The South Sea Whaler Read online

  CHAPTER FIVE.

  WALTER AND THE MATE VISIT THE SHIP--THE "CHAMPION" BLOWS UP--CONSTRUCT ARAFT--THE VOYAGE ON IT--SUFFERINGS FROM WANT OF WATER--A SHOWER OFRAIN--LOOKING OUT FOR THE BOATS--NO SAIL IN SIGHT.

  We left Walter and Mr Shobbrok on their hastily-constructed raft at themoment they had discovered that the ship was on fire. Having now alight from the burning ship to direct their course, they got out theiroars and urged on the raft with all the strength they could exert. Theyhad succeeded in fixing the bow of the shattered boat to one end of it,and they were thus able, in the calm water, to make far better way thanthey would otherwise have done. They were in a terrible state ofanxiety. Walter more than ever blamed himself for having left the ship.Had he remained on board, he might have been able to assist Alice; andshould she perish, he could never forgive himself. There were no boatson board, they knew, and the people would scarcely have time toconstruct a raft without an officer of experience to direct them. Theyrowed and rowed with all their power, and it was evident that they wereapproaching the ship.

  "The fire seems at present to be confined to the fore-part of the ship,"observed Mr Shobbrok. "If so, we may have time to assist in forming araft for saving ourselves and the rest. If I had been on board, I wouldhave set every man with axes to cut away the upper works andmizzen-mast, and we should soon have materials for the purpose."

  "I am thinking of poor, dear Alice," exclaimed Walter. "How dreadfullyfrightened she will be! Oh, what shall I do should anything happen toher?"

  "We must trust to Him who will, if He thinks fit, find the means ofpreserving her," said the mate. "Row away, Walter; we must not thinkabout what may happen, but exert ourselves to the utmost to do our duty,and that is to get on board as soon as possible. Row away, my boy, rowaway."

  Walter did not need any incitement to labour; but, though he was notaware of it, while he was talking he had actually relaxed hisefforts.--(Not an unusual circumstance. People, when talking, too oftenforget to do. There is no lack of talkers in the world. Doers are muchrarer. We want our readers to belong to the latter class.)--Taking MrShobbrok's advice, Walter did not utter another word, but rowed away ashard as he could. Their united exertions made the raft move at aconsiderable rate through the water. They were still at some distance,when Mr Shobbrok, who was guiding the raft, and in order to do so hadto look towards the ship, uttered an exclamation of grief.

  "O Walter, the fore-part has blown up!" he cried out, "and must havesent many of the poor fellows to the bottom. But pull on! pull on! wemay yet be in time to save your young sister."

  Walter said nothing, but his heart was almost breaking with anxiety.

  "The flames are not spreading as fast as I thought they would," said MrShobbrok. "We may still be in time."

  On they rowed, till at length they got near enough to have seen anyoneremaining on the deck of the ship; but not a person appeared, althoughthe mizzen-mast was still standing, and the flames had not yet reachedthe poop.

  At length they got under the quarter, and making fast their raft bymeans of a rope which hung down, they hauled themselves on board.Walter rushed into the cabin, but Alice was not there, and no one was tobe seen.

  "Don't be cast down, Walter," said Mr Shobbrok. "It is evident thatthey must have built a raft and left the ship. We must do what we can,while time is allowed us, to build one for ourselves. We must be quickabout it, for before long the fire will reach the magazine, and we musttake care to be at a safe distance before then." Saying this, he rushedinto the cabin, and returned with a couple of axes. One he gave toWalter, and the other he took himself, and they both began cutting awayat the taffrail and quarter rail. He then sprang aloft, and tellingWalter to stand from under, with a few strokes brought the gaff, thecross-jack, and mizzen-topsail yards down on deck, while he at the sametime cleared the mass of the running rigging, preserving the mostperfect coolness and exhibiting the most wonderful activity. He sooncollected ample materials for the purpose he had in view. The sparswere light, and were soon cut into the lengths he required; and ablyseconded by Walter he quickly hove them overboard, secured to ropes toprevent them from floating away from the ship as she moved through thewater. Having collected their materials, they descended upon theirformer raft and began at once to lash the pieces of timber closelytogether, so as to form an oblong and compact raft.

