CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
A VOYAGE UPON A RAFT.
We had now time to look about us, and to realise our position, which--though it might easily have been worse--was certainly the reverse ofenviable.
In the first place we were upon a frail raft which, well constructedthough it was, could not be expected to hold long together, unless wewere favoured with exceptionally fine weather. In the next placeeverything of which we were possessed in the shape of provisions wascomprised in the four dead fowls found in the hen-coop; and of water, orany other liquid with which to quench our thirst, we had not a singledrop. On the other hand the island of Saint Domingo was under our lee,at a distance of about ninety miles, and if our raft would only holdtogether so long and maintain the speed at which it was then travelling,we might hope to reach land in from two and a half to three days.
I laid these facts before my companions, directing their specialattention to the circumstance that we had to look forward to three daysof suffering from thirst, and also from hunger in a minor degree, urgingthem to the brave endurance of these privations, if necessary, andpointing out to them that though unfortunately we happened to be in oneof the least-frequented of the passages, there was a chance, although asomewhat slender one, of our being picked up at any hour, and I wound upby reminding them that, even on that frail raft, we were as much underthe protection of Him who holds the waters in the hollow of His hand aswe should be were we safe on shore. At the doctor's suggestion we thenall knelt down, while he offered up a brief but earnest prayer for ourdeliverance. We all felt much more hopeful after this short religiousexercise, and went cheerfully about our work of examining the raft, nowthat we had daylight with us once more, with the object of ascertainingwhether it was possible to make any improvement in it or not. Theexamination, careful and minute though it was, was soon over, and wecame to the conclusion that no improvement was possible with thematerials at hand, and that, if the lashings did not give way and theweather continued fine, we had not much to fear.
Hawsepipe had rigged steering-gear to the raft by lashing a piece ofdeck-plank, some twelve feet long, to the schooner's foremast in such away that half of it was immersed in the water and acted as a rudder,while the other half slanted in over the raft and served as a tiller; itwas, in fact, a rude substitute for a steering-oar. This answered itspurpose perfectly, in so far as that it enabled us to keep the raft deadbefore the wind; but when I tried the experiment of edging a couple ofpoints or so to the southward of the direction in which the wind blew,with the view of reaching the Saint Domingo shore as quickly aspossible, I found that the speed of the raft lessened sensibly, and thatshe began to drive slightly sideways through the water--she would not,in short, travel in any direction except dead before the wind, and wewere therefore compelled to rest content with that, and to devote allour energies to the most careful steering, so as to run straight toleeward and so get the greatest possible speed out of her.
We steered in spells of two hours each, the rest seeking shelter fromthe sun's rays in the shadow of the sail, the seamen trying to pass awaythe time as much as possible in sleep. As the morning wore on, the heatbecame very great and our thirst grew with it, but we managed to staveoff its worst pangs by pouring sea-water plentifully over each other, aswe sat in our clothes. About noon we thought of dinner, but, hungry aswe by that time were, we scarcely fancied our fare, which was one of thedead fowls, to be eaten raw of course, since we had no means of cookingit. Finding that the rest were equally as squeamish as myself in thisrespect, I suggested and it was agreed that the fowls should remainuntouched until we felt hungry enough to eat the uncooked flesh with arelish. Toward sun-down we had a most unwelcome addition to ourcompany, in the shape of three sharks, which suddenly made theirappearance close under the stern of the raft, maintaining theirposition, at about three yards distance, with a perseverance which wasworthy of a better cause. The size of their dorsal fins, which werecarried well out of the water, assured us that our followers were sharksof the largest size, and enabled us to form a pretty fair idea of whatwould be our fate should any of us be unfortunate enough to fall or bewashed off the raft.
A keen lookout was maintained during the whole of that day, but no sailwas seen, and at length the sun went down in a cloudless sky, giving usan assurance of the continuance of fine weather.
