CHAPTER 13

July 24. This morning saw us wonderfully recruited in spirits and

strength. Notwithstanding the perilous situation in which we were

still placed, ignorant of our position, although certainly at a

great distance from land, without more food than would last us

for a fortnight even with great care, almost entirely without

water, and floating about at the mercy of every wind and wave on

the merest wreck in the world, still the infinitely more terrible

distresses and dangers from which we had so lately and so

providentially been delivered caused us to regard what we now

endured as but little more than an ordinary evil—so strictly

comparative is either good or ill.

At sunrise we were preparing to renew our attempts at getting up

something from the storeroom, when, a smart shower coming on,

with some lightning, we turn our attention to the catching of

water by means of the sheet we had used before for this purpose.

We had no other means of collecting the rain than by holding the

sheet spread out with one of the forechain-plates in the middle

of it. The water, thus conducted to the centre, was drained

through into our jug. We had nearly filled it in this manner,

when, a heavy squall coming on from the northward, obliged us to

desist, as the hulk began once more to roll so violently that we

could no longer keep our feet. We now went forward, and, lashing

ourselves securely to the remnant of the windlass as before,

awaited the event with far more calmness than could have been

anticipated or would have been imagined possible under the

circumstances. At noon the wind had freshened into a two-reef

breeze, and by night into a stiff gale, accompanied with a

tremendously heavy swell. Experience having taught us, however,

the best method of arranging our lashings, we weathered this

dreary night in tolerable security, although thoroughly drenched

at almost every instant by the sea, and in momentary dread of

being washed off. Fortunately, the weather was so warm as to

render the water rather grateful than otherwise.

July 25. This morning the gale had diminished to a mere ten-knot

breeze, and the sea had gone down with it so considerably that we

were able to keep ourselves dry upon the deck. To our great

grief, however, we found that two jars of our olives, as well as

the whole of our ham, had been washed overboard, in spite of the

careful manner in which they had been fastened. We determined not

to kill the tortoise as yet, and contented ourselves for the

present with a breakfast on a few of the olives, and a measure of

water each, which latter we mixed half and half, with wine,

finding great relief and strength from the mixture, without the

distressing intoxication which had ensued upon drinking the port.

The sea was still far too rough for the renewal of our efforts at

getting up provision from the storeroom. Several articles, of no

importance to us in our present situation, floated up through the

opening during the day, and were immediately washed overboard. We

also now observed that the hulk lay more along than ever, so that

we could not stand an instant without lashing ourselves. On this

account we passed a gloomy and uncomfortable day. At noon the sun

appeared to be nearly vertical, and we had no doubt that we had

been driven down by the long succession of northward and

northwesterly winds into the near vicinity of the equator. Toward

evening we saw several sharks, and were somewhat alarmed by the

audacious manner in which an enormously large one approached us.

At one time, a lurch throwing the deck very far beneath the

water, the monster actually swam in upon us, floundering for some

moments just over the companion-hatch, and striking Peters

violently with his tail. A heavy sea at length hurled him

overboard, much to our relief. In moderate weather we might have

easily captured him.

July 26. This morning, the wind having greatly abated, and the

sea not being very rough, we determined to renew our exertions in

the storeroom. After a great deal of hard labor during the whole

day, we found that nothing further was to be expected from this

quarter, the partitions of the room having been stove during the

night, and its contents swept into the hold. This discovery, as

may be supposed, filled us with despair.

July 27. The sea nearly smooth, with a light wind, and still from

the northward and westward. The sun coming out hotly in the

afternoon, we occupied ourselves in drying our clothes. Found

great relief from thirst, and much comfort otherwise, by bathing

in the sea; in this, however, we were forced to use great

caution, being afraid of sharks, several of which were seen

swimming around the brig during the day.

July 28. Good weather still. The brig now began to lie along so

alarmingly that we feared she would eventually roll bottom up.

Prepared ourselves as well as we could for this emergency,

lashing our tortoise, waterjug, and two remaining jars of olives

as far as possible over to the windward, placing them outside the

hull below the main-chains. The sea very smooth all day, with

little or no wind.

