Ben Hadden; or, Do Right Whatever Comes Of It

by William Henry Giles Kingston

  CHAPTER TWELVE.

  THE FRIGATE IN DANGER.

  One day, a sail was sighted, becalmed. The frigate carried the breezeup to her. At first it was hoped that she was a slaver. She proved,however, to be a whaler, the Grand Turk, whose captain had come on boardthe Ajax off Raratonga. As Captain Bertram wished to make inquiries ofCaptain Judson respecting the slavers, he invited him on board. Thecaptain of the whaler seemed very much out of spirits. Before he wentaway, Mr Martin had a long talk with him, and inquired what was thematter.

  "Why, Martin, I am afraid that I have been a very sinful and foolishman," he answered. "You shall hear what has occurred. You know how Iused to abuse the missionaries, and say that they spoilt all the peoplethey got among, and that I would never visit another missionary islandif I could help it. Wishing to get more vegetables, we made for anisland known to be heathen. We anchored in a sheltered bay, where Iknew that the people would give us all we wanted for a mere song. Wehad soon plenty of natives on board, men and women. They danced andsang, and drank as much rum as our men would give them. I need notdescribe the scenes which took place. I must confess, what I now see tobe the truth, that we have no business to call ourselves Christians, orcivilised people, while we allow such things to occur. Yet they werenot worse than have been carried on at many islands, ever since ourwhalers came to these seas.

  "The next day a quantity of provisions were brought down to the beach,and, thinking the people so inclined to be friendly, I let a number ofour men go on shore. I was in my cabin when I heard a shot. I ran ondeck, and saw our men running towards the boats. Now and then theystopped and fired at a large band of natives, who were following themwith clubs and spears. Another body of natives were rushing down on oneside to try and cut off our men, and great numbers of others werelaunching canoes in all directions. I had very little hope that our menwould escape, but to help them I had an anchor and cable carried outastern, by hauling on which we brought our broadside to bear on theboats. Our guns were then fired at the second party of natives of whichI have spoken. This stopped them, or the whole of our men would havebeen cut off. We could not go to their assistance, as we had to remainon board to defend the ship from the canoes, which were now comingtowards her. Two of our men had been killed before our eyes; thegreater number were shoving off the boats. They had just got themafloat, when the savages, gaining courage, charged them. Two more ofour poor fellows were knocked on the head. The rest jumped into theboats and pulled off from the beach. They had no time to fire. Thecanoes made chase after them. All we could do was to fire at the canoeswith our big guns and muskets as they came on, hotly chasing the boatstill they got alongside. The men climbed up the sides by the ropes wehove to them. We had barely time to hoist in the boats when the savagesin vast numbers came round us, uttering the most fearful shrieks andcries. While some of my men kept them off with lances, and by firingdown on them, others hove up the anchor and went aloft to loose sails.There was fortunately a fresh breeze off shore; our topsails filled, andwe stood out of the bay, while the savages kept close round us, hoping,no doubt, that we should strike on a reef and become their easy prey.We had to fly here and there to keep them from gaining the deck, for assoon as one was driven back another took his place. Not till we werewell outside the reef did they give up the attempt to take the ship.Not only had we lost the four men killed on the beach, but two othershad been cut off in the boats, and several of those who got on boardwere badly wounded. I suspect that the savages had from the firstintended to take the ship, for I could not make out that our men hadgiven them any special cause of quarrel. I was thankful when we werewell free of them, and I must confess to you, Martin, that you wereright when you advised me to visit a Christian island instead of aheathen one. I cannot get over the loss of those poor fellows. It hasbeen a severe lesson to me, and I am, I believe, a wiser man."

  "I am very sorry for the loss of your people, Mr Judson, and yet Godwill rule the event for your good if you continue to see it in the lightyou now do," observed Mr Martin. "The example which our so-calledChristian seamen have set to the natives of these islands has beenfearful. Their behaviour has created one of the chief difficulties tothe progress of the gospel with which the missionaries have had tocontend. It is, humanly speaking, surprising that they have made anyprogress at all. Were it not indeed that God's hand has been in thework through the agency of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible that theycould have succeeded."

