The First Mate: The Story of a Strange Cruise

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER FIVE.

  WE FALL IN WITH A DERELICT; AND MEET WITH AN ACCIDENT.

  That evening, short though it was--for Harper insisted that we shouldall retire early--was the most delightful that I had ever spent,although everybody would persist in talking of what they termed my"exploit", the ladies telling me over and over again how profound wastheir gratitude to me for saving the life of the being who wasevidently, to them, the most important person in the world, while themen said all sorts of complimentary and flattering things about mycourage in plunging overboard in such a tremendous sea, and so on, sothat my cheeks were aflame with blushes all the time. But the absolutesincerity of their gratitude and admiration and the friendly warmth oftheir feeling toward me were so transparently evident in everything theysaid, that despite the feeling of embarrassment that oppressed me, I wasvery happy, the more so that nothing was said or even hinted atconcerning a reward for what I had done. For--perhaps because of myyouth--my pride was intensely sensitive; and while I greatly valuedtheir gratitude and friendship--and I may as well be frank enough toadd, their admiration--any hint of reward would have wounded myself-respect to the quick.

  In consequence of the doctor's injunction as to our early retirementthat night, we did not adjourn to the drawing-room, as usual, but whenthe cloth was removed Mrs Vansittart announced her intention ofremaining with us while we sipped our coffee and Harper and Monroesmoked their cigars; and Miss Anthea also remained. And it was thenthat I learned how very narrow had been the escape of the lad Juliusfrom drowning.

  It appeared that when, owing to the sudden and violent lurch of theship, he had been hurled athwart the deck and against the lee rail ofthe poop, the impact of his body upon the hard wood was so severe thatthe breath was completely knocked out of him, while the pain must havebeen so great as practically to paralyse him for the moment and renderhim quite unable to do anything to help himself. Hence the probabilitywas that, once in the water, he would have sunk for good and all, andthat but for my promptitude in diving after him he would never againhave been seen. And when at length he was got aboard, he was so nearlygone that Harper's skill and resources were taxed to their uttermost formore than two hours before any sign of returning animation manifesteditself; while it was not until the afternoon was well advanced that themedico was able to assert with assurance that the lad would recover.Even so, there was the probability that, with all the care and skilfultreatment he could possibly receive, it would be at least three or fourdays before Julius could be up and about again.

  According to routine, it was my eight hours out that night; but Harper'sfiat had already gone forth that I was to spend the whole night in mybunk. Therefore upon leaving the dining-room I at once retired to mycabin, turned in, and slept soundly until I was called at eight o'clockon the following morning, when I arose, thoroughly recuperated, andfeeling as well as ever.

  The first thing I noticed, while dressing, was that it was a brilliantlyfine morning, for the sunshine was streaming powerfully in through myport, flooding the cabin with its radiance; and the next thing was thatthe ship's motion was easy and buoyant, from which I inferred that thegale was over and that we had passed beyond the area over which it hadswept. But in this last supposition I was mistaken, as was to appearlater. Still, when I went on deck everything went to justify thebelief, for the sky was cloudless, the wind had sunk to a royal breezefrom the eastward, the sea had gone down, leaving nothing but a long lownortherly swell, and we were reeling off our twelve knots easily andcomfortably, as I learned had been the case ever since midnight.

  When I climbed to the poop, Mrs Vansittart was already there, attiredin a fine-weather rig of white, with a white cover on her yachting cap.She immediately came up to me and, shaking hands, expressed the hopethat I had entirely recovered from the effects of yesterday's duckingand exertions. Then, as I replied in the affirmative and in returnenquired how her son was progressing, she deftly drew me aft to thetaffrail, out of earshot of Briscoe, the second mate, who was sourlyregarding us both, and said:

  "Now, Walter, there is just a word or two that I want to say to you, andthis is as good an opportunity as any to say it. I will not repeat whatI said to you last night in reference to my gratitude to you for savingdear Julius's life, for I hope I then made it quite clear to you that Ishall always regard myself as under an obligation to you which it willbe quite impossible for me ever adequately to repay. But this is what Iwish you to understand. I have decided that in the interests of gooddiscipline, and to guard against the possibility of arousing unworthyjealousy,"--here, whether by accident or design, she allowed her gaze torest for a moment upon the second mate's somewhat ungainly figure--"Ishall treat you, while on duty, precisely as I do my other officers,making no distinction whatever in my behaviour between you and them. Ifeel sure that you would prefer it so; would you not? Of course. Verywell, then, that is clearly understood between us; but I thought it bestto mention the matter, so that there shall be no misapprehension.

