The First Mate: The Story of a Strange Cruise Read online

  Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

  The First Mate, by Harry Collingwood.

  ________________________________________________________________________The hero of this story is Walter Leigh, who takes a job as second mateaboard a gasoline-powered yacht owned by a Mrs Vansittart, whosehusband is an American industrialist. Julius Vansittart is a rathernasty 12-year-old, who, despite his life being saved by Leigh, when hehad fallen overboard, hates the English, and never misses an opportunityof being as unpleasant as possible, even to the point of stupidity.

  There are numerous disasters in this story, with the First Mate's deathoccurring soon after the start of the book, and Leigh's promotion to theposition. After that there are an attack by pirates, a shipwreck, anattack by hostile natives, all of which Leigh does his best to copewith. Eventually even the dreadful Julius becomes a bit more civilised,and apologises for his bad behaviour hitherto.

  They drop a large number of floating messages asking for help, into thesea, and eventually they are rescued. This is not a very long book,taking only 8.5 hours to read as an audiobook.

  ________________________________________________________________________THE FIRST MATE, BY HARRY COLLINGWOOD.

  CHAPTER ONE.

  THE "STELLA MARIS" AND MRS VANSITTART.

  "Well, young man, what do you think of her?"

  The question was addressed to me in a very pleasantly modulated femalevoice, carrying just the slightest suspicion of an American accent. Forthe fraction of a second I was a wee bit startled. I had not had theghost of a suspicion that anyone was nearer me than the gang oflabourers who were busily engaged in unloading a big delivery wagon andtransferring the contents, in the shape of numerous packing cases, tothe deck of the vessel which I was scrutinising. It was afternoon of agrey day in the latter part of October three years ago; and the scenewas one of the wharves of the east basin of the London Docks, roundwhich I had been prowling in search of a ship. I had been thus engagedever since nine o'clock that morning, interviewing skippers and mates,so far unsuccessfully, when I was "brought up all standing" by findingmyself in close proximity to a white-hulled, ship-rigged craft of, Iestimated, some two thousand five hundred tons measurement.

  She was steel-built, with steel lower masts, bowsprit, and lower andtopsail yards; and even if she had not been sporting the ensign of theNew York Yacht Club at her ensign staff and its burgee at her mainroyal-mast-head, I should still have known her for a yacht from theperfection of her lines, the dainty and exquisite beauty of her shape,the whiteness of her decks (notwithstanding their somewhat litteredcondition), the beautiful modelling of her boats, her polished teakrails, and generally the high finish and perfect cleanliness of her deckfittings. She was as heavily rigged as a frigate; moreover, although noguns were visible, I observed that her main-deck bulwarks were piercedwith six ports of a side, in the wake of which steel racers were boltedto the deck; also she sported hammock rails, which I had never seenbefore except in pictures of old-fashioned wooden men-o'-war. A giltcable moulding ornamented her sheer strake; a beautifully carved andgilded full-length figure of a woman wearing a star of cut-glass facetson her forehead formed her figurehead; and her quarters were adornedwith a considerable amount of gilded scroll-work. Her elliptical sternbore, in large gilded block letters, the words: Stella Maris. New York.

  As the enquiry with which I have opened this story reached my ears, Iwheeled round and found myself face to face with a little lady. She wasvery richly dressed in silk and furs, quite colourless as to complexion,but with a fine pair of deep violet eyes and a quantity of dark chestnuthair loosely coiled under an immense hat rigged with black ostrichplumes. I put her down in my own mind as being something overthirty-six years of age, and I subsequently learned that I was not veryfar out.

  Her eyes were dancing with amusement as I wheeled sharply round uponher; and as my hand went up to my cap she laughed a low, musical laugh.

  "Guess I startled you some, didn't I?" she remarked in that pleasantvoice of hers. "You were so completely absorbed by the charms of_Stella Maris_ that you had neither eyes nor ears for anybody else.Well, what do you think of her?"

  I was bareheaded by this time, but still a trifle confused at thesuddenness and unconventionality of my companion's address; yet Iquickly recovered my equanimity.

  "She is the most lovely craft I ever set eyes on, bar none," I answeredwith enthusiasm.

