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Page 27
"I am quite sure no English sailor would, and very few real sailors of
any nation, I think. A real seaman knows too well what sea-perils are,
and that what is another man's case one day may be his the next; and
cowardice and cold-heartedness are the last sins that can be laid at
Jack Tar's door as a rule. But I will finish my story by telling the
children what happened next morning, as it goes to illustrate both my
statements, that it is not easy to see an open boat in a heavy sea, and
that sailors are very ready to risk their lives for each other."
"You're like Captain Marryat, Cousin Peregrine," said Fred.
"He's not a sailor captain, he's a soldier captain," said Maggie. "Go
on, Cousin."
"As I told you, we had two or three hours of very disagreeable work
before our cabins were even tolerably comfortable; but it made us more
tired than ever, and when I did turn in I slept like a top, and the
rolling of the ship only rocked me to sounder slumbers. I was awakened
at seven o'clock next morning by a fellow-passenger, who popped in to
cry, 'There's a man overboard!' 'Who?' shouted I as I jumped up.
'Giovanni,' he replied as he vanished, leaving me to follow him on deck
as quickly as possible. Now, Fred, picture to yourself a grey morning,
the damp deck of our vessel being rapidly crowded with everybody on
board, and all eyes strained towards a heavy sea, with big blue-black
mountains of water running at us, and under us, and away from us all
along; every wave had a white crest: but there were some other patches
of snowy white hovering over the dark sea, on which all the experienced
eyes were soon fixed!"
"What were they?" whispered Fred.
"Albatross," said Cousin Peregrine. "They had been following us for
days, hovering, swooping, and whirling those great white wings of
theirs, which sometimes measure nine feet from tip to tip."
"What did they follow you for?"
"They came to pick up anything that may be thrown overboard, and they
came now, as we knew, after poor Giovanni, whose curly black head kept
ducking out of their way as he swam with desperate courage in our wake."
"Oh, Cousin Peregrine! Didn't the captain stop the ship?"
"Certainly, Maggie, though, quickly as it was done, it left the poor
fellow far away behind. And heavy as the sea was, they were lowering a
boat when I got on deck, and the captain had called for volunteers among
the sailors to man it."
"Oh, I hope he got them!"
"I hope you won't insult a noble and gallant profession by having any
doubt about it, Maggie. He might have had the ship's crew bodily if he
had wanted them, and if the waves had run twice as high."
"Spare me!" said Mamma.
"As it was the few men needed were soon ready. The boat was launched
without being upset, and the men got in without mishap. Then they laid
themselves to their oars, we gave them a parting cheer, and they
vanished from our sight."
"_Drowned_, Cousin Peregrine?"
"No, no. Though I can tell you we were as anxious for them as for
Giovanni now. But when they had crossed the first water-mountains, and
gone down into the water-valleys beyond, they were quite out of sight of
the crowd on the deck of the ship, daylight though it was."
"I retract everything I ever said," cried Mamma impetuously.
"And not only could we not see them, but they could not see the man they
were risking their lives to save. Those crested mountains which hid them
from us hid him from them."
"What _did_ you do?"
"Men were sent up the masts to look out from such a height that they
could look over the waves. _They_ could see both Giovanni and the boat,
and as they were so high up the men in the boat could see them. So the
men on the masts kept their eyes on Giovanni, and the men in the boat
kept their eyes on the men on the masts, and steered their course
according to the signals from the look-out."
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