WRECKED ON THE GOODWINS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1013, 12 January 1869, Page 3

WRECKED ON THE GOODWINS.

(From " Chambers' Journal " for October.) When the screw Grampus steamed out of Boulogne harbour for the Thames, she met more than one damaged craft with shattered spars and shivered sails bearing up for that port, Mice crippled mallards mating for the shore. The three days' storm had lulled at last, but it had bequeathed its legacy of sinister black dots to the wreck-chart of the year, its supplies of drift firewood to the cottages by the Channel. " "We've seen the worst of it, sir/ observed the captain as he descended from the gangway, when he had cleared the piers; "and, to tell the truth, I'm not sorry, with our deck lumbered with Breton cows, and our hold full of French machinery. It's brightening down there to windward." It might be brightening to windward ; but although things looked hardly bad enough to reconcile it to one's conscience to put off one's voyage, yet, in coinnjqn, doubtless, with all the other passengers, I should have been very glad to have found myself safe in the river. Although there was no wind to speak of, and we were steaming with the heavy swell that came rolling up Channel, yet the long narrowwaistod screw, deeply laden as she was, pitched and rolled in a way that said little for her qualities as a sea-going boat. It was still early in the afternoon when the powerful lights began to revolve on the heights of Cape Gris-nez; but already the shades of a winter evening were closing . around. Heavy black snow clouds came rolling up before us, and massing themselves overhead ; stray flakes fell sinking through the air, when the wind, which had changed about, and risen a little, did not drive them in our faces in its fitful puffs. " I wish there bean't more than snow in them clouds," remarked an ancient mariner. "If the glass ain't falling now, then the glass is a liar — and that's my opinion. His forebodings were speedily verified by the increasing violence of the wind, that to a landsman like myself seemed to i be blowing great guns, though possibly a sailor might have guaged its force by nothing bigger than eighteen-pounders. i The word was passed to see all secured, and soon the dead-lights were up, the hatches on, and the cabin-door fast. It was only by dint of hard pleading that I I escaped imprisonment. Discomforts on deck were pleasure compared to passive wretchedness below. The sight around ' us would have been a grand one from Boulogne-pier — on board the Grampus, one's personal interest somewhat interfered with one's appreciation of it. The wind, as it met the long rollers, churned them up into short chopping seas, and swept their surface in blinding showers of spray. By this time, the snow was falling thick, and snow and spray were driven together in our faces, filling mouths, and eyes, and nostrils, and covering the deck with a freezing slippery paste. Now we might have been sailing the Styx, for all we saw of the lights on Cape Grisnez ; even the lamps that swung "on our decks twinkled through the snow-like glow-worms in a mist. The chime of the fog-bell was lost in the roar of the gale, or only tinkled through it at intervals like a spoon rattling in a tea-cup. From time to time, a sea breaking over the bows swept the ship to the quarter-deck, flooding the waist with foaming water, that went splashing over into the engine-room. Nor were even more exciting incidents wanting to break the monotony of our misery. Of a sudden we were close upon lights twinkling in the gloom, and the next moment, a huge ship plunged past us, almost rasping our bulwarks. At the first glance, noises and lights seemed to sound and sparkle > in the air high overhead; then for one moment her lofty sides, her masts, and the pale faces of her crew, glanced in the brightness as they sunk past us ; the next, we had left them buried out of sight, deep in the trough of the sea behind. It was close shaving. A fathom or two less to spare, and we should have been sunk there too, never to reappear ; but, though very grateful for our escape, I began to fear that that denouement was only deferred. Thanks to that horrid iron, the vessel was rolling more deeply, and recovering herself more slowly than before. Some of the startled cattle had broken from their halters, and were making wild confusion forward. Their bellow of terror rose clear through the noise of the wind, cut short and dying away in a stifled gurgle, as a wave broke in their open throats. "We must lighten her forward, and the cattle must go," said the captain ; " so lend a hand, men. Go to work with a will, and clear the decks." Every one was willing enough to get rid of those dangerous passengers ; but to do so was a service of both diificulty aud danger. The bulwarks were high, and the poor little Bretons half mad with terror ; and small as they were, the going down among thorn was like entering the amphitheatre to combat wild beasts in the middle of an earthquake. However, wo managed to open the side of the ship, and cut loose those nearest to it ; and the next roll beginning the work, two of them fairly tumbled out and disappeared in the darkness and water. And one by one the Channel received them all ; and high time it was, for although the vessel rose more buoyantly to the waves, it had come on to blow harder than ever. "If we could but send the iron after the cattle," said the mate, breathing hard after his exertions. " If wishing could pull us through it," shouted back the captain, " I'd wish for moorings at Tower Wharf; but it'll be .some time before we weather the Foreland in tho teeth of such a gale." As he spoke, a tremendous sea fell on * the bows like the stroke of Nasiny th hammer, and swept the fore-deck with greater violence than over, tearing from their fastenings the cattle-stalls, and everything else that would yield, aud burying us whore wo stood behind the funnel in torrents of falling spray. The Grampus fell off a little ; and while drenched and miserable, we were yet clutching like grim death to the rail of the engino-room, another wave struck us on the quarter, dragging tho boat that was hanging there from one of the davits to which it swung, and staving in its side against that of the steamer. " Steady at the wheel ! " sung out the captain as soon as he could articulate ; and a second man was sent aft to assist the sl-eersman. " Would it not bo better to put her about, aud run, down Channel before the gale ? " observed the mate.

