It was still but a dim light when the commander appeared on deck. He could not have slept more than an hour, but he was as wideawake and active as ever before in his life. He had a spyglass in his hand, with which he proceeded to examine the wreck as soon as he had obtained its bearings; for he never did anything, even under such desperate circumstances as the present, until he had first ascertained what was best to be done.
"How long is it since you made out the wreck, Mr. Boulong?" he inquired, still looking through the glass.
"Mr. Scott reported cries from that direction not ten minutes ago, and the lookout aloft hailed the deck a minute or two later," replied the first officer.
"Make the course north by east," added the captain.
"North by east, sir," replied Mr. Boulong, mounting the promenade, and giving the order to the quartermaster through the window. "Steer small till you get the course, Bangs."
The captain and the third officer remained on the promenade deck, still observing the persons on the wreck, who continued to shout and to discharge their firearms till they saw the head of the steamer slowly turned to the north, when they appeared to be satisfied that relief was at hand.
"They are in a very dangerous position," said the commander. "I cannot make out what they are clinging too; but it is washed by the sea at every wave, and they cannot hold out long in that situation. I wonder that all of them have not been knocked off before this time."
"They must have some strong hold on the thing that floats them, whatever it is, for they are under water half the time," replied Scott, who was also using a spyglass. "I can't make out what they are on; but it looks like a whaleback to me, with her upper works carried away."
"There are no whalebacks in these seas," replied the captain.
"But I saw one in New York Harbor; and I have read that one has crossed the Atlantic, going through the Welland Canal from the great lakes."
"They have no mission in these waters, though what floats that party looks very much like one. Call all hands, Mr. Boulong, and clear away the first cutter."
By this time the Guardian-Mother was on her course to the northward. The storm was severe, but not as savage as it might have been, or as the steamer had encountered on the Atlantic when she saved the sailing-yacht Blanche from foundering. The ship had been kept on her course for Bombay, though, as she had the gale on the beam, she was condemned to wallow in the trough of the sea; and stiff and able as she was, she rolled heavily, as any vessel would have done under the same conditions.
The change of course gave her the wind very nearly over the stern, and she pitched instead of rolling, sometimes lifting her propeller almost out of the water, which made it whirl like a top, and then burying it deep in the waves, causing it to moan and groan and shake the whole after part of the ship, rousing all the party in the cabin from their slumbers. The ship had hardly changed her course before Louis came on deck, and was soon followed by Felix McGavonty.
"What's the row, Mr. Scott?" asked the former.
"Are ye's thryin' to shake the screw out of her?" inquired the Milesian, who could talk as good English as his crony, the owner, but who occasionally made use of the brogue to prevent him from forgetting his mother tongue, as he put it, though he was born in the United States. "Don't ye's do it; for sure, you will want it 'fore we get to Bombay."
"Don't you see those men standing upon something, or clinging to whatever floats them? They are having a close call; but I hope we shall be able to save them," replied the third officer.
The captain had gone to the pilot-house, from the windows of which the wreck could be seen very plainly, as its distance from the ship was rapidly reduced. By this time the entire crew had rushed to the deck, and were waiting for orders on the forecastle. Mr. Boulong, with his boat's crew, had gone to the starboard quarter, where the first cutter was swung in on her davits. The boat pulled six oars, and the cockswain made seven hands.
With these the cutter wad quickly swung out, and the crew took their places in her, the bowman at the forward tackle, and the cockswain at the after. It was the same crew with which the first officer had boarded the Blanche when she was in imminent peril of going down, and he had entire confidence both in their will and their muscle. He stood on the rail, holding on at the main shrouds, ready for further orders.
In the pilot-house, with both quartermasters at the wheel, the captain was still observing with his glass the men in momentary peril of being washed from their insecure position into the boiling sea. Felix had gone aft with the first officer, and had assisted in shoving out the first cutter from the skids inboard, and Louis had come into the pilot-house with Scott.
"Has any one counted the number of men on the wreck, or whatever it is?" inquired the commander.
"There are eleven of them," promptly replied Scott, who, as an officer of the ship, was in his element, and very active both in mind and body.
"Too many for one boat in a heavy sea," added Captain Ringgold. "You will clear away the second cutter, Mr. Scott, and follow Mr. Boulong to the wreck."
"All the second cutters aft!" shouted the third officer from the window; and the crew of this boat rushed up the ladder to the promenade deck, and followed the life-line to the davits of the cutter.
"Bargate, who pulls the stroke oar in the second cutter, has the rheumatism in his right arm, and is not fit to go in the boat," interposed Mr. Gaskette, the second officer.
"Let me take his place, Captain Ringgold!" eagerly exclaimed Louis Belgrave.
"Do you think you can pull an oar in a heavy seaway, Mr. Belgrave?" asked the commander, who always treated the owner with entire respect in the presence of others, though he called him by his given name when they were alone.
"I know I can!" replied Louis very confidently.
"I do not object, if Mr. Scott is willing."
"I am very willing, for Mr. Belgrave's muscle is as hard as a flint."
"Very well. Hurry up!" added the captain.
