“On’y a bit o’ wreck, I think. It looked like a corp at first.”
Soon after this most of the people on board the Gull went below and turned in, leaving the deck in charge of the regular watch, which, on that occasion, consisted of Dick and his friend Jack Shales. Jerry MacGowl kept them company for a time, being, as he observed, “sintimentally inclined” that night.
Stanley Hall, attracted by the fineness of the night, also remained on deck a short time after the others were gone.
“Do you often see dead bodies floating past?” he asked of Dick Moy.
“Not wery often, sir, but occasionally we does. You see, we’re so nigh the Goodwin sands, where wrecks take place in the winter months pritty constant, that poor fellers are sometimes washed past us; but they ain’t always dead. One night we heard loud cries not far off from us, but it was blowin’ a gale, and the night was so dark we could see nothin’. We could no more have launched our boat than we could ’ave gone over the falls o’ Niagary without capsizin’. When next the relief comed off, we heard that it was three poor fellers gone past on a piece of wreck.”
“Were they lost?” inquired Stanley.
“No, sir, they warn’t all of ’em lost. A brig saw ’em at daylight, but just as they wos being picked up, one wos so exhausted he slipped off the wreck an wos drownded. ’Nother time,” continued Moy, as he paced slowly to and fro, “we seed a corp float past, and tried to ’ook it with the boat-’ook, but missed it. It wos on its face, and we could see it ’ad on a belt and sheath-knife. There wos a bald spot on the ’ead, and the gulls wos peckin’ at it, so we know’d it wos dead—wery likely a long time.”
“There’s a tight little craft,” remarked Shales, pointing to a vessel which floated at no great distance off.
“W’ich d’ye mean?” asked Dick; for there were so many vessels, some at anchor and some floating past with the tide, like phantom ships, that it was not easy to make out which vessel was referred to; “the one wi’ the shoulder-o’-mutton mains’l?”
“No; that schooner with the raking masts an’ topsail?”