Isles of the Sea by Oliver Optic

Mr. Frisbone had gone down into the fire-room as soon as the order was given to slow down, in order to see that the firemen did not do any mischief to the boilers or engine by too much firing while the steam was not used. But the men seemed to be very well disposed, and had opened the furnace-doors when the engineer on duty gave the order. The spare steam was blowing off at the same time. As the Prince was thus engaged in preventing a catastrophe in the engine- or fire-room, he did not learn the condition of things on board of the Castle William till the captain sent for him and for all the adult officers on board of the Ville d'Angers. It was a desperate case which the young officers were called upon to settle; and O'Hara was disposed to take the advice of all that were older and wiser than himself.

"Do you need assistance? " asked O'Hara, after he had sent for the adult portion of the ship's company. But it seemed like a foolish question to ask; for here was a dismasted hulk, on board of which were thirty-two human beings, all but three of whom were disabled. There were not well ones enough to take care of the sick, to say nothing of handling the vessel. If left to themselves, they must all miserably perish in a few days, for the storms of the Bay of Biscay would soon make an end of the unmanageable hulk. Of course she needed assistance; and it would be inhuman in the last degree to refuse it.

"We need assistance very badly," replied the mate of the Castle William. "We must all die of disease or go to the bottom, without it."

"Do you need provisions and stores? " inquired O'Hara.

"We have provisions enough, but we want fresh vegetables and stores for the sick."

"We will send you what we have," replied the young captain. "What else do you want?"

"We can never get into port on this wreck. She has a very valuable cargo in the hold."

"Do you wish for more seamen?"

"If we had a hundred men, they could hardly save the ship if it came on heavy weather. Will you tow the wreck into port? " asked the mate; and this last request was evidently what he had desired to reach from the beginning.

"We will consider it," replied Capt. O'Hara, not a little startled at the request.

"Our sick people are well provided for; and this is the best thing you can do for us. You will make a good thing by it."

By this time the Prince, Capt. Fairfield, and the adult forward officers, had gathered in the pilot-house for consultation. O'Hara stated the situation of the wreck and the people on board of it. He laid before the council all the information he had obtained from the mate of the Castle William; but he expressed no opinion or desire on his own part. He wished to hear the opinion of his elders before he gave his own.

Mr. Frisbone listened very attentively to the statement of the captain; and he did not speak a word till O'Hara had said all he had to say.

"I want your advice," continued the captain. "Of course it was not supposed, when I was placed in command of the Ville d'Angers, that I should be called upon to settle such big questions as this one."

"But I have faith to believe that you would settle it right," added the Prince. "There is only one thing to be done in a case like this; and all the lawyers and doctors of divinity in the world couldn't make our duty any plainer to us; and that is, to relieve the distressed, and at any cost of labor and trouble."

"That's the talk! " shouted the impulsive and warm-hearted Shakings, bringing his fist down upon the wheel with force enough to break his bones or split the wood. "Your honor is a sailor at heart, if you never did come in at the hawse-hole, and feel your way to the quarter-deck!"

So said Rimmer in his slower and more heavy tones.

"But there will be great risk in exposing the young gentlemen to small-pox and ship-fever," suggested Capt. Fairfield: not that he intended to object to the performance of a humane duty, but because he desired to have both sides of the question considered; and there were thirty-one young lives to be cared for, as well as thirty-two older ones.

"I think we ought to save a fellow-creetur from death when the risk of losing our own lives is no greater than the chance of saving them that's in danger," replied the Prince emphatically. "That's my doctrine!"

"Your honor was cut out for a sailor; and you missed your calling, that you are not now in command of the finest ship afloat! " exclaimed Shakings, with enthusiasm.