"And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be
Borne, like thy bubbles, onward; from a boy
I wanton'd with thy breakers--they to me
Were a delight; and if the freshening sea
Made them a terror--'twas a pleasing fear;
For I was, as it were, a child of thee,
And trusted to thy billows, far and near,
And laid my hand upon thy mane--as I do here."Byron.
It was past the turn of the day when Roswell Gardiner reached his vessel,
after having carefully and with manly interest in all that belonged to
her, seen Mary to her home, and taken his final leave of her. Of that
parting we shall say but little. It was touching and warm-hearted, and it
was rendered a little solemn by Mary Pratt's putting into her lover's hand
a pocket-bible, with an earnest request that he would not forget to
consult its pages. She added, at the same time, that she had carefully
marked those passages which she wished him most to study and reflect on.
The book was accepted in the spirit in which it was offered, and carefully
placed in a little case that contained about a hundred volumes of
different works.
As the hour approached for lifting the anchor, the nervousness of the
deacon became very apparent to the commander of his schooner. At each
instant the former was at the latter's elbow, making some querulous
suggestion, or asking a question that betrayed the agitated and unsettled
state of his mind. It really seemed as if the old man, at the last moment,
had not the heart to part with his property, or to trust it out of his
sight. All this annoyed Roswell Gardiner, disposed as he was, at that
instant, to regard every person and thing that in any manner pertained to
Mary Pratt, with indulgence and favour.
"You will be particular about them islands, Captain Gar'ner, and not get
the schooner ashore," said the deacon, for the tenth time at least. "They
tell me the tide runs like a horse in the high latitudes, and that seamen
are often stranded by them, before they know where they are."
"Ay, ay, sir; I'll try and bear it in mind," answered Gardiner, vexed at
being importuned so often to recollect that which there was so little
likelihood of his forgetting; "I am an old cruiser in those seas, deacon,
and know all about the tides. Well, Mr. Hazard, what is the news of the
anchor?"
"We are short, sir, and only wait for orders to go on, and get clear of
the ground."
"Trip, at once, sir; and so farewell to America--or to this end of it, at
least."
"Then the keys, they tell me, are dangerous navigation, Gar'ner, and a
body needs have all his eyes about him."
"All places have their dangers to your sleepy navigator, deacon; but the
man who keeps his eyes open has little to fear. Had you given us a
chronometer, there would not have been one-half the risk there will be
without one."
This had been a bone of contention between the master of the Sea Lion and
his owner. Chronometers were not, by any means, in as general use at the
period of our tale as they are to-day; and the deacon abhorred the expense
to which such an article would have put him. Could he have got one at a
fourth of the customary price he might have been tempted; but it formed no
part of his principles of saving to anticipate and prevent waste by
liberality.
No sooner was the schooner released from the ground than her sails were
filled, and she went by the low spit of sand already mentioned, with the
light south-west breeze still blowing in her favour, and an ebb tide.
Everything appeared propitious, and no vessel probably ever left home
under better omens. The deacon remained on board until Baiting Joe, who
was to act as his boatman, reminded him of the distance and the
probability that the breeze would go down entirely with the sun. As it
was, they had to contend with wind and tide, and it would require all his
own knowledge of the eddies to get the whale-boat up to Oyster Pond in
anything like reasonable time. Thus admonished, the owner tore himself
away from his beloved craft, giving "young Gar'ner" as many 'last words'
as if he were about to be executed. Roswell had a last word on his part,
however, in the shape of a message to Mary.
"Tell Mary, deacon," said the young sailor, in an aside, "that I rely on
her promise, and that I shall think of her, whether it be under the
burning sun of the line, or among the ice of the antarctic."
"Yes, yes; that's as it should be," answered the deacon, heartily. "I
like your perseverance, Gar'ner, and hope the gal will come round yet, and
I shall have you for a nephew. There's nothing that takes the women's
minds like money. Fill up the schooner with skins and ile, and bring back
that treasure, and you make as sure of Mary for a wife as if the parson
had said the benediction over you."
Such was Deacon Pratt's notion of his niece, as well as of the female sex.
For months he regarded this speech as a _coup de maitre_, while Roswell
Gardiner forgot it in half an hour; so much better than the uncle did the
lover comprehend the character of the niece.
