“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
“Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
“Though the water thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.…
“The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.…
“They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
“These see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep.
“For He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
“They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
“They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end.
“Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
“He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
“Then are they glad because they be quiet; so He bringeth them unto their desired haven.
“Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness.”
It was then noticed that Captain Janders had disappeared during the reading, and he now climbed from the hatchway with an armful of books. “Yesterday I promised Reverend Hale that if his prayers could get us through this barrier, I would forsake my books for his. Richardson … Sterne … Smollett … Walpole.” One by one he tossed them into the Pacific, already beginning to merit its name. Then he added, “From December 21 to January 31 we were forty-two days in these straits. I have never known such a passage, but we have made it safely. God be praised.”
Abner’s triumph was tempered by defeat, for as the missionaries were watching the worldly books disappear, they were attracted by the sight of Jerusha Hale climbing on deck followed by Keoki, who lugged the remnants of the bananas. Walking unsteadily past her husband, she found the railing of the ship and threw the bananas, one by one, far out to sea. That night she told her husband, in a berth already quieter, “You bullied me, Abner … No, I shall use your name from now, for to me you are Abner. You bullied me through your sin of overzealousness. Never in our life again will I submit to your bullying, Abner, for I am as good a judge of God’s will as you, and God never intended a sick woman to eat so hatefully.” When Abner showed his surprise at this ultimatum she softened it by adding the truth: “While you were away talking with the men tonight, Captain Janders said that at the worst part of the passage, he felt comforted that a man of your courage was with him. What is more important, Abner, is that I am comforted that a man of your courage and piety is with me.” And she kissed him.
Before she could kiss him again, Keoki came to the cabin, saying, “Reverend Hale, the old whaler needs you. In the fo’c’s’l.”
“Is he drunk again?” Abner asked suspiciously.
“He needs you,” the Hawaiian repeated, and he led Abner to where the rugged old man lay in his filthy bunk, mumbling.
“What is it?” Abner asked quietly.
“Can I have my Bible back, now?” the whaler asked.
“No. The church gave you a Bible once, and you defiled it. You brought scorn and ridicule on us all.”
“Reverend Hale, you saw me in the ropes today. You know how I feared going aloft at Cape Horn … without a Bible, that is.”
“No, the Lord is harsh with backsliders,” Abner said sternly.
At this point Cridland, who had shared the perils with the old man, suggested, “Reverend Hale, suppose you didn’t have to give him the Bible. Suppose I gave him mine. Would you then …”
“Give you another! Never! Cridland, the Lord has said, ‘The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.’ It is these men, more than sinners, who damage the church.”
“But, Reverend Hale, in the storm it was this man who saved us all. I tried to break the sail loose, but I couldn’t. He did it all.”
“It’s true, Reverend,” the old whaler confessed. “I saved the ship, and I want my Bible back.”
“No,” Abner said. “While you were aloft, I prayed for you. And I pray for you now. If you saved this ship, we all thank you gratefully. But run the risk of having the entire ship laugh at the church again? No. That I cannot do.” And he stalked aft.
It was not until Saturday night that Abner noticed Jerusha without her Bible. He was conducting prayers and saw that his wife was reading from Sister Whipple’s, so when they had returned to their quarters he asked quietly, “Where is your Bible, my dear wife?”
She replied, “I gave it to the old whaler.”
“To the old … How did you hear of him?”
“Keoki came to me, weeping for the evil old man.”
“And you sided with Keoki against your own husband … against the church?”
“No, Abner. I simply gave a brave old man a Bible.”
“But, Mrs. Hale …”
“My name is Jerusha.”
“But we discussed this in the cabin. How backsliders are the ones who do the church greatest damage.”
“I didn’t give my Bible to a backslider, Abner. I gave it to a man who was afraid. And if the Bible cannot dispel fear, then it is not the book we have been led to believe.”
“But the position of the mission? The foundation of our church?”
“Abner,” she said persuasively, “I’m sure that this old man will backslide again, and he may do us damage. But on Thursday night, when he climbed down from that mast, he was close to God. He saved my life, and yours. And the idea of God has no meaning for me unless at such times He is willing to meet even an evil old man with love.”
“What do you mean, the idea of God?”
“Abner, do you think that God is a man who hides up there in the clouds?”
“I think that God hears every word you are saying, and I think He must be as perplexed as I am.” But before he could continue his charges, Jerusha, with her liquid brown curls dancing beside her ears, kissed him once more, and they fell into their narrow bunk.
It was long after midnight when Abner Hale, troubled as never before, left his bunk and went on deck, where a few bright stars were strong enough to dominate the dim, gray Antarctic night. He was troubled, first because Jerusha had given the old man her Bible, against his orders as it were, but more because of his deep and growing appetite for his wife’s consoling body. Three times on this trip major arguments with Jerusha had ended by her laughingly drawing him into the narrow bunk, across whose opening she lowered the curtains, and each time during the next dazzling half hour he had forgot God and the problems of God. All he knew was that Jerusha Bromley Hale was more exciting than the storm, more peaceful than the ocean at rest.