  "Take care, Walter, to secure every lashing properly," said MrShobbrok; "it is better to spend a little more time about it now, thanto find our raft come to pieces in the first heavy sea we encounter."

  The mizzen-royal, which had been sent down at nightfall, remained ondeck, and the mate had lowered it on to their first raft. The frameworkhaving been formed, he once more sprang up on deck.

  "You remain, Walter; I will be back in a moment," he sang out.

  Walter was very anxious while he was gone, for he had not forgotten whatMr Shobbrok had said about the magazine. He soon heard him cryingout,--"Take hold of this, and see it does not capsize." Looking up, hefound that a basket was being lowered. He placed it on the most securepart of the raft. Directly afterwards Mr Shobbrok lowered down ahammer and a large bag of nails.

  "I must see what more can be got," he cried out. Directly afterwards hesprang over the side and descended rapidly on to the raft.

  "Shove off, my boy, shove off! there's not an instant to be lost!" heexclaimed; and he and Walter, seizing the oars, pulled away on theirformer raft, towing the one they had just formed after them. As itfloated lightly, they managed to make fair way, though by this time thesea had somewhat increased, the wind having suddenly got up. They hadnot got more than two cables length from the ship when a loud roarannounced that the magazine had exploded; the foremast and mainmast,which had hitherto stood, fell over the side, while the mizzen-mast shotup into the air. They narrowly escaped from some of the smaller piecesof the burnt fragments of the ship, which came down on the raft.

  "There goes the _Champion_," cried Mr Shobbrok. "It's a sad ending;but sadder for those will it be who come to look for her, and find onlya blackened wreck floating on the water."

  As he spoke, the stern of the ship lifted out of the water, while theburning bows dipping beneath the surface, she gradually descended intothe depths of the ocean, and ere a minute was over, had disappeared fromsight.

  "We may be thankful that we got away in time," sighed the old mate."Well, well, I thought we should have got home safely in her; but it wasGod's will. We must trust to Him, and not despair, whatever happens."

  "I try to do so," said Walter; "but I wish I knew what had become ofdear Alice and our father. If he has not yet visited the ship, it willwell-nigh break his heart when he does come back, to find her gone. Hewill think we are all lost."

  "If he has not visited the ship, he will not be certain whether she hasgone down,--though, to be sure, that would be almost as bad; for he willsuppose that the scoundrel of a boatswain and the French prisoners havegot possession of her and made off,--knowing to a certainty that weshould never have left the spot till he had returned," answered themate.

  "Then I hope that he has visited the ship," said Walter; "and now Ithink of it, he must have seen the fire at a great distance, and wouldhave come back as fast as he could. He might easily have passed us inthe dark without seeing us. Perhaps his boat and the other took thepeople off, and he has Alice safe with him."

  "I don't think that," said the mate; "for from what I observed when Iwas on board, I am sure that they must have made a raft. The main andmain-topsail-yards, and all the spare spars on deck, and a good part ofthe bulwarks and the hatches and gratings, were gone; had they beenleft, I should at all events have seen the burnt ends. I took it in ata glance, though I did not tell you so at the time."

  "But that does not prove that the boats did not visit the ship,"observed Walter. "They could not carry all the people. I rather thinkthat my father did come back, and had the raft built under his orders."

  "Well, well, la
d," answered the mate, "as I said before, we will hopefor the best; and as soon as it is daylight we must set to work andsecure our raft better than it is at present, or it will not stand thesea we are likely to have on before long."

  By this time the wind had greatly increased, and the sea was tumblingthe raft about from side to side in a way which would have made itimpossible for any one but a practised seaman, as was the mate, and anactive boy like Walter, to keep their footing. Dark clouds had gatheredin the sky; the lightning flashed and the thunder roared. Still themate and Walter did not lose courage, but exerted themselves to keep thematerials with which they intended to complete their raft, together.Happily, however, though the weather was so threatening, the sea did notcontinue to increase, and towards dawn it once more sensibly abated.

  "Now, Walter, while we have got a lull, let us set to work to finishthis raft of ours," said Mr Shobbrok.

  "Ay, ay," answered Walter; "tell me what to do, and I will do it as soonas we have got light enough to see with."

  "We shall have that before long: the first streaks of dawn are appearingin the sky," observed the mate.