  Captain Judson did not, perhaps, clearly comprehend the meaning of allMr Martin said; but he thanked him cordially for his remarks, andreturned on board his ship with several religious and other books forhis crew, and among them a Bible, which he confessed that he had notbefore got on board.

  "What!" exclaimed Ben, when he heard this from Mr Martin; "a ship go tosea without a Bible! How can the people get on? how can they do theirduty? I am afraid they must forget to say their prayers."

  "You are right, Ben," observed Mr Martin; "there are very many shipsthat go to sea without Bibles, and the crews very often forget theirduty to God and man. In my younger days, indeed, there were very fewwhich took Bibles, and the exception was to find one. A praying,Bible-reading captain and ship's company was a thing almost unknown."

  Ben, who had carefully preserved his Bible, prized it sincerely, andread it every day, was surprised to hear this. There were a good manymen also on board the Ajax who had Bibles, and read them frequently.Sometimes some of the other boys had laughed at Ben when they found himreading his Bible, but he did not mind them, and went on readingsteadily as before.

  The account of the cruel way in which the natives had been kidnapped bythe Peruvian slavers made everybody on board the Ajax eager to catchsome of them. Night and day bright eyes were ever on the watch indifferent parts of the ship. This was especially necessary in thoseseas, where rocks and reefs abound; and though they are far better knownthan in Lord Anson's days, yet there are many parts but imperfectlyexplored.

  Wherever the ship touched, Ben made his usual anxious inquiries for Ned.He, as before, frequently heard of Englishmen living with the savages;but they did not answer to the description of his brother. Still he hadhopes that he should find him. Ben remembered his father's advice, andacted up to it: "Do right, whatever comes of it." By so doing he hadgained the favour of his captain and all the officers of the ship.Everybody said, "Ben Hadden is a trustworthy fellow; whatever heundertakes to do he does with all his heart, as well as he possiblycan."

  Ben had consequently plenty to do; but then he reaped the reward of hisdoing. Sailors are often paid in a glass of grog for any work they do,and they are satisfied; but it was generally known that Ben had awidowed mother, to whom he wished to send home money; and therefore Benwas always paid in coin, and no one grudged it to him, knowing how wellit would be employed.

  A sailor's life is often a very rough one; but when people are throwntogether for a cruise of four years, as were the crew of the Ajax,provided always they have a good captain and judicious officers, theywonderfully rub the rough edges off each other, and a kind and brotherlyfeeling springs up among them, which often lasts to the end of theirlives. Such was the feeling which existed among the officers and ship'scompany of the Ajax. The officers treated the men with kindness andconsideration, and the men obeyed their officers with alacrity.

  Hitherto, the Pacific appeared deserving of the name bestowed on it.For many months the Ajax had experienced only fine weather.Undoubtedly, gales had blown, and heavy rains had fallen, during thatperiod; but the ship had sailed across to the west, while they occurredon the eastern part; and afterwards, when she went back towards theAmerican coast, the rains fell and the gales blew on the west. Thiswas, however, not always to be so. One morning, when Ben went on deckto keep his watch, he found the sails hanging down against the masts,and the sea without the slightest ripple to break its mirror-likesurface. Every now and then, however, it seemed slowly to rise like thebosom of some huge monste
r breathing in its sleep, and a smooth low waveheaved up under the ship's keel, and glided slowly away, to be followedat long intervals by other waves of the same character. As they passed,the ship rolled from side to side, or pitched gently into the water, andthe sails, hitherto so motionless, flapped loudly against the masts witha sound like that of musketry. The heat was very great; the seamen,overcome by it, went about their various duties with much less thantheir usual alacrity. The smoke curled slowly up from thegalley-funnel, wreathing itself in festoons about the fore-rigging,where it hung, unable, it seemed, to rise higher. Eight bells struck inthe forenoon watch, the boatswain's whistle piped to dinner, and themess-men were seen lazily moving along the deck, with their kids, to thegalley-fire, to receive their portions of dinner from the black cook,who, with face shining doubly from the heat which none but a black cookor a German sugar-baker could have endured, was busily employed inserving it out to them. The smell of the good boiled beef or pork--verydifferent from what our sailors once had--seemed to give them appetites,for they hastened back with the smoking viands to their mess-tablesslung from the deck above. Here the men sat in rows, with theirbrightly-polished mess utensils before them, and soon gave proof thatthe heat had had no serious effect on their health.