I anxiously marked the position of the luminary when he reached thehorizon, and saw, with a heart-sick feeling which I cannot describe,that we were--and had probably been all day--sailing a course aboutW.S.W., or two points more to the northward than I had hoped. This wasa most serious matter, since it would throw us much farther to thewestward, and necessitate our going a much greater distance, probablynearly double, before we could possibly reach land; and I began, for thefirst time, to fear that we might possibly miss Saint Domingoaltogether. And I knew that if we did that we might give ourselves upfor lost, as I could not entertain much hope of our being able to holdout until we should reach the Windward Channel, and even if we did, wemight still fail to fall in with a ship to pick us up, in which case weshould have to go on to Jamaica, which we could scarcely reach, underthe most favourable circumstances, in less than a fortnight. Thesedisquieting thoughts, however, I deemed it prudent to confine to my ownbreast.
About midnight my worst apprehensions as to the course of the raft wereconfirmed by the discovery of breakers ahead, which I knew, from theposition of the "Juanita" on the previous night, could indicate nothingelse than that we were running down upon the Square Handkerchief Shoal,of which I had hoped to pass clear to the southward.
We gave the raft as much starboard helm as she would take, and after along and most anxious time succeeded in just scraping clear of thebreakers, which we found were occasioned by an extensive group of rocksjust awash. The sight of these rocks enabled me to identify ourposition, as I recognised in them the rocks which occupy the north-eastcorner of the shoal. We were therefore passing as nearly as possibledirectly across the middle of the shoal, instead of going to thesouthward of it, as I had hoped.
Meanwhile the pangs of hunger and thirst were steadily intensifying withus. Our tongues grew dry and hard, and the doctor's lips began tocrack, while the men could talk of nothing but the clear, gurglingbrooks and sparkling cascades by the side of which they had stood inother days.
The wind had freshened somewhat during the night, and toward sun-rise afew clouds worked up to windward, the sight of which induced us for atime to hope that we might be blessed with a shower. But they passedover without dropping any of their longed-for moisture upon us, and thesun once more rose up in unclouded splendour to torture us with hisscorching rays.
Our repugnance to raw fowl had by this time entirely passed away, andalthough upon examination our poultry turned out to be rather high, oneof the defunct chickens was torn asunder, and, being divided among uswith the most scrupulous fairness, was devoured in an incredibly shorttime.
"Ah!" exclaimed one of the men, as the last morsel of his allowancedisappeared down his throat. "That's the most tasty snack as I've atefor many a long day. It's a pity there ain't more of it. But there, Is'pose it won't do to eat up all our wittals to oncet; let's be thankfulas we've had even that small mossel. I say, mates, don't you find thesehere fowl-bones very sweet picking?"
"Uncommon," answered another. "There's a sort of a peculiar flavourwith 'em that I don't disremember to have tasted with fowl-bones whenI've had 'em for breakfast afore."
There was unquestionably "a sort of a peculiar flavour" with my share,but I should scarcely have referred to it with such gusto as they did, Ithought.
"Now if I could only have washed my breakfast down with a pannikin ofgrog," remarked a third, "I should ha' said as I'd thoroughly enj'yedit."
"Grog!" exclaimed the first speaker. "Grog be blowed! Whenever I've aglass of grog I always wants another on top of it, and so I should to-day. I'd give all the grog as ever was brewed for one good long swig atthe spring which bubble
s out from under the rocks behind my poor oldmother's house on Dartmoor. That _is_ sweet water, if you like, mates."
"'Tain't sweeter, I know, than the water of the trout-stream in which Iused to fish with a bit of twine bent on to a crooked pin, when I was aboy," remarked another. "Many's the time as I've gone down on my handsand knees upon a rock or a little bit of a shingly bar, when I've beenhot and thirsty--as it might be now--and drunk and drunk until I coulddrink no more. My eyes! mates, but they _was_ drinks, and no mistake."
And so they rambled on, their dry lips smacking with every freshreminiscence.
I knew that this sort of conversation would do more harm than good byintensifying the feeling of burning thirst from which they weresuffering, so I cut it short by remarking,--
"By the way, lads, speaking of fishing, cannot one or another of youwork up one of the nails out of those hatches into a fish-hook with yourknives? The others meanwhile might get some threads out of that pieceof spare canvas which we cut off the topgallant sail, and twist it upinto a fishing-line."
