the_death_ship_a_strange_story_vol_1
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| + | < | ||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
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| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | AT ALL THE LIBRARIES</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | author of ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A DAUGHTER OF DIVES. By <span class=" | ||
| + | author of ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A CREATURE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. By <span class=" | ||
| + | Lander</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A MODERN DELILAH. By <span class=" | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <h1> | ||
| + | THE DEATH SHIP<br /> | ||
| + | A STRANGE STORY;< | ||
| + | </h1> | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | AN ACCOUNT OF A CRUISE IN "THE FLYING DUTCHMAN," | ||
| + | FROM THE PAPERS OF THE LATE MR. GEOFFREY FENTON, OF POPLAR,< | ||
| + | MASTER MARINER.< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | W. CLARK RUSSELL,< | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | AUTHOR OF<br /> | ||
| + | "THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR," | ||
| + | ETC., ETC.<br /> | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | IN THREE VOLUMES< | ||
| + | VOL. I<br /> | ||
| + | <br /> | ||
| + | LONDON< | ||
| + | HURST AND BLACKETT, LIMITED< | ||
| + | 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET< | ||
| + | 1888<br /> | ||
| + | <br /> | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | PRINTED BY<br /> | ||
| + | TILLOTSON AND SON, MAWDSLEY STREET< | ||
| + | BOLTON< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | THE FIRST VOLUME.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <table border=" | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | I SAIL AS SECOND MATE IN THE SARACEN.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I will pass by all the explanations concerning | ||
| + | the reasons of my going to sea, as I do | ||
| + | not desire to forfeit your kind patience by | ||
| + | letting this story stand. Enough if I say | ||
| + | that after I had been fairly well grounded in | ||
| + | English, arithmetic and the like, which plain | ||
| + | education I have never wearied of improving | ||
| + | by reading everything good that came in my | ||
| + | way, I was bound apprentice to a respectable | ||
| + | man named Joshua Cox, of Whitby, and<span class=" | ||
| + | served my time in his vessel, the Laughing | ||
| + | Susan& | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>We traded to Riga, Stockholm, and Baltic | ||
| + | ports, and often to Rotterdam, where, having | ||
| + | a quick ear, which has sometimes served me | ||
| + | for playing upon the fiddle for my mates to | ||
| + | dance or sing to, I picked up enough of | ||
| + | Dutch to enable me to hold my own in conversing | ||
| + | with a Hollander, or Hans Butterbox, | ||
| + | as those people used to be called; that is | ||
| + | to say, I had sufficient words at command to | ||
| + | qualify me to follow what was said and to | ||
| + | answer so as to be intelligible; | ||
| + | since, uncouth as that language is, there is so | ||
| + | much of it resembling ours in sound that | ||
| + | many words in it might easily pass for portions | ||
| + | of our tongue grossly and ludicrously | ||
| + | articulated. Why I mention this will hereafter | ||
| + | appear.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I made two voyages as second mate, | ||
| + | and then obtained an appointment to that< | ||
| + | post in a ship named the Saracen, for a | ||
| + | voyage to the East Indies. This was < | ||
| + | 1796. I was then two-and-twenty years of | ||
| + | age, a tall, well-built young fellow, with | ||
| + | tawny hair, of the mariner' | ||
| + | from the high suns I had sailed under and | ||
| + | the hardening gales I had stared into, with | ||
| + | dark blue eyes filled with the light of an | ||
| + | easy and naturally merry heart, white teeth, | ||
| + | very regular, and a glad expression as | ||
| + | though, forsooth, I found something gay | ||
| + | and to like in all that I looked at. Indeed it | ||
| + | was a saying with my mother that " | ||
| + | Geoffrey& | ||
| + | was as though a very little joke would set | ||
| + | the full measure of his spirits overflowing." | ||
| + | But now, it is as an old poet finely wrote:</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | My golden locks time hath to silver turn' | ||
| + | (O time, too swift, and swiftness never ceasing!)< | ||
| + | My youth, ' | ||
| + | But spurn' | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | should say, though as a sailor I am but an<span class=" | ||
| + | obscure person, yet as a man I may claim | ||
| + | some pride and lustre of descent, an ancestor | ||
| + | being no less a worthy than one of | ||
| + | the boldest of Queen Elizabeth' | ||
| + | and generals& | ||
| + | was himself of a sound and ancient Nottingham | ||
| + | stock; illustrious for his behaviour | ||
| + | against the Spaniards in 1588, and for his explorations | ||
| + | of the hidden passage of the North | ||
| + | Sea, mentioned with other notable matters in | ||
| + | the Latin inscription upon his monument by | ||
| + | Richard, Earl of Cork, who married his | ||
| + | niece.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Skevington, and the mate's name Christopher | ||
| + | Hall. We sailed from Gravesend& | ||
| + | Whitby I was now done& | ||
| + | April, 1796. We were told to look to ourselves | ||
| + | when we should arrive in the neighbourhood | ||
| + | of the Cape of Good Hope, for it | ||
| + | was rumoured that the Dutch, with the help< | ||
| + | of the French, were likely to send a squadron | ||
| + | to recover Cape Town, that had fallen into | ||
| + | the hands of the British in the previous | ||
| + | September. However, at the time of our | ||
| + | lifting our anchor off Gravesend, the Cape | ||
| + | Settlement lay on the other side of the globe; | ||
| + | whatever danger there might be there, was | ||
| + | too remote to cast the least faint shadow upon | ||
| + | us; besides, the sailor was so used to the | ||
| + | perils of the enemy and the chase, that nothing | ||
| + | could put an element of uneasiness into his | ||
| + | plain, shipboard life, short of the assurance | ||
| + | of his own or his captain' | ||
| + | that had hauled his wind and was fast growing | ||
| + | upon the sea-line, was undeniably an | ||
| + | enemy' | ||
| + | to cannonade him into staves.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>So with resolved spirits, which many of us | ||
| + | had cheered and heartened by a few farewell | ||
| + | drams& | ||
| + | the saying good-bye to those we love, and | ||
| + | whom the God of Heaven alone knows< | ||
| + | whether we shall ever clasp to our breasts | ||
| + | again, is the hardest& | ||
| + | with a will, raising the anchor to a chorus | ||
| + | that fetched an echo from the river' | ||
| + | up and down the Reach; and then sheeting | ||
| + | home our topsails, dragging upon the halliards | ||
| + | with piercing, far-sounding songs, we | ||
| + | gathered the weight of the pleasant sunny | ||
| + | wind into those spacious hollows, and in a | ||
| + | few minutes had started upon our long | ||
| + | journey.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | had not been of a nature to affect my spirits, | ||
| + | and though I was accounted to be, and indeed | ||
| + | was, a merry, careless fellow, I was sensible of | ||
| + | an unaccountable depression as, amidst the | ||
| + | duties which occupied me, I would cast | ||
| + | glances at the houses of Gravesend and the | ||
| + | shore sliding by, and hear, in momentary | ||
| + | hushes, tremulous tinkling sounds raised by | ||
| + | the water wrinkling, current-like under our | ||
| + | round and pushing bows.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | WE MEET AND SPEAK THE LOVELY NANCY, | ||
| + | SNOW.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Channel and entered upon those deep waters, | ||
| + | which, off soundings sway in brilliant blue | ||
| + | billows, sometimes paling into faint azure | ||
| + | or weltering in dyes as purely dark as the | ||
| + | violet, according as the mood of the sky is, | ||
| + | nothing whatever of consequence befell. We | ||
| + | were forty of a company. Captain Skevington | ||
| + | was a stout but sedate sailor, who had used | ||
| + | the sea for many years, and had confronted | ||
| + | so many perils there was scarce an ocean-danger | ||
| + | you could name about which he could | ||
| + | not talk from personal experience. He was, | ||
| + | likewise, a man of education and intelligence,< | ||
| + | with a manner about him at times not very | ||
| + | intelligible, | ||
| + | excellent and his skill as a seaman equal | ||
| + | to every call made upon it. We carried | ||
| + | six twelve-pounders and four brass swivels | ||
| + | and a plentiful store of small-arms and ammunition. | ||
| + | Our ship was five years old, a | ||
| + | good sailer, handsomely found in all respects | ||
| + | of sails and tackling, so that any prospect | ||
| + | we might contemplate of falling in with | ||
| + | privateers and such gentry troubled us little; | ||
| + | since with a brave ship and nimble heels, | ||
| + | high hot hearts, English cannon and jolly | ||
| + | British beef for the working of them, the | ||
| + | mariner need never doubt that the Lord will | ||
| + | own him wherever he may go and whatever | ||
| + | he may do.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>We crossed the Equator in longitude thirty | ||
| + | degrees west, then braced up to the Trade | ||
| + | Wind that heeled us with a brisk gale in five | ||
| + | degrees south latitude, and so skirted the | ||
| + | sea in that great African bight 'twixt Cape< | ||
| + | Palmas and the Cape of Good Hope, | ||
| + | formerly called, and very properly, I think, | ||
| + | the Ethiopic Ocean; for, though to be sure | ||
| + | it is all Atlantic Ocean, yet, methinks, it is | ||
| + | as fully entitled to a distinctive appellation | ||
| + | as is the Bay of Biscay, that is equally one | ||
| + | sea with that which rolls into it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | south of the latitude of the island of | ||
| + | St. Helena, a seaman who was on the topsail-yard | ||
| + | hailed the deck, and cried out that | ||
| + | there was a sail right ahead. It was an | ||
| + | inexpressibly bright morning; the sun had | ||
| + | been risen two hours, and he stood& | ||
| + | flame of the blinding and burning brilliance | ||
| + | he seems to catch up from the dazzling sands | ||
| + | of Africa as he soars over them& | ||
| + | of the most dainty sapphire fairness; not a | ||
| + | cloud& | ||
| + | tobacco smoke anywhere visible, so that the | ||
| + | ends of the sea went round with the clearness | ||
| + | of the circle of a glass table, only that a small< | ||
| + | wind, very sweet and pleasant to every | ||
| + | sense, blowing a little off our starboard bow, | ||
| + | fluttered the ocean into a sort of hovering | ||
| + | look, and its trembling caused the wake of | ||
| + | the sun to resemble the leaping and frolicking | ||
| + | of shoals of wet and sparkling mackerel.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>We waited with much expectation and | ||
| + | some anxiety for the stranger to approach | ||
| + | near enough to enable us to gather her | ||
| + | character, or even her nationality; | ||
| + | experienced eye will always observe a something | ||
| + | in the ships of the Dutch and French | ||
| + | nations to distinguish the flags they belong | ||
| + | to. It was soon evident that she was standing | ||
| + | directly for us, shown by the speed with | ||
| + | which her sails rose; but when her hull was | ||
| + | fairly exposed, Captain Skevington, after a | ||
| + | careful examination of her, declared her to be | ||
| + | a vessel of about one hundred tons, probably | ||
| + | a snow& | ||
| + | foremast& | ||
| + | her to be wary if she chose.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | as an honest trader, I cannot say; she never | ||
| + | budged her helm by so much as the turn of a | ||
| + | spoke, but came smoothly along, a very | ||
| + | pretty shining object, rolling on the soft, long-drawn | ||
| + | swell in such a way as to dart shadows | ||
| + | across the moonlike gleaming of her canvas | ||
| + | with the breathings of their full bosoms& | ||
| + | that the sight reminded me of the planet | ||
| + | Venus as I once beheld her after she had | ||
| + | passed from the tincture of the ruby into the | ||
| + | quick light of the diamond, lightly troubled | ||
| + | by the swift passage of a kind of gossamer | ||
| + | scud, as though the winds on high sought | ||
| + | to clothe her naked beauty with a delicate | ||
| + | raiment of their own wearing, from which she | ||
| + | was forever escaping into the liquid indigo | ||
| + | she loves to float in.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to flutter at her fore-topgallant-masthead. To | ||
| + | this signal we instantly replied by hoisting | ||
| + | our colour; and shortly after midday, arriving< | ||
| + | abreast of each other, we backed our topsail-yard, | ||
| + | she doing the like, and so we lay | ||
| + | steady upon the calm sea, and so close, that | ||
| + | we could see the faces of her people over the | ||
| + | rail, and hear the sound, though not the | ||
| + | words, of the voice of the master giving his | ||
| + | orders.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was Captain Skevington' | ||
| + | board her, as he suspected she was from the | ||
| + | Indies, and capable therefore of giving us | ||
| + | some hints concerning the Dutch, into whose | ||
| + | waters, in a manner of speaking, we were | ||
| + | now entering; accordingly the jolly boat was | ||
| + | lowered and pulled away for the stranger, | ||
| + | that proved to be the snow, Lovely Nancy, | ||
| + | of Plymouth& | ||
| + | always deem it, though I must ever love the | ||
| + | name of Nancy as being that of a fair-haired | ||
| + | sister who died in her fifteenth year.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>As many of my readers may not be acquainted | ||
| + | with sea terms, it may be fit to say | ||
| + | here, that a snow is nothing more than a<span class=" | ||
| + | brig, with the trifling addition of a thin mast | ||
| + | abaft her mainmast, upon which her trysail | ||
| + | or boom mainsail sets. I guess these vessels | ||
| + | will always bear this name until their trysail-masts | ||
| + | go out of fashion.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I know not why I should have stood looking | ||
| + | very longingly at that Plymouth ship | ||
| + | whilst our captain was on board her; for | ||
| + | though to be sure we had now been at sea | ||
| + | since April, whilst she was homeward bound, | ||
| + | yet I was well satisfied with the Saracen and | ||
| + | all on board. I was glad to be getting a | ||
| + | living and earning in wages money enough | ||
| + | to put away; my dream being to save so | ||
| + | much as would procure me an interest in a | ||
| + | ship, for out of such slender beginnings have | ||
| + | sprung many renowned merchant princes in | ||
| + | this country. But so it was. My heart | ||
| + | yearned for that snow as though I had a | ||
| + | sweetheart on board. Even Mr. Hall, the | ||
| + | mate, a plain, literal, practical seaman, with< | ||
| + | as much sentiment in him as you may find in | ||
| + | the first Dutchman you meet in the Amsterdam | ||
| + | fish-market, | ||
| + | eyes, and clapping me on the back, cries | ||
| + | out& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | glad to go home in that little wagon yonder | ||
| + | if the captain would let ye."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | yet if I could, I don't know that I would, | ||
| + | either."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He laughed and turned away, ridiculing | ||
| + | what he reckoned a piece of lady-like sentiment; | ||
| + | and that it was no more, I daresay I | ||
| + | was as sure as he, though I wished the | ||
| + | depression at the devil, for it caused me to | ||
| + | feel, whilst it was on me, as though a considerable | ||
| + | slice of my manhood had slipped | ||
| + | away overboard.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It is one of the few pleasures time permits | ||
| + | to old men to recall the sweet, or gay, or fair | ||
| + | pictures which charmed them when young.< | ||
| + | And which of all our faculties is more wonderful | ||
| + | as a piece of mechanism, and more Divine | ||
| + | in its life-giving properties, than Memory, | ||
| + | which enables the Spirit to quicken dust that | ||
| + | has lain for many years in the womb of time; | ||
| + | to attire it and to return to it its passions, | ||
| + | emotions, and all other qualities; to put back | ||
| + | the cycles the sun has run and oblige him to | ||
| + | shine on forms which were then infants, but | ||
| + | are now grass-hidden ridges; on houses then | ||
| + | stately but now long since swept away; on | ||
| + | meadows and orchards then bright with | ||
| + | daisies, ruddy with fruit, but now covered | ||
| + | with houses and busy streets whose sidewalks | ||
| + | echo to the tread of generations more | ||
| + | dream-like in that past to which the aged | ||
| + | eye turns than ever can be the dead who | ||
| + | then lived.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | snow; for leaning back in my chair and | ||
| + | closing these eyes, that morning shines all | ||
| + | around me; the tremulous sea of blue, of a<span class=" | ||
| + | satin sheen in its tiny ripplings, shot with | ||
| + | milder tints where the currents run as though | ||
| + | they were the thin fingers of the wind toying | ||
| + | with the bosom of the deep, bends to the | ||
| + | distant sky upon whose lowermost reaches it | ||
| + | flings the same opal lustre it gathers at its | ||
| + | horizon; the air blows fitfully, like the warm | ||
| + | breathings from a woman' | ||
| + | sometimes stills our sails and sometimes | ||
| + | suffers them to flutter in sounds soothing as | ||
| + | the murmurs of a midsummer night breeze | ||
| + | amid the high branches of a sleeping oak. | ||
| + | The snow had black sides but was painted | ||
| + | white from her water-line; and though there | ||
| + | was no lack of draining weeds and clustered | ||
| + | shells upon her bilge and run, yet, with every | ||
| + | slow roll from us, the wet whiteness, taking | ||
| + | the meridian effulgence, broke out in a glory | ||
| + | as of virgin silver, enriched by the marine | ||
| + | adhesions, into the very likeness of a resplendent | ||
| + | mosaic of precious metal and green | ||
| + | glass.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | it is permitted to possess long enough | ||
| + | for its powers of enrichment to work their | ||
| + | way!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | brightness with every lift of the swell; the | ||
| + | ripples ran a dissolving tracery along her | ||
| + | bends, as dainty to see as the choicest lace; | ||
| + | the weather-clouded faces of her men looked | ||
| + | at us over the stout bulwark-rail that was | ||
| + | broken by a few open ports through which | ||
| + | you spied the mouths of little cannon; and it | ||
| + | was laughable to mark her figurehead, that | ||
| + | represented an admiral in a cocked hat& | ||
| + | cheap dockyard purchase, no doubt, for the | ||
| + | effigy was ridiculously out of character and | ||
| + | foolishly too big for the vessel& | ||
| + | the blue surface that flowed in lines of | ||
| + | azure light to the cutwater, as though there | ||
| + | were some mermaid there to whom he would | ||
| + | be glad to "make a leg," as the old saying | ||
| + | was.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | THE CAPTAIN AND I TALK OF THE | ||
| + | DEATH SHIP.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Captain Skevington returned. We | ||
| + | then trimmed to our course again, and, ere | ||
| + | long, the Plymouth snow was astern of us, | ||
| + | rolling her spread of canvas in a saluting | ||
| + | way that was like a flourish of farewell.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the captain stood gazing at the snow with a | ||
| + | very thoughtful face, and then burying his | ||
| + | hands in his pockets, he took several turns | ||
| + | up and down the deck with his head bowed, | ||
| + | and his whole manner not a little grave. He | ||
| + | presently went to the mate, and talked with | ||
| + | him, but it looked as though Mr. Hall found< | ||
| + | little to raise concern in what the captain | ||
| + | said, as he often smiled, and once or twice | ||
| + | broke into a laugh that seemed to provoke a | ||
| + | kind of remonstrance from the master, who | ||
| + | yet acted as though he were but half in | ||
| + | earnest too; but they stood too far away | ||
| + | for me to catch a syllable of their talk.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was my watch below at eight o' | ||
| + | that evening. I was sitting alone in the | ||
| + | cabin, sipping a glass of rum and water, | ||
| + | ready to go to bed when I had swallowed | ||
| + | the dose. There was but one lamp, hanging | ||
| + | from a midship beam, and the cabin was | ||
| + | somewhat darksome. The general gloom | ||
| + | was deepened by the bulkhead being of a | ||
| + | sombre, walnut colour, without any relief& | ||
| + | as probably would have been furnished | ||
| + | had we carried passengers& | ||
| + | or silver, or such furniture. I mention these | ||
| + | matters because they gave their complexion | ||
| + | to the talk I am now to repeat.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the companion hatch comes Captain Skevington. | ||
| + | I drained my glass and rose to | ||
| + | withdraw.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | have you been drinking there?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I told him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "you have four hours to sleep it off in." | ||
| + | With which he called to the boy to bring him | ||
| + | a bottle of brandy from his cabin. He bid | ||
| + | me help myself whilst he lighted a pipe of | ||
| + | tobacco, and then said: "The master of the | ||
| + | snow we met to-day warns us to keep a | ||
| + | bright look-out for the Dutch. He told me | ||
| + | that yesterday he spoke an American ship | ||
| + | that was short of flour, and learnt from the | ||
| + | Yankee& | ||
| + | I don't know& | ||
| + | making for the Cape, in charge of Admiral | ||
| + | Lucas, and that among the ships is the Dordrecht | ||
| + | of sixty-six guns and two forty-gun | ||
| + | frigates."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | meddle with us, do you think, sir?" said I.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | but to keep a sharp look-out. We have | ||
| + | heels, anyway."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He smoked his pipe with a serious face, | ||
| + | as though not heeding me; then looking at | ||
| + | me steadfastly, | ||
| + | been a bit of a reader in your time, I believe. | ||
| + | Did your appetite that way ever bring you to | ||
| + | dip into magic, necromancy, the Black Art, | ||
| + | and the like of such stuff?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He asked me this with a certain strangeness | ||
| + | of expression in his eyes, and I thought | ||
| + | it proper to fall into his humour. So I replied | ||
| + | that in the course of my reading I | ||
| + | might have come across hints of such things, | ||
| + | but that I had given them too little attention | ||
| + | to qualify me to reason about them or to | ||
| + | form an opinion.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | passing my answer by, so to speak, " | ||
| + | an old lady that was related to my mother, | ||
| + | tell of a trick that was formerly practised and | ||
| + | credited, too; a person stood at a grave and | ||
| + | invoked the dead, who made answer."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I smiled, thinking that only an old woman | ||
| + | would talk thus.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "She said it was common for a necromancer | ||
| + | to invoke and obtain replies; but that though | ||
| + | answers were returned, they were not spoken | ||
| + | by the dead, but by the Devil. The proof | ||
| + | being that death is a separation of the soul | ||
| + | from the body, that the immortal soul cannot | ||
| + | inhabit the corpse that is mere dust, that | ||
| + | therefore the dead cannot speak, themselves, | ||
| + | but that the voices which seem to proceed | ||
| + | from them are uttered by the Evil One."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | nature, and in doing violence to the harmonious | ||
| + | fabric of the universe."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | said I, still smiling.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of men now living, though by the laws of | ||
| + | Nature they should have died long since. | ||
| + | Would you say that they exist as a corpse | ||
| + | does when invoked& | ||
| + | and voice of the Devil, or that they | ||
| + | are informed by the same souls which were | ||
| + | in them when they uttered their first cry in | ||
| + | this life."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | soul is immortal, there is no reason why it | ||
| + | should not go on inhabiting the clay it | ||
| + | belongs to, so long as that clay continues | ||
| + | to possess the physical power to be moved | ||
| + | and controlled by it."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | well-pleased. "But see here, my lad! our | ||
| + | bodies are built to last three score and ten | ||
| + | years. Some linger to an hundred; but so | ||
| + | few beyond, that every month of continued< | ||
| + | being renders them more and more a sort of | ||
| + | prodigies. As the end of a long life approaches& | ||
| + | a life of ninety years& | ||
| + | is such decay, such dry-rot, that the whole | ||
| + | frame is but one remove from ashes. Now, | ||
| + | suppose there should be men living who are | ||
| + | known to be at least a hundred and fifty | ||
| + | years old& | ||
| + | each man and call them one hundred and | ||
| + | ninety years old& | ||
| + | signs of mortality; would not you say that | ||
| + | the bounds of Nature having been long since | ||
| + | passed, their bodies are virtually corpses, | ||
| + | imitating life by a semblance of soul that | ||
| + | is properly the voice and possession of the | ||
| + | Devil?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | those ancient times?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | into ancient history; you come across things | ||
| + | which there' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | has reached to a hundred-and-ninety?" | ||
| + | I, still struck by his look, yet, in spite of that, | ||
| + | wondering at his gravity, for there was a | ||
| + | determination in his manner of reasoning | ||
| + | that made me see he was in earnest.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "the master of that snow, one Samuel | ||
| + | Bullock, of Rotherhithe, | ||
| + | as mate of a privateer some time since, told | ||
| + | me that when he was off the Agulhas Bank, | ||
| + | he made out a sail upon his starboard bow, | ||
| + | braced up, and standing west-sou' | ||
| + | There was something so unusual and surprising | ||
| + | about her rig that the probability of | ||
| + | her being an enemy went clean out of his | ||
| + | mind, and he held on, influenced by the sort | ||
| + | of curiosity a man might feel who follows a | ||
| + | sheeted figure at night, not liking the job, | ||
| + | yet constrained to it by sheer force of unnatural | ||
| + | relish. 'Twas the first dogwatch; | ||
| + | the sun drawing down; but daylight was<span class=" | ||
| + | yet abroad, when the stranger was within | ||
| + | hail upon their starboard quarter, keeping | ||
| + | a close luff, yet points off, on account of the | ||
| + | antique fit of her canvas. Bullock, as he | ||
| + | talked, fell a-trembling, | ||
| + | man sails the ocean, and I could see | ||
| + | the memory of the thing working in him like | ||
| + | a bloody conscience. He cried out, 'May | ||
| + | the bountiful God grant that my ship reaches | ||
| + | home in safety!' | ||
| + | she, think you?' | ||
| + | 'what but the vessel which 'tis God's will | ||
| + | should continue sailing about these seas?' I | ||
| + | started to hear this, and asked if he saw | ||
| + | any of the crew. He replied that only two | ||
| + | men were to be seen& | ||
| + | long tiller on the poop deck, and the other | ||
| + | pacing near him on the weather side. 'I | ||
| + | seized the glass,' | ||
| + | that those I viewed should not observe me, | ||
| + | and plainly catched the face of him who | ||
| + | walked.'"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | said I.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | very tall, and that he was like a man that | ||
| + | had died and that when dug up preserved | ||
| + | his death-bed aspect; he was like such a | ||
| + | corpse artificially animated, and most terrible | ||
| + | to behold from his suggestions of death-in-life. | ||
| + | I pressed him to tell me more, but he | ||
| + | is a person scanty of words for the want | ||
| + | of learning. However, his fears were the | ||
| + | clearest relation he could give me of what | ||
| + | he had seen."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | think, sir?" said I.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of it more than the combined navies of the | ||
| + | French and the Dutch. The apparition was | ||
| + | encountered in latitude twenty miles south | ||
| + | of thirty-six degrees. 'Tis a spectre to be | ||
| + | shunned, Fenton, though it cost us every | ||
| + | rag of sail we own to keep clear."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | said I, "is, that the people who work that | ||
| + | ship have ceased to be living men by reason | ||
| + | of their great age, which exceeds by many | ||
| + | years our bodies' | ||
| + | and that they are actually corpses influenced | ||
| + | by the Devil& | ||
| + | Divine permission we find recorded in the | ||
| + | Book of Job, to pursue frightful and unholy | ||
| + | ends?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "If the Phantom Ship be still afloat, and | ||
| + | navigated by a crew, they cannot be men | ||
| + | in the sense that this ship's company are | ||
| + | men."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | it will be all one whether they be fiends, | ||
| + | or flesh and blood miraculously wrought to | ||
| + | last unto the world' | ||
| + | to nothing that we don't meet her. The | ||
| + | Southern Ocean is a mighty sea, a ship is | ||
| + | but a little speck, and once we get the Madagascar< | ||
| + | coast on our bow we shall be out of the | ||
| + | Death Ship's preserves."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | maintained a very earnest posture of mind in | ||
| + | this matter. To begin with, he did not in | ||
| + | the least question the existence of the Dutch | ||
| + | craft; he had never beheld her, but he knew | ||
| + | those who had, and related tales of dismal | ||
| + | issues of such encounters. The notion that | ||
| + | the crew were corpses, animated into a mocking | ||
| + | similitude of life, was strongly infixed in | ||
| + | his mind; and he obliged me to tell him all | ||
| + | that I could remember of magical, ghostly, | ||
| + | supernatural circumstances I had read about | ||
| + | or heard of, until I noticed it was half-an-hour | ||
| + | after nine, and that, at this rate, my watch on | ||
| + | deck would come round before I had had a | ||
| + | wink of sleep.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was not to rest. I lay for nearly two hours | ||
| + | wide awake. No doubt the depression I had | ||
| + | marked in myself had exactly fitted my mind< | ||
| + | for such fancies as the captain had talked | ||
| + | about. It was indeed impossible that I | ||
| + | should soberly accept his extraordinary view | ||
| + | touching the endevilment of the crew of the | ||
| + | Death Ship. Moreover, I hope I am too | ||
| + | good a Christian to believe in that Satyr | ||
| + | which was the coinage of crazy, fanatical heads | ||
| + | in the Dark Ages, that cheaply-imagined | ||
| + | Foul Fiend created to terrify the weak-minded | ||
| + | with a vision of split-hoofs, | ||
| + | a beast' | ||
| + | nostrils discharging the sickening fumes of | ||
| + | sulphur.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Flying Dutchman as she has been styled& | ||
| + | a spectre that has too often crossed the | ||
| + | path of the mariner to admit of its existence | ||
| + | being questioned. If there be spirits on land, | ||
| + | why not at sea, too? There are scores who | ||
| + | believe in apparitions, | ||
| + | their own eyes& | ||
| + | such a sight& | ||
| + | sound in their religion and of unassailable | ||
| + | integrity; and why should we not accept | ||
| + | the assurance of plain, honest sailors, that | ||
| + | there may be occasionally encountered off the | ||
| + | Agulhas Bank, and upon the southern and | ||
| + | eastern coast of the African extremity, a wild | ||
| + | and ancient fabric, rigged after a fashion long | ||
| + | fallen into disuse, and manned by a crew | ||
| + | figured as presenting something of the aspect | ||
| + | of death in their unholy and monstrous | ||
| + | vitality?</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I turned this matter freely over in my | ||
| + | mind as I lay in my little cabin, my thoughts | ||
| + | finding a melancholy musical setting in the | ||
| + | melodious sobbing of water washing past | ||
| + | under the open port, and snatching distressful | ||
| + | impulses from the gloom about me, that was | ||
| + | rendered cloud-like by the moon who was | ||
| + | climbing above our mastheads, and clothing | ||
| + | the vast placid scene outside with the beauty | ||
| + | of her icy light; and then at seven bells | ||
| + | fell asleep, but was called half-an-hour< | ||
| + | later, at midnight, to relieve Mr. Hall, | ||
| + | whose four hours' spell below had come | ||
| + | round.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | WE ARE CHASED AND NEARLY CAPTURED.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>We talked occasionally of the Phantom Ship | ||
| + | after this for a few days, the captain on one | ||
| + | occasion, to my surprise, producing an old | ||
| + | volume on magic and sorcery which it seems | ||
| + | he had, along with an odd collection of books, | ||
| + | in his cabin, and arguing and reasoning out | ||
| + | of it. But he never spoke of this thing in | ||
| + | the presence of the mate who, to be sure, was | ||
| + | a simple, downright man, without the least | ||
| + | imaginable flavour of imagination to render | ||
| + | sapid the lean austerity of his thoughts, and | ||
| + | who, therefore, as you may suppose, as little | ||
| + | credited the stories told of the Dutchman' | ||
| + | ship as the Ebrew Jew believes in our Lord.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | me to keep this shuttlecock of a fancy flying, | ||
| + | it fluttered before long to the ground; | ||
| + | perhaps the quicker, because on the Sunday | ||
| + | following our speaking with the Plymouth | ||
| + | snow, there happened a piece of work, sharp | ||
| + | and real enough to drive all ideas of visions | ||
| + | and phantasms out of our heads.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was ten o' | ||
| + | sail was descried broad on the larboard beam. | ||
| + | We gave her no heed at first. It being the | ||
| + | Sabbath, and a warm sweet morning, the | ||
| + | men having nothing to do, hung about the | ||
| + | decks, smoking, telling stories and the like; | ||
| + | and being cleanly attired in jackets and white | ||
| + | trousers, they contributed a choice detail to | ||
| + | the general structure of well-kept decks, | ||
| + | shining brass work, massive shrouds soaring | ||
| + | from the black dead-eyes to the great round | ||
| + | tops, with further rigging of a similar kind | ||
| + | ruling the topmasts to the cross-trees, | ||
| + | on yet to the topgallant heights, ropes crossing | ||
| + | ropes and ratline following ratline, till the<span class=" | ||
| + | tracery, both in its substance aloft and its | ||
| + | shadows below and in the inclined hollows of | ||
| + | the sails, puzzled the eye with the complexity | ||
| + | of a spider' | ||
| + | to the lower yard-arms and thence to the | ||
| + | ends of the yards above, mounted the vast | ||
| + | sheets of canvas, each central surface arching | ||
| + | in snow to the raining light of the sun, like | ||
| + | the fair full breasts of a virgin, passed the | ||
| + | taut bolt-ropes, narrowing as they rose till, | ||
| + | the royal-yards being reached, the sails there | ||
| + | swelled yearning skywards as though they | ||
| + | were portions of the prismatic ribbed and | ||
| + | pearly beds of cloud directly over the ship, | ||
| + | rent from them by the sweep of our trucks | ||
| + | and knitted by our seamen to those lofty | ||
| + | spars.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was not long, however, before we made | ||
| + | out that the vessel down in the eastern | ||
| + | quarter was steering large, and at the time | ||
| + | the appearance of her canvas assured us of | ||
| + | this, she slackened away her larboard braces< | ||
