Men Against the Sea

by Charles

  With my two precious birds, I now walked feebly on after my companions, whom I at length found in one spot, gathered around the crouching form of the recreant Lamb.

  "Look at this wretch, Mr. Ledward!" Samuel shouted, his voice trembling with rage. "Do you see what he has done?"

  Cole said nothing, but stood with his arms folded, gazing at the man. Overhead, the noddies circled about in thousands; but they were far beyond reach. Their cries were all but deafening; we had to shout to make ourselves heard.

  But no words were needed to tell me the tale of what had happened. Lamb's face and hands were smeared with blood, and around him lay the gnawed carcasses of nine birds which he had caught and devoured. I must do him the credit to say that he had made a good job of them; scarcely anything remained but feathers, bones, and entrails. He was making some whining appeal that could not be heard above the tumult of birds' cries. Of a sudden the boatswain gave him a cuff that knocked him sprawling at full length in the sand. Then Mr. Cole bent over him. "Stop here!" he roared. "If you move from this spot, you rogue, I'll thrash you within an inch of your life!"

  We continued a quest that was now all but hopeless. The birds were thoroughly alarmed, and although we waited for a full two hours, they would not again settle. A few ventured down, but before we could reach them they would take wing again. We caught but twelve in all, though we should have returned with our bag filled.

  We trudged back slowly, worn out with the fatigue of the journey and reluctant to reach our camp, for we well knew how bitter would be the disappointment of those awaiting our return. This was the first bird island we had met with, and we had looked forward to a meal of roasted sea fowl with an expectation that might have been laughable had it not been so pathetic.

  Mr. Cole carried the hag, driving Lamb on before him. The man persisted in his abject entreaties, begging that nothing be said of the matter to Mr. Bligh:--

  "I was out o' me head, Mr. Cole. I was, straight. I was that starved--

  "Starved?" said Samuel. "And what of the rest of us, you bloody thief? Out of your head! You can tell that to Captain Bligh!" The boatswain halted. "Mr. Samuel, we'd best not let him know the whole truth of it."

  "What?" exclaimed Samuel. "Would you shield such a villain? When he's robbed some of us, it may be, of the very chance of life?"

  "It's not that I'd shield him," said Cole, "but I'd be ashamed to let Captain Bligh know what a poor thing we've got amongst us."

  "He knows already," Samuel replied. "Hasn't the man been a dead weight to us all the way from Tofoa? He's done nothing but lie and whine in the bottom of the boat all the voyage. We've him to thank, I'll be bound, for the stolen pork!"

  "I didn't touch it, sir! I didn't!"

  "You did, you rogue! It must have been you! There's none but yourself would have been such a cur as to steal from his shipmates!" He was, in all truth, a wretched creature, the inestimable Lamb. I have little doubt that Samuel was right in surmising that he was the thief of the pork. But as that was gone, and the birds as well, I agreed with Cole that nothing was to be gained by disclosing Lamb's gorge of raw bird flesh. Tinkler sided with us, and Samuel at length agreed to keep that point a secret.

  "But Captain Bligh shall know whose fault it was that the birds were frightened," he said.

  "Aye," said Cole. "We owe it to ourselves that that should be told." And so it was agreed.

  Captain Bligh was, of course, furious. He took the man's bird stick and thrashed him soundly with it; and never was punishment more richly deserved.

  We were a sad company that evening. A fire of coals had been carefully tended against our return, when the fowls were to be roasted, and every man had promised himself at least two of the birds. But when Mr. Bligh saw the miserable result of our expedition, although the twelve birds were dressed and cooked, they were carefully packed away for future use; and we had for supper water, the handful of sea snails we had found, and a few oysters. Elphinstone and Hayward were then set at watch, and the rest of us lay down to sleep.

