VI
The Weed-Choked Sea
It was some little while before midday that we grew conscious that thesea had become very much less violent; and this despite the wind roaringwith scarce abated noise. And, presently, everything about the boat,saving the wind, having grown indubitably calmer, and no great waterbreaking over the canvas, the bo'sun beckoned me again to assist him liftthe after part of the cover. This we did, and put forth our heads toinquire the reason of the unexpected quietness of the sea; not knowingbut that we had come suddenly under the lee of some unknown land. Yet,for a space, we could see nothing, beyond the surrounding billows; forthe sea was still very furious, though no matter to cause us concern,after that through which we had come.
Presently, however, the bo'sun, raising himself, saw something, and,bending cried in my ear that there was a low bank which broke the forceof the sea; but he was full of wonder to know how that we had passed itwithout shipwreck. And whilst he was still pondering the matter I raisedmyself, and took a look on all sides of us, and so I discovered thatthere lay another great bank upon our larboard side, and this I pointedout to him. Immediately afterwards, we came upon a great mass of seaweedswung up on the crest of a sea, and, presently, another. And so wedrifted on, and the seas grew less with astonishing rapidity, so that, ina little, we stripped off the cover so far as the midship thwart; for therest of the men were sorely in need of the fresh air, after so long atime below the canvas covering.
It was after we had eaten, that one of them made out that there wasanother low bank astern upon which we were drifting. At that, the bo'sunstood up and made an examination of it, being much exercised in his mindto know how we might come clear of it with safety. Presently, however, wehad come so near to it that we discovered it to be composed of seaweed,and so we let the boat drive upon it, making no doubt but that the otherbanks, which we had seen, were of a similar nature.
In a little, we had driven in among the weed; yet, though our speed wasgreatly slowed, we made some progress, and so in time came out upon theother side, and now we found the sea to be near quiet, so that we hauledin our sea anchor--which had collected a great mass of weed about it--andremoved the whaleback and canvas coverings, after which we stepped themast, and set a tiny storm-foresail upon the boat; for we wished to haveher under control, and could set no more than this, because of theviolence of the breeze.
Thus we drove on before the wind, the bo'sun steering, and avoiding allsuch banks as showed ahead, and ever the sea grew calmer. Then, when itwas near on to evening, we discovered a huge stretch of the weed thatseemed to block all the sea ahead, and, at that, we hauled down theforesail, and took to our oars, and began to pull, broadside on to it,towards the West. Yet so strong was the breeze, that we were being drivendown rapidly upon it. And then, just before sunset, we opened out theend of it, and drew in our oars, very thankful to set the littleforesail, and run off again before the wind.
And so, presently, the night came down upon us, and the bo'sun made ustake turn and turn about to keep a look-out; for the boat was going someknots through the water, and we were among strange seas; but _he_ took nosleep all that night, keeping always to the steering oar.
I have memory, during my time of watching, of passing odd floatingmasses, which I make no doubt were weed, and once we drove right atop ofone; but drew clear without much trouble. And all the while, through thedark to starboard, I could make out the dim outline of that enormous weedextent lying low upon the sea, and seeming without end. And so,presently, my time to watch being at an end, I returned to my slumber,and when next I waked it was morning.
Now the morning discovered to me that there was no end to the weed uponour starboard side; for it stretched away into the distance ahead of usso far as we could see; while all about us the sea was full of floatingmasses of the stuff. And then, suddenly, one of the men cried out thatthere was a vessel in among the weed. At that, as may be imagined, wewere very greatly excited, and stood upon the thwarts that we might getbetter view of her. Thus I saw her a great way in from the edge of theweed, and I noted that her foremast was gone near to the deck, and shehad no main topmast; though, strangely enough, her mizzen stood unharmed.And beyond this, I could make out but little, because of the distance;though the sun, which was upon our larboard side, gave me some sight ofher hull, but not much, because of the weed in which she was deeplyembedded; yet it seemed to me that her sides were very weather-worn, andin one place some glistening brown object, which may have been a fungus,caught the rays of the sun, sending off a wet sheen.
There we stood, all of us, upon the thwarts, staring and exchangingopinions, and were like to have overset the boat; but that the bo'sunordered us down. And after this we made our breakfast, and had muchdiscussion regarding the stranger, as we ate.
Later, towards midday, we were able to set our mizzen; for the storm hadgreatly modified, and so, presently, we hauled away to the West, toescape a great bank of the weed which ran out from the main body. Uponrounding this, we let the boat off again, and set the main lug, and thusmade very good speed before the wind. Yet though we ran all thatafternoon parallel with the weed to starboard, we came not to its end.And three separate times we saw the hulks of rotting vessels, some ofthem having the appearance of a previous age, so ancient did they seem.