| + | to head up for us, hauling upon a bowline | ||
| + | with a suddenness that left her intention to | ||
| + | parley with us questionless.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>We hoisted the English ensign and held | ||
| + | on a bit, viewing her with an intentness that | ||
| + | brought many of our eyes to a squint; then | ||
| + | the captain, observing that she showed no | ||
| + | colours and was a big ship, put his helm up | ||
| + | for a run.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>No sooner had we braced in our yards, | ||
| + | when the fellow behind us squared away | ||
| + | too, and threw out lower and topmast studding-sails | ||
| + | with a rapidity that satisfied us she | ||
| + | was a man-of-war, apparently a liner. This | ||
| + | notion, joined to the belief that she was a | ||
| + | Dutchman, was start enough for us all. Our | ||
| + | small company were not likely to hold their | ||
| + | own against the disciplined masses of a two | ||
| + | or three decker, even though she should | ||
| + | prove a Spaniard. Our guns were too few | ||
| + | to do anything with tiers of batteries heavy | ||
| + | enough to blow us out of water. So as there< | ||
| + | was nothing for it but a fair trial of speed, we | ||
| + | sprung to our work like hounds newly unleashed, | ||
| + | got her dead before it, ran out studding-sail | ||
| + | booms on both sides and sent the | ||
| + | sails aloft soaking wet for the serviceableness | ||
| + | of the weight the wetness would give, and | ||
| + | stationing men in the tops and cross-trees | ||
| + | we whipped up buckets of water to them, | ||
| + | with which they drenched the canvas, till | ||
| + | our cloths must have looked as dark as a | ||
| + | collier' | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was very slow work at first, and we were | ||
| + | thankful for that; for every hour carried us | ||
| + | nearer to the night into which the moon now | ||
| + | entered so late and glowed with such little | ||
| + | power, even when she had floated high, that | ||
| + | we could count, after sundown, upon several | ||
| + | hours of darkness; but it was not long before | ||
| + | it became evident to us all that, spite of the | ||
| + | ceaseless wetting of our sails, the ship in our | ||
| + | wake was growing. Then, satisfied of her | ||
| + | superiority, | ||
| + | she let fly a forecastle gun at us, of the ball | ||
| + | of which we saw nothing, and hoisted the | ||
| + | Dutch colours at her fore-royal masthead, | ||
| + | where, at all events, we could not fail to | ||
| + | distinguish the flag.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | at this. "How can our apple-bows contend | ||
| + | with those pyramids of sails there? What's | ||
| + | to be done?" he says, as if thinking aloud. | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | I fear she'll be more than our match on | ||
| + | a bowline& | ||
| + | And yet, by the thunder of Heaven, Mr. | ||
| + | Hall, it does go against the current of any | ||
| + | sort of English blood to haul down that | ||
| + | piece of bunting there," | ||
| + | eyes at the peak where our flag was blowing, | ||
| + | "to the command of a Dutchman' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | said the mate, with a slow turning of his gaze | ||
| + | into the quarter he mentioned, "and it'll be | ||
| + | breezing up presently, if there' | ||
| + | in the darker blue of the sea that | ||
| + | way."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It happened as he said; but the Dutchman | ||
| + | got the first slant of it, and you saw the | ||
| + | harder pulling of his canvas in the rounded | ||
| + | rigidity of light upon the cloths, whilst the | ||
| + | dusky line of the wind, followed by the flashings | ||
| + | of the small seas, whose leaping heads | ||
| + | it showered into spray, was yet approaching | ||
| + | our languid ship, whose lower and heavy | ||
| + | canvas often flapped in the weak air.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A couple of shot came flying after us from | ||
| + | the man-of-war' | ||
| + | swept to our spars; and now the silvery line | ||
| + | of the white water that her stem was hewing | ||
| + | up and sending in a brilliant whirl past her | ||
| + | was easy to be seen; aye, 'twas even possible | ||
| + | to make out the very lines of her reef-points | ||
| + | upon the fore-course and topsail, whilst | ||
| + | through the glass you could discern groups | ||
| + | of men stationed upon her forecastle, and | ||
| + | mark some quarter-deck figure now and again< | ||
| + | impatiently bound on to the rail and overhang | ||
| + | it like a davit, with an arm round a | ||
| + | backstay, in his eagerness to see how fast | ||
| + | they were coming up with us.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | by time, it is a sight to recall with a sailor' | ||
| + | fondness; for indeed the Dutchman was a | ||
| + | fine ship, very tall, with port-lids painted red | ||
| + | inside, so that with the guns projecting from | ||
| + | them, in two tiers, the aspect was that of | ||
| + | rows of crimson, wolfish jaws, every beast | ||
| + | with his tongue out; her yards were immensely | ||
| + | square, and her studding-sail booms | ||
| + | extending great spaces of canvas far over the | ||
| + | side, she showed upon the dark blue frothing | ||
| + | ocean like some Heaven-seeking hill, fleecily | ||
| + | clad with snow to twenty feet above the | ||
| + | water-line, where it was black rock down to | ||
| + | the wash of the froth. In the freshening | ||
| + | wind, as it came up to us, I seemed to catch | ||
| + | an echo of the drum-like roll of the briskening | ||
| + | gale in those airy heights, and to hear the<span class=" | ||
| + | seething of the boiling stuff at her forefoot. | ||
| + | But, thanks be to Heaven, there was now a | ||
| + | swift racing of foam from under our counter, | ||
| + | whence it streamed away with a noise delicious | ||
| + | to hearken to, as though it was the | ||
| + | singing of the rain of a thunder-cloud upon | ||
| + | hard land; for whenever the breeze gathered | ||
| + | its weight in our canvas the Saracen sprang | ||
| + | from it meteor-fashion, | ||
| + | with helm right amidships, and the wind | ||
| + | flashing fair over the taffrail.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | us when the captain gave orders to train a | ||
| + | couple of guns aft and to continue firing at | ||
| + | the pursuing craft; which was done, the | ||
| + | powder-smoke blowing like prodigious glistening | ||
| + | cobwebs into our canvas forward. | ||
| + | Meanwhile, the English colours flew hardily | ||
| + | at our peak, whilst preventer guys were | ||
| + | clapped on the swinging-booms and other | ||
| + | gear added to give strength aloft; for the | ||
| + | wind was increasing as if by magic, the<span class=" | ||
| + | ribbed clouds had broken up and large bodies | ||
| + | of vapour were sailing overhead with many | ||
| + | ivory-white shoulders crowding upon the | ||
| + | horizon, and the strain upon the studding-sail | ||
| + | tacks was extremely heavy. But you saw | ||
| + | that it was Captain Skevington' | ||
| + | make the Saracen drag what she could not | ||
| + | carry, and to let what chose blow away before | ||
| + | he started a rope-yarn, whilst we had that | ||
| + | monster astern there sticking to our skirts; | ||
| + | and by this time it was manifest that with | ||
| + | real weight in the wind our heels were pretty | ||
| + | nearly as keen as hers, which made us hope | ||
| + | that should the breeze freshen yet we might | ||
| + | eventually get away.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | hard, though the weather was fine, the | ||
| + | heavens mottled, the clouds being compacted | ||
| + | and sailing higher, stormy in complexion | ||
| + | and moving slowly; the sea had grown | ||
| + | hollow and was most gloriously violet in | ||
| + | colour, with plumes of snow, which curled< | ||
| + | to the gale on the head of each liquid | ||
| + | courser; the sun was over our fore-topgallant | ||
| + | yard-arm and showered down his glory so | ||
| + | as to form a golden weltering road for | ||
| + | us to steer beside. The ship behind catched | ||
| + | his light and looked to be chasing us on | ||
| + | wings of yellow silk. But never since her | ||
| + | keel had been laid had the Saracen been so | ||
| + | driven. The waters boiled up to the blackfaced | ||
| + | turbaned figure under the bowsprit, | ||
| + | and from aft I could sometimes observe the | ||
| + | glassy curve of the bow sea, arching away for | ||
| + | fathoms forward, showing plain through the | ||
| + | headrails. A couple of hands hung grinding | ||
| + | upon the wheel with set teeth, and the sinews | ||
| + | in their naked arms stood out like cords; | ||
| + | others were at the relieving-tackles; | ||
| + | through it we pelted, raising about us a | ||
| + | bubbled, spuming and hissing surface that | ||
| + | might have answered to the passage of a | ||
| + | whirlwind, repeatedly firing at the Dutch | ||
| + | man-of-war when the heave of the surge gave< | ||
| + | us the chance, and noticing the constant flash | ||
| + | in his bows and the white smother that blew | ||
| + | along with him, though the balls of neither | ||
| + | appeared to touch the other of us.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | overhauled and brought to a stand I fully | ||
| + | believe but for a providential disaster. For | ||
| + | no matter how dark the dusk may have | ||
| + | drawn around at sundown, the Dutchman | ||
| + | was too close to us to miss the loom of the | ||
| + | great press of canvas we should be forced to | ||
| + | carry: at least, so I hold; and then, again, | ||
| + | there was the consideration of the wind failing | ||
| + | us with the coming of the stars, for we were | ||
| + | still in the gentle parallels. But let all have | ||
| + | been as it might, I had just noted the | ||
| + | lightning-like wink of one of the enemy' | ||
| + | fore-chasers, | ||
| + | ere the ball of smoke could be | ||
| + | shredded into lengths by the gale, I observed | ||
| + | the whole fabric of the Dutchman' | ||
| + | foremast, with the great course, swelling< | ||
| + | topsail, topgallant-sail and royal, and the | ||
| + | fore-topmast staysail and jibs melt away as | ||
| + | an icicle approached by flame; and in a | ||
| + | breath, it seemed, the huge ship swung | ||
| + | round, pitching and foaming after the manner | ||
| + | of a harpooned whale, with her broadside | ||
| + | to us, exhibiting the whole fore-part of her | ||
| + | most grievously and astonishingly wrecked.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A mighty cheer went up from our decks at | ||
| + | the sight, and there was a deal of clapping of | ||
| + | hands and laughter. Captain Skevington | ||
| + | seized the telescope, and talked as he worked | ||
| + | away with it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Heaven!" | ||
| + | "it could be nothing else. No shot | ||
| + | our guns throw could work such havoc. By | ||
| + | the height that's left standing the spar has | ||
| + | fetched away close under the top. And the | ||
| + | mess! the mess!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | The foremast had broken in twain; its fall< | ||
| + | had snapped off the jibbooms to the bowsprit | ||
| + | cap, and I do not doubt a nearer view would | ||
| + | have shown us the bowsprit itself severely | ||
| + | wrenched. I could not imagine the like of | ||
| + | that picture of confusion& | ||
| + | having been set on both sides, drowned all | ||
| + | her forward part in canvas, a goodly portion | ||
| + | of which had been torn into rags by the fall; | ||
| + | immense stretches of sail lay in the water, | ||
| + | sinking and rising with the rolling of the | ||
| + | ship, and dragging her head to the wind; her | ||
| + | main topmast studding-sails, | ||
| + | canvas on that mast and the mizzen& | ||
| + | yards lying square& | ||
| + | owing to the posture in which she had fallen; | ||
| + | every moment this terrible slatting threatened | ||
| + | her other spars; and it needed not a sailor' | ||
| + | imagination to conceive how fearfully all that | ||
| + | thunderous commotion aloft must heighten | ||
| + | the distracting tumult on deck, the passionate | ||
| + | volleys of commands, the hollow shocks of | ||
| + | seas smiting the inert hull, the shouting of<span class=" | ||
| + | the seamen, and, as we might be sure, the | ||
| + | cries and groans of the many upon whom | ||
| + | that soaring fabric of yards, sails, and rigging | ||
| + | had fallen with the suddenness of an electric | ||
| + | bolt from the clouds.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | not a rope, leaving our ship to rush from the | ||
| + | Dutchman straight as an arrow from a bow. | ||
| + | But, Lord!& | ||
| + | straining of our canvas till tacks and guys, | ||
| + | sheets and braces rang out upon the wind | ||
| + | like the clanking of bells, to a strain upon | ||
| + | them tauter than that of harp-strings; | ||
| + | boiling noises of the seas all about our bow | ||
| + | and under our counter, where the great bodies | ||
| + | of foam roared away into our wake, as the | ||
| + | white torrent raves along its bed from the foot | ||
| + | of a high cataract! There was an excitement | ||
| + | in this speed and triumph of escape from what | ||
| + | must have proved a heavy and inglorious | ||
| + | disaster to us all which put fire into the | ||
| + | blood, and never could I have imagined how<span class=" | ||
| + | sentient a ship is, how participant of what | ||
| + | stirs the minds of those she carries, until I | ||
| + | marked the magnificent eagerness of our | ||
| + | vessel' | ||
| + | the large billows which underran her, and the | ||
| + | marble-hard distention of her sails, reminding | ||
| + | you of the tense cheeks of one who holds his | ||
| + | breath in a run for his life.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the shadows which throng sharply upon his | ||
| + | heels in these climes, left the horizon in | ||
| + | course bare to our most searching gaze. We | ||
| + | then shortened sail, and under easy canvas, | ||
| + | we put our helm a-lee, and stood northwards | ||
| + | on a bowline until midnight, when we | ||
| + | rounded in upon our weather-braces and | ||
| + | steered easterly, Captain Skevington suspecting | ||
| + | that the Dutchman would make all haste | ||
| + | to refit and head south under some jury contrivance, | ||
| + | in the expectation that as we were | ||
| + | bound that way when he fell in with us so | ||
| + | we should haul to our course afresh when we<span class=" | ||
| + | lost sight of him. Yet in the end we saw | ||
| + | him no more, and what ship he was I never | ||
| + | contrived to learn; but certainly it was an | ||
| + | extraordinary escape, though whether due to | ||
| + | our shot, or to his foremast being rotten, or | ||
| + | to its having been sprung and badly fished, | ||
| + | or to some earlier wound during an engagement, | ||
| + | must be left to conjecture.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | WE ARRIVE AT TABLE BAY AND PROCEED | ||
| + | THENCE ON OUR VOYAGE.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Captain Skevington had very little to say | ||
| + | about such elusive and visionary matters as | ||
| + | had before engaged us, it was clear from | ||
| + | some words which he let fall that he regarded | ||
| + | our meeting with the Dutch battleship | ||
| + | as a sort of reflected ill-luck from the | ||
| + | snow that had passed the Phantom Dutchman, | ||
| + | and the idea possessing him& | ||
| + | indeed it had seized upon me& | ||
| + | Lovely Nancy was sure to meet with misadventure, | ||
| + | and might have the power of | ||
| + | injuring the fortune of any vessel that spoke | ||
| + | with her intimately, as we had, caused him<span class=" | ||
| + | to navigate the ship with extraordinary | ||
| + | wariness. A man was constantly kept aloft | ||
| + | to watch the horizon, and repeatedly hailed | ||
| + | from the deck that we might know he | ||
| + | was awake to his work; other sharp-eyed | ||
| + | seamen were stationed on the forecastle; at | ||
| + | night every light was screened, so that we | ||
| + | moved along like a blot of liquid pitch upon | ||
| + | the darkness. On several occasions I heard | ||
| + | Captain Skevington say that he would sooner | ||
| + | have parted with twenty guineas than have | ||
| + | boarded, or had anything to do with, the | ||
| + | snow. Happily, the adventure with the | ||
| + | Dutchman led the seamen to suppose that | ||
| + | the master' | ||
| + | ships of the enemy; for had it got forward | ||
| + | that the Lovely Nancy had sighted Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | craft off the Agulhas, I don't | ||
| + | question that they would have concluded our | ||
| + | meeting with the snow boded no good to us, | ||
| + | that we were likely ourselves to encounter the | ||
| + | spectral ship& | ||
| + | and not a substantial fabric, as I myself | ||
| + | deemed& | ||
| + | work the Saracen beyond Table Bay.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>At that Settlement it was necessary we | ||
| + | should call for water, fresh provisions and | ||
| + | the like; and on the sixth of July, in the year | ||
| + | 1796, we safely entered the Bay and let go | ||
| + | our anchor, nothing of the least consequence | ||
| + | to us having happened since we were chased, | ||
| + | the weather being fine with light winds ever | ||
| + | since the strong breeze before which we had | ||
| + | run, died away.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the meanest land would have offered a noble | ||
| + | refreshment to our gaze; judge then of the | ||
| + | delight we found in beholding the royal and | ||
| + | ample scenery of as fair and spacious a haven | ||
| + | as this globe has to offer. But as Captain | ||
| + | George Shelvocke, in the capital account he | ||
| + | wrote of his voyage round the world in 1718, | ||
| + | there points out, the Cape of Good Hope, by | ||
| + | which he must intend Table Bay, has been so<span class=" | ||
| + | often described, that, says he, "I can say | ||
| + | nothing of it that has not been said by most | ||
| + | who have been here before."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>We lay very quietly for a fortnight, feeling | ||
| + | perfectly secure, as you may conclude when | ||
| + | I tell you that just round the corner, that is | ||
| + | to say, in Simon' | ||
| + | no less than fourteen British ships of war, | ||
| + | in command of Vice-Admiral Sir George | ||
| + | Elphinstone, | ||
| + | whilst five mounted sixty-four guns | ||
| + | each. Meeting one of the captains of this | ||
| + | squadron, Captain Skevington told him how | ||
| + | we had been chased by a Dutch liner, and he | ||
| + | replied he did not doubt it was one of the | ||
| + | vessels who were coming to retake& | ||
| + | could& | ||
| + | the nation that had established the place. | ||
| + | But I do not think the notion probable, as | ||
| + | the Dutch ships did not show themselves off | ||
| + | Saldanha Bay for some weeks after we had | ||
| + | sailed.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | whatever.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>We filled our water casks, laid in a plentiful | ||
| + | stock of tobacco, vegetables, hogs, poultry, | ||
| + | and such produce as the country yielded, | ||
| + | and on the morning of the eighteenth of July | ||
| + | hove short, with a crew diminished by the | ||
| + | loss of one man only, a boatswain' | ||
| + | named Turner, who, because we suffered | ||
| + | none of the men to go ashore for dread of | ||
| + | their deserting the ship, slipped down the | ||
| + | cable on the night of our departure, and | ||
| + | swam to the beach naked with some silver | ||
| + | pieces tied round him in a handkerchief. | ||
| + | Behold the character of the sailor! For a | ||
| + | few hours of such drunken jollity as he may | ||
| + | obtain in the tavern and amid low company, | ||
| + | he will be content to forfeit all he has in the | ||
| + | world. It was known that this man Turner | ||
| + | had a wife and two children at home dependent | ||
| + | upon his earnings; yet no thoughts of | ||
| + | them could suppress his deplorable, restless< | ||
| + | spirit. But I afterwards heard he was | ||
| + | punished even beyond his deserts; for being | ||
| + | pretty near spent by his swim, he lay down | ||
| + | to sleep, but was presently awakened by | ||
| + | something crawling over him that proved a | ||
| + | venomous snake called a puff-adder, which, | ||
| + | on his moving, stung him, whereof he died.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was the stormy season of the year off | ||
| + | South Africa; but, then, a few days of | ||
| + | westerly winds would blow us into mild and | ||
| + | quiet zones, and, come what might, the ship | ||
| + | we stood on was stout and honest, all things | ||
| + | right and true aloft, the provision-space | ||
| + | hospitably stocked, and the health of the | ||
| + | crew of the best.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | when we manned the capstan; the waters of | ||
| + | the bay stretched in an exquisite blue calm | ||
| + | to the sandy wastes on the Blaawberg side, | ||
| + | and thence to where the town stands; the | ||
| + | atmosphere had the purity of the object-lens | ||
| + | of a perspective glass, and the far distant< | ||
| + | Hottentot Holland Mountains, with summits | ||
| + | so mighty that the sky appeared to rest upon | ||
| + | them, gathered to their giant slopes such a | ||
| + | mellowness and richness of blue, that they | ||
| + | showed as a dark atmospheric dye which had | ||
| + | run and stained before being stanched, that | ||
| + | part of the heavens, rather than as prodigious | ||
| + | masses of land of the usual complexion of | ||
| + | mountains when viewed closely. That imperial | ||
| + | height called Table Mountain, guarded | ||
| + | by the amber-tinted couchant lion, reared a | ||
| + | marvellously clear sky-line, and there the | ||
| + | firmament appeared as a flowing sea of blue, | ||
| + | flushing its full cerulean bosom to the flat | ||
| + | altitude as though it would overflow it. But | ||
| + | I noticed a shred of crawling vapour gather | ||
| + | up there whilst the crew were chorussing at | ||
| + | the capstan, and by the time our topsails | ||
| + | were sheeted home there was a mass of | ||
| + | white vapour some hundred feet in depth, | ||
| + | foaming and churning atop, with delicate | ||
| + | wings of it circling out into the blue, where< | ||
| + | they gyrated like butterflies and melted. | ||
| + | The air was full of the moaning noises of | ||
| + | the south-east wind flying out of that cloud | ||
| + | down the steep abrupt full of gorges, scars, | ||
| + | and ravines; and what was just now a picture | ||
| + | of May-day peace became, on a sudden, a | ||
| + | scene of whipped and creaming ripples; and | ||
| + | the flashing on shore of the glass of shaken | ||
| + | window-casements through spiral spirtings of | ||
| + | reddish dust; hands aloft on the various | ||
| + | ships at anchor, hastily furling the canvas | ||
| + | that had been loosed to hang idly to the | ||
| + | sun; flags, quite recently languid as streaks | ||
| + | of paint, now pulling fiercely at their | ||
| + | halliards; and Malay fishing-boats, | ||
| + | across the bay in a gem-like glittering of | ||
| + | water sliced out by their sharp stems and | ||
| + | slung to the strong wind.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the ocean, with a desperate screaming of | ||
| + | wind in the rigging; but there was no sea, | ||
| + | for the gale was off the land; and after< | ||
| + | passing some noble and enchanting bays on | ||
| + | whose shores the breakers as tall as our ship | ||
| + | flung their resounding Atlantic thunder, whilst | ||
| + | behind stood ranges of mountains putting a | ||
| + | quality of solemn magnificence into the cheerful | ||
| + | yellow clothing of the sunshine, with here | ||
| + | and there a small house of an almond whiteness | ||
| + | against the leaves of the silver trees and | ||
| + | sundry rich growths thereabouts, | ||
| + | we ran sheer out of the gale into a light wind, | ||
| + | blowing from the north-west.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I don't say we were astonished, since some-while | ||
| + | before reaching the calm part we could | ||
| + | see it clearly defined by the line where the | ||
| + | froth and angry blueness and the fiery | ||
| + | agitation of the wind ended. Still, it was | ||
| + | impossible not to feel surprised as the ship | ||
| + | slipped out of the enraged and yelling belt | ||
| + | into a peaceful sea and a weak new wind | ||
| + | which obliged us to handle the braces and | ||
| + | make sail.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | As we passed Green Point, where the | ||
| + | weather was placid and the strife waged in | ||
| + | the bay no longer to be seen, a large ship of | ||
| + | six hundred tons, that we supposed was to | ||
| + | call at Cape Town, passed us, her yards | ||
| + | braced up and all plain sail set. She had | ||
| + | some soldiers aboard, showed several guns, | ||
| + | had the English colours flying and offered | ||
| + | a very brave and handsome show, being | ||
| + | sheathed with copper that glowed ruddy to | ||
| + | the soft laving of the glass-bright swell, and | ||
| + | her canvas had the hue of the cotton cloths | ||
| + | which the Spaniards of the South American | ||
| + | main used to spread, and which in these days | ||
| + | form a distinguishing mark of the Yankee | ||
| + | ships. Having not the least suspicion of the | ||
| + | turmoil that awaited her round Mouille Point, | ||
| + | she slipped along jauntily, ready to make | ||
| + | a free wind of the breeze then blowing. But | ||
| + | all on a sudden, on opening the bay, she met | ||
| + | the whole strength of the fierce south-easter. | ||
| + | Down she lay to it, all aback& | ||
| + | Her ports being open, I feared if she were | ||
| + | not promptly recovered, she must founder. | ||
| + | They might let go the halliards, but the yards | ||
| + | being jammed would not travel. It swept | ||
| + | the heart into the throat to witness this | ||
| + | thing! We brought our ship to the wind | ||
| + | to render help with our boats; but happily | ||
| + | her mizzen topmast broke, and immediately | ||
| + | after, her main topgallant-mast snapped short | ||
| + | off, close to the cross-trees; | ||
| + | must have been wild work on those sloping | ||
| + | decks& | ||
| + | topsail yards square; whereupon she paid | ||
| + | off, righting as her head swung from the | ||
| + | gale, and with lightened hearts, as may be | ||
| + | supposed, they went to work to let go and | ||
| + | clew up and haul down, whilst you saw how | ||
| + | severe was the need of the pumps they had | ||
| + | manned, by the bright streams of water | ||
| + | which sluiced from her sides.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was a cruel thing to witness, this sudden | ||
| + | wrecking of the beauty of a truly stately ship,< | ||
| + | quietly swinging along over the mild heave | ||
| + | of the swell, like a full-robed, handsome | ||
| + | princess seized and torn by some loathsome | ||
| + | monster, as we read of such matters in old | ||
| + | romances. It was like the blighting breath | ||
| + | of pestilence upon some fair form, converting | ||
| + | into little better than a carcase what was just | ||
| + | now a proud and regal shape, made beauteous | ||
| + | by all that art could give her of apparel, and | ||
| + | all that nature could impart of colour and | ||
| + | lustre.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | THE CAPTAIN SPEAKS AGAIN OF THE | ||
| + | DEATH SHIP.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I had the first watch on the night of the day | ||
| + | on which we left Table Bay: that is, from | ||
| + | eight till midnight; and at two bells& | ||
| + | o' | ||
| + | fancies struck into me by the beauty of the | ||
| + | stars, among which, over the starboard yard-arms, | ||
| + | hung the Southern Cross, shining | ||
| + | purely, and by the mild glory of the moon | ||
| + | that, though short of a day or two of being | ||
| + | full, rained down a keen light that had a hint | ||
| + | of rosiness in it, when Captain Skevington | ||
| + | came out of the cabin, and stepping up to me | ||
| + | stood a minute without speaking, gazing | ||
| + | earnestly right around the sea-circle.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ship, under full sail, was softly pushing | ||
| + | southwards with a pleasant noise as of | ||
| + | the playing of fountains coming from the | ||
| + | direction of her bows.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | presently.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | small show of lightning away down in the | ||
| + | south-west. The wind hangs steady but a | ||
| + | little faint."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the Demon Ship, eh, Fenton?" | ||
| + | with a laugh that did not sound perfectly | ||
| + | natural.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | fear, sir."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | catching up of me, "I mean that as the | ||
| + | Demon Ship, as you term her, is one of the | ||
| + | wonders of the world, the seeing of her | ||
| + | would be a mighty experience& | ||
| + | big enough in that way to keep a man | ||
| + | talking about it all his life."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | lifting his hat, and turning up his face to the | ||
| + | stars.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I suppose, thought I, that our drawing | ||
| + | close to the seas in which the Phantom | ||
| + | cruises has stirred up his superstitious fears | ||
| + | afresh.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | about Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | from the master of the snow. What is | ||
| + | there to ask?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ship."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | but it didn't enter my head. Tell ye | ||
| + | what, though, Fenton, do you remember our | ||
| + | chat t' | ||
| + | after they pass an age when by the laws of | ||
| + | great Nature they should die?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a few nights since where there was one | ||
| + | Cornelius Meyer present, a person ninety-one | ||
| + | years old, but surprisingly sound in all | ||
| + | his faculties, his sight piercing, his hearing | ||
| + | keen, memory tenacious, and so forth. He | ||
| + | was a Dutch Jew, but his patriotism was | ||
| + | coloured by the hue of the flag flying at | ||
| + | Cape Castle: I mean he would take the | ||
| + | King of Great Britain and the States-General | ||
| + | as they came. When he left we | ||
| + | talked of him, and this led us to argue | ||
| + | about old age. One gentleman said he did | ||
| + | not know but that it was possible for a man | ||
| + | to live to a hundred-and-fifty, | ||
| + | were instances of it. I replied, 'Not out of | ||
| + | the Bible,' | ||
| + | ours. He answered, 'Yes, out of the Bible;' | ||
| + | and going to a bookshelf, pulled down a | ||
| + | volume, and read a score of names of men | ||
| + | with their ages attached. I looked at the<span class=" | ||
| + | book and saw it was honestly written, and | ||
| + | being struck by this collection of extraordinary | ||
| + | examples, begged the gentleman' | ||
| + | son, who was present, to copy the list out | ||
| + | for me, which he was so obliging as to do. I | ||
| + | have it in my pocket," | ||
| + | pulled out a sheet of paper, and then going | ||
| + | to the hatch called to the boy to bring a | ||
| + | lamp on deck.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and putting the paper close to it, the | ||
| + | captain read as follows: " | ||
| + | Shropshire, died Nov. 16, 1635, aged one | ||
| + | hundred and fifty-two; Henry Jenkins, of | ||
| + | Yorkshire, died Dec. 8, 1670, aged one | ||
| + | hundred and sixty-nine; James Sands, of | ||
| + | Staffordshire, | ||
| + | and forty; Louisa Truxo, a negress in South | ||
| + | America, was living in 1780, and her age | ||
| + | was then one hundred and seventy-five."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I burst into a laugh. He smiled too, and | ||
| + | said, "Here in this list are thirty-one names,< | ||
| + | the highest being that negress, and the | ||
| + | lowest one, Susannah Hilliar, of Piddington, | ||
| + | Northamptonshire, | ||
| + | 1781, aged one hundred. The young gentleman | ||
| + | who copied them said they were all | ||
| + | honestly vouched for, and wrote down a list | ||
| + | of the authorities, | ||
| + | and bringing the paper closer to his eyes, | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | Transactions,' | ||
| + | several newspapers, such as the ' | ||
| + | Post,' 'Daily Advertiser,' | ||
| + | and a number of inscriptions."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I could have been tolerably sarcastic, I | ||
| + | daresay, when he mentioned the authority | ||
| + | of the newspapers, always understanding that | ||
| + | those sheets flourish mainly on lies, and I | ||
| + | should have laughed again had I not been restrained | ||
| + | by the sense that Captain Skevington | ||
| + | was clearly " | ||
| + | worried by it, indeed, to such lengths, that | ||
| + | if he did not mind his eye it might presently< | ||
| + | push into a delusion, and earn him the disconcerting | ||
| + | reputation of being a madman; so | ||
| + | I thought I would talk gravely, and said, | ||
| + | "May I ask, sir, why you should have been | ||
| + | at the pains to collect that evidence in your | ||
| + | hand about old age?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the paper away, " | ||
| + | it would prodigiously gratify me if I | ||
| + | could be the instrument of proving that men | ||
| + | can overstep the bounds of natural life by as | ||
| + | many years again, and yet possess their own | ||
| + | souls and be as true to their original as they | ||
| + | were when hearty young fellows flushed with | ||
| + | the summer colours of life."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | exclaimed, " | ||
| + | think, when he says:& | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | 'To things immortal time can do no wrong,< | ||
| + | And that which never is to die for ever must be young.'"< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | He reflected a little, and said, "It would< | ||
| + | make a great noise among sailors, and perhaps | ||
| + | all men, to prove that the mariners who | ||
| + | man the Death Ship are not ghosts and | ||
| + | phantoms as has been surmised, but survivors | ||
| + | of a crew, men who have outlived their | ||
| + | fellows, and are now extremely ancient, as | ||
| + | these and scores of others who have passed | ||
| + | away unnoticed have been," said he, touching | ||
| + | his pocket where the paper was.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Batavia?" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 1650," he replied.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | average age of the crew to have been thirty | ||
| + | when the Curse was uttered& | ||
| + | figure for the sake of argument& | ||
| + | present year of our Lord they will have | ||
| + | attained the age of hard upon one hundred | ||
| + | and eighty."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | there was yet food for argument.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I shook my head.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | endevilled, for it must be one of two things. | ||
| + | They can't be dead men as the corpse in the | ||
| + | grave is dead."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | one's eyes," said I.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | taking a hasty turn; " | ||
| + | don't know! A something here," pressing | ||
| + | his brow, " | ||
| + | warning. I have struggled to get rid of the | ||
| + | fancy; but our being chased by the Dutchman | ||
| + | shows that we did not meet that | ||
| + | Plymouth snow for nothing; and, by the | ||
| + | thunder of Heaven, Fenton, I fear& | ||
| + | our next bout will be with the Spectre."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to which the lantern lent no sparkle, sent | ||
| + | a tremor through me. He caused me to fear | ||
| + | him for a minute as one that talked with | ||
| + | certainty of futurity through stress of prophetic< | ||
| + | craze. The yellow beams of the | ||
| + | lantern dispersed a narrow circle of lustre, | ||
| + | and in it our figures showed black, each with | ||
| + | two shadows swaying at his feet from the | ||
| + | commingling of the lamplight and the | ||
| + | moonshine. | ||
| + | rigging like the rustle of the pinions of | ||
| + | invisible night-birds on the wing; all was | ||
| + | silent and in darkness along the decks, save | ||
| + | where stood the figure of the helmsman | ||
| + | just before the little round-house, | ||
| + | the flames of the binnacle lamp; the stillness, | ||
| + | unbroken to the farthest corners of the | ||
| + | mighty plain of ocean, seemed as though | ||
| + | it were some mysterious spell wrought by the | ||
| + | stars, so high it went, even& | ||
| + | say& | ||
| + | trembling faces of those silver worlds.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>In all men, even in the dullest, there is a | ||
| + | vein of imagination; | ||
| + | holds sound, all is well. But sometimes it | ||
