Section 8

THE NIGGER OF THE “NARCISSUS” 61
Baker crawled along the line of men, asking: — “Are you all there?” and looking them over. Some blinked vacantly, others shook convulsively; Wamibo’s head hung over his breast; and in painful attitudes, cut by lashings, exhausted with clutching, screwed up in corners, they breathed heavily. Their lips twitched, and at every sickening heave of the overturned ship they opened them wdde as if to shout. The cook, em¬ bracing a wooden stanchion, unconsciously repeated a prayer. In every short interval of the fiendish noises around he could be heard there, without cap or slip¬ pers, imploring in that storm the Master of our lives not to lead him into temptation. Soon he also became silent. In all that crowd of cold and hungry men, waiting wearily for a violent death, not a voice was heard; they were mute, and in sombre thoughtfulness listened to the horrible ifnprecations of the gale.
Hours passed. They were sheltered by the heavy inclination of the ship from the wind that rushed in one long unbroken moan above their heads, but cold rain showers fell at times into the uneasy calm of their refuge. Under the torment of that new infliction a pair of shoulders would writhe a little. Teeth chat¬ tered. The sky was clearing, and bright sunshine gleamed over the ship. After every burst of battering seas, vivid and fleeting rainbows arched over the drifting hull in the flick of sprays. The gale was end¬ ing in a clear blow, which gleamed and cut like a knife. Between two bearded shellbacks Charley, fastened with somebody’s long muffler to a deck ring-bolt, wept quietly, with rare tears wrung out by bewilder¬ ment, cold, hunger, and general misery. One of his neighbours punched him in the ribs asking roughly: — “ What’s the matter with your cheek? In fine weather there’s no holding you, youngster.” Turning about
62 THE NIGGER OF THE “NARCISSUS” 9
with prudence he worked himself out of his coat and threw it over the boy. The other man closed up, muttering: — “’Twill make a bloomin’ man of you, sonny.” They flung their arms over and pressed against him. Charley drew his feet up and his eye* lids dropped. Sighs were heard, as men, perceiving that they were not to be “drowned in a hurry,” tried easier positions. Mr. Creighton, who had hurt his leg, lay amongst us with compressed lips. Some fellows belonging to his watch set about securing him better. Without a word or a glance he lifted his arms one after another to facilitate the operation, and not a muscle moved in his stern, young face. They asked him with solicitude: — “Easier now, sir?” He answered with a curt: — “That’ll do.” He was a hard young officer, but many of his watch used to say they liked him well enough because he had “such a gentlemanly way of damning us up and down the deck.” Others unable to discern such fine shades of refinement, respected him for his smartness. For the first time since the ship had gone on her beam ends Captain Allistoun gave a short glance down at his men. He was almost upright — one foot against the side of the skylight, one knee on the deck; and with the end of the. vang round his waist swung back and forth with his gaze fixed ahead, watchful, like a man looking out for a sign. Before his eyes the ship, with half her deck below water, rose and fell on heavy seas that rushed from under her flashing in the cold sunshine. We began to think she was wonderfully buoyant — considering. Confident voices were heard shouting: — “She’ll do, boys!” Belfast exclaimed with fervour: — “I would giv’ a month’s pay for a draw at a pipe!” One or two, passing dry tongues on their salt lips, muttered something about a “drink of water.” The cook, as
THE NIGGER OF THE “NARCISSUS” 63
if inspired, scrambled up with his breast against the poop water-cask and looked in. There was a little at the bottom. He yelled, waving his arms, and two men began to crawl backwards and forwards with the mug. We had a good mouthful all round. The master shook his head impatiently, refusing. When it came to Charley one of his neighbours shouted: — “That bloom¬ in’ boy’s asleep.” He slept as though he had been dosed with narcotics. They let him be. Singleton held to the wheel with one hand while he drank, bend¬ ing down to shelter his lips from the wind. Wamibo had to be poked and yelled at before he saw the mug held before his eyes. Knowles said sagaciously: — “It’s better’n a tot o’ rum.” Mr. Baker grunted: — “Thank ye.” Mr. Creighton drank and nodded. Donkin gulped greedily, glaring over the rim. Belfast madt us laugh when with grimacing mouth he shouted. — “Pass it this way. We’re all taytottlers here.” The master, presented with the mug again by a crouch¬ ing man, who screamed up at him: — “We all had a drink, captain,” groped for it without ceasing to look ahead, and handed it back stiffly as though he could not spare half a glance away from the ship. Faces brightened. We shouted to the cook:— “Well done, doctor!” He sat to leeward, propped by the water- cask and yelled back abundantly, but the seas were breaking in thunder just then, and we only caught snatches that sounded like: “Providence” and “born again.” He was at his old game of preaching. We made friendly but derisive gestures at him, and from below he lifted one arm, holding on with the other, moved his lips; he beamed up to us, straining his voice — earnest, and ducking his head before the sprays.
