Will Weatherhelm Part 5

We got safe to the village of Morant Bay, where we were very kindly received, and the next day were forwarded over land to Kingston, there to await the arrival of the _Montezuma_. She came into Port Royal Harbour in about a week, not having felt the hurricane. As the agent had a full cargo for her, she only remained a short time, and at length I found myself on the way to the sh.o.r.es of old England.

"There is no fear now but what I shall get to Plymouth at last," I thought to myself as I walked the deck in my watch the first wight after we had got well clear of the land, and were standing out into the broad Atlantic. Then I remembered my rash oath, and in spite of all Mr Merton's reasonings, I could not help believing that its consequences would still follow me. "Home! home! with all its endearments, is not for you. The time of your probation is yet unfulfilled!--your punishment is not accomplished!"--a voice whispered in my ear. I could not silence it. Still I thought that it was only fancy. Just then Charley Iffley joined me in my walk; we were in the same watch.

Hitherto I had never told him of my belief that a curse was pursuing me.

I should have been wiser not to have mentioned the subject to him; still I thought that he was so much changed that he would sympathise with me. I told him all that had occurred from the moment when I first expressed my wish to go to sea to my grandmother and aunt, and reminded him of all the sufferings I had endured, and the number of times I had been s.h.i.+pwrecked. Instead, however, of treating the subject in the gentle, serious way Mr Merton had done, he burst into a loud fit of laughter.

"Nonsense, Will," he exclaimed, "you'll next accuse me of being your evil spirit, and of tempting you to sin. Many a man has been s.h.i.+pwrecked as often as you have who has been sent to sea against his own will; and if he swore at all, it was that he might speedily get on sh.o.r.e. Get that idea out of your head as soon as possible."

I was anxious enough to follow Charley's advice, but do all I could, the idea came back and back again whenever I found myself during my watch at night taking a turn by myself on deck.

Charley was already out of his indentures, and as he had become a steady fellow and a good seaman, he hoped to be made mate on his next voyage.

At last the day arrived when the term of my apprentices.h.i.+p expired, and I was to be a free man, able to take any berth offered to me. My only wish, however, after I had paid my family a visit, was to be employed in the service of my present owners. To commemorate the event, Charley proposed having a feast in our mess, and he managed to purchase from the third mate, who acted as a sort of purser, various articles of luxury and an additional bottle of rum. We were very jolly, and very happy we thought ourselves, and blew all care to the winds. The pa.s.sengers and the captain were making merry in the same way in the cabin, drinking toasts, and singing songs, and making speeches, and telling funny stories, so the cabin-boy told us as he came forward convulsed with laughter. The wind was fair and light, the sea was smooth, and no s.h.i.+p floating on the ocean could have appeared more free from danger.

Suddenly there was a cry--a cry which, next to "Breakers ahead," is the most terror-inspiring which can strike on a seaman's ear. It was, "Fire! fire! fire!" Who uttered it? A man with frantic haste--horror in his countenance--rushed up from the after hold. "Fire! fire! fire!"

he repeated. In an instant fore and aft the revellers in dismay sprang from their seats and hurried on deck. The captain was calm and collected, had he lost his presence of mind, who could have hoped to escape? With rapid strides he reached the after-hatchway, out of which streams of smoke were gus.h.i.+ng forth. He summoned the pa.s.sengers and some of the crew to provide themselves with buckets, and to heave water down upon the spot whence the smoke seemed to come, while the rest of the crew were employed in pumping water into the hold. Wet sails and blankets were brought, and, led by Mr Merton, some of the more daring of the men leaped down with them, in the hopes of stifling the flames before they burst forth. I followed the second mate; I knew the risk, but I resolved to share it with him. "More blankets! more sails!" we shouted. They were hove down to us; but in vain we threw them over the lower hatchway. Thicker and thicker ma.s.ses of smoke came gus.h.i.+ng forth, and we were obliged to cry out to be drawn up, and were almost overpowered before we reached the deck. Two of our number had been left behind. Mr Merton and I were about to return, when a loud explosion was heard. Part of the deck was torn up, and flames burst fiercely forth through the hatchway. It was very evident that some of the rum casks had ignited, as was afterwards ascertained, by a candle having been carelessly left burning in the hold.

