第 21 页

“Lord, there is something floating afar off yonder—” pointing away to the eastward; “but whether it be what you call a ‘ship’ I know not, for it has no sails.”

“A steamer, then, without a doubt,” I exclaimed, springing to my feet. “What does she look like, Simba? Did you see smoke issuing from her?”

“Nay, lord, I saw no smoke,” was the reply. “It may be a canoe, but, if so, it must be very many times bigger than the biggest of ours.”

“No sails—and no smoke! What the dickens can it be?” I ejaculated. “About how far away is she?”

“About as far distant as that end of the island,”—pointing northward—“is from what my lord calls the look-out,” replied the man.

“Good! then she ought to be visible from the top of the tower,” I exclaimed, in English. “I’ll get my telescope, and shin up aloft to have a look at her.”

“And I’ll go with you, if you have no objection,” remarked Oldroyd.

“Objection?” I exclaimed; “of course not. Come along, old chap.”

It took us but a few minutes to reach the summit of the tower, when, scanning the sea to the eastward, we caught sight of the object reported by the native; and a few minutes later I had her sharply focussed in the lenses of my telescope.

“A large ship—totally dismasted,” I reported to Oldroyd, as with my eye glued to the eye-piece I carefully scanned the picture there revealed, and noted details. “Lying low in the water, and with a heavy list to starboard. The wreckage of her spars floating alongside, still attached to the hull by the shrouds, backstays and so on. I see no sign of life aboard her—nor can I make out any boats at her davits. Looks to me like a derelict—abandoned in a panic, possibly, when she was dismasted. Would you care to have a look at her? There you are, then,”—as I handed over the telescope. “Put it in my room, please, when you have finished with it. I am off down to the Basin. I mean to board that craft; there may be no end of things aboard her which would be of incalculable value to us. Well, good-bye, and—take care of the girls if anything should happen to me.”

“You bet I will!” returned Oldroyd, emphatically. “But—say,” he continued, “nothing is likely to happen to you, eh?”

“No,” I answered, “certainly not. Still—one never knows. Good-bye, once more.” And, so saying, I dashed at full speed down the broken stairway, avoiding, by a miracle, a headlong dive from the top to the bottom, and so into the open.

There was no apparent need for extreme haste, yet so impatient was I to get aboard the hulk that when at length I reached the Basin I was streaming with perspiration. Arrived there, I seized the first man I happened to encounter, and sent him careering through the village with instructions that every male above the age of fifteen was to betake himself to the beach forthwith, carrying with him food and drink sufficient for the whole day, and any axe or other tool he might possess. I next called upon Kilau Minga, telling him what I had done, and why I had done it, whereupon, like the good fellow that he was, he at once announced his intention to go with me, believing that, owing to my still imperfect knowledge of the language, he might be helpful in interpreting my wishes to his people. Then, from there, after the chief had secured enough food and “wine” to serve us both for the day, we wended our way down to the beach, where my twelve boatmen were patiently awaiting me, and where also some fifty or sixty other men had already turned up. Others, however, were momentarily arriving, a few singly, but mostly in groups, and in about twenty minutes there were fully two hundred men awaiting orders. These, with the tools of various descriptions which they had brought with them we hustled into the twenty biggest canoes of the flotilla, and, with six of my own men, and Kilau Minga in the jollyboat, leading the way, we proceeded to sea. Inside the lagoon there was little wind, merely a light air from the eastward, but as we ran before it toward the passage it freshened somewhat, and when we arrived off the northern extremity of the island there was wind enough to need a wary eye on the lee gunwale while carrying whole canvas. The canoes had as yet no sails, and they therefore paddled directly to windward, while we in the boat worked up in the same direction, making short tacks, finding that by doing so—and by “carrying on” to such an extent that two men were kept continually busy baling the water that came in over the lee gunwale—we were just able to keep pace with the canoes.

It took us the best part of three hours to reach the ship, and when we did so she was rolling so heavily that it was a job to get alongside and scramble aboard without injury to the boat or the canoes. But we managed it, half of our number boarding the hulk while the other half remained in the small craft, to take care of them.