| + | breaks, God knows how, for the most part,< | ||
| + | and then what is in it floods the intelligence | ||
| + | often to the drowning of it, as the bursting of | ||
| + | a vessel of the body within sickens or kills | ||
| + | with hemorrhage. I considered some such | ||
| + | idea as this to be applicable to Captain | ||
| + | Skevington. Here was apparently a plain, | ||
| + | sturdy sailor, qualified to the life for such talk | ||
| + | as concerns ships, weather, ladings and the | ||
| + | like; yet it was certain he was exceedingly | ||
| + | superstitious, | ||
| + | ancient monks figured forth, also in the possession | ||
| + | of dead bodies by demons who caused | ||
| + | them to move and act as though operated | ||
| + | upon by the souls they came from their | ||
| + | mothers with, with a vast deal of other pitiful | ||
| + | fancies; and now, through our unhappy | ||
| + | meeting with that miserable snow, he had | ||
| + | let his mind run on the Phantom Ship so | ||
| + | vehemently that he was not only cocksure | ||
| + | we should meet the Spectre, but had reasoned | ||
| + | the whole fabric and manning of her out on | ||
| + | two issues; either that her hands were survivors< | ||
| + | of her original crew, persons who had | ||
| + | cheated Nature by living to an age the like | ||
| + | of which had not been heard of since the | ||
| + | days of Moses and the prophets, beings who,</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Like a lamp would live to the last wink<br /> | ||
| + | And crawl upon the utmost verge of life;<br /> | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>or that they were mariners who, having | ||
| + | arrived at the years when they would have | ||
| + | died but for being cursed, had been seized | ||
| + | upon by the Devil, quickened by him, and | ||
| + | set a-going with their death-hour aspects | ||
| + | upon them.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he had left me, and I don't mind confessing | ||
| + | that what with my own belief in the Death | ||
| + | Ship, coupled with the captain' | ||
| + | the fancies they raised in me, along with the | ||
| + | melancholy vagueness of the deep, hazy with | ||
| + | moonshine, the stillness, and the sense of our | ||
| + | drawing near to where the Spectre was | ||
| + | chiefly to be met, I became so uneasy that I | ||
| + | contrived to spend the rest of my watch on<span class=" | ||
| + | deck within a few paces of the wheel, often | ||
| + | addressing the helmsman for the sake of | ||
| + | hearing his voice; and I tell you I was mighty | ||
| + | pleased when midnight came round at last, | ||
| + | so that I could go below and dispatch the | ||
| + | mate to a scene in which his heavy mind | ||
| + | would witness nothing but water and sky, | ||
| + | and a breeze much too faint to be profitable.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | I CONVERSE WITH THE SHIP'S CARPENTER | ||
| + | ABOUT THE DEATH SHIP.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | if we were to be transformed into the marine | ||
| + | phantom that, unsubstantial as she might | ||
| + | be, yet lay with the heaviness of lead upon | ||
| + | Captain Skevington; for, being on the parallel | ||
| + | of Agulhas, a little to the south of that latitude, | ||
| + | and in about sixteen degrees west | ||
| + | longitude, it came on to blow fresh from | ||
| + | the south-east, hardening after twenty-four | ||
| + | hours into a whole gale with frequent and | ||
| + | violent guns, and a veering of it easterly; | ||
| + | and this continued, with a lull of an hour or | ||
| + | two's duration, for six days, as I have said. | ||
| + | 'Twas a taste of Cape weather strong enough< | ||
| + | to last a man a lifetime. The sea lay | ||
| + | shrouded to within a musket-shot by a | ||
| + | vapour of slatish hue that looked to stand | ||
| + | motionless, and past the walls and along | ||
| + | the roof of this wild, dismal, cloud-formed | ||
| + | chamber, with its floor of vaults and frothing | ||
| + | brows, the wind swept raving, raising a | ||
| + | terrible lead-coloured sea, with heads which | ||
| + | seemed to rear to the height of our maintop, | ||
| + | where they broke, and boiled like a cauldron | ||
| + | with foam, great masses of which the hands | ||
| + | of the gale caught up and hurled, so that the | ||
| + | lashing of the spray was often like a blinding | ||
| + | snowstorm, but so smarting that the wind | ||
| + | was as if charged with javelins.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for measureless leagues there is in these | ||
| + | waters no land to hinder the run of the | ||
| + | surges. Hence, when a fierce gale comes on | ||
| + | from the east, south or west, the seas which | ||
| + | rise are prodigious beyond such language as | ||
| + | I have at command to express. We lay-to< | ||
| + | under a storm staysail with topgallant-masts | ||
| + | struck, yards on deck and the lower yards | ||
| + | stowed on the rail, the hatches battened | ||
| + | down and everything as snug as good seamanship | ||
| + | could provide. Our decks were | ||
| + | constantly full of water; by one great sea | ||
| + | that fell over into the waist there were | ||
| + | drowned no less than six of the sheep we had | ||
| + | taken in at the Cape, with a hog and many | ||
| + | fowls; the carpenter' | ||
| + | fall, and an able seaman was deeply gashed | ||
| + | in the face by being thrown against a scuttlebutt; | ||
| + | 'twas impossible to get any food | ||
| + | cooked, and throughout that week we subsisted | ||
| + | on biscuit, cheese and such dry and | ||
| + | lean fare as did not need dressing. In short, | ||
| + | I could fill a chapter with our sufferings | ||
| + | and anxieties during that period.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I had supposed that when brought face to | ||
| + | face with the stern harsh prose of such | ||
| + | weather as this, the mournful, romantic stuff | ||
| + | that filled the captain' | ||
| + | been clean blown out of it; but no! he | ||
| + | repeatedly said to me, and I believe on more | ||
| + | than one occasion to Mr. Hall, that he considered | ||
| + | this weather as part of the ill-luck | ||
| + | that was bound to come to us from our | ||
| + | having spoken a vessel that had been passed | ||
| + | within hailing distance by the Phantom Ship.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>On the fifth morning of the gale, the pair | ||
| + | of us being in the cabin, he informed me that | ||
| + | a man named Cobwebb, who was at the helm | ||
| + | the night before, had told him that some of | ||
| + | the crew were for putting this foul storm | ||
| + | down to one Mulder, or some such name, who | ||
| + | was a Russian Finn, a sober, excellent seaman, | ||
| + | and one of the only two foreigners in | ||
| + | our forecastle; that to neutralise any magical | ||
| + | influence he might possess, a horse shoe had | ||
| + | been nailed to the foremast and the mainmast | ||
| + | pierced and scored with a black-handled | ||
| + | knife. He smiled at these superstitions but | ||
| + | did not seem to suspect that his own, as being | ||
| + | received by a man of thought and tolerable< | ||
| + | education, might by many be deemed much | ||
| + | more worthy of ridicule.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | leaving our ship considerably strained, by | ||
| + | which time, in spite of the current and the | ||
| + | send of the sea, we had contrived to make | ||
| + | forty miles of southing and easting, owing to | ||
| + | our pertinacity in making sail and stretching | ||
| + | away on a board at every lull.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was shortly after this, on the Tuesday | ||
| + | following the Friday on which the gale | ||
| + | ended, that, it being my watch on deck from | ||
| + | eight o' | ||
| + | carried my pipe, an hour before my turn | ||
| + | arrived, into the carpenter' | ||
| + | shared with the boatswain, to give the poor | ||
| + | fellow a bit of my company, for his broken | ||
| + | leg kept him motionless. It was the second | ||
| + | dogwatch, as we term the time, 'twixt six | ||
| + | and eight o' | ||
| + | fine, the wind over the starboard | ||
| + | quarter, a quiet breeze, the ocean heaving in<span class=" | ||
| + | a lazy swell from the south, and the ship | ||
| + | pushing forward at five knots an hour under | ||
| + | fore and main-royals. The carpenter lay in | ||
| + | a bunk, wearing a haggard face, and grizzly | ||
| + | for lack of the razor. He was a very sensible, | ||
| + | sober man, a good artificer, and had served | ||
| + | under Lord Howe in the fleet equipped for | ||
| + | the relief of Gibraltar, besides having seen a | ||
| + | deal of cruising work in earlier times.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He was much obliged by my looking in | ||
| + | upon him, and we speedily fell to yarning; | ||
| + | he lighted a pipe, and I smoked likewise, | ||
| + | whilst I sat upon his chest, taking in with a | ||
| + | half-look round, such details as a rude sketch | ||
| + | of the bo' | ||
| + | the slush lamp swinging its dingy smoking | ||
| + | flame to a cracked piece of looking-glass | ||
| + | over against the carpenter' | ||
| + | horny copy of the Bible, with type pretty | ||
| + | nigh as big as the letters of our ship's name, | ||
| + | a bit of a shelf wherefrom there forked out | ||
| + | the stems of some clay pipes, with other< | ||
| + | humble furniture such as a sailor is used | ||
| + | to carry to sea with him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was Matthews, says to me, "I beg pardon, | ||
| + | sir, but there' | ||
| + | the men concerning the old Dutchman that | ||
| + | was cursed last century. My mate, Joe | ||
| + | Marner, told me that Jimmy& | ||
| + | cabin-boy& | ||
| + | morning, that he heard the captain say the | ||
| + | Dutchman' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | that."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | further to the eastward of the Cape, away | ||
| + | from the Phantom' | ||
| + | moreover, the leaving gossip to make its own | ||
| + | way would surely in the end prove more | ||
| + | terrifying to the nervous and superstitious on | ||
| + | board than speaking the truth, I resolved to | ||
| + | tell Matthews how the matter stood, and with< | ||
| + | that, acquainted him with what the master of | ||
| + | the snow had told Captain Skevington. He | ||
| + | looked very grave, and withdrew his pipe | ||
| + | from his lips, and I noticed he did not offer | ||
| + | to light the tobacco afresh.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Nancy' | ||
| + | do with us?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | face yet more clouded, and speaking in a low | ||
| + | voice, as one might in a sacred building, "I | ||
| + | never yet knew or heard of a ship reporting | ||
| + | to another of having met the Dutchman | ||
| + | without that other a-meeting of the Ghost too | ||
| + | afore she ended her voyage."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | this, for Matthews had been to sea for thirty-five | ||
| + | years, and he now spoke with too much | ||
| + | emotion not to affect me, "for God's sake | ||
| + | don't make your thoughts known to the crew, | ||
| + | and least of all to the captain, who is already< | ||
| + | so uneasy on this head that when he mentions | ||
| + | it he talks as if his mind were adrift."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | never yet knew or heard of a ship reporting | ||
| + | to another of having met the Dutchman, | ||
| + | without that other meeting the Ghost too | ||
| + | afore she's ended her voyage," | ||
| + | speaking he smote his bed heavily with his | ||
| + | fist.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I was startled by the emphasis his repeating | ||
| + | his former words gave to the assurance, | ||
| + | and smoked in silence. He put | ||
| + | down his pipe and lay awhile looking at me | ||
| + | as though turning some matters over in his | ||
| + | mind. The swing of the flame, burning from | ||
| + | the spout of the lamp put various expressions, | ||
| + | wrought by the fluctuating shadows, | ||
| + | into his sick face, and it was this perhaps | ||
| + | that caused his words to possess a power | ||
| + | I could not feign to you by any art of my | ||
| + | pen. He asked me if I had ever seen the | ||
| + | Dutchman, and on my answering " | ||
| + | said that the usual notion among sailors was | ||
| + | that there is but one vessel sailing the seas | ||
| + | with the curse of Heaven upon her, but that | ||
| + | that was a mistake, as it was an error in the | ||
| + | same way to suppose that this ocean from | ||
| + | Agulhas round to the Mozambique was the | ||
| + | only place in which the Phantom was to be | ||
| + | met.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | pattern of this here Dutchman, to be found | ||
| + | in the Baltic. She always brings heavy | ||
| + | weather, and there' | ||
| + | for any craft that sights her."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | years without ever hearing that," said I.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | you ask about it, sir, when you get back, and | ||
| + | then you'll see. There' | ||
| + | the same pattern, that's to be met down in | ||
| + | the mouth of the Channel, 'twixt Ushant and | ||
| + | the Scillies, and thereabouts. A man I know, | ||
| + | called Jimmy Robbins, saw her, and told me<span class=" | ||
| + | the yarn. He was in a ship bound home | ||
| + | from the Spice Islands; they were in soundings, | ||
| + | and heading round for the Channel; it | ||
| + | was the morning watch, just about dawn, | ||
| + | weather slightly thickish; suddenly a vessel | ||
| + | comes heaving out of the smother from | ||
| + | God knows where! Jim Robbins was coiling | ||
| + | down a rope alongside the mate, who, | ||
| + | on seeing the vessel, screams out shrill, like | ||
| + | a woman, and falls flat in a swound; Jim, | ||
| + | looking, saw it was the Channel Death Ship, | ||
| + | a large pink, manned by skeletons, with | ||
| + | a skull for a figurehead, and a skeleton | ||
| + | captain leaning against the mast, watching | ||
| + | the running of the sand in an hour-glass | ||
| + | he held. She was seen by twelve others, | ||
| + | besides Jim and the mate, who nearly died | ||
| + | of the fright. And the consequence of meeting | ||
| + | her was, that the ship Jim Robbins was | ||
| + | in was cast away on the following night on | ||
| + | the French coast, down Saint Brihos way, | ||
| + | and thirty-three souls perished."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and his evident keen belief in these and the | ||
| + | like superstitions, | ||
| + | somewhat diverting; for, as I have | ||
| + | elsewhere said, though I never questioned | ||
| + | the existence of the one spectral ship, in a | ||
| + | belief in which all mariners are united, holding | ||
| + | that the deep, which is full of drowned | ||
| + | men, hath its spirits and its apparitions | ||
| + | equally with the land, yet when it came to | ||
| + | such crude mad fancies as a vessel manned | ||
| + | by skeletons, why, of course, there was | ||
| + | nothing for it but to laugh, which I did, | ||
| + | heartily enough, though in my sleeve, | ||
| + | for seamen are a sensitive people, easily | ||
| + | afronted, more especially in any article of | ||
| + | their faith. However, he succeeded, before | ||
| + | I left him, in exciting a fresh uneasiness | ||
| + | in me by asseverating, | ||
| + | voice, and with a very dismal face, that | ||
| + | our having spoken with the snow that had | ||
| + | sighted the Dutchman was certain to be<span class=" | ||
| + | followed by misfortune; and these being | ||
| + | amongst the last words he exchanged with | ||
| + | me before I left his cabin, I naturally carried | ||
| + | away with me on deck the damping and | ||
| + | desponding impression of his posture and | ||
| + | appearance as he uttered them, which were | ||
| + | those of a man grieved, bewildered, and | ||
| + | greatly alarmed.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | A TRAGICAL DEATH.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | as it is termed, that is to say, after the mate | ||
| + | had gone below and left me in charge, I had | ||
| + | the company of the captain, who seemed restless | ||
| + | and troubled, often quitting my side as | ||
| + | we paced, to go to the rail and view the | ||
| + | horizon, with the air of a man perturbed by | ||
| + | expectation. I need not tell you that I did | ||
| + | not breathe a word to him respecting my talk | ||
| + | with the carpenter, not even to the extent | ||
| + | of saying how fancies about the Dutchman | ||
| + | were flying about among the crew, for this | ||
| + | subject he was in no state of mind to be | ||
| + | brought into.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | joined me, and we stood in silence watching< | ||
| + | her. She jutted up a very sickly faint red, | ||
| + | that brightened but a little after she lifted her | ||
| + | lower limb clear of the horizon, and when | ||
| + | we had the full of her plain we perceived | ||
| + | her strangely distorted by the atmosphere of | ||
| + | the shape& | ||
| + | rotten orange that has been squeezed, or of | ||
| + | a turtle' | ||
| + | like a blood-coloured jelly distilled by the | ||
| + | sky, ugly and even affrighting, | ||
| + | sweet ice-cold planet that empearls the world | ||
| + | at night, and whose delicate silver the lover | ||
| + | delights to behold in his sweetheart' | ||
| + | But she grew more shapely as she soared, | ||
| + | though holding a dusky blush for a much | ||
| + | longer time than ever I had noticed in her | ||
| + | when rising off the mid-African main; and | ||
| + | her wake, broken by the small, black curl of | ||
| + | the breeze, hung in broken indissoluble lumps | ||
| + | of feverish light, like coagulated gore that | ||
| + | had dropped from the wound she looked to | ||
| + | be in the dark sky.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | closed out the sparkles of the farther stars, | ||
| + | and but a few, and those only of the greatest | ||
| + | magnitude, were visible, shining in several | ||
| + | colours, such as dim pink and green and wan | ||
| + | crystal; all which, together with one or two | ||
| + | of them above our mastheads, dimly glittering | ||
| + | amidst feeble rings, made the whole | ||
| + | appearance of the night amazing and even | ||
| + | ghastly enough to excite a feeling of awe in | ||
| + | the attention it compelled. The captain | ||
| + | spoke not a word whilst the moon slowly | ||
| + | floated into the dusk, and then fetching a | ||
| + | deep breath, he said& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | it's because of the shadow on her. Keep a | ||
| + | bright look-out, Mr. Fenton, and hold the | ||
| + | ship to her course. Should the wind fail call | ||
| + | me& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | hatch, stood there a moment or two with his | ||
| + | hand upon it and his face looking up as<span class=" | ||
| + | though he studied the trim of the yards, and | ||
| + | then disappeared.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>My talk with the carpenter and the behaviour | ||
| + | of the captain bred in me a sense as | ||
| + | of something solemn and momentous informing | ||
| + | the hours. I reasoned with myself, I | ||
| + | struggled with the inexplicable oppression | ||
| + | that weighed down my spirits, but it would | ||
| + | not do. I asked myself, "Why should the | ||
| + | cheap, illiterate fears of such a man as the | ||
| + | carpenter affect me? Why should I find the | ||
| + | secret of my soul's depression in the superstitions | ||
| + | of Captain Skevington, whose arguments | ||
| + | as to the endevilment of the dead | ||
| + | exhibited a decay of his intellect on one side, | ||
| + | as phthisis consumes one lung, leaving the | ||
| + | other sound enough for a man to go on living | ||
| + | with?" And I recited these comfortable | ||
| + | lines of the poet:& | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | "Learn though mishap may cross our ways,<br /> | ||
| + | It is not ours to reckon when."< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | my spirits that was not to be soothed, and I | ||
| + | found myself treading about the deck, stepping | ||
| + | lightly, as a man might who walks upon | ||
| + | ground under which the dead lie, whilst I felt | ||
| + | so much worried, down to the very bottom of | ||
| + | my heart, that had some great sorrow just | ||
| + | befallen me I could not have been sadder.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>As the night wore on the moon gathered | ||
| + | her wonted hue and shape, though her | ||
| + | refulgence was small, for the air thickened. | ||
| + | Indeed, at half-past ten all the lights of | ||
| + | Heaven, saving the moon, had been put out | ||
| + | by a mist, the texture of which was illustrated | ||
| + | by the only luminary the sky contained, | ||
| + | around whose pale expiring disc there was | ||
| + | now a great halo, with something of the | ||
| + | character of a lunar rainbow in the very delicate, | ||
| + | barely determinable tinctures, which | ||
| + | made a sort of shadowy prism of it, more | ||
| + | like what one would dream of than see. The | ||
| + | ocean lay very black, there was no power in | ||
| + | the moon to cast a wake, the breathings of<span class=" | ||
| + | the wind rippled the water and caused a scintillation | ||
| + | of the spangles of the phosphorus or | ||
| + | sea-fire, the weight of the lower sails kept | ||
| + | them hanging up and down, and what motion | ||
| + | the ship had was from the swelling of the | ||
| + | light canvas that rose very pale and ghostly | ||
| + | into the gloom.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I had gone to the taffrail and was staring | ||
| + | there away into the dark, whither our short | ||
| + | wake streamed in a sort of smouldering | ||
| + | cloudiness with particles of fire in it, conceiving | ||
| + | that the wind was failing, and waiting | ||
| + | to make sure before reporting to the captain, | ||
| + | when I was startled by the report of a | ||
| + | musket or some small arm that broke upon | ||
| + | my ear with a muffled sound, so that whence | ||
| + | it came I could not conceive. Yet, for some | ||
| + | minutes I felt so persuaded the noise had | ||
| + | been seawards that, spite of there having | ||
| + | been no flash, I stood peering hard into the | ||
| + | dark, first one side then the other, far as the | ||
| + | sails would suffer me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the explosion had happened aboard and | ||
| + | might betoken mischief, I ran along the deck | ||
| + | where, close against the wheel, I found a | ||
| + | number of seamen talking hurriedly and in | ||
| + | alarmed voices. I called out to know what | ||
| + | that noise had been. None knew. One | ||
| + | said it had come from the sea, another that | ||
| + | there had been a small explosion in the hold, | ||
| + | and a third was giving his opinion, when at | ||
| + | that instant a figure darted out of the companion | ||
| + | hatch, clothed in his shirt and drawers, | ||
| + | and cried out, "Mr. Fenton! Mr. Fenton! | ||
| + | For God's sake, where are you?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I recognized the voice of Mr. Hall, and | ||
| + | bawled back, "Here, sir!" and ran to him. | ||
| + | He grasped my arm. "The captain has | ||
| + | shot himself!" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>We rushed down together. The great | ||
| + | cabin, where we messed, was in darkness,< | ||
| + | but a light shone in the captain' | ||
| + | The door was open, and gently swung with | ||
| + | the motion of the ship. I pushed in, but | ||
| + | instantly recoiled with horror, for, right | ||
| + | athwart the deck lay the body of Captain | ||
| + | Skevington, with the top of his head blown | ||
| + | away. It needed but one glance to know | ||
| + | that he had done this thing with his own | ||
| + | hand. He had fired the piece with his foot | ||
| + | by a string attached to the trigger, standing | ||
| + | upright with his brow bent to the muzzle, for | ||
| + | the bight of the string was round his shoe, | ||
| + | and he had fallen sideways, grasping the | ||
| + | barrel.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I killed him by accident with my own hand I | ||
| + | could not have trembled more. But this | ||
| + | exquisite distress was short-lived. It was | ||
| + | only needful to look at his head to discover | ||
| + | how fruitless would be the task of examining | ||
| + | him for any signs of life. Some of the seamen | ||
| + | who heard Mr. Hall cry out to me<span class=" | ||
| + | about this thing had followed us below, | ||
| + | forgetting their place in the consternation | ||
| + | roused in them, and stood in the doorway | ||
| + | faintly groaning and muttering exclamations | ||
| + | of pity. Mr. Hall bid a couple of them raise | ||
| + | the body and lay it in its bunk and cover it | ||
| + | with a sheet, and others he sent for water | ||
| + | and a swab wherewith to cleanse the place.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Fenton," | ||
| + | be watched. I'll join you presently."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I was glad to withdraw; for albeit there | ||
| + | was a ghastliness in the look of the night, the | ||
| + | sea being black as ebony, though touched | ||
| + | here and there with little sheets of fire, and | ||
| + | stretching like a pall to its horizon that | ||
| + | was drawing narrower and murkier around | ||
| + | us minute after minute, with the wing-like | ||
| + | shadow of vapour that was yet too thin to | ||
| + | deserve the name of fog; though there was | ||
| + | this ghastliness, | ||
| + | that was now little more than a dim, tarnished< | ||
| + | blotch of shapeless silver, wanly ringed | ||
| + | with an ashen cincture, yet the taste of the | ||
| + | faint breeze was as helpful to my spirits as | ||
| + | a dram of generous cordial after the atmosphere | ||
| + | of the cabin in which I had beheld | ||
| + | the remains of Captain Skevington.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | MR. HALL HARANGUES THE CREW.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | below had roused out and most of the men | ||
| + | were on deck, and they moved about in | ||
| + | groups striving to find out all about the | ||
| + | suicide. The death of a captain of a ship at | ||
| + | sea is sure always to fill the crew with uneasiness; | ||
| + | a sense of uncertainty is excited, and | ||
| + | then again there is that darkening of the | ||
| + | spirits which the shadow of death particularly | ||
| + | causes among a slender community who have | ||
| + | been for months associated as a family, and | ||
| + | amid whom, every man's face, speech, and | ||
| + | manner are, maybe, more familiar than his | ||
| + | own brother' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | felt the captain' | ||
| + | owing to there being in my mind much more | ||
| + | that was akin to his own moods than he | ||
| + | could find in Mr. Hall, we had had many and | ||
| + | long conversations together. Then there was | ||
| + | the Death Ship for me to recall, with his | ||
| + | thoughts on it and his conviction that evil | ||
| + | was sure to follow his boarding the Plymouth | ||
| + | snow. Moreover, I was the last with whom | ||
| + | he had exchanged words that night, and in | ||
| + | his manner of quitting me, after looking at | ||
| + | the moon, there was positively nothing that | ||
| + | even my startled and imaginative mind could | ||
| + | witness to indicate the intention that had | ||
| + | destroyed him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dressed, and stepping over to where I stood | ||
| + | in deep thought, exclaimed, "Did you have | ||
| + | a suspicion that the captain designed this | ||
| + | fearful act?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | answered.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | not far out when he talked of the ill-luck he | ||
| + | expected from speaking a craft that had | ||
| + | sighted Vanderdecken," | ||
| + | which made me see how strong was | ||
| + | the blow his nerves had received; and running | ||
| + | his eyes restlessly over the water here | ||
| + | and there, as I might tell by the dim sparkle | ||
| + | the faint moon-haze kindled in them. "Oh, | ||
| + | but," he continued, as if dashing aside his | ||
| + | fancies, "the mere circumstance of his being | ||
| + | so superstitious ought to explain the act. I | ||
| + | have often thought there was a vein of | ||
| + | madness in him."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a little tremble running through him, "there | ||
| + | is some menace of foul weather. We shall lose | ||
| + | this faint air presently." | ||
| + | and said, "Such a sight as that below is | ||
| + | enough to make a Hell of a night of midsummer | ||
| + | beauty! It is the suddenness of<span class=" | ||
| + | it that seizes upon the imagination. Why, | ||
| + | d'ye know, Fenton, I'd give a handful of | ||
| + | guineas, poor as I am, for a rousing gale& | ||
| + | to blow my mind to its bearings, | ||
| + | for here's a sort of business," | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | breast."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | made me perceive how violently he had been | ||
| + | wrenched. I begged his leave to go below | ||
| + | and fetch him a glass of liquor.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | must speak to those fellows there."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | forward, calling for the boatswain.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>On that officer answering, he said, "Are | ||
| + | all hands on deck?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sir," replied the boatswain.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sails and made as blythe a sound as could< | ||
| + | have been devised for the cheering of us up. | ||
| + | The men gathered quickly, some lanthorns | ||
| + | were fetched, and in the light of them stood | ||
| + | the crew near to the round-house. A strange | ||
| + | sight it was; the shining went no higher than | ||
| + | half-way up the mainsail that hung steady | ||
| + | with its own weight, and as much of it as was | ||
| + | thus illuminated showed like cloth of gold | ||
| + | pale in the dusk; above was mere shadow, | ||
| + | the round-top like a drop of ink upon the | ||
| + | face of the darkness, the sails of so weak a | ||
| + | hue they seemed as though in the act of | ||
| + | dissolving and vanishing away; the crowd of | ||
| + | faces were all pale and their eyes full of | ||
| + | gleaming; the shadows crawled at our feet, | ||
| + | and, with the total concealment of the moon | ||
| + | at this time, a deeper shade fell upon the sea | ||
| + | and our ship, and the delicate rippling of the | ||
| + | water alongside seemed to stir upon our ears | ||
| + | in a tinkling as from out of the middle air.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to the men how, on hearing the<span class=" | ||
| + | report of a musket, he had sprung from his | ||
| + | bed, and perceiving powder-smoke leaking | ||
| + | through the openings in the door of the | ||
| + | captain' | ||
| + | of light streamed, he entered, and seeing | ||
| + | the body of the captain, and the horrid condition | ||
| + | of the head, was filled with a panic | ||
| + | and rushed on deck. That the master had | ||
| + | shot himself was certain, but there was no | ||
| + | help for what had happened. The command | ||
| + | of the ship fell upon him; but it was | ||
| + | for them to say whether he should navigate | ||
| + | the ship to her destination, | ||
| + | to Table Bay, where a fresh commander | ||
| + | could be obtained.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He was very well liked on board, being | ||
| + | an excellent seaman; and the crew on hearing | ||
| + | this, immediately answered that they | ||
| + | wanted no better master to sail under than | ||
| + | he, and that, indeed, they would not consent | ||
| + | to a change; but having said this with a | ||
| + | heartiness that pleased me, for I liked Mr.<span class=" | ||
| + | Hall greatly myself, and was extremely glad | ||
| + | to find the crew so well disposed, they fell | ||
| + | into an awkward silence, broken after a little | ||
| + | by some hoarse whisperings.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | a notion among us that that there Plymouth | ||
| + | snow has brought ill-luck to the ship, one | ||
| + | bad specimen of which has just happened; | ||
| + | and the feeling is that we had better return | ||
| + | to Table Bay, so as to get the influence | ||
| + | worked out of the old barkey."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | coming easily into the matter, partly because | ||
| + | of his shaken nerves, and partly because of | ||
| + | the kindness he felt towards the hands for | ||
| + | the way they had received his address to | ||
| + | them.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the boatswain, speaking somewhat shyly, | ||
| + | said, "The carpenter, who's heard tell more< | ||
| + | about the Phantom Ship and the spell she | ||
| + | lays on vessels than all hands of us put | ||
| + | together, says that the only way to work out | ||
| + | of a ship's timbers the ill-luck that's been put | ||
| + | into them by what's magical and hellish, is | ||
| + | for a minister of religion to come aboard, | ||
| + | call all hands to prayer, and ask of the Lord | ||
| + | a blessing on the ship. He says there' | ||
| + | other way of purifying of her."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | says Mr. Hall.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sailor says, "It needs a man who knows | ||
| + | how to pray& | ||
| + | right sort of words to use."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | is religion."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | address me, then checking himself, he said, | ||
| + | "Well, my lads, there' | ||
| + | small promise of any. Suppose we let this | ||
| + | matter rest till to-morrow morning; Mr.<span class=" | ||
| + | Fenton and I will talk it over, and you | ||
| + | forward can turn it about in your minds. I | ||
| + | believe we shall be easier when the captain' | ||
| + | buried and the sun's up, and then we might | ||
| + | agree it would be a pity to put back after the | ||
| + | tough job we've had to get where we are. | ||
| + | But lest you should still be all of one mind | ||
| + | on this matter in the morning, we'll keep the | ||
| + | ship, should wind come, under small sail, so | ||
| + | as to make no headway worth speaking | ||
| + | of during the night. Is that to your fancy, | ||
| + | men?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | forward, but I noticed that those who were | ||
| + | off duty did not offer to go below; they | ||
| + | joined the watch on the forecastle, and I | ||
| + | could hear them in earnest talk, their voices | ||
| + | trembling through the stillness like the humming | ||
| + | of a congregation in church following | ||
| + | the parson' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the deck.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of this ship being under a spell," | ||
| + | "This is no sweet time of the year in these | ||
| + | seas; to put back will, I daresay, be only to | ||
| + | anger the weather that's now quiet enough, | ||
| + | and there' | ||
| + | Dutch hands."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I told him of my talk with the carpenter, | ||
| + | and said that I could not be surprised the | ||
| + | crew were alarmed, for the old fellow had the | ||
| + | Devil' | ||
| + | an alarming way.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "but I don't mind owning that I quitted his | ||
| + | cabin so dulled in my spirits by his talk, that | ||
| + | I might have come from a death-bed for all | ||
| + | the heart there was in me."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | said Mr. Hall. " | ||
| + | myself in the morning, and afterwards to the | ||
| + | men; and if they are still wishful that the | ||
| + | ship should return to Table Bay we'll sail her<span class=" | ||
| + | there. 'Tis all one to me. I'd liefer have a | ||
| + | new captain over me than be one."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>We continued until five bells to walk to | ||
| + | and fro the deck, talking about the captain' | ||
| + | suicide, the strangeness of it as following his | ||
| + | belief that ill-luck had come to the ship from | ||
| + | the Plymouth vessel, with other such matters | ||
| + | as would be suggested by our situation and | ||
| + | the tragedy in the cabin; and Mr. Hall then | ||
| + | said he would go below for a glass of rum; | ||
| + | but he refused to lie down& | ||
| + | to stand an hour of his watch, that is from | ||
| + | midnight till one o' | ||
| + | should not be able to sleep.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the forecastle, which rescued the deck from | ||
| + | the extreme loneliness I had found in it ere | ||
| + | the report of the fatal musket startled all | ||
| + | hands into wakefulness and movement. The | ||
| + | lanthorns had been carried away and the ship | ||
| + | was plunged in darkness. There still blew a | ||
| + | very light air, so gentle that you needed to<span class=" | ||
| + | wet your finger and hold it up to feel it. | ||
| + | From the darkness aloft fell the delicate | ||
| + | sounds of the higher canvas softly drumming | ||
| + | the masts to the very slight rolling of the | ||
