The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant

by George Cupples

  CHAPTER XXIV

  "It still blew a stiff breeze, but the waves rose with a length and abreadth in them you find in no other sea; deep-blue sparkling hills ofwater, with green gleams about the crests, of which every single wavehad a hundred or so; and a long seething, simmering, glassy hollow of astill valley between, where the flecks of foam slid away glittering outof the shadow. But, oh! it was glorious to feel the schooner risingquietly in the trough, with the mount of a wave, to the very ridge ofit; then with a creak of all her timbers and bulkheads below, a slightshake to windward, and a jerk at her bows, lean over to leeward again,and go hissing through the breast of a huge sea, till you thought she'dgo down into it; while there she was, however, lifting head up, with aswift flash of her cutwater, on the cross half-wave that joined everyfirst and third one--'billow' and 'sea,' as you may say. The breezehaving drawn more easterly toward morning, Jones had braced her moreupon a wind, with reefed main and foresails, and fore-staysail set,which brought out the _Aniceta's_ weatherly qualities to a marvel, as,notwithstanding almost a head-wind and a swelling sea, she went nearlyas fast as the frigate would have done before the breeze, and not a signof the land was to be seen from her cross-trees.

  "It was not till the afternoon, when the midshipman and I had both beenbusy together seeing various things done about the rigging, as well ashaving preventer-braces and guys clapped on the booms and gaffs, that wehad time to look about us; the schooner still driving along with thebreeze strong abeam, and a floating plunge from one wide dark-blue seato another, as if they handed her onward.

  "Jones had got himself made decent below, as I told him, till what withdifferent clothes, and a shave together, besides refreshment from seaweather, he was quite a different man to look at. Even Snelling owned tohis sailor-like appearance, though rather surprised at my notion ofmaking him a mate; while as for the men, they didn't know but he hadcome aboard as such, and to tell the truth, he was having themain-staysail got up and ready to bend at the time, like one accustomedto give orders. By this time I remembered the harbour officer, Webb,whom we'd carried off so unceremoniously, and found he was still in his'bunk' below, half-sulky and half-sick, consoling himself with brandyand water till we should get into Table Bay again, as he said. 'Only puthim into my watch, Mr Collins,' said Snelling gravely, 'and I'll workhim up, sir.' The reefer himself, in fact, had all of a sudden turnedout in a laughingly dignified style, to meet his new post--in fullmidshipman's rig, dirk and all, with his cocked hat which I sent himdown immediately to change; but he had brushed up his mop of hair, andbegun to cultivate the down on his upper lip; while being adeep-shouldered, square-built, short-armed little fellow, as muscular asa monkey, you'd have thought from the back of his coat he was a man cutshorter, and for his face, he had contrived to put such a sour effectinto it--meant for great experience, no doubt--that it was only by hiseyes one saw he was a boy of sixteen or so; and _they_ were brimful ofwild glee, as he jumped about wherever he was needed, doing the work ofa couple of ordinary men, and actually delighted when a spray came overthe weather bulwarks on top of him, seeing that, instead of the frigate,she was 'our schooner' that did it.

  "'I think she walks, Mr Collins!' observed Snelling, holding up his headstiffly, and looking aloft as we went aft, after shaking ourselves fromone of these same sprays. 'No denying that, Mr Snelling,' said I asgravely; 'I only wish your fond parents could see you just now, firstmate of such a smart craft, Mr Snelling!' His father was a countrybaronet, who had sent him off to sea with an allowance--I daresaybecause his looks were no ornament, and there were plenty more coming,though Snelling always pretended his worthy progenitor was an old man.'Fond, be blowed!' said he, starting; 'I just see him at this moment atthe foot of that blessed old mahogany, proposing my health before theladies go, and----' Here the schooner rose on a sharp, short wave,making a plunge through it that sent the helmsman swinging to thelee-side of the wheel, while a sea washed up over her forecastle, andaway aft with the tubs, buckets, and spars, knocking everybody right andleft. Snelling and I held on by the weather main-rigging with our feetin a bath, till she lifted bodily through it, careering to herlee-gun'ale.