A hasty glance satisfied me, when I got aboard, that the vessel was derelict, boats and crew being alike missing. Nor was I able to get much information by visiting the captain’s cabin, for upon abandoning the ship he had taken her papers and nautical instruments with him. All that I was able to learn, in fact, during that first hasty look round, was that the craft was named the Amy Trenton, hailing from New York, that she was a comparatively new wood-built ship, of about fourteen hundred tons register, and that, before coming to grief, she had been barque-rigged. Hunting about, I found the sounding rod without much difficulty, and sounding the well, found that she had nearly eight feet of water in her. I did not attempt to lift the hatches just then, to ascertain the character of her cargo, for she seemed to be reasonably buoyant, considering the amount of water in her, and the bold idea had come to me of attempting to tow her to the island, instead of rifling her out there at sea. And this, I thought might be done, for wind and sea were alike in our favour. But of course it would be useless to attempt to tow a big lump of craft like that with such a mass of raffle as was attached to her, towing alongside. I therefore set my boarding party to work in the first instance cutting through the lanyards of the rigging, and in about twenty minutes I had the satisfaction of seeing the whole of it—masts, yards, canvas and rigging—drive clear.

Our next business was to look for something by means of which we could tow the hulk, and this we found in the shape of a fine, stout hawser, almost new, stopped securely down on the roof of the forward house. Cutting this adrift, we passed one end of it over the bows through a fairlead and down into the boat. To this we bent on, at intervals, convenient lengths of warp to serve as towlines for the canoes, and then, having paid out the whole length of the hawser to its bare end, we took several turns of the latter round the windlass-bitts, making all secure with a stout seizing, when, our preparations being complete, I sent all hands back into the canoes and the boat, and, directing them, through Kilau Minga, what to do, arranged the canoes in pairs on each side of the hawser, each of them being secured to it by a length of warp, and bade them paddle ahead for all they were worth, the jollyboat, with the far end of the hawser aboard, and her sail set, taking the lead, while I stationed myself at the wheel, with Kilau Minga on the forecastle-head to convey orders to the towing craft, as might be required.

The towage of such a big lump of a hulk as the Amy Trenton, waterlogged as she was, proved a most formidable undertaking, even with two hundred strong men toiling at the paddles; we found her at first very heavy on our hands, but at length, when we had got her fairly round, stem-on to wind and sea, matters improved so far that we were actually able to give her steerage-way; and finally, after some eight hours of strenuous toil, we triumphantly took her in through the opening of the reef and grounded her upon the beach.

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Chapter Fifteen: Our Prize.

The days that followed this momentous event in the annals of our island story were busy ones for me, for with the coming of the hulk upon the scene the complexion of things generally was altered, very much for the better.

The first thing was to give the wreck a thorough overhaul, and see what she contained that might be of use to us; and as a preliminary to this I had her pumped dry and hauled broadside-on to the beach, when, as I had more than half suspected, it was found that her leaks, wherever they might have been, had taken up, and that she was making no more water. This done, we made a start by opening her lazarette, which we found still well stocked with provisions of various kinds, including such welcome additions to our larder as hams, bacon, sardines, tinned sheep tongues, potted meats and fish, potatoes, wines and spirits in cask and bottle—in short everything that is usually to be found in the lazarette of a well-found ship, and nearly all of it in perfect condition. All these we divided as evenly as we could into two parts, giving one half to the natives and keeping the other for ourselves. The only exception to this rule which we made was in the case of the wines and spirits, the whole of which I caused to be transported to the ruins, believing it best to keep everything of that kind out of reach of the natives.

Having emptied the lazarette, we next took off the hatches and investigated the contents of the holds. These we found to consist largely of machinery of various kinds, notably among which were the complete equipment of a saw mill and a smithy, several lathes, and other tools. With these at our command we were able to see our way to build a craft of suitable dimensions to convey our party in safety and comfort to any destination we might choose, and this, we all agreed, must be our first consideration. The hulk, indeed, was better than a gold mine to people circumstanced as we were, for in addition to the matters already named, there was her well stocked medicine chest, her carpenter’s chest, a dozen modern rifles, fitted with bayonets, a dozen navy revolvers, and a considerable stock of ammunition for both kinds of firearm; there were also several cases of ready-made clothing both for men and women, from which we were able handsomely to replenish our scanty wardrobes.

