The Cruise of the "Esmeralda"

by Harry Collingwood

I asked.

“Thank you, sir; I’ve no objection,” was the response; and we were just turning away toward the saloon companion when the mate stepped quietly up to me and said—

“I suppose we may as well rig out the stu’n’sail-booms all ready for making sail as soon as the pilot has left us? It will be a pity not to make the most of this fair wind while it lasts.”

“Certainly,” I replied, somewhat unwillingly; for, truth to tell, I thought it would be quite time enough to hurry when my poor mother had gone ashore and we were on the other side of the Bill of Portland.

Roberts, however, evidently regarded the matter from a very different standpoint from that which I occupied—perhaps he was anxious already to show off the ship’s pace—for, ere I had time to reach the companion, his voice rang out loud and clear—

“Lay aft here, some of you lads, and rouse out the stu’n’sail gear; the rest of you slip up aloft and cast loose the larboard fore-topmast and topgallant stu’n’sail boom, ready for rigging out. Take a line aloft with you, and send the end down on deck for the gear as soon as you are ready. Look alive, my hearties!” Then, sotto voce, “Yon schooner is a beauty, and no mistake; but she is not going to be allowed to run away from this clipper if I can help it!”

So that was the explanation of friend Roberts’s impatience! He had been so long in the Esmeralda, and had been so accustomed to beating everything that had been fallen in with, that he could not endure with equanimity the sight of even a yacht running away from him. “It is evident,” thought I, “that the grass will have very little chance of growing on this ship’s copper so long as Roberts is mate of her. But I shall have to keep an eye on the fellow, or perhaps he will be taking the sticks out of her, or laying her on her beam-ends some day in the excitement and enthusiasm of a race with something bigger and more nimble than ourselves.”

At length, to Roberts’s unconcealed gratification, the pilot went down over the side and shoved off, and we were left to our own resources.

“Up with your helm and let her pay off!” was now the word; “round-in upon the starboard main-braces; now your larboard fore-braces; well there; belay! Now rig out your booms, there, as soon as you are ready, and let’s get some muslin on the little beauty.” And forthwith the mate put in a pleasant hour decking the ship with her larboard studding-sails, from the royals down. And truly, prepared as I was for a somewhat out-of-the-way performance on the part of the little craft, I was astounded at the ease and rapidity with which she overtook and passed everything near her. The schooner-yacht had managed to slink away to a distance of some three miles from us during our short detention while landing the pilot, and by the time that my passengers had said “good night” and retired to their cabins she was the only craft ahead of us; and we had been gaining on her fast until her people, noticing this fact, had begun to pack sail upon her; and now there she was, straight ahead of us, with her mainsheet eased well off, a gigantic balloon topsail over her huge mainsail, and an immense square-sail set forward, with all her larboard studding-sails spread, skimming away swiftly and easily as a wreath of summer mist over the smooth surface of the Channel waters. I remained on deck until midnight, when, giving the second mate a word of caution not to carry his canvas too long in the event of the breeze freshening—which, however, it gave no indication of doing—I retired below and turned in with the gratifying feeling that I was now my own master; that I was working for myself, and should henceforth reap the direct benefit of my own labour and skill—such as the latter might be; that, in fact, my fortune was in my own hands, to make or mar; as it is in the hands of every young man.

The sound of the scrubbing-brushes, as they were set to work at four bells (six o’clock) next morning, awoke me; and, hastily donning such garments as were indispensable, I went on deck to take a look round. The easterly breeze, though it had proved somewhat fitful, had held with sufficient strength through the night to place us off Selsey Bill, with the high land of Saint Catherine’s Point looming faintly ahead of us about two points on the starboard bow; and there, too, hauling up for the inside of the Wight, was our friend the schooner-yacht of the night before, some two miles inshore of us and about the same distance ahead. The mate was very busy with the hose, with which he was liberally sluicing the decks and bulwarks, to say nothing of the bare feet and legs of those of the crew who in their scrubbing operations happened to approach within range of him. Of the yacht’s existence he was apparently quite oblivious; at all events, he carefully abstained from directing his glances in her direction.