  "Yes, she is a real daisy," agreed my companion. "Do you know what sheis?"

  "I know what she ought to be," I said; "and that is, flagship of theClub. But I see by her burgee that she is merely the property of one ofits members."

  "That is so," returned the lady; "but I guess it's good enough. Say,would you like to go aboard and have a look at her from inside?"

  "Indeed I should, if her owner would not--"

  I hesitated.

  "Well, come along, then," cut in my companion. "I'm the owner, and Ipromise you that I won't."

  So saying, my strange acquaintance led the way to a narrow gang plankstretching from the wharf to the ship's poop. Laughingly declining myproffered assistance, she tripped lightly along it, and as lightlysprang down upon the deck of narrow planking paid with white-leadinstead of the more usual pitch.

  Allowing me a few moments to look round, my companion presently led meforward to the break of the poop, where, standing at the head of one ofthe ladders leading down to the main-deck, I obtained a view of thewhole length of the ship. The first thing to attract my attention wasthe wheelhouse, a teak structure raised upon massive steel standards,lofty enough to allow the helmsman a clear view ahead and astern.

  Some ten feet ahead of it was the after hatchway, the coamings of whichstood about eighteen inches high, and, like those aboard a man-o'-war,were protected by rails and stanchions. The hatchway was open, andthere was a ladder leading down through it. Just beyond this was themainmast; a little way forward of which was the main-hatch, also open,and, like the other, protected by rails and stanchions. Beyond thishatchway there stood, in chocks, a fine powerful screw launch, aboutforty feet long by ten feet beam; and just ahead of her rose theforemast. Before the foremast gaped the fore-hatchway, also open; thencame a handsome capstan; and ahead of it, leaving just comfortable roomto work, rose the bulkhead of the turtle-back topgallant forecastle. Inaddition to the launch, the vessel carried four other boats in davits,namely, two cutters, some thirty-five feet long, and two whaler gigs,each about twenty-five feet long.

  My companion--or hostess, rather, I suppose I ought to call her--allowedme to stand about five minutes at the break of the poop, as I ran my eyeover the deck and noted, with many approving comments, the various itemsthat especially appealed to me. Then she invited me to accompany herbelow.

  I will spare the reader a detailed description of the apartments--Icannot call them cabins--to which I was now conducted; suffice it to saythat, in their several ways, they were a combination of magnificence,luxury, and comfort that seemed to me almost incredible, rememberingthat I was aboard a ship.

  Having duly expressed my admiration for these truly beautiful andluxurious apartments, I was shown two other but much smaller rooms, oneon either side of the companion stairway. These two rooms occupied theextreme fore end of the poop, and could be entered from the main-deck aswell as from the vestibule. The one on the starboard side was thechart-room, and was fitted up with a bookshelf crammed with nauticalworks of various descriptions, a table large enough to spread a good bigchart upon, a cabinet in which reposed a complete set of the mostrecently published charts, a case containing no less than fourchronometers, and a cupboard where
in were securely packed a wholebattery of sextants and other instruments. The corresponding room onthe port side was fitted up as a writing room, and here the log slatewas kept and the logbook written up from time to time. Here also theship's clock and a very fine aneroid barometer were securely bolted tothe bulkhead, side by side, in such a position that they could be seenfrom outside by merely glancing through the window. And near them, hungin gimbals from a long bracket, was a very fine Fitzroy mercurialbarometer.

  My hostess seemed genuinely gratified at the admiration which I freelyexpressed, especially for the noble array of charts and nauticalinstruments; these, to be quite candid, appealing to me even morestrongly than the sumptuous elegance of the drawing and dining-rooms.She smiled brightly as I expatiated with enthusiasm upon these matters,and when at length I paused, she said:

  "Now let us go below, and I will show you the officers' and men'squarters."

  We descended from the vestibule by way of a staircase at the back of themain companion, and presently entered the wardroom, which adjoined thedining-room, but was only about half its size. This was the living-roomof the executive officers of the ship, and was a very fine, comfortableroom, although, of course, its fittings and furnishings were much lesssumptuous than those belonging exclusively to the owner.

