Tales and Sketches

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4739, 2 September 1893, Page 1

Tales and Sketches

THE EMIGRANT SHIP. [BY "W. CLABK TtUSSELL.J To My Valued Friend, Major-General Patrick Maxwell, Soldier and Scholar. Chapter XXIX. AT PRATERS. The boat was hoisted, the topsail yard swung, way got upon the ship, and presently the rude floating cross, with its sorrowful inscription, was slowly Blidmg past abeam, within biacuit toss. Wambold got into the main rigging, and leaningback against the ratlins, watched his brother's memorial, hia head bowed on his folded arms. It needed but his figure thus posed, putting all the pasßion of rude human grief into that rocking cross, to perfect the picture. There have been times when the loneliness of the ocean, in the blackness of some hushed night in a middle-watch, has oppresßsd my spirits ao heavily that I have felt it as a sorrow, but never waa the loneliness of the deep made so vast, sensible, overwhelming a presence of before to my hearl as now, by the spestacle of that cross sliding into our wake. The whole sea, laughing and splendid under the sun, was changed into a mighty graveyard by it. Hundreds of milea perhaps separated the body from the floating tombstone which the old boatswain had launched, but somehow that did not affect the fancy of the dead lad just underneath his father's cross, aa he would lie if buried ashore. Whilst the thing was still in sight I called Wambold out of the rigging. " It's a strange meeting, my man." " Oh, my God, yes, sir. Poor Johnny ! I heard father had taken him to sea last year." He strained hia eyes at the object in our wake with a dumb, dull look, like an animal in pain. "Hain't we to get no breakfast this morning ?" cried the sharp voice of a woman on the quarter-deck. "Poor Johnny!" exclaimed Wambold, still straining his eyeß astern, "I allow father's 'art waß pretty nigh broke when lie launched that job." He then went down the poop ladder to the galley. After breakfast, when I was ia my cabin, I heard through the open porthole the notes, as I thought, of a bird singing, most deliciously. I listened with astonishment, and put my face to the window,! expecting to catch Bight of a vessel close aboard. Then hearing the whistle again— why, yea, thought I, it's Kate piping up overhead. I finished what I had been about, and went on deck, and found Kate and Alice Perry seated side by Bide on the skylight, Kate at that instant trilling piercingly like a canary, the other watching her with glowing eyes, and a wonderful grin of glaring teeth, Mr Joe Harding sourly trudging the deck abreast of them, giving them a sideways sneering look as he passed, whilst on the countenance of the man at the wheel, who happened to be the gooaeberry-eyed, ginger-haired, dandified chap, Dick Hull, there Eat an expression j quite in keeping with Joe's face. When Kate saw me she brightened with colour. She held a handkerchief and polished the whistle when she took it from her mouth to hand it to Perry, who piped whilst I approached, but very badly; I feared the girl had no ear. I shook hands with Kate and thanked her for obliging me, and then with Perry, and asked how she liked it. " Oh, it's just beautiful," she answered. "If Miss Darnley'll kindly be patient, yer shan't want for music." I took the pipe and blew an " all hands" call, then others, smiling at Perry's stare of eager enjoyment and childish wonder. But wishing to look to the ship, I handed the pipe to Kate, who at once trilled till the echoes in the mizzen royal were like a lark singing in the sky. Not that Misa Darnley did as yet pipe that whistle with the ease of a salted boatswain, but sh9 had picked up such art aa she possessed with a wonderfully clever quickness, and I guessed there was no boatswain afloat whom she would not be a match for in this accomplishment after a single voyage of piping. I stood at the rail at the break, looking about me, at the crowd of females moving about the decks from abreast of the galley to the cuddy front, at the seamen of the watch for whom Brigatock had found job 3, at the noble show of marble white canvas, swelling in stirless breasts to the golden balls of the trucks. We were fortunate in our weather; the sea waa quiet, and light as the breeze was the run of the line of crystals and prisma of froth over the eide was six at the least. They had killed a pig when the women were at breakfast, and I below; they