The First Mate: The Story of a Strange Cruise

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

  WE ARE COMPELLED TO LEAVE THE REEF.

  For perhaps half a dozen seconds I stood there motionless in the cockpitof the dancing boat, paralysed with dismay. There we were, six people,adrift in a contraption of a craft that I could not even be sure waswater-tight, and about the behaviour of which I was absolutely ignorant.We were without mast or sail, and had only a small quantity ofprovisions and about fourteen gallons of water, to furnish us with foodand drink for Heaven alone knew how long!

  Recognising the vital necessity for instant action, however, I gropedfor an oar, found it, and threw it out over the lee quarter of the boat,at the same time staring into the darkness in an endeavour to locate thesandbank. That, now, was our only hope, for to drive out to sea in sucha craft as ours on such a night as that simply meant our speedydestruction. The boat, low as she sat on the water, without even somuch as a naked mast for the wind to act upon, was skimming along at asurprising speed, and would soon be in the open ocean unless I couldfind the sandbank and secure her to it.

  I thought for a moment of the bearings of the bank in relation to theposition of the ship and the direction of the wind, and then, havingdecided this point, I brought the boat to the wind on the starboardtack, so to speak, found that she answered her helm better than I haddared to hope, forging ahead with the pressure of the wind on herweather side, and some ten minutes later had the satisfaction of feelingher ground and bring up dead upon something that could be none otherthan the bank which I was so anxious to reach. But the moment that shegrounded, the waves, although they were not very much more than mereripples here, began to slop in over her weather side. That, I knew,would never do, for if it did nothing worse it would at least interferewith the comfort of my passengers. Therefore, since I was already wetthrough to the skin, I nipped over the side into knee-deep water, put myshoulder under the boat's slanting bow, shoved her afloat again and,with the broken painter in my hand, waded along the margin of the bank,towing the boat after me, until presently I had worked her round to thelee side of the bank. For a few yards' breadth the water here wasperfectly smooth, and I grounded her afresh, dragging her up as high asI could on the bank and anchoring her by her painter to an oar thrust asdeep into the sand as I could force it. I clambered back into the boat,thrust my head in under the deck, and shouted:

  "Are you all here?"

  "Yes; we are all here, and quite safe--so far," answered MrsVansittart. "But what has happened, Walter? We have been washed offthe wreck, have we not?"

  "Yes," I replied, "and are now grounded on the lee margin of thesandbank, where I believe we are reasonably safe, provided that we don'tstrike adrift--and I think there is not much fear of that. We mustremain here for the rest of the night, and indeed until the galesubsides; then, if the wreck is still above water, we will return to herand complete the equipment of this boat and our preparations for avoyage."

  "You say, `if the wreck is still above water'. Is there any possibilitythat she may not be?" demanded Mrs Vansittart.

  "I very greatly fear so," I said. "When we involuntarily left her shewas being steadily driven ever nearer to the edge of the reef; and ifshe passes that point I believe she will sink like a stone. Still,there is no use in anticipating the worst. I would recommend you tocompose yourselves to sleep, if you can, until daylight; then we shallknow for certain exactly how we stand. By the way, is the boat leakingat all?"

  For a few seconds there was no reply; Mrs Vansittart was evidentlyfeeling round for indications of a leak. Presently she spoke.

  "There has been a little water here, Walter," she replied, "but Ibelieve it all came in through the cockpit, in the form of spray, andnow no doubt it has all run aft with the tilt of the boat. There isnothing worse now than a little damp."

  "I am sorry," I said; "but I am afraid you will have to make the best ofthings as they are. Luckily it is anything but cold, and if you can butget to sleep you will soon forget your discomforts. I will keep alook-out."

  So saying I backed out from under the deck, and in the first placeproceeded to search for the water complained of. I found it right aft,as Mrs Vansittart had suggested, and in order to test the tightness ofthe boat I baled it all out, or at least as much of it as could be gotrid of with the baler, leaving no more than perhaps half a tumblerful.Then, wading ashore, I sat down on the sand, with my back against theupright oar to which the boat was moored, and began to review thesituation. Five minutes later, despite my soaked clothing and mygeneral state of discomfort, I was fast asleep.