He was convinced that such surrender on his part must be evil. He had often listened, in the cramped stateroom, to John and Amanda Whipple whiling away the hours, and he had marked their sudden cessation of whispering, followed by strange noises and Amanda’s curious, uncontrollable cries, and he had judged that this was what the church meant when it spoke of “sanctified joy.” He had intended discussing this with Jerusha, but he had been ashamed to do so, for now and again his own great surges of “sanctified joy” had left him morally stunned. Anything so mysterious and powerful must be evil, and surely the Bible spoke frequently of women who tempted men, with disastrous results. So on the one hand, Abner’s imperfect knowledge of life inclined him to think that as a minister he would be far better off with Jerusha not so close to him. She was too intoxicating, too instinct with “sanctified joy.”
But as soon as he reached this confused yet understandable conclusion, he was faced with the undeniable fact, clear to even a fool, that for a minister to live without a wife was nothing but popery, and if there was one thing he wished with all his heart to avoid it was popish ways. “The great men of the Old Testament had wives,” he reasoned, “and it is not until you reach St. Paul that you get suc
h admonitions as, ‘I say therefore to the unmarried …, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.’ What does such a passage signify?” he asked himself throughout the strange half-night.
He walked back and forth for several hours, and the night watch joked, “He really has to do the missionary waltz!” but being of simpler minds, and particularly of minds that had long ago settled this difficult problem of man and woman—“The reason Honolulu’s the best port on earth is that in Honolulu the women climb aboard the ship already undressed and ready to work”—they would have been unable to comprehend his real perplexities.
“Do I love Jerusha too profoundly?” he asked the gray night. But whenever he came near concluding that he ought to love her less, he would think of her overwhelming loveliness and he would cry, “No! That is the Romish way!” and he would return to his dead center of confusion. Thus in the night hours he wrestled with his sweet, perplexing temptation.
Sunday rose brisk and clear, and for the first time on the voyage, the entire missionary family was able to attend topside service in the cold, bracing air which swept up from the Antarctic. Since it was to be an occasion of special celebration, the four wives in Abner’s stateroom asked their husbands to move elsewhere while they helped one another dress.
For this thanksgiving day Jerusha modestly changed from the two-piece red flannel underwear she had been wearing for some weeks into a fresh set, over which she laced a stout corset held in position by a two-inch-wide busk of polished birch. Long hand-knitted black stockings were pinned to the bottom edge of the corset, and a corset cover, starched long ago in Walpole, was fitted into place, after which pantaloons, also starched, were drawn up. Thus properly founded, Jerusha now climbed into a woolen underpetticoat, a starched linen petticoat and finally a cambric petticoat, all lashed securely at the waist. A small bustle was added, over which a hooped broadcloth dress was hung, its alternate patterns of black and purple providing a properly subdued color.
Next Jerusha adjusted a paisley shawl about her shoulders, fitted a saucy poke bonnet about her pale face, slipped a knitted bag over her arm, tucked a handkerchief into one cuff of her dress, jammed her fingers first into silk mittens and then into woolen ones, and stood while Amanda Whipple held her coat for her. She was then ready for morning service, and after she had helped the other women into their coats, the four missionary wives climbed the hatchway ladder and appeared on deck.
NOW CAME THE DAYS of gold, the memorable days when the Thetis rolled gently in the sun, all canvas set, and dolphins chased flying fish that shone in iridescence as they leaped. The little brig was away on an unbroken leg of more than seven thousand miles from Cape Horn to Hawaii, and slowly the ugly cold of the south gave way to the increasing warmth of the north. The new stars of Tierra del Fuego began to disappear and the old familiar constellations of New England crept back into place. But most of all, the mission family became fused into a single organized and dedicated group. Some, who forgot how sick they had been and how Abner alone had kept the family functioning, protested at his assumption of leadership, and one sharp-tongued wife was heard to say, “You’d think he was the Lord’s anointed,” but her husband quieted her by remembering, “Someone had to make decisions … even in a family.”
As the equator neared, the daily lessons organized by Abner became more meaningful, and many mornings were spent, after the missionary waltz had ended, with group sessions discussing Wayland’s Moral Philosophy or Alexander’s Evidences of Christianity. Keoki Kanakoa also gave lectures on the condition of the islanders, but when he cried, “In Hawaii women are forbidden on pain of strangulation from eating bananas!” his point was somewhat dulled by Jerusha, who whispered loudly, “I count that no great privation.” But the most solemn moment in any session came when someone, usually a woman, intoned the first line of their most cherished hymn: “ ‘Blest be the tie that binds’ ”; for at such times the mission family was indeed bound together in a Christian brotherhood that few discover in this world.
