"Where?" cried the officer in command of the deck.
"Right ahead, sir."
Ere another word could be said, there was a shock—a yell as if from the bosom of the sea, and with a mighty crash we were upon her!
I sprang upon the poop, and saw ahead, two tottering masts sink like phantoms under our lee bow, and in another instant, the wreck of a brig we had cleft in two, was swept past me, and sank astern. I saw a few miserable men, half naked, or just as they had sprung from bed, clinging to the tophamper, while the crushed and shattered hull went down into the trough of the midnight sea, and from its dark and horrid valley, their cries of death and despair rose mournfully to the lofty poop, from whence I surveyed them.
All this was but the vision of a moment, for the howling blast which hurried us on, swept the wreck, and the poor wretches who floated about it, alike out of sight and hearing.
"Lay the foreyard to the wind—officer of the watch! ''Sdeath where is the officer of the watch?" bellowed Captain Cranky, through his trumpet, as he rushed on deck; "pipe away the cutter—over with the life-buoys—up with more lanterns!"
The Adder was under such way, that some time elapsed before she could be put about; but as boats could not be lowered in such a sea, Cranky was obliged to content himself with firing guns, and burning blue lights, amid the haze and gusty wind of that gloomy and mournful night.
We hovered about the place for an hour: but all was silent, save the voice of the wind, which howled through the rigging, and tore the foamy crests off the billows as they rose above the line of the sea. Of that doomed ship, we saw and heard no more.
The next day dawned clear and beautiful; but the sea was swept by glasses in vain for a trace of the wreck. Indeed we were then far from the scene of the catastrophe, which was the source of much ill-feeling between Captain Cranky, and the Earl of Kildonan, the former asserting that "but for the blundering stupidity of some of his blubberly Scotsmen, who formed part of the forecastle watch, and failed to keep a proper look-out, the collision would never have occurred."
The Earl, who was proud, fiery, and high-spirited, resented the overbearing manner, the coarseness and tyranny of Captain Cranky; thus bitter words ensued between them—so bitter that we were certain a duel would follow as soon as we came in sight of land anywhere.