July 29. A continuance of the same weather. Augustus’s wounded

arm began to evince symptoms of mortification. He complained of

drowsiness and excessive thirst, but no acute pain. Nothing could

be done for his relief beyond rubbing his wounds with a little of

the vinegar from the olives, and from this no benefit seemed to

be experienced. We did every thing in our power for his comfort,

and trebled his allowance of water.

July 30. An excessively hot day, with no wind. An enormous shark

kept close by the hulk during the whole of the forenoon. We made

several unsuccessful attempts to capture him by means of a noose.

Augustus much worse, and evidently sinking as much from want of

proper nourishment as from the effect of his wounds. He

constantly prayed to be relieved from his sufferings, wishing for

nothing but death. This evening we ate the last of our olives,

and found the water in our jug so putrid that we could not

swallow it at all without the addition of wine. Determined to

kill our tortoise in the morning.

July 31. After a night of excessive anxiety and fatigue, owing to

the position of the hulk, we set about killing and cutting up our

tortoise. He proved to be much smaller than we had supposed,

although in good condition,—the whole meat about him not

amounting to more than ten pounds. With a view of preserving a

portion of this as long as possible, we cut it into fine pieces,

and filled with them our three remaining olive jars and the

wine-bottle (all of which had been kept), pouring in afterward

the vinegar from the olives. In this manner we put away about

three pounds of the tortoise, intending not to touch it until we

had consumed the rest. We concluded to restrict ourselves to

about four ounces of the meat per day; the whole would thus last

us thirteen days. A brisk shower, with severe thunder and

lightning, came on about dusk, but lasted so short a time that we

only succeeded in catching about half a pint of water. The whole

of this, by common consent, was given to Augustus, who now

appeared to be in the last extremity. He drank the water from the

sheet as we caught it (we holding it above him as he lay so as to

let it run into his mouth), for we had now nothing left capable

of holding water, unless we had chosen to empty out our wine from

the carboy, or the stale water from the jug. Either of these

expedients would have been resorted to had the shower lasted.

The sufferer seemed to derive but little benefit from the

draught. His arm was completely black from the wrist to the

shoulder, and his feet were like ice. We expected every moment to

see him breathe his last. He was frightfully emaciated; so much

so that, although he weighed a hundred and twenty-seven pounds

upon his leaving Nantucket, he now did not weigh more than forty

or fifty at the farthest. His eyes were sunk far in his head,

being scarcely perceptible, and the skin of his cheeks hung so

loosely as to prevent his masticating any food, or even

swallowing any liquid, without great difficulty.

August 1. A continuance of the same calm weather, with an

oppressively hot sun. Suffered exceedingly from thirst, the water

in the jug being absolutely putrid and swarming with vermin. We

contrived, nevertheless, to swallow a portion of it by mixing it

with wine; our thirst, however, was but little abated. We found

more relief by bathing in the sea, but could not avail ourselves

of this expedient except at long intervals, on account of the

continual presence of sharks. We now saw clearly that Augustus

could not be saved; that he was evidently dying. We could do

nothing to relieve his sufferings, which appeared to be great.

About twelve o’clock he expired in strong convulsions, and

without having spoken for several hours. His death filled us with

the most gloomy forebodings, and had so great an effect upon our

spirits that we sat motionless by the corpse during the whole

day, and never addressed each other except in a whisper. It was

not until some time after dark that we took courage to get up and

throw the body overboard. It was then loathsome beyond

expression, and so far decayed that, as Peters attempted to lift

it, an entire leg came off in his grasp. As the mass of

putrefaction slipped over the vessel’s side into the water, the

glare of phosphoric light with which it was surrounded plainly

discovered to us seven or eight large sharks, the clashing of

whose horrible teeth, as their prey was torn to pieces among

them, might have been heard at the distance of a mile. We shrunk

within ourselves in the extremity of horror at the sound.

August 2. The same fearfully calm and hot weather. The dawn found

us in a state of pitiable dejection as well as bodily exhaustion.

