American Boys Afloat by Oliver Optic

The Mediterranean had very suddenly lashed itself into a fury. Nothing movable would stay in place, and everything had to be secured. Rope-yarns were in great demand; and Captain Scott had done everything possible for the safety of the property on board, in the pilot-house, on deck, and in the cabin. At first everything in the galley was pitched into heaps; but Pitts had brought order out of confusion there.

By the middle of the afternoon watch, with Morris and Louis on duty, everything had been put in order; for after the captain and Felix believed that all was safe, something would break loose and need further attention. The water-casks had given them the most trouble. Felipe and Pitts had assisted them in putting the half-casks back into the run and securing them there; but the full ones, containing fifty gallons each, were more troublesome. They were blocked up in the standing-room, and made fast with strong ropes; but they still had an inclination to break away.

Louis Belgrave had the wheel from four bells, or two o'clock; and he found he had his hands full, and that it required no little of his strength to manage it. He had seen several heavier gales than the present, when the Guardian-Mother knocked about quite as much as the Maud in the more tremendous seas of the Atlantic. Felipe had sailed in the Maud more than any other person on board; but he appeared to be the only one who was at all alarmed at the situation, though he had made the voyage from Mogadore to Funchal and back, and at the time when he took his final leave of the Pacha; but he had never been at sea in her in a gale.

At about every roll of the little steamer the sea broke over the bulwarks and swept over the bow and stern where there was no deck-house to obstruct its passage. Every door, window, or other opening had been closed and securely fastened, and thus far no water had found its way into the inside of the boat. As long as the engine did not break down Captain Scott had no fears for the safety of the Maud, uncomfortable as she was to those on board in such a gale.

The little steamer had two masts, and she was rigged as a schooner; but they appeared to be more for ornament than for use. A mainsail, foresail, and jib were stowed away in the forecastle; but it was doubtful if they had ever been bent on. The rigging and spars certainly added to the nautical effect of the craft; and they afforded an opportunity for the display of flags, for the gaffs on each mast were secured in place aloft by the vangs. The American flag had been set at the main peak during the voyage to Tangier; though, as anything but a tender of the ship, she was not legally entitled to use it.

"Well, Louis, what do you think of this? " said Captain Scott, who had watched his opportunity when the starboard side of the steamer was under water to open the port door of the pilot-house wide enough to enable him to enter.

"I think it is a tolerably fresh breeze," replied the young millionaire, as he heaved the wheel over to meet a big billow. "It makes a lively time in a steamer no larger than the Maud."

"It is a regular muzzler," added the captain. "But I have been out in a gale as heavy as this one in the Seahound; and she was not as big as the Maud."

"It is not comfortable; and I suppose that is about the worst that can be said of it."

"She is all right as long as the engine holds its own; and both Felipe and Don say there is no danger of its giving out," said the captain. "I suppose it is all right; but I wish we had another string to our bow."

"What other string could we have to our bow? " asked Louis, giving his companion an inquiring glance.

"The sails; and I wish I had thought to bend them on before we left Gib, or this forenoon, when we had nothing under the canopy to do but bite our finger-nails."

"I dare say it would be well to have them ready for use as a last resort," suggested Louis.

"As something more than that, though it would be exceedingly convenient to be able to set a reefed foresail in case the engine should break down. I have been thinking of bending on the foresail since it came on to blow heavily."

"You have no use for it yet; for Felipe says the Pacha had everything about the craft built twice as strong as was necessary, and I have no fear of the engine," replied Louis.

"If the sails were bent on, I should have set a reefed foresail, and perhaps a reefed mainsail, before this time," continued the captain. "It would steady her a great deal if nothing more, for I do not believe we are making our ten knots an hour just now."

Captain Scott sat on the divan, and appeared to be considering the expedient he had mentioned. A few minutes later he announced his intention to bend on the foresail, and he made his exit with the same precaution he had used in entering. He called Felix, Pitts, Morris, and Don to assist in the work, after he had been into the forecastle by the way of the engine and fire rooms. He overhauled the sails, and found the one he wanted.

Pitts carried it on deck, and it was passed up to the promenade deck, as they called the roofs of the deck-houses. The foremast was between the galley and the pilot-house. The gaff was lowered; and Scott and Pitts, who were both sailors, lashed the head of the sail to it. The mast-hoops were all in place, and the inner-leach was readily secured to them. Felix and Don, who were not sailors, had enough to do in holding on at the sail to keep the wind from whipping it out of the hands of the operators.

The promenade deck was swept by floods of spray all the time, and the party had not been there five minutes before they were wet to the skin; but no one minded this, for the weather was quite warm, the wind, fresh as it was, coming from the burning sands of Africa.