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"Get the jolly-boat over, Mr. Sweers," said the captain, "and take a hand with you, and go and have a look at that craft there; and if you can board her, do so, and bring away her log-book, if you come across it. The newspapers sha'n't say that I fell in with such an object as that and passed on without taking any notice." I caught Mr. Sweers' eye.
"There'll not be much of this iceberg left soon," said I, "if the drift is to the southward." "What d'ye think, that the drift's northerly?" exclaimed Sweers. "I'll tell you what it is; it's these icebergs drifting in masses down south into the Atlantic which cause the sudden spells of cold weather you get in England during seasons when it ought to be hot."
We thoroughly overhauled this interior, spending some time in looking about us, for Sweers' fear of beholding something affrighting vanished when he found himself in a plain ship's cabin, with nothing more terrible to behold than the ship's furniture of a whaleman's living-room of near half a century old.
Sweers, likewise holding a glass, and both men pointed their telescopes towards the sea on the lee bow, where never having before beheld an iceberg I perceived what I imagined to be an island covered with snow. An iceberg it was not a very large one.
Accordingly we opened the main hatch and found the vessel loaded with casks, some of which we examined and found them full of oil. "By tunder!" cried Sweers; "if we could only carry this vessel home there'd be a fortune for both of us, David. Shall I tell you what this sort of oil's worth? Well, it's worth about thirty pounds a ton. And how much d'ye think there's aboard?
During the course of the morning we entered the forepeak, where we found a quantity of coal. This enabled us to light the galley fire, to cook a piece of pork, and to boil some coffee. Towards noon Sweers proposed to inspect the hold, and to see what was inside the ship.
The north-west part of Sweers Island just shut in with Point Inscription leads in, and the dry part of the reef off the south-east end of Sweers Island, bearing South 85 degrees East, clears the reef off the south end of Sweers and Fowler Islands. The boats were again sent, with Messrs.
But even whilst I thus thought, holding my breath and waiting for the death that was to come with the pouring of the water down the open companion-way, I felt the ship right; she lifted buoyant under foot, and I sprang to the steps which conducted on deck, with Sweers as I might know by his voice close at my heels, roaring out, "By tunder, we're adrift and afloat!"
I heard Sweers from some corner of the cabin, bawling out my name; but before I could answer, and even whilst I was staggering to my feet, a second convulsion threw me down again; the next instant there was a sensation as of the vessel being hove up into the air, attended by an extraordinary grinding noise, that thrilled through every beam of her; next, in the space of a few beats of the heart, she plunged into the sea, raising such a boiling and roaring of waters, as, spite of the sounds being dulled to our ears by our being in the cabin, persuaded us that the vessel was foundering.
Caboose, scuttle-butts, harness-cask, wheel, binnacle, companion-cover, skylight, winch, pumps, capstan nothing was wanting; nothing but boats and men. "Is it possible that all hands can be below?" said Sweers, straining his ear.
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