  "'By George, though!' broke out the reefer, smacking his lips as we drewbreath, 'I wish he _did_ see me--wouldn't it cheer his declining years,when I got to hand the governor carefully below! And such a rough nightas we're going to have of it, too, sir!' 'You unfilial young dog,' saidI; 'but so I'm afraid we shall--and no joke either!' Jones was standingnear us, watching the looks of the weather, with evident uneasiness, andI asked him what he thought of it. 'In my opinion, sir,' said he,'you'll have some pretty sudden shift of wind ere long, of a kind I haveseen more than once off the Cape before--and that as furious as asouth-easter ordinarily is hereabouts. Look away yonder, sir!'

  "It had got to a clear, dry north-easterly gale that shook our canvasevery time she lifted, singing through the ropes, and bitter cold. Longand heavy as the roll of the sea was, the sky was as keen and clear asglass all round about and aloft, save the mist kicked up by the sprayoff a wave here and there. If a rag of white cloud appeared, it wasblown away, and you saw the black wrinkled side of one wave at a time, amile wide, you'd have said, freckled all over with spots of foam, andits ridge heaving against the eye of the blast. The waves had begun tobreak shorter. The schooner, buoyant as she was, and sharp as a dolphin,pitched and rolled at times like mad, and the men forward were standingby to let go the fore-halliards, throat and peak, to ease her a little;when Jones pointed out the bank of gray cloud ahead of us, scarce to beseen through the troughs of the water, except when she lifted well upona swell of sea. The sun going down in a wild red glare to leeward of us,threw a terrible glitter across the huge slant of one single wave, thatrose stretching away far and wide from her very bow, then brought outthe sulky wrinkled blue in it; the hissing green crests curled over tothe very sunset, as it were, while we sank slowly into the long darklulling trough, and saw the broken shaft of a rainbow stand glimmeringfor a moment or two into a black hollow right ahead, when the gale droveit back upon us like an arrow, as the schooner surged through the breastof the next wave. I looked from Snelling to the new mate, who still heldon by a belaying-pin and watched the clouds, giving me back a glancethat showed he thought the matter more serious than ordinary. 'Thesooner we strip her to the storm-staysails,' said I quickly, as we fellinto the trough again, 'the better, I think. If it blows harder, we mustlie-to with her at once.' My eye was anxiously fixed on Jones, for largeas the schooner was, between two and three hundred tons, yet no craft inthe world is so nice to bring to the wind in a gale with a heavy searunning. Scudding before it might have done for the frigate, with herfull bows, and spars high enough to keep her main-topsail full in spiteof the troughs; but even that would have taken us out of our courseafter the Indiaman. Besides that, to tell the truth, I didn'tsufficiently understand fore-and-aft rigged craft in all weathers yet,to be quite sure of what I did at a pinch like the present. 'Yes, yes,sir,' answered he; 'but if you'll take an older man's advice, beforethat you'll wear her round on the other tack to it. We've the worst tocome, or else I'm mistaken, sir.' 'You're accustomed to schooners?'asked I firmly, and gazing him in the face.

  I saw his lips open in the sweep of the wind through our after-rigging,and he made a sign with his hand, while a gnawing sort of spasm, as itwere, shot through the muscles of his jaw, and for a moment he gave me afierce, keen glance, almost a glare, from under his strong straighteyebrows--then turned away. 'Take the trumpet then, Mr Jones,' said I,singing out into his ear; 'I'll leave her to you, sir. Mr Snelling,let's see the hatches all fast!' And we scrambled along by thebelaying-pins.

  "'Are you all ready fore and aft?' came Jones's voice like thunder inthe next dip she made, and he leapt up bareheaded on the breech of oneof the small carronades aft, holding on with one hand by the weathermainshrouds, and watching the run of the waves as they glimmered off ourlee-beam into the dusk, for full five minutes. I had hold of a rope nearhim, and his eye was
as steady as if he were picking out hills in aview. I had full confidence in the man; but I must say it was a nervousmoment to me, when I saw him lift the trumpet to his mouth--andfuriously as the wind shook the schooner, you heard his hoarse cry, 'Putyour helm up--slack off the mainsheet--brail up the mainsail--ease downthe weather boom-guy--main-staysail sheet.' And the rest was lost in thewild shriek of the north-east gale. We were hard at it, however,staggering as we hauled and held on, even to the poor half-drowned,terrified Lascars, whom the midshipman had roused out of the caboose andlong-boat, shoving the ropes into their leathery hands. But I knewlittle else till I saw the schooner had payed off before the wind,shearing with a hiss like red-hot iron right through the ridge, betwixttwo tremendous combing waves. It swelled green over her larboard bulwarkas she heeled over, and she gave a heavy dead lurch with it, as if shewould let the next sea break aboard.