  When I awoke, the sun was just showing on the eastern horizon. The skywas clear, save for a few tattered fragments of ragged-looking scud thatspeedily disappeared, the wind had died down to a piping, topsailbreeze, and the sea-birds, which had evidently been driven out to sea bythe gale, were wearily winging their way back to the sandbank, fillingthe brisk, clean morning air with their mournful cries. I looked forthe wreck, but the reef was bare. She had vanished, leaving not a tracebehind her, save a few planks remaining of the stock from which I hadbuilt the boat; these, upon looking more carefully about me, I sawfloating in a little bunch near the middle of the lagoon. My clotheshad dried upon me during my sleep, and I was feeling just a triflechilled, but the air was already warming up, and a brisk walk along theedge of the water and back again soon restored my circulation.

  I climbed aboard the boat and, barefooted, padded softly along the deckuntil I reached the cockpit, into which I dropped softly; then, peeringin under the deck, I looked to see whether any of the occupants werestirring. They all appeared to be asleep except the boy, who, as soonas my eyes became accustomed to the obscurity, I saw was sitting up,rubbing his eyes and yawning. He presently saw me and was evidentlyabout to speak, but I silenced him with a gesture, and beckoned him tocome to me in the cockpit. He obeyed, and when he was standing besideme, staring round him in wonderment, I pointed out the floating planksto him and said:

  "It has just occurred to me, Julius, that one of those planks, orrather, a small portion of one of them, will be exceedingly useful tous. I am therefore going to swim off and fetch one; and I want you tostand here and keep watch while I am gone. If anyone wakes and wants tocome out from below, just tell them that I am having a swim, and that Ishall be much obliged if they will stay below until I return and amdressed. My clothes are dry now, and I don't want to wet them again, soI shall strip. You understand?"

  "Sure! I get you all right," answered the lad. "I won't let any ofthem out until you are ready to be seen again. Better `git' as quicklyas you can, hadn't you?"

  I nodded, and, springing up on the deck, quickly threw off my clothes,spread them in the sun so that any lingering moisture might be dried outof them during my absence, and, dropping lightly to the sand, dashedinto the water and struck out. I was gone about half an hour, and itwas not until I was returning with my captured plank that the thought ofpossible sharks occurred to me. However, I saw none, and got safelyback to the bank, where, having hauled up my plank, I at once proceededto dress in my now thoroughly dry clothes. The swim had greatlyrefreshed me and I felt in excellent form for a good hearty breakfast.But alas! I remembered our slender stock of provisions, and stifled mylongings as best I could.

  Presently the women folk emerged, one after the other, and, standing inthe cockpit, looked about them in something approaching amazement at thechange which the passage of a few hours had effected. When they enteredthe boat about midnight, a black hurricane was raging; and now it was abrilliantly beautiful morning. But Mrs Vansittart was greatlyconcerned on account of the disappearance of the wreck. She realised asclearly as I did all that it involved; and leaping down upon the sandwith my assistance, she walked with me to the highest point of the bank,and intently surveyed the aspect of the sea. The question which we hadto decide was whether or not it was yet safe for us to put to sea. Hadwe been provided with a mast and sails, I would not have hesitated amoment; indeed the breeze, if a trifle fresh, wou
ld have swept us alongat a merry pace and soon brought land of some sort into our ken. But inour present condition the risk of being overrun and swamped was as yettoo great. It was, however, of vital importance that we should make astart at the earliest possible moment, for our stock of food and waterwas exceedingly meagre, though it would have to suffice until we wereeither picked up or could reach a more kindly shore than the sandbank.

  But in any case we could not make a start for at least half an hour, formy experience of the previous night, during our brief passage from thewreck to the sandbank, had shown me that, in the absence of a rudder--which I had not yet made--provision for a steering oar was an absolutenecessity. Hence my anxiety, a little earlier, to secure one of thefloating planks.

