The Boats of the Glen Carrig (21 page)

Later Mistress Madison showed me where I was to sleep, and so, having bid
one another a very warm good-night, we parted, she going to see that her
aunt was comfortable, and I out on to the main-deck to have a chat with
the man on watch. In this way, I passed the time until midnight, and in
that while we had been forced to call the men thrice to heave upon the
hawser, so quickly had the ship begun to make way through the weed. Then,
having grown sleepy, I said goodnight, and went to my berth, and so had
my first sleep upon a mattress, for some weeks.

Now when the morning was come, I waked, hearing Mistress Madison calling
upon me from the other side of my door, and rating me very saucily for a
lie-a-bed, and at that I made good speed at dressing, and came quickly
into the saloon, where she had ready a breakfast that made me glad I had
waked. But first, before she would do aught else, she had me out to the
lookout place, running up before me most merrily and singing in the
fullness of her glee, and so, when I had come to the top of the
superstructure, I perceived that she had very good reason for so much
merriment, and the sight which came to my eyes, gladdened me most
mightily, yet at the same time filling me with a great amazement; for,
behold! in the course of that one night, we had made near unto two
hundred fathoms across the weed, being now, with what we had made
previously, no more than some thirty fathoms in from the edge of the
weed. And there stood Mistress Madison beside me, doing somewhat of a
dainty step-dance upon the flooring of the look-out, and singing a quaint
old lilt that I had not heard that dozen years, and this little thing, I
think, brought back more clearly to me than aught else how that this
winsome maid had been lost to the world for so many years, having been
scarce of the age of twelve when the ship had been lost in the
weed-continent. Then, as I turned to make some remark, being filled with
many feelings, there came a hail, from far above in the air, as it might
be, and, looking up, I discovered the man upon the hill to be standing
along the edge, and waving to us, and now I perceived how that the hill
towered a very great way above us, seeming, as it were, to overhang the
hulk though we were yet some seventy fathoms distant from the sheer sweep
of its nearer precipice. And so, having waved back our greeting, we made
down to breakfast, and, having come to the saloon, set-to upon the good
victuals, and did very sound justice thereto.

Presently, having made an end of eating, and hearing the clack of the
capstan-pawls, we hurried out on deck, and put our hands upon the bars,
intending to join in that last heave which should bring the ship free out
of her long captivity, and so for a time we moved round about the
capstan, and I glanced at the girl beside me; for she had become very
solemn, and indeed it was a strange and solemn time for her; for she, who
had dreamed of the world as her childish eyes had seen it, was now, after
many hopeless years, to go forth once more to it—to live in it, and to
learn how much had been dreams, and how much real; and with all these
thoughts I credited her; for they seemed such as would have come to me at
such a time, and, presently, I made some blundering effort to show to
her that I had understanding of the tumult which possessed her, and at
that she smiled up at me with a sudden queer flash of sadness and
merriment, and our glances met, and I saw something in hers, which was
but newborn, and though I was but a young man, my heart interpreted it
for me, and I was all hot suddenly with the pain and sweet delight of
this new thing; for I had not dared to think upon that which already my
heart had made bold to whisper to me, so that even thus soon I was
miserable out of her presence. Then she looked downward at her hands upon
the bar; and, in the same instant, there came a loud, abrupt cry from the
second mate, to vast heaving, and at that all the men pulled out their
bars and cast them upon the deck, and ran, shouting, to the ladder that
led to the look-out, and we followed, and so came to the top, and
discovered that at last the ship was clear of the weed, and floating in
the open water between it and the island.

Now at the discovery that the hulk was free, the men commenced to cheer
and shout in a very wild fashion, as, indeed, is no cause for wonder, and
we cheered with them. Then, suddenly, in the midst of our shouting,
Mistress Madison plucked me by the sleeve and pointed to the end of the
island where the foot of the bigger hill jutted out in a great spur, and
now I perceived a boat, coming round into view, and in another moment I
saw that the bo'sun stood in the stern, steering; thus I knew that he
must have finished repairing her whilst I had been on the hulk. By this,
the men about us had discovered the nearness of the boat, and commenced
shouting afresh, and they ran down, and to the bows of the vessel, and
got ready a rope to cast. Now when the boat came near, the men in her
scanned us very curiously, but the bo'sun took off his head-gear, with a
clumsy grace that well became him; at which Mistress Madison smiled very
kindly upon him, and, after that, she told me with great frankness that
he pleased her, and, more, that she had never seen so great a man, which
was not strange seeing that she had seen but few since she had come to
years when men become of interest to a maid.

