The Survivors of the Chancellor (8 page)

Meantime Curtis is taking active measures for totally
extinguishing the fire. He is at no great pains to spare the
cargo, and as the bales that lie just above the level of the
water are still a-light he has resorted to the expedient of
thoroughly saturating the upper layers of the cotton, in
order that the combustion may be stifled between the moisture descending from above and that ascending from below.
This scheme has brought the pumps once more into requisition. At present the crew are adequate to the task of working them, but I and some of our fellow-passengers are ready
to offer our assistance whenever it shall be necessary.

With no immediate demand upon our labor, we are
thrown upon our own resources for passing our time. M.
Letourneur, Andre, and myself, have frequent conversations; I also devote an hour or two to my diary. Falsten
holds little communication with any of us, but remains absorbed in his calculations, and amuses himself by tracing
mechanical diagrams with ground-plan, section, elevation,
all complete. It would be a happy inspiration if he could
invent some mighty engine that could set us all afloat again.
Mr. and Mrs. Kear, too, hold themselves aloof from their
fellow-passengers, and we are not sorry to be relieved from
the necessity of listening to their incessant grumbling; unfortunately, however, they carry off Miss Herbey with them,
so that we enjoy little or nothing of the young lady's society.
As for Silas Huntly, he has become a complete nonentity; he exists, it is true, but merely, it would seem, to
vegetate.

Hobart, the steward, an obsequious, sly sort of fellow,
goes through his routine of duties just as though the vessel
were pursuing her ordinary course; and, as usual, is continually falling out with Jynxstrop, the cook, an impudent,
ill-favored negro, who interferes with the other sailors in
a manner which, I think, ought not to be allowed.

Since it appears likely that we shall have abundance of
time on our hands, I have proposed to M. Letourneur and
his son that we shall together explore the reef on which we
are stranded. It is not very probable that we shall be able
to discover much about the origin of this strange accumulation of rocks, yet the attempt will at least occupy us for
some hours, and will relieve us from the monotony of our
confinement on board. Besides, as the reef is not marked in
any of the maps, I could not but believe that it would be
rendering a service to hydrography if we were to take an
accurate plan of the rocks, of which Curtis could afterward
verify the true position by a second observation made with a
closer precision than the one he has already taken.

M. Letourneur agrees to my proposal, Curtis has promised
to let us have the boat and some sounding-lines, and to allow
one of the sailors to accompany us; so to-morrow morning,
we hope to make our little voyage of investigation.

OCTOBER 31 to November 5. — Our first proceeding on
the morning of the 31st was to make the proposed tour of
the reef, which is about a quarter of a mile long. With
the aid of our sounding-lines we found that the water was
deep, right up to the very rocks, and that no shelving shores
prevented us coasting along them. There was not a shadow
of doubt as to the rock being of purely volcanic origin, upheaved by some mighty subterranean convulsion. It is
formed of blocks of basalt, arranged in perfect order, of
which the regular prisms give the whole mass the effect of
being one gigantic crystal; and the remarkable transparency
of the sea enabled us plainly to observe the curious shafts
of the prismatic columns that support the marvelous substructure.

"This is indeed a singular island," said M. Letourneur;
"evidently it is of quite recent origin."

"Yes, father," said Andre, "and I should think it has
been caused by a phenomenon similar to those which produced the Julia Island, off the coast of Sicily, or the group
of the Santorini, in the Grecian Archipelago. One could
almost fancy that it had been created expressly for the Chancellor to strand upon."

"It is very certain," I observed, "that some upheaving
has lately taken place. This is by no means an unfrequented
part of the Atlantic, so that it is not at all likely that it could
have escaped the notice of sailors if it had been always in
existence; yet it is not marked even in the most modern
charts. We must try and explore it thoroughly and give
future navigators the benefit of our observations."

"But, perhaps, it will disappear as it came," said Andre.
"You are no doubt aware, Mr. Kazallon, that these volcanic
islands sometimes have a very transitory existence. Not impossibly, by the time it gets marked upon the maps it may no
longer be here."

