A Jolly Fellowship

  CHAPTER XIX.

  THE LIFE-RAFT.

  When we came out on deck, we saw in a moment that the fire was thoughtto be a serious affair. Men were actually at work at the boats, whichhung from their davits on each side of the deck, not far from the stern.They were getting them ready to be lowered. I must confess that thisseemed frightful to me. Was there really need of it?

  I left our party and ran forward for a moment, to see for myself howmatters were going. People were hard at work. I could hear the pumpsgoing, and there was a great deal of smoke, which was driven back by thewind. When I reached the pilot-house and looked down on the hatchway, Isaw, not only smoke coming up, but every now and then a tongue of flame.The hatch was burning away at the edges. There must be a great fireunder it, I thought.

  Just then the captain came rushing up from below. I caught hold of him.

  "Is there danger?" I said. "What's to be done?"

  He stopped for a moment.

  "We must all save ourselves," he said, hurriedly. "I am going to thepassengers. We can't save the ship. She's all afire below." And then heran on.

  When I got back to our group, I told them what the captain had said, andwe all instantly moved toward the boat nearest to us. Rectus told me toput on my life-preserver, and he helped me fasten it. I had forgottenthat I had it under my arm. Most of the passengers were at our boat, butthe captain took some of them over to the other side of the deck.

  "RECTUS HELPED ME TO FASTEN THE LIFE-PRESERVER."]

  When our boat was ready, there was a great scramble and rush for it.Most of the ladies were to get into this boat, and some of the officersheld back the men who were crowding forward. Among the others held backwere Rectus and I, and as Corny was between us, she was pushed back,too. I do not know how the boat got to the water, nor when she starteddown. The vessel pitched and tossed; we could not see well, for thesmoke came in thick puffs over us, and I did not know that the boat wasreally afloat until a wave lifted it up by the side of the vessel wherewe stood, and I heard Mr. Chipperton call for Corny. I could see him inthe stern of the boat, which was full of people.

  "Here she is!" I yelled.

  "Here I am, father!" cried Corny, and she ran from us to the railing.

  "Lower her down," said Mr. Chipperton, from below. He did not seemflurried at all, but I saw that no time was to be lost, for a man wastrying to cut or untie a rope which still held the boat to the steamer.Then she would be off. There was a light line on the deck near me--Ihad caught my foot in it, a minute before. It was strong enough to holdCorny. I got hold of one end of it and tied it around her, under herarms. She had a great shawl, as well as a life-preserver, tied aroundher, and looked dreadfully bundled up.

  She did not say a word, but let Rectus and me do as we chose, and we gother over the railing in no time. I braced myself against the seat thatran around the deck, and lowered. Rectus leaned over and directed,holding on to the line as well. I felt strong enough to hold two of her,with the rope running over the rail. I let her go down pretty fast, forI was afraid the boat would be off; but directly Rectus called to me tostop.

  "The boat isn't under her," he cried. "They've pushed off. Haul up alittle! A wave nearly took her, just then!"

  With that, we hauled her up a little, and almost at the same moment Isaw the boat rising on a wave. By that time, it was an oar's length fromthe ship.

  "They say they can't pull back," shouted Mr. Chipperton. "Don't let herdown any further."

  "All right!" I roared back at him. "We'll bring her in another boat,"and I began to pull up with all my might.

  Rectus took hold of the rope with me, and we soon had Corny on deck. Sheran to the stern and held out her arms to the boat.

  "Oh, father!" she cried. "Wait for me!"

  I saw Mr. Chipperton violently addressing the men in the boat, but theyhad put out their oars and were beginning to pull away. I knew theywould not come back, especially as they knew, of course, that there wereother boats on board. Then Mr. Chipperton stood up again, put his handsto his mouth, and shouted back to us:

  "Bring her--right after us. If we get--parted--meet--at Savannah!"

  He was certainly one of the coolest men in the world. To think--at sucha time--of appointing a place to meet! And yet it was a good idea. Ibelieve he expected the men in his boat to row directly to the Floridacoast, where they would find quick dispatch to Savannah.