  We were by this time all eager for breakfast, therefore before doinganything else we took careful account of our stock of food and water,and estimated that, with care, it might be made to last us all a week.This was better than I had dared to hope; for it would be strange indeedif in the course of a week we did not fall in with a craft of some sort,or reach solid earth which would afford us at least the means ofsustaining life. We measured out an allowance of food sufficient toserve for one meal in accordance with the scale agreed upon, and quicklydisposed of it. Upon opening the water breaker, however, I was vexed tofind that it was not full to the bung-hole, as I had confidentlyexpected to find it. On the contrary, there was quite a gallon short,which I supposed must have been lost while rolling it along the wreck'sdeck the previous night. That missing gallon or so we should have tomake up by slightly curtailing each person's allowance, unless indeed wewere blessed with a shower or two of rain during our voyage.

  Having quickly disposed of my rather meagre breakfast, I got out thetool chest, and, using the plank which I had retrieved, made a cleat forthe reception of a rowlock. This I firmly fixed to the boat's transom,so that, when necessary, we could use one of the oars to steer with; orfor sculling purposes. The job occupied me for the best part of anhour; and when it was finished I suggested that, since we were doing nogood where we were, it might be worth our while to take a cruise aboutthe lagoon and see whether we could find any flotsam from the wreck thatwould be of any value to us. This we did, but we found nothing except afew planks, half a dozen of which we hauled in and laid on the boat'sdeck to dry, upon the off-chance of their eventually proving useful tous.

  Then we made our way to the spot where we thought the wreck had sunk,and eventually found her submerged within about forty fathoms of theinner edge of the reef, showing that she must have gone down almostimmediately after being washed clear. There was about a fathom and ahalf of water over her poop, and as we gazed down upon the craft,clearly visible through the crystal waters of the lagoon, poor MrsVansittart shed a few pardonable tears over the grave of the ship ofwhich she had been so proud, and which she had loved so well.

  We were agreeably surprised to find that our so-called boat, bulky andclumsy as she looked to the eye, proved quite easy to propel with a pairof oars handled by Julius and myself--except, indeed, when we tried toforce her to windward. Then she became decidedly heavy and sluggish inher movements, which showed us that it would be hopeless to dream ofshaping a course other than to leeward, or at best with the wind abeam.The wind was, at the moment, blowing briskly from the southward, whichwas a fair wind for the Caroline group, in one of which--if we couldonly manage to hit the right one--we might hope to meet with hospitalityat least, if not the actual means to return to civilisation. After somediscussion, therefore, we determined, as the wind seemed inclined tomoderate a little, to risk a start without further delay, since, if ourboat was to be of any real service to us, she ought to be able to livein such a sea as was now running outside.

  It was about eleven o'clock in the morning when we reached the open sea;and the first discovery which we made with regard to our boat was that,thanks to her double keel, she would forge ahead with the wind anywhereat all abaft the beam--not at any great speed, certainly, with the windonly about one point free, but still fast enough to enable us to controlher with a steering oar. When we bore up before the wind, she movedunder the impetus of the breeze almost as fast as we had been able torow her in the lagoon. Our second discovery with regard to her was noless pleasing. Owing to the peculiar shape of her floor, which, it willbe remembered, sloped up fore and aft somewhat after the fashion of thatof a fishing punt, she rode the seas with extraordinary buoyancy, and asdry as a bone.

  Being without either chart or compass, we could not, of course, steerany definite course, and therefore kept our craft dead before the windand sea. Julius and I each wielded an oar until the boy was tired, whenSusie, the second stewardess, who was a fine, strong, strapping girl,took a spell, and soon picked up the trick of rowing. When she wastired, Lizette, the chief stewardess, must needs try her hand; but sheproved much less adaptable than her assistant, and did little more thanblister her hands. Julius then took another spell, and by the time hewas tired I was tired too. We therefore gave up rowing for a bit, andMrs Vansittart undertook to steer the boat by means of an oar over thestern. By this time we had dropped the reef out of sight astern, andwere beginning to realise fully that we were veritable castaways--a factwhich I think had never hitherto quite come home to any of us.

