CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
A BRUSH WITH A PIRATICAL FELUCCA.
We had not been three hours at sea before the unwelcome convictionforced itself upon us that our apprehensions respecting the injury tothe _Foam's_ sailing powers were only too well founded; whatever theymight originally have been the bungling dockyard riggers had effectuallydestroyed them. The breeze was blowing so strongly that we had beencompelled to furl the topgallant--sail, and, steering as we were withthe wind abeam, we ought, with the shapely hull we had beneath us, tohave been going at least nine knots, whereas, so cramped were the littlevessel's movements by her tautly set-up rigging and the consequentrigidity of her spars, that she was going little more than six. Thiswas anything but satisfactory; O'Flaherty's first action, therefore, wasto order a general easing-up of lanyards, fore and aft, aloft and alow;and no sooner was this done than we felt the advantage of the change;the swing and play of the spars being restored, and the rigging eased upuntil they were merely _supported_ without their pliancy beinginterfered with, the little craft at once recovered her elasticity, andnot only went along faster, but also took the seas much more buoyantly,riding lightly over them instead of digging through them as before, sothat she no longer threw the spray over and over herself, but went alongas light and dry as an empty bottle. But it was still evident that hertop-hamper was too heavy; we therefore set the carpenter to work toreduce a couple of spare topmasts we had on board, with the view toshifting them upon the first favourable opportunity; and, this done, wehoped to have the hooker once more at her best.
Nothing of importance occurred until we arrived off the Cristo Cays,when--the time being about three bells in the forenoon watch, and thelarger island bearing about two miles on the larboard bow, a couple ofmiles distant--O'Flaherty brought a chart on deck and, spreading it outon the companion slide, beckoned me to him.
"Look here, Lascelles," said he, making a mark on the chart with hispencil-point, "there is where we are, and that," pointing away over thelarboard bow, "is Cristo Cay. Now, whereabouts is the channel that yousaw that big felucca going into?"
"It is further on to the westward; you cannot see it from here. But whydo you ask?" I inquired.
"Because, me bhoy, I intind to take a look in there and see what thereis to be seen," he replied.
"If you will excuse my saying so, I think you had better not," said I."In my opinion it would be wiser to meddle with these other places aslittle as possible until we have beaten up Merlani's quarters. From allthat we could learn from Carera his gang is far and away the mostformidable all along this coast; and it seems to me that it would beonly prudent on our part to create as little alarm as possible amongthese fellows until we have polished him off. His snuggery is strongenough and difficult enough of approach as it is, and it might be madeinfinitely more so if an alarm were given along the coast, as it easilymight be if one of their craft happened to escape us; my advice,therefore--if you ask it--is to interfere with nobody until we have beeninto the Conconil lagoons."
"Why, Lascelles, you surely are not _afraid_?" he asked, looking mesurprisedly in the face.
"No, sir, I am _not_," I answered, rather nettled, "I am only prudent;and--"
"Pooh!" he interrupted lightly, "prudent! Me dear bhoy, prudence is avery good thing--sometimes, but it does not do for such business asours. A bould dash and have done wid it is the motto for us. Anyhow, Iintind to go in, so there's an end av it, and I'll thank ye, younggintleman, to point out the channel as soon as we open it."
"But," I remonstrated, "I know nothing whatever of the place beyond whatI saw of it in passing. Do you?"
"Not a wan ov me; but what matther?" was his characteristic reply.
"Simply this," said I. "The navigation is doubtless difficult, and thewater shallow. We should find ourselves in a pretty pickle if weplumped into a hornet's nest and on to a shoal at the same moment."
"How big did you say that felucca was that you saw going in there?" heasked.
"Nearly or quite two hundred tons," said I, "but--"
"And we are eighty," said he. "Where she could float we can--"
"By no means," I interrupted. "I do not believe she drew an inch morethan eight feet, whilst we draw nine; and an extra foot of water, let metell you, Mr O'Flaherty, makes all the difference in these shallowinlets."
