Tales and Sketches

Star (Christchurch), 30 September 1893, Page 1

Tales and Sketches

THE EMIGRANT SHIP. j • • [BT W. CLABK BUSSEIiI-.J To My Valued Friend, MJajor-Qeneral Patrick Maxwell, Soldier and Scholar Chapiee xxrvi. • A SECOND SUICIDE. We had run the island cut of sight by £6ur o'clock^ at which hour I waa noticing with some uneasiness a windy appearance in the Bky north-east. The breeze still blew out of the aouth, a pleasant sailing I wind, but the canvaß we were under was hall aa much aa we could have expanded, and when with the help of four of the girla 1 hove the log— a machine my crew were | perfectly acquainted with the use of — Ij found the speed six whon ifc might easily j have been made nine. jj About this hour a sail sprang up on the j weather bow. I fetched the glass and j found she waa beading directly for ns. Anxiety waa lying. vary heavy upon my Bpirits at this tincje. The sight of that sail qeemed Jilmost like a" heavenly injunction to mo to obtain the assistance of mento work the ship.'-, Resolution will swervo though'it keeps the onward path ; I own my mind reeled to and fro whilst I looked &t the diatant sail.' 'A crowd "of women were about the galley door with Kate in the thick of them, seeing as I took ib that the girls* supper waa baing got ready. . Alice Perry stood near me, her gaze fixed upon the approaching craft. I stared at her a minnte and then called her. " You're one of the moat sensible of all my girls," said I. "Give me your opinion." '•About what?" she answered with ft sudden brisk expression in her face, for now when I had a word of kindness, sympathy or confidence for this girl Bhe would colour and glow in cheeks and ©yea ep though every pulse in her quickened ite beat. " Will you girls stick to your work ?" "Why shouldn't we?" she eaid. "It's light and jolly enough and it ain't going to last long." . "Yonder comes a ship; a signal might bring two or three hpuds ip her to help us along. What do you think ?" - ''What do I think ?" she cried. " Why, that you, don't trust us" "I trust you all; but have you Btrength and will tohold out? There's a month — there) may be six weeka before us." • " Have we failed you once ?" "So," " Look at little Ellen Clark there afc the wheel. Is there e'er a man in that ship ont there a going to do better ? Is ifc that we haven't the spirit? Then we have, one and all! Some may lose it by and bye, but there's others with plenty of courage redely to fc&ke their places. Oh, capt'n, why, what's makin' your heart low of a sudden like fchis ?" ■ She fixed her fiery eyea on me and watched me steadily. Ifc was as though the strange, wild, coarse, handsome creature sought to stare her own burning spirit and temper out of her into me. I let her look, meeting her full, then smiled, and as I smiled Bhe frowned till she looked haggiahly fierce and malevolent. "it'r beoti ' understood from the beginning,", ahe. cried, 'Uhat ua girls of your crew are, t<> sail the ship to Sydney." ' t felta little afraid of her. "S'elp me God!" she exclaimed, "if I had your larnin' 'bout the sun and things, I'd take the ship off your 'ands and save yer all the trouble. We don't want no men 'ere. We've had enough of that. If e'er a one oomes I and tbe reat will give up— and | I don't know about that either," sho cried I out in a voice that was beginning fco attract t_?e attention of the women within earshot. "What'll ha' bin the good of us pulling and hauling, learnin' to steer, running up tham ladders, if we're to give up when everything settled and all's goin' along sweetly and nice, because being a gen.leman yoa can'fc pnfc your crust in pore girls of our olass. If men are to come, fired if some of us don't make it too 'ot for them to be of übb fco yer." I put on a atern face, not choosing her to suppose I could endure suoh talk and airs ; but secretly I was never better pleased with anything than the spirit she waa now showing. I feigned to look Eullen, as though I waß offended, and then said: — '•'Well, I hope all the rest of the girla will prove as heroic as you. I don't like your speech, but I love your heart, and 9o£ toping my eyes I gave her a faint smile that she might see how it gtood between us, and walked away. The ship wa3 abreast of us in an hour, the breeze had freshened on't of the south, and the heel of our ves_el was lifting the leewar^ water yellow aa cream to the chain plate bolte and spiriting ifc in a giddy dazzle of eddies ofi the quarters