CHAPTER XVI.
OLD JOE'S YARN.
AT seven o'clock the three lads gathered round the old sailor forward.Joe having got his pipe to draw to his satisfaction, proceeded to relatethe story of his shipwreck.
"It happened," he said, "on the very first v'yage I made as an A.B.; andproud I was, as you may guess, that I had done at last with beingordered here and ordered there, and kicked here and cuffed there. I wasjust twenty-one then, and as active and hearty a young chap as you wouldwant to see; not over big, you know, and spare in flesh, but as strongand active as any on board a ship. Well, it came on to blow just aboutthe same latitude where the storm struck us the other day, but muchheavier. I never saw a worse sky in all my v'yges, and when the blowcame it seemed to me there was an end of everything at once. I need nottell you about the storm; you just take the last one and pile it upabout ten times, and you have got it.
"Although we were ready and prepared for it, and had snugged down tillwe scarce showed a rag of sail, over she went at the first blow, till weall thought as she was going to turn turtle. We cut away her main andmizzen, and at last got her before it and run. That gale blew for tendays right on end. The sea was tremendous. Over and over again we werepooped, our bulwarks were carried away, the boats smashed, the cabooseand pretty nigh everything else on deck swept clean off. Five of thehands had been washed overboard, another three men were down below badlyhurt, and the first-mate had his leg broke. We were all pretty wellexhausted, as you may guess. Where we'd got to none knew, for we hadnever had a glimpse of the sun since the gale began; and it would nothave made much difference if we had, because, you see, we could donothing but just run before the wind wherever it liked to take us. Butwe knew anyhow we had got down into high latitudes, for the gale hadbeen blowing pretty steady from the north-west.
"The air got bitterly cold all of a sudden; and though we could not seeabove a mile anywhere round us, we were pretty sure we were in theneighbourhood of ice. Towards the afternoon of the tenth day the weathercleared just a little, though the wind seemed as high as ever, and wecaught sight of some big bergs. The captain, who was as good a sort asever sailed, had done his best all along to keep up our spirits. Thecook had been washed overboard in his caboose; but the skipper had kepthis steward at work boiling water over a little spirit-stove he had aft,and kept a supply of hot coffee there at all hours for us; and with thatand biscuits we had got on fairly well. Now he told us that he thoughtthe gale would soon blow itself out, and that as soon as it abatedenough to set a rag or two of sail he would try and bring us up underthe lee of a berg.
"But it wasn't to be. It had just struck four bells, and there was agleam of daylight; I was at the helm, with the captain, who had neverlain down for above an hour at a time since the gale began, beside me.Suddenly I saw it become lighter ahead, just like a gray shadow againstthe blackness. I had but just noticed it when the skipper cried out,'Good God! there is a berg straight ahead, it is all over with us!' andthen he gave a shout, 'All hands on deck!'
"There was nothing to do. We could not have changed our course a pointif we had tried ever so much, and the berg, as we could see in anotherminute, stretched right away on both sides of us.
"'You can leave the helm, Joe,' says the skipper; 'we have done all thatmen could do, we are in God's hands now.' I went forward with the rest,for I knew well that the only chance was to get on to the berg when shestruck. It did not seem much of a chance, but it is wonderful how oneclings to the hope of a few hours' more life.
"It was not five minutes from the time when we first saw the gray shadowahead that we struck. The crash was tremendous. The mast snapped off asif it was a pipe-stem. The whole front of the ship seemed stove in, andI believe that more than half of those gathered forward were killed,either by the fall of the mast or by the breaking up of the bows. Thebowsprit was driven aft, through the bits against the stump of theforemast, and did its share in the work. I was standing in thefore-chains, having got over there to avoid the fall of the mast. ThoughI was holding tight to the shrouds I was well-nigh wrenched from myhold. There was one terrible cry, and then the ship seemed to break upas if she were glass, and I was in the water. A great wave camethundering down on me; it seemed to me as if I was being carried rightup into the air, then I felt a shock, and it was sometime before I knewanything more.
"When I came to myself it was daylight. For a bit I could not move, andI thought my ribs were staved in; but at last, after much trouble, Imade a shift to work myself out and found that I was about fifty feetabove the water. The wave had carried me upon its crest as it swept upthe face of the berg, and just as it was at its highest had, by God'smercy, jammed me in between two pinnacles of ice, and though I daresayothers had swept up as high, none of them had moved me. I sat for a timedazed and stupid, and then began to take a view of my position. The shipwas gone. There was not a sign of a bit of floating timber or any of mymessmates. I suppose all the wreckage had been swept away by thecurrent.
