A Pirate of the Caribbees | Page 9

rich tint
of blue and becoming pallid and hard, streaked with mares' tails and
flecked with small, smoky-looking, swift-flying clouds, while the
setting sun, as he neared the horizon, lost his radiance and became a
mere shapeless blotch of angry red that finally seemed to dissolve and
disappear in a broad bank of slate-hued vapour. The sea too changed its
colour, from the clear steel-blue that it had hitherto worn to the hue of
indigo smirched with black. Moreover, I heard the captain remark to
Mr Dawson that the mercury was falling and that he feared we were in
for a dirty night.
And, indeed, so it seemed; for about the middle of the second
dog-watch the wind lulled perceptibly and we had a sharp rain-squall,
soon after which it breezed up again, the wind coming first of all in
gusts and then in a strong breeze that, as the night wore on, steadily
increased until it was blowing half a gale, with every indication of
worse to come. The sea, too, rose rapidly, and came rushing down upon
our starboard quarter, high, steep, and foam-crested, causing the frigate
to roll and tumble about most unpleasantly under her jury-rig and short
canvas. Altogether, the prospects for the night were so exceedingly
unpromising that I must plead guilty to having experienced a selfish joy
at the reflection that it was my eight hours in.
When I went on deck at midnight that night, I found that the wind had
increased to a whole gale, with a very high and confused sea running,
over which the poor maimed Althea was wallowing along at a speed of
about eight and a half knots, with a dismal groaning of timbers that
harmonised lugubriously with the clank of the chain pumps and the
swash of water washing nearly knee-deep about the decks--for the
hooker laboured so heavily that she was leaking like a basket,
necessitating the unremitting use of the pumps throughout the watch.
And--worst of all--Keene whispered to me that, even with the pumps
going constantly, the water was slowly but distinctly gaining. And thus
it continued all through the middle watch.
It was hoped that the gale would not be of long duration, but at eight
bells next morning the news was that the mercury was still falling,

while the wind, instead of evincing a disposition to moderate, blew
harder than ever. And oh, what a dreary outlook it was when, swathed
in oilskins, I passed through the hatchway and stepped out on deck!
The sky was entirely veiled by an unbroken mass of dark, purplish,
slate- coloured cloud that was almost black in its deeper shadows, with
long, tattered streamers of dirty whitish vapour scurrying wildly
athwart it; a heavy, leaden-hued, white-crested, foam-flecked sea was
running, and in the midst of the picture was the poor crippled frigate,
rolling and labouring and staggering onward like a wounded sea-bird
under her jury- spars and spray-darkened canvas, with a miniature
ocean washing hither and thither athwart her heaving deck, and a crowd
of panting, straining, half-naked men clustering about her pumps, while
others were as busily employed in passing buckets up and down
through the hatchways; the whole set to the dismal harmony of howling
wind, hissing spray, the wearisome and incessant wash of water, and
the groaning and complaining sounds of the labouring hull. The skipper
and the first luff were pacing the weather side of the poop together in
earnest converse, and at each turn in their walk they both paused for an
instant, as by mutual consent, to cast a look of anxious inquiry to
windward.
Presently I saw the carpenter coming along the deck with the sounding-
rod in his hand. I intercepted him just by the foot of the poop ladder
and remarked--
"Well, Chips, what is the best news you have to tell us?"
"The best news?" echoed Chips, with a solemn shake of the head;
"there ain't no best, Mr Courtenay, it's all worst, sir; there's over four
foot of water in the hold now, and it's gainin' on us at the rate of five
inches an hour; and if this here gale don't break pretty quick I won't
answer for the consequences!"
And up he went to make his report to the skipper.
This was bad news indeed, especially for the unfortunate men who
were compelled by dire necessity to toil unceasingly at the
back-breaking labour of working the pumps; but I felt no apprehension

as to our ultimate safety. Five inches of water per hour was a
formidable gain for a leak to make in spite of all the pumping and
baling that could be accomplished, yet it would take so many hours at
that rate to reduce the frigate to a water-logged condition that ere the