Chapter VIII.
"Is that thunder?" cried Harry, starting up, and knocking his head against the canvas.
"No; it's a gun," replied Charley. "There's a vessel in distress somewhere near us."
As he spoke, the gun was fired again. "That was close by," exclaimed Charley. "Boys, let's run across to the beach, and see if there's anything to be seen."
It had stopped raining, but the boys were too excited to care whether it rained or not. They hauled up the anchor, pushed the boat ashore with an oar, and made their way rapidly across the meadow to the beach. It was already beginning to grow light, and they could dimly make out the form of a vessel stranded on the bar that lies a few rods distant from the beach.
"There's a wreck, sure enough," said Charley.
"Can't we do anything to help the men?" asked Tom.
"I don't see how we can. If the coast patrol was here, they might do something; but they don't patrol the beach in summer."
"Let's make a fire, anyhow," suggested Tom. "It may encourage them to know there's somebody here, and besides it will keep us warm."
"I'll go back and get the matches," said Harry, "if you'll get some wood. The fire may help the poor men to see where the shore is."
While he was gone, the rest hunted eagerly for fire-wood, of which they collected a large pile, and soon a bright fire was blazing on the beach.
"We don't hear the gun any more," said Joe. "That must be because they see us."
"Or else because they can't fire it any more. They must all be in the rigging now, trying to keep from being washed overboard. They probably fired the gun before they struck on the bar," said Charley.
"Will they all be drowned?" asked Tom.
"They will, unless the wind and the sea go down very soon," answered Charley. "No vessel can hold together long on that bar in such weather as this."
"There's a light!" exclaimed Joe. "Somebody is coming this way."
The light proved to be carried by one of a party of four men from the mainland, who had heard the guns some time before the boys had heard them, and who had rowed across the bay. They went to one of the coast-patrol houses, which stood in a hollow sheltered by the sand-hills, only a rod or two from where the boys had built their fire. The boys followed them, anxious to lend their aid if they could be of any service.
The house was full of ropes, life-buoys, and other apparatus, besides two large boats. Into one of these the men threw coils of rope, cork-jackets, rockets, and a quantity of articles of which the boys knew neither the names nor the uses, and were about to run her out through the open door, when the leader said: "Leave that boat here, and get out that there mortar first. We can come back for the boat if we have to use her."
There was a small mortar in one corner of the room, and the men proceeded to drag it out. Charley spoke to the man who seemed to be in command, and said, "If we can do anything, please let us know."
"You can help drag the mortar, if you want to," replied the patrolman, "and one of you can build a fire in the stove in the next room. Take one of them lanterns, and you'll find wood and shavings alongside the stove."
Tom instantly volunteered to build the fire, although he was very anxious to be on the beach. The other boys helped as best they could in dragging the mortar, which was soon planted close to the surf, and opposite the wreck.
It had now grown so light that they could clearly make her out. She was a large bark. The crew could be seen in the fore rigging, where they had taken refuge. Her masts, with the exception of the foretop-gallant-mast, were still standing; but as the sea was making a clear breach over her, it was not to be expected that she would hold together long.
The mortar was loaded with a shot, to which a thin cord was attached. It was hoped that the shot would pass over the vessel, so that the crew could get hold of the cord, and that communication between the wreck and the shore could thus be established. The shot, however, fell short, and a second trial only made it more certain that the mortar would not throw a shot the required distance, against the wind.
"It's no good," said the patrolman. "If the government won't give us a mortar big enough to carry five rods, we can't be expected to work miracles. Come on, men, and get out the boat. We'll have her on the beach, though I don't believe we can do much with her."
Everybody went back to the house.
"We'll want all you boys to help this time," said the Captain of the coast-guard, for such he proved to be. "It's hard work dragging a boat through the sand."
Tom's fire was now blazing nicely, and he left it to lend a hand with the boat. It was hard work until the loose, deep sand at the foot of the sand-hills was passed, after which the boat was moved more easily, until she was finally brought opposite the wreck.
"Now, men," said the Captain, "what do you say? Can we do it?"
"We can try," answered one of the men; "but I say, wait till daylight. If that bark has held together so long as she has, she'll last an hour longer, and by that time the sea may go down a little. Anyway, we'll have light to work by."
"There ain't but four of us here," said another man. "I'm ready to launch her whenever Captain Raynor gives the word; but we ought to have another oar."
"Take me," said Charley. "I can pull an oar, and I've been drilled in landing through the surf. It's a part of the navy drill now."
"Are you in the navy, young fellow?" asked the Captain.
"Yes, sir," replied Charley.
"You shall come along if we launch the boat. It's no fool's play, though, you understand. Every man that gets into that boat takes his life in his hand."
"I shouldn't offer to go if I didn't think I could do my duty with the rest of you," replied Charley, "and I don't think my life is any more precious than yours. Tell me what oar to pull, and you'll find that I can obey orders."
"We'll be proud to have you along with us," exclaimed one of the men. "If the rest of the Annapolis boys are like you, they're a good lot."
While they were waiting for daylight, the little party sat down by the remains of the bonfire, and talked about the wrecked vessel.
"She's an Eyetalian, or something of that sort, by the looks of her," said the Captain. "Those fellows know about as much about navigation as a canal-boatman. Now I'll bet that fellow didn't know where he was within two hundred miles. Do you remember that Frenchman that came ashore down by Fire Island light three years ago, and thought he was steering all right for to enter Long Island Sound? So he was, if Long Island hadn't happened to be in the way. John, how many men are there in the rigging?—you've got the best eyes of any of us."
"I can count seven," answered the man.