The first thing to be done was of course to get everything out of her and properly sorted out ashore, then we should know exactly what our resources were.

To do this, our first requirement was a raft upon which to float everything across the short space of water between the hulk and the beach; and this we constructed by requisitioning from the natives four of their biggest canoes, arranging them abreast with a space of about a foot between each two and building upon these a platform, the materials for which we obtained by taking the two deckhouses to pieces.

This, and the handling of the cargo, was of course very heavy work, but Kilau Minga placed the resources of the tribe at our disposal, and with the strength thus available, supplemented by the employment, under my supervision, of the winches, windlass, tackles, etcetera, belonging to the ship, we managed excellently.

It cost us rather more than two months of arduous labour to discharge the ship and stack the cargo upon the beach, by which time the hulk, now empty, was once more afloat and standing high out of the water. Should we, now that the hulk was afloat, keep her so, ballast her with such portions of her cargo as were of no use to us, jury-rig her, and attempt to sail her to some port from which we could obtain passage home—or should we break her up and build a craft to suit ourselves?

There was something to be said in favour of either plan. If the first were adopted, we should have a fine big ship, with comfortable and ample accommodation for all. But to effect a jury-rig such as would enable us to put to sea with a reasonable hope of coping with bad weather, and of reaching our destination, would tax our resourcefulness to its limit; it would take a long time to do it as it ought to be done; and, then we should need a strong crew to man and handle the ship. The last difficulty we might overcome if a sufficient number of the natives could be induced to accompany us; but would they? This question could only be answered by referring it to Kilau Minga. And if a sufficient number could be prevailed upon to undertake the voyage, how were they to be returned to the island—as they would desire to be—without betraying its position to the outer world? I could find no reply to this question; and merely to suit our own convenience, we should hardly be justified in “giving away” its whereabouts and so introducing the many vices which accompany intercourse with the usual stamp of white trader.

The adoption of the second alternative—that of building a craft to suit ourselves—would involve the expenditure of, probably, more time than the first, but the labour would be somewhat lighter; and when finished the boat would be handy enough to be worked by Oldroyd, Mason and myself, even if by that time Wilkinson and Dartnell had not grown tired of their island life.

The entire party, girls included, discussed the matter at length one night, after dinner; and the conclusion was that the best plan would be to build a craft for ourselves.

The next thing was to prepare the working plans; and here I found that I should have to rely upon my own knowledge and judgment, for my companions disclaimed all pretentions to knowledge of naval architecture; on the other hand they both admitted they possessed something more than a mere smattering of mechanical knowledge, and they agreed eagerly to my suggestion that they should—with the help of the natives, of course—undertake the erection of a saw mill and a smithy.

I took pains in thinking out the design of the proposed craft. The chief considerations to be studied were three; namely, safety, comfort, and room enough to stow away all the provisions we were likely to require. There were subsidiary ones also, as, for example, a fair turn of speed under sail, and weatherliness—that is to say, the ability to turn to windward against a foul wind. Also, she must be easy to handle, since there were only three of us to be reckoned upon for working her.

These requirements, I concluded, might all be met in a craft of forty-two feet in length on the water-line, with a beam of fourteen feet, which would give us a good, sturdy seaworthy boat, roomy on deck and below, with a cabin high enough to stand upright in, and permitting of the provision of a stateroom which should secure complete privacy for the two girls. The correct rig for a boat of those proportions would be that of a cutter; and I decided that while I was about it I would make the boat as yachtlike as might be; that she should be, in fact, modelled very much upon the lines of a cruising cutter-yacht.

I set to work, and ultimately, after many alterations, produced a drawing which I believed would not only meet our requirements, but would be staunch enough to face any weather, even to a hurricane. I was busy over the drawings for a full week, getting everything to my liking, and then I was ready to start work forthwith.