CHAPTER XLVII.
A GALE AT CAPE TOWN--ALABAMA GETS UNDER WAY FOR SIMON"S TOWN--CAPTURE OF THE MARTHA WENZELL--THE TUSCALOOSA; HER STATUS AS SHIP OF WAR CONSIDERED--THE TUSCALOOSA PROCEEDS TO SEA--THE ALABAMA FOLLOWS HER--THEY, WITH THE SEA-BRIDE, RENDEZVOUS AT ANGRA PEQUENA.
Having brushed away Mr. Seward"s gadfly, as described in the last chapter, we may turn our attention again to the _Alabama_. On the 7th of August, we took one of the gales so common at the Cape, in the winter season. Dense banks of black clouds hove up in the north-west, soon overspreading the whole heavens, and the wind came out whistling from that quarter. The reader must bear in mind, that when he crossed into the southern hemisphere he reversed the points of the compa.s.s, so far as wind and weather are concerned, and that the north-wester, at the Cape of Good Hope, answers to our south-easter, on the American coast--bringing with it thick, rainy weather. There was a number of ships in the harbor, and the gale drove in upon them without the least protection. These ships, forewarned by the usual signs, had all struck their upper masts, sent down their yards, and let go second anchors, and veered to long scopes. We did the same in the _Alabama_.
It was a sublime spectacle to look abroad upon the bay in the height of the gale. The elements seemed to be literally at war, a low scud rushing to the sh.o.r.e, and climbing, as if pursued by demons, up and over the Lion"s Rump and Table Mountain. Huge waves were rolling in upon the struggling shipping, trying its ground-tackle to its utmost tension; the jetties and landings were covered with spray; and Cape Town, though only a mile off, looked like a spectre town, as viewed through the spray and driving scud. And what added much to the interest of the scene, was the daring and skill of the watermen. These men, in substantial launches, under close-reefed sails, and with spare anchors and cables on board, for the use of any ships that might be in distress for want of sufficient ground-tackle, were darting hither and thither, like so many spirits of the storm. They seemed to be sporting with the dashing and blinding waves and the fury of the gale, in very wantonness, as though they would defy the elements. The ships at anchor were all fortunate enough to hold on; but a luckless Bremen brig, outside, which had ventured too near the land, was wrecked, during the night, on Green Point. Fortunately, no lives were lost.
The gale lasted about twenty-four hours; and when it had sufficiently abated, we communicated with the sh.o.r.e, and got off such supplies as we needed; it being my intention to run round to Simon"s Town, on the opposite side of the Cape, where there is shelter from these gales, for the purpose of completing my repairs. On the 9th, the weather had again become fine. The wind had gone round to south-east, the fair-weather quarter, and the Devil had spread his table-cloth on Table Mountain. Every one has heard of this famous table-cloth at the Cape of Good Hope. It is a fleecy, white cloud, which hangs perpetually over Table Mountain during fine weather. The south-east winds, as they climb the steep ascent, bring with them more or less moisture. This moisture is sufficiently cooled as it pa.s.ses over the "table"--a level s.p.a.ce on the top of the mountain--to become condensed into a white vapor, very similar to that which escapes from a steam-pipe. When the wind shifts, and the storm begins to gather, the table-cloth disappears.
At nine o"clock, on this morning, we got under way, and steamed out of the harbor, on our way to Simon"s Town. The day was charmingly fine. The atmosphere was soft and transparent, and the sun bright, bringing out all the beauties of the bold promontories and the deep-water bays that indent the coast. We were now really doubling the Cape of Good Hope. As we approached the famous headland, with its lighthouse perched several hundred feet above the bold and blackened rocks, our imaginations busy with the past, endeavoring to depict the frail Portuguese bark, which had first dared its stormy waters, the cry of "sail ho!" resounded most musically from the mast-head. Imagination took flight at once, at the sound of this practical cry. It recalled us from our dream of John of Portugal, to one Abraham Lincoln and his surroundings. Here was not the poetical bark, of four centuries ago, that had at last found its way to those "Indies," which Columbus so long sought for in vain, but a Yankee ship laden with rice; for an hour"s steaming brought us alongside of the _Martha Wenzell_, of Boston, from Akyab for Falmouth in England. The _Wenzell_ had better luck than the _Sea-Bride_, for she had clearly entered the mouth of False Bay, and though seven or eight miles yet from the land, was within a line drawn from point to point of the Bay. Being thus within British jurisdiction, I astonished the master by releasing, instead of burning his ship. He looked so dumfounded when I announced to him this decision, that if I had been a Yankee, he would, no doubt, have suspected me of some Yankee trick. He gathered his slow ideas together, by degrees, however, and was profuse in his thanks. I told him he had none to give me, for I was only too sorry not to be able to burn him.
