Part 4 (2/2)
”Ay, ay, sir,” replied Ned, settling himself into a comfortable, easy position in the cross-trees, somewhat to the secret trepidation of Miss Stanhope, who was watching his movements with a great deal of undemonstrative interest, and who every moment dreaded that the young man's careless att.i.tude, coupled with the pitching of the s.h.i.+p, would result in a fall. Nothing of the kind, however, happened; and in due time Ned hailed:
”I think we can fetch her now, sir. I can make her out much better than I could a quarter of an hour ago; and I believe she _is_ a s.h.i.+p on her beam-ends. I can see nothing of boats in any direction, sir.”
”Very well,” replied Captain Blyth. ”Stay where you are, nevertheless, and continue to keep a bright look-out. We will tack the s.h.i.+p, if you please, Mr Bryce.”
”Ay, ay, sir. Hands 'bout s.h.i.+p!” responded the chief-mate; and in a minute or two the men were at their stations.
”All ready, sir!” reported Mr Bryce Captain Blyth walked aft to the mizen-rigging, signed to the helmsman, and gave the word:
”Helm's a-lee!”
”Helm's a-lee,” responded the men, lifting the coiled-up braces and so on from the pins and throwing them down on the deck all ready for running.
The s.h.i.+p shot handsomely up into the wind; and the word was given to ”raise tacks and sheets,” quickly followed by the other commands; and in a couple of minutes the _Flying Cloud_ was round and heading well up for the wreck, whilst the crew bowsed down the fore and main tacks simultaneously with the aid of a couple of watch tackles.
To the honour of Captain Blyth be it said that, though his interest in the race between his own s.h.i.+p and the _Southern Cross_ was as ardent as though his very life depended upon its result, not one single murmur escaped him on account of this delay; for delay it certainly was. No; apart, perhaps, from the pa.s.sengers, he of all on board betrayed the most anxiety respecting the crew of the distressed vessel.
In an hour the _Flying Cloud_ was hove-to abreast and close to leeward of the wreck, which proved to be a fine wooden barque, copper-bottomed, on her beam-ends, as Ned had reported, with her masts lying p.r.o.ne in the water. There was no sign of any one on board her; nevertheless Captain Blyth ordered one of the gigs to be lowered, and instructed Mr Bryce to proceed to the wreck and give her a careful overhaul. At Mr Gaunt's own request that gentleman accompanied the mate.
The little party had some difficulty in boarding the derelict, for she was lying broadside-on to the wind, with her masts pointing to windward; and though there was no very great amount of sea running, there was still sufficient to make boarding from to windward an awkward if not an absolutely dangerous matter, in consequence of the raffle of spars and cordage in the water. But they succeeded at last; Mr Gaunt and the mate contriving to gain a footing in the main-rigging, whilst the boat with her crew backed off again out of harm's way. The task of examining the vessel, now that they were actually on board her, was even more difficult and dangerous than that of boarding, the s.h.i.+p lying so far over that her deck was perpendicular. By getting out on her weather side, however, and by means of ropes'-ends, they eventually succeeded in penetrating first to the cabin, and then to the forecastle (both of which were on deck); but in neither was there any one to be found.
There were, however, in the cabin, signs--such as open and partially empty boxes and trunks, with articles of wearing apparel scattered about--which seemed to indicate that the vessel had been very hurriedly abandoned; and the state of these articles was such as to lead Mr Gaunt to the conclusion that the abandonment had taken place within the previous twenty-four hours.
Having so far completed their examination, the boat was signalled to again approach, and a few minutes later the party found themselves once more on the deck of the _Flying Cloud_, the chief-mate briefly reporting that the barque was undoubtedly abandoned.
”Then,” said Captain Blyth, hesitatingly, ”I suppose there is nothing more to be done but to hoist up the boat and fill away upon our course again?”
”No; I suppose not, sir,” replied Bryce, in a tone of voice which very sufficiently indicated his supreme indifference.
”Very well,” said the skipper, ”man the--”
”Excuse me, Captain Blyth, but may I offer a suggestion?” interrupted Mr Gaunt.
”a.s.suredly, my dear sir,” responded the skipper; ”what suggestion would you offer?”
”Well,” said Mr Gaunt, ”if I may be permitted to say so, it seems a great pity to leave that fine s.h.i.+p there, to be possibly run into by and perhaps to occasion the loss of another s.h.i.+p; or, as an alternative, to eventually founder. So far as I could perceive, the hull is as sound and tight as ever it was, and, by the way she floats, I do not believe she has very much water in her; and with regard to her spars, her fore and main-topgallant masts are snapped off short by the caps, which appears to be about all the damage done in that direction. Now, why should you not right her, pump her out, man her, and send her into port?
