Page:How the Mail Steamer Went Down.pdf/3

 We steamed on, and I watched the looming ship. 'Shows his green, sir!' 'All right.' A minute after the boatswain ran swiftly aft, and said softly to the officer on the bridge: 'He's going about, sir. D—d if I know what he wants to do.' We lost sight of the vessel's green just as we cleared the big bank of haze, and then I saw that a big barque was standing right across our bows. I glanced at the mate, and saw him compress his lips; then I saw that we were edging away to port, and I knew that our man was going to shoot across the barque's bows. Distances are so deceptive that I still had no thought of nervousness till the barque suddenly shook out her square mainsail and came surging away till we saw her red light. What could one make of this? The officer yelled of a sudden, with an oath, 'Starboard, for Christ's sake, starboard!' and then, as if by magic, the cloud of canvas seemed to overtop us. I saw the officer hanging to the rail, and as I jumped on the hatches I noticed, with forlorn curiosity, that his knuckles were white. I heard a long scraunch, and then the barque bounded back a few yards, while the steamer trailed on; she came slowly into us again, and I heard her bows crashing, for she had dashed clean against the bulks of the stokehole. One shrill scream came shuddering up from the cabin—only one—then a murmur, then a hoarse burst of yelling; then a man came came up and cried, 'Oh, my God!' and then, in a wild, remorseless, ferocious crowd, the steerage men trampled up, struggling, tearing each other's clothes, cursing, praying. Some of the women battered and screamed as they tried to force the bolts of their door; then the whole crowd broke clear, and soon they were clinging to the men, praying, jabbering with notes of horrible pathos all kinds of incoherences. I ran aft, and saw the barque waver, lurch, and then sink.

I remember now observing how her masts quivered, and I heard a report like that of a heavy cannon as her hatches were thrust up by the air. A green and white mountain gleamed in the grey of the dawn, and then the ship was no more seen. The ladies from the cabin were mostly in their nightdresses, and the men also had taken no time to dress. I saw white, drawn faces, and I noticed particularly my English gentleman and his daughter. She was hanging to his arm, and I thought she was shaking convulsively, but she kept her lips tight, and only the deadly stare of her eyes flashing from the pallor of her writhing face told of her trouble. The captain rushed forward, buckling his belt as he came. He was in his shirt sleeves, and I saw the butt of a Deringer peeping from his Yankee pocket behind him. From below there came a queer sucking sound, with an occasional long gurgle, and I saw that the vessel seemed to 'hang' as the seas met her. The second officer, who was a smart man, had passed a spare sail over the side, and I knew he wanted to reeve it under her, but he might just as well have tried to stop the middle arch of London Bridge. The engines were still kept going, but the deck slanted, slanted steadily, and the list to starboard reached an angle that made it difficult to stand at all, especially as the uneasy, staggering lunges of the steamer were taking her anyhow. An awkward rush of men swayed forward; the boxer and his gang made a desperate attempt to get one of the boats clear; cursing and praying, they hacked at the tackles with knives; some of them swarmed up, and stood on the thwarts tearing savagely at the chains; but the boats were made fast to stand heavy weather, and only skilled sailors could launch them. A loud crack, followed by a wallowing noise like thunder, rendered all other sounds insignificant, and a captain who was going out to New York said; 'The bulkhead's gone. We must take our chance now.' The ship stopped nearly dead, and began to tremble curiously, but that was only the river of water pouring aft, and we soon saw the firemen driven up like rats from a burrow. 'Stand by the boats!'

The order was given, and the boatswain's call rose in a long, tremulous screech. The sailors tried to get to their quarters, and I observed that their occasional drills had done them good. But then the drills had been carried on