Beadle's Half Dime Library Vol. XL, No. 1020 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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Barney Blake, the Boy Privateer. 43 der our keel, and were lifted up skyward about forty feet, the boat capsizing in the air and tumbling everybody and everything out in’the shake of a sheep’s tail. Well, we all came down with a rush, as you may besure. I am sorry to state that I, instead of coming down in the water, alit, head-first, on the back of the Levia- than, stunning me, and leaving me floating around in the water like a dead man. But, for- tunately, our boat had fallen bottom down- ward, old Bluefish had regained her, and we were all picked up, one afver another, more dripping than hurt. [ remember coming to slowly, and hearing old Bluefish murmuring in my ears, with as much of tenderness as could inform his rude voice: **Wake up! wakeup! There’sa dear fellow! I know’d as how a son of a sea-cook was never born to be drownded in salt water!” Well, the whale breathed his last soon after our mishap, and we helped the men tow her to the ship; though they were, of course, some- what crestfallen to learn that they had been in toe employ of Uncle Sam for the last hour or two. Nevertheless, we had a gay time in trying out and cutting up the monster, There was a sin- gular mishap occurred at about the close of this operation, It is the custom to have the carcass of the whale lashed to the side of the ship while the work of cutting up is going on. I may as well mention, by way of parenthesis, that tais opera- tion of cutting up aliures a great number of sharks to the side of the ship, for the sake of the worthless blubber and other débris. And, at this time, any man may venture among the black-fins with perfect impunity-so much more is whale-meat esteemed above human flesh by epicurean sharks. Assoen as the flesh that is triable is taken from the whale, the carcass be- comes a dead weight in the water, descending through the waves with a rush as soon as the stays are cut, It happened that, in the case of our whale, when all but the last lashing were cut, one of the crew of the whaler, who was standing on the carcass, got his feet entangled in some of the cordage remaining on it. Just as the last stay was severed, he was discovered, aud was rapidly being drawn to tha bottom of the sea, when Old Nick threw a rope about his shoul- ders, and this served to hold him up. But, in the interim, the entire weight of the enormous skeleton was sustained by the body of the un- fortunate seaman, who thereupon began to shriek out in mortal agony. The poor fellow would very probably have been dismembered, had not our heroic and shark-defying Snolly- goster jumped overboard, with a knife, and severed the lashings by which he was held to the carcass. Toe latter immediately disap- pete: followed by a great whirlpool of brine. ad the man not been caught, he would have been dragged down many fathoms below the sea; had his feet not been released from the weight of the carcass in time, he would very probably have been disjointed and slain with horrible agonies. As it was, he was more scared than hurt, and Snollygoster added another plume to his cap. Before I quit our whaling experience, I must recur to another striking event of a more truly tragic character than the one just described. We had captured a whaler from Southamp- ton under very similar circumstances with the foregoing. Her boats were out—all but one— and I got permission from the captain to ac- company this one, as I was anxious to see a eee capture through, from its inception to its close. There were six boats in all, and ours the hir.d- most, but the whale—a very large one—-dove and came up nearest us, so that we got in the first harpoon. Our harpooner,an athletic York- shireman, stood up in the bow of the boat, and struck home in the broad back of the whale as it rose above the water. The whale went down like lightning at the first prick of the harpoon. The lines connected with the harpoon are care- fully coiled around in the middle of large tubs, with grooves at the bow for them to slip over. When a whale dives, these lines run out with indescribable swiftness. The groove fairly smokes, and several buckets of water are al- ways dashed upon it to prevent the boat from taking fire. At the same time, a leg or an arm, caught in one of the coils, would be almost cer- tain death to the owner. On the occasion of which I speak, one of the oarsmen, with his back to the bow of the boat, had carelessly stepped into one of these tubs when the whale was struck. Down went the whale with a flash and a whirlpool. The man saw his danger, but too late, and just had time to sing out, ‘‘Clear away the line!’ when he was whipped overboard and was never seen again, We played havoc among the whalers for a long time, capturing as many as thirty valuable vessels, and sending them home. We met with a terrible squall when a few leagues north of Otaheite, and weathered it with much Gifficulty. As it was, we sustained such damages that it was imperative to make for some port for revairs, It wouldn’t do to en- ter Otaheite (Tahiti, it is sometimes called— probably the most beautiful spot in the world in all respects) on account of British influence pre- vailing there, so we set sail for the Sandwich Islands—intending, if unable to procure the necessary repairs there, to proceed to some port on tke coast of California. CHAPTER XII. THE WATER+SPOUT—THE ONLY TRAGEDY ON BOARD THE QUEER FISH, WHEN we were about half-way to Honolulu— the chief island of the Sandwich group—we had the monotony of our voyage broken by an ad- venture with those dangerous phenomena of the ocean water-spouts. Early in the morning, Dicky Drake, who was at the mast-head, descried a vessel to the northeastward, and we imme- diately steered for her. We had come within a mile or so, and easily made her out to be a brig- antine—of what nation we could not determine when the lookout again sung out: ‘* Water spoutson the larboard bow!” We could see nothing of the kind at first, but the captain brought his glasses to bear, and re- ported that the lookout was correct. Presently every one could see them from the deck. They appeared far away, lke vast wa- ter-trees, growing from the sea to the sky, and expanding there in funnel shape; but asthey ap- peared to be going away from us, we kept on our course,in order to overtake the brigan- tine. The best definition of a water-spout repre- sents if asa remarkable natural phenomenon, usually observed over the sea, but sometimes over the land. ‘‘ It usually consists of a dense, black cloud, depending from the sky in a coni- cal