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600078846$

THE

WRECK OF TEE "GEOSVENOR."

THE

WRECK OF THE "GROSVENOR:"

AN ACX30UNT OF

THE MUTINY OF THE GBEW AND THE
LOSS OF THE SHIP

WHEN TRYING TO MAKE THE BERMUDAS.

IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

LONDON:

SAMPSON LOW, MAESTON, SEARLE & EIVINGTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET.

1877.
{AU rights reserved,)

LONDON:

PRINTED BT WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,

8TAMFOBD 8TBBBT AND OHABINO OBO«.

THE WRECK OF THE '^GROSYENOR.''

CHAPTEE !•

There was every appearance of a south-
westerly wind. The coast of France, which
had been standing high and shining npon
the horizon on the port bow, and so mag-
nified by the clear northerly air that you
could discern, even at that distance, the
dim emerald sheen of the upper slopes and
the streaky shadows thrown by projecting
points and elbows on the white ground, was
fast fading, though the sun still stood within
an hour of its setting beyond the bleak
Foreland. The north wind, which had

VOL. I. B

.V ,

tC o■D/^aTmxT/^^> '»

2 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR.

rattled us with an acre of foam at our bows
right away down the river, and had now
brought us well abreast of the Gull light-
ship, was dropping fast. There was barely-
enough air to keep the royals full, and the
ship's number, which I had just hoisted at
the peak-a string of gaudy flags which
made a brilliant figure against the white
canvas of the spanker^ — shook their folds
sluggishly*

The whole stretch of scene, from the
North Foreland down to the vanishing
French headlands miles away yonder, was
lovely at that moment — ^full of the great
peace of an ocean falling asleep, of gently
moving vessels, of the solemn gathering of
shadows. The town of Deal was upon the
starboard bow, a warm cluster of houses,
with a windmill on the green hills turning
drowsily, here and there a window glitter-
ing with a sudden beam of light, an inclined

THE WBEOK OF THE " GBOSVENOB."

beach in the foreground -with groups of
boats high and dry upon it, and a line of
foam at its base which sang upon the
shingle so that you could hear it plainly
amid intervals of silence on board the ship.
The evening sun shining over the giant
brow of the South Foreland struck the gray
outline of the cliff deep in the still water,
but the clear red blaze feU far tod wide
over the dry white downs of Sandwich and
the outlying plains, and threw the distant
country into such bold relief against the
blue sky that, from the sea, it looked close
at hand, and but a short walk from the
shore.

There were three or four dozen vessels
at anchor in the Downs waiting for a
change of .wind or anticipating a dead calm
for some hours. A few others, like our-
selves, were swimming stealthily over the
slack tide, with every foot of their canvas

4 THE WBECK OF TfiE " GROSVENOR,"

piled upon them with the effort to reach
safe anchorage before the wind wholly failed
and the tide turned. A large ship, with
her sails stowed and her masts and rigging
showing with the fineness of ivory-tracing
against the sky, was being towed up Chan-
nel, and the slapping of the water by the
paddles of the tug, in fast capricious revo-
lutions, was quite audible, though both ship
and steamer were a long league distant.
Here and there small boats were rowing
away from the anchored ships for the shore.
Now and again you could hear the faint
distaut choruses of seamen furling a big
sail or paying out more cable, the clanJc,
clank of which was as pretty as music.
Down in the east the heavens were a deep
blue, flecked along the water line with
white sails, which glowed in the sunshine
like beacons.

I was in a proper mood to appreciate this

THE WRECK OP THE " GBOSVENOR.'*

beautiful tranquil scene. I was leaving
England for a long spell, and the sight of
that quiet little town of Deal and the grand
old Foreland cliffs shutting out the sky,
and the pale white shores we had left far
astern, went right to my heart. Well, it
was just a quiet leave-taking of the old
country without words or sobs.

"The pilot means to bring up. I have
just heard him tell the skipper to stand by
for a light sou'-westerly breeze. This is a
most confounded nuisance ! All hands,
perhaps, in the middle watch to get under
way."

"I expected as much," said I, turning
and confronting a short, squarely-built man,
with a power of red hair under his chin,
and a skin like yeUow leather through
thirty years exposure to sun and wind and
dirt all over the world. This was the chief
mate, Mr. Ephraim Duckling, confidently

6 THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR.

assumed by me to be a Yankee, though he
didn't talk -with his nose. I had looked at
this gentleman -with some doubt when I
first met him in the West India Docks.
He had blue eyes, with a oast in the port
optic; this somehow made him humorous,
whether or no, when he meant to be droll,
so he had an advantage over other wits.
He had hair so dense, coarse, and red
withal, that he might have been safely
scalped for a door-mat. His legs were
short, and his body very long and broad,
and I guessed his strength by the way his
arm filled out, and threatened to burst up
the sleeve of his coat when he bent it. So
far he had been polite enough to me, in a
mighty rough fashion indeed; and as to ,
the men, there had been little occasion for
him to give orders as yet,

^^ I expected as much," said I. "I have
been watching the coast of France for the

THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR.'* 7

last quarter of an hour, and the moisture
has nearly shut it out altogether. I doubt
if we'll fetch the Downs before the calm
faUs."

"There's a little wind over the land,
though, or that mill wouldn't be turning."

He turned his eyes up aloft ; then went
to the ship's side, and looked over. I
followed him. The clear green water was
slipping slowly past, and now and* again a
string of sea^weed went by, or a big,
transparent jelly-fish, or a great crab float-
ing on the top of the water. A thin ripple
shot out in a semicircle from the ship's bow,
and, at all events^ we might tell that we
were moving by watching the mast of the
Gull lightship sliding by the canvas of a
vessel hull below the horizon to the east-
ward of the sands.

Some of the hands were on the forecastle,
looking and pointing towards the shore.

'8 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR.

Others stood in a group near the galley,
talking with the cook, a fat, pale man, with
flannel shirt-sleeves rolled above his elbows.
The pigs in the long-boat grunted an
accompaniment to the chattering of a mass
of hens cooped under the long-boat. There
was no movement in the sea, and the great
sails overhead hung without flapping, and
nothing stirred aloft but the Kght canvas of
the royals, which sometimes shook against
the masts lazily, and with a fine distant
sound.

The skipper stood on the weather-side of
the poop, against the staii^oard quarter-boat,
conversing with the pilot.

Have before you a tall, well-shaped man,
with iron-gray hair, a thin aquiline nose, a
short compressed mouth, small dark eyes,
which looked at you imperiously from under
a perfect hedge of eyebrow, and whitish
whiskers, which slanted across his cheeks ;

^^^

fSE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR.

dressed in a tall hat, a long monkey-jacket,
and square-toed boots.

Captain Coxon was a decidedly good-look-
ing man, not iji the smallest degree ap-
proaching the conventional notion of the
merchant-skipper. Happily, it is no con-
dition of good seamanship that a man
should have bow-legs, and a coppery nose,
and groggy eyes ; and that he should prefer
a dish of junk to a savoury kickshaw, and
screeching rum to good wine. I had heard
before I joined the Grosvenor that Coxon
was a smart seaman, though a bully to his
men. But this did not prejudice me. I
thought I knew my duties weU enough to
steer clear of his temper ; and for the rest,
knowing what a seafaring life is, and how
scarcely an hour ever comes without bring-
ing some kind of peril of its own, I would
rather any day take service under a Bashaw
who knew his work, than a mild-natm^ed
creature who didn't.

10 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSYENOR.'*

The pilot was a little dusky-faced man^
with great bushy whiskers, and a large
chocolate-coloured shawl round his throat,
though we were in August. I was watch-
ing these two men talking, when Duckling
said —

" It's my belief that we shall have trouble
with those fellows forward. When we
trimmed sail off the North Foreland did you
notice how they went to work ? "

" Yes, I did. And I'U teU you what's the
matter. As I was going forward after dinner,
the cook stopped me, and told me the men
were grumbhng at the provisions. He said
that some of the pork served out stunk, and
the bread was mouldy and full of weevils."

" Oh, is that it !" said Duckling. "Wait
till I get them to sea, and I'U give them
my affidavit now, if they like, that then
they'll have something to cry over. There's
a Portugee fellow among them, and no

THE WBECK OP THE " GROSVENOB." 11

ship's company can keep honest when one
of those devils comes aboard. He'U always
find out something that's wrong, and tttm
and tumble it about until it sets all hands
on fire."

He went to the break of the poop and
leaned, with his arms squarely set, upon the
brass rail, and stared furiously at the group
of men about the galley. Some of them
grew uneasy, and edged away and got round
to the other side of the galley; others, of
those who remained, folded their arms and
stared at him back, and one of them
laughed, which put him in a passion at
once.

" You lazy hounds I " he bellowed in a
voice of thunder, *' have you nothing to get
about ? Some of you get that cable range
there more over to windward. You, there,
get some scrubbing-brushes and clean the
long-boat's bottom. Forecastle, there, come.

12 THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB.

down out of that and see that your halliards
are clear for running! I'll teach you to
palaver the cook, you grumbling villains ! "
and he made a movement so fall of menace
that the most obstinate-looking of the
fellows got life into them at once, and
bustled about.

I looked at the skipper to see what he
thought of this little outbreak ; but neither
he nor the pilot paid the smallest attention
to it : only, when Duckling had made an
end, the pilot gave an order which was
repeated by the chief mate with lungs of
brass —

" Aft here, and clew up the mainsail and
furl it!''

The men threw down the scrubbing-
brushes and chain-hooks which they had
picked up, and came aft to the main-deck in
a most surly fashion. Duckling eyed them
like a mastiff a cat. I noticed some smart-

THE WKEOK OP THE " GBOSVENOR." 13

looking hands among them, but they all to
a man pnt on a lubberly air; and as they
hauled upon the various ropes which snug a
ship's canvas upon the yard preparatory to
its being furled, I heard them putting all
manner of coarse, violent expressions, having
reference to the ship and her officers, into
their songs.

They went up aloft slowly and laid out
along the yard, grumbling furiously. And
to show what bad sailors they were, I sup-
pose, they stowed the sail villainously,
leaving bits of the leech sticking out, and
making a bunt that must have blown out to
the first cap-fuU of wind.

I was rather of opinion that Duckling's
behaviour was founded on traditions which
had been surrendered years ago by British
seamen to Yankee skippers and mates. He
had sailed a voyage in this ship with Coxon,
and the captain therefore knew his oha-

ii ^T>rM3XrOXT/M» "

14 THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSYENOB.

racter. That Coxon should abet Duckling's
behaviour towards the men by his silence,
was a bad augury. I reckoned that they
understood each other, and that the whole
ship's company, includiQg myself, might
expect a very uncomfortable voyage.

Meanwhile, Duckling waited until the
men were off the .yard and descending the
rigging : he then roared out, " Furl the
mainsail! "

The men stopped coming down, and
looked at the yard and then at Duckling ;
and one of them said, in a sullen tone, ** It
is furled."

I was amazed to see Duckling hop off the
deck on to the poop-rail and spring up the
rigging : I thought that he was going to
thrash the man who had answered : and the
man evidently thought so too, for he turned
pale, and edged sideways along the ratline
on which he stood, whilst he held one of

THE WKECK OF THE " GROSVENOR.'* 16

his hands clenched. Up went Duckling,
shaking the shrouds violently with his un-
gainly, sprawling way of climbing, and
making the men dance upon the ratlines.
In a moment he had swung himself upon
the foot-rope and was casting off the yard-
arm gaskets. I don't think half a dozen
men could have loosed the sail in the time
taken by him to do so. Down it fell, and
down he came, hand over fist along the
maiQtopsail sheets against the mainmast,
bounded up the poop-ladder, and without
loss of breath, roared out, " Furl the main-
sail!"

The men seemed inclined to disobey :
some of them had already reached the bul-
wark : but another bellow, accompanied by
a gesture, appeared to decide them. They
mounted slowly, got upon the yard, and
this time did the job in a sailor-like fashion.

"I'm only beginning with them," he

16 THE WEEOK OF THE ** GBOSYENOB "

said in Ms rough voice to me ; and then
glanced at Coxon, who gave him a nod and
a smile*

The pilot now told me to. go forward and
see everything ready for bringing up. We
were drawing close to the Downs, but the
air had quite died out and the sea stretched
like oil to the horizon. I don't know what
was giving us way, for the light sails aloft
hung flat, and the smoke of a steamboat
with its two funnels only showing away
across the Channel, went straight up into
the sky. There must, however, have been
a faint, imperceptible tide running, but it
took us another half-hour to reach the
point where the pilot had resolved to bring
up, and by that time the sun had sunk
behind the great headland beyond Deal, and
was casting a broad crimson glare upon the
farther sea.

The royals and top-gallant sails were

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR." 17

clewed up and furled, and then the order
was given to let go the topsail halliards.
Down came the three heavy yards rumbling
along the masts, with the sound of chain
rattling over sheaves. The canvas fell into
festoons, and the pilot called, "All ready
forrard?"

"All ready."

" Let go the anchor."

" Stand clear of the cable ! " I shouted.

Whack ! whack ! went the carpenter's
driving hammer. A moment's pause, then
a tremendous splash, and the cable rushed
with a hoarse outcry through the hawser
hole.

When this job was over I waited on the
forecastle to superintend the stowing of the
sails forward. The men worked briskly
enough, and I heard one of them who was
stowing the fore-topmast stay-saU say "that
it was good luck the skipper had brought

VOL. I. C

18 THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR."

up. He didn't think he'd be such a
fool."

This set me wondering what their mean-
ing could be ; but I thought it best to take
no notice nor repeat what I had heard, as I
considered that ±he less Mr. Duckling had
to say to the men the better we should all
get on.

It was half-past seven by the time the
sails were furled and the decks cleared of
the ropes. The hands went below to tea,
and I was walking affc when the cook came
out of the gaUey and said —

"Beg your pardon, sir; would you mind
tasting of this ? ' ' And he handed me a
bit of the ship's biscuit. I smelt it and
found it mouldy, and put a piece in my
mouth, but soon spat it out.

" I can't say much for this, cook," said I.

"It's not fit for dogs," replied the cook.
" But, so far as I've seen, all the provisions

THE WBECK OF THE " GROSVBNOR." 19

is the same. The sugar's like mud, and the

molasses is full of grit; and though I've

been to sea man and boy two and twenty

year, I never saw tea like what they've got

on board this ship. It ain't tea — ^it makes

the liquor yaller. It's shavings, and wot

I say is, regular tea ain't shavings."

" Well, let the men complain to the

captain," I answered. **He can report to

the owners and get the ship's stores con-
denmed."

"It's my belief they wos condemned
afore they came on board," answered the
cook. " I'll bet any man a week's grog that
they wos bought cheap in a dockyard sale
o' rotten grub, by order o' the Admiralty."

" Give me a biscuit," said I, " and I'll
fihow it to the captain."

He took one out from a drawer in which
he kept the dough for the cuddy's use, and
I put it in my pocket and went affc.

20 THE WRECK OP THE " GBOSVENOR."

CHAPTEE n.

I WILL here pause to describe the ship
which, beiQg the theatre of much that
befel me which is related in this book, I
should place before your eyes iq as true a
picture as I can draw.

The GrosvenoTy then, was a smaU, full-
rigged ship of five hundred tons, painted
black, with a single white streak below her
bulwarks. She was a soft-wood vessel, built
in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her lines were
very perfect. Indeed, the beauty of her
huH, her lofty masts, stayed with as great
perfection as a man-of-war's, her graceful
figure-head, sharp yacht-like bows and round

THE WKECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB." 21

stem, had filled me with admiration when
I first beheld her. Her decks were white
and well kept. She had a poop and a top-
gallant forecastle, both of which I think
the builder might have spared, as she was
scarcely big enough for them. There was a
good deal of brass-work on her after-decks,
and more expense than she deserved, from
the perishable nature of the material of
which she was constructed, had been
lavished upon her in respect of deck orna-
mentation. Her richly carved wheel, brass
belaying-pins,. brass capstan, brass binnacle,
handsome skyKghts, and other such details
made her look like a gay pleasure-vessel
rather than a sober trader. Her cuddy,
however, was plain enough, containing six
cabins, including the pantry. The wood-
work was cheaply varnished mahogany; a
fixed table ran from the mizzen-mast to
within a few feet of the cuddy front, and

22 THE WBEOK OF THE " GBOSVENOR.

on either side this table was a stout hair-
covered bench. Abaft the mizzen-mast were
the two cabins respectively occupied by
Captain Coxon and Mr. Duckling. My own
cabin was just under the break of the poop,
so that from the window in it I could look
out upon the main-decki A couple of broad
skyKghts, well protected with brass wire-
fenders, let plenty of light into the cuddy ;
and swinging trays and lamps, and red cur-
tams to draw across the skylights when the
sun beat upon them, completed the fumi-
tare of this part of the vessel.

We could very well have carried a few
passengers, and I never learned why we did
not; but it may, perhaps, have happened
that nobody was going our way at the time
we were advertised to sail.

We were bound to Valparaiso with a
general cargo, consisting chiefly of toys,
hardware, Birmingham and Sheffield cutlery,

THE WBEOK OF THE " GBOSVBNOB." 23

and metal goods, and a stook of pianofortes.
The ship, to my thinking, was too deep, as
though the owners had compensated them-
selves for the want of passenger-money by
^* taking it out " in freight. I readily fore-
saw that we should be a wet ship, and that
we should labour, more than was comfort-
able, in a heavy sea. The steerage was
packed with light goods, bird-cages and
such things, but space was left in the
'tween decks, though the cargo came flush
with the deck in the hold.

However, in spite of being overloaded,
the Grosvenor had beaten everything
coming down the river that day. Just off
the Eeoulvers, for example, when we had
drawn the wind a trifle more abeam, we
overhauled a steamer. She was pretty
evidently a fast screw, and her people grew
jealous when they saw tis coming np astern,
and piled up the fires, but could not stop us

24 THE WBECK OF THE ^* GROSVENOR.

from dropping her, as neatly as she dropped
an old coal brig that was staggering near
the shore under dirty canvas. But she
smothered us with her smoke as we passed
her to leeward, and I dare say they were
glad to see the dose we got for our pains.

I came affc, as I have said, after leaving
the baker, with the biscuit in my pocket,
and got upon the poop. The skipper had
gone below with the pilot, and they were
having tea. Duckling was walking the
poop, swearing now and again at a couple
of ordinary seamen, whom he had set to
work to flemish-coil the ropes 'along the
deck, for no other reason than that he
might put as much work upon them as he
could invent — ^for this flemish-coiling was
of no use under the circumstances, and is
only fit for Sundays on passenger ships
when you want to please the ladies with
** tidy " effects, or when a vessel is in port.

THE WBECK OF THE ^^ GROSVENOR." 26

A watch had been set forward, and having
cast a look up aloft to see that everything
was trim, I went down the companion-
ladder to the cnddy, followed by Duckling.

The interior of the cabin looked like
some old Dutch painting, for the plain
mahogany woodwork gave the place an
antique air. The lamps were alight, for it
was dusk here, though dayhght was still
abroad upon the sea; and the lamplight
imparted a grave, old-fashioned colouring
to the things it shone upon. The skipper
sat near the mizzen-mast, stirring the sugar
in a cup of tea. He looked better without
than with his hat; his forehead was high,
though rather peaked, and his iron-gray
hair, parted amid-ships and brushed care-
lessly over his ears, gave him a look of
dignity. The coarse httle pilot was eating
bread and butter voraciously, his great
whiskers moving as he worked his jaws.

26 THE WBEOK OF THE " OBOSVENOB.

»>

Duckling and I seated ourselves at the
table, and I had some difficulty to prevent
myself from laughing at the odd figures
Duckling and the pilot made side by side —
the one with his whiskers working like a
pair of brushes, and the other with that
door-mat of red hair on his head, and the
puzzling cast of the eye that made me
always doubt which one I should address
when I tried to look him fall in the face.

" There's a breeze coming from the sou'-
west, sir," said Duckling to the captain.
'* The water's darkish out in that quarter,
but I don't think there's enough of it to
swing the ship,"

*^Let it come favourable, and we'll get
under way at once," answered Coxon,
"I had a spell of this sort of thing last
year — for ten days, wasn't it. Duckling ? —
because I neglected a light air that sprang
up south-easterly. I thought it couldn't

THE WRECK OF THE ** GROSVENOR." 27

have held ten mmntes, but it would have
carried me weU away to the French side
before it failed, and made me a free passage
down, for the wind came fresh from south
by west and dead-locked me here. Mr.
Eoyle, what's going forwards among the
men? I heard them cursing pretty freely
when they were up aloffc."

" They are complaining of the ship's
provisions, sir," I rephed. "The cook
gave me a biscuit just now, and I promised
to show it to you."

Saying which, I pulled the biscuit out of
my pocket and put it upon the table. He
contracted his bushy eyebrows, and, without
looking at the biscuit, stared angrily at me.

"Hark you, Mr. Eoyle," said he, in a
voice I found detestable for the sneering
contempt it conveyed. " I aUow no officer
that sails under me to become a confidant
of my crew. Do you uaderstand ? ' '

28 (THE WRECK OF THE ^^ GROSVENOB.

I flushed up as I answered that I was no
confidant of the crew: that the cook had
stopped me to explain the men's grievance,
and that I had asked him for a biscuit to
show the captain as a sample of the ship's
bread which the steward was serving out.

/^It's very good bread,*' said the obse-
quious pilot, taking up the biscuit whilst he
wiped the butter out of the comers of his
mouth.

*^ Eat it, then ! " I exclaimed.

" Damnation ! eat it yourself ! " cried
Coxon, furiously. ^^ You're used to that
kind of fare, I should think, and like it, or
you Wouldn't be bringing it into the cuddy
in your pocket, would you, sir ? "

I made him no answer. I could see by
the expression in Duckling's face that he
sided with the skipper, and I thought it
would be a bad look-out for me to begin the
voyage with a quarrel.

THE WRECK OF THE ^^ GROSVENOB." 29

*^ I'll trouble you to put that biscuit
where you took it from," the captain
continued, with an enraged nod in the
direction of my pocket, ^* and return it to
the blackguard who gave it, and teU him to
present Captain Coxon's respects to the
men, and inform them that if they object to
the ship's bread, they're welcome to take
their meals along with the pigs in the long-
boat. The butcher 'U serve them."

" Mr. Eoyle teUs me they find the meat
worse than the bread," said Mr. Duckling.
" I guess the hounds who grumble most are
men who have shipped out of workhouses,
where their grub was burnt burgoo twice
a day, and a Hck of brimstone to make it
easy."

He laughed loudly at his own humour,
and was joined by the pilot, who rubbed his
hands and swore that he hadn't heard a
better joke for years.

30 THE WBEOK OF THE " GEOSVENOR.

I made, what despatch I might with my
tea, not much desiring to remain in com-
pany with Coxon in his present temper. I
fancy he grew a little ashamed of himself
presently, for he softened his voice and now
and again glanced across at me. The pilot,
looking np through the skylight, called
attention to the vane at the main-royal
masthead, which was fluttering to a light
air from the south-west, as had been pre-
dicted, and as I could teU by referring to
the teU-tale compass, which was swung
just over where Coxon was seated. Then
Coxon and his chief mate talked of the time
they meant to occupy in the run to Val-
paraiso. I understood the former to say
that his employers had given him eight
weeks to do it in. I should like to have
said that had they added another two to
that, they would still have been imposing
enough upon us all to keep us alive. But

THE WRECK OF THE ** OROSVENOR." 31

at this point I quitted the table, giving
Coxon a bow as I rose, which he returned
with a sort of half-ashamed stiffness, and
repaired to my cabin to get my pipe for
a half-hour's enjoyment of the beautiful
autumn evening on deck.

I don't think tobacco has the same
flavour ashore that it has at sea. Some-
thing in the salt air brings out the fall
richness and aroma of it. A few whiffs on
the main-deck came like oil upon the
agitation of my mind, ruffled by Coxon's
impertinence and temper. I stepped on to
the forecastle to see that the riding-lamps
were all right, and that there was a man on
the look-out. The crew were in the fore-
castle talking in subdued voices, and the
hot air that came up through the fore-
scuttle was intolerable as I passed it. I
then regained the poop, and seated myself
on the rail among the shadows of the back-

32 THE WRECK OF THE ** GROSVENOB.

stays leading from the main-royal and top-
gallant masts.

The Sim had gone down some time now,
and only faint traces of daylight lowered in
the westward. The light on the South
Foreland emitted a most beantifal, clear,
and brilliant beam, and diffused a broad
area of misty radiance on the land around.
The light-beacons were winking along the
Goodwin Sands, and pretty close at hand
were the lights of Deal, a pale, fine con-
stellation, which made the country all the
darker for their presence. The moon would
not rise until after nine, but the heavens
were spangled with stars, some so lustrous
that the calm sea mirrowed them in cones
of silver; and from time to time flashing
shooting-stars chased across the sky, and
with their blue fires offered a peculiar
contrast to the eye with the yellow and red
lights on the water.'

THE WBECK OF THE " GROSVENOE." 33

There was a little air moving from the
southward, but so light as scarcely to be
noticeable to any man but a sailor awaiting
a change. The vessels at anchor near us
loomed large in the starlit gloom that over-
spread the face of the sea. Lights flitted
upon them ; and the voices of men singing,
the jingling of a concertina or a fiddle, the
rumbling of yards lowered aboard some new-
comers which could not be descried, and now
and again the measured splash of oars, were
soimds which only served to give a deeper
intensity to the solemn calm of the night.

The inmates of the cuddy still kept their
seats, and their voices came out through
the open skylights. I heard Captain Coxon
say—

'*I should like to know what sort of a
feUow they have given me for a second
mate. He strikes me as coming the gentle-
man a trifle, don't he. Duckling ? "

VOL. I.

34 tTHE WEECK OF THE ^* GROSVENOR.

To which the other replied, " He seems a
civil-spoken young man, and up to his work.
But I guess there's too much molasses
mixed with his blood to suit my book. He
wants a New Orleans training, as my old
skipper used to say. Do you know what
that means, sir ? " evidently addressing the
pilot. " Well, it means a knife in your
ribs when you're not disposed to hurry, and
a knuckle-duster in the shape of a marlin-
spike down your throat if you stop to
arguefy."

The pilot laughed and said, '* Here's your
health, sir. Men of your kind are wanted
nowadays, sir."

It was plain from this speech that the
pilot had exchanged his tea for something
stronger. The captain here began to speak,
but I couldn't catch his words, though I
strained my ears, as I was anxious to gain
all the insight I could into his character

THE WBECK OF THE ^^GROSVENOR." 35

that I might know how to shape my beha-
Yiour.

I say this for a very weighty reason — I
was entirely dependent on the profession I
had adopted. I knew it was in the power
of any captaia I sailed with to injure me,
and perhaps ruin my prospects. Everythiug
in seafaring Hfe depends upon reports and
testimonials ; and in these days, when the
demand for officers is utterly dispropor-
tionate to the immense supply, owners are
only too willing to listen to objections, and
take any skipper's word as an excuse to
decliue your services or get rid of you.

Neither the captaia nor Mr. Duckling
appeared on deck again. The pilot came up
shortly after one bell (half-pftst eight) and
looked about him for a few miuutes. The
tide had swung the ship with her stem up
Channel. He went and looked over the
side, and then had a stare at Deal, but took

36 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR.

no notice of me, whom he could very plainly
see, and returned below.