into a fanBhaped wake which glanced with the glare of snow astern where 'fche blue sea waa brokenly tumbling abreast of the moisfcred iace of the sinking sun,. Tbe stranger was a tyig full-rigged ship, Jight aa "q, cask, with p/iinted ports and half | her own height of g*een sheathing show- ! ing. The sallow cojour of tho Spaniard j flew afc her peak. She was probably from j around the Horn lar the Philippines on a. true Jack Spaniard course for those j islands. My girls ?iad never been taught to handle the signal halliards and I mada no sign. I stood close beside the helm keeping an anxious eye upon the little spectacled woman Clark, ready to instantly grasp the wheel if fche need arose. j The two shipa passed within easy speaking distance; we could distinguish the | faces of the people on board her; a wbole J crowd of men filled her forecastle and a number of people of both sexes surveyed ua | from the poop. Doubtless they had no I difficulty in guessing what we wera ; the ! heaps of women an our decks would explain our character, .feufc whafc was an Engliah female emigrant ship doing up in these parts ? and Saniita Maria Purissima I who the diokens were all those boya staring along the lice of the poop rail ? She yawed just beforo she came abreaßt as though she would close ua to see better. A man sprang into the mizzen rigging and yelled out; I silently flourished cay hand. She was squab walUsided, a rude squareended waggon, with stump topgallantmaat3, but the _mn cast a splendour upon her and ghe went away clothed in beauty not her own. I had snatch _d a good view of the fellows on her forecastle, and observed them to be of a hairy, chocolate-coloured type, some of them negroes; many wore the sugar-loaf hat, and several were hardly clothed in ehirfc and breeches. The Bight of them surprisingly reconciled me to my resolution lis though that ship had heen hove up to strengthen rather than stagger my scheme. All my old passion of dislike to the idea of loosing a Btrange crew o. men among ths girls came upon me afresh. I figured half a, score of thoaa Spaniards in my forecastle ; I witnessed the thirsty roll of their eyea over the women ; I imßged them coming together in a gang jusfc down thera in the shadow of the break of tha forecastle, making their whispers tragically significant by side looka aft and a frequent cares 3of the sheath knife strapped to their hips ; I thought of myself unarmed ►—alone— " No, by thunder, Clark," cried I to the astonished girl afc the wheel, "Perry'a right, we'll ' keep all on ' aa we aro ! " When the Spanish vessel bad diminished j into a small square of faint crimson light tight ostein, with the dark eea ridging !

between and ths line of tb«. horizon faint and doubtful aa mist in the west where the sky was barred with streaks, like gashes of rusty blood-red 'light, the dark scud out of the south pouring through the dying radiance like so raifich smoke, fche weight went out of the wind on a sudden in __ dead drop, and aloft the collapsed and startled sai.B beat out tthe thunder of twenty small guns, whilst in that strange pause the briskness leffc the surge and it ran softly, with a sulky lif b of sea to right and leffc that made one think of a sullen pout of preparation for a whipping. I guessed what waa to come, but whence 1 knew not, till a turn in the flight of the scuid overhead gave me the newa. It was not yet eight o'clock; Clark was Btill at the wheel. . "Keep your helm aa it is," l cried to her, and shouted with all my lungs for Perry, Lewis, Brown, Corbin— any one of them to lay aft to the lee wheel. A girl came rr/ahing up the poop ladde . with Sill her might; it was brave little Susannah Corbie of Deal. I sproiag ou to the main deck to let go the topgallant; halliards, bello/wing like a bull to the girls to man the starboard braces and equare the yards. This was testing them, and splendidly the sweethearts responded. Many were in the forecastle when my cry sounded ; Emmy Ee^d and Char lofctei Brown as joint Becond m/ites were on the poop when I jumpad tfii the topgallant halliards ; save these a_Mi Clark at the wheel, not five of the gir!,a wera on deck when I shouted for a secorj.d hand to the wheel. Bufc scarcely were tlie echoes of my voice hushed, when all tZie girls were running out of the forecastle. ' I shouted instructions as they cjimf) ; one gang fled to the fore, another to the after braces, and ere the wind hit us I had trimmed sail to the flight