to take the whole of it; in which case the portion leftbehind would be wholly spoilt, before the arrival of anothersteamer. The whole of the fleet, therefore, ran down towards thesteamer as soon as she was seen; the heavy boats were tossedoverboard, and the trunk lowered into them, and two hands jumped into row them to the steamer. Round her a swarm of boats would soonbe collected, each striving to get alongside, to deliver the fish.
In calm weather the scene was simply amusing but, when the sea washigh, it was exciting and even dangerous; indeed, in the course ofa year more lives are lost, in the process of taking the fish fromthe smack to the steamer, than in vessels foundered by gales.
Sometimes the fleet will be joined by Dutch trading smacks, whoexchange fresh bread and meat, tobacco, and spirits for fish. Thistraffic is the cause, alike, of loss to the owners, by the fishthus parted with; and of injury to the men, by the use of spirits.Fortunately the skipper of the Kitty--although not averse to theuse of spirits, on shore--was a strict man at sea, and saw that noone took more than a single glass of grog, of an evening.
Over and over again, Will congratulated himself that he had thegood fortune to make his first voyage under such a skipper; for heshuddered at the stories Jack told him, of the cruelties andbarbarities with which apprentices are treated on board some of thesmacks. Although, however, there is no doubt many brutal skippershail from Yarmouth; the fleet from that town bears a goodreputation, in comparison with that of Grimsby--where the number ofapprentices returned as drowned, each year, is appalling.
One night, when the wind was high and the fleet trawling lower downthe North Sea than usual, Will--who was on deck--was startled atseeing a great ship bearing down upon the smack. He gave a shout ofterror and warning, which was joined in by the crew on deck. Oneran for the hatchet to cut the trawl, and thus give steerage way tothe smack.
It was too late. In another moment the great ship bore down uponthem with a crash, and the Kitty sunk beneath the waves. Thebowsprit of the vessel projected across the deck, just at the pointwhere William Gale was standing and, in a moment, he caught at thebob stay and quickly hauled himself on to the bowsprit. Climbingalong this, he was soon on board.
Two or three sailors were leaning over the bows, peering into thedarkness. They had not seen the smack, until too late to avoid it;and the collision, which had proved fatal to the Kitty, hadscarcely been felt by the ship. Will was at ones taken to thecaptain, who spoke English. The boy implored him to turn back, butthe captain shook his head.
"It would be useless," he said; "the sea is heavy and, in theselong boots--" and he pointed to the sea boots, up to the thigh,which all fishermen wear, "--no man could swim for two minutes; norwould there be a chance, if they could, of our finding them on sodark a night. I am very sorry, my lad, but it cannot be helped. Itwould take half an hour to bring the ship about, and go back to thespot where the smack sunk; and we might not get within half a mileof it. You know that, as well as I do."
Will had been long enough at sea to recognize the truth of what thecaptain said. As he was led forward, he burst into tears at thethought of the loss of his kind friend the captain, and the rest ofhis mates. The sailor who accompanied him patted him on the back,and spoke cheeringly to him in a foreign language; and he was soonbetween decks with the crew. Several of these could speak English,and Will found that he was on board a Dutch merchantman, bound withtroops for Java.
The wind got up and, in the morning, it was blowing a heavy galefrom the east; and the vessel, with reefed topsails, was runningfor the straits between Dover and Calais, at twelve knots an hour.After breakfast, the captain sent for William.
"I am sorry, for your sake, that the state of the weather willprevent our communicating with any ship we may meet. But I promiseyou that, if the gale breaks before we are fairly out from thechannel, I will heave to and put you on board a homeward-boundship."
Such a chance did not occur. For four or five days the galecontinued with great severity and, before it ceased, the ship waswell down the coast of Spain, on her way south. When the captainsaw that there was but small chance of his being able to transshiphis involuntary passenger, he said to him:
"Look you, my lad. I fear that you will have to make the voyagewith me, for we shall not touch at any port, until we arrive at ourdestination. If you like, I will ship you as a hand on board, asfrom the day of the collision. A hand, more or less, will make nodifference to the owners; and the money will be useful to you, whenyou leave the ship. Of course, you can return in her, if you thinkfit; but it is likely enough that, when we reach Java, we may besent up to China for a homeward cargo--in which case I will procureyou a passage in the first ship sailing for your home."