I lingered three quarters of an hour on
deck, during which time the little sigh of
wind that had come from the south-west
died out, and a most perfect calm feU. The
larger stars burned with amazing brilliancy
and power, and I thought it possible that
the wind might go to the eastward. This
idea detained me on deck longer than I had
meant to stop, as I thought it would do me
no iU service if I should be the first to
report a fair wind to the skipper, and show
myself smart in getting the hands up.
Perhaps the moon would bring a breeze
with her, and as she rose at twenty minutes
past nine, I filled another pipe to await her
coming.

As I struck a match, the steward came
half-way up the poop-ladder to tell me that
the spirits were on the table.

THE WRECK OF THE ** GROSVENOR.'* 37

'* Did the captain send yon ? " I asked.

" No, sir," he answered. " I thought I'd
let yon know, as they'll be cleared away
after nine, and my orders are not to serve
them again when once they're stowed away
for the night. That's the captain's rule."

''All right," said I. Another time I
should have gone below and had my glass of,
grog ; but I considered it my best policy to
keep clear of Coxon until the temper that
had been excited by my unfortunate produc-
tion of the ship's biscuit was cooled down.

I took some turns along the deck, and
shortly after nine one of the lamps in the
cuddy was extinguished, and on lookiug
through the skylight I found that the three
men had left the table. There was a man
pacing to and fro the forecastle, and I could
just make out his figure against the stars
which gleamed and throbbed right down to
the horizon. The rest of the crew had

38 THE WBECK OF THE "GROSVENOR.

)»

evidently turned in, for I heard no voiceSy
and now that the talking which had
been going on in the cuddy no longer
vexed the ear with rough accents, a pro-
found silence and peace came down upon
the ship. Around me, the anchored vessels
gloomed like phantoms ; the sea unrolled its
dark, unbreathing surface into the visionary
distances ; nothing sounded from the shore
but the murmur of the summer surf upon
the shingle. One might have said that the
spirit of life had departed from the earth ;
that nothing lived but the stars, which
looked down upon a scene as impalpable
and elusive as a dream.

At last uprose the moon. She made her
coming apparent by paling the stars in the
southern sky, then by projecting a white
mist of light over the horizon. Anon her
upper limb, red as fire, jetted upwards, and
the full orb, vast and feverish as the setting

THE WRECK OF THE ^' GROSVENOR." 39

sun, sailed out of the sea, most slowly and
solemnly, lifting with her a black mist that
belted her like a circle of smoke : this
vanished, and by degrees, perceptible to the
eye, her colour changed ; the red chastened
into pearl, her disc grew smaller, and soon
she was weU above the horizon, shining
with a most clear and silvery splendour,
and making the sea beneath her lustrous
with mild light. But not a breath of air
followed her coming. The ships in the
Downs caught the new light, and their
yards showed like streaks of pearl against
the night. The red lights of the Goodwin
Sands dwindled before the pure, far-reach-
ing radiance into mere floating sparks of
fire. The heavens were cloudless, and the
sea a wonderful calm. I might keep watch
all night, and still have nothing to report ;
so, knocking the ashes out of my pipe, I
descended the poop-ladder and entered my
cabin.

40 THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR.

CHAPTEE in.

I HAD slung a cot, althougli there was a
good mahogany bunk in the cabin. No
sensible person would sleep in a bunk at sea
when he could swing in a hammock or cot.
Suppose the bunk is athwart-ship : when
the vessel goes about you must shift your
pillow ; and very often she will go about in
your watch below and catch you asleep, so
that when you wake you find your feet are
in the air, and all. the blood in your body in
your head. When I first went to sea I
slept in a 'thwartship bunk. The ship was
taken aback one night when I was asleep,
and they came and roared, *'A11 hands

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR." 41

shorten sail!" down the booby hatch. I
heard the cry and tried to get out of my
bed, but my head was jammed to leeward
by the weight of my body, and I could not
move. Had the ship foundered, I should
have gone to the bottom, in bed, helpless.
Always after that I slept in a hammock.

The watch on deck had orders to call the
captain if a change of wind came ; also I
knew that the pilot would be up, sniffing
about, off and on, through the night : so I
turned in properly and slept soundly until
two ; when, waking up, I drew on my small
clothes and went on deck, where I found
Duckling mousing about in the moonshine
in a pair of yellow flannel drawers, he
having, like myself, come up to see if any
wind was stirring. He looked like a new
kind of monkey in his tight white rig and
immense head of hair. "No wind, no
wind," he muttered, in a sleepy grumble,

42 THE "WBECK OF THE " GROSVENOR."

and then went below with a run, nearly
tumbling, in fact, head over heels down the
companion-ladder.

I took a turn forward to see if the riding
lights burned well and the man on the
look-out was awake. The decks were wet
with dew, and the moon was now hanging
over the South Foreland. The sky was
still cloudless, and not a breath of air to be
felt. This being the case, I went back to
my cot.

When I next awoke I found my cot
violently swinging. I thought for the
moment that we were under way and in
a heavy sea; but on looking over I saw
Mr. Duckling, who exclaimed, "Out with
you, Mr. Eoyle ! There's a good breeze
from the east'ards. Look alive and call the
boatswain to pipe aU hands."

Hearing this, I was wide awake at once,
and in a few minutes was making my way

THE WEEOK OF THE ^' GBOSVENOB." 43

to the boatswain's cabin, a deck-house on
the port side against the forecastle. He
and the carpenter were fast asleep in bunks
placed one over the other* I laid hold of
the boatswain's leg, which hung over the
bunk — both he and the carpenter had turned
in " all standing," as they say at sea — and
shook it. His great brown hairy face came
out of the bolster in which it was buried ;
he then threw over his other leg and sat
upright.

"AU hands, sir?"

"Yes; look sfharp, bo'sun."

He was about to speak, but stopped short
and said, *^ Ay, ay, sir; " whereupon I hurried
aft.

It was twenty minutes past five by the
clock in the cuddy. The sun had been
risen half an hour, and was already warming
the decks. But there was a fine breeze — •
not from the eastward, as Duckling had said,

44 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR.

)»

but well to the northward of east — ^which
brought ripe, fresh morning smeUs from the
land with it, and made the water run in
little leaps of foam against the ship's side.

Captain Coxon and the pilot were both
on the poop, and as I came up the former
called out —

" Is the boatswain awake yet ? "
"Yes, sir," I answered, and dived into
my cabin to finish dressing. I heard the
boatswain's pipe sound, followed by the roar
of his voice summoning the hands to weigh
anchor. My station was on the forecastle,
and thither I went. But none of the hands
had emerged as yet, the only man seen
being the fellow on the look-out. AU about
us the outward-bound vessels were taking
advantage of the wind : some of them were
aheady standing away, others were sheeting
home their canvas; the clanking of the
windlasses was incessant, and several Deal

THE WBECK OP THE " GROSVENOR." 46

boats were driving under their lugs among
the shipping.

*^ Mr. Eoyle," cried out the captain,
*' jump below, will you, and see what those
fellows are about."

I went to the fore-scuttle and peered into
it, bawling, " Below there ! "

"There's no use singing out," said a
voice; "we don't mean to get the ship
under way until you give us something
fit to eat."

"Who was that who spoke?" I called.
*' Show yourself, my man."

A fellow came and stood under the fore-
scuttle, and looking up, said in a bold,
defiant way —

"I spoke — * Bill Marling, able seaman.' "

"Am I to tell the captain that you refuse
to turn to?"

"Ay, and tell him we'd rather have six
months of chokee than one mouthful of his

46 THE WEEOK OP THE " GBOSVENOB.

damned provisions," lie answered; and im-
mediately a lot of voices took up the theme,
and as I left the forecastle to deliver the
message, I heard the men cursing and
abusing us all violently, the foreigners par-
ticularly-vthat is, the Portuguese and a
Frenchman, who was half a negro — swear-
ing in the worst English words and worst
English pronunciation, shrilly and fiercely.

Coxon pretty well knew what was coming.
He and Duckling stood together on the
poop, and I delivered the men's message
from the quarter-deck.

Coxon was in a great rage and quite pale
with it. The expression in his face was
really devilish. His hps became bloodless,
and when he glanced his eyes around and
saw the other ships taking advantage of the
fine breeze and sailing away, he seemed
deprived of speech. He had sense enough,
however, with all his fury, to know that in

THE WBECK OP THE *^ GROSVENOR." 47

this case no good could come from passion.
He seized the brass rail with both hands,
and made a gesture with his head to signify
that I should draw nearer.

^^ Who was the man who gave you that
message, sir ? "

^^A fellow who called himself Bill
Marling."

^^ Do they refuse to leave the forecastle?"

^'They refuse to get the ship under
way."

^^ Is the boatswain disaffected ? "

^^ No, sir ; but I fancy he knows the
men's minds."

He turned to Mr. DuckUng.

^^ K the boatswain is sound, we four ought
to be able to make the scoundrels turn to."

This was like suggesting a hand to hand
fight — ^four against twelve, and Duckling
had the sense to hold his tongue. The
boatswain was standing near the long-boat,

a i^1)/^a•rmxT/^T) "

48 THE "WBEOK OF THE " GROSVENOR.

looking aft, and Coxon suddenly called to
him, " Lead the men aft."

I now thought proper to get upon the
poop ; and in a short time the men came
aft in twos and threes. They were thirteen
in aU, including the carpenter, four ordinary
seamen, the cook, and the cook's mate.
The boatswain kept forward.

There was a capstan just abaft the main-
mast, and here the men assembled. There
was not much in the situation to move one's
gravity, and yet I could scarcely forbear
smiling when I looked down upon their
faces fraught with expressions so various in
kind, though aU denoting the same feelings.
Some were regular old stagers, fellows who
had been to sea all their lives, with great
bare arms tatooed with crucifixes, bracelets,
and other such devices, in canvas or blanket
breeches and flannel shirts, with the invari-
able belt and knife around their middle.

THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR." 49

Some, to judge from their clothes, had evi-
dently signed articles in an almost destitute
condition, their clothes being complete suits
of patches, and their faces pale and thin.
The foreigners were, of course, excessively-
dirty; and the "Portugee's" wonderfully
ugly countenance was hardly improved by
the stout silver earrings with which his long
ears were ornamented.

The first movement of mirth in me, how-
ever, was but transient. Pity came upper-
most in a few moments. I do think there
is something touching in the simphcity of
sailors, in the childlike way in which they
go about to explain a grievance and get it
redressed. They have few words and little
experience outside the monotonous hfe they
follow; they express themselves ill, are
subdued by a harsh discipline on board, or
by acts of cruelty which could not be
tolerated in any kind of service ashore ; the

VOL. I. £

60 THE WRECK OP THE " OBOSVENOB.

very negroes and savages of distant coun-
tries have more interest taken in them by
the people of England than sailors, for
whom scarcely a charity exists; the laws
which deal with their insubordination are
unnecessarily severe; and of the persons
who are appointed to inquire into the causes
of insubordination, scarce five in the hun-
dred are qualified by experience, sjrmpathy,
or disinterestedness to do sailors justice.

Some such thoughts as these were in my
mind as I stood watching the men on the
quarter-deck.

Coxon, with his hands still clutching the
rail, said, " The boatswain has piped you
out to get the ship under way. Do you
refuse ? "

The man named Bill Marling made a step
forward. The men had evidently constituted
him spokesman.

" We don't mean to work this here ship,"

THE WBEOK OF THE *' GBOSVENOB." 61

said he, "until better food is put aboard.
The biscuits are not fit for dogs ; and I say-
that the pork stinks, and that the molasses
is grits."

'* That's the truth," said a voice; and
the Portuguese nodded and gesticulated
violently.

" You blackguards ! " burst out the cap-
tain, losing aU seK-control. " What do you
know about food for dogs? You're not as
good as dogs to know. Aren't you shipped
out of filthy Eatcliffe Highway lodgings,
where the ship's bread and meat and
molasses would be eaten by you as damned
fine luxuries, you lubbers? Turn to at
once and man the windlass, or I'll find a
way to make you ! "

"We say," said the spokesman, pulling a
biscuit out of his bosom and holding it up,
" that we don't mean to work the ship until
you give us better bread than this. It's

62 THE \VEEOK OF THE " GBOSVENOR.

>»

mouldy and fall of weevils. Put the bread
in the sun, and see the worms crawl out
of it."

" WiU the skipper pitch the cuddy bread
overboard and eat oum ? " demanded a
voice.

"And the cuddy meat along with it!"
exclaimed a man, a short, powerfully built
fellow with a crisp black beard and woolly
hair, holding up a piece of pork on the
blade of a knife. " Let Captain Coxon
smell this."

The captain looked at them for a few
moments with flashing eyes, then turned and
walked right aft with Duckling. Here they
were joined by the pilot, and a discussion
took place among them that lasted some
minutes. Meanwhile I paced to and fro
athwart the poop. The men talked in low
tones among themselves, but none of them
seemed disposed to give in. For my own

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB." 53

part, I rather fancied that though their
complaint of the provisions was justifiable
enough, it was advanced rather as a sound
excuse for declining to sail with a skipper
and chief mate whose behaviour so far to-
wards them was a very mild suggestion of
the treatment they might expect when they
should be fairly at sea, and in these two
men's power. I heard my name mentioned
among them and one or two remarks made
about me, but not uncomplimentary. .The
cook had probably told them I was well-dis-
posed, and I believe that some of them
would have harangued me had I appeared
willing to Hsten.

Presently Mr. Duckling left the captain
and ordered the men to go forward. He
then called the boatswain, and turning to
me, said that I was to be left in charge of
the ship with the pilot whilst he and the
captain went ashore.

a i^«/>aTTT;.vr.-D »»

64 THE WRECK OF THE ** GROSVENOR.

The boatswain came aft and got into the
quarter-boat which Duckling and I lowered;
and I then towed her by her painter to the
gangway, where Duckling and the captain
got into her.

As no signal was hoisted I was at a loss
to conceive what course Captain Coxon
proposed to adopt. Duckling and the
boatswain each took an oar while Coxon
steered, and away they went, sousing over
the Uttle waves which the fresh land breeze
had set running along the water.

By this time all the outward-bound ships
had got their anchors up, and were standing
down Channel. Some of them which had
got away smartly were well around the
Foreland, and we were the only one of
them all that still kept the ground. Captain
Coxon' s rage and disappointment were, of
course, intelligible enough ; for time to him
was not only money, but credit — I mean

THE WBECK OP THE " GROSVENOR." 56

that every day he could save in making the

run to Valparaiso would improve him in his
employers' estimation.

The men peered over the bulwarks at the
departing boat, wondering what the skipper
would do. There was a tide running to the
southward, and they had to keep the boat
heading towards Sandwich. Strong as the
boatswain was, I could see what a much
stronger oar Duckling pulled by the way
the boat's head swerved under his strokes.

I stood watching them for some time and
then joined the pilot, who had lighted a pipe
and sat smoking on the taflfrail. He gave
me a civil nod, being well-disposed enough
now that Coxon was not by, and made some
remark about the awkwardness of the men
refusing work when the breeze was so
good.

'' True," said I ; '' but I think you'll find
that the magistrates will give it in their

66 THE WBBCK OP THE " GBOSVENOR."

favour. There's some mistake about the
ship's stores. Such bread as the men have
had served out to them ought never to have
been put on board, and the steward has
owned to me that it's all alike."

** The captain don't intend to let it come
before the magistrates," answered the pilot
with a wink, and pulling his pipe from his
mouth to inspect the bowl. " He wants to
be off, and means to telegraph for another
crew and turn those feUows yonder adrift."
" Won't he ship some better provisions?"
" I don't know, sir. Preehaps he's satis-
fied that the provisions is good enough for
the men, and preehaps he isn't. Leastways
he'll not be persuaded contrarily to his

behef."

" So, then, the police are to have nothing
to do with this matter, and the stores will
be retained for another crew? "

" That's as it may be."

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR." 57

^^ There will be a mutiny before we get to
Valparaiso."

** Something '11 happen, I dare say."
I not only considered the captain's be-
haviour in this matter bad morally, but
extremely impolitic. His motives were
plain enough. The stores had been shipped
as a cheap lot for the men to eat ; and I
dare say the understanding between Coxon
and the owners was that the stores should
not be changed. This view would account
for his going on shore to telegraph for a
new crew, since sending the old crew about
their business would promise a cheaper
issue than signalling for the police and
bringing the offenders before the magis-
trates, and causing the vessel to be detained
while inquiries were made. But that he
would be imperilling the safety of his vessel
by shipping a fresh crew without exchanging
the bad stores for good was quite certain, and

58 THE WBECK OP THE ** GBOSYENOR."

I wondered that so old a sailor as he should
be such a fool as not to foresee some dis-
astrous end to his own or his owners' con-
temptible cheese-paring policy.

However, I had not so good an opinion
of the pilot's taciturnity as to make him
my confidant in these thoughts ; we talked
on other matters for a few minutes and he
then went below, and after a while, on pass-
ing the skylight, I saw him stretched on
one of the cuddy benches sound asleep.

The Downs now presented a very diflferent
appearance from what they had exhibited
an hour before. There were not above four
vessels at anchor, and of those which had
filled and stood away scarce half a dozen
were in sight. These were some lumbering
old brigs with a barque among them, with
the water almost level with their decks;
picturesque enough, however, in the glori-
ous morning light, as they went washing

THE WRECK OF THE '^ GROSVENOR." 69

solemnly away, showing their square stems
to the wind. A prettier sight was a fine
schooner yacht coming up fast from the
southward, with her bow close to the wind ;
and over to the eastward the sea was aHve
with smacks, their sails shining like copper,
standing apparently for the North Sea.

The land all about Walmer was of an
exquisite soft green, and in the breezy
summer light Deal looked the quaintest,
snuggest little town in the world.

A little after eight the steward called me
down to breakfast, where I found the pilot
impatiently sniffing an atmosphere charged
with the aroma of broiled ham and strong
coffee. I own, as I helped myself to a
rasher and contrasted the good provisions
mth which the cuddy table was famished
with the bad food served to the men, that I
was weak enough to sympathize very cordi-
ally with the poor fellows. The steward

60 THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB.

told me that not a man among them had
broken his fast ; this he had been told by
the cook, who added that the men would
rather starve than eat the biscuit that had
been served out to them. Such was their
way of showing themselves wronged; and
the steward declared that he did not half
like bringing our breakfast from the galley,
for the men, when they smelt the ham and
saw him going aft with a tin of hot rolls,
became so forcible in their language that he
every moment, during his walk along the
main-deck, expected to feel himself seized
behind and pitched overboard.

*^It's the old story, sir," said the pilot,
who was making an immense breakfast,
'* and it's true enough what Mr. Duckling
said last night, which I thought uncom-
monly good. They ship sailors out of places
where there's nothing to be seen but rags
and rum — ^rum and rags, sir ; they give 'em

THE WBECK OP THE " GROSVENOB." 61

a good cabin to Uve in, pounds sterling a
month, grog every day at eight bells, plenty
of good Uvin', considering what they was,
where they come from, and what they
desarves : and what do they do but turn up
their noses at food which they'd crawl upon
their knees to get in their kennels ashore,
and swear that they won't do ne'er a stroke
of work unless they're bribed by the very
best of everything. What do they want ?
— ^lobsters for breakfast, and wenison and
plum-duff for dinner, and chops and tamater
sauce for supper? It's the ruination of
owners, sir, are these here new-fangled
ideas ; and I don't say — mind, I don't say
that it don't go agin pilots as a body. A
pilot can't do his dooty as he ought when
he's got such crews as sarve nowadays to
order about. Here am I stuck here, with a
job that I knows of waitin' and waitin' for
me at Gravesend. And all because this

62 THE WEECK OF THE *^GBOSVENOB.

blessed ship's company wants wenison aijd
plum-duflF for dinner ! "

He helped himself to a large slice of
broiled ham and devoured it with sullen
energy.

I could have said a word for the men,
but guessed that my remarks would be
repeated to the skipper ; and since I could
not benefit them, there was no use in
injuring myself.

After breakfast I went upon deck, and
saw a Deal boat making for the ship. She
came along in slashing style, under her
broad lug — what splendid boats those Deal
luggers are, and how superbly the fellows
handle them! — and in a short time was
near enough to enable me to see that she
towed our quarter-boat astern, and that
Coxon and Duckling were among her occu-
pants. I went to the gangway to receive
her : she fell off, then luffed, running a fine

■1

THE WBBCK OP THE *^ GBOSVENOB." 63

semicircle; down dropped her lug, her
mizzen brought her right to, and she came
alongside with beautiful precision, stopping
under the gangway like a carriage at your
door.

I caught the line that was flung from her,
took a turn with it, and then Ooxon and
the chief mate stepped on board. The
moment he touched the deck, Coxon called
to the men who were hanging about the
forecastle.

^^ Get your traps together, and out with
you ! If ever a man among you stops in my
ship five minutes, I'll fling him overboard."
With which terrible threat he walked
into the cuddy. Duckling remained at the
gangway to see the crew leave the ship.
The poor fellows were all ready. They had
made up their minds to go ashore, but
hardly knew under what circumstances. I
had noticed them pressing forward to look

64 THE WEECK OP THE " GBOSVENOR.

into the boat when she came alongside, no
doubt expecting to see the uniform of a
police-superintendent there. The presence
of such an oflQcial would, of course, have
meant imprisonment to them; they would
have been locked up until brought before
the magistrates. They were clearly dis-
appointed by the skipper's procedure, for as
they came to the gangway, carrying their
bags and chests, all kinds of remarks,
expressive of their opinion on the matter,
were uttered by them.

'^ The old blackguard," said one, flinging
his bag into the boat, and lingering before
Duckling and myself in order to deKver his
observations, ^^he hasn't the pluck to have us
tried. Pitch us overboard ! let him try his
(etc.) hand upon the littlest of us ! I'd take
six months, and thank 'em, just to warm my
fist on his (etc.) face ! " and so forth.

Duckling was wise to hold his peace.

THE WRECK OF THE ^^ GBOSTENOB." 65

The men were furious enough to have
massacred him had he opened his lips.

The older hands got into the boat in
silence ; but none of the rest left the ship
without some candid expression of his feel-
ings. One said he'd gladly pay a pound for
leave to set fire to the ship. Another called
her a floating workhouse. A third hoped
that the vessel would be sunk, and the
brutes commanding her drowned before this
time to-morrow. Every evil wish that
malice and rage could invent was hurled at
the vessel and at those who remained in
her. In after days I recalled that beautiful
morning, the picture of the lugger alongside
the ship, the hungry, ill-used men with
their poor packs going over the vessel's
side, and the curses they pronounced as
they left us.

An incident followed the entry of the last
of the men in the boat.

VOL. I. F

66 THE WRECK OP THE " GBOSVENOB."

The sail was hoisted, the rope that held
the boat let go, and her head was shoved
off; when the "Portugee," in the excite-
ment and fary of his feelings, drew in Ms
breath and his cheeks, and spat with
tremendous energy at Duckling, who was
watching him : but the missile fell short ;
in a word, he spat fall in the face of one of
the old hands, who instantly knocked him
down. He tumbled head over heels among
the feet of the crowd of men, while Duck-
ling roared out, " K the man who knocked
that blackguard down will return to his
duty, I'U be his friend." But all the answer
he got was a roar which resembled in sound
and character the mingled laughter and
groans of a large mob; the fresh wind
caught and filled the sail, the boat bounded
away under the pressure, and in a few
minutes was a long distance out of hail.

THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOB." 67

CHAPTBE IV.

A FRESH crew came down from London the
following morning in charge of a crimp.

Duckling went ashore to meet them at
the railway station, and they came off in
the same boat that had landed the others
on the previous day.

They appeared much the same sort of
men as those who had left us ; badly clothed
for the most part, and but four of them had
sea-chests, the rest bringing bags. There
was one very big man among them, a fellow
that dwarfed the others; he held himself
erect, wore good boots, and might very well
have passed for an escaped Lifeguardsman,

68 THE WBEOK OF THE " GROSVENOR."

were it not for the indescribable something
in his gait, and the way in which he hnng
his hands, that marked him for a Jack.

Another fellow I noticed, as he scrambled
over the ship's side, and sung out, in notes
as hoarse as a raven's, to pitch him up his
*^ blooming portmantey," had a very extra-
ordinary face, altogether out of proportion
with his head, being, I dare say, a fall third
too small. The back of the skull was
immense, and was covered with hair coarser
than Duckling's — as coarse as hemp-yams.
This hair grew down beside his ears, and
got mixed up with streaky whiskers, which
bound up the lower part of his face like a
tar poultice. Out of this circle of hair
looked a face as small as a young boy's ;
little haK-closed Chinese eyes, a bit of a
pug nose, and a square mouth, kept open
so as to show that he wanted four front
teeth. The frame belonging to this remark-

THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR." 69

able head and face was singularly vigorous
though grievously misshapen. His long
arms went far down his legs; his back,
without having a hump, was as round as
a shell, and he looked as if he measured a
yard and a haK from shoulder to shoulder.
I watched this strange-looking creature
with great curiosity until I lost sight of him
in the forecastle.

The men bustled over the side with great
alacrity, bawling for their bags and property
to be handed up in a great variety of
accents. There were two Dutchmen and a
copper-coloured man, with African features,
among them ; the rest were English.

The crimp remained in the boat, watch-
ing the men go on board. He was from the
other side of Jordan. His woolly hair was
soaked with oil, and shone resplendent in
the sun; the oil seemed to have got into
his hat, too, for that had a most fearful

70 THE WBECK OF THE " QBOSVENOB."

polisli. He wore a greatcoat that came
down to his shins, and beneath this he
exhibited a pair of blue serge breeches,
terminating in boots as greasy as his hat.
He was genteel enough to wear kid gloves ;
but the imagination was not to be seduced
by such an artifice from picturing the dirt
under the gloves.

I knew something of crimps, and amused
myseK with an idle speculation or two
whilst watching the man. This was a
fellow who would probably keep a lodging-
house for sailors in some dirty little street
leading out cf the West India Dock Eoad.
His terms would be very easy : seven
shillings a week for board and lodging, and
every gentleman to pay for extras. He
would probably have two or three amiable
and obhging sisters, daughters, or nieces
living with him, knowing the generous and
blind confidence Jack reposes in the endear-

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR." 71

ments of the soft sex, and how very
prodigally he will pay for them. So this
greasy miscreant's dirty West India Dock
Eoad lodging-house for sailors would always
be pretty full, and he would never have
much difl&culty in mustering a crew when
he got an order to raise one. Of course it
would pay him as it pays otiier crimps to
let lodgings to sailors, so as to have them
always about him when a crew is wanted ;
for will he not obligingly cash their advance-
notes for them, handing them say, thirty
shillings for three pounds ten ? " What do
I do with this dirty risk ? " he will exclaim,
when Jack ^expostulates. " Supposing you
cut stick ? I lose my money ! I only do
this to obleege you. Go into the street,"
he cries, pretending to get into a passion,
" and see what you'll get for your dirty
piece of paper. You'll be comin' back
to me on your bended knees, with the

72 THE WBECE OF THE ^^ GBOSVENOB.

tears a trioklin' and rmmin' over yonr
cheeks^ axing my parding for wronging
me and willin' to say a prayer of thank-
fulness for me bein' put in yonr vay.
You'll want a bag for your clothes, and
here's one, dirt cheap, five and a 'arf. And
you can't go to sea vith one pair o' brigs,
and you shall have these beauties a bargain
— come, fourteen and six, for youy and I'll
ask you not to say what you gave for
'em, or I shall have four hundred and
fifty- vun customers comin' in- a rage to
tell me I'm a villin for charging of 'em a
guinea for the shame article. And here's a
first-class knife and belt — something fit for
the heye to rest upon — ^honestly vorth .'arf
a sovrin, which I'll make you a present
of for a bob, and if you say a vord I'll
take everything back, for I canH stand
ingratitood."
Our friend watched the crew over the

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR." 73

Vessel's side with jealous eyes, for had they
refused at the last moment to remain in the
ship, he would have been a loser to the
amount he had given them for their advance-
notes. He looked really happy when the
last man was out of the lugger and her
head turned for the shore. He raised his
greasy hat to Duckhng, and his hair shone
like polished mahogany in the sun.

