"Ah! he's a roight good man, sorr," chimed in Mr McCarthy, "and a cridit to the sarvice that brought him up. Sure, an' he's a sailor ivry inch ov him, from the crown of his hid to the sole of his fut!"
The sky was still obscured by clouds and the stormy billows were tossing about, striving to bear down the ship and beat her to pieces; but she bravely held her own, head to sea, and rode out the gale all that day and night, as if she had been at anchor, although drifting steadily the while in a south-easterly direction, the impulse of the waves and the force of the wind on her hull carrying her thither.
It was the same the next day; but, on the third morning, the gale somewhat moderated, although still blowing with considerable force from the northward and westward, and under Mr Meldrum's advice, which Captain Dinks now eagerly sought on every occasion, sail was got upon the ship and she was allowed to run before the wind, hoping that the vessel might reach smoother latitudes and fine weather, when they would be able to repair damages and continue their voyage.
It was but a poor pretence of making sail, however!
All they could set was a close-reefed mizzentop-sail and a fore staysail, which latter was hoisted on a jury-mast rigged forwards in place of the foremast; while the missing rudder was replaced by an ingenious makeshift, the joint handiwork of Mr Meldrum and the carpenter, composed of lengths of a spare hawser and some of the smaller spars, sawn up, lashed together, and then planked over, so as to offer a yielding surface to the sea, and secured under the stern by guys and tackles leading from the quarter galleries, the steering gear being then attached.
This contrivance was found to work admirably in guiding the ship before the wind, although if they had tried to wear her or put her about by it, there might have been some difficulty and danger in the operation.
Towards the evening of this day, while the crippled _Nancy Bell_, so ruthlessly shorn of her fair proportions, was going along pretty bravely, nevertheless, at some six knots an hour or more under the little sail she was carrying, with the sea still rough and wintry and the sky all clouded over, the thermometer was noticed to go down again several degrees; and Mr Meldrum, who alone had made the discovery for the wind having been bitterly cold for days past the feeling in the air would not have specially attracted attention--at once warned Captain Dinks that they had run so far southwards that he was certain they were near ice, and consequently it would be best to keep a strict look-out.
"Ice?" exclaimed the captain aghast. "Why, we aren't much below the latitude of the Cape, I take it!"
"You'll find you are wrong when we're able to get an observation,"
replied Mr Meldrum. "I wouldn't be surprised to find that we were far below 'the Forties,' with all that drift and leeway we've had! However, wherever we are, we're not far from ice, take my word for it, whether it be a wandering berg out of its latitude or the drift from the Antarctic ice-fields."
"All right, sir," said Captain Dinks laughing, "I'll take your word for it; though an iceberg hereabouts, to my thinking, is a rather rum visitor this time of year, and I'll believe it when I see it!"
However, the captain was wrong again.
Just before dark, the look-out in the maintop reported something ahead, which presently turned out to be an enormous iceberg, fortunately far away to leeward out of the course of the ship. It was an immense irregular mass several miles long and of great height, appearing to reach up into the clouds above as it heaved up and down on the heavy rolling sea; and its top and points, covered with snow, stood out distinctly against the dark horizon.
"Ah, we are well away from that fellow!" said Mr Meldrum rubbing his hands; but his congratulations were cut short in a moment by the look- out man forward--the Norwegian sailor, who as an old whaler was accustomed to Antarctic sights and sounds--shouting out that there was field-ice ahead, and that from the crashing of the floes he thought the ship must be near the pack.
"Take in sail at once," said Mr Meldrum, "and keep a sharper look-out than ever. If the vessel runs against the ice woe betide us all!"
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
"LAND HO!"
"Let go the mizzentop-sail halliards, and man the fore staysail down- haul!" shouted out Captain Dinks the moment Mr Meldrum had spoken; and, the helm being put down at the same time, the ship was again brought head to wind, almost sooner than it has taken to describe the operation.
However, as it was observed after a little while that the vessel drifted so rapidly to leeward, through the mere force of the wind on her exposed hull and remaining spars, not to speak of the wash of the sea, and thus ran in quite as great danger of colliding with the ice as if she had been going ahead, the fore staysail, reefed into the most attenuated proportions, was set again--so that the ship might be under steerage way and be able to avoid, under judicious control, the numerous small bergs that now hove in sight like miniature islands in every direction, making the navigation perilous in the extreme.
As night came on, too, the dangers surrounding the _Nancy Bell_ increased tenfold; for, the wind not only blew with greater strength, but it was accompanied by blinding showers of hail and snow, while a thick fog rose from the freezing water, more like steam than anything else, obscuring everything and preventing the floating ice from being seen until it was immediately under the bows.
