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The battle of Angamos was over at last. The Huascar's men were then secured, a prize-crew placed on board, and under escort of the Almirante Cochrane and Blanco Encalada she went under her own steam into the harbour of Mejillones, where she was temporarily patched up and rendered more or less seaworthy.
I was obliged to take what I could get, and if it had not been the season for tunny-fishing I might not even have got this wretched pinnace, or rather I should have had to go into the harbour to find it, and they keep such a sharp lookout that I might well have gone in without coming out again." "At least it is seaworthy," said Blancard.
One was so completely stove in that she was perfectly useless; and we made up our minds that we should have to take to a raft, when the carpenter reported that he could in a very short time render the other boat seaworthy. We accordingly did our best to make her fit to float, though darkness came down upon us before we had finished.
In order to avoid such a catastrophe, the proper procedure is to "heave-to" before the sea has attained so dangerous a height; but even a landsman can understand how reluctant a shipmaster may be to lie like a log just drifting, while a more seaworthy ship is flying along at the rate of, perhaps, three hundred miles a day in the desired direction.
"Is that little boat yours also?" she said to the fisherman, who had looked up, a little startled by the tall grey figure, and had made a reverence to this holy Sister wandering thus mysteriously in the evening solitude. It was his boat; an old one, hardly seaworthy, yet worth repairing to any man who would buy it.
In fact they had passed through their minds long before they arrived alongside the gig; for they were but the natural considerations suggested by the presence of the boat. They were now in possession of a seaworthy craft. It seemed as if Providence had thrown it in their way; and they had no idea of abandoning it. On the contrary, it was the raft which was to be deserted.
Spars were lost and rigging carried away. The Jesus, which had not been seaworthy all along, leaked worse than ever and lost her rudder. Hawkins looked for some port in Florida, but found the coast shallow and dangerous, and was at last obliged to run for San Juan de Ulloa, at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. San Juan de Ulloa is a few miles only from Vera Cruz.
"I am always at the captain's orders. Show him in," said the squire. The captain, who was close behind his messenger, entered at once, and shut the door behind him. "Well, Captain Smollett, what have you to say? All well, I hope; all shipshape and seaworthy?" "Well, sir," said the captain, "better speak plain, I believe, even at the risk of offence.
"This is a scene I've witnessed a good many times, first and last," said he. "Each time it impresses me afresh with the daring of the participants. Brave young things, setting sail upon a mighty ocean, in a small boat, which may or may not be seaworthy some of them, it seems, sometimes, with neither chart nor compass certainly with little knowledge of the crew. It's a trite comparison, I suppose."
The 'James Caird' was in the lead, with the 'Stancomb Wills' next and the 'Dudley Docker' bringing up the rear. In order to make the boats more seaworthy we had left some of our shovels, picks, and dried vegetables on the floe, and for a long time we could see the abandoned stores forming a dark spot on the ice. The boats were still heavily loaded.
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