A Chapter of Adventures, Page 3

  CHAPTER III.

  A RUN FROM HARWICH.

  ONE of the sailors, dripping wet, knelt beside him. "That is all right,lad; you will be yourself again directly."

  Jack was already sufficiently recovered to sit up some time beforeeither Bill or Joe showed signs of life; for, unable to swim or to takeadvantage of their momentary intervals of coming to the surface, theyhad become insensible some time before he had done so himself. Thesailors rubbed their chests and hands, and at last both showed signs ofreturning animation.

  "That was a close shave, Jack," the coast-guardsman who was at the helmsaid. "It was lucky I made you out with my glass when I did. It wastouch and go; I saw you trying to get them on their backs. If they hadkept quiet you would have managed it; but drowning people never willkeep quiet."

  They were now running up the Ray in pursuit of the boat, which haddrifted into shallower water near the end of the island, and here thegrapnel had brought it up. When they got up to it, the grapnel wasraised and brought into the stern of the boat, and the coast-guard boatlaid her course close-hauled for Leigh, towing the other behind her.

  Before they arrived at the slip the other two boys were both able to situp. They would have taken their boat up beyond the village, but one ofthe fishermen said, "You go home and change; you have done quite enoughfor to-day. Tom and I will take the boat up for you."

  "That has been a lesson to me I shall not forget," Bill said as theywalked along. "You saved our lives, Jack, there is not much doubt aboutthat."

  "Oh, I expect we should all have been fished out anyhow!" Jack replied.

  "No, we should not, Jack. Anyhow, not alive. I thought just at first youwere going to keep us up pretty easy, and then young Joe twisted roundand got hold of you, and we all went down together. But I could feelthen that somehow you were keeping us up, and I tried not to catch holdof your legs."

  "You did not, Bill. I was able to use them just at first, and then,somehow, Joe got hold of them. However, we all kept together, that was agood thing. If we had separated, I don't suppose they would have got usall."

  Fortunately the news of the danger Jack had run had not reached hismother, for she had been engaged in the back-room washing, and Lily hadgone up to school.

  At the first alarm many people had run down to the shore; the officer ofthe coast-guard with his glass had reported what was going on, and up tothe last moment it had been believed that the boat would get to them intime, and there had been a gasp of dismay as he suddenly exclaimed,"They are down! The boat is only a few lengths away," he went on; "Iexpect they will get them. One of the men is standing up in the bowready to jump."

  A half-minute later he exclaimed, "There he goes! There, they arehoisting them into the boat!"

  "Have they got them all, sir?"

  "That I can't see; but I expect they have, for you see they have loweredthe sail. Yes! they must have got them all, for none of them arestanding up looking about, as they would be if one was missing."

  Five minutes later the sail was hoisted again. The officer watched for aminute or two, and then closed his glass.

  "They are going up the Ray," he said, "I expect they are going to towthe boat in here; she is under the island. They would not trouble aboutthat unless those they have picked up were all right, but would bemaking straight back again to see what could be done for them."

  The little crowd, now feeling that nothing worse than a ducking hadhappened to those on the sand, broke up and scattered to their houses.No one had known at first what boat it was whose occupants had got intotrouble, and it was not till it was half-way back that it was made outto be Corbett's.

  "Why, I thought he was ill in bed?" one said.

  "So he is, but I expect his boys went out with it. It was not likelythere was a man on board. No one but boys would be fools enough to getcaught like that, and I should have thought Bill Corbett had too muchsense."

  "Why, Jack, what has happened?" Mrs. Robson asked as her son entered thehouse.

  "Nothing much, mother; but we have had a ducking. There was a steameraground on the Middle Ground, and watching her we forgot all about thetide, and the boat drifted away and we got caught. Of course I couldswim, so there was no danger for me; but it would have gone hard withthe two Corbetts if the sailor at the coast-guard station had not madeus out, and their boat put off and picked us up."

  "Well, go and change your clothes at once, Jack; it has taken all thecolour out of your face. I will get a cup of hot tea ready for you bythe time you come down."

  It was not until some of her neighbours came in, and talked to her aboutthe narrow escape her son had had, that Mrs. Robson realized that Jack'slife had been in considerable danger, and it was well that she had himbefore her enjoying his tea before she learnt the truth.

  "It is no use getting into a fuss about it, mother," Jack saidcheerfully; "it is not going to happen again, you know. It has been agood lesson to me to keep my eyes open; and when I go cockling again Iwon't lose sight of the boat, not if there were twenty vessels ashore."