No sooner said than done. The poor fellows were glad of something toemploy their minds and fingers upon, and went to work with avidity tocarry out the suggestion.
By sunset an ordinary three-inch nail had been hammered and bent andscraped down to a very respectable substitute for a hook; while theother three seamen had each contrived to spin up about five fathoms ofgood strong line. Neither hook nor line, however, was ever used.
The breeze again freshened during the night, driving the raft alongabout two knots in the hour; and again uprose the sun in a cloudlesssky.
We divided another of the dead fowls between us, but on this morningthere was none of the cheerful chat which had accompanied the previousmeal. The repulsive food was devoured in silence, due probably in partto the absence of any hopeful topic of conversation, and also,doubtless, to a great extent in consequence of the dry, sore, swollensensation in the men's throats. For my own part my throat was in such astate that it was with the utmost difficulty I succeeded in swallowingmy own allowance.
Hawsepipe, the doctor, and I struck up as lively a conversation as wecould, touching the probability of our soon being picked up, and Iembraced the opportunity of mentioning casually that in consequence ofthe great amount of easting in the wind I feared we should not reachland quite as soon as I had at first anticipated. I was almost sorryimmediately afterwards that I had mentioned it, when I saw thedespairing look which came into the faces of my fellow-sufferers, andthe yearning glances upward at the pitiless sky, which showed not thefaintest fleece of cloud--not the remotest promise of a single drop ofpure, fresh water wherewith to moisten our parched and baked tongues andthroats. The thirst-agony now began to paint its effects upon us moreand more palpably every hour; our lips being dry, black, and gashed withdeep cracks; while our tongues were dry and swollen until they seemedtoo large for our mouths. The skin upon the faces of my companions wasburnt, parched, and shrivelled by the sun, seamed in every direction bycracks, and peeling off in many places; while their eyes glowed andsparkled like coals of fire with the fierce fever which consumed them.The sharks which had stuck to us with such frightful and ominouspertinacity had their number augmented this day by the arrival of threenew-comers.
"Six of 'em," muttered the seaman who was steering the raft when thethree new arrivals appeared; "that means as six out of us seven isdoomed."
Another endless day of indescribable agony--another long night oftorment; and again up rose the sun in a pitiless, cloudless sky.
Oh! how fervently I longed and prayed for an overcast sky and a peltingrain, even though it were accompanied by the wildest hurricane whichever blew; the worst that could happen to us in such a case would bedrowning, the prospect of which seemed to be bliss itself compared withthis slow fiery torment of thirst.
On this day Tom Miles and Ned Rodgers, two of the four seamen, suddenlysprang to their feet, and with a despairing yell plunged over the sideof the raft into the sea before we were aware of or could arrest theirterrible intention. There was a frightful splashing in the waterastern, as the sea-monsters fought over their prey; then all was quietagain. _Two of the sharks had disappeared_.
My companions regarded this terrible tragedy almost with indifference,and the doctor, in a weak and cracked voice which was scarcely audible,muttered something to the effect that "those _two_ were happily out oftheir suffering." Before sunset the poor fellow had followed them, and_another shark had disappeared_.
Some time during the night I was awakened by Hawsepipe, whose trick atthe helm it was. He aroused me by giving me a feeble shake on theshoulder, and, being by this time unable to speak, raised his hand andpointed skyward. I looked up and saw that the firmament was obscured byheavy masses of cloud, which held out the promise of a speedy fall ofthrice-blessed rain. I scrambled to my feet and hastened to arouse thetwo seamen, in order that we might take immediate measures to secure asmuch as possible of the priceless liquid. One of the poor fellows wasin such a weak and exhausted condition that he was unable to rise; theother contrived to do so with the utmost difficulty, and we lowered downthe sail, mast and all, so as to form with the canvas a receptacle forthe expected blessing.
At length it came in a sudden squall of wind, with a few flashes oflightning, and for two or three minutes it poured down almost as heavilyas it did on that night--oh! how many ages ago it seemed now--when the"Juanita" was destroyed. We gathered round the sail and drank greedily,recklessly, of the heaven-sent nectar; filled our hats and boots--ouronly receptacles--with it, and then drank and drank again as long as adrop remained in the sail. And oh! how we grudged the precious dropswhich poured in a stream through the thin canvas!
