Basil Lubbock

“ Right up the Channel the kites were carried, and when morning broke off the Isle of Wight a sail was discerned ahead, which daylight proved to be a big barquentine rigged steamer under all sail. We had evidently crept up on her unobserved in the darkness, for when the discovery was made that a windjammer was showing her paces astern, volumes of black smoke belched in sooty clouds from her two funnels, as if entering a protest against such a seeming indignity. But, in vain, she fell away in our wake as the fruit schooners had done a couple of days before. ”

“ One looks in vain for the long tapering spars and the beautiful tracery of her rigging. Stunted, unsightly derricks have replaced them. The green-painted hull is now transformed into a dull red, a composition red that cries aloud, not of beauty, but of utility. Regularly with each returning ebb and returning flood of the Swan, she swings to her moorings the composition smeared effigy of Samuel Plimsoll, alternately facing towards river and sea. Marine life has made of her plates a habitation and refuge; her bottom is foul with the dense green growth of years. ”

“ Muller, the German, was just slacking away the main-tack when a furious gust came; he lost his head at the wrong moment and the tack took charge.
In a second pandemonium reigned. A frightful slating arose from the released sail, and the heavy block raged about at random, threatening death at every spring, whilst the great ninety-foot mainyard buckled like a bamboo cane.
The confusion for some minutes was indescribable, and by way of improving the situation, the bosun and four of the best men were washed from the clew-garnet into the lee-scuppers. ”

“ Angel, to show his contempt of such caution, immediately bore down on the stranger, and passing ahead of him, put his helm down and brought his yards on the backstays. As the Beltana came up to the wind, she lay right down until the amazed crew of the stranger could almost see her keel, and momentarily expected to see her capsize or her masts go overboard. But the little ship bore this harsh treatment in the bravest manner, and, though her rail was fathoms deep in the scud to leeward, never stranded a ropeyarn. ”

“ If it moderates at all to-night we'll put the horizon between us."
"I'm jest pining to shoot him up some," declared Broncho bloodthirstily.
"Let 'im begin the action," said Bill grimly. "We'll finish it!"
Loyola said nothing, but cowered closer to Jack with big, anxious eyes.
"We'll give him the slip, Lolie, don't you fear," cried the rover heartily.
Slowly the hours passed. The gale continued to blow with unabated vigour, but the whaleboat rode it like a duck.
The castaways sat silent for the most part, and watched the schooner down to leeward with various emotions. ”

“ The ruffian gave a rapid look round in vain search for a way of escape, and then, as his shifty eyes met Broncho's stern ones, full of a steely glitter of held-in anger, with a gesture of overdone indifference he brought his hands together over his head.
Whilst the cowboy covered his prisoner, Tari sped back to the boat for a length of rope, and Loyola and Jim knelt anxiously over the prostrate form of the rolling-stone.
"If he's killed him," began the boy hoarsely. "If he's killed him——" and there was murder in the small voice. ”

“ At 3 p.m. we were abreast of Tuskar. The ship is gliding along under an astonishing cloud of canvas, with stunsails alow and aloft. In the evening the band played several tunes; many of the passengers ventured on a polka and other dances with spirit.
Friday, 7th September.—The light breeze of past two days died away at 4 this morning, leaving us becalmed. Happily the weather is delightful with clear sky and brilliant sun. The sea has the appearance 397 of an immense sheet of glass. All parties are on deck so that the promenades are inconveniently crowded. ”

“ Jack was made to lie down on the blankets under the awning, and all three vied with each other to make him as comfortable as possible.
The blindness made the strong man feel as helpless as a child. Jack's captaincy was over and he became a passenger in the boat, whilst Broncho took his place.
The cowboy, seated in the sternsheets, talked without ceasing in the desire to keep Jack from brooding. He recalled cunningly many a mirth-provoking experience which the two had gone through together in the past, and again and again he had his audience laughing uproariously at some quaint yarn. ”

“ Then too, though an iron ship can be driven into a head sea in a way no dare-devil of a Yankee driver would have dared to attempt with his soft-wood clipper, iron has not the buoyancy of wood, and the sight of a modern four-poster’s main deck when running before the westerlies would have made a Black Ball skipper rub his eyes with astonishment. ”

“ Once more he is mate of the rakish island schooner, lying lazily at anchor in some atoll lagoon, a bevy of flower-decked South Sea maidens dancing wildly on the maindeck to the soft tones of a guitar, the bright moon glistening on the swarthy faces of the Kanaka crew, seated round in squatting posture. The wild cries of the dancers are half-drowned in the deep boom of the distant surf and the rustling of the cocoa-palms rocked by the caressing breath of the steady-blowing zephyr. ”