  On the side of the ship opposite the wardroom, and with a good widepassage between the two, was the block of officers' cabins, the comfortand convenience of which left nothing to be desired. Next came thepetty officers' berthage, of which the same may be said, although, aswas to be expected, the space here was rather more restricted, and thefittings somewhat plainer than in those of the other officers.

  Next came the kitchen--it would be an outrage to dub such a place a"galley"--and forward of it again came the men's quarters, a great, airyplace, well-lighted by scuttles in the ship's sides, with sleepingaccommodation for eighty men. This consisted of two tiers of hammocks,forty hammocks on either side of the room, their head-clews suspendedfrom hooks bolted to the sides of the ship; while the foot-clews weresecured to steel stanchions hinged to the deck above, and so arrangedthat they could be triced up out of the way when required, leaving ampleroom for the men's mess tables.

  I very willingly and very fully expressed my admiration for everythingshown me, not only because all was well worthy of admiration, but alsobecause I saw that it gratified my hostess, who explained to me that shehad planned everything herself.

  At length my inspection of the beautiful and wonderful ship came to anend. As we ascended to the deck by way of the fore-hatch ladder myhostess remarked:

  "There! I guess that's all there is to show. And,"--glancing at anelegant little watch which she wore attached to a bracelet--"my stars,if it ain't just five o'clock! I want my tea. Do you drink tea, youngman?"

  "I should really enjoy a cup of tea, madam, if you would be so kind asto offer me one," I said.

  "Are you a teetotaller, then?" the lady asked.

  "Well, no; hardly that," I replied. "That is to say, I have neverformally forsworn intoxicants; but I very rarely take them--never,indeed, I may say, except when I have been exposed for several hours toextreme cold, or have been wet to the skin, or something of that kind.Even then I am inclined to think a cup of scalding hot coffee reallydoes one more good."

  "Well, I guess you're as nearly right as makes no matter," returned myhostess. "Now, just you come into my drawing-room, and I'll give you acup of real good tea. Ah! there is Lizette, my chief stewardess. Iguess she is looking for me to tell me that tea is served, so comealong."

  The lady was right in her surmise, for the trig, decidedly pretty, andexceedingly capable-looking young woman, in a black dress, with whitecap and apron, who at that moment stepped out on deck, came forward andduly made the anticipated announcement.

  It was a distinctly novel experience for me to find myself seated inthat elegant apartment, drinking the most delicious tea I had evertasted out of a hand-painted cup of china which I knew must be worth itsweight in gold, munching cakes and biscuits of wonderful flavour, andbeing treated quite as an equal by this smartly dressed and vivaciousAmerican lady. Not the least of her charms was that she had the knackof putting one absolutely at one's ease; and presently she began toquestion me about myself.

  "I guess I don't know now whether I've done you any kindness in invitingyou aboard to see over the _Stella Maris_," she said. "I reckon yourown ship will seem a bit dowdy in comparison, won't she?"

  "I am sure she will--when I find her," I replied. "Unfortunately, Ihaven't a ship just now; indeed, I had been prowling round the docks allday looking for one when the sight of your yacht brought me up allstanding. I love a pretty ship, and anxious though I am to get anotherberth, I could not deny myself the pleasure of taking a good look ather."

  "Y-e-s," my companion agreed; "I can understand that feeling andsympathise with it too. There's nothing made by the hand of man that Iadmire more than a handsome ship. And so you're out of a berth, Mr--"

  "Leigh," I supplied; "Walter Leigh, at your service, madam."

  "Thank you!" she answered. "Any relation to the Lees of Virginia?"

  "No," I said, "I am afraid not. I am a Leigh of Devon, you know--L-e-i-g-h, not L double e."

  "I see," she responded. "Well, Mr Leigh, if it's not a rude questionto ask, how do you come to be out of employment?"

  "Not through any misconduct of mine, I am happy to say," I answered."The way of it is this. The City line of ships--the line in which Iserved and have only recently completed my apprenticeship--isamalgamating with, or, rather, is being absorbed by, the firm of HepburnBrothers, the one-time rivals of the City line. Hepburns are, ofcourse, taking over many of the City officers, as well as the ships.But Mr Clayton, Hepburns' present manager, was once master of a Cityliner in which I was serving; and--well, something happened which causedClayton to lose his berth, and unfortunately for me it was through methat the matter came to light. Consequently, now that Clayton has thechance to do me a bad turn, he is doing it by refusing to take me onwith the new firm."