"Say no more," was the answer. "In we go, even if we never come outagain."
That, I thought, was scarcely the resolution to which a wise commanderwould have come; but after such an expression I could, of course, onlyhold my peace, and I did so until a few minutes later when we opened theentrance to the channel, which I pointed out to him.
"Then you will clear for action and send the crew to quarters, av yeplaise, Mr Lascelles," said O'Flaherty; which done, we hauled our windand reached in for the narrow opening.
It was a foolhardy undertaking, to my mind; but I must do. O'Flahertythe justice to say that, having entered upon it, he neglected noprecaution to ensure our success. Thus, his first act, after themustering of the crew, was to furl the square canvas, to facilitate theworking of the schooner; after which he requested Courtenay to go aloftto the topgallant-yard to search out from that elevation the deepestwater and to con the ship accordingly.
On entering the channel it was discovered to be very narrow, so much soindeed that at one point there was not width enough to work the ship,and it was only by means of a very smartly executed half-board, underCourtenay's directions from aloft, that we avoided plumping the schoonerashore on the projecting spit. The water, too, was so shallow that, onlooking over the taffrail, it was seen to be quite thick and cloudedwith the sand stirred up by the vessel's keel; whilst so close aboard ofus was the land on either hand that a couple of batteries, of, say, fourtwenty-four pounders each, one on either side of the channel, would haveinevitably blown us out of the water. Most fortunately for us, it hadnot occurred to the frequenters of the place to plant batteries at thisspot; so we passed in unmolested. The channel was about a mile inlength, on emerging from which we found ourselves in a landlocked lagoonabout four and a half miles wide at its broadest part, and so long thatneither extremity could be accurately defined even from the elevatedperch occupied by Courtenay. No sign whatever of anything like asettlement could be anywhere seen from the deck; but Courtenay hailed usto the effect that he could see something like a vessel's mast-head overthe middle island of a group of three on our starboard beam. He furtherreported, on the question being put to him, that the water was veryshoal all round the ship, but that there were indications of somethinglike a channel to the southward and eastward; upon which sail wasshortened to lessen the schooner's speed through the water, and her headwas put in the direction indicated. This course was held for about twomiles, when, by Courtenay's direction, it was changed to south-south-west. Another run of two miles enabled us to open the southern sides ofthe three islands before referred to; and there, sure enough, in a snugbight between the two most distant islands, and completely concealedfrom to seaward by the lofty trees with which the ground was denselyovergrown, we discovered three feluccas at anchor, two of them beingsmall, one-masted craft, of about the same tonnage as the _Pinta_,whilst the third carried three masts, and looked very much like theidentical craft we had seen when last we passed up the coast. They wereabout four miles distant from us; and for the first minute or two aftersighting them not the slightest sign of life could we discover aboutthem. As we now had a trifle more water under our keel sail was oncemore made upon the schooner, and we headed straight for the strangers;but we were hardly round upon our new course before we saw four verylarge boats, full of men, push out from among the bushes and make in allhaste for the craft at anchor; two of them going alongside the bigfelucca, and one each to the smaller craft. They remained alongsideonly about a minute, and then returned to the shore with two men ineach. Watching the craft through our glasses, we could see the crewsbustling about the deck in a state of extraordinary activity; and, inless
time than it takes to describe it, the enormous lateen yards--whichhad, evidently for the purpose of concealing the whereabouts of thecraft, been lowered down on deck--were mastheaded, the canvas loosed,and the feluccas got under weigh. The two small craft at once made sailto the westward, heading for a passage between the mainland and a longmangrove-covered spit which jutted out from the larger and more westerlyof the three islands; but the large felucca boldly headed for us directunder every inch of canvas she could spread.
"Now," said I to O'Flaherty, "if that is the same felucca that passedthe _Pinta_ when we were up here before, we shall have our hands full,for she carries two more guns than we do, and hers are nines whilst oursare sixes; moreover, she has half as many men again as we have, and ifthey are anything like as tough as they appeared to be they will fightdesperately. However, it will never do to turn tail now, so please sayhow you mean to engage her, and I will take the necessary steps."