  It seemed to me that I had no more than closed my eyes when I was aroused to find the island in a glare of light. The night was chill and the master had kindled a fire for himself at a distance from the rest of us. Some coarse dry grass which covered the island had caught from this, and the fire spread rapidly, burning fiercely for a time. It was the last straw for Mr. Bligh. We made a vain effort to beat out the flames, and when at last they had burned themselves out, he gave the company in general, and Mr. Fryer in particular, a dressing down that lasted for the better part of a quarter of an hour.

  "You, sir," he roared at Fryer, "who should set an example with myself to all the rest, are a disgrace to your calling! You are the most incompetent bloody rascal of the company! Mark my words! We'll have the savages on us as a result of this! And serve you right if we do! What are you worth, the lot of you? A more useless set of rogues it has never been my misfortune to command! I send you out for birds, to an island where they congregate in thousands. You frighten them like a lot of children, and get none. I send you out for shellfish. You get none. I set you to fishing. You get none. And yet you expect me to feed you! And if I close my eyes for ten minutes, you're up to some deviltry that may be the ruination of us all! And you expect me to take you safe to Timor! By God, if I do, it will be thanks to none of you!"

  He quieted down presently. "Get you to sleep," he said gruffly. "This may be our last night ashore till the end of the voyage, so make the most of it."

  I lay awake for some time. Nelson, who was lying beside me, turned presently to whisper in my ear.

  "What a man he is, Ledward," he said. "It comforted me to see him in a passion again. We'll fetch Timor. I did him a great injustice ever to doubt it."

  I had precisely the same feeling, and I thanked God, inwardly, that Bligh and no other was in command of the Bounty's launch.

  CHAPTER XI

  We were astir before daylight, greatly refreshed by six or seven hours of sleep. Mr. Bligh awoke in the best of humours, intending to embark immediately, but was irritated when he found that Lamb was too ill to go into the launch.

  "What ails the fellow, Mr. Ledward?" he asked, looking down at the man with an expression of disgust.

  Lamb was doubled up with cramps from his gorge of the night before; there was no doubting the pain he suffered. I was tempted to let Bligh know the truth of the matter, for my impatience with this worse than useless fellow was equal to his own. I refrained, however, and was about to purge him when he was seized with a violent flux. Half an hour later he was carried into the boat and we proceeded on our way.

  It was a beautiful morning, with cloudless sky, and a fresh breeze at E.S.E. This part of the coast of New Holland lies, as our sailors would say, "in the eye of the southeast trades"; and during the time we sailed within the reefs we had constantly a fine, fresh sailing breeze abaft the beam.

  Mr. Fryer was at the tiller. Captain Bligh sat beside him with his journal open on his knees, engaged in his usual occupation of charting the coast. He glanced frequently at the compass to obtain bearings on the points, indentations and landmarks ashore; at short intervals, without raising his eyes from his work, he would order "Heave the log," and make a note of the launch's speed. Nelson had told me, what I could readily believe, that Captain Cook, in spite of Bligh's youth at that time, considered him among the most skilled cartographers in England. And I am confident that the officer who will one day be appointed to make a thorough survey of this coast will be amazed at the accuracy of Bligh's chart, drawn with only his sextant, a compass, and a rude log to aid him, in the stern sheets of a twenty-three-foot boat, sailing fast to the north with scarcely a halt.

  All the time we sailed within the reefs of New Holland, Bligh was absorbed in this work, to such an extent that for hours at a time he seemed to forget our very presence. Mr. Bligh was an explorer born, but his interest was less in the strange people and natural curiosities to be found than in the charting of new coa
sts. I feel assured that there were entire hours within the reefs when he forgot the Bounty , forgot the mutiny, forgot that he was in a small unarmed boat, half starved, at the mercy of savage tribes, and hundreds of leagues from the nearest European settlement. His expression of interest and happiness at these times was such that it was a pleasure merely to look at his face.