had managed the matter cleanly and quietly, and I spied the carcase with Wambold busy upon it hanging in the twilight of the forecastle break just forward oE the windlass. A girl, after staring at me, came up the poop ladder. She was Susannah Corbin. I bade her good morning. " Good morning to you, air," she exclaimed. " Oi'd loike to ask, eapt'n, if ua gals of your company are to start agin at laming how to be sailors ?" "Certainly," said I, "and this very morning." "Why's Misg Perry practising the whistle ?" "Because she wants to know how to play." " Capt'n, don't let that there girl ba too much all there with you. Oi know what it is, she wanta to make out she's the fittest of ua all, the best for the deck and the best for aloft. What oi say is, don't give her all the chance ; let men the others have a bit. Give me a suit of man's clotheß, and oi'm game to lay out yon," eaid she, pointing to the niaintopsail yardarm, "soon as I've got 'em on." I told her I did not intend the girls should make any experiments aloft at present, but that I was delighted to hear her talk of the work with so much enthusiasm. I assured her I did not value Alice Parry in tho smallest degree above her and the reat of my company, and that she was learning the pipe because she loved the glitter of the silver, and hankered after the thing as a decoration* This made Susannah laugh, and she went down tbe steps, saying she and the others would be ready whenever I waa. Probably Harding had overheard us, for SB I waa stepping aft again to join the two girls, who between them were making a grove of the poop with thejr concert of the whistle, he approached me with a civil salute of hia thumb to his forehead, and gaid with a struggling smile : " I beg pardon, capt'n, but your pardner blows uncommon well, considering." "She does," I answered shortly, but with entire indifference to his neglect of quarter-deck etiquette, seeing that he wa3 but a forecastle hand, without knowledge of the ways of the world aft ; it was enough that Brigatoek and he were respectful, suggesting, however covertly, by their bearing, their sense of the wrong they had done me. "Dyer reckon upon finding the girls good aloft?" "Teß." " Bufc God bleaa my 'art," said he, rolling up his eyes to the maintopmaat-cross-trees, *' what are they a-goin to do with nofchen put soft muscle ia their, arms, and hands

like cheese, in a reefing job in a sudden hard gale on a black night ?" "When's that going to happen, Mr Harding ?" " Well, when it do, sir," Baid he, with a look round at the sea, as though it were coming* "Not on this side of the Horn for the women, anyhow," 3sid I. "Afterwards, when you're all gone ashore, we must pray for fine weather." " I ain't going to say," said he, speaking with labour, as though full of deep thought, " that it isn't a good idea, and feasible. Of course, as it's been put, it mightn't answer, with ua men out of the vessel, to ship a company of beachcombers and take strange hands out of such ships as 'ud loan 'em to yer, with a heap of gala, some of 'em goodlooking, still aboard. But I dunno that I'd like the risk myself — no mate to relieve me, cone bable to take a cast of the lead, tbe whole biling on the back of one man, which, if he falls eick and dies— only think ! A cargo of females a-mucking about—" I interrupted him : " Lord Nelson said that at sea much must be left to chance. With me, in a sudden black gale, and a tweendeck full of women unfit to go aloffc, it's what can't Btand must go. Would it be the first time nothing's been left but a boitrope ?" and I walked off singing aloud— "Come, all you young men and maidens that wishes for to sail," And I will ' let you hear of where you must a-roam ; We'll embark into a ship, which her taw'sle is let fall, And ali unto an ileyand where we never will go home." I allowed Kate half an hour to give her lesson ia, and began to be somewhat hopeful of Perry's ear when on a sudden she piped " balay !" in a3 well-managed a turn as ever I could have given to the brief blast. At three bells— half-pa9t nine — the lesson being ended, I asked Kate to pipe my company on the poop, and away she gues to the break of the deck followed by Alice Perry — who looked hot and pleased as though fresh from a danee — and piped out the familiar call of "all hands." I saw Bull just forward of the fore-rigging bobbing his burly bulk in efforts to catch a clear view of her, the others of the crew