"Aft here, some of you, and ship this
gangway. Boatswain, pipe all hands to get
the ship under weigh," cried Duckling ; and
turning to me with a wink, he added, *^ If
the grub is going to bring more rows, we
must fight 'em on the high seas."

There was a Httle breeze from the south-
east ; quite enough to keep the lighter sails
faU and give us headway against 'the tide
that was running up Channel. The men>
zealous as all new-comers are, hastened
briskly out of the forecastle on hearing

ii nT>/M3xrT»XT/>T) »»

76 THE WBEOK OF THE " GROSVENOR.

canvas, and the men seemed pleased with
her pace.

The day was gloriously fine. The sea
was of an emerald green, alive with httle
leaping waves each with its narrow thread
of froth : the breeze was strong enough to
lay the vessel over, just so far as to enable
one looking over the weather side to see

her copper, shining red below the green line
of water. The brilliant sunshine illumi-
nated the brass-work with innumerable
glories, and shone with fluctuating flashes
in the glass of the skyHghts, and made the
decks gUsten like a yacht's. The canvas,
broad and white, towered nobly to the sky,
and the main-royal against the deep blue of
the sky seemed like a cloud among the
whiter clouds which swept in quick succes-
sion high above. It was a sight to look
over the ship's bows, to see her keen stem
shredding the water, and the permanent

THE WBECK OF THE *^ GBOSVENOR." 77

pillar of foam leaning away from her
weather-bow.

This part of the Channel was foil of ship-
ping, and I know, by the vividness with
which my memory reproduces the scene,
how beautiful was the picture impressed
upon it. AU on our right were the English
shores, made delicate and even fanciful by
distance; here and there fairy-like groups
of houses, standing on the heights among
trees or embosomed in valleys, with silver
sands sloping to the sea : deep shadows
staining the purity of the brilliant chalk,
and a foreground of pleasure-boats with
sails glistening like pearl and bright flags
streaming. And to our right and left
vessels of different rigs and sizes standing
up or down Channel, some running like our-
selves, free, with streaming wakes, others
coming up close-hauled, some in ballast
high out of water, stretching their black

78 THE WBEOK OF THE ^* GBOSVENOB."

sides along the sea and exposing to wind-
ward shining surfaces of copper.

At half-past two o'clock in the afternoon,
all sail that was required having been made,
and the decks cleared, the hands were
divided into watches, and I, having charge
of the port watch, came on deck. The
starboard watch went below; but as the
men had not dined, a portion of my own
watch joined the others in the forecastle to
get their dinner.

I now discovered that the copper-faced
man, to whom I have drawn attention, was
the new cook. I heard the men bandying
jokes with him as they went in and out of
the galley, carrying the steaming lumps of
pork and reeking dishes of pea-soup into
the forecastle, whence I concluded that
they had either not yet discovered the
quality of the provisions, or that they were
more easily satisfied than their predecessors
had been.

THE WBECK OF THE " GROSVENOB." 79

Among the men in my own watch was
the great strapping fellow whom I had
likened to a Lifeguardsman. I had thought
the man too big to be handy up aloft, but
was very much deceived ; for in all my life
I never witnessed such feats of activity as
he performed. His long legs had enabled
him to take two ratlines at a time, and he
saved himself the trouble of getting over
' the futtock shrouds by very easily making
two steps from the mainshrouds to the
mainyard, and from the mainyard to the
maintop. I watched him leave the galley,
carrying his smoking mess ; but I also
noticed, before I lost sight of him, that he
took a suspiciously long sniff at the steam
under his nose, and then violently ex-
pectorated.

The breeze was now very lively; the
canvas was stretching nobly to it, and the
shore all along our starboard beam was a

80 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR.

gliding panorama, brilliant with colour and
sunshine. They were having dinner in the
cuddy, and as often as I passed the skyhght
I could see the captain glancing upwards at
the sails with a well-pleased expression.

I presently noticed the cook's copper face,
crowned with an odd kind of knitted cap,
protruding from the galley, and his small
eyes gazed intently at me. I paced the
length of the poop, and when I returned,
the cook's head was still at its post, and
then his body came out and he stood
staring in my direction.

I had to turn abruptly to hide my mirth,
for his face was ornamented with an expres-
sion of disgust exquisitely comical with the
wrinkled nose, the arched thick mouth, and
the sere wed-up eyebrows.

When I again looked he was coming
along the deck, swinging a piece of very fat
pork at the end of a string. He advanced

THE WRECK OF THE ** GROSVENOR.'' 81

close to the poop-ladder at the top of which
I was standing, and holding up the pork,
said —

"You see dis, sar? "

"Yes," I answered.

" Me belong to a country where we no
eat pork," he exclaimed, with great gravity,
still preserving his wrinkled nose and im-
mensely disgusted expression.

" What country is that ? " I asked.

" Hot country, sar," he answered. "But
me will eat pork on board ship."

" Very proper."

" But me will not eat stinking pork on
board ship or anywhere else," he cried
excitedly.

"Is that piece of pork tainted?" I in-
quired.

"Don't know nuffen 'bout tainted, sar,"

he replied; "but it smells kinder strong.

But not so strong as the liquor where
VOL. I. a

82 THE WBECK OF THE " GROSVENOB.

t'other porks was biled in. Nebber smelled
de like, sar. Most disgusting. Come and
try it, sar. Make you feel queer."

** Pitch the water overboard, then."

**No good, sar. Fork'sle full of stinks,
and men grumblin' like hell. Me fust-rate
cook, too — ^but no make a stink sweet. Dat
beats me."

He held up the pork, with an expression
on his face as if he were about to sneeze,
shook his finger at it as though it were
something that could be affected by the
gesture, and flung it overboard.

'* Dat's my rations," said he. " Shouldn't
like to eat de fish dat swallers it."

And turning jauntily in his frocked can-
vas breeches he walked off.

A few moments afterwards the extraor-
dinary-looking man with the small face and
large head, and shell-shaped back, came out
of the forecastle, walking from side to side

THE WBBCK OF THE ** GROSVENOR." 83

with a springing jerky action of the legs,
they being evidently moved by a force
having no reference to his will.

^*Ax your pardon, sir," he said, twirling
up his thumb in the direction of his fore-
head; *^ but the meat's infernal bad aboard
this here wessel.'*

" I can't help it," I answered, annoyed to
be the recipient of these complaints, which
seemed really to justify Coxon's charge of
my being the crew's confidant. ^* You must
talk to the captain about it."

" Ne'er a man among us can eat of the
pork ; and the cook, as is better acquainted
than us with these here matters, says he'd
rather be biled aUve than swaUer a ounce
of it."

"The captain is the proper person to
complain to."

" That may be, sir," said the man, drop-
ping his chin, so that by projecting his

84 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR.

beard his face appeared to withdraw, and
grow smaller still. ** But the boatswain
says there'll not be much got by com-
plaining to the skipper.''

" I can't make the ship's stores better
than they are," I replied, moving a step, for
I now perceived that some of the crew were
watching us, and I did not want the captain
to come on deck and find me talking to this
man about the provisions. But it so hap-
pened that at this particular moment the
captain emerged from the companion hatch-
way. The man did not stir, and the captain
said —

'' What does that fellow want ? "
*' He is complaining of the pork, sir. I
have referred him to you."

He gave me a sharp look, and leaning
forwards, said in a quiet, mild voice —
" What's the matter, my man ? "
^' Why, sir, I've been asked to come and

THE WRECK OF THE ^' GR08VEN0R." 85

say that the pork that's been served to the
men is in a werry bad state, to be sure. It's
more smell than meat, and what ain't smell
is brine."

^^ I am sorry to hear that," said the cap-
tain in a most benignant manner. "Look
into the cuddy and tell the steward I want
him."

The steward stepped on to the quarter-
deck and looked up at his master in a way
that made me suspect he had got his cue.

"What's the matter with the pork,
steward ? "

" Nothing, sir, that I know of."

" The men say it smells strong — that's
what you say, I think ? ' ' remarked the cap-
tain, addressing the man.

" Werry strong, sir — strong enough to sit
upon, sir."

" I don't know how that can be," ex-
claimed the steward, looking very puzzled

86 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOB.

indeed. "It's sweet enough in the cask^
Perhaps it's the fault of the bihng."

" Nothing to do with the biling, mate,'^
said the man, shaMng his extraordinary
head, at the same time surveying the
steward indignantly. . " Biling clears away
smells as a rule."

" Perhaps you've opened a bad cask. If
so," said the captain, "fling it overboard^
for I'll not have the men poisoned. Let the
cook boil me a sample from the next cask
you open, and put it upon my table — do you
hear?"

" Yes, sir."

" That wiU do," continued the captain,,
addressing the man. " You may go forward
and teU your mates what I have said."

And away straggled the man to inform
the crew, no doubt, that the skipper was a
brick, and that he'd like to punch the
steward's head.

THE WRECK OF THE ** GROSVENOR." 87

At seven o'clock next morning we were
abreast the Isle of Wight, having carried a
strong south-easterly breeze with ns as far as
Eastbourne, when the wind lulled and re-
mained light all through the middle watch ;
but after four it freshened again from the
same quarter, and came on to blow strong ;
but we kept the fore and main royals on her
all through, and only furled them to heave
the ship to off Ventnor, where we landed
the pilot.

There was a nasty lump of a sea on just
here, and some smacks making for Ports-
mouth carried haK sails soaking and their
decks running with water. The Grosvenor^
owing to her weight, lay steady enough ; a
little too steady, I thought, for she shipped
water over her starboard bow without rising,
reminding me of a deep-laden barge, along
which you will see the swell running and
washing, whilst she herself goes squashing
through with scarcely a roll.

a in.T>/%aTn:.vTi^T> "

88 THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR.

A dandy-rigged boat put off, in response
to our signal, and I enjoyed the pretty
picture she made as she came foaming,
close hauled, towards the ship, burying
herself in spray as she shoved her keen
nose into the sea, and hopping nimbly out
of one trough into another, so that some-
times you could see her forefoot right out of
water.

I was glad when the pilot got over the
side. He was a mean toady, and had done
me no good with the captain. The gang-
way ladder had been thrown over to enable
him to descend, and the boat washed high
and low, up and down, alongside, some-
times level with the deck, sometimes twelve
or fourteen feet in a hollow.

*^Now's your time," said I, mischiev-
ously, as he hung on to the man-rope with
one leg out to catch the boat as she rose.
He took me at my word and let go j but

THE WRECK OF THE ^* GROSVENOR." 89

the boat was sinking, and down he went
with her, and I had the satisfaction of
seeing him roll right into the boat's bottom,
and there get so hopelessly entanglfed with
the pump and some trawling gear, that it
took two boatmen to pull him out and set
him on his feet.

Then away they went, the pilot waving
his hat to the skipper, who cries —

" Man the lee main braces."

The great yards were swung around, and
the ship lay over to the immense weight of
canvas.

" Ease off those jib-sheets there, and set
the mainsail."

The ship, feeling the full breeze, surged
slowly forwards, parting the toppling seas
with thundering blows of her bows. She
had as much sail on her as she could
well carry, and a trifle to spare, for the
breeze had freshened whilst we had been

:H> THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSYENOB.

\\\ng to, a couple of vessels to windward were-
liJcing in their fore and mizzen top-gallant
sails, and ahead was a smart brig with a
single reef in her fore- topsail. The wind
was well abeam, perhaps half a point abaft^
and every sail was swollen like the cheeks,
of rude Boreas in the picture of that bleak
worthy.

This cracking on delighted Duckling,,
whose head turned so violently about as he
stared first at these sails, then at those,
then forward, then aft, that I thought he
would end in putting a kink into his neck.

"This is proper!" he exclaimed, in his.
hoarse voice, after ordering some hands
* ' to clap the watch-tackle on to the main-
tack and rouse it down." " "We'll teach 'em
how to froth this blessed Channel ! I guess
we've had enough of calms, and if the Scilly
ain't some miles astern by the second dog-
watch to-morrow I'll turn a monk, you
see ! "

THE WBECK OF THE ^* GBOSVENOR." 91

We were heading well west-south-west,
and the water was flying in sheets of foam
from the ship's bows. By this time it was
dark, and the sky thick with the volume of
wind that swept over it; the stars shone
hazily, but it was as much as I could do to
trace the outlines of the main-royal and
top-gallant sail.

The vessel was rushing through the water
at a great pace. I felt as exhilarated as one
new to the life when I looked astern and
* saw the broad path of foam churned by the
ship rising and falling and fading upon the
desolate gloom of the hilly horizon. 'Blue
fires burnt in the water; but, by-and-by,
when by stretching out we had got into the
broader sea, and the vessel plunged to the
heavier waves which were running, big
flakes of phosphorescent light were hurled
up with the water every time the ship
pitched, and for twenty fathoms astern the

92 THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR.

water was as luminous as the Milky Way.
The roaring of the wind on high, the
creaking of the spars, the clanking and
grinding of the chain-sheets, the squeal of
sheaves working on rusty pins, the hissing
and spitting of the seething foam, and ever
and anon the sullen thunder of a sea
striking the ship, filled the ear with a
wonderful volume of sound. The captain
was cracking on to make up for lost time,
and he was on deck when I went below at
ten o'clock to get some rest before reheving
Duckling at midnight. There were then
two hands at the wheel, and a couple on
the look-out; our lamps were burning
bravely, but we had long ago outrun all
;sight of shore and of lights ashore.

I slept soundly, and at eight beUs Duck-
ling roused me up. The unpleasantest part
of a sailor's life is this periodical turning
out of warm blankets to walk the deck for

THE WBECK OP THE " GBOSVEKOR." 93

four hours. The rawness of the night air is
anything but stimulating to a man just
awake and very sleepy. Let the wind be
never so steady, the decks are full of power-
ful draughts rushing out of the sails and
blowing into your eyes and ears and up the
legs of your trousers, and down the collar
of your shirt, turn where you wiU : and you
think, as your hair is blown over your eyes
and a shower of spray comes pattering upon
your oilskins and annoying your face, of
your sheltered cabin and warm cot, and
wonder what, in the name of common sense ^
caused you to take to this uncomfortable
profession. The crew in this respect are
better off than their officers ; for the watch
on deck at night can always manage to
sneak into the forecastle and dose upon
their chests, or on the deck and keep under
shelter; whereas the mate in charge must
be always wide awake and on his legs

94 THE WEECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB.

througlioiit his watch, and shirk nothing
that the heavens may choose to pour npon
his defenceless person.

I had four hours before me when I went
on deck, and I may perhaps have wished
myself ashore in a quiet bed. The captain
stood near the wheel. It was blowing very
fresh indeed, the wind about east-south-
east, with a strong following sea. The
yards had been braced further aft, but no
other alteration had been made since I had
gone below. If I had thought that the
vessel was carrying too much sail then, I
certainly thought that she was carrying a
great deal too much sail now. She could
have very well dispensed with the main-
royal and two top-gaUant sails, and in my
opinion would have made the same way with
a single reef in the topsails. The press of
canvas was bm'ying her. Well aft as the
wind was, the vessel lay over to starboard

THE WBECK OF THE *^ GROSVENOR." 95

binder it, and she was dragging her heavy
channels sluicing and foaming through the
water. The moon was weak, with a big
ring round her, and the sky was obscured
by the scud which fled swiftly away to the
north-west. The horizon was thick, and
the troubled sheen of the moon upon the
jumping seas made the dark waters, with
their ghastly lines of phosphorescent foam,
a most wild and weird panorama.

I mustered the watch, and a couple of
them went to relieve their mates on the
forecastle. A night-glass lay on one of the
•skylights, and I swept the horizon with it,
but nothing was to be seen. I walked affe
to see how she was steering, for these heavy
following seas lumping up against a ship's
quarter play the deuce with some vessels,
making the compass-card swing wildly and
setting the square sails lifting; but found
her steering very steadily, though the rush

It r,x»/%aT™^T/^Ti »»

96 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOB.

of some of the seas under her counter might
have bewildered a two-thousand-ton ship.
She rose, too, better than I thought she
would, though she was sluggish enough, for
some of the seas ran past her with their
crests curling above her lee bulwarks, and
she had received one souser near the galley ;
but her decks to windward were dry.

Coxon was smoking a big Dutch pipe,
holding it with one hand and the rail with
the other. He had a hair cap on with flaps
over his ears, and sea-boots, and all that he
was doing was first to blow a cloud and
then look up at the sails, and then blow
another cloud and then look up again.
This would appear to have been going on
since nine o'clock. I thought he must
be pretty tired of his diversion by this
time.

"She bears her canvas well, sir," said I.

"Yes," he answered gruffly, "I have lost

THE WBECK OF THE ** GROSVENOE." 97

twenty-four hours. I ought to have been
clear of the Channel by this."

" She is a fast vessel, sir. We are doing
a good twelve, I should say."

He cast his eyes over the stem, then
looked up aloft, but made no answer. I
was moving away when he exclaimed —

** Go forward and tell the men to keep a
bright look-out. And keep your weather-
eye lifting yourself, sir."

I did as he bade me, and got upon the
forecastle. I found the two men who were
indistinguishable from the poop, wrapped in
oilskins leaning against the forecastle rail.
It blew harder here than it did aft, for a
power of wind rushed slanting from the
fore-topmast stay-sail and whirled up from
under the foot of the foresail. The crashing
sound of the vessel's bows, urged through
the heavy water by the great power that
was bellowing overhead, was wonderful to

YOL. I. H

98 THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR.

hear : an uproar of thunder was all around,
mingled with wild shrieking cries and the
strange groaning of straining timbers. The
moon stood away to windward of the
mizzen royal-mast head, and it was a sight
to look up and see the grey canvas, full like
balloons, soaring into the sky, and to hear
the mighty rush of the wind among the
rigging as the vessel rolled against it,
making the moon whirl across her spars to
and fro, to and fro.

I had been on deck three quarters of an
hour when, feeling the wind very cold, I
dived into my cabin for a shawl to wrap
round my neck.

I had hardly left the cuddy door to return,
when I heard a loud cry from the forecastle,
and both hands roared out simultaneously,
" A sail right ahead ! "

Coxon walked quickly forward to the
poop-rail to try to see the vessel to wind-

THE WBECK OF THE *^ GBOSVBNOR." 99

ward. Then he went over to the other side
and peered under the mainsail ; after which
he said, ** I see nothing. Where is she ? "

I shouted 'through my hands, " On which
bow is she ? "

** Eight ahead 1 " came the reply.

" There was a short pause, and then one
of the men roared out, ^^ Hard over ! we're
upon her 1 She's cutter rigged I she's a
smack ! "

" Hard a-port ! hard a-port ! " bawled
Coxon.

I saw the spokes of the wheel fly round,
but almost at the same moment, I felt a
sudden shock — an odd kind of thwdj the
effect of which upon my senses was to pro-
duce the impression of a sudden lull in the
wind.

** God Almighty ! " bellowed a voice,
*^ we've run her down ! "

In a second I had bounded to the weather-

100 THE WRECK OF THE ** GEOSVENOR."

side of the poop and looked over, and what
I saw sliding rapidly past, was a mast
and a dark-coloured sail, which in the day-
light would probably be red, stretched flat
upon the wilderness of foam which our ship
was sweeping off her sides. Upon this
ghastly white ground the sail and mast
were distinctly outlined — ^for a brief moment
only — they vanished even as I watched,
swallowed up in the seething water. And
then aU overhead the sails of the ship began
to thunder, and the rigging quivered and
jerked as though it must snap.

" Hard over ! hard over ! " bellowed
Coxon.

I saw him rush to the wheel, thrust away
one of the men, and pull the spokes over
with all his force. The vessel answered
splendidly, swerved nobly round like a
creature of instinct, and was again rushing
headlong with full sail over the sea.

THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR." 101

This was a close shave. At the speed at
which she was travelling she had obeyed
the rudder in the first instance so promptly
as to come round close to the wind. A few
moments more and she would have been
taken aback; and this, taking into con-
sideration the amount of canvas she was
carrying, must infallibly have meant the
loss of most, if not of all, her spars.

Horrified by the thoughts of living
creatures drowning in our wake, I cried out
to the skipper —

" Won't you make an effort to save them,
sir?"

^* Save them be hanged ! " he answered
fiercely. ^'Why the devil didn't they get
out of our road?"

I was so much shocked by the coarse
inhumanity of this reply, that I turned on
my heel; but yet was constrained by an
ugly fascination to turn again and cast

102 THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR.

shuddering glances at the spot where I
pictured the drowning wretches battling
with the waves.

Captain Coxon was too intent upon the
compass to notice my manner; he was
giving directions to the men in a low voice,
with his eyes fixed on the card.

Presently he exclaimed, in his gruffest
voice, " Call the carpenter to sound the
weU."

This was soon despatched, and I returned
and reported a dry bottom.

'* Heave the log, sir."

I called a couple of hands affc and went
through the tiresome and tedious job of
ascertaining the speed by the measured line
and sand-glass. The reel rattled furiously
in the hands of the man who held it: I
thought the whole of the line would go away
overboard before the fellow who was holding
the glass cried, ^' Stop ! "

THE WBECK OP THE " GBOSVENOB." 103

" What do you make it ? " demanded
Coxon.

'* Tliirteen knots, sir."

He looked over the side as though to
assure himself that the computation was
correct, then called out —

" Clew up the main-royal, and furl it ! "

This was a beginning, and it was about
time that a beginning was made. The
breeze had freshened into a strong wind,
this had grown into half a gale, and the
look of the sky promised a whole gale before
morning. The main-royal halliards were let
go, and a couple of hands went up to stow
the bit of canvas that was thumping among
the clouds.

Presently, "Furl the fore and mizzen top-
gallant sails.*'

This gave occupation to the watch ; and
now the decks began to grow lively with
the figures of men running about, with

104 THE WBEOK OF THE ^' GROSVENOB.

»>

songs and choruses, with cries of " Belay,
there ! "— " Up with it smartly, my lads ! "
and with the heavy flapping of canvas.

All this, however, was no very great re-
duction of sail. The Grosvenor carried the
old-fashioned single topsails, and these im-
mense spaces of canvas were holding a
power of wind. Overhead the scud flew fast
and furious, and all to windward the horizon
was very thick. We took in the main-top-
gallant sail ; and while the hands were aloft
we came up hand over fist with a big ship,
painted white. She was to leeward, stretch-
ing away under double-reefed topsails, and
showed out quite distinctly upon the dark
sea beyond, and under the struggling moon-
shine. We ran close enough to take the
wind out of her sails, and could easily have
hailed her had there been any necessity to
do so ; but we could discern no one on deck
but a single hand at the wheel. She showed

THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR." 106

no lights, and with her white hull and glim-
mering sails, and fragUe naked yards and
masts, she looked as ghostly as anything I
ever saw on the water. She rolled and
plunged solemnly among the seas, and
threw up her own swirling outline in start-
ling relief upon the foam she flung from her
side, and which streamed away in pyramid-
shape. She went astern like a buoy, and in
a few minutes had vanished as utterly from
our sight as if she had foundered.

I now stood waiting for an order which I
knew must soon come. It is one thing to
" carry on," but it is another thing to rip
the masts out of a ship. I don't think we
had lost haK a knot in speed through the
canvas that had been taken in : the vessel
seemed to be rmming very nearly as fast as
the seas. But the wind was not only in-
creasing, but increasing with squalls, so that
there were times when you would have

106 THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR."

thouglit that the inmates of forty mad-
houses had got among the rigging and out
upon the yards, and were screeching,
yelling, and groaning with all the force they
were master of.

At last the captain gave the order I
awaited.

^' All hands reef topsails."

In a few minutes the boatswain's pipe
sounded, and the watch below came tum-
bling out of the forecastle. Now came a
scene familiar to every man who has been
to sea, whether as a sailor or a passenger.
In a ship of war the crew go to work to the
sound of fiddles or silver whistles; every
man knows his station ; everything is done
quickly, quietly, and completely. But in a
merchantman the men go to work to the
sound of their own voices : these voices are,
as a rule, uncommonly harsh and hoarse;
and as every working party has its own solo

THE WKECK OF THE " GKOSVENOR." 107

and chorus, and as all working parties sing
together, the effect upon the ear, to say the
very least, is hideous. But also in a mer-
chantman the crew is always less in number
than they ought to be. Hence, when the
haUiards are let go, the confusion below and
aloft becomes overwhelming ; for not more,
perhaps, than a couple of sails can be handled
at a time, and, meanwhile, the others wait-
ing to be furled are banged about by the
vnnd, and fling such a thunder upon the ear
that orders are scarce audible for the noise.
All this to a certain degree happened in
the present instance. The captain having
carried canvas with fool-hardy boldness,
now ran into the other extreme. The
qnick fierce gusts which ran down upon the
ship frightened him, and his order was to
let go all three topsail haUiards, and double-
reef the sails. The halliards were easily
let go ; but then, the working hands being

108 THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR.

few, confasion must follow. The yards
coming down upon the caps, the sails stood
out in bellies hard as iron. A whole watch
upon each reef-tackle could hardly bring the
blocks together. When the mizzen-topsail
was reefed, it was found that the fore-top-
sail would require all hands ; the helm had
to be put down to shake the sail, so as to
enable the men to make the reef-points
meet. The main-topsail lifted as well as
the fore-topsail, and both sails rattled in
unison ; and the din of the pealing canvas,
furiously shaken by the howling wind, the
cries of the men getting the sail over to
windward, the booming of the seas against
the ship's bows, the groaning of her timbers,
the excited grunting of terrified pigs, and
the rumbhng of an empty water-cask, which
had broken from its lashings and was
rolling to and fro the main-deck, constituted
an uproar of which no description, however

THE WBECK OF THE *' GBOSVENOE." 109

elaborate, could even faintly express the
overwhelming character.

When the dawn broke it found the
Grosvenor under reefed topsails, fore-top-
mast, staysail, foresail, main-trysail, and
spanker, snug enough, but with streaming
decks, for the gale had raised a heavy beam
sea, and the deep-laden ship was sluggish,
and took the water repeatedly over her
weather-bulwarks .