We now hauled in for the coast, and taking a pilot, as we approached the harbor, anch.o.r.ed at two P. M. in Simon"s Bay. This is the naval station of the colony, and we found here the frigate _Narcissus_, wearing the flag of Rear Admiral Sir Baldwin Walker, the commander-in-chief of the British naval forces at the Cape. We were visited immediately upon anchoring by a lieutenant from the flag-ship. The _Tuscaloosa_ had preceded me, as the reader has seen, a few days, and we found her still here, not having quite completed her preparations for sea. The gadfly, I found, had been buzzing around her, too, but her difficulties were all ended. As the correspondence is short, I will give it to the reader. The Federal Consul wrote to the Governor, as follows:--
"An armed vessel named the _Tuscaloosa_, claiming to act under the authority of the so-called Confederate States, entered Simon"s Bay, on Sat.u.r.day, the 8th instant. That vessel was formerly owned by citizens of the United States, and while engaged in lawful commerce [as if lawful commerce was not a subject of capture, during war] was captured as a prize by the _Alabama_. She was subsequently fitted out with arms, by the _Alabama_, to prey upon the commerce of the United States, and now, without having been condemned as a prize, by any Admiralty Court of any recognized government, she is permitted to enter a neutral port, in violation of the Queen"s proclamation, with her original cargo on board. Against this proceeding, I, hereby, most emphatically protest, and I claim that the vessel ought to be given up to her lawful owners."
It is quite true that the _Tuscaloosa_ had not been condemned by a prize court of the Confederacy, but it was equally true that the Sovereign Power of the Confederacy, acting through its authorized agent, had commissioned her as a ship of war, which was the most solemn condemnation of the prize, that the Sovereign could give. It was equally true, that no nation has the right to inquire into the _antecedents_ of the ships of war of another nation. But these were points beyond the comprehension of the gadfly. The following was the answer of the Governor. The Colonial Secretary writes:--
"I am directed by the Governor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this date, and to acquaint you, that it was not until late last evening, that his Excellency received from the Naval Commander-in-Chief, information, that the condition of the _Tuscaloosa_ was such as, as his Excellency is advised, to ent.i.tle her to be regarded as a vessel of war. The Governor is not aware, nor do you refer him to the provisions of the International Law, by which captured vessels, as soon as they enter our neutral ports, revert to their original owners, and are forfeited by their captors. But his Excellency believes, that the claims of contending parties to vessels captured can only be determined, in the first instance, by the courts of the captor"s country."
We remained five days at Simon"s Town. We did not need coal, but we had some caulking of the bends, and replacing of copper about the water-line to do, and some slight repairs to put upon our engine. Whilst these preparations for sea were going on, we had some very pleasant intercourse with the officers of the station and the citizens on sh.o.r.e. Besides the _Narcissus_, flag-ship, there were one or two other British ships of war at anchor. There were some officers stationed at the navy-yard, and there was a Chinese gunboat, the _Kwan-Tung_, with an English commander and crew, which had put into the harbor, on her way to the east. Simon"s Town was thus quite gay. The Governor, Sir Philip Wodehouse, also came over from Cape Town during our stay. Lunches on board the different ships, excursions on board the _Kwan-Tung_, and dinner-parties were the order of the day. As I have before remarked, the English naval officers discarded all the ridiculous nonsense about our not being "recognized," and extended to us official, as well as private civilities.
The Admiral was kind enough to give me a dinner-party, at which the Governor, and his lady, and the princ.i.p.al officers of his squadron were present. I found the ladies of the Admiral"s family exceedingly agreeable.
They were living in a picturesque cottage, near the sea-sh.o.r.e, and solaced themselves for their temporary banishment from "dear old England," by making their home as English as possible. They had surrounded themselves by fine lawns and shrubbery and flowers, and Mrs. Walker, and one of the bewitching young ladies were kind enough to show me over their extensive and well-cultivated garden, in which they took much interest. Horseback riding, picnics to the country, and b.a.l.l.s on board the ships were the princ.i.p.al amus.e.m.e.nts of the young people. Whilst my officers and myself were thus relaxing ourselves, my sailors were also making the most of their time. Kell had told them off, by quarter watches, and sent them on "liberty." Each batch was mustered, and inspected as it was sent on sh.o.r.e, and pretty soon we had the old Jamaica scenes over again. Most of them went over to Cape Town, in the stage-coach that was running between the two places, and put that lively commercial town "in stays." The sailor quarter was a continuous scene of revelry for several days. The townspeople humored and spoiled them. They all overstayed their time, and we only got them back by twos and threes. It was of no use to muster, and inspect them now. The tidy, new suits, in which they had gone on sh.o.r.e, were torn and draggled, and old-drunks were upon nearly all of them.