Will gladly accepted the offer. He was, however, by no meanspenniless for, upon the morning after his coming on board, theDutch officers and passengers--hearing what had happened in thenight--made a collection among themselves, and presented the boywith a purse containing fifteen pounds.
It was a long voyage, but not an unpleasant one for William. Hisduties were not very heavy--he had far less to do than had been thecase, on board the smack. A month on board the Kitty had done muchtowards making a sailor of him, for there are no better seamen inthe world than the Yarmouth smacksmen. Going aloft was, at first, atrial; but he soon learned his duties and, being a strong andactive lad, he was quickly able to do efficient work; and speedilygained the good opinion of the Dutch sailors, by his good temperand anxiety to please.
They ran some little distance to the south of the Cape beforeshaping an easterly course, to avoid the bad weather so frequentlymet with there and, beyond encountering two or three gales, of noexceptional severity, nothing occurred to break the monotony of thevoyage, until the coasts of Java were in sight. Upon their arrivalin port, they found no vessel there about to sail for Europe; andthe captain's expectation was fulfilled, as he found ordersawaiting him to proceed to China, when he had landed the troops anddischar
ged his cargo. Will determined to continue his voyage in herto that place.
Among the ship boys on board was one between whom, and Will Gale, agreat friendship had been struck up. He was a year or two Will'ssenior, but scarcely so tall; upon the other hand, he was nearlytwice his girth. He talked but little, but his broad face was everalight with a good-tempered grin. He spoke a few words of English;and Will had, when first picked up, been given specially into hischarge. Will's superior activity and energy astonished the Dutchlad, whose movements were slow and heavy; while Will, on his part,was surprised at the strength which Hans could exert, when hechose. One day, when Will had been plaguing him, and venturedwithin his reach, the lad had seized and held him out at arm'slength, shaking him as a dog would a rat, till he shouted formercy.
The two were soon able to get on in a queer mixture of Dutch andEnglish and, when words failed, they would eke out their words bygestures.
The vessel had sailed but a few days from Java when there weresigns of a change of weather. Hitherto it had been lovely; now aslight mist seemed to hang over the sea while, overhead, it wasclear and bright. There was not a breath of wind, and the sailshung listlessly against the masts. Will--who was leaning againstthe bulwarks, chatting to Hans--observed the captain, after lookinground at the horizon, go into his cabin. He reappeared in a minute,and spoke to the officer; who immediately shouted an order for "allhands to shorten sail."
"What is that for?" Will said, wonderingly; "there is not a breathof wind."
"I egzpect captain haz looked at glass," Hans said, "find him fall.I egzpect we going to have ztorm--very bad ztorms in dese zeas."
Will ran aloft with the sailors and, in ten minutes, every inch ofcanvas--with the exception of a small stay sail--was stripped fromthe ship. Still, there was not a breath of wind. The sea was assmooth as glass, save for a slight ground swell. Although the mistdid not seem to thicken, a strange darkness hung over the sky; asif, high up, a thick fog had gathered. Darker and darker it grew,until there was little more than a pale twilight. The men stood intwos and threes, watching the sea and sky, and talking together inlow tones.
"I don't like this, Hans," Will said. "There is something awfulabout it."
"We have big ztorm," Hans replied, "zyclone they call him."
Scarcely had Hans spoken when the sky above seemed to open, with acrash. A roar of thunder, louder than ten thousand pieces ofartillery, pealed around them while, at the same moment, a blindingflash of lightning struck the mainmast, shivering it intosplinters, and prostrating to the deck five seamen who werestanding round its foot. As if a signal had been given by the pealof thunder, a tremendous blast of wind smote the vessel and,stripped though she was of sails, heaved her over almost to thegunwale.
For a moment, the crew were paralyzed by the suddenness of thecatastrophe; stunned by the terrible thunder, and blinded by thelightning. None seemed capable of moving. Will had instinctivelycovered his eyes with his hands. It seemed to him, for a moment,that his sight was gone. Then the voice of the captain was heard,shouting:
"Helm, hard up. Out axes, and cut away the wreck, at once!"
