Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/36

 power of the Almighty, — "Where the air is calm, where sleep the deep waters." The scenery of the heavens and of the sea was magnificent, the former covered with  those peculiar clouds called



The sea was as smooth as a mirror through the night. Nothing seemed to disturb its peaceful bosom, except now and then some huge monster of the deep or the  gleaming of a shark’s fin.

On the 25th we set our course towards Madeira. For several days the weather was fine. On the 29th we crossed the Tropic of Cancer, longitude 4° west, at eight  bells — twelve o’clock midnight. I had just relieved the lookout on the lee quarter. Except for a slight roll of the ship, silence reigned supreme. I am now about to reveal a secret that has been smothered in my breast for  fifty long years. Would to God I could blot it from my memory! Through all these years it has been known to none save myself and to Him whose all-seeing  eye is ever upon us. As I was looking down the cabin skylight, I saw Commodore Wilkes, the man who had  ordered me to be flogged, sitting at a table tracing out a  chart. I remembered my oath, and even then felt the sting of the boatswain’s colt. I realized the situation, and the devil took possession of me. I watched my opportunity, and as the officer of the deek walked forward I grabbed an iron belaying-pin from the rack. In an instant it was suspended over the commodore’s head,  while I paused a moment, waiting for the ship’s weather