| + | ship. I went to the binnacle and found that | ||
| + | the vessel was heading her course, and then | ||
| + | stepped to the rail, upon which I set my | ||
| + | elbows, leaning my chin in my hands, and in | ||
| + | that posture fell a-thinking.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | WE DRAW CLOSE TO A STRANGE AND | ||
| + | LUMINOUS SHIP.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | minutes, when I was awakened from my | ||
| + | dream by an eager feverish muttering of | ||
| + | voices forward, and on a sudden the harsh | ||
| + | notes of a seaman belonging to my watch | ||
| + | cried out, " | ||
| + | a-beam, sir?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I sprang from my leaning posture, and | ||
| + | peered, but my eyes were heavy; the night | ||
| + | was dark, and whilst I stared several of the | ||
| + | sailors came hurriedly aft to where I stood, | ||
| + | and said, all speaking together, " | ||
| + | her, sir? Look yonder, Mr. Fenton!" | ||
| + | and their arms, to a man, shot out to point, | ||
| + | as if every one levelled a pistol.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the object, I was not surprised by the consternation | ||
| + | the sailors were in; for, such was | ||
| + | the mood and temper of the whole company, | ||
| + | that not the most familiar and prosaic craft | ||
| + | that floats on the ocean could have broken | ||
| + | through the obscurity of the night upon their | ||
| + | gaze without tickling their superstitious instincts, | ||
| + | till the very hair of their heads | ||
| + | crawled to the inward motions. In a few | ||
| + | moments, sure enough, I made out the loom | ||
| + | of what looked a large ship, out on the starboard | ||
| + | beam. As well as I could distinguish | ||
| + | she was close hauled, and so standing as to | ||
| + | pass under our stern. She made a sort of | ||
| + | faintness upon the sea and sky where she | ||
| + | was: nothing more. And even to be sure | ||
| + | of her, it was necessary to look a little on | ||
| + | one side or the other of her; for if you | ||
| + | gazed full she went out, as a dim distant | ||
| + | light at sea does, thus viewed.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "There should be no lack of Dutch or even | ||
| + | French hereabouts. Quick, lads, to stations. | ||
| + | Send the boatswain here."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I ran to the companion hatch and called | ||
| + | loudly to Mr. Hall. He had fallen asleep on | ||
| + | a locker, and came running in a blind sort of | ||
| + | way to the foot of the ladder, shouting out, | ||
| + | "What is it? What is it?" I answered | ||
| + | that there was a large ship heading directly | ||
| + | for us, whereupon he was instantly wide | ||
| + | awake, and sprang up the ladder, crying, | ||
| + | "Where away? Where away?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>If there was any wind I could feel none. | ||
| + | Yet some kind of draught there must have | ||
| + | been, for the ship out in the darkness held a | ||
| + | brave luff, which proved her under command. | ||
| + | We, on the other hand, rested upon the | ||
| + | liquid ebony of the ocean with square yards, | ||
| + | the mizzen furled, the starboard clew of the | ||
| + | mainsail hoisted, and the greater number of | ||
| + | our staysails down. Whilst Mr. Hall stared | ||
| + | in the direction of the ship the boatswain< | ||
| + | arrived for orders. The mate turned smartly | ||
| + | to me, and said, "We must make ready, and | ||
| + | take our chance. Bo' | ||
| + | and Mr. Fenton, see all clear."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | boatswain' | ||
| + | from whose stretched, still folds, the sounds | ||
| + | broke away in ghostly echoes. We were not | ||
| + | a man-of-war, had no drums, and to martial | ||
| + | duties we could but address ourselves clumsily. | ||
| + | But all felt that there might be a great | ||
| + | danger in the pale shadow yonder that had | ||
| + | seemed to ooze out upon our eyes from the | ||
| + | darkness as strangely as a cloud shapes itself | ||
| + | upon a mountain-top.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>So we tumbled about quickly and wildly | ||
| + | enough, got our little batteries clear, put on | ||
| + | the hatch-gratings and tarpaulins, opened the | ||
| + | magazine, lighted the matches, provided the | ||
| + | guns with spare breeches and tackles, and | ||
| + | stood ready for whatever was to come. All | ||
| + | this we contrived with the aid of one or two<span class=" | ||
| + | lanterns, very secretly moved about, as Mr. | ||
| + | Hall did not wish us to be seen making | ||
| + | ready; but the want of light delayed us, | ||
| + | and, by the time we were fully prepared, | ||
| + | the strange ship had insensibly floated down | ||
| + | to about three-quarters-of-a-mile upon our | ||
| + | starboard quarter.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>At that distance it was too black to enable | ||
| + | us to make anything of her, but we comforted | ||
| + | ourselves by observing that she did | ||
| + | not offer to alter her course, whence we | ||
| + | might reasonably hope that she was a peaceful | ||
| + | trader like ourselves. She showed no | ||
| + | lights& | ||
| + | her, owing to the hue they put into the darkness | ||
| + | over her hull. It was a time of heavy | ||
| + | trial to our patience. Our ship had come to | ||
| + | a dead stand, as it was easy to discover by | ||
| + | looking over the side, where the small, pale | ||
| + | puffs of phosphoric radiance that flashed | ||
| + | under water at the depth of a man's hand | ||
| + | from our vessel' | ||
| + | rolled, no matter how daintily, to the swell, | ||
| + | hung glimmering for a space in the selfsame | ||
| + | spot where they were discharged. Nor was | ||
| + | there the least sound of water in motion | ||
| + | under our counter, unless it were the gurgling, | ||
| + | drowning sobbing you hear there | ||
| + | on a still night, when the stern stoops | ||
| + | to the drop of the fold, and raises that | ||
| + | strange, hollow noise of washing all about | ||
| + | the rudder.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | only to resolve her!" said Mr. Hall to me in | ||
| + | a low voice. " | ||
| + | got out of this sort of waiting. At this rate | ||
| + | we must keep the men at their stations till | ||
| + | daylight to find out what she is. Pleasant if | ||
| + | she should prove some lump of a Dutch man-of-war! | ||
| + | She shows uncommonly large, don't | ||
| + | you think, Fenton?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | obscurity," | ||
| + | she's a man-of-war. I've been watching her<span class=" | ||
| + | closely and have never once caught sight of | ||
| + | the least gleam of a light aboard her."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | look-out are sound asleep," | ||
| + | slight and not very merry laugh; "and if | ||
| + | she's steered on her quarter-deck she'll be | ||
| + | too deep-waisted perhaps for the helmsman | ||
| + | to see us."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I heard him say this without closely heeding | ||
| + | it, for my attention at that moment was | ||
| + | attracted by what was unquestionably the | ||
| + | enlargement of her pallid shadow; sure proof | ||
| + | that she had shifted her helm and was slowly | ||
| + | coming round so as to head for us. Mr. | ||
| + | Hall noticed this as soon as I.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | what we are, hey? They' | ||
| + | last. Does she bring an air with her that | ||
| + | she's under control, or is it that she's lighter | ||
| + | and taller than we?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was beyond question because she was | ||
| + | lighter and taller, and having been kept close-hauled< | ||
| + | to the faint draught had made more | ||
| + | of it than we who carried it aft. Besides, we | ||
| + | were loaded down to our chain-plate bolts | ||
| + | with cargo, and the water and other stores | ||
| + | we had shipped at the Cape. Yet her | ||
| + | approach was so sluggish as to be imperceptible, | ||
| + | and I would not like to say that our | ||
| + | gradual drawing together was not as much | ||
| + | due to the current which, off this coast, runs | ||
| + | strong to the westward, setting us, who were | ||
| + | deep, faster towards her than it set her from | ||
| + | us, as it was also owing to the strange attraction | ||
| + | which brings becalmed vessels near to | ||
| + | each other& | ||
| + | be towed clear by their boats.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | stranger, the blackness in which her hull lay | ||
| + | hidden, the strangeness of her bracing-in her | ||
| + | yards to head up for us without any signal | ||
| + | being shown that she designed to fight us, | ||
| + | wrought such a fit of impatience in Mr. Hall, | ||
| + | that he swung his body from the backstay< | ||
| + | he clutched in movements positively convulsive.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | night as this one should be able to hear the | ||
| + | least sound& | ||
| + | rasping of the wheel-ropes!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | napping?" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | would I give now for a bit of moon!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | shooting match for a spell, or wind must | ||
| + | come quickly," | ||
| + | mischief wouldn' | ||
| + | our stern, where she could rake us, rather | ||
| + | than steer to come broadside on?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to the bulwark-rail, | ||
| + | the practised and powerful lungs of a seaman | ||
| + | can fling, roared out& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>We listened with so fierce a strain of attention< | ||
| + | that the very beating of our hearts rung | ||
| + | in our ears; but not a sound came across the | ||
| + | water. Twice yet did Mr. Hall hail that | ||
| + | pallid fabric, shapeless as yet in the dark air, | ||
| + | but to no purpose. On this there was much | ||
| + | whispering among the men clustered about | ||
| + | the guns. Their voices came along in a | ||
| + | low, grumbling sound like the growling of | ||
| + | dogs, dulled by threats.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "We don't know what she is& | ||
| + | know what we are! and, as Englishmen, | ||
| + | we surely have spirit enough for whatever | ||
| + | may come."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | these few words; then the muttering broke | ||
| + | out afresh, but scattered, a group talking to | ||
| + | larboard, another on the forecastle, and so | ||
| + | forth.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | continued to draw closer and closer to each | ||
| + | other. A small clarification of the atmosphere< | ||
| + | happening past the stranger, suffered a | ||
| + | dim disclosure of her canvas, whence I perceived | ||
| + | that she had nothing set above her | ||
| + | topgallant-sails, | ||
| + | see whether she carried royal-masts, | ||
| + | whether the yards belonging to those masts | ||
| + | were crossed on them. Her hull had now | ||
| + | also stolen out into a pitch-black shadow, and | ||
| + | after gazing at it with painful intentness for | ||
| + | some moments, I was extravagantly astonished | ||
| + | to observe a kind of crawling and | ||
| + | flickering of light, resembling that which | ||
| + | burnt in the sea, stirring like glow-worms | ||
| + | along the vessel' | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I was about to direct Mr. Hall's attention | ||
| + | to this thing, when he said in a subdued | ||
| + | voice, " | ||
| + | about her hull? What, in God's name, can it | ||
| + | be?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He had scarce uttered these words when a | ||
| + | sailor on the starboard side of our ship, whom | ||
| + | I recognised by the voice as one Ephraim< | ||
| + | Jacobs, an elderly, sober, pious-minded seaman, | ||
| + | cried out with a sort of scream in his | ||
| + | notes& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Jesu's sake, yon's the ship that was curst | ||
| + | last century."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | A CRUEL DISASTER BEFALLS ME.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | that had been troubling all our minds made | ||
| + | one man in action of the whole crew, like the | ||
| + | firing of forty pieces of ordnance in the same | ||
| + | instant. Whatever the sailors held they flung | ||
| + | down, and, in a bound, came to the waist on | ||
| + | the starboard side, where they stood, looking | ||
| + | at the ship and making, amid that silence, | ||
| + | the strangest noise that ever was heard with | ||
| + | their deep and fearful breathing.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | presently, " | ||
| + | is, mates? Why, it's the glow of timbers | ||
| + | that's been rotted by near two hundred years | ||
| + | of weather."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | that owns her crew; they have the malice | ||
| + | of devils, and they need but touch us to | ||
| + | founder us."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | one of the two foreigners who were | ||
| + | among our company of seamen. "If she is, | ||
| + | as I believe, she will be manned by the | ||
| + | ghosts of wicked men who have perished at | ||
| + | sea; presently a bell shall strike, and she | ||
| + | must disappear!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>As this was said there was a commotion | ||
| + | forward, and the carpenter, borne by two | ||
| + | stout hands, was carried into the midst of the | ||
| + | crew, and propped up so that he might see | ||
| + | the ship. I was as eager as any of the most | ||
| + | illiterate sailors on board to hear what he had | ||
| + | to say, and took a step the better to catch his | ||
| + | words. A whole minute went by whilst he | ||
| + | gazed; so strained and anticipative were my | ||
| + | senses that the moments seemed as hours. | ||
| + | He then said, " | ||
| + | Ship, right enough. Look hard, and you'll | ||
| + | mark the steeve of her bowsprit with the | ||
| + | round top at the end of it, and the spring of | ||
| + | her aft in a fashion more ancient than is the | ||
| + | ages of any two of the oldest men aboard. | ||
| + | Note the after-rake of her mizzen-mast, | ||
| + | how the heel of the foremast looks to step in | ||
| + | the fore-peak. That's the ship& | ||
| + | master& | ||
| + | heard tell of& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | or horror, he fainted, but being laid | ||
| + | upon the deck, and some water thrown over | ||
| + | his face, he came to in a short while, and lay | ||
| + | trembling, refusing to speak or answer questions.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A slight thinning of the vapour that hid | ||
| + | the moon had enabled us to remark those | ||
| + | points in the ship the carpenter had named; | ||
| + | and whilst he was being recovered from his | ||
| + | swoon, the moon looked down from a gulf in | ||
| + | the mist, but her light was still very tarnished< | ||
| + | and dim, though blurred and distorted as was | ||
| + | her appearance, yet there instantly formed | ||
| + | round her the same halo or wan circle that | ||
| + | was visible before she was hidden. But her | ||
| + | apparition made a light that exquisitely | ||
| + | answered to those two lines of Shakespeare& | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | Pale in her anger washes all the air."< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cleansing of the atmosphere after the black | ||
| + | smother that had encompassed us, and now | ||
| + | we could all see the ship distinctly as she lay | ||
| + | on our quarter with her broadside somewhat | ||
| + | to us, her yards trimmed like our own, and | ||
| + | her sails hanging dead.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was the solemnest sight that ever mortal | ||
| + | eye beheld. The light left her black, so | ||
| + | there was no telling what hue she showed or | ||
| + | was painted. Her bows lay low in the water | ||
| + | after the old fashion, with head-boards curling | ||
| + | to her beak, that doubtless bore an ornament, | ||
| + | though we could not distinguish it. There< | ||
| + | she rose like a hill, broken with the bulwarks | ||
| + | that defined her waist, quarter-deck and short | ||
| + | poop. This was as much as we could | ||
| + | discern of her hull. Her foremast stood | ||
| + | close to where the heel of her bowsprit came; | ||
| + | her mizzen-mast raked over her stern, and | ||
| + | upon it was a yard answering to the rig of a | ||
| + | felucca; the clew of its sail came down clear | ||
| + | of a huge lantern whose iron frame, for all | ||
| + | the glass in it was broke and gone, showed | ||
| + | like the skeleton of some monster on her | ||
| + | taffrail. It was a sight to terrify the stoutest | ||
| + | heart to see the creeping of thin, worm or | ||
| + | wire-like gleamings upon the side she showed | ||
| + | to us. I considered at first she was glossy | ||
| + | and that those lights were the reflection of | ||
| + | the phosphoric fires in the water under her; | ||
| + | but it was soon made plain that this was not | ||
| + | so, as, though to be sure a greenish glare of | ||
| + | the true sea-flame would show against or near | ||
| + | her when she slightly leaned, as we did, to | ||
| + | the swell, this charnel-house or touch-wood< | ||
| + | glimmer played all along her without regard | ||
| + | to the phosphorescence under her.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sea, I had, as I have said, believed in the | ||
| + | existence of the Spectre Ship, which all | ||
| + | mariners I have sailed with feared to encounter; | ||
| + | but so many imaginative stories | ||
| + | had come of her& | ||
| + | carpenter' | ||
| + | death ship, filled with spectres who navigated | ||
| + | her; others that she was a spectral bark, | ||
| + | laden with souls, against whom the gates of | ||
| + | Purgatory were closed; others that she was | ||
| + | a vessel for ever beating against gales of | ||
| + | wind, sometimes appearing in a tempest that | ||
| + | surrounded her when the rest of the ocean | ||
| + | was smooth, sometimes rising from the | ||
| + | waves, sometimes floating among the clouds, | ||
| + | buffetting up there as though the masses of | ||
| + | insubstantial vapour were solid and massy | ||
| + | folds and acclivities; | ||
| + | many stories that they had ended in leaving< | ||
| + | me with a belief of my own, which was that | ||
| + | the Phantom Ship& | ||
| + | an airy incorporeal thing& | ||
| + | encountered but rarely in these parts, a sea-ghost | ||
| + | that had been too often beheld in the | ||
| + | course of years to be denied, and as truly a | ||
| + | spectre in its way as any that may be read of | ||
| + | in Holy Writ, or that has stood at the bedsides | ||
| + | of men and women and delivered | ||
| + | messages from futurity.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mightily terrified by the ancient shape of the | ||
| + | ship and the mystery of her purpose, and the | ||
| + | darkness and silence that clothed her, I could | ||
| + | not believe that she was the true spectre that | ||
| + | the sailor dreads; for, that she was as substantial | ||
| + | as our vessel& | ||
| + | spurs and knotted fangs"& | ||
| + | not more from her quiet, heaving motion | ||
| + | than from the dull sounds I had now and | ||
| + | again caught of the movement of her gear | ||
| + | aloft, such as the scraping of a rope in a<span class=" | ||
| + | block, or the soft slap of a cloth against a | ||
| + | spar by the heave of the fabric setting some | ||
| + | light sail a-fanning.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Mr. Hall, speaking softly, but with much of | ||
| + | his excitement and uneasiness gone. "Does | ||
| + | she resemble the craft that the master of the | ||
| + | snow told Captain Skevington he sighted | ||
| + | hereabouts?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | does not follow that she is the Phantom Ship. | ||
| + | The Plymouth hooker' | ||
| + | deal to terror, and it would not lose in its | ||
| + | passage through the brain of a lunatic, as I | ||
| + | fear poor Skevington was."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ship, but the like of her I have never seen, | ||
| + | save in old prints. Mark those faint fiery | ||
| + | stripes and spirals upon her. I do not understand | ||
| + | it. The wood that yields such light | ||
| + | must be as rotten as tinder and porous as a | ||
| + | sponge. It could not swim."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>By this time the mysterious ship had | ||
| + | floated out her whole length, unless it were | ||
| + | our vessel that had slewed and given us that | ||
| + | view of her. No light save the lambent | ||
| + | gleams on her sides was to be seen. We | ||
| + | could hear no voices. We could discern no | ||
| + | movement of figures or distinguish any outline | ||
| + | resembling a human shape upon her. | ||
| + | On a sudden, my eye was caught by an | ||
| + | illumination overhead that made a lustre | ||
| + | strong enough to enable me to see the face | ||
| + | of Mr. Hall. I looked up conceiving that | ||
| + | one of our crew had jumped aloft with a | ||
| + | lantern, and saw at our main yard-arm a | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | freely like a luminous bulb, poised a few | ||
| + | inches above the spar. Scarce had this been | ||
| + | kindled, and whilst it was paling the faces of | ||
| + | our seamen who stared at it, there suddenly | ||
| + | shone two bright meteors of a similar kind | ||
| + | upon the strange ship; one on top of the | ||
| + | topgallant-masthead that was the full height< | ||
| + | of the main spars, and one on the summit of a | ||
| + | mast that stood up from the round top at the | ||
| + | end of the bowsprit and that in olden times, | ||
| + | before it was discontinued, | ||
| + | been called the sprit-topmast. They had | ||
| + | something of the glory of stars; their reflection | ||
| + | twisted like silver serpents in the dark | ||
| + | waters; and as though they had been flambeaux | ||
| + | or lamps, they flung their spectral | ||
| + | glow upon the strangely-cut sails of the | ||
| + | vessel, upon her rigging and spars, sickling | ||
| + | all things to their starry colour, dimly illuminating | ||
| + | even the distant castle-like poop, showing | ||
| + | clearly the dark line of bulwarks, whilst a | ||
| + | deeper dye of blackness entered into the hull | ||
| + | from the shadow between the < | ||
| + | high and their mirroring beneath.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | lights!" | ||
| + | among the men. " | ||
| + | kindles them, I've heared; and there' | ||
| + | breeze with luck behind it presently."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | you observe the figures of men? Look along | ||
| + | the line of the forecastle& | ||
| + | count six there; and look right aft on that | ||
| + | bit of a poop. Do you mark a couple of | ||
| + | shapes viewing us as if with folded arms?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "Those lights are familiar enough to me, | ||
| + | I've seen them scores of times," | ||
| + | whispers, which trembled back to their | ||
| + | former notes of consternation, | ||
| + | something frightful about them now& | ||
| + | yonder one," pointing to our yard-arm, "and | ||
| + | the sight they show. She's no natural ship," | ||
| + | he said, pulling off his cap, and passing his | ||
| + | hand over his forehead. "Would to God a | ||
| + | breeze would come and part us."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I walked right aft to bring me more | ||
| + | abreast of the silent motionless figures on the | ||
| + | stranger' | ||
| + | caught hold of the vang of the spanker-gaff | ||
| + | to steady myself, and putting a hand to my | ||
| + | mouth, roared out, "Ship ahoy! What ship | ||
| + | is that?" and stopped breathless, so that I | ||
| + | seemed to hear the echoes of my own voice | ||
| + | among the sails of the stranger.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | deep, organ-like note, and the two figures | ||
| + | separated, one walking forward, and the | ||
| + | other stepping, as I had, on to the bulwark | ||
| + | over the quarter-gallery.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Indian ports," | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | same deep-throated voice.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | seaman on our deck. " | ||
| + | you see now what he is! Keep them off!& | ||
| + | them off!" at which there was a sudden | ||
| + | hurrying of feet, with many clicking sounds | ||
| + | of triggers sharply cocked, by which I knew | ||
| + | our men had armed themselves.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in a few seconds it showed itself afresh midway | ||
| + | up the mainmast, making a wild light | ||
| + | all around it; those on the stranger burned | ||
| + | steadily, and I believed a third had been | ||
| + | kindled on her till I saw it was a lantern | ||
| + | carried along the deck. There was a stillness | ||
| + | lasting some minutes. What they were | ||
| + | about we could not see; anon came a creaking, | ||
| + | as of ropes travelling in blocks, then a | ||
| + | light splash; the lantern dropped jerkily | ||
| + | down the ship's side, plainly grasped by a | ||
| + | man; flashes of phosphorus broke out of the | ||
| + | water to the dip of oars, like fire clipped from | ||
| + | a flint. I felt a faint air blowing, but did not | ||
| + | heed it, being half-frenzied with the excitement | ||
| + | and fear raised in me by what I could | ||
| + | now see& | ||
| + | fires, and the mystic crawlings of flames on | ||
| + | the vessel' | ||
| + | both ends, with the gunwale running out into | ||
| + | horns, rowed by two figures, whilst a third< | ||
| + | stood upright in the bows, holding high a | ||
| + | lighted lantern in one hand, and extending | ||
| + | his other arm in a posture of supplication.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>At this instant a yellow glare broke in a | ||
| + | noon-tide dazzle from our own ship's rail, | ||
| + | and the thunder of twenty muskets fired at | ||
| + | once fell upon my hearing. I started with | ||
| + | the violence of the shock breaking in upon | ||
| + | me, heedlessly let go the vang that I had | ||
| + | been grasping with my left hand, and fell | ||
| + | headlong overboard.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | I AM RESCUED BY THE DEATH SHIP.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I rose to the surface from a deep plunge, | ||
| + | but being a very indifferent swimmer it was | ||
| + | as much as I could do& | ||
| + | keep myself afloat by battling with my hands. | ||
| + | I heard the rippling of the water about my | ||
| + | ears, and I felt a deep despair settle upon | ||
| + | my spirits, for I knew that the air that blew | ||
| + | would carry my ship away from me and that | ||
| + | I must speedily drown.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Saracen had moved and I could see her, a | ||
| + | great shadow, drawing away with the < | ||
| + | sant</ | ||
| + | her mainmast, now shining on her fore-topsail | ||
| + | yard-arm. I had not the least doubt< | ||
| + | that, in the noise of the shooting, and amid | ||
| + | the general alarm excited by the approach of | ||
| + | the boat, neither the splash I had made in | ||
| + | striking the water nor my disappearance had | ||
| + | been noticed, and I remember thinking with | ||
| + | the swiftness peculiar to persons in my | ||
| + | situation& | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | "He long survives who lives an hour<br /> | ||
| + | In ocean self-upheld& | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I say I remember thinking that even if I | ||
| + | should be immediately missed it was most | ||
| + | unlikely the crew would suffer Mr. Hall to | ||
| + | stop the ship and seek for me, for they would | ||
| + | be mad not to use the new wind and sweep | ||
| + | away from waters accurst by the presence of | ||
| + | what was undoubtedly the Death Ship, | ||
| + | whilst if even Mr. Hall's persuasion should | ||
| + | prevail, yet long before that time I should | ||
| + | have sunk.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I struggled hard to keep myself afloat, | ||
| + | freely breaking the water in the hope that the | ||
| + | light and whiteness of it might be seen.< | ||
| + | Four or five minutes thus passed and I was | ||
| + | feeling my legs growing weighty as lead, | ||
| + | when I noticed a light approach me. My eyes | ||
| + | being full of wet, I could see no more than | ||
| + | the light, what held or bore it being eclipsed | ||
| + | by the spikes or fibres that shot out of it; as | ||
| + | you notice a candle flame when the sight is | ||
| + | damp. I could also hear the dip and trickle | ||
| + | of oars, and tried to shout; but my brain was | ||
| + | giddy, my mind sinking into a babbling state, | ||
| + | and in truth I was so exhausted, that but for | ||
| + | the sudden life darted into me by the sight of | ||
| + | the lamp, I am sure I should then and there | ||
| + | have clenched my hands above my head and | ||
| + | sunk.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and I was grasped by my hair. He who | ||
| + | seized me spoke, and I believed it was the | ||
| + | voice of one of the men in my watch, though | ||
| + | I did not catch a syllable of his speech. | ||
| + | After which I felt myself grasped under each | ||
| + | arm and lifted out of the water, whereupon I<span class=" | ||
| + | no doubt fainted, for there is a blank between | ||
| + | this and what followed, though the interval | ||
| + | must have been very short.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | my senses returned to me, I found myself | ||
| + | lying on my back, and the first thing I noticed | ||
| + | was the moon shining weakly amid thin | ||
| + | bodies of vapour which the wind had set in | ||
| + | motion and which sped under her in puffs like | ||
| + | the smoke of gunpowder after the discharge | ||
| + | of a cannon. I lay musing a little while, | ||
| + | conscious of nothing but the moon and some | ||
| + | dark stretches of sail hovering above me; | ||
| + | but my mind gathering force, I saw by the | ||
| + | cut of the canvas that I was on board a | ||
| + | strange ship; and then did I observe three | ||
| + | men standing near my feet watching me. A | ||
| + | great terror seized my heart. I sprang erect | ||
| + | with a loud cry of fear, and rushed to the | ||
| + | rail to see if the Saracen was near that I | ||
| + | might hail her, but was stayed in that by | ||
| + | being seized by the arm.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He who clutched me exclaimed in Dutch, | ||
| + | "What would you do? If you could swim | ||
| + | for a week you would not catch her."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I perfectly understood him, but made no | ||
| + | reply, did not even look at him, staring about | ||
| + | the sea for the Saracen in an anguish of mind | ||
| + | not to be expressed. Suddenly I caught | ||
| + | sight of the smudge of her, and perceived she | ||
| + | was heading away on her course; she was out | ||
| + | on our starboard beam. I cast my eyes aloft, | ||
| + | and found the yards of the ship I was in | ||
| + | braced up to meet the wind on the larboard | ||
| + | tack, whence I knew that every instant was | ||
| + | widening the space between the two vessels. | ||
| + | On mastering this I could have dashed myself | ||
| + | down on the deck with grief and terror. | ||
| + | One of the group observing me as if I should | ||
| + | fall, extended his hand, but I shrunk back | ||
| + | with horror, and covered my face, whilst | ||
| + | deep hysteric sobs burst from my breast, for | ||
| + | now, without heeding any further appearances, | ||
| + | I knew that I was on board the<span class=" | ||
| + | Phantom Ship, the Sea Spectre, dreaded of | ||
| + | marines, a fabric accurst by God, in the | ||
| + | presence of men dead and yet alive, more | ||
| + | terrible in their supernatural existence, in | ||
| + | their clothing of flesh whose human mortality | ||
| + | had been rendered undecaying by a fate that | ||
| + | shrunk up the soul in one to think of, than | ||
| + | had they been ghosts& | ||
| + | which you might pass your hand as through | ||
| + | a moonbeam!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I stood awhile as though paralysed, but | ||
| + | was presently rallied by the chill of the night | ||
| + | wind striking through my streaming clothes. | ||
| + | A lantern was near where the three men | ||
| + | were grouped, no doubt the same that had | ||
| + | been carried in the boat, but the dim illumination | ||
| + | would have sufficed for no more than | ||
| + | to throw out the proportion of things within | ||
| + | its sphere, had it not been helped by the faint | ||
| + | moonlight and a < | ||
| + | the power of a planet close against the blocks | ||
| + | of the jeers of the mainyard. 'Twas a<span class=" | ||
| + | ghostly radiance to behold the men in, but I | ||
| + | found nerve now to survey them.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | very tall, above six feet, with a grey& | ||
| + | white& | ||
| + | the second was a broad, corpulent man, of | ||
| + | the true Dutch build without hair on his face; | ||
| + | in the third man I could see nothing striking, | ||
| + | if it were not for a ruggedness of seafaring | ||
| + | aspect. I could not distinguish their apparel | ||
| + | beyond that the stout man wore boots to the | ||
| + | height of his knees, whereas the tall personage | ||
| + | was clad in black hose, shoes with | ||
| + | large buckles, and breeches terminating at | ||
| + | the knees; their head-dresses were alike, a | ||
| + | sort of cap of skin, with flaps for the ears.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the three, after eyeing me in silence whilst a | ||
| + | man could have counted a hundred. He it | ||
| + | was who had responded to my hail from the | ||
| + | Saracen, as my ear immediately detected& | ||
| + | that I had my faculties& | ||
| + | organ-like melodiousness and tremor of his | ||
| + | voice.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I answered " | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | We intended no harm. We desired but a | ||
| + | little favour& | ||
| + | of which we are short."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the words, or the pronunciation of them, | ||
| + | were different from what I had been used | ||
| + | to hear at Rotterdam. He spoke imperiously, | ||
| + | with a hint even of passion, and, | ||
| + | rearing himself to his full stature, clasped | ||
| + | his hands behind him, and stared at me as | ||
| + | some Indian King might at a slave.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a slow hand at his tongue, and besides, the | ||
| + | chill of my clothes was now become a pain, | ||
| + | "first let me ask what ship is this, and who | ||
| + | are you and your men who have rescued me | ||
| + | from death?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he answered, in his deep, solemn voice. | ||
| + | "I, who command the vessel, am known | ||
| + | as Cornelius Vanderdecken; | ||
| + | to whom you owe your life, are | ||
| + | Frederick Houtman, John de Bremen, and | ||
| + | this man," indicating the rough, uncouth | ||
| + | person who stood on his left, "the mate, | ||
| + | Herman Van Vogelaar."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I felt a sensation as of ice pressed to my | ||
| + | chest when he pronounced his own name, | ||
| + | yet, recollecting he had called his ship the | ||
| + | Braave, I asked, though 'twas wonderful he | ||
| + | could follow my utterance& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I said, "When did you sail?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | year! By the glory of the Holy Trinity, but | ||
| + | it is dreary work; see how the wind heads us | ||
| + | even yet!" He sighed deeply and glanced< | ||
| + | aloft in a manner that suggested grievous | ||
| + | weariness.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | expanding my soul and calming me as an | ||
| + | opiate might, "if that be so why, then, | ||
| + | though this ship had made a prodigiously | ||
| + | long voyage of it from Java to these | ||
| + | parallels, there is nothing wildly out of | ||
| + | nature in such tardiness." | ||
| + | I caught the true signification of the words | ||
| + | he used?</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | voice as the shivers which chased me permitted, | ||
| + | "what might last year be?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | some exclamation I could not catch, the | ||
| + | captain made a gesture with his hands, whilst | ||
| + | their burly companion said in thick, Dutch | ||
| + | accents, "It needs not salt water, but good, | ||
| + | strong liquor to take away a Hollander' | ||
| + | brain."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | his haughty, imperious manner, | ||
| + | "why, mynheer, what should be last year but | ||
| + | 1653?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | WY ZYN AL VERDOMD.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | there is suddenly wrought a dual action of | ||
| + | the brain; where from one side, so to say, | ||
| + | there is darted into the mind thoughts utterly | ||
| + | illogical and insane, which the same side | ||
| + | marvels at, and seeks to reject, though if | ||