The watch below had turned in again,
but it was already seven bells, and at four
o'clock my turn would come to go to bed.
I had charge of the ship, for the captain
having passed the night in observing his
vessel's sailing powers under aU canvas, had
gone below, and I was not sorry to get rid
of him, for his continued presence aft had
become a nuisance to my eyes.

The sea under the gathering light in the
east was a remarkable sight. The creaming

110 THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR."

arching surfaces of the waves took the pale
illumiaation, but the troughs or hollows
were livid, and looking along the rugged sur-
face as the ship rose, one seemed to behold
countless lines of yawning caverns opening
in an illimitable waste of snow. Nothing
could surpass the profound desolation of the
scene surveyed in the faint struggUng dawn,
the pallid heaven, bearing its dim and
languishing stars, over which were swept
long lines of smoke-coloured clouds torn
and mangled by the wind; the broken
ocean pouring and boiling away to a melan-
choly horizon, still dark, save where the
dawn was creeping upwards with its chilly
light, and making the eastern sea and sky
leaden-hued.

I had now leisure to recall the fatal
accident I have related, and the inhumanity
of Captain Coxon's comment upon it. I
hugged myself in my thick coat as I looked

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR." Ill

astern at the cold and rushing waters, and
thought of the bitter sudden deaths of the
unfortunates we had run down. With what
appalling rapidity had the whole thing
happened ! not even a dying shriek had
been heard amid the roar of the wind
among the masts. For many a day the
memory of that dark-coloured sail, prone
upon the foaming water, haunted me. The
significance of it was awful to think upon.
But for the men on the look-out, never a
soul among us would have known that
living beings had been hurled into sudden
and dreadful death, that the ship in which
we sailed had perchance made widows of
sleeping wives, had made children father-
less, and that ruin and beggary and sorrow
had been churned up out of the deep by
our unsparing bows.

Our voyage had begun inauspiciously
enough, God knows: and as I looked

112 THE WBECK OF THE *^ GROSVENOR."

towards the east where the morning light
was kindling over the livid, rugged horizon,
a strange depression fell upon my spirits,
and the presentiment then entered my mind
and never afterwards quitted it, that perils
and suffering and death were in store for us,
and that when I had looked on the English
coast last night I was unconsciously bidding
farewell to scenes I should never behold
again.

THE WRECK OF THE '^ GROSVENOR." 113

CHAPTEE V.

I WAS on deck again at eight o'clock. It was
still blowing a gale, but the wind had drawn
right aft, and though the topsails were kept
reefed. Duckling had thought fit to set the
main top-gallant sail, and the ship was
running bravely.

Yet; though her speed was good, she was
rolling abominably; for the wind had not
had time to change the course of the
waves, and we had now all the disadvantage
of a beam sea without the modifying in-
fluence over the ship's roUing of a beam
wind.

I reckoned that we had made over one

VOL. I. I

114 THE WBEGE OP THE " GROSVENOB."

hundred and thirty knots during the twelve
hours, so that if the gale lasted, we might
hope to he clear of the Scilly Isles hy
next morning. There was a smaU screw
steamer crossing our hows right ahead, pos-
sibly hailing from France and hound to the
Bristol Channel. I watched her through a
glass, sometimes breathlessly, for in aU my
life I never saw any vessel pitch as she did,
and Hve. Sometimes she seemed to stand
clear out of water so as to look aU hull:
then down she would go and leave nothing
showing but a bit of her funnel sticking
up with black smoke pouring away from it.
Several times when she pitched I said to
myself, *'Now she is gone!" Her bows
went clean under, heaving aloft a prodigious
space of foam : up cocked her stem, and,
with the help of the glass, I could see her
screw skurrying round in the air. Her
decks were lumbered with cattle-pens, but

THE WBECK OF THE " GROSVENOE." 115

thiB only living tiring I could see on board
was a man steering her on the bridge. She
vanished all on a sudden, amid a Niagara of
spray; but some minutes after I saw her
smoke on the horizon. Had I not seen her
smoke I should have been willing to wager
that she had foundered. These mysterious
disappearances at sea are by no means rare ;
but are difficult to account for, since they
sometimes happen when the horizon is
clear. I have sighted a ship and watched
her for some time : withdrawn my eyes for
a. minute, looked again, and perceived no
signs of her. It is possible that mists of
small extent may hang upon the sea, not
noticeable at a distance, and that they will
shut out a vessel suddenly and puzzle you
as a miracle would. The fascinating legend
of the " Phantom Ship " may have origin-
ated in disappearances of this kind, for they
are quite complete and surprising enough to

116 THE WEECK OF THE " GROSVENOR."

inspire superstitious thoughts in such plain,
unlettered minds as sailors'.

They were breakfastiug in the cuddy and
in the forecastle, and I was waiting for the
skipper to come on deck that I might go
below and get something to eat. But
before he made his appearance, the con-
founded copper-coloured cook, accompanied
by a couple of men, came aft.

" Sar," said this worthy, who looked
lovely in a pink-striped shirt and yellow
overalls, " me ask you respeckfly to speak ta
de skipper and tell him him biscuit am dam
bad, sar."

"I'm messman for the starboard watch,
sir," exclaimed one of the men, " and the
ship's company says they can't get the bread
down 'em nohow."

"Why do you come to me ? " I demanded
of them angrily. " I have already told you,
cook, that I have nothing to do with the

THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR." 117

sliip's stores. You heard what Captain
Coxon said yesterday ? ' '

" Can't the steward get us up a fresh bag
of bread for breakfast?" exclaimed the
third man.

"He's in the cuddy," I replied; "ask
him."

They bobbed their heads forward to see
through the cuddy windows, and at that
moment Duckling came on deck up through
the companion.

" You can get your breakfast," said he to
me. " I'll keep watch until you've done."

" Here are some men on the quarter-deck
complaining of the bread," said I. " Will
you speak to them ? "

He came forwaxd at once, very brisHy,
and looked over.

" What's the matter ? " he called out.

" We've come to complain of the ship's
bread, sir," said one of the men, quite
civilly.

118 THE WBECK OP THE " GBOSVBNOB.

" Dam bad bread, sar. Me honest man
and speak plain truff," exclaimed the cook,
who possibly thought that his position
privneged him to be both easy and candid
on the subject of eating.

*' Get away forward!" cried Ducklings
passionately. " The bread's good enough.
You want to kick up a shindy."

The men made a movement, the instinct
of obedience responding mechanicaUy to
the command. But the cook held his
ground, and said, shakiag his head and con-
vulsing his face — .

" De bread am poison, sar. All de flour's
changed into worms. Nebber see such a
ting. It get here " — ^touching his throat — :
'* and make me — ^yaw ! "

" Go forward, I tell you, you yellow-faced
villain ! " shouted Duckling. " D'ye hear
what I say?"

**Dis chile is a cook," began the fellow;

THE WBECK OP THE " GBOSYENOR," 119

but Duckling sprang off the poop, and with
his denohed fist struck him fall under the
jaw : the poor devil staggered and whirled

round, and then up went Duckling's foot,
and cook was propelled at a great pace
along the main-deck towards the galley.
He stopped, put his hand to his jaw, and
looked at the palm of it; rubbed the part
that had been kicked, turned and held up
his clenched fist, and went into the galley.
The two other men disappeared in the fore-
castle.

" Curse their impudence ! " exclaimed
Duckling, remounting the poop-ladder and
polishing his knuckles on the sleeve of
his coat. " Now, Mr. Eoyle, get you down
to yoTir breakfast. I want to turn in when
you've done."

I entered the cuddy, not very greatly
edified by Duckling's way of emphasizing
his orders, and made a bow to the captain,

120 THE WKECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR."

who was still at table. He condescended
to raise Ids eyes, but for some minutes
afterwards took no notice of me whatever,
occupying himself with glancing over a
bundle of sKps which looked like bill-heads
in his hand.

The vessel was rolling so heavily that the
very plates slided to and fro the table, and
it not only required dexterity, but was no
mean labour to catch the coffee-pot off the
swinging tray as it came like a pendulum
over to my side, and to pour out a cup of
coffee without capsizing it. The maho-
gany panelling and cabin doors aU round
creaked incessantly, and in the steward's
pantry there was a frequent rattle of
crockery.

*' What was going forward on the main-
deck just now ? " demanded Coxon, stowing
away the papers in his pocket, and breaking
fragments from a breakfast roll.

THE WBEOK OF THE " GROSVENOR." 121

I explained.

*^Ali!" said he; "they're stiU at that
game, are they?"

" Mr. Duckling punched the cook's
head ''

"I saw him, sir. Likewise he kicked
him. Mr. Duckling knows his duty, and
I hope he has taught the cook his.
Steward!"

" Yes, sir ? " responded the steward,
coming out of the pantry.

" See that a piece of the pork you are
serving out to the men is put upon my
table to-day."

" Yes, sir."

The captain fell into another fit of silence,
during which I ate my breakfast as quickly
as I could, in order to relieve Duckling.

"Mr. Eoyle," said he presently, "when
we ran that smack down this morning, what
were you for doing ? "

122 THE WBECK OF THB " GBOSVENOR."

"I should have hove the ship to," I
replied, meeting his eyes.

"Would you have hove her to had you
been alone on deck, sir ? "

" Yes, and depended on your humanity
to excuse me.'^

" What do you mean by my humanity ? "
he cried, dissembling his temper badly.
"What kind of cant is this you have
brought on board my ship? Humanity!
Damn it ! " he exclaimed, his ungovernable
temper blazing out: "had you hove my
ship to on your own hook, I'd have had you
in irons for the rest of the voyage."

" I don't see the use of that threat, sir,"
said I, quietly. " You have to judge me by
what I did do, not by what I might or
would do."

" Oh, confoimd your distinctions ! " he

went on, pushing his hair over his ears.
"You told me that you would have hove

THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR." 123

the sliip to had you been alone, and that
means you wotdd have whipped the masts
out of her. Do you mean to tell me that
you knew what saa we were carrying, to
talk hke this ? "

" Perfectly well."

My composure irritated him more than
my words, and I don't know what savage
answer he was about to return; but his
attention was on a sudden arrested and
diverted from me. I turned my eyes in the
direction in which he was staring, and
beheld the whole ship's company advancing
along the main-deck, led by the big seaman
whose name was Johnson, and by the
tortoise-backed, small-faced man who was
called Fish — ^Ebenezer Fish.

The moment the captain observed them,
he rose precipitately, and ran up the com-
panion-ladder ; and as I had finished break-
fast, I followed him.

124 THE WRECK OP THE ^' GROSVENOR.

By the time I had reached the break of
the poop the hands were all gathered abont
the mainmast. A few of them held tin
dishes in their hands, in which were Imnps
of meat swimming in black vinegar. One
carried some dozen biscuits supported
against his breast. Another held a tin
pannikin filled with treacle, and another
grasped a salt-jar, or some such utensil,
contahiing tea.

The coup d'odl from the poop was at this
moment striking. All around was a heavy
sea with great waves boiling along it ; over-
head a pale blue sky, along which the
wildest clouds were sweeping. The vessel
running before the wind under double-reefed
topsails, rolled deeply both to port and to
starboard, ever and anon shipping a sheet of
green water over her bulwarks, which went
rushing to and fro the decks, seething and
hissing among the feet of the men, and

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR." 125

escaping, with loud bubbling noises, through
the scupper-holes.

I was almost as soon on deck as Coxon,
and therefore heard the opening address of
Johnson, who, folding his arms upon his
breast, and "giving" on either leg, so as
to maintain his equilibrium while the deck
sloped to and fro under him, said in a loud,
distinct voice —

" The ship's company thinks it a dooty as
they owe theirselves to come aft altogether
to let you know that the provisions sarved
out to 'em ain't eatable."

" Out, all hands, with what you've got to
say," replied Coxon, leaning against the
rail, " and when you've done rU talk to
you."

"Now then, mates, you hear what the
skipper says," exclaimed Johnson, turning
to the others.

Just then I noticed the copper face of the

126 THE WBECK OP THE " GBOSVENOB.

cook, who was skulking behind the men,
with his eyes fixed, flashing like a mad-
man's, upon Duckling.

The fellow with the biscuits came for-
ward, but a heavy lurch at that moment
made him stumble, and the biscuits rolled
out of his arms. They were collected
officiously by the others, and placed again
in his hands, all sopping wet ; but he said,
in a collected voice —

"These here are the starboard watch's
bread. " Ne'er a man has tasted of them.
We've brought 'em for you to see, as so be it
may happen that you aren't formiliar with
the muck the steward sarves out."

" Hand up a dry one," said the skipper.

A man ran forward and returned with a
biscuit, which the captain took, broke, smelt,
and tasted. He then handed it to Duckling,
who also smelt and tasted. After which he
(the captain) said, "Fire away! "

THE WRECK OP THE " GBOSVENOR." 127

The fellow with the biscuits withdrew,
and one of the men, bearing the pork
swimming in vinegar, advanced. He was a
Dutchman, and was heard and understood
with difficulty.

" My mates they shay tat tiss pork ish
tam nashty, an' it isshn't pork ash I fanshy;
but Gott knowsh what it iss ; an' I shwear it
gifs me ta shtomack-ache — ^by Gott, it doess,
sir, ass I am a man."

This speech was received with great
gravity by the men as well as Coxon, who
answered, " Hand it up."

The mess was shoved through the rail
and poked at by the skipper with a pen-
knife ; he even jobbed a piece of it out and
put it into his mouth. I watched for a
grimace, but he made none. He handed
the tin dish as he had the biscuit to Duck-
ling, who looked at it closely and put it on
the deck.

128 THE WRECK OP THE ** GBOSVENOR.

" The next ? " said the captain.

The Dutchman, looking as a man would
who is conscious of having discharged a
most important duty, hustled back among
the others, and the man with the treacle
came out.

" This, sir, is what the steward's givin'
us for molasses," said he, looking into the
pannikin.

The captain made no answer.

" And though his senses are agiu him, he
goes on a caJlin' of it molasses."

Another pause.

"But to my way of thiokin' it ain't no
more molasses than it's oysters. It's biled
black-beetles, that's what I call it, and you
want a toothpick as strong as a marlin-spike
to get the shells out o' your teeth arter a
meal of it."

" Hand it up," said the captain, from
whom every moment I was expecting an

THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR." 129

explosion of temper. He did not offer to
taste the stuff, but inspected it witli ap-
parent attention, and tilted the vessel first
this way and then that, that the treacle
might run.

" Here's your molasses," said he, hand-
ing down the pannikin. "What else is
there ? "

"We're willin' to call this tea," said a
man, holding up an earthenware jar filled
with a black liquor; "but it ain't tea like
what they sells ashore, an' it ain't tea like
what I've bin used to drink on board other
wessels. It's tea," continued he, looking
first into the jar and then at the skipper,
"and yet it ain't. Maybe it was growed
in England, for there isn't no flavour of
Chaney about it. It's too faint for 'bacca-
leaves, and it ain.'t sweet enough for liquor-
ish. Fish here says it's the mustiness as
makes it taste like senna."

VOL. I. K

130 THE WEECK OP THE " GBOSVBNOB."

Here followed a pause, during which the
men gazed eageriy at the skipper. I noticed
some angry and even sinister countenances
among them ; and the cook looked as evil
as a fiend, with his hard yeUow face and
gleaming eyes staring upwards under his
eyebrows. But so far there had been nothing
in the men's speeches and behaviour to
alarm the most timid captain; and I
thought it would require but little tact and
a few kindly concessions to make them, on
the whole, a hard-working and tractable
crew.

The captain having kept sUence for some
time, exchanged looks with Duckling, and
called to know if the men had any more
complaints to make. They talked among
themselves, and Johnson answered **No."

" Very well, then," said he. "I can do
nothing for you here. There are no bake-
houses yonder," nodding at the sea, ** to get

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB." 131

fresh bread from. You must wait till we get
to Valparaiso."

A regular growl came up from the men,
and Johnson exclaimed —

" We can't live on nothing till we get to
Valparaiso."

"What do you want me to do?" cried
the skipper savagely.

" It's not for us to dictate," replied John-
son. "AUthat the crew wants is grub fit
to eat."

" Put into Brest," exclaimed a voice. " It
ain't fur off. There's good junk and biscuit
to be got at Brest."

" Who dares to advise me as to what I'm
to do ? " shouted the skipper in his furious
way. " By Heaven, I'll break every bone
in the scoundrel's body if he opens his
infernal mutinous mouth again. I tell you
I can't change the provisions here, and I'm
not going to alter the ship's course with

132 THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR."

this wind astern, not if you were all starv-
ing in reality." But having said this he
pulled up short, as if his temper were
diverting him from the line of policy he had
in his mind to follow ; he lowered his voice
and said, " I'U tell you what, my lads ; you
must make the provisions serve you for the
present, and if I can make a fair wind of it,
I'll haul round for some Spanish port : or if
not there, I'll see what land is to be picked
up."

"You hear what the captain says, don't
you ? " growled Duckling.

" It isn't us that minds waiting, it's our
stomachs," said Fish, the small-faced man.

"Do you mean to teU me you can't get
a meal out of the food in your hands ? "
demanded the captain, pointing amongst
them.

" We'd rayther drink cold water than the
tea," said one.

THE WBECK OF THE *^ GROSVENOR." 133

"And the water ain't over-drinkable,
neither/' exclaimed another.

"The cook shays te pork 'U gif us te
cholera," said one of the Dutchmen.

"We wouldn't mind if the bread an'
molasses was right," cried Fish. "But
they aren't. Nothen's right. The worry
weevils ain't ordinary ; they're longer an'
fatter nor common bread-worms."

"Hold your jaw!" bawled Duckling,
" The captain has spoke you fairer than any
skipper that ever I sailed under would have
spoke. So now cut forward — do you hear ?
— and finish your breakfast. Cook, come
out from behind the mainmast, you loafing
nigger, and leave the main-deck, or I'll
make you trot to show the others the road."

He pulled a brass-belaying pin out of the
rail and flourished it. The captain walked
aft to the wheel, leaving Duckling to finish
off with the men. They moved away, talk-

134 THE WBEOE OF TEE ^^ OBOSVENOB."^

ing in low grumbling tones among them-
selves, manifestly dissatisfied with the result
of their conference, and presently were all
in the forecastle.

" I'll tell you what it is, Mr. Eoyle," said
Duckling, turning impudently upon me;
" you must wake up, if you please, and help
me to keep those fellows in their place. No
use in staring and listening. You must
talk to 'em and curse 'em, damme ! do you
understand, Mr. Eoyle ? "

"No, I don't understand,'' I replied. "I
don't believe in cursing men. I've seen
that sort of thing tried, but it never
answered."

"Oh, I suppose you are one of those
ojQBlcers who caU aU hands to prayers before
you reef down, are you ? " he asked, with a
coarse, sneering * laugh. " I don't think
Captain Goxon will appreciate your services
much if that's your kind."

THE WRECK OP THE " GBOSVENOR." 135

"I am sorry you should misunderstand
me," I answered gravely. " I believe I can
do my work and get others to do theirs
without foul language and knocking men
down."

"Thunder and lightning! what spooney
skipper nursed you at his breast? Could
you knock a man down if you tried ? "

I glanced at him with a smile, and saw
him running his eyes over me as though
measuring my strength. There was enough
of me, perhaps, to make him require time
for his calculations. Sinewy and vigorous
as his m-bunt frame was, I was qmte a
match for hioi — half a head taller, and
weighed more, with heavier arms upon me
and a deeper chest than he; and was
eight and twenty, whilst he was nearly
fifty.

" I think," said I, "that I could knock a
man down if I tried. Perhaps two. But

136 THE WEECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR.

then I don't try, and must be badly pro-
voked in order to try. The skipper who
nursed me was not a New Orleans man, but
an Englishman, and something better — an
English gentleman. That means that no
one on board his ship ever gave him occa-
sion to use his fists."

He muttered something about my think-
ing myseK a very fine sort of bird, no doubt,
but I could not catch all that he said owing
to the incessant thundering of the gale ; he
then left me and joined the captain, who
advanced to meet him, and they both went
below.

It was now pretty plain that I was un-
suited for the taste and society of the two
men with whom I was thrown. The captain
saw I was not hkely to help his paltry views,
and that my sympathy was with the crew ;
and try as I might, I could not disguise my
real contempt for Duckling. They were

THE WBECK OP THE *^ GBOSVENOB." 137

great chums, and thoroughly relished each
other's nature. They were both bullies, and,
in addition. Duckling was a toady. Hence
it was inevitable — ^but less from the subordi-
nate position that I filled than from the
dislike I had of these men's characters — that
I should be an outsider, distrusted by the
skipper as objecting to his dealings with
the crew and capable of opposing them,
and hated by Duckling for the contempt of
him I could not disguise. Much as I
regretted this result and had done what I
could to avert it, now that it was thrust
upon me, I resolved to meet it quietly. For
the rest of that watch, therefore, I amused
myself by shaping my plans, which simply
amounted to a determination to do my duty
as completely as I could, so as to deprive
Coxon of all opportunity of making my
berth more uncomfortable than it was ; to
hold my tongue, to take no notice of the

138 THE V7BECE OF THE ^'GBOSVBNOB.

skipper's doings, to steer as clear of Duck-
ling as .possible, and to quit the ship, if
possible, at Valparaiso. How I kept these
good resolutions you shaU hear.

THE TVKECK OF THE *^ GROSVENOR." 139

CHAPTEE VI.

The weather mended next day, and we
made all sail with a fine breeze, steering
south-south-west. We had left the Downa
on Tuesday, the 22nd of August, and on
the 25th we found by observation that we
had made a distance of over 900 miles^
which, considering the heavy seas the ship
had encountered and the depth to which
she was loaded, was very good sailing.

However, though we carried the strong
north-westerly wind with us all day, it fell
calm towards night, then shifted ahead,
then drew away north, and then fell
calm again. We were now well upon

140 THE WBECK OP THE " GROSVENOR."

the skirts of the Bay of Biscay, and
the heavy swell for which that stretch
of sea is famous, did not fail us. All
through the night we lay like the ship in
the song, roUing ahominably, with Coxon
in a ferocious temper on deck, routing up
the hands to man first the port, and then
the starboard braces, bousing the yards
about to every whiff of wind, like a mad-
man in the Doldrums, until both watches
were exhausted. All this work was put
upon us, merely because the skipper was in
a rage at the calm, and not caring to rest
himself, determined that his crew should
not ; but for all the good this slueing the
yards about did, he might as well have laid
the mainyards aback, and waited until some
wind reaJly came.

Early in the morning a light breeze
sprang up aft5, and the fore-topmast stun'-
fiail was run up, and the ship began to move

THE TTRECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR." 141

again. This breeze held steady all day, and
freshened a bit at night — ^but being right
aft scarcely gave ns more than six knots
when liveliest. However, it saved the
men's arms and legs, and enabled them to
go about other and easier work than man-
ning braces, stowing safls, and setting them
again.

And so till Wednesday, the 31st of
August, on which day we were, to the best
of my memory, in latitude 46'' and longitude
about 10°.

The men during this time had been
pretty quiet. The boatswain told me that
grumbling among them was as regular as
meal-times; but no murmurs came aft, no
fresh complaints were made to the skipper.
The reason was, I think, the crew believed
that the skipper meant to touch at Madeira
or one of the more southerly Canary Islands*
That this was their notion was put into my

142 THE WEECK OP THE " GROSVENOB."

head by a question asked me by a hand at
the wheel when I was alone on deck : would
I teU him where the ship was ? "

I gave him the results of the sights taken
at noon.

" That's to the eastward of Madeery, ain't
it, sir ? "

" Yes."

He bent his eyes on the compass-card,
and seemed to be reflecting on the ship's
course. The subject dropped ; but after he
had been relieved, and was gone forward,
I saw him talking to the rest of the watch :
and one of them knelt down and drew some
kind of figure with a piece of chalk upon
the deck (it looked to me, and doubtless
was, a rude chart of the ship's position),
whereupon the cook began to jabber with
great vehemence, extending his hands in
the wildest way, and pulling one of the
men close to him, and whispering in his ear.

THE WEEOK OP THE *^ GBOSVENOB." 143

They noticed me watching them, presently,
and broke up.

Had I been on friendly terms with Goxon
or Dnckling, I should have made no delay
in going to one or the other of them and
communicating my misgivings; for mis-
givings I had, and pretty strong misgivings
they were. But I perfectly well foresaw
the reception my hints would meet with
from both Duckling and the captain. I
really beheved that the latter disliked me
enough now to convert my apprehension of
trouble into some direct charge agaiust me.
He might swear that I had sympatiiized
aU along with the crew — and this I had
admitted — and that if the mutiny which
my fears foreboded broke out, I should be
held directly responsible for it and treated
as the ringleader. Besides, there was
another consideration that influenced me:
my misgivings might be uzifounded. I

144 THE WBECE OF THE " GBOSVENOB.'*

might make a report which would not only
imperil my own position, but provoke him
into assuming an attitude towards the men
which would produce in reality the mutiny
that might, as things went, never come to
pass. This consideration more than any-
thing else decided me to hold my tongue, to
let matters take their course, and to leave
the captain and his chief mate to use their
own eyesight, instead of obtruding mine
upon them.

When I left the deck at four o'clock
on the Wednesday afternoon, there was a
pleasant breeze blowing directly from astern,
and the ship was carrying aU the canvas
that would draw. The sky was clear, but
pale, like a winter's sky, and there was a
very heavy swell roUing up from the south-
ward. The weather, on the whole, looked
promising, and, despite the north-easterly
wind, the temperature was so mild that I

THE WBECK OP THE " GBOSVENOB." 145

could have very well dispensed with my
pilot jacket.

There was something, however, about the
aspect of the sun which struck me as new
and strange. Standing high over the
western horizon it should be brilliant
enough: and yet it was possible to keep
one's eye fixe.d upon it for some moments
without pain. It hung indeed, a fluctuating
molten globe in the sky, without any glory
of rays. This seemed to me a real phe-
nomenon, viewed with respect to the
apparent purity of the sky; but of course
I understood that a mist or fog intervened
between the sight and the sun, though I
never before remembered having seen the
sun's disc so dim in brilliancy and at the
same time so clean in outhne in a blue sky.

I looked at the barometer before entering
my cabin and found a slight fall. Such a
faU might betoken rain, or a change of wind

VOL. I. L

146 THE WEECK OF THE *^ GBOSVENOB.

to the southward. In truth, there is no
telling what a rise or fall in the barometer
does betoken, beyond a change in the density
of the atmosphere. I would any day rather
trust an old sailor's or an old farmer's eye :
and as to weather forecasts, based upon a
thousand fantastic hobbies, I liken them to
dreams, of which every one remembers the
one or two that were verified, and forgets
the immense number that were never ful-
filled.

Throughout the dog-watches the weather
still held fair; but the glass had fallen
another bit and the wind was dropping.
Captain Coxon had very little to say to me
now and I to him. I was just civil, and he
was barely so; but when I was taking a
glass in the cuddy preparatory to turning in
for three hours, he asked me what I thought
of the weather.

"It's difl&cult to know what this swell

THE WEECK OF THE "GEOSVENOR." 147

means, sir," I answered. *^ Either it comes
in advance of a gale or it follows a
gale."

" In advance," he said. *^ If you are
going to turn in, keep yom* clothes on.
There was a thundering gale in the sun this
afternoon, and if you clap your nose ovei^
the ship's side you'll smell it coming."