All hopes of saving the s.h.i.+p were now abandoned. The boats could not carry the entire crew and pa.s.sengers. They were, however, instantly lowered into the water with a boat-keeper in each, while the rest of the people were told off, some to get up provisions and water, and others to construct a raft. I was engaged on the raft, but remembering what I had suffered on former occasions, I urged the people to take an ample supply of water in each of the boats. Scarcely was the long-boat in the water than the flames burst forth through the main hatchway, and had not the captain been prompt in his orders, the boat itself would have been lost.

Provisions for the raft were put into the long-boat, while we were working away at its construction. Every moment we expected to see the flames burst forth from under our feet. We worked with might and main; with our axes we cut away the after-bulwarks, so as to launch it overboard. We had crowbars in our hands. It was barely finished.

"Heave away, my lads, heave away!" shouted the captain. "Now, gentlemen; now, my men; those told off for the boats, be smart! Get into them! No crowding, though."

The orders were obeyed, for everybody had learned to confide in the captain's judgment. We meantime were urging the raft over the side.

"Quick! quick!" was the cry. With reason, too. The flames burst forth close to our heels. With mighty efforts, by means of our crowbars, we prized on the raft, it being balanced over the sea, yet the flames almost caught it. One effort more. It plunged into the water. A rope brought it up. Almost before it again rose to the surface we were compelled by the devouring element behind us to leap on to it. The deck gave way with a crash as we left it, and two more poor fellows sank back into the flames. The painter was cut, and as the s.h.i.+p drove slowly away from us, another loud explosion was heard, and fore and aft she was wrapped in flames, which rose writhing and twisting up to her topgallant masts.

"And there's an end of the fine old _Montezuma_. Well, she was a happy s.h.i.+p!" exclaimed a seaman near me, pa.s.sing his hand across his brow.

"You know, Weatherhelm, I've sailed in her since I was a boy, and I have learned to look upon her pretty much as if she was my mother." I never heard warmer praise bestowed on a merchantman.

Thus was I once more floating on a raft in the middle of the Atlantic.

"I thought it would be so," I muttered to myself. "My oath, my oath?"

While watching the conflagration of the s.h.i.+p, we had had no time to think of our own condition. The boats had pulled off to some distance from the burning s.h.i.+p, and we were left without oars, or sails, or provisions. Night, too, was coming on. The dreadful idea occurred to some of us, that those in the boats with their eyes dazzled by the glare of the burning s.h.i.+p might not see the raft. The captain, by the urgent request of the people, had gone in the long-boat. Mr Merton had remained with us. We shouted--but in vain--the boats were too far off to allow our voices to be heard. The night came on, but still we could see the burning wreck, and we felt sure that while that beacon was in sight, the boats would not give up their search for us. We forgot how fast the wreck had been drifting away. Ours seemed a hard fate.

Without food or water, unless picked up we must evidently soon perish.

Mr Merton addressed us in a spirited, manly way. He told us not to despair--that many poor fellows had been much worse off than we were, and that certainly by daylight we should be seen by our s.h.i.+pmates in the boats, and be supplied with what we wanted. If not, we were exactly in the track of homeward-bound vessels coming from America, and that we should be certainly fallen in with.

It was a very dreary night, though. All we could do was to sit quiet and watch the burning wreck. Gradually the flames burnt lower and lower. Then a huge glowing ember appeared, and that suddenly sank from sight. In spite of our position, I had fallen asleep, when I was aroused by a loud shout from my companions. It was in answer to a cry which came floating over the water from a distance. We waited eagerly listening. Again the far-off cry was repeated. Loudly we cheered in return, for we were very hungry, and had not yet had time to grow weak from hunger. In less than twenty minutes the boats came das.h.i.+ng up round us, and we found ourselves amply supplied with provisions, which we discussed with no small appet.i.tes. The captain then addressed us all; he told us that we must husband our provisions and water, as we could not tell when any vessel might fall in with us. He then urged the people in the other boats to remain by the raft, and suggested that in the day-time they should extend themselves about ten miles on either side so as to have a wider field of observation, but in the night that they should come back and hang on to the raft.

I ought to have said there were four boats, and thus we were able to command a range of vision of at least fifty miles. That is to say--the raft being in the centre--the boats were twenty miles apart, and from each boat a sail of fifteen miles off could at all events be seen. The plan was agreed on. We had secured a long spar, which we set up as a mast in the centre of the raft, with a flag at its head, so that the boats could always have us in view; besides which, several compa.s.ses had been saved which would enable them to find us even in thick weather.

