Then they came along the port side and hooked on to the fore channels, while Blood and the others scrambled on deck.
The deck was clean as a ballroom floor and sparkling with salt from the dried spray; there was no raffle or disorder of any sort. Every boat was gone, and the falls, swinging at full length from the davits, proclaimed the fact that the crew had left the vessel in an orderly manner, though hurriedly enough, no doubt; had abandoned her, leaving the falls swinging and the rudder playing loose and the winds to do what they willed with her.
There was no sign of fire, no disorder that spoke of mutiny, though in cargo and with a low freeboard, she rode free of water, one could tell that by the movement of her underfoot. Fire, leak, mutiny, those are the three reasons for the abandonment of a ship at sea, and there was no sign of any one of them.
Blood led the way aft, the saloon hatch was open, and they came down into the tiny saloon. The sunlight through the starboard portholes was spilling about in water shimmers on the pitch-pine panelling; everything was in order, and a meal was set out on the table, which showed a Maconochie jam tin, some boiled pork, and a basket of bread; plates were laid for two, and the plates had been used.
“Beats all,” said Harman, looking round. “Boys, this is a find as good as the dollars. Derelict and not a cat on board, and she’s all of ninety tons. Then there’s the cargo. B’ Jiminy, but we’re in luck!”
“Let’s roust out the cabins,” said Ginnell.
They found the Captain’s cabin, easily marked by its size and its furniture.
Some oilskins and old clothes were hanging up by the bunk, a sea chest stood open. It had evidently been rifled of its most precious contents; there was nothing much left in it but some clothes, a pair of sea boots, and some worthless odds and ends. In a locker they found the ship’s papers. Blood plunged into these, and announced his discoveries to the others, crowding behind him and peeping over his shoulders.
“Captain Keene, master—bound from Frisco to Sydney with cargo of champagne——. And what in thunder is she doing down here? Never mind—we’re the finders.” He tossed the papers back in the locker and turned to the others. “No sign of the log. Most likely he’s taken it off with him. What I want to see now is the cargo. If it’s champagne, and not bottled bilge water, we’re made. Come along, boys.”
He led the way on deck, and between them they got the tarpaulin cover off the cargo hatch, undid the locking bars, and opened the hatch.