“Now, both ye, Mr. Brown and yersilf, are friendly with th’ ladies, an’ I’m thinking if ye could loose that cockatoo av th’ older one’s, there would be nothin’ but good come from it. Hold hard!” and suiting the action to the yell, he sprang on to the saddle of the spanker boom. The rest of us grabbed whatever came within reach, for we saw a great hill of water high above the stern, and we knew its combing crest would go over us.
The men at the wheel jumped around forward of it, as, with a thundering crash, the mass of green water rolled over the poop.
It tore the bitt-coverings to match-wood and crashed through the cabin door. A glimpse of struggling arms in the smother of foam that went over the port side told the fate of one of the quartermasters.
“All hands save ship!” roared old Crojack, as soon as the flood had passed over. “Good God! Mr. Gore, she won’t stand another like that; she’s half up in the wind now,” and we sprang to the wheel to keep her from broaching to.
“Lay aft, bullies!” I bawled, and, followed by O’Toole, Brown, and a dozen sailors, I made my way as rapidly as possible to the lazarette to procure a tarpaulin.
We carried it into the mizzen rigging and, by dint of hard work, managed to lash it up and down the ratlines just as another sea boarded us and half-filled the cabin.
Shrieks issued from below, but there was no time to see what was the matter. Captain Crojack was almost drowned at the wheel, but he and the sailor left there held on. The man was the heavy-set German whose shoulders had felt the weight of my rope’s-end. When I saw how bravely the fellow held the racing ship up to her course, I was almost sorry that I had been so hasty.
As soon as we had the tarpaulin in the mizzen, and the bare yards braced for the starboard tack, the wheel was put down and the clipper rolled up in the trough of the sea. She managed to head up, however, although she took a comber into her waist that stove two men, who were at the braces, so heavily against the t’gallant-rail, that one died by the time he was taken forward, and the other had two ribs broken and was crippled for weeks afterward.
Luckily the wind began to haul to the westward, and we found that on the starboard tack, with nothing but the tarpaulin in the mizzen, she would head up within four points of the sea, while the hauling wind drove the spray over her in clouds but two points forward of the weather beam.
Dripping wet and half-blinded with salt, I made my way aft to where the skipper stood at the wheel. The cries continued to come up the smashed companionway, and, as I drew near, Crojack motioned for me to go below and see what was wrong.