Our captain was an Irishman, a man who had worked his way " through the hawse pipe" and was a thorough sailor, whom no one would be afraid to sail with. Ho had 2 bad name for putting his crews in prison, but I myself saw no bad points in him.' As for Jack Ellis, he and I became good friends and companions for the voyage.
I pass over the details of the storms, calms, and heavy seas we met with in our one-masted and rotten-timbered ketch, and merely mention that we had north-casterly Trade ground-swells, throughout the passage. Our boat behaved very well, but the strong There was deep cut in the lower lip, currents made our' journey a long one. which may have been caused by a stone We had hardly left the coast of New when deceased fell, although, when found, Zealand, when a school of impudent the body was lying face up, the head just grampus and blackfish came, surrounded covered by water.
It transpires that deceased came into the Settlement from Hanyang on Monday afternoon to spend the evening with some friends, They dined at the Astor House Hotel and then visited the house of one of his friends, where they had several us, and then closed alongside. They seemed to want to board us and they certainly remained for hours. The captain thought it dangerous to fire as they might show fight, and they might easily have endangered the vessel. We were alarmed anyway, as we knew they would smell the rotten wood which always attracts fish, and, if any of the monsters had chosen to give her a knock, it would have gone ill with the "Fortune." We regarded the fish as a bad omen.
No doubt the captain thought he could do the passage in a month and a-half and for that reason did not provide extra provisions. But Jack Ellis and I, well aware of the condition of the boat, had another anxiety. Often, when we ere in the hold together, I would "Look here, Jack," as I would dig my fingers into the rotten wood. "Ti tell you," I went on, "we'll say nothing about this, but we'll prepare for emergencies. We know there aronot many provisions on board, and that the little dinghy is in not much better condition than the ketch—too poor to rely on, in }easo of accident. There isn't much firewood either; nothing to make a raft of except my big box. We could fasten that between two casks and it would carry us well."
We kept our scheme to ourselves and for the good of all, stowed " little provision under the ballast, to servo in case of extreme emergency. hero was no know. ing what might happen, as Jack said, between the top and the bottom of the sea,"
Tt happened one night, in the middle watch—we were in about Lat. 78. the longitude I have forgotten—I "was lying in my bunk, when the versal was caught in a squall." The mate was at the holm, but as I have alrendy said, ho knew nothing of his business and got scared. The way ho was kicking up the own delight with the helm woke mo up. I asked him angrily if ho wanted to break the helm, and was so mad with him that the captain, hearing the noise, laso came running up. But it was too Into; the helm refused to steer, the rudder in fact had broken in two. And now we saw the value of the captain's oxperience, for he soon had spar over the and steered by that and the sails. We managed to progress thus for several days and reached Lat. gS Than it became very calm. This gave an opportunity to unship the noisy, ussloss rudder, got it on deck and lash it together, to serve till we could roach the Marshall Islands. For it was already the latter end of November and things were beginning to look queer with us, So plucky Jack Ellis volunteered for the job and for three hours was slung over the side on a bowline, sometimes half in the water and sometimes out of it, as the vessel bobbed helplessly up and down, with only the jib to command hor. There were sharks about, too, and the rest of us had to keep a sharp look-out to give him warning in time to get out of their way. At last the rudder was hauled on board and then there was little carpentering to do as best we could, for we wore short of tools on board. The small chains off my galley-stove were taken to frap it together, but it was heavy, clumsy, botched work that made me wonder how long it was going to hold together, especially if we should get stormy weather. For a few days we knocked about the sea in a reckless mai ner till finally we hardly knew which way to put the helm, for the head of it was one way and the lower part the other.
Right or wrong, we jogged along till we came in sight of small island. This was a great relief, for our scanty provisions would not have held out many more days. As we approached the shore some dozens of canoes shoved off towards, us, Naden with chicken, pigs, cocoannts, and fruit. This nearly always happens when a
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