Explore "The Adventures of Three Sailors." by W. Clark Russell on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
TOLD BY DANIEL SMALL, ONLY MATE.
Our vessel was a little brig, named the _Hindoo Merchant_, and we sailed on a day in March in the year of our Lord 1857, from Trincomalee bound to Calcutta. The captain, myself, and three sailors were Europeans; the rest of the ship's company, natives. Though we were "flying light" as the term is -- that is to say, though there was little more in the ship's hold than ballast, and though she had tolerably nimble heels, for what one might term a _country-wallah_ -- yet the little ship was so bothered with head winds and light airs, and long days of stagnation, that we had been several weeks afloat before we managed to crawl to the Norrad of the Andaman parallels, which yet left a long stretch of waters before us. If this remainder of the ocean was not to be traversed more fleetly than the space we had already measured, then it was certain we should be running short of water many a long while before the Sandheads came within the compass of our horizon, and to provide against the most horrible situation that the crew of a ship can find themselves placed in, we kept a bright look-out for vessels, and within four days managed to speak two; but they had no water to spare, and we pushed on.