How They Steered On Their Way
When we quitted the Chamois for the brigantine, we must have been at
least two hundred leagues to the westward of the spot, where we had
abandoned the Arcturion. Though how far we might then have been,
North or South of the Equator, I could not with any certainty divine.
But that we were not removed any considerable distance from the Line,
seemed obvious. For in the starriest night no sign of the extreme
Polar constellations was visible; though often we scanned the
northern and southern horizon in search of them. So far as regards
the aspect of the skies near the ocean's rim, the difference of
several degrees in one's latitude at sea, is readily perceived by a
person long accustomed to surveying the heavens.
If correct in my supposition, concerning our longitude at the time
here alluded to, and allowing for what little progress we had been
making in the Parki, there now remained some one hundred leagues to
sail, ere the country we sought would be found. But for obvious
reasons, how long precisely we might continue to float out of sight
of land, it was impossible to say. Calms, light breezes, and currents
made every thing uncertain. Nor had we any method of estimating our
due westward progress, except by what is called Dead Reckoning,--the
computation of the knots run hourly; allowances' being made for the
supposed deviations from our course, by reason of the ocean streams;
which at times in this quarter of the Pacific rim with very great
velocity.
Now, in many respects we could not but feel safer aboard the
Parki than in the Chamois. The sense of danger is less vivid, the
greater the number of lives involved. He who is ready to despair in
solitary peril, plucks up a heart in the presence of another. In a
plurality of comrades is much countenance and consolation.
Still, in the brigantine there were many sources of uneasiness and
anxiety unknown to me in the whale-boat. True, we had now between us
and the deep, five hundred good planks to one lath in our buoyant
little chip. But the Parki required more care and attention;
especially by night, when a vigilant look-out was indispensable. With
impunity, in our whale-boat, we might have run close to shoal or
reef; whereas, similar carelessness or temerity now, might prove
fatal to all concerned.
Though in the joyous sunlight, sailing through the sparkling sea, I
was little troubled with serious misgivings; in the hours of darkness
it was quite another thing. And the apprehensions, nay terrors I
felt, were much augmented by the remissness of both Jarl and Samoa,
in keeping their night-watches. Several times I was seized with a
deadly panic, and earnestly scanned the murky horizon, when rising
from slumber I found the steersman, in whose hands for the time being
were life and death, sleeping upright against the tiller, as much of
a fixture there, as the open-mouthed dragon rudely carved on our prow.
Were it not, that on board of other vessels, I myself had many a time
dozed at the helm, spite of all struggles, I would have been almost
at a loss to account for this heedlessness in my comrades. But it
seemed as if the mere sense of our situation, should have been
sufficient to prevent the like conduct in all on board our craft.
Samoa's aspect, sleeping at the tiller, was almost appalling. His
large opal eyes were half open; and turned toward the light of the
binnacle, gleamed between the lids like bars of flame. And added to
all, was his giant stature and savage lineaments.
It was in vain, that I remonstrated, begged, or threatened: the
occasional drowsiness of my fellow-voyagers proved incurable. To no
purpose, I reminded my Viking that sleeping in the night-watch in a
craft like ours, was far different from similar heedlessness on board
the Arcturion. For there, our place upon the ocean was always known,
and our distance from land; so that when by night the seamen were
permitted to be drowsy, it was mostly, because the captain well knew
that strict watchfulness could be dispensed with.
Though in all else, the Skyeman proved a most faithful ally, in this
one thing he was either perversely obtuse, or infatuated. Or,
perhaps, finding himself once more in a double-decked craft, which
rocked him as of yore, he was lulled into a deceitful security.
For Samoa, his drowsiness was the drowsiness of one beat on sleep,
come dreams or death. He seemed insensible to the peril we ran. Often
I sent the sleepy savage below, sad, steered myself till morning. At
last I made a point of slumbering much by day, the better to stand
watch by night; though I made Samoa and Jarl regularly go through
with their allotted four hours each.
