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Updated: June 9, 2025
"Be very careful, or you will lose the stroke." "No, I won't. Put 'em through by daylight!" And Tim, without paying much attention to the swaying of the coxswain's body, by which his stroke should have been regulated, redoubled his exertions. He was very much excited, and the next moment the handle of his oar hit the boy in front of him in the back.
He was laid on a soft bed of moss in the warmest corner of the hut, and the women took their turn in nursing him, night and day the coxswain's wife, however, being the chief nurse; for, besides being sympathetic and tender by nature, she had been trained in a rough school where self-reliance and capacity were constantly called into action in circumstances of difficulty, so that she was better fitted for the post than either of her companions.
"Now," said he, "when honest Craeke sounds his coxswain's whistle, it will be a signal of his being clear of the crowd, and of his having reached the other side of the pond. And then it will be our turn to depart." Five minutes had not elapsed, before a long and shrill whistle was heard through the din and noise of the square of the Buytenhof. John gratefully raised his eyes to heaven.
I can't hit the name on't; well, you get me a bottle of wine, Jim this here brandy's too strong for my head." Now, the coxswain's hesitation seemed to be unnatural; and as for the notion of his preferring wine to brandy, I entirely disbelieved it. He wanted me to leave the deck so much was plain; but with what purpose I could in no way imagine.
The sky was steely grey with clouds that verged on black; and both were so mingled together that it seemed as if the little vessel were imbedded in the very heart of a drizzling, heaving, hissing ocean. The coxswain's wife stood leaning on her stalwart husband's arm, by the foremast, gazing over the side. "It do seem more dreary than I expected," she said.
But a certain scarcely-perceptible ironical inflection in the coxswain's voice, when he so kindly offered me the use of his jumper, suggested the suspicion that perhaps he was quietly amusing himself and his shipmates at my expense, and that the drenching I had received was due more to his management of the boat than anything else, so I set myself quietly to watch.
"The niggardly slave!" he said, weighing the purse in his hand for, being a man of unbounded expense, he had almost constant occasion for money "The base, sordid scullion! A coxswain's wife would give more to know that her husband had crossed the narrow seas in safety. He acquire any tincture of humane letters! yes, when prowling foxes and yelling wolves become musicians.
Mr Jellaby's face was as pale as that of the man we had rescued. So was the coxswain's; and both seemed to start on seeing me as if I had been a ghost. "Good heavens, my boy!" exclaimed the lieutenant. "How did you get here?" "The doctor sent me, sir," I answered glibly. "He was getting anxious about you and thought something had happened."
"The mainmast has not been cut adrift; it will be a dangerous task," said the coxswain. "Lads, we shall have to board her on the weather-side, I fear." From the position we had gained we could now see to leeward; and there, sure enough, hung the mainmast, which the sea was tossing up and down in a way which would speedily have destroyed our boat. The coxswain's resolution was taken.
They hoisted their foresail, and with a gale of wind behind them raced into and through the surf on the Goodwins, which lay between them and home. The Goodwins are four miles wide, and the land was eight miles distant, but a splendid success had crowned the brave and steadfast Deal coxswain's efforts.
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