If her cargo is valuable, as is likely to be the case, it would put a handsome sum of salvage money into your pocket.”
”So it would, sir,” replied the skipper. ”I was thinking of that just now, but couldn't exactly see how the thing is to be done; and as Mr Bryce seemed to have no idea of any such thing, why I concluded it must be impracticable.”
”By no means, I should say,” observed Mr Gaunt. ”We engineers, you know, are constantly accomplis.h.i.+ng things which other people would be disposed to p.r.o.nounce impossible; and I confess I see no great difficulty in this case. I believe the barque is only held down in her present position by the weight of the water in her canvas.”
Mr Gaunt then indicated to the skipper the means which he thought would be likely to prove successful; and Captain Blyth, though somewhat doubtful of the result, was sufficiently impressed to express his willingness to try the experiment, Mr Gaunt volunteering--to his wife's secret dismay--to a.s.sist by taking charge of a small working party on board the derelict.
To work all hands accordingly went. The gig once more shoved off for the barque, which was boarded by the energetic engineer and four men, who took with them a coil of light line, an axe, and, of course, their clasp knives. The little party got out on the weather side of the s.h.i.+p, in the main-chains, uncoiled their line, and were then all ready to commence operations. The gig, meanwhile, returned to the s.h.i.+p, and received on board a large but light new steel towing hawser, which was coiled down in long flakes fore and aft the boat, and with this she once more went alongside the barque, to leeward of her this time, however-- that is to say, alongside the vessel's upturned bilge. A rope's-end was hove into her by the little working party in the main-chains, and by this means the end of the hawser was hauled on board, and, with some labour and difficulty, eventually made fast round the mainmast head, just above the truss of the main-yard. This done, a signal was made to the _Flying Cloud_, which had meanwhile drifted some distance away, and the s.h.i.+p thereupon filled her main-topsail and bore up, waring short round upon her heel. At the same time the crew hauled up the courses, clewed up royals and topgallant-sails, and, in short, reduced the canvas to the three topsails, jib, and spanker. She was now upon the larboard tack. Having stood on a sufficient distance, Captain Blyth went in stays, and the s.h.i.+p was again headed for the barque. Now came the only delicate part of the operation. But the skipper was an accomplished seaman, and he managed his part of the work to perfection, bringing the _Flying Cloud_ up alongside the barque so close to leeward that there was only bare room for the boat between the two hulls; and at the proper moment the main-topsail was backed and the way of the s.h.i.+p stopped. A rope's-end, to which the other end of the hawser was attached, was then promptly hove from the boat alongside and smartly hauled inboard over the s.h.i.+p's bows, and several turns of the hawser were taken round the windla.s.s-bitts. Then, by carefully manipulating the canvas, the _Flying Cloud_ was brought head to wind, or with her bows towards the derelict, until, dropping to leeward all the time, the hawser was tautened out and a strain brought upon it. The topsails were then laid flat aback, and the result was awaited with some anxiety; the boat meanwhile remaining alongside the derelict to take off Mr Gaunt and his little party in the event of any accident happening. For a few minutes no visible result attended these manoeuvres; but at length a shout from Mr Gaunt of ”Hurrah, there she rises! Be ready to let go the hawser on board there when I give the word” was followed by a barely perceptible indication that the vessel was righting. The movement increased; and then, still gradually, the masts rose out of the water until they were at an angle of about forty-five degrees with the horizon, when the vessel recovered herself so suddenly that the little party on board had to cling on for their lives or they would have been flung into the sea. A heavy roll or two followed, and the vessel then settled upon an even keel once more, with the water pouring in torrents out of the canvas down on to the deck, and wetting Mr Gaunt and his crew to the skin. Captain Blyth was personally superintending his share of the operations from the _Flying Cloud's_ forecastle, and at the proper moment the end of the hawser was cast off and let fly overboard, to be recovered later on by the gig.
The first thing the engineer now did was to heave-to the barque as well as he could with his scanty crew; his next act was to sound the well, with the result that a depth of five feet of water was found in the hold. This, however, was not so formidable a matter as it at first sight appeared; for, the hold being tightly packed with cargo, the water could only get into the interstices, and a comparatively small quant.i.ty would consequently show a large rise in the pump-well.
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