| + | the fit linger the whole intelligence may be | ||
| + | seized.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I recollect of seeking for confirmation of | ||
| + | the words of the man who styled himself | ||
| + | Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | for the first time, that upon the planks of the | ||
| + | deck which were out of the reach of the | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | fires, as of phosphorus, creeping and coming< | ||
| + | and going upon a dark wall, which I had | ||
| + | observed on the vessel' | ||
| + | figures of men moved forward. Close | ||
| + | beside me was a small gun of the kind | ||
| + | carried by ships in the beginning of the | ||
| + | last century, termed a light saker, and discharging | ||
| + | a six-pound ball. There were | ||
| + | three of these on the larboard side, and, in | ||
| + | the haze of the moonlight and the sheen of | ||
| + | the jelly-like star that shone with a pure, | ||
| + | pale gold over my head, I could discern | ||
| + | upon the bulwarks of the quarter-deck and | ||
| + | poop several swivels furnished with handles | ||
| + | for pointing them. I also observed a short | ||
| + | flight of steps conducting to the quarter-deck, | ||
| + | with two sets of a like kind leading to the | ||
| + | poop, the front of which was furnished with | ||
| + | a door and little window.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the eye, for the light was confusing, a faint, | ||
| + | erroneous ray glancing from imperfect surfaces | ||
| + | and flinging half an image; and then< | ||
| + | an indescribable fear possessing me again, I | ||
| + | looked in the direction where I had last | ||
| + | beheld the smudge made by the Saracen, | ||
| + | and, not seeing her, cried out wildly, in my | ||
| + | broken Dutch, "Sirs, for the love of God | ||
| + | follow my ship, and make some signals that | ||
| + | she may know I am here!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | corpulent man, who proved to be the boatswain, | ||
| + | named Antony Jans, "after their | ||
| + | cowardly inhumanity in firing upon a small | ||
| + | unarmed boat, and putting in peril the life | ||
| + | of our mate, Van Vogelaar, we should have | ||
| + | nothing more to do with her."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | that the Dutch are a merciful people," | ||
| + | Van Vogelaar, scornfully. "Had our nationalities | ||
| + | been reversed, he would have been | ||
| + | left to drown as a tribute to the courage of | ||
| + | his comrades."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to regard me steadfastly and with great< | ||
| + | sternness, then on a sudden relaxing his | ||
| + | frown, he exclaimed in that wondrous voice | ||
| + | of his, which put a solemn music into his | ||
| + | least utterance: "Come, you shiver with the | ||
| + | cold, and have the look of the drowned. | ||
| + | Jans, send Prins to me; sir, please to follow."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He motioned in a haughty manner towards | ||
| + | the poop and walked that way. One desperate | ||
| + | look I cast round the sea, and then | ||
| + | with a prayer to God that this experience | ||
| + | might prove some eclipse of my reason from | ||
| + | which my mind would float out bright afresh | ||
| + | ere long, I followed the great figure of the | ||
| + | captain, but with a step so faltering from | ||
| + | weakness and grief, that he, perceiving my | ||
| + | condition, took me by the elbow and supported | ||
| + | me up the ladder to the cabin under | ||
| + | the poop.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | return of my manhood& | ||
| + | reader will approve the candour with which I | ||
| + | have confessed my cowardice& | ||
| + | might be the reason, I began now to look | ||
| + | about me with a growing curiosity. The interior | ||
| + | into which Captain Vanderdecken conducted | ||
| + | me, was of a dingy yellowish hue, | ||
| + | such as age might complexion delicate white | ||
| + | paint with. An oil lamp of a very beautiful, | ||
| + | elegant and rare pattern, furnished with eight | ||
| + | panes of glass, variously and all choicely | ||
| + | coloured with figures of birds, flowers and | ||
| + | the like, though the opening at the bottom | ||
| + | let the white light of the oil-flame fall fair on | ||
| + | to the table and the deck, swung by a thin | ||
| + | chain from a central beam. The cabin was | ||
| + | the width of the ship, and on its walls were | ||
| + | oval frames, dusky as old mahogany, each | ||
| + | one, as I suspected, holding a painting. Over | ||
| + | the door by which the cabin was entered was | ||
| + | a clock and near it hung a cage with a parrot | ||
| + | in it. Of ports I could see no remains, and | ||
| + | supposed that by day all the light that | ||
| + | entered streamed through the windows on | ||
| + | either side the door.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | after end there were two state cabins bulkheaded | ||
| + | off from the living room, each with | ||
| + | a door. The several colours of the lamp | ||
| + | caused it to cast a radiance like a rainbow, | ||
| + | and therefore it was hard to make sure of | ||
| + | objects amid such an intricacy of illumination; | ||
| + | but, as I have said, the sides of the cabin were | ||
| + | a sickly dismal yellow, and the furniture in it | ||
| + | was formed of a very solid square table, with | ||
| + | legs marvellously carved, and a box beneath | ||
| + | it, two benches on either hand, and a black | ||
| + | high-backed chair& | ||
| + | velvet, the wood framing it cut into many | ||
| + | devices& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | noticed. The captain, first removing his cap, | ||
| + | pointed to a bench, and lifting his finger, with | ||
| + | a glance at the starboard cabin, said in a low | ||
| + | tone, "Sir, if you speak be it softly, if you | ||
| + | please," | ||
| + | the entrance from the deck, standing erect,< | ||
| + | with one hand on the table, and manifestly | ||
| + | waiting for the person he had styled Prins to | ||
| + | arrive. A ruby-coloured lustre was upon his | ||
| + | face; his waist down was in the white lamplight. | ||
| + | He had a most noble port, I thought, | ||
| + | such an elevation of the head, such disdainful | ||
| + | and determined erectness of figure, as made | ||
| + | his posture royal. There was not the least | ||
| + | hint in his face of the Dutch flatness and | ||
| + | insipidity of expression one is used to in those | ||
| + | industrious but phlegmatic people. His nose | ||
| + | was aquiline, the nostrils hidden by the | ||
| + | moustachios which mingled with his noble | ||
| + | Druidical beard. His forehead was square | ||
| + | and heavy, his hair was scanty, yet abundant | ||
| + | enough to conceal the skin of his head; his | ||
| + | eyes were black, impassioned, | ||
| + | a ruby star now shone in each which gave | ||
| + | them a forbidding and formidable expression | ||
| + | as they moved under the shadow of his | ||
| + | shaggy brows. He wore a coat of stout cloth | ||
| + | confined by buttons, and a belt round his<span class=" | ||
| + | waist. This, with his small clothes which I | ||
| + | have described, formed a very puzzling | ||
| + | apparel, the like of which I had never seen. | ||
| + | There were no rents, nor darns nor patches& | ||
| + | to indicate that his attire was of | ||
| + | great age. Yet there was something in this | ||
| + | commanding person that caused me to know, | ||
| + | by feelings deeper than awe or even fear, by | ||
| + | instincts indeed not explicable, such as must | ||
| + | have urged in olden times the intelligence to | ||
| + | the recognition of those supernatural beings | ||
| + | you read of in Scripture, that he was not as I | ||
| + | was, as are other men who bear their natural | ||
| + | parts in the procession from the cradle to the | ||
| + | grave. The tremendous and shocking fears | ||
| + | of Captain Skevington recurred to me, and | ||
| + | methought as I gazed at the silent, majestic | ||
| + | seaman, that the late master of the Saracen | ||
| + | who, by his ending, had shown himself a | ||
| + | madman might, as had other insane persons | ||
| + | in their time, have struck in one of his finer | ||
| + | frenzies upon a horrible truth; the mere< | ||
| + | fear of which caused me to press my hands | ||
| + | to my eyes with a renewal of mental | ||
| + | anguish, and to entreat in a swift prayer | ||
| + | to that Being, whom he who stood before | ||
| + | me had defied, for power to collect my mind | ||
| + | and for quick deliverance from this awful | ||
| + | situation.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | arrival of Prins, a parched-faced, | ||
| + | man, habited in a coarse woollen shirt, | ||
| + | trousers of the stuff we call fearnought, and | ||
| + | an old jacket. He made nothing of my | ||
| + | presence nor condition, scarce glancing at | ||
| + | me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | said the captain. "Take what may be needful | ||
| + | from my cabin. They will hang loose on | ||
| + | him but must serve till his own are dry. | ||
| + | Quick! you see he shivers."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | have before said, of an antique character, | ||
| + | and therefore not quickly to be followed;< | ||
| + | whence I will not pretend that I give exactly | ||
| + | all that was spoken, though the substance of | ||
| + | it is accurately reported.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cabin at the end, whilst the captain, going to | ||
| + | the table, pulled from under it a great | ||
| + | drawer, which I had taken to be a chest, | ||
| + | from which he lifted a silver goblet and a | ||
| + | strangely-fashioned stone bottle.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | arrogant impetuosity in his way of pouring | ||
| + | out the liquor and extending the goblet.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mouthful; I tossed down the whole of it, and | ||
| + | placed the goblet, that was very heavy and | ||
| + | sweetly chased, on the table with a bow of | ||
| + | thanks.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he, returning the cup and bottle to the | ||
| + | drawer, and then folding his arms and | ||
| + | looking at me under his contracted brows, | ||
| + | with his back to the lantern whilst he leaned< | ||
| + | against the table. "Are you fresh from your | ||
| + | country?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I told him that we had sailed in April | ||
| + | from the Thames, and had lately come out | ||
| + | of Table Bay.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mine?" he inquired, speaking softly, as | ||
| + | though he feared to awaken some sleeper, | ||
| + | though, let his utterance be what it would, | ||
| + | 'twas always melodious and rich.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I answered, "No; it grieves me to say it, | ||
| + | but our countries are still at war. I will not | ||
| + | pretend, sir, that Great Britain has acted | ||
| + | with good faith towards the Batavian Republic; | ||
| + | their High Mightinesses resent the | ||
| + | infraction of treaties; they protest against the | ||
| + | manner in which the island of St. Eustatia | ||
| + | was devastated; they hope to recover the | ||
| + | Cape of Good Hope, and likewise their possessions | ||
| + | in the Indies, more particularly their | ||
| + | great Coromandel factory."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to speak as soothingly as possible of such | ||
| + | things, though, but for the brandy, I doubt | ||
| + | if my teeth would not have chattered too | ||
| + | boisterously for the utterance of even the | ||
| + | few words I delivered. In honest truth, I | ||
| + | felt an unspeakable awe and fear in addressing | ||
| + | this man, who surveyed me with the | ||
| + | severest, most scornful gaze imaginable from | ||
| + | the height of his regal stature.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | after a frowning stare of amazement; then | ||
| + | waved his hand with a gesture half of pity, | ||
| + | half of disdain. "You have been perilously | ||
| + | close to death," | ||
| + | babble will settle into good sense when you | ||
| + | have shifted and slept." | ||
| + | with a half-look around, as | ||
| + | though he sought another of his own | ||
| + | kind to address, and said as one thinking | ||
| + | aloud, "If Tromp and Evertzens and De | ||
| + | Witt and De Ruyter have not yet swept | ||
| + | them off the seas 'tis only because they< | ||
| + | have not had time to complete the easy | ||
| + | task!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>As he said this the clock over the door | ||
| + | struck two. The chimes had a hollow, | ||
| + | cathedral-like sound, as though indeed it | ||
| + | was the clock of a cathedral striking in the | ||
| + | distance. Glancing at the direction whence | ||
| + | these notes issued, I was just in time to | ||
| + | witness the acting of an extraordinary piece | ||
| + | of mechanism, that is to say, there arose | ||
| + | to the top of the clock-case, that was of some | ||
| + | species of metal& | ||
| + | protected with horn instead of glass& | ||
| + | arose, I say, the figure of a skeleton, imitated | ||
| + | to the life, holding in one hand an hour-glass | ||
| + | on which he turned his eyeless sockets by a | ||
| + | movement of the head, whilst with the other | ||
| + | hand he grasped a lance or spear that, as I | ||
| + | afterwards perceived, he flourished to every | ||
| + | stroke of the clock-bell, as though he pierced | ||
| + | something prostrate at his feet. The figure | ||
| + | shrank into the inside of the clock when the<span class=" | ||
| + | chimes were over. As if to complete the | ||
| + | bewilderment under which I laboured, scarce | ||
| + | had the second chime of the clock rung its | ||
| + | last vibration, when a harsh voice croaked | ||
| + | out in Dutch& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I started, and cried out involuntarily and | ||
| + | faintly, "My God!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Captain Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | his looks, though he did not smile. "Tis the | ||
| + | only sentence she seems able to pronounce. | ||
| + | It was all she could say when I bought her."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | feeling as though I lay a-dreaming.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Batavia two days before we sailed as a gift | ||
| + | for my eldest daughter& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Prins. "The clothes are ready, skipper," | ||
| + | said he.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>On this Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | be silent& | ||
| + | puzzling as all other things& | ||
| + | to the cabin from which Prins had emerged, | ||
| + | and viewing the clothes upon the bed, | ||
| + | said, "Yes, they will do; wear them, | ||
| + | mynheer, till yours have been dried. Leave | ||
| + | this door on the hook, you will then get | ||
| + | light enough for your purpose from yonder | ||
| + | lamp."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | stockings, breeches of an old pattern, and a | ||
| + | coat with a great skirt embellished with metal | ||
| + | buttons, several of which were missing, and | ||
| + | the remains of some gold lace upon the cuffs. | ||
| + | In addition, there was a clean linen shirt, and | ||
| + | a pair of South American hide boots, fawn-coloured. | ||
| + | 'Twas like clothing myself for a | ||
| + | masquerade to dress in such things, but for | ||
| + | all that I was mighty pleased and grateful to | ||
| + | escape from my own soaked attire, which by | ||
| + | keeping the surface of the body cold prohibited | ||
| + | my nerves from regaining their< | ||
| + | customary tone. I went to work nimbly, | ||
| + | observing that Captain Vanderdecken waited | ||
| + | for me, and was soon shifted, but not before | ||
| + | I had viewed the cabin, which I found to be | ||
| + | spacious enough. The bed was curious, | ||
| + | being what we term a four-poster, | ||
| + | ends of the posts cleated to the ceiling, | ||
| + | whilst the lower legs were in the form of dolphins, | ||
| + | and had one time been gilt with gold. | ||
| + | There were curtains to it of faded green silk& | ||
| + | I judged& | ||
| + | lockers, a small table, on which lay a fore-staff, | ||
| + | or cross-staff as it was often called, a | ||
| + | rude ancient instrument used for measuring | ||
| + | the altitude of the sun before the introduction | ||
| + | of Hadley' | ||
| + | staff, having a scale of degrees and parts of | ||
| + | degrees marked upon it, and cross-pieces | ||
| + | which could be moved along it. By it stood | ||
| + | a sand-glass for turning to tell the time by. | ||
| + | Against the bulkhead that separated this | ||
| + | from the adjoining cabin were hung two ox-eyed< | ||
| + | mirrors, the frames whereof had been | ||
| + | gilt, also four small paintings in oak-coloured | ||
| + | borders richly beaded. I could see that they | ||
| + | were portraits of females, dim, the hues | ||
| + | being faded. The ceiling of this cabin | ||
| + | showed traces of having been, once on | ||
| + | a time, very handsomely painted with the | ||
| + | hand.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | speaking-trumpet and an ancient perspective | ||
| + | glass& | ||
| + | would style an optic tube& | ||
| + | and formed of two tubes. This thing stood | ||
| + | on brackets, under which hung a watch, of as | ||
| + | true a sphere as an orange, and of the size of | ||
| + | one.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | not fail to guess how stout and noble a | ||
| + | ship this Braave, as her captain named her, | ||
| + | must have been in those distant years which | ||
| + | witnessed her birth.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>My costume made me feel ridiculous< | ||
| + | enough, for, whereas the boots might have | ||
| + | belonged to a period when Shelvocke and | ||
| + | Clipperton were plundering the Spaniards in | ||
| + | the south seas, the coat was of a fashion of | ||
| + | about thirty years past, whilst the breeches | ||
| + | were such as merchant captains and mates | ||
| + | wore when I was first going to sea. However, | ||
| + | being changed and dry, I stepped forth, | ||
| + | bearing my wet clothes with me, but they | ||
| + | were immediately taken from me by Prins, | ||
| + | who had been standing near the door unperceived | ||
| + | by me. On my appearing, Captain | ||
| + | Vanderdecken rose from the chair at the | ||
| + | head of the table, but seemed to find | ||
| + | nothing in my dress to amuse him. The | ||
| + | vari-coloured light was extremely confusing, | ||
| + | and it was with the utmost pains that I | ||
| + | could discern the expression of his face, but, | ||
| + | so far as I made out, it was one of extreme | ||
| + | melancholy, touched with lights and shades | ||
| + | by his moods, which yet left the prevailing | ||
| + | character unchanged. Indeed, the dreadful< | ||
| + | fancies of Captain Skevington smote me | ||
| + | fiercely once again, for, as I live to say it, | ||
| + | the countenance of this tall and haughty seaman | ||
| + | did suggest to me the melancholy you | ||
| + | notice on the face of the dead& | ||
| + | as that look in them may be& | ||
| + | irradiated by the tints and expressions of | ||
| + | vitality, insomuch that I fully felt the force | ||
| + | of the remark the master of the Plymouth | ||
| + | snow had made to Captain Skevington touching | ||
| + | the man he had seen on board the Death | ||
| + | Ship, namely, that he was a corpse artificially | ||
| + | animated and most terrible to behold for his | ||
| + | suggestions of death-in-life.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | said I. "Your kindness is great and I thank | ||
| + | you for it."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | liefer serve an Englishman than one of any | ||
| + | other country. The old and the young | ||
| + | Commonwealths should be friends. On<span class=" | ||
| + | either hand there are mighty hearts, you in | ||
| + | your Blakes, your Ayscues, your Monks; | ||
| + | we in our Van Tromp, whom the King of | ||
| + | Denmark, to my great joy before I sailed, | ||
| + | honourably justified to the people of Holland, | ||
| + | and in Van Galen, Ruyter, with other skilled | ||
| + | and lion-hearted men, whom I shall glory in | ||
| + | greeting on my return."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He seemed to reflect a moment, and suddenly | ||
| + | cried, with a passionate sparkle in his | ||
| + | eyes, "But 'twas cowardly in your captain to | ||
| + | order his men to fire upon our boat. What | ||
| + | did we seek? Such tobacco as you could | ||
| + | have spared, which we were willing to purchase. | ||
| + | By the vengeance of Heaven, 'twas a | ||
| + | deed unworthy of Englishmen."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I did not dare explain the true cause, and | ||
| + | said, gently, "Sir, our captain lay dead in his | ||
| + | cabin. The men, missing the chief, fell into a | ||
| + | panic at the sight of this ship, for she showed | ||
| + | large in the dusk, and we feared you meant | ||
| + | to lay us aboard."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He led the way on to the deck and we | ||
| + | descended the quarter-deck ladder.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | MY FIRST NIGHT IN THE DEATH SHIP.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I had been in too great a confusion of mind | ||
| + | to heed the movements of the ship whilst I | ||
| + | was under cover, but on emerging I now | ||
| + | noticed that it had come on to blow very | ||
| + | fresh. The vessel under larboard tacks& | ||
| + | could not see what canvas she carried& | ||
| + | along very much, being light and tall, and | ||
| + | rolled with peculiar clumsiness in the hollows. | ||
| + | I caught sight of the water over the weather-rail, | ||
| + | and judged with the eye of a seaman | ||
| + | that what progress she was making was | ||
| + | wholly leeway; so that we were being blown | ||
| + | dead to the eastward, without probably | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | half-a-knot an hour. The moon was now<span class=" | ||
| + | deep in the west and showing a very wan | ||
| + | and stormy disk. North-west, where the land | ||
| + | lay, the sea looked to rise into a fluid blackness | ||
| + | of thunder-clouds, | ||
| + | glanced that way there fell a red gash of | ||
| + | lightning. There was a heavy sound of | ||
| + | seething and bombarding billows all about | ||
| + | us, and the whole picture had a wildness | ||
| + | past language, what with the scarlet glare | ||
| + | of the northern levin-brands and the ghastly | ||
| + | tempestuous paleness of the westering moon | ||
| + | and a dingy faintness owing its existence to | ||
| + | I know not what, if it were not the light of | ||
| + | the foaming multitudinous surge reflected | ||
| + | upon the sooty bosoms of the lowering | ||
| + | clouds over our stern.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | looking round upon this warring scene, and | ||
| + | flung up his arms towards the moon with a | ||
| + | passionate savage gesture, and then strode | ||
| + | to a narrow hatch betwixt the limits of | ||
| + | the quarter-deck and the mainmast, down< | ||
| + | which he went, first turning to see if I | ||
| + | followed. I now found myself in a kind | ||
| + | of ' | ||
| + | hand, in the doorway of the fore one, on | ||
| + | the starboard side, stood the man Prins, | ||
| + | holding a small lantern.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to the cabin, "must serve you for a sleeping | ||
| + | room; it has not the comfort of an inn, but | ||
| + | 'tis easy to see you are a sailor, and, therefore, | ||
| + | one to whom a plank will often be a | ||
| + | soft couch. In any case, here is accommodation | ||
| + | warmer than the bottom of the ocean."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | withdrew. Prins hung the lantern on to a | ||
| + | rail beside the door, and said he would return | ||
| + | for it shortly. I wanted to ask the man some | ||
| + | questions about the ship and her commander, | ||
| + | but there was something about him so scaring | ||
| + | and odd that I could not summon up heart to | ||
| + | address him. He appeared as one in whom | ||
| + | all qualities of the soul are dead, acting, in<span class=" | ||
| + | sooth, like a sleep-walker, | ||
| + | the least heed whatever, and going about | ||
| + | his business as mechanically as the skeleton | ||
| + | in the cabin clock rose and darted his lance | ||
| + | to the chimes of the bell.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was empty of all furniture saving a locker | ||
| + | that served as a seat as well as a box, and | ||
| + | a wooden sleeping-place, | ||
| + | secured to the side, in which, in lieu of a | ||
| + | mattress, were a couple of stout blankets, | ||
| + | tolerably new, and a sailor' | ||
| + | straw, for a pillow. I was wearied to the | ||
| + | bone, yet not sleepy, and lay me down in my | ||
| + | strange clothes without so much as removing | ||
| + | my boots, and in a few minutes Prins arrived | ||
| + | and took away the light, and there I was in | ||
| + | pitch darkness.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to be sure no sensible reflection penetrated | ||
| + | the blackness, yet when the lamp was removed | ||
| + | and my eyes had lost the glare of it, I<span class=" | ||
| + | beheld certain faint crawlings and swarmings | ||
| + | of phosphoric light upon the beams and | ||
| + | bulkheads, such as were noticeable upon the | ||
| + | outside of the ship, only not so strong. I | ||
| + | likewise observed a cold and ancient smell, | ||
| + | such as I recollect once catching the breath | ||
| + | of in the hold of a ship that had been built in | ||
| + | 1702 and which people in the year 1791 or | ||
| + | thereabouts viewed as a curiosity. Otherwise | ||
| + | there was nothing else remarkable. Whatever | ||
| + | this vessel might be, her motion on the | ||
| + | seas was as natural as that of the Saracen, | ||
| + | only that her wallowing was more ponderous | ||
| + | and ungainly. Yet, merciful Heaven! how | ||
| + | did every bulkhead groan, how did every | ||
| + | timber complain, how did every treenail cry | ||
| + | aloud! The noise of the labouring was truly | ||
| + | appalling; the creaking, straining, jarring, as | ||
| + | though the whole fabric were being dashed | ||
| + | to pieces. I had not immediately noticed | ||
| + | this when I followed Captain Vanderdecken | ||
| + | below, but it grew upon my ears as I lay in<span class=" | ||
| + | the blackness. Yet they were natural sounds, | ||
| + | and as such they afforded a sort of relief to | ||
| + | my strained brain and nervous, yea, and | ||
| + | affrighted imagination. The stillness of a | ||
| + | dead calm would have maddened me, I truly | ||
| + | believe. Phantasms and other horrors of my | ||
| + | fancy, rendered delirious by the situation into | ||
| + | which I had been plunged, would have played | ||
| + | their parts upon that stage of blackness, | ||
| + | hideous with the vault-like stirring of the | ||
| + | glow of rotted timber, to the destruction of | ||
| + | my intellect, but for the homely thunder of | ||
| + | the sea without and the crazy echoes within.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I asked myself what ship was this? That | ||
| + | she had a supernatural life, that he who | ||
| + | styled himself Vanderdecken& | ||
| + | reported was the name of the master of the | ||
| + | Phantom Ship, though it has been averred | ||
| + | that his real name was Bernard Fokke& | ||
| + | say that he and the others I had seen, more | ||
| + | particularly the man Prins, had something | ||
| + | goblin-like about them, something that carried< | ||
| + | them far out of the range of our common | ||
| + | humanity, spite of the majestic port, the | ||
| + | noble presence, the thrilling tones, like the | ||
| + | music of distant summer thunder, of the commander, | ||
| + | I could no more question than the | ||
| + | beating of my own heart as I lay a-thinking. | ||
| + | I knew by what I had heard and viewed | ||
| + | already, even in the brief hours packed full of | ||
| + | consternation, | ||
| + | her, that I was aboard of the Flying Dutchman, | ||
| + | the Phantom Ship, the Death Ship, the | ||
| + | Sea Spectre, as she has variously been | ||
| + | termed.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was fit to lapse into idiotcy. If Vanderdecken | ||
| + | had sailed from Batavia in 1653, why did he | ||
| + | speak of it as last year? If the Death Ship | ||
| + | was a ghostly object, impalpable, an essence | ||
| + | only as is a spirit, why was this vessel so | ||
| + | substantial that, heavily as she resounded | ||
| + | with the crazy echoes of her material state, | ||
| + | no first-rate could hold a stouter conflict with< | ||
| + | the seas? If she had been battling off the | ||
| + | Agulhas for one hundred and forty-three | ||
| + | years, how came she to have oil and waste for | ||
| + | her lanterns, clothes such as I wore, such as | ||
| + | the men I had seen were habited in, brandy, | ||
| + | blankets almost new like those I lay on, | ||
| + | and other stores; for I might be sure, from | ||
| + | the jar of brandy the captain had produced, | ||
| + | that the crew ate and drank as all men do | ||
| + | and must!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to my conviction that the ship I was | ||
| + | aboard of was the craft dreaded by all men | ||
| + | because of the great God's ban upon her and | ||
| + | the misfortunes she brought to others with | ||
| + | the very winds which filled her canvas. I | ||
| + | would have given all I owned& | ||
| + | that would have been small enough if I lost | ||
| + | what belonged to me in the Saracen& | ||
| + | leave to keep the deck, but I did not venture | ||
| + | for fear of incurring the displeasure of Vanderdecken. | ||
| + | So for several hours did I lay<span class=" | ||
| + | broad awake in my black dungeon of a cabin, | ||
| + | watching the loathsome, ghostly phosphoric | ||
| + | glow all about me, and listening to the | ||
| + | bellowing of the wind that had grown into | ||
| + | a storm, and marking the furious rolling of | ||
| + | the ship, whose wild inner creakings put a | ||
| + | note of frenzy into the thunder of the gale; | ||
| + | but never once hearing the sound of a | ||
| + | human call nor the echo of a man's tread, | ||
| + | I then fell asleep, but not before the dawn | ||
| + | had broken, as I might tell by the radiance, | ||
| + | which was little better than an ashen twilight, | ||
| + | that streamed down the hatch and showed in | ||
| + | an open space above the cabin door.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | I INSPECT THE FLYING DUTCHMAN.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I had scarcely fully woke up, when the man | ||
| + | Prins opened the cabin door and peered in, | ||
| + | and perceiving me to be awake, he entered | ||
| + | bearing a metal pitcher of water, an earthenware | ||
| + | dish, and a rough cloth for drying the | ||
| + | skin. He put down the dish so that it could | ||
| + | not slide, for the ship was rolling very heavily, | ||
| + | and then poured water into it, and said, as | ||
| + | he was in the act of withdrawing with the | ||
| + | pitcher, "The skipper is on the poop."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I answered by asking him for my clothes. | ||
| + | He shook his bearded, parchment-coloured | ||
| + | face and said: "They are still sodden," | ||
| + | immediately went out.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I might have guessed they could not be<span class=" | ||
| + | dry, but I presented so hideous a figure in | ||
| + | the apparel that had been lent to me that | ||
| + | I should have been glad to resume my own | ||
| + | coat and breeches, wet or no wet; but there | ||
| + | was no help for it. I rose and plunged my | ||
| + | face in the cold water, used my fingers for a | ||
| + | comb, which sufficed, since I commonly wore | ||
| + | my hair rough, having much of it and hating | ||
| + | a tye, and putting on my hat that had held to | ||
| + | my head in the water, and that had not been | ||
| + | taken from me to dry, I stepped out of the | ||
| + | cabin, climbed the steps that led through the | ||
| + | hatch, and gained what was in former times | ||
| + | termed the upper deck; for let me make you | ||
| + | understand me by explaining that, beginning | ||
| + | right aft, first there was a poop-deck elevated | ||
| + | above the quarter-deck, | ||
| + | was raised above the upper-deck, along which | ||
| + | you walked till you arrived at the forecastle | ||
| + | that went flush or level to the bows and was | ||
| + | fortified by tall, stout bulwarks, with ports for | ||
| + | fore-chasers.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the hatch gazing about me, as this was my | ||
| + | first view of the ship by daylight. Right | ||
| + | opposite soared the mainmast, an immensely | ||
| + | thick " | ||
| + | now think of using for a craft twice this | ||
| + | vessel' | ||
| + | platform, protected by a fence-work half as | ||
| + | tall as a man, looped for the projection of | ||
| + | pieces such as culverins, matchlocks and the | ||
| + | like. Under the top hung the mainyard, | ||
| + | the sail was reefed and the yard had been | ||
| + | lowered, and it lay at an angle that made me | ||
| + | understand that but little was to be done with | ||
| + | this ship on a bowline. The shrouds, which | ||
| + | were very stout, though scarce one of them | ||
| + | was of the thickness of another, came down | ||
| + | over the side to the channels there, and the | ||
| + | ratlines were all in their places, only that | ||
| + | here again there was great inequality in the | ||
| + | various sizes of the stuff used. There were | ||
| + | iron hoops round the masts, all of them rusty,< | ||
| + | cankered, and some of them nearly eaten up. | ||
| + | I looked at the coaming of the hatch, and | ||
| + | observing a splinter, put my hand to it and | ||
| + | found the wood so rotten that methought it | ||
| + | would powder, and I turned the piece about | ||
| + | betwixt my thumb and forefinger, but the | ||
| + | miraculous qualities of the accursed fabric | ||
| + | were in it and iron could not have been more | ||
| + | stubborn to my pinching. The guns, which | ||
| + | I had on the previous night recognised as an | ||
| + | ancient kind of ordnance called sakers, were | ||
| + | as rusty and eaten into as the mast-hoops.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | brush but a goose-quill, | ||
| + | idea of the mouldiness and rottenness of this | ||
| + | ship? 'Twas easy to guess why she glowed | ||
| + | at night, when you saw the rail of her bulwarks | ||
| + | and marked a rugged unevenness such | ||
| + | as I might liken to the jagged edge you | ||
| + | observe through a telescope in the moon on | ||
| + | the side where the earth' | ||
| + | though time had teeth, indeed, and was for<span class=" | ||
| + | ever gnawing at these banned and sea-tossed | ||
| + | timbers as rats at a floor.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mainmast covered with tarpaulings, | ||
| + | mended in a score of places. These | ||
| + | matters I took in with a sailor' | ||
| + | also that the ship was blowing away to leeward | ||
| + | under reefed courses, above which no | ||
| + | canvas was shown; also that the foresail and | ||
| + | mainsail had a very dingy, collier-like look, | ||
| + | and had manifestly been patched and repaired | ||
| + | many times over, though whether | ||
| + | their capacity of standing to a gale was due | ||
| + | to the cloth being stout and substantial still, | ||
| + | or because of their endevilment, | ||
| + | tell, nor did I like to conjecture. There was | ||
| + | no one to be seen, but, as I afterwards found | ||
| + | out, that was because the crew were at breakfast | ||
| + | below.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I ascended the quarter-deck, | ||
| + | Vanderdecken standing on the poop, | ||
| + | went up to him, touching my hat as a sailor' | ||
| + | salute; but the coat I was rigged out in was | ||
| + | so outrageously clumsy and ample, that the | ||
| + | wind, which blew very hard indeed, filling | ||
| + | and distending the skirts of it, was within an | ||
| + | ace of upsetting me, but, happily, a lurch of | ||
| + | the ship swept me towards a mizzen backstay, | ||
| + | to which I contrived to cling until I | ||
| + | had recovered my breath and the surprise I | ||
| + | was under. There was a small house in the | ||
| + | middle of this poop, about ten feet from | ||
| + | where the head of the tiller would come | ||
| + | when amidships, possibly designed for the | ||
| + | convenience of the captain and officers for | ||
| + | making their calculations when in narrow | ||
| + | waters, and for the storing of their marine | ||
| + | instruments, | ||
| + | it may, Captain Vanderdecken beckoned | ||
| + | me to it, and under the lee of it the | ||
| + | shelter was such as to enable us to easily | ||
| + | converse.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I looked at him as closely as I durst. His | ||
| + | eyes were extraordinarily piercing and passionate,< | ||
| + | with the cruel brilliance in them such | ||
| + | as may be noticed in the insane; the lower | ||
| + | part of his face was hidden in hair, but the | ||
| + | skin of as much of it as was visible, for his | ||