After saluting us the bo'sun called out to the second mate that he would
tow us round to the far side of the island, and to this the officer
agreed, being, I surmised, by no means sorry to put some solid matter
between himself and the desolation of the great weed-continent; and so,
having loosed the hawser, which fell from the hill-top with a prodigious
splash, we had the boat head, towing. In this wise we opened out,
presently, the end of the hill; but feeling now the force of the breeze,
we bent a kedge to the hawser, and, the bo'sun carrying it seawards, we
warped ourselves to windward of the island, and here, in forty fathoms,
we vast heaving, and rode to the kedge.

Now when this was accomplished they called to our men to come aboard, and
this they did, and spent all of that day in talk and eating; for those in
the ship could scarce make enough of our fellows. And then, when it had
come to night, they replaced that part of the superstructure which they
had removed from about the head of the mizzen-stump, and so, all being
secure, each one turned-in and had a full night's rest, of the which,
indeed, many of them stood in sore need.

The following morning, the second mate had a consultation with the
bo'sun, after which he gave the order to commence upon the removal of the
great superstructure, and to this each one of us set himself with vigor.
Yet it was a work requiring some time, and near five days had passed
before we had the ship stripped clear. When this had been accomplished,
there came a busy time of routing out various matter of which we should
have need in jury rigging her; for they had been so long in disuse, that
none remembered where to look for them. At this a day and a half was
spent, and after that we set-to about fitting her with such jury-masts as
we could manage from our material.

Now, after the ship had been dismasted, all those seven years gone, the
crew had been able to save many of her spars, these having remained
attached to her, through their inability to cut away all of the gear; and
though this had put them in sore peril at the time, of being sent to the
bottom with a hole in their side, yet now had they every reason to be
thankful; for, by this accident, we had now a foreyard, a topsail-yard, a
main t'gallant-yard, and the fore-topmast. They had saved more than
these; but had made use of the smaller spars to shore up the
superstructure, sawing them into lengths for that purpose. Apart from
such spars as they had managed to secure, they had a spare topmast lashed
along under the larboard bulwarks, and a spare t'gallant and royal mast
lying along the starboard side.

Now, the second mate and the bo'sun set the carpenter to work upon the
spare topmast, bidding him make for it some trestle-trees and bolsters,
upon which to lay the eyes of the rigging; but they did not trouble him
to shape it. Further, they ordered the same to be fitted to the
foretopmast and the spare t'gallant and royal mast. And in the meanwhile,
the rigging was prepared, and when this was finished, they made ready the
shears to hoist the spare topmast, intending this to take the place of
the main lower-mast. Then, when the carpenter had carried out their
orders, he was set to make three partners with a step cut in each, these
being intended to take the heels of the three masts, and when these were
completed, they bolted them securely to the decks at the fore part of
each one of the stumps of the three lower-masts. And so, having all
ready, we hove the mainmast into position, after which we proceeded to
rig it. Now, when we had made an end of this, we set-to upon the
foremast, using for this the foretopmast which they had saved, and after
that we hove the mizzenmast into place, having for this the spare
t'gallant and royal mast.

Now the manner in which we secured the masts, before ever we came to the
rigging of them, was by lashing them to the stumps of the lower-masts,
and after we had lashed them, we drove dunnage and wedges between the
masts and the lashings, thus making them very secure. And so, when we had
set up the rigging, we had confidence that they would stand all such sail
as we should be able to set upon them. Yet, further than this, the bo'sun
bade the carpenter make wooden caps of six inch oak, these caps to fit
over the
squared
heads of the lower-mast stumps, and having a hole,
each of them, to embrace the jury-mast, and by making these caps in two
halves, they were able to bolt them on after the masts had been hove
into position.