  Poor Corny was disconsolate, and cried bitterly. I think I heard hermother call back to her, but I am not sure about it. There was so muchto see and hear. And yet I had been so busy with what I had had to dothat I had seen comparatively little of what was going on around me.

  One thing, however, I had noticed, and it impressed me deeply even atthe time. There was none of the wailing and screaming and praying that Ihad supposed was always to be seen and heard at such dreadful times asthis. People seemed to know that there were certain things that they hadto do if they wanted to save themselves, and they went right to work anddid them. And the principal thing was to get off that ship without anyloss of time. Of course, it was not pleasant to be in a small boat,pitching about on those great waves, but almost anywhere was a betterplace than a ship on fire. I heard a lady scream once or twice, but Idon't think there was much of that sort of thing. However, there mighthave been more of it than I thought. I was driving away at my ownbusiness.

  The moment I heard the last word from Mr. Chipperton, I rushed to theother side of the deck, dragging Corny along with me. But the boat wasgone from there.

  I could see them pulling away some distance from the ship. It was easyto see things now, for the fire was blazing up in front. I think thevessel had been put around, for she rolled a good deal, and the smokewas not coming back over us.

  I untied the line from Corny, and stood for a moment looking about me.There seemed to be no one aft but us three. We had missed both boats.Mr. Chipperton had helped his wife into the boat, and had expected toturn round and take Corny. No doubt he had told the men to be perfectlycool, and not to hurry. And while we were shouting to him and loweringCorny, the other boat had put off.

  There was a little crowd of men amidships, hard at work at something. Weran there. They were launching the life-raft. The captain was amongthem.

  "Are there no more boats?" I shouted.

  He turned his head.

  "What! A girl left?" he cried. "No. The fire has cut off the otherboats. We must all get on the raft. Stand by with the girl, and I'll seeyou safe."

  The life-raft was a big affair that Rectus and I had often examined. Ithad two long, air-tight cylinders, of iron, I suppose, kept apart by awide framework. On this framework, between the cylinders, canvas wasstretched, and on this the passengers were to sit. Of course it would beimpossible to sink a thing like this.

  In a very short time, the raft was lifted to the side of the vessel andpushed overboard. It was bound to come right side up. And as soon as itwas afloat, the men began to drop down on it. The captain had hold of aline that was fastened to it, and I think one of the mates had anotherline.

  "Get down! Get down!" cried the captain to us.

  I told Rectus to jump first, as the vessel rolled that way, and helanded all right, and stood up as well as he could to catch Corny. Overshe went at the next roll, with a good send from me, and I came rightafter her. I heard the captain shout:

  "All hands aboard the raft!" and then, in a minute, he jumped himself.Some of the men pushed her off with a pole. It was almost like floatingright on the surface of the water, but I felt it was perfectly safe.Nothing could make those great cylinders sink. We floated away from theship, and we were all glad enough of it, for the air was getting hot.The whole front part of the vessel was blazing away like a house onfire. I don't remember whether the engines were still working or not,but at any rate we drifted astern, and were soon at quite a littledistance from the steamer.

  It was safe enough, perhaps, on the raft, but it was not in the leastcomfortable. We were all crowded togethe
r, crouching on the canvas, andthe water just swashed about us as if we were floating boards. We wentup and down on the waves with a motion that wouldn't have been so badhad we not thought we might be shuffled off, if a big wave turned usover a little too much. But there were lots of things to hold on to, andwe all stuck close together. We three were in the middle. The captaintold us to get there. There is no way of telling how glad I was that thecaptain was with us. I was well satisfied, anyway, to be with the partyon the raft. I might have liked it better in a boat, but I think most ofthe men in the boats were waiters, or stewards, or passengers--fellowswho were in a hurry to get off. The officers and sailors who remainedbehind to do their best for the ship and the passengers were the men onthe raft; and these I felt we could trust. I think there were ten ofthem, besides the captain, making fourteen of us in all.