  We had sailed about two leagues to the northward when a heavy swell began to set in from the east, leading us to suppose that there must be a break in the reefs which protect most of this shore. The sea continued rough as we passed between a shoal, on which were two sandy cays, and two other islets four miles to the west. Toward midday we sailed past six other cays covered with fresh green scrub and contrasting with the main, which now appeared barren, with sand hills along the coast. A flat-topped hill abreast of us, Captain Bligh named "Pudding-Pan Hill"; and two rounded hills, a little to the north, he called "The Paps." At two hours before sunset we passed a large inlet, which Bligh longed to explore. It appeared to be the entrance to a safe and commodious harbour.

  Three leagues to the northward of this inlet, we found a small island where we decided to spend the night. The sea was rough, the wind was now making up in gusts, and there was a strong current setting to the north. Though well wooded, with low scrub, the island appeared the merest pile of rocks, with only one poor landing place in the lee of a point. A shark of monstrous proportions swam alongside the boat for some time while we approached the land, and as we rounded the point, some of the people saw a large animal resembling a crocodile pass under the boat.

  "Bigger'n the launch, he was," said Cole when the captain questioned him; "with four legs and a great long tail. A crocodile, ye can lay to that, sir."

  It was a wretched anchorage, for the coral dropped in a vertical wall from the surface to a depth of two fathoms, and the bottom was very foul. The wind was making up, and the current swept in fast around the point.

  Laying the boat alongside the rocks, Captain Bligh ordered Fryer and some of the people to spend the night on shore, since the anchorage was too uncertain for all to leave the boat in such weather. As we drifted fast to leeward, the grapnel was dropped. It dragged for a moment, and presently held as scope was paid out; then, as the weight of the launch fetched up against it, the line parted suddenly.

  "Enough scope, you fools!" roared Bligh, not knowing what had happened. "Damn you, boatswain! What are you about, there?"

  "We've lost the grapnel, sir!" Cole shouted.

  "To the oars!"

  The men ran out their oars and pulled with a will, for they realized as well as the captain the dangers of being blown off-shore on such a night. Their utmost exertions were just sufficient to gain slowly against current and wind. Bligh made his way forward where Cole was examining the broken line.

  "A rotten spot, sir," said the boatswain; "the rust of the grapnel did it." He opened his clasp knife and cut away the rotten line. Bligh was peering down into the water ahead. "Hold her here!' he ordered without turning his head."

  There was something ominous about the place, and the wild red sunset; the thought of the monsters we had seen so short a time before would have deterred most men from doing what Bligh now did. He stripped off his ragged shirt and trousers, seized the end of the grapnel line, and plunged into the sea.

  Cole gazed after him anxiously; then, seeing that the people had stopped rowing for a moment in their astonishment, he roared out:--"Pull, I say! Do you want to drag the line out of the captain's hands? Pull, damn your blood!"

  He was paying out line as he shouted, and gazing earnestly down into the water. Captain Bligh came to the surface, drew three or four long breaths, and dived once more. Nearly a minute passed before he reappeared. This time he swam to the stern of the boat and pulled himself aboard. For a moment or two he sat on the gunwale, breathing rapidly.

  "By God, sir," I remarked. "I'm glad you did not ask me to dive." He laughed grimly. "I was none too eager to go down; but I'll ask no one to do what I fear to do myself. The thought of the monstrous shark was never out of my mind." He shivered. "Nelson, what was that other thing we saw--a crocodile?"

  "I've little doubt of it," Nelson replied. "Captain Cook saw what he believed were crocodiles in these waters."

  Bligh shivered in spite of himself. "I'm as glad to be in the boat again," he said. "We are in a bad position here, and these currents are the devil; they seem to set four ways at once."

  "You were fortunate to get down to the grapnel, sir," said Peckover. "Aye, Mr. Peckover, the Indians of Otaheite are the men for that work. I managed to get the line rove through its ring before I had to come up to blow; but one of them would have stopped down to bend it on. We whites are good for nothing under water."

