CHAPTER XVIII
VISITORS ON THE "RICHMOND"
THE ugly stoker was liberated on the following day after having promisedto behave himself in the future. But he held his head low when showinghimself on deck, which was seldom. He never permitted his shifting eyesto meet those of Steve Rush, nor did Steve make any effort to addressthe man. The lad was confident, in his own mind, that Smith was the manwho struck him that night by the after deck-house, but the drubbing thatCaptain Simms had given the fellow made Rush feel that they were noweven.
On the way back the ship picked up Mrs. Simms and little Marie at PortHuron. The "Richmond" was on its way to South Chicago with a cargo ofcoal. This took them around into Lake Michigan, and many were the happyhours spent by the captain's little daughter and the Iron Boys. Theyplayed games on deck between watches, as though all three were children.Rush and Jarvis had constituted themselves the special guardians of thelittle girl, and she queened it over them, making them her willingsubjects.
At South Chicago the ship was held up for a week because the company towhich the coal was consigned was not ready to receive it. Steveconsidered this to be bad business policy on the part of the steamshippeople, and another memorandum went down in his book, to be consideredin detail later on.
While at South Chicago the lads made frequent trips into the city, whichthey had never visited before. One afternoon they took the captain'swife and daughter to a matinee, then out to dinner at a fashionablerestaurant.
It made a pleasant break in the lives of each of the four, and helped tocement the friendship between little Marie and her new-found friends.
At last the coal was unloaded. After filling the tanks with waterballast, the "Richmond" started away for the northward to take onanother cargo of ore and once more to drill down the Great Lakes.
The water ballast did not draw the ship down to its load level, with theresult that she rolled considerably.
"The glass is falling," announced the captain as the craft swung intoLake Superior two days later. "I shouldn't be surprised if we had quitea jabble of a sea before night."
"We don't care, do we?" chirped Marie, to whom a rolling ship was a keendelight.
"Not as long as the dishes stay on the table," answered Bob, with amerry laugh. "When are you going to bake that long-promised cake forme?"
"Just as soon as the cook will let me. He's always cooking something forthe night watch when he isn't getting the regular meals. My, but thatnight watch must have an awful appetite!" she chuckled.
"Yes, I've noticed that," agreed Bob. "But you can't lay it to me. I'vea feather-weight appetite. I didn't have any at all when I first wentaboard an ore carrier. It beats all how quickly a fellow will lose allinterest in life the first time out."
The wind blew hard all the way up Superior, raising, as the captain hadpromised it would, "quite a jabble of a sea." But the blow was nothinglike a heavy gale. It was just a sea, a nasty, uncomfortable sea. Theboys and Marie were in great good humor all the way up. Marie's motherwas ill in her stateroom and the assistant cook had had an unexpectedattack of seasickness.
"Nice crew of lubbers," growled the captain, when informed of theassistant cook's indisposition.
The ship reached Duluth at night and immediately was shunted into theslip at the ore docks for loading. After the hatches were down a hugecrate was hoisted aboard with a crane. A section of the deck was openedup and the crate was let down into the lazaret. The crate was consignedto one of the company's officials in the East. No one paid any attentionto the crate, and it is doubtful if any one save the captain and thefirst mate knew what the contents of the crate were.
Hatches were battened down and long before daylight the "Richmond" wason her way again. By this time the "jabble" had increased to a fullgale. No other ship ventured out, but Captain Simms was not a skipper tobe held back by the weather. He knew his ship was seaworthy and he knewfull well how to handle her safely in any sea that the lakes could kickup. A full northwester was raging down from the hills and the glass wasfalling all the time. The "glass" is the sailor's name for barometer.
Steve took the wheel as they passed out, and he was obliged to give upthe wheelman's stool because he could not keep it right side up underhim. He dragged a platform over to the wheel. It was made for thepurpose, having cross-cleats on it to enable the helmsman to keep hisfooting when the ship was cutting up capers.
"There," he announced, "I'll stick here until the wheel comes off."
Waves broke over the vessel continuously, striking the deck with reportslike those of distant artillery. Superior was a dreary waste of gray andwhite. The air seemed full of the spume of the crested rollers, whilethe clouds were leaden and threatening.