  The thing that worried me most was the absence of sail on the boat. Nowthat we had definitely and irretrievably embarked ourselves and ourfortunes in her, I wanted to get over the ground at a good pace insteadof drifting snail-like before wind and sea; and I set myself to considerwhether, with the materials at my command, I could not rig up somethingthat would serve the purpose of a mast and sail. I had the best part ofa coil of good useful line in the boat, half a dozen three-by-nine-inchplanks, each of which was twelve feet in length--and that was all,excepting of course that priceless treasure, the carpenter's chest.

  As I stood looking contemplatively at the planks it occurred to me thatthree of them, say, placed edge to edge, and reared upright on theboat's deck, would catch quite an appreciable amount of wind, and nosooner had the idea suggested itself to me than I got to work. My firstact was to take one of the planks and saw off an end two feet six inchesin length. This piece I next sawed into six equal strips, or battens, atask which occupied me much longer than I had anticipated, chiefly onaccount of the limited space in which I was obliged to work, and becauseI had nothing but the boat's gunwale to steady the plank against. But Igot my six battens at last, and four of them I nailed at equal intervalsof about two feet three inches across three planks laid close togetherside by side, while I nailed a fifth athwartships on the deck at thepoint where I intended to rear my planks. The length of the battensbeing three inches more than the combined width of the three planks, theprojecting ends of the top batten afforded me a very convenient shoulderfor the support of my shrouds and stay, which I cut from my coil ofline.

  Having got these all fixed and seized, I reared my structure on endagainst the deck batten, with the assistance of Julius and the twostewardesses, set up the shrouds and stay, nailed another batten infront of the contraption, to keep it in place, and behold! I had a mastand sail in one, twelve feet long and two feet three inches wide,capable of catching and holding quite an appreciable amount of wind.That this was actually the case at once became apparent, the boat'sspeed quickly rising to about three knots, while she did not now loseway when she sank into the trough of the sea.

  I was so pleased with the success of my experiment that I immediatelybegan to elaborate the original idea. My new scheme was to saw one ofthe planks into very thin veneer-like sheets, nail them together at theedges, and make veritable sails out of them; but an hour's work sufficedto convince me that to saw a three-inch plank into even quarter-inchboards with an ordinary handsaw demanded far more skill in carpentrythan I possessed.

  The afternoon and night passed quietly; and shortly after sunrise thefeminine members of the party made their appearance. Upon enquiry I wasinformed that they had all passed a comfo
rtable night and slept well.They were quite cheerful and courageous; indeed, I was amazed to see howquickly and thoroughly they all adapted themselves to circumstances,although, in the case of Mrs Vansittart and her daughter at least, thiswas their first experience of anything in the nature of real hardship.

  We breakfasted early that morning, all of us declaring ourselves to bemore than ready for the meal. Then we experienced a most unpleasantshock, for upon serving out the first allowance of water for the day, wediscovered that our stock had suffered a further mysterious depletionduring the night, which, upon investigation, proved to be due to a leakybreaker. The leak was not a very serious one, certainly, and the stavesseemed to be taking up a bit and the leak growing less; still, we hadlost about three pints, which was half a pint apiece, and it was notdifficult to picture conditions under which this might make all thedifference to us between life and death.

  The day passed like the night, uneventfully. The breeze held steady,and we continued to blow along northward, Mrs Vansittart and herdaughter taking spell and spell at the steering oar while I endeavouredto make up my arrears of sleep. Of course a sharp look-out wasmaintained, in the hope that either a sail or land might be sighted; butalthough the air was crystal-clear the horizon remained bare throughoutits entire circle. Toward nightfall the wind manifested a tendency todrop, and shortly after midnight it fell dead, so that when Juliusaroused me at two o'clock in the morning I found the boat heaving gentlyupon an oil-smooth swell.

  This calm, if it should last for any length of time, would be nothingshort of a disaster. It was of vital importance that we should findeither a ship or a shore capable of providing us with sustenance withinthe next four or five days, or we should all be subjected to the horrorsof starvation. I positively dreaded to think of what might be theeffect of this upon the women; therefore, that we might not lie thereabsolutely helpless, I started to scull the boat with the steering oar.But she was heavy for this style of propulsion, and I estimated that ourprogress did not amount to more than three-quarters of a mile per hour.