  Dusk was setting in, and we profited by what remained of daylight to eat our small portions of the half-dressed birds left over from those obtained on Lagoon Island. In the strong wind and current, the boat rode uneasily to her grapnel, and we passed a wretched night. The moon, close on to the full, set sometime before daylight; in the first gray of dawn, Captain Bligh and some of the rest of us landed to see what we could obtain on shore, leaving Cole and Peckover in charge of the launch.

  Nelson had passed a pretty comfortable night in the lee of some rocks; I found him awake, and he and I set out to explore the far side of the island. As we crossed through the scrub, we found the backs of many turtles, some of great size, and the fireplaces where the Indians had roasted the flesh. I was engaged in a futile search for clams on a small, sandy beach exposed to the east wind, when I heard Nelson shout.

  I swung about, and saw him trying to turn over a turtle of immense size, which had just emerged from behind some bushes and was making her way to the water's edge.

  "Ledward! " he shouted again, in an agonized voice.

  In an instant I was at his side, but our combined strength was not enough to raise one side of the turtle from the sand. All the time we struggled to turn her, she was plying her flippers desperately, sending showers of sand over us and moving rapidly toward the sea, only a few yards distant. Her strength was prodigious; she must have weighed not less than four hundred pounds. Perceiving the impossibility of turning her, we gave up the attempt, and seized a hind flipper each, holding back with all our might. But she had reached the damp sand by now, where her powerful fore flippers could obtain a hold, and in spite of our utmost exertions she dragged us, little by little, into the sea. Through the shallows she went, while our grips weakened; then suddenly, as she plunged into deep water, we were forced to let go.

  Panting, and wet from head to foot, we had barely the strength to make our way back to the sand. Once there, we sank down side by side. After a long silence Nelson looked up at me with a wry smile.

  "That was tragedy! There was a fortnight's food in the beast, Ledward!"

  "All of that," I replied. "She may have laid some eggs. Let us go and search."

  Nelson shook his head. "No. I surprised her as she was beginning to dig. She had just come up from the sea, for her back was still wet."

  We fell silent once more, and at last he said: "We'll say nothing of this to the others, eh, Ledward?"

  We walked slowly back across the island, halting on a bit of rising ground to rest. A little to the left we could see the others gathered on the beach near the launch. Nelson lay back for a moment, his hands behind his head, and stretched out his legs at full length.

  "You'd best follow my example," he said. "It may be the last chance we shall have."

  "The last? Surely not!" I exclaimed.

  "Bligh thinks we shall be clear of the coast by to-morrow or the day after."

  I managed to smile somewhat dubiously. "Between ourselves, Nelson, I'll confess that no man in the boat can dread the prospect more than I."

  "Dread it? I positively quake at the thought! God help us if we have any more nights like those on the way to New Holland!"

  We found Bligh awaiting us. The others had obtained nothing, so he ha
iled the launch, and we soon set sail. The main at this place bore from S.E. to N.N.W. half W., and a high, flat-topped island lay to the north, four or five leagues distant.

  On passing this island, we found a great opening in the coast, set with a number of mountainous islands. To the north and west the country was high, wooded, and broken, with many islands close in with the land. We were now steering more and more to the west, and Captain Bligh informed us that he was tolerably certain we should be clear of the coast of New Holland in the course of the afternoon.

  Toward two o'clock, as we were steering toward the westernmost part of the main now in sight, we fell in with a vast sandy shoal which extends out many miles to sea, and were obliged to haul our wind to weather it. Bligh named the place "Shoal Cape." Just before dark we passed a small island, or rock, on which innumerable boobies were roosting. There was no land in sight to the north, south, or west.

  >Three hundred leagues of empty sea now lay between us and Timor.

  * * *

  The six days we had spent within the reefs of New Holland had allowed us to sleep in some comfort at night, and to refresh ourselves with what little the islands afforded. And, above all, the barriers of coral shielded us from the attacks of our old enemy, the sea.

  But the sea had not forgotten us, and lay in wait, on the far side of Shoal Cape, armed with strong gales from the east and deluges of rain, unabated for seven days. On the misery of that week I shall not dwell.