Part 41 (1/2)
The various spectators almost held their breath, for, though the s.h.i.+p they were watching was an enemy, no one wished her to meet that fate which it seemed probable would overtake her. Now again she rose almost to an even keel, but not a brace or a sheet was slackened. Already the sea was breaking with fearful violence over a dark reef under her lee, while she was sailing as close as possible to the wind.
”She will not weather it,” cried the master. ”They are attempting to go about. It's too late, though. She's lost--she's lost!”
At that instant the gale with fresh force struck the devoted s.h.i.+p. Down she heeled, and a sea striking her before she had come round, drove her bodily on the reef. The following seas dashed wildly over her, almost concealing her dark hull from view. For a few moments her masts again came into view, but directly afterwards they fell over one after the other, and the vessel herself appeared to be melting away before the reiterated blows of the fierce waves, which seemed suddenly to rise for the purpose of effecting her destruction.
”We must be ready to offer help to any of the poor fellows who may be washed ash.o.r.e,” exclaimed the commander; ”though I fear that few will reach it alive.”
Both officers and men were eager to carry out his suggestion. A number of long spars and coils of rope were got ready, and the greater number of the _Champion's_ officers and crew set off towards the northern end of the island, the only point where it was at all probable that any of the Spaniards would be able to land. On reaching it, however, the desperate condition of the unfortunate crew was still more clearly seen.
To send them help was beyond the power of the English. No boat could possibly live in the sea already running round the reef on which the s.h.i.+p had struck.
Already a large portion of the hull had been knocked to pieces, while the greater number of her crew had been washed into the raging surf and drowned. A few wretches alone clung desperately to the forepart of the s.h.i.+p and the stump of the bowsprit. No a.s.sistance could be sent to them. Every instant the wind increased; the seas rolled up more wildly against the wreck, as if eager for their destruction. Still the commander and most of the officers and crew stood watching, on the bare possibility of the wind again s.h.i.+fting and driving some of the hapless Spaniards on the beach.
They waited in vain. The hurricane had only as yet been gathering strength. Suddenly it burst with terrific violence, which even the seamen on the firm ground could with difficulty face, as it drove ma.s.ses of spray and sand against them, the roar of the seas almost drowning the commander's voice as he ordered them to retire to the shelter of some rocks a short distance from the sh.o.r.e. On getting under their lee, as they again looked towards where the wreck had been, scarcely a vestige of her remained, nor was one of her hapless crew seen alive. Still, while a hope remained that some poor fellow clinging to a piece of the wreck might be thrown on the beach, a look-out was kept to render him a.s.sistance; but some hours pa.s.sed by, and not a single human being of those who had lately formed the crew of the Spanish frigate could by any possibility have remained alive. The commander ordered the men to return to the fort. The hurricane continued raging with unabated violence for the greater part of the flight.
”I say, Nat, it is as well we had not started with Mr Foley,” observed Gerald to his brother mids.h.i.+pman. ”What would have become of us, I wonder?”
”We should have been in a bad plight, I suppose,” answered Nat. ”I can't help thinking that the commander was right in not letting us go as soon as we wished.”
The stormy weather continued for some time longer. Occasionally the wind ceased, but only again to blow with almost as much violence as before. Mr Foley and the master both acknowledged the commander's wisdom in not allowing them to do as they had desired. The hurricane season must, however, come to an end, for it had apparently already lasted longer than usual, and the young lieutenant began to indulge in the expectation of soon returning to Jamaica.
CHAPTER NINETEEN.
