We and the World Volume II Part 6

Roll! down we went again to starboard, and up went the bulwarks and I could see nothing but the sky and the stars, and the masts and yards whipping across them as before, though the excitement grew till I could bear it no longer, and scrambled up the ladder on to the forecastle, and pushed my way to the edge and lay face downwards, holding on for my life that I might not be blown away, whilst I was trying to see what was to be seen.

I found myself by Alister once more, and he helped me to hold on, and pointed where every one else was pointing. There was a lull in the eager talking of the men, and the knot of captain and the officers on the bridge stood still, and Alister roared through the wind into my ear--"Bide a wee, the moon 'll be out again."

I waited, and the cloud pa.s.sed from her face or she sailed from beneath it, and at the same instant I saw a streak of light upon the water in which a black object bobbed up and down as the porpoises had bobbed, and all the men burst out again, and a crowd rushed up on to the forecastle.

"It's half-a-mile aft."--"A bit of wreck."--"An old sugar hogshead."--"The emperor of the porpoises."--"Is it the sea sarpint ye're maning?"--"Will hany gentleman lend me 'is hopera-gla.s.s?"--"I'm blessed if I don't think we're going to go half speed. I sailed seven years in the _Amiable_ with old Savage, and I'm blessed if he ever put her a point out of her course for anything. 'Every boat for herself, and the sea for us all,' he used to say, and allus kept his eyes forwards in foul weather."--"Aisy, Tom, aisy, ye're out of it entirely. It's the Humane Society's gold medal we'll all be getting for saving firewood."--"Stow your jaw, Pat, _that's_ not wreck, it's--"

At this moment the third mate's voice rang through the s.h.i.+p--

"A boat bottom up!"

The men pa.s.sed from chaff to a silence whose eagerness could be felt, through which another voice came through the wind from the p.o.o.p--"_there's something on her_!" and I turned that way, and saw the captain put down his gla.s.s, and put his hand to his mouth; and when he sang out "A MAN!" we all sprang to our feet, and opened our lips, but the boatswain put up his hand, and cried, "Silence, fore and aft!

Steady, lads! Look to the captain!"

The gold cap-bands glittered close together, and then, clear to be seen in a sudden gleam of moonlight, the captain leaned forward and shouted to the crew, "Fo'cs'le there!" And they sang out, "Aye, aye, sir!"

"Volunteers for the whaleboat!"

My heart was beating fast enough, but I do not think I could have counted a dozen throbs, before, with a wild hurrah, every man had leaped from the forecastle, Alister among them, and I was left alone.

I was just wondering if I could possibly be of use, when I heard the captain's voice again. (He had come down, and was where the whaleboat was hanging, which, I learned, was fitted like a lifeboat, and the crew were crowding round him.)

"Steady, lads! Stand back. Come as you're called. Thunder and lightning, we want to man the boat, not sink her. Mr. Johnson!"

"Aye, aye, sir!"

"A! B! C! D!" &c.

"Here, sir!" "Here, sir!" "Here, sir!"

"Fall back there! Thank you all, my lads, but she's manned."

A loud cheer drowned every other sound, and I saw men busy with the boat, and Alister coming back with a dejected air, and the captain jumping up and down, and roaring louder than the wind: "Steward! rum, and a couple of blankets. Look sharp. Stand back; in you go; steady!

Now, mind what I say; I shall bear up towards the boat. Hi, there!

Stand by the lowering-tackle, and when I say 'Now!' lower away handsomely and steadily. Are you ready, Mr. Johnson? Keep steady, all, and fend her off well when you touch the water. Mr. Waters! let her go off a point or two to the north'ard. Half speed; port a little--steady!

All ready in the boat?"

"Aye, aye, sir!"

"G.o.d bless you. Steady--ready--Now!"

I hardly know which more roused my amazement and admiration--the behaviour of the men or the behaviour of the whaleboat. Were these alert and silent seamen, sitting side by side, each with his oar held upright in his hand, and his eyes upon his captain, the rowdy roughs of the forecastle? And were those their like companions who crowded the bulwarks, and bent over to cheer, and bless, and _envy_ them?