"Never mind, my boy," answered his father, "it is better to give warning of a danger that does not exist than
overlook one that does. I dare say the sailors will not
grumble much, if they don't find a reef where we have
marked one."

"No, I dare say not, father," said Andre, "and after all
this island is very likely as firm as a continent. However,
if it is to disappear, I expect Captain Curtis would be glad
to see it take its departure as soon as possible after he has
finished his repairs; it would save him a world of trouble
in getting his ship afloat."

"Why, what a fellow you are, Andre!" I said, laughing; "I believe you would like to rule Nature with a magic
wand, first of all, you would call up a reef from the depth
of the ocean to give the Chancellor time to extinguish her
flames, and then you would make it disappear just that the
ship might be free again."

Andre smiled; then, in a more serious tone, he expressed
his gratitude for the timely help that had been vouchsafed
us in our hour of need.

The more we examined the rocks that formed the base
of the little island, the more we became convinced that its
formation was quite recent. Not a mollusk, not a tuft of
seaweed was found clinging to the sides of the rocks; not a
germ had the wind carried to its surface, not a bird had
taken refuge amid the crags upon its summits. To a lover
of natural history, the spot did not yield a single point of
interest; the geologist alone would find subject of study in
the basaltic mass.

When we reached the southern point of the island I proposed that we should disembark. My companions readily
assented, young Letourneur jocosely observing that if the
little island was destined to vanish, it was quite right that it
should first be visited by human beings. The boat was
accordingly brought alongside, and we set foot upon the
reef, and began to ascend the gradual slope that leads to its
highest elevation.

The walking was not very rough, and as Andre could get
along tolerably well without the assistance of an arm, he
led the way, his father and I following close behind. A
quarter of an hour sufficed to bring us to the loftiest point
in the islet, when we seated ourselves on the basaltic prism
that crowned its summit.

Andre took a sketch-book from his pocket, and proceeded
to make a drawing of the reef. Scarcely had he completed
the outline when his father exclaimed:

"Why, Andre, you have drawn a ham!"

"Something uncommonly like it, I confess," replied
Andre. "I think we had better ask Captain Curtis to let
us call our island Ham Rock."

"Good," said I; "though sailors will need to keep it at
a respectful distance, for they will scarcely find that their
teeth are strong enough to tackle it."

M. Letourneur was quite correct; the outline of the reef
as it stood clearly defined against the deep green water
resembled nothing so much as a fine York ham, of which
the little creek, where the Chancellor had been stranded,
corresponded to the hollow place above the knuckle. The
tide at this time was low, and the ship now lay heeled over
very much to the starboard side, the few points of rock that
emerged in the extreme south of the reef plainly marking the
narrow passage through which she had been forced before
she finally ran aground.

As soon as Andre had finished his sketch we descended
by a slope as gradual as that by which we had come up, and
made our way toward the west. We had not gone very far
when a beautiful grotto, perfect as an architectural structure, arrested our attention. M. Letourneur and Andre,
who have visited the Hebrides, pronounced it to be a
Fingal's cave in miniature; a Gothic chapel that might form
a fit vestibule for the cathedral cave of Staffa. The basaltic
rocks had cooled down into the same regular concentric
prisms; there was the same dark canopied roof with its interstices filled up with its yellow lutings; the same precision
of outline in the prismatic angles, sharp as though chiseled
by a sculptor's hand; the same sonorous vibration of the air
across the basaltic rocks, of which the Gaelic poets have
feigned that the harps of the Fingal minstrelsy were made.
But whereas at Staffa the floor of the cave is always covered
with a sheet of water, here the grotto was beyond the reach
of all but the highest waves, while the prismatic shafts themselves formed quite a solid pavement.

After remaining nearly an hour in our newly-discovered
grotto we returned to the Chancellor, and communicated the
result of our explorations to Curtis, who entered the island
upon his chart, by the name Andre Letourneur had proposed.

