The Wreck of the Nancy Bell | Page 8

the sun, in order to
ascertain his longitude--an operation which would have been much
more difficult in the hazy weather that had prevailed some few hours
previous, with the zenith every now and then overcast by the fleecy
storm wrack and flying scud that came drifting across the sky as the

wind veered; but the ship was making good running, and everything
bade fair for her soon crossing the boisterous Bay of Biscay, on whose
troubled waters she had now entered.
"She's slipping along!" said Captain Dinks to Adams, rubbing his hands
together gleefully, as he put down his sextant on the top of the saloon
skylight for a moment and gave a glance aloft and then over the side to
windward.
"Yes, sir," replied the second mate. "Going fine--eleven knots last
heave of the lead."
"Ah, nothing can beat her on a bowline!" said the captain triumphantly.
"She's a clipper and no mistake when she has the wind abeam: bears
her canvas well, too, for a little un!" he added, with another glance aloft,
where the sails could be seen distended to their utmost extent and
tugging at the bolt-ropes, while the topgallant-masts were bent almost
into a curve with the strain upon them and the stays aft were stretched
as tight as fiddle-strings.
"Yes, sir; she does," agreed Adams; "but, don't you think, sir, she's
carrying on too much now that the wind has got up? I was just going to
call the hands to take in sail when you came on deck."
"Certainly not," replied Captain Dinks, struck aghast by the very
suggestion of such a thing. "I won't have a stitch off her! Why, man
alive, you wouldn't want me to lose this breeze with such a lot of
leeway as we have to make up?"
"No, sir; but--"
"Hang your `buts'!" interrupted the captain with some heat. "You are a
bit too cautious, Adams. When you have sailed the Nancy Bell as long
as I have you'll know what she's able to carry and what she isn't!"
With these pregnant words of wisdom, the captain resumed possession
of his sextant and proceeded to take the altitude of the sun, shouting out
occasional unintelligible directions the while through the skylight to Mr

McCarthy, who was in his cabin below, so that he might compare the
position of the solar orb with Greenwich time as marked by the
chronometer. Then telling Adams at the end of the operation to "make
it eight bells," whereupon the tinkling sounds denoting twelve o'clock
were heard through the ship, he himself also hurried below, to "work
out his reckoning."
On Captain Dinks coming up again, he reported that the Nancy Bell had
done better than he expected for her "first day out," considering the
adverse circumstances she had had to contend with, for she had logged
more than a hundred and fifty miles; but he did not look quite so
jubilant as he had done before going below, nor did McCarthy, who
now accompanied him on deck to relieve the second mate, whose
watch had expired.
"What's the matter, captain?" asked Mr Meldrum, with a smile, "are
you not satisfied; or, did you expect the ship to have done more?"
The passenger was patrolling the poop, in company with his two
daughters, Kate and Florry--the latter a rompish little girl, some twelve
years old, with long golden-brown hair which the wind was making
wild havoc of, dashing it across her face as she turned, and streaming it
out to leeward behind her in picturesque confusion. The girls had some
little difficulty in walking along the deck, as it was inclined to a
considerable angle from the vessel's heeling over; but, by dint of
clutching hold of their father, which they did with much joking and
merriment and silvery laughter, each taking an arm on either side, they
managed to preserve their equilibrium, keeping pace in regular quarter-
deck fashion.
"No," replied Captain Dinks to Mr Meldrum's chaffing question, "I
can't say that I am satisfied, for I'm sorry to tell you that the barometer
is going down."
"Indeed!" said the other, "and with the wind from the south-east! I'd
advise you, captain, to take in sail at once."
"Why, you're as bad as Adams," returned Captain Dinks rather huffily;

"I suppose you'd like me to strip the ship just when we're getting the
first fair breeze we've had since leaving Plymouth! Excuse me, Mr
Meldrum, I know my business; and, I presume, you'll allow a sailor to
be better acquainted with his duties than any landsman can possibly
be."
"Oh, certainly, Captain Dinks," said Mr Meldrum with a bow, "and I'm
sure I beg your pardon for interfering! Of course, as you say, a
landsman has no knowledge of these things and has no