"We will run her aboard, me bhoy, throw all hands on her decks, anddhrive her cut-throat crew below or overboard in less than two minutes,or I'm very much mistaken. So be good enough, Misther Lascelles, tohave the guns loaded wid a couple ov round shot and a charge ov grape onthe top ov thim," said O'Flaherty, rubbing his hands gleefully.
I was in the act of issuing the necessary orders when Courtenayhurriedly hailed from aloft--what he said I could not distinguish--andthe next moment the schooner gave a sort of upward surge and stoppeddead. We were aground!
"Loose and set the topsail and topgallant-sail, and throw them aback!"shouted O'Flaherty. "Lower away the quarter-boat; get the stream-anchorinto her with a hawser bent on to it, and run it away astern; be smart,my lads; we must get afloat again before that felucca reaches us."
These orders were obeyed with that smartness and promptitude whichdistinguishes the disciplined man-of-war's-man; but the operation oflaying out the anchor astern necessarily occupied some little time. Theboat had only just dropped the anchor overboard, and the men on boardthe schooner were gathering in the slack of the hawser preparatory totaking it to the capstan, when the felucca came foaming down upon us,and a hasty turn had to be taken with it, and the men at once sent backto their guns, as the manoeuvres of our antagonist seemed to threatenthat she was about to turn the tables upon us by laying us aboard, as wehad contemplated doing with her.
"Boarders prepare to repel boarders!" exclaimed O'Flaherty, drawing hissword. I whipped out my toasting iron, and at the same moment down cameCourtenay on deck by way of the back-stays. "Give me a musket,somebody," exclaimed he, as he alighted on the rail and sprang nimblyfrom thence to the deck.
"Here you are, sir, all ready primed and loaded," responded the captainof one of the guns, promptly thrusting the required weapon into mychum's hands.
The felucca was within one hundred feet of us, foaming along at the rateof about seven knots, and apparently aiming to strike us stem ondirectly amidships, when Courtenay sprang on the rail again, and,steadying his body against the fore-topmast back-stay, raised the musketsteadily to his shoulder.
"Stand by, men, to fire, but wait until I give the word, and then fireonly when you are certain of your shot taking effect!" exclaimedO'Flaherty. "Mr Courtenay, the helmsman is your mark, if you can--"
_Crack_! went Courtenay's musket, interrupting O'Flaherty's speech; acry was heard on board the felucca, and her bows began to fly into thewind as Courtenay jumped down off the rail again, and, requisitioning acartridge, began to hastily reload his piece.
"Now, men--now is your time to rake her! Fire!" exclaimed O'Flaherty,and our broadside of three six-pounders rang sharply out, followed bythe crashing and rending sound of timber as the shot entered through thefelucca's starboard bow, and a hideous outburst of shrieks, groans,yells, and shouts of defiance as the grape tore obliquely along her deckalmost fore and aft. In another moment, still flying up into the wind,the felucca crashed into our starboard quarter with a shock which madeus heel to our covering-board, and caused our antagonist to rebound afull fathom from us. Then, as the schooner recovered herself and rolledheavily to windward, the felucca poured in her broadside, and whilst thesharp ring of her brass pieces, mingled with the crash of timber, wasvibrating in my ears, I felt a sharp stunning blow on the head whichmomentarily rendered me unconscious.
"Hurrah, sir, we're afloat, we're afloat!" were the first sounds I heardas my scattered senses came back to me; and, clearing away with mypocket-handkerchief the blood which was streaming down into my eyes andblinding me, I found that I had been knocked up against the mainmast, toone of the belaying-pins in the spider-hoop of which I was clinging withone hand; and I further observed that the shock of the collision,coupled no doubt with the action of our square canvas, which had beenlaid aback, had caused the schooner to back off the shoal on which shehad grounded, and that she now had stern-way upon her. A hasty glanceround the deck showed that our bulwarks and deck-fittings had beenconsiderably damaged by the felucca's fire; and some eight or nineprostrate forms--O'Flaherty's among them--bore still further witness toits destructive effect.