  "Is that so? Well, I call that real mean," exclaimed my hostess, inaccents of indignation. "And is that the reason why you have not beenable to get other employment?"

  "Oh, no!" I said, "excepting, of course, so far as Hepburn Brothers areconcerned. My failure to-day arises simply from the fact that none ofthe skippers I have spoken to happen to have any vacancies."

  "Nothing wrong with your discharge, I suppose?"

  "Nothing whatever," I answered, whipping the document out of my pocketand handing it to her.

  She read it carefully and handed it back.

  "Thank you!" she said. "I guess that looks all right. How old are you,Mr Leigh?"

  "I shall be eighteen on the ninth of next December," I replied,beginning now to wonder whether this questioning was likely to lead toanything, or whether it was merely the result of kindly curiosity on thepart of my hostess.

  "Eighteen!" she exclaimed. "Well, I declare to goodness I'd have saidyou were at least three years older, if I'd been asked to guess. Onlyeighteen! And what kind of a berth have you been looking for, may Iask?"

  "Well," I said, "I had it in my mind to get into some big craft as thirdmate, if I could find an opening. It would afford me a chance to workup for my ticket, which I am naturally anxious to obtain as soon aspossible."

  "Sure," she agreed. "And do you know anything about navigation? But Iguess you do, by the way that you looked at those charts and instrumentsjust now."

  "Oh, yes!" I said; "I rather fancy myself as a navigator. Navigationis quite a hobby of mine."

  "Tell me how much you know," she said. "I'm something of a navigatormyself. In fact, Mr Leigh, I am one of the few women who hold amaster's certificate and are qualified to take command of a ship sailingto any part of the world. I am captain of this yacht, in fact as wellas in name; I brought her across from New York to the Nore without theghost of a hitch, and I guess I can take her the
rest of the trip roundthe world, upon which we are bound. Now, go ahead and tell me what youknow about navigation."

  I named the several problems in navigation, one or more of which I hadbeen accustomed to practise daily and nightly under my late skipper; andthe lady was graciously pleased to express her cordial approval of myknowledge.

  "Yes," she said; "if you can do all those things I guess you are prettygood--quite as good, in fact, as Neil Kennedy, my chief officer, and heis no slouch as a navigator. Now, Mr Leigh, I have not been puttingyou through your facings just out of sheer feminine curiosity; I've beendoing it with a purpose. I am Mrs Cornelia Vansittart, wife of JuliusVansittart of New York, engineer, the inventor of the Vansittartgasoline engine. I am passionately fond of yachting, so my husband mademe a present of the _Stella Maris_, and consented to my making a voyagein her round the world. She is a good ship, and I have a good crew; butI have only two mates, and Kennedy says that in a ship of this size, andon such a cruise as we are contemplating, I ought to have a third. Atfirst I didn't propose to do anything of the kind, for I don't likebeing told by anybody what I ought to do, or to have; but somehow, whenI saw you lost in admiration of my ship, I sort of took a fancy to you.I like the look of you, and thought that if I must have a third mate,I'd like one something like you; so I invited you to come aboard, that Imight have a chance to talk to you and find out if you came up tosample. I mean to have a good time this trip, and I mean that myofficers and crew shall have a good time too, if it rests with me. I'vetaken a whole lot of trouble to pick the right sort of men to man thisship, and I've come to the conclusion that you are the right sort. Soif you care to accept the position I am ready to ship you as third mateof the _Stella Maris_. The pay is thirty per, with all found, uniformsincluded. Now, what do you say?"

  I had a sufficient knowledge of American colloquialisms to be aware thatthe expression "thirty per" meant thirty dollars--or six pounds--permonth, which was considerably better than I had hoped for, or was at alllikely to get elsewhere. I liked the ship, and I was immensely takenwith my prospective new skipper; therefore I at once unhesitatingly andgratefully accepted the offer.

  I was then gracefully dismissed, with instructions to be prepared to"sign on" at eleven o'clock on the morrow, and to have my dunnage aboardnot later than noon, since the yacht would haul out of dock and proceeddown the river early in the afternoon.

