Authors: James Fenimore Cooper
At daylight next morning, Neb came to the officers' tents to say, the
ship was getting her anchors. I was up and dressed in a moment. The
distance to the inlet was about a mile, and I reached it, just as the
Crisis was cast. In a few minutes she came sweeping into the narrow
pass, under her topsails, and I saw Emily and her father, leaning over
the hammock-cloths of the quarter-deck. The beautiful girl was so
near, that I could read the expression of her soft eyes, and I fancied
they were filled with gentle concern. The Major called out, "God
bless you, dear Wallingford"—then the ship swept past, and was soon
in the outer bay. Half an hour later, or before I left the spot, she
was at sea, under everything that would draw from her trunks down.
"I better brook the loss of brittle life,
Than those proud titles thou hast won of me;
They wound my thoughts, worse than thy sword my flesh."
SHAKESPEARE
Half-way between this inlet and the ship-yard, I found Marble,
standing with his arms folded, gazing after the receding ship. His
countenance was no longer saddened; but it was fierce. He shook his
hand menacingly at the French ensign, which was flying at our old
gaff, and said—
"Ay, d—n you, flutter away; you quiver and shake now like one of
your coxcombs pigeon-winging; but where will you be this day two
months? Miles, no man but a bloody Frenchman would cast away a ship,
there where this Mister Count has left the bones of his vessel; though
here
, where we came so nigh going, it's a miracle any man could
escape. Hadn't we brought the Crisis through that opening first, he
never would have dared to go out by it."
I confess I saw little about Monsieur Le Compte's management but skill
and good seamanship; but nothing is more painful to most men than to
admit the merit of those who have obtained an advantage over them.
Marble could not forget his own defeat; and the recollection jaundiced
his eyes, and biassed his judgment.
"I see our people are busy, already, sir," I remarked, by way of
drawing the captain's attention to some other subject. "They have
hauled the schooner up to the yard, and seem to be getting along spars
for shores."
"Ay, ay—Talcott has his orders; and I expect you will bestir
yourself. I shall step the masts myself, and you will get all the
rigging ready to be put into its place, the moment it is
possible. That Frenchman calculated, he told me to my face, that we
might get to sea in a fortnight; I will let him see that a set of
Yankees can rig and stow his bloody schooner, in three days, and then
leave themselves time to play."
Marble was not a man of idle vaunts. He soon had everybody at work,
with a system, order, silence, and activity, that proved he was master
of his profession. Nor was the language which might sound so boastful
to foreign ears, altogether without its justification. Forty Americans
were a formidable force; and, well directed, I make no doubt they
would accomplish far more than the ordinary run of French seamen, as
they were governed and managed in the year 1800, and, counting them
man for man, would have accomplished in double the time. Our crew had
now long acted together, and frequently under the most trying
circumstances; and they showed their training, if men ever did, on the
present occasion. Everybody was busy; and we had the shears up, and
both masts stepped, in the course of a few hours. By the time the
main-mast was in, I had the fore-mast rigged, the jib-boom in its
place, the sprit-sail yard crossed—everything carried a spar under
its bowsprit then—and the lower yard up. It is true, the French had
got everything ready for us; and when we turned the hands to, after
dinner, we actually began to strike in cargo, water, provisions, and
such other things, as it was intended to carry away. At dusk, when we
knocked off work, the Emily looked like a sea-going craft, and there
was every prospect of our having her ready for sea, by the following
evening. But, the duty had been carried on, in silence. Napoleon said
there had been more noise made in the little schooner which carried
him from l'Orient to Basque Roads, than was made on board the
line-of-battle ship that conveyed him to St. Helena, during the whole
passage. Since that memorable day, the French have learned to be
silent on board ship, and the fruits remain to be seen.
That night, Marble and myself consulted together on the aspect of
things—or, as he expressed it, "we generalized over our prospects."