It was just about the beginning of the second dog-watch at four bells-- six o'clock in the evening--that the mist came; so, after a brief consultation with Mr Meldrum, Captain Dinks told the chief mate to call the hands aft.
"We are in as tight a hole, McCarthy," said he, "as the poor old ship was ever placed in, and it will take us all our time to get out of it; so, it's best to let all the hands know it, that each may do his best for the good of all."
"Aye, aye, sorr," answered Mr McCarthy; "it's no sight o' use beating about the bush when danger's under weigh. Till 'em the truth, Cap'en, and shame the divil!" Soon afterwards, his ringing voice calling, "all hands ahoy!" was heard forwards.
The crew were not long tumbling aft; and, when they had assembled on the main deck, Captain Dinks addressed them from the break of the poop.
"Men," said he, "I'm sorry to say the _Nancy Bell_ is in a position of the greatest peril. We are now, after fighting with a cyclone for five days, being carried along by a rising gale into the midst of scattered icebergs, any one of which may knock a hole in the ship; while if we should run upon one of the bigger ones we must go to pieces at once.
You know how, throughout the bad weather we've had, I have tried, to spare you as much as I could, conveniently with the proper working of the ship, and I've always allowed the watches their regular spell below; but to-night, and as long as we are surrounded by the ice, I can't allow a man off duty! None of us can tell whether the _Nancy Bell_ will be afloat and we alive by morning; so, no single hand must leave the deck without special permission. You may be certain I sha'n't set the example, and you can now go forwards. I am about to set fresh look- outs, and each man will have his station."
The majority of the crew gave a cheer at this, Ben Boltrope's lusty voice being conspicuously to the fore; but some, amongst whom was a lazy lout named Bill Moody, who was the chief grumbler in the forecastle, expressed their discontent audibly; saying that they "hadn't signed articles to be worked like dogs!"
Captain Dinks' ears were pretty sharp, and he heard what was said; so he called the men back.
"I know who spoke," said he, "and I wouldn't disgrace the rest of the crew by supposing that they share his feelings; but I'll add this for his benefit, that anybody who may be discontented will find me easy- going enough when I am stroked the right way, but a pretty tough customer when anybody falls athwart my hawse!"
While this little incident was taking place, of course, the usual look- out was not neglected, the Norwegian being still aloft in the maintop, with Frank Harness and Mr Adams on the forecastle; but now, extra men were detailed for the duty. Karl Ericksen, called down from the maintop where his range of view had become limited through the increasing darkness and snowstorm, was placed between the knight-heads; a man on each bow; Frank Harness on the fore scuttle; Mr McCarthy and Adams on the port and starboard quarters; and Ben Boltrope at the wheel--Captain Dinks being here, there, and everywhere to see that everybody was on the _qui vive_, even ascending the mizzen rigging sometimes into the top, to have an outlook from there and try whether his eyes could pierce the misty vapour that hung over the sea by dint of looking down into it.
Thenceforward, throughout the weary night, there was little to do save looking out and conning the ship.
When a large cake of ice or berg was seen drifting perilously near, or bearing down upon the vessel, the word was passed along the deck from forward to aft and her head turned one way or the other, the yards of the mizzen-mast--now the only ones left on the ship, with the exception of the fouled main-yard--being squared or braced up to help her inclination to either side, which was also assisted by the loose mizzentop sail. This latter had only been hauled up by the clewlines and buntlines when sail was shortened, so as to be available to be dropped and sheeted home at a moment's notice in any sudden emergency when it might be necessary to get way on the ship to prevent her running foul of some giant iceberg that was trying to overtake her. From midnight the only break in the monotony of the silent watch, throughout the anxious hours that elapsed before daylight, was the warning cry of the look-outs' forward "Ice ahead!" or "Ice on the lee bow!" with the sailing directions of the captain to the steersman, quickly following the words of warning, "Hard up with the helm!" or else, "Keep her off a little, my man!" or the single word,--sometimes the most important order of all,--"Steady!"
In the cuddy, naturally, it was an equally anxious time throughout the trying night; indeed, more so, considering the state of mind of those concerned.
Mr Meldrum, on going below, had told of the course of things above, explaining the perilous position of the ship without unduly alarming the nervous susceptibilities of the women folk, and after his periodical visits to the deck he brought back the cheering news that all was as yet going on well; but still, the very fact of being unable to do anything save watch and pray, was even more exhausting and wearying than in being exposed to the bitter weather like the crew and officers of the ship were--for the sense of duty and something constantly calling on their attention prevented the latter from thinking, as those could only do who had no cause or call for action.
The American passenger did not, however, appear in the least put out or more than ordinarily impressed with the gravity of the situation, taking it, as it were, as a matter of course.
