When the pilot boat was within a mile of us, I called Mr. Ridley and the mate of the Santiago, and had a private conference with them; gave them instructions to place all hands in position for certain manoeuvres, but to keep the men out of sight behind the bulwarks. Stepping to the after companionway, I sang out below "Captain Potter, ask the ladies to come on deck and see us take the pilot on board" They hurried up in a flutter of excitement, the captain in their wake. A glance along the maindeck told him that something unusual was about to happen, but he kept his own counsel. It's hard to educate a taciturn Britisher to new ways, but the constant surprise of the experience through which Captain Potter was passing had begun to make an impression.
The pilot boat was now running down to us on the opposite tack, about four points on our weather bow. She expected us, of course, to heave-to and wait for her. We kept on, however, at a racing clip, making not the slightest movement to check our terrific progress. To add zest to the game, the wind puffed substantially at that moment, sending us through the water with a rush really magnificent.
I could see that, on board the pilot boat, they didn't know what to make of it. As we drew up on them, changing the angle of their bearing, they shifted their course little by little, letting their craft fall off before the wind and following us with her nose. In another moment she stood directly abeam of us, less than three hundred yards away. With a gesture of dismissal, as it were, they hauled the schooner up again on the port tack, prepared to stand away to sea and leave us to our own devices.
At that instant, I waved my hand, and gave a sharp order to the helmsman. The men jumped from their concealment under the bulwarks; up went the courses like a piece of magic, down went the helm, and ship and main yard swung together, as if both controlled by a single turn of the wheel. The Pactolus came into the wind with a bird-like swoop, felt the main yard aback, checked her pace, and stopped dead in her tracks; there she lay, nodding sweetly to the slight swell, the last rays of the setting sun striking through her sails.
A shout went up from the pilot boat. They fell off immediately, jibbed to the port tack, crossed our stern waving their hands, and dropped their skiff overboard. In a few moments the pilot nosed up under our lee quarter.
"Good Lord, Captain!" he cried, as he came over the rail "What are you running here, a packet ship? I haven't seen a trick like that turned since the days of the Black Ball Line"
"I'm in a hurry to get in" I answered "and I don't want to waste time over it. I have a double crew aboard to help me. This is Captain Potter, pilot, of the British steamship Santiago, burned at sea"
Later that evening we took a towboat off the lightship, and clewed up our sails. I thought I'd be extravagant and have a second tug, since I saw another coming toward us; the wind had suddenly shifted into the northwest, dead ahead, and every one was anxious to get in. A hard enough tow it turned out, even with two boats ahead, for the wind soon settled down in earnest for an old-fashioned off-shore gale. I told our passengers to go to bed as usual; that all was safe now, and they would wake up next morning to find the ship at anchor.
At three o'clock in the morning we came to off the Statue of Liberty, and dropped a hook into the bottom. They had passed us through quarantine under extraordinary dispensation, meanwhile sending word of the disaster and its happy outcome up the bay ahead of us. At daylight, the Santiago's company hurried their biggest tugboat alongside, stocked with emergency provision, if you please, for they expected us to be half starved. Captain Potter met the representative of his company at the rail; when they had talked for a while in private, I broke in on them.
"Captain" said I "it would give us the greatest pleasure if you and your ship's company would stay on board and have a last breakfast with us. Permit me to extend the invitation to this gentleman. Tell your tug to wait for you alongside until we're through"