The _Tuscaloosa_ went to sea at daylight on the 14th, and we followed her in the _Alabama_ the next day. The former was to proceed to Saldanha Bay, and thence take the _Sea-Bride_ with her to one of the uninhabited harbors, some distance to the northward, and the _Alabama_ was to follow her thither, after a cruise of a few days off the Cape. The object of these movements will be explained in due time. I now threw myself into that perpetual stream of commerce, that comes setting around the Cape of Good Hope from the East Indies. From daylight until dark, ships are constantly in sight from the lighthouse on the Cape. The road is about twenty miles wide--no more. We kept our station in this road, day in and day out for ten days, during which we chased and overhauled a great number of ships, but there was not a Yankee among them! It was winter-time, we were off the "stormy Cape," and we had the weather suited to the season and the locality. Storms and fogs and calms followed in succession--the storm being the normal meteorological condition. As we would be lying to, in this track, under reefed sails, in a dark and stormy night, our very hair would sometimes be made to stand on end, by the apparition of a huge ship rushing past us at lightning speed, before the howling gale, at no more than a few ships" lengths from us. A collision would have crushed us as if we had been an egg-sh.e.l.l.
At length, when I supposed the _Tuscaloosa_ and the _Sea-Bride_ had reached their destination, I filled away and followed them. As we were making this pa.s.sage, it was reported to me that our fresh-water condenser had given out. Here was a predicament! The water was condensed once a week, and we had no more than about one week"s supply on hand. The joints of the piping had worked loose, and the machine had become nearly useless.
It was now still more necessary to make a harbor, where we might get access to water, and see what could be done in the way of repairs. We worked our way along the African coast somewhat tediously, frequently encountering head-winds and adverse currents. On the morning of the 28th of August, we sighted the land, after having been delayed by a dense fog for twenty-four hours, and in the course of the afternoon we ran into the Bay of Angra Pequena, and anch.o.r.ed. This was our point of rendezvous. I found the _Tuscaloosa_ and the _Sea-Bride_ both at anchor. I had at last found a port into which I could take a prize! I was now, in short, among the Hottentots; no civilized nation claiming jurisdiction over the waters in which I was anch.o.r.ed.
When at Cape Town, an English merchant had visited me, and made overtures for the purchase of the _Sea-Bride_ and her cargo. He was willing to run the risk of non-condemnation by a prize-court, and I could put him in possession of the prize, he said, at some inlet on the coast of Africa, without the jurisdiction of any civilized power. I made the sale to him.
He was to repair to the given rendezvous in his own vessel, and I found him here, according to his agreement, with the stipulated price--about one third the value of the ship and cargo--in good English sovereigns, which, upon being counted, were turned over to the paymaster, for the military chest. The purchaser was then put in possession of the prize. I had made an arrangement with other parties for the sale of the wool still remaining on board the _Tuscaloosa_. This wool was to be landed at Angra Pequena, also, the purchaser agreeing to ship it to Europe, and credit the Confederate States with two thirds of the proceeds. The reader will see how easy it would have been for me, to make available many of my prizes in this way, but the great objection to the scheme, was the loss of time which it involved, and the risks I ran of not getting back my prize crews.
If I had undertaken, whenever I captured a prize, to follow her to some out-of-the-way port, and spend some days there, in negotiating for her sale, and getting back my prize crew, I should not have accomplished half the work I did. The great object now was to destroy, as speedily as possible, the enemy"s commerce, and to this I devoted all my energies. I did not, therefore, repeat the experiment of the _Sea-Bride_.
I could not have chosen a better spot for my present purpose. At Angra Pequena I was entirely out of the world. It was not visited at all, except by some straggling coaster in quest of shelter in bad weather. There was, indeed, no other inducement to visit it. It was in a desert part of Africa. The region was rainless, and there was not so much as a shrub, or even a blade of gra.s.s to be seen. The harbor was rock-bound, and for miles inland the country was a waste of burning sand. The harbor did not even afford fresh water, and we were obliged to supply ourselves from the vessel of my English friend, until our condenser could be repaired. The whole country was a waste, in which there was no life visible away from the coast. On the coast itself; there were the usual sea-birds--the gannet and the sea-gull--and fish in abundance. We hauled the seine, and caught a fine mess for the crews of all the ships. Three or four naked, emaciated Hottentots, having seen the ships from a distance, had made their way to the harbor, and came begging us for food. They remained during our stay, and had their emptiness filled. Some thirty or forty miles from the coast, they said, vegetation began to appear, and there were villages and cattle.