Those who were least stupefied by the shock sprang, in a dazed andstupid way, to obey the order. Will drew out his knife and, feelingrather than seeing what he was doing, tried to assist in cuttingaway the shrouds of the fallen mast--it had gone a few feet abovethe deck. Presently he seemed, as he worked, to recover from hisstupor; and the power of sight came back to him. Then he saw thatthe vessel--taken on the broadside by the gale--was lying far over,with several feet of her lee deck under water. So furious was thewind that he could not show his head over the weather bulwark. Thesea was still smooth, as if the water was flattened by the force ofthe wind. The stay sail had been blown into ribbons.
In order to get the ship's head off the wind, the head of the jibwas hauled up a few feet. It happened to be a new and strong oneand, although it bellied and lashed, as if it would tear itselfinto fragments, it still stood. Again the captain gave an order,and the sail was hauled up to its full height. Still further thevessel heaved over; and Will expected, every moment, that she wouldcapsize. Then, gradually, her head paid off, and slowly sherighted, and flew before the gale.
"That was a near squeak," Will said.
"What is zqueak?" Hans shouted.
"I mean a close shave," Will replied.
Hans' blue eyes opened wider than usual.
"A zhave!" he repeated; "what are you talking about zhaving?"
"No, no," Will said, laughing, "I mean a narrow escape of beingcapsized."
Hans nodded. There was no time for talk, for orders were given forgetting preventer stays on the foremast. The jib, having done itswork, had been hauled down the instant the ship payed off; and asmall storm sail set, in its place.
The men now had time to attend to those who had been struck bylightning. Three of them were found to be dead, but the othertwo--who were stunned and senseless--still lived, and were liftedand carried below.
Serious as the disaster had been, Will felt that the stroke oflightning had saved the ship. The pressure of the wind, upon twomasts and hull, had nearly sufficed to capsize her. Had the mainmast stood, he felt that she must have gone over.
The sea got up in a very few minutes but, being now only in lightballast, the vessel rose easily over them. Four men were at thehelm, for the waves soon became so high that the ship yaweddangerously on her course. The gale seemed to increase, rather thandiminish in fury; and the sea, instead of following in regularwaves, became a perfect chaos of tossing water, such as Will hadnever before seen. He understood it, however, when--half an hourafter the outburst of the gale--he heard one of the men, who hadjust been relieved at the wheel, say that in that time the ship hadalready run twice round the compass. She was therefore in the verycenter of the cyclone, and the strangely tossed sea was accountedfor.
The motion of the ship was extraordinary. Sometimes she was thrownon one side, sometimes on the other. Mountains of water seemed torise suddenly beside her, and tumbled in great green masses overthe bulwarks. So wild and sudden were her movements that even theoldest sailors were unable to keep their feet; and all clung on toshrouds, or belaying pins. Will and Hans had lashed themselves bythe slack of a rope to the bulwarks, close to each other, and thereclung on; sometimes half drowned by the waves, which poured inabove them; sometimes torn from their feet by the rush of greenwater, as the ship plunged, head foremost, into a wave, or shippedone over her poop.
Presently there was a crash that sounded even above the fury of thegale--the fore top-mast had gone, at the cap. The axes were againcalled into requisition, for a blow from the floating spar wouldhave instantly stove in the side. While engaged upon this, thecaptain called two of the men with axes aft. These were set to workto chop through the shrouds of the mizzen and, in a minute later,the mast snapped asunder on the level of the deck, and went overthe side with a crash, carrying away several feet of the bulwark.This act was necessitated by the loss of the fore top-mast, as thepressure of the wind upon the mizzen would have brought her headup, and laid her broadside to the gale.
The motion of the vessel was now considerably easier, and there wasno longer any difficulty in keeping her dead before the wind. Shewas now describing much larger circles in her course, showing thatshe was farther removed from the center of the cyclone. After fiveor six hours, the extreme violence of the wind somewhat abated, andit seemed to settle down into a heavy gale.
For two days the vessel ran before it. She had made a good deal ofwater, from the opening of the seams by straining, and the pumpswere kept going. They were, they found, able to prevent the waterfrom gaining upon them; and all felt that they should weather thetempest, provided that they were not dashed upon any of the islandsin which this portion of the ocean abounds.