"The iceberg had, I reckon, been floating a long time, for it was seamedall over with cracks and crevices. It had been up under a pretty hot sunbefore the long gale blew it and us south, and the surface was rough andhoney-combed. I did not feel as grateful as I ought to have done, lads,that I had been cast up, for I saw nothing but death before me; andthought that it would have been better to have died when I lost mysenses in the water than to have to die again as it were by cold orhunger on the berg. However I set-to to climb over the berg and down tothe other side so as to get under its lee. It took me two or three hoursof hard work, but by the end of that time my clothes were dry, and I gotsome spirit and hope in me again.
"Once over there I was pretty comfortable; the berg sheltered me fromthe wind, and the sun began to shine out a bit through the clouds, andin the afternoon, although it was still blowing hard, there was a bluesky overhead. There were a good many other bergs in sight, but none ofthem seemed near as big as the one that I was on. Fortunately I had acouple of biscuits in my pocket, having thrust them in there when I ranup when there was a call for an extra hand at the helm. One of these Iate, then I lay down on a broad ledge and went off sound asleep. When Iawoke it was night. I was warmly clad when we struck, having my thickoil-skin over my pea-jacket, but I felt a bit cold. However I was soonoff again, and when I awoke morning had broken. I ate half my lastbiscuit, took a drink out of a pool--I do not know whether it was meltedice or rain-water--and then climbed up to the top of the berg and lookedround.
"I had not expected to see a sail, and I didn't, for we were far out ofthe track of ships. Still it was just possible one might have beendriven south as we had been. The wind had pretty well dropped now, andthe sea was going down. I could see by some small bergs near us that wewere driving through the waters at a good rate. When a great mountain ofice like that, you know, gets way on it, it will keep it for a mightylong time. It did not make much difference to me which way we weregoing; I had only half a biscuit left, and no chance of getting more. Isat down and wondered how long I should last, and whether it would notbe easier to go down and jump off into the water than to sit there anddie by inches. As I was thinking I was looking at what I had taken foranother big berg, away in the distance, right on the course we weremaking, and it suddenly came to me that it was not the same colour asthe others. I looked up to see if there was a bit of a cloud anywhereabout that might have thrown it into shadow, but there weren't, and atlast I felt sure that it wasn't no iceberg at all, but an island.
"I jumped on my feet now quick enough. An island would be better thanthis berg anyhow. There might be shell-fish and fruit--though fruit didnot seem likely so far south--and birds and seals. I had heard talesfrom others as to islands in the South Seas, and though I knew wellenough that I should not find cocoa-nuts and such like, I thought Imight get hold of something with which to make a shift to hold on untilsome whaler happened to pass along. For an hour or two I stood watching;at the end of that time I was sure it was land, and also that we weredriving p
retty straight towards it. As we got near I could see it was abig island that stretched right across our course, but was still a longway off. I felt sure we should ground somewhere in the night, for I hadheard that icebergs drew a tremendous lot of water, and were two orthree times as deep below the surface as they were above it. We were twoor three hundred feet high, so unless the water kept deep right up tothe island we should take ground a good way off it.
"When it got dark I went down on the other side of the berg, for I hadsense enough to know that just in the same way as the masts of a shipwent straight forward when she struck, the pinnacles of the berg wouldgo toppling down towards the island when she grounded. I was hungryenough, I can tell you, that day, but I kept my last half-biscuit untilthe morning, so as to give me strength to swim. I dosed off for a bit,but about eight bells, as near as I can guess, I heard a deep gratingsort of noise. Then I felt myself rising up. I went higher and higher,till I began to wonder whether there was any chance of the berg turningover. There was a noise like thunder as the pieces of ice broke off andwent crashing down the other side. Then slowly I began to sink downagain, and I should say for an hour the berg rolled up and down. Then Iwent off to sleep.
"As you may guess, I was on the top of the berg at daybreak, and saw wehad drifted into a big bay, and had grounded about midway. The cliffs inmost places rose sheer up out of the water, but here and there therewere breaks, and I could see that the land beyond was rough anddesolate-looking. I ate my last half-biscuit, and then made my way downto the water's edge. The shore seemed to me about half a mile away--alongish swim in cold water; but I was a good swimmer, and the seabetween the berg and the land was as smooth as a pond. I took off myclothes, put them in the middle of my oil-skin and wrapped it roundthem, tying one of my stockings round the neck of the bag to keep it alltogether. I had bought the oil-skin just before I started on thatvoyage, and knew that it would keep out the water tidy. I could not getdown nearer than twenty feet of the sea, so I dropped the bag in andthen jumped.