| + | cap was dragged low down upon his brows, | ||
| + | was pale, of a haggard sallowness, expressed | ||
| + | best in paintings of the dead where time has | ||
| + | produced the original whiteness of the pigment. | ||
| + | It was impossible that I should have | ||
| + | observed this in him in the mani-coloured | ||
| + | lamplight of the preceding night. Yet did | ||
| + | not his graveyard complexion detract from | ||
| + | the majesty and imperiousness of his mien | ||
| + | and port. I could readily conceive that the | ||
| + | defiance of his heart would be hell-like in | ||
| + | obstinacy, and that here was a man whose | ||
| + | pride and passions would qualify him for a | ||
| + | foremost place among the most daring of | ||
| + | those fallen spirits of whom our glorious poet | ||
| + | has written.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He was habited as when I first saw him. | ||
| + | We stood together against this deck-house,< | ||
| + | and whilst he remained silent for some | ||
| + | moments, meanwhile keeping his eyes fixed | ||
| + | on me, my gaze went from him to the ship | ||
| + | and the sea around us. It was a thick, | ||
| + | leaden, angry morning; such weather as we | ||
| + | had had a dose of in that storm I wrote about, | ||
| + | and of which forerunners might have been | ||
| + | found on the preceding night in the lightning | ||
| + | in the north-west and in the halo that girdled | ||
| + | the moon. The wind was west-north-west; | ||
| + | the seas had the height and weight you find | ||
| + | in that vast ocean, amid whose hollows we | ||
| + | were driving; 'twas all greyness and a flying | ||
| + | of spumy rain and a heavy roaring coming | ||
| + | from the head of every sea as it arched its | ||
| + | summit for the thunderous downwards rush | ||
| + | that filled the valley at its foot with a boiling | ||
| + | of white water. The sky was a hard leaden | ||
| + | blankness; and whenever there came a break | ||
| + | of faintness amid the seemingly stirless ceiling | ||
| + | of vapour, you would see the scud, thin and | ||
| + | brown, like drainings of smoke from a<span class=" | ||
| + | chimney-pot, | ||
| + | to the east and south.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | that rendered the warring ocean so strange a | ||
| + | scene that, had I never before witnessed a | ||
| + | storm at sea, I could not have wondered | ||
| + | more at what I saw. She was lying to under | ||
| + | her reefed fore and mainsail, surging dead | ||
| + | to leeward on every scend of the billows, and | ||
| + | travelling the faster for the great height of | ||
| + | side she showed. From time to time a sea | ||
| + | would strike her with a severe shock upon | ||
| + | the bow or the waist, and often curl over in | ||
| + | a mighty hissing and seething, though the | ||
| + | wet quickly poured away overboard through | ||
| + | the ports. Through the skeleton-iron frame | ||
| + | of what had once been a great poop lantern, | ||
| + | the blast yelled like an imprisoned maniac, | ||
| + | and shook the metal with a sound as of | ||
| + | clanking chains. The vessel had her topsail | ||
| + | and topgallant-yards aloft, and the sails lay | ||
| + | furled upon them. The height of her poop,< | ||
| + | the depth of her waist, the roundness of her | ||
| + | great bulwarked bows, her beak, which I | ||
| + | could just catch a glimpse of under her bowsprit, | ||
| + | the unequal thickness of the rigging, | ||
| + | the indescribable appearance of the sails, the | ||
| + | hugeness of the blocks aloft; the whole | ||
| + | plunging and rolling amidst the frothing | ||
| + | troughs, whilst at the long tiller, the end | ||
| + | ornamented with a lion's head, stood a | ||
| + | strangely-attired, | ||
| + | rope wound round the tiller-head, | ||
| + | such a picture of olden times, made as living | ||
| + | as the current moment by the action of the | ||
| + | seas, the vitality of the persons I gazed at, | ||
| + | the solid substantiality of the aged fabric | ||
| + | itself, that the memory of it often chills | ||
| + | my brain with fear that I am crazed, and | ||
| + | that my experience is but a black and | ||
| + | melancholy fancy victorious over my understanding.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for better that my soul should be racked by<span class=" | ||
| + | a diseased and disordered mind than that | ||
| + | I should have suffered the heart-breaking | ||
| + | sorrow, the irreparable loss it is my present | ||
| + | business to relate in this narrative.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | asked me how I had slept. I answered | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | composed front to this man and his mates, be | ||
| + | they and their ship what they would. I had | ||
| + | given my nerves play and it was about time | ||
| + | I recollected I was an Englishman and a | ||
| + | sailor.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | thrilling, organ-like voice, glancing about | ||
| + | him with a scowl, "catch the luck of the | ||
| + | wind. Had the weather lingered as it was | ||
| + | for another three days, we should have | ||
| + | had Agulhas on the beam and the ship's | ||
| + | head north-west. 'Tis bitter hard, these | ||
| + | encounters of storms, when a few hours | ||
| + | of fair wind would blow us round the | ||
| + | Cape."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He clenched his hands fiercely, and shot a | ||
| + | fiery glance at the windward horizon.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Vogelaar, the mate, arrived, and without | ||
| + | taking the least notice of me, said something | ||
| + | to the captain, but what, I did not | ||
| + | catch; it doubtless referred to some job he | ||
| + | had been sent forward to see to. I was | ||
| + | greatly struck by the rugged, weather-beaten | ||
| + | look of this man; his face in the daylight | ||
| + | discovered a mere surface of knobs, and | ||
| + | warts, and wrinkles, with a nose the shape | ||
| + | of one end of a plantain that has been cut | ||
| + | in two, and little, misty eyes, deep in their | ||
| + | holes, and surrounded by yellow lashes; his | ||
| + | dress was that of a sailor of my own time. | ||
| + | But what affected and impressed me even | ||
| + | more than did the utter indifference manifested | ||
| + | towards my presence by him and by | ||
| + | the helmsman& | ||
| + | invisible as the wind& | ||
| + | the lineaments of this mate. Had I<span class=" | ||
| + | been asked what would be the complexion of | ||
| + | men dug up from their graves after lying | ||
| + | there, I should have pointed to the countenances | ||
| + | of Vanderdecken and Van Vogelaar& | ||
| + | and to Prins and the seaman who | ||
| + | steered. It was, in truth, as though Captain | ||
| + | Skevington had hit the frightful reality in his | ||
| + | dark and dreadful ideas touching the crew | ||
| + | of this ship being men who presented the | ||
| + | aspect they would have offered at the time of | ||
| + | their death, and who, wearing that death-bed | ||
| + | appearance, were doomed to complete | ||
| + | the sentence passed upon them& | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | poet Young terms us mortals, but wretches, | ||
| + | rendered supernatural by the impiety of that | ||
| + | fierce but noble figure, whose falcon-flashing | ||
| + | eye looked curses at the gale whilst I | ||
| + | watched him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | by whose side he stood as if conning the ship. | ||
| + | The captain showed no heed of my presence< | ||
| + | for a minute or two; when, glancing at me, | ||
| + | he said, "' | ||
| + | though your pronunciation has a strange | ||
| + | sound. For my part, I just know enough | ||
| + | of your tongue to hail a ship and to say, 'I | ||
| + | will send a boat.' Where did you learn my | ||
| + | language?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | made to Rotterdam," | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He mused a little, and then said, "They | ||
| + | will think me lost or sunk by the guns of the | ||
| + | enemy. Add the long and tedious voyage | ||
| + | out to the months which have passed since | ||
| + | last July!" he sighed deeply.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I inquired, for I was as particular as he to say | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He cried out, fiercely, "Are your senses< | ||
| + | still overboard that you repeat that question? | ||
| + | Certainly last year& | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I looked down upon the deck.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | through the narrow seas," continued he, | ||
| + | speaking in a softened voice, as though his | ||
| + | sense of courtesy upbraided him. "I sighted | ||
| + | the squadron of your Admiral Ayscue and a | ||
| + | frigate hauled out in chase of me, but the | ||
| + | Braave was too fleet for her, and at dusk | ||
| + | we had sunk the Englishman to his lower | ||
| + | yards!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>As he said this I felt yet again the chill of | ||
| + | a dread I had hoped to vanquish strike upon | ||
| + | my senses like the air of a vault upon the | ||
| + | face. It was impossible that I could now | ||
| + | miss seeing how it was. If this man, together | ||
| + | with his crew, were not endevilled, as Captain | ||
| + | Skevington had surmised, yet it was certain | ||
| + | that life was terminated in him with the Curse | ||
| + | his wickedness had called down upon his ship | ||
| + | and her wretched crew. Existence had come< | ||
| + | to a stand in his brain; with him it was for | ||
| + | ever the year of our Lord 1653; time had | ||
| + | been drowned in the eternity of the punishment | ||
| + | that had come upon him!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I lifted my startled eyes to Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | face and convulsively clasped my hands, | ||
| + | whilst I thought of the mighty chapter of | ||
| + | history which had been written since his day, | ||
| + | and of the ashes of events prodigious in their | ||
| + | time, and in memory still, which covered& | ||
| + | do the lava and scoriæ the rocks of some | ||
| + | volcanic-created island& | ||
| + | hour of his doom down to the moment of our | ||
| + | meeting. The peace of 1654& | ||
| + | of 1665& | ||
| + | and in the Hope& | ||
| + | country becoming a King of England& | ||
| + | peace of Ryswick& | ||
| + | semi-Gallican founding of the Batavian Republic& | ||
| + | how much more that my | ||
| + | memory did not carry? All as non-existent | ||
| + | to this man at my side as to any human< | ||
| + | creature who had died at the hour when the | ||
| + | Death Ship sailed on her last passage home | ||
| + | from the island of Java!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | VANDERDECKEN SHOWS ME HIS PRESENT | ||
| + | FOR LITTLE MARGARETHA.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>At this moment Prins stepped on to the | ||
| + | poop, and informed the captain that breakfast | ||
| + | was ready.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | courtesy that I guessed to be as capricious | ||
| + | as his passion, "you will have feared I meant | ||
| + | to starve you."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "Be pleased to follow me."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for an instant. I am too sensible of your | ||
| + | kindness not to desire that you will enable | ||
| + | me to merit it by serving you in the navigation< | ||
| + | of this ship in any capacity you choose | ||
| + | to name, until we meet with a vessel that | ||
| + | shall rid you of my presence."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of us Dutch," | ||
| + | courtesy; "be pleased to know that a | ||
| + | Hollander is never happier than in relieving | ||
| + | distress. But come, sir, the shelter of the | ||
| + | cabin will be grateful to you after this stormy | ||
| + | deck."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I said no more, and gathering the flapping | ||
| + | skirts of the coat on me to my side, that | ||
| + | the gale might not sweep me off my legs, I | ||
| + | followed him into the cabin under the poop, | ||
| + | marvelling, as I went, at the miracle wrought | ||
| + | on behalf of this ship, that her hold should | ||
| + | still yield provisions and water for her crew | ||
| + | after a century-and-a-half of use.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | that I had supped full enough of surprises. | ||
| + | But conceive of my astonishment on entering | ||
| + | the cabin, that was less darksome than I<span class=" | ||
| + | should have conceived it, on seeing a girl of | ||
| + | from eighteen to twenty years of age, seated | ||
| + | at the table on the right hand of the captain' | ||
| + | chair!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I came to a stand, struck motionless with | ||
| + | astonishment; | ||
| + | of surprise, hastily rose and stood staring | ||
| + | at me, leaning with her right hand on the | ||
| + | table to steady herself. It was as certain that | ||
| + | she had been as ignorant of my presence on | ||
| + | board as I, to this instant, of her existence. | ||
| + | The thought that instantly flashed upon me | ||
| + | was that she was Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | that the Curse that had fallen on the ship | ||
| + | included her, as it had all others of the vessel' | ||
| + | miserable company of men, and that in consonance | ||
| + | with Captain Skevington' | ||
| + | astonishing theory, touching the people of this | ||
| + | Death Ship, she discovered the appearance | ||
| + | she would have presented at the hour of her | ||
| + | death, though vitalised in that aspect by the | ||
| + | sentence that kept the Braave afloat and her<span class=" | ||
| + | people quick and sentient. I was the more | ||
| + | willing to suppose this by her apparel, which | ||
| + | was of the kind I had seen in old Dutch | ||
| + | paintings at Rotterdam, for it consisted of a | ||
| + | black velvet jacket, very beautifully fitting | ||
| + | her figure, trimmed with fur and enriched | ||
| + | with many small golden buttons; a green silk | ||
| + | gown, plain and very full, as though made for | ||
| + | a bigger woman. There was a rope of pearls | ||
| + | round her neck, and I spied a diamond of | ||
| + | great splendour blazing on the forefinger of | ||
| + | the hand on which she leaned. She wore | ||
| + | small red shoes and her hair was undressed.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | what one sees are rapid, otherwise it | ||
| + | would have been impossible for me to have | ||
| + | mastered the details I have set before you in | ||
| + | the short time that intervened between my | ||
| + | entering the cabin and seating myself at the | ||
| + | table. Yet, short as that time was, it enabled | ||
| + | me to witness in this girl such sweetness, | ||
| + | fairness and loveliness of face as I vow no<span class=" | ||
| + | man could conceive the truth of who had not | ||
| + | beheld it with his own eyes. 'Tis an old | ||
| + | poet who writes of "the still harmony, whose | ||
| + | diapason lies within a brow," and of the | ||
| + | "sweet silent rhetorick of persuading eyes," | ||
| + | and another more delicately choice yet in | ||
| + | fancy, of</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | The tender flesh, the colour bright, and such<br /> | ||
| + | As Parians see in marble, skin more fair,<br /> | ||
| + | More glorious head and far more glorious hair;<br /> | ||
| + | Eyes full of grace and quickness, purer roses& | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | labouring ancient cabin, gazing at me half-wistful, | ||
| + | half-amazed, | ||
| + | of her form as though she would on a sudden | ||
| + | race to greet me, what could the noblest poet | ||
| + | of them all sing, only to tell of the soft violet | ||
| + | of her eyes, of her hair of dusky gold, self-luminous | ||
| + | as though the gilding light of a | ||
| + | ruddy beam of sunset lingered amid the thick | ||
| + | abundant tresses heedlessly knotted with a | ||
| + | riband a little lower than the line of the<span class=" | ||
| + | ears, thence falling in a bright loose shower | ||
| + | down her back, whilst over her forehead, | ||
| + | white as though wrought out of the sea foam, | ||
| + | the gilded curls were gathered in a shadow | ||
| + | only a little darker than amber.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | stood looking at her the mate of the ship, | ||
| + | Van Vogelaar, arrived, and both he and the | ||
| + | captain, and the man Prins, turning their | ||
| + | faces towards me, the warmth, the life of | ||
| + | her skin, the living reality of her surprise, | ||
| + | the redness of her lips, the diamond glance | ||
| + | of her eyes, were so defined by the paleness, | ||
| + | the deathly hue, of the flesh of the men's | ||
| + | skin, that the fear that she was of this | ||
| + | doomed company fell from me, and I knew | ||
| + | that I was face to face with one that was | ||
| + | mortal like myself.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | left hand. I approached the table, giving | ||
| + | the girl a low bow before sitting. She | ||
| + | curtsied and resumed her seat, but all the<span class=" | ||
| + | while looking at me with an astonishment that | ||
| + | greatly heightened her beauty; nor could I | ||
| + | fail to see by the slight, but visible changes | ||
| + | in the expression of her mouth, that my | ||
| + | presence was putting a pleasure in her that | ||
| + | grew as perception of my actuality sharpened | ||
| + | in her mind.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A coarse, but clean cloth, that was a kind | ||
| + | of duck or drill, covered the table, and upon | ||
| + | it were a couple of dishes of cold meat, a | ||
| + | dish of dried fish, another of dried plantains, | ||
| + | a jar of marmalade, and a plate of a singular | ||
| + | sort of cakes& | ||
| + | the crumb of newly-baked bread. These | ||
| + | things were kept in their places by a rude | ||
| + | framework of wood set upon the table and | ||
| + | lashed to it underneath. Before each person | ||
| + | there stood a silver cup& | ||
| + | and size, another of another; also an earthen | ||
| + | plate, of a grey colour, of Chinese baking, and | ||
| + | of the kind exported years since in great | ||
| + | quantities from Batavia; and a knife and fork< | ||
| + | of a pattern I had never before seen. On our | ||
| + | seating ourselves, Prins went round the table | ||
| + | with two jars& | ||
| + | afterwards found was a kind of gin, and the | ||
| + | other cold water, with which he manufactured | ||
| + | a bumper for us three men, but the girl drank | ||
| + | the water plain.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | this work. As he was filling my cup, the | ||
| + | clock over the door struck eight, the skeleton | ||
| + | appearing and flourishing his lance as before, | ||
| + | and scarce was this ended when the parrot | ||
| + | croaked out, "Wy zyn al Verdomd." | ||
| + | forgotten this bird, and the harsh utterance | ||
| + | and dreadful words coming upon me unawares | ||
| + | so startled me that I half-sprang to my feet. | ||
| + | The girl looked down on the table with a | ||
| + | sad face, whilst Vanderdecken said, "' | ||
| + | clock that excites that fowl; we shall have to | ||
| + | hang her out of hearing of it."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He never offered to make me known to | ||
| + | the fair creature opposite, but that did not<span class=" | ||
| + | signify, for, after stealing several peeps at | ||
| + | me, she asked in Dutch, but with the artless | ||
| + | manner of a child, and in a sweet voice, if I | ||
| + | was a Hollander.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I answered, "No, I am an Englishman, | ||
| + | madam," | ||
| + | through the mere speaking with so delicate a | ||
| + | beauty.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | own tongue.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | myself by hearing this, and by perceiving | ||
| + | how warm, real and living she was. "But, | ||
| + | in the name of Heaven, how is it that you | ||
| + | are alone upon this strange ship, amid these | ||
| + | mysterious men?" for that question I could | ||
| + | no more forbear asking right out than I could | ||
| + | conceal the admiration in my eyes, whilst I | ||
| + | felt no diffidence in talking, as I made no | ||
| + | doubt the English language was unintelligible | ||
| + | to the others.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | answer. I took this as a hint, and was silent. | ||
| + | And yet it did not seem that Vanderdecken | ||
| + | or Van Vogelaar heeded us. They appeared | ||
| + | as men sunk in deep abstraction, | ||
| + | whilst they ate and drank. Some meat was | ||
| + | put before me; Prins offered me a cake, and, | ||
| + | being hard set, I fell to. I found the meat | ||
| + | salt, but sweet and tender enough, and | ||
| + | turning to the mate asked him what it was.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to the other dish, "is buffalo."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | wonderful stateliness in his manner, "be | ||
| + | pleased to despise ceremony here. Such as | ||
| + | our fare is, you are welcome. Take as you | ||
| + | may require, and Prins will fill your cup as | ||
| + | often as you need."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I bowed and thanked him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he, addressing the girl. "It storms directly | ||
| + | along the path we would take. It is miserable," | ||
| + | he continued, turning to me, " | ||
| + | a change of weather should come upon us | ||
| + | just about those parts where the breeze | ||
| + | freshened into this gale last night. But we'll | ||
| + | force her to windward yet& | ||
| + | he looked at the lady | ||
| + | he had named Imogene and halted abruptly | ||
| + | in his speech, but I noticed he could not | ||
| + | quickly clear his face of the passionate mad | ||
| + | look that darkened it, though it did not | ||
| + | qualify the paleness of the skin, but was like | ||
| + | the shadow of a heavy storm-cloud passing | ||
| + | over the upward-gazing features of a dead | ||
| + | man.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | darkened to his savage mood. May Heaven | ||
| + | pardon me for the thought, but when I considered | ||
| + | the bitter vexation of a head wind, | ||
| + | and how this vessel was being blown dead | ||
| + | away to leeward faster than any line-of-battle | ||
| + | ship hove-to, I could not but secretly feel a | ||
| + | sailor' | ||
| + | though that this would have been the case< | ||
| + | had Vanderdecken expressed with his tongue | ||
| + | the fearful thoughts which he looked with his | ||
| + | eyes I do not think possible, if I know myself | ||
| + | at all.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | which we could hear the dreary howling of | ||
| + | the wind, the falls of heavy masses of water | ||
| + | upon the decks, and the lamentable complaining | ||
| + | of the whole fabric, though as these | ||
| + | noises were chiefly in the hold the notes rose | ||
| + | somewhat dulled. Presently, feeling it indecorous | ||
| + | in me to sit silent, I asked the captain | ||
| + | what his cargo was.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He answered, "We have much wrought | ||
| + | and raw silk, and cloves, musk, nutmegs, | ||
| + | mace and pepper, wood for dyeing, drugs, | ||
| + | calicoes, lacker-ware and such commodities, | ||
| + | sir."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | English. "You will be misunderstood."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | swift ship," said the mate, with a very stern | ||
| + | and sullen expression on his rugged face. | ||
| + | "She has outsailed one English frigate, and | ||
| + | by this time our Admirals should have left us | ||
| + | little to fear from the fleets of your Cromwell."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and glancing in like a sunbeam upon | ||
| + | this sudden darkness of temper, "tell me of | ||
| + | this gentleman& | ||
| + | I find he is my countryman. Converse with | ||
| + | me about him."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>If it were possible for human affection to | ||
| + | touch into softness the fierce majestic countenance | ||
| + | of the noble looking being, whose | ||
| + | mien as he sate at the table might have been | ||
| + | that of some dethroned emperor, with the | ||
| + | pride of Lucifer to sustain him, I might seem | ||
| + | to have witnessed the tenderness of it in his | ||
| + | ashen, bearded face when he turned the cold | ||
| + | glitter of his eyes upon the girl.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | thou wast asleep, Imogene, and Van Vogelaar | ||
| + | went in our boat to buy tobacco, if they were | ||
| + | willing to sell, but on seeing the boat they | ||
| + | fired upon her. A light air blew, and the | ||
| + | ship moved away. Our boat was returning, | ||
| + | when she spied this gentleman fast drowning. | ||
| + | Van Vogelaar dragged him out of the water, | ||
| + | and& | ||
| + | inclination of the head.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | rugged mate, "what would have | ||
| + | been my fate?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A colour flashed into Imogene' | ||
| + | she cried, "Oh, Herr Van Vogelaar, your | ||
| + | pardon, if you please. English seamen are | ||
| + | as humane as they are brave."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | rendered his ugliness quite horrible with the | ||
| + | distortion of it, " | ||
| + | brave they fire upon an inoffensive boat, and | ||
| + | because they are humane they leave their | ||
| + | comrade to perish!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | this ship was known to us."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sadness came into them that I feared to see | ||
| + | her shed tears. Meanwhile, Vanderdecken | ||
| + | had his gaze fixed upon me. He seemed to | ||
| + | be musing upon what the mate had said.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he, in his resonant voice, that, to be sure, | ||
| + | sounded grandly after the harsh pipes of the | ||
| + | mate, "who provoked us. Why should your | ||
| + | nation exact the honour of the flag? Has it | ||
| + | bred greater seamen than Holland? There | ||
| + | is my friend Willem Schouten& | ||
| + | when I was a young man, have I smoked | ||
| + | with him in his summer-house at Hoorn. | ||
| + | Does even your Drake surpass Schouten? | ||
| + | No, no! It was not for England to be | ||
| + | mistress of the seas!" he exclaimed, with a | ||
| + | solemn shake of the head, not wanting in a | ||
| + | grave kind of urbanity.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I caught a glance from the girl, but I<span class=" | ||
| + | needed no hint to keep my tongue still. | ||
| + | 'Twas maddening and terrifying enough to | ||
| + | hear this man speak of Schouten as a friend& | ||
| + | who greatly headed the grand | ||
| + | procession of mariners such as Dampier, | ||
| + | Byron, Anson, and many others who, since | ||
| + | his day, have sailed round that Cape Horn& | ||
| + | the stout Hollander was the first to | ||
| + | pass and to name& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | me by this man's speech and references, I | ||
| + | was sensible of a distinct pricking of my conscience | ||
| + | by my patriotism. To hear England | ||
| + | sneered at by the natives of a country which | ||
| + | has been described by a poet that flourished | ||
| + | in the days of Blake and Tromp as the " | ||
| + | of the British sand," and as the | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | means to my liking. But to remonstrate | ||
| + | would have been but a mere warring with | ||
| + | the dead.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the war between the Dutch and the English. | ||
| + | I remember that he praised our Commodore | ||
| + | Bodley, and said that if the States' | ||
| + | Adrian Paaw, had been a person of | ||
| + | understanding, | ||
| + | This I recollect, but very little more, for, to | ||
| + | be plain, it was not only a frightful thing to | ||
| + | listen to him, but my thoughts were thrown | ||
| + | into the utmost confusion by the loveliness of | ||
| + | the lady who confronted me& | ||
| + | of the sweet eyes, warm colour, and her | ||
| + | maidenly youth, which lived in every movement, | ||
| + | word, smile, or sad look of hers, that | ||
| + | she was no true member of the unholy | ||
| + | and fearful company she lived amongst; by | ||
| + | my wondering how she came to be in this | ||
| + | Death Ship, and how it happened that she | ||
| + | was finely dressed; not to speak of other | ||
| + | speculations, | ||
| + | table was provided, and by what means this | ||
| + | ship, which I knew had been struggling | ||
| + | against the will of the Omnipotent for hard< | ||
| + | upon one hundred and fifty years, should | ||
| + | be supplied with a liberal stock of the | ||
| + | conveniences of life.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | rose and quitted the table, but his place was | ||
| + | shortly afterwards taken by another man | ||
| + | whom I had not before seen, the second mate | ||
| + | as I afterwards discovered, named Antony | ||
| + | Arents. This person looked to be about | ||
| + | fifty years of age. He wore high boots and | ||
| + | a cloak and a soft flapping hat, which he | ||
| + | threw down on entering. His left eye had a | ||
| + | cast and the bridge of his nose was broken, | ||
| + | but his countenance was of the true Dutch | ||
| + | character, and in some points he was like the | ||
| + | boatswain, Antony Jans, whom I had seen on | ||
| + | deck when waking into consciousness, | ||
| + | that he had less flesh to his belly. But in | ||
| + | him was the same ghastly hue of skin you | ||
| + | saw in the others; 'twas in his hands as in his | ||
| + | face; had you come across him in his sleep | ||
| + | you would have said he had been dead some< | ||
| + | days. And, indeed, never did I view a | ||
| + | corpse made ready for casting overboard that | ||
| + | had the aspect of the dead so strong upon it | ||
| + | as these men. He helped himself to food, | ||
| + | taking not the least notice of me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and some long clay pipes upon the table, one | ||
| + | of which Vanderdecken took and filled, asking | ||
| + | me to smoke. I thanked him, wondering | ||
| + | what sort of tobacco time had converted this | ||
| + | weed into, took the tinder-box from the captain | ||
| + | and lighted my pipe. Well, if this was an | ||
| + | ancient tobacco age had not spoilt its qualities. | ||
| + | It smoked very sweet and sound.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | captain. "Our stock has run low. It will | ||
| + | be a hardship if we should come to want | ||
| + | tobacco."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I made no reply, being determined to learn | ||
| + | all I could about this ship and her people | ||
| + | from Miss Imogene before offering suggestions, | ||
| + | for though there is no living man<span class=" | ||
| + | whose nose I would not offer to stroke for | ||
| + | calling me a coward, yet I am not ashamed | ||
| + | to say this Captain Vanderdecken terrified | ||
| + | me and I feared his wrath.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | her fair chin resting on her hands, which | ||
| + | made an ivory cup for her face, watched | ||
| + | me continuously with eyes whose brightness | ||
| + | the large and sparkling diamond on her forefinger | ||
| + | did not match by many degrees of | ||
| + | glory.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to me presently in Dutch, that Vanderdecken | ||
| + | might know what we talked about.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | you, madam?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | would not answer.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | me, smoking very slowly to get the true | ||
| + | relish of the tobacco, whilst the second mate | ||
| + | chewed his food with vacant eyes, squinting< | ||
| + | straight ahead or meeting in a traverse on his | ||
| + | plate.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "A sailor should not marry. What is more | ||
| + | uncertain than the sea? The mariner' | ||
| + | can never make sure of her husband' | ||
| + | What will mine be thinking if we continue to | ||
| + | be blown back as we are now by these | ||
| + | westerly gales? It seems longer than months, | ||
| + | yea, it appears to me to be years, since I last | ||
| + | beheld her and my daughters standing near | ||
| + | the Schreyerstoren, | ||
| + | their farewells to me. My eldest girl, | ||
| + | Geertruida, will be grown sick at heart with | ||
| + | her long yearning for the parcel of silk I have | ||
| + | for her. And Margaretha& | ||
| + | softly. Then turning to Imogene, he said, | ||
| + | "My dear, show this gentleman the toy I am | ||
| + | taking home for my little Margaretha."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and stepped to the cabin that was next the | ||
| + | captain' | ||
| + | desired me to speak in subdued tones last | ||
| + | night, for that was the room in which she | ||
| + | slept. The ease with which she moved upon | ||
| + | that heaving deck was wonderful, and this | ||
| + | verse of a ballad came into my head as I | ||
| + | watched her go from the table to her cabin& | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | "No form he saw of mortal mould,< | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | Her ringlets waved in living gold,<br /> | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | child, with such dainty, elegant ease did she | ||
| + | accommodate her form to the sweep and heave | ||
| + | of its billows, as denoted by the motions of the | ||
| + | ship; as some lovely gull with breast of snowy | ||
| + | down and wings of ermine airily expresses the | ||
| + | swing and charge of the surge by its manner | ||
| + | of falling in each hollow and lifting above | ||
| + | each head on outstretched pinion. Her | ||
| + | costume too, that was so strange a thing,< | ||
| + | giving to this interior so romantic an appearance | ||
| + | that, had the ship been still and you had | ||
| + | looked in at the cabin door, then, with this | ||
| + | lady's beauty and dress, the majestic figure of | ||
| + | Vanderdecken smoking in his high-backed | ||
| + | chair, the second mate at his food, Prins | ||
| + | standing like one that dreams, all the faces | ||
| + | but the girl's and mine ghastly, the strange | ||
| + | beauty of the lamp that swung over the table, | ||
| + | the oval frames holding paintings so bleared | ||
| + | and dusky that it was difficult to make out | ||
| + | the subjects, the dim and wasted colour of the | ||
| + | cabin walls, and the bald tawdriness of what | ||
| + | had been rich giltwork, the clock of ancient | ||
| + | pattern, the parrot cage& | ||
| + | brought on a sudden to view this interior | ||
| + | from the door, you might have easily deemed | ||
| + | it some large astonishing picture painted | ||
| + | to the very height of the greatest master' | ||
| + | perfection.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>In a moment or two Miss Imogene returned, | ||
| + | and coming to the table placed upon< | ||
| + | it a little figure about five inches tall. It | ||
| + | was of some metal and had been gaily | ||
| + | coloured as I supposed from what was left of | ||
| + | the old tints. Its style was a red cloak falling | ||
| + | down its back, a small cap with a feather, | ||
| + | shoes almost hidden with great rosettes, hose | ||
| + | as high as the thigh, and then a sort of blouse | ||
| + | with a girdle. Both arms hung before in a | ||
| + | very easy and natural posture and the hands | ||
| + | grasped a flute.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a key from under the cloak of the figure and | ||
| + | wound the automaton up as a clock, when it | ||
| + | instantly lifted the flute to its mouth, in the | ||
| + | exact manner of life, and played a tune. The | ||
| + | sound was very pure though piercing, the | ||
| + | melody simple and flowing. In all, the figure | ||
| + | played six tunes without any sound of the | ||
| + | clock-work within, and it was undoubtedly a | ||
| + | very curious and costly toy.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of this performance, | ||
| + | and showing no more sensibility to what was | ||
| + | doing than did the table the figure played on. | ||
| + | The eyes of the man Prins had a sickly, faraway | ||
| + | look, to be imagined only, for no one | ||
| + | could describe it. Vanderdecken lighted his | ||
| + | pipe when the automaton struck up, and | ||
| + | nodded gravely to the fluting with as much | ||
| + | pleasure in his face as so fierce and haughty | ||
| + | a countenance could express. The girl stood | ||
| + | leaning upon the table, with a listlessness in | ||
| + | her manner and constantly regarding me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | when the parrot called out from his cage, | ||
| + | "Wy zyn al Verdomd!" | ||
| + | she knew when the entertainment was over. | ||
| + | Her pronouncing these words in Dutch robbed | ||
| + | them somewhat, to my ear, of their | ||
| + | tremendous import, but still it was a terrible | ||
| + | sentence for the creature to have lighted on, | ||
| + | and I wondered what her age was, for she | ||