Oddly as he expressed himself, he was
quite serious, and I understood him.

As the wind grew more sluggish, the
vessel rolled more heavily. I never was in
a cuddy that groaned and strained more
than this, owing to the mahogany fittings
having shrunk and warped away from their
fixings. Up through the skyhghts it was
pitch dark, from the effect of the swinging
lamps within; and though hoth skyhghts
were closed, I could hear the sails flapping
like sharp peals of artillery against the
masts, and the gurgling, washing sob of the

148 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOB.

water as the roll of the ship brought it up
through the scupper-holes.

Just then Duckling overhead sang out
to the men to get the fore-topmast stun'-
sail in: and Coxon at once quitted the
cabin and went on deck. There was some-
thing ominous in the calm and darkness of
the night and the voluminous heaving of
the sea, and I made up my mind to keep
away from my cabin a while longer. I
loaded a pipe and posted myself in a comer
of the cuddy front. Had this been my first
voyage, I don't think I should have found
more difficulty in keeping my legs. The
roll of the vessel was so heavy that it was
almost impossible to walk. I gained the
comer by dint of keeping my hands out
and holding on to everything that came in
my road ; but even this nook was uncom-
fortable enough to remain in standing, for,
taking the sea-line as my base, I was at

THE WEECK OP THE " GBOSVENOR." 149

one moment reclining at an angle of forty
degrees, the next, I had to stiffen my legs
forward to prevent myseK from being
shot like a stone out of the corner and
projected to the other side of the deck.

The men were at work getting in the
fore-topmast stun'-sp^il, and some were aloft
rigging in the boom. There was no air to
be felt save the draughts wafted along the
deck by the flapping canvas. Even where
I stood I could hear the jar and shock of
the rudder struck by the swell, and the
grinding of the tiller-chains as the wheel
kicked. The sky was thick with half a
dozen spars sparely glimmering upon it
here and there. The sea was black and
oily, flashing fitfully with spaces of phos-
phorescent light which gleamed below the
surface. But it was too dark to discern the
extent and bulk of the swell : that was to
be felt.

150 THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOE.

Duckling's voice began to sound harshly,
calling upon the men to bear a hand, and
their voices, chorusing up in the darkness,
produced a curious effect. So far from my
being able to make out their figures, it was
as much as I could do to trace the outlines
of the sails. After awhile they came down,
and immediately Duckling ordered the fore
and main royals to be furled. Then the
fore and mizzen top-gallant halliards were
let go, and the sails clewed up ready to be
stowed when the men had done with the
royals. So by degrees all the Hghter sails
were taken in, and then the whole of the
watch was put to close-reef the mizzen-top-
sail.

As I knew one watch was not enough to
reef the other topsails, and that all hands
would soon be called, I put my pipe in my
pocket and got upon the poop. Duckling
stood holding on to the mizzen-rigging,

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB." 161

vociferating, bully-fasliion, to the men. I
walked to the binnacle and found that the
vessel had no steerage way on her, and
that her head was lying west, though she
swung heavily four or five points either
side of this to every swell that lifted her.
The captain took no notice of me, and I
went and stuck myself against the com-
panion-hatchway and had a look around
the horizon which I could not clearly see
irom my former position on the quarter-
deck.

The scene was certainly very gloomy.
The deep, mysterious silence, made more
impressive by the breathless rolling of the
gigantic swell, and by the impenetrable
darkness that overhung the water-circle,
inspired a peculiar awe in the feelings.
The rattle of the canvas overhead had been
in some measure subdued; but the great
topsails flapped heavily, and now and again

162 THE WRECK OP THE ^^ aROSVENOB.

the bell that hung just abaft the mainmast

tolled with a single stroke.

It was a relief to turn the eye from
the black space of ocean to the deck of
the ship catching a lustre from the cuddy-
lights.

Duckling, perceiving my figure leaning
against the hatchway, poked his nose into
my face to see who I was.

" I believed you were turned in," said he.

"I thought all hands would be called,
and wished to save myseK trouble."

" We shall close-reef at eight bells," said
he, and marched away.

This was an act of consideration towards
the men, as it meant that the watch below
would not be called until it was time for
them to turn out. At all events the ship
was snug enough now, come what might,
even with two whole topsaHs on her.
Having close-reefed the mizzen-topsail, the

THE WBECK OF THE *^ GEOSVENOB." 163

hands were now fnrKng the mainsail, and
only a little more work was needful to put
the ship in trim for a hurricane. So I took
Duckling's hint and laid down to get some
sleep, first taking a peep at the glass and
noting that it was dropping steadily.

Sailors learn to go to sleep smartly and
to get up smartly. And they also learn to
extract refreshment out of a few winks,
which is an art scarce any landsman that I
am acquainted with ever succeeded in ac-
quiring. I was awakened hy one of the
hands striking eight bells, and at once
tumbled up and got on deck.

The night was darker than it was when I
had gone to my cabin ; no star was now
visible, an inky blackness overspread the
confines of the deep, and inspired a sense of
calm that was breathless, suffocating, in-
supportable. The heavy swell still rose
and sunk the vessel, washing her sides to

164 THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB."

the height of the bulwarks, and making the
rudder kick furiously.

The moment Coxon saw me he told
me to go forward and set all hands
to close-reef the fore-topsail. I did his
bidding, calling out the order as I went
stumbling «ind sprawling along the main-
deck, and letting go the halliards to wake
up the men, after groping for them. In-
deed, it was pitch dark forward. I might
have been stone-blind for anything I could
see, barring the thin rays of the forecastle
lamp ghmmering faintly upon a few objects
amidships.

Owing to this darkness it was a worse job
to reef the topsails than had it been blowing
a hurricane in dayhght. It was a quarter
to one before both sails were reefed, and
then the watch that had been on deck since
eight o'clock turned in.

Here were we now under almost bare

THE WBECK OF THE ^* GBOSVENOB." 155

poles, in a dead calm ; and yet had the
skipper ordered both the fore and mizzen
topsails to be furled, he would not have
been doing more than was justified by the
extraordinary character of the night— the
strange and monstrous sub-swell of the
ocean, the opacity of the heavens, the
sinister and phenomenal breathlessness and
heat of the atmosphere.

Duckling was below, lying at full length
upon one of the cuddy benches, ready to
start up at the first call. I glanced at him
through the skylight, and wondered how on
earth he kept himself steady on his back.
I should have been dislodged by every roll
as surely as it came. Perhaps he used his
shoulder-blades as cleats to hold on to the

sides of the bench; and to so wildly pro-
portioned a man as Duckling, a great deal
was possible.
The card was swinging in the binnacle as

166 THE WEECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB.

»j

before, and just now the ship's head was
north-west. With more canvas upon the
Vessel her position would have been perilous
by the impossibility of guessing from what
quarter the wind would come — ^if it came at
all. Even to be taken aback under close-
reefed topsails might prove unpleasant
enough, should a sudden gale come down
and find the ship without way on her.

The captain, who was on the starboard
side of the wheel, called me over to him.

*^ Are the decks clear ? "

" All clear, sir.''

" Fore-topsail sheets ? "

" Eeady for running, sir."

" How's her head now ? " to the man at
the helm.

"Nor'-west, half north."

'^ Keep a brisk look-out to the south'ard,
sir," he said to me ; " and sing out if you
see the sky clearing."

THE WBECK OF THE *^ GBOSVENOB." 167

I saw him, by the hinnacle-light, put his
finger in his mouth and hold it up. But
there was no other air to he felt than the
short rush first one way, then another, as
the ship rolled.

Scarcely ten minutes had passed since he
addressed me, when I saw what I took to
be a ship's light standing clear upon the
horizon, right astern.

I was about to call out when another
light sprang up just above it. Then a
small, faiut light, a little to the westward of
these, then another.

Owing to the peculiar character of the
atmosphere these lights looked red, and so
completely was I deceived by their appear-
ance, that I halloed out —

"Do you see those lights astern, sir?
They look like a fleet of steamers coming
up.

But I had scarcely spoken when I knew

168 THE WEECK OF THE ^^ GROSVENOE."

that I had made a fool of myself. They
were not ships' lights, hut starSy and at
once I comprehended the import of this
sudden astral revelation.

^^ Stand by the starboard braces ! " roared
the skipper ; and the men, awake to a sense
of a great and perhaps perilous change close
at hand, came shambling and stumbling
along the deck.

A wonderful panorama was now being
rapidly unfolded in the south.

AU down there the sky was clearing as if
by magic, and the stars shining ; but as I
watched, great flying wreaths Kke mighty
volumes of smoke pouring out of gigantic
factory chimneys, came rushing over and
obscuring them, though always leaving a
few brightly burning in a foreground which
advanced with astonishing rapidity towards
the ship. To right ,and left of this point of
the horizon, the sky cleared only to be

THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR." 169

obsonred afresli by the flying clouds. Soon,
amid the solemn pauses falling upon the
ship between the intervals of her pitching,
for she had now swung right before the
swell, we could hear the coming whirlwind
screeching along the surface of the water.
The contrast of its approach with the oily,
breathless, heaving surface of the sea
around us and all ahead, and the utter stag-
nation of the air, produced an effect upon
my mind, and, I beHeve, upon the minds of
all others who were witnesses of the sight,
to which no words could give expression —
an emotion, if you Kke, of suspense that
was almost terror, and yet terror deprived
of pain by a wild and tingling curiosity.

But such a gale as I am describing travels
quickly: all overhead the sky was first
cleared and then massed up with whirhng
clouds, before the wind struck us : the
white surface of the sea, cleanly lined like

160 THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB."

the surf upon a beach, was plainly seen by
us, even when the water all around was still
unruffled; and then^ with a prolonged and
pealing yell, the gale and the spray it was
lashing out of the sea were upon us. In a
moment our decks were soaking — ^the masts
creaked, and every shroud and stay sang to
the sudden, mighty strain ; the vessel stag-
gered and reeled — stopped, as a heavy swell
rolled under her bows, and threw her all
aslant against the hurricane, which screeched
and howled through the rigging, and then
fled forwards under the yards, which had
squared themselves as the starboard braces
were slackened.

It was lucky for the G/osvenor that the
gale struck her astern. So great was its
fury that, had it taken her aback, I doubt if
she would have righted.

This furious wind had cleared the horizon,
and the water-hne aU around was distinctly

THE WBEOK OP THE " GROSVENOR." 161

figured against the sky. The sea was a
sheet of foam, and, what will scarcely seem
credible, the swell subsided under the lateral
pressure of the wind, so that for a short
time we seemed to be racing along a level
surface of froth. Large masses of this
froth, bubbly and crackling like wood in a
fire, were jogged clean off the water and
struck the decks or sides of the ship with
reports hke the discharge of a pistol, and no
more than a handful of water blown against
my face hit me with such force, that for some
moments I suffered the greatest torment, as
though my eyes had been scalded, and I
hardly knew whether I had not lost my
sight.

The wind was blowing true from the south
and we were bowling before it due north,
losing as much ground every five minutes as
had taken us an hour to get during the day.
Coxon, however, was feeling the gale before

VOL. I. M

162 THE WBEOE OF THE " GBOSVENOB."

he brought the ship close : at any moment,
you see, the wind might chop round and
blow a hurricane; though, to be sure, the
sky with its torn masses of skurrying clouds
had too wild an aspect to make us believe
that this gale was likely to be of short
duration.

The sea now began to rise, and it was
strange to watch it. First it boiled in short
waves which the wind shattered and blew
flat. But other waves rose, too solid for
the wind to level : they increased in bulk as
they ran, and broke in coils of spray, while
fresh and larger waves succeeded, and the
ship began to pitch quickly in the young

sea.

The wonderful violence of the wind could
not be well appreciated by us who were run-
ning before it ; but when the crew manned
the braces and the helm was put to star-
board, it seemed as if the wind would blow

THE WBECK OF THE " GROSVENOB." 163

the ship out of the water. She came to
«lowly, laying her main-deck level with the
Bea, and the screeching of the wind was
diabolical and absolutely terrifying to listen
to. With the weather leeches just liffcing,
she was still well away from her course, and
her progress under all three topsails was all
leeway.

But I soon saw that she could not carry
two of the three topsails, owing to the
tremendous sudden pressure put upon the
masts by her lurches to windward; and
sure enough Duckling (who had turned out
along with all hands when the gale had first
struck the ship) roared through a speaking-
trumpet to clew up and furl the fore and
mizzen topsails.

It took aU hands to deal with each sail
separately, and I helped to stow the fore-
topsail.

To be up aloft in weather of the kind I

164 THE WRECK OF THE *^ GROSVENOR."

am describing is an experience no landsman
can realize by imagination. To begin with,
it is an immense job to breathe^ for the-
wind stands like something soUd in your
mouth, and up your nostrils, and makes the
expelling of your breath a task fitter for a
one-horse engine than a pair of human
lungs. Then you have two remorseless-
forces at work in the shape of the wind
and the sail doing their utmost to hurl you
from the yard. The fore-topsail was snugged
as well as bunt-lines and clew-Hnes, hauled
taut as steel bars, could bring it ; and
besides, there were already three reefs in it..
And yet it stood out like cast-iron, and all
hands might have danced a horn-pipe upon
it without putting a crease into the canvas
with their united weight. We had to roar
out to Duckling to put the helm down, and
spill the sail, before we could get hold of it ;.
and so fiercely did the canvas shake in the

THE WRECK OP THE ^' GROSVENOR." 165

hurricane as the ship came to, that I, who
stood in the bunt, expected to see the
hands out at the yard-arms shaken off the
foot-ropes, and precipitated into the sea.

But what a wildly picturesque scene was
the ocean surveyed from the height of the
foremast! The sea was now heavy, and
furiously lashing the weather bow; ava-
lanches of spray ran high up the side, and
were blown in a veil of hurtling sleet and
froth across the forecastle. Casting my
eyes backwards, the ship looked forlornly
naked with no other canvas on her than
the close-reefed main-topsail, with the bare
outlines of her main and after yards, and
the slack ropes and lines blown to leeward
in semicircles, surging to and fro in long
sweeps against the stars, which glimmered
and vanished between the furiously whirling
clouds. The hull of the vessel looked
strangely narrow and long, contemplated

166 THE WRECK OF THE ^* GROSVENOR.

from my elevation, upon the boiling seas ;
the froth of the water made an artificial
light, and objects on deck were clear now^
which, before the gale burst upon us, had
been wrapped in impenetrable darkness.

When the sail was farled, all hands laid
down as smartly as they could; but just
imder the foretop the rush of wind was sa
powerful, that when I dropped my leg over
the edge to feel with my foot for the fattock
shrouds, my weight was entirely sustained
and buoyed up, and I beHeve that had I let
go with my hands, I should have been
blown securely against the fore-shrouds
and there held.

The ship was now as snug as we could
make her, hove to under close-reefed main-
topsail and fore-topmast staysail, riding
tolerably well, though, to be sure, the wind
had not yet had time to raise much of a
sea. The crew were fagged by their heavy

THE WBECK OF THE *^ GROSYENOB." 167

work, and the captain ordered the steward
to serve out a tot of grog apiece to them,
more out of policy than pity, I think, as
he would remember what was in their minds
respecting their provisions, and how the
ship's safety depended on their obedience.

168 THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR."

CHAPTEE Vn.

All that night it blew terribly hard, and
raised as wild and raging a sea as ever I
remember hearing or seeing described.
During my watch, that is, from midnight
imtil four o'clock, the wind veered a couple
of points, but had gone back again only to
blow harder, just as though it had stepped
out of its way a trifle to catch extra breath.
I was quite worn out by the time my
turn came to go below, and though the
vessel was groaning like a live creature in
its death-agonies, and the seas thumping
against her with such shocks as kept me
thinking that she was striking hard ground,

THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB." 169

I fell asleep as soon as my head touched
the pillow, and never moved until routed
out by Duckling four hours afterwards.

All this time the gale had not bated a jot
of its violence, and the ship laboured so
heavily that I had the utmost difficulty in
getting out of the cuddy on to the poop.
When I say that the decks fore and affc
were streaming wet, I convey no notion of
the truth ; the main-deck was simply afloaty
and every time the ship rolled, the water on
her deck rushed in a wave against the bul-
warks and shot high in the air, to mingle
sometimes with fresh and heavy inroads of
the sea, both falling back upon the deck
with the boom of a gun.

I had already ascertained from Duckling
that the well had been sounded and the
ship found dry; and therefore, since we
were tight below, it mattered little what
water was shipped above, as the hatches

170 THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB.

were securely battened down fore and aft^
and the mast-coats unwrung. But still she
laboured under the serious disadvantage of
being overloaded; and the result was her
fore parts were being incessantly swept by
seas which at times completely hid her fore-
castle in spray.

Shortly after breakfast Captain Coxon
sent me forward to despatch a couple of
hands on to the jib-boom to snug the inner
jib, which looked to be rather shakily
stowed. I managed to dodge the water on
the main-deck by waiting until it rolled to
the starboard scuppers, and then cutting^
ahead as fast as I could ; but just as I got
upon the forecastle, I was saluted by a green
sea which carried me off my legs and would
have swept me down on the main-deck had
I not held on stoutly with both hands to
one of the fore shrouds. The water nearly
drowned me, and kept me sneezing and

THE WBEOK OF THE "GROSVENOR." 171

cougluiig for ten minutes afterwards. But
it did me no further mischief, for i was
encased in good oilskins and sou'wester,
which kept me as dry as a bone inside.

Two ordinary seamen got upon the jib-
boom, and I bade them keep a good hold,
for the ship sometimes danced her figure-
head under water and buried her spritsaQ
yard, and when she sank her stem her flying
jib-boom stood up like the mizzen-mast. I
waited until this job of snugging the sail
was finished, and then made haste to get off
the forecastle, where the seas flew so con-
tinuously and heavily that had I not kept a
sharp look-out I should several times have
been knocked overboard.

Partly out of curiosity and partly with a
wish to hearten the men, I looked into the
forecastle before going aft. There were
sliding doors let into the entrance on either
fiide the windlass, but one of them was kept

172 THE WRECK OF THE ** GROSVENOR."

half open to admit air, the forescuttle above
being closed. The darkness here was made
visible by an oil-lamp, in shape resembling a
tin coffee-pot with a wick in the spont,
which burnt black and smokily. The deck
was up to my ankles in water, which gurgled
over the pile of swabs that lay at the open
entrance. It took my eye some moments
to distinguish objects in the gloom, and
then by degrees the strange interior was
revealed. A number of hanmiocks were
swung against the upper deck, and around
the forecastle were two rows of bunks, one
atop of the other. Here and there were
sea-chests lashed to the deck, and these,
with the huge windlass, a range of chain-
cable, lengths of rope, odds and ends of
pots and dishes, mth here a pair of breeches
hanging from a hammock, and there a row
of oilskins swinging from a beam, pretty well
made up all the furniture that met my eye.

THE WRECK OP THE "GBOSVENOR." 173

The whole of the crew were below. Some
of the men lay smoking in their bunks,
others in their hammocks with their boots
over the edge ; one was patching a coat,
another greasing his boots, others were
seated in a group talking, whilst under the
lamp were a couple of men playing at cards
upon a chest, three or four watching and
holding on by the hammocks over their
heads.

A man, lying in his bunk with his face
towards me, started up and sent his legs,
encased in blanket trousers and brown
woollen stockings, flying out.

" Here's Mr. Eoyle, mates ! " he called
out. " Let's ask him the name of the port
the captain means to touch at for proper
food, for we aren't goin' to wait much
longer."

" Don't ask me any questions of that
kind, my lads," I replied promptly, seeing a

174 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR."

general movement of heads in the bunks
and hammocks. "I'd give yon proper
victuals if I had the ordering of them ; and
I have spoken to Captain Goxon about you,
and I am sure he wiU see this matter put to
rights."

I had difficulty in making my voice heard,
for the striking of the seas against the ship's
bows filled the place with an overwhelming
volume of sound, aud the hoUow, deafening
thunder was increased by the uproar of the
ship's straining timbers.

"Who the devil thinks," said a voice
from a hammock, "that we're going to let
ourselves be grinded as we was last night,
without proper wittles to support us ? I'd
rather have signed articles for a coal-barge
with drownded rats to eat from Gravesend
to Whitstable, than shipped in this here
cursed wessel, where the bread's just fit to
make savages retch ! "

THE WBEOK OP THE " GBOSVENOR." 175

I had not bargained for thiSy but had
merely meant to address them cheerily,
with a few words of approval of the smart
way in which they had worked the ship in
the night. Seeing that my presence would
do no good, I turned about and left the
forecastle, hearing a^ I came away one of
the Dutchmen cry out : **Look here, Mishter
Kile, vill you be pleashed to ssay when we
are to hov' something to eat? — for, by
Gott ! ve yill kiU te dom pigs in the long-
boat, if the shkipper don't mindt — so look
out ! "

As iU-luck would have it. Captain Coxon
was at the break of the poop, and saw me
come out of the forecastle. He waited until
he had got me alongside of him, when he
asked me what I was doing among the men.

" I looked in to give them a good word
for the work they did last night," I ^

answered. «

176 THE WBECK OP THE " GBOSVENOB."

" And who asked you to give them a good
word, as you call it ? "

*^ I have never had to wait for orders ta
encourage a crew."

" Mind what you are about, sir ! " he
exclaimed in a voice tremulous with rage.
*^I see through your game, and I'll put a
stopper upon it that you won't like."

**What game, sir? Let me have your
meaning."

" An infernal mutinous game ! " he roared.
" Don't talk to me, sir ! I know you ! I've
had my eye upon you ! You'll play false if
you can, and are trying to smother up your
damned rebel meanings with genteel airs !
Get away, sir ! " he bellowed, stamping his.
foot. " Get away aft ! You're a lumping,,
useless encumbrance ! But, by thunder I
I'U give you two for every one you try to
give me I So stand by ! "
And apparently half-mad with his rage he

THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR." 177

staggered away in the very direction in
which he had told me to go, and stood near
the wheel, glaring upon me with a white
face, which looked indescrihahly malevolent
in the far cap and ear protectors that orna-
mented it.

I was terribly vexed by this rudeness,
which I was powerless to resist, and re-
gretted my indiscretion in entering the
forecastle after the politic resolutions I had
formed. However, Captain Coxon's ferocity
was nothing new to me ; truly I believed he
was not quite right in his mind, and ex-
pected, as in former cases, that he would
come round a bit by-and-by, when his insane
temper had passed. Still, his insinuations
were highly dangerous, not to speak of their
offensiveness. It was no joke to be charged,
even by a madman, with striving to arouse
the crew to mutiny. Nevertheless, I tried
to console myself as best I could by reflect-

VOL. I. K

178 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVENOE.

ing that he could not prove his charges ;
that I need only endure his insolence for a
few weeks, and that there was always a law
to vindicate me and punish him should his
evil temper hetray hiTin into any acts of
cruelty against me.

The gale, at times the severest that I was
ever in, lasted three days, during which the
ship drove something like eighty miles to
the north-west. The sea on the afternoon
of the third day was appalling: had the
ship attempted to run, she would have been
pooped and smothered in a minute ; but
lying close, she rode fairly well, though
there were moments when I held my breath
as she sunk into a hollow Kke a coal-mine,
fiUed with the astounding noise of boiling
water, really beHeving that the immense
waves which came hurtling towstrds us with
soUd, sharp, transparent ridges, out of which
the wind tore lumps of water and flung

THE WBEOK OF THE '^ GROSVENOR." 179

them through the rigging of the ship, must
overwhehn the vessel before she could rise
to it.

The fury of the tempest and the violence
of the sea, which the boldest could not con-
template without feeling that the ship was
♦every moment in more or less peril, kept
the crew subdued, and they eat as best they
<could the provisions without complaint.
However, it needed nothing less than a
storm to keep them quiet; for on the
second day a sea extinguished the galley-
fire, and until the gale abated no cooking
could be done ; so that the men had to put
up with cold water and biscuit. Hence all
hands were thrown upon the ship's bread
for two days, and the badness of it, there-
fore was made even more apparent than
heretofore, when its wormy mouldiness was
in some degree qualified by the nauseous-
ness of bad salt pork and beef, and the
sickly flavour of damaged tea.

180 THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR.

As I had anticipated, the captain came
round a little a few hours after his insult-
ing attack upon me. I think his temper
frightened him when it had reference to me.
Like others of his hreed, he was a bit of a
cur at bottom: my character was a trifle
beyond him, and he was ignorant enough to
hate and fear what he could not understand.
Be this as it may, he made some rough
attempts at a rude kind of politeness when
I went below to get some grog, and con-^
descended to say that when I had been to
sea as long as he, I would know that the
most ungrateful rascals in the world were
sailors ; that every crew he had sailed with
had always taken care to invent some-
grievance to growl over — either the pro-
visions were bad, or the work too heavy, or
the ship unseaworthy — and that long ago he
had made up his mind never to pay atten-
tion to their complaints, since no sooner

THE WBECK OF THE *' GROSVENOR." 181

would one "wrong be redressed, than another
would be coined and shoved under his nose.

I took tHs opportunity of assuring him
that I had never willingly listened to the
complaints of the men, and that I was always
annoyed when they spoke to me about the
provisions, as I had nothing whatever to do
with that matter ; and that so far from my
wishing to stir up the men into rebellion,
my conduct had been uniformly influenced
by the desire to concihate them and repre-
sent their condition as very tolerable, so as
to repress any tendency to disaffection
which they might foment among them-
selves.

To this he made no reply, and soon after-
wards we parted ; but all next day he was
sullen again, and never addressed me save
to give an order.

On the evening of the third day the gale
broke ; the glass had risen since the mom-

182 THE WBECK OF THE " GEOSVENOB."

ing, but until the first dog-watch the wincJ
did not bate one iota of its violence, an3
the horizon still retained its stormy and
threatening aspect. The clouds then broke
in the west, and the setting sun shone forth
with deep crimson light upon the wilderness
of mountainous waters. The wind fell
quickly, then went round to the west, and
blew freshly ; but there was a remarkable
softness and sweetness in the feel and taste
of it. A couple of reefs were at once
shaken out of the main-topsail, and sail
made. By midnight the heavy sea had
subsided into a deep, long, rolling swell,
still strangely enough coming from the
south ; but the fresh westerly wind held the
ship steady, and for the first time for nearly
a hundred hours we were able to move
about the decks with comparative comfort.
Early next morning the watch were set
to wash down and clear up the decks, and

THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR." 183

when I left my cabin at eight o'clock, I
found the weather bright and warm, with a
blue sky shining among hea^y, white, April-
looking clouds, and the ship making seven
knots under all plain sail. The decks were
dry and comfortable, and the ship had a
habitable and civilized look by reason of the
row of clothes hung by the seamen to dry
on the forecastle.

It was half-past nine o'clock, and I was
standing near the tafirail looking at a shoal
of porpoises playing some few hundreds of
feet astern, when the man who was steering
asked me to look in the direction to which
he pointed, that was, a little to the right of
the bowsprit, and say if there was anything
to be seen there ; for he had caught sight
of something black upon the horizon twice,
but could not detect it now.

I turned my eyes towards the quarter of
the sea indicated, but could discern nothing

184 THE WBECK OF THE " GROSVENOE.

whatever ; and, telling him that what he
had seen was probably a wave which, stand-
ing higher than its fellows, will sometimes
show black a long distance oflF, walked to
the fore part of the poop.