"As I had hoped, the thing floated light. I pushed it before me as Iswam, and found that by putting my hands on it it would keep me up wellwhen I wanted to rest. However, I did not want much of that. The waterwas too cold to be idle in, and I never stopped swimming until I got toshore at the point I had marked out as easiest to land on. I wasn't longopening the bag and getting into my things, which were perfectly dry. Myfirst thought was of food. While I had been swimming I thought I heard asort of barking noise, and I wasn't long in seeing that there were a lotof seals on the rocks. I picked up a goodish chunk of stone, and thenlay down and set to crawling towards them. I had heard from sailors whohad been whaling that the way to kill a seal was to hit him on the nose,and I kept this in my mind as I crawled up. They did not seem to noticeme, and I got close among them without their moving. Then I jumped up.There was a young seal lying not ten feet from me, and before he hadtime to turn I smashed down my bit of rock between his eyes, and therehe lay dead.
"Raw seal's flesh ain't a sort of food as you would take for choice, butI was too hungry to think about cooking, and I ate as big a meal as everI had in my life. Up till then I hadn't really thought as there was anychance of my being saved in the long run. Now I felt as there was, andfor the first time I felt really grateful that I had not shared in thefate of my messmates, and I knelt down and thanked God for havingbrought me safe to shore. Then I set-to to climb up to the top of thecliffs. It was hard work, and, as I afterwards found, I had just hit, byGod's mercy, on the only spot on that part of the island where I couldhave got up, for in most places the cliffs rose pretty near straight upfour or five hundred feet above the sea.
"When I got to the top I saw that there were some mighty high hillscovered with snow to the south-east, which might have been fifteen ortwenty miles away. It was a dreary kind of country--rocky and desolate,with tufts of thin grass growing in the crevices of the rocks; and I sawthat there was precious little chance of picking up a living there, andthat if I was to get grub it was to the sea I must look for it. Ithought the best thing to do was to try and find out some sheltered sortof cove where, perhaps, I might find a bit of a cave, for I knew thatwhen winter came on there would be no chance for me in the open; so Iset out to walk. I brought up with me a big hunk of flesh that wouldlast me for three or four days, and what I had got to look for was freshwater. I walked all that day, keeping along pretty close to the edge ofthe cliff. I found plenty of little pools of rain-water among the rocks,and did pretty well. I was not hungry enough to tackle raw flesh thatnight, and had nothing to make a fire with. I had got matches in mypocket in a tight-fitting brass box which had kept them dry, but therewas no fuel.
"The next morning I started again, and after walking for four or fivehours came to a spot where the cliffs broke away sudden. Getting to theedge I saw that there was a narrow bay stretching some way up into theisland. An hour's walk brought me to its head. Here, as I had hoped, Ifound a little stream running down into it. When you find a bay, mosttimes you will find water running in at its head. The ground slopedgradually here in great terraces; the rock was hard and black, andlooked as if it had been burnt. I have heard since that it was what theycall volcanic. Being so sheltered there were more things growing here,wherever a little earth had gathered; and I saw some things for all theworld like cabbages, and made up my mind to try them, when I got achance, with my seal-meat.
"At last I got down near the water. Just at the head of the bay was ashelving shore, and along at the sides, as far as I could see it wasrocky, and there were plenty of seals here too. Along on the beach andon the rock and on the terraces were quantities of birds--penguins, as Iknew from what I had heard of them. They did not try to get out of myway, but just made an angry sort of noise. 'I will talk to youpresently, my hearties,' I said; 'what I have got to do now is to lookfor a shelter.' It was the end of April, and I knew that it would not belong before winter would be upon me, and if I was not out of it by thattime I should soon be frozen stiff. I did not go near the seals, for Idid not want to frighten them. I looked about the rest of that afternoonand all next day, but I could not find what you might properly call acave, and so determined to make use of the best place I could fix upon.This was a spot in the lower terrace, in the face of the rock. It seemedas if the lower part was softer than the upper, which was black and hardand almost like glass. Underneath this the rock had crumbled awayperhaps six feet in depth.