  "And now, as to Julius. The dear boy is very much better, I am thankfulto say; but Dr Harper thinks it is best that he should remain in bedfor to-day at least. I find that he has not the faintest recollectionof what happened to him after he fell into the water until he came tohimself in his bed, so I have told him everything, and made it perfectlyclear to him that he owes his life to you. Of course he is grateful,and wishes you to go down and see him a little later on in order that hemay personally thank you; but--well--if he should seem not quite sograteful to you as he ought to be I beg that you will not think badly ofhim, Walter. Having been unconscious all the time that he was in thewater, I can quite understand--cannot you?--that he is unable toappreciate very clearly the awful risk you ran in effecting his rescue,and the magnitude of his indebtedness to you. And--yes--there isanother thing. He is an only son--and--well, I am beginning to thinkthat perhaps we have all united together to spoil him a bit, so that,you see--"

  The poor lady was becoming more and more embarrassed with every word sheuttered, I therefore thought it high time to come to her relief; so Isaid:

  "Dear madam, I beg that you will not distress yourself by attempting anyfurther explanation. I see exactly how the matter stands; and believeme, I shall not be in the smallest degree disappointed if I find thatJulius's gratitude is less eloquent in its expression than your own.After all, he is still very young; he has no knowledge of what actuallyhappened, except what you have told him; and I doubt very much whetherany boy of his age possesses the capacity to conjure up a very livelyfeeling of gratitude for an obligation of which he knows nothing exceptfrom hearsay. Therefore I hope that you will not allow yourself toworry over any seeming lukewarmness on his part."

  "Thank you, Walter; a thousand thanks!" she said, laying her hand uponmy arm. "It is generous of you to feel about it as you do, and itincreases the load of my obligation to you. But I see that youperfectly understand, so I will say no more about it. As soon as DrHarper says you can see Julius, I will send for you."

  The interview with Julius took place shortly after six bells in theforenoon watch, the boy's mother and the doctor being present; and afterwhat the former had said to me by way of preparation, I was not at allsurprised to find that Master Julius's thanks were expressed in a veryperfunctory, offhand manner, with not much of the ring of sincerityabout them. But I made allowances for him, for I saw that the lad wasstill only in the early stage of convalescence; also, it was perfectlyclear that he did not in the least realise the fact that he had all butlost his life.

  The cabin in which he lay was very large, light, airy, and mostbeautifully furnished, with every convenience and luxury that the mostfastidious person could possibly desire; and it was quite painful to seeits occupant, on his handsome and capacious brass bedstead, under a mostbeautiful embroidered silk coverlet, and surrounded by everything thatheart could wish for, lying there wan, peevish, irritable, dissatisfiedwith everybody and everything, seemingly because his doting parents hadgratif
ied his every whim and humoured his every caprice. It was quiteevident that he regarded me with almost if not quite as great distasteas ever; he even seemed to consider it a grievance that he owed his lifeto a despised Britisher; and seeing how acutely his mother wasdistressed at his ungracious manner toward me, I contented myself bysaying a few words of sympathy with him on his illness, and brought myvisit to a speedy close.

  Five bells in the afternoon watch had just been struck, and I was oncemore on duty, when a man who had been sent aloft to attend to some smallmatter hailed the deck from the main topsail yard to report that, someten miles distant, and broad on our weather beam, there was somethingthat had the appearance of a dismasted wreck. In reply to this theskipper, who was on deck, requested Kennedy to take the ship's telescopeup into the main topmast crosstrees and ascertain what the object reallywas. This was done; and in due time the mate came down and reportedthat the object, as seen through the glass, proved to be a biggish lumpof a craft, either a ship or a barque, totally dismasted, with thewreckage of her spars still floating alongside, and to all appearancederelict. We at once hauled our wind, and shortly afterward tacked; andby eight bells we were up with the wreck and hove to within biscuit-tossto leeward of the craft. Then Briscoe, the second mate, in charge ofone of the whalers, was sent away to give the derelict--for such sheseemed to be--an overhaul.

  The craft was a wooden vessel, of about our own tonnage, painted blackwith a broad white ribbon chequered with false ports; she had a Dutchlook about her; and, from her model, was evidently somewhat elderly.She had been ship-rigged, and from the appearance of the wreckagealongside had been caught unawares, very probably by the recenthurricane, and dismasted. She had a short, full poop, and as she rolledheavily toward us we caught sight of what looked like the shatteredframework of a deckhouse close abaft the stump of her foremast; also,there were the remains of two boats dangling from davits on herquarters; from all of which appearances we concluded that she had passedthrough a pretty desperate experience.