Since its discovery we have not permitted a day to pass
without spending some time in our Ham Rock grotto.
Curtis has taken an opportunity of visiting it, but he is too
preoccupied with other matters to have much interest to
spare for the wonders of nature. Falsten, too, came once
and examined the character of the rocks, knocking and
chipping them about with all the mercilessness of a geologist.
Mr. Kear would not trouble himself to leave the ship; and
although I asked his wife to join us in one of our excursions
she declined, upon the plea that the fatigue, as well as the
inconvenience of embarking in the boat, would be more than
she could bear.

Miss Herbey, only to thankful to escape even for an hour
from her capricious mistress, eagerly accepted M. Letourneur's invitation to pay a visit to the reef, but to her great
disappointment Mrs. Kear at first refused point-blank to
allow her to leave the ship. I felt intensely annoyed, and resolved to intercede in Miss Herbey's favor; and as I had
already rendered that self-indulgent lady sundry services
which she though she might probably be glad again to accept, I gained my point, and Miss Herbey has several times
been permitted to accompany us across the rocks, where
the young girl's delight at her freedom has been a pleasure
to behold.

Sometimes we fish along the shore, and then enjoy a
luncheon in the grotto, while the basalt columns vibrate like
harps to the breeze. This arid reef, little as it is, compared
with the cramped limits of the Chancellor's deck is like some
vast domain; soon there will be scarcely a stone with which
we are not familiar, scarcely a portion of its surface which
we have not trodden, and I am sure that when the hour of
departure arrives we shall leave it with regret.

In the course of conversation, Andre Letourneur one day
happened to say that he believed the island of Staffa belonged to the Macdonald family, who let it for the small
sum of £.12 a year.

"I suppose then," said Miss Herbey, "that we should
hardly get more than half-a-crown a year for our pet little
island."

"I don't think you would get a penny for it. Miss Herbey;
but are you thinking of taking a lease?" I said laughing.

"Not at present," she said; then added, with a half-suppressed sigh, "and yet it is a place where I have seemed
to know what it is to be really happy."

Andre murmured some expression of assent, and we all
felt that there was something touching in the words of the
orphaned, friendless girl who had found her long-lost sense
of happiness on a lonely rock in the Atlantic.

NOVEMBER 6 to November 15. — For the first five days
after the Chancellor had run aground, there was a dense
black smoke continually rising from the hold; but it gradually diminished until the 6th of November, when we might
consider that the fire was extinguished. Curtis, nevertheless, deemed it prudent to persevere in working the pumps,
which he did until the entire hull of the ship, right up to the
deck, had been completely inundated.

The rapidity, however, with which the water, at every retreat of the tide, drained off to the level of the sea, was an
indication that the leak must be of considerable magnitude;
and such, on investigation, proved to be the case. One of the
sailors, named Flaypole, dived one day at low water to examine the extent of the damage, and found that the hole was
not much less than four feet square, and was situated thirty
feet fore of the helm, and two feet above the rider of the
keel; three planks had been stove in by a sharp point of rock
and it was only a wonder that the violence with which the
heavily-laden vessel had been thrown ashore did not result
in the smashing in of many parts beside.

As it would be a couple of days or more before the hold
would be in a condition for the bales of cotton to be removed
for the carpenter to examine the damage from the interior of
the ship, Curtis employed the interval in having the broken
mizzen-mast repaired. Dowlas the carpenter, with considerable skill, contrived to mortise it into its former stump.
and made the junction thoroughly secure by strong ironbelts and bolts. The shrouds, the stays and backstays, were
then carefully refitted, some of the sails were changed, and
the whole of the running rigging was renewed. Injury, to
some extent, had been done to the poop and to the crew's
lockers in the front; but time and labor were all that were
wanted to make them good; and with such a will did everybody set to work that it was not long before all the cabins
were again available for use.