Part 20 (1/2)
As I had noticed previously, when crossing the Bay of Biscay, the sea got up very quickly as the wind increased, only withrapidity now than then; for, while at sunset the ocean was co waves by the ti in size each ainst each other as the wind shi+fted round dead in our teeth to the north-east, the very quarter where we had seen the lightning
”We're going to have a dirty night of it, sir,” said Mr Mackay to the captain, who after turning in for a short tiain, anxious about the shi+p ”I thought we'd have a blow soon”
”Humph, Cape weather!” snorted out Captain Gillespie ”We're just in the proper track of it now, being nearly due south of Table Mountain, as I hter spars, Mackay, for this is only the beginning of it--the glass was sinking just now”
”Aye, aye sir,” returned the first mate, who had previously called the watch aft for this very purpose, crying out to theby: ”Lay aloft there, and see how soon you can send down those royal yards!”
Mattheas trying all he could to deserve his proone below, helped To down ours; and, when up aloft, the usson, the bricklayer As ”Old Jock” with his shrewd seaman's eyes had anticipated, he had developed into a s now quicker than soood hands
On the present occasion he ran us a rare race with thethe mizzen spar below but a second or two in advance of his party
After this the topgallant yards were sent down likewise on deck and the et the job done as soon as possible Indeed this was vitally necessary, for the stor in force every moment, and our topsails had to be reefed iallants lowered
Getting rid of all this top hamper, however, made the shi+p ride all the easier over the heavy waves that met her bows full butt; and, now, she did not roll half as h what she lost in this respect sheseas rolled under her keel and lifted up her stern as if she were about paying a visit to the depths below, and then raising her bowsprit the next instant so high in the air that it looked as if she were trying to poke a hole in the sky with it!
Shortly before ”six bells” the gale blew so fiercely that it was as much as we could do to stand on the poop; and when, presently, Mr Mackay gave the order for us to take in the et up aloft, for the pressure of the wind flattened us against the rigging as if we had been ”spread-eagled,”
it impossible to move for theto be ”worth their salt;” so, watching an opportunity, we cli until we gained the cross-trees, being all the while pretty well lashed by the gale Our eyes were blinded, and our faces allby it, I can tell you, while ell out of breath by the tiot so far
The topsail sheets and halliards, of course, had been let fly before we left the deck; but in order not to expose the sail more than could be helped to the force of the storm, the clewlines and buntlines were not hauled open until ere up on the yard, so that the topsail should not reed in folds than necessary before we could furl it out of harm's way
Still, the precaution was of no avail; for hardly had theout under our feet like a huge bag, or rather series of bags, as the wind puckered its folds, burst away froun discharged close to our ears, just as if we had cut it fro it
Castingdown the shrouds again, for it was as usts when they caught one's legs twirling therand but positively awful The sea was now rolling, without the slightest exaggeration but literally speaking, h as far as the eye could reach, and the scud flying across my face in the mizzen cross-trees; while the waves on either side of the shi+p, as we descended into the holloeen them every now and then, were on a level with the yard-arms below and even sometimes rose above these
”Co out, as I at last putto descend the rigging, ”look sharp with that fore-tops'le or we'll have it go like the mizzen!”
His words were prophetic
”R-r-r-r-r-r-ip!” sounded the renting, tearing noise of the sail, al!” than that of the mizzen-topsail, theand the next second bleay bodily to leeward, floating like a cloud as it was carried along the crests of the rollers out of our ken in a minute The fore-topsail i the shi+p noith only the reefed foresail on her in the shape of canvas, a wonderful meta at sunset!
We had been trying to beat to ard, so as not to fall off our course; but now that we had hardly a rag to stand by, the captain put up the helale that was blowing sending her at such a rate through the water as to prevent any of the following seas fro her The fear alone of this had prevented hi as he was of carrying on when he had a fair wind
Ada ready the stor out some days previously so as to be prepared to hoist them on the first available opportunity, as it would never do to run too far off our course, whichat that rate before the nor'-easter would soon have effected; and so, during a slight lull that occurred about breakfast-time, a mizzen staysail and foretopmast staysail, each about the size of a respectable pocket-handkerchief, were got aloft judiciously and the foresail as carefully handed, when the shi+p was brought round again head to wind and lay-to on the port tack
A little later there was one terrific burst, the tops of the waves being cut off as with a knife and borne aboard us in sheets of water, while the Silver Queen heeled over to starboard so greatly that it seeo down sideith all hands; but it was the last blast of the storh the sea continued high After that it grew gradually calain and bear away eastwards, rounding the Cape two days afterwards, our fifty- sixth frorees south latitude--theDutchman's fortress,” as Table Mountain has been terend, being a little over 18 degrees east longitude
”Begorra, that's a good job done wid anyhow,” said Tier of weathering the Cape was past and that ell within the li roll, however, and the cold breath of the Antarctic ice-fields had already betrayed this fact to the old hands on board ”I once knocked about in a vessel as were a-tryin' to git round this blissid place for a month av Sundays, an' couldn't”
”And what did you do, reat respect for the boatswain and was eyeing him open-mouthed ”What did you do when you couldn't sail round it?”
”Be jabers int the other way, av course, ye nanny goat,” cried Tiainst Joe ”Any omahdaould know that, sure!”