  "Then I hope we may get a sight of the boats, for they are not likely tohave run far from the ship," said Walter.

  As the light increased sufficiently to enable them to see objects at adistance, they stood up and took an anxious glance around; but thehorizon on all sides was unusually obscured, and their view consequentlylimited. Walter, whose young eyes were keener than those of the mate,fancied that he caught sight of an object which looked like a boat'ssail away to leeward, but if such was the case it soon disappeared. Hemade out, however, on the part of the ocean where the ship had gonedown, numerous pieces of wreck, casks, and spars, and other articles,which, escaping burning, had floated; but they were too far off toenable him to distinguish clearly what they were.

  "Come, lad, let's turn to and work," said the mate.

  The first thing they did was more completely to secure the spars andpieces of timber which formed the framework of their raft. They thentook the wreck of the boat to pieces and nailed the planks down on thecentre, so as to make a thick flooring, which enabled them to walk aboutand keep their feet out of the water, though it here and there stillspouted up through the interstices of the planks. They also gave itgreater buoyancy by sinking some of the casks they had secured under theframework, and firmly securing them. They then fixed two oars at eitherside of one end of the raft, and stayed them up, so that a sail might behoisted between them. Some time was thus spent, for the sea tumbledthem about a good deal, and it was no easy matter to work. It wasnecessary, indeed, to keep all the articles lashed together till theywere wanted, or they would have been washed away.

  They had been too eagerly employed to think of eating; at length,however, when their task was accomplished, Walter looked up and said,"Are you hungry, Mr Shobbrok?"

  "I think you must be," answered the mate. "We will see what the basketcontains, for I tumbled into it whatever I could get hold of in a hurry,and I am greatly afraid that there is not as much food as we could wishfor."

  The mate and Walter sat down on the centre of their raft and anxiouslyexamined the contents of their basket. There was a small piece ofcooked salt beef, a few biscuits, and part of a Dutch cheese; a scantysupply for two persons with little prospect of obtaining more till theycould reach land. There were, however, several bottles, but what theycontained it was difficult to say without opening them: one certainlyhad oil in it, two were full of red wine, and two others of a clearliquid, as it appeared when they were held up to the sun.

  "I hope it may be water," exclaimed Walter; "for I am very thirstyalready."

  "I am sorry to say that it's not," answered the mate; "for they aretightly corked up. It must be gin, which is at all events better thannothing."

  "I would give both of them for a bottle of water," said Walter.

  "We must try to do without it, however, and endure thirst as long as wecan," said the mate. "Let us be thankful for what we have got."

  Walter and the mate each ate one of the biscuits and a small piece ofthe meat and cheese; but they did not take much meat, for fear ofexciting thirst. Walter took a very little wine.

  "We must husband our stores, to make them last longer. I will tell youwhat we will do to prevent ourselves suffering from thirst--I have knownthe plan to succeed, and enable people to go many days without drinking,without being much the worse for it. We will dip our clothes twice aday in the water, and our skins will thus soak up as much moisture as weabsolutely require; though I will allow it would be pleasanter if we hada little cold water to pour down our throats."

  They both did as the mate advised, and found much benefit from it. Ithas been known, indeed, under similar circumstances, to preserve thelives of people who might otherwise have perished. The mate, however,cautioned Walter on no account to drink the salt water, however temptedby thirst, as it has a powerful effect, and in many instances hasproduced madness. Walter promised strictly to follow the mate's advice.

  "I give it to you now," said the mate, "because there is no saying whatmay happen to me. You are young, and may survive, while I may knockunder from the hardships we may have to endure. I would give my fewremaining years of life to know that you were safe, and restored to yourfather."

  "Oh, don't talk thus, Mr Shobbrok," said Walter; "I hope that you maylive and get back safely to Old England."

  The mate had waited near to the spot where the ship had gone down, onthe possibility of the boats returning, but the day was now drawing on,and they did not appear.

  "There's no use in remaining here longer, I am afraid," he said atlength. "We will make sail, and run before the breeze. There's landaway to the eastward, though I'm afraid it's a long way off; however, ifwe can get there, we may obtain food and water, at all events. As faras I can judge, it's the only thing we can do under presentcircumstances. Perhaps we may be picked up by a ship, as whalersfrequent these seas."

