The Coral Island Read online

  CHAPTER TWO.

  THE DEPARTURE--THE SEA--MY COMPANIONS--SOME ACCOUNT OF THE WONDERFULSIGHTS WE SAW ON THE GREAT DEEP--A DREADFUL STORM AND A FRIGHTFUL WRECK.

  It was a bright, beautiful, warm day when our ship spread her canvas tothe breeze and sailed for the regions of the south. Oh, how my heartbounded with delight as I listened to the merry chorus of the sailorswhile they hauled at the ropes and got in the anchor! The captainshouted; the men ran to obey; the noble ship bent over to the breeze,and the shore gradually faded from my view; while I stood looking on,with a kind of feeling that the whole was a delightful dream.

  The first thing that struck me as being different from anything I hadyet seen during my short career on the sea, was the hoisting of theanchor on deck and lashing it firmly down with ropes, as if we had nowbid adieu to the land for ever and would require its services no more.

  "There, lass!" cried a broad-shouldered jack-tar, giving the fluke ofthe anchor a hearty slap with his hand after the housing wascompleted--"there, lass, take a good nap now, for we sha'n't ask you tokiss the mud again for many a long day to come!"

  And so it was. That anchor did not "kiss the mud" for many long daysafterwards; and when at last it did, it was for the last time!

  There were a number of boys in the ship, but two of them were my specialfavourites. Jack Martin was a tall, strapping, broad-shouldered youthof eighteen, with a handsome, good-humoured, firm face. He had had agood education, was clever and hearty and lion-like in his actions, butmild and quiet in disposition. Jack was a general favourite, and had apeculiar fondness for me. My other companion was Peterkin Gay. He waslittle, quick, funny, decidedly mischievous, and about fourteen yearsold. But Peterkin's mischief was almost always harmless, else he couldnot have been so much beloved as he was.

  "Hallo, youngster!" cried Jack Martin, giving me a slap on the shoulderthe day I joined the ship, "come below and I'll show you your berth.You and I are to be messmates; and I think we shall be good friends, forI like the look o' you."

  Jack was right. He and I, and Peterkin afterwards, became the best andstaunchest friends that ever tossed together on the stormy waves.

  I shall say little about the first part of our voyage. We had the usualamount of rough weather and calm; also we saw many strange fish rollingin the sea, and I was greatly delighted one day by seeing a shoal offlying-fish dart out of the water and skim through the air about a footabove the surface. They were pursued by dolphins, which feed on them;and one flying-fish, in its terror, flew over the ship, struck on therigging, and fell upon the deck. Its wings were just fins elongated;and we found that they could never fly far at a time, and never mountedinto the air like birds, but skimmed along the surface of the sea. Jackand I had it for dinner, and found it remarkably good.

  When we approached Cape Horn, at the southern extremity of America, theweather became very cold and stormy, and the sailors began to tellstories about the furious gales and the dangers of that terrible cape.

  "Cape Horn," said one, "is the most horrible headland I ever doubled.I've sailed round it twice already, and both times the ship was a'mostblow'd out o' the water."

  "I've been round it once," said another; "an' that time the sails weresplit, and the ropes frozen in the blocks so that they wouldn't work,and we wos all but lost."

  "An' I've been round it five times," cried a third; "an' every time woswuss than another, the gales wos so tree-mendous!"

  "And I've been round it, no times at all," cried Peterkin with animpudent wink in his eye, "an' that time I wos blow'd inside out!"

  Nevertheless we passed the dreaded cape without much rough weather, andin the course of a few weeks afterwards were sailing gently, before awarm tropical breeze, over the Pacific Ocean. Thus we proceeded on ourvoyage--sometimes bounding merrily before a fair breeze; at other timesfloating calmly on the glassy wave and fishing for the curiousinhabitants of the deep, all of which, although the sailors thoughtlittle of them, were strange, and interesting, and very wonderful to me.

  At last we came among the Coral Islands of the Pacific; and I shallnever forget the delight with which I gazed--when we chanced to passone--at the pure white, dazzling shores, and the verdant palm-trees,which looked bright and beautiful in the sunshine. And often did wethree long to be landed on one, imagining that we should certainly findperfect happiness there! Our wish was granted sooner than we expected.

  One night, soon after we entered the tropics, an awful storm burst uponour ship. The first squall of wind carried away two of our masts, andleft only the foremast standing. Even this, however, was more thanenough, for we did not dare to hoist a rag of sail on it. For five daysthe tempest raged in all its fury. Everything was swept off the decks,except one small boat. The steersman was lashed to the wheel lest heshould be washed away, and we all gave ourselves up for lost. Thecaptain said that he had no idea where we were, as we had been blown farout of our course; and we feared much that we might get among thedangerous coral reefs which are so numerous in the Pacific. At daybreakon the sixth morning of the gale we saw land ahead; it was an islandencircled by a reef of coral, on which the waves broke in fury. Therewas calm water within this reef, but we could see only one narrowopening into it. For this opening we steered; but ere we reached it atremendous wave broke on our stern, tore the rudder completely off, andleft us at the mercy of the winds and waves.

  "It's all over with us now, lads!" said the captain to the men. "Getthe boat ready to launch; we shall be on the rocks in less thanhalf-an-hour."

  The men obeyed in gloomy silence, for they felt that there was littlehope of so small a boat living in such a sea.

  "Come, boys," said Jack Martin, in a grave tone, to me and Peterkin, aswe stood on the quarter-deck awaiting our fate--"come, boys; we threeshall stick together. You see it is impossible that the little boat canreach the shore, crowded with men. It will be sure to upset, so I meanrather to trust myself to a large oar. I see through the telescope thatthe ship will strike at the tail of the reef, where the waves break intothe quiet water inside; so if we manage to cling to the oar till it isdriven over the breakers, we may perhaps gain the shore. What say you?Will you join me?"

  We gladly agreed to follow Jack, for he inspired us with confidence--although I could perceive, by the sad tone of his voice, that he hadlittle hope; and indeed, when I looked at the white waves that lashedthe reef and boiled against the rocks as if in fury, I felt that therewas but a step between us and death. My heart sank within me; but atthat moment my thoughts turned to my beloved mother, and I rememberedthose words, which were among the last that she said to me: "Ralph, mydearest child, always remember, in the hour of danger, to look to yourLord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He alone is both able and willing tosave your body and your soul." So I felt much comforted when I thoughtthereon.

  The ship was now very near the rocks. The men were ready with the boat,and the captain beside them giving orders, when a tremendous wave cametowards us. We three ran towards the bow to lay hold of our oar, andhad barely reached it when the wave fell on the deck with a crash likethunder. At the same moment the ship struck; the foremast broke offclose to the deck and went over the side, carrying the boat and menalong with it. Our oar got entangled with the wreck, and Jack seized anaxe to cut it free; but owing to the motion of the ship, he missed thecordage and struck the axe deep into the oar. Another wave, however,washed it clear of the wreck. We all seized hold of it, and the nextinstant we were struggling in the wild sea. The last thing I saw wasthe boat whirling in the surf, and all the sailors tossed into thefoaming waves. Then I became insensible.

  On recovering from my swoon I found myself lying on a bank of softgrass, under shelter of an overhanging rock, with Peterkin on his kneesby my side, tenderly bathing my temples with water, and endeavouring tostop the blood that flowed from a wound in my forehead.