One night, when all was perfectly still, I lay awake in theforecastle; the lamp was burning low and thick, and swinging from itsblackened beam; and with the uniform motion of the ship, the men inthe bunks rolled slowly from side to side; the hammocks swaying inunison.
Presently I heard a foot upon the ladder, and looking up, saw a widetrousers' leg. Immediately, Navy Bob, a stout old Triton, stealthilydescended, and at once went to groping in the locker after somethingto eat.
Supper ended, he proceeded to load his pipe. Now, for a goodcomfortable smoke at sea, there never was a better place than theJulia's forecastle at midnight. To enjoy the luxury, one wants tofall into a kind of dreamy reverie, only known to the children of theweed. And the very atmosphere of the place, laden as it was with thesnores of the sleepers, was inducive of this. No wonder, then, thatafter a while Bob's head sunk upon his breast; presently his hat felloff, the extinguished pipe dropped from his mouth, and the nextmoment he lay out on the chest as tranquil as an infant.
Suddenly an order was heard on deck, followed by the trampling of feetand the hauling of rigging. The yards were being braced, and soonafter the sleeper was missed: for there was a whispered conferenceover the scuttle.
Directly a shadow glided across the forecastle and noiselesslyapproached the unsuspecting Bob. It was one of the watch with the endof a rope leading out of sight up the scuttle. Pausing an instant,the sailor pressed softly the chest of his victim, sounding hisslumbers; and then hitching the cord to his ankle, returned to thedeck.
Hardly was his back turned, when a long limb was thrust from a hammockopposite, and Doctor Long Ghost, leaping forth warily, whipped therope from Bob's ankle, and fastened it like lightning to a greatlumbering chest, the property of the man who had just disappeared.
Scarcely was the thing done, when lo! with a thundering bound, theclumsy box was torn from its fastenings, and banging from side toside, flew toward the scuttle. Here it jammed; and thinking that Bob,who was as strong as a windlass, was grappling a beam and trying tocut the line, the jokers on deck strained away furiously. On asudden, the chest went aloft, and striking against the mast, flewopen, raining down on the heads of a party the merciless shower ofthings too numerous to mention.
Of course the uproar roused all hands, and when we hurried on deck,there was the owner of the box, looking aghast at its scatteredcontents, and with one wandering hand taking the altitude of a bumpon his head.
CHAPTER XII.
DEATH AND BURIAL OF TWO OF THE CREW
THE mirthfulness which at times reigned among us was in strange andshocking contrast with the situation of some of the invalids. Thus atleast did it seem to me, though not to others.
But an event occurred about this period, which, in removing by far themost pitiable cases of suffering, tended to make less grating to myfeelings the subsequent conduct of the crew.
We had been at sea about twenty days, when two of the sick who hadrapidly grown worse, died one night within an hour of each other.
One occupied a bunk right next to mine, and for several days had notrisen from it. During this period he was often delirious, startingup and glaring around him, and sometimes wildly tossing his arms.
On the night of his decease, I retired shortly after the middle watchbegan, and waking from a vague dream of horrors, felt somethingclammy resting on me. It was the sick man's hand. Two or three timesduring the evening previous, he had thrust it into my bunk, and I hadquietly removed it; but now I started and flung it from me. The armfell stark and stiff, and I knew that he was dead.
Waking the men, the corpse was immediately rolled up in the strips ofblanketing upon which it lay, and carried on deck. The mate was thencalled, and preparations made for an instantaneous' burial. Layingthe body out on the forehatch, it was stitched up in one of thehammocks, some "kentledge" being placed at the feet instead of shot.This done, it was borne to the gangway, and placed on a plank laidacross the bulwarks. Two men supported the inside end. By way ofsolemnity, the ship's headway was then stopped by hauling aback themain-top-sail.
The mate, who was far from being sober, then staggered up, and holdingon to a shroud, gave the word. As the plank tipped, the body slid offslowly, and fell with a splash into the sea. A bubble or two, andnothing more was seen.
"Brace forward!" The main-yard swung round to its place, and the shipglided on, whilst the corpse, perhaps, was still sinking.