TWO VESSELS APPEAR OFF THE ISLAND--ONE CHASING THE OTHER--THE STERNMOST SUPPOSED TO BE THE OUZEL GALLEY--FIRING HEARD AT NIGHT--A CALM--THE BOATS PUT OFF--A BREEZE--THE PIRATE ESCAPES--SOUND OF AN ENGAGEMENT HEARD--BELIEF THAT THE MERCHANTMAN HAS BEEN CAPTURED--A BOAT PREPARED FOR A VOYAGE TO JAMAICA--JUST AS SHE IS STARTING, A VESSEL IS SEEN AT ANCHOR INSIDE THE REEFS--THE BOATS PUSH FOR HER--THE STRANGER FIRES AT THEM--IS BOARDED AND CAPTURED--GERALD'S DISMAY ON DISCOVERING THE ”LOG OF THE RESEARCH, CAPTAIN GERALD TRACY”--DILLON FOUND ON BOARD AS LEADER OF THE PIRATES--HE OFFERS TO PILOT THE RESEARCH INTO TIGER HARBOUR-- COMMANDER OLDING AND HIS WHOLE CREW EMBARK WITH GUNS, AMMUNITION, AND STORES--THE RESEARCH SAILS FOR THE NORTHWARD--A CANOE, WITH FIVE PEOPLE IN HER, SEEN.
One morning Gerald and his constant companion, Nat Kiddle, had gone down just at daybreak to bathe in a pool on the beach, into which no hungry sharks were likely to enter. It was the only place where the commander would allow the men to go into the water, and they naturally preferred getting their swim before the rest of the s.h.i.+p's company. They were somewhat earlier than usual, and after swimming about for some time had landed and were dressing, when Gerald, looking to the north-east, caught sight of a sail just rising above the horizon.
”Hurrah! I do believe she is standing towards the island,” he exclaimed, pointing her out to Nat. ”She will see our signal and probably heave to, to know what we want. The chances are that she is a friend. No Spanish vessel would be coming from that direction, at all events, with the intention of attacking us. She is probably a man-of-war, or, if a merchantman, she is bound to one of the islands to the southward.”
”But she is as likely to be a foreigner as an English vessel,” observed Nat; ”at all events, she must be greatly out of her course. If bound to Jamaica, she would have kept through the Windward Pa.s.sage, or if bound to one of the Leeward Islands, she would not have come near this.”
The sun, now just rising above the horizon, cast a bright light on the topsails of the stranger, which must have discovered her to the look-out at the signal station, who immediately ran up the colours.
Gerald and Nat were soon after this joined by several other officers who had come down to bathe. Mr Foley, being among the last, had brought his telescope. The north-east trade-wind, which began blowing during the night, was now carrying the stranger steadily along before it. Mr Foley had lent Gerald his gla.s.s.
”Why, sir,” he exclaimed, as he was looking through it--”'It never rains but it pours'--there is another craft of the same rig as the first, under all sail. It appears to me that she is chasing the headmost one.”
Crowhurst took the gla.s.s, and having glanced through it, agreed that Gerald was right. He then handed it to the master, who observed, ”There is no doubt about it. The headmost vessel is a merchantman; by the cut of her canvas, I should say she was English. But the sternmost I can't quite make out; she is probably a French or Spanish privateer. However, as they are coming on at a good rate, we shall know before long. In the mean time I intend to take my dip.”
Gerald and Nat continued watching the strangers as they approached.
They had got considerably nearer by the time the master came out of the water.
”They must have encountered dark and heavy weather, and got out of their course, or they would not have been so close in to this dangerous coast,” he observed. ”Lend me the gla.s.s again, Foley,” he added, turning to the second lieutenant. ”Well, I can't make out what she is,”
he continued. ”Her sails have an English cut about them, too. We shall make out her colours before long, for if she is English she is sure to hoist them when she sees ours flying from the flagstaff.”
Mr Foley and the rest of the party were as much puzzled as the master.
No one felt inclined to leave the spot, even though breakfast-time was approaching.
Gerald felt unusually interested; why, he could scarcely tell, except that he had been the first to discover the strangers. Now he threw himself down on the sand; then he got up and walked about, and again borrowed Mr Foley's telescope.
The course the two vessels were steering would carry them within half a mile of the outer reefs that surrounded the island. The hull of the first could already be distinctly seen. She appeared to be either an armed merchantman or a privateer; but if the latter, it was not likely that she would run from a vessel not much, if at all, superior to her in size.