  But what had become of her crew? There had been no sign of them when weclosed with and hailed her, nor had any of them appeared since; yet thewreckage of the boats hanging from her davits made it difficult for usto believe that they had abandoned the ship. True, there was no sign ofa longboat such as is usually stowed on the main-hatch of a merchantman,but we could hardly believe that the crew had taken to her in preferenceto the two quarter boats; for after the fall of the spars it would havebeen difficult to launch so heavy a boat, unless indeed they had run heroverboard, fisherman fashion, through the wide gap in her bulwarksamidships on both sides, where not only the planking but also thestanchions had been swept away.

  Shortly after the departure of Briscoe we drifted into a position whichenabled us to get a view of the stranger's stern. This confirmed ourfirst surmise respecting her origin, for beneath a row of smashed cabinwindows we read the words: "Anna Waarden. Amsterdam."

  Briscoe remained aboard the wreck about three-quarters of an hour; and,upon his return, reported that the craft was derelict, and that therewas nothing to show how the crew had left her, except that it appearedto have been with the utmost suddenness, for there was no sign of theirhaving taken anything with them. Even the ship's papers--which he foundin the captain's stateroom and brought away with him--had been leftbehind; and that the disaster could only have occurred very recently wasproved by the logbook, which had been entered up to within a few hoursof the moment when the hurricane struck us, while Briscoe had found thechronometer still going.

  He added that he had sounded the well and found barely a foot of waterin it; and that, after careful examination, he had come to theconclusion that the hull was sound. If Mrs Vansittart would supply himwith a crew, he believed he could fit the craft with a jury rig and takeher into port. The logbook showed that she had sailed from Batavia,homeward bound for Amsterdam, sixteen days before the date upon which wefell in with her; while her papers made it clear that she was laden witha cargo quite rich enough to justify the attempt at salvage. The resultof this report was that Mrs Vansittart summoned the crew aft, explainedto them, through Kennedy, the nature of the second mate's report and hisrequest to be allowed to salve the hull and cargo, and then called forvolunteers for the job.

  The prospect of salvage money proved tempting enough to induce sometwenty men to come forward, of whom Kennedy chose fifteen, including theboatswain's and carpenter's mates; whereupon the purser was instructedto make up the men's accounts to date and pay them off. While the firstpart of this business--namely, the making up of the accounts--was beingattended to, those who had volunteered went below and packed their kits,then brought them on deck and threw them into the first cutter, whichMrs Vansittart gave them, after which they went aboard the Hollanderand got to work.

  The arrangement was that if Briscoe found the ship sound, he was, ifpossible, to follow us to Colombo. If the yacht should be there uponhis arrival, he was to turn over his salvaged vessel to the properauthorities, and, with his crew, rejoin the _Stella Maris_. But if forany reason this plan should be found impracticable, he was to actaccording to his own discretion, preferably navigating the ship to thenearest port at which she could be refitted, and thence taking her home.

  Half an hour afterward Grimwood, the purser, reported that he had madeup his accounts and withdrawn from the safe the amount of money requiredto pay off the volunteers, whereupon I was ordered to take the whaler,which was still in the water, veered astern, convey the purser aboardthe other craft, and, while he was engaged upon his business, take alook round and consult with Briscoe, to determine whether the latter hadall that he was likely to require.

  Investigation showed, as was of course to be expected, that the craftwas amply supplied with provisions and water for a long voyage, and alsothat both were undamaged, while she was also well found in every otherrespect. As soon, therefore, as the purser had finished his task--notwithout having some of his accounts disputed--we bade the adventurersfarewell, wished them a safe and prosperous voyage, climbed down intoour boat, and returned to the yacht, which, after I had made my reportto the skipper, filled away and proceeded for Colombo, just as the sunwas dipping below the horizon.

  I may mention here that we saw no more of Briscoe and his crew. Theydid not turn up at Colombo during our sojourn there; and it was notuntil long afterward that I learned that, after a very protracted andadventurous voyage, the _Anna Waarden_ safely reached Durban, where sherefitted, ultimately arriving safely in Amsterdam.