We had tossed a shipmate to the sharks, but no one would have thoughtit, to have gone among the crew immediately after. The dead man hadbeen a churlish, unsocial fellow, while alive, and no favourite; andnow that he was no more, little thought was bestowed upon him. Allthat was said was concerning the disposal of his chest, which, havingbeen always kept locked, was supposed to contain money. Someonevolunteered to break it open, and distribute its contents, clothingand all, before the captain should demand it.
While myself and others were endeavouring to dissuade them from this,all started at a cry from the forecastle. There could be no one therebut two of the sick, unable to crawl on deck. We went below, andfound one of them dying on a chest. He had fallen out of his hammockin a fit, and was insensible. The eyes were open and fixed, and hisbreath coming and going convulsively. The men shrunk from him; butthe doctor, taking his hand, held it a few moments in his, andsuddenly letting it fall, exclaimed, "He's gone!" The body wasinstantly borne up the ladder.
Another hammock was soon prepared, and the dead sailor stitched up asbefore. Some additional ceremony, however, was now insisted upon,and a Bible was called for. But none was to be had, not even a PrayerBook. When this was made known, Antone, a Portuguese, from theCape-de-Verd Islands, stepped up, muttering something over the corpseof his countryman, and, with his finger, described upon the back ofthe hammock the figure of a large cross; whereupon it received thedeath-launch.
These two men both perished from the proverbial indiscretions ofseamen, heightened by circumstances apparent; but had either of thembeen ashore under proper treatment, he would, in all humanprobability, have recovered.
Behold here the fate of a sailor! They give him the last toss, and noone asks whose child he was.
For the rest of that night there was no more sleep. Many stayed ondeck until broad morning, relating to each other those marvelloustales of the sea which the occasion was calculated to call forth.Little as I believed in such things, I could not listen to some ofthese stories unaffected. Above all was I struck by one of thecarpenter's.
On a voyage to India, they had a fever aboard, which carried offnearly half the crew in the space of a few days. After this the mennever went aloft in the night-time, except in couples. When topsailswere to be reefed, phantoms were seen at the yard-arm ends; and intacking ship, voices called aloud from the tops. The carpenterhimself, going with another man to furl the main-top-gallant-sail in asquall, was nearly pushed from the rigging by an unseen hand; and hisshipmate swore that a wet hammock was flirted in his face.
Stories like these were related as gospel truths, by those whodeclared themselves eye-witnesses.
It is a circumstance not generally known, perhaps, that among ignorantseamen, Philanders, or Finns, as they are more commonly called, areregarded with peculiar superstition. For some reason or other, whichI never could get at, they are supposed to possess the gift of secondsight, and the power to wreak supernatural vengeance upon those whooffend them. On this account they have great influence among sailors,and two or three with whom I have sailed at different times werepersons well calculated to produce this sort of impression, at leastupon minds disposed to believe in such things.
Now, we had one of these sea-prophets aboard; an old, yellow-hairedfellow, who always wore a rude seal-skin cap of his own make, andcarried his tobacco in a large pouch made of the same stuff. Van, aswe called him, was a quiet, inoffensive man, to look at, and, amongsuch a set, his occasional peculiarities had hitherto passed fornothing. At this time, however, he came out with a prediction, whichwas none the less remarkable
from its absolute fulfilment, though notexactly in the spirit in which it was given out.
The night of the burial he laid his hand on the old horseshoe nailedas a charm to the foremast, and solemnly told us that, in less thanthree weeks, not one quarter of our number would remain aboard theship--by that time they would have left her for ever.
Some laughed; Flash Jack called him an old fool; but among the mengenerally it produced a marked effect. For several days a degree ofquiet reigned among us, and allusions of such a kind were made torecent events, as could be attributed to no other cause than theFinn's omen.
For my own part, what had lately come to pass was not without itsinfluence. It forcibly brought to mind our really critical condition.Doctor Long Ghost, too, frequently revealed his apprehensions, andonce assured me that he would give much to be safely landed upon anyisland around us.
Where we were, exactly, no one but the mate seemed to know, norwhither we were going. The captain--a mere cipher--was an invalid inhis cabin; to say nothing more of so many of his men languishing inthe forecastle.