The boatswain came up to me and said:
"Poor Mr O'Flaherty's down, sir; and you're hurt, yourself. Who is totake command of the schooner, sir?"
"I will," said I, rallying at once as a sense of the responsibleposition in which I thus suddenly found myself rushed upon me.
The boatswain touched his forelock and remarked:
"We've got starn-way upon us, sir, and if we don't look out we shalldrive over that there stream of ours and perhaps send a fluke throughour bottom."
"Yes," said I. "Have the goodness, Mr Fidd, to muster all hands afthere; let them tail on to the hawser and rouse it smartly inboard; thenman the capstan and lift the anchor."
"Ay, ay, sir," was the reply, and the man turned away to see the orderexecuted. At that moment Courtenay came aft.
"Why, Lascelles, old man," he exclaimed, starting back as I turned myface toward him, "what have the rascals done to you? You're an awfulsight, old fellow; are you hurt much?"
"I can scarcely say yet," I replied; "not very much, I think; but myhead is aching most consumedly. I wish you would kindly get a couple ofhands and have Mr O'Flaherty taken below. I must remain here and lookafter the ship."
"Is O'Flaherty wounded?" gasped Courtenay. I pointed to the prostratebody of the lieutenant, upon which my chum at once hurried away, and,raising the wounded man in his arms, called one of the men to help inconveying him below.
We were lucky enough to trip and recover our anchor without accident;the quarter-boat was hoisted up, and we then wore round after thefelucca, which was hovering irresolutely about a mile away, apparentlyundecided whether to renew the attack or not. On seeing, however, thatwe were afloat again and after her, she bore up and stood to theeastward, close hauled on the larboard tack.
We cracked on after her under every stitch of canvas we could spread,but she walked away from us hand over hand, at the same time looking upa couple of points nearer the wind than we did, so that it soon becameevident we might as well hope to catch the Flying Dutchman as to getalongside the chase. And in the midst of it all we plumped ashoreagain, this time with such violence that our fore and main-topmasts bothsnapped short off at the caps, like carrots, and hung dangling by theirgear to leeward.
We were now in a very tidy mess, and had our late antagonist chosen toretrace her steps and renew her attack upon us we should, in ourdisabled condition, have found her an exceedingly awkward customer totackle. Fortunately for us she seemed to have had as much as shewanted; and a quarter of an hour later she slid out through one of thenumerous channels between the islands and disappeared.
Setting one watch to clear away the wreck and the other to furl allcanvas, I requested Courtenay, who was now again on deck, to take thequarter-boat and a sounding-line and to go away in search of the deepestwater. This was found at about fifty fathoms distant from and directlyto windward of the ship; and in this direction we accordingly ran awayour stream-an
chor and cable as before, the cable this time, however,being led in through one of the chocks on the larboard bow, from whenceit was taken to the capstan. The men hove and hove until everythingcreaked again, whilst the schooner careened fully a couple of streaks toport; but it was all to no purpose, not an inch would she budge; andfinally the anchor began to come home pretty rapidly. The stream wasevidently of no use, so I sent away the boat to weigh it, giving ordersat the same time to get the larboard-bower ready for slinging betweenthe quarter-boat and the launch, which I also ordered to be hoisted out.Presently the quarter-boat came alongside with the stream-anchorhanging over her stern; and then the reason for its coming home becameevident--we had hove upon it until one of the flukes had been torn off.
By the time that the stream-anchor was out of the boat the bower washanging at the bows ready for slinging, and it was then run away by thetwo boats directly to windward. As soon as it was let go we began toheave away once more, but with no better result--the schooner was hardand fast, and no efforts of ours were equal to the moving of her.
