The King's Own

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER FIFTY THREE.

  An universal cry resounds aloud, The sailors run in heaps, a helpless crowd; Art fails, and courage falls; no succour near; As many waves, as many deaths appear. OVID, (DRYDEN'S TRANSLATION).

  However we may be inclined to extend our admiration to the feelings ofself-devotion which governed the conduct of Captain M--- it cannot be amatter of surprise that the officers of the frigate did not coincidewith his total indifference to self, in the discharge of his duty.Murmur they did not; but they looked at each other, at the captain, andat the perilous situation of the vessel, in silence, and with a restlesschange of position that indicated their anxiety. Macallan was belowattending to the wounded men, or he would probably have been deputed bythe others to have remonstrated with the captain. A few minutes morehad elapsed, when the master again addressed him.

  "I am afraid, sir, if we continue to stand on, that we shall lose thefrigate," said he, respectfully touching his hat.

  "Be it so," replied Captain M---; "the enemy will lose a line-of-battleship; our country will be the gainer, when the account is balanced."

  "I must be permitted to doubt that, sir; the value of the enemy's shipis certainly greater; but there are other considerations."

  "What are they?"

  "The value of the respective officers and ships' companies, which mustinevitably share the fate of the two vessels. The captain of that shipis not _worth his salt_. It would be politic to let him live, andcontinue to command. His ship will always be ours, when we want it; andin the event of a general action, he would make a gap in the enemy'sline, which might prove of the greatest importance. Now, sir, withoutdrawing the parallel any further,--without taking into consideration thevalue of the respective officers and men,--I must take the liberty ofobserving, that, on your account alone, England will be no gainer by theloss of both vessels and crews."

  "Thank you for the compliment, which, as it is only feather-weight, Iwill allow to be thrown into the scale. But I do not agree with you. Iconsider war but as a game of chess, and will never hesitate tosacrifice a _knight_ for a _castle_. Provided that _castle_ is lost,Mr Pearce," continued the captain, pointing to the French vessel--"thislittle frigate, if necessary, shall be _knight-errant_ enough to bearher company."

  "Very good, sir," replied Pearce, again touching his hat; "as master ofthis ship, I considered it my duty to state my opinion."

  "You have done your duty, Mr Pearce, and I thank you for it; but I havealso my duties to perform. One of them is, not to allow the lives ofone ship's company, however brave and well-disciplined (and such I mustallow to be the one I have the honour to command), to interfere with thegeneral interests of the country we contend for. When a man enters HisMajesty's service, his life is no longer to be considered his own; itbelongs to his king and country, and is at their disposal. If we arelost, there will be no great difficulty in collecting another ship'scompany in old England, as brave and as good as this. Officers asexperienced are anxiously waiting for employment; and the Admiralty willhave no trouble in selecting and appointing as good, if not a bettercaptain."

  The contending ships were now about two cables' length from each other,with a high rocky coast, lashed with a tremendous surf, aboutthree-quarters of a mile to leeward. The promontory extended about twopoints on the weatherbow of the frigate, and a low sandy tongue of landspread itself far out on her weather quarter, so that both vessels werecompletely embayed. The line-of-battle ship again made an attempt toget up some after-sail; but the well-directed fire of the frigate,whenever she rose on the tops of the mountainous waves, which atintervals hid the hulls of both vessels from each other, drove theFrenchmen from their task of safety, and it was now evident that allcommand of her was lost. She rolled gunwale under, and her remainingmast went by the board.

  "Nothing can save her, now, sir," replied the master.

  "No," replied the captain. "We have done our work, and must now try tosave ourselves."

  "Secure the guns--be smart, my lads, you work for your lives. We mustput the mainsail on her, Mr Pearce, and draw off if we can."

  The master shook his head. "Hands by the clue-garnets and buntlines--man the mainsheet--let go those leech-lines, youngster--haul aboard."

  "It's a pity, too, by God," said the captain, looking over thehammock-rails at the French vessel, which was now running before thewind right on to the shore.--"Eight or nine hundred poor devils will becalled to their last account in the course of a few minutes. I wish wecould save them."

  "You should have thought of that before, sir," said the master, with agrave smile at this reaction of feeling on the part of the captain."Nothing can save them, and I am afraid that nothing but a slant of windor a miracle can help ourselves."