  There we all sat, while the ship blazed and crackled away, before us.She drifted faster than we did, and so got farther and farther away fromus. The fire lighted up the sea for a good distance, and every time werose on the top of a wave, some of us looked about to see if we couldsee anything of the other boats. But we saw nothing of them. Once Icaught sight of a black spot on a high wave at quite a distance, which Ithought might be a boat, but no one else saw it, and it was gone in aninstant. The captain said it made no real difference to us whether wesaw the other boats or not; they could not help us. All the help we hadto expect was from some passing ship, which might see us, and pick usup. He was very encouraging, though, about this, for he said we wereright in the track of vessels bound North, which all sought the GulfStream; and, besides, a burning ship at night would attract theattention of vessels at a great distance, and some of them would be sureto make for us.

  "We'll see a sail in the morning," said he; "make up your minds to that.All we've got to do is to stick together on the raft, and we're almostsure to be picked up."

  I think he said things like this to give courage to us three, but Idon't believe we needed it, particularly. Rectus was very quiet, but Ithink that if he could have kept himself dry he would have been prettywell satisfied to float until daylight, for he had full faith in thecaptain, and was sure we should be picked up. I was pretty much of thesame mind, but poor Corny was in a sad way. It was no comfort to her totell her that we should be picked up, unless she could be assured thatthe same ship would pick up her father and mother. But we could saynothing positive about this, of course, although we did all that wecould, in a general way, to make her feel that everything would turn outall right. She sat wrapped up in her shawl, and seldom said a word. Buther eyes were wandering all over the waves, looking for a boat.

  The ship was now quite a long way off, still burning, and lighting upthe tops of the waves and the sky. Just before day-break, her lightsuddenly went out.

  "She's gone down!" said the captain, and then he said no more for a longtime. I felt very sorry for him. Even if he should be saved, he had losthis ship,--had seen it burn up and sink before his eyes. Such a thingmust be pretty hard on a captain. Even I felt as if I had lost a friend.The old "Tigris" seemed so well known to us.

  It was now more dismal than ever. It was darker; and although theburning ship could do us no good, we were sorry to have her leave us.Nobody said much, but we all began to feel pretty badly. Morning cameslowly, and we were wet and cold, and getting stiff. Besides, we wereall very thirsty, and I, for one, was hungry; but there was no goodreason for that, for it was not yet breakfast-time. Fortunately, after awhile, Corny went to sleep. We were very glad of it, though how shemanaged to sleep while the raft was rising and falling and sliding andsloshing from one wave to another, I can't tell. But she didn't havemuch holding on to do. We did that for her.

  At last daylight came, and then we began to look about in good earnest.We saw a top-sail off on the horizon, but it was too far for our raft tobe seen from it, and it might be coming our way or it might not. When wewere down in the trough of the waves we could see nothing, and no onecould have seen us. It was of no use to put up a signal, the captainsaid, until we saw a vessel near enough to see it.

  We waited, and we waited, and waited, until it was well on in themorning, and still we saw no other sail. The one we had seen haddisappeared entirely.

  We all began to feel miserable now. We were weak and cold and wretched.There wasn't a thing to eat or drink on the raft. The fire had given notime to get anything. Some of the men began to grumble. It would havebeen better, they said, to have started off as soon as they found outthe fire, and have had time to put something to eat and drink on theraft. It was all wasted time to try to save the ship. It did no good,after all. The captain said nothing to this. He knew that he had donehis duty in trying to put out the fire, and he just kept his mouth shut,and looked out for a sail. There was one man with us--a red-faced,yellow-haired man--with a curly beard, and little gold rings in hisears. He looked more like a sailor than any other of the men, and Rectusand I always put him down for the sailor who had been longer at sea, andknew more about ships and sailing, than any other of the crew. But thisman was the worst grumbler of the lot, now, and we altered our opinionabout him.

  Corny woke up every now and then, but she soon went to sleep again, whenshe found there was no boat or sail in sight. At least, I thought shewent to sleep, but she might have been thinking and crying. She was socrouched up that we could not see whether she was awake or not.