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We were again on our proper course, though the sea was still running high, when towards evening an object was seen floating ahead of us, just on the lee-bow. We were at no great distance, little more than half a mile or so, when first seen, so that we were not left long in doubt as to what it was. "A raft!" said one; "A piece of a wreck," said another; "Some casks," said a third.
It was the darkest part of the still short night, when the lookers-out ahead gave notice that they heard the crashing sound of ice grinding together. Directly afterwards the words "Ice ahead!" echoed along the deck. Immediately the starboard tacks were hauled aboard, and the ship was kept to the northward. Again the startling cry was heard, "Ice on the lee-bow!" then "Ice ahead!"
"All hands ahoy!" shouted the mate in a tempestuous voice, while the men rushed to their respective stations. "Boat-steerers, get your boats ready." "Ay, ay, sir." "There go flukes," cried the look-out, as the whale dived and tossed its flukes that is, its tail in the air, not more than a mile on the lee-bow; "she's heading right for the ship." "Down with the helm!" roared the captain. "Mr.
Marble and I stood on the forecastle, watching the formation of the coast, and making our comments, as the ship drove through the short seas, buried to her figure-head. At length, we thought a head-land that was discernible a little under our lee-bow, looked promising, and Michael was called from the wheel and questioned concerning it.
"Ugly sea on the lee-bow!" was heard again from forward, and all in that direction seemed suddenly to have become a mass of white. "Ready about! hard a-lee!" and with a great lurch the old craft went about once more, the renewed shrieking in every kind of pitch in the rigging, and the blinding dash of spray, showing to what a hurricane the gale had risen.
"Where away?" cried everyone eagerly. "Right off the lee-bow there, don't you see it?" At that moment a faint cry came floating over the black water, and died away in the breeze. The single word "Hurrah!" burst from our throats with all the power of our lungs, and we bent to our oars till we wellnigh tore the rollicks out of the boat.
The Elizabeth followed, clearing the flag-ship by merely twenty fathoms, and receiving a similar order. The Druid had been on the admiral's weather-quarter, but she now came gliding down, with the wind abeam, taking room to back her top-sail under the Cæsar's lee-bow.
I felt the thrill of those forward leaps, heard that persuasive song the foam sings under the lee-bow, saw the flashing harmonies of sea and sky; but sensuous perception was deadened by nervousness. The yacht looked smaller than ever outside the quiet fiord. The song of the foam seemed very near, the wave crests aft very high.
"We have now as fine a ship's company as were ever collected together, having cleared out the black sheep who were among them, and they are in as good temper as men need be." "A sail on the lee-bow," shouted the look-out from aloft. "What is she like?" asked the captain. "A full-rigged ship, sir," was the answer. There was a fresh northerly breeze at the time, and the frigate was under easy sail.
An anxious search of about a minute, however a minute which seemed an age to Sibylla enabled him to hit it off once more, and he joyously hailed the deck to say that the person whoever it might be was still afloat and broad on the lee-bow.
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