As to boats--the only one I had been accustomed to used to be launched on the ca.n.a.l with sc.r.a.ping and shoving, and struggling and balancing, and we did occasionally upset her--but when the captain gave the word, the s.h.i.+p's whaleboat and its crew were smoothly lowered by a patent apparatus till it all but touched the big black waves that ran and roared at it. Then came a few moments of intense anxiety till the boat was fairly clear of the s.h.i.+p; but even when it was quite free, and the men bending to their oars, I thought more than once that it had gone down for ever on the other side of the hills and dales of water which kept hiding it completely from all except those who were high up upon the masts. It was a relief when we could see it, miserable speck as it looked, and we all strained our eyes after it, through many difficulties from the spiteful ways of the winds and waves and clouds, which blinded and buffeted and drenched us when we tried to look, and sent black veils of shadow to hide our comrades from our eyes. In the teeth of the elements, however, the captain was bearing up towards the other boat, and it was now and then quite possible to see with the naked eye that she was upside down, and that a man was clinging to her keel. At such glimpses an inarticulate murmur ran through our midst, but for the most part we, who were only watching, were silent till the whaleboat was fairly alongside of the object of her gallant expedition. Then by good luck the moon sailed forth and gave us a fair view, but it was rather a disappointing one, for the two boats seemed to do nothing but bob about like two burnt corks in the moonlight, and we began to talk again.

"What's she doing?"--"The LORD knows!"--"Something's gone wrong."--"Why doesn't she go nearer?"--"'Cos she'd be stove in, ye fool!"--"Gude save us! they're both gone."--"Not they, they're to the left; but what the winds and waves they're after ----"--"They're trying to make him hear, likely enough, and they might as well call on my grandmother. He's as dead as a herring."--"Whisht! whisht! He's a living soul! Hech, sirs!

there's nought but the grip o' despair would haud a man on the keel of 's boat in waves like yon."--"Silence, all!"

We turned our heads, for a voice rang from the look-out--

"Man overboard from the whaleboat!"

The men were so excited, and crowded so together, that I could hardly find a peeping-place.

"He's got him."--"Nay, they're both gone."--"Man! I'm just thinking that it's ill interfering with the designs of Providence. We may lose Peter and not save Paul."--"Stow your discourses, Sandy!"--"They're hauling in our man, and time they did."

The captain's voice now called to the first mate--

"Do you make it one or both, Mr. Waters?"

"_Both_, sir!"

"Thank G.o.d!"

We hurrahed again, and the whaleboat-men replied--but their cheer only came faintly to us, like a wail upon the wind.

Several men of our group were now called to work, and I was ordered below to bring up a hammock, and swing it in the steerage. I was vexed, as I would have given anything to have helped to welcome the whaleboat back.

When the odd jobs I had been called to were done with, and I returned to the deck, it was just too late to see her hauled up. I could not see over the thick standing group of men, and I did not, of course, dare to push through them to catch sight of our heroes and the man they had saved. But a little apart from the rest, two Irish sailors were standing and bandying the harshest of brogues with such vehemence that I drew near, hoping at least to hear something of what I could not see. It was a spirited, and one would have guessed an angry dialogue, so like did it sound to the yapping and snapping of two peppery-tempered terriers. But it was only vehement, and this was the sum of it.

"Bedad! but it's quare ye must have felt at the time."

"I did not, unless it would be when Tom stepped out into the water, G.o.d bless him! with the rope aisy round his waist, and the waves drowning him intirely, and the corpse holding on to the boat's bottom for the dear life."

"Pat!" said the other in mysterious tones, "would that that's hanging round his neck be the presarving of him, what?"

"And why wouldn't it? But isn't he the big fool to be having it dangling where the wash of a wave, or a pickpocket, or a worse timptation than either might be staling it away from him?"

"And where else would he put it?"

"Did ye ever git the sight of mine?"

"I did not."

"On the back of me?"

"What?"

"Look here, now!" cried Pat, in the tones of one whose patience was entirely exhausted. His friend drew nearer, and I also ventured to accept an invitation not intended for me, so greatly was my curiosity roused by what the men said.

Pat turned his back to us as rapidly as he had spoken, and stooping at about half-leap-frog-angle, whipped his wet s.h.i.+rt upwards out of his loosely-strapped trousers, baring his back from his waist to his shoulder-blades. The moon was somewhat overcast, but there was light enough for us to see a grotesque semblance of the Crucifixion tattooed upon his flesh in more than one colour, and some accompanying symbols and initials which we could hardly distinguish.

"Now am I safe for Christian burial or not, in the case I'd be misfortunate enough to be washed up on the sh.o.r.es of a haythen counthry?"

"Ye are so!"

I never saw a funnier sight than Pat craning and twisting his head in futile efforts to look at it under his own arm.

"It's a foin piece of work, I'm told," said he.