By this time the captain and commander were both on the bridge, and the whole ship was alive with curiosity.
‘What can it be?’ I asked of the old boatswain against whom I brushed in the darkness as I walked aft.
‘’Tis a boat,’ said he; ‘that’s what it must be. The cap’n he allows it’s a boat, and he’s pretty sure to be right. Some poor souls whose vessel has foundered among the ice—whalers, most likely—took to the boats, they have. I saw that there light myself—seemed very close to the water, it did. They seen our lights, and burnt a flash-light. If they got another, they’ll show that, too, presently.’
And now the voice of the commander rang out: ‘Mr Sights!’
‘Ay, ay, sir,’ replied the gunner.
‘Clear away your two foremost guns on the maindeck, and fire blank charges at short intervals; and get some blue lights, and show them in the fore-rigging at once!’
‘Ay, ay, sir.’ And away went the gunner to see his orders carried out instantly.
But ere his head had disappeared down the hatchway—‘A bright light on the starboard quarter!’ roared out the marine sentry at the lifebuoy right aft; and once more everybody turned sharp round to find nothing to gaze at but the universal darkness.
‘Hands, about ship!’ was now the order; and in quick succession came from the bridge the well-known commands in the sharp, imperative voice of the lieutenant of the watch: ‘Ease down the helm!’—‘Helm’s a lee!’—‘Raise tacks and sheets!’ &c. And as the splendid old ship answered her helm like a boat, and began to fill on the other tack, ‘Maintopsail haul!’—for our courses were furled—‘Head braces!’ ‘Of all, haul!’ and we were on the other tack.
The ship was now brilliantly illuminated by half-a-dozen blue lights burnt in her fore and main rigging; while, as we began to move ahead once more, our bow guns blazed forth from the maindeck one after the other—a roar which we fondly imagined would be more welcome than the most delicious music to the ears of the poor storm-tossed castaways in that frail boat which we now hoped to rescue from the wrath of the raging sea. At intervals there appeared again the bright but transient flash which had first attracted our notice; and through the roar of the waves and the shriek of the wind, we at times imagined that we could hear human voices shouting no doubt for help, and all eyes were strained to the uttermost through the blackness to try and discern the first glimpse of the boat itself. The last flash had told us that we were steering directly for it, and on we sped, our blue lights hissing and flaring in our rigging, our guns ceaselessly roaring out our sympathy and our desire to save.