All we had now, therefore, much to fear from was bad weather and a long detention, when we might run short of provisions. The day pa.s.sed away, and no sign of a vessel was perceived. The mate kept up our spirits by every means in his power. He encouraged us to sing songs and tell stories to each other, and to give an account of our adventures, and then he told us some stories, and some of them were very funny, and made us laugh, and I must say that I have pa.s.sed many duller days than were those which I spent on that raft. "And now, my lads," said he, "as we cannot steer our course across the ocean without a compa.s.s, no more can we our course through life without principles to guide us. Now the only book which can give us right principles--can show us how to live--the port we are bound for, and how to gain it, is one I have in my pocket."

We all wondered what he was aiming at, and he was silent for some little time to allow our thoughts to settle down after the joking we had had.

Then he pulled out of his pocket a Bible, and took his seat on a cask in the middle of the raft. "I am going to read to you from this Holy Book, my lads, and I hope that you will listen to what I read--try to understand it--think over it--and do what it tells you." I've often since heard the word of G.o.d read to sailors, but never more impressively; never to better effect, I believe, than I did on that raft in the Atlantic.

Just at nightfall all the boats came back, and hung on to us during the night, and nearly all the people went soundly to sleep. The captain in the morning proposed that those in the boat should change places with those on the raft, but we said that we were contented to be where we were, and that we preferred remaining with Mr Merton. The next day pa.s.sed away much as the first, so did a third and fourth. In the evening, however, of that last day, three boats only came back; the whale-boat, commanded by the fourth mate, did not make her appearance.

Various were the surmises about her. Some thought that an accident had happened to her; many expressed their fears that the mate had deserted us, and abuse of no gentle nature was heaped on his and his companions'

heads. The only people who made no complaints, and only seemed anxious to find excuses for him, were those on the raft. Why was this?

Because, as I fully believe, they were influenced by the principles of Christian charity which the mate had been explaining to us, that principle which thinketh no wrong, until evidence indubitable is brought that wrong has been committed. Although we on the raft did not abuse the first mate and those with him, we could not help feeling anxious for his return. An hour of darkness pa.s.sed away, and then another and another, and still the whale-boat did not appear. She had gone, I ought to have said, on the lee side of the raft; but the wind was light, so that she could have had no difficulty in pulling up to it. No one this night felt inclined to go to sleep. We were all too anxious about our companions. I saw Mr Merton turning his eyes with a steady gaze away to the south-east. I looked in the same direction. Gradually I saw emerging out of the darkness an opaque, towering ma.s.s. At first I thought it was a mere mark in the clouds, and then it resolved itself into the form of a tall s.h.i.+p close-hauled under all canvas. A shout from the boats showed that they had discovered the stranger. Again we shouted, and a cheer came up from her to show us that we were seen and heard. In a few minutes she hove-to, and our own whale-boat appeared from alongside her, accompanied by another boat. The mate explained, as he made a tow-rope fast to the raft to tow us alongside the s.h.i.+p, that he had seen her just before nightfall, and by pulling away to the southward had happily succeeded in cutting her off.

We soon found ourselves on board a large s.h.i.+p, the _Happy Relief_--and a happy relief she was to us--bound homeward from Honduras with logwood.

They were a rough set on board, from the master to the apprentices, but they treated us kindly, as most sailors treat others in distress, and we had every reason to be grateful to them. We had still greater reason to be thankful that we got on board their s.h.i.+p that night, for before the morning a gale began to blow, and a heavy sea soon got up, which would have swept us all off the raft, and in all probability swamped the boats. It continued blowing for several days. The s.h.i.+p laboured very much, and soon all hands were called to the pumps. She had proved a fortunate s.h.i.+p to us, and it was a fortunate circ.u.mstance for her that she had fallen in with us; for all hands had to keep spell and spell at the pumps, and even so we were only just able to keep the leaks under.

Had she not had us on board, she would very soon, I suspect, have been water-logged. At length the gale abated, but we notwithstanding, had to keep the pumps going night and day. By the time we reached the Chops of the Channel, having a fair breeze, we were looking out every instant to make the land, when a big s.h.i.+p hove in sight, standing directly across our course. The people on board the Honduras s.h.i.+p had told us that a few days before they fell in with us, they had spoken an outward-bound brig, from which they gained the news that war had broken out between England and France and Spain. We made out the stranger to be a heavy frigate, but as she showed no colours, to what nation she belonged we could not tell. Some on board thought we ought to haul our wind on the opposite tack to that she was on, so as to avoid her altogether. She was standing with her head to the north. Our captain soon after gave the order to brace up the yards on the larboard tack, hoping to run into Mount's Bay or Falmouth harbour. We soon had proof that those on board the frigate had their eyes on us. The smoke of a gun was seen to issue from one of her bow ports, as a sign for us to heave-to, but the captain thought he should first like to try the fleetness of his heels before he gave in. So we continued our course to the northward. The frigate on this braced her yards sharp up, and showed that she was not going to allow us to escape her, and, by the way she walked along, we soon saw that we should without fail become her prize.