of tbe soud with the girls standing quiet and breathing hard at the braces, ready for further hauling in a moment. Ifc waa a shift pf wind neither sudden, nor immediately violent, into the northeast, and whea the first slap of it was in our canvas I shifted the helm for a dead on end run, satisfied to hold a south-west course till .upon next day. Before a couple of hours had passed, it had hardened from' a royal breeze into a. blow that must have double-reefed fche topsails of a ohip ou a bowline. But we wera rolling dead before it, with our topgallant yard hoisted afresh, and ifc wa3 inexpressibly comforting to think uot only that this wind was rushing us ony/ards towards Sydney at tea or eleven knots in the hour, but that it would need to breeze up as hard again to reduce me to the only reefing Bhif fc it had ever been in my power to contemplate ; I mean lowering the topsail yards on to the cap 3, hauljng out the reel tackles < aud taking my chance of the rest. My chief anxiety wbb lana or shoals— come low, ragged line pi island leaping right ahead into the windy moonshine, or worse still, a littlo track of boiling reef, invisible till right under the jibboom end. There waa a good binocular glasa in the captain's berth, and again and again I took it on to the forecastle and stared into the confußed blending of moonshine and flying vapour, and haze of wind, till my eyes reeled and my brain was sick. . Another huge anxiety of mine, too, on : thie, our first night of windy weather, was the helm;' it takes a practised hand to sfceej- a running ship; we had a folio wing '__es. I now; and the"Bhip'a head fell ofi aiid came to as the surge underrari her, rolling in snow to the bows, and racing aft again in phattered white water like an avalanche | down a mountain sfceep. Bufc, credit me or nipt bb you will, the girls, aa they replaced one another afc the helm in couples— Perry and Brown, then Lewis and Hale, theft Clark and Barker, then Corbin with Perry again— for an. hone's spell at a time was as long aa their strength waa equal to — these spirited, heroic, fearless creatures, dressed as men, and acbing like men, revolved the spokes with a judgment that held me dumb, meeting her, easing her, keeping her nose at the mean of the awing of the points at the lubber's mark, with such coolness and skill and alertness, there is no measure for my admiration whilst I recall them. - At nine o'clock I sent for Kate and told her to get all the women below out of the way of my girls, who might be ensily thrown into confusion in the darknesß shonld the decks be crowded. The women went to their quarters veiy obediently; the sudden wild weather frightened them, they ware subdued aud rendered the more tractable too by a Eorfc of wondering adtairation at the behaviour of the girls of my crew. Shortly bafore ten Eate reported that all was right in the 'fcweeade cks. As Sarah Earvey had turned in I asked Kate to get some wine out of tbe pantry and fill the swing tray with refreshment for my crew during the night; this she did, also going iuto the forecastle to see that all waa safe with the lamp ; I then told her to go below to bed, and we bade each other good night. It frequently rained in brief black squalls which burst in guns over tho quarter and flashed in hissing shrieks into our whole topsails, straining them and the topgallantfiail till they roared, and then fche ship piled the water nnder her bows as high ss the spritaail yard. But these spasms of weather were soon over; the moon shone green and clear after ten, shearing through the scud, which she whitened till the heavens around her seemed filled with flying steam. I kept the starboard watcb of girls on deck; the others I sent into fche forecastle for rest and shelter. Even of those who remained, two-thirds I despatched into the cuddy, there to Bit and refresh themselves. Afc times, in some moon bright interval, when the wind swept steadily, and when all the ship needed was an amidship helm, with a keen eye upon the illuminated compass card and an occasioual play of spoke to hold the mean of the oscillation true, I'd step below to say a cheery word to the women and keep them awake and see to them. The lamp burnt brightly ; the cuddy looked hospitable and brilliant; it was strange fco pee eight or ten girls dressed aa men Bitting at the table munching biscuit and beef and drinking the thin red wine of which If ate had put three or four bottles on the swing trays. Once on