Across the Spanish Main: A Tale of the Sea in the Days of Queen Bess

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER FIVE.

  THEY ENCOUNTER A STORM AT SEA, AND REACH THE ISLAND OF CUBA.

  What had happened to Roger is already known to the reader, and whatbefell Harry after the explosion on board the _Maria Dolorosa_ may bevery shortly recounted.

  The shock of his plunge into the cold water brought him to his senses intime to prevent him from drowning, and his first thought was to lookafter Roger; but his friend was nowhere to be seen. He shouted his namein vain for some time, and then started to swim towards his own ship,which lay quite near, in the faint hope that perhaps his friend mighthave been seen and rescued by her.

  He made enquiries immediately on reaching the deck of the ship, butcould elicit no information as to Roger's whereabouts, and everybody onboard was much too busy with his own work of fighting the threeremaining Spanish ships to pay any attention to Harry. But he could notthus easily resign himself to Roger's loss, and he peered over the leebulwarks in an endeavour to discover his friend's body, if it were stillafloat.

  He could, however, see nothing of it, and was beginning to fear that hehad indeed lost his dear friend and the companion of his boyhood, whenfrom the _Gloria del Mundo_, the Spanish ship which was nearest to him,he saw a boat lowered, which pulled away in the direction of a floatingpiece of wreckage which he had not until then noticed. He saw the boatrow up close to this wreckage, and take from it a body which appeared tobe hanging limply across it; and, looking more intently, he felt almostcertain that the body was that of Roger. The boat pulled back to the_Gloria del Mundo_, and was hoisted on board.

  If the body was indeed that of Roger, then, thank Heaven! he was safefor the time being; but the poor lad was nevertheless still in a veryprecarious situation, being on board a Spanish ship. Harry could seealso that the vessel was in manifest distress, and had apparently notmuch longer to float.

  It was some time after this that Cavendish, having at length disposed ofhis previous antagonist, ordered his ship to be laid alongside the_Gloria del Mundo_, with the object of capturing her out of hand, andmaking a prize of her before she sank. This was accordingly done, andthe crash which Roger had heard, followed by the cries and musketry, wasindeed, as he believed, the result of the English vessel being laidalongside and the rush of the English boarders.

  It goes without saying that Harry was among the first to board, and heimmediately commenced his search for Roger, but unluckily began it in atotally different quarter from that in which Roger had been placed.

  The _Gloria del Mundo_ was soon in the hands of the English, but it wasfound that she was sinking too fast for them to save her, and theboarders were at once recalled.

  Harry, however, determined not to leave without his friend, and he wastherefore left behind when the Englishmen returned to their own vessel.The grapnels uniting the two ships were cut, and at once the craft beganto drift apart, Harry being left on board the Spanish vessel searchingfor Roger.

  How he found him and rescued him, obtaining possession of certaindocuments at the very last moment, and hoisted Roger on deck even as theship swamped beneath their feet, has already been told.

  Now, as to the result of the action. Of the two ships first engaged bythe English--the _Maria Dolorosa_ and the _Buena Vista_--the latter hadbeen sunk at the commencement of the action, and the former had blownup.

  The third ship, the _Gloria del Mundo_, had sunk. The _Salvador_ and_El Capitan_ were the only two of the Spanish fleet that still remainedafloat, and both were fearfully knocked about. The _Salvador_ had lostall her masts, every one of her boats had been smashed to pieces by thegun-fire of the English, and her sides were everywhere perforated withshot-holes. But a prize crew had been put on board her, and was nowhard at work patching her up and rendering her seaworthy, riggingjury-masts, cutting away wreckage, and otherwise putting her once moreinto sailing trim. _El Capitan_ was in a similar condition. She hadstill her mizzenmast standing; but otherwise she was as badly damaged asher companion, and was undergoing the same repairs and refit.