The captain shook his head. "Idon'fc liko that confounded iron ; it's not only, that it rocks the ship like an empty cradle, J till she fuels like turning over on the other side; but you don't know where you are with the compass. It's risky driving fifty knots before the storm, when it's as dark in the Channel as in the steward's locker." "Where do you take us to be now, sir?" " Off the south end of the Goodwins, as near as I can guess ; and we may as well keep the safe side, and give them a wide berth. Tell them to keep her away a point." We had certainly excitement to keep us on deck; but for anything that we could see of what was going on around, we might just as well have been cooped up in the cabin. Unless we shouted them into one another's ears, our words seemed swept away by the gale, before they had well passed our lips. We could see the iron stays of the funnel move, as if grasped and violently shaken by invisible hands, and here and there a shroud had snapped, and was streaming out into the air. The damaged boat, which, as it swung loose, threatened to beat in the bulwarks, had been cut away. The ship was fighting her way on her altered course, although we began to fear that the water gathering in her waist might cripple her before long, by drowning the engine-fires. All at once, the turmoil of the sea below seemed to grow louder, and drown for the time the roaring and howling of the winds above. The captain, who happened to be near me, sprang to the steamer's side, clenching it in his hands, and craning his body forward into the darkness, his ear half-turned to the sea, and his face, in the light thrown on him by a lamp behind, successively anxiety, doubt, and horror. ' The next moment, he turned, and made a rush towards the men at the wheel, when a violent shock forward threw him on his face. I myself rolled bapkward on the deck, while a splintering crash and a piercing shriek rose through the deeper roar of the elements. When I staggered on to my feet, the vessel was beating with a heavy convulsive motion, like a stranded whale struggling in vain to get afloat ; the waves were breaking in the fore- deck, flying over the sides in floods of blinding foam; and the lamp that had swung from the foremast had disappeared. When the steamer struck, the mast had gone by the board, pinning a wretched sailor beneath it, as it went crashing through the bulwarks. Already the captain was giving his orders by the engine-hatch, and the engines were reversed — but all to no purpose. It was evident, indeed, that in a few minutes the water must flood the fires; and as wave after wave went down, the engineer and stoker came scrambling up, looking, with their black faces washed into grimy streaks, like Indians painted for the warpath. Other sounds, too, were making themselves heard. The few passengers who had been shut up below, had found the door secured on the outside, and in an agony of excitement and terror, were beating it and yelling for release. But when they filed out, with the old steward, who had beenleftin charge below, at their head, it struck me that the prevalent feeling was rather relief at being still above water at all, than horror at finding themselves grounded in midchannel. Most of them seemed to have made up their minds that they were already at the bottom ; and as for the only female of the party, she lay in a dead faint and swathed in blankets. For the present, the quarter-deck was so far high and dry — that is to say, nothing worse threatened us there than an occasional shower of spray. The steamer forward was fast buried in the sand, that held her as in a vyce ; the convulsive beating had ceased; but although her bows received the full force of the breakers, andthe shocks and strain on her waist were comparatively slight, yet it»was impossible not to feel that at anymoment she might go to pieces. When wo came to talk it over, there was little difference of, opinion as to the geography of our present position. " That infernal iron must have twisted the ncedlo half round,"groanedthecaptain. 1 But so much said, he dismissed the subject for the present, and gave himself up to the more urgent business of saving his j passengers and crew. It was clear that while he intended to shape his course well to the outside of the Goodwins, we had in reality been coasting them on the English side ; and the unlucky order of keeping the steamer a point away, had probably only precipitated a catastrophe we could hardly have escaped. Now he affected wonderfully well a hopefulness he could not have felt. To be sure, we had one boat left, but it seemed certain death to launch it in such a sea and iv such a gale. The great point in our favour was, that the snow had ceased, and the night was beginning to clear a little. If at present it only served to shew us the white crests of the breakers that were roaring all around, at least we had the chance of sooner or later being seen and fetched away. " See everything clear for lowering the boat !" said the captain ; " but the ship's good to hold together for twenty-four hours to come, now that she's beached so snug; and long before that, we'll have hnlf-a-dozen life-boats making a race for us." His words seemed to have small comfort for the terror-stricken groups huddled by the companion, if indeed they heard them at all. They did not look the sort of men greatly accustomed to be knocked about. There were half-a-dozen well-to-do Englishmen — tradesmen or farmers — most of them muffled to the throat like walking rolls of woollen ; and a Frenchman or two, in thin over-coats, lightcoloured pantaloons, and joan boots — got up more for a summer lounge on the Boulevards than a winter-night in the Channel. " Fetch up a lot of blankets for those gentlemen, steward," said the captain, looking at their cluttering jaws and hueless faces. By this time, too, the lady who had fainted had unluckily awaked to a sense of the