The Sea Lion, of Oyster Pond, had now cast off the last ligament which
connected her with the land. She had no pilot, none being necessary, or
usual, in those waters; all that a vessel had to do being to give Long
Island a sufficient berth in rounding its eastern extremity. The boat was
soon shut in by Gardiner's Island, and thenceforth nothing remained but
the ties of feeling to connect those bold adventurers with their native
country. It is true that Connecticut, and subsequently Rhode Island, was
yet visible on one hand, and a small portion of New York on the other; but
as darkness came to close the scene, even that means of communication was
soon virtually cut off. The light on Montauk, for hours, was the sole
beacon for these bold mariners, who rounded it about midnight, fairly
meeting the long, rolling swell of the broad Atlantic. Then the craft
might be said to be at sea for the first time.
The Sea Lion was found to perform well. She had been constructed with an
eye to comfort, as well as to sailing, and possessed that just proportion
in her hull which carried her over the surface of the waves like a duck.
This quality is of more importance to a small than to a large vessel, for
the want of momentum renders what is termed "burying" a very deadening
process to a light craft. In this very important particular Roswell was
soon satisfied that the ship-wright had done his duty.
As the wind still stood at south-west, the schooner was brought upon an
easy bowline, as soon as she had Montauk light dead to windward. This new
course carried her out to sea, steering south-south-east, a little
easterly, under everything that would draw. The weather appearing settled,
and there being no signs of a change, Gardiner now went below and turned
in, leaving the care of the vessel to the proper officer of the watch,
with an order to call him at sunrise. Fatigue soon asserted its power, and
the young man was shortly in as profound a sleep as if he had not just
left a mistress whom he almost worshipped for an absence of two years, and
to go on a voyage that probably would expose him to more risks and
suffering than any other enterprise then attempted by sea-faring men. Our
young sailor thought not of the last at all, but he fell asleep dreaming
of Mary.
The master of the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond was called precisely at the hour
he had named. Five minutes sufficed to bring him on deck, where he found
everything as he had left it, with the exception of the schooner itself.
In the six hours he had been below, his vessel had moved her position out
to sea nearly forty miles. No land was now to be seen, the American coast
being very tame and unpicturesque to the eye, as the purest patriot, if he
happen to know anything of other parts of the world, must be constrained
to admit. A low, monotonous coast, that is scarcely visible at a distance
of five leagues, is certainly not to be named in the same breath with
those glorious shores of the Mediterranean, for instance, where nature
would seem to have exhausted herself in uniting the magnificent with the
bewitching. On this continent, or on our own portion of it at least, we
must be content with the useful, and lay no great claims to the beautiful;
the rivers and bays giving us some compensation in their admirable
commercial facilities, for the sameness, not to say tameness, of the
views. We mention these things in passing, as a people that does not
understand its relative position in the scale of nations, is a little apt
to fall into errors that do not contribute to its character or
respectability; more especially when they exhibit a self-love founded
altogether on ignorance, and which has been liberally fed by flattery.
The first thing a seaman does on coming on deck, after a short absence, is
to look to windward, in order to see how the wind stands, and what are the
prospects of the weather. Then he turns his eyes aloft to ascertain what
canvass is spread, and how it draws. Occasionally, the order of these
observations is changed, the first look being sometimes bestowed on the
sails, and the second on the clouds. Roswell Gardiner, however, cast his
first glance this morning towards the southward and westward, and
perceived that the breeze promised to be steady. On looking aloft, he was
well satisfied with the manner in which everything drew; then he turned to
the second mate, who had the watch, whom he addressed cheerfully, and with
a courtesy that is not always observed among sailors.
"A fine morning, sir," said Roswell Gardiner, "and a good-bye to America.
We've a long road to travel, Mr. Green, but we've a fast boat to do it in.
Here is an offing ready made to our hands. Nothing in sight to the
westward; not so much as a coaster, even! It's too early for the
outward-bound craft of the last ebb, and too late for those that sailed
the tide before. I never saw this bight of the coast clearer of canvass."
"Ay, ay, sir; it does seem empty, like. Here's a chap, however, to
leeward, who appears inclined to try his rate of sailing with us. Here he
is, sir, a very little abaft the beam; and, as near as I can make him out,
he's a fore-tawsail schooner, of about our own dimensions; if you'll just
look at him through this glass, Captain Gardner, you'll see he has not
only our rig, but our canvass set."
"You are right enough, Mr. Green," returned Roswell, after getting, his
look. "He is a schooner of about our tonnage, and under precisely our
canvass. How long has the fellow bore as he does now?"