  Walter of course agreed to the mate's proposal, and accordingly the sailwas hoisted between two oars, a third oar serving as a rudder. Thebreeze freshened, and the raft ran swiftly over the water. Night atlength approached. Walter felt very drowsy, and could with difficultykeep his eyes open, though he made strenuous efforts to do so. The mateobserving him, said, "Lie down, Walter; you are less accustomed to longwatches than I am. Get some sleep, my lad; and when I think you havehad enough of it, and should the weather continue moderate, I will callyou, and you can take a spell at the helm."

  Walter thankfully did as the mate advised, and was soon in the land ofdreams, and far away in old England. He once, when a little boy, hadhad a fever, and he thought he was lying on his bed as he then did, withhis fond mother watching over him, and giving him cooling draughts, andsinging a sweet song he loved to hear. He was awakened at length by theold mate calling him. His mouth felt dreadfully parched. What would henot have given for a cup of that refreshing beverage which he had dreamtof in his sleep!

  "Come, Walter," said the mate, "you may take the helm; and mind youdon't fall overboard. An hour's sleep will set me to rights, and thenyou shall have some more rest."

  "I will give the old man more than an hour's sleep," thought Walter, ashe got up and took the oar in his hand.

  "Keep her before the wind," said Mr Shobbrok, lying down; "and if thereis any change, call me immediately."

  Walter steered on as directed, keeping the raft before the wind, andwatching the stars which ever and anon shone out between the passingclouds. He felt almost sure that the wind had shifted several points,and that he was now steering much more to the north than at first. Itwas very light, and the raft made but little progress. He suspectedthat the old mate had purposely allowed him to sleep on till neardaylight; and he determined to return his kindness by not arousing him,but allowing him to awake of his own accord. Mr Shobbrok, however, wasso accustomed to awake at the hour he intended, that before long he gotup, and smilingly said,
"Well, Walter, I hope you are the better foryour rest; I can honestly say that I am. And now, I dare say that youare ready for breakfast."

  Walter confessed that he was; but when he tried to get the salt meat anddry biscuit down, he could scarcely swallow it. How he longed for a cupof cold water! A little wine which the mate served out slightlyrelieved him, but he soon got thirsty again. They both tried the effectof wetting their clothes; but that was only a partial relief. When thesun came out, and its rays struck down with fiery heat on their heads,they both began to suffer painfully. Wine enabled them to swallow theirfood, but it was water they wanted. The wind fell, and the raft layrocking about, making no progress. They neither of them felt muchinclined to talk. While Walter took the helm, the mate, with his hammerand nails, gave a few finishing touches to the raft, and added freshlashings to the parts which he thought required to be better secured.

  The next night passed away much as the first had done. The mate toldWalter he must keep the first watch. Walter fancied that he should beable to let the mate have a good long spell of sleep; but he wasmistaken, for in less than a couple of hours the old man got up andinsisted on his lying down; and when he awoke he found that daylight hadreturned. They were both by this time beginning to suffer greatly fromwant of water. Mr Shobbrok kept his thoughts to himself, but he knewtoo well what must be the result. Both wetted their clothes; theirthirst continued to increase; they felt, however, that it would havebeen much worse had they not adopted that course. The day wore on, andpoor Walter gave signs of severe suffering though he did not complainaloud. The wind had fallen to a dead calm, and the raft floatedmotionless on the water; then, the sail being useless, the mate loweredit. Ceasing to look out for any sail in sight, for he knew that nonecould approach, he pounded up some biscuit and moistened it with wine;but even then Walter could scarcely get it down his throat. The old mangazed on the lad with pitying eye and sorrowing heart, as he saw that hecould not much longer endure his sufferings. He himself, strong as hewas and inured to hardships, began to feel the agony of thirst; his lipswere parched, his mouth dry. He wetted Walter's clothes and his own,and he washed his mouth out frequently with salt water, bidding Walterdo the same; but they found their throats become almost immediatelyafterwards as dry as before.