Suddenly some one cried:— “"Where’s Jimmy?” and we were appalled once more. On the end of the row
64 THE NIGGER OF THE “NARCISSUS”
the boatswain shouted hoarsely: — “Has any one seed him come out?” Voices exclaimed dismally: — “Drowned — is he? . . . No! In his cabin!
. . . Good Lord! . . . Caught like a
bloomin’ rat in a trap. . . . Couldn’t open his
door . . . Aye! She went over too quick and
the water jammed it ... . Poor beggar! . . .
No help for ’im. . . . Let’s go and see . .
“Damn him, who could go?” screamed Donkin. — “Nobody expects you to,” growled the man next to him: “you’re only a thing.” — -“Is there half a chance to get at ’im?” inquired two or three men to¬ gether. Belfast untied himself with blind impetuosity, and all at once shot down to leewrard quicker than a flash of lightning. We shouted all together with dis¬ may; but with his legs overboard he held and yelled for a rope. In our extremity nothing could be terrible; so we judged him funny kicking there, and wTith his scared face. Some one began to laugh, and, as if hysterically infected with screaming merriment, all those haggard men wTent off laughing, wrild-eyed, like a lot of maniacs tied up on a wall. Mr. Baker swning off the binnacle-stand and tendered him one leg. He scrambled up rather scared, and consigning us with abominable words to the “divvle.” “You are. . . . Ough! You’re a foul-mouthed beggar,
Craik,” grunted Mr. Baker. He answered, stuttering with indignation: — “Look at ’em, sorr. The bloomin’ dirty images! laughing at a chum going overboard. Call themselves men, too.” But from the break of the poop the boatswain called out: — “Come along,” and Belfast crawled away in a hurry to join him. The five men, poised and gazing over the edge of the poop, looked for the best way to get forward. They seemed to hesitate. The others, twisting in their lashings.
THE NIGGER OF THE “NARCISSUS” 65
turning painfully, stared with open lips. Captain Allistoun saw nothing; he seemed with his eyes to hold the ship up in a superhuman concentration of effort. The wind screamed loud in sunshine; columns of spray rose straight up ; and in the glitter of rainbows bursting over the trembling hull the men went over cautiously, disappearing from sight with deliberate movements.
They went swinging from belaying pin to cleat above the seas that beat the half-submerged deck. Their toes scraped the planks. Lumps of green cold water toppled over the bulwark and on their heads. They hung for a moment on strained arms, with the breath knocked out of them, and with closed eyes — then, letting go with one hand, balanced with lolling heads, trying to grab some rope or stanchion further forward. The long-armed and athletic boatswain swung quickly, gripping things with a fist hard as iron, and remember¬ ing suddenly snatches of the last letter from his “old woman.” Little Belfast scrambled in a rage splutter¬ ing “cursed nigger.” Wamibo’s tongue hung out with excitement; and Archie, intrepid and calm, watched his chance to move with intelligent coolness.