Our keeping the sea under these circumstances, a matter strange enoughat first, now seemed wholly unwarranted; and added to all was thethought that our fate was absolutely in the hand of the recklessJermin. Were anything to happen to him, we would be left without anavigator, for, according to Jermin himself, he had, from thecommencement of the voyage, always kept the ship's reckoning, thecaptain's nautical knowledge being insufficient.
But considerations like these, strange as it may seem, seldom or neveroccurred to the crew. They were alive only to superstitious fears;and when, in apparent contradiction to the Finn's prophecy, the sickmen rallied a little, they began to recover their former spirits, andthe recollection of what had occurred insensibly faded from theirminds. In a week's time, the unworthiness of Little Jule as a seavessel, always a subject of jest, now became more so than ever. In theforecastle, Flash Jack, with his knife, often dug into the dank,rotten planks ribbed between us and death, and flung away thesplinters with some sea joke.
As to the remaining invalids, they were hardly ill enough to occasionany serious apprehension, at least for the present, in the breasts ofsuch thoughtless beings as themselves. And even those who sufferedthe most, studiously refrained from any expression of pain.
The truth is, that among sailors as a class, sickness at sea is soheartily detested, and the sick so little cared for, that thegreatest invalid generally strives to mask his sufferings. He hasgiven no sympathy to others, and he expects none in return. Theirconduct, in this respect, so opposed to their generous-heartedbehaviour ashore, painfully affects the landsman on his firstintercourse with them as a sailor.
Sometimes, but seldom, our invalids inveighed against their being keptat sea, where they could be of no service, when they ought to beashore and in the way of recovery. But--"Oh! cheer up--cheer up, myhearties!"--the mate would say. And after this fashion he put a stopto their murmurings.
But there was one circumstance, to which heretofore I have but barelyalluded, that tended more than anything else to reconcile many totheir situation. This was the receiving regularly, twice every day, acertain portion of Pisco, which was served out at the capstan, by thesteward, in little tin measures called "tots."
The lively affection seamen have for strong drink is well known; butin the South Seas, where it is so seldom to be had, a thoroughbredsailor deems scarcely any price too dear which will purchase hisdarling "tot." Nowadays, American whalemen in the Pacific never thinkof carrying spirits as a ration; and aboard of most of them, it isnever served out even in times of the greatest hardships. All Sydneywhalemen, however, still cling to the old custom, and carry it as apart of the regular supplies for the voyage.
In port, the allowance of Pisco was suspended; with a view,undoubtedly, of heightening the attractions of being out of sight ofland.
Now, owing to the absence of proper discipline, our sick, in additionto what they took medicinally, often came in for their respective"tots" convivially; and, added to all this, the evening of the lastday of the week was always celebrated by what is styled on board ofEnglish vessels "The Saturday-night bottles." Two of these were sentdown into the forecastle, just after dark; one for the starboardwatch, and the other for the larboard.
By prescription, the oldest seaman in each claims the treat as his,and, accordingly, pours out the good cheer and passes it round like alord doing the honours of his table. But the Saturday-night bottleswere not all. The carpenter and cooper, in sea parlance, Chips andBungs, who were the "Cods," or leaders of the forecastle, in some wayor other, managed to obtain an extra supply, which perpetually keptthem in fine after-dinner spirits, and, moreover, disposed them tolook favourably upon a state of affairs like the present.
But where were the sperm whales all this time? In good sooth, it madelittle matter where they were, since we were in no condition tocapture them. About this time, indeed, the men came down from themast-heads, where, until now, they had kept up the form of relievingeach other every two hours. They swore they would go there no more.Upon this, the mate carelessly observed that they would soon be wherelook-outs were entirely unnecessary, the whales he had in his eye(though Flash Jack said they were all in his) being so tame that theymade a practice of coming round ships, and scratching their backsagainst them.
Thus went the world of waters with us, some four weeks or more afterleaving Hannamanoo.
CHAPTER XIII.