I ordered Lieutenant Low, the commander of the _Tuscaloosa_, as soon as he should land his cargo, to ballast his ship with the rock which abounded on every hand, and proceed on a cruise to the coast of Brazil. Sufficient time had now elapsed, I thought, for the ships of war of the enemy, which had been sent to that coast, in pursuit of me, to be coming in the direction of the Cape of Good Hope. Lieutenant Low would, therefore, in all probability, have a clear field before him. Having nothing further to detain me in the _Alabama_, I got under way, on my return to Simon"s Town, intending to fill up with coal, and proceed thence to the East Indies, in compliance with the suggestion of Mr. Secretary Mallory. The _Tuscaloosa_, after cruising the requisite time on the coast of Brazil, was to return to the Cape to meet me, on my own return from the East Indies.
When I reached the highway off the Cape again, I held myself there for several days, cruising off and on, and sighting the land occasionally, to see if perchance I could pick up an American ship. But we had no better success than before. The wary masters of these ships, if there were any pa.s.sing, gave the Cape a wide berth, and sought their way home, by the most unfrequented paths, ill.u.s.trating the old adage, that "the farthest way round is the shortest way home." Impatient of further delay, without results, on Wednesday, the 16th of September, I got up steam, and ran into Simon"s Bay. I learned, upon anchoring, that the United States steamer _Vanderbilt_, late the flag-ship of Admiral Wilkes, and now under the command of Captain Baldwin, had left the anchorage, only the Friday before, and gone herself to cruise off the Cape, in the hope of falling in with the _Alabama_. She had taken her station, as it would appear, a little to the eastward of me, off Cape Agulhas and Point Danger. On the day the _Vanderbilt_ went to sea, viz., Friday, the 11th of September, it happened that the _Alabama_ was a little further off the land than usual, which accounts for the two ships missing each other. The following is the record on my journal, for that day: "Weather very fine, wind light from the south-west. At half-past six, showed the English colors to an English bark, after a short chase." On the following Sunday, we were in plain sight of Table Mountain. The two ships were thus cruising almost in sight of each other"s smoke.
The _Vanderbilt_ visited both Cape Town, and Simon"s Town, and lay several days at each. I did not object that she had been "painting ship," and should have been sent to sea earlier. The more time Baldwin spent in port, the better I liked it. Indeed, it always puzzled me, that the gadflies should insist upon my being sent to sea so promptly, when nearly every day that the _Alabama_ was at sea, cost them a ship.
I had scarcely come to anchor, before Captain Bickford, of the _Narcissus_, came on board of me, on the part of the Admiral, to have an "explanation." The gadfly had continued its buzzing, I found, during my late absence from the Cape. A short distance to the northward of the Cape of Good Hope, in the direction of Angra Pequena, there is an island called Ichaboe, a dependency of the Cape colony. It had been represented to the Admiral, by the Consul, that the transactions which have been related as taking place at Angra Pequena, had taken place at this island, in violation of British neutrality. In what the evidence consisted I did not learn, but the Consul, in his distress and extremity, had probably had recourse to some more Yankee affidavits. It was this charge which Captain Bickford had come on board to ask an explanation of. The following letter from Sir Baldwin Walker, to the Secretary of the Admiralty in London, will show how easily I brushed off the gadfly, for the second time:--
"With reference to my letters, dated respectively the 19th and 31st ult., relative to the Confederate States ship-of-war _Alabama_, and the prizes captured by her, I beg to enclose, for their lordships information, the copy of a statement forwarded to me by the Collector of Customs at Cape Town, wherein it is represented, that the _Tuscaloosa_ and _Sea-Bride_ had visited Ichaboe, which is a dependency of this colony. Since the receipt of the above-mentioned doc.u.ment, the _Alabama_ arrived at this anchorage, (the 16th instant,) and when Captain Semmes waited on me, I acquainted him with the report, requesting he would inform me if it was true. I was glad to learn from him that it was not so. He frankly explained that the prize _Sea-Bride_, in the first place, had put into Saldanha Bay, through stress of weather, and on being joined there, by the _Tuscaloosa_, both vessels proceeded to Angra Pequena, on the west coast of Africa, where he subsequently joined them in the _Alabama_, and there sold the _Sea-Bride_ and her cargo, to an English subject who resides at Cape Town. The _Tuscaloosa_ had landed some wool at Angra Pequena, and received ballast, but he states, is still in commission as a tender. It will, therefore, be seen, how erroneous is the accompanying report. I have no reason to doubt Captain Semmes"
explanation; and he seems to be fully alive to the instructions of her Majesty"s Government, and appears to be most anxious not to commit any breach of neutrality. The _Alabama_ has returned to this port for coal, some provisions, and to repair her condensing apparatus. From conversation with Captain Semmes, I find he has been off this Cape for the last five days, and as the _Vanderbilt_ left this, on the night of the 11th inst., it is surprising they did not meet each other."
The _Vanderbilt_, I found, had exhausted the supply of coal at Simon"s Town, having taken in as much as eight or nine hundred tons. Commodore Vanderbilt, as he is called, had certainly presented a mammoth coal-consumer to the Federal Government, if nothing else. I was obliged, in consequence, to order coal for the _Alabama_, around from Cape Town.