When above the side of the house, they let go one after another, and falling heavily, sprawled, pressing their palms to the smooth teak wood. Round them the backwash of waves seethed white and hissing. All the doors had become trap-doors, of course. The first was the galley door. The galley extended from side to side, and they could hear the sea splashing with hollow noises in there. The next door was that of the carpenter’s shop. They lifted it, and looked down. The room seemed to have been devastated by an earthquake. Everything in it had tumbled on the bulkhead facing the door, and on the other side of that bulkhead there was Jimmy dead or alive. The bench,
66 THE NIGGER OF THE “NARCISSUS”
a half-finished meat-safe, saws, chisels, wire rods, axes, crowbars, lay in a heap besprinkled with loose nails A sharp adze stuck up with a shining edge that gleamed dangerously down there like a wicked smile. The men clung to one another, peering. A sickening, sly lurch of the ship nearly sent them overboard in a body. Belfast howled “Here goes ! ” and leaped down. Archie followed cannily, catching at shelves that gave way with him, and eased himself in a great crash of ripped wood. There was hardly room for three men to move. And in the sunshiny blue square of the door, the boat¬ swain’s face, bearded and dark, Wamibo’s face, wild and pale, hung over — watching.
Together they shouted: “Jimmy! Jim!” From above the boatswain contributed a deep growl: “You . . . Wait!” In a pause, Belfast entreated:
“Jimmy, darlin’, are ye aloive?” The boatswain said: “Again! All together, boys!” All yelled excitedly. Wamibo made noises resembling loud barks. Belfast drummed on the side of the bulkhead with a piece of iron. All ceased suddenly. The sound of screaming and hammering went on thin and distinct — like a solo after a chorus. He was alive. He was screaming and knocking below us with the hurry of a man pre¬ maturely shut up in a coffin. We went to work. We attacked with desperation the abominable heap of things heavy, of things sharp, of things clumsy to handle. The boatswain crawled away to find somewhere a flying end of a rope; and Wamibo, held back by shouts: — - “Don’t jump! . . . Don’t come in here, muddle-
head!” — remained glaring above us — all shining eyes, gleaming fangs, tumbled hair; resembling an amazed and half-witted fiend gloating over the extraordinary agitation of the damned. The boatswain adjured us to “bear a hand,” and a rope descended. We made
THE NIGGER OF THE " NARCISSUS” 67
things fast to it and they went up spinning, never to be seen by man again. A rage to fling things overboard possessed us. We worked fiercely, cutting our hands and speaking brutally to one another. Jimmy kept up a distracting row; he screamed piercingly, without drawing breath, like a tortured woman; he banged with hands and feet. The agony of his fear wrung our hearts so terribly that we longed to abandon him, to get out of that place deep as a well and swaying like a tree, to get out of his hearing, back on the poop where we could wait passively for death in incomparable repose. We shouted to him to “shut up, for God’s sake.” He redoubled his cries. He must have fancied we could not hear him. Probably he heard his own clamour but faintly. We could picture him crouching on the edge of the upper berth, letting out with both fists at the wood, in the dark, and with his mouth wide open for that unceasing cry. Those were loathsome moments. A cloud driving across the sun would darken the door¬ way menacingly. Every movement of the ship was pain. We scrambled about with no room to breathe, and felt frightfully sick. The boatswain yelled down ^t us: — “Bear a hand! Bear a hand! We two will be washed away from here directly if you ain’t quick!” Three times a sea leaped over the high side and flung bucketfuls of water on our heads. Then Jimmy, startled by the shock, would stop his noise for a mo¬ ment — waiting for the ship to sink, perhaps — and began again, distressingly loud, as if invigorated by the gust of fear. At the bottom the nails lay in a layer several inches thick. It was ghastly. Every nail in the world, not driven in firmly somewhere, seemed to have found its way into that carpenter’s shop. There they were, of all kinds, the remnants of stores from seven voyages. Tin-tacks, copper tacks (sharp as
(38 THE NIGGER OF THE “NARCISSUS”
needles); pump nails with big heads, like tiny iron mushrooms; nails without any heads (horrible); French nails polished and slim. They lay in a solid mass more inabordable than a hedgehog. We hesitated, yearning for a shovel, while Jimmy below us yelled as though he had been flayed. Groaning, we dug our fingers in, and very much hurt, shook our hands, scattering nails and drops of blood. We passed up our hats full of assorted nails to the boatswain, who, as if performing a mysterious and appeasing rite, cast them wide upon a raging sea.
