The First Mate: The Story of a Strange Cruise

by Harry Collingwood

I nodded, and, springing up on the deck, quickly threw off my clothes, spread them in the sun so that any lingering moisture might be dried out of them during my absence, and, dropping lightly to the sand, dashed into the water and struck out. I was gone about half an hour, and it was not until I was returning with my captured plank that the thought of possible sharks occurred to me. However, I saw none, and got safely back to the bank, where, having hauled up my plank, I at once proceeded to dress in my now thoroughly dry clothes. The swim had greatly refreshed me and I felt in excellent form for a good hearty breakfast. But alas! I remembered our slender stock of provisions, and stifled my longings as best I could.

Presently the women folk emerged, one after the other, and, standing in the cockpit, looked about them in something approaching amazement at the change which the passage of a few hours had effected. When they entered the boat about midnight, a black hurricane was raging; and now it was a brilliantly beautiful morning. But Mrs Vansittart was greatly concerned on account of the disappearance of the wreck. She realised as clearly as I did all that it involved; and leaping down upon the sand with my assistance, she walked with me to the highest point of the bank, and intently surveyed the aspect of the sea. The question which we had to decide was whether or not it was yet safe for us to put to sea. Had we been provided with a mast and sails, I would not have hesitated a moment; indeed the breeze, if a trifle fresh, would have swept us along at a merry pace and soon brought land of some sort into our ken. But in our present condition the risk of being overrun and swamped was as yet too great. It was, however, of vital importance that we should make a start at the earliest possible moment, for our stock of food and water was exceedingly meagre, though it would have to suffice until we were either picked up or could reach a more kindly shore than the sandbank.

But in any case we could not make a start for at least half an hour, for my experience of the previous night, during our brief passage from the wreck to the sandbank, had shown me that, in the absence of a rudder—which I had not yet made—provision for a steering oar was an absolute necessity. Hence my anxiety, a little earlier, to secure one of the floating planks.

We were by this time all eager for breakfast, therefore before doing anything else we took careful account of our stock of food and water, and estimated that, with care, it might be made to last us all a week. This was better than I had dared to hope; for it would be strange indeed if in the course of a week we did not fall in with a craft of some sort, or reach solid earth which would afford us at least the means of sustaining life. We measured out an allowance of food sufficient to serve for one meal in accordance with the scale agreed upon, and quickly disposed of it. Upon opening the water breaker, however, I was vexed to find that it was not full to the bung-hole, as I had confidently expected to find it. On the contrary, there was quite a gallon short, which I supposed must have been lost while rolling it along the wreck’s deck the previous night. That missing gallon or so we should have to make up by slightly curtailing each person’s allowance, unless indeed we were blessed with a shower or two of rain during our voyage.

Having quickly disposed of my rather meagre breakfast, I got out the tool chest, and, using the plank which I had retrieved, made a cleat for the reception of a rowlock. This I firmly fixed to the boat’s transom, so that, when necessary, we could use one of the oars to steer with; or for sculling purposes. The job occupied me for the best part of an hour; and when it was finished I suggested that, since we were doing no good where we were, it might be worth our while to take a cruise about the lagoon and see whether we could find any flotsam from the wreck that would be of any value to us. This we did, but we found nothing except a few planks, half a dozen of which we hauled in and laid on the boat’s deck to dry, upon the off-chance of their eventually proving useful to us.

Then we made our way to the spot where we thought the wreck had sunk, and eventually found her submerged within about forty fathoms of the inner edge of the reef, showing that she must have gone down almost immediately after being washed clear. There was about a fathom and a half of water over her poop, and as we gazed down upon the craft, clearly visible through the crystal waters of the lagoon, poor Mrs Vansittart shed a few pardonable tears over the grave of the ship of which she had been so proud, and which she had loved so well.

We were agreeably surprised to find that our so-called boat, bulky and clumsy as she looked to the eye, proved quite easy to propel with a pair of oars handled by Julius and myself—except, indeed, when we tried to force her to windward. Then she became decidedly heavy and sluggish in her movements, which showed us that it would be hopeless to dream of shaping a course other than to leeward, or at best with the wind abeam. The wind was, at the moment, blowing briskly from the southward, which was a fair wind for the Caroline group, in one of which—if we could only manage to hit the right one—we might hope to meet with hospitality at least, if not the actual means to return to civilisation. After some discussion, therefore, we determined, as the wind seemed inclined to moderate a little, to risk a start without further delay, since, if our boat was to be of any real service to us, she ought to be able to live in such a sea as was now running outside.

It was about eleven o’clock in the morning when we reached the open sea; and the first discovery which we made with regard to our boat was that, thanks to her double keel, she would forge ahead with the wind anywhere at all abaft the beam—not at any great speed, certainly, with the wind only about one point free, but still fast enough to enable us to control her with a steering oar. When we bore up before the wind, she moved under the impetus of the breeze almost as fast as we had been able to row her in the lagoon. Our second discovery with regard to her was no less pleasing. Owing to the peculiar shape of her floor, which, it will be remembered, sloped up fore and aft somewhat after the fashion of that of a fishing punt, she rode the seas with extraordinary buoyancy, and as dry as a bone.

Being without either chart or compass, we could not, of course, steer any definite course, and therefore kept our craft dead before the wind and sea. Julius and I each wielded an oar until the boy was tired, when Susie, the second stewardess, who was a fine, strong, strapping girl, took a spell, and soon picked up the trick of rowing. When she was tired, Lizette, the chief stewardess, must needs try her hand; but she proved much less adaptable than her assistant, and did little more than blister her hands. Julius then took another spell, and by the time he was tired I was tired too. We therefore gave up rowing for a bit, and Mrs Vansittart undertook to steer the boat by means of an oar over the stern. By this time we had dropped the reef out of sight astern, and were beginning to realise fully that we were veritable castaways—a fact which I think had never hitherto quite come home to any of us.

The thing that worried me most was the absence of sail on the boat. Now that we had definitely and irretrievably embarked ourselves and our fortunes in her, I wanted to get over the ground at a good pace instead of drifting snail-like before wind and sea; and I set myself to consider whether, with the materials at my command, I could not rig up something that would serve the purpose of a mast and sail. I had the best part of a coil of good useful line in the boat, half a dozen three-by-nine-inch planks, each of which was twelve feet in length—and that was all, excepting of course that priceless treasure, the carpenter’s chest.