  It is usual to send all the men below at dinner-time, except thoseabsolutely required to steer and look out, unless the weather is bad,and it is probable that any sudden change may be required to be made inthe sails. Most of the officers on this occasion were on deck, slowlywalking up and down in the shadow of the sails. Ben and Tom were attheir mess-table, laughing and talking and enjoying themselves as boysdo in an ordinarily happy ship.

  "This is jolly!" observed Tom. "I like a calm, there's so little to do;and it's fair that the sails should have a holiday now and then. Theymust get tired of sending us along, month after month, as they have todo."

  "I do not think they get much rest, after all, even now," said Ben."Listen how they are flapping against the masts! If they had to do muchof that sort of thing, they would soon wear themselves out. What a loudnoise they make!"

  "Oh yes; but that is only now and then, you see, just to show us thatthey have not gone to sleep as the wind has done, and are ready for usewhen we want them," remarked Tom, who had always a ready answer for anyobservation made by Ben; too ready sometimes, for he thus turned asidemany a piece of good advice which his friend gave him. "At all events,the ship can't be getting into any mischief while she is floating allalone out here, away from the land," he added. "If I was the captain, Iwould turn in and go to sleep till the wind begins to blow again."

  Tom did not know how little sleep the captain of a large ship, with thelives of some hundred men confided to him, ventures to take.

  Captain Bertram was on deck, walking with Mr Charlton. He stopped, andearnestly looked towards the north-east His keen eye had detected apeculiar colour in the water extending across the horizon in thatdirection. He pointed it out to Mr Charlton. "What does it seem toyou like!" he asked.

  "A coral reef, sir. If so, we have been drifting towards it; I shouldotherwise have seen it in the morning," answered the first lieutenant."I will, however, go aloft, and make sure what it is."

  In spite of the intense heat, Mr Charlton climbed up to the masthead.He carefully scanned the horizon in every direction, and then speedilyreturned on deck.

  "We are nearer to the reef than I had supposed, sir," he said. "We maykeep the boats ahead, and somewhat hinder the ship driving so rapidlytowards it; but it is evident that a strong current sets in thatdirection. Had it been at night, we should have struck before we couldhave seen it."

  "Pipe the hands on deck, then, Mr Charlton," answered the captaincalmly. "If towing is to serve us, there is no time to be lost."

  Mr Martin was sent for, and his shrill whistle soon brought the wholeof the crew tumbling up from below, the landsmen and idlers onlyremaining to stow away the mess things.

  The boats were soon lowered and manned, and sent ahead. The hot sunshone down on the men in the boats as they toiled away to keep theship's head off the reef. It seemed, however, that they rowed to littlepurpose; for the undulations appeared at shorter intervals, and seemedto send the frigate towards the threatening rocks, on which a surf, notat first perceived, now began to break, forming a white streak acrossthe horizon.

  The sails were brailed up, but not furled, in order that they mightagain be at once set, should a breeze spring up to fill them.

