The Battery and the Boiler: Adventures in Laying of Submarine Electric Cables

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

  TELLS OF A SUDDEN AND UNLOOKED-FOR EVENT.

  How often it has been said, "Good for man that he does not know whatlies before him." If he did we fear he would face his duty with verydifferent feelings from those which usually animate him. Certain it isthat if Robin Wright and Sam Shipton had known what was before them--when they stood one breezy afternoon on the ship's deck, casting glancesof admiration up at the mountain waves of the southern seas, or takingbird's-eye views of the valleys between them--their eyes would not haveglistened with such flashes of delight, for the fair prospects theydreamed of were not destined to be realised.

  What these prospects were was made plain by their conversation.

  "Won't it be a splendid opportunity, Sam, to become acquainted with allthe outs and ins of telegraphy, this laying of lines from island toisland in the China Seas?"

  "It will, indeed, Robin,--a sort of compound or alternatingland-and-submarine line. At one time we shall be using palm-trees forposts and carrying wires through the habitations of parrots and monkeys,at another we shall be laying them down among the sharks and coralgroves."

  "By the way," said Robin, "is it true that monkeys may prove to be moretroublesome to us in these regions than sparrows and crows are at home?"

  "Of course it is, my boy. Have you never heard that on some of ourIndian lines, baboons, vultures, and other heavy creatures havesometimes almost broken down the telegraphs by taking exercise androosting on the wires?"

  "Indeed, I hope it won't be so with us. At all events, sharks won't bemuch tempted, I should fancy, by submarine cables."

  "There's no saying, Robin. They are not particular when hungry. By theway, I saw you talking with unusual earnestness this morning to JimSlagg; what was the matter with him?"

  "Poor fellow! you'd scarcely believe it, to look at him," replied Robin,"but the lad is actually home-sick."

  "Home-sick! Why, how's that? If we were only a few days out from port,or even a week or two, I could understand it, but seeing that we are nowdrawing near to the China Seas, I should have thought--"

  "Oh, that's easily explained," interrupted Robin. "This is his mother'sbirthday, it seems, a day that has always been kept with much rejoicing,he tells me, by his family, and it has brought back home and home-lifewith unusual force to him. With all his rough off-handedness, Slagg isa tender-hearted, affectionate fellow. Somehow he has taken it into hishead that this voyage will be disastrous, and that he will never see hismother again. I had great difficulty in showing him theunreasonableness of such a belief."

  "No doubt you had. It is unreasonable beliefs that people usually holdwith greatest tenacity," replied Sam, with a touch of sarcasm. "Buttell me, have he and Stumps never once quarrelled since leavingEngland?"

  "Never."

  "I'm amazed--they are so unlike in every way."

  "You would not be surprised if you knew them as I do," returned Robin."Ever since Slagg gave him that thrashing on board the Great Eastern in1865, Stumps has been a changed man. It saved him from himself, and hehas taken such a liking to Slagg that nothing will part them. It wasthat made me plead so hard for Stumps to be taken with us, because Ifelt sure Slagg would not go without him, and although we might easilyhave done without Stumps, we could not have got on so well withoutSlagg."

  "I'm not so sure of that, my boy. Your opinion of him is too high,though I admit him to be a first-rate youth. Indeed, if it were not so,he should not be here.--Was that a shark's fin alongside?"

  "Yes, I think so. Cook has been throwing scraps overboard, I suppose.--See, there goes an empty meat-tin."

  As he spoke the article named rose into the air, and fell with a splashin the water. At the same time Jim Slagg was seen to clamber on thebulwarks and look over.

  "Come here--look alive, Stumps!" he shouted.

  Stumps, whose proper name, it is but fair to state, was John Shanks,clambered clumsily to his friend's side just in time to see a shark openits horrid jaws and swallow the meat-tin.

  "Well now, I never!" exclaimed Slagg. "He didn't even smell it to seeif it was to his taste."

  "P'r'aps he's swallowed so many before," suggested Stumps, "that hetakes for granted it's all right."

  "Well it's on'y flavour; and he has caught a Tartar this time," returnedthe other, "unless, maybe, tin acts like pie-crust does on humanvitals."