Now, towards evening, the wind dropped to a very little breeze, so thatwe made but slow way, and thus we had better chance to study the weed.And now we saw that it was full of crabs; though for the most part sovery minute as to escape the casual glance; yet they were not all small,for in a while I discovered a swaying among the weed, a little way infrom the edge, and immediately I saw the mandible of a very great crabstir amid the weed. At that, hoping to obtain it for food, I pointed itout to the bo'sun, suggesting that we should try and capture it. And so,there being by now scarce any wind, he bade us get out a couple of theoars, and back the boat up to the weed. This we did, after which he madefast a piece of salt meat to a bit of spun yarn, and bent this on to theboat hook. Then he made a running bowline, and slipped the loop on to theshaft of the boat hook, after which he held out the boat hook, after thefashion of a fishing rod, over the place where I had seen the crab.Almost immediately, there swept up an enormous claw, and grasped themeat, and at that, the bo'sun cried out to me to take an oar and slidethe bowline along the boat-hook, so that it should fall over the claw,and this I did, and immediately some of us hauled upon the line,taughtening it about the great claw. Then the bo'sun sung out to us tohaul the crab aboard, that we had it most securely; yet on the instant wehad reason to wish that we had been less successful; for the creature,feeling the tug of our pull upon it, tossed the weed in all directions,and thus we had full sight of it, and discovered it to be so great a crabas is scarce conceivable--a very monster. And further, it was apparent tous that the brute had no fear of us, nor intention to escape; but rathermade to come at us; whereat the bo'sun, perceiving our danger, cut theline, and bade us put weight upon the oars, and so in a moment we were insafety, and very determined to have no more meddlings with suchcreatures.
Presently, the night came upon us, and, the wind remaining low, therewas everywhere about us a great stillness, most solemn after thecontinuous roaring of the storm which had beset us in the previous days.Yet now and again a little wind would rise and blow across the sea, andwhere it met the weed, there would come a low, damp rustling, so that Icould hear the passage of it for no little time after the calm had comeonce more all about us.
Now it is a strange thing that I, who had slept amid the noise of thepast days, should find sleeplessness amid so much calm; yet so it was,and presently I took the steering oar, proposing that the rest shouldsleep, and to this the bo'sun agreed, first warning me, however, mostparticularly to have care that I kept the boat off the weed (for we hadstill a little way on us), and, further, to call him should anythingunforeseen occur. And after that, almost immediately he fell asleep, asindeed did the most of the men.
From the time that
I relieved the bo'sun, until midnight, I sat upon thegunnel of the boat, with the steering oar under my arm, and watched andlistened, most full of a sense of the strangeness of the seas intowhich we had come. It is true that I had heard tell of seas choked upwith weed--seas that were full of stagnation, having no tides; but Ihad not thought to come upon such an one in my wanderings; having,indeed, set down such tales as being bred of imagination, and withoutreality in fact.
Then, a little before the dawn, and when the sea was yet full ofdarkness, I was greatly startled to hear a prodigious splash amid theweed, mayhaps at a distance of some hundred yards from the boat. Then,as I stood full of alertness, and knowing not what the next momentmight bring forth, there came to me across the immense waste of weed, along, mournful cry, and then again the silence. Yet, though I kept veryquiet, there came no further sound, and I was about to re-seat myself,when, afar off in that strange wilderness, there flashed out a suddenflame of fire.
Now upon seeing fire in the midst of so much lonesomeness, I was as oneamazed, and could do naught but stare. Then, my judgment returning to me,I stooped and waked the bo'sun; for it seemed to me that this was amatter for his attention. He, after staring at it awhile, declared thathe could see the shape of a vessel's hull beyond the flame; but,immediately, he was in doubt, as, indeed, I had been all the while. Andthen, even as we peered, the light vanished, and though we waited for thespace of some minutes; watching steadfastly, there came no further sightof that strange illumination.
From now until the dawn, the bo'sun remained awake with me, and we talkedmuch upon that which we had seen; yet could come to no satisfactoryconclusion; for it seemed impossible to us that a place of so muchdesolation could contain any living being. And then, just as the dawn wasupon us, there loomed up a fresh wonder--the hull of a great vessel maybea couple or three score fathoms in from the edge of the weed. Now thewind was still very light, being no more than an occasional breath, sothat we went past her at a drift, thus the dawn had strengthenedsufficiently to give to us a clear sight of the stranger, before we hadgone more than a little past her. And now I perceived that she lay fullbroadside on to us, and that her three masts were gone close down to thedeck. Her side was streaked in places with rust, and in others a greenscum overspread her; but it was no more than a glance that I gave at anyof those matters; for I had spied something which drew all myattention--great leathery arms splayed all across her side, some of themcrooked inboard over the rail, and then, low down, seen just above theweed, the huge, brown, glistening bulk of so great a monster as ever Ihad conceived. The bo'sun saw it in the same instant and cried out in ahoarse whisper that it was a mighty devilfish, and then, even as hespoke, two of the arms flickered up into the cold light of the dawn, asthough the creature had been asleep, and we had waked it. At that, thebo'sun seized an oar, and I did likewise, and, so swiftly as we dared,for fear of making any unneedful noise, we pulled the boat to a saferdistance. From there and until the vessel had become indistinct by reasonof the space we put between us, we watched that great creature clutchedto the old hull, as it might be a limpet to a rock.
