"All the next day and the next, we watched for a sail, but saw nothing. We had sunshine and showers, and showers and sunshine, at irregular intervals. When the sun shone it was very hot on the waters; when the showers fell we were all thoroughly drenched; but the showers were welcome always, as we were able to collect water every time.
"It was the morning of the fifth day after the Evelyn foundered when we saw the sails of the Washington; and what cheered us was that she was sailing in a direction which would bring her within seeing distance of us. We put up our sail and fastened our flag to it with the union down; and then we watched and waited. As the Washington got off pretty nearly abreast of us, we were afraid you hadn't seen us; and I tell you it was an anxious time aboard that boat. When we saw your yards braced about, and the ship steering down on us, our hearts jumped up into our throats, and we cheered just as hard as our voices would let us. We knew then that we were safe; and the rest of the story you know all about."
I said that the Washington continued on her course as soon as the castaways had been taken on board and the boats hauled in; she kept that course for less than an hour, and for this reason:—
When Captain Dawson heard from the master of the Evelyn the history of the disaster, he suggested that he would go in search of the long boat and its occupants. Captain Woods said that the mate would undoubtedly do as he had himself done, provided he could keep the boat afloat; that is, he would steer for the Bermudas. The Washington's course was changed so as to sail over the route traversed by the Evelyn's boat. Her captain thought he had come not far from forty miles a day since the catastrophe, and, consequently, they were about two hundred miles from where the Evelyn went down. We sailed for that distance and more, too, lying-to in the night with bright lights burning, and then sailed back again to where we had picked up the boat.
No trace could be found of the long boat, nor, in fact, did we see any sign of the lost Evelyn. If any of the rubbish that usually encumbers the deck of a merchant ship was floating on the water we did not pass near enough to discover it. It was doubtless the case that the long boat sank within a day or two after her separation from the quarter-boat. It's a good lot of years since that thing happened, and I've never heard of her crew being picked up by any other ship, or of her arrival at the Bermudas or any other place.
With a captain of his Majesty's army and his family on board the Washington, Captain Dawson thought it was proper to have somebody to wait upon them. His choice fell upon me; and I was taken from my duty in the starboard watch and installed as cabin-boy. This is the way it came about.
Mr. Stevens was talking with the captain in a low tone on the quarter-deck, and called out to one of the sailors,—
"Tell Jack Crane to lay aft!"
I went aft, wondering what I had done to be called there, and what my punishment would be for the offense which I could only imagine. When I reached the place where they were standing, the captain said,—