CHAPTER XIV
DOWN THE SIMUJAN AND UP THE SARAWAK
The proposition of Captain Scott was certainly an astounding one, not unlike the daring of those men who have crossed the Atlantic in a dory or in small sailboats; and so it struck the other members of the cabin party. Scott was not a reckless navigator; and his companions had voyaged with him on stormy seas several times in the Maud, though she was a better sea-going craft than the Blanchita. She was decked over her entire length, so that she could be closed as tight as the inside of a barrel, while the steam-launch was an open boat.
Scott did not regard the venture as an extremely perilous one, though he would not have thought of such a thing as crossing the Atlantic in a craft like the Blanchita, principally because she could not carry coal enough to render the trip a prudent risk. The distance from land to land was about five hundred miles, and the little steamer could easily make this distance inside of three days. But the captain must speak for himself.
"Now, fellows, you can study the chart for yourselves," said he, as he put the point of his pencil on the mouth of the Sarawak River. "If the Blanchita were a sailing-craft instead of a steamer, I should not have a moment's hesitation; for though she is not heavy and clumsy, she is very strongly built. I have looked her over several times, with this trip in my head."
"But she can be rigged as a sailing-craft, and has a short mast and a sail," interposed Morris. "I talked with the rajah about her, and he told me that he had been out to sea in her. He said he had never had occasion to use the sail, but he carried it in case anything should happen to the engine."
"That betters the situation very materially," replied the captain. "If we have anything to depend upon if the engine should break down or the coal should give out we should be all right."
"There must be heavy seas out in the China Sea," added Louis, as he looked over the chart.
"We haven't seen any very heavy seas in any of these waters. The south-west monsoons prevail at this season of the year in these waters. I don't find any decided ocean current laid down on the charts of the southern and western portions of the China Sea. They strike in at the eastward of Java, and flow to the eastward of Borneo, through the Macassar Strait," said Scott, pointing out the direction on the chart.