  The low deep voice of the captain was heard at this moment ordering areef to be taken in the top-sails, and then it began to strike Robin andSam that the breeze was freshening into something like a gale, and thatthere were some ominous-looking clouds rising on the windward horizon.Gazing at this cloud-bank for a few minutes, the captain turned andordered the top-sails to be close-reefed, and most of the other sailseither furled or reduced to their smallest size.

  He was in good time, and the vessel was ready for the gale, when itrushed down on them hissing like a storm-fiend.

  The good ship bent before the blast like a willow, but rose again, and,under the influence of able seamanship, went bravely on her course,spurning the billows from her swelling bows.

  "What a thing it is to know that there is a good hand at the helm intimes of danger!" remarked Sam as he and our hero stood under theshelter of the starboard bulwarks, holding on with both hands to therigging, while the rushing waves tossed them on high or let them drop inthe troughs of the seas; "I should feel safe with our captain in anycircumstances."

  "So should I," said Robin with enthusiasm, his eyes glistening withdelight as he gazed on the angry ocean.

  There was no thought of danger in the mind of any one at that moment. Agood ship, ably commanded, well manned, and with plenty of sea-room,--what more could be desired? Nevertheless, deadly peril was close athand.

  That marvellous little creature--which, in the southern seas, builds itslittle cell, works its little day and dies, leaving to succeedinggenerations of its kind to build their little cells and die, each usingits predecessor's mansion as a foundation for its own, until pile onpile forms a mass, and mass on mass makes a mountain--the coral insect,had reared one of its submarine edifices just where the cable-shipTriton had to pass that day. For ages man had traversed that seawithout passing exactly over that mountain, and even if he had, it wouldnot have mattered, for the mountain had been always many fathoms belowthe surface. But now the decree had gone forth. The conjunction ofevents predestined had come about. The distance between the mountainsummit and the ocean surface had been reduced to feet. The Triton roseon the top of a mighty billow as she reached the fated spot. The coralpeak rose near the bottom of the water-hollow beyond, and down on it thedoomed ship went with an awful crash!

  Her speed was checked only an instant, for the top of the rock wasknocked off by the force of the blow, and the ship passed swiftly on,but there could be no mistaking the significance of that shock. Aninvoluntary shout of alarm from some,--a gasp, halt of surprise, half ofhorror, from others,--then a rush of active effort when the captain gaveorders to man the pumps.

  There was urgent need for haste. The mass of coral rock had stuck inthe hole it had made, else had they gone down in a few minutes. As itwas, the water rushed in furiously, so much so that the captain detaileda party of men to construct a raft, while the rest relieved each otherat the pumps. No doubt he was partly urged to this course by theconsideration that a vessel weighted with telegraph-cables and otherheavy material connected therewith could not float long in a leakycondition.

  "Keep close to me, Robin; we must sink or swim together."

  It was Sam who spoke. He was very pale, but his firmly-compressed lipsshowed no sign of unmanly fear. Robin, on the contrary, taken bysurprise, and too inexperienced to correctly estimate sudden danger, wasflushed with the feeling that now was the time to do and dare whatevershould be required of him! They went to the pumps together, whereStumps and Slagg were already at work with many others.

  It is surprising how fast and hard men will toil when life de
pends onthe result. There was a cat-like activity about the carpenter and hismates as they cut, sawed, lashed, and bolted together the various sparsand planks which formed the raft. In a marvellously short space of timeit was ready and launched over the side, and towed astern by thestrongest cable on board, for the danger of parting from it in suchweather was very great. Knowing this they had lashed some casks of porkand other provisions to it before launching.

  Still they laboured with unflagging resolution at the pumps, for many ofthose on board were picked men, whose sense of honour urged them tostrive to the uttermost to save the ship, for it was no ordinarymerchant-man, freighted with an ordinary cargo, which could easily bereplaced as well as insured, but a vessel freighted with those magicwires which couple continents and unite humanity, whose loss mightdelay, though it could not ultimately arrest, the benign and rapidintercourse of man with man in all parts of the globe.

  "Keep your eye on Sam and me," whispered Robin to Jim Slagg, findinghimself alongside that worthy during a spell of rest. "Let us keeptogether, whatever happens."

