in ropes, that they might not be washed away; and hardly was it completed, when a heavy roll, assisted by a jerking heave from a sea which struck her on the chesstree, sent the foremast over the starboard cathead. Thus was the Circassian dismasted in the gale.
CHAPTER IV
THE LEAK
The wreck of the foremast was cleared from the ship; the gale continued; but the sun shone brightly and warmly. The Circassian was again brought to the wind. All danger was now considered to be over, and the seamen joked and laughed as they were busied in preparing jury-masts to enable them to reach their destined port.
'I wouldn't have cared so much about this spree,' said the boatswain, 'if it warn't for the mainmast; it was such a beauty. There's not another stick to be found equal to it in the whole length of the Mississippi.'
'Bah! man,' replied Oswald; 'there's as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it, and as good sticks growing as ever were felled; but I guess we'll pay pretty dear for our spars when we get to Liverpool—but that concerns the owners.'
The wind, which at the time of its sudden change to the southward and eastward had blown with the force of a hurricane, now settled into a regular strong gale, such as sailors are prepared to meet and laugh at. The sky was also bright and clear, and they had not the danger of a lee shore. It was a delightful change after a night of darkness, danger, and confusion; and the men worked that they might get sufficient sail on the ship to steady her, and enable them to shape a course.
'I suppose, now that we have the trysail on her forward, the captain will be for running for it,' observed one who was busy turning in a dead-eye.
'Yes,' replied the boatswain; 'and with this wind on our quarter we shan't want much sail, I've a notion.'
'Well then, one advantage in losing your mast—you haven't much trouble about the rigging.'
'Trouble enough, though, Bill, when we get in,' replied another gruffly; 'new lower rigging to parcel and sarve, and every block to turn in afresh.'
'Never mind, longer in port—I'll get spliced.'
'Why, how often do you mean to get spliced, Bill? You've a wife in every State, to my sartin knowledge.'
'I arn't got one at Liverpool, Jack.'
'Well, you may take one there, Bill; for you've been sweet upon that nigger girl for these last three weeks.'
'Any port in a storm, but she won't do for harbour duty. But the fact is, you're all wrong there, Jack: it's the babbies I likes—I likes to see them both together, hanging at the niggers' breasts, I always think of two spider-monkeys nursing two kittens.'
'I knows the women, but I never knows the children. It's just six of one and half-a-dozen of the other; ain't it, Bill?'
'Yes; like two bright bullets out of the same mould. I say, Bill, did any of your wives ever have twins?'
'No; nor I don't intend, until the owners give us double pay.'
'By the bye,' interrupted Oswald, who had been standing under the weather bulkhead, listening to the conversation, and watching the work in progress, 'we may just as well see if she has made any water with all this straining and buffeting. By the Lord! I never thought of that. Carpenter, lay down your adze and sound the well.'
The carpenter, who, notwithstanding the uneasiness of the dismasted vessel, was performing his important share of the work, immediately complied with the order. He drew up the rope-yarn, to which an iron rule had been suspended, and lowered down into the pump-well, and perceived that the water was dripping from it. Imagining that it must have been wet from the quantity of water shipped over all, the carpenter disengaged the rope-yarn from the rule, drew another from the junk lying on the deck, which the seamen were working up, and then carefully proceeded to plumb the well. He hauled it up, and, looking at it for some moments aghast, exclaimed, 'Seven feet water in the hold, by G—d!'
If the crew of the Circassian, the whole of which were on deck, had been struck with an electric shock, the sudden change of their countenances could not have been greater than was produced by this appalling intelligence.
Heap upon sailors every disaster, every danger which can be accumulated from the waves, the wind, the elements, or the enemy, and they will bear up against them with a courage amounting to heroism. All that they demand is, that the one plank 'between them and death' is sound, and they will trust to their own energies, and will be confident in their own skill: but spring a leak, and they are half paralysed; and if it gain upon them they are subdued; for when they find that their exertions are futile, they are little better than children.
Oswald sprang to the pumps when he heard the carpenter's report. 'Try again, Abel—it cannot be: cut away that line; hand us here a dry rope-yarn.'
Once more the well was sounded by Oswald, and the result was the same. 'We must rig the pumps, my lads,' said the mate, endeavouring to conceal his own fears; 'half this water must have found its way in when she was on her beam-ends.'
This idea, so judiciously thrown out, was caught at by the seamen, who hastened to obey the order, while Oswald went down to acquaint the captain, who, worn-out with watching and fatigue, had, now that danger was considered to be over, thrown himself into his cot to obtain a few hours' repose.
'Do you think, Bareth, that we have sprung a leak?' said the captain earnestly. 'She never could have taken in that quantity of water.'
'Never, sir,' replied the mate; 'but she has been so strained, that she may have opened her top-sides. I trust it is no worse.'
'What is your opinion, then?'
'I am afraid that the wreck of the masts have injured her; you may recollect how often we struck against them before we could clear ourselves of them; once, particularly, the mainmast appeared to be right under her bottom, I recollect, and she struck very heavy on it.'
'Well, it is God's will; let us get on deck as fast as we can.'
When they arrived on deck, the carpenter walked up to the captain, and quietly said to him, 'Seven feet three, sir.' The pumps were then in full action; the men had divided, by the direction of the boatswain, and, stripped naked to the waist, relieved each other every two minutes. For half an hour they laboured incessantly.
This was the half-hour of suspense: the great point to be ascertained was, whether she leaked through the top-sides, and had taken in the water during the second gale; if so, there was every hope of keeping it under. Captain Ingram and the mate remained in silence near the capstern, the former with his watch in his hand, during the time that the sailors exerted themselves to the utmost. It was ten minutes past seven when the half-hour had expired; the well was sounded and the line carefully measured—Seven feet six inches! So that the water had gained upon them, notwithstanding that they had plied the pumps to the utmost of their strength.
A mute look of despair was exchanged among the crew, but it was followed up by curses and execrations. Captain Ingram remained silent, with his lips compressed.
'It's all over with us!' exclaimed one of the men.
'Not yet, my lads; we have one more chance,' said Oswald. 'I've a notion that the ship's sides have been opened by the infernal straining of last night, and that she is now taking it in at the top-sides generally; if so, we have only to put her before the wind again, and have another good spell at the pumps. When no longer strained, as she is now with her broadside to the sea, she will close all up again.'
'I shouldn't wonder if Mr. Bareth is not right,' replied the carpenter; 'however, that's my notion, too.'