  "'Now! now!' shouted Jones, at a pitch of voice like no earthly sound;'aft the mainsheet, for your lives!' He jumped to the wheel himself, ata single bound. We were in two floundering heaps, as we dragged at themain-boom aft, and the headsheets on the forecastle, while she cametrembling up in the long bight of the sea, and took the gale steadilybefore her other beam. It was blowing harder than ever; and the awful'scud' of the sea rolled her bodily away, as she met it with herweather-bow, washing white over the head-rail, with spray from catheadto bowsprit; the gale heaving her down on the lee-beam till she plungedto the brim on that side, at every forward pitch, so that all hands ondeck had to keep crowded together aft. Still it was keen starlightoverhead, the gale dry, though it was bitter cold, and the seas long andpretty regular. The schooner behaved wonderfully, being as tight as abottle; and at the same time we were not only lying our course eitherfor the Mozambique or Indian Ocean, but instead of running farther intothe gale, as before, and getting more into the wild Cape latitudes, whyat present she tended to clear out of them. I accordingly agreed withJones to hold on with everything as long as possible, in spite of theway she was sometimes flung off with the crest of a wave, as it were,making a clear dive with her nose under water through a white seethingsea that seemed to swell round the whole horizon; the black bank ofcloud off our weather-beam towered like icebergs against the cold greensky to south-east, the stars glittering and twinkling over it, withlittle hazy rings round them, after a fashion that one of us liked nomore than the other.

  "About midnight, we had got everything off her to the two smallstorm-staysails, main and fore, the wind blowing great guns, and thehalf-moon shining right over the long bank, as if the back of it weredead white; while betwixt it and the washing glimmer of moonlighthalfway you'd have thought the black heave of the ridges vanished into abulk of shadow ten times blacker, save for the heads of spray tossingdimly over in it here and there. All at once, in the very height of thegale, as the black floating clouds from the bank began to cross over thegray scud flying fast aloft, a blue flash of lightning shot zigzag intothe very comb of a wave ahead of us, then came the clap of thunder, loudenough to be heard above the wind, and in half-a-minute there was asudden lull. You saw the fleecy rags of scud actually settling togetherunder the dark vapour moving above them, and heard nothing but the vastwashing welter of the billows rising and seething for miles round, as ifthe world were water, while the schooner rolled helplessly away, withher storm-staysails flapping, into the trough. The midshipman almostgasped as he looked to me--not from fear, but as much as to say, 'Whatnext?' Our strange mate stood against the fife-rail of the mainmast,apparently too intent on the sky and sea for speaking. For my own part,I let go my belaying-pin, and half-tumbled to the wheel, almost knockingthe sailor down in my haste to put the helm hard up--for I saw how theblast was to come, fairly before the beam, upon us. 'Hard a-starboardwith it!' shouted I; 'haul down the main-staysail there--let her fall asshe rises.'

  "The last words were never heard, for next moment there was anotherflash of lightning, this time a blaze all round into the troughs of thesea; I saw a body of mist coming down upon us from south-east, throughwhich the gale struck her on the starboard beam, having suddenly shiftedeight points or so. The heavy rolling swell from north-east was closeaboard, and as soon as I knew what I was about, here she was leaningover to the full tremendous force of the storm, without power to surgeahead, though struggling to rise like a carthorse down on his knees witha load uphill of him. 'Twas by instinct, as they say, I found myselfscrambling along to her weather main-channels, where I managed to getout on the side, slippery as it was, and drenched with the blindingshowers of spray. I had got my knife at work, cutting the lanyards ofthe shrouds to let the mainmast go, when I saw Snelling creep after me,like a fearless little fellow as he was, dirk in hand; although what wascome of Jones I couldn't see, unless he had lost heart and skulked. Allat once, to my great joy, the main-staysail blew inway to leeward out ofthe bolt-ropes, like a scrap of paper, the main-topmast crashed at thecap and went alongside, when the schooner righted to her keel, with awild bolt forward through the whole width of an immense wave--one of the'third waves' it was, commonly the last and the hugest in a single rollof the sea off the Cape, before you sink into a long gliding valley,with a sort of a lull in it. The scene was so terrible at the moment,though we bore up for full half-a-minute to the fair steady stroke ofthe awful gale, nothing but a yeast of mist, scud, and darkness ahead,the spray torn off the ridge of the wave and flying with us, while thetriple run of the heavy seas astern was in danger of sweeping her decksfrom over the poop--that I felt we must try lying-to with her at once.