  A few days later Jack started with his uncle in the _Bessy_ for Harwich.For himself he liked the life there better than at Leigh. At home mencould not be said to live on board their boats. They went only for shorttrips, taking a meal before starting, and another on their return; butdoing no cooking on board. Here they were out for longer hours, and theboat was always their home. They were more independent of the tide; andunless it and the wind were both dead against them, could at all timesrun out to their fishing ground, ten miles away, near the Corklightship.

  The fishing was various. Soles, whiting, and haddock were the principalfish brought up in the trawls; but there was occasionally a big skate ortwo in the net, and these had to be handled with considerablecircumspection, as they could take off a finger or two with the greatestease with their powerful jaws and sharp teeth. These fish were alwayshung up in the air for a day or two before eating, as the flesh improvesby keeping; the eatable portions were then cut out, and the rest wasthrown overboard. These fish were for the most part eaten by the crew;the small soles, dabs, and flounders were hawked in the town, and therest of the take sent up to London.

  There was an excitement, too, in the fishing itself, apart from thatconnected with hauling up the trawl and examining its contents, for thesands off this coast are dangerous, and the wrecks, that have at onetime or another taken place there, innumerable. Occasionally a net wouldcatch in one of the timbers that had perhaps been lying there a hundredyears or more, and then it either came up torn into fragments, or if itobtained a really firm hold, there was nothing for it but to cut thetrawl-rope and lose it altogether. In fine weather, however, this stepwould not be taken except as a last resource. After trying in vain toget the net and trawl up the rope would be buoyed, and the next dayanother attempt would be made to raise the net, the boat being assistedby three or four others. The loss of a net was a serious one, as ittook ten pounds or more to replace it and the trawl-beam and itsbelongings.

  Sometimes a storm would blow up suddenly, and then the nets had to begot on board with all speed, and the topsails lowered and mainsailsreefed, and the fleet of perhaps a hundred vessels would go racing backinto Harwich, there to anchor just above the Guard, or under shelter ofthe Shotley Spit, or a short way up the Orwell, according to thedirection of the wind.

  The hardest part of a Leigh fisherman's life Jack had not yetencountered, for boys are seldom taken stow-boating. Stow-boating isreally sprat catching, and no one can exactly explain the meaning of theterm. It is carried on in winter at the edge of the sands, far down atthe mouth of the river. Boats are out for many days together, frequentlyin terrible seas, when the boat is more under than above the water. Thework of getting up the net is heavy and exhausting, and for all thishardship and labour the reward is often exceedingly slight. Sometimesthe sprats are abundant, and good pay is made; sometimes, when thewinter accounts are balanced up, the crew find that their share willbarely suffice to pay for their keep on board,
and not a farthing isleft for the support of their wives and children.

  Londoners who purchase sprats at an almost nominal price know but littleof the hard struggle those who have caught them have to make ends meet.

  After fishing for a month, Ben Tripper said one Friday evening, "We willrun up to Leigh to-morrow and spend Sunday at home. I don't think weshall lose much, for the weather looks bad, and I don't think therewill be any fishing to-morrow."

  "I am pretty sure there won't, Ben," his mate said. "I think that it isgoing to blow really hard, and that we shall get wet jackets as we goup."

  "We are accustomed to that," Tripper said carelessly. "Anyhow, if itcomes to blow too hard for us we can make for shelter into the Crouch orBlack Water."

  "Oh, we are all right as to that, Ben! It is not a question of wetjackets or sea that I am thinking of, only whether we are likely to dropanchor in the Ray to-morrow night. If I were sure of that I should notmind a dusting; but I would rather lie here quiet than have a regularday's heavy knocking about, and then have to run in to Burnham afterall."

  "So would I," Ben assented. "If the wind comes from anywhere to the westof south it is no use thinking about it. It has been chopping andchanging about to-day, and there is no saying which way it will comewhen it fairly makes up its mind about it; but I think from the look ofthe sky this evening that it is as likely to come from the north-east asnot, and in that case I allow we shall make a good passage of it."

  "Ay, that is right enough," Tom Hoskins assented. "They say the run fromHarwich Pier to Leigh has never been done yet by a Leigh bawley undersix hours, though it has been pretty close several times. We have gotthe springs on now, and with the wind from the north-east we should runthe six hours very close, if we didn't beat it. There are two or threeof them can go faster than the _Bessy_ close-hauled, but running free Idoubt if there is one can touch her."