"He came out from under Blok Island a few hours since, and we made him by
moonlight. The question with me is, where did that chap come from? A
Stunnin'ton man would have naturally passed to windward of Blok Island;
and a Newport or Providence fellow would not have fetched so far to
windward without making a stretch or two on purpose. That schooner has
bothered me ever since it was daylight; for I can't place him where he is
by any traverse my poor Parnin' can work!"
"She does seem to be out of her way. Possibly it is a schooner beating up
for the Hook, and finding herself too close in, she is standing to the
southward to get an offing again."
"Not she, sir. She came out from behind Blok, and a craft of her size that
wanted to go to the westward, and which found itself so close in, would
have taken the first of the flood and gone through the Race like a shot.
No, no, Captain Gar'ner; this fellow is bound south as well as ourselves,
and it is quite onaccountable how he should be just where he is--so far to
windward, or so far to leeward, as a body might say. A south-south-east
course, from any place behind Point Judith, would have taken him off near
No Man's Land, and here he is almost in a line with Blok Island!"
"Perhaps he is out of New London, or some of the ports on the main, and
being bound to the West Indies he has been a little careless about
weathering the island. It's no great matter, after all."
"It is some such matter, Captain Garner, as walkin' round a meetin'-'us'
when your ar'n'd is in at the door in front. But there was no such craft
in at Stunnin'tun or New London, as I know from havin' been at both places
within the last eight-and-forty hours."
"You begin to make me as curious about this fellow as you seem to be
yourself, sir. And now I think the matter all over, it is somewhat
extr'or'nary he should be just where he is. It is, however, a very easy
thing to get a nearer look at him, and it's no great matter to us,
intending as we do to make the islands off the Cape de Verde, if we do
lose a little of our weatherly position--keep the schooner away a point,
and get a small pull on your weather braces--give her a little sheet too,
fore and aft, sir. So, that will do--keep her steady at that--south-east
and by south. In two hours we shall just about speak this out-of-the-way
joker."
As every command was obeyed, the Sea Lion was soon running off free, her
bowlines hanging loose, and all her canvass a rap full. The change in her
line of sailing drought the sail to leeward, a little forward of her beam;
but the movement of the vessel that made the freest wind was consequently
the most rapid. In the course of half an hour the stranger was again a
little abaft the beam, and he was materially nearer than when first seen.
No change was made in the route of the stranger, who now seemed disposed
to stand out to sea, with the wind as it was, on an easy bowline, without
paying any attention to the sail in sight.
It was noon ere the two schooners came within hail of each other. Of
course, as they drew nearer and nearer, it was possible for those on board
of each to note the appearance, equipments, and other peculiarities of his
neighbour. In size, there was no apparent difference between the vessels,
and there was a somewhat remarkable resemblance in the details.
"That fellow is no West India drogger," said Roswell Gardiner, when less
than a mile from the stranger. "He carries a boat on deck, as we do, and
has one on each quarter, too. Can it be possible that he is bound after
seals, as well as we are ourselves!"
"I believe you're right, sir," answered Hazard, the chief-mate, who was
now on deck. "There's a sealing look about the gentleman, if I know my own
complexion. It's odd enough, Captain Gar'ner, that two of us should come
together, out here in the offing, and both of us bound to the other end of
the 'arth!"
"There is nothing so very remarkable in _that_, Mr. Hazard, when we
remember that the start must be properly timed for those who wish to be
off Cape Horn in the summer season. We shall neither of us get there much
before December, and I suppose the master of you schooner knows that as
well as I do myself. The position of this craft puzzles me far more than
anything else about her. From what port can a vessel come, that she should
be just here, with the wind at south-west?"
"Ay, sir," put in Green, who was moving about the decks, coiling ropes and
clearing things away, "that's what I tell the chief-mate. Where can a
craft come from, to be just here, with this wind, if she don't come from
Stunnin'tun. Even from Stunnin'tun she'd be out of her way; but no such
vessel has been in that port any time these six weeks. Here, you Stimson,
come this way a bit. Didn't you tell me something of having seen a
schooner at New Bedford, that was about our build and burthen, and that
you understood had been bought for a sealer?"
"Ay, ay, sir," answered Stimson, as bluff an old sea-dog as ever flattened
in a jib-sheet, "and that's the craft, as I'm a thinkin', Mr. Green. She
had an animal for a figure-head, and that craft has an animal, as well as
I can judge, at this distance."
"You are right enough there, Stephen," cried Roswell Gardiner, "and that
animal is a seal. It's the twin-brother of the sea lion we carry under our
own bowsprit. There's some proof in that, tastes agree sometimes, even if
they do differ generally. What became of the schooner you saw?"