The breeze still held good and the vessel
was slipping easily through the water,
though the southerly swell made her roll,
and at times shook the wind out of the
sails. The skipper had gone to lie down,
being pretty well exhausted, I dare say, for
he had kept the deck for the greater part of
three nights running. Duckling was also
below. Most of my watch were on the
forecastle, sitting or lying in the sun, which
shone very warm upon the decks ; the hens
under the long-boat were chattering briskly,
and the cocks crowing and the pigs grunting
with the comfort of the warmth.

Suddenly, as the ship rose, I distinctly
beheld something black out away upon the

-THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR." 185

horizon, showing just under the foot of the
foresail. It vanished instantly ; but I was
now satisfied, and went for the glass which
lay upon brackets just under the companion.
I then told the man who was steering to
ieep her away a couple of points for a few
moments, and resting the glass against the
mizzen-royal backstay, pointed it towards
the place where I had seen the black
object.

For some moments nothing but sea or
sky filled the field of the glass as the ship
Tose and fell ; but all at once there leaped
into this field the hull of a ship, deep as her
main-chains in the water, which came and
went before my eye as the long seas lifted
or dropped in the foreground. I managed
to keep her sufficiently long in view to per-
ceive that she was totally dismasted.

"It's a wreck," said I, tmning to the
man; "let her come to again and luff

188 THE WBEOK OP THE " GBOSVENOR.

chains into the water. I reckoned at once
that she must be loaded with timber, for
she never could keep afloat at that depth
with any other kind of cargo in her.

She made a most mournful and piteous
object in the sunlight, sluggishly rolling to
the swell which ran in transparent volumes
over her sides aad foamed around the deck-
iouse. Once, when her stern rose, I read
the name Cecilia in broad white letters.

I was gazing at her intently in the effort
to witness some indication of Kving thing
on board, when, to my mingled consterna-
tion and horror, I witnessed an arm project
through the window of the deck-house, and
frantically wave what resembled a white
handkerchief. As none of the men called
out, I judged this signal was not perceptible
to the naked eye, and in my excitement I
shouted —

" There's a living man on board of her.

THE WEECK OP THE " GBOSVENOB." 189

my lads ! " dropped the glass, and ran aft
to caU the captain.

I met him coming up the companion-
ladder. The first thing he said was,
"You're out of your course/' and looked
up at the sails.

** There's a wreck yonder ! " I cried,
pointing eagerly, " with a man on hoard
signalling to us."

" Get me the glass," he said suUdly, and
I picked it up, and gave it to him.

He looked at the wreck for some
moments, and addressing the man at the
wheel, exclaimed, making a movement with
his hand —

"Keep her away. Where the devil are
you steering to?"

" Good Heaven ! " I ejaculated ; " there's
a man on hoard — there may he others ! "

" Damnation ! " he exclaimed, hetween
his teeth; "what do you mean hy inter-

190 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR."

fering with me ? Keep her away ! " he
roared out.

During this time we had drawn suffi-
ciently near to the wreck to enable the
sharper-sighted among the hands to remark
the signal ; and they were calling out that
there was somebody flying a handkerchief
aboard the hull.

" Captain Coxon," said I, in as firm a
Yoice as I could command — ^for I was nearly
in as great a rage as he, and rendered
insensible to all consequences by his inhu-
manity — ^^if you bear away, and leave that
man yonder to sink with that wreck, when
he can be saved with very Httle trouble,
you will become as much a murderer as
any ruffian who stabs a man asleep."

When I had said this, Coxon turned
black in the face with passion. His eyes
protruded, his hands and fingers worked as
though he were under some electrical

THE WBEOK OF THE " GEOSVENOR." 191

process, and I saw for the first time in all
my life, a sight I had always laughed at as
a bit of impossible novelist description — a
mouth foaming with rage. He rushed aft
just over Duckling's cabin, and stamped
with all his might.

*^Now," thought I, "they may try to
murder me ! " And without a word, I
pulled off my coat, seized a belaying-pin,
and stood ready, resolved that, happen
what might, I would give the first man who
should lay his fingers on me something to
remember me by whilst he had breath in
his body.

The men, not quite understanding what
was happening, but seeing that a "row"
was taking place, came off the forecastle,
and advanced by degrees along the main-
deck. Among them I noticed the cook,
muttering to one or the other who stood
near.

192 THE WRECK OP THE " GROSYENOR.

Mr. Duckling, awakened by the violent
clattering over his head, came running up
the companion with a bewildered, sleepy
look in his face. The captain grasped him
by the arm, and pointing to me, cried out
with an oath, " that that villain was breed-
ing a mutiny on board, and, he believed,
wanted to murder him and Duckling."

I at once answered, "Nothing of the
kind ! There is a man miserably perishing
on board that sinking wreck, Mr. Duckling,
and he ought to be saved. My lads ! " I
cried, addressing the men on the main-deck,
"is there a sailor among you all who would
have the heart to leave that man yonder
VTithout an effort to rescue him ? "

"No, sir!" shouted one of them.
"We'll save the man, and if the skipper
refuses we'll make him ! "

" Luff ! " I called to the man at the
wheel.

THE WBECK OP THE ^^ GBOSVENOB." 193

"Luff, at your peril!" screamed the
skipper.

"Aft here, some hands," I cried, "and
lay the main-yard aback. Let go the port-
main braces ! "

The captain came running towards me.

" By the living God ! " I cried, in a fury,
grasping the heavy brass belaying-pin, "if
you come within a foot of me. Captain
Coxon, I'll dash your brains out ! "

My attitude, my enraged face and menac-
ing gesture, produced the desired effect.
He stopped dead, turned a ghastly white,
and looked round at Duckling.

"What do you mean by this (etc.)
conduct, you (etc.) mutinous scoundrel ! "
roared Duckling, with a volley of foul
language.

" Give him one for himself if he says too
much, Mr. Koyle ! " sung out some hoarse
voice on the main-deck, " we'll back yer ! "

VOL. I.

194 THE WBECE OP THE " GBOSVENOB.

And then came cries of "They're a cursed
pair o' murderers ! " " Who run the smack
down ? " " Who lets men drown ? " " Who
starves honest men ? " This last exclama-
tion was followed by a roar.

The whole of the crew were now on deck,
having been aroused by our voices. Some
of them were looking on with a grin ; others
with an expression of fierce curiosity. It
was at once understood that I was making
a stand against the captain and chief mate,
and a single glance at them assured me
that by one word I could set the whole of
them on fire to do my bidding even to
shedding blood.

In the mean time the man at the wheel
had luffed until the weather leeches were
flat and the ship scarcely moving. And at
this moment, that the skipper might know
their meaning, a couple of hands jumped
aft and let go the weather main-braces. I

THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR." 195

took care to keep my eyes on Coxon and
the mate, fully prepared for any attack that
one or both might make on me. Duckling
eyed me furiously, but in silence, evidently
baffled by my resolute air and the posture
of the men. Then he said something to
the captain, who looked exhausted and
white and haggard with his useless passion.
They walked over to the lee-side of the
poop, and after a short conference the
captain, to my surprise, went below, and
Duckling came forward.

^^ There's no objection," he said, **to your
saving the man's life, if yoti want. Lower
away the starboard quarter-boat, and you
go along in her," he added to me, uttering
the last words in such a thick voice that I
thought he was choking.

'* Come along, some of you," I cried out,
hastily putting on my coat; and in less
than a minute I was in the boat with the

196 THE WBECK OP THE " GROSVENOR.

rudder and thole-pins shipped and four
hands ready to out oars as soon as we
touched the water.

Duckling began to fumble at one of the
boat's falls.

^^ Don't let him lower away ! " roared out
one of the men in the boat. "He'll let
us go with a run. He'd like to see ns
drownded."

Duckling feU back scowling with fury^
and, shoving his head over as the boat sank
quietly into the water, he discharged a
volley of execrations at us, saying that he
would shoot some of us, if he swung for it,
before he was done ; and especially applying
a heap of abusive terms to me.

The feUow pulling the bow oar laughed in
his face, and another shouted ont, " We'll
toach yon to say your prayers yet, yon ugly
old sinner ! "

We got away from the ship's side deveify^

THE WBEOK OF THE " GBOSVENOB." 197

and in a short time were rowing fast for the
wreck. The excitement under which I
laboured made me reckless of the issue of
this adventure. The sight of the lonely
man upon the wreck, coupled with the un-
manly, brutal intention of Coxon to leave
him to his fate, had goaded me into a state
of mind infuriate enough to have done and
dared everything to compel Coxon to save
him. He might call it mutiny, but I called
it humanity, and I was prepared to stand or
fall by my theory. The hate the crew had
for their captain and chief mate was quite
strong enough to guarantee me against any
foul play on the part of Coxon, otherwise I
might have prepared myseK to see the ship
fill and stand away and leave us alone on
the sea with the wreck. One of the men
in the boat suggested this ; but another
immediately answered : ** They'd pitch the
skipper overboard if he gave such an order,

198 THE WEECK OP THE " GROSVENOR.

and glad o' the chance. There's no love
for 'em among us, I can tell you, and by

there'll be bloody work done aboard

the Grosvenor if things aren't mended soon,

as you'll see."

They all four pulled at their oars savagely
as these words were spoken, and I never
saw such sullen and ferocious expressions-
on men's faces as came into theirs when
they fixed their eyes as with one accord
upon the ship.

She, deep as she was, looked a beautiful
model on the mighty surface of the water^
rolling with marvellous grace to the swell,
the strength and volume of which mada
me feel my httleness and weakness as it
lifted the small boat with irresistible power.
There was wind enough to keep her sails
full upon her graceful, slender masts, and
the brass-work upon her deck flashed bril-
liantly as she roUed from side to side.

THE WBEOK OF THE " GBOSVENOR.'* 199

Strange contrast to look from her to the
broken and desolate picture ahead ! My
eyes were rivetted upon it now with new
and intense emotion, for by this time I
could discern that the person who was
waving to us was a female — woman or girl I
could not yet make out — and that her hair
was like a veil of gold behind her swaying
arm.

"It's a woman! " I cried in my excite-
ment; "it's no man at aU. Pull smartly,
my lads, puU smartly, for God's sake ! "

The men gave way stoutly, and the swell
favouring us, we were soon close to the
vnreck. The girl, as I now perceived she
was, waved her handkerchief wildly as we
approached ; but my attention was occupied
in considering how we could best board the
wreck without injury to the boat. She lay
broadside to us, with her stem on our right,
and was not only rolling heavily with wal-

200 THE "WEEOK OF THE " GBOSVENOR.

lowing, squelching movements, but was
swling the heavy mizzen-mast that lay
alongside tlirough the water each time she
went over to starboard, so that it was
necessary to approach her with the greatest
caution to prevent our boat from being
stove in. Another element of danger was
the great flood of water which she took in
over her shattered bulwarks, first on this
side, then on that, discharging the torrent
again into the sea according as she rolled.
This water came from her like a cataract,
and in a second would fill and sink the boat
unless extreme care were taken to keep
clear of it.

I waved my hat to the poor girl to let
her know that we saw her and had come to
save her, and steered the boat right around
the wreck that I might observe the most
practicable point for boarding her.

She appeared to be a vessel of about 700

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR." 201

tons. The falling of her masts had crushed
her port bulwarks level with the deck, and
part of her starboard bulwarks was also
smashed to pieces. Her wheel was gone,
and the heavy seas that had swept her deck
had carried away capstans, binnacle, hatch-
way gratings, pumps — everything, in short,
but the deck-house and the remnants of the
gaUey. I particularly noticed a strong iron
boat's davit twisted up like a corkscrew.
She was full of water, and lay as deep as
her main- chains, but her bows stood high,
and her fore-chains were out of the sea. It
was miraculous to see her keep afloat as the
long swell roUed over her in a cruel, foam-
ing succession of waves.

Though these plain details impressed
themselves upon my memory, I did not
seem to notice anything, in the anxiety that
possessed me to rescue the lonely creature
in the deck-house. It would have been im-

202 THE WEECK OP THE " GROSVENOR.

possible to keep a footing upon the main-
deck without a life-line or something to
hold on by ; and seeing this and forming my
resolutions rapidly, I ordered the man in
the bows of the boat to throw in his oar
and exchange places with me, and head the
boat for the starboard port-chains. As we
approached I stood up with one foot planted
on the gunwale ready to spring ; the broken
shrouds were streaming aft and alongside,
so that if I missed the jump and fell into
the water there was plenty of stuff to catch
hold of.

" Gently — 'vast rowing — ^ready to back
astern smartly ! " I cried, as we approached.
I waited a moment : the hull rolled towards
us, and the succeeding swell threw up our
boat ; the deck, though all aslant, was on
a line with my feet. I sprang with all my
strength, and got well upon the deck, but
fell heavily as I reached it. However, I

THE WBECK OP THE " GROSVENOR." 203

was up again in a moment, and ran forward
out of the wash of the water.

Here was a heap of gear, staysail and
jib-halliards and other ropes, some of the
ends swarming overboard. I hauled in one
of these ends, but found I could not clear
the raffle ; but looking round, I perceived a
couple of coils of Kne, spare stun' -sail tacks
or halliards I took them to be, lying close
against the foot of the bowsprit. I imme-
diately seized the end of one of these coils
and flung it into the boat, telling them to
drop clear of the wreck astern ; and when
they had backed as far as the length of line
permitted, I bent on the end of the other
coil and paid that out until the boat was
some fathoms astern. I then made my end
fast, and sung out to one of the men to get
on board by the starboard mizzen-chains
and to bring the end of the Kne with him.
After waiting a few minutes, the boat being

204 THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR.

hidden, I saw the fellow come scrambling
over the side with a red face, his clothes
and hair streaming, he having fallen over-
board. He shook himself like a dog, and
crawled with the line, on his hands and
knees, a short distance forward, then hauled
the line taut and made it fast.

" Tell them to bring the boat round
here," I cried, " and lay off on their oars
until we are ready. And you get hold of
this line and work yourseK up to me."

Saying which I advanced along the deck,
clinging tightly with both hands. It very
providentially happened that the door of the
deck-house faced the forecastle within a few
feet of where the remains of the galley
stood. There would be, therefore, less risk
in opening it than had it faced beam- wise ;
for the water, as it broke agaiast the sides
of the house, disparted clear of the fore 'and
after parts ; that is, the great bulk of it ran

THE WRECK OP THE " GBOSVENOR." 205

clear, though, of course, a foot's depth of it
at least surged against the door.

I called out to the girl to open the door
quickly, as it slided in grooves like a panels
and was not to be stirred from the outside.
The poor creature appeared mad, and I
repeated my request three times without
inducing her to leave the window. Then,
not believing that she understood me, I
cried out, " Are you English ? "

"Yes," she replied. "For God's sake^
save us ! "

"I cannot get you through that window,"
I exclaimed. " Eouse yourseK and open
that door, and I will save you."

She now seemed to comprehend, and
drew in her head. By this time the man
out of the boat had succeeded in sliding
along the rope to where I stood, though the
poor devil was nearly drowned on the road ;
for when about half-way the huU took in a

206 THE WBECK OF .THE " GROSVENOR."

lump of a sweU which swept him right off
his legs, and he was swung hard a-star-
hoard, holding on for his life. However, he
recovered himseK smartly when the water
was gone, and came along hand over fist,
snorting and cursing in wonderful style.

Meanwhile, though I kept firm hold of
the life-line, I took care to stand where the
inroads of water were not heavy, waiting
impatiently for the door to open. It shook
in the grooves, tried by a feeble hand ; then
a desperate effort was made, and it slid a
couple of inches.

'' That wiU do!" I shouted. '' Now, then,
my lad, catch hold of me with one hand and
the line with the other."

The feUow took a firm grip of my monkey-
jacket, and I made for the door. The water
washed up to my knees, but I soon inserted
my fingers in the crevice of the door and
thrust it open.

THE WBEOK OF THE " GROSVENOR." 207

The house was a single compartment,
though I had expected to find it divided
into two. In the centre was a table that
travelled on stanchions from the roof to the
deck. On either side were a couple of
bunks. The girl stood near the door. In a
bunk to the left of the door lay an old man
with white hair. Prostrate on his back, on
the deck, with his arms stretched against
his ears, was the corpse of a man, well
dressed ; and in a bunk on the right sat a
sailor, who, when he saw me, yelled out and
snapped his fingers, making horrible gri-
maces.

Such in brief the coup d'oeil of that weird
interior as it met my eyes.

I seized the girl by the arm.

" You first," said I. " Come — ^there is no
time to be lost."

But she shrank back, pressing against the
door with her hand to prevent me from

208 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSYENOR."

puUing her, crying in a husky voice, and
looking at the old man with the white hair.
" My father first ! — ^my father first ! "

"You shall all be saved, but you must
obey me. Quickly now ! " I exclaimed
passionately, for a heavy sea at that moment
flooded the ship, and a rush of water
swamped the house through the open door,
and washed the corpse on the deck up into
a comer.

Grasping her firmly, I lifted her off her
feet, and went staggering to the life-rope,
slinging her light body over my shoulder
as I went. Assisted by my man, I gained
the bow of the wreck, and, hailing the boat,
ordered it alongside.

" One of you," cried I, " stand ready to
receive this lady when I give the signal."

I then told the man who was with me to
jump into the fore-chains, which he instantly
did. The wreck lurched heavily to port.

THE WBEOK OF THE *^ GROSVENOR.'* 209

" Stand by, my lads ! " I shouted. Over
she came again, with the water swooping
along the main-deck. The boat rose high,
and the fore-chains were submerged to the
height of the man's knees. "Now!" I
called, and lifted the girl over. She was
seized by the man in the chains and pushed
towards the boat; the fellow standing in
the bow of the boat caught her, and at the
same moment down sank the boat, and the
wreck rolled wearily over. But the girl was
safe.

" Hurrah, my lad ! " I sung out. " Up
with you — ^there are others remaining;"
and I went sprawling along the line to the
deck-house, there to encounter another
rush of water, which washed as high as
my thighs, and fetched me such a thump
in the stomach, that I thought I must
have died of suffocation.

I was glad to find that the old man had

VOL. I. P

210 THE WBECK OF THE ^^ GROSVENOB."

got out of his bunk and was standing at the
door.

" Is my poor girl safe, sir ? " he ex-
claimed, with the same huskiness of voice
that had grated so unpleasantly in the girl's
tone.

'* Quite safe — come along."

"Thanks be to Almighty God!" he
ejaculated, and burst into tears.

I seized hold of his thin, cold hand, but
shifted my fingers to catch him by the coat
collar, so as to exert more power over him,
and hauled him along the deck, telling my
companion to lay hold of the seaman and
fetch him away smartly. We managed to
escape the water, for the poor old gentleman
bestirred himself very nimbly, and I helped
him over the fore-chains, and when the
boat rose, tumbled him into her without
ceremony. I saw the daughter leap to-
wards him and clasp him in her arms, but I

THE WBBOK OF THE " GBOSVBNOR." 211

was soon again scrambling on to the deck,
having heaid cries from my man, a^oom-
panied with several loud curses, mingled
with dreadful yells.

"He's bitten me, sir!" cried my com-
panion, hauling himself away from the deck-
house. *^ He's roaring mad."

" It can't be helped," I answered. " We
must get him out."

He saw me pushing along the life-line,
plucked up heart, and went with myself
through i sousing sea to the door. I
caught a glimpse of a white face glaring
at me from the interior: in a second a
figure shot out, fled with incredible speed
towards the bow, and leaped into the sea
just where our boat lay.

" They'll pick him up," I exclaimed.
^^ Stop a second; " and I entered the house
and stooped over the figure of the man on
the deck. I was not familiar with death,

212 THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB."

and yet I knew it was here. I cannot
describe the signs in his face ; but such as
they were they told me the truth. I
noticed a ring upon his finger, and that his
clothes were good. His hair was black, and
his features well-shaped, though his face
had a half-convulsed expression, as if some-
thing frightfol had appeared to him, and he
had died of the sight of it.

" This wreck must be his coffin," I said.
*' He is a corpse. We can do no more."

We scrambled for the last time along the
life-line and got into the fore-chains, but to
our consternation saw the boat rowing away
from the wreck. However, the fit of rage
and terror that possessed me, lasted but
a moment or two ; for I now saw they were
giving chase to the madman, who was
swimming steadily away. Two of the men
rowed, and the third hung over the bows,
ready to grasp the miserable wretch. The

THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR." 213

Gfrosvenor stood steady, about a mile off,
with her mamyaxds backed; and just as
the fellow over the boat's bows caught
hold of the swimmer's hair, the ensign was
run up on board the ship and dipped three
times.

'' Bring him along ! " I shouted. « They'U
be off without us if we don't bear a hand."

They nearly capsized the boat as they
dragged the lunatic, streaming like a
drowned rat, out of the water ; and one of
the sailors tumbled him over on his back,
and knelt upon him, whilst he took some
turns with the boat's painter round his
body, arms, and legs. The boat then came
alongside, and, watching our opportunity,
we jumped into her and shoved off.

I had now leisure to examine the persons
whom we had saved.

They — ^father and daughter as I judged
them, by the girl's exclamation on the

214 THE WHEOE OF THE '^ OBOSVEKOB.

wreck — ^sat in the stem-slieets, their hands
locked The old man seemed nearly in-
sensible, leaning backwards with his chin
on his breast and his eyes partially closed.
I feared he was dying, but conld do no good
until we reached the Grosvenor^ as we had
no spirits in the boat.

The girl appeared to be abont twenty
years of age, very fair, her hair of a golden
straw colour, which hung wet and streaky
down her back and over her shoulders,
though a portion of it was held by a comb.
She was deadly pale and her lips blue, and
in her fine eyes was such a look of mingled
horror and rapture as she cast them around
her, first glancing at me, then at the wreck,
then at the Chrosvenor^ that the memory of
it will last me to my death. Her dress, of
some dark material, was soaked with salt
water up to her hips, and she shivered and
moaned incessantly, though the sun beat so

THE WBEOK OF THE " GB0S7BN0B." 215

waxmly npon ns that the thwarts were hot
to the hand.

The mad sailor lay at the bottom of the
boat, looking straight into the sky. He
was a horrid-looking object with his stream-
ing hair, pasty features, and red beard;
his naked shanks and feet protruding
through his soaking, clinging trousers,
which figured his shin-bones as though they
clothed a skeleton. Now and again he
would give himself a wild twirl and yelp
out fiercely; but he was well-nigh spent
with his swim, and on the whole was quiet
enough.

I said to the girl, " How long have you
been in this dreadful position ? "

" Since yesterday morning," she answered
in a choking voice painful to hear, and
gulping after each word. "TV^e have not
had a drop of water to drink since the night
before last. He is mad with thirst, for he

216 THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR."

drank the water on the deck," and she
pointed to the man in the bottom of the
boat.

"My God I" I cried to the men; "do
you hear her ? They have not drunk water
for two days ! For the love of God, give
way I"

They bent their backs to the oars and the
boat foamed over the long swell. The wind
was astern and helped us. I did not speak
again to the poor girl, for it was cruel to
make her talk when the words lacerated
her throat as though they were pieces of
burning iron.

After twenty minutes, which seemed as
many hours, we reached the vessel. The
crew pressing round the gangway cheered
when they saw we had brought people from
the wreck. Duckling and the skipper
watched us grimly from the poop.

" Now then, my lads," I cried, " up with

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOE." 217

this lady first. Some of you on deck get
water ready, as these people are dying of
thirst."

In a few moments both the girl and the
old man were handed over the gangway. I
cut the boat's painter adrift from the ring-
bolt so that we cotdd ship the madman
without loosening his bonds, and he was
hoisted up like a bale of goods. Then four
of us got out of the boat, leaving one to
drop her under the davits and hook on the
falls.

. At this moment a horrible scene took
place.

The old man, tottering on the arms of
two seamen, was being led into the cuddy,
followed by the girl, who walked unaided.
The madman, in the grasp of the big saUor
named Johnson, stood near the gangway,
and as I scrambled on deck one of the men
was holding a pannikin full of water to his

218 THE WBEOK OF THE " GBOSVENOR."

face. The poor wretch was shrinking away
from it, with his eyes half out of their
sockets ; but suddenly tearing his arm with
a violent effort from the rope that bound
him, he seized the pannikin and hit clean
through the tin; after which, throwing
back his head, he swallowed the whole
draught, dashed the pannikin down, his
face turned black, and he fell dead on the
deck.

The big sailor sprang aside with an oath,
forced from him by his terror, and from
every looker-on there broke a groan. They
all shrank away and stood staring with
blanched faces. Such a piteous sight as it
was, lying doubled up, with the rope pinion-
ing the miserable limbs, the teeth locked,
and the right arm up-tossed !

*' Aft here and get the quarter-boat hoisted
up ! " shouted Duckling, advancing on the
poop ; and seeing the man dead on the deck,

THE WBBCK OF THE " GBOSVEKOB." 219

he added, " Get a tarpanlin and cover him
up, and let him lie on the fore-hatch."

"Shall I teU the steward to serve out
grog to the men who went with me?" I
asked him.

He stared at me contemptnously, and
walked away without answering.

" You shall have your grog," said I, ad-
dressing one of them who stood near,
" though it should be my own allowance."
And thoroughly exhausted after my exer-
tions, and wet through, I turned into my
cabin to put on some dry clothes.

220 THE WBECK OF THE " GEOSVENOB.

CHAPTEE Vin.

Whilst I was in my cabin I heard the men
hoisting up the quarter-boat, and this was
followed by an order from Duckling to man
the lee main-braces. The ship, hove too,
was off her course; but when she fiUed,
she brought the wreck right abreast of the
port-hole in my cabin. I stood watching
for some minutes with peculiar emotions,
for the recollection of the dead body in the
deck-house lent a most impressive signifi-
cance to the mournful object which rolled
from side to side. It comforted me, how-
ever, to reflect that it was impossible I
could have left anything living on the huU,

THE 5VBE0K OF THE " GROSVENOR." 221

since nothing could have existed below the
deck, and any one above must have been
seen by me.

The ship, now lying over, shut the wreck
out, and I shifted my clothes as speedily
as I could, being anxious to hear what
Captain Coxon should say to me. I was
also curious to see the old man and girl,
and learn what treatment the captain was
showing them. I remember it struck me,
just at this time, that the girl was in a very

awkward position; for here she was on
board a vessel without any female to serve
her for a companion and lend her clothes,
which she would stand seriously in need of,
as those she had on her were wringing wet.
And even supposing she could make -shift
with these for a time, she would soon want
a change of apparel, which she certainly
would not get until we reached Valparaiso,
unless the skipper put into some port and

222 THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB."

landed them. The memoiy of her refined
and pretty face, with the amber air about it,
and her wild, soft, piteous blue eyes, haunted
me; and I tried to think what could be
done to make her comfortable in this matter
of dress if the captain refused to go out of
his way to set them ashore.

Thus thinking, I was pulling on a boot,
when there came an awkward knock at the
door . of the cabin, and in stepped the car-
penter, Stevens by name, holding in his
band a bar of iron with a collax at either
end, and one collar fastened with a padlock.
Close behind the carpenter came Duckling,
who let the door close of itself, and who
immediately said —

" Captain Coxon's orders are to put you
in irons. Carpenter, clap those belayers
on his damned shins."