  Mr Charlton stood on the forecastle, directing the boats how to pull.Every now and then he cast an anxious eye astern towards the breakers,which continued to rise higher and higher. A cast of the deep-sea leadwas taken, but no bottom was found. To anchor was, therefore,impossible. Everybody on board saw the fearful danger in which thefrigate was placed. One thing only, it seemed, could save her--a breezefrom the direction towards which she was drifting. All eyes, nototherwise employed, were glancing anxiously round the horizon, lookingout for the wished-for breeze. Ben and Tom were as active as usual.They remained on board, as only the strongest men were sent into theboats; it was trying even for men. They continued rowing, and,encouraged by their officers, as hard as they had ever before rowed.Suddenly, without a moment's warning, the captain ordered them to returnon board.

  "Hoist in the boats!" he shouted. "Be smart now, my lads!"

  As the boats were being hoisted in, the spoon-drift began to fly acrossthe surface of the hitherto calm ocean, hissing along like sand on thedesert. The hitherto smooth undulations now quickly broke up into smallwaves, increasing rapidly in size and length, with crests of foamcrowning their summits.

  Directly the boats were secured, the captain shouted, "Hands shortensail!" The men with alacrity sprang into the rigging and lay out on theyard. The three topsails were closely reefed; all the other squaresails were furled. There was a gravity in the look of the captain andofficers which, showed that they considered the position in which theship was placed very dangerous.

  Dark clouds now came rushing across the sky, increasing in numbers anddensity. Even before the men were off the yards, the hurricane struckthe frigate. Over she heeled to it, till it seemed as if she would notrise again; but the spars were sound, the ropes good. Gradually sheagain righted, and, though still heeling over very much, answered herhelm, and tore furiously through the foaming and loudly-roaring seas.The captain stood at the binnacle, now anxiously casting his eye alongthe reef, now at the sails, then at the compass in the binnacle, andonce more giving a glance to windward. The ship's company were at theirstations ready to obey any order that their officers might issue. Fourof the best men were at the wheel, others were on the look-out forward.Not a word was spoken. The wind increased rather than lessened after itfirst broke on the frigate. Had it been a point more from the eastward,it would have driven her to speedy destruction. As it was, it enabledher to lie a course parallel to the reef; but, notwithstanding this, theleeway she made, caused by the heavy sea and the fury of the gale,continued to drive her towards it, and the most experienced even nowdreaded that she would be unable to weather the reef.

  The hurricane blew fiercer and fiercer. The frigate heeled over tillher lee ports were buried in the foaming, hissing caldron of boilingwaters through which she forced her way. It was with difficulty thepeople could keep their feet. The captain climbed up into the weathermizzen rigging, and there he stood holding on to a shroud, conning theship, as calm to all appearance as if he had been beating up PlymouthSound. The men at the helm kept their eyes alternately on him and onthe sails, ready to obey the slightest sign he might make. Although thetopsails were close reefed, they seemed to bend the spars and masts asthey tugged and strained to be free; Mr Martin, the boatswain, kept hiseye anxiously on them. Now was the time to prove whether the spars weresound, and, if they were sound, whether the rigging had been properlyset up, and if that also was sound throughout. A ship, like a humanbeing, is best tried in adversity; it is not in smooth seas and with
gentle breezes that her qualities can be proved, any more than thenature of a man can be ascertained if all goes smoothly and easily withhim. Therefore, let no one venture to put confidence in himself, tillhe has been tossed about by the storms of life, and by that time he willhave learned that he is weak and frail under all circumstances, unlesssustained by the power of the Holy Spirit, who is alone able to keep himfrom falling. Ben and Tom had crept up to near where Mr Martin wasstanding. He saw them exchanging looks with each other.

  "There'll be a watery grave for all on board if the spars go," observedMr Gimblet. "Still, it's a satisfaction to believe that they are assound sticks as ever grew."

  "It's just providential that we set up our rigging only t'other day. Ifthis gale had caught us with it as it was before that time, we mighthave cried good-bye to our spars, sound as they are," said Mr Martin."Even now, I wish that the wind would come a point or two more on ourquarter; we make great leeway, there's no doubt about that."