"I heard, sir, that she was bought up by some Vineyard men, and was taken
across to Hum'ses Hull. They sometimes fit out a craft there, as well as
on the main. I should have crossed myself to see what they was at, but I
fell in with Mr. Green, and shipped aboard here."
"An adventure by which, I hope, you will not be a loser, my hearty," put
in the captain. "And you think that is the craft which was built at New
Bedford, and fitted out on the Vineyard?"
"Sartain of it, sir; for I know the figure-head, and all about her build."
"Hand me the trumpet, Mr. Green; we shall soon be near enough for a hail,
and it will be easy to learn the truth."
Roswell Gardiner waited a few minutes for the two schooners to close, and
was in the very act of applying the trumpet to his mouth, when the usual
salutation was sent across the water from the stranger. During the
conversation that now took place, the vessels gradually drew nearer to
each other, until both parties laid aside their trumpets, and carried on
the discourse with the unaided voice.
"Schooner, ahoy!" was the greeting of the stranger, and a simple "Hilloa!"
the answer.
"What schooner is that, pray?"
"The Sea Lion, of Oyster Pond, Long Island; bound to the southward, after
seal, as I suppose you know by our outfit."
"When did you leave Oyster Pond--and how did you leave your owner, the
good Deacon Pratt?"
"We sailed yesterday afternoon, on the first of the ebb, and the deacon
left us as we weighed anchor. He was well, and full of hope for our luck.
What schooner is that, pray?"
"The Sea Lion, of Hum'ses Hull; bound to the southward, after seals, as
you probably knew by _our_ outfit. Who commands that schooner?"
"Captain Roswell Gar'ner--who commands aboard you, pray?"
"Captain Jason Daggett," showing himself more plainly, by moving out of
the line of the main-rigging. "I had the pleasure of seeing you when I was
on the P'int, looking after my uncle's dunnage, you may remember, Captain
Gar'ner. 'T was but the other day, and you are not likely to have
forgotten my visit."
"Not at all, not at all, Captain Daggett; though I had no idea, _then_,
that you intended to make a voyage to the southward so soon. When did you
leave the Hole, sir?"
"Day before yesterday, afternoon. We came out of the Hull about five
o'clock."
"How had you the wind, sir?"
"Sou'-west, and sou'-west and by south. There has been but little change
in that, these three days."
Roswell Gardiner muttered something to himself; but he did not deem it
prudent to utter the thoughts, that were just then passing through his
mind, aloud.
"Ay, ay," he answered, after a moment's pause, "the wind has stood there
the whole week; but I think we shall shortly get a change. There is an
easterly feeling in the air."
"Waal, let it come. With this offing, we could clear Hatteras with
anything that wasn't worse than a south-easter. There's a southerly set,
in here, down the coast, for two or three hundred miles."
"A heavy south-easter would jam us in, here, between the shoals, in a way
I shouldn't greatly relish, sir. I like always to get to the eastward of
the Stream, as soon as I can, in running off the land."
"Very true, Captain Gar'ner--very true, sir. It _is_ best to get outside
the Stream, if a body _can_. Once there, I call a craft at sea.
Eight-and-forty hours more of this wind would just about carry us there.
Waal, sir, as we're bound on the same sort of v'y'ge, I'm happy to have
fallen in with you; and I see no reason why we should not be neighbourly,
and 'gam' it a little, when we've nothing better to do. I like that
schooner of yours so well, that I've made my own to look as nearly
resembling her as I could. You see our paint is exactly the same."
"I have observed that, Captain Daggett; and you might say the same of the
figure-heads."
"Ay, ay; when I was over on the P'int, they told me the name of the
carver, in Boston, who cut your seal, and I sent to him to cut me a twin.
If they lay in a ship-yard, side by side, I don't think you could tell
one from the other."
"So it seems, sir. Pray haven't you a man aboard there of the name of
Watson?"
"Ay, ay--he's my second-mate. I know what you mean, Captain Gar'ner--
you 're right enough, 'tis the same hand who was aboard you; but wanting
a second officer, I offered him the berth, and he thought that better than
taking a foremast lay in your craft."
This explanation probably satisfied all who heard it, though the truth was
not more than half told. In point of fact, Watson was engaged as Daggett's
second mate _before_ he had ever laid eyes on Roswell Gardiner, and had
been sent to watch the progress of the work on Oyster Pond, as has been
previously stated. It was so much in the natural order of events for a man
to accept preferment when offered, however, that even Gardiner himself
blamed the delinquent for the desertion far less than he had previously
done. In the mean time the conversation proceeded.