looking into the cuddy I found Mary Barker leaning against the side asleep with her head on Alice Perry'a shoulder. A sudden movement of Perry's awoke her ; she started and began to talk betwixt dreaming and waking: "All right, I'm awake. Haa fche cook gone downstairs ?" A shriek of laughter awoke her thoroughly. " Lor !" she cried, " I thought I waa at Mra Perkins' !" It'll be midnight soon and then you'll sleep till four," said I. *? We'll stop awake all night if you wish us to," said one of the girls. "It's better than nursing, anyway," said another, " I'd rather be a eaalor than a sick nurse." "Or sleep with a baby," said one of them. " Capt'n," cried Alice, "you're looking hollow; why don't yer sleep? I'll take any oath you like to call you if you want it." I shook my head and returned on deck. There was to be no rest for me that night. Afc twelve tha girls whio lay in the forecastle came out and the othera who had been on the watch went to their bunks, lying down in their clothes. Most of these women of the port watuh I aent into the cuddy for ahelter and refreshments aa in the case of the others. In facfc, I kept; but two on deck (besides the girls atthe wheel] and thoae I contrived to shelter by seating

{them in the companion way wi tn the hood up and one door shut. Throughout the houra I .stood beside the wheel, seldom leaving ifc lest the nerves or muscles of the two plucky creatures who steered should fail them, whe n, of course, the ship might broach to, with the chance of being wrecked to her lower mas_3 or foundering. A high, sea chased U3, bufc it was a follow ing sea, so- we ewang over ifc comfortably, nothing damp from the "eyes" to tho taffrail but the wet ofthe rain, and a twelve knot wake pouring off astern, lighting up the darkness thera' when a squall blao kerie d the moon, And all tho while I was thanking my good angel fche wind blew as it did, for had it. ; beaded us we must have sagged alway to leeward under bladders of topsails, and flogging jibs and _tayeails ; there would havo baen no virtue in reef-tackles as reefpoints that night pn a wind. But for the w gale chasing ua the moining light would have disclosed alo? fc littlo more than boltropea and rags. la those long hours, whilst watching the ship, I'd think of the Brigs tock party, and wonder how tbey were managing. There waa wind e»ough to blow away a stronger habitation than a tent. As to their notion of my chances— -if ever they gave us a thought — they were sailors, and would know there was nothing in auch a. blow as tbia to hurt a running ship under such canvas aa our vessel carried when they leffc her. At daybreak the wind slackened. Whilst the dawn was brightening astern,|l saw land on the starboard bow, and rushed below for the chart and telascops. I bad a clear conception of the ship's place, and was astonished and alarmed on looking at the chart to find that no land was marked where this was. Aa we steered, we should . be giving the island a wide enongh berth, but were there sunken reefs in the neigh-/ bourhood ? I overhung the rail, and gazed with passionate anxiety ahead. The sea/j were arohing everywhere in foam, bufc /I nowhere caught any appearance of the boiling of water upon a _hoal. I looked at the island through the glass and saw come hut 3 covered with reedß, and about ten or fifteen black figures running along the shore. The land waa covered with. bußhes and cocoanut trees, and the windward bit of coast was magnificent with the bursting of the seas upon it ; the white wia ter leapt up in in mountains fifty feet high, and the flash of the Bun made a huge, glorious jewel of each volcanic discharge. The land slipped by at the irate of ten miles an honr, and in half that' time waa gone behind ' the ridges, bub uEtfcil it Vanished my heart was in my throat; for never cpuldl tell but that in the nex* instant there would be the thrilling shock of arrest. All .this day it blew a fresh breeze; sparkling green hills of water chased and helped us along ; in twenty-four hours we made over two hundred and thirty miles o. westing. In the afternoon I saw the shadow of land ori the starboard beam, and just before sundown we passed an ii island ; but it was on the chart, and I was {prepared for ifc. I brought the ship's glasa | to bear, and distinguished a few hufcs, a | row' of canoes on the white foreshore, and ] some red and white dogs, with one native only, cloae beside them, waving. : '■' (To be continued.) -..,.:.