Four other men were sent aft to assist in the preparations for putting the second cutter into the water; and in as short a time as Mr. Gaskette, who usually went in that boat on important occasions, would have required to do it, the cutter was ready to be dropped into the water when the order was given.
The captain and the second officer continued to watch the party on the wreck, expecting every moment to see some of them swept into the savage waves that beat against their frail support. The ship went at full speed on her course; for the commander would not waste an instant while the lives of so many human beings depended upon his action.
"Can you make out what they are clinging to, Mr. Gaskette?" asked the commander of the only person besides the two quartermasters who remained with him in the pilot-house.
"Yes, sir; I am just getting an idea in regard to it, though the thing is awash so that I can hardly make it out," replied the second officer. "I think it is the bottom of a rather small vessel, upside down; for I see something like a keel. The party have two ropes stretched the whole length of the bottom, to which they are clinging."
"You are right; that is plainly the bottom of a vessel, and I wonder that the craft has not gone down by this time. How she happens to be in that situation, and why she has not sunk, are matters yet to be explained. Go aft, if you please, and see that both cutters are ready to be lowered into the water, Mr. Gaskette. It is not prudent to go much nearer to the wreck, for the gale may drift us upon it."
The second officer left the pilot-house, and found the crews all seated in their boats, with everything in readiness to obey the order to lower away; and he reported the fact to his superior.
"Starboard the helm, Bangs, and steer small!" said Captain Ringgold as soon as the officer returned with the information he had obtained.
To "steer small" is to move the rudder very gradually; for if the course were suddenly changed a quarter of the circumference of the compass in such a sea as was then raging, it would be liable to make the steamer engage in some disagreeable, if not dangerous, antics.
"Steady!" added the captain when the steamer was headed a point south of west.
This position brought the starboard side of the ship on the lee; that is, this part of the ship was sheltered from the fury of the wind and the waves, and it was the proper situation in which to lower a boat into the water; for on the windward side these two powerful forces would be likely to stave the cutter against the side of the steamer.
After the commander had struck the gong to stop her, he gave the order to the second officer to lower the first cutter; and he left the pilot-house for this purpose. Mr. Boulong was an exceptionally skilful officer in the handling of a boat in a heavy sea. Watching for the favorable moment, he gave the order to the cockswain and bowman to lower away, with the aid of the oarsmen near them.
"Cast off the after fall, Stoody!" said he sharply to the cockswain; and the order was promptly obeyed. "Cast off your fall, Knott!" he added almost instantly. "Let fall! Give way!"
A receding wave carried the boat away from the side of the ship, precisely as Mr. Boulong had calculated. The six oars dropped into the water as one, and the men began to pull, getting a firm hold on the receding wave, which sent the cutter to a safe distance from the ship. As soon as she was clear, the commander, who had remained in the pilot-house, rang the gong to go ahead. When the steamer had gathered sufficient headway, she was brought about as cautiously as before.
The second cutter was on the port quarter of the vessel, and this movement placed the boat under the lee. Mr. Gaskette had remained aft, and when the ship had stopped her screw and nearly lost her headway, the captain shouted to him through his speaking-trumpet, which the roar of the waves and the escaping steam rendered necessary, to "Lower away!"
"Lower away when you are ready, Mr. Scott!" repeated the second officer.
Though Scott was only eighteen years old, he was an intuitive sailor, and had a good deal of experience for his years. He had never before occupied his present position; but his nautical genius, fortified by sundry combats with wind and waves, made him feel quite at home. As the first officer had done, he seized the auspicious moment when the retiring wave promised its efficient aid, and gave the orders to cast off the falls.
The six oars grappled with the water on the smooth side of a great wave, and carried it to the apex of the next billow; and she went off as handsomely as the first cutter had done. Mr. Gaskette saw these manoeuvres successfully accomplished, and then started for the pilot-house, to report to the captain. On his way he could not help giving an inquiring look at the manner in which the substitute for Bargate performed his duty.
At eighteen Louis was a healthy, vigorous, athletic fellow, developed by an active life on the ocean, and weighing one hundred and fifty pounds. In any trial of strength he was more than the equal of any other member of the "Big Four," as the four young men berthing in the cabin called themselves, borrowing the name from a combination of railroads in the West. He was well trained as an oarsman, and the second officer was satisfied that he was doing his full share of the work.
As Mr. Gaskette reached the pilot-house there was a commotion there, and it was evident to him that something unlooked for had occurred. He glanced at the two cutters; but they were all right, and were steadily making their way to the locality of the wreck.
"The wreck is going down, sir!" exclaimed Bangs with startling energy just before the second officer reached the door.
"It is all up with that craft!" added Twist, the other quartermaster.
Captain Ringgold said nothing, but calmly surveyed the men who were now struggling in the water. They seemed to be all able to swim; but it was a closer call than they had had before. The two cutters appeared to be their only possible salvation, and they were still at a considerable distance from the scene of peril.
It was a terribly exciting and harrowing spectacle; but the commander looked as impassable as ever. He rang the gong for the ship to go ahead; and Mr. Gaskette wondered what he intended to do, though he was not left more than a moment in suspense.