Monsieur Le Compte had done one thing which duty required of him. He
did not leave us a kernel of the gunpowder belonging to either ship;
nor could we find a boarding-pike, cutlass, or weapon of any sort,
except the officers' pistols. We had a canister of powder, and a
sufficiency of bullets for the last, which had been left as, out of an
esprit de corps
, or the feeling of an officer, which told him
we might possibly need these means to keep our own crew in order. Such
was not the fact, however, with the particular people we happened to
have; a more orderly and reasonable set of men never sailing together.
But, Monsieur Le Compte knew it was his duty to put it out of their
power to trouble us, so far as it lay in his; but, at the same time,
while he left us the means of safety, he provided against our doing
any further injury to his own countrymen. In this he had pretty
effectually succeeded, so far as armament was concerned.
The next morning I was up with the appearance of the dawn, and, having
suffered much from the heat the preceding day, I walked to a suitable
spot, threw off my clothes, and plunged into the basin. The water was
transparent almost as air; and I happened to select a place where the
coral grew within a few yards of the surface. As I dove, my eye fell
on a considerable cluster of large oysters that were collected on the
rock, and, reaching them, I succeeded in bringing up half a dozen that
clung to each other. These dives I repeated, during the next quarter
of an hour, until I had all the oysters, sixty or eighty in number,
safe on the shore. That they were the pearl oysters, I knew
immediately; and beckoning to Neb, the fellow soon had them snug in a
basket, and put away in a place of security. The circumstance was
mentioned to Marble, who, finding no more heavy drags to be made,
ordered the Sandwich Islanders to take a boat and pass a few hours in
their regular occupation, on account of the owners—if, indeed, the
last had any further claim on our services. These men met with
tolerable success, though, relatively, nothing equal to mine. What,
just then, was of far more importance, they made a discovery of an
arm-chest lying on the bottom of the basin, at the anchorage of the
Crisis, and which had doubtless been sunk there by the French. We had
all la Pauline's boats but the captain's gig. I went in one of them
with a gang of hands, and, the divers securing a rope to the handles
of the chest, we soon got it in. It turned out to be one of the
arm-chests of the Crisis, which the French had found in their way and
thrown overboard, evidently preferring to use weapons to which they
were accustomed. They had done better by carrying the chest out to
sea, and disposing of it in fifty or a hundred fathom water.
The prize was turned over to the gunner, who reported that it was the
chest in which we kept our cutlasses and pistols, of both of which
there was a sufficient supply to give every man one of each. There
were also several horns of powder, and a bag of bullets; but the first
was ruined by the water. As for the arms, they were rubbed dry, oiled,
and put away again in the chest, after the last had stood a whole day,
in the hot sun, open. Thus, through the agency of men brought for a
very different purpose, we were put in possession of the means of
achieving the exploit, which might now be said to form the great
object of our lives.
That day we got everything on board the schooner that it was thought
desirable to take with us. We left much behind that was valuable, it
is true, especially the copper; but Marble wisely determined that it
was inexpedient to put the vessel deeper than good ballast-trim, lest
it should hurt her sailing. We had got her fairly to her bearings, and
this was believed to be as low as was expedient. It is true, a great
deal remained to be stowed; the deck being littered, and the hold, the
ground-tier excepted, in great confusion. But our bread, water, beef,
pork, and other eatables, were all there, and in abundance; and,
though not to be had for the asking, they were still to be had. The
sails were bent, and the only anchor, la Pauline's stream, with her
two largest kedges, was on our bows. While in this condition, Marble
gave the unexpected order for all hands to come on board, and for the
shore-fasts to be cast off.
Of course, there was no dissenting to so positive a command. We had
signed new shipping-articles for the schooner, extending the
engagements made when we entered on board the Crisis, to this new
vessel, or any other she might capture. The wind was a steady trade,
and, when we showed our main-sail and jib to it, the little craft
glided athwart the basin like a duck. Shooting through the pass,
Marble tacked her twice, as soon as he had an offing; and everybody
was delighted with the quickness with which she was worked. There was
barely light enough to enable us to find our way through the opening
in the reef; and, just thirty-eight hours after the Crisis sailed, we
were on her track. We had only conjecture to guide us as to the ship's
course, with the exception of the main fact of her having sailed for
the west coast of South America; but we had not failed to notice that
she disappeared in the north-east trades on a bow-line. We put the
schooner as near as possible on the same course, making a proper
allowance for the difference in the rig of the two vessels.