"You told us nothing of your having that schooner fitting, when you were
on the Point," observed Roswell Gardiner, whose thoughts just then
happened to advert to this particular fact.
"My mind was pretty much taken up with the affairs of my poor uncle, I
suppose, Captain Gar'ner. Death must visit each of us, once; nevertheless,
it makes us all melancholy when he comes among friends."
Now, Roswell Gardiner was not in the least sentimental, nor had he the
smallest turn towards indulging in moral inferences, from ordinary events;
but, this answer seemed so proper, that it found no objection in his mind.
Still, the young man had his suspicions on the subject of the equipment of
the other schooner, and suspicions that were now active and keen, and
which led him directly to fancy that Daggett had also some clue to the
very objects he was after himself. Singular as it may seem at first,
Deacon Pratt's interests were favourably affected by this unexpected
meeting with the Sea Lion of Holmes' Hole. From the first, Roswell
Gardiner had been indisposed to give full credit to the statements of the
deceased mariner, ascribing no small part of his account to artifice,
stimulated by a desire to render himself important. But, now that he found
one of this man's family embarked in an enterprise similar to his own, his
views of its expediency were sensibly changed. Perfectly familiar with the
wary economy with which every interest was regulated in that part of the
world, he did not believe a company of Martha's Vineyard men would risk
their money in an enterprise that they had not good reasons for believing
would succeed. Although it exceeded his means to appreciate fully the
information possessed by the Vineyard folk, and covetousness did not
quicken his faculties on this subject, as they had quickened those of the
deacon, he could see enough to satisfy his mind that either the
sealing-islands, or the booty of the pirates, or both, had a reality, in
the judgments of others, which had induced them also to risk their money
in turning their knowledge to account. The effect of this conviction was
very natural. It induced Roswell to regard the charts, and his
instructions, and all connected with his voyage, as much more serious
matters than he had originally been inclined to do. Until now, he had
thought it well enough to let the deacon have his fancies, relying on his
own ability to obtain a cargo for the schooner, by visiting sealing
stations where he had been before; but, now, he determined to steer at
once for Daggett's Islands, as he and his owner named the land revealed to
them, and ascertain what could be done there. He thought it probable the
other Sea Lion might wish to keep him company; but the distance was so
great, that a hundred occasions must occur when it would be in his power
to shake off such a consort, should he deem it necessary.
For several hours the two schooners stood on in company, keeping just
without hailing distance apart, and sailing so nearly alike as to render
it hard to say which craft had the best of it. There was nothing
remarkable in the fact that two vessels, built for the same trade, should
have a close general resemblance to each other; but it was not common to
find them so moulded, stowed, sparred and handled, that their rate of
sailing should be nearly identical. If there was any difference, it was
slightly in favour of the Sea Lion of the Vineyard, which rather drew
ahead of her consort, if consort the other Sea Lion could be termed, in
the course of the afternoon.
It is scarcely necessary to say that many were the speculations that were
made on board these rival vessels--competitors now for the commonest
glories of their pursuits, as well as in the ultimate objects of their
respective voyages. On the part of Roswell Gardiner and his two mates,
they did not fail, in particular, to comment on the singularity of the
circumstance that the Sea Lion, of the Vineyard, should be so far out of
her direct line of sailing.
"Although we have had the wind at sow-west" (_sow_-west always, as
pronounced by every seaman, from the Lord High Admiral of England, when
there happens to be such a functionary, down to the greenest hand on board
the greenest sealer) "for these last few days," said Hazard, "anybody can
see we shall soon have easterly weather. There's an easterly feel in the
air, and all last night the water had an easterly glimmer about it. Now,
why a man who came out of the Vineyard Sound, and who had nothing to do
but just to clear the west end of his own island, and then lay his course
off yonder to the southward and eastward, should bear up cluss (Anglicé,
close) under Blok, and stretch out to sea, for all the world as if he was
a Stunnin'tun chap, or a New Lunnoner, that had fallen a little to
leeward, is more than I can understand, Captain Gar'ner! Depend on it,
sir, there's a reason for't. Men don't put schooners into the water,
now-a-days, and give them costly outfits, with three whale-boats, and
sealin' gear in abundance, just for the fun of making fancy traverses, on
or off a coast, like your yacht gentry, who never know what they would be
at, and who never make a v'y'ge worth speaking on."