  At ten o'clock in the morning of the fifth day after parting companywith Briscoe, we entered Colombo harbour and came to an anchor in sixfathoms. The boy Julius was by this time sufficiently recovered to showonce more on deck, but his health was still such as to cause his mothersome anxiety; therefore, after anxious consultation with Harper, it wasarranged that he should be taken up to Kandy and given a fortnight'sthorough change of air and scene. The whole party--that is to say, MrsVansittart, her son and daughter, and Monroe--therefore packed up theirtraps and went ashore immediately after luncheon; and we saw no more ofthem for a full fortnight. At least we saw no more of them down aboardthe yacht; but after they had been gone some three or four days Kennedyreceived an invitation to go up to Kandy, to dine and spend the next daythere; and when he returned he brought with him a similar invitation forme, it being now impossible for us both to be out of the ship together,since, immediately upon Briscoe's departure, I had been temporarilypromoted to the position of second mate, with the promise of permanentconfirmation in the event of Briscoe not rejoining us. So in my turn,up I went to Kandy, and enjoyed the trip immensely, being most warmlyreceived by everybody except Julius, who seemed wholly unable to conquerhis antipathy toward me.

  When the party returned to the yacht they were all, Julius included,looking vastly better for their sojourn among the hills; indeed the boyappeared better in health than I had ever seen him before, and I thoughtthere was a shade of improvement in his temper also. They came aboard
about half-past five o'clock in the evening, and, we having beenpreviously warned by letter, the moment that they stepped in on deck wehove up our anchor, started our engine, and proceeded to sea, in orderthat we might avoid spending the night in the insufferable heat of theharbour. We kept the engine going until we had rounded Dondra Head andwere heading north, with Adam's Peak square off our port beam, when wemade sail, bound for Calcutta, where we arrived exactly a week later.

  We lay at Calcutta a whole month, during which Mrs Vansittart and herparty toured India from end to end, seeing, according to her ownaccount, everything worth seeing. And while she was thus engaged, we ofthe wardroom did our modest best to enjoy ourselves, first of all seeingeverything that was worth seeing in and about the city; and afterwardengaging a native pilot to take us in the motor launch to theSunderbunds, where, braving malaria, snakes, and all other perils, wespent a week shooting, the four of us who constituted the party baggingseven tigers between us, to say nothing of other and less formidablegame.

  From Calcutta we sailed for Moulmein, where we remained four days,getting a hurried glimpse of Burma and the Burmese; then we sailed forSingapore, at the southern extremity of the Malay Peninsula. But on thenight of our third day out from Moulmein, while we were bowling merrilyalong with a spanking wind abeam, reeling off a good twelve knots by thelog, we struck something which we conjectured to be a piece ofpractically submerged wreckage; for when we afterwards came toinvestigate the matter, the look-out on the forecastle head vowed by allhis gods that, although he was keenly alert, he had seen nothing. Theincident occurred during the middle watch, while Kennedy was in charge,consequently I was below and asleep at the time. But I was awakened bythe shock, although it was not very severe. Kennedy rushed aft to thetaffrail to see if he could catch a glimpse of the object, whatever itmight be; but although the night was starlit it was too dark to see verydistinctly, and although he imagined that, as he stood there at gaze, hesaw something break water some eight or ten fathoms astern, he could notbe sure.

  He wheeled about, and, running forward to the break of the poop, gaveorders to let fly the royal and topgallant halyards and sheets and toback the mainyard, also instructing the carpenter to sound the pumpwell. For a few moments, while these things were doing, there was someconfusion, what with the watch bustling about the decks, and those belowrushing up on deck to see what had happened--among them being MrsVansittart, who appeared on the poop wrapped in a dressing-gown. Butpresently the ship was brought to the wind and hove to, and theconfusion began to subside, especially when the carpenter reported thatthe ship was making no water.

  Mrs Vansittart, apprehensive that we might have run down some smallnative craft, ordered our remaining cutter to be lowered and sent meaway in charge to investigate; but after pulling about for more than anhour I was unable to find anything, and at length returned to the shipin response to a rocket recall. Meanwhile, the carpenter had beenbelow, and, after a most careful investigation, had returned with thereport that he could find no indication that the ship had sustained theslightest damage; consequently, upon my return, the cutter was hoistedup and sail was again made. But on the morrow, with the arrival ofdaylight, the discovery was made that all three blades of our propellerhad been completely shorn off, a mishap which, a little later on,resulted in landing us in what might have been a very awkward mess.

  Possibly this accident may have had the effect of reminding our ladyskipper of something that had all but slipped her memory. Be that as itmay, the loss of our propeller blades had no sooner been discovered thanshe issued certain orders, in response to which several heavy cases wereswayed up on deck and opened, with the result that when the sun wentdown that night the _Stella Maris_ was an armed ship, sporting twomain-deck batteries of beautiful four-inch quick-firing guns of the mostup-to-date pattern, six of a side, with two one-pound Hotchkisses on herforecastle, and four Maxims on her poop.