“ Kipling has sung the song of the pioneer and has laid stress on the pioneer spirit, but he has not touched on that great magnet which has ever drawn the pioneer on and dragged civilisation in his wake—the magnet of gold. Gold and its glamour has been the cause, one can almost say, of all the tragedy and all the evil in this world, but also of nearly all its good and all its progress. ”

“ She made a perfect picture for an artist as she cut through the gleaming path of the moon, carved out in a hard, clean outline of jet; and, forgetting her peril, Loyola could not help exclaiming upon the beauty of the scene.
"Just look at her! What other work of man can approach a sailing-ship for perfect grace and——"
"Ready about!" broke in Jack, with a queer smile and a muttered, "Sorry to interrupt you, Lolie," and round came the whaleboat again.
This time the schooner was prepared, and as she swung in stays she sent a ball from her twelve-pounder skipping after the chase. ”

“ It was the deterioration of the man before the mast which the advent of steam brought about, and the cutting of freights induced by coal, the cry for bigger ships and more luxury, and also, that soulless modern institution, the company manager, which drove sailing ships down and down in the trade of the world; these and the growing desire for mechanical speed, which have invaded almost every department of life, killed the windjammer. ”

“ The card-sharper made no attempt to move from his position, and whilst Jack and Broncho passed the bunt gasket, Hank slid out along the footrope and, grasping the jackstay with his left hand, hit fiercely with his right at the face of the shirker.
There is a grim work sometimes aloft in the raging of a gale, the work of heated blood and feelings overwrought by the cruel stress of the moment.
The gambler flinched from the vicious blows and whimpered miserably. ”

“ And the Black Ball Line would never have become the great concern that it was in its palmy days if it had not been for this man’s foresight and enterprise. He, it was, who realised the genius of the great American shipbuilder, Donald Mackay, and gave him an order for four ships, the like of which the world had never seen before—ships which knowing men in the business pronounced to be too big and likely to prove mere white elephants once the first rush of gold seekers was over. ”

“ Hawksley, for all his cool sneers, was as raging within as his enemy, and longed to wreak a terrible vengeance upon the hated stealer of his wife's love. Not that the man cared twopence about his wife. He had thought nothing of herding her into a crowded harem of native girls aboard the schooner; he missed no chance to insult her; he knocked her about, despised her, and yet inwardly feared her, such was the strange twist in his mean nature; but above everything he valued her as his possession, the prize of the South Seas, to play with and torture with a cruelty which he delighted in. ”

“ When she first arrived in Liverpool a well-known Liverpool shipowner wrote to a Boston paper:—“You want to know what professional men say about the ship James Baines? Her unrivalled passage, of course, brought her prominently before the public and she has already been visited by many of the most eminent mechanics in the country. She is so strongly built, so finely finished and is of so beautiful a model that even envy cannot prompt a fault against her. On all hands she has been praised as the most perfect sailing ship that ever entered the river Mersey.” ”

“ Tari and Broncho scrambled up and clambered forward.
After a long look, Tari said quietly,
"Dat am ghost-island!"
"Ghost-island? Precious little ghost about that," asserted Jim confidently.
"It's an atoll, I expect," called Jack from under the awning. "Surely we can't have drifted as far north yet as the Paumotus! By my reckoning the nearest island is over a hundred miles off."
"It's a coral island—I can see the cocoanut trees," the boy sang out excitedly.
"I'm afraid Tari's right, son," said Broncho, after a long scrutiny. "It's a mirage!" ”

“ There was a spasmodic twitching of the limbs, a sudden gush of blood from the mouth, nose, and ears, the pupils of the eyes grew glassy, their whites showed, the head dropped back heavily on Ben's shoulder, and the complexion took on that strange appearance of wax as the bucko's spirit fled.
Shifting sail is a busy bit of work. The bosun and his men on the fore, with their backs turned, were busy stretching their sail to a chorus, all in ignorance of the tragedy which had just occurred; whilst Black Davis, with the rest of the hands, was in the sail-locker, putting away the unbent sails. ”

“ However, on the discovery of gold in 1851, the Colonial trade leapt out of its stagnation and squalor and at one bound became one of the most important in all the world’s Mercantile Marine. And when the gold fever drew a stream of ignorant English, Scotch and Irish peasants to Australia, men, women and children, most of whom had never seen a ship before they embarked and who were as helpless and shiftless as babes aboard, it was seen that something must be done to improve the conditions on the emigrant ships. ”

“ So back they had to go into the midst of the fray, where the two mates, surrounded by a yelling crowd, were fairly making things hum.
"Reg'lar New Orleans style o' towin' out!" gasped the cockney to Jack, as he skipped round the fore-hatch windlass to avoid the boot of Black Davis, whose eyes gleamed like those of a wild beast through blood and matted hair.
"Ho! ye murtherin' baste, ye, I have ye now," cried Pat with a wild Irish yell, and he sprang full on the mate from the top of the house, whence he had climbed by the iron ladder. ”