  The Spaniards who had escaped on board the _Salvador_ and _El Capitan_from the other vessels, and the crews of the two ships themselves stillleft alive, had been divided into five batches, one being put on boardeach ship. This was done by way of precaution, since, thus separated,there was much less likelihood of their attempting to recapture theirown ships or take those of the English.

  The English squadron had suffered almost as badly, for although none ofthe vessels had been sunk, they were all in a very seriously damagedcondition. Cavendish's vessel, the _Stag Royal_, had lost all hermasts, and was in great danger of foundering, her appearance being thatof a huge mass of wreckage rather than a ship; but the carpenters werehard at work on her, and were making good her defects as quickly aspossible.

  The other two vessels of the English fleet, the _Elizabeth_ and the_Good Adventure_, were not quite so much cut up as the ship of thecommodore, but stood in need of a good deal of repair before they wouldbe again serviceable.

  The English had put prize crews on board the two Spanish ships, sadlydepleting the companies of their own ships, and all hands were kept hardat the work of repair, for Cavendish knew that, in the event of a galespringing up, none of the ships would weather it in their existingcondition. It was very trying work, too, this patching up of thevessels at sea, and at the best it could be nothing more than atemporary repair. But at last, after three days of incessant toil, allfive of the craft were reported as fit to proceed on the voyage. Yet itwas agreed that they ought to run for some place where the ships mightbe beached, careened, and overhauled thoroughly; otherwise they couldnot be trusted to weather the storms which they would inevitably meetwith on their proposed cruising-ground, which was the Caribbean Sea.

  Cavendish therefore summoned a conclave of the captains of his littlesquadron in the cabin of the flag-ship, to decide upon some place wherethey might go to execute the necessary repairs.

  The charts were got out and laid upon the table; courses were laid offto various places, and the distances thereto measured and calculated;and after some discussion it was decided unanimously that they shouldrun for the West India Islands, trusting that they might meet with noSpanish squadron either on the way or at their rendezvous foroverhauling.

  The place they agreed to make for was the eastern end of the island ofCuba, as this island lay on their direct course for the Caribbean Seaand the coast of Mexico, where they intended to cruise in the hope ofpicking up some plate-laden galleon from Vera Cruz or Tampico.

  This island of Cuba was, it is true, a Spanish possession, but it was atthis time newly discovered and only very sparsely populated. So, bykeeping to the eastern extremity of the island, and maintaining a sharplookout whilst the ships were in the process of careening, they hoped toavoid any encounter with their enemies until, the ships being properlyrepaired and once more serviceable, they should find themselves in aposition to resume their cruise with a view to the securing of moreprizes.

  The squadron of five ships which they had just beaten had been sent outfrom Cadiz to intercept Cavendish and prevent him from reaching theIndies, and, being a war fleet, had no treasure on board. The gain tothe English consisted, therefore, solely in the acquisition of two moreships for their little fleet; but this was not altogether an unmixedblessing, because, with the obligation to man their extra two vessels,the whole five were now short-handed.

  Cavendish gave his orders to his captains, which were that the fivevessels should make for the eastern end of Cuba, and, if separated, meetat a spot the bearings of which he gave them, about a day's sail fromthe island, whence they would proceed in company, so as to arrive attheir agreed destination all together.

  It now remained to appoint two captains to the prizes and put prizecrews on board them, and this was soon done. Cavendish appointed thefirst and second officers of his flag-ship as captains of the twocaptured Spanish ships, replacing his first officer by the third, a mannamed Leigh, and appointing Roger to the vacant post of se
cond officer.

  It had been his intention to promote Harry to a position as officer onone of the captured ships, but the lad begged so hard to be allowed toremain in the same vessel as Roger that Cavendish at last consented,adding that he thought Harry was throwing away an opportunity whichmight not again occur. So long as he might remain by Roger's side,however, Harry did not very much care. "Besides," thought he, "we madea compact to remain always by one another, and I am sure Roger wouldhave stayed with me had I been appointed instead of him."