All the men who had got two suits of clothes went and put them on, and stowed away all their money and valuables in their pockets, and we all of us began to think how we should like to see the inside of a Spanish or French prison. For my part, I had heard such stories about the cruelty of the Spaniards and French that I began to wish I was back again on the raft in the middle of the Atlantic. One thing is certain,--there is nothing harder than to become a prisoner at the beginning of a war, to an enemy who hates you, with very little prospect of being exchanged. All the gla.s.ses in the s.h.i.+p were turned towards the frigate as she drew near, to try and make out what she was. Presently she fired another gun across our bows, and this time she was within shot of us, and at the same moment up went the British ensign. Seeing that there was no chance of escape, our captain hove-to. I thought that as she was an English s.h.i.+p, all was right, and could not make out the reason of the agitation some of the older hands were in. In a quarter of an hour or so, a boat with a lieutenant and a pretty strongly armed crew came alongside. As he stepped on board, he went up to the captain and told him about the war, and asked where he had come from, and whether he had fallen in with any strange s.h.i.+ps. "And now, captain,"

said he, quite calmly, "I should just like to see your crew. Muster them on deck, if you please. You've a large number," he remarked, as soon as we all appeared. The captain told him how he had picked so many of us up at sea. "Ho, ho!" said the lieutenant; "come here, my lads; you'd be glad to serve his Majesty, I know."

And he told all the crew of the _Montezuma_, except the captain and first mate, to get into his boat.

There was no little grumbling at this, but he did not appear like a man who would stand any nonsense of this sort, so it went no further. "But those two are apprentices," said Captain Horner, pointing to Charley and me, and forgetting that we were both out of our indentures.

"Stout lads for apprentices," remarked the lieutenant. "Let me see your papers." Now it might have been said, as we had been wrecked, that we had lost them, but I would not tell a lie to gain any object.

"Please, sir," said I, "the captain makes a mistake. I was out of my indentures a few days ago. I've no protection, and I don't want any.

I, for one, am ready to serve his Majesty and to fight for my country."

Charley hearing me say this, declared himself of the same mind, and wis.h.i.+ng Captain Horner and the captain of the Honduras s.h.i.+p good-bye, and thanking them, we went over to the side ready to step into the boat.

The lieutenant said he liked our spirit, and that he should keep his eye on us, and if we behaved well he should recommend us for promotion.

This was satisfactory, but still I felt that all my prospects of becoming a mate were blown to the wind. The person who felt it most was Mr Merton. From being an officer (and a gentleman he always was) he was reduced to the rank of a common seaman. What was far worse, too, he was engaged to be married, as soon as he returned home, to the daughter of a clergyman, who, Charley told me, was quite a lady. Now, poor fellow, for what he could tell, years might pa.s.s before he would be able to return on sh.o.r.e.

"Well, my man, are you ready to go?" said the lieutenant to him.

"I was second mate of the s.h.i.+p, and have private affairs which require my presence in England, sir," he answered, quite calmly; and his voice showed that he was a man of education.

"That is no protection, I am afraid," said the lieutenant. "Duty is not always pleasant, but it must be done."

"Very true, sir," said Mr Merton; "but let me write a line to send home, and speak a few words to my late captain. I will not detain you."

"I can give you five minutes," said the lieutenant, pulling out his watch.

Mr Merton thanked him and hurried below.

Poor fellow! What words of anguish and sorrow did he pour out in that letter; yet, I doubt not, he expressed his own resignation, and endeavoured to encourage her to whom it was addressed to hope that yet happy days were in store for them. He entrusted the letter to the captain, and begged him to go and see and comfort the lady to whom it was addressed. Then with a calm countenance he appeared on deck, and signified to the lieutenant that he was ready to accompany him, I doubt not he felt like a brave man going to execution.