We now found ourselves in a very pretty pickle; and to add to myannoyance I made the discovery that we had grounded just about high-water, and that the tides, such as they were, were "taking off;" that isto say, each high tide would be a trifle lower than the preceding oneuntil the neaps were reached and passed. There was nothing for it thenbut to lighten the ship; and getting the remaining boat into the water,all three were brought alongside, and the iron ballast was then hoistedout of the hold and lowered into the boats until they were as deeplyloaded as they could be with safety, even in that perfectly smoothwater. This lightened the schooner so considerably that I felt sanguineof getting her afloat when the tide next rose; but, not to neglect anymeans at my disposal to secure this very desirable end, I ordered allour spare spars to be launched overboard, and with them, some emptycasks, and a quantity of lumber from the hold, a raft was constructedcapable of supporting three of the guns, though they sank it so deepthat I was at first afraid we should lose them altogether. I could thendo no more until it was again high-water--which would not be until anhour past midnight--unless I sent the boats ashore to discharge theircargoes on the beach and then come alongside again to further lightenthe ship; and this I was very loath to do, as I felt convinced that theprocess of handling and re-handling the heavy pigs of ballast wouldconsume so much time that we should lose rather than gain by it, to saynothing of the exhausting labour which would thus devolve upon the men.Leaving Courtenay, therefore, who was uninjured, in charge of the deck,I retired to the cabin, which was at that moment serving for a cockpit,and, finding the surgeon disengaged, submitted myself to his tendermercies.
His first act was to bathe my head with warm water until the dry bloodwith which my hair was matted was cleared away as much as possible, andthen the hair itself was shorn away until the wound was fairly exposed.The injury was then found to consist of a scalp wound some six inches inlength, extending from a point above my right eye, just where the haircommenced, obliquely across the skull toward the back of the left ear,the scalp itself, for a width of about four inches, being torn from theskull and folded back like a rag. It burned and throbbed and smartedmost horribly, particularly when the sponge was applied to my bare skullto clear away the blood preparatory to replacing the scalp; and I wasinformed by the medico that it was a very ugly wound, probably inflictedby a piece of langridge which, if it had been deflected a couple ofinches to the right, would in all probability have killed me. And I waswarned that I should have to exercise the greatest caution in the matterof exposing myself to the night air, or inflammation might set in, withvery serious results. During the tedious and exceedingly painfuloperation of dressing the wound, I learned that O'Flaherty's injuryconsisted of a contusion on the head, whereby he had been strucksenseless to the deck, and a very badly lacerated right shoulder, thebone of which was also broken, so that he would probably be quite unfitfor duty for the remainder of the cruise. When at length I was fairlycoopered up and made tolerably comfortable, I sent word to Courtenaythat I intended to lie down for a while, but that he was to have mecalled the moment that my presence on deck might be necessary, and thenretired to my berth and stretched myself, dressed as I was, upon my bed,where, though I was in too much pain to get sound sleep, I soon dozedoff into a kind of half-delirious stupor which, unpleasant as was thesensation, still afforded me a certain measure of relief.
From this I was aroused by the clatter of plates and dishes in thecabin, which, as it was quite dark in my berth, I rightly assumed mustindicate the forwarding of preparations for dinner. I now felt verymuch more comfortable than when I had lain down; the violent splittingheadache had almost entirely passed away; the cool soothing salve whichhad been liberally applied to my wound had greatly modified the burning,smarting sensation; and I experienced a feeling of by no meansunpleasant languor, which produced an almost irresistible repugnance tomove. I remembered, however, that the ship was now in my charge--unpleasant as it might be I could now less than ever afford to neglectmy duty--so, though the effort produced a sudden giddiness and momentarylapse into almost total insensibility, I staggered to my feet andcautiously groped my way to the door of my berth, through which I passedinto the close and stuffy cabin, and from thence up the companion-wayand out on deck.