  The signal was now made for all sail possible to be carried, so thatthey might the sooner reach their rendezvous and begin the work ofoverhauling and repairs of which they stood in such urgent need. Ifseparated by storm or any other mischance they were to meet at the placeagreed upon during the conclave in the cabin of the flag-ship.

  Sail was made accordingly, and the little squadron, now increased by twoships, but with sadly diminished crews, resumed its voyage.

  For the first three days all went smoothly, the speed of the whole beingregulated by the pace of the slowest vessel in the squadron. On theevening of the third day, however, the weather showed signs of changing.They had been sailing along with a good following breeze, the skyoverhead a deep, cloudless, sapphire blue, and the sea smooth enough torelieve them from all uneasiness. Now, however, the sun was sinkingtoward the horizon like a ball of dull red copper, and the western sky,instead of being clear as previously, was heavy with black clouds thatwere banking up and threatening to obscure the sun ere it set.Overhead, too, deep violet clouds made their appearance, tinged here andthere to lurid red and orange by the rays of the fast-disappearingluminary. The air, moreover, felt dull and heavy, and carried apeculiar odour not unlike brimstone. This singular condition of theatmosphere was not without its effect on the men, who felt listless anddisinclined to work. A sense of impending peril seemed to be hangingover all. The wind, too, was gradually dying away, and came fitfullyand at intervals in hot, sulphurous puffs. The sea, which had beensparkling in thousands of tiny wavelets in the rays of the sun, began toassume a dark and oily appearance; and a long swell was beginning tomake itself felt, causing the sails, as they drooped against the masts,to flap noisily with a sound like the crack of an arquebuse.

  Gradually the sky grew blacker and more overcast, and the sea assumedthe appearance of ink. The five ships of the squadron were all wellwithin sight of one another, and lay motionless save for their uneasyheaving to the swell which was now fast-rising. Having loststeerage-way, they were "boxing the compass", that is, were headingfirst in one direction and then in another, their bows slowly swinginguntil they pointed in various directions. Cavendish was on deck,looking anxiously at the sky, and presently he gave the order to allhands to shorten sail, and hailed the ship lying nearest to him to dothe same.

  The other vessels were lying too far away for a hail to carry, and therewas no wind to lift the signal flags if hoisted; but the commodore wasrelieved to see the remainder of the fleet follow his example. In a fewmoments the canvas of the whole squadron was seen coming heavily down orbeing rolled up on the yards; and before very long all the ships wereeither under bare poles or being snugged down with everything securedready for any emergency.

  Cavendish, however, still remained very anxious: and he had cause enoughfor his anxiety. For his squadron had only recently come through aheavy action, and their timbers were strained; masts had been merelysecured in a temporary manner, and the necessary stays and fore and aftpreventers had not yet all been rigged; indeed, the process of bendingnew sails, ropes, etcetera, was still being gone on with although theships had been got under way at the earliest possible moment.Shot-holes had been only roughly plugged, and in some of the vesselspumping was still being carried on day and night. The two prizes hadbeen knocked about still more badly; in fact the whole squadron was in avery unfit state to encounter even a strong gale, and the coming stormthreatened something very much worse than this. But everything wasbattened down and made as snug as possible, and all that Cavendish couldnow do was to trust in Providence and hope his ships would survive thetempest, since nothing had been left undone that mortal hands couldpossibly do.

  A dull moaning sound at length began to make itself heard, and severalhot sulphurous gusts of wind came down out of the north; the blocksoverhead creaked, the cordage rattled, and in the heavy silence weirdnoises made themselves perceptible. Roger and Harry were standing onthe poop, exchanging comments on the weather, and Cavendish and hischief officer, Richard Leigh, were in close conversation on themain-deck just below them, glancing anxiously from time to time towardthe northward, where the sky had become black almost as midnight.

  "Look there, Harry," observed Roger, pointing to the main-topgallantyard; and, looking up, Harry perceived two lambent globes of greenishfire.