With the Pacific more placid and daily walks more congenial, seasickness vanished and constipation diminished, but a strange new illness began to take their place. At the beginning of the day women passengers would often suddenly feel an overwhelming nausea attack them, and they would have to vomit, just as if the ship were rolling in its former manner. It soon became apparent to Dr. Whipple that of the eleven wives aboard the Thetis, at least seven and possibly nine were pregnant, and he was proud when his own wife became the first to acknowledge openly that she was, as she phrased it, “expecting a small messenger from heaven.” Her handsome husband perplexed the missionaries by remarking cryptically, “It’s not surprising. I’ve known her since she was seven.”
Jerusha’s pregnancy was one of the latest to be certified, but it was also the one which was most enjoyed by the mother, for she was almost unmissionary in her delight. “It is a great solace to me, Abner,” she said, “to think that I am going to become a mother in a new land. It’s beautifully symbolic … as if we were destined to accomplish great things in Hawaii.” Abner, like the other husbands, was bewildered, for like them he knew practically nothing about having babies; and then a frightening discovery was made: of the eleven women aboard the Thetis not one had ever had a child, nor had any ever attended a birth. Neither had the men, excepting Dr. Whipple, and he suddenly became a most important man, breaking out his Practical Handbook of Midwifery, which everyone studied with care; and it was then that the first substantial shadow fell across the mission family, for women began to realize that when they reached Hawaii, Dr. Whipple would be assigned to one island and they would go to another, and when their time came, the mission’s only doctor would be inaccessible, and birth would be given under primitive conditions with only such help as a wife’s husband could muster. It was then that wives looked at their husbands with greater affection, knowing that upon these men depended the family safety; and in this way the cabin of the Thetis became a kind of obstetrical seminar, with Brother Whipple as instructor and his medical books as texts.
It was early one Sunday morning that the missionaries heard the first mate cry, “Whaler to starboard!” Jerusha and Amanda, experiencing morning dizziness, did not go on deck, but the other wives did and saw looming out of the morning mists a magnificent three-masted ship, all sails set and riding the waves majestically like a queen. Smoke from the oil pots had darkened her sails, proving her to be a whaler, and now one of her whaleboats was approaching the Thetis.
“What ship are you?” Mister Collins hailed.
“Bark Carthaginian, Captain Hoxworth, out of New Bedford. And you?”
“Brig Thetis, Captain Janders, out of Boston.”
“We bring you mail to carry back to Hawaii,” the whaler’s mate explained, as he climbed deftly aboard. “And we’ll take yours to New Bedford.” Then, seeing the missionaries in their tall hats, he asked, “Are these men ministers?”
“Missionaries, for Hawaii,” Captain Janders replied.
The whaler hesitated momentarily, then nodded deferentially and asked, “Would one or two of you come aboard and conduct Sabbath services for us. We haven’t had any for months … really it would be years. We’ll be home soon, and we’d like to remind ourselves …”
Abner, recalling his good work aboard the earlier whaler at the Falklands, quickly volunteered, and so did John Whipple, but principally because he wanted to see one of New England’s great whaling ships at close hand. They were lowered into the whaleboat and started off, whereupon Abner as an afterthought shouted, “Tell our wives we’ll be back after service.”
At the Carthaginian the young missionaries were greeted handsomely. A tall, wiry, powerful man with a whaler’s cap far back on his head shot out a big hand and cried in a deep, commanding voice, “I’m Rafer Hoxworth, out of New Bedford, and I’m mighty glad to see you good men coming aboard. We could use some prayers on this bark.”
br /> “Have you had a good trip?” Whipple asked.
“Whales are scarce,” Hoxworth replied, cocking a long leg on the railing. “Our capacity is thirty-two hundred barrels, but we have only twenty-six hundred. Rather disappointing.” Then he added, “But of course, we’ve already shipped twenty-two hundred barrels on ahead, so I don’t think the owners will be unhappy.”
“Have you been away from New Bedford long?”
“Coming four years,” Hoxworth replied, rubbing his powerful chin. “That’s a long time … a very long time.”
“But the oil you have, plus what you sent home … does make it a good trip?” Whipple pursued.
“Oh, yes! Good enough so that our share will permit several of us to get married.”
“Including you?” Whipple asked.
“Yes.”
“Congratulations, Captain Hoxworth. Abner!” and he called his sallow-faced companion, who was already arguing salvation and temperance with some of the crew. “Abner! Captain Hoxworth’s going to get married when he gets home.”
The scrawny little missionary with the pale stringy hair looked up at the rugged whaler and said, “And after four years of doing whatever he wanted to in Honolulu, he now hopes to get back into Christian ways, and asks our assistance.”
The big captain tensed his right fist and pressed his foot strongly into the railing, but kept his temper. To himself he muttered, “By God! These missionaries are all alike. All over the world. You try to meet them halfway …” And John Whipple thought: “Why can’t Abner just accept the day’s events as they transpire? If a whaler heading home desires a Sabbath service, why can’t we simply have the service?”