  Robin did not quite believe that anything serious was going to happen.Some spirits find it as difficult to believe in impending disaster asothers find it to believe in continued safety. It seemed so impossibleto Robin, in his inexperience, that the strong and still buoyant vesselwhich had borne them so long and bravely should sink! Nevertheless,like the rest, he laboured with a will.

  Slagg took the opportunity to give a similar caution to his friendStumps.

  "She's sinking, sir," said the carpenter, who had been sounding thewell, to the captain, about an hour later.

  "I know it; stand by to have the raft hauled alongside. Knock off now,lads, there's no use in pumping any more."

  The men ceased, with a deep sigh, and by that act the death-warrant ofthe cable-ship was signed.

  During the next quarter of an hour the crew were busy slipping down thecable that held the raft. A few ran below to fetch small articles thatthey valued, but by that time the vessel was so low in the water, thatthere was little time to spare, and the captain began to urge haste.

  "Now then, lads, over the side with you," he said, chancing to look atSam Shipton as he spoke!

  That spirit of heroism which induces men to resolve to be the last toquit a sinking ship, came over Sam just then, and he shrank back. Heand his chief were in charge of the telegraph apparatus. It would bedisgraceful to quit until all on board had left. He laid his hand onthe strong cable that held the raft and said, "I'll stay to the last,sir, and cast off the rope, if you'll allow me."

  "We don't cast off ropes in such circumstances," replied the captain;"we cut 'em."

  Sam was silenced, but not the less resolved to hold to his point, ifpossible. He still held back, while the captain, being busy with theothers, some of whom were rather too eager to go, paid no furtherattention to him. Robin, Slagg, and Stumps, recognising Sam as theirleader, fell behind him and kept close.

  At last all were on the raft except the captain and the four friends.

  "Now, then, come along," said the former, somewhat impatiently.

  "After you, sir," said Sam, with a polite bow.

  "Overboard, sir!" shouted the captain, in a voice that would brook nodenial, and Sam at once stepped on the bulwark, for he was not naturallyrebellious.

  Just as he spoke the rope broke, and the raft fell astern.

  "Jump! jump! it's your only chance," cried the captain, at the samemoment springing into the sea.

  Sam was on the point of following, when an exclamation from Slaggchecked him. Looking quickly back, he saw that Robin was not there.

  Our hero, while modestly standing behind his comrades, had suddenlyremembered that the small bible given him by his mother was lying on theshelf at the side of his berth. He would have lost anything rather thanthat. There was yet time to fetch it, so, without a word, he turned andsprang below, supposing that he had ample time.

  "Robin! Robin!" shouted Sam and Slagg together, at the top of theirvoices.

  "Coming! coming!" reached them faintly from below, but Robin did notcome. The hasty summons induced him to leap over a chest in returning.He struck his head violently against a beam, and fell back stunned.

  With another wild shout his friends rushed down the companion-hatch tohasten his movements by force. They found him almost insensible.Lifting him quickly, they carried, him on deck, and bore him to thestern of the vessel.

  "Robin! Robin!" cried Sam, in an agony of impatience--for the raft wasby that time far astern, besides which the shades of evening werebeginning to descend--"_do_ try to rally. We must swim. We're almosttoo late. Can you do it?"

  "Yes, yes, I can swim like a duck," cried Robin, rising and staggeringtowards the bulwarks.

  "But _I_ can't swim at all!" cried Stumps in a voice of horror.

  Sam stopped as if suddenly paralysed. Then, laying hold of Robin, heldhim back. He felt, as he looked at the dark heaving sea and the nowdistant raft, that it was not possible for him and Slagg to save boththeir injured and their helpless comrade.

  "Too late!" he said in a voice of despair, as he sat down and for amoment covered his face with his hands. Slagg looked at him with abewildered rather than a despairing expression.

  "So, we'll have to sink together since we can't swim together," he saidat last, with a touch of reckless vexation, as he gazed at the naturallystupid and by that time imbecile face of his friend Stumps.

  "Come, only cowards give way to despair," cried Sam, starting up. "Wehave one chance yet, God be praised, but let's work with a will, boys,for the time is short."