I jumped off the chest on which I was
seated, not with the intention of resisting,

THE WBECK OF THE ** GEOSVENOB." 223

but of remonstrating; but Duckling, mis-
taking the action, drew a pistol out of his
side-pocket, and presenting it at my head,
said, right through his nose, which was the
first time I had heard him so speak : ** By
the Etamal ! if you don't let the carpenter
do his work, I'll shoot you dead — so mind! "
"You're a ruffian and a bully! " said I;
'^ but I'll keep my life if only to punish you
and your master ! "

Saying which, I reseated myself, folded my
arms resolutely, and sufifered the carpenter
to lock the irons on my ankles, keeping my
eyes fixed on Duckling with an expression
of the utmost scorn and dislike in them.

" Now," said he, " you infernal mutinous
hound ! I reckon you'll not give us much
trouble for the rest of the voyage."

This injurious language was more than
my temper could brook. Scarcely knowing
what I did, I threw myself against him.

224 THE WBEOK OP THE " GROSVENOR.

caught his throat, and dashed him violently
down upon the deck. The pistol exploded
in his hand as he fell.

" Carpenter," I cried furiously, " open
that door ! "

The feUow obeyed me instantly, and
walked out of the cabin. Duckling lay
pretty well stunned upon the deck ; but in a
few moments he would have been up and at
me, and, hampered as I was by the irons, he
must have mastered me easily. I shambled
over to where he lay, dragged him upright,
and pitched him with a crash through the
open door against the cuddy table. He
struck it heavily and roUed under it, and
I then slammed the door and sat down,
feeling faint and quite exhausted of breath.

The door had not been closed two
minutes when it was partially opened, and a
friendly hand (the boatswain's, as I after-
wards learnt) placed a pannikin of rum-and-

THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR." 225

water on the deck, and a voice said, *^ They'll
not let you be here long, sir." The door
was then shut again ; and very thankful for
a refreshment of which I stood seriously
in need, I got hold of the pannikin and
swallowed the contents.

I now tried to reflect upon my situation,
but found it impossible to do so, as I could
not guess what intentions the captain had
against me and what would be the result of
my conflict with Duckling. For some while
I sat expecting to see the chief mate rush *
in on me ; and, in anticipation of a struggle
with a coward who would have me almost
at his mercy, I laid hold of a sea-boot, very
heavy, with an iron-shod heel, and held it.
ready to strike at the bully's head should he
enter. However, in about a quarter of an
hour's time I saw him through my cabin
window pass along the main-deck, with a
blue lump over his right eye, while the rest

VOL. I. Q

226 THE WBECK OF THE " GROSVENOB.

of his face shone with soap, which he must
have used without stint to rid his features
of the blood that had smeared them.
Whether the report of the pistol had been
heard or not I could not tell ; but no notice
appeared to be taken of it. I noticed a
number of the crew just under the forecastle
conversing in a very earnest manner, and
sometimes looking towards my cabin.

There was something very gross and
brutal in this treatment to which I was
subjected, and there was a contempt in it
for me, suggested by the skipper sending
Duckling to see me in irons, instead of
logging me to my face and acting in a ship-
shape fashion in putting me under arrest,
which galled me extremely. The very irons
on my legs were not such as are ordinarily
used on boaxd ship, and looked as if they
had been picked up cheap in some rag and
slop shop in South America or in the "West

tHB WRECK OP THE "OBOSVBNOB." 227

Indies, for I think I had seen such things
in pictures of truculent negro slaves. I
was in some measure supported by the
reflection that the crew sympathized with
me, and would not suffer me to be cruelly
used ; but the idea of a mutiny among them
gave me no pleasure, for the skipper was
sure to swear that I was the ringleader, and
Duckling would of course back his state-
ments; and my calling upon the men to
help me to put off to the wreck, against the
captain's orders, my going thither, and my
confinement in irons, would all tell heavily
against me in any court of inquiry ; so
that, as things were, I not only stood the
chance of being professionally ruined, but of
having to undergo a term of imprisonment
ashore.

These were no very agreeable reflections ;
and if some rather desperate thoughts came
into my head whilst I sat pondering over

228 THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB."

my misfortunes, the reader will not greatly
wonder.

I was growing rather faint with hunger,
for it was past my usual dinner-hour, and I
had done enough work to account for a good
appetite.

The captain was eating his dinner in the
cuddy; for I not only smelt the cooking, but
heard his voice addressing the steward, who
was, perhaps, the only man in the ship who
showed any kind of liking for him. I tried
to hear if the old man or the girl were with
him, but caught no other voice. I honestly
prayed that the captain would act humanely
towards them; but I had my doubts, for
he was certainly a cold-blooded, selfish
rascal.

By-and-by I heard Duckling's voice,
showing that the captain had gone on deck.
This man, either wanting the tact of his
superior or hating me more bitterly (which

THB WBECK OF THE ^' GBOSVENOB." 229

I admit was fair, seeing how I had punished
him) , said in a loud voice to the steward —

**What fodder is that mutinous dog
yonder to have ? "

The steward spoke low and I did not hear
him.

** Serve the skunk right," continued the
chief mate. ** By glory, if there was only
a pair of handcuifs on board they should be
on him. How's this lump ? "

The steward rephed, and Mr. Duckling
continued —

" I guess the fellow at the wheel grinned
when he saw it. But I'll be raising bigger
lumps than this on some of 'em before I'm
done. This is the most skulking, snivellings
mutinous ship's crew that ever I sailed with
— I'd rather work the vessel with four Las-
cars ; and as to that rat in the hole there,
if it wasn't for the colour of the bunting
we sail under, I reckon we'd have made an.

230 THE WBECK OF THE ^' 6B0STEN0B.

»s

ensign of him at the mizzen-peak some
days ago, by the Lord, with the signal
haUiards round his neck, for he's bom to
be hanged ; and I gness, though he knocked
me down when I wasn't looking, I'm strong
enough to hoist him thirty feet, and let him
drop with a run."

All this was said in a loud voice for my
edification, but I must own it did not
frighten me very greatly. To speak the
truth, I thought more of the old man and
his daughter than myself ; for if they should
hear this bragging bully from their cabins,
they would form very alarming conclusions
as to the character of the persons who had
rescued them, and scarcely know, indeed,
whether we were not aU cut-throats.

Shortly after this, Duckling came out on
to the main-deck, and observing me looking
through the window, bawled at the top of
his voice for the carpenter, who presently

THE WBBCK OF THE *^ GROSVENOB." 231

came, and DuckKng, pointing to my window,
gave him some instructions, which he went
away to execute. A young ordinary sea-
man — an Irish lad named DriscoU — ^was
coihng a rope over one of the belaying-
pins around the mainmast. Duckling
pointed up aloft, and his voice sounded,
though I did not hear the order. The lad
waited to coil the rest of the rope — a fathom
or so — ^before obeying : whereupon Duckling
hit him a blow on the back, slewed him
round, caught him by the throat, and backed
him savagely against the starboard bul-
warks, roaring, in language quite audible to
me now — " Up with you, you skulker ! I'll
teach you to wait when I give an order.
Up with you, I say, or I'll pound you to
pieces."

At this moment the carpenter approached
my window, provided with a hammer and
a couple of planks, which he proceeded

232 THE WBECE OF THE ^' 6ROSYEN0B.

to nail upon the framework. Duckling
watched him with a grin upon his ugly face,
the lump over his eye not improying the
expression, as you may beheve. I was now
in comparative darkness; for the port-hole
admitted but Uttle light, and, unlike the rest
of the cuddy berths, my cabin had no bull's-
eye.

I reached the door with a great deal of
trouble, for the iron-bar hampered my move-
ments excessively, and found it locked
outside ; but by whom and when I did not
know, for I had not heard the key turned.
But I might depend that Duckling had
done this with cat-like stealthinesS, and
that he probably had the key in his pocket.

I was hungry enough to have felt grateful
for a biscuit, and had half a mind to sing
out to the steward to bring me something to
eat, but reflected that my doing so might
only provoke an insulting answer from the

THE WBECK OP THE " GBOSVENOB." 233

fellow. With some difficulty I pulled the
mattress out of the cot and put it into the
bunk, as my pinioned legs would not enable
me to climb or spring, and laid down and
presently fell asleep.

I slept away the greater part of the after-
noon ; for when I awoke, the sky, as I saw it
through the port-hole, was dark with the
shadow of evening. A strong wind was
blowing and the ship laying heavily over to
it, by which I might know she was carrying
a heap of canvas.

I looked over the edge of the bunk, and
saw on the deck near the door a tin dish,
containing some common ship's biscuit and
a can of cold water. I was so hungry that
I jumped up eagerly to get the biscuit, by
doing which I so tweaked my ankles with
the irons, that the blood came from the
broken skin. I made shift to reach the
biscuit, which proved to be the ship's bread

234 THE WBECK OF THE *^ GBOSVENOB."

as served to the men, and ate greedily,
being indeed famished; but speedily dis-
covered the substantial grounds of com-
plaint the sailors had against the ship's
stores; for the biscuit was intolerably
mouldy and rotten, and so full of weevils,
that nothing but hunger could have in-
duced me to swallow the abomination. I
managed to devour a couple of these things,
and drank some water ; and then pulled out
my pipe and began to smoke, caring little
about the skipper's objection to this indul-
gence in the saloon, a^d heartily wishing he
would come to the cabin that I might tell
him what I thought of his behaviour.

How long was this state of things going
to last with me ? Would the crew compel
Captain Coxon to put into some near port
where I should be handed over to the authori-
ties, or would he proceed direct to Valparaiso ?
The probability of his touching anywhere

THE WBECK OF THE ^' GBOSVEKOB." 235

was, in my opimon, now smaller than
before ; as the delays, and inquiry into my
conduct and the complaints of the men,
would seriously enlarge the period of the
voyage. Nor could I imagine that the two
persons we had rescued would prevail upon
him to go out of his way to land them. As
for myself, looking back on my actions, I did
not beUeve that any court would judge me
severely for obKging Coxon to send a boat
to the wreck ; for I had the evidence of the
crew to prove that a human being had been
seen signalling to us for help, before I
ordered the ship to be hove to, and that
therefore my determination to board the
wreck had not been speculative, but truly
justified by the spectacle of human distress.
Stm, such anticipations scarcely consoled me
for the inconvenience I suffered in my feet
being held in irons, and in my being locked
up in a gloomy cabin, where such fare as I

236 THE WBECK OP THE " GBOSVENOB.'*

had already eaten woxild probably be the
food I should get until the voyage out was
ended.

As the evening advanced the wind fresh-
ened, and I heard the captain giving orders
just over my head, and the hands shorten-
ing sail. The skipper was again straining
the ship heavily: the creaking and groan-
ing in the cuddy was incessant : and every
now and again I heard the boom of a sea
against the vessel's side, and the sousiag
rush of water on deck. But after the men
had been at work some time, the vessel
laboured less and got upon a more even
keel.

Two bells (nine o'clock) had been struck,
when I was suddenly attracted by a sound
of hammering upon the dead-hght in my
cabin. I turned my head hastily ; but as it
was not only dark inside, but dark without,
I could discern nothing, and concluded that

THE WBECE OF THE " GROSVENOR." 237

the noise had been made on the deck over-
head.

After an interval of a minute the ham-
mering was repeated, and now it was
impossible for me to doubt that it was
caused by something hard, such as the
handle of a knife being struck upon the
thick glass of the port-hole. I was greatly
astonished ; but remembering that the main-
chains extended away from this port-hole, I
easily concluded that some one had got
down into them and was knocking to draw
my attention.

I hoisted my legs out of the bunk with
very great difficulty, and having got my
feet upon the deck, drew myseK to the port-
hole, but with much trouble, it being to
windward, and the deck sloping to a con-
siderable angle. Not a . glimmer of light
penetrated my cabin from the cuddy: and
whether the sky outside was clear or not,

238 THE WBBCK OP THE " GBOSVENOB,"

I only know that the prospect seen through
the port-hole, buried in the thickness of the
ship's wall, was pitch dark,

I untwisted the screw that kept the dead-
light closed, and it blew open, and a rush of
wind, concentrated by the narrowness of
the aperture through which it penetrated,
blew damp with spray upon my face.

Fearful of my voice being heard in the
cuddy — ^for this was the hour when the
spirits were put upon the table, and it was
quite likely that Coxon or Duckling might
be seated within, drinking alone — I muffled
my voice between my hands and asked who
was there ?

The fellow jammed his face so effectually
into the port-hole as to exclude the wind,
so that the whisper in which he spoke
was quite distinct.

"Me — Stevens, the carpenter. I've
come from the crew. But you're to take

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSYBNOB." 239

your solemn oath you'll not split upon us if
I tell you what's goin' to happen ? "

"I am not in a position to split, " I
replied, "But I can make no promises
untU I know your intentions."

The man was a long time silent. Several
times he withdrew his face, as I knew (for I
could not see him) by the rush of wind that
came in, to shake himself free of the spray
that broke over him.

** It's just this," he said, bunging up the
port-hole again. " We'd rather take a
twelvemonth imprisonment ashore, in the
worst jail in England, than work this wessel
on the rotten food we're obliged to eat.
What we want to know is, will you take
charge o' the ship and carry her where we
teUs yer, if we give you command ? "

I was too much startled by this question
to reply at once* Influenced by the long
term of confinement before me> if Captain

240 THE WBECE OP THE ^* GBOSVENOB."

Coxon remained in control, by my bitter
dislike of him and his bully factotum, by the
longing to be free, and the hundred excuses
I could frame for co-operating with the
crew, my first impulse was to say yes. But
there came quickly considerations of the
danger of mutiny on board ship, of the sure
excesses of men made reckless by liberty
and freed from the discipline which, though
their passions might protest against it, their
still stronger instincts admitted and obeyed.

**Give us your answer," said the man.
** If the chief mate looks over, he'll see me."

" I cannot consent," I repUed. *^ I am as
sorry for the crew as I am for myseK. But
things are better as they are."

*^By 1" exclaimed the man in a

violent, hoarse whisper, " we don't mean to
let 'em be as they are. We've put up with
a bit too much as it is. We'll find a way of
making you consent — see to that ! And if

THE WBEOK OP THE " GROSVENOB." 241

you peach on us we're still too strong for
you — so mind your life ! "

Saying winch he withdrew his head ; and
after waiting a short time to see if he re-
mained, I closed the port, and shuffled into
my bunk again.

I tried to think how I should act.

If I acquainted the captain with the car-
penter's disclosure the men would probably
murder me. And though they withheld
from bloodshed, my putting the captain on
his guard would not save the ship if the
men were determined to seize her, because
he could not count on more than two men
to side with him, and the crew would over-
power them immediately.

However, I will not seem more virtuous
and upright than I was ; and I may there-
fore say, that after giving this matter some
half-hour's thinking, I found that it would
suit my purpose better if the crew mutinied

VOL. I. B

242 THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB."

than if the captain continued in charge,
because it might open large opportunities
for my future, and relieve me from the dis-
graceful position in which I was placed by
the malice and injustice of my two superiors.
The one thing I heartily prayed for was
that murder might not be done ; but I did
not anticipate great violence, as I imagined
that the crew had no other object in rebel-
ling than to compel the captain to put into
the nearest port to exchange the stores.

The night wore away very slowly, and I
counted every bell that was struck. The
wind decreased at midnight, and I heard
Duckling go into the captaia's cabin and
rouse him up, the captain evidently having
undertaken my duties. Duckling reported
the weather during his watch, and said,
" The wind is dropping, but it looks dirty
to the southward. If we lose the breeze we
may get it fresh from t'other quarter, and

THE WRECK OF THE *^ GROSVENOR." 243

"she can't hurt under easy sail until we see
what's going to do."

They then went on deck together, and in
about ten minutes' time DuckKng returned
and went into his cabin, closing the door
noisily.

A little after one o'clock I fell into a
dose, but was shortly after awakened by
hearing the growl of voices close against
my cabin, my apprehensions making my
hearing very sensitive, even in sleep.

In a few moments the voices of the men
were silenced, and I then heard the tread of
footsteps in the cuddy going aft, and some
one as he passed tried the handle of my door.

Another long interval of silence followed ;
and as I did not hear the men who had
entered the cuddy return, I wondered where
they had stationed themselves, and what
they were doing. As to myself, the irons
on my legs made me quite helpless.

244 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOB.

The time that now passed seemed an
eternity, and I was beginning to wonder
whether the voices I had heard might not
have been Coxon's and the steward's — all
was so quiet — ^when a step sounded overhead^
and the captain's voice rang out, " Lay aft,,
some hands, and brail up the spanker ! "

Instantly several men ran up the star-
board poop-ladder, proving that they must
have been stationed close against my cabin,
and their heavy feet clattered along the
deck, and I heard their voices singing.
Scarce were their voices hushed when a
shrill whistle, like a sharp human squeal^
was raised forwards, and immediately there
was a sharp twirl and scuffle of feet on the
deck, followed by a groan and a fall. At
the same moment a door was forced open in
the cuddy, and, as I might judge by what
followed, a body of men tumbled into the
chief mate's cabin. A growling and yelping;

THE WEECK OF THE ^' GROSVENOB." 246

of fierce human voices followed. " Haul
him out of it by the hair! " — "You black-
guard ! you'll show fight, will yer ! Take
that for yourself! " — " Over the eyes next
time, Bill ! Let me get at the ! "

But, as I imagined, the muscular, in-
furiate chief mate would not fall an easy
prey, fighting as he deemed for his life. I
heard the thump of bodies swung against
the panelling, fierce execrations, the smash
of crockery, and the heavy breathing of men
engaged in deadly confiict.

It was brief enough in reality, though
Duckling seemed to find them work for a
good while.

" Don't kill him now ! Wait tiU dere's
plenty ob light ! " howled a voice, which I
knew to be the cook's. And then they came
along the cuddy, dragging the body which
they had either killed or knocked insensible
after them, and got upon the main-deck.

246 THE WBECK OF THE " QROSVENOR.

^*Poop^ ahoy!" shouted one of them^
" What cheer up there, mates ? "

"Eight as a trivet! — ^ready to sling
astern ! " came the answer directly over my
head, followed by some laughter.

As I lay holding my breath, scarcely
knowing what was next to befall, the handle
of my door was tried, the door pushed, then
shaken passionately, after which a voice, in
tones which might have emauated from a
ghost, exclaimed —

^' Mr. Eoyle, they have killed the captain
and Mr. Duckling ! For God Almighty's
sake, ask them to spare my life ! They will
listen to you, sir ! For God's sake, save-
me!"

'* Who are you ? " I answered.

" The steward, sir."

But as he said this one of the men on
the quarter-deck shouted, "Where's the
steward ? He's as bad as the others t

THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR." 247

He's the one what swore the pork was
sweet!"

And then I heard the steward steal swiftly
away from my cabin door and some men
come into the cuddy. They would doubt-
less have hunted him down there and then,
but one of them unconsciously diverted the
thoughts of the others by exclaiming —

" There's the second mate in there. Let's
have him out of it."

My cabin door was again tried, and a
heavy kick administered.

^^It's locked, can't you see ? " said one of
the men.

As it opened into the cuddy it was not to
be forced, so one of them exclaimed that he
would fetch a mallet and a calking-iron,
with which he returned in less than a
couple of minutes, and presently the lock
was smashed to pieces, and the door fell
open.

248 THE WEECK OF THE ^^ GROSVENOE.

Both swinging-lamps were aKght in the
cuddy, and one, being nearly opposite my
cabin, streamed fairly into it. I was seated
erect in my bunk when the men entered,
and I immediately exclaimed, pointing to
the irons, <^ I am glad you have thought of
me. Knock those things off, will you ? "

I beheve there was something in the cool
way in which I pronounced these words
that as fully persuaded them that I was
intent upon the mutiny as any action I
could have committed.

" We'll not take long to do that for you,"
cried the fellow who held the mallet (a
formidable weapon, by the way, in such
hands ! ). " Get upon the deck, and I'U
swaller this iron if you aren't able to dance
abreaJ£do^inaji%!"

I dropped out of the bunk, and with two
blows the man cut off the staple, and I
kicked the irons off.

THE WBECK OF THE ** GROSVENOR." 249

" Now, my lads," said I, beginning to
play the part I had made up my mind to
act whilst listening to the onslaught on the
captain and Duckling ; ^^ what have you
done ? "

The fellow who had knocked off the irons,
and now answered me, was named Cornish,
a man in my own watch.

'*The ship's oum — ^that's what we've
done," he said.

" The skipper's dead as a nail up there, I

doubt," exclaimed another, indicating the
poop with a movement of the head ; *^ and
if you'U step on to the main-deck you'll see
how we've handled Mister Duckling ! "

*^And what do you mean to do?" ex-
claimed a man, one of the four who had
accompanied me to the wreck. ^^ We're
masters now, I suppose you know, and so I
hope you aren't agin us."

At this moment the carpenter, followed

250 THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOB.

i»

by a few others, came shoving into the
cuddy.

*' Oh, there he is ! " he cried.

He grasped me by the arm and led me
out of the cabin, and bidding me stand at
the end of the table, with my face looking^
affe, ran to the door, and bawled at the top
of his voice, " Into the cuddy, all hands ! "

Those who were on the poop came
scuffling along, dragging something with
them, and presently rose a cry of " one —
two — three ! " and there was a soft thud
upon the main-deck — the body of the
captain, in fact, pitched off the poop — and
then the men came running in and stood in
a crowd on either side the table.

This was a scene I am not likely ever
to forget, nor the feelings excited in me
by it.

The men were variously dressed, some in
yellow sou'westers, some in tight-fitting^

THE WBEOK OF THE ^^ GROSVENOE." 251

caps, in coarse shirts, in suits of oil-skin, in
liberally patched monkey-jackets. Some of
them, with black beards and moustachios
and burnt complexions, looked swarthy and
sinister enough in the lamplight ; some
were pale with the deviUsh spirit that had
been aroused in them ; every face, not
excepting the youngest of the ordinary
seamen, wore a passionate, reckless, malig-
nant look. They ran their eyes over the
cuddy as strangers would, and one of them
took a glass off a swinging tray, and held it
high, saying grimly, " By the Lord ! we'll
have something fit to swaller now! No
more starvation and stinkiQg water ! "

I noticed the boatswain — ^named Ferroll
— ^the only quiet face in the crowd. He
met my eye, and instantly looked down,

*^ Now, Mr. Eoyle," said the carpenter^
*^ we're all ekals here, with a fast-rata
exeoootioner among us (pointing to the big

252 THE WRECK OF THE '* GROSVENOR."

sailor, Jolmson), as knows, when he's axed,
how to choke off indiwiduals as don't make
theirselves sootable to our feelin's. What
we're all here collected for to discover, is
this — are you with us, or agin us ? "

''With you," I replied, ''in everything
hut murder."

Some of them growled, and the carpenter
exclaimed hastily —

"We don't know what you caU murder.
We aren't used to them sort o' expressions.
What's done has happened, ain't it ? And
I have heerd tell of accidents, which is the
properest word to conwey our thoughts."

He nodded at me significantly.

"Look here," said I. "Just a plain
word with you before I am asked any more
questions. There's not a man among you
who doesn't know that I have been warm
on your side ever siace I learnt what kind
of provisions you were obliged to eat. I

THE WRECK OF THE ** GROSVENOB." 263-

have had words with the captain about
your stores, and it is as much because of
my interference in that matter as because
of my determination not to let a woman
die upon a miserable wreck, that he clapped
me in irons. I don't know what you mean
to do with me, but I'U not say I don't care.
I do care. I value my life, and in the hope
of saving it, I'U tell you this, and it's God's
truth — that if you take my life you'U be
killing a man who has been your friend at
heart, who has sympathized with you in
your privations, who has never to his know-
ledge spoken harshly to you, when he had
the power to do so, and who, had he com-
manded this vessel, would have shifted
your provisions long ago."

So saying, I folded my arms and gazed
fixedly at the carpenter.
• They listened to me in silence, and when
I had done broke into various exclamations.

254 THE WEECK OF THE ** GROSVENOB."

" We know all that."

^* We don't owe you no grudge."

" We don't want your life. Just show us
what to do — ^that's what it is."

I appeared to pay no attention to their
remarks, but kept my eyes resolutely bent
on Stevens, the carpenter, that they might
see I accepted him as their mouthpiece, and
would deal only with him.

" Well," he began, ** all what you say is
quite correct, and we've no fault to find
with you. What I says to you this evenin'
through the port-hole I says now — ^wiU you
navigate this here wessel for us to the part
as we've agreed on? and if you'll do that
you can choose officers out of us, and we'll
do your bidding as though you was lawful
skipper, and trust to you. But I say now,
and I says it before all hands here, that if
you take us where we don't want to go, or
put us in the way of any man-o'-war, or try

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB." 265

in any manner to bring us to book for this
here job, so help me, Mr. Eoyle, and that's
your name, as mine is William Stevens, and
I say it before aU hands here, we'll sling
you overboard as sartin as there's hair grow-
in' on your head — ^we will ; we'll murder you
out an' out. All my mates is a foUowin' of
me — so you'll please mind that ! "

"I hear you," I replied, *'and wiU do
your bidding, but on this condition — ^that
having killed the captain, you will swear to
me that no more lives shall be sacrificed."

*^By Gor, no!" shouted the cook.
'^ Don't swear dat ! Wait till by-um-by.

'^ Be advised by me ! " I cried, seizing the
fellow's frightful meaning, and dreading the
hideous scene it portended. " We have an
old man and a young girl on board. Are
they safe ? "

" Yes," answered several voices; and the
cook jabbered, ** Yes, yes ! " with horrid

256 THE WBECK OF THE ** GROSVENOB."

contortions of the face, under the impres-
sion that I had mistaken his interruption.

"We have the steward and the chief
mate ? "

** Dat's dey ! dat's dey ! " screamed the
cook. *'No mercy upon 'em! Hab no
mercy upon us ! Him strike me on de jaw
and kick me ! T'oder one poison us ! Na
mercy!" he howled, and several joined in
the howl.

" Look here ! I am a single man against
many," I said; ''but I am not afraid to
speak out — ^because I am an Englishman
speaking to Englishmen, with one blood-
thirsty yellow savage among you ! ' ' There
was a shout of laughter. '' If you wish it^
I will go on my knees to you and implore
you not to stain your hands with these
men's blood. You have them in your
power — ^you cannot better your position by
killing them — ^be merciful! Mates, how

THE WRECK OF THE *' GBOSVENOB." 257

would you kill them ? — ^in cold blood ? Is
there an Englishman among you who would
slaughter a defenceless man ? who would
stand by and see a defenceless man
slaughtered? There is an Almighty God
above you, and He is the God of vengeance !
Hear me! "

"We'll let the steward go!" cried a
voice; "but we want our revenge upon
Duckling, and we'll have it. Damn your
sermons ! "

And once again the ominous growling of
angry men muttering altogether arose; in
the midst of which the fellow who was
steering left the wheel to sing out through
the skyUght —

"It's as black as thunder to leeward.
Better stand by, or the ship '11 be aback ! "

" Now what am I to do ?" I exclaimed.