"This soft rock was about four feet thick. It was more gone in someplaces than others. I chose a spot where a hole was about eight feetlong, and made up my mind to close up the front of this, just leaving ahole big enough for me to crawl in and out. First of all I brought upsome big stones and built a wall and filled up the crevices with tuftsof grass. Then I brought up smaller stones and piled against them,shooting in sand from the beach till I had made a regular solid bank,four feet thick, against the wall. Then I levelled the bottom of thecave with sand and spread it thickly with dried grass. All this took mefive days' hard work. There was no difficulty about food. I had only togo and pick up a few stones and go among the penguins and knock themover. I made a shift to cook them over fires made of dry tufts of grass.
"I had been careful not to disturb the seals. I did not want any of themuntil the weather got cold enough to freeze their flesh. I thought ofoil from their blubber, but I had nothing to hold it. When I hadfinished my hut I began to hunt about to see if I could find drift-wood,but I could only find a few pieces in the cove, and gave it up, for Idid not see how I could anyhow keep up a fire through the winter. Then Ibethought me that the penguins could furnish me with feathers, and I setto work at them with earnest, and in a week had filled my cave two feetdeep with feathers.
"Every day I could feel that it got colder, and at night there was asharp frost; so I determined now to set-to at the seals. There were noneof the sort that you get fur from, and there was not much warmth to behad from the skins, still they would do to block up the entrance to myden. I killed five or six
of them, and found that some of the young oneswere furry enough to make coats of. As I was sitting on the ground bythem next morning, lamenting I had nothing to boil down their blubberin, an idea struck me. I might use the blubber as candles, stickingwicks into it. I set to work and stripped the blubber off all the seals,and cut it in squares of about six inches. Then I got a bit of one ofthe fresh skins, bent it up all round, of the right size for the squaresto fit into, fastened it, and spread it on the rocks to dry. The thoughtof how I was to make wicks bothered me. I could not spare my clothes. Atlast, after trying different things, I found that some of the grass wasvery tough. I put a bundle of this in a pool, and let it lay there for aweek; for I was a North of Ireland boy, and knew how they worked flax.At the end of that time I took it out, let it dry, and then bruised itbetween flat stones, and found that it had a tough fibre. I thanked God,and picked a lot more of it and put it to soak. You may guess I triedthe experiment that night; I made six big wicks and put them in one ofthe cakes of blubber and lighted them, and found that they burnedfamously and gave out a lot of heat. I killed some more seals; and bythe time the winter set in in earnest I had a stock of meat enough tolast me for months, and two or three hundredweight of cakes of blubber.
"I had made several bowls and plates out of the seals' skins, and hadfashioned myself, in a mighty rough way, some suits of young seal-skinswith a hood that covered all my head and face except just my mouth andeyes. From the first I had eaten the cabbages regular with my food. Icould not cook them, because I had nothing to boil the water in, andthey were rather bitter to eat raw; but they were better than nothingwith the flesh, and I knew that I must eat green food if I wanted tokeep healthy. Among the drift-wood I had luckily found a couple ofbroken oars. To these I had fastened with seal sinews two sharp andstrong bones, and they made very fair spears.
"By the end of May the ground was covered deep with snow, and the coldset in bitter. What had bothered me most of all was where I was to storemy stock of frozen meat and blubber. I knew that there was a chance ofbears coming, and that they would scent it out however I might hide it.At last I determined to put it in a hole something like that I had madeinto a den for myself. This hole was not like mine, on a level with theground, but was on the face of a smooth cliff about forty feet high. Imade a rope of seal-skin, fastened it to a projection in the rock overthe hole, and lowered myself down. I found the place would do well, andwas quite big enough for all my store, while the face of the rock wastoo steep to climb, even for a bear. So I carried all my stock up to thetop, and climbing up and down the rope, stored it in the hole, exceptwhat I wanted for a week's consumption.
"Well, lads, I passed the winter there. However cold it was outside--andI can tell you it was bitter--it was warm enough in my den. At the verycoldest time I had two of my lamps burning, but most of the time onekept it warm enough. I used to nestle down in the feathers and haul aseal-skin over me; and however hard it blew outside, and however hardit froze, I was warm there. I used to frizzle my meat over the lamp, andevery day, when the weather permitted, I went out and brought in a stockof the cabbages. I always kept a good stock of blubber in the den andseveral bundles of my wicks.
"One night I heard a sound of snuffing outside my cave, and knew at oncethat the bears had come. I had thought over what I should do, and wasready for them. The hole through the bank into the cave was only bigenough for me to crawl through, and I knew a bear could not come in tillhe had scraped it a good bit bigger. I tied a bunch of the flax to theend of one of my spears, poured a little melted grease from the lampover it, and then drew aside the seal-skin over the entrance and peepedout.