And as the operation of coaling and making the necessary repairs would detain me several days, and as I was, besides, bound on a long voyage, I yielded to the pet.i.tions of my crew, and permitted them to go on liberty again. The officers of the station were as courteous to us as before, and I renewed my very pleasant intercourse with the Admiral"s family. The owner of the famous Constantia vineyard, lying between Simon"s Town and Cape Town, sent me a pressing invitation to come and spend a few days with him, but I was too busy to accept his hospitality. He afterward sent me a cask of his world-renowned wine. This cask of wine, after making the voyage to India, was offered as a libation to the G.o.d of war. It went down in the _Alabama_ off Cherbourg. We had another very pleasant dinner at the Admiral"s--the guests being composed, this time, exclusively of naval officers. After our return to the drawing-room, the ladies made their appearance, and gave us some delightful music. These were some of the oases in the desert of my life upon the ocean.
In the course of five or six days, by the exercise of great diligence, we were again ready for sea. But unfortunately all my crew were not yet on board. My rascals had behaved worse than usual, on this last visit to Cape Town. Some of them had been jugged by the authorities for offences against the peace, and others had yielded to the seductions of the ever vigilant Federal Consul, and been quartered upon his bounty. The Consul had made a haul. They would be capital fellows for "affidavits" against the _Alabama_. I need not say that they were of the cosmopolitan sailor cla.s.s, none of them being citizens of the Southern States. I offered large rewards for the apprehension and delivery to me of these fellows; but the police were afraid to act--probably forbidden by their superiors, in deference to their supposed duty under the neutrality laws. That was a very one-sided neutrality, however, which permitted the Federal Consul to convert his quarters into a hostile camp, for the seduction of my sailors, and denied me access to the police for redress. My agent at Cape Town, having made every exertion in his power to secure the return of as many of my men as possible, finally telegraphed me, on the evening of the 24th of September, that it was useless to wait any longer. As many as fourteen had deserted; enough to cripple my crew, and that, too, with an enemy"s ship of superior force on the coast.
What was to be done? Luckily there was a remedy at hand. A sailor-landlord, one of those Shylocks who coin Jack"s flesh and blood into gold, hearing of the distress of the _Alabama_, came off to tell me that all his boarders, eleven in number, had volunteered to supply the place of my deserters. This seemed like a fair exchange. It was but "swapping horses," as the "sainted Abraham" would have said, if he had been in my place--only I was giving a little "boot"--fourteen well-fed, well-clothed fellows, for eleven ragged, whiskey-filled vagabonds. It was a "swap" in another sense, too, as, ten to one, all these eleven fellows were deserters from other ships that had touched at this "relay house" of the sea. There was only one little difficulty in the way of my shipping these men. There was my good friend, her Majesty, the Queen--I must not be ungallant to her, and violate her neutrality laws. What monstrous sophists we are, when interest prompts us? I reasoned out this case to my entire satisfaction. I said to myself, My sailors have gone on sh.o.r.e in her Majesty"s dominions, and refuse to come back to me. When I apply to her Majesty"s police, they tell me that so sacred is the soil of England, no man must be coerced to do what he doesn"t want to do. Good! I reply that a ship of war is a part of the territory to which she belongs, and that if some of the subjects of the Queen should think proper to come into my territory, and refuse to go back, I may surely apply the same principle, and refuse to compel them.
When I had come to this conclusion, I turned to the landlord, and said: "And so you have some _gentlemen_ boarding at your house, who desire to take pa.s.sage with me?" The landlord smiled, and nodded a.s.sent. I continued: "You know I cannot ship any seamen in her Majesty"s ports, but I see no reason why I should not take pa.s.sengers to sea with me, if they desire to go." "Certainly, your honor--they can work their pa.s.sage, you know." "I suppose you"ll charge something for bringing these gentlemen on board?" "Some"at, your honor." Here the landlord pulled out a greasy memorandum, and began to read. "Bill Bunting, board and lodging, ten shillings--drinks, one pound ten. Tom Bowline, board and lodging, six shillings--Tom only _landed_ yesterday from a Dutch ship--drinks, twelve shillings." "Hold!" said I; "never mind the board and lodging and drinks--go to the paymaster,"--and turning to Kell, I told him to give the paymaster the necessary instructions,--"and he will pay you your _fares_ for bringing the pa.s.sengers on board." The "pa.s.sengers" were already alongside, and being sent down to the surgeon, were examined, and pa.s.sed as sound and able-bodied men.
