Courage, True Hearts Part 14

Then wind and sea went down, and peace reigned once more on the decks, and in the rigging of the good s.h.i.+p _Ocean's Pride_.

The splendid cities they visited when the vessel at last arrived in Australia quite dazzled our boys. And as the English language was spoken everywhere they felt quite at home.

Captain Wilson seemed to take a pride in having Duncan and Conal with him, and he introduced them as friends wherever he went.

Both lads were handsome, and in the city of Melbourne a rumour got abroad that they were of n.o.ble birth, and were serving before the mast for the mere romance of the thing. Well, even the Earl of Aberdeen was once found in the guise of an ordinary seaman; but there was something more than romance in our heroes' situation. However, the report, which they always contradicted, did them no harm, and they were invited to more houses than one, being asked, moreover, to come in their sailor's clothes.

The boys obeyed. In fact they had none other, but they had a kind of best suit, and very well the broad blue collar and black sailor's-knotted handkerchief became their handsome young faces.

I don't think I am far wrong in saying that some of the Australian ladies fell in love with them.

But that is a mere detail.

Now, having reached Australia, Duncan had about half a mind, more or less, to try his luck at the gold diggings.

He broached the subject to Captain Wilson.

"Well," replied the skipper, "mind, though I should be grieved to part with you, I would rather put another spoke in your wheel than hinder you, if I thought there was the ghost of a chance of your making your fortune. But I don't think there is."

"Then we shall be advised by you," said Duncan.

So after a very pleasant time spent in Australia the _Ocean's Pride_ spread her wings once more to the breeze and sailed for distant j.a.pan.

Thence homewards round stormy Cape Horn. It took them six weeks to weather the Cape, so close was the ice.

But worse was to befall them, alas! than this.

They were now bearing up for home. Right cheerily too, for they had caught the trades, and finally fell into the doldrums in crossing the equator.

Here they tumbled about for no less than three weeks, not a breath of wind blowing all this time to help them along.

But it came at last, and they were free.

CHAPTER II.--A FEARFUL EXPERIENCE.

Once more the _Ocean's Pride_ was spanking along before a delightful breeze with the dark blue sea sparkling in the sunlight around her, and Mother Carey's chickens, as sailors call the stormy petrels, flitting past and re-past her stern.

Seamen say these birds are always the forerunners of storm and tempest.

This is not so, but in this case the prophecy turned out to be a correct one. A fearful hurricane or tornado struck the s.h.i.+p, and raged for days and days.

There was no such thing as battling against it. So it ended in their being driven far away to the west into unknown or little frequented seas. I am wrong in saying it ended. For the end was of a far more terrible nature than anything I ever heard of before, or ever experienced.

On the fourth day the tempest seemed almost played out, and the sky was brightening somewhat in the east.

The skipper was rubbing his hands and saying to his mate:

"I think we shall be able to shake a reef out before long."

"So do I," was the cheery answer.

Both the young fellows M'Vayne were below at present, and the vessel was battened down.

"Oh, look, look!" cried the mate, seizing the skipper by the arm and pointing fearfully towards the east.

"Good Lord preserve us!" said Captain Wilson in terror.

And well he might be so, for yonder, quite blotting out the clear strip of sky, a huge wave or bore had arisen. It was of semi-lunar shape, and must have been fifty feet high at the very least. The top all along was one ma.s.s of foam.

Nearer and nearer it came!

The sailor men crouched in fear, or hastened to make themselves fast by ropes' ends to rigging or shroud.

And now the fine vessel is struck--is wallowing in the midst of that hurricane-tossed turmoil of waters--is on her beam-ends, without any apparent hope of recovery.

But recover she did after a time, and the ocean wave swept on.

What a wreck! The half-drowned men, or those who were left alive, gasped for breath as they stared wildly around. Two masts gone by the boards, only the pitiful foremast left standing; every boat staved and washed away, bulwarks gaping like sheep hurdles, and the p.o.o.p crushed in.

And the officers where were they? Gone!

Yes--and my story is told from the life and the death--not only bold Captain Wilson himself but both his mates had been swept overboard and drowned.

Five men were missing; nor had all escaped down below. The cook was severely injured, and but for the presence of mind and speed of two ordinary seamen, the s.h.i.+p would have caught fire, for the blazing coals had been dashed out of the range and ignited ropes and twine that lay not far off.

And poor Duncan! He had been dashed to leeward and so stunned that his brother and a sailor who had picked him up, believed him to be dead.

For three days he lay unconscious, but in two more days he was to all appearance himself again.

Although suffering from a bad scalp wound, he was able to go on deck.

And sad indeed was the sight he now beheld. With the binnacle washed away, without an officer to guide or direct the vessel; and the men, in almost hourly expectation of death should the wind spring up again once more, had allowed the s.h.i.+p to drift with the current. They were helpless, ay, and hopeless.

And I am sorry to add that many of them had found their way to the spirit room, and were lying on deck drunk and asleep.

Duncan now proved himself the right man--or boy, for he was but little over seventeen--in the right place.

He called the hands aft.

"Men," he said, "we cannot continue in this state; some effort must be made to save our lives and the valuable cargo."

"Ah! young sir," said the bo's'n sadly, "all our officers are dead.

There is no one to guide or navigate the s.h.i.+p. We must drift on till we strike reef or rock and so go to pieces.

"Never fear, sir, we'll die like true-born Britons."