Masterman Ready | Page 3

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This Project Gutenberg Etext was prepared by Nick Hodson

Masterman Ready - by Captain Marryat
Chapter I
It was in the month of October, 18--, that the Pacific, a large ship, was
running before a heavy gale of wind in the middle of the vast Atlantic

Ocean. She had but little sail, for the wind was so strong, that the
canvas would have been split into pieces by the furious blasts before
which she was driven through the waves, which were very high, and
following her almost as fast as she darted through their boiling waters;
sometimes heaving up her stern and sinking her bows down so deep
into the hollow of the sea, that it appeared as if she would have dived
down underneath the waves; but she was a fine vessel, and the captain
was a good seaman, who did what he considered best for the safety of
his vessel, and then put his trust in that Providence who is ever
watchful over us.
The captain stood before the wheel, watching the men who were
steering the ship; for when you are running before a heavy gale, it
requires great attention to the helm: and as he looked around him and
up at the heavens, he sang in a low voice the words of a sea song:
"One wide water all around us, All above us one black sky."
And so it was with them;--they were in the middle of the Atlantic, not
another vessel to be seen, and the heavens were covered with black
clouds, which were borne along furiously by the gale; the sea ran
mountains high, and broke into large white foaming crests, while the
fierce wind howled through the rigging of the vessel.
Besides the captain of the ship and the two men at the wheel, there
were two other personages on deck: one was a young lad about twelve
years old, and the other a weather-beaten old seaman, whose grisly
locks were streaming in the wind, as he paced aft and looked over the
taffrail of the vessel.
The young lad, observing a heavy sea coming up to the stern of the
vessel, caught hold of the old man's arm, crying out - "Won't that great
wave come into us, Ready?"
"No, Master William, it will not: don't you see how the ship lifts her
quarters to it?--and now it has passed underneath us. But it might
happen, and then what would become of you, if I did not hold on, and
hold you on also? You would be washed overboard."

"I don't like the sea much, Ready; I wish we were safe on shore again,"
replied the lad. "Don't the waves look as if they wished to beat the ship
all to pieces?"
"Yes, they do; and they roar as if angry because they cannot bury the
vessel beneath them: but I am used to them, and with a good ship like
this, and a good captain and crew, I don't care for them."
"But sometimes ships do sink, and then everybody is drowned."
"Yes; and very often the very ships sink which those on board think are
most safe. We can only do our best, and after that we must submit to
the will of Heaven."
"What little birds are those flying about so close to the water?"
"Those are Mother Carey's chickens. You seldom see them except in a
storm, or when a storm is coming on."
The birds which William referred to were the stormy petrels.
"Were you ever shipwrecked on a desolate island like Robinson
Crusoe?"
"Yes, Master William, I have been shipwrecked; but I never heard of
Robinson Crusoe. So many have been wrecked and undergone great
hardships, and so many more have never lived to tell what they have
suffered, that