The water in the jug was now absolutely useless, being a thick

gelatinous mass; nothing but frightful-looking worms mingled with

slime. We threw it out, and washed the jug well in the sea,

afterward pouring a little vinegar in it from our bottles of

pickled tortoise. Our thirst could now scarcely be endured, and

we tried in vain to relieve it by wine, which seemed only to add

fuel to the flame, and excited us to a high degree of

intoxication. We afterward endeavoured to relieve our sufferings

by mixing the wine with seawater; but this instantly brought

about the most violent retchings, so that we never again

attempted it. During the whole day we anxiously sought an

opportunity of bathing, but to no purpose; for the hulk was now

entirely besieged on all sides with sharks—no doubt the identical

monsters who had devoured our poor companion on the evening

before, and who were in momentary expectation of another similar

feast. This circumstance occasioned us the most bitter regret and

filled us with the most depressing and melancholy forebodings. We

had experienced indescribable relief in bathing, and to have this

resource cut off in so frightful a manner was more than we could

bear. Nor, indeed, were we altogether free from the apprehension

of immediate danger, for the least slip or false movement would

have thrown us at once within reach of those voracious fish, who

frequently thrust themselves directly upon us, swimming up to

leeward. No shouts or exertions on our part seemed to alarm them.

Even when one of the largest was struck with an axe by Peters and

much wounded, he persisted in his attempts to push in where we

were. A cloud came up at dusk, but, to our extreme anguish,

passed over without discharging itself. It is quite impossible to

conceive our sufferings from thirst at this period. We passed a

sleepless night, both on this account and through dread of the

sharks.

August 3. No prospect of relief, and the brig lying still more

and more along, so that now we could not maintain a footing upon

deck at all. Busied ourselves in securing our wine and

tortoise-meat, so that we might not lose them in the event of our

rolling over. Got out two stout spikes from the forechains, and,

by means of the axe, drove them into the hull to windward within

a couple of feet of the water, this not being very far from the

keel, as we were nearly upon our beam-ends. To these spikes we

now lashed our provisions, as being more secure than their former

position beneath the chains. Suffered great agony from thirst

during the whole day—no chance of bathing on account of the

sharks, which never left us for a moment. Found it impossible to

sleep.

August 4. A little before daybreak we perceived that the hulk was

heeling over, and aroused ourselves to prevent being thrown off

by the movement. At first the roll was slow and gradual, and we

contrived to clamber over to windward very well, having taken the

precaution to leave ropes hanging from the spikes we had driven

in for the provision. But we had not calculated sufficiently upon

the acceleration of the impetus; for, presently the heel became

too violent to allow of our keeping pace with it; and, before

either of us knew what was to happen, we found ourselves hurled

furiously into the sea, and struggling several fathoms beneath

the surface, with the huge hull immediately above us.

In going under the water I had been obliged to let go my hold

upon the rope; and finding that I was completely beneath the

vessel, and my strength nearly exhausted, I scarcely made a

struggle for life, and resigned myself, in a few seconds, to die.

But here again I was deceived, not having taken into

consideration the natural rebound of the hull to windward. The

whirl of the water upward, which the vessel occasioned in rolling

partially back, brought me to the surface still more violently

than I had been plunged beneath. Upon coming up I found myself

about twenty yards from the hulk, as near as I could judge. She

was lying keel up, rocking furiously from side to side, and the

sea in all directions around was much agitated, and full of

strong whirlpools. I could see nothing of Peters. An oil-cask was

floating within a few feet of me, and various other articles from

the brig were scattered about.

My principal terror was now on account of the sharks, which I

knew to be in my vicinity. In order to deter these, if possible,

from approaching me, I splashed the water vigorously with both

hands and feet as I swam towards the hulk, creating a body of

foam. I have no doubt that to this expedient, simple as it was, I

was indebted for my preservation; for the sea all round the brig,

just before her rolling over, was so crowded with these monsters,

that I must have been, and really was, in actual contact with

some of them during my progress. By great good fortune, however,

I reached the side of the vessel in safety, although so utterly

weakened by the violent exertion I had used that I should never

have been able to get upon it but for the timely assistance of

Peters, who, now, to my great joy, made his appearance (having

scrambled up to the keel from the opposite side of the hull), and

threw me the end of a rope—one of those which had been attached

to the spikes.

Having barely escaped this danger, our attention was now directed

to the dreadful imminency of another—that of absolute starvation.

