by John Jarvis
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Captain had planned to take Subtile south to avoid the trade routes to India and further east. Strong winds and gales drove Subtile further south than the Captain and navigator had plotted, and despite desperate tacks to track north the vessel had been driven into latitudes yet to be defined. Subtile was entering uncharted waters. Even with all sails tightly furled Subtile was driven up to speeds beyond her design and was in danger of being broken up.
“We will have to use a sea anchor to slow her down,” yelled the Captain into Jamie’s salt encrusted ear. Jamie nodded and sent the Boson below to fetch up the contraption. After the canvas rope and wood bucket had been brought to the stern the Captain shook his head. “It is too large, First, and will rip the stern off us in this gale; have them make up three smaller ones and use heavy lines.”
The smaller sea anchors were lowered into the teeth of the gale that initially kept them from exerting a sudden pressure on the lines. Finally they swallowed water and sunk beneath the wind whipped waves. The securing stern-posts groaned and squeaked but held, and Subtile slowed to a more accommodating speed. The anchors slowed but did not stop Subtile from being forced further south. Ice began to form on the spars and rigging, and the deck became a skating rink. To make matters worse, the cook did not dare to fire up his stoves in the atrocious weather and cold food did little to lift the crew’s morale.
The days became weeks and the officers and crew became fatalistic because there was nothing they could do apart from surviving and praying. Some of the crew believed their prayers had been answered when the wind lessened and swung to the south west; a cold breeze that could have come from some unknown equivalent of the Arctic pushed then north east into more clement weather and temperatures that warmed the crew’s exteriors while hot food did the same for their innards.
Richard had been kept busy below, mainly helping the doctor attend to the cases of frostbite, rope burns, abrasions and, at times, stomach cramps. Only the Purser had been happy with the temperatures that had delayed the spoiling of fresh food supplies. He had yet to be informed that all the livestock had perished. Wrapped up in blankets and a tricorn hat perched on his head, the Purser had no reason to admonish Richard for exposing his flesh: Richard wore three sets of clothes on top of each other and a tea caddy over his head. The Gunnery Officer was also wrapped up in the effect the low temperatures had on the consistency of gunpowder. When Richard had attended the Captain he had found him tense and terse over the last few weeks, but as the weather lightened so did the mood of the Captain.
Subtile sailed from one extreme to another. The welcome warm weather changed over the weeks to hot and from hot to furnace-like. Richard preferred the cold; he could always find a way to warm up, but there was no way to avoid the heat of the tropics. Seawater raised in buckets only lowered body temperatures temporarily; within minutes those that had been dowsed began sweating and dehydrating. Water had to be rationed. It was well the Purser stayed in his cabin: the crew wore only shorts and even the officers dressed down to shirts and breeches only. Sunburn became a problem for the doctor and Richard until the men turned brown. The extreme heat caused another problem: Subtile had been designed for European climates and her timbers began to shrink and open up. Men were lowered over the side to caulk the gaps but could do little to stop the leaks below the waterline. Pumps had to be manned continually; what Subtile needed was to be beached and serious repairs carried out. The first signs of scurvy began to appear by crewmembers that had avoided eating citrus fruits. Gums blackened, teeth and hair fell out, and, in a few cases, internal bleeding occurred. The doctor treated them with his last remaining shrunken limes.
The Captain invited comments from his senior officers after briefing them the condition of the ship, the men and supplies. The news was not good.
“Five days?” Jamie queried to make sure he had heard correctly. The Captain nodded and added.
“On half rations.”
“We have no exact bearing on how far east we have sailed?” asked the Second Officer. The Captain nodded to the Navigation Officer.
“No Sir, but on a time scale and at our rate of knots I estimate we are well past the Indian Continent and our only hope, and it is a slim one, is Keeling Islands,” he indicated a speck on the map south west of Borneo.
“William Keeling discovered those islands over a hundred years ago; has anyone landed there since?” the Captain asked.
“I cannot answer that Sir, but Keeling noted there were fresh water lenses to be found if you excavated.” The Navigation Officer had done his homework.
“Estimated sailing time to find this needle in a haystack?” asked the Captain.
“Approximately ten days, Sir.”
“There may be some good news, Sir,” interceded Jamie. All eyes turned to him in expectation. “Some of the crew are having limited success fishing, and the further we sail north into the tropics the more chance we have of rain,” Jamie added rather hopefully.
“Thank you, gentlemen, say nothing to the crew of our situation – we will sail on and hope, there is little else we can do.”
The fish came in all shapes and sizes, some edible, some not, and some only if they were dried in the sun, but there were enough to augment the dwindling food supplies. The rain came on the third da,y torrents of it filling the stretched tarpaulins and every available empty barrel; Subtile steamed, hissed and expanded, causing the pumps to be abandoned by their exhausted teams. The men’s spirits rose with the steam and there was a renewed vigor in their applications. The Bosun had less need to use his rope. The Gunnery Officer kept Richard busy replacing the damp insulating sawdust as the humidity rose.
“Land ho, on the port beam!” Billings had declared his sighting, unsure if the smudge on the horizon was a cloud or a reflection. Only when he could discern the white tips of breaking waves did he announce his discovery. It took most of the day to beat within half a mile of the atolls. They were not impressive, less than sixteen feet at maximum height, but to Subtile they were salvation.
“Well done, Navigation,” the Captain slapped him on the back, an unheard of lapse of formality, “and on the tenth day.” The Navigation Officer beamed. Two longboats returned to Subtile as the sun sank below the horizon. They had found a suitable bay to beach the vessel and commence repairs. Subtile anchored and waited; the men relaxed for the first time in months and waited.
The Captain took advantage of an offshore wind at high tide the next day and ran Subtile ashore into a sandy beach. The crew swarmed ashore and, attaching lines to the masts, heeled the boat over to expose half a barnacle-infested hull. The work began of cleaning the copper sheathing and recaulking. A water party reported that there was no need to dig for water – fresh water bubbled up from a spring above the high tide mark. Crewmembers ran up coconut trees instead of rigging and dislodged the fruit to fill the empty galley lockers. The doctor set up a beer-brewing plant using the last of his precious yeasts, and soon the smell of fermentation indicated the yeasts were active and working. Richard led a small party around the atoll in search of fruit and found a yellow-fleshed oblong fruit suspended from a green cap growing on a low bush type plant. The doctor ate a small slice – it was delicious – gave a larger slice to Richard, waited several hours for any adverse reactions, and then polished off the remainder himself. They had solved the scurvy problem for the moment.
Two days later Subtile was refloated, hauled clear and then re-beached to clean the starboard hull. Two more days later and Subtile was ready to resume its voyage. The Captain conferred with his Navigation Officer. Any large continent would have to lie either to the west or north of Abel Tasman’s discovery of the savage islands of New Zeeland. Subtile was not yet replenished for a long voyage into the unknown; it was decided to head for the Dutch East Indies.