"Look at the rainbow!" cried Bob, pointing off to the westward.
"That ain't a rainbow you landlubber," jeered a companion.
"Well, if it isn't I never saw a rainbow."
"No, it's a dog."
"A what?"
"Sundog."
"Bob, you certainly are a lubber," laughed Mr. Major. "Didn't you eversee a sundog before?"
"Never. What are they for?"
"I don't know what they are for. I know what they do--they bring galesand storm and trouble all along the line. That's what the dogs do."
"I think the other ships saw it before we did, for there doesn't seem tobe another boat on the lake."
"No; at least, the little fellows have taken to harbors along the coast.It wasn't the sundog, however, but the glass that warned them. You knowthe glass has been falling for the past twenty-four hours. We know whatto expect when that happens, but we don't know what to expect when thestorm strikes us. These lakes are the most treacherous bodies of waterin the world. Twenty miles beyond here is the graveyard of Superior,where the hulls of more than fifty ships lie rotting on the bottom. Someof them went down in weather no worse than this. This is bad enough."
Bob listened attentively.
"Do you ever get seasick in any of these storms?"
"Always," answered the first mate, in a matter of fact tone. "If thiskeeps on you won't see me at mess to-day noon. You'll have to eat yourdinner standing up, but not for me."
The weather grew more tempestuous as the forenoon wore on. The scupperswere running rivers of green lake water and there was not a dry spot onthe decks; even the upper works standing high in the air, were drippingwith the spray that had been showered over them.
"Let her off three points," commanded the captain.
Almost instant relief from the incessant pounding was noticeable. Thewaves came aboard only occasionally, though the sea was running the sameas before and the ship was rolling almost down to her rails.
"That is better," nodded Steve, his voice echoing in the silence of thepilot-house.
"Did it make you dizzy?" smiled the skipper.
"No, sir. I got all over that after I fell in the hold that time. Itisn't a comfortable feeling to have the floor rolling around beneathone's feet, but I am getting so that I do not mind it much. Is that aboat ahead of us there?"
"Yes," replied the captain, placing the glasses to his eyes. "It's apig, and she's having a pretty hard time of it. All you can see of heris a smother of foam in the place where the ship is. The smoke from herfunnel seems to come right out of the lake."
"Are those whalebacks safe, Captain?" asked the pilot.
"Yes. I commanded one for two seasons. They are perfectly safe, so longas nothing happens to them."
Steve laughed.
"That goes without saying."
"But they are the wettest boats in the world, as you can judge bywatching that fellow beating his way against the sea. They have a verythin skin and the least puncture will go through. Next thing you'll hearthe hatches blowing off, and down she goes like a meteorite shot fromabove."
"I don't believe I should care for them. I prefer to be high above waterlike this, rather than under it all the way down the lakes. If I wantedto travel on a submarine I'd ship on a real o
ne."
The gale was playing tunes on the braces, and the life-span running fromthe forward to the after deck-house was swaying back and forth. Stevegazed at it a moment then turned to the skipper.
"I never could see the use of those life-spans. If the ship goes down, Idon't understand how a life-span from one end of the ship to the other,is going to help any."
"They haven't been on long. A good many lives would have been saved ifthey had been. You see, the span is a rope on which travels a littleswing just large enough to hold a man. Then there is a free rope runningthrough a ring in the top of the swing by which to pull one's selfalong."
"Yes, I have figured that out."
"Then suppose that to-night, in the darkness, we were to miss our way.The compass might go bad, we might be driven out of our course and allthat sort of thing, you know--and all of a sudden we might drive our bowfull speed on one of those low-lying Apostle Islands!"
"Yes, sir."
"The stern of the ship would sink low and there she would pound topieces. That's where the men astern would find use for the life-span. Byit they would be able to pull themselves to the bow of the boat andperhaps make their escape before the stern finally went down underwater. They are a good thing, and you should see to it that the spansare always in working order. I have those on my ship examined every day.I----"
The captain was interrupted in what he was saying by a yell from thedeck. The skipper took a quick look aft through the pilot-house windows,then sprang to the pilot-house telegraph.
"Full speed astern!" crashed the message to the engine room.