And so, having gotten in our three jury lower-masts, we hoisted up the
foreyard to the main, to act as our mainyard, and did likewise with the
topsail-yard to the fore, and after that, we sent up the t'gallant-yard
to the mizzen. Thus we had her sparred, all but a bowsprit and jibboom;
yet this we managed by making a stumpy, spike bowsprit from one of the
smaller spars which they had used to shore up the superstructure, and
because we feared that it lacked strength to bear the strain of our fore
and aft stays, we took down two hawsers from the fore, passing them in
through the hawse-holes and setting them up there. And so we had her
rigged, and, after that, we bent such sail as our gear abled us to carry,
and in this wise had the hulk ready for sea.

Now, the time that it took us to rig the ship, and fit her out, was seven
weeks, saving one day. And in all this time we suffered no molestation
from any of the strange habitants of the weed-continent; though this may
have been because we kept fires of dried weed going all the night about
the decks, these fires being lit on big flat pieces of rock which we had
gotten from the island. Yet, for all that we had not been troubled, we
had more than once discovered strange things in the water swimming near
to the vessel; but a flare of weed, hung over the side, on the end of a
reed, had sufficed always to scare away such unholy visitants.

And so at last we came to the day on which we were in so good a
condition that the bo'sun and the second mate considered the ship to be
in a fit state to put to sea—the carpenter having gone over so much of
her hull as he could get at and found her everywhere very sound; though
her lower parts were hideously overgrown with weed, barnacles and other
matters; yet this we could not help, and it was not wise to attempt to
scrape her, having consideration to the creatures which we knew to
abound in those waters.

Now in those seven weeks, Mistress Madison and I had come very close to
one another, so that I had ceased to call her by any name save Mary,
unless it were a dearer one than that; though this would be one of my own
invention, and would leave my heart too naked did I put it down here.

Of our love one for the other, I think yet, and ponder how that mighty
man, the bo'sun, came so quickly to a knowledge of the state of our
hearts; for he gave me a very sly hint one day that he had a sound idea
of the way in which the wind blew, and yet, though he said it with a
half-jest, methought there was something wistful in his voice, as he
spoke, and at that I just clapped my hand in his, and he gave it a very
huge grip. And after that he ceased from the subject.

Now, when the day came on which we made to leave the nearness of the
island, and the waters of that strange sea, there was great lightness
of heart among us, and we went very merrily about such tasks as were
needful. And so, in a little, we had the kedge tripped, and had cast
the ship's head to starboard, and presently, had her braced up upon
the larboard tack, the which we managed very well; though our gear
worked heavily, as might be expected. And after that we had gotten
under way, we went to the lee side to witness the last of that
lonesome island, and with us came the men of the ship, and so, for a
space, there was a silence among us; for they were very quiet, looking
astern and saying naught; but we had sympathy with them, knowing
somewhat of those past years.

And now the bo'sun came to the break of the poop, and called down to the
men to muster aft, the which they did, and I with them; for I had come to
regard them as my very good comrades; and rum was served out to each of
them, and to me along with the rest, and it was Mistress Madison herself
who dipped it out to us from the wooden bucket; though it was the buxom
woman who had brought it up from the lazarette. Now, after the rum, the
bo'sun bade the crew to clear up the gear about the decks, and get
matters secured, and at that I turned to go with the men, having become
so used to work with them; but he called to me to come up to him upon the
poop, the which I did, and there he spoke respectfully, remonstrating
with me, and reminding me that now there was need no longer for me to
toil; for that I was come back to my old position of passenger, such as I
had been in the
Glen Carrig
, ere she foundered. But to this talk of
his, I made reply that I had as good a right to work my passage home as
any other among us; for though I had paid for a passage in the
Glen
Carrig
, I had done no such thing regarding the
Seabird
—this being the
name of the hulk—and to this, my reply, the bo'sun said little; but I
perceived that he liked my spirit, and so from thence until we reached
the Port of London, I took my turn and part in all seafaring matters,
having become by this quite proficient in the calling. Yet, in one
matter, I availed myself of my former position; for I chose to live aft,
and by this was abled to see much of my sweetheart, Mistress Madison.