IX
ON THE EDGE OF THE SARGASSO SEA
When I came to myself again, and found my state-room--although thedead-light was set--bright with the light which entered through thebroken door, my first feeling was of wonder that I was not yetdrowned; for it was evident that the sun must be well up in theheavens to shine so strongly, and therefore that a good many hoursmust have passed since the smash had happened that had sent everybodyflying to the boats believing that the ship was going right down. Andmy next wonder was caused by the queer way in which the ship waslying--making me fancy at first that I was dizzy again, and my eyestricking me--with a pitch forward that gave a slope to the floor of mystate-room, of not less than twenty degrees.
For a while, in a stupid sort of way, I ruminated over these matters;and at last got hold of the simple explanation of them. Evidently, inspite of the straining of the steamer's frame in the storm, herwater-tight compartments--or some of them--had held, leaving herfloating with her broken bow well down in the water and her sterncanted up into the air. And then the farther comforting thought cameto me that if she had kept afloat for so many hours already, andseemed so steady in her new position, there was no reason why sheshould not keep on floating at least for as long as the fine weatherlasted--which gave me a chance of rescue by some passing vessel, andso brought a good deal of hope back into my heart.
I still was very weak and shaky, and how I was to get out of theprison that I was in I did not know. By daylight it was easy to seewhat held me there: which was the end of a yard, with the reef-blockhanging to it, smashed through the upper panel and caught so tight inthe splintered wood-work as to anchor the door fast. If the wits ofthe steward and of the other fellow had not been scared clean out ofthem they easily might have knocked in the lower part of the door withan axe and so opened a way out for me; but as their only notion hadbeen to cut away the spar--a tough piece of work--I could not in coolblood very greatly blame them for having given up my rescue and runfor their own lives.
These thoughts went through my head while I lay there, mostuncomfortably, on the sloping floor. Presently I managed to get up,but felt so dizzy that I had to seat myself in a hurry on the edge ofthe berth until my head got steadier. Fortunately my water-jug washalf full, and I had a good drink from it which refreshed me greatly;and then I had the farther good fortune to see some biscuit which thesteward had left on a shelf in the corner, and as I caught sight ofthem I realized that I was very hungry indeed. I ate one, along withsome more sups of water, and felt much the better for it; but lay downin my berth that I might save the strength it gave me until I shouldhave thought matters over a little and settled some line of actionin my mind.
That I was too weak to break the door down was quite certain, and theonly other thing that I could think of was cutting out the lowerpanels and so making a hole through which I could crawl. As thisthought came to me I remembered the big jack-knife that had been in mytrousers' pocket when I went overboard from the brig; and in a minuteI was on my feet--and without feeling any dizziness, this time--andgot to where my clothes were hanging on a hook, and found to my joythat my knife and all the other things which had been in my pocketshad been returned to them after the clothes had been dried. The knifewas badly rusted and I had a hard time opening it; but the rust didnot much dull it, and I seated myself upon the floor and fell toslicing away at the soft pine wood with a will. I had to rest now andthen, although I found that my strength held out better than I hadhoped for, and that put me back a little; but the wood was so softthat in not much more than half an hour I had the job finished--andthen I slipped on my trousers, and out I went through the hole on myhands and knees.
I found the cabin in utter wreck: littered everywhere with brokenglass and broken wood from the skylight, and from the smashedhanging-racks and the smashed dining-table, and with splinters fromthe mast--which had broken in falling, and along the whole length ofthe place had made a tangle of its own fragments and of the ropes andblocks which had held its sails. Of the sails themselves there wereleft only some fuzzy traces clinging to the bolt-ropes, all the resthaving been blown loose and frayed away by the storm. Oddly enough,some of the drinking-glasses still remained unbroken in one of theracks, and with them a bottle partly filled with wine--to the neck ofwhich a card was fastened bearing the name, Jose Rubio y Salinas, ofthe passenger to whom it had belonged. I took the liberty of drinkinga glass of Don Jose's wine--feeling sure that he was not coming backto claim it--and felt so much better after it that I thanked himcordially for leaving it there.
Most of the state-room doors stood open, showing within clothingtossed about and trunks with their lids turned back, and the generalconfusion in which the passengers had left things when they scrambledtogether their most precious belongings and rushed for the boats--withdeath, as they fancied, treading close upon their heels. But with whatremained in the state-rooms I did not concern myself, being desirousfirst of all to get on deck and have a look about me that I might sizeup my chances of keeping alive. That there was no companion-way upfrom the cabin puzzled me a little, for I knew nothing of the internalarrangements of steamships; but presently I found a passage leadingforward, and by that I came to the stair to the deck of which I wasin search.
Up it I went, but when I fairly got outside and saw the desperatestate of the craft that I was afloat on my heart sank. Indeed, itseemed a flying in the face of all reason that such an utter wreckshould float at all. Of the foremast nothing but the splintered stumpremained. The starboard rail, which had been to windward of it, wasgashed by chance axe-blows made in cutting away the shrouds; and as tothe port rail, twenty feet of it was gone entirely where the mast hadcome crashing down, while the side-plates below were bulged out withthe strain put upon them before the standing-rigging fastened therehad fetched away. The mizzen-mast lay aft across the cabin skylight,with its standing and running rigging making a tangle on each side ofit. The main-mast still stood, but with its top-mast broken off anddangling nearly to the deck. Two of the weather-boats remained fastto the davits, but so smashed that they looked like battered tinwash-basins, and would have floated just about as well. All the otherboats were gone: those on the weather side, as the splintered ways andbroken ropes showed, having been washed overboard; and those toleeward having been hoisted out by the tackles, which still hung fromthe davits and dipped lazily with the ship's easy motion into the sea.
All this was bad enough, but what most took the spirit out of me wasthe way that the ship was lying--her stern high up in the air, and herbow so deep in the water that the sea came up almost to her main-mastalong her sloping deck. It seemed inevitable that in another momentshe would follow her nose in the start downward that it had made andgo straight to the bottom; and each little wave, as it lapped its wayaft softly, made me fancy that the plunge had begun.
As to the outlook around me, the only comfort that I got from it wasthe fairness of the weather and the smoothness of the sea. For closeupon the water a soft haze was hanging that even to the north, out ofwhich blew a gentle wind, brought the horizon within a mile of me; anddown to leeward the haze was banked so thick that I could make outnothing beyond half a mile. And so, even though a whole fleet might bepassing near me, my chances of rescue were very small. But from thelook of the ocean I knew that no fleets were likely to be thereabouts,and that even though the haze lifted I might search long and vainlyfor sight of so much as a single sail. As far as I could see around methe water was covered thickly with gulf-weed, and with this was allsorts of desolate flotsam--planks, and parts of masts, and fragmentsof ships' timbers--lolling languidly on the soft swell that wasrunning, yet each scrap having behind it its own personal tragedy ofdeath and storm. And this mess of wreckage was so much thicker than Ihad seen when the brig was on the coast--as Bowers had called it--ofthe Sargasso Sea as to convince me that already I must be within theborders of that ocean mystery which a little while before I had beenso keen for exploring; and my fate seemed sealed to me as I realizedthat I the
refore was in a region which every living ship steered clearof, and into which never any but dead ships came.
In the Sargasso Sea Page 9