It was now nine o"clock at night. It had been blowing a gale of wind, all day, from the south-east; but it was a fair-weather gale, if I may use the solecism; the sky being clear, and the barometer high. These are notable peculiarities of the south-east gales at the Cape of Good Hope. The sky is always clear, and the gale begins and ends with a high barometer. I was very anxious to get to sea. A report had come in, only a day or two before, that the _Vanderbilt_ was still cruising off Cape Agulhas, and I was apprehensive that she might get news of me, and blockade me. This might detain me several days, or until I could get a dark night--and the moon was now near her full--in which to run the blockade. I need not remark that the _Vanderbilt_ had greatly the speed of me, and threw twice my weight of metal. The wind having partially lulled, we got up steam, and at about half-past eleven, we moved out from our anchors. The lull had only been temporary, for we had scarcely cleared the little islands that give a partial protection to the harbor from these south-east winds, when the gale came whistling and howling as before. The wind and sea were both nearly ahead, and the _Alabama_ was now put upon her metal, under steam, as she had been so often before, under sail. False Bay is an immense sheet of water, of a horse-shoe shape, and we had to steam some twenty miles before we could weather the Cape of Good Hope, under our lee. We drove her against this heavy gale at the rate of five knots per hour.
This struggle of the little ship with the elements was a thing to be remembered. The moon, as before remarked, was near her full, shedding a flood of light upon the scene. The Bay was whitened with foam, as the waters were lashed into fury by the storm. Around the curve of the "horse-shoe" arose broken, bald, rocky mountains, on the crests of which were piled fleecy, white clouds, blinking in the moonlight, like banks of snow. These clouds were perfectly motionless. It appeared as if the D----l had spread a great many "table-cloths" around False Bay, that night; or, rather, a more appropriate figure would be, that he had touched the mountains with the stillness of death, and wreathed them with winding-sheets. The scene was wild and weird beyond description. It was a picture for the eye of a poet or painter to dwell upon. Nor was the imagination less touched, when, from time to time, the revolving light upon the grim old Cape--that Cape which had so long divided the Eastern from the Western world--threw its full blaze upon the deck of the struggling ship. Overhead, the sky was perfectly clear, there being not so much as a speck of a cloud to be seen--and this in the midst of a howling gale of wind! At three A. M. we cleared the Cape, and keeping the ship off a few points, gave her the trysails, with the bonnets off. She bounded over the seas like a stag-hound unleashed. I had been up all night, and now went below to s.n.a.t.c.h some brief repose before the toils of another day should begin.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
THE ALABAMA ON THE INDIAN OCEAN--THE Pa.s.sENGERS QUESTIONED, AND CONTRACTED WITH--THE AGULHAS CURRENT--THE "BRAVE WEST WINDS"--A THEORY--THE ISLANDS OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL--THE TROPIC OF CAPRICORN--THE SOUTH-EAST TRADES AND THE MONSOONS--THE ALABAMA ARRIVES OFF THE STRAIT OF SUNDA, AND BURNS ONE OF THE SHIPS OF THE ENEMY--RUNS IN AND ANCHORS UNDER THE ISLAND OF SUMATRA.
When Bartelli awakened me, at the usual hour of "seven bells"--half-past seven A. M.,--on the morning after the events described in the last chapter, the _Alabama_ was well launched upon the Indian Ocean. She had run the Cape of Good Hope out of sight, and was still hieing off before the gale, though this had moderated considerably as she had run off the coast. We were now about to make a long voyage, tedious to the unphilosophical mariner, but full of interest to one who has an eye open to the wonders and beauties of nature. My first duty, upon going on deck, was to put the ship under sail, and let the steam go down; and my second, to have an interview with the "pa.s.sengers," who had come on board, overnight. We were now on the high seas, and might, with all due respect to Queen Victoria, put them under contract. If the reader recollects Falstaff"s description of his ragged battalion, he will have a pretty good idea of the _personnel_ I had before me. These subjects of the Queen stood in all they possessed. None of them had brought any baggage on board with them. Ragged blue and red flannel shirts, tarred trousers, and a mixture of felt hats and Scotch caps, composed their wardrobe. Their persons had pa.s.sed muster of the surgeon, it is true, but it was plain that it would require a deal of washing and scrubbing and wholesome feeding, and a long abstinence from "drinks," to render them fit for use. Upon questioning them, I found that each had his c.o.c.k-and-a-bull story to tell, of how he was "left" by this ship, or by that, without any fault of his own, and how he had been tricked by his landlord. I turned them over to the first lieutenant, and paymaster, and they were soon incorporated with the crew.
I hold that her Majesty owes me some "boot," for the "swap" I made with her, on that remarkable moonlight night when I left the Cape. At all events, I never heard that she complained of it.
