Outward Bound Or, Young America Afloat: A Story of Travel and Adventure, Optic [best non fiction books of all time txt] 📗

he did with Shuffles, had in a measure conciliated them, and they were at least disposed to submit gracefully to the order. But Pelham was not of this number He was above the average age, and, like the chief conspirator on board, expecting to leave the ship at the end of the first year, had not exerted himself to the extent of his ability. He had been first lieutenant and had now fallen to fourth. He was older than the captain, and it galled him to be subject to one younger than himself.

He was dissatisfied with his rank, and this had a tendency to make him a grumbler. It needed only an appearance of tyranny or injustice to array him in spirit against the authorities of the ship. Shuffles knew his state of mind, and was prepared to take {219} advantage of it, hoping through him to gain other discontented spirits in the cabin.

When the first part of the port watch was relieved, the "Chain" consisted of five links, and the conspirators were well satisfied with the present success of the enterprise. Each of the new members of the League was commissioned to obtain a recruit, whose name was given to him, and he was required to report upon the case, to Shuffles, before eight bells in the afternoon watch. As a measure of precaution, it was required that no meetings should be held; that not more than three members should assemble for business at any one time. The utmost care and circumspection were urged, and it was agreed that not a word should be said in the steerage, where it was possible for any of the professors to overhear it.

The second part of the port watch, with Pelham as officer of the deck, went on duty at ten o'clock. The wind had been freshening for the last two hours, and it was now necessary to reduce sail. The royals were first taken in, and then the top-gallant sails.

"We can't lay this course, sir," said Burchmore, the quartermaster, who was conning the helm. "The wind is hauling to the eastward."

"Make the course east by north then," replied Pelham, without taking the trouble to consult the captain or Mr. Fluxion, both of whom were on deck.

"The wind is north-north-east, sir," reported the quartermaster, a short time afterwards.

"Keep her east then."

At six bells the wind was north-east, and coming heavier and heavier every moment. The ship was {220} headed east-south-east, and it was evident that she still had on more sail than she could easily carry.

"What's the course, Mr. Pelham?" asked Captain Gordon.

"East-south-east, sir," replied Pelham.

"The course given out was east-north-east."

"I have changed it three times within the last hour," answered the fourth lieutenant, in rather surly tones.

"By whose order?" demanded the captain.

"By no one's order, sir."

"You know the regulation for the officer of the deck. He is not permitted to alter the course of the ship, unless to avoid some sudden danger, without informing the captain."

"I had to alter the course, or have the topsails thrown aback," replied Pelham.

"Very likely it was proper to alter the course; but it was also proper to inform me, especially when I was on deck."

"Very well, Captain Gordon. I will not alter the course again without your order," added the fourth lieutenant, stiffly.

"The regulation is not mine, Mr. Pelham," continued the captain, sternly.

As the wind increased, sail was reduced to topsails and courses, jib and spanker; but at seven bells even these were found to be too much for her.

"Captain Gordon, it is coming heavier," said Mr. Fluxion. "I think it will be necessary to reef."

"I was thinking of that, sir. The wind is north-east, and blowing a gale."

"You had better call all hands, and do it at once." {221}

"Mr. Pelham, you will call all hands to reef topsails!"

"All hands, sir?"

"Certainly, Mr. Pelham; that was my order," replied the captain, more sharply than usual, for there was something in the manner of the officer of the deck which he did not like, and he found it necessary to maintain the dignity of his position.

Pelham touched his cap; he felt the weight of authority upon him heavier than ever before. Until recently he had always performed his duty cheerfully, and was considered a first-rate officer. Since the new regulation had been put in force, and he had been compelled to deliver up ten sovereigns in his possession he had been rather disagreeable. In the cabin he had used some language reflecting upon the principal, and he was now regarded as a malcontent by the captain, and by those who still sustained the discipline of the ship.

"Morrison," called he, as he went forward to the waist.

"Here, sir," replied the boatswain, who belonged in this quarter watch; and there was a boatswain's mate in each of the others.

"Call all hands to reef topsails."

The shrill pipe of the boatswain's whistle soon rang above the howling winds, which now sounded gloomily through the rigging. The call was repeated in the steerage, and at the door of the after cabin, where it could be heard by the officers, for no one on board is exempted when all hands are called. This was the first taste of the hardships of a seaman's life to which {222} the students had been invited. It is not pleasant, to say the least, to be turned out of a warm bed in a gale, when the wind comes cold and furious, laden with the spray of the ocean, and be sent aloft in the rigging of the ship, when she is rolling and pitching, jumping and jerking, in the mad waves. But there is no excuse at such a time, and nothing but positive physical disability can exempt officer or seaman from duty.

It was the first time the boys had seen a gale at sea, and though it was not yet what would be called a strong gale, it was sufficiently terrific to produce a deep impression upon them. The ship was still close-hauled, under topsails and courses, with jib and spanker. The wind came in heavy blasts, and when they struck the sails, the Young America heeled over, until her lee yard-arm seemed to be dipping the waves. Huge billows came roaring down from the windward, crowned with white foam, and presenting an awful aspect in the night, striking the ship, lifting her bow high in the air, and breaking over the rail, pouring tons of water on the deck.