  Ben and Tom overheard these remarks of the two warrant-officers. Benfully understood the danger the ship was in, and that before an hour orso was over he and all on board might be in a watery grave; for he sawhow impossible it would be for the stoutest ship to hold together if sheonce struck on the reef to leeward, the fearful character of which hadnow become more distinct than ever. The sea broke against it withterrific force, rising high up in a wall of water, and then fell curlingback on the side from which it came. Not the strongest swimmer couldexist for a minute among those breakers. Far away ahead it seemed toextend in one long unbroken line.

  The hearts of many on board began to sink; not with unmanly fear, butlife was sweet; they had many loved ones in their far distant homes, andthey could not but see that long before the frigate could reach thedistant point she must drift on the reef. By the loss of one of hersails she would be sent there within a very few minutes. Ben and Tom,young as they were, could not fail clearly to comprehend their danger.Ben did not tremble; he did not give way to tears, or to any weak fears,but he turned his heart to God. To Him the young lad prayed that Hewould protect his mother: he tried to think of what he had done wrong,that he might earnestly repent; and then he threw himself on the loveand mercy of Jesus. "On Thee, O Lord Jesus, on Thee, in Thee I trust,"he kept saying. All this time, however, his attention was awake; hiseyes were open, and his ears ready to receive any order that might begiven. Such is the state of mind, such the way in which many aChristian sailor has met death.

  On, on, flew the frigate. It was indeed a time of intense anxiety toall on board. The officers were collected near the captain. A shortconsultation was held. Some of the men thought that they were going toput the ship about, under the belief that she would lie up taller on theother tack. Should she miss stays, however, and of that there was thegreatest danger, her almost instant destruction would be theconsequence. No; the captain would not make the attempt. He wouldtrust to a change of wind. Should it come ahead, then there would betime enough to go about; if not, it would be best to stand on. Theywere in God's hands, not their own. Mr Charlton and the secondlieutenant were seen going aloft, with their telescopes at their backs.Eagerly they scanned the line of breakers. It seemed sometimes as if nohuman being could hold on up there on the mast, with the hurricaneraging so furiously around. The evening was drawing on. Shoulddarkness be down on them before they were clear of the reef, what hopeof escape could they have? The eyes of the crew were now directed totheir two officers aloft. Their lives seemed to depend on the result oftheir investigations. At length they were seen to be descending. Allwatched them eagerly as they reached the deck. Their countenances, itwas thought, wore a more cheerful aspect than before. The wind had notlessened, nor was there the slightest indication of a change. The men,as has been said, were at their stations, and no one moved. There theywould be found to the last, till the ship should strike. There, too,should all Christian men be found when the last final shaking of theworld takes place; there should they be when death overtakes them--doingtheir duty in that station of life to which God has called them.

  Still the men, as they stood, could hold communication with each other,and it soon became known that Mr Charlton had seen an opening some wayahead, through which he believed the ship would pass. To corroboratethe truth of this report, he and the master were seen again ascendingthe rigging. The eyes of both the officers were fixed ahead, or ratherover the port-bow. All were now again silent, looking at the captain,and ready to spring at a moment to obey the orders he might give; thesecond lieutenant and Mr Martin were forward. Mr Charlton made asignal to the captain.

  "Up with the helm!--square away the yards!" he shouted.

  The order was rapidly executed, and the frigate's head turned towardsthe dreaded reef; but between the walls of foam an opening of clearwater was seen, amply wide to allow her to pass. Almost in an instant,it seemed, she was flying by the danger on an even keel, the breakerssending the spray in heavy showers over her decks. The after-sails werefurled: on she flew steadily before the gale. Night came on. Theremight be other reefs ahead; but the captain and his officers and crewhad done all that men could do, and they put their trust in God, who hadalready brought them safely through so many dangers, that He wouldprotect them.