I was grieved to find that our most serious loss among the deserters, was our Irish fiddler. This fellow had been remarkably diligent, in his vocation, and had fiddled the crew over half the world. It was a pity to lose him, now that we were going over the other half. When the evening"s amus.e.m.e.nts began, Michael Mahoney"s vacant camp-stool cast a gloom over the ship. There was no one who could make his violin "talk" like himself, and it was a long time before his place was supplied. Poor Michael! we felt convinced he had not been untrue to us--it was only a "dhrop" too much of the "crayture" he had taken.
For the first few days after leaving the Cape, we ran off due south, it being my intention to seek the fortieth parallel of south lat.i.tude, and run my easting down on that parallel. As icebergs have been known to make their appearance near the Cape in the spring of the year, I ordered the temperature of the air and water to be taken every hour during the night, to aid me in detecting their presence. We did not discover any icebergs, but the thermometer helped to reveal to me some of the secrets of the deep, in this part of the ocean. Much to my surprise, I found myself in a sort of Gulf Stream; the temperature of the water being from three to five degrees higher, than that of the air. My celestial observations for fixing the position of the ship, informed me at the same time that I was experiencing a south-easterly current; the current bending more and more toward the east, as I proceeded south, until in the parallel of 40, it ran due east. The rate of this current was from thirty to fifty miles per day. This was undoubtedly a branch of the great Agulhas current.
If the reader will inspect a map, he will find that the North Indian Ocean is bounded wholly by tropical countries--Hindostan, Beloochistan, and Arabia to the Red Sea, and across that sea, by Azan and Zanguebar. The waters in this great bight of the ocean are intensely heated by the fervor of an Indian and African sun, and flow off in quest of cooler regions through the Mozambique Channel. Pa.s.sing thence over the Agulhas Bank, which lies a short distance to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, they reach that Cape, as the Agulhas current. Here it divides into two main p.r.o.ngs or branches; one p.r.o.ng pursuing a westerly course, and joining in with the great equatorial current, which, the reader recollects, we encountered off Fernando de Noronha, and the other bending sharply to the south-east, and forming the Gulf Stream of the South Indian Ocean, in which the _Alabama_ is at present. What it is, that gives this latter p.r.o.ng its sudden deflection to the southward is not well understood.
Probably it is influenced, to some extent, by the southerly current, running at the rate of about a knot an hour along the west coast of Africa, and debouching at the Cape of Good Hope. Here it strikes the Agulhas current at right angles, and hence possibly the deflection of a part of that current.
But if there be a current constantly setting from the Cape of Good-Hope to the south-east, how is it that the iceberg finds its way to the neighborhood of that Cape, from the south polar regions? There is but one way to account for it. There must be a counter undercurrent. These bergs, setting deep in the water, are forced by this counter-current against the surface current. This phenomenon has frequently been witnessed in the Arctic seas. Captain Duncan, of the English whaler _Dundee_, in describing one of his voyages to Davis" Strait, thus speaks of a similar drift of icebergs:--"It was awful to behold the immense icebergs working their way to the north-east from us, and not one drop of water to be seen; they were working themselves right through the middle of the ice." Here was an undercurrent of such force as to carry a mountain of ice, ripping and crashing through a field of solid ice. Lieutenant De Haven, who made a voyage in search of Sir John Franklin, describes a similar phenomenon as follows:--"The iceberg, as before observed, came up very near to the stern of our ship; the intermediate s.p.a.ce, between the berg and the vessel, was filled with heavy ma.s.ses of ice, which, though they had been previously broken by the immense weight of the berg, were again formed into a compact body by its pressure. The berg was drifting at the rate of about four knots, and by its force on the ma.s.s of ice, was pushing the ship before it, as it appeared, to inevitable destruction." And again, on the next day, he writes:--"The iceberg still in sight, but drifting away fast to the north-east." Here was another undercurrent, driving a monster iceberg through a field of broken ice at the rate of four knots per hour!
When we had travelled in the _Alabama_ some distance to the eastward, on the 39th and 40th parallels, the current made another curve--this time to the north-east. If the reader will again refer to a map, he will find that the Agulhas current, as it came along through the Mozambique Channel and by the Cape of Good Hope, was a south-westerly current. It being now a north-easterly current, he observes that it is running back whence it came, in an ellipse! We have seen, in a former part of this work, that the Gulf Stream of the North Atlantic performs a circuit around the coasts of the United States, Newfoundland, the British Islands, the coasts of Spain and Portugal, the African coast, and so on, into the equatorial current, and thence back again to the Gulf of Mexico. From my observation of currents in various parts of the world, my impression is, that the circle or ellipse is their normal law. There are, of course, offshoots from one circle, or ellipse, to another, and thus a general intermingling of the waters of the earth is going on--but the normal rule for the guidance of the water, as of the wind, is the curve.