Here everything was so perfectly silent, save for the gentle lap andgurgle of the water alongside, that I was for a moment startled into thebelief that the ship had been deserted; and it was so intensely darkthat I could see absolutely nothing. Glancing aft, however, I detecteda tiny glowing spark away in the neighbourhood of the taffrail, and atthe same moment I heard Courtenay's voice saying:
"Is that you, Mr O'Flaherty?"
"No," I responded, "it is I, Lascelles. What has become of the hands,Courtenay?"
"They are below getting their suppers," he answered. "And I told themthat, when they had finished, they might turn in for an hour or two.They must be pretty well done up with their hard day's work, and we cando nothing more now until after half-flood. How are you feeling now,old fellow? Sanderson tells me you got a very ugly clip over the headto-day in our little boxing match with the felucca. It has been ratheran unfortunate business altogether--two killed and seven wounded at asingle broadside from only four guns is pretty hard lines."
"Do you mean to say that we have lost two men?" I exclaimed, for I hadnot heard this before.
"Yes," was the answer. "Jones--that comical fellow who used to play theviolin on the forecastle during the dog-watches, and poor Tom Cotterelhave both lost the number of their mess; and there are five more intheir hammocks hurt more or less severely; though I believe O'Flahertyand yourself are the worst sufferers in that respect."
I was greatly concerned to hear this; and more than ever regretted thefool-hardihood--as I could not help thinking it--which had inducedO'Flaherty to rush headlong, as it were, into a lagoon so shallow thatthere was scarcely water enough in it in the deepest part to float theschooner, and abounding, moreover, as we had found to our cost, inshoals, of the position of which we knew absolutely nothing. Themischief, however, had been done, and nothing now remained but to makethe best of it; with which reflection we made our way below to dinner inobedience to the steward's summons.
As we entered the cabin Sanderson, the surgeon, emerged on tiptoe fromO'Flaherty's state-room, and requested us, in a whisper, to make aslittle noise as possible, as the lieutenant, under the influence of asoothing draught, had just dropped off to sleep.
"I want to keep him as quiet as possible," continued Sanderson, "for ifhe is disturbed or excited I am afraid I shall have a deal of troublewith him. What I am principally afraid of in his case--as in yours,Lascelles--is an access of fever, which, with its resultingrestlessness, may retard the healing of the wound, or even bring onmortification."
"And what about the others?" I asked, "are any of their injuriessevere?"
"No; chiefly lacerations, painful enough, but not serious," was the
reply. "Those rascals must have fired nothing but langridge, orcanister."
"Ay," said Courtenay; "and had they fired a little earlier, and soallowed the charges to scatter more, they would have made a clean sweepof our decks. As it was the charges took effect almost like solid shot,as may be seen by the marks in the planking and bulwarks where theystruck."
"Ah, well! it's a good job it was no worse," remarked Sanderson. "Ithas had one good result, in that it has let some of the wild Irish bloodout of O'Flaherty, and has taught us the lesson, let us hope, to be atrifle more cautious in future. And, by the by, in the meantime, whilsthe is on his beam-ends, which of you youngsters is going to be skipper?"
"Oh, Lascelles, of course," answered Courtenay quickly. "We joined theservice together, you know; but he is a few months my senior in point ofage. Moreover, he is ever so much the better navigator of the two;indeed I am ashamed to say I am so shaky in my navigation that I shouldreally be almost afraid to take sole charge of a ship. I _might_ manageall right, but I am not absolutely sure of myself, and that is anawfully unpleasant feeling to have, let me tell you, when you areoccupying a position of responsibility."
The land-breeze, meanwhile, had sprung up, and was by this time blowingpretty strongly; so, as I was a trifle anxious about the raft with theguns alongside, we hurried our meal to a conclusion; and, whilstSanderson first took another peep at O'Flaherty, and then went forwardto look after the rest of his patients, Courtenay and I went on deck,where we found the gunner keeping a lookout. "Well, Mr Tompion," saidI, as the man approached, "how are matters looking here on deck?"