“ Hundreds of tons of water swept over the ship in a solid mass from stem to stern, thundering inboard on the port side of the foc’s’le and racing away over the main deck and over the poop, where most of the crew were standing. Every man on the poop was thrown down, and when they regained their feet they perceived that the foremast and mainmast were over the side, and the mizen topmast above their heads had disappeared. Not a man on board actually saw the spars go or even heard the crash of the breaking rigging so violent was the shock and so fierce the howling of the hurricane. ”

“ It is this great power of fascination and attraction which the sea possesses that gets to the root of men's hearts, and, once there, can never be exorcised.
Suddenly, as Broncho watched the furious battle and meditated thereon, at a moment when the Higgins balanced giddily on the top of a sixty-foot "grey-beard," he caught sight of a ship hove-to on the port tack under lower-topsails, lying right across the down-easter's bows. ”

“ Iron killed the competition of our American cousins, who, as long as wood was the chief factor, were able to give us a hard fight as to which should lead the world in shipbuilding. Yes, it was the advent of iron, more than the North and South War, more than the sinkings of the Alabama, more than any slump in freights or foolish shipping legislation on the part of the United States, and more even than our adoption of Free Trade, which made the British nation the carriers of the world. ”

“ But how much further does a quadruple system carry us—four suns glaring down upon one; no nights at all now (the people in those systems no doubt have reached a stage in the evolution of the body—if, indeed, they have bodies at all—when sleep is no longer required) , just days of every hue, of every grade of colour—pale blue days, brilliant red days, gorgeous yellow days, violet days, green days——"
"Good night, Jack," broke in the cowpuncher softly. "I guess I'll quit. You're one too many for me; you have me beat to a stan'still. My head'll burst if I accoomilates any more astronomy. ”

“ Many an old Black Baller ended her days as a coal hulk. Even the winter North Atlantic could not down the Red Jacket and Donald Mackay, and eventually Red Jacket went to Cape Verde and Donald Mackay to Madeira as coal hulks. How many of the Union-Castle passengers knew, when they cast their eyes pityingly or perhaps disdainfully on the grimy looking hulk floating a cable’s length or so away from their spotless liner, that they were looking upon a crack passenger ship of their grandfather’s day. ”

“ One hears of big, strong men crying like babes and hugging each other; of men behaving as if their brains had been taken from them by the shock; who knew not what they did, all control being lost for a few wild minutes, of which they had no recollection whatever afterwards.
[Pg 323]
Thus, now that relief had come to Loyola's overstrained nerves, it was almost too severe a shock, and the brave woman felt herself on the verge of hysteria.
Tighter and tighter Jack gripped her hands as he watched her struggles against a breakdown.
"Bite on it, Lolie! Be brave!" ”

“ She is planked flush to the covering board, has a bold and buoyant sheer, graduated her whole length, rising gracefully at the ends, particularly forward; and every moulding is fair and harmonises finely with the planking and her general outline. Her stern is rounded, and although she has a full poop deck, her afterbody surpasses in neatness that of any vessel her talented builder has yet produced. ”

“ Aft sat Jack, the steering-oar in his hand, a boat's compass between his feet, whilst Broncho and Jim reclined at their ease against the stroke thwart, and Tari slumbered peacefully at full length in the bows.
Four days passed thus peacefully, and then the good south-west wind slackened, wavered, and finally died away, leaving the whaleboat floating motionless on the long, never-ceasing Pacific swell.
The sun shone fiercely with an eye-wearying glare; a thickness of steamy mist gathered and obscured the horizon. The atmosphere was heavy and suffocating, with a moist heat ”

“ A fine S.S.W. breeze was blowing and Wild Deer was romping along under all plain sail and starboard fore topmast stunsail, when the American schooner yacht, Henrietta, the winner of the first ocean yacht race, hauled out from the land and, closing on the clipper, hoisted her colours and asked her name. The late Gordon Bennett, her owner, was on board the yacht, and evidently wished to try her paces against the tea ship, as the Henrietta held on in company with Wild Deer for an hour or two, then bore away for the Needles. ”

“ Tari, his great harpoon like a wand of office in one hand and the rope attached to the prisoner in the other, sagging and tautening like a towline as the unhappy man hung back in terror and was jerked forward again, stalked ahead through the scrub and palms without a moment's hesitation as to his course, and in silence they threaded their way with stern eyes and grimly set jaws.
But what was that? Yes, there it was again! A human form dodging on their trail, taking advantage of every bit of shadow and gliding after them with the silence of a cat's tread. ”

“ But their London rivals, the beautiful British-built hard-wood ships of half their size, having no heavy repair bills, being splendidly built of that imperishable wood teak, and being able to fill up their small holds quickly, continued to carry passengers outward and wool homeward until supplanted in their turn by the magnificent iron clippers of the Clyde, Liverpool and Aberdeen. ”