The distance run that night, satisfied us all that Mons. Le Compte
was a good draftsman. The schooner ran 106 miles in twelve hours,
against a very respectable sea, which was at least ten or fifteen more
than the Crisis could have done under the same circumstances. It is
true, that what was close-hauled for her, was not close-hauled for us;
and, in this respect, we had the advantage of her. Marble was so well
pleased with our night's work, that when he came on deck next morning,
the first thing he did was to order a bottle of rum to be brought him,
and then all hands to be called. As soon as the people were up, he
went forward, got into the head, and commanded every body to muster on
the forecastle. Marble now made a speech.
"We have some good, and some bad luck, this v'y'ge, men," he said;
"and, when we generalize on the subject, it will be found that good
luck has usually followed the bad luck. Now, the savages, with that
blackguard Smudge, knocked poor Captain Williams in the head, and
threw him overboard, and got the ship from us; then came the good luck
of getting her back again. After this, the French did us that
unhandsome thing: now, here comes the good luck of their leaving us a
craft that will overhaul the ship, when I needn't tell
you,
what will come of it." Here all hands, as in duty bound, gave three
cheers. "Now, I neither sail nor fight in a craft that carries a
French name. Captain Count christened the schooner the—Mr. Wallingford
will tell you her exact name."
"
La Belle Emélie,
" said I, "or the Beautiful Emily."
"None of your belles for me, nor your Beautiful Emilys either," cried
Marble, smashing the bottle over the schooner's nose; "So here goes
three cheers again, for the 'Pretty Poll,' which was the name the
craft was born to, and the name she shall bear, as long as Moses
Marble sails her."
From that moment, the schooner was known by the name of the "Pretty
Poll." I met with portions of our crew years afterwards, and they
always spoke of her by this appellation; sometimes familiarly terming
her the "Poll," or the "Polly."
All the first day out, we were busy in making ourselves comfortable,
and in getting the Polly's trim. We succeeded so well in this last,
that, according to our calculations, we made a knot an hour more than
the Crisis could have done under the same circumstances, fast as the
ship was known to be. As the Crisis had about thirty-eight hours the
start of us, and ran, on an average, about seven knots the hour for
all that time, it would require about ten days to overtake her. Of
course this could only happen, according to our own calculations, when
we were from eighteen hundred to two thousand miles from the
island. For my own part, I sincerely hoped it would not occur at all,
at sea; feeling satisfied our only chances of success depended on
surprise. By following the vessel into some port, it might be
possible to succeed; but, for an unarmed schooner to attack a ship
like the Crisis, with even a large crew on board; it seemed rashness
to think of it. Marble, however, would not listen to my
remonstrances. He insisted we had more than powder enough to load all
our pistols half-a-dozen times each, and, laying the ship plump
aboard, the pistols would do the rest. I was silenced, quite as a
matter of course, if not convinced.
The fifth day out, Neb came to me, saying—"Master Miles, somet'ing
must be done wid 'em 'ere 'ysters! Dey smell, onaccountable; and de
people swear dey will t'row 'em overboard, if I don't eat 'em. I not
hungry enough for
dat
, sir."
These were the pearl oysters, already mentioned, which had been
hastening to dissolution and decomposition, by the heat of the
hold. As the captain was as much concerned in this portion of the
cargo, as I was myself, I communicated the state of things to him, and
he ordered the bags and barrels on deck, forthwith. It was well
something was done, or I doubt not a disease would have been the
consequence. As decomposition was the usual process by which to come
at the treasures of these animals, however, everything was exactly in
the state we wished.