Part 44 (1/2)

”Here,” shouted that officer.

”How many have you aboard?”

”Eighteen!”

”You must slide down on a rope over the stern; we can't go alongside,”

continued the first lieutenant.

”Ay, ay, sir!” responded the captain of the s.h.i.+p. ”I have two women and two children on board.”

”You must lower them in slings,” added Haven, prompted by Mr. Fluxion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE WRECK OF THE SYLVIA. page 254.]

The people on board the wreck went to work, and one of the women was lowered into each boat at the same time. A long loop was made in the end of the rope, and the woman sat down in the bight of it, holding on to the line with her hands. At a moment when the sea favored the movement, the boats were hauled up close to the s.h.i.+p's stern, the pa.s.senger caught by two of the crew, and hauled on board. A boy and a girl were let down in the same manner. The captain, mates, and seamen came down the rope hand over hand.

Each boat now had nine pa.s.sengers, who were stowed in the stern sheets and on the bottom. The ropes from the s.h.i.+p were cast off, and the oarsmen were ordered to give way. The barge and the gig rose and fell, now leaping up on the huge billows, and then plunging down deep into the trough of the sea; but they had been well trimmed, and though the comb of the sea occasionally broke into them, drenching the boys with spray, the return to the Young America was safely effected.

”How happens it that you are all boys?” asked the captain of the wrecked s.h.i.+p, who was in Paul Kendall's boat.

”That's the Academy s.h.i.+p,” replied the second lieutenant.

”The what?” exclaimed the captain.

”It is the Young America. She is a school s.h.i.+p.”

”O, ay!”

There was no disposition to talk much in the boats. The officers and crews were fully employed in keeping the barge and gig right side up in the tremendous sea, and though all hands were filled with curiosity to know the particulars of the wreck, all questions were wisely deferred until they were on the deck of the s.h.i.+p.

When the gig came up under the counter of the Young America, a line was thrown down to the bowman who made it fast to the ring. The pa.s.sengers were then taken aboard in slings rigged on the spanker-boom, which was swung over the lee quarter for the purpose. Part of the boat's crew were taken on board in the same way, and then the gig was hoisted up to the davits with the rest in her.

Before the barge was allowed to come up under the counter, the officer of the deck wore s.h.i.+p, so as to bring the port quarter, on which the boat was to be suspended, on the lee side. Her pa.s.sengers were taken on deck as those from the gig had been, and she was hoisted up.

”Mr. Kendall, I congratulate you upon the success of your labors,” said Mr. Lowington, when the second lieutenant reached the deck. ”You have handled your boat exceedingly well, and you deserve a great deal of credit.”

”That's a fact, sir,” added Boatswain Peaks, touching his cap. ”I hardly spoke a word to him, and I've seen many a boat worse handled in a sea.”

Paul blushed at the praise bestowed upon him, but he was proud and happy to have done his duty faithfully on this important occasion. The same commendation was given to the first lieutenant, after the barge had been hauled up to the davits, and the order given for the s.h.i.+p to fill away again.

The women and children were conducted to the professors' cabin as soon as they came on board, and the seamen were taken into the steerage. All of them were exhausted by the anxiety and the hards.h.i.+ps they had endured, and as soon as their safety was insured, they sank almost helpless under the pressure of their physical weakness.

”This is a school s.h.i.+p, I'm told,” said Captain Greely, the master of the s.h.i.+pwrecked vessel, who had also been invited to the main cabin.

”Yes, sir; we call it the Academy s.h.i.+p, and we have eighty-seven young gentlemen on board,” replied Mr. Lowington.

”They are smart boys, sir. I never saw boats better handled than those which brought us off from the s.h.i.+p,” added Captain Greely, warmly.

”Your voyage has come to an unfortunate conclusion,” said Mr. Lowington.

”Yes, sir; I have lost my s.h.i.+p, but I thank G.o.d my wife and children are safe,” answered the weather-beaten seaman, as he glanced at one of the women while the great tears flowed down his sun-browned cheeks.