"That ain't crew enough for her," said the Captain. "Some of them have been washed overboard when she struck. There'll be more of the poor chaps overboard before long. Look at that sea once. It buried her whole hull."
"She won't stand many such seas," said the man who had been called John.
"What are you boys doing on the beach at this time in the morning?" asked Captain Raynor. "Did you row across the bay?"
Charley told how he and the other boys happened to be in the neighborhood of the wreck. The men listened with much interest, and Charley was beginning to wonder how they could be interested in anything but the fate of the unhappy men on board the wreck, when the Captain rose up, and said:
"Well, there ain't no use in waiting. The sea ain't going down, and we've got light enough. Now, men, if you're ready, get on your cork-jackets, and we'll launch the boat."
Every one of the boat's crew, including Charley, put on cork life-preservers, and then shoving the boat close to the surf, waited for the order to launch her. Charley had been told to pull the oar next to the stroke oar, and with one of the men was seated in the boat. The rest of the crew stood with both hands on her gunwale.
CAPSIZING OF THE LIFE-BOAT.
The Captain waited until he thought he saw a favorable chance. "Now—away with her!" he cried, and the men, rushing into the surf with the boat, leaped into her, and bent to their oars, while the Captain managed the long steering oar. For a few moments they fought manfully with the waves, and had nearly succeeded in getting through the breakers, when a tremendous sea whirled the boat around, rolled her over and over, and flung her violently on the beach. The men, who were, of course, thrown out of her, luckily managed to reach the shore unhurt, and Charley, to the great joy of his friends, was among them. The boat, however, was so seriously damaged that it was out of the question to think of trying to launch her a second time.
"You've had a narrow escape," said the Captain to Charley. "I didn't much think we'd get through the breakers, but we had to try it."
"I'm none the worse for it," said Charley. "But there's another boat in the house. Can't we launch that?"
"She's so heavy that we couldn't haul her down here without a team of horses; and if we had her here, there ain't enough of us to launch her. No, my boy; we've done all we can do. Our only chance now is that we may fish some man out of the surf before he is drowned."
"There goes a fellow up the maintopmast-stay, Captain," called out one of the men. "That foremast must be getting shaky."
A sailor was making his way along the maintopmast-stay with the agility of a monkey. When he reached the topmast cross-trees, he stopped a little while to rest, and then descended the rigging. Those on shore watched him closely, wondering what could be his object. When he had descended the main rigging as far as he dared to go on account of the seas which were constantly washing over the bark, they saw him lean over and catch the signal halyards, that were rove through the truck at the royalmast-head. He cut the halyards, unrove them, made them up into a coil, threw it over his shoulder, ascended to the cross-trees, and sliding down the stay, went into the foretop.
"He's a-going to try to swim ashore," said the Captain.
But such was not the man's intention. He was presently seen to make the end of the signal halyards fast to a billet of wood, which he threw into the sea.
"That fellow's got some sense into him, if he is an Eyetalian," exclaimed Captain Raynor. "He's going to try to send us a line, and I shouldn't wonder if he did it."
They watched closely for the billet of wood, and after a while saw it tossing in the surf. Joining hands, the men formed a line, and waded out until the foremost one caught the float, and with the help of the others pulled it ashore.
Not a moment was lost in bending the end of a stout coil of rope to the signal halyards. When this was done, the shipwrecked men all climbed into the foretop, and hauled in the rope, making the end fast around the head of the foremast. The shore end was then carried to the top of the sand-hills, where it was securely anchored, and hauled taut. There was now a strong rope connecting the bark with the shore, and at a good height above the water.
Over this rope the shipwrecked crew made their way to the land. All of them arrived safe, and they were immediately taken to the house, where they warmed themselves by Tom's fire, while the patrolmen made hot coffee for them, and then set about getting breakfast.
Not one of the rescued men could speak English, and little beyond the fact that the bark was bound from Genoa to New York could be drawn from them. They were, however, bright, cheerful fellows, and seemed full of gratitude for their escape.
"Now after we've fed these men," said Captain Raynor, "we'll go down to the bay, and help the boys step their mast. Boys, you've got to have some breakfast with us. You've done about as much as we have, and the government can afford to feed you."
The Captain kept his word, and after breakfast he and two of the men went down to where the Ghost was lying, and stepped the heavy mast. Without their aid the boys would have been in an unpleasant predicament, for they could not step the mast alone, and they did not want to row a heavy sail-boat two miles across the bay. When the Ghost was once more ready to set sail, the patrolmen shook hands with the boys, wished them a pleasant voyage, and told them how to steer to avoid the shallows in the south side of the bay, and to reach the mouth of the creek which connects the Great South Bay at Westhampton with Quantuck Bay, which lies further east. The wind had gone down very much since sunrise, and with a single reef in the mainsail, the Ghost displayed her sailing qualities to great advantage.
All that day the Ghost was kept on her course, and at the end of the afternoon she was moored to the shore within sight of the Westhampton bridge, and very near the beach. It promised to be a beautiful moonlight night, and had not the boys been tired out, they would have kept on, and sailed until midnight. They felt, however, that they needed sleep, for they had slept very little the preceding night. So, after a hearty supper, they turned in, and were soon nearly asleep.
"Boys," said Joe, suddenly, "I can't go to sleep. I know I have done wrong."
"What have you done, old fellow?" said Charley, rousing himself. "Let's hear about it."
"I haven't been wet all day," answered Joe, solemnly.
"If you say another word, we'll get up and throw you overboard," exclaimed Harry.
After which there was silence in the cabin of the Ghost.