form toward the earth. Sometimes it unites with a corresponding portion, ascending from below, thus forming a continuous column from the surface of the earth (or sea) to the cloud.” The genuine—destructive—water-spout, that of the sea, consists of cloud thus partially de- pended from the sky, while the column which ascends to meet it is of the ocean brine. An immense quantity of water—probably many millions or billions of tons—is thus elevated to on enormous hizht above thesurface—foJlowing the course of the cloud, as itis driven by the wind, and falling, when deprived of the cloud- suction above, with a force sufficient to crush to splinters the combined navies of the world. We had about lessened the interval between us and the stranger craft to one-half, when we saw her suddenly “bout ship and tack to ward us with all possible speed. This singular- conduct upon her part was soon explained by our perceiving that the wind had changed, and that the water spouts—of which there appeared to be about a dozen—were bearing down upon us, with a rapidity which was terrible. We’bout ship with all possible speed, and and tacked away from the danger with every stitch of canvas that we could cram. But our speed was as a snail’s pace compared to the aw- ful swiftness of the scudding water-spouts. In less than five minutes after we tacked, we were completely surrounded by the terrible columns of smooth, up-lifted brine, and we came almost to a standstill. It was a very terrible thing, for, as the water-spouts reached our position, the gale died away, and we, together with the strange brigantine, were left immediately in their midst, until it appeared that we were about to be forever entombed in a magnificent temple of pillared brine. For it was next to impossible to steer clear of them, without bringing one of them upon our heads, by the wind of our motion. They leaned to the east- ward—still feeling the influence of the gale that had just died away. If we had been either altogether to the lar- board or starboard of them, we might have let them all down to their proper level by a few cannon-shots, but, surrounded as we were, our predicament was most distressing. The water-spouts kept wheeling about us, slowly and silently. hey were vast, smooth, glassy columns of brine, reaching to the heav- a ens, some of them four or five feet in diameter in the most slender part. . At length, however, a broad opening was created to tho southward and we, throwing out our sweeps, made for it with the good will of men whose lives are suspended upon the muscles ofthe arm. We reached it and were soon out of danger of the forest (so to speak) of water- spouts; but several mcre were to be seen far to the southward, and we swurg around our swiv- el to send a shot in the midst of the multitude from which we had just escaped. Now here was a predicament, for the brigan- tine was unprovided with sweeps, and, as there was not a breath of wind—a dead calm—was compelled to remain where she was. In vain we signaled her to put out her boats and attempt to tow out; she paid no attention to us what- ever. Through the telescope we could see her crew kneeling and praying upon the deck. Her ~ officers had evidently lost their presence of mind,and piped all hands to prayers when work with a will might have saved her. And now, to our anguish, a slight breath of air came from the northward. It would fresh- en toa gale in ten minutes. We would again have the watery labyrinth around us, with lit- tle hope of escape. What were we todo? If we fired our guns we would envelope the unfor- tunate brigantine in certain destruction; if we neglected to fire them we would, just as certain- ly, involve the destruction of our own ship. It was one of those hard questions of fatality where self-preservation is the only solution. Ths So, with a heavy heart, doubtless, the captain gave the order and our Long Tom sent a shower of grape-shot and six-pounders among the laby- rinth of water-culumns. The effect was grand and terrible, / Simultaneously with the report of the swivel the tops of the water-spouts were seen to trem- ble, then to sway to and fro, and then, down they came with the most. terrific noise I ever heard in my life. ‘Try up the main-to’gallants! All hands aloft! Steady, there, at the helm! Port! hard a-port!” bawled our captain through his trum- pet, and his orders were just obeyed in time to allow us to breast the enormous billows occa- sioned by the falling water-spouts, while we were all drenched to the skin by the spray of their splash, although the one which had stood nearest to us was fully balf a mile away. As for the stranger—the brigantine—she was never seen again. We never saw a floating splinter of that ill-fated ship, whereby to tell the port whence she came or whither she was bound. I come now to the most painful episode that was connected with the cruise of our almost uniformly merry privateer, the Queer Fish. I have had little of the painful—much of the glad and rollicking—to treat of thus far, and would gladly spin my yarn to its termination as mer- rily asI began. Buttruth directs me toa dif- ferent course. Besides, as this event which I am about to de- scribe is about the only one of a sorrowful char- acter directly connected with the Queer Fish, it may serve to throw the other features of my yarn into a more distinctly cheerful light, Nev- ertheless, be that as it may, the truth must, like murder, out at last,and here it is. Little Willie Warner, our pet, the cabin-boy, had never totally recovered from the effects of the accident we have narrated as having befall- en him. The climate was exceedingly bad as we approached the latitude of the Sandwich Islands—much rain, followed by days of the most intense tropic heat—and little Willie, probably from the cerebral contusion he had formerly received, contracted a brain fever, which soon brought him very low. Roddy Prinn, asin the former instance, was permitted to devote ell his time to the duties of a nurse, and all of usdid what we could, But, on the morning of the fourth day cf the fever, good Doctor Benedict sorrowfully informed the captain that the days and hours of little Wiliie Warner were numbered, and that the number was brief indeed. We had noticed, from the commencement of this illness, that same appearance of mysterious information, between the captain and the doc- tor, which had before been indicated to us. And now, at this solemn moment of the an- nouncementof theapproaching end of the suffer- er, this mystery was still more apparent. The prognostication of the doctor proved only tootrue. Willie Warner breathed his last before the set of sun. A fl Ae SCOMICHOOKG CC