"All quiet, sir," was the reply, "leastways as far as one can be sartainon sich a pitch-dark night as this. It's lightnin' a little away downthere to the west'ard, and durin' one o' the flashes I sartaintly _did_think I see some objek a-movin' away over there in the direction wherethe felucca came from, but when the next flash took place there weren'ta sign of anything."
"Oh, indeed!" said I, "what did the object look like?"
"Well, sir, it might ha' been a boat--or a raft--or it might only ha'been the trunk of a tree struck adrift; but if it had been a tree Idon't think as it would ha' wanished quite so quick."
"How long ago was this, Mr Tompion?"
"Just a minute or two afore you came on deck, sir."
"Well," said I, "we must keep a sharp lookout, that is all we can do atpresent Is there anybody on the lookout on the forecastle?"
"Yes, sir, Jack Sinclair and Bob Miles."
"Thank you, that will do, Mr Tompion," said I, and the man turned awayto his former post at the gangway.
Whatever the mysterious object might have been it was invisible on theoccurrence, not only of the next, but also of several succeeding flashesof the bluish summer lightning which quivered up from behind a heavybank of cloud low down on the western horizon, momentarily lighting upwith a weird evanescent radiance the lagoon, the mainland, the distantislands toward which our suspicious glances were directed, and the shipherself, which, partially dismantled as she was, looked in the faint andmomentary illumination like the ghost of some ancient wreck hoveringover the scene of her dissolution; the incident was therefore soonforgotten as Courtenay took me round from point to point explaining whatfurther steps he had taken, after my retirement below in the afternoon,to facilitate the floating of the ship.
The tide was now again making, and at length, about two bells in thefirst watch, we became conscious that the schooner, which had been lyingsomewhat over on her port bilge, was gradually becoming more upright.Meanwhile the lightning had ceased, and the darkness had become, ifpossible, more profound than ever, whilst the only sounds audible werethe rippling splash of the water alongside, the melancholy sough of thewind, and the faint _chirr_ of insects ashore which the breeze broughtoff to us on its invisible wings.
As the tide made so the schooner continued imperceptibly to rightherself, and at length she was so nearly upright that I thought we mightset about the attempt to get her afloat. The wind, being now off-shore,was in our favour, as the deepest water was to leeward or to seaward ofus, and the canvas, had I dared to set it, would have materiallyassisted us; but I did not care to set it, as, once off the bank, weshould have perforce to remain at anchor where we were until morning,any attempt at navigating those shallows in darkness being the mostutter madness. I therefore left the canvas stowed, resolving to seekits aid only as a last resort, and in the event of all other meansfailing, and ordered the messenger to be passed and the capstan manned.The anchor was already laid out to leeward, so the slack of the cablewas soon hove in, and a steady strain brought to bear upon it, afterwhich came the tug of war. The capstan bars were now fully manned; thetars pressed their broad chests against the powerful levers, plantedtheir feet firmly upon the deck, straightened out their backs, andslowly pawl after pawl was gained until the schooner was once moreheeling over on her bilge, this time, however, in consequence of theintense strain upon her cable.
"That's your sort, my hearties," exclaimed the boatswain encouragingly,as he applied his tremendous strength to the outer extremity of one ofthe bars, "heave with a will! heave, and she _must_ come! _heave_, allof us!! now--one--_two_--three!!!"
The men strained at the bars until it seemed as though they would bursttheir very sinews; another reluctant click or two of the pawl showedthat something was at length yielding; and then, first with a slow jerkymotion which quickened rapidly, and ended in a mighty surge as the mendrove the capstan irresistibly round, the bows of the schooner swervedto seaward, the vessel herself righted, hung for a moment, and thenglided off the tail of the bank, finally swinging to her anchor, afloatonce more.
"Well done, lads!" I exclaimed joyously, for it was a great relief tome to have the schooner afloat again--a sailor feels just as much out ofhis element in a stranded ship as he does when he personally is on_terra firma_--and in the exuberance of my gratification I gave ordersto "splice the main brace" preparatory to the troublesome and laborioustask of getting the guns and ballast on board once more.