They were in a miserable and most precarious plight, indeed; and I could not help wondering how they had possibly managed to cling for so many hours to so insecure a refuge—assuming, of course, that the brig had capsized on the previous afternoon, as I surmised.
The first thing was to communicate with them; and this I first attempted by means of the speaking trumpet. But the roar of the wind and the wash of the sea, together with our drift—which was, of course, much more rapid than that of the wreck—rendered my voice inaudible; so it became necessary to resort to other methods. There happened to be a “bull-board” kicking about the poop; and setting this up on the skylight, where it could be distinctly seen, with its black face towards the wreck, I got a piece of chalk, and hastily wrote upon it the following words, one after the other, receiving a wave of the hand from those on the wreck in token that they had deciphered each word before I obliterated it and wrote the next:—
“Only—four—men—on—board—so—cannot—send—boat—Will—stand—by—and—take—you—off—if—possible.”
By the time that the last word of this communication had been written and acknowledged we were some distance to leeward of the wreck, and it became necessary to fill upon the ship once more. This done, the next matter for determination was the means whereby we were to get the people away from the wreck, and safe on board the barque—a problem which, had we been fully manned, would have proved sufficiently puzzling; while, circumstanced as we were, it seemed all but impossible.
At length, however, I hit upon a scheme that I thought might be worth trying; and we proceeded forthwith to put it into practical shape without more ado, since the unfortunate people on the wreck were in a perilously exposed situation, and evidently in such a terribly exhausted state that they might relax their hold, and be washed away at any moment.
There were, as I have already mentioned, nine men to be rescued. Now, the Esmeralda having been, ever since she was launched, a passenger-ship, was well found in life-saving appliances, life-buoys among the number, of which we carried no less than twelve; eight being stowed away in one of the cutters on the gallows, while the remainder were distributed about the poop, ready for immediate use.
The first thing done was to get up on deck two good stout warps, and bend them end to end, so that we might have plenty of length to work with; and the inner end of this long line was then made fast inboard at the fore-rigging. To the other end nine life-buoys were next securely bent, in the form of a chain, with a length of about a fathom between the buoys; and, finally, a long light heaving-line was bent on to the extreme outer end of the warp. The warp was then carefully coiled down on deck, ready for paying out; the buoys piled on the top of it; and the spare part of the heaving-line carried out to the flying-jib-boom end, where it was snugly coiled and stopped, ready for use.
Our preparations were now complete; and, having meanwhile been plying to windward, the helm was put up, and we wore round to return to the wreck. This operation provided work for us all, including Sir Edgar; and when at length we got the ship round upon the starboard tack we found, to our extreme vexation, that the circle we had made was so large that we should be unable to fetch the wreck. This was terribly annoying at a time when every minute lost might mean a human life; but we could do nothing to rectify the matter except stand on far enough upon the new tack to insure that when we next wore we should not again under-shoot our mark. And if it was vexatious for us, what must it have been for the poor fellows who, standing as it were within the very jaws of death, were anxiously watching our every movement?
To our eagerness and anxiety the minutes seemed hours; but at length we felt that we had reached far enough to justify another attempt; and upon getting the ship round again we had the satisfaction of seeing that we had measured our distance just right, and should be about able to fetch the wreck, with little or nothing to spare. As we approached the brig, the negro—who, now that he was separated from his late companions, proved himself to be not only a first-rate seaman, but also a very willing, good-natured fellow—most earnestly besought me to entrust to him the task of manipulating the heaving-line, vehemently asserting his ability to cast it further and straighter than any of the rest of us; and I accordingly deputed that duty to him, whereupon he laid out to the flying-jib-boom end and, placing himself astride the spar, outside the royal stay, clinched himself there in the most extraordinary manner by means of his feet and legs, and then calmly took the coil of heaving-line in his hand and held himself ready for a cast. The ease with which the fellow clung to the bare end of that dancing spar was a revelation to me; for the motion out there was, proportionately, as violent as it would have been in the maintop; yet there he sat, as composedly as though he had been in an easy-chair, while most white men would have found it difficult enough to maintain such a position with the aid of hands as well as feet, leaving out of the question any possibility of executing such a manoeuvre as that of throwing a line to windward against a whole gale of wind.
San Domingo thus safely established at his station, Joe and Sir Edgar placed themselves at the braces, standing by to back the main-topsail at the instant that I should give the word; while I climbed into the weather fore-rigging, as the best position from which to con the ship; and in this order we edged gradually and warily down toward the wreck.