As we approached the 40th parallel of lat.i.tude, my attention was again forcibly drawn to the phenomena of the winds. The "Brave West Winds"--as the sailors call them--those remarkable polar trade-winds, now began to prevail with wonderful regularity. On the 30th of September, we observed in lat.i.tude 39 12", and longitude 31 59". The following is the entry on my journal for that day:--"Rough weather, with the wind fresh from the N.
N. W. with pa.s.sing rain-squalls. Sea turbulent. Barometer 29.47; thermometer, air 55, water 58; distance run in the last twenty-four hours, 221 miles. Weather looking better at noon. The water has resumed its usual deep-sea hue. [We had been running over an extensive tract of soundings, the water being of that pea-green tint indicating a depth of from sixty to seventy-five fathoms.] In high southern lat.i.tudes, in the Indian Ocean, the storm-fiend seems to hold high carnival all the year round. He is constantly racing round the globe, from west to east, howling over the waste of waters in his mad career. Like Sisyphus, his labors are never ended. He not only does not rest himself, but he allows old Ocean none, constantly lashing him into rage. He scatters the icebergs. .h.i.ther and thither to the great terror of the mariner, and converts the moisture of the clouds into the blinding snow-flake or the pelting hail. As we are driven, on dark nights, before these furious winds, we have only to imitate the Cape Horn navigator--"tie all fast, and let her rip," iceberg or no iceberg. When a ship is running at a speed of twelve or fourteen knots, in such thick weather that the look-out at the cat-head can scarcely see his own nose, neither sharp eyes, nor water thermometers are of much use."
These winds continued to blow from day to day, hurrying us forward with great speed. There being a clear sweep of the sea for several thousand miles, un.o.bstructed by continent or island, the waves rose into long, sweeping swells, much more huge and majestic than one meets with in any other ocean. As our little craft, scudding before a gale, would be overtaken by one of these monster billows, she would be caught up by its crest, like a c.o.c.k-boat, and darted half-way down the declivity that lay before her, at a speed that would cause the sailor to hold his breath. Any swerve to the right, or the left, that would cause the ship to "broach to," or come broadside to the wind and sea, would have been fatal. These "brave west winds," though thus fraught with danger, are a great boon to commerce. The reader has seen how the currents in this part of the ocean travel in an ellipse. We have here an ellipse of the winds. The _Alabama_ is hurrying to the Far East, before a continuous, or almost continuous north-west gale. If she were a few hundred miles to the northward of her present position, she might be hurrying, though not quite with equal speed, before the south-east trades, to the Far West. We have thus two parallel winds blowing all the year round in opposite directions, and only a few hundred miles apart.
Storms are now admitted by all seamen to be gyratory, as we have seen.
When I was cruising in the Gulf Stream, I ventured to enlarge this theory, as the reader may recollect, and suggested that rotation was the normal condition of all extra-tropical winds on the ocean, where there was nothing to obstruct them--of the moderate wind, as well as of the gale. I had a striking confirmation of this theory in the "brave west winds."
These winds went regularly around the compa.s.s, in uniform periods; the periods occupying about three days. We would take them at about N. N. W., and in the course of the "period" they would go entirely around the compa.s.s, and come back to the same point; there being an interval of calm of a few hours. The following diagram will ill.u.s.trate this rotary motion.
Let Figure 1, on the opposite page, represent a circular wind--the wind gyrating in the direction of the arrows, and the circle travelling at the same time, along the dotted lines from west to east. If the northern segment of this circular wind pa.s.ses over the ship, the upper dotted line from A to A2, will represent her position during its pa.s.sage. At A, where the ship first takes the wind, she will have it from about north-west; and at A2, where she is about to lose it, she will have it from about south-west. The ship is supposed to remain stationary, whilst the circle is pa.s.sing over her. Now, this is precisely the manner in which we found all these winds to haul in the _Alabama_. We would have the wind from the north-west to the south-west, hauling gradually from one point to the other, and blowing freshly for the greater part of three days. It would then become light, and, in the course of a few hours, go round to the south, to the south-east, to the east, and then settle in the north-west, as before.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
Figure 2 represents two of these circular winds--and the reader must recollect that there is a constant series of them--one following the other so closely as to overlap it. Now, if the reader will cast his eye upon the letter C, near the upper dotted line, in the overlapped s.p.a.ce, he will observe why it is, that there is always a short interval of calm before the north-west wind sets in, the second time. The wind within that s.p.a.ce is blowing, or rather should blow, according to the theory, two opposite ways at once--from the N. N. W., and the S. S. E. The consequence is, necessarily, a calm. It is thus seen that the theory, that these "brave west winds" are a series of circular winds, harmonizes entirely with the facts observed by us. The lower dotted line is merely intended to show in what direction the wind would haul, if the southern segment, instead of the northern, pa.s.sed over the ship. In that case, the ship would take the wind, from about N. N. E., as at B, and lose it at south-east, as at B2.