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After this, the mizzen-topsail and topgallant-sail, which had been cut off from the yards and saved from the wreck, were hoisted on roughly improvised yards; when, the Nancy Bell being brought round with the wind abeam, was cast loose from the wreckage and headed due east towards the land in the very direction whence had been heard the sound of breakers, and which all on board had been so anxious to give a wide berth to but so few short hours before.
The Silver Queen now lay-to, motionless in the water, with only her main trysail and a storm staysail forward set. "What is a typhoon?" I asked Mr Mackay, when I got down on deck again after helping to hand the mizzen-topsail, the last job we had to do on our mast. "What does it mean?" "It's the Chinese word for a `big wind, my boy," said he kindly; but looking very grave.
I never remember a more dismal-looking close to a day. We had managed to close-reef the mizzen-topsail; but the main-topsail, which was more difficult to manage, was still bulging out above the yard, the hands on which it threatened every instant to strike off, as the ship, with desperate force, kept plunging her bows into the opposing seas.
I was aloft in an instant, helping to reef the mizzen-topsail; the topgallant-sails and courses had been clewed up. The wind was about north-west, and blew very cold. The leaden waves rose sullenly on every side, topped with hissing foam, and every instant they leaped higher and higher, as if lashing themselves into fury. The twilight of evening was just giving way to the gloom of night.
"Master Keene, I never had an idea that the captain could handle his ship so well: he really knows what he's about as well as any man in the service." "I thought so, too," replied I. "Whew! there's a nasty shot," cried I, as one came in and upset half a dozen of the marines, who were hauling upon the mizzen-topsail sheet, which had just been spliced.
And as the frigate broached-to we saw that my surmise was not very far wide of the mark, her mizzen-topgallant-mast and mizzen-topsail yard having been shot away, the latter in the slings. The three vessels now went at it, hammer and tongs, the brigantine being for the moment fairly under the frigate's guns.
Frank Harness, the "third mate," as he was euphemistically called a dashing young fellow of nineteen, and just completing his sea-time as midshipman before passing the Trinity House examination for his certificate in seamanship who had been aloft bearing a hand in making the mizzen-topsail snug, the leech of the sail having blown out through the violence of the gale, was just on his way down the rigging again to see where he could be of use elsewhere, when he noticed the boy's peril as quickly as the passenger; and, with one bound, he alighted on the deck.
Two hands were sent to the helm, but even they had the greatest difficulty to steer the ship. The only hope of saving the masts was in keeping directly before the wind until the canvas could be taken off her. The mizzen-topsail had been furled.
The hurricane had in truth burst on the Marie, and the utmost skill of the best seamen was required to preserve her from destruction. All that day she ran on before the wind. Spilling-lines had been got over the closely reefed fore-topsail, but even then it seemed that the sail would break away. With a report like a clap of thunder the mizzen-topsail was blown clean away from the bolt ropes.
"By God, I'll not lose Hardy!" he exclaimed; "back the mizzen-topsail." The ship's speed being thus checked, the boat came alongside, and the party scrambled on board.
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