  "Indeed, Snelling and I hardly knew whether we were holding on or not,as we were half washed in-board and half crawled round the rigging; butJones had already seized the exact point--when she sank in thehollow--to have the helm eased down to leeward. Meanwhile he hadgot the reefed foresail balanced and set, with the sheet hauledaft beforehand--a tackle hooked on to the clue, and bowsedamidships--everything else was off her; and with this sail she cameslowly up close to the wind on the slant of the next wave, lying-tonearly head toward the force of the sea, as her helm was kept fast twoor three points to leeward. I never had seen a craft, of the kindhove-to in a gale before, and a very nice matter it is, too. We drewbreath, scarce able to credit our eyes, while the schooner rodeapparently safe on a sea rolling mountain-high; rising and falling offfrom the breasts to the sides of the waves, so far as leeway went, andforging ahead a little at the same time through the fierce spray thatshowered out of the dark over her weather-bow.

  "Cape weather as bad I had seen before, but always in good-sized ships;and I owned to Snelling I would rather have handled any one of them,even with a lee-shore near, ten times over, than this schooner of oursin the present case. However, none of us were in any mood for speakingat the time, let alone the waste of breath it was. The best thing we hadto do, after getting somewhat satisfied of her weathering it this way,was to have the grog served out to the men, swig off a stiff pannikinoneself, and make oneself as comfortable as possible with his pea-coatin the lee of something.

  "The sight of the sea ridging up with a dim glimmer against the dark,kept your eye fixed to it; first you thought it would burst rightaboard, crash down upon the decks; then she lifted with it, swellingbroad under her, while the long steady sweep of the gale drove just overthe bulwarks with a deep moan; for half-a-minute, perhaps, a shiveringlull, when you heard the bulkheads and timbers creak and strain belowfrom stem to stern, and the bilge-water yearning, as it were, to thewater outside. Then, again, it was a howl and a shriek, a wide plunge ofsea bore up her weather-bow, and the moment ere she came fairly to, onefelt as if the schooner were going to pitch God knows where. Her wholebulwarks shook and shivered, the wind found out every chink in them,whistling round every different rope it split upon, while all the timethe loose, wet, dreary spars behind the long-boat kept slatting andclattering against each other in the lashings, like planks in a woodyardof a November night. This was the way we stuck till the morning watchshowed it all in a drizzling, struggling sort of half-
light, blowing ashard as ever, the Cape seas rolling and heaving mountain-high, of a paleyeasty hue, far and wide to the scud; the spray drifting from thecrests, and washing over her bare forecastle, with now and then thewhite wings of a huge albatross to be seen aslant to windward, riding onthe breast of a long wave down into the trough.

  "Well, the whole blessed day did this sort of thing continue, onlyvaried by now and then a huger sea than ordinary lifting close aboard ofus, and we being hove up to get a glimpse of the long glaring streak ofhorizon through the troughs of the waves; sometimes an unluckier splashthan usual over the bow and through the fore-chains, that made us looksharp lest the canvas of the foresail should go, or the schooner broachend-on to the sea. Otherwise, all we had to do was to watch thebinnacle, hold on with one hand to a rope, and with the other to ourcaps; or turn out and in with each other down the booby-hatch for asnatch of sleep, and a bit of biscuit and cold beef, with a glass ofgrog. Mr Webb, the harbour officer, was to be seen below in his berthall this time, lying as peaceable as a child; whether he was dead sickor only confoundedly afraid I didn't know; but I must say I felt for thepoor fellow when I heard him ask Snelling in a weak voice, if he wouldget somebody to stand off the bull's-eye in the deck over his berth, asit always made him think there was a new hurricane coming on. 'You low,skulking hound!' said the reefer, who had wonderfully little pity in hismake, 'it can't be worse--what d'ye want light for, eh?' 'Only to seethe opposite wall,' said Webb meekly; 'do, sir--oh now!' 'Oh, youlubber, ye!' said Snelling, 'don't you know a bulkhead from a wall yet?If you'd come on deck to bear a hand like others, you wouldn't needlight; and _I_ thought you might do for a mate aboard, too--pah, youscum!'