  The sun again went down, and the comparative coolness of night somewhatrelieved them. The mate feared that Walter would not be able to endureanother day. The stars shining brightly from the sky were reflected onthe mirror-like surface of the deep. All around looked calm andpeaceful. Walter soon fell asleep. "He will forget his sorrows, poorboy, and will be the better for it," thought the mate as he sat watchingby his side; yet he could not help dreading that it might be his youngfriend's last sleep here below. "Well, well, he is a true Christianlad, and will be saved much pain and sorrow, and many trials. God knowswhat is best. He takes those he loves most; though, if the captainsurvives, it will go well-nigh to break his heart." These thoughtsoccupied the mind of the worthy mate, till, overcome by weariness andexhaustion, he himself lay down, resting his head on a piece of timberwhich served as Walter's pillow. He soon fell asleep, and seldom,perhaps, had he slept so soundly. He was awakened at length by a brightglare in his eyes; and starting up, he found that the sun had just risenout of his ocean bed. The whole sky, however, was quickly obscured; fordark clouds hanging low down were gliding across the heavens. The matewatched them eagerly, for he saw that in several directions they weresending down copious showers on to the still calm surface of the ocean.Now on one side, now on another, he saw the rain falling, but none camenear where the raft lay. He would not arouse Walter--who was stillsleeping--knowing how the sight would tantalise him; but he knelt by hisside, and prayed that the rain might reach them. Then he stood up andgazed around, hoping against hope that a sail might be in sight; but notan object was to be seen. In every side to the edge of the horizon thesea presented the same glass-like surface. The clouds were coming fromthe north-east, and a breeze would probably spring up from thatdirection. He stood watching the clouds, and while he watched hebethought him of a plan for catching the rain should it come at last.Two or three of the boat's planks were still not nailed down; he tookone of them, and with his knife split it into thin strips; these hefastened together so as to form a large hoop; then casting off the sailfrom the yard, he placed it over the hoop, and allowed it to sink downin the centre, thus making a large basin. He next considered how theprecious water, if caught, could be preserved,--when he recollected thathe had secured a small empty water-cask under the stem of the raft. Heat once cast loose the lashing which held it, and hauled it on board;and it apparently made but little difference on the buoyancy of theraft. After some difficulty he got out the bung, and held it with thehole downwards, to be sure that no salt water had got within; andlastly, he placed it in readiness to be filled.

  He had just accomplished his task, when, looking to windward, heexclaimed, "Thank Heaven, it's coming!" He now touched his companion onthe arm. "Rouse up, my lad," he said; "we are not forsaken."

  Walter slowly raised his head.

  "There, there!" added the mate; "look at yonder blessed shower! It willreach us before many minutes are over. I can almost see the drops asthey splash into the salt sea."

  Poor Walter crawled to the other end of the raft, to hold up the hoop asthe mate bade him. The shower approached, its course marked by a lineof hissing bubbles. The sound of the drops, as they struck the surfaceof the ocean and bounded up again could be heard. It reached themsooner than they expected. They raised the sail which had been preparedto catch it. Down came the precious rain, quickly filling the sail;while they eagerly opened their mouths, that not a drop more than theycould help should be lost. But as the water rose in the sail, theycould no longer help dipping down their heads and taking a longrefreshing draught. It produced an almost instantaneous effect onWalter, whose strength seemed suddenly to return. "Oh, how merciful Godhas been to us!" were the first words he uttered. "I now feel sure thatwe shall be saved; but last night I had begun to fear that we weredoomed to perish."

  "I thought the same," said the mate; "but it was wrong of us. Under allcircumstances, however hopeless, we should trust in God."

  The cask had been placed directly under the centre of the sail, in whichthe mate making a small hole with the point of his knife, the water ranthrough into it. So rapidly descended the rain, that it was quicklyfilled. Had they possessed another cask, they would gladly have filledit; but they could not venture to withdraw any of the larger casks frombeneath their raft; and they trusted that the supply they had nowobtained would last them till land was made, or they were relieved by apassing ship, "At all events," said Walter, "we may hope to get anothershower to replenish our cask of water when this is exhausted."

  "You must not count too much on that, my lad," answered the mate.

  "What think you, then, of throwing away some of the wine or spirits, andfilling up the bottles with water," asked Walter.

  "I should be sorry to throw it all away; for, though the water is themost precious liquid of the two, the wine may yet be of great service tous, as it is the only medicine we have got. I am willing to empty onebottle of wine and one of spirits; but we will keep the rest in case weneed it."