  I had taken my leave of Mrs Vansittart, and was already out on deck onmy way to the gangway, when the lady rushed after me and called upon meto stop, exclaiming:

  "Sakes alive! what's come over me? I declare to goodness I clean forgotthat you haven't yet been measured for your uniforms. Colson,"--to oneof the seamen who were engaged in striking packing cases downbelow--"pass the word for Mr Grimwood, please. Mr Grimwood," sheexplained, "is the purser. I'll turn you over to him, and he will takeyou to the tailor, who will soon rig you out."

  A shout down the after hatchway resulted in Mr Grimwood's promptappearance on deck, and to him I was in due form introduced.

  "Mr Grimwood," said Mrs Vansittart, "this is Mr Walter Leigh--L-e-i-g-h, you know--who will sign on at eleven o'clock to-morrowmorning as third mate of this ship. I want you to take him below toSnip, who will measure him for his uniforms. Please tell Snip toarrange things so that Mr Leigh's working uniform shall be ready forhim by noon. When you have done that, have the goodness to assign acabin to Mr Leigh; and at the same time I'd like you to introduce himto the rest of the wardroom officers. You'll see to that? Thank you!Once more, good afternoon, Mr Leigh!"

  As the lady turned and left us, Grimwood chuckled.

  "So the skipper's taken Kennedy's advice, after all, to ship a thirdmate," he remarked. "Guess he's put one over Briscoe this time, anyway.Briscoe's our `second', you know, and he bet Kennedy that he couldn'tpersuade Mrs Vansittart to ship a `third'. Kennedy'll be a bit set upwhen he hears the news, because, between you and me, he doesn't takeovermuch stock in Briscoe, and has held all along that we ought to havea third mate to take his place if necessary. Oh, yes, Briscoe's allright, so far as he goes; but he doesn't go far enough. He's notexactly the right sort of man for a ship of this kind, and I think that,for once in a way, Mrs Vansittart made a mistake when she picked him.But I guess you'd better not take too much notice of what I say; I don'twant to prejudice you against him."

  We found Snip--by the way, that was the tailor's actual name, and not anickname, as I had at first imagined--comfortably ensconced in a little,well-lighted workroom under the topgallant forecastle. He quickly tookmy measure, promising, somewhat to my amazement, to have my workinguniform ready for me to try on as early on the following morning as Ichose to come aboard--the earlier the better, he assured me. Thismatter settled, the purser--to whom I took an immediate liking--led meaft and down below to the wardroom, where we found Mr Neil Kennedy, thechief officer, Mr Alexander Mackenzie, the chief engineer, and DoctorStephen Harper, the ship's medico, chatting and smoking together. Tothese I was introduced by Grimwood; and I was at once admitted as amember of the fraternity with much cordiality.

  I liked those three men immensely. Neil Kennedy was a huge man,standing six feet three in his socks, as I afterwards learned, and beingbulky in proportion, was the sort of man that a "hazing" skipper wouldat once have singled out as eminently suited to keep a refractory crewin order and get the last ounce of work out of the laziest skulker. Butit happened that Kennedy was not that sort of man at all. Althoughadmirably fitted by Nature for the part, he was not the typicalquarterdeck tyrant and bully, but a genial, merry, great-heartedIrish-American of the very best stamp. He could, however, if occasiondemanded it, display a sternness and severity of manner well calculatedto subdue the most recklessly insubordinate of mariners. His voice waslike the bellow of a bull, and could be heard from the taffrail to theflying jib-boom end in anything short of a full-grown hurricane.

  The doctor was quite another type of man--tall, lean, clean-shaven,slightly bald, with a pair of piercing black eyes that seemed to look aman through and through. Possessed of a quiet, well-modulated andcultured voice, and a deliberate yet firm manner of speaking, he wasapparently a man of high attainments, and unmistakably a gentleman.

