Part 7 (1/2)
As Bowse walked the deck with a spy-gla.s.s under his arm in man-of-war fas.h.i.+on, a smile of contentment lit up his honest countenance, and glistened in his eye; and as he felt the freshening breeze fanning his cheek, and lifting his vessel, as it were, he began to laugh at his momentary suspicions about the character of the speronara and her crew.
Every now and then he would stop in his walk, and would look over the side to judge how fast the vessel was going through the water, or he would examine the compa.s.ses to a.s.sure himself that they were true, or he would cast his eye aloft to see how his sails drew, or his clear, full voice would be heard issuing some necessary order for the government of the s.h.i.+p.
Even Colonel Gauntlett could not help expressing his satisfaction at the propitious commencement of their voyage, as he stopped in his short and otherwise silent walk on the p.o.o.p to address a few words to the master.
Ada sat silently in her chair, gazing on the fast-receding sh.o.r.e; and it is not surprising that her thoughts were fixed on him who was, she felt sure, even then watching, from its most extreme point, the bark which bore her away. Her little Maltese maid, Marianna, stood by her side with tears in her bright eyes, and gazing her last for an indefinite time on the land of her birth, and where all her affections were centred, except those which had lately arisen for her young mistress.
The colonel's man, not knowing exactly where he ought to be, being too dignified, at first, to mix with the men forward, and astonished and confused at manoeuvres which he could not comprehend, as is generally the case with his cla.s.s, always managed to get exactly where he was most in the way.
”Port a little, you may, my son,” said the master to the man at the helm; ”steady, so, keep her. East-and-by-north is the course,”
p.r.o.nouncing the north with a strong emphasis on the O, and without the R--as if it were spelt Nothe. ”Just get a gentle pull on our weather-braces, Mr Timmins,” to the mate. ”The wind's drawing a little more aft again. We're making her walk along, sir,” to the colonel.
”She's not going less than six knots an hour, I'll warrant, which, with this light wind, is not bad for a craft of her build--she's no clipper, I own, sir. Heave the log here. I dare say you'll like to be certain, miss,” turning to Ada, as he thought the operation would amuse her.
The second mate and two hands came aft with the log-line and reel.
Bowse took a half-minute gla.s.s from the binnacle, and watching till all the sand had run into one end, held it up before him. The seamen, meantime, held the reel up before him, so as to allow it to turn easily in his hands, and the mate, taking the little triangular bit of wood, called the log-s.h.i.+p, adjusted the peg, and drew off, with a peculiar jerk of his left hand, several coils of the stray-line, which he held for a moment over the quarter of the vessel, till he saw that his chief was ready with the gla.s.s, and he then hove it over into the water. The first part of the line is called the stray-line, and its object is to allow the log-s.h.i.+p to settle properly in the water, as well as to take it clear of the eddy. As soon as this part had run out, a cloth mark ran through the mate's fingers. ”Turn,” he exclaimed. ”Turn,” repeated the master, and turned the gla.s.s. The marks rapidly pa.s.sed through the mate's hand, as he jerked the line of the reel, always keeping it at a stretch.
”Stop,” sung out Bowse, as the sand had run out of the upper end of the gla.s.s.
”Done,” said the mate, and stopped the line.
He had not to count the knots run off, for his experienced eye was able to tell the number by the mark on the line. It must be understood that this line is divided into a certain number of equal parts, each of which bears the same proportion to a mile, which thirty seconds do to an hour, and therefore, as the log-s.h.i.+p remains stationary in the water, according to the number of these proportions dragged through, while the sand is running, so is shown how many miles or knots the vessel is going through the water.
”Six and a quarter,” exclaimed the mate. ”That's what I call good going for a s.h.i.+p with a full cargo, in a breeze like this.”
”That's what we call heaving the log, Miss Garden,” said the master, who had been explaining the use of the log, though in not quite so succinct a way as I have attempted to do. ”You'll be able to turn the gla.s.s another time, I'm sure.”
The gla.s.s runs, in reality, only for twenty-eight seconds, as two are considered to be employed in turning it.
Ada, who enjoyed an advantage over the reader, by having the operation performed before her eyes, answered that she clearly understood it, and would always, in future, hold the gla.s.s.
”By this calculation, you see, miss, as it is just two hours since we pa.s.sed Fort Saint Elmo, we have run exactly twelve knots and a half off the reel; though we didn't go through the water so fast at first, as we are now doing. However, by the look of the land, I calculate we are not much less than that off it. You see we call miles--knots, miss, on account of the knots which are marked on the line. When we can just see the last of some conspicuous point, we shall take its bearing by compa.s.s and its distance, and then I shall commence p.r.i.c.king the s.h.i.+p's course off on the chart, and that is what we call taking our departure. Now you see there's many people on sh.o.r.e would fancy that when we left the port we took our departure; but the ties which bind a seaman to the sh.o.r.e, and to those we leave behind, are not so quickly parted as they may think, you see, miss.” And the honest master, chuckling at one of the first attempts at wit and gallantry of which he had ever been guilty, thought the next instant he blushed at his own audacity.