It has been mentioned, that Annatoo took her turn at the helm; but it
was only by day. And in justice to the lady, I must affirm, that upon
the whole she acquitted herself well. For notwithstanding the syren
face in the binnacle, which dimly allured her glances, Annatoo after
all was tolerably heedful of her steering. Indeed she took much pride
therein; always ready for her turn; with marvelous exactitude
calculating the approaching hour, as it came on in regular rotation.
Her time-piece was ours, the sun. By night it must have been her
guardian star; for frequently she gazed up at a particular section of
the heavens, like one regarding the dial in a tower.
By some odd reasoning or other, she had cajoled herself into the
notion, that whoever steered the brigantine, for that period
was captain. Wherefore, she gave herself mighty airs at the tiller;
with extravagant gestures issuing unintelligible orders about
trimming the sails, or pitching overboard something to see how fast
we were going. All this much diverted my Viking, who several times
was delivered of a laugh; a loud and healthy one to boot: a
phenomenon worthy the chronicling.
And thus much for Annatoo, preliminary to what is further to be said.
Seeing the drowsiness of Jarl and Samoa, which so often kept me from
my hammock at night, forcing me to repose by day, when I far
preferred being broad awake, I decided to let Annatoo take her turn
at the night watches; which several times she had solicited me to do;
railing at the sleepiness of her spouse; though abstaining from all
reflections upon Jarl, toward whom she had of late grown exceedingly
friendly.
Now the Calmuc stood her first night watch to admiration; if any
thing, was altogether too wakeful. The mere steering of the craft
employed not sufficiently her active mind. Ever and anon she must
needs rush from the tiller to take a parenthetical pull at the fore-
brace, the end of which led down to the bulwarks near by; then
refreshing herself with a draught or two of water and a biscuit, she
would continue to steer away, full of the importance of her office.
At any unusual flapping` of the sails, a violent stamping on deck
announced the fact to the startled crew. Finding her thus indefatigable,
I readily induced her to stand two watches to Jarl's and Samoa's one;
and when she was at the helm, I permitted myself to doze on a pile of
old sails, spread every evening on the quarter-deck.
It was the Skyeman, who often admonished me to "heave the ship to"
every night, thus stopping her headway till morning; a plan which,
under other circumstances, might have perhaps warranted the slumbers
of all. But as it was, such a course would have been highly
imprudent. For while making no onward progress through the
water, the rapid currents we encountered would continually be
drifting us eastward; since, contrary to our previous experience,
they seemed latterly to have reversed their flow, a phenomenon by no
means unusual in the vicinity of the Line in the Pacific. And this it
was that so prolonged our passage to the westward. Even in a moderate
breeze, I sometimes fancied, that the impulse of the wind little more
than counteracted the glide of the currents; so that with much show
of sailing, we were in reality almost a fixture on the sea.
The equatorial currents of the South Seas may be regarded as among
the most mysterious of the mysteries of the deep. Whence they come,
whither go, who knows? Tell us, what hidden law regulates their flow.
Regardless of the theory which ascribes to them a nearly uniform
course from east to west, induced by the eastwardly winds of the
Line, and the collateral action of the Polar streams; these currents
are forever shifting. Nor can the period of their revolutions be at
all relied upon or predicted.
But however difficult it may be to assign a specific cause for the
ocean streams, in any part of the world, one of the wholesome effects
thereby produced would seem obvious enough. And though the
circumstance here alluded to is perhaps known to every body, it may
be questioned, whether it is generally invested with the importance
it deserves. Reference is here made to the constant commingling and
purification of the sea-water by reason of the currents.
For, that the ocean, according to the popular theory, possesses a
special purifying agent in its salts, is somewhat to be doubted. Nor
can it be explicitly denied, that those very salts might corrupt it,
were it not for the brisk circulation of its particles consequent
upon the flow of the streams. It is well known to seamen, that a
bucket of sea-water, left standing in a tropical climate, very soon
becomes highly offensive; which is not the case with rainwater.
But I build no theories. And by way of obstructing the one, which
might possibly be evolved from the statement above, let me add, that
the offensiveness of sea-water left standing, may arise in no small
degree from the presence of decomposed animal matter.