  As he continued looking and wondering what they might be, other weirdlights made their appearance on the yard-arms and on the very tops ofthe masts, presenting a beautiful, but at the same time a very eerie,spectacle. The same phenomenon was to be seen on the spars of everyvessel in sight; and as it was by this time very nearly dark (therebeing scarcely any twilight in these latitudes), the whole squadron hadthe appearance of being illuminated.

  "Whatever can it possibly be?" queried Harry; "I have never seenanything like it before."

  "I suspect," returned Roger, "that it is in some way connected with theapproaching storm. I have heard sailors speak of those lights aswitch-lights, death-gleams, and corposants, and their appearance is saidalways to foretell disaster. I hope, however, that they do not forebodeevil on this occasion, although things are looking decidedly unpleasantjust now."

  Cavendish, hearing their conversation, looked up, and, observing theapprehension of the two, explained to them that the lights were termed,by the Portuguese navigators, "Lights of Saint Elmo"; and he assured thelads that the lights were not the cause of, but the harbingers of,storm.

  "I fear, however," added he, "that we are in for a bad time of it, andyou youngsters had better beware lest you be swept overboard when thesea rises; for if anyone is washed over the side during what is cominghe will have no chance of being picked up again. So take care, youngmen!"

  Suddenly Roger perceived, far away to the north, a line of white, whichlooked like a thin streak of paint drawn across an ebony background, andthe dull moaning noise in the air quickly grew in volume, at the sametime becoming more shrill. Roger shouted down a warning to Leigh, whowas standing near the wheel, and pointed away in the direction fromwhich the line of white was approaching. Cavendish, who had just walkedforward to make sure that all was as it should be, heard the warning,and shouted an order for all on deck to prepare for the outfly, andthen, seizing his speaking-trumpet, rushed up on the poop beside theboys, and roared out a warning to the only ship within hail. Then,turning, he told the two lads to get down off the poop on to themain-deck, where they would be sheltered to a certain extent by the highbulwarks of the ship. In obedience to this command they hurried downthe starboard accommodation ladder, whilst Cavendish made his way downthe one on the port side, and all three reached the deck together.

  Cavendish then shouted some order to Leigh at the wheel, but whatever itmay have been, his words were drowned by the awful shriek and roar ofthe hurricane as it burst upon them.

  To Harry and Roger, who had never experienced anything of the kindbefore, it seemed as though some mighty invisible hand had smitten theship, throwing her over on to her beam-ends. She heeled down before theblast until it seemed as though she would capsize altogether, while thetwo boys were precipitated both together across the streaming decks intothe lee scuppers, whence they found it impossible to escape owing to theexcessive slant of the deck.

  Leigh was hanging on to the wheel for his life, endeavouring to put thehelm hard up, and so turn the ship's stern to the wind to enable her torun before the gale--the only course possible under the circumstances.

  Cavendish and a few men in the fore-par
t of the vessel were meanwhilestriving manfully to hoist a staysail and get some way upon the ship, soas to help her to pay off before the sea, and so save her from beingpooped by the waves, which were rising higher and higher every moment.

  At length the stability of the ship prevailed, and she began to right.Then, Roger and Harry, rushing to Leigh's assistance, helped him to putthe helm up, and the ship paid off and began to scud before the wind,while Cavendish, encouraging his little body of men up in the eyes ofthe ship, managed to get the foresail set, after having had it nearlyblown out of the bolt-ropes.

  Looking astern, the boys saw the huge seas rushing after them, each onethreatening to engulf the craft and send her to the bottom; and indeedthat would speedily have been her fate had the men not been able to setthe small rag of sail, and thus made it possible for her to keep aheadof the waves.

