Captain Ropes chanced to be on deck at the fatal instant, and there was no more of confusion or apparent excitement when the ship was put about than if we had been executing some ordinary manœuvre in fair weather.
At the first cry betokening danger every man went to his station, and the orders which came from the quarter-deck were obeyed almost as soon as spoken, with such effect that it seemed to me as if no more than three minutes elapsed before our course was completely changed.
I came to understand, however, that much more time had passed than I supposed, on seeing how far away was the splintered spar to which our shipmates were clinging, knowing full well that whatsoever of aid was possible in such an angry tumult of waters would be given them.
But for the fact of having been on board the America at this time, I could set down a most thrilling description of what might have occurred from the moment the spar was carried away until the half-drowned men were brought aboard; but having been there, I am forced to say it was all as commonplace, and the work performed as methodically, as during the simplest manœuvre which can be imagined.
In less than half an hour our five messmates were with us once more, and all hands were engaged in making ready a new spar.
The extra amount of labour required, and the short deviation from our course, appeared to Simon and me to be the only result of this accident; but when we were below once more, where we could hear the men yarning and arguing as sailors will, I came to understand that the mishap might work serious mischief in the future.
One and all of the crew insisted that we had begun the voyage with a bad omen; that this breaking of a new spar when we were hardly more than out of port, was a sign that the cruise would be a disastrous one, more particularly since it occurred on a Friday, and the foremost among the croakers was none other than Master Joshua Seabury, he whom Simon Ropes and I looked up to as the ablest, bravest seaman that ever jockeyed a yard-arm.