To describe the reviving effect which this delicious draught had uponour exhausted frames is impossible; our strength and our voices returnedto us like magic, our spirits revived, and we felt like new creatures.We re-hoisted the mast and sail into its place with comparative ease,and then, with one accord, knelt down and offered our sincere and heart-felt thanks for the mercy which had been shown us in our extremity;while the raft swept cheerily away before the rising blast at almostdouble her usual speed.
On the following day we were again favoured with an example of the easewith which the Almighty can supply the wants of His creatures, even insuch a situation as ours; for during the forenoon a shoal of flying-fishrose out of the water alongside, and passed directly over the raft,nearly a score being intercepted in their flight by our sail, and caughtbefore they were able to flop off into the water again. I thought thatany attempt to preserve them would be sure to end in failure by theirquickly becoming unfit for human food, and therefore proposed that theyshould be at once eaten, which proposition, I need scarcely say, metwith the cordial approval of my companions, and was immediately carriedout. We took with them the remainder of the water which we had caughtand preserved in our hats and boots, but found, to our consternation,that a great deal of it had leaked away, and the little that remainedhad become strongly brackish from the quantity of spray which had flownover us and mingled with it since the freshening of the breeze.
The wind remained fresh all that day and rose still higher during thefollowing night, so that our speed gradually increased from a knot and ahalf to nearly four knots. The sea rose also in proportion, and thiscaused the raft to work to such an extent that I began to entertainserious fears as to whether it would hold together much longer. Most ofthe lashings had worked quite loose; but there were now only three ofus, and our united strength was wholly inadequate to the tightening ofthem until the sea should go down.
Another night passed, another day, and no more rain had fallen; and thenour sufferings returned--as it seemed to us--with tenfold intensity.Our strength went from us like water from a sieve; and when night oncemore closed down upon our tortured frames we abandoned ourselves, withone accord, to despair; the helm was left to itself, and the raft wasallowed to steer herself as best she might. We sank down upon thehatche
s which formed our deck, and sought to evade in our slumbers somesmall portion of our horrible torments. As far as I was concerned,however, the effort was in vain; for the moment that sleep stole upon myexhausted frame visions of lakes and springs, murmuring brooks andsparkling fountains of cool, delicious, fresh water arose before me, andI suffered all the agonies of the mythical Tantalus.
At length I could endure the torment of dreaming no more, and started tomy feet, went to the helm, and got the raft once more before the wind.I had scarcely done so and turned my glances astern for a moment, when,"A sail! A sail!!" I screamed.
My two companions started to their feet and hurried to my side, eagerlyquestioning me as to her whereabouts. I pointed her out to them. Thereshe was, about three miles directly astern, clearly visible in the lightof the young moon, which gleamed faintly upon her canvas; but--oh,misery--she was close-hauled upon the starboard tack, dead to windward,_and sailing away from us_. We shouted until not another sound wouldour parched throats utter, but it was all of course of no avail; and wewere far too low in the water to attract the attention of even thesharpest lookout in that feeble light; the ship swept steadily on and atlength passed out of sight below the horizon.
Then, as we sank down again in utter abandonment, how bitterly wereproached ourselves and each other for not maintaining a lookout! Hadwe done so, we should assuredly have made her out while still towindward of her, and could have lowered our sail until she hadapproached near enough to enable us to run down upon her. However, itwas too late now to remind each other of that; the mischief was done;and the only thing that remained was to take care that there should beno recurrence of it.
But I will dwell no longer upon the details of those endless days andinterminable nights of indescribable torture. Suffice it to say that Iendured two more days and nights of suffering, during which I was onlydimly cognisant of my surroundings; all my faculties were engaged in thetask of wrestling with and assisting my tortured frame to bear upagainst the terrible anguish which consumed me; at the end of that timeexhausted nature could bear no more, and relief at length came withunconsciousness.
Under the Meteor Flag: Log of a Midshipman during the French Revolutionary War Page 28
