Part 42 (2/2)
Mr. Lowington believed that the students of the Academy s.h.i.+p would be as safe on board the Young America as they would on sh.o.r.e. He had taken a great deal of pains to demonstrate his theory to parents, and though he often failed, he often succeeded. The Young America had just pa.s.sed through one of the severest gales of the year, and in cruising for the next three years, she would hardly encounter a more terrific storm. She had safely weathered it; the boys had behaved splendidly, and not one of them had been lost, or even injured, by the trying exposure. The princ.i.p.al's theory was thus far vindicated.
The starboard watch piped to breakfast, when the sail was discovered, too far off to make her out. The boys all manifested a deep interest in the distant wanderer on the tempestuous sea, mingled with a desire to know how the stranger had weathered the gale. Many of them went up the shrouds into the tops, and the spy-gla.s.ses were in great demand.
”Do you make her out, Captain Gordon?” asked Mr. Fluxion, as he came up from his breakfast, and discovered the commander watching the stranger through the gla.s.s.
”Yes, sir; I can just make her out now. Her foremast and mainmast have gone by the board, and she has the ensign, union down, hoisted at her mizzen,” replied the captain, with no little excitement in his manner.
”Indeed!” exclaimed the teacher of mathematics, as he took the gla.s.s.
”You are right, Captain Gordon, and you had better keep her away.”
”Shall I speak to Mr. Lowington first, sir?” asked the captain.
”I think there is no need of it in the present instance. There can be no doubt what he will do when a s.h.i.+p is in distress.”
”Mr. Kendall, keep her away two points,” said the captain to the officer of the deck. ”What is the s.h.i.+p's course now?”
”East-south-east, sir,” replied the second lieutenant, who had the deck.
”Make it south-east.”
”South-east, sir,” repeated Kendall. ”Quartermaster keep her away two points,” he added to the petty officer conning the wheel.
”Two points, sir,” said Bennington, the quartermaster
”Make the course south-east.”
”South-east, sir.”
After all these repet.i.tions it was not likely that any mistake would occur; and the discipline of the s.h.i.+p required every officer and seaman who received a material order, especially in regard to the helm or the course, to repeat it, and thus make sure that it was not misunderstood.
It was Sunday; and no study was required, or work performed, except the necessary s.h.i.+p's duty. Morning prayers had been said, as usual, and there was to be divine service in the steerage, forenoon and afternoon, for all who could possibly attend; and this rule excepted none but the watch on deck. By this system, the quarter watch on duty in the forenoon, attended in the afternoon; those who were absent at morning prayers were always present at the evening devotions; and blow high or blow low, the brief matin and vesper service were never omitted, for young men in the midst of the sublimity and the terrors of the ocean could least afford to be without the daily thought of G.o.d, ”who plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.”
Every man and boy in the s.h.i.+p was watching the speck on the watery waste, which the gla.s.s had revealed to be a dismasted, and perhaps sinking s.h.i.+p. The incident created an intense interest, and was calculated to bring out the finer feelings of the students. They were full of sympathy for her people, and the cultivation of n.o.ble and unselfish sentiments, which the occasion had already called forth, and was likely to call forth in a still greater degree, was worth the voyage over the ocean; for there are impressions to be awakened by such a scene which can be garnered in no other field.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE WRECK OF THE SYLVIA.
The people in the dismasted s.h.i.+p had discovered the Young America, as it appeared from the efforts they were using to attract her attention. The booming of a gun was occasionally heard from her, but she was yet too far off to be distinctly seen.
On the forecastle of the Academy s.h.i.+p were two bra.s.s guns, four-pounders, intended solely for use in making signals. They had never been fired, even on the Fourth of July, for Mr. Lowington would not encourage their use among the boys. On the present occasion he ordered Peaks, the boatswain, to fire twice, to a.s.sure the s.h.i.+p in distress that her signals were heard.
The top-gallant sails were set, and the speed of the s.h.i.+p increased as much as possible; but the heavy sea was not favorable to rapid progress through the water. At four bells, when all hands but the second part of the port watch were piped to attend divine service in the steerage, the Young America was about four miles distant from the dismasted vessel.
She was rolling and pitching heavily, and not making more than two or three knots an hour.
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