”It's surprising, miss, what funny mistakes them who never leave the land make about seafaring concerns; but then, what can you expect of them? they know no better,” he added, in a tone showing the deep commiseration he felt for the ignorance of landsmen. ”To say that they don't know the stem from the stern, isn't to say anything. They know nothing about a s.h.i.+p, how she's built, how she sails, or what she's like. The last voyage I made I had a pa.s.senger on board who was a cleverish sort of gentleman, too, and for talking politics he'd go on for an hour; yet he wanted to know why I couldn't bring the s.h.i.+p to an anchor right out in the Bay of Biscay; and one night, when it was blowing a stiffish gale, with a heavy sea running, he roused me out of my sleep to ask me to send a better hand to the helm; one who knew how to keep the craft steady, or else to run into some harbour till the morning. He never could get it out of his head that he was not in the Thames. Now, miss, I see that you are not one of those sort of people, and that you will soon know all about a s.h.i.+p, though you may not just yet be able to act the captain. To-morrow I'll show you how to shoot the sun, as we tell greenhorns we are doing, when we take an observation with the quadrant. It's a very pretty instrument, and you will be pleased to know how to use it.”
”I shall like very much to learn all you can teach me, Captain Bowse,”
answered Ada, making a great effort to rouse herself from the feeling of sadness which oppressed her. ”I wonder how mariners managed to traverse, as they did, the most distant seas, before these instruments were invented.”
”They used to trust more to the sun and stars, and to their lead reckoning, than they do now, I suppose, miss,” answered the master.
”Even now, there's many a man in charge of a vessel who never takes more than a meridional observation, if even that; and having found his lat.i.tude, runs down the longitude by dead reckoning. Some even go about to many distant parts entirely by rule of guess, and it is extraordinary how often they hit their point. Now and then, to be sure, they find themselves two or three hundred miles out of their course, and sometimes they get the s.h.i.+p cast away. I have, too, met vessels out in the Atlantic which had entirely lost their reckoning, and had not the slightest notion where they were. Once, I remember, when I belonged to the _Harkaway_ frigate, coming home from the Brazils, we sighted a Spanish man-of-war corvette. When we got up to her we hove to, and an officer came on board who could speak a little English; and you would scarcely believe it, but the first thing he did was to ask us for the lat.i.tude and longitude; and he confessed that the only instruments they had on board were out of repair, and, for what I know, the only man who knew how to use them was ill. Our captain then sent an officer on board the corvette, and a pretty condition she was in for a man-of-war. They had a governor of some place as a pa.s.senger, and his wife and family, and two or three other ladies and their families; and there they were all lying about the decks in a state of despair, thinking they were never to see land again. They had been a whole month tossing about in every direction, and not knowing how to find the way home. The decks were as dirty as if they had not been holystoned or swept all that time; not a sail was properly set, not a rope flemished down. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I could not have believed such a thing possible. Our appearance raised their spirits a little, and they began putting themselves to rights as soon as they had made sail on their course. They kept company with us till we got into the lat.i.tude of Cadiz, for their craft sailed very well, for all that they did not know how to handle her, and I believe that they managed to get into port in safety at last.”
”I am surprised at what you tell me,” observed Miss Garden, ”I should have thought the Spaniards could not have so totally forgotten their ancient naval renown as to allow such dreadful ignorance to exist.”
”The men are active, intelligent fellows enough, and the officers in the merchant service are, from what I have seen, very good seamen; but since the war, their navy has been much neglected, and men were made officers who did not know the stem from the stern of the s.h.i.+p, just because they happened to be some poor dependent of one of their n.o.bles, or the son of a valet out of place. Things are mending a little now with them, I hear.”
”I wonder any but such beggarly fellows as you speak of can be induced to go into the navy at all,” said the colonel, who had been listening to the master's story, and was far from pleased at the interest Ada took in what he said. ”For my part, I would as soon be a shoe-black; but you seem determined to give my niece a dose of the sea.”
”Oh, yes, sir!” answered Bowse, perfectly indifferent to the colonel's ill-temper; ”I hope we shall make the young lady a first-rate sailor before long.”
”I hope you will do no such thing, Mr Bowse; she thinks a great deal too much about it already,” returned the colonel, taking another turn aft.
”Indeed I do not, uncle,” replied Ada, as he came back, in a half-playful tone, calculated to disarm his anger. ”You must acknowledge that the scene before us is very beautiful and enjoyable.