on deck seemed mightly tickled. Indeed, as she stood eroct, with the silver pipe glittering- like froat at the pout of her red lip 3, Kata was as fins a Bhape of woman as ever trod plank or soil. All the swimming, flowing grace of the rolling billow came into her figure out of tho gentle motions of the ship. When the women heard the pipe, they rushed up on the poop ladder in a scramble of hands, one pulling at another to pass. I saluted them as they arrived by pulling off my hat four or five times, and when they were all massed to windward, I counted, and made them forty-four. This number was fourteen or fifteen more than I needed, bo I politely requested those who were not of my original company to betake themselves to the main deck again, promising they should be the first to serve as recruits if our number diminished. One of them was Emma Marks. She glared at me; her eyes were like small aunfiowers, as I have written. She said she was as good as any of the others, and didn't mean to go. As she was bound to prove as poor a sailor as she waa unsightly as a woman, I begged her not ta be impertinent, and cautioned her that nor very disobedience disqualified her as a mariner. She then grew insolent, told ma she could see through my dirty tricks, that my teaching the girla was all tomfoolery, meant to mask an intention to improve Alice Perry's education and manners with a view to choosing her as "Pardner," and settling down on Brigstock's island, and she ended by putting out her tongue at me. I said with a smile, " What character are you taking oufe with you ?" Before she could answer, however, Perry was upon her, and a scratching, screaming farce, as it might be called, was scarcely averted by a number of the rejected females throwing themselves upon Emma, and tumbling her and themselves down on to the quarter deck. Our lesson that morning lasted two hours. I went the rounds of the Bhip with the girls, carried them on to the forecastle, and taught them to distinguish between the jib 3 and topmast ataysail. I showed them the jib aheet3 and the jib halyards ; we let go, hauled down, hoisted afresh to a song which I started, the girls tailing on and singing out like a peal of bells; indeed, they enjoyed the singing part of their discipline most of .all, I think, for they sang often when there was no need, and out of time, but it was wonderfully how well they managed, and what intelligence they showed. I dismissed them at half-past eleven, telling them I must fetch ray sextant to i»et an observation. Some begged me to teach them how to shoot the hug, but I laughed and said I had no time for that. In the afternoon, between throe and five, I gave seven of them — seven alone were qualified for that work— a leason in the art of steering. It wsb very fine weather, tho wind steady, the sea smooth, the breeze abeam, and the ship easy to control. Susannah Corbin promised to make the best hand among them at this work. She grasped the wheel as though to the manner born, and the wake went away aßtarn of her straight as a rule line, while ehe glanced with her arch 'longshore eyes from compasß to canvas and back again. Next day waß Sunday. The weather was still very fair, the soa flowing in lines of summer softness, the sky clad in places in links of pearly vapour, rose-edged, compacted like chain armour; gentle as the wind had been we had made good southing, and I was well satisfied. At breakfast Brigstock came out of b. 13 cabin. He only used it to sleep in ; it had been the second mate's— Jeremy Latto's— and that man's clothes and effects were still in it ; Brigstock'a time when he was not turned in was either spent in keeping a look-out or in talking to the crew and their " pardner3 " about hia constitution. He said to me this morning, whilst we breakFasted : "Capt'n, there's been no sarvice held aboard since Dr Eolt'a time." "What's to prevent prayers from being read if the people wish ?" Baid I. " Suppose we have church this morning, then," said he. I promptly assented, very well satisfied that his, and, as I took it, the crew's taste should lie in such a direction. " Will you read the sarvice, sir ?" said he. I saw desire strong in hia face, and answered : " I believe, Mr Brigstock, you are batter qualified than I." He looked as pleased as hia long, serious, funeral countenance permitted, and made me a bow. I told him since he was to resd the service I'd leave the ordering of it and the calling