The lee rigging, tautened by the strain of the masts dependent from it, was soon severed; and then, the ship being more buoyant, floated away some yards leeward—the spars veered out to the length of the braces, serving as a sort of breakwater and keeping the waves from coming in over the bows as she tended, for her stern at once coming round caused her to ride easily, head to wind, just as if she were anchored.
“Now, men,” cried Captain Miles when this was managed, and no pressing danger stared us in the face, “we must now see whether we can’t get up anything to eat from the after-hold. I daresay you fellows feel a bit hungry, eh?”
You should have only seen the look on every face when he said this!
The very idea of food made all ravenous; and it was as much as Captain Miles could do to prevent the hands from rushing in a body into the cabin.
The men seemed inclined to eat him when he put out his hand to stop them.
“Take it coolly!” he sang out, pushing one or two back that had pressed forwards. “I will see that you’ve not long to wait. Jake, you know your way below, I believe?”
“Iss, massa,” replied the darkey with a broad grin. “Harry bery often sen’ me down to get stores when um busy.”
“Ah, the poor fellow, I had forgotten him,” ejaculated the captain, entering the cabin at once and going towards the steward’s pantry; but he had to pick his steps carefully, the place being heaped up with a variety of things that had been swept out of the different berths by the sea, and were washing up and down for more than two days.
As Captain Miles had surmised, the mulatto had been drowned inside the little apartment devoted to his use; for there his body was now found, the colour of the skin nearly white through the action of the water. The corpse was brought out and laid reverently under the break of the poop by a couple of sailors whom the captain called into the cabin for the purpose; after which he and Jake then proceeded to unfasten the hatches leading down into the after-hold in search of provisions for the living, there being plenty of time to attend to the obsequies of the dead later on when our more urgent needs were supplied.
Cuffee the cook during this interval had gone forward to look after his old galley; and loud was his lament to find it washed away, its weight having parted the strong lashings that secured it to the ring-bolts in the deck when the ship capsized.