  "She has struck, sir, and is over on her broadside," said thequarter-master, who was standing on the carronade slide.

  "Mind your conn, sir; keep your eyes on the weather-leech of the sail,and not upon that ship," answered the captain, with asperity.

  In the meantime, the mainsail had been set by the first-lieutenant, andthe crew, unoccupied, had their eyes directed for a little while uponthe French vessel, which lay on her beam-ends, enveloped in spray; butthey also perceived what, during the occupation and anxiety of action,they had not had leisure to attend to, namely, the desperate situationof their own ship. The promontory was now broad on the weather bow, anda reef of rocks, partly above water, extended from it to leeward of thefrigate. Such was the anxiety of the ship's company for their ownsafety, that the eyes of the men were turned away from the strandedvessel, and fixed upon the rocks. The frigate did all that a gallantvessel could do, rising from the trough of the sea, and shaking thewater from her, as she was occasionally buried forecastle under, fromthe great pressure of the sail, cleaving the huge masses of the elementwith her sharp stem, and trembling fore and aft with the violence of herown exertions. But the mountainous waves took her with irresistibleforce from her chesstree, retarding her velocity, and forcing her eachmoment nearer to the reef.

  "Wear ship, Mr Hardy," said the captain, who had not spoken one wordsince he rebuked the quarter-master--"we have but just room."

  The master directed the man at the wheel to put helm up, in a firm butsubdued tone, for he was at that moment thinking of his wife andchildren. The ship had just paid off and gathered fresh way, when shestruck upon a sunken rock. A loud and piercing cry from the ship'scompany was followed by an enormous sea striking the frigate on thecounter, at once heeling her over and forcing her ahead, so that sheslipped off from the rock again into deep water.

  "She's off again, sir," said the master.

  "It's God's mercy, Mr Pearce! Bring her to the wind as soon as youcan," replied the captain, with composure. But the carpenter now ran upthe hatchway, and, with a pallid face and hurried tone, declared thatthe ship was filling fast, and could not be kept afloat more than a fewminutes.

  "Going down!--going down!" was spread with dreadful rapidity throughoutthe ship, and all discipline and subordination appeared to be at an end.

  Some of the men flew to the boats hoisted up on the quarters, and werecasting loose the ropes which secured them, with hands that weretremulous with anxiety and fear.

  "Silence there, fore and aft!" roared the captain, in the full compassof his powerful voice. "Every man to his station. Come out of thoseboats directly."

  All obeyed, except one man, who still continued to cast loose thegripes.

  "Come out, sir," repeated the captain.

  "Not I, by God!" replied the sailor, coolly.

  The boarding-pikes, which had been lashed round the spanker-boom, hadbeen detached, either from the shot of the enemy, or some other means,and were lying on the deck, close to the cabin skylight. The captainseizing one, and poising it brandished over his head, a third timeordered the sailor to leave the boat.

  "Every man for himself, and God for us all!" was the cool answer of therefractory seaman.

  The pike flew
, and entered the man's bowels up to the hilt. The poorwretch staggered, made a snatch at the davit, missed it, and fellbackwards over the gunwale of the boat into the sea.

  "My lads," said Captain M---, emphatically addressing the men, whobeheld the scene with dismay, "as long as one plank, ay, one_toothpick_, of this vessel swims, I command, and will be obeyed.Quarter-master, put the helm up. I have but few words to say to you, mymen. The vessel is sinking, and we must put her on the reef--boats areuseless. If she hangs together, do you hang to her as your only chance.And now farewell, my brave fellows, for we are not all likely to meetagain. Look out for a soft place for her, Mr Pearce, if you can."

  "I see but one spot where there is the least chance of her being thrownup, sir. Starboard a little--steady!--so,"--were the cool directions ofthe master, as the ship flew with increased velocity to her doom. Thecaptain stood on the carronade slide, from which he had addressed themen. His mien was firm and erect--not a muscle of his countenance wasobserved to change or move, as the sailors watched it as the barometerof their fate. Awed by the dreadful punishment of the mutineer, andrestrained by their long habits of discipline, they awaited their doomin a state of intense anxiety, but in silence.

  All this latter description, however, was but the event of about twominutes--which had barely expired, when the frigate dashed upon thereef!