of the people together to him, and putting a cigar in my moufch, went to Kate, whom I had caught sight of on the quarter-deck, and carried her on to the poop for a walk. Whilst wo strolled the crew riyged up church on the quarter-deck by bringing up benches out of the 'fcweendecka, chairß from the cabin, and whatever else there waa to sifc upon ; they covered the capstan with a red ensign upon which they placed Brigstock'B Bible, along with a volume of Common Prayer, which they had borrowed from one of the women. Their partluers helped them in a spirited way as though thia ceremony waa part of the island scheme but most of tho femalea gazed sulkily and at a distance in groups, and I told Kato their looks did not promise

Brigstoek's good work much encouragement. By and bye Alice Perry and another woman came on to the poop. The other woman wore her bonnet somewhat rakishly perched, and her gown had the swelled look of a falling parachute. Her face was flat; her eyes pale blue and globular, and dropped at you with a sidelong fall of her head when she looked. Perry waa in a piratical humour. There was lightning in her eye, and ahe came along with a stormy swing of figure. " Ain't you going to preach, capt'n ?" said she. "No," I answered. " Who is then ?" enquired the other woman. " Brigatock." " Cursed if Tin a-going to pray with him, then !" cried Alice Perry, looking around to Bee if ho ware within hearing. " Nor me along with Misa Cobbs, bo there I" exclaimed the other woman. " You needn't attend ; let's have no disturbance," said I, peremptorily. "I've a good mind," cried the other woman, "to throw some of them benches into the sea. What right have they to take them out of our quarters? They belong to us." " I'll snivel that Brigsfcock into proper praying afore I've done with him," exclaimed Perry, "Only think of such a baast stopping ub from getting to Australia and keeping us in hourly fear of drowning P" " Behave yourselves properly," eaid Kate wainily. " Dou't allow such women as Kate Davis and Sarah Harvey to set you an example of decent conduct." Alice et&fed at her mutinously, with her hands upon her hips. I advised them to mind their eye leaf: the men should fall foul of them, in which case I'd be helpless. I was not going to permit them, I eaid, to act so as to imperil the safety of the rest oE the femalea, and after rating them into what resembled an air of sulky submission, I despatched them off the poop. At half-past ten a man started to ring the ship's bell; the crew came aft dreßsed up in their best togs ; their pardners also emerged from the main hatah arrayed ia Sunday finery, in bonnets and hats, feathers and flowera and ribbons and colours. Their appearance instantly painted a vision of the acea gate, the Sunday evening out, and the young man waiting at the street corner. Brigatock was skewered to the aeck in hio borrowed buttoned-up coat, and waa evidently trying to look his conception of a man who combined in himself the functions of the Patriarch, the President and the Prieat. His air was reverent, his walk slow, he came to the capstan and stood erect with hia hand upon the Bible, gazing gravely around him. I was struck by his posture and appearance, and watched him with interest, thinking that, though mean in degree as he was, yet, after : all, opinion and action in such men actually mean civilisation in the making. Miss Cobbs took a chair close beside the capstan. The line of her mouth waa out of Bight from the poop, but I could distinguish and enjoy an expression of prim self-complacency. She wore a peculiar bonnet, very large 5 it yawned round her face, shooting upwards, shovel-shaped, and was like a little piece of markets garden with its sham vegetable trimmings. I recollect no more of her attire than this bonnet. Kate went on to the quarter-deck and seated herself. The' seamen eat on either haud of Bi'igstock, each man with his pardner at hi 9 side. Observing that the full complement waa wanting, I sung out to pass the word for Miss Susannah Corbin ; she came out from a crowd in the waist where there was much noisy talk and flourishing of hands, with Alice Perry and the woman in the rakishly-perched bonnet in the thick of the girls. Susannah stepped on to the poop. I asked if she would steer the ship whilst Brigatock read the service. " Whoy, yes," she answered, with her face lighting up, " you couldn't a3k me to do anything Oi'dloike better," and she