OUR DESTINATION CHANGED
IT was not long after the death of the two men, that Captain Guy wasreported as fast declining, and in a day or two more, as dying. Thedoctor, who previously had refused to enter the cabin upon anyconsideration, now relented, and paid his old enemy a professionalvisit.
He prescribed a warm bath, which was thus prepared. The skylight beingremoved, a cask was lowered down into the cabin, and then filled withbuckets of water from the ship's coppers. The cries of the patient,when dipped into his rude bath, were most painful to hear. They atlast laid him on the transom, more dead than alive.
That evening, the mate was perfectly sober, and coming forward to thewindlass, where we were lounging, summoned aft the doctor, myself,and two or three others of his favourites; when, in the presence ofBembo the Mowree, he spoke to us thus:
"I have something to say to ye, men. There's none but Bembo here asbelongs aft, so I've picked ye out as the best men for'ard to takecounsel with, d'ye see, consarning the ship. The captain's anchor ispretty nigh atrip; I shouldn't wonder if he croaked afore morning. Sowhat's to be done? If we have to sew him up, some of those piratesthere for'ard may take it into their heads to run off with the ship,because there's no one at the tiller. Now, I've detarmined what'sbest to be done; but I don't want to do it unless I've good men toback me, and make things all fair and square if ever we get homeagain."
We all asked what his plan was.
"I'll tell ye what it is, men. If the skipper dies, all agree to obeymy orders, and in less than three weeks I'll engage to have fivehundred barrels of sperm oil under hatches: enough to give everymother's son of ye a handful of dollars when we get to Sydney. If yedon't agree to this, ye won't have a farthing coming to ye."
Doctor Long Ghost at once broke in. He said that such a thing was notto be dreamt of; that if the captain died, the mate was in duty boundto navigate the ship to the nearest civilized port, and deliver herup into an English consul's hands; when, in all probability, after arun ashore, the crew would be sent home. Everything forbade themate's plan. "Still," said he, assuming an air of indifference, "ifthe men say stick it out, stick it out say I; but in that case, thesooner we get to those islands of yours the better."
Something more he went on to say; and from the manner in which therest regarded him, it was plain that our fate was in his hands. Itwas finally resolved upon, that if Captain Guy was no better intwenty-four hours, the ship's head should be pointed for the islandof Tahiti.
This announcement produced a strong sensation--the sick ral
lied--andthe rest speculated as to what was next to befall us; while thedoctor, without alluding to Guy, congratulated me upon the prospectof soon beholding a place so famous as the island in question.
The night after the holding of the council, I happened to go on deckin the middle watch, and found the yards braced sharp up on thelarboard tack, with the South East Trades strong on our bow. Thecaptain was no better; and we were off for Tahiti.
CHAPTER XIV.
ROPE YARN
WHILE gliding along on our way, I cannot well omit some account of apoor devil we had among us, who went by the name of Rope Yarn, orRopey.
He was a nondescript who had joined the ship as a landsman. Being soexcessively timid and awkward, it was thought useless to try and makea sailor of him; so he was translated into the cabin as steward; theman previously filling that post, a good seaman, going among the crewand taking his place. But poor Ropey proved quite as clumsy among thecrockery as in the rigging; and one day when the ship was pitching,having stumbled into the cabin with a wooden tureen of soup, hescalded the officers so that they didn't get over it in a week. Uponwhich, he was dismissed, and returned to the forecastle.
Now, nobody is so heartily despised as a pusillanimous, lazy,good-for-nothing land-lubber; a sailor has no bowels of compassionfor him. Yet, useless as such a character may be in many respects, aship's company is by no means disposed to let him reap any benefitfrom his deficiencies. Regarded in the light of a mechanical power,whenever there is any plain, hard work to be done, he is put to itlike a lever; everyone giving him a pry.
Then, again, he is set about all the vilest work. Is there a heavy jobat tarring to be done, he is pitched neck and shoulders into atar-barrel, and set to work at it. Moreover, he is made to fetch andcarry like a dog. Like as not, if the mate sends him after hisquadrant, on the way he is met by the captain, who orders him to picksome oakum; and while he is hunting up a bit of rope, a sailor comesalong and wants to know what the deuce he's after, and bids him beoff to the forecastle.
Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas Page 5