James Braithwaite, the Supercargo | Page 3

ships got under way to escape mischief. At about half-past one she
burnt from her cables, and came slowly drifting in here till she took the
ground. She burnt on till near six in the morning, when the fire reached
the magazine, and up she blew with an awful explosion. We knew well
enough that the moment would come, and it was a curious feeling we
had waiting for it. Up went the blazing masts and beams and planks,
and came scattering down far and wide, hissing into the water; and
when we looked again after all was over, not a timber was to be seen."
Bob also pointed out the spot where nearly a century before the Edgar
had blown up, and every soul in her had perished, and also where the
Royal George and the brave Admiral Kempenfeldt, with eight hundred
men, had gone down several years before the destruction of the Boyne.
"Ay, sir, to my mind it's sad to think that the sea should swallow up so
many fine fellows as she does every year, and yet we couldn't very well
do without her, so I suppose it's all right. Mind your head-sheets, Jerry,
or she'll not come about in this bobble," he observed, as we were about
to tack round the buoy.
Having kept well to the eastward, we were now laying up to windward
of the fleet. There were line-of-battle ships, and frigates, and corvettes,
and huge Indiamen as big-looking as many line-of-battle ships, and
large transports, and numberless merchantmen--ships and barques, and
brigs and schooners; but as to what the Barbara was like I had not an
idea. I fixed on one of the largest of the Indiamen, but when I told old
Bob the tonnage of the Barbara he laughed, and said she wasn't half the
size of the ship I pointed out.
It was getting darkish and coming on to blow pretty fresh, and how to
find my ship among the hundred or more at anchor I could not possibly
tell.

"Well, I thought from your look and the way you hailed me that you
was a sea-faring gentleman, and on course you'd ha' known your own
ship," said old Bob, with a wink of his one eye. "Howsomever, we can
beat about among the fleet till it's dark, and then back to Portsmouth;
and then, do ye see, sir, we can come out to-morrow morning by
daylight and try again. Maybe we shall have better luck. The convoy is
sure not to sail in the night, and the tide won't serve till ten o'clock at
earliest."
"This comes of dressing in nautical style, and assuming airs foreign to
me," I thought to myself, though I could not help fancying that there
was some quiet irony in the old man's tone. His plan did not at all suit
my notions. I was already beginning to feel very uncomfortable,
bobbing and tossing about among the ships; and I expected to be
completely upset, unless I could speedily put my foot on something
more stable than the cockleshell, or rather bean-pod, of a boat in which
I sat. I began to be conscious, indeed, that I must be looking like
anything but "a sea-faring gentleman."
"But we must find her," I exclaimed, with some little impetuosity; "it
will never do to be going back, and I know she's here."
"So the old woman said as was looking for her needle in the bundle of
hay," observed old Bob, with provoking placidity. "On course she is,
and we is looking for her: but it's quite a different thing whether we
finds her or not, 'specially when it gets dark; and if, as I suspects, it
comes on to blow freshish there'll be a pretty bobble of a sea here at the
turn of the tide. To be sure, we may stand over to Ryde and haul the
boat up there for the night. There's a pretty decentish public on the
beach, the Pilot's Home, where you may get a bed, and Jerry and I
always sleeps under the wherry. That's the only other thing for you to
do, sir, that I sees on."
Though very unwilling to forego the comforts of my cabin and the
society of Captain Hassall, I agreed to old Bob's proposal, provided the
Barbara was not soon to be found. We sailed about among the fleet for
some time, hailing one ship after another, but mine could not be found.
I began to suspect at last that old Bob did not wish to find her, but had

his eye on another day's work, and pay in proportion, as he might
certainly consider that he had me in his power, and could demand what
he chose. I was on the point of giving