" We give you command. Out with your
orders — ^we'll obey 'em," came the answer.

VOL. I. 8

258 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR."

In a few moments I was on the poop.
By the first glance I threw upwards I saw
that the ship was ahready aback.

" Port your hehn — ^hard a port ! " I
shouted. *' Let go the port-braces fore and
aft ! Bound with the yards smartly ! "

Fortunately not only was the first coming
of the wind light, but the canvas on the
ship was comparatively small. The main-
sail, cross-jack, the three royals, two top-
gallant sails, spanker, flying and outer jibs
were furled, and there was a single reef in
the fore and mizzen topsails. The yards
swung easily and the sails filled, and not
knowing what course to steer, I braced the
yards up sharp and kept her close.

The sky to the south looked threatening,
and the night was very dark. I ran below
to look at the glass, and found a slight fall,
but nothing to speak of. This being so,
I thought we might hold on with the top-

THE WBECK OF THE ** GROSVENOR." 259

sails as they were for the present, and
ordered the top-gallant sail to be furled.
The men worked with great alacrity, sing-
ing out lustily ; indeed, it was difficult for
me, standing on the poop and giving orders,
to realize the experiences of the last hour :
and yet I might know, by the strange
trembling and inward and painful feeling of
faintness which from time to time seized
me, that both my moral and physical being
had received a terrible shock, and that I
should feel the reality more keenly when
my excitement was abated and I should
have no other occupation than to think.

The only food I had taken all day was the
two ship's biscuits, and feehng the need of
some substantial refreshment to relieve me
of the sensation of faintness, I left the poop
to seek the carpenter, in order to request
him to keep watch whilst I went below.

When on the quarter-deck, and looking

260 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR."

towards the cuddy, I perceived two figures
huddled together just outside the cuddy
door. There was plenty of light here from
the lamps inside, and I at once saw that
the two bodies were those of Duckling and
Coxon.

I stepped up to them. Coxon lay on his
back with his face exposed, and Duckling
was right across him, breast downwards, his
head in the comer and his feet towards me.
There was no blood on either of them.
Coxon had evidently been struck over the
head jfrom behind, and killed instantly ; his
features were composed, and his grey hairs
made him look a reverend object in death.

Some men on the main-deck watched me
looking at the bodies, and when they saw
me take Duckling by the arm and turn him
on his back) one of them called : " That's
right ; keep the beggar alive ! he's cookee's
portion, he is I"

THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR." 261

These exclamations attracted the atten-
tion of the carpenter, who came aft im-
mediately and found me stooping over
Duckling.

** He's dead, I reckon," he said.

^* Dead, or. next door to it," I replied.
"Better for him if he is dead. The
captain's a corpse, killed quickly enough, by
the look of him," I continued, gazing at the
white, still face at my feet. " You had
better get him carried forward and covered
up. Where's the body of the sailor I
brought on board ? "

" Why, pitched overboard like a dead rat,
by orders of this Christian," he answered,
giving the captain's body a kick. " He had
a good deal of feelin', this pious gentleman.
Why do you want him covered up ? Let
him go overboard now, won't 'ee? Hi,
mates ! " he called to the men who were
looking on. " Here's another witness agin

262 THE WEECK OP THE " GBOSVENOB."

US for the Day o' Judgment ! Heave him
into the sea, my hearties ! We don't want
to give him no excuse to soften the truth
for our sakes when he's called upon to spin
his yam ! "

The men flocked round the bodies, and
whilst three of them caught up the corpse
of the skipper as if it had been a coil of
rope, others of them began to handle
Duckling.

" Him too ? " asked one,

**What do you say, Mr. Koyle?" de-
manded the carpenter.

^^ It ain't Mr. Eoyle's consam — ^it's
cookee's ! " cried one of the men. And he
began to bawl for '* cookee ! "

Meantime the fellows who held the
captain's body, not relishing their burden,
went to leeward; and two of them taking
the shoulders and one the feet, they began
to swing him, and at a given word, shot

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB." 263

him over the bulwarks. They then came
back quite unoonoemedly, one of them
observing that the devil ought to be very
much obliged to them for their handsome
present.

The cook now approached, walked aft by
some men who held him by the arms.
They were laughing uproariously, which
was explained when I saw that the cook
was drunk.

^'Here's your friend, Mr. Cookee," said
Stevens, stirring Duckling with the toe of
his boot. "He's waitin' for you to know
wot's to become of him."

'* Him a berry good genelman," returned
the cook, puUing off his cap with drunken
gravity, and making a reeling bow to the
body. " Me love dis genehnan like my
own son. Nebber knew tenderer-hearted
man. Him gib me a nice blow here," holding
his clenched fist to his jaw, " and anoder

264 THE WBECK OF THE " GROSVENOB.

one here," clapping his hand to his back.
Then, after a pans^, he kicked the dying or
dead man savagely in the head, yelling in a
hideous falsetto, ** Oh, I'll skin um alive !
Oh, I'll pnll his eyes out and make um
swaller dem! He kick an' strike honest
English cook! Oh, my goUy ! I'U cut off his
foot ! Gib me a knife, sar," looking around
him mth a wandering, gleamiag eye. " Gib

me a knife, I say, an' you see what I
do ! "

One of the ruffians actually gave him a
knife.

I grasped the carpenter's arm.

^* Mr. Stevens," I exclaimed in his ear,
*' you'll not allow this! For God's sake,
don't let this drunken cannibal disgrace our
manhood by such brutal deeds before us 1
Living or dead, better fling the body over-
board ! Don't let him be tortured if living ;
and if dead, is not your revenge complete?"

THE WBECK OF THE " GROSVENOR." 265

The carpenter made no answer, and sick
with horror and disgust I was turning away,
feeling powerless to deal with these
wretches, when, the cook already kneeHng
and baring his arm for I know not
what bloody work, Stevens sprang forward
and fetched him such a thump under the
chin, that he rolled head over heels into the
lee-scuppers.

The men roared with laughter.

** Now then, overboard with this thing ! "
the carpenter shouted ; " and if cookee
wants more wengeance, fling him overboard
arter him ! ' '

They seized Duckling as they had seized
Coxon, and slung him overboard, just as
they had slung the other. Some of them
ran to the cook, and it was impossible to
judge whether they were in earnest or not
when they shrieked out, ^* Overboard with
him, too ! We can't separate the friends ! "

266 THE WBECK OF THE ** GROSVENOR."

The cook at all events believed they meant
no joke, for uttering a prolonged yeU of
terror, he wriggled with incredible activity
out of their hands, and rushed forward like
a steam-engine. They did not offer to
pursue him ; and, ill with these scenes of
horror, I called to the carpenter and asked
him to step on the poop whilst I went into
the cuddy.

"What to do there?" he inquired sus-
piciously.

"To get something to eat. I have had
nothing aU day but two of the ship's bad
biscuits."

"Eight," he said. "But, before I go,
I'U tell you what's agreed among us. You're
to take charge, and sarve with me and the
bo'sun, turn and turn about on deck. That's
agreeable, ain't it ? "

" Quite."

" You're to do all the piloting of the ship,

THE WBECK OP THE " aBOSYBNOB," 267

and navigate us to where the ship's com-
pany agrees upon."

*^I understand."

" We three '11 hve aft here, and the ship's
company forrards; but all the ship's stores '11
be smothered, and the cuddy provisions
sprung, d'ye see? likewise the grog and
whatsomever there may be proper to eat
and drink. We're all to be ekals, and fare
and fare alike, though the crew '11 obey
orders* as usual. You're to have the skip-
per's berth, and I'll take youm ; and the
bo'sun he'll take Duckling's. That we've
all agreed on afore we went to work, and so
I thought I'd let you know."

"WeU, Mr. Stevens," I repKed, "as I
told you just now, I'll do your bidding. I'll
take the ship to the place you may name ;
and as I shan't play you false (though I
have no notion of your intentions), so I
hope you won't play me false. I have

268 THE WBECK OP THE " GROSVENOR."

begged for the steward's life, and you have
promised to spare him. And how are the
two persons we saved to be treated ? "

*^ They're to live along with us here. All
that's settled, I told yer. But I'm not so
sure about the steward. I never made no
promise about sparing of him."

^^Look here!" I exclaimed sternly* "I
am capable of taking this ship to any port
you choose to name. There is not another
man on board who could do this. I can
keep you out of the track of ships, and help
you in a number of ways to save your necks.
Do you understand me ? But I tell you —
on my oath — ^if you murder the steward, if
any farther act of violence is committed on
board this ship, I'll throw up my charge,
and you may do your worst. These are my
terms, easier to you than to me* What is
your answer ? "

He reflected a moment and replied, " I'll
talk to my mates about it."

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR." 269

*^Do SO," I said. "Call them aft now.
But you had better get on deck, as the ship
wants watching. Talk to them on the
poop."

He obeyed me literally, calling for the
hands to lay aft, and I was left alone.

I went into the steward's pantry, where I
found some cold meat and biscuit and a
bottle of sherry. These things I carried to
the aftermost end of the table. Somehow
I did not feel greatly concerned about the
debate going on overhead, as I knew the men
could not do without me ; nor did I believe
the general feeling against the steward
sufficiently strong to make them willing to
sacrifice my services to their revengeful
passions.

I fell to the meat and wine as greedily
as a starving man, and was eating very
heartily, when I felt a light touch on my
arm. I turned hastily and confronted the

270 THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR.'*

girl whom I had brought away from the
wreck. Her hair hung loose over her
shoulders, and she was as pale as marble.
But her blue eyes were very brilliant, and
fired with a resolved and brave expression,
and I thought her beautiful as she stood
before me in the lamplight with her hair
shining about her face.

*^Are you Mr. Eoyle?" she asked, in a
low but most clear and sweet voice.

"I am," I replied, rising.

She took my hand and kissed it.

"You have saved my father's life and
mine, and I have prayed God to bless you
for your noble courage. I have had no
opportunity to thank you before. They
would not let me see you. The captain
said you had mutinied and were in irons.
My father wishes to thank you — ^his heart
is so full that he cannot rest — ^but he is too
weak to move. Will you come and see
Mm?"

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOB." 27]

She made a movement towards the cabin
next the pantry.

"Not now," I said. "You should be
asleep, resting after your terrible trials."

" How could I sleep ? " she exclaimed
with a shudder. " I have heard all that
has been said. I heard them killing the
man in that cabin there."

She clasped her hands convulsively.

" Frightful things have happened," I said,
speaking quickly, for I every moment ex-
pected the men to come running down the
companion ladder, near which we were con-
versing; "but the worst has passed. Did
not you hear them answer me that you and
your father were safe ? Go, I beg you, to
your cabin and sleep if you can, and be
sure that no harm shall befall you whilst I
remain in this ship. I have a very difficult
part before me, and wish to reflect upon my
position. An.d the sense that your security

272 THE WRECK OF THE " aROSVENOR."

will depend upon my actions," I added,
moved by her beauty and the memory of
the fate I had rescued her from, " will make
me doubly vigilant."

And as she had kissed my hand on meet-
ing me, so now I raised hers to my lips;
and obedient to my instructions, she entered
her cabin and closed the door,

I stood for some time engrossed, to the
exclusion of all other thoughts, by the
picture impressed on my mind by the girl's
sweet face. It inspired a new kind of
energy in me. Whatever qualms my con-
science may have suffered from my under-
taking to navigate the ship for the satis-
faction and safety of a pack of ruffians,
merely because I stood in fear of my life,
were annihilated by the sight of this girl.
The profound necessity enjoined upon me
to protect her from the dangers that would
inevitably come upon her, should my Hfe be

THE WBECK OF THE *^ GROSVENOR." 273

taken, so violently affected me as I stood
thinking of her, that my cowardly acqui-
escence in the basest proposals which the
crew could submit, would have been toler-
able to my conscience for her lonely and
helpless sake.

The voices of the men overhead, talking
in excited tones, awoke me to a sense of
my situation. I took another draught of
wine, and entered the captain's cabin, wish-
ing to inspect the log-book that I might
ascertain the ship's position at noon on the
preceding day.

The shadow of the mizzen-mast fell right
upon the interior as I opened the cabin
door. I looked about me for a lamp, but
was s.uddenly scared by the spectacle of a
man crawling on his hands and knees out
of a comer.

"Oh, my God ! " cried a melancholy voice.
" Am I to be killed ! Will they murder me,

VOL. I. T

274 THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSTENOB.

sir ? Oh, sir, it is in your power to save me.
They'll obey you. I have a wife and child
in England, sir. I am a miserable sinner,
and not fit to die."

And the wretched creature burst into
tears, and crawled close to my legs, and
twined his arms around them.

*' Go back into your comer," I said.
"Don't let them hear or see you. I can
make no promises, but wiQ do my best to
save your life. Back with you now ! Be a
man, for God's sake ! Your whining wiU
only amuse them. Be resolute ; and should
you have to face them, meet them bravely."

He went crawling back to his comer, and
I seeing the log-book open on the table,
carried it under the lamp in the cuddy.
There I read oflf the sights of the previous
day, replaced the book, and mounted to the
poop.

The dawn was breaking in the east, and

THE WBECK OP THE " GBOSVENOB." 275

the sky heavy, though something of its
threatening character had left it. There
•was a smart sea on, but the ship lay pretty
steady, owing to the wind having freshened
enough to keep the vessel well over. We
were making no headway to speak of, the
yards being against the masts, and but
little canvas set. The fellow steering
lounged at the wheel, one arm through the
spokes, and his left leg across his right shin,
letting all hands know by this free and easy
attitude that we were all equals now, and
that he was only there to oblige. He was
watching the men assembled round the
forward saloon skylight, and now and then
called out to them.

There were eight or nine of the crew
there and on the top of the skylight, and
in the centre of the throng were squatted
the boatswain and the carpenter.

Many of them were smoking, and some

276 THE WBECK OF THE " GROSVENOR."

of them laid down the law with their fore-
fingers upon the palms of their hands. I
saw no signs of the cook, and hoped that
the fright the evil-minded scoundrel had
undergone would keep him pretty quiet for
a time.

Not thinking it politic to join the men
until they summoned me, I walked to the
compass to see how the ship's head lay;
whereupon the man steering, out of a habit
of respect too strong for him to control,
drew himself erect, and looked at the sails,
and then at the card, as a man intent upon
his work. I made no observation to him,,
and swept the horizon through my hands,,
which I hoUowed to coUect the pale light,
but could discover nothing save the rugged

outline of waves.

Just then the men saw me, and both the
carpenter and the boatswain scrambled off
the skylight, and they all came towards me*

THE WEEOK OF THE *^ GROSVENOR^" 277

A tremor ran through me which I could
not control, but strength was given me
to suppress all outward manifestation of
emotion, and I awaited their approach with
a forced tranquillity which, as I afterwards
heard, gave the . more inteUigent and better
disposed among them a good opinion of me.

The carpenter said, '^ Most of us are for
kaving the steward alone ; but there's three
of us as says that he showed hisself so
spiteful in the way he used to sarve out the
rotten stores, and swore to such a lie when
he said the pork was sweet, before it went
into the coppers, that they're for havin*
some kind o' rewenge."

'^ None of you want his life, do you ? "

^^ Damn his life ! " came a growl.
** Who'd take what ain't of no use even to
him as owns it? "

"Which of you wants revenge?" I
asked.

278 THE WBECE OP THE *' GROSVENOR.

There was a pause ; and Fish, projecting
his extraordinary head, said, '' WeU, I'm one
as dew/'

" Suppose," said I, " you were to see this
wretched creature grovelling on his hands
and knees, weeping and moaning like a
woman, Kcking the deck in his agony of
fear, and ahready half dead with terror.
Would not such a miserable sight satisfy
your thirst for revenge ? What punishment
short of death that you can inflict would
make him suffer more dreadful tortures than
his fear has already caused him ? Fish, be
a man, and leave this hunted wretch alone. "^

He muttered something under his breathy
though looking, I was glad to see, rather
shame-faced, and the boatswain said —

^^ There's something more, Mr. Eoyle^
He knows where to lay his hands on the
cuddy provisions, and if we knock him on
the head we shan't be able to find half

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR.'' 279

that'll be wanted. What I woted was that
we should make him wait upon us, and let
him have nothen but the ship's stores to
eat, whilst he sarves us with the cuddy's."

" Won't that do ? " I exclaimed, address-
ing the others, at the same time receiving a
glance from the boatswain which showed
me that I should have an ally in him : as
indeed I had expected; for this was the
only one of the forecastle hands who had
come from London with us, and I was
pretty sure he had joined in the mutiny
merely to save his life.

" Oh yes, that'll do ! " some of them
answered impatiently ; and one said, " Wot's
the use of jawing about the steward ? We
want to talk of ourselves. Where's the
ship bound to ? I don't want to be hanged
when I get ashore."

This sensible observation was deUvered
by Johnson.

280 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR.

" Now then, if you like, we'll come to
that," said I, immensely relieved; for I not
only knew that the steward's life was safe,
but that in their present temper no farther
act of violence would be perpetrated,
*^ Mr. Stevens, you told me that all your
plans were prepared. Am I to have your
confidence ? "

" Sartinly," repKed the fellow, looking
around upon the assembled faces fast grow-
ing distinguishable in the gathering Hght.
^* You're a scholard and can sail the ship iol
us, and we look to you to get us out o' this
mess, for we've treated you well and made
you skipper."

" Go ahead," I exclaimed, seating myself
in a nonchalant way on one of the gratings
abaft the wheel.

" This here mutiny," began the car-
penter, after casting about in his mind for
words, " is all along o' bad treatment. Had

THE WBECK OF THE ** GROSYENOR." 281

the capten acted fair and proper, we^d ha*
acted fair an' proper. He as good as swore
that he'd put in for fresh stores, but never
altered the ship's course, and we wouldn't
starve no longer. So we up and did the
business. But we never meant to kill hina.
We was afraid he'd ha' had pistols on him,
and so some of us knocked him down un-
aweers, and knocked too hard, that was aU.
And t'other one he struggled so, instead of
givin' up when he saw we was too many for
ten o' the Hkes of him, that he died of his
own doin'; and that's a fact, mates, ain't
it?"

^* Ay," responded a gruff voice. ^^ He'd
ha' gouged my eye out. He had his thumb
in my mouth workin' away as if he thought
my tooth was my eye. He drawed blood
with his thumb, and I had to choke it out
of my mouth, or he'd ha' tore my tongue
out!"

282 THE WBECK OF THE " GEOSVENOB.

»9

So saying, he expectorated violently.

*^ To come back to wot I was saying/*
resumed the carpenter ; " it's this. When
me and my mates made up our minds to
squench the skipper and his bully mate for
their wrongful dealings with us, one says
that our plan was to run the ship to the
North Ameriky shore somewheeres. One
says, Floridy way; and another, he says
round into the Gulf o' Mexico, within reach
o' New Orleans ; and another, he says, ^ Let's
get south, mates, upon the coast of Africa ; *
and another, he says he's for making the
ice, right away north, up near BafiSn Land.
But none was agreeable to that. We aren't
resolved yet, but we're most all for Ameriky,
because it's a big place, pretty nigh big
enough to hide in."

Some of the men laughed.

"And so," continued the carpenter, " our
plan is this : as easy as sayin' your prayers;

THE WBECK OF THE " GROSVENOR.'* 283

We'll draw lots and choose upon the coast
for yon to run us to; and when we're a
day's sail of them parts, leavin' you to tell
us and to keep us out o' the way of ships,
d'ye mind, Mr. Eoyle?" — ^with stem sig-
nificance : I nodded — *^ some of us gets into
the long-boat and some into the quarter-
boats, and we pulls for the shore. And
wot we do and says when we gets ashore
needn't matter, eh, mates ? We're .ship-
wrecked mariners, destitoot and forlorn,
and every man's for hisself. And so that's
our plan."

"Yes, that's our plan," said onex *^but
it ain't all. You're not putting everything
to Mr. Boyle, mate."

"Look here, Bill," answered the carpen-
ter savagely. " Either I'm to manage this
here business or I'm not. If you'll for
carryin' of it on, good and well — say the
word, and then we'll know the time o' day.

284 THE WBECK OF THE ** GROSVENOR."

But either it must be you or it must be I
— ^there ain't room for two woices in one
mouth."

'' J've got nothen to say," rejoined the
man addressed as "Bill," extending his
arms and turning his back ; " only I
thought as you might ha' forgot."

What the carpenter was holding back I
could not guess ; but I exhibited na
curiosity. Neither did I tell them that our
course to the "American shores," as they
called it, would bring us right in the road of
vessels from all parts of the world. My
business was to listen and to act as circum-
:stances should dictate, with good judgment,
if possible, for the preservation of my own
and the hves of the old man and his
daughter.

The carpenter now paused to hear what I
had to say. Finding this, I exclaimed —

"I know what you want me to do; and

THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR." 285

the sooner you fix upon a point to start
for the better."

** Can't you advise us? " said one of the
men. " Give us some place easily fetched/'

** I was never on the North American
coast," I answered.

**Well, Ameriky ain't the only place in
the world," said Fish.

"You'd best not say that when you're
there," exclaimed Johnson.

" Most of the hands wants to go ashore
in Ameriky, and so that's settled, mates,"*
said the carpenter sharply.

"Let's keep south, anyhow, say I. If
we can make New Orleans there's plenty of
vessels sailing every day from that port,
paying good wages," said Johnson.

And every mail can choose for MsseK
where he'll sail for," observed Fish.

" Make up your minds," I exclaimed,,
" and I'll alter the ship's course."

286 THE WBEOK OP THE " GBOSVENOB."

So saying, I got off the grating and walked
to the other end of the poop.

I was much easier in my mind now that
I had observed the disposition of the men.
They were unquestionably alarmed by what
they had done, which was tolerable security
against the commission of further outrages.
Their project of quitting the ship when near
land and making for the shore, where,
doubtless, they would represent themselves
as shipwrecked seamen, was practicable and
struck me as ingenious ; for as soon as they
got ashore they would disperse, and ship on
board fresh vessels, and so defy inquiry even
should suspicion be excited, or one of them
peach upon his fellows. These I at least
assumed to be their plans. But how far
they would affect my own safety I could
not tell. I doubted if they would let me
leave the ship, as they might be sure that
on my landing I should hasten to inform

THB WBECK OP THE " GEOSVENOE." 287

against them. But I would not allow my
mind to be troubled with considerations of
the future at that time. All my energies
were required to deal with the crisis of
the moment, and to guard myself against
being led by too much confidence in their
promises, into any step which might prove
fatal to me and those I had promised to
protect.

The dawn was now bright in the east
and the wind strong from the southward.
The ship was chopping on the tumbling
seas with scarcely any way upon her ; but
the menacing aspect of the sky was fast
fading, and there was a promise of fair
weather in the clouds, which ranged high
and out of the reach of the breeze that was
burying the ship's lee channels.

Presently the carpenter called to me, and
I went over to the men.

"We're aU resolved, Mr. Eoyle," said he

288 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR.''

in a pretty civil voice, " and our wotes is for
New Orleans. Plenty of wessels is wrecked
in the Gulf of Mexico, as I've heerd teU ;
and when we're about fifty miles off, you'll
say so, and give us the bearings of the
Mississippi, and we'U not trouble you any
more."

** How's her head ? " I asked the man at
the wheel.

" Sou'-west," he replied.

"Keep her away," I exclaimed, for the
weather-leeches were flat.

"What's our true course for New Or-
leans ? " asked the carpenter suspiciously.

" Stop a bit and I'll show you," I
answered, and went below to the captain's
cabin to get the chart.

" Steward ! " I called.

" Yes, sir," replied the miserable whining
voice. It was still too dark for me to see
the man.

THE WBECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR." 289

" Make your mind easy — ^they'll not hurt
you," I said.

He started up and rushed towards me
like a madman.

"May God in heaven bless you!" he
cried, delirious with joy.

"Hold off!" I exclaimed, keeping him
away with my outstretched hand. " Get
your wits about you and remain here for
the present. Don't let them hear you, and
don't show yourself until I call you."

I could have said nothing better to re-
press his violent manifestations of delight ;
for he at once went cowering again into the
gloom of the comer.

I struck a wax match, and after a short
search found the chart of the North Atlantic
upon which the ship's course, so far as she
had gone up to noon on the preceding day,
was pricked off. I took this on deck, spread

VOL. I. U

290 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR.

it on the skylight and showed our where-
abouts to the men.

*^ Our course," said I, "is south-west and
by west."

They bent their faces over the chart,
studying it curiously.

" Are you satisfied, Mr. Stevens ? " I
asked him.

" Oh, I suppose it's all right," answered
he.

'^ Slacken away the lee-braces," I said.
" Put your helm up " (to the man at the
wheel).

The men went tumbling off the poop to
man the braces, and in a few minutes we
were making a fair wind.

Both the carpenter and the boatswain
remained on the poop.

" Some hands lay aloft and loose the fore
and main top-gallant sails ! " I called out.
And turning to the carpenter: "Mr. Ste-

THE WRECK OP THE ** GBOSVENOB." 291

veDs," I said, " I'll navigate this ship for you
and your mates to within fifty miles off the
mouths of the Mississippi, as you wish ; but
on the conditions I have already named.
Do you remember ? "

"Oh yes," he growled. *' We've done
enough — ^too much, I dessay, though not
more than the beggars desarved. All that
we want is to get out o' this cursed wessel."

"Very well," I said. "But I won't
undertake to pilot this ship safely unless
my orders are obeyed."

" The men are quite willin' to obey
you, so long as you're true to 'em," he
rejoined.

"You may do what you like with the
cuddy stores ; though if you take my advice
ybu will let the steward serve them out in
the regular way, that they may last ; other-
wise you will eat them all up before we
reach our journey's end, and have to faE

292 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR.

back upon the bad provisions. But I must
have control of the spirits."

*^And what allowance do you mean to
put us on ? " demanded the carpenter.

*^ I shall be advised by you," said I.

This was turmng the tables. He puUed
off his cap and scratched his head.

'^ Three tots a day ? " he suggested.

'^ V.ery well," I said; " but you'll stop at
that ? "

" Well, perhaps we can do on three tots
a day," he answered, after deliberating.

"And you engage that the steward will
be protected against any violence while
serving out the men's allowance ? "

" Mates I " he suddenly called out to the
men who were standing by to sheet home
the top-gallant sails; "will three tots o'
grog a day keep you alive ? "

** Are we to have it all at once ? " one of
them answered.

THE WRECK OP THE ^* GROSVENOR." 293

^* No," I replied ; " three times a day."

** Now then, my lads, let's know your
minds," cried the boatswain.

A young ordinary seaman answered —
" Three ain't enough." But one of the
older hands turned upon him, exclaiming,
" Why, you bit of a snuffler ! where will
you stow all that rum ? Don't go answerin'
for your betters, my young scaramouch, or
maybe you'll be findin' yourself brought up
with a round turn. That'll dol " he called
out to us.

" Bight you are ! " replied the carpenter.

" Sheet home ! " I cried, as the sails fell
from the top-gallant yards, anxious to clinch
this matter of the grog.

And so it rested.

END OF VOL. I.

LONDON: FBINTID BT WILLIAX CL0WS8 AND 80N8f STAHTOBD STKXET

▲ND CHASING CB0S8.

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Full text of "The wreck of the 'Grosvenor' [by W.C. Russell]."

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