  As for Mackenzie, the chief engineer, he was but a trifle lessformidable in appearance than Kennedy--red-haired, with a shaggy redbeard and moustache, the former of which he had a trick of pushing upover his mouth and nose when he was meditating deeply, and immense handsas hairy as a monkey's. He was apparently between forty and fifty yearsof age, and had been domiciled in America for the last twenty years,which he had spent in Mr Vansittart's workshops, but his accent was asbroad as though he had just come straight from Glasgow. He happened tomake some passing reference to a certain Mackintosh as being busy with"the engines down below"; and when I enquired with some surprise whatengines he referred to, he exclaimed:

  "Hoots, laddie! D'ye no' ken that we're an auxiliary-screw, then?"

  "Auxiliary-screw!" I ejaculated. "No, certainly not. I had a goodlook at the craft before I came aboard, but I saw no sign of apropeller. And besides, where is your funnel?"

  "Funnel, man!" he retorted. "We ha'e no need o' a funnel. Our enginesare operated by gasoline, and we ha'e ane o' twa hunner and feeftyhorse-power, giving the ship a speed o' seven knots, forbye anither aneo' a hunner and feefty to drive the dynamos and work the capstan andwinches. Man, I tell ye this bonnie boat is richt up-to-date, and dinnaforget it. As to the propeller, naiturally ye wadna see't, the watterbein' sae thick."

  At Kennedy's pressing invitation I remained aboard to dine, andincidentally to be introduced to the remaining members of the wardroommess--Mr Samuel Briscoe, the second officer, and Mr Robert Mackintosh,the second engineer. Before the meal was over I had come to agree withthe purser that in selecting Briscoe for her second officer MrsVansittart had not been quite so happily inspired as in the case of theother members of the mess. He was a pasty-faced fellow of about fortyyears of age, baggy
under his watery-looking, almost colourless blueeyes, slow in his movements, glum and churlish of manner, and unpolishedof speech; also I had a suspicion that he was more addicted to drinkthan was at all desirable in a man occupying such a responsible positionin such a ship. He would doubtless have done well enough as "dicky" inan ordinary wind-jammer, but on the quarterdeck of such a craft as the_Stella Maris_ I considered he was distinctly out of place.

  During the progress of the meal I learned that, as I had alreadysuspected, the yacht was a brand-new ship, this being her first voyage.Her exact measurement, it appeared, was two thousand six hundred andseventeen tons. She had originated in the office of Herreshoff, theworld-famous yacht designer, and embraced in her construction every lastrefinement known to the most up-to-date naval constructor. She had beenbuilt to the order of Mr Julius Vansittart, the multi-millionaireengineer and steel magnate, as a birthday present to his wife. MrsVansittart's passion was yachting, and she was wont to knock about NewYork Bay, the Hudson River, and Long Island Sound, with occasionaladventurous stretches down the coast as far as Delaware Bay, or even toBaltimore, in a sturdy little ten-ton sloop, the while she studiedseamanship and navigation and Mr Vansittart attended to his business.

  I further learned that the lady's boast to me, that she was captain ofthe yacht in fact as well as in name, was literally true, she having notonly picked and shipped the entire crew, officers as well as men, buttaken command of the ship when the pilot left her, and sailed andnavigated her across the Atlantic and up the English Channel with nomore assistance from her officers than a shipmaster usually receives.

  "I tell you, sor, it's a treat to see her put this ship about, blowhigh, blow low," Kennedy remarked admiringly; "though how the mischiefshe learned the way to handle a square-rigger it puzzles the sowl of meto know."

  It transpired that Mrs Vansittart was accompanied on this trip by herdaughter Anthea, aged sixteen--"as bonnie a lassie as you e'er set eyesupon," Mackintosh interjected--and her son Julius, a lad of twelve--"andthoroughly spoiled at that, more's the pity," the doctor added. Therewas also a certain Reverend Henry James Monroe, M.A., a middle-aged,refined, and very scholarly man, who served in the dual capacity ofchaplain of the ship and tutor to the aforesaid Julius. He was one ofthe saloon party, and was held in the highest honour and respect by MrsVansittart, who deferred to his opinion in all things save in the matterof discipline where her darling boy was concerned. I also learned thatthe yacht was manned by a crew of no less than eighty seamen, every oneof whom was rated as A.B.; so that, with the saloon party, officers,petty officers, stewards, and stewardesses, we should make therespectable muster of one hundred and eight all told when we went to seaon the morrow.