The crew had had no regular meals, since the gale began; for thecaboose had been broken up, and washed overboard, soon after thecommencement of the storm; and they had been obliged to be contentwith bi
scuits. There was little to be done on deck and, the watchover, they passed their time in their bunks.
In the afternoon of the third day of the tempest, the cry wasraised of "Breakers ahead!" Will, with his comrades of the watchbelow, sprang from their berths and hurried on deck. Far ahead, asthe vessel lifted on the waves, could be seen a gleam of whitewater.
In anticipation of such a danger, a small spar had been erectedupon the stump of the mizzen, and steadied with strong stays. Sailwas now hoisted upon this, and an effort was made to bring thevessel's head to wind. Watching for a favorable moment between thepassage of the heavy seas, the helm was put down and, slowly, herhead came up into the wind. Under such sail, the captain had nohope of being able to reach out, in the teeth of the gale; but hehoped to be able to claw off the shore until clear of the land,which lay to leeward of him.
That hope soon vanished. One of the mates was sent to the top ofthe foremast, and descended with news that, as far as could beseen, the line of breakers stretched away, both on her beam andquarter. As the minutes went by the anxious crew could see, but tooclearly, that the ship was drifting down upon the land; and thatshe must inevitably be wrecked upon it.
The outlines of the shore could now be seen--a forest of tossingtrees, behind which high land could be made out, through thedriving clouds. Orders were now given to prepare to anchor, but allknew that the chances were slight, indeed. The water is for themost part deep, close alongside the islands of the EasternArchipelago and, even were the holding ground good, hemp and ironwould hardly hold the vessel head to the gale, and tremendous sea.
When within a quarter of a mile of the breakers, the man with thelead proclaimed a depth of ten fathoms. This was better than theyhad expected. The jib was lowered, and her head brought dead towind. The captain shouted "cut," and, in an instant, the stopperswere severed, and two heavy anchors dropt into the sea. One had aheavy chain cable, the other hemp; and these were allowed to runout to the bits. The vessel brought up with less shock than couldbe expected. A wave or two passed under her, and still her cableheld.
A gleam of hope began to reign, when a mountainous sea was seen,approaching. Higher and higher it rose and, just as it reached theship, it curled over and crashed down upon her deck. The cablessnapped like pack thread, and a cry of despair arose from the crew.The captain was calm and collected, and shouted orders for the jibto be again hoisted, and the helm put up; so as to run her, headfirst, on to the shore.
As they neared the line of breakers, they could see heads of jaggedrocks rising among them while, beyond, a belt of smooth water--aquarter of a mile wide--extended to the land. The ship's head wasdirected towards a point where no rocks appeared above the surface.Everyone held their breath and, clinging to the bulwarks, awaitedthe shock.
The vessel lifted on a great wave, just as she came to the line ofbroken water and, as she settled down, struck with a tremendouscrash. So great was the shock that she broke in two, amidships, asif she had been made of paper; the portion aft going instantly topieces and, at once, the sea around was covered with fragments ofwreck, bales, boxes, and casks. Another great sea followed, fillingthe now open ship, forcing up the deck, and sweeping everythingbefore it.
William Gale and Hans had gone as far forward as possible.
"Come out to the end of the bowsprit," Will said to Hans; and thetwo lads crawled out together, and sat on the end of the spar.
The sea beneath them was white as milk, with the foam which pouredover the reef; but Will thought that they were beyond the rocks.Every sea which struck the wreck added to the disaster; until alarger one than usual struck it, and broke it into fragments. Thelads clung to the spar, as it fell. It sank deep in the water, butthey retained their hold until it came to the surface, and Willlooked round.
They were safely beyond the edge of the reef. The sea was stillrough and broken; but it was quiet, compared to that beyond thereef. He saw that the fore mast was floating near and, to it,several were clinging.
In a quarter of an hour the spar floated to land, the boys felt thebottom with their feet, and soon scrambled ashore. A few minuteslater the fore mast also drifted up; and several men, clinging tofragments of the wreck, were also cast ashore. In all eleven men,including the first mate, were saved.