We got to the bulkhead at last. Those were stout planks. She was a ship, well finished in every detail — - the Narcissus was. They were the stoutest planks ever put into a ship’s bulkhead — we thought — and then we perceived that, in our hurry, we had sent all the tools overboard. Absurd little Belfast wanted to break it down with his own weight, and with both feet leaped straight up like a springbok, cursing the Clyde shipwrights for not scamping their work. Incidentally he reviled all North Britain, the rest of the earth, the sea — and all his companions. He swore, as he alighted heavily on his heels, that he would never, never any more associate with any fool that “hadn’t savee enough to know his knee from his elbow.” He managed by his thumping to scare the last remnant of wits out of Jimmy. We could hear the object of our exasperated solicitude darting to and fro under the planks. He had cracked his voice at last, and could only squeak miserably. His back or else his head rubbed the planks, now here, now there, in a puzzling manner. He squeaked as he dodged the invisible blows. It was more heartrending even than his yells. Suddenly Archie produced a crowbar. He had kept it back; also a small hatchet. We howled with satisfaction. He
THE NIGGER OF THE “NARCISSUS” 69
struck a mighty blow and small chips flew at our eyes. The boatswain above shouted: — “Look out! Look out there. Don’t kill the man. Easy does it!” Wamibo, maddened with excitement , hung head down and insanely urged us: — “Hoo! Strook’im! Hoo! Hoo!” We were afraid he would fall in and kill one of us and, hurriedly, we entreated the boatswain to “shove the blamed Finn overboard.” Then, all together, we yelled down at the planks: — “Stand from under! Get forward,” and list¬ ened. We only heard the deep hum and moan of the wand above us, the mingled roar and hiss of the seas. The ship, as if overcome with despair, wallowed life¬ lessly, and our heads swam with that unnatural motion. Belfast clamoured: — “For the love of God, Jimmy, where are ye? . . . Knock! Jimmy darlint! . . .
Knock! You bloody black beast! Knock!” He was as quiet as a dead man -inside a grave; and, like men standing above a grave, we were on the verge of tears— but with vexation, the strain, the fatigue; with the great longing to be done with it, to get away, and lie dowm to rest somew here where we could see our danger and breathe. Archie shouted: — “Gi’e me room!” We crouched behind him, guarding our heads, and he struck time after time in the joint of planks. They cracked. Suddenly the crowbar went halfway in through a splintered oblong hole. It must have missed Jimmy’s head by less than an inch. Archie withdrew it quickly, and that infamous nigger rushed at the hole, put his lips to it, and whispered “Help” in an almost extinct voice; he pressed his head to it, trying madly to get out through that opening one inch wide and three inches long. In our disturbed state we were absolutely paralysed by his incredible action. It seemed impossible to drive him away. Even Archie at last lost his composure. “If ye don’t clear oot 1 11
70 THE NIGGER OF THE “ NARCISSUS
drive the crowbar thro’ your head,” he shouted in a determined voice. He meant what he said, and his earnestness seemed to make an impression on Jimmy. He disappeared suddenly, and we set to prising and tearing at the planks with the eagerness of men trying to get at a mortal enemy, and spurred by the desire to tear him limb from limb. The wood split, cracked,