  The foaming crests of the sea were ablaze with phosphorescence, andappeared to tower above the poop as high as the main-topsail-yard, andthe sight of them sweeping along after the ship was positivelyappalling. The wind now began to increase in violence, literallytearing off the summits of the huge waves and sending them in spindrifthurtling across the deck like showers of shot that cut the face like thelash of a whip. The uproar was terrific, the shrieking and howling ofthe wind blending with the creaking and straining of the timbers of thelabouring ship. Crash succeeded crash aloft, but they could distinguishnothing of what was happening because of the intense blackness. Yet themotion of the ship was becoming steadier, for the reason that the windwas so strong that it was actually beating down the sea.

  Suddenly the two lads heard a rending and tearing sound, followed by acrash quite close to them, as something weighty smote the deck; andthrough the fearful din that raged round them there rang out the screamof a man in agony.

  "Harry," said Roger, "that is the mizzenmast come down, and it hasinjured some poor fellow! Let us endeavour to reach him if we can."

  And, still holding to each other, they began to feel their way carefullyalong the deck, which was now encumbered with wreckage.

  Suddenly Harry cried out, and fell over something, which proved to bethe wreck of the fallen mast.

  "Are you hurt, Harry?" queried Roger.

  "No, lad," came the response, "and I think I have found the poor fellowwhose scream we heard just now; he seems to have been crushed by themast as it fell. If you will stoop down here, you will be able to feelhis body. Had we but a lever of some kind we might perhaps be able toraise the mast sufficiently to drag him from underneath it."

  Roger climbed over the mast and, feeling for Harry, knelt down besidehim, where he found the body that Harry had fallen upon when he trippedover the mast.

  By touch he found that the poor seaman, whoever he was, was pinned downimmovably to the deck, the mast lying right across the middle of hisbody.

  Roger put his mouth to the ear of the man, and shouted: "Are you badlyhurt; and can you move with assistance?"

  He caught the reply: "Is that you, Master Trevose? I am pinned down bythis spar, and I believe my leg is broken; but if you could manage toget the mast raised by ever so little, I believe I could scramble outfrom under it."

  "Can we find a lever anywhere?" shouted Roger.

  "There are a couple of handspikes in the rack close to you; if you canfind these, they will do," replied the wounded seaman.

  Roger worked his way to the rack indicated by the man, and fortunatelyfound the handspikes at once. Taking them both, he quickly scrambledback again and handed one to Harry, retaining the other himself.

  The two lads then prized the points under the mast, and threw all theirweight on the shafts, using them as levers. They felt the mast quiverand move slightly.

  "That's the way, Master Trevose; one more lift like that and I'll be outfrom under," shouted the man.

  Roger and Harry again exerted all their strength, the mast roseperceptibly, and they heard a cry of pain from the seaman as he wormedhimself from under the spar.

  "I be out now, Master," came the voice; "if ye can lift me up and get mebelow, I'll thank ye."

  One of them supporting him on either side, they raised the unfortunatefellow upright, and with great difficulty assisted him across the deck,and so to the companion-hatch, which they found without trouble, as itwas now growing somewhat lighter. The clouds were not quite so thick,and an occasional gleam came from the moon as she was uncovered.

  They got the man below, Roger taking him on his back down thecompanion-ladder, while Harry ran for the surgeon. The latter soon madehis appearance, and attended to the sufferer, who proved to be anordinary seaman named Morgan.

  Having seen the patient off their hands and well attended to, the couplereturned to the deck.

  They found that the wind was lessening every moment, and the clouds weredisappearing fast, permitting the moon to shine out fitfully; but thesea, no longer kept down by the pressure of the wind, was risingrapidly.

  "I think the squall is past its worst, Harry," said Roger. "What wehave to fear now is the sea, which will get worse, I am afraid, ere itgoes down--but look there! Merciful Heaven! what is that?" hecontinued, pointing away over their port quarter with his finger.

  The inky blackness had lifted somewhat, and they could plainly perceivethe hull of one of their own ships, presumably; but her ports were open,and her interior appeared as a glowing furnace, while, even as theylooked, tongues of fire spurted up from her deck and began to lick roundher masts, and from the hapless vessel a long wail of anguish anddespair came floating down the wind.