The frigate we were on board was the _Brilliant_, of forty guns, and, as I looked round and saw what perfect order she was in, I thought her a very fine s.h.i.+p, and except that I regretted not being able to return home, I was perfectly content to belong to her. Men-of-war in those days were very different to what they are at present. Men of all cla.s.ses were s.h.i.+pped on board, often out of the prisons and hulks, and the sweepings of the streets. Quant.i.ty was looked-for because quality could not be got. An able seaman was a great prize. The pressgangs were always at work on sh.o.r.e, and they thought themselves fortunate when such could be found. Now, with such a mixture of men, the bad often outnumbering the good, very strict and stern discipline was necessary.

The very first day I got on board I saw five men flogged for not being smart enough at reefing topsails. I thought it very cruel, and it set me against the service. I did not inquire who the men were. I found afterwards that they were idle rascals who deserved punishment, and always went about their duty in a lazy, sluggish way. However, there was no doubt that our captain was a very taut hand. The s.h.i.+p had just come out of harbour. He had found out that the greater part of his crew were a bad lot, and he was getting them into order. He treated us who had belonged to the _Montezuma_ in a very different way. He saw that we were seamen, and he valued us accordingly. Still I think there was more punishment on board than was absolutely necessary. We had nine powerful fellows doing duty as boatswain's mates on board, and there was starting and flogging going on every day and all day long. The first time I ever saw a man punished I felt sick at heart, and thought I should have fallen on deck, but I recovered myself and looked out afterwards with very little concern.

The frigate I found was bound on a six months' cruise in the Bay of Biscay, not the quietest place in the world in the winter season. Mr Merton was very soon made captain of the fore-top, and Charley and I were stationed on the top with him. Owing to him, I believe, we avoided being flogged, for he was always alive and brisk and kept us up to our duty. After all, there's nothing like doing things briskly. There's no pleasure in being slow and sluggish about doing a thing, and a great waste of time. Mr Merton soon attracted the notice of the officers, and they used to address him very differently to the way they spoke to the other men. There was in the top with us a young mids.h.i.+pman: he was a fine little lad--full of life, and fun, and daring. He was the son or heir of some great lord or other, and a relation of the captain's, who had promised especially to look after him. Well, one day the s.h.i.+p was running before the wind with studden sails set alow and aloft and every sail drawing, so that she was going not less than eight or ten knots, when this youngster, with two or three others, was skylarking aloft. He had gone out on the fore-topsail yard-arm, when somehow or other he lost his hold and down he fell. Fortunately, he struck the belly of the lower studden sail, which broke his fall and sent him clear of the s.h.i.+p into the sea. Just at that moment Mr Merton was coming up into the top. He saw the accident. Almost before the sentry at the gangway could cry out, "A man overboard!" he was in the water striking out to catch hold of the youngster, who couldn't swim a stroke. At that moment the captain came on deck. He was in a great state of agitation when he heard who it was who had fallen overboard. Studden sail-sheets were let fly. No one minded the spars, though they were all cracking away; the helm was put down, the yards were braced sharp up, and the s.h.i.+p was brought close on a wind.

Meantime Mr Merton was striking out towards where young Mr Bouverie had gone down. All eyes were directed to the spot. "Now he sees him.

He strikes out with all his might to catch him before the youngster sinks again. He has him--he has him, hurra!" Such were the cries uttered on every side, for the youngster was a favourite with all hands.

A boat was instantly lowered, and Mr Merton was brought on board with the youngster he had rescued, both of them nearly exhausted. The mids.h.i.+pman was carried into the captain's cabin. Mr Merton, when he had s.h.i.+fted his wet things, returned on deck to his duty. The captain, however, immediately sent for him, and told him that he could not find words to express his grat.i.tude. Mr Merton thanked him, and said that he had merely done his duty, and did not consider which of the mids.h.i.+pmen it was he was going to try to save.

"Well, you have prevented a mother's heart from being wrung with agony, and a n.o.ble house from going into mourning," said the captain. "You deserve to be rewarded." Mr Merton thanked him, and went about his duty, thinking little more of the matter.

Now, although seamen know how to value a man who has leaped overboard, at the risk of his own life, to save a fellow-creature from drowning, they do not make much fuss about it, because most of them would be ready to do the same thing themselves. Still, it was easy to see that Joe Merton, as he was called by the s.h.i.+p's company, was raised yet higher in their estimation.

After we had been at sea some time we stood away to the westward. One forenoon, a shout from the masthead announced a sail in sight.

"Where away?" asked the officer of the watch.

"On the weather bow," was the answer. "There are two--three--four--the whole horizon is studded with them," cried the look-out.