  On this the mate drew two of the bottles out of the basket. He lookedat them, evidently doubting whether he was acting wisely in throwing thecontents away. At the bottom of the basket he discovered a large cupwhich he had before overlooked. He half filled it with wine; thencasting an affectionate look at the bottle, he exclaimed, "It would be apity." And putting it to his mouth, sailor-like, he took a few heartygulps. "Now, Walter," he said, "before we throw the wine away, justtake some biscuit and this bit of beef. It will give you the strengthyou want so much; and then, to my mind, some wine and water will help tomake it go further than it would otherwise do."

  Walter very willingly did as the mate advised, and ate the biscuit andbeef with more
appetite than he had felt since they had been on theraft. The mate then handed him a cup of wine, which he had diluted withwater. Walter thankfully swallowed the liquid.

  "Now, it has done you good, has it not?" said the mate.

  Walter nodded.

  "I knew it would; and instead of throwing the wine away, we will fillthe bottle up with water. We shall then have a mixture all ready. Now,as for the rum, that's bad by itself, I know; but, mixed with water, itwill help to digest our dry biscuit and cheese, and any other food wemay obtain,--which, if we do get any, we shall have to eat raw."

  The mate was a temperate man, and had never been drunk in his life. Butwhat are called temperance principles were not known in those days. Hetook his share of biscuit and beef; then pouring some rum into the cup,mixed it with water from the sail, afterwards filling up the rum bottlewith water. He evidently felt satisfied that they had not yielded totheir first impulse and thrown the wine and spirits away.

  "Now, to my mind, Walter, both the wine and spirits are given to us asblessings; and what we have got to do is not to abuse them. If we had adisorderly crew, I would stave every spirit-cask on board sooner thanlet them get drunk. But our case is very different; and as neither younor I are likely to take more than would be good for us, and having awine-cask full, of the more precious liquid, I am sure we should bewrong in throwing away what may, under present circumstances, help topreserve our lives."

  All this time Walter and the mate had been kneeling with the sail, stillhalf-full of water, between them. The rain had ceased. They lookedaffectionately at the precious fluid. It might be long before theycould get any more. Once again they each dipped down their heads andtook another long draught. The mate suddenly exclaimed,--"We will stillmake use of it. We will first bathe our heads and faces, and then washour clothes, to get some of the salt out of them. It will make us feelmore comfortable, and help to keep the scurvy at bay. At present I feellike a Yarmouth bloater."

  Walter was greatly refreshed by his ablutions. He then thoroughlywashed his shirt, and wringing it out, hung it up to dry. The old mateafterwards performed the same operation. At length they allowed thewater to escape from the sail. Scarcely had they done so when, a lightbreeze springing up, they hoisted it and stood on to the westward. Theraft made but slow progress; and though the voyagers no longer sufferedfrom thirst, they could not help feeling anxious as they looked aftereach meal at the scanty supply of food which remained. The meat wasalmost exhausted, and scarcely half-a-dozen biscuits were left, whiletheir piece of cheese had been reduced to very small dimensions.

  "We have a bottle of oil," said the mate, as he saw Walter gazinganxiously into the basket. "That will help to keep life in us; thoughtrain oil was never much to my fancy."

  "Nor to mine," said Walter. "But our biscuits would prove morenutritious if we were to soak them in it; though I confess that I wouldrather eat them as they are."

  "We will try your plan," said the mate; and accordingly, the next timehe served out provisions, he broke up some biscuit into the cup, andpoured a little oil upon it. Walter made a wry face as he took hisshare; but he ate it notwithstanding, owning that, although the tastewas not pleasant, it seemed to go much further than dry biscuit itself.The mate being of opinion that there was no use in dying by inches, gaveWalter rather more of the meat and cheese than perhaps was prudent--hetaking a much less quantity himself.

  Another day passed away, and the only food remaining were the biscuits,with the oil, which, nauseous as it tasted, was not to be despised. Thecalm continued. The old mate felt conscious that he himself was growingweaker and weaker, and he feared that poor Walter would begin to suffereven more severely before long. There was just wind enough to waft onthe raft; but many days must pass before they could possibly reach land.Wine and water would help to sustain them, and they might even gnaw theleather of their shoes.

  "Well, well," thought the mate, "I won't alarm the lad; and Heaven maysend us aid when we least expect it."