| + | could not have been newly-hatched when | ||
| + | Vanderdecken bought her, as& | ||
| + | me& | ||
| + | the captain was full of his flute-player, | ||
| + | and neither he nor Imogene noticed the | ||
| + | parrot.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | said he, lifting the figure and | ||
| + | examining it; "' | ||
| + | ever I saw. I bought it at Batavia, from | ||
| + | an old friend of mine, Meeuves Meindertszoom | ||
| + | Bakker, who had purchased it of a | ||
| + | sailor belonging to the company' | ||
| + | Revolutie, for eight ducats. 'Twill rejoice | ||
| + | my child; you shall present it to her, | ||
| + | Imogene. I would not sell it for five | ||
| + | hundred dollars; 'tis worthy to be John | ||
| + | Muller' | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He ceased speaking, lifting his hand; then | ||
| + | exclaimed, "Hark! how the wind continues | ||
| + | to storm."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He gave the figure to the girl who returned | ||
| + | it to her cabin.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>In a few minutes he put down his pipe and<span class=" | ||
| + | bade Prins bring him his skin or fur cap, and | ||
| + | then rose, impressing me as keenly as though | ||
| + | I viewed him for the first time by the nobility | ||
| + | of his stature, his great beard flowing to the | ||
| + | waist, the sharp supernatural fires in his eyes | ||
| + | as if the light there were living flames. In | ||
| + | silence he quitted the cabin, acting like a man | ||
| + | influenced by spells, without the governance | ||
| + | of the logic of human behaviour.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | I TALK WITH MISS IMOGENE DUDLEY | ||
| + | ABOUT THE DEATH SHIP.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Imogene, the ridiculousness of the dress I | ||
| + | was in struck me, and I asked Prins, who was | ||
| + | clearing the table, whether my own clothes | ||
| + | were yet dry. He answered they were hung | ||
| + | up in the furnace near the cookhouse, by | ||
| + | which I suppose he meant the caboose, and | ||
| + | that when they were dry he would bring | ||
| + | them to my cabin.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in English, whilst I turned my head | ||
| + | about to catch a sight of my tails, "I feel | ||
| + | like a fool in a carnival. What ages this | ||
| + | garb represents I cannot conceive, but it<span class=" | ||
| + | surely does not represent less than a century | ||
| + | of fashion."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | said she, seating herself in the captain' | ||
| + | which her beauty made a throne of in a | ||
| + | breath, the light of her hair gilding it. "But | ||
| + | all things are wonderful here," she added, | ||
| + | with a half-glance at Prins, whose movements | ||
| + | and manner as he removed the dishes from | ||
| + | the table were as deaf and soulless as the | ||
| + | behaviour of the figure that had just piped to | ||
| + | us. "You know, of course, what ship this is?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I said " | ||
| + | down on the end of the bench near her, | ||
| + | adding, "Will the captain take it amiss if we | ||
| + | converse?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | it and then find you speaking to me, his | ||
| + | temper would be dreadful. He is a terribly | ||
| + | passionate man. Yet he is gentle to me, and | ||
| + | speaks of his wife and children with exquisite | ||
| + | tenderness."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | express to you the horror and pain I feel | ||
| + | when I hear him talk of them as though he | ||
| + | should find them as they were& | ||
| + | the length of a year only& | ||
| + | from them. He does not know that he is | ||
| + | cursed& | ||
| + | know it of themselves."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | repeated failures to pass the Agulhas point | ||
| + | must convince them that the will of God is | ||
| + | opposed to their attempts and that they are | ||
| + | doomed men."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with a thoughtful absent expression in her | ||
| + | violet eyes, though they remained fixed upon | ||
| + | me with a child-like simplicity extraordinarily | ||
| + | fascinating. I particularly noticed the beautiful | ||
| + | turn of her wrist, the fairy delicacy of her | ||
| + | nostrils and mouth, and the enchanting curve | ||
| + | of her chin to her throat. Her figure was<span class=" | ||
| + | full, and in the swell of her breasts and the | ||
| + | breadth of her shoulders, fining down into a | ||
| + | waist in admirable harmony with her stature | ||
| + | and make, you might seem to have witnessed | ||
| + | every assurance of robustness. But you | ||
| + | found a suggestion rather than a character of | ||
| + | fragility in the beauty of her face that caused | ||
| + | the very delight you took in the gold and | ||
| + | lilies and violets of her loveliness to grow | ||
| + | pensive. There was a complete absence | ||
| + | of embarrassment in her manner towards | ||
| + | me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | you by?" she asked.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | you?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | she continued, "Are you a sailor?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I raised my hands half-mockingly, | ||
| + | said, "Do I not look my calling?" | ||
| + | my apparel, I burst into a laugh and | ||
| + | exclaimed, touching the faded finery upon the<span class=" | ||
| + | cuff of my coat, "You will have thought me | ||
| + | a beadle or a footman."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | grew grave, and now spoke in a most earnest | ||
| + | voice. "I will tell you all I know about this | ||
| + | ship and about myself. My father was | ||
| + | Captain Dudley, of Portsmouth, and nearly | ||
| + | five years ago, as closely as I can reckon | ||
| + | time where time has ceased to all the others, | ||
| + | he commanded a ship named the Flying | ||
| + | Fish, and took me and my mother with him | ||
| + | on a voyage to China. We called at Table | ||
| + | Bay, but when we were off the coast where | ||
| + | Algoa Bay is situated, the ship was set on | ||
| + | fire by one of the crew entering the hold | ||
| + | with a lighted candle and attempting to steal | ||
| + | some rum. The flames quickly raged, the | ||
| + | ship was not to be saved, the boats were | ||
| + | lowered and my mother and I and a seaman | ||
| + | entered one of them, but suddenly the ship | ||
| + | blew up, destroying the boats that were | ||
| + | against its side, and when the smoke cleared< | ||
| + | off nothing was to be seen on the water but a | ||
| + | few pieces of blackened timber. Our boat | ||
| + | had been saved by my father ordering the | ||
| + | man to keep her at a good distance lest a panic | ||
| + | arose and she should be entered by too great a | ||
| + | number. The shock so affected my mother | ||
| + | that she lost her mind." Here Imogene hid | ||
| + | her face. When she looked at me again her | ||
| + | face was wet, nevertheless she continued: | ||
| + | "She died on the night following the loss of | ||
| + | the ship, and I was left alone with the sailor. | ||
| + | We were many leagues from the land, we had | ||
| + | no sail, the oars were heavy. I was too weak | ||
| + | and ill to help him with them, and the fierce | ||
| + | heat soon melted the strength out of him, so | ||
| + | that he left off rowing. He was good to me, | ||
| + | gentle and very sorrowful about me. I cried | ||
| + | so much over losing my father and mother, | ||
| + | and at our dreadful situation, that I thought | ||
| + | my heart would break, and I prayed that it | ||
| + | might, for indeed I wanted to die." She drew | ||
| + | a deep hysteric breath, tremulous as a long< | ||
| + | bitter sob. "We drifted here and there for | ||
| + | five days, after which thirst and hunger bereft | ||
| + | me of my senses, and I remember no more | ||
| + | till I awoke in this ship. I then learnt that | ||
| + | they had passed our boat close, and had | ||
| + | stopped the vessel to inspect her. The seaman | ||
| + | was dead, and they supposed me dead | ||
| + | too, but Captain Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | likeness in me to his daughter Alida, called to | ||
| + | his men to bring me on board. They did so | ||
| + | and found life in me."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | since!" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | realising the truth, "for hard upon five | ||
| + | years!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in the cover of her hands, as if she could not | ||
| + | bear to think of it. I waited a little, partly | ||
| + | that she might have time to recover her tranquillity, | ||
| + | and partly that Prins might make an<span class=" | ||
| + | end of his business and go, though, let me | ||
| + | declare, he gave us no more heed than had | ||
| + | he been the clock; much less, indeed, than | ||
| + | did the parrot that, having rounded her head, | ||
| + | after the manner of those birds, till her beak | ||
| + | was uppermost, watched us with the broadside | ||
| + | of her face, and therefore with one eye, | ||
| + | with horrid pertinacity and gravity.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "that Captain Vanderdecken never intends | ||
| + | to part with you?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | position is incredibly strange. He has a | ||
| + | father' | ||
| + | as I have no relations, I shall be one of his | ||
| + | children, and live with his wife and daughters | ||
| + | at Amsterdam. But he has no sense of time. | ||
| + | Neither he nor the miserable crew can compute. | ||
| + | To him and the others this is the year | ||
| + | 1654, and he supposes that he sailed from | ||
| + | Batavia in July of last year, that is, as he | ||
| + | conceives, in 1653. At first I tried to make< | ||
| + | him understand what century this was, but | ||
| + | he patted my cheek, and said my senses had | ||
| + | not returned, and, when I persisted, he grew | ||
| + | angry, and his temper so terrified me that I | ||
| + | feigned to agree with him, and have ever | ||
| + | since done so."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I reflected, and said, "It must be as you | ||
| + | say, and as I have already noted; for, did | ||
| + | the Almighty grant him and his crew any | ||
| + | perception of the passage of time, is it conceivable | ||
| + | that he would talk of his wife and | ||
| + | children as still living, and be eager to return | ||
| + | to them? When did you discover that this | ||
| + | was the Phantom Ship?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | from my father, and when Captain Vanderdecken | ||
| + | talked to me and I marked the | ||
| + | colour of his face and the appearance of the | ||
| + | crew, and the glow that shone upon the | ||
| + | vessel in the dark, with other strange things, | ||
| + | such as her ancient appearance, I soon satisfied | ||
| + | myself."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | situation for a young girl!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "I should have drowned myself in my misery | ||
| + | and terror, only I dreaded God's wrath. I | ||
| + | felt that if I humbly resigned myself to His | ||
| + | Holy Will He would suffer the spirits of my | ||
| + | father and mother to be with me and watch | ||
| + | over me. But, oh! what a tedious waiting | ||
| + | has it been, what bitter weariness of sea and | ||
| + | sky! Again and again have I entreated | ||
| + | Captain Vanderdecken to put me on board | ||
| + | some passing ship, but not conceiving of the | ||
| + | years which run by, and every tempest | ||
| + | that obstructs him melting as a memory into | ||
| + | the last, so that the rebuffs of a century past | ||
| + | are to him as forgotten things, or possessing | ||
| + | the same sort of recentness that in a day or | ||
| + | two this gale, which is now blowing, will | ||
| + | have, he thinks to encourage me by saying | ||
| + | that next time he is certain to round the | ||
| + | headland, that, as he has adopted, so he must< | ||
| + | not part with me, but carry me in his own | ||
| + | ship and under his own protection to his wife | ||
| + | and home."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I understood her and admired the cleverness | ||
| + | with which she rendered intelligible to | ||
| + | me the state of mind of the captain and crew | ||
| + | of this ship, that is to say so far as concerned | ||
| + | their incapacity to compute the passage of | ||
| + | the days. For is it not evident that if these | ||
| + | men knew that they were doomed never to | ||
| + | round the Cape, they would cease striving to | ||
| + | do so? And would they not long ago have | ||
| + | understood the character of the Judgment | ||
| + | that had been passed upon them had they | ||
| + | been permitted to comprehend that year after | ||
| + | year rolled on, ay, even into centuries, and | ||
| + | still found them beaten back regularly from | ||
| + | the same part of the ocean to the passing of | ||
| + | which their struggles had been directed? | ||
| + | How far memory in them was suffered to go | ||
| + | back so as to count the number of times they | ||
| + | were driven afresh to the eastwards, I could< | ||
| + | not imagine; but no doubt Imogene, who | ||
| + | knew Vanderdecken well, was right when she | ||
| + | said that the recollection of the last rebuff | ||
| + | melted into every present one, so that, in | ||
| + | short, in this respect they were as men without | ||
| + | memory. And this must have been so, | ||
| + | for they worked with hope; whereas hope | ||
| + | would have long since died in them could | ||
| + | they have recollected.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | regards their mortality? Are they human?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for they think of their homes and wives and | ||
| + | children," | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I was struck with this, though I said, | ||
| + | "Might not their very yearning be a part of | ||
| + | the Curse? For if you extinguish their desire | ||
| + | of getting home, the impulse that keeps them | ||
| + | striving with the elements would disappear, | ||
| + | and they would say, 'Since we cannot get | ||
| + | westwards and so to Europe, we'll head for | ||
| + | the east and make for the Indies?'"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | she exclaimed, sadly, and pressing her hand | ||
| + | to her brow. "The Great God here, in this | ||
| + | ship, has worked in miracles and mysteries | ||
| + | for purposes of His own. Who can explain | ||
| + | His ways? Sometimes I have thought by | ||
| + | the dreadful hue of the skin of their faces | ||
| + | that they are men dead in body, but forced | ||
| + | into the behaviour of living beings by the | ||
| + | strength of the Curse that works in them."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I replied that in saying this she had exactly | ||
| + | hit upon the fancy of my late captain, who | ||
| + | had taken his own life on the previous | ||
| + | evening, which fancy now struck me as an | ||
| + | amazing inspiration, | ||
| + | own opinion and that my own judgment fully | ||
| + | concurred in it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | be as we are. They are supernaturally alive. | ||
| + | Oh! it is shocking to think of. Is it not | ||
| + | wonderful that my long association with | ||
| + | these people has not driven me mad? Yet<span class=" | ||
| + | the captain loves me as a father; such is his | ||
| + | tenderness at times when he talks of his | ||
| + | home and strives to keep up my heart by | ||
| + | warranting that next time& | ||
| + | time& | ||
| + | well with us, that I am lost in wonder he | ||
| + | could have ever so acted as to bring the curse | ||
| + | of an eternal life of hopeless struggle upon | ||
| + | him and his men."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | be accursed?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | watching them," she replied. "But then I | ||
| + | have answered, why should innocent little | ||
| + | children bear in their forms, and in their | ||
| + | minds too, the diseases and infirmities caused | ||
| + | by the wickedness and recklessness of persons, | ||
| + | perhaps several generations removed | ||
| + | from them? We dare not question& | ||
| + | impious, Mr. Fenton. In this ship especially | ||
| + | must we be as mute spectators only, for we | ||
| + | are two living persons standing amid shadows,< | ||
| + | and viewing so marvellous a mystery that | ||
| + | I tremble to the depth of my soul at the | ||
| + | thoughts of my nearness to the Majesty of | ||
| + | an offended God!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>By this time Prins had quitted the cabin, | ||
| + | and the girl and I were alone. There was | ||
| + | a great weight of sea running, and the rolling | ||
| + | of the ship was very violent. This end of | ||
| + | the vessel was so tall that it rose buoyant | ||
| + | from the head of every billow that leapt at | ||
| + | her afterpart; but the thunder of the seas | ||
| + | smiting her in the waist would roar like a | ||
| + | tempest through the ship; you could hear | ||
| + | the waters washing about the deck there; | ||
| + | then the groaning and complaining below | ||
| + | was continuous, and the sounds which penetrated | ||
| + | the cabin from the gale in the rigging | ||
| + | made you think of the affrighted bellowing | ||
| + | of bulls chased by wolves in full cry.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | said Imogene, who had watched my | ||
| + | face whilst I listened; "but since I have< | ||
| + | been in this ship there have been far wilder | ||
| + | tempests than this."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | have spent here. What has been your experience | ||
| + | of the winds which regularly oppose | ||
| + | the ship? Do they happen naturally, as in | ||
| + | the case of this one, which was plentifully | ||
| + | betokened by the look of the moon and other | ||
| + | signs, or do they rise on a sudden& | ||
| + | wise, I mean, as would make one see they | ||
| + | were for this vessel only, and are a temporary | ||
| + | change in the laws of nature hereabouts that | ||
| + | the Curse may be continued?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | is this: as punctually as we arrive at a given | ||
| + | place the wind heads us, as used to be my | ||
| + | poor father' | ||
| + | And sometimes it blows softly and sometimes | ||
| + | it rises into fury. But let it come as it will | ||
| + | the vessel is blown or driven back a great | ||
| + | many leagues, but how far I cannot say, for | ||
| + | Vanderdecken himself does not know."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I would not trouble her with further | ||
| + | questions touching what I will call the | ||
| + | nautical routine of the ship and the man& | ||
| + | of the unhappy creatures the vessel | ||
| + | carried, because already I suspected that I | ||
| + | should have rather more leisure than I should | ||
| + | relish to look into these matters myself. But | ||
| + | as she manifestly took a pleasure in conversing | ||
| + | with me, and as I wished to obtain | ||
| + | all the information possible about this Death | ||
| + | Ship, and as, should Vanderdecken forbid | ||
| + | my associating with or addressing her, there | ||
| + | might be no one else on board of whom I | ||
| + | could venture to make inquiries, I determined | ||
| + | at once to push my researches as far as | ||
| + | courtesy permitted.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | singular delight in the pure virginal resting | ||
| + | of her violet eyes, sparkling like the jewels of | ||
| + | a crown, on mine as I talked to her, "that my | ||
| + | questions do not tease you& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | knew how glad I am, how it gives me fresh | ||
| + | heart to hear you speak, to see your living | ||
| + | face after my long desolating communion | ||
| + | with the people of this ship!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | God grant that what I viewed last night as a | ||
| + | most dreadful misfortune, full of terror, ay, | ||
| + | even to madness, may prove the greatest | ||
| + | stroke of good luck that could have befallen | ||
| + | me. But of what is to be done we must | ||
| + | talk later on. I shall require to look about | ||
| + | me. Tell me now, madam, if you will, how | ||
| + | is this ship provisioned? | ||
| + | are not miraculously fed; and 'tis certain that | ||
| + | the meat I tasted this morning has been | ||
| + | cured since 1653!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | short of food or water they sail for some part | ||
| + | of the coast where there is a river. There | ||
| + | they go on shore in boats, armed with | ||
| + | muskets, and come off with all that they can | ||
| + | kill."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "there is some plain sailing in this unholy | ||
| + | business after all. But how do they | ||
| + | manage for ammunition? Surely they must | ||
| + | long ago have expended their original | ||
| + | stock?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ago we met with an abandoned ship, out | ||
| + | of which Vanderdecken conveyed a great | ||
| + | quantity of tobacco, powder, money and | ||
| + | articles of food, a few cases of marmalade | ||
| + | and some barrels of flour. Whether these | ||
| + | shipwrecked vessels are left lying upon the | ||
| + | sea for him to take provisions from by the | ||
| + | Power that has sentenced him to his fearful | ||
| + | fate I cannot say, but since I have been in | ||
| + | this vessel we have fallen in with three | ||
| + | deserted ships, both floating and ashore on | ||
| + | the coast, and this may have been their | ||
| + | method throughout of providing themselves | ||
| + | with what they needed, backed by such | ||
| + | further food as I have never known them< | ||
| + | to miss of with their muskets and fowling-pieces."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I understand how it happens that the captain | ||
| + | can lend me such latter-day clothes as these | ||
| + | from his seventeenth-century wardrobe, and | ||
| + | that you& | ||
| + | I see you."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a great quantity of silks and materials for | ||
| + | making gowns for women. This jacket," | ||
| + | said she, meaning that which she was wearing, | ||
| + | "is one article out of several chests of | ||
| + | clothes Captain Vanderdecken was carrying | ||
| + | home for his wife and daughters and friends. | ||
| + | Do you notice the style, Mr. Fenton?" | ||
| + | added, turning about her full and graceful | ||
| + | figure that I might see the jacket, "it | ||
| + | is certainly of the last century. In the | ||
| + | captain' | ||
| + | his daughters dressed in much the same | ||
| + | way."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to run short of clothes."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | head, half of weariness, half of scorn as it | ||
| + | seemed to me, "there is a chest in my cabin | ||
| + | full of clothes fit for the grandest Duchess in | ||
| + | England. I use such as come most readily | ||
| + | to my hands. What need have I," she exclaimed, | ||
| + | pushing her hair from her forehead, | ||
| + | "to care whether the colours I take match, | ||
| + | or whether the gown is too full. This jacket | ||
| + | fits me as do all the clothes that were intended | ||
| + | for Geertruida Vanderdecken." | ||
| + | noticing my eyes resting on the pearls, she | ||
| + | said, taking the beautiful and costly rope in | ||
| + | her hands, "There is a great stock of finery | ||
| + | of this kind in the ship. About a fortnight | ||
| + | or three weeks after I had been rescued, the | ||
| + | captain ordered Prins to bring a large case | ||
| + | into the cabin; it was put upon the table and | ||
| + | the captain opened it. 'Twas like a jeweller' | ||
| + | shop in miniature, containing several divisions,< | ||
| + | one full of pearl ornaments, another of | ||
| + | rings, of which he bid me choose one to wear, | ||
| + | and I took this," holding up her forefinger | ||
| + | whereon the jewel blazed, "a third of earrings | ||
| + | and many other trinkets; some, as I | ||
| + | should fancy, more ancient than this ship, | ||
| + | others of a later time. How he got much of | ||
| + | this treasure I know."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | around her neck to toy with the ring, "a fair | ||
| + | proportion he had purchased for a merchant | ||
| + | of Amsterdam; chiefly eastern jewellery that | ||
| + | had made its way from Indian cities to Java; | ||
| + | other parcels he was taking home on his own | ||
| + | account; but much of it, too, along with a | ||
| + | store of further treasure& | ||
| + | have seen, and which consists of virgin silver, | ||
| + | bars of gold, coated with pewter to deceive | ||
| + | the pirates and buccaneers, candlesticks and | ||
| + | crucifixes of precious metal& | ||
| + | wreck of a great Spanish ship which lay<span class=" | ||
| + | abandoned and going to pieces on a shoal | ||
| + | off the coast of Natal. This happened during | ||
| + | his progress from Batavia to the Cape, before | ||
| + | he was cursed, and therefore it falls within his | ||
| + | memory. What other treasure there is, his | ||
| + | men have no doubt brought away from the | ||
| + | wrecked vessels they have examined for food, | ||
| + | powder and the like, during the years they | ||
| + | have been sailing about this ocean."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | heard, "it is in this fashion that the Phantom | ||
| + | Ship supplies her wants. As ships grow | ||
| + | more numerous, her opportunities will increase, | ||
| + | for 'tis terrible to think of the number | ||
| + | of vessels which go a-missing; and, | ||
| + | besides, this is the road to India, along which | ||
| + | pass the most richly freighted of Europe' | ||
| + | merchant fleets. Now I understand how | ||
| + | Vanderdecken manages to keep his crew | ||
| + | supplied with clothes, and his ship with sails | ||
| + | and cordage. But, Lord!" cried I, "if there | ||
| + | be nothing magical in this, yet surely< | ||
| + | Evil Spirit must be suffered to have a | ||
| + | hand in the keeping of the bones of this old | ||
| + | fabric together!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>As I said this, Prins entered the cabin, | ||
| + | and said, shortly, "Your clothes are dry, | ||
| + | mynheer; they are below."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>On which Imogene rose, and giving me a | ||
| + | bow, went to her own cabin.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | THE DEATH SHIP MUST BE SLOW AT PLYING.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I stood a moment or two at the door watching | ||
| + | the clock whilst it struck, and greatly | ||
| + | admiring the workmanship of the skeleton | ||
| + | that rose and speared with his lance, keeping | ||
| + | time to the sonorous chiming, which sang | ||
| + | with a solemn interval between each beat. | ||
| + | The great age of this time-keeper was | ||
| + | beyond question, but the horn that protected | ||
| + | the face of it prevented me from perceiving | ||
| + | if there was any maker' | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>As the skeleton sank, I could not but | ||
| + | admire the aptness of the mechanism to the | ||
| + | condition of the ship and her crew, for what | ||
| + | could surpass the irony of this representation | ||
| + | of Death perpetually foiled in his efforts to<span class=" | ||
| + | slay Time, which was yet the case of Vanderdecken | ||
| + | and his men, whose mortality was | ||
| + | constrained to an endless triumph over that | ||
| + | force which drives all men born of woman | ||
| + | through Nature into Eternity.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | look at her and then spoke to the creature in | ||
| + | my rugged Dutch, but to no purpose; with | ||
| + | the slow motion of her kind she contorted | ||
| + | herself until, with her beak uppermost, she | ||
| + | brought her larboard eye to bear full upon | ||
| + | me; and so fixed and unwinking was her | ||
| + | stare that I greatly disliked it, nay, felt that | ||
| + | if I lingered I should fear it, and was going | ||
| + | when she brought me to a stand by a hollow | ||
| + | "Ha! ha! ha!" just such a note as fancy | ||
| + | would give to the ghost of a Dutchman, who | ||
| + | had been large, fat and guttural when alive, | ||
| + | could the spectre of such a one laugh in his | ||
| + | coffin or in a vault. The age which this bird | ||
| + | had attained made her mere appearance chilling | ||
| + | to the blood, though I am aware these< | ||
| + | creatures are long-lived and that no man with | ||
| + | certainty could say they might not flourish | ||
| + | two hundred years and more. She was not | ||
| + | bald. All her feathers were sound and | ||
| + | smooth. Yet, as I made my way to my | ||
| + | cabin, it terrified me into downright despondency | ||
| + | to conceive of this parrot sharing in | ||
| + | the Curse that Vanderdecken had provoked. | ||
| + | For if this soulless fowl could be involved in | ||
| + | the general fate merely because it happened | ||
| + | to be in the ship, why might not my lot prove | ||
| + | the same? Oh, my heart! To think of | ||
| + | becoming one of the crew, partaking their | ||
| + | horrid destiny, and in due course dying to | ||
| + | live again accurst and miraculously, | ||
| + | theirs& | ||
| + | those feeble lamps with which the ancients | ||
| + | illumined their tombs!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Englishman' | ||
| + | and perceive in my life no sin such as | ||
| + | should fill me with remorse and hopelessness< | ||
| + | in a time like this. I believed in my | ||
| + | Creator' | ||
| + | cabin, I knelt down and prayed, and | ||
| + | after awhile recollected myself and felt the | ||
| + | warmth of my former spirit.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I was mighty pleased to recover my own | ||
| + | clothes; they gave me back the sense of my | ||
| + | being my true self again, whereas the masquerading | ||
| + | attire Vanderdecken had lent me | ||
| + | occasioned a wretched feeling as of belonging | ||
| + | to the ship. When I had shifted myself, I | ||
| + | neatly folded the captain' | ||
| + | the rest, and then sat down on my bed | ||
| + | to think over my conversation with Miss | ||
| + | Dudley. What to credit, what to make of | ||
| + | her, I hardly knew. She was so beautiful | ||
| + | where all was ugly, so fresh where all was | ||
| + | decayed, so young where all was withered, so | ||
| + | radiant where all was darksome that, on | ||
| + | board such a ship as this, that had been consigned | ||
| + | to the most dreadful doom the imagination | ||
| + | of man could conceive of, how was I<span class=" | ||
| + | to know that she was not some part of the | ||
| + | scheme of retribution& | ||
| + | tantaliser, a mocker of the home affections of | ||
| + | the miserable ship's company, a lovely embodiment | ||
| + | of the spirit of life to serve some | ||
| + | purpose of an inscrutable nature in its influence | ||
| + | upon such spiritual vitality as was | ||
| + | permitted to the corpse-like beings who | ||
| + | navigated this Death Ship.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was rendered utterly ridiculous by recurrence | ||
| + | to her transporting figure, the golden warmth | ||
| + | of her hair and complexion, and above all to | ||
| + | the fragility of her lineaments, which stamped | ||
| + | her mortal. No! her story was the truth | ||
| + | itself; but this I understood, if Vanderdecken | ||
| + | were never to comprehend his doom, there | ||
| + | was stern assurance of his holding the girl to | ||
| + | his ship until she died; because, as she had | ||
| + | pointed out, he had adopted her and desired | ||
| + | to take her home, and would never understand | ||
| + | he was powerless to do so, even should< | ||
| + | time represent the truth to him in her face, | ||
| + | should she ever grow old enough for wrinkles | ||
| + | and grey hairs.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | knoweth, I thought. Yet, what was my own | ||
| + | case? Would they refuse to let me leave | ||
| + | them? Well, that idea did not frighten me, | ||
| + | for he is a poor sailor who cannot find a | ||
| + | means of escape from a ship he dislikes, even | ||
| + | though she should be commanded by Old | ||
| + | Nick himself. But suppose they compelled me | ||
| + | to go, set me ashore in their boat, or hailed | ||
| + | some unsuspecting vessel that would receive | ||
| + | me. I should then be powerless to rescue | ||
| + | Imogene from this frightful situation, for as | ||
| + | to subsequently helping to succour her, first | ||
| + | of all I doubted whether I should find a sailor | ||
| + | in any part of the world willing to ship for a | ||
| + | cruise in search of Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | next, even if I should be able to range a line-of-battle | ||
| + | ship alongside this venerable frame, | ||
| + | how should human artillery advantage us in<span class=" | ||
| + | such a conflict? ' | ||
| + | defiance of the Divine intention, and what | ||
| + | mariner was to be found who would embark | ||
| + | on any adventure against this dread Spectre | ||
| + | of the Deep when, by so doing, he would feel | ||
| + | that he was fighting a Vengeance which would | ||
| + | swiftly deal with him for so great an act of | ||
| + | impiety?</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of this kind in that gloomy cabin filled | ||
| + | with the echoes of the groaning in the hold | ||
| + | and the washing and shocks of the seas without. | ||
| + | I felt a seaman' | ||
| + | good look at a ship of which there were a | ||
| + | thousand stories afloat in every forecastle | ||
| + | throughout the world, and so I climbed | ||
| + | through the hatch on deck, dressed in the | ||
| + | style in which I had made my first appearance. | ||
| + | The second mate, Antony Arents, | ||
| + | conned the vessel, standing near the helm | ||
| + | with his arms folded in a sullen, moody | ||
| + | posture, even so as to resemble a man<span class=" | ||
| + | turned into stone. Vanderdecken was at the | ||
| + | weather-rail, | ||
| + | parted in the attitude of a stride that he | ||
| + | might balance himself to the rolling deck. | ||
| + | He stared fixedly to the windward, his great | ||
| + | beard, disparted, blowing like smoke over | ||
| + | either shoulder, and his brows lowered into a | ||
| + | contemptuous scowl upon his sharp, burning | ||
| + | eyes. The ship was under the same canvas | ||
| + | I had before noticed on her. Her yards | ||
| + | were as closely pointed to the wind as the lee | ||
| + | braces could bring them, but whereas in our | ||
| + | time a square-rigged vessel close-hauled can | ||
| + | be brought to within six points, that is to say, | ||
| + | if the gale be north she can be made to head | ||
| + | east-north-east, | ||
| + | gathered without looking at the compass, lay | ||
| + | no closer than eight-and-a-half or nine points, | ||
| + | the wind blowing west-north-west and we | ||
| + | lying by as close as the trim of the yards | ||
| + | would suffer us, at about south-by-west.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>In short, we were being driven at the rate< | ||
| + | of some three or four miles an hour dead to | ||
| + | leeward, broadside on. Now, as I am writing | ||
| + | this in the main that all mariners may have a | ||
| + | just and clear conception of the sort of ship | ||
| + | Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | that this matter of her not being able to sail | ||
| + | within eight or nine points of the wind be | ||
| + | carefully noted; for, then you shall understand | ||
| + | how fully with her own tackling, and | ||
| + | yards and canvas, she helps out and fulfils | ||
| + | her doom.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>If ever you have read the account of | ||
| + | my Lord Anson' | ||
| + | you will recollect, in the second chapter of | ||
| + | Book II., the narrative, given at length, of | ||
| + | the time occupied by the Gloucester in fetching | ||
| + | and casting anchor off Juan Fernandez. | ||
| + | She could make no way at all in beating or | ||
| + | reaching. She was first sighted from the | ||
| + | island on the 21st of June; she was still striving | ||
| + | against the head wind on the 9th of July; | ||
| + | then she was blown away, and reappeared on<span class=" | ||
| + | the 16th, and it was not until the 23rd of | ||
| + | that month that she was seen opening the | ||
| + | north-west point of the bay with a flowing | ||
| + | sail, which means that she had a fair wind, | ||
| + | and which may also be said to signify that | ||
| + | had the wind not favoured her she might | ||
| + | have gone on struggling for years without | ||
| + | making the island. Think, now, of a vessel | ||
| + | very nearly fitted as our ships are rigged, | ||
| + | occupying thirty-two days& | ||
| + | and a day atop& | ||
| + | which, when the Gloucester was first sighted, | ||
| + | was reckoned at four leagues!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>Is it, then, surprising that a vessel constructed | ||
| + | considerably more than a century | ||
| + | earlier than the ships of Anson' | ||
| + | an age when the art of building was little | ||
| + | understood, when a ship's hull was as tall as | ||