Before the whole crew had been called, every opening in the deck had been secured, and the plank guards placed over the glass in the skylights. Life lines had been stretched along the decks, and the swinging ports, through which the water that came over the rail escaped, were crossed with whale line by Peaks, to prevent any unlucky boy from being washed through, if he happened to be thrown off his feet by a rush of water to the scuppers.

The scene was wild and startling; it was even ter {223}rible to those who had never seen anything of the kind before, though the old sailors regarded it quite as a matter of course. Peaks had never been known to be so jolly and excited since he came on board. He was full of jokes and witty sayings; he seemed to be in his element now, and all his powers of body and mind were in the keenest state of excitement.

The students were disposed to look upon it as a rough time, and doubtless some of them thought the ship was in great peril. Not a few of them pretended to enjoy the scene, and talked amazingly salt, as though they had been used to this kind of thing all their lives. Mr. Lowington came on deck, when all hands were called; and though, to his experienced eye, there was no danger while the ship was well managed, he was exceedingly anxious, for it was a time when accidents were prone to happen, and the loss of a boy at such an hour, would endanger the success of his great experiment. On deck, the students could not get overboard without the grossest carelessness; but it was perilous to send them aloft in the gloom of the howling tempest. He had hoped that he might be permitted to meet the onslaught of the first gale the ship encountered in the daytime; but as the "clerk of the weather" otherwise ordained it, he was compelled to make the best of the circumstances.

Before the manoeuvre of reefing, in the gale, was begun, Mr. Fluxion was sent forward. Bitts was placed in the fore rigging, Peaks in the main, and Leach in the mizzen, to see that the young tars did not needlessly expose themselves, and that they used all {224} proper precautions to avoid an accident. All the officers were at their stations.

"Man the topsail clewlines, and buntlines, and the weather topsail braces," shouted Haven, the first lieutenant who always handled the ship when all hands were called. "Stand by the lee braces, bowlines, and halyards."

The clewlines are ropes fastened to the corners of the topsail, passing through blocks on the topsail yard, and leading down to the deck through the lubber's hole. They are used in hauling the corners of the sail up when they are to be reefed or furled.

The buntlines are two ropes attached to cringles, or eyes, in the bottom of the sail, which are used for hauling up the middle, or bunt, of the topsail.

The braces are the ropes secured to the ends of the yards, leading down to the deck, directly, or to a mast first, and thence below, by which the yards and the sails attached to them are hauled round so as to take the wind. They are distinguished by the terms "weather" and "lee," the former being those on the side from which the wind comes, the latter on the opposite side. They also have their specific names, as the "weather fore-top-gallant brace," the "lee main brace."

The bowlines are ropes attached to the leeches of square sails to draw the edge forward, so that they may take the wind better. They are fastened to the bridles, which are loops like those of a kite, two or three of them extending from the side of the sail.

The halyards are the ropes by which any sail is hoisted. For square sails they are secured to the {225} yards, which, with the exception of the lower one on each mast slide up and down.

"Clear away the bowlines," said the first lieutenant when all hands were reported ready for the manoeuvre which had been ordered.

At this command the bowlines on the topsails and courses were unfastened.

"All clear, sir," reported the officers from their stations.

"Round in the weather braces, ease off the lee braces!" was the next order. "Settle away the topsail halyards! Clew down!"

To round in the weather braces was simply to haul them up as the lee braces were slacked, so that the yard was squared. As the command was executed, the sail was "spilled," or the wind thrown out of it.

"Haul out the reef tackles! Haul up the buntlines!" continued the executive officer.

To reef a sail is to tie up a portion of it, so as to present less surface of canvas to the force of the wind. Topsails are reefed in the upper part; a portion of the sail nearest to the yard from which it is suspended being rolled up and secured by strings to the yard. Fore and aft sails, like the spanker, the fore and main spencers, or the mainsail of a schooner, are reefed at the foot, the lower part being tied down to the boom.

The topsails of the Young America had three reef bands, or strips of canvas sewed crosswise over them, in which were the reef points, or strings by which the sail is tied up when reefed. When the first or highest row of reef points was used, the sail was single reefed; when the second was used, it was {226} double reefed; and when the third row was used, it was close reefed. On each side of the sail, at the end of each reef band, was a cringle, or eye, in which the reef pendent was fastened. The reef tackle consists of a rope passing from the eye, at the end of the reef band, through a block at the extremity of the yard, thence to the mast, and down to the deck. Hauling on this rope draws the required portion of the sail up to the yard in readiness to be reefed.

The reef tackles were hauled out, and the buntlines hauled up to bring the sail where it could be easily handled. When the sail is to be reefed, the seamen have to a "lay out" on the yards, and tie up the sail. To enable them to do this with safety, there are horses, or foot-ropes, extending from the slings, or middle of the spar, to the yard-arms. This rope hangs below the yard, the middle parts being supported by stirrups. When a man is to "lay