"It's no use making a muss over what can't be helped," he said with the utmost sang-froid. "The ship's in good hands, and as I can't do anything, why I guess I'll let things ride and be as comf'able as I ken." So he ate and drank with just as good an appetite as ever when dinnertime came--though it was later than usual, through Snowball not having been able to light the galley fire till nearly dark; and, on the arrival, according to Mr Zachariah Lathrope's reckoning, of bedtime, he curled himself up in his bunk, going to sleep as composedly as if he had been safe and sound ashore, with the comforting assurance to the others, as he said "good-night," that "if things should kinder turn out onpleasant, why, I guess they'll rouse me up!"
Florry Meldrum, too, and Master Maurice Negus were not one whit the more alarmed by the critical condition of the _Nancy Bell_ either; but, neither Maurice's mother nor Kate closed their eyes for a moment the livelong night.
When some feeble rays of light at length strayed down through the skylight, causing the lamps over the cuddy table to burn more dimly, when the scuttles in the cabins, seen through the half-opened doors, became illumined by some reflection from without, showing that the long- wished-for morning had broken at last, Kate, unable to endure the suspense any longer, put on her cloak and went on deck.
The scene and all its surroundings had very much altered since she had last been up the companion-way; so that when she got on the poop now, so great a transformation had occurred that it seemed to her as if she were in a species of nautical fairyland.
The ship herself was cased in ice--hull, spars, and standing rigging, and all--with long pendulous icicles hanging from the main and mizzen yards. The fog or mist having also cleared away and the clouds vanished from the sky, every object glittered like jewels in the golden rays of the rising sun.
But the _Nancy Bell_ was not the only object of attraction and interest.
She was surrounded by icebergs in every direction--to the right, to the left, right in front, and astern--some little mites not bigger than cockle-shells in comparison with the larger ones, baby bergs, so to speak, and others as lofty as mountains, extending as far as the eye could reach to the horizon; the ship racing by them and threaded her way in and out between the moving masses with the dexterity of a Highlander executing the sword-dance. The wind was still blowing more than half a gale from the northward and westward, and the vessel was running before it under the fore staysail and mizzentop-sail, which had been dropped again with the reef points shaken out, making eight knots good, too, at that.
Where there was no ice, the rolling sea was of an intense ultramarine blue, reflecting the colour of the distant sky; while, as the sun came up higher, different tints were displayed by the icebergs, whose shape was as various as their sizes--bergs that in their gorgeous architecture and fairy magnificence, with fantastic peaks and airy pinnacles, which glittered now in the full light of day with all the varied colours of the rainbow, flashing out scintillations and radiances of violet and iris, purple and turquoise, and sapphire blue, emerald green and orange, blush rose and pink and red--all mingled with soft shades of crimson and carmine, and interspersed with gleams of gold and silver and a frosting over all of bright white light.
"Ah!" ejaculated Kate, uttering her thoughts aloud, so carried away was she by the vivid beauty of the scene, "those who haven't seen an iceberg at sea at sunrise, have no idea of the grand loveliness of God's handiwork in nature!"
"They look beautiful enough now, missy," said Captain Dinks, who had come to her side unnoticed, and seemed much jollier than he had done the night before, when he thought the ship in her last extremity; "but we didn't think them so a little while ago, when it looked as if the poor old _Nancy Bell_ would lay her old bones amongst them!"
"Ah! Captain Dinks," replied she, "there was One above looking after us then, as he is now!"
"You are right," said he earnestly; "or we should never have escaped as we did; once or twice, when we grazed a berg, I thought it was all up with us."
"Oh!" exclaimed Kate with a shudder, "it was a terrible night; and you and the poor fellows on deck must have found it bitterly cold."
"Not a doubt of that," said Captain Dinks laughing. "I was almost half- frozen in the mizzen rigging; and as for poor Frank Harness, when he came off the fore-scuttle, where he was stationed all night to pass the word from the look-outs forward, he could hardly move his limbs! If it hadn't been for the hot coffee our friend Snowball served out every two hours to warm us up, I don't believe any of us would have been alive this morning. But here comes your father. How sly your were all to keep it so carefully concealed that he was in the navy; and I taking him all the time for a lubberly landsman! I'll never forgive myself; for you must all have laughed at me, especially you, Miss Kate, and your roguish little sister. Ah! good morning, Mr Meldrum," added the captain turning to that gentleman; "I was just thinking about you. I wanted to have a consultation about our course. My dead reckoning is all at sea, and I hardly can guess where we are now; but I trust we shall be able to get an observation of the sun at noon, and then we will be able to prick off our position on the chart."
"I sincerely hope so," said Mr Meldrum; "for I think we're going far too much to the southward."