| + | a great castle, when all things aloft were | ||
| + | ponderous, when the immense beam, helped | ||
| + | yet by the wide channels, gave such a spread | ||
| + | to the shrouds that they could make of the<span class=" | ||
| + | breeze no more than a beam wind when | ||
| + | braced up as sharp as the yards would come& | ||
| + | it surprising, I say, that this Dutchman, | ||
| + | so constructed, | ||
| + | with a contrary wind? I am the more | ||
| + | pleased to point this out because I have | ||
| + | heard it particularly affirmed that if Vanderdecken | ||
| + | were a good seaman he would laugh | ||
| + | at a north-wester though there should be no | ||
| + | other wind in those seas; for he need do | ||
| + | nothing but make a long board to the south, | ||
| + | to as far, say, as fifty degrees, in order, with | ||
| + | his starboard tacks aboard, to pass the Cape | ||
| + | and enter the Atlantic, where he would | ||
| + | probably catch the south-east trade wind and | ||
| + | so make good his return. But this presupposes | ||
| + | no Sentence, even if the ship were | ||
| + | capable of sailing close-hauled.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>To resume. Neither the captain, nor the | ||
| + | second mate, nor the seaman at the tiller, | ||
| + | taking the least notice of me, I determined | ||
| + | to keep myself to myself till it should please< | ||
| + | Vanderdecken to address me; so I got under | ||
| + | the lee of the house where I had conversed | ||
| + | with the captain before breakfast, and gazed | ||
| + | about. It was as dirty a day as ever I | ||
| + | remember& | ||
| + | drenched granite, the sea-line swallowed up | ||
| + | in spray and haze, out of which there came | ||
| + | rolling to the ship endless processions of | ||
| + | olive-coloured, | ||
| + | storming aloft was a perpetual thunder. | ||
| + | Upon every rope the gale split with a shriek, | ||
| + | and there was a dreary clattering of the cordage, | ||
| + | and as the vessel swang her spars to | ||
| + | windward, an edge of peculiar and hurricane-like | ||
| + | fierceness would be put into the wind, | ||
| + | as though it were driven outrageously mad | ||
| + | by the stubborn swing of the masts against | ||
| + | its howling face. Nothing was in sight save | ||
| + | over against our weather-quarter a Cape hen, | ||
| + | poised on such easy wings that the appearance | ||
| + | of the bird made a wonder of the weight | ||
| + | of the blast; its solitariness gave a heavy< | ||
| + | desolation to the aspect of the pouring, warring | ||
| + | scene of frothing summits and roaring | ||
| + | hollows. The reefed courses under which | ||
| + | the vessel lay were dark with wet from the | ||
| + | showering of the sea, of which great, green, | ||
| + | glittering masses striking the weather-bow, | ||
| + | raised such a smoke of crystals all about the | ||
| + | forecastle that the vessel looked to be on | ||
| + | fire with the steam-like, voluminous whiteness | ||
| + | soaring there.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | way, muffled up to their noses; but I did not | ||
| + | see them speak to one another nor go about | ||
| + | any kind of work. They had the same self-engrossed, | ||
| + | nay, entranced air that was visible | ||
| + | in those, such as the two mates and Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | whom I had already observed. The | ||
| + | ship offered an amazing picture as she soared | ||
| + | and sank upon the billows, half-hidden by | ||
| + | storms of froth swept by the wind betwixt | ||
| + | the masts with wilder screamings than a | ||
| + | hundred mad-houses could make. The great< | ||
| + | barricaded tops, her spritsail topmast standing | ||
| + | up out of another top at the end of the bowsprit& | ||
| + | had no jibboom& | ||
| + | yard, after the lateen-style, | ||
| + | gave her so true a look of the age in | ||
| + | which she had been built that it would be | ||
| + | impossible for any sailor to see her and not | ||
| + | know what ship she was. None other | ||
| + | resembling her has been afloat since the age | ||
| + | of William III., nor is it conceivable that the | ||
| + | like of her will ever be seen again.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | I WITNESS THE CAPTAIN' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I had been on deck about a quarter of an | ||
| + | hour when Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | was standing motionless at the rail looking& | ||
| + | who shall tell with what fancies in him | ||
| + | and what visions& | ||
| + | came down to the lee of the house as though | ||
| + | he all along knew I was there, though I can | ||
| + | swear he never once turned nor appeared to | ||
| + | see me, and said& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | bringing his beard to its place with both | ||
| + | hands, and viewing me with a severity | ||
| + | that I began to think might be as much< | ||
| + | owing to the cast of his features as to his | ||
| + | nature.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I replied that she had told me how he had | ||
| + | met with her in an open boat, how her | ||
| + | parents had perished, and how he had felt a | ||
| + | father' | ||
| + | her home.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | shall be a child of mine. My wife will soon | ||
| + | love her, and she will be a sister to my | ||
| + | daughters. She has no relatives, and such | ||
| + | beauty and sweetness of heart as hers must | ||
| + | be cared for, since how does the world commonly | ||
| + | serve such graces when they meet in a | ||
| + | friendless woman?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cannot be endevilled! And yet does not | ||
| + | the great Milton bestow the tenderness of | ||
| + | a sister and a daughter on Sin when she | ||
| + | reconciles Satan and Death? Something of | ||
| + | human nature there must ever be even in | ||
| + | those who most strictly merit Heaven' | ||
| + | and the lustre of the glory in our | ||
| + | beginning, though it wane till its glow is no | ||
| + | brighter than the dim, fiery crawlings upon | ||
| + | this ship's side at night, is never utterly | ||
| + | extinguished in the blackest spirit of us all.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I had no desire to talk of Miss Dudley | ||
| + | lest I should put him into a passion by some | ||
| + | remark touching the number of years she had | ||
| + | now been on board, or by blundering in some | ||
| + | other like manner. If she was to escape | ||
| + | through me it behoved me to keep my | ||
| + | thoughts mighty close and secret, for let | ||
| + | what would be the state of being he had | ||
| + | entered into in two centuries of existence, | ||
| + | his eyes were like a burning-glass, | ||
| + | he could focus by them the fires of suspicion | ||
| + | and scorch a hole through your | ||
| + | body to your soul to learn what was passing | ||
| + | there. So putting on an easy manner and | ||
| + | throwing a glance aloft and around, I said, | ||
| + | "I fear, mynheer, you find weather of this | ||
| + | kind strain your ship a good deal."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | seas as this," he replied.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | you?" he replied, with sudden temper.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I said, warily, "I cannot imagine."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | voyages," | ||
| + | only once& | ||
| + | she prove leaky. But this voyage she | ||
| + | has been troublesome, | ||
| + | careen her twice."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | see that his memory had been shaped so as | ||
| + | to fit his doom, and that remembrance of all | ||
| + | that befell him and his crew from the time | ||
| + | when his sentence was first pronounced faded | ||
| + | almost as swiftly as they happened, like | ||
| + | clouds upon the blankness of the heavens, so | ||
| + | that the very changes that would illustrate | ||
| + | the passage of time to you or me, such as the | ||
| + | alteration in the rigs and shapes of the ships< | ||
| + | he met, or the growth into womanhood of | ||
| + | the girl he had rescued, would be as unmeaning | ||
| + | to him and his fellows as to men without | ||
| + | memory. Yet was it manifestly part of the | ||
| + | Curse that he should have a keen and bright | ||
| + | recollection of his house, his family, Amsterdam, | ||
| + | the politics and wars of his age and the | ||
| + | like. For if the faculty was wholly dead in | ||
| + | him, he would be but as a corpse without that | ||
| + | craving for home which perpetuates his doom.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the coast, east of the Cape?" said I, eager to | ||
| + | gather all I could touching the practices and | ||
| + | inner life of this wondrous ship without | ||
| + | appearing inquisitive.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He answered, "Yes, there is one good | ||
| + | place, 'tis in a bay; I cannot name it, but it | ||
| + | is to be found by the peculiar shape of the | ||
| + | mountains at its back. If ever you should be | ||
| + | in these seas and need to careen, choose that | ||
| + | place, for besides that you may refresh your | ||
| + | crew with, and lay in a good store of& | ||
| + | in season& | ||
| + | lemons, plantains, and other fruits, with abundance | ||
| + | of such fish as cod, hake, and mullet, | ||
| + | and comforts and dainties such as plovers, | ||
| + | partridges, guinea-fowl, | ||
| + | there find a salt spring, the water of which, | ||
| + | on boiling, yields salt enough for any quantity | ||
| + | of curing, and what should not be less | ||
| + | useful to you as a mariner to know is, that | ||
| + | about the shore you find scattered a kind of | ||
| + | munjack which, when boiled with sand and | ||
| + | tempered with oil, is as good as pitch for | ||
| + | paying your seams with."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | you are led when your ship needs to be overhauled | ||
| + | or when your provisions run low. | ||
| + | With oakum worked from such ropes as he | ||
| + | would find on abandoned ships, and the munjack | ||
| + | he spoke about, he would have no | ||
| + | trouble in keeping the frame of the vessel | ||
| + | tight, more especially as the supernatural | ||
| + | quality that was in his own life was in that of<span class=" | ||
| + | his ship likewise, so that the timber stood as | ||
| + | did his skin, albeit the one would often need | ||
| + | repairs just as the body of the other was | ||
| + | sustained by meat and drink.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | said I.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dry it will crush into an excellent flour. The | ||
| + | cakes we had at breakfast were formed of | ||
| + | plantain-flour."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mariner forces the sea and the land that | ||
| + | skirts it to supply his needs."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | But no sailors surpass the Dutch in this | ||
| + | particular direction."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It seemed as if he would go on speaking, | ||
| + | but, looking, that I might attend to his | ||
| + | words, I observed that the whole man, with | ||
| + | amazing suddenness, appeared to undergo a | ||
| + | change. He stood motionless, gazing at | ||
| + | the leeward sea, his features fixed, not the<span class=" | ||
| + | faintest working in them, and nothing stirring | ||
| + | but his beard. He was like one in a | ||
| + | fit, save for the frightful vitality he got from | ||
| + | the glare in his eyes, which were rooted as | ||
| + | though they beheld a phantom. I drew away | ||
| + | from him with a shudder, for his aspect now | ||
| + | was the most terrible revelation of his monstrous | ||
| + | and unearthly existence that had been | ||
| + | made to me. The change was of the violence | ||
| + | of a catalepsy, and this quick transition from | ||
| + | the intelligent, | ||
| + | speaking of homely matters to a mute, petrified | ||
| + | figure, to which the fire of the eyes imparted | ||
| + | an inexpressible element of horror, so | ||
| + | terrified me that I felt the sweat-drops in | ||
| + | the palms of my hands. As to reasoning | ||
| + | on this condition of his, why, I could make | ||
| + | nothing of it. It looked as if the death that | ||
| + | was in his flesh and bones, finding his spirit, | ||
| + | or whatever it was that informed him, languid, | ||
| + | as the senses became through grief or | ||
| + | sickness, asserted its powers till it was driven< | ||
| + | into its hiding-place again by the re-quickening | ||
| + | of the supernatural element that possessed | ||
| + | him. It was also apparent that this unnatural | ||
| + | gift of life did but give vitality to a corpse; | ||
| + | and that even as a disinterred body that | ||
| + | still wears the very tint of life, as though but | ||
| + | just dead, falls into dust on the air of | ||
| + | Heaven touching it, so do I strictly believe | ||
| + | that Vanderdecken and his crew would instantly | ||
| + | crumble into ashes, which the wind | ||
| + | would disperse, were the power that keeps | ||
| + | them intelligent and capable of moving | ||
| + | suspended. By which I mean that they | ||
| + | would not decay slowly, as the dead in | ||
| + | Nature do, but that they would dissolve into | ||
| + | dust as men who deceased a hundred years | ||
| + | ago.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | think you of the reality? Never could I | ||
| + | so fully compass all the horror of the Curse | ||
| + | as now, when I turned my gaze from the | ||
| + | figure at my side, majestic in his marble< | ||
| + | motionlessness and alive in the eyes only, to | ||
| + | the strained, grey, streaming ancient ship, | ||
| + | tossing her forking bowsprit to the sullen | ||
| + | gloom on high, bringing her aged, patched | ||
| + | and dingy courses, groaning at their tacks, | ||
| + | with a sulky thunder against the screaming | ||
| + | gale, as though their hollows dimly reverberated | ||
| + | yet the cannonading of the vanished | ||
| + | fleets of Blake and Tromp; washed by seas | ||
| + | which fled in snow-storms over her forward | ||
| + | decks, heavily and dismally rolling broadside | ||
| + | to the wind that was blowing her with | ||
| + | diabolic stubbornness back along the liquid | ||
| + | path that she had so lately sailed over! | ||
| + | Think of such a life as this, never-ending! | ||
| + | Great Mercy! Would not even a year of such | ||
| + | a struggle prove to us distracting. Oh, 'tis a | ||
| + | merciful provision indeed that these poor | ||
| + | wretches should have had all sense of time | ||
| + | killed in them, and that their punishment | ||
| + | should lie in a perpetual cheating of hope too | ||
| + | short-lived as a remembrance to break their< | ||
| + | hearts. Yet there were now two persons in | ||
| + | this Death Ship to whom such solace as was | ||
| + | permitted to the accurst crew would not be | ||
| + | granted, and who, if they could not get away | ||
| + | from the vessel, would have to lead a more | ||
| + | terrible life than even that of the Dutch | ||
| + | mariners, unless they destroyed themselves as | ||
| + | Captain Skevington had. And for some | ||
| + | time I could think of nothing but how I was | ||
| + | to rescue Miss Dudley and make my own | ||
| + | escape, for one thing I had already resolved: | ||
| + | never to leave the girl alone in this ship.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | I HOLD A CONVERSATION WITH THE CREW.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | that thick gale a vessel would have had to | ||
| + | come within a mile of us to be visible. As | ||
| + | Vanderdecken neither stirred nor spoke to | ||
| + | me, I feared he might take it ill if I hung by | ||
| + | his side, for how was I to tell but that he | ||
| + | might consider I should regard the withdrawal | ||
| + | of his attention as a hint to begone. | ||
| + | I therefore walked aft, the second mate no | ||
| + | more heeding me than if I had been as viewless | ||
| + | as the air, whilst the helmsman, after | ||
| + | turning a small pair of glassy eyes upon me, | ||
| + | stained with veins, directed them again at | ||
| + | the sea over the bow, his face as sullenly | ||
| + | thoughtful as the others, albeit he handled< | ||
| + | the tiller with good judgment, " | ||
| + | as we sailors say, when she needed it, and | ||
| + | holding a very clean and careful luff.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>My curiosity being great I ventured to | ||
| + | peep into the binnacle, or " | ||
| + | was formerly called, a fixed box or case for | ||
| + | holding the mariner' | ||
| + | was very old-fashioned, | ||
| + | yet it swung to the movement of the ship, | ||
| + | and I could not suppose that it was very | ||
| + | inaccurate since by the aid of it they periodically | ||
| + | made the land where they hunted for | ||
| + | meat and filled their casks. As neither | ||
| + | Vanderdecken nor Antony Arents offered to | ||
| + | hinder me from roaming about, I determined, | ||
| + | since I was about it, to take a good look at | ||
| + | this Death Ship. I examined the swivels | ||
| + | which were very green with decay, and tried | ||
| + | to revolve one on its pivot, but found that it | ||
| + | was not to be stirred. The tiller had been a | ||
| + | very noble piece of timber, but now presented | ||
| + | the aspect of rottenness that all the rest< | ||
| + | of the wood in the ship had, yet it had | ||
| + | been very elegantly carved, and numerous | ||
| + | flourishes still overran it, though the meaning | ||
| + | of the devices was not to be come at. The | ||
| + | rudder head worked in a great helm-port, | ||
| + | through which a corpulent man of eighteen | ||
| + | stone might have slipped fair into the sea | ||
| + | underneath. The gale made a melancholy | ||
| + | screeching in the skeleton lantern, and I | ||
| + | wondered they did not unship the worthless | ||
| + | thing and heave it overboard. I looked over | ||
| + | the side and as far down as I could carry my | ||
| + | sight, and I observed that the ship was of a | ||
| + | sickly sallow colour, not yellow& | ||
| + | no hue that I could give a name to, though | ||
| + | the original tint a painter might conjecture | ||
| + | by guessing what colour would yield this | ||
| + | nameless pallidness after years and years of | ||
| + | washing seas and the burning of the sun.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I then thought I would step forward, not | ||
| + | much minding the washing of the seas there, | ||
| + | and passed Vanderdecken very cautiously,< | ||
| + | ready to stop if he should look at me, but he | ||
| + | remained in a trance, like a stone figure, all | ||
| + | the life of him gone into his eyes, which | ||
| + | glared burning and terrible at the same part | ||
| + | of the ocean at which he stared when I first | ||
| + | observed him stirless; so I stepped past and | ||
| + | descended to the quarter-deck, | ||
| + | was nothing to see, and thence to the upper | ||
| + | deck.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of the pattern I recollected noticing in a ship | ||
| + | that had been built in 1722, and that was | ||
| + | afloat and hearty and earning good money in | ||
| + | 1791. In front of the mast lay two boats, | ||
| + | one within the other, the under one on | ||
| + | chocks, both of the same pattern, namely, | ||
| + | square stern and stem, with lengths of the | ||
| + | gunwales projecting like horns. The top | ||
| + | one, for I could not see the inside of the | ||
| + | lower boat, had been painted originally a | ||
| + | bright scarlet; she contained seats and half-a-dozen | ||
| + | of oars short and long, all with immensely< | ||
| + | broad blades, which had also been | ||
| + | painted a bright red. The rusty guns, the | ||
| + | ends of gear snaking in the froth along the | ||
| + | scuppers, the cumbersomeness of the blocks | ||
| + | of the maintack, along with the other furniture | ||
| + | of that groaning and half-bursting sail, the | ||
| + | grey old cask answering for a scuttlebutt | ||
| + | lashed to the larboard side, the ancientness of | ||
| + | the tarpauling over the great hatch; these, | ||
| + | and a score of other details it would tease you | ||
| + | to hear me name, gave a most dismal and | ||
| + | wretched appearance to all this part of the | ||
| + | tossed, drenched, spray-clouded fabric labouring | ||
| + | under a sky that had darkened since the | ||
| + | morning, and against whose complexion the | ||
| + | edges of the sails showed with a raw and | ||
| + | sickly pallor, whilst above swung the great | ||
| + | barricaded tops and the masts and yards to | ||
| + | and fro, to and fro, how drearily and wearily!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | me to dodge the seas as I crept forwards, | ||
| + | and presently I came abreast of the foremast,< | ||
| + | where stood Jans, the boatswain, along with | ||
| + | three or four seamen, taking the shelter of a | ||
| + | sort of hutch, built very strong, whence proceeded | ||
| + | sounds of the grunting of hogs, and | ||
| + | the muttering of geese, hens and the like. | ||
| + | As I needed an excuse to be here& | ||
| + | fellows believed the time to be that of Cromwell | ||
| + | and Blake, and looked upon an Englishman | ||
| + | as an enemy, and, therefore, might round | ||
| + | upon me angrily for offering to overhaul their | ||
| + | ship& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | here? I shall be glad to thank them."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "the other' | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I turned to the man named Houtmann, | ||
| + | and saw in him an old sailor of perhaps | ||
| + | three-score, | ||
| + | in his pockets, a worn, wrinkled, melancholy | ||
| + | face, his complexion, like that of the others, | ||
| + | of the grave; he was dressed in boots, loose | ||
| + | yellow, tarpaulin trousers, and a frock of the<span class=" | ||
| + | same material; he had a pilot-coat on, a good | ||
| + | sou' | ||
| + | the Saracen& | ||
| + | around his neck.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I put out my hand, and said, " | ||
| + | let an English sailor thank a brave Hollander | ||
| + | of his own calling for his life."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He did not smile& | ||
| + | so much as a twitch in his face sensible of my | ||
| + | speech, save that in the most lifeless manner | ||
| + | in the world he held out his hand, which I | ||
| + | took; but I was glad to let it fall. If ever a | ||
| + | hand had the chill of death to freeze mortal | ||
| + | flesh, his had that coldness. No other man's | ||
| + | skin in that ship had I before touched, though | ||
| + | my arm had been seized by Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | and this contact makes one of the most biting | ||
| + | memories of that time. Will you suppose | ||
| + | that the coldness was produced by the wet | ||
| + | and the wind? Alas! he withdrew his hand | ||
| + | from his pocket; but, even had he raised it | ||
| + | from a block of ice, you would not, in the<span class=" | ||
| + | bitter bleakness of the flesh, have felt, as I | ||
| + | did, the death in his veins, had he been as I | ||
| + | was.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | clothes as you would conceive a ship's slop-chest | ||
| + | would be fitted with from pickings of | ||
| + | vessels encountered and ransacked in a | ||
| + | hundred and fifty years. They had all of | ||
| + | them a Dutch cast of countenance, | ||
| + | not more than thirty, another forty, and | ||
| + | so on. But there was something in them& | ||
| + | God knows if my life were the stake | ||
| + | I should not be able to define it& | ||
| + | by the movements, complexions and the like, | ||
| + | made you see that with them time had become | ||
| + | eternity, and that their exteriors were | ||
| + | no more significant of the years they could | ||
| + | count than the effigy on the tomb of a man | ||
| + | represents the dust of him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | most of my stock of Dutch, and resolved to | ||
| + | confront each amazing experience as it befel< | ||
| + | me with a bold face. "But the Braave is a | ||
| + | stout ship and makes excellent weather."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | addressing Jans.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | Table Bay the hold must be smoked with | ||
| + | sulphur."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | this ship," said one of the sailors, named | ||
| + | Kryns; "had we been ten years making the | ||
| + | passage from Batavia, the vermin could not | ||
| + | have increased more rapidly."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | thumb to a hatch abreast of the after-end of | ||
| + | the forecastle bulwark. The cover was over | ||
| + | it, for there the spray was constantly shooting | ||
| + | up like steam from boiling water, and filling | ||
| + | the iron-hard hollow of the foresail with wet | ||
| + | which showered from under the arched foot-rope | ||
| + | in whole thunderstorms of rain. Otherwise< | ||
| + | I should have asked leave to go below | ||
| + | and explore the forecastle, for no part of this | ||
| + | ship could, I thought, be more curious than | ||
| + | the place in which her crew lived, and I | ||
| + | particularly desired to see how they slept, | ||
| + | nay, to see them sleeping and to observe the | ||
| + | character of their beds, whether hammocks | ||
| + | or bunks, and their chests or bags for their | ||
| + | clothes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I said, "It will be dark enough down there | ||
| + | with the hatch closed?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | seamen, named Abraham Bothma& | ||
| + | down their names afterwards from Imogene' | ||
| + | dictation, conceiving that the mentioning of | ||
| + | them would prove of interest to any descendants | ||
| + | of theirs in Holland into whose | ||
| + | hands this narrative might chance to fall& | ||
| + | we keep a lamp always burning."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | timorously, for I had made up my mind to | ||
| + | pretend to one and all that I believed they< | ||
| + | had sailed from Batavia in the preceding | ||
| + | year, and the question was a departure from | ||
| + | that resolution.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "What use do you English make of the | ||
| + | porpoise and the grampus? Is not the seabird | ||
| + | full of it? And fish you in any bay | ||
| + | along the coast 'twixt Natal and Cape Town, | ||
| + | and I'll warrant you livers enough to keep | ||
| + | your lamps burning for a voyage round the | ||
| + | world. And what ship with coppers aboard | ||
| + | can be wanting in slush?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | love to hear the opinions of persons of my | ||
| + | own calling. Therefore I would ask you, do | ||
| + | not you consider your ship greatly hampered | ||
| + | forward by yonder sprit-topmast and the | ||
| + | heavy yards there?" | ||
| + | perfectly intelligible, | ||
| + | that I have already described as being fixed | ||
| + | upright at the end of the bowsprit, rising, | ||
| + | so to speak, out of a round top there, and<span class=" | ||
| + | having a smaller top on the upper end of | ||
| + | it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he, in a sneering manner.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the ships you meet are rigged& | ||
| + | upon which you can set more useful | ||
| + | canvas than spritsails."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>On this, Bothma said, "Let your country | ||
| + | rig its ships as it chooses, they will find the | ||
| + | Dutch know more about the sea and the art | ||
| + | of navigating and commanding it than your | ||
| + | nation has stomach for."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I could have smiled at this, but the voice | ||
| + | of the man, the deadness of his face, the | ||
| + | terrifying life in his eyes, the sombre gravity | ||
| + | of the others, standing about me like people | ||
| + | in their sleep, were such a corrective of | ||
| + | humour as might have made a braver man | ||
| + | than I am tremble. I dared not go on talking | ||
| + | with them, indeed, their looks caused me | ||
| + | to fear for my senses, so without further ado<span class=" | ||
| + | I walked aft and entered the cabin hoping to | ||
| + | find warmth and recovery for my mind in the | ||
| + | beauty and conversation of Imogene.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the sky made it very gloomy, and what with | ||
| + | its meagre furniture, the unhealthy colouring | ||
| + | of its walls, trappings of gilt and handwork, | ||
| + | once I daresay very brilliant and delightful, | ||
| + | but now as rueful as a harlequin' | ||
| + | seen by the sun, it was a most depressing | ||
| + | interior, particularly in such weather as was | ||
| + | then storming, when the ceaseless thunder of | ||
| + | bursting surges drove shock after shock of | ||
| + | tempestuous sound through the resonant | ||
| + | fabric, and when the shrieking of the wind, | ||
| + | not only in the rigging but along the floor of | ||
| + | the stormy sky itself, was like the frantic | ||
| + | tally-hoing of demons to the million hounds | ||
| + | of the blast.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to the old, framed pictures upon the sides, | ||
| + | and found them to be panels fitted to the<span class=" | ||
| + | ship's plank, and framed so as to form as | ||
| + | much a part of the structure as the carving | ||
| + | on her stern would be. But time, neglect, | ||
| + | dirt or damp& | ||
| + | darkened the surfaces that most of them were | ||
| + | more like the heads of tar barrels than paintings. | ||
| + | Yet here and there I managed to | ||
| + | witness a glimmering survival of the artist' | ||
| + | work; one representing the fish market at | ||
| + | Amsterdam, such of the figures as were plain | ||
| + | exhibiting plenty of humour; another a Dutch | ||
| + | East Indiaman, of Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | sailing along with canvas full, streamers | ||
| + | blowing, and the Batavian colours standing | ||
| + | out large from the ensign staff; a third was a | ||
| + | portrait, but nothing was left of it save a | ||
| + | nose whose ruddy tip time had evidently | ||
| + | fallen in love with, for there it still glowed, | ||
| + | a mouth widely distended with laughter, and | ||
| + | one merry little eye, the other having sunk | ||
| + | like a star in the dark cloud that overspread | ||
| + | most of this panel. This, I supposed, had<span class=" | ||
| + | been the portrait of a sailor, for so much of | ||
| + | the remainder as was determinable all related | ||
| + | to Amsterdam and things nautical. Having | ||
| + | made this dismal round, I sat me down at the | ||
| + | table, sternly and closely watched by the | ||
| + | parrot, whose distressing, | ||
| + | I had no wish to hear, she being my only | ||
| + | company if I except the clock, whose hoarse | ||
| + | ticking was audible above the gale, and the | ||
| + | skeleton skulking inside, whose hourly resurrection | ||
| + | I was now in the temper to as greatly | ||
| + | dislike as the bird's iterative denunciation.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I wondered how the young lady contrived | ||
| + | to pass her time. Had she books? If so, | ||
| + | they would doubtless be dull performances in | ||
| + | old Dutch, fat and wormy volumes bound | ||
| + | in hard leather& | ||
| + | as a canal, and very little calculated to amuse | ||
| + | a spirited girl. Evidently, in the five years | ||
| + | she had been sailing with Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | had learnt what she knew of Dutch; she | ||
| + | spoke fluently, and with a good accent,< | ||
| + | though, to be sure, it was the Dutch of 1650. | ||
| + | I constantly directed my eyes towards her | ||
| + | cabin, in the hope of seeing her emerge, for | ||
| + | I felt mighty dull and sad, and longed for | ||
| + | the sight of her fair and golden beauty; and | ||
| + | all the while I was wondering how she had | ||
| + | endured, without losing her mind, the dreadful | ||
| + | imprisonment she had undergone and | ||
| + | was yet undergoing, and the still more | ||
| + | fearful association of the captain and his | ||
| + | men.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I also employed myself in turning over | ||
| + | several schemes for escaping with her, but | ||
| + | nothing that was really practicable offered. | ||
| + | Suppose we met with an unsuspecting ship& | ||
| + | mean a vessel that did not know we were | ||
| + | the craft that has been called the Flying | ||
| + | Dutchman& | ||
| + | get rid of me, sends me to her in a boat. I | ||
| + | cry out that there is a young lady left behind | ||
| + | breaking her heart for home, whereupon explanations | ||
| + | would follow to prove the vessel< | ||
| + | the Death Ship! What would happen? In | ||
| + | all probability, | ||
| + | vessel we met, her crew, to preserve her from | ||
| + | the Curse, would fling me overboard. In | ||
| + | any case, away they would run directly the | ||
| + | truth was known. Indeed, acquainted as I | ||
| + | was with the terror with which Vanderdecken | ||
| + | was viewed by all classes of mariners, 'twas | ||
| + | positive that, though he had no suspicion | ||
| + | himself of the dread he inspired, the story | ||
| + | that would have to be told concerning Miss | ||
| + | Dudley to account for her detention in the | ||
| + | Phantom Ship would end in resolving those | ||
| + | we encountered to have nothing to do with | ||
| + | either her or me, but to bear a hand and | ||
| + | "up sticks!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>As to getting away with her in one of the | ||
| + | Dutchman' | ||
| + | the boat over the side unperceived? | ||
| + | suppose that was to be managed, then on his | ||
| + | missing us would not Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | of fierce resolution, hunt after and perhaps< | ||
| + | find us, when I should be at the mercy of one | ||
| + | in whom there was a great deal of the devil, | ||
| + | and who, Heaven knows, could not revenge | ||
| + | himself more awfully than by keeping me in | ||
| + | his ship. Several projects I thought of, and | ||
| + | then a strange idea came into my head. | ||
| + | Here was a girl without mother or father, | ||
| + | and, as I gathered, entirely friendless and | ||
| + | penniless, as indeed in this latter article she | ||
| + | could hardly help being as the child of a | ||
| + | sailor. Suppose I should succeed in escaping | ||
| + | with her? How could an association such as | ||
| + | ours end but in a wedding? And did that | ||
| + | consideration agitate me? Faith, though I | ||
| + | had only known her since this morning, I | ||
| + | reckoned, being young and in an especial | ||
| + | degree an admirer and lover of the kind of | ||
| + | beauty and sweetness this girl had in perfection, | ||
| + | it would not need many days to pass | ||
| + | before my heart would be hers.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Many bright and delightful ideas occurred to<span class=" | ||
| + | me. Would not my tremendous experience | ||
| + | find a glorious crowning in the hand of this | ||
| + | girl and her endowment by Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | who loved her, out of those chests of treasure | ||
| + | and coin which he had in his hold? Would | ||
| + | it be impossible for me to persuade him, say | ||
| + | after the next gale which blew him back from | ||
| + | Agulhas, to put us aboard some vessel homeward | ||
| + | bound along with a chest of treasure for | ||
| + | his wife as an earnest of what was coming, | ||
| + | and so enable me to convey Miss Dudley | ||
| + | straight to Amsterdam there to await his | ||
| + | arrival? It was but a young man's fancy, | ||
| + | pretentious and inconsistent with my opinion | ||
| + | of the captain' | ||
| + | the Curse that lay on him; and it was not | ||
| + | perhaps strictly honest. Though if you come | ||
| + | to consider that his doom would never suffer | ||
| + | him to use the riches he had in his ship, nor | ||
| + | to know whether I had faithfully carried Miss | ||
| + | Dudley to his house on the Buitenkant& | ||
| + | I afterwards heard he was living when< | ||
| + | he sailed& | ||
| + | thus idly and merrily dreaming.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I was in the midst of this castle-building | ||
| + | when the hour of noon was struck by the | ||
| + | clock. I watched the figure of Death hewing | ||
| + | with his lance, but with an abstracted eye, | ||
| + | my mind being full of gay and hopeful fancies. | ||
| + | But the moment the last stroke had rung, the | ||
| + | parrot cried out:& | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | "Wy Zyn al Verdomd!"< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | thoughts as you destroy a spider' | ||
| + | passing your finger through it, and I dropped | ||
| + | my chin on to my breast with my spirits | ||
| + | dashed.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <br />END OF VOLUME I.<br /> | ||
| + | <br /> | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | PRINTED BY<br /> | ||
| + | TILLOTSON AND SON, MAWDSLEY STREET< | ||
| + | BOLTON< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | </ | ||
the_death_ship_a_strange_story_vol_1.txt · Last modified: 2020/02/08 04:20 by briancarnell