Our whole stock of provision had been swept overboard in spite of

all our care in securing it; and seeing no longer the remotest

possibility of obtaining more, we gave way both of us to despair,

weeping aloud like children, and neither of us attempting to

offer consolation to the other. Such weakness can scarcely be

conceived, and to those who have never been similarly situated

will, no doubt, appear unnatural; but it must be remembered that

our intellects were so entirely disordered by the long course of

privation and terror to which we had been subjected, that we

could not justly be considered, at that period, in the light of

rational beings. In subsequent perils, nearly as great, if not

greater, I bore up with fortitude against all the evils of my

situation, and Peters, it will be seen, evinced a stoical

philosophy nearly as incredible as his present childlike

supineness and imbecility—the mental condition made the

difference.

The overturning of the brig, even with the consequent loss of the

wine and turtle, would not, in fact, have rendered our situation

more deplorable than before, except for the disappearance of the

bedclothes by which we had been hitherto enabled to catch

rainwater, and of the jug in which we had kept it when caught;

for we found the whole bottom, from within two or three feet of

the bends as far as the keel, together with the keel itself,

thickly covered with large barnacles, which proved to be

excellent and highly nutritious food. Thus, in two important

respects, the accident we had so greatly dreaded proved to be a

benefit rather than an injury; it had opened to us a supply of

provisions which we could not have exhausted, using it

moderately, in a month; and it had greatly contributed to our

comfort as regards position, we being much more at ease, and in

infinitely less danger, than before.

The difficulty, however, of now obtaining water blinded us to all

the benefits of the change in our condition. That we might be

ready to avail ourselves, as far as possible, of any shower which

might fall we took off our shirts, to make use of them as we had

of the sheets—not hoping, of course, to get more in this way,

even under the most favorable circumstances, than half a gill at

a time. No signs of a cloud appeared during the day, and the

agonies of our thirst were nearly intolerable. At night, Peters

obtained about an hour’s disturbed sleep, but my intense

sufferings would not permit me to close my eyes for a single

moment.

August 5. To-day, a gentle breeze springing up carried us through

a vast quantity of seaweed, among which we were so fortunate as

to find eleven small crabs, which afforded us several delicious

meals. Their shells being quite soft, we ate them entire, and

found that they irritated our thirst far less than the barnacles.

Seeing no trace of sharks among the seaweed, we also ventured to

bathe, and remained in the water for four or five hours, during

which we experienced a very sensible diminution of our thirst.

Were greatly refreshed, and spent the night somewhat more

comfortably than before, both of us snatching a little sleep.

August 6. This day we were blessed by a brisk and continual rain,

lasting from about noon until after dark. Bitterly did we now

regret the loss of our jug and carboy; for, in spite of the

little means we had of catching the water, we might have filled

one, if not both of them. As it was, we contrived to satisfy the

cravings of thirst by suffering the shirts to become saturated,

and then wringing them so as to let the grateful fluid trickle

into our mouths. In this occupation we passed the entire day.

August 7. Just at daybreak we both at the same instant descried a

sail to the eastward, and _evidently coming towards us!_ We

hailed the glorious sight with a long, although feeble shout of

rapture; and began instantly to make every signal in our power,

by flaring the shirts in the air, leaping as high as our weak

condition would permit, and even by hallooing with all the

strength of our lungs, although the vessel could not have been

less than fifteen miles distant. However, she still continued to

near our hulk, and we felt that, if she but held her present

course, she must eventually come so close as to perceive us. In

about an hour after we first discovered her, we could clearly see

the people on her decks. She was a long, low, and rakish-looking

topsail schooner, with a black ball in her foretopsail, and had,

apparently, a full crew. We now became alarmed, for we could

hardly imagine it possible that she did not observe us, and were

apprehensive that she meant to leave us to perish as we were—an

act of fiendish barbarity, which, however incredible it may

appear, has been repeatedly perpetuated at sea, under

circumstances very nearly similar, and by beings who were

regarded as belonging to the human species. {*2} In this

instance, however, by the mercy of God, we were destined to be

most happily deceived; for, presently we were aware of a sudden

commotion on the deck of the stranger, who immediately afterward

ran up a British flag, and, hauling her wind, bore up directly

upon us. In half an hour more we found ourselves in her cabin.

She proved to be the Jane Guy, of Liverpool, Captain Guy, bound

on a sealing and trading voyage to the South Seas and Pacific.