"I have been turning all this over in my mind, Mr. Hazard," answered the
young master, who was amusing himself at the moment with strapping a small
block, while he threw many a glance at the vessel that was just as close
under his lee as comported with her sailing. "There is a reason for it, as
you say; but, I can find no other than the fact that she has come so much
out of her way, in order to fall in with _us;_ knowing that we were to
come round Montauk at a particular time."
"Well, sir, that may have been her play! Men bound the same way often wish
to fall into good company, to make the journey seem the shorter, by making
it so much the pleasanter."
"Those fellows can never suppose the two schooners will keep in sight of
each other from forty-one degrees north all the way to seventy south, or
perhaps further south still! If we remain near each other a week, 't will
be quite out of the common way."
"I don't know that, sir. I was once in a sealer that, do all she could,
couldn't get shut of a curious neighbour. When seals are scarce, and the
master don't know where to look for 'em, he is usually glad to drop into
some vessel's wake, if it be only to pick up her leavin's."
"Outfits are not made on such chances as that. These Vineyard people know
where they are going as well as we know ourselves; perhaps better."
"There is great confidence aboard here, in the master, Captain Gar'ner. I
overheard the watch talking the matter over early this morning; and there
was but one opinion among _them_, I can tell you, sir."
"Which opinion was, Mr. Hazard----"
"That a lay aboard this craft would be worth a lay and a half aboard any
other schooner out of all America! Sailors go partly on skill and partly
on luck. I've known hands that wouldn't ship with the best masters that
ever sailed a vessel, if they didn't think they was lucky as well as
skilful."
"Ay, ay, it's all _luck_! Little do these fellows think of
_Providence_--or of _deserving_, or _undeserving_. Well, I hope the
schooner will not disappoint them--or her master either. But, whaling and
sealing, and trusting to the chances of the ocean, and our most flattering
hopes, may mislead us after all."
"Ay, ay, sir; nevertheless, Captain Gar'ner _has_ a name, and men will
trust to it!"
Our young master could not but be flattered at this, which came at a
favourable moment to sustain the resolutions awakened by the competition
with the rival schooner. Although so obviously competitors, and that in a
matter of trade, the interest which above all others is apt to make men
narrow-minded and hostile to each other, though the axiom would throw this
particular reproach on _doctors,_ there were no visible signs that the two
vessels did not maintain the most amicable relations. As the day advanced
the wind fell, and after many passages of nautical compliments, by means
of signals and the trumpet, Roswell Gardiner fairly lowered a boat into
the water, and went a "gamming," as it is termed, on board the other
schooner.
Each of these little vessels was well provided with boats, and those of
the description in common use among whalers. A whale-boat differs from the
ordinary jolly-boat, launch, or yawl--gigs, barges, dinguis, &c. &c.,
being exclusively for the service of vessels of war--in the following
particulars: viz.--It is sharp at both ends, in order that it may 'back
off,' as well as 'pull on;' it steers with an oar, instead of with a
rudder, in order that the bows may be thrown round to avoid danger when
not in motion; it is buoyant, and made to withstand the shock of waves at
both ends; and it is light and shallow, though strong, that it may be
pulled with facility. When it is remembered that one of these little
egg-shells--little as vessels, though of good size as boats--is often
dragged through troubled waters at the rate of ten or twelve knots, and
frequently at even a swifter movement, one can easily understand how much
depends on its form, buoyancy and strength. Among seamen, it is commonly
thought that a whale-boat is the safest craft of the sort in which men can
trust themselves in rough water.
Captain Daggett received his guest with marked civility, though in a
quiet, eastern way. The rum and water were produced, and a friendly glass
was taken by one after the other. The two masters drank to each other's
success, and many a conventional remark was made between them on the
subject of sea-lions, sea-elephants, and the modes of capturing such
animals. Even Watson, semi-deserter as he was, was shaken cordially by the
hand, and his questionable conduct overlooked. The ocean has many of the
aspects of eternity, and often disposes mariners to regard their
fellow-creatures with an expansiveness of feeling suited to their common
situations. Its vastness reminds them of the time that has neither
beginning nor end; its ceaseless movement, of the never-tiring impulses of
human passions; and its accidents and dangers, of the Providence which
protects all alike, and which alone prevents our being abandoned to the
dominion of chance.
Roswell Gardiner was a kind-hearted man, moreover, and was inclined to
judge his fellows leniently. Thus it was that his "good evening" at
parting, to Watson, was just as frank and sincere as that he bestowed on
Captain Daggett himself.