ran aft laughing and in great Bpirits. The fellow at the wheel waa Prentice. I said to him, "Go and sit with your pardner whilst Brigstock reads prayers. This young lady will stand your trick." The dark, high coloured, fishermanlooking seaman stared at her for a moment with a grin, next at mo, doubting I was in earnest, then just saying, " Ay, ay, sir," he gave the wheel to Susannah and went forward, rolling in Mb gait, and looking, astern a3 if he believed he'd be called back before he was half way, I caw that the course waa right, and told Susannah to mind it, watching her a minute or two, by which time the bell had ceased to ring, and I heard the sound of Brigatock's melancholy voice. But scarce had he opened with his nasal drawl, deeptoned with lung power got by bawling to masthaads, and answering from remote parta of ships, when a number of women began to aing a hymn. I went to the rail to see what was going to happen. The masQ of tho females who had declined to pray with Cobbs and Brig3tock had divided themselves into three mobs, one on either side of the galley and one on the forecastle ; and no sooner had one started ahymn than the party on the starboard side of the deck swelled their throats in another hymn, whilst the forecastle mob shrieked a further discord into the clamour by raising their voices in a third quite different hymn. Now this was the strangest thing to listen to you can imagine; and it waß a memorable and impressive picture to behold also. The ship was full of sunshine, colour and life, and so was the air with the noise of the Beveral hymns through which Brigstock's deep melancholy voice threaded its way as patiently and doggedly as an ocean current in a turbulent sea. I coneidered it vile behaviour in the women thus to disturb the worshippei'3, and dangerous also, but there was no help for it. I could but look on bare-headed — keeping the poop that I might watch the ship. The Brigatock party listened very tranquilly, every eye fixed upon the reader, who pored upon his book through magnifying spectacles, often moving his hands with gestures of agitation which contrasted strange with the level funeral flow of his voice. Thera were four women, not counting Kate, in addition to the pardnera, and I own I wa3 struck aud even effected as I looked down upon that scene of worship from the height of the poop deck.Instead of ropeß aud spars and the glitter and music of the sea outside, and the noise and spectacle of . the screeching females forward, you needed but a wood, or a Jittle open apace in a forest as a theatre for that group to help you to figure some quaint;, primitive scene of early settlement, when bucli another figure as Brig6tock, and Elder or Father, with lifted hands, and deep voice trembling with fervour, invoked God's blessing upon the soil the family knelt on, upon the hopes and resolutions which had brought them to it, upon the little band whose seed hereafter was to be as the sands of the shore. I was glad when the women silenced their noise, perhaps ashamed of themselves, or curious to watch the worshippers, or knowing no more hymns. I hated Brigstock, but all the same I aaid " Amen " along with the rest of them at tho end of his prayers. They spent an hour thus, inauy of the women creeping in twos and threes aft, nearer and nearer to hearken, then sitting down and joining in the worship. 16 ended in Brierstock looking round him and saying : " Capt'o, my lads and ladies, you that

are of us, and you that are simply a-listen-ing, here's the first of some versca as I learnt when I was a boy, which I can't tell yer the muaic oP. I've altered some words to suit thia occasion. If yer please, we'll sing it to the hair of 'So fare you well, my pretty young Gell.' And in hi 3 deep voice he recited the following lineß, delivering them as solemnly aG he had read prayers t— ■ " Oh, we are the partners what sails the deep, Hurrah, my lioys ! Hurrah, my girls ! The Lord's heye's ou us awake or asleep, Hurrah, my hoys ! Good-bye, fare-yer-well I "We'll sing to His glory as on we sails, Hurrah, my hoys ! Hurrah, my girls! For he's our Capt'n iv calms and in gales, Hurrah, my hoys, we're homeward bound !" The sailors sang these words to the famous windlasß chantey, with deep enjoyment of the melody, and not their partnera only, but many other women swelled the chorus. Throughout, stout-hearted Susannah Corbin held the ship steady to her course. (To be continued.)