  "'Mr Snelling,' said I sharply, as he came through the cabin, 'a wormwill turn when it's trod upon, and so you may find yet, sir!' 'Well, MrCollins,' said he, as confidently as if I hadn't meant to give him aset-down, 'I don't like the fellow's eye. I'll look after him, sir!'

  "Not to mention the young rogue's power of face, which was beyond brass,he had a way of seeing you in two places at once with that upward squintof his, as if his eyes were the points of a pair of compasses, that madethe officers of the _Hebe_ always send him to the mast-head directly,for fear it should take the frown out of them. In fact, when Snelling'stwinkling weather-eye lighted on one's neck, without the other, youalmost felt it tickle you, and as usual I turned away with a 'Pshaw!'

  "On the second morning, the gale at last began to break, shiftingsouthward; on which, as soon as the sea ran a little easier, I had thehelm cautiously put up at a favourable moment, the reefed mainsail,fore-topmast-staysail, and square fore-topsail set as she got before thewind, and away the schooner went; rising on the wide deep-blue swellswith a long roll in them, then shearing ahead through their breasts,wrinkled and seething pale-green, till she sank with the fall of thewave--the stump of her aftermast standing, and the fore one shortened bythe to'gallant-mast. You may easily believe there was no one aboard moreeager to get clear of this weather than myself; as in ordinarycircumstances, with a craft like this, in two or three days more wemight have been in a high enough latitude to begin looking out for theIndiaman. For my part, I can't deny that the wish for having TomWestwood safe out of harm's way, and with me in the schooner, strong asit was, played second to the notion of seeing sweet Violet Hyde in anyway again, if it was only the last time before she went out of reachaltogether; for her getting amongst East India ways of doing,high-flying civilians and soldiers, shows, and sights, either inCalcutta or up-country, was equal to anything else, in my mind. Still,we had six or seven days longer of the heavy seas and hard gales, beforenorth-easting enough could be made to take us beyond the Cape winter,just then coming on, and which the _Seringapatam_ had very likelyescaped by two or three days, so that she would have a considerablestart of us.

  "By this time we were standing well up for the Mozambique Channel,which I had heard the Indiaman intended to take in company; a piece ofinformation that made me the more anxious to overtake the_Seringapatam_, at latest, by the time they reached open water again,where, being the only ship for Bombay, she would no doubt part from herconsorts. We had a cruiser that year, as I knew, in the Mozambique,where there were some rumours of pirates after the war, so that in caseof her happening to speak the _Seringapatam_ close, and having got anyword of Westwood's affair, he ran a chance of being picked off. However,that wasn't by any means the thing that troubled me most; somehow orother, whenever the picture of Violet's face brought the Indiaman'sdecks clear into my mind, with all about her, I couldn't get rid of thenotion that some ill-luck would come across that ship before she gotinto port. If any pirate craft were to dodge the whole bevy of Indiamenup the head of the channel, as was pretty sure to be the case, he wouldprobably wait for some signs of separating, and be down upon a singleone not long after she cleared the Leychelles Islands, where a lonelyenough stretch of the Indian Ocean spreads in. The more I entered uponthe thought of it, the more unsufferable it got; especially one day inthe mouth of the Mozambique, when it fell a dead calm with a heavyup-and-down swell, fit to roll the sticks out of her; the high blue landof Madagascar being in sight, sometimes to starboard, sometimes to port,then astern, and the clear horizon lying away north-west, dark with abreeze from round the coast. As the hot sun blazed out above us, and theblue water came plunge up over the rail, blazing and flashing, first oneside dipped, then the other, I could fancy the passengers on theIndiaman's poop in a light breeze with a suspicious lateen-rigged sailcreeping up on her quarter. I thought I saw Violet Hyde's eyes sparkleagainst the glare of light, and her lips parting to speak--till Iactually stamped on the deck, my fists clenched, and I made threestrides to the very taffrail of the schooner. All at once I met mysecond mate's eye coolly fixed on me, which brought me to my senses in amoment, the more so as there was something about this man Jones Icouldn't make out, and I had made up my mind to keep a sharp eye on him;though the fact was, it annoyed me most to feel him seeing into _me_, asit were, without troubling himself. 'We shall have the breeze beforelong, sir, round Cape Mary yonder,' said he, stepping forward. 'So Iexpect myself, Mr Jones,' said I, 'though you evidently know the coastbetter than I do.' With that I gave him a careless side-look, but to allappearance there was nothing particular in his, as he told me he hadseen it two or three times before.