Presently, when it was broad day, some of the men began to rouse up, andin a little we broke our fast, which was not displeasing to me, who hadspent the night watching. And so through the day we sailed with a verylight wind upon our larboard quarter. And all the while we kept thegreat waste of weed upon our starboard side, and apart from the mainlandof the weed, as it were, there were scattered about an uncountablenumber of weed islets and banks, and there were thin patches of it thatappeared scarce above the water, and through these later we let the boatsail; for they had not sufficient density to impede our progress morethan a little.
And then, when the day was far spent, we came in sight of anotherwreck amid the weeds. She lay in from the edge perhaps so much as thehalf of a mile, and she had all three of her lower masts in, and herlower yards squared. But what took our eyes more than aught else was agreat superstructure which had been built upward from her rails,almost half-way to her main tops, and this, as we were able toperceive, was supported by ropes let down from the yards; but of whatmaterial the superstructure was composed, I have no knowledge; for itwas so over-grown with some form of green stuff--as was so much of thehull as showed above the weed--as to defy our guesses. And because ofthis growth, it was borne upon us that the ship must have been lost tothe world a very great age ago. At this suggestion, I grew full ofsolemn thought; for it seemed to me that we had come upon the cemeteryof the oceans.
Now, in a little while after we had passed this ancient craft, the nightcame down upon us, and we prepared for sleep, and because the boat wasmaking some little way through the water, the bo'sun gave out that eachof us should stand our turn at the steering-oar, and that he was to becalled should any fresh matter transpire. And so we settled down for thenight, and owing to my previous sleeplessness, I was full weary, so thatI knew nothing until the one whom I was to relieve shook me intowakefulness. So soon as I was fully waked, I perceived that a low moonhung above the horizon, and shed a very ghostly light across the greatweed world to starboard. For the rest, the night was exceeding quiet, sothat no sound came to me in all that ocean, save the rippling of thewater upon our bends as the boat forged slowly along. And so I settleddown to pass the time ere I should be allowed to sleep; but first I askedthe man whom I had relieved, how long a time had passed since moon-rise;to which he replied that it was no more than the half of an hour, andafter that I questioned whether he had seen aught strange amid the weedduring his time at the oar; but he had seen nothing, except that once hehad fancied a light had shown in the midst of the waste; yet it couldhave been naught save a humor of the imagination; though apart from this,he had heard a strange crying a little after midnight, and twice therehad been great splashes among the weed. And after that he fell asleep,being impatient at my questioning.
Now it so chanced that my watch had come just before the dawn; for whichI was full of thankfulness, being in that frame of mind when the darkbreeds strange and unwholesome fancies. Yet, though I was so near to thedawn, I was not to escape free of the eerie influence of that place; for,as I sat, running my gaze to and fro over its grey immensity, it came tome that there were strange movements among the weed, and I seemed to seevaguely, as one may see things in dreams, dim white faces peer out at mehere and there; yet my common sense assured me that I was but deceived bythe uncertain light and the sleep in my eyes; yet for all that, it put mynerves on the quiver.
A little later, there came to my ears the noise of a very great splashamid the weed; but though I stared with intentness, I could nowherediscern aught as likely to be the cause thereof. And then, suddenly,between me and the moon, there drove up from out of that great waste avast bulk, flinging huge masses of weed in all directions. It seemed tobe no more than a hundred fathoms distant, and, against the moon, I sawthe outline of it most clearly--a mighty devilfish. Then it had fallenback once more with a prodigious splash, and so the quiet fell again,finding me sore afraid, and no little bewildered that so monstrous acreature could leap with such agility. And then (in my fright I had letthe boat come near to the edge of the weed) there came a subtle stiropposite to our starboard bow, and something slid down into the water. Iswayed upon the oar to turn the boat's head outward, and with the samemovement leant forward and sideways to peer, bringing my face near to theboat's rail. In the same instant, I found myself looking down into awhite demoniac face, human save that the mouth and nose had greatly theappearance of a beak. The thing was gripping at the side of the boat withtwo flickering hands--gripping the bare, smooth outer surface, in a waythat woke in my mind a sudden memory of the great devilfish which hadclung to the side of the wreck we had passed in the previous dawn. I sawthe face come up towards me, and one misshapen hand fluttered almost tomy throat, and there came a sudden, hateful reek in my nostrils--foul andabominable. Then, I came into possession of my faculties, and drew backwith great haste and a wild cry of fear. And then I had the steering-o
arby the middle, and was smiting downward with the loom over the side ofthe boat; but the thing was gone from my sight. I remember shouting outto the bo'sun and to the men to awake, and then the bo'sun had me by theshoulder, was calling in my ear to know what dire thing had come about.At that, I cried out that I did not know, and, presently, being somewhatcalmer, I told them of the thing that I had seen; but even as I told ofit, there seemed to be no truth in it, so that they were all at a loss toknow whether I had fallen asleep, or that I had indeed seen a devil.
And presently the dawn was upon us.