  Every eye in the ship was at once turned to the burning vessel, whichthey presently made out to be, by her rig, the _Salvador_, one of thetwo captured Spanish vessels.

  What seemed to have happened was that the Spanish prisoners confinedbelow had fired the ship before the squall came down, in the hope ofbeing able to overpower their captors in the ensuing confusion, trustingto luck for the opportunity to extinguish the conflagration afterwards.The storm arising after they had set fire to the vessel, however, thewind had fanned the flames until she had become a raging fiery furnacefore-and-aft. And there was no means of affording succour to themiserable men on board her, for the sea was running tremendously highand rising every minute.

  She was an awful but gorgeous spectacle, presenting the appearance of afloating volcano, vomiting flame and smoke as she rushed along beforethe wind; but still more awful were the cries and shrieks of agony thatwere borne to them across the intervening water.

  Cavendish at once gave orders that his ship should be run as close aspossible, compatible with her safety, and this was done; but it wasimpossible to save her wretched crew, and the rest of the fleet enduredthe misery of beholding their comrades burn, together with thepanic-stricken Spaniards, the authors of the calamity, as many of whomas possible had been released as soon as the fire was discovered.

  A speedy end, however, came to the appalling tragedy which was takingplace before their very eyes; for while they still watched, powerless tosave, a terrific explosion occurred, followed by a rain of blazingpieces of timber and, gruesome sight! of portions of human bodies whichhad been whirled aloft, and now came hurtling down on the decks of theflag-ship. The fire had reached the _Salvador's_ magazine!

  This awful spectacle cast a deep gloom over the entire ship's company.

  Shortly afterwards, none of the other vessels being in sight, and thesea having moderated somewhat, Cavendish ordered the ship's course to bealtered, and they again bore up for the rendezvous.

  On the tenth day after the storm they reached, without furtheradventure, the agreed latitude and longitude, and hove-to, waiting forthe remainder of the squadron to make its appearance.

  Two days later, the first of the other vessels, the _Elizabeth_, madeher appearance, and on the same evening, by the light of the tropicstars, the other two joined them.

  All four remained hove-to until daybreak. Early on the followingmorning they all got under weigh again, and heade
d for the land, whichnow could not be many miles distant.

  Shortly after noon came the ever-welcome cry from the masthead: "Landho!"

  "Where away?" demanded the officer of the watch.

  "Dead ahead," answered the lookout.

  "Keep her as she goes," ordered Cavendish; and with an ever-lesseningwind they glided toward the land that climbed higher and higher abovethe horizon by imperceptible degrees.

  By the end of the first dog-watch on that same evening they were closeenough to make out the formation of the land; and at length, sighting abay that looked promising for their purpose, they bore up for it,sounding all the way as they went.

  As the land opened up, the bay toward which they were heading appearedto offer increasingly advantageous facilities for careening andrepairing; and they presently passed in between two low headlandscovered with palms, and dropped anchor in the calm inlet in six fathomsof water, at which depth they could clearly see the bottom of sandthickly dotted with shells and broken pieces of coral.

  At last, after many weary and fateful days, they had reached a haven onthe other side of the Atlantic; a haven in one of the islands of thosefabled Indies where, if legend was to be believed, gold was to be foundmore plentifully than iron in England!

  All hands gazed longingly at the shore; but leave could not be grantedthat night, as the country was unknown, and although it appeared to beuninhabited, they could not be certain what eventualities might arise.Cavendish, therefore, deemed it better to wait until morning, and thensend a strong force on shore to reconnoitre and explore.

  Meanwhile Roger and Harry went below to their bunks and slumbered,dreaming of the coming morn. Those of the crew who were off duty slepton deck or in their hammocks, as the fancy took them; the anchor watchwas set; and thus all hands, waking or sleeping, waited for the morningwhich should disclose to them this garden of Paradise.