"It was a moonlight night, and I could see a big head trying to thrustitself in at the other end of the hole. A moment later he began toscrape away at the sides. I lit the bundle of flax. It flared upfiercely, and I thrust it out full into the beast's face. He gave aroar, and off he went as fast as his feet would carry him. They tried ita dozen times if they did it once; but the torch was too much for them,and the seal bone in its middle must have given them some nasty wounds,for I generally saw blood on the snow in the morning. Whenever I went toget a fresh store of meat and blubber I could see how they had trampledon the snow at the foot of the rock, and how they had scratched its facein trying to get up at it, but it was all no manner of good. I waschased two or three times by them when I went out to gather my cabbages,but I always managed to get into my hole before they overtook me, andthey had learned to give that a wide berth.
"It seemed to me that winter was never going to be over; but I was youngand had good spirits and was fond of a song, and I used to lie there andsing by the hour. Then I used to go over in my mind all the v'yges I hadmade and to remember the yarns I had heard, and would go over the talksI had had with Jack and Tom and Harry. You would be surprised how I keptmy spirits up. You see I was a young fellow, and young fellows takethings cheerful and make light of what would break them down when theyget older. I never had a day's illness, which I set down to themcabbages. I never saw them anywhere else, and I larnt arterwards thatKerguelen Island--for that was the place I was thrown on--was famous forthem.
"When spring came and the snow melted I made up a package of fortypounds of meat, for the seals had not come yet, and started to make atour of the island. I thought such a place as this was pretty well sureto be used by whalers in summer; and if so, I should find signs of theirhaving been there. I made a few excursions first, and found I was prettynear the middle of the island--of course on the westerly side. I climbeda high hill, but I did not learn much except that the island was a bigone, and there were hills both to the north and south that looked to meas if they must be thirty or forty miles away. As far as I could see ofthe west coast of the island the cliffs were everywhere precipitous; andthough at the east they did not seem much better, I concluded to trythat first. You see at this point the island was not more than fifteenmiles across, but it seemed to bulge out both ways, and where I waslooked like a sort of neck connecting two big islands. It was an awfulcountry to traverse, all hill and rock; but after three weeks' trampingI gave a shout, for in a bay in front of me was a large hut.
"I had had a hard time of it and was pretty well done up. My meat hadlasted me well enough on short rations and I had filled up on cabbages;but I was often a long time without water, having to depend entirely onmelted snow in the hollows of the rocks. I hurried down to the hut; itwas a rough shed evidently erected for the use of whalers, and round itwere ashes of fires, empty meat-tins, and other signs of the stay ofsailors here. For the next month I lived here. The birds were returning.There was a stream close at hand, and enough drift-wood on the shores toenable me to keep up a constant fire. I woke up one morning in Novemberto see a vessel entering the bay. The crew would scarce believe me whenI told them that I passed the winter on the island alone, and that I hadlived for six months on seal-meat, penguins, and cabbages. I learnedfrom them that the bay was known as Hillsborough Bay, and the cove wherethe whaler entered as Betsy Cove, and that it was a regular rendezvousof whalers. I fished with them all through the summer, and went home inthe ship, and was soon down again on the books of Godstone & Son."
"Well, that was a go, and no mistake, Joe!" Jim Tucker said. "Fancyhaving to live for six months on seal frizzled over a lamp and rawcabbages! You did not tell us how you did for drink."
"Melted snow," Joe replied. "I used to fix one of the basins of driedseal-skin a foot or so above the lamp, so that it would be hot enough tomelt the snow without a risk of its burning itself. Then I used to pourthe water from one basin to another for half an hour. Melted snow-wateris poor stuff if you don't do that. I do not know the rights of it, butI have heard tell that it's 'cause there ain't no air in it, though formy part I never could see no air in water, except in surf. I had heardthat that was the way they treated condensed water, and anyhow it was asort of amusement like, and helped to pass the time."
"Well, it is a capital story to listen to, Joe," Jack said; "but Ishould not l
ike to go through it myself. It must have been an awfultime, shut up in a hole with a stinking lamp, for I expect it did stink,all those months."
"It did use to smell powerful strong sometimes, lad, and many a time atfirst it turned me as sick as a youngster on his first v'yage; but I gotaccustomed to it after a bit. The great thing was to keep your wickshort."
"And now about your other wreck not far from here?"
"I will tell you that to-morrow evening, lads. That was a more ordinarykind of thing. It wasn't pleasant; I don't know that wrecks ever are,but it wasn't such an out-of-the-way thing as being chucked up on to aniceberg."