  "We will make a start at seven," Ben said. "We shall take the last ofthe ebb down to Walton, and then catch the flood and have it at its fullstrength by the time we are opposite Clacton."

  Jack was delighted at the thought of spending a Sunday at home with hismother; but though it was not for him to give an opinion, he agreed withTom Hoskins that they were likely to have a dusting on the way up. Thesun had gone down angry and threatening; the stars could be only seenoccasionally through driving masses of cloud, and even at her snuganchorage the _Bessy_ was rolling heavily.

  Jack was out soon after dawn. There was a haze over sea and sky, and thewind was blowing strongly; it was from the north-west now, but Jackthought that it was likely to draw round to the quarter his uncle hadpredicted. "There must be a heavy sea on now all the way from the SwinMiddle to the Nore with the wind meeting a lee tide," he said tohimself; "but of course when the ebb is done it will smooth down a bit,and will be all right if the weather does not come on too thick. A fogis bad enough and a gale is bad enough, but when you get the twotogether I would rather be at home and in bed by a long way than onboard the _Bessy_."

  "Well, Jack, what do you make out of the weather?" Ben Tripper asked, ashe came out from the fo'castle.

  "It looks rather wild, uncle; but I think the wind is working round tothe north of east, just as you thought it would last night."

  "Yes; I think it is," Ben said, surveying the sky. "Well, get the firealight at once, Jack, and get breakfast ready; we will have our mealbefore we start. We shall have enough to do when we are once under way.I will run down to the Naze anyhow, and then we shall see what it islike outside. If we don't like its looks we can pop back anyhow; andshall have lost nothing, for there is no shooting nets to-day, that isquite certain."

  The topmast was lowered, small jib and foresail got up, and two reefsput in the mainsail; then they began to get up the anchor.

  "What! are you going up home, Tripper?" shouted a man from the nextboat.

  "Ay, ay, lad!"

  "You will get your decks washed before you get to the Mouse!"

  "Do them good and save us trouble!" Tripper shouted back.

  "Tell the missis if you see her she may expect to see me next Saturdayif the wind is right." Tripper threw up his arm to show he understood,and then lent his aid in getting up the anchor.

  "Put up the helm, Jack; the anchor is free. That is enough. Keep her jibjust full and no more till we have stowed all away here." When the chainwas stowed below, and the anchor securely fastened, Tripper went aft andhauled in the main-sheet. "Up with the foresail, Tom. That is it. Youkeep the tiller, Jack." The two men now proceeded to coil down all theropes, and get everything ship-shape and tidy. By the time they hadfinished, Harwich was fairly behind them, and they were laying theircourse a point or two outside the Naze, throwing the spray high eachtime the boat plunged into the short choppy sea.

  "Nice place this, Jack," his uncle said. "There is always a sea on theshallows if the wind is anywhere against tide. No wonder they call itthe Rolling Ground. There, I will take the helm now. You had best getthe compass up; I can't make out the point sometimes through the mist."

  An hour and a quarter from the time of getting up the anchor the _Bessy_was off the point. As soon as the ugly ledge of rocks running far outunder water was weathered, Tripper put down the helm.

  "Haul in the sheet, Tom. That is right; now the sail is over. Slackout--slack out all it will go; the wind is nearly dead aft. Ease off thejib-sheet, Jack. That is it. Now she is walking along."

  The motion was smooth and easy now. The waves were much higher than inthe shelter of the bay, but they were running easily and regularly, innearly the same line the boat was following. Coming up threateninglybehind her, they lifted the stern high into the air, passing gentlyunder her, hurrying her along as she was on the crest, and then passingon ahead and dropping her gently down into the hollow.

  "I think she would stand a reef shaken out, uncle," Jack said.

  "She has got quite enough on her, Jack, and is walking along at a grandpace. Always leave well alone, lad. The squalls come up very strongsometimes, and I would not carry as much sail as we have got if she werea cutter with a heavy boom. As it is, we can brail it up at any momentif need be. We sha'n't be long getting down off Clacton. Then you mustkeep a sharp look-out for the Spitway Buoy. It comes on very thick attimes, and it is difficult to judge how far we are out. However, I thinkI know pretty well the direction it lies in, and can hit it to within acable's length or so. I have found it many a time on a dark night, andam not likely to miss it now. It will take us an hour and a half or sofrom the time we pass Walton till we are up to the buoy."