situation, and with her head thrown back, and her eyes wide open, lay giving out shriek on shriek. "Now,' steward," said the captain, " a glass of brandy all round, and then not a drop more to anyone, at your peril." While the captain was looking after the comfort of his passengers, the crew had, under the orders of the mate, been working like men for their safety. They could still reach tho gangway that crossed the ship before the funnel, and on this they had secured a barrel half-filled with tar, and rummaged out from somewhere below. They found some little trouble in persuading a light of any sovt to burn ; but soon it was blazing merrily away, the flames only fanned by the violence of the wind, that swept away the smoke in thick black swirls. The passengers were clustered by tho stern ; and in the wild blaze, their features shewed with every shade of horror and despair, as it cast its glare on the surf that was breaking all around. Tho storm was a rough test for the old timbers and rivets of the Grampus ; but it might bo hoped that they would hold together till the beacon had brought us help. Tho worst of it was, that the tide was steadily making, and although it was certain that it could not float us off, it seemed by no means so clear that we should not be swamped in its rise. An

hour or two later, and cod. and haddocks might be disporting iliemjelyea'pri "tho deck", and reposing updii the cabin sofas of the Grampus. It was bitter cold where we were standing ; even if we staid there, it seemed unlikely that all of that shiver* ing group cd;?.ld keep body and. soul together till morning ; and even if we sue* ceeded in raising and securing' them on the mairiyard, chilled and soaked as they were, the piercing wind would only precipitate the divorce. Still, in preparation for the worst, a whip and a pulley vjrere rigged to the mast, a little store of Spirits and stimulants sent up, and ropes kept' in readiness to lash helpless bodies to the yard. " See- all ready with the boat, Barker," I could hear the captain say to the, mate ; " it may give us a squeak for our/.lives,- if a little one. 1 ' Meanwhile, as the deck was getting much too wet for us, preparations, were made for a flitting aloft. Tw,6 active fellows, spite of pea jackets and wading* boots, mounted to the . cross-trees like monkeys ; a guy was lowered to be attached to the prostrate form; of: the lady, when all at once a strange sound came borne to our ears on the storm. We looked in each other's faces in eager silence— those of us at least who had their senses , about them. Was it the scream of a gull, or was it really the cry of a boatman ? But it came again; and this time all doubt was gone ; and then the captain seized a trumpet he had kept by him, and gathered his chest together to heave Out with a mighty bellow: "Hollo, life-boat ahoy !" Half of our groun sprung to their feet with every eccentric extravagant demonstration of joy ; the other scarcely cared to raise their heads, as they sat huddled up into dripping bundles. .&' " JNTdw oiii^Waining efea make in the faint moonlight, a boat borne tOTfoirds and past us on the crest of" a monster wave. The object of the strong arms and practised heads who manned her was to bring her up, and lay her on the more sheltered side of the " Grampus," where the long waves were broken, and came popping up like the water in a boiling caldron. Even there on our lee, the work would be dangerous enough both for us and them ; but on the other side any such attempt must have been fatal. Hopes were got in readiness on board, some to fling over the side, some with running nooses, to help those who were powerless to help themselves. Sbdii our lights fell on the faces of the stanch'boatcrew, all looking anxiously determined, from their weather-beaten old coxswain, on whose coolness and judgment' the lives of all depended, to the' younger hands in the bows, who stood ready to catch the ropes we should fling, and to fend off. The ropes are thrown and caught, the boat is rising and falling on the breaking swell below our counter, the faces of her crew now almost level with our bulwarks, now gazing up at us from far below, and across a chasm of surging foam.. • i " Come along, mates,, come along," I roared the coxswain, . anil as the life-boat rose again, one of our seamen set the example, and took the leap^ Then the passengers followed, but each with a rope passed under his arms in case of accident. Those who were paralysed by cold or i fright were handed over the sides, swung down like so many packages, and dragged on board through the waves by the ready hands of the life-boatmen. One seaman who made the jump unattached, seemed to lose his foothold as he sprang, and fell short into the seething waters. But it was written that we should all be saved. Providentially, his head bumped on the life-boat as he was washed past her quarter, and the next moment her steersman's strong hand had locked itself in his hair. Last came the captain, now the most downcast of us all, for while all else were too grateful to quit a vessel that they had feared might be their coffin, he had left both ship and character on the Goodwins. At another time, that voyage ashore in the life-boat would have seemed like sailing in t he jaws of death ; but after | the hours of terror we had passed on j those fatal sands, to me, at least, it was pleasant as a summer cruise. ' iiandfolks whom the gale kept awake that night, as it howled round their chimney-pots and rattled their windows,' may' have thought the storm a wild one ; but for me, spite of the biting wind that pierced my soaked and half-frozen clothes, I never recollect experiencing so luxurious a feeling of peaceful, homelike security, as' when we ran past the pier-lights into Deal harbour. But even to appreciate the full comfort of a bed on shore, perhaps few people would care to try the experiment of a night on the Goodwins.