Australian Tales - Setis

staysails, exposed all the time to the dangerous forked lightning, and
fierce driving rain. Persons who have such recollections can understand
why I so often gazed into the faces of the captain and chief mate
throughout that anxious season of peril. Who can over-estimate the value
of a cheerful look or a hopeful word in such depressing times!
The next day the gale continued with unabated violence, and the seasickness
of my friend, Weedle, was painful to witness. He had not left his
cabin since the commencement of the bad weather, nor could he be
prevailed upon to go on deck, even for a minute. He seemed to have
given up all hope of our ship weathering the storm; and every time a sea
broke on board he thought we were among the breakers. I tried to
comfort him, for being quite free from that nauseating malady, seasickness,
and being full of youthful vigour, my spirits were seldom very
depressed from physical causes. Although I really had not much hope
that the ship would be saved, the fear of death did not paralyze my
efforts to escape from it. We had two Macintosh life preservers in our
outfit, and my suffering friend lay in his berth, and eyed me with a
ghastly curiosity as I sat on the cabin deck and inflated the belts. I then
made the gold and silver coin into two packages, which I lashed together
by a strong cord, and assured Weedle that if the ship went on shore, I
would make a desperate effort to save his money, whether he helped me
or not. I advised him to screw up his courage, and if the ship should
strike, to put on his life belt and hasten on deck. With a promise that I
would give him immediate notice of any fresh danger, I went on deck
again, and took my old station under the tarpaulin in the mizen rigging;
and there I stood, anxiously watching the bending spars, the loss of one
of which would inevitably have sealed the fate of the ship in a very short
time.
Night came on again, and a wild-looking night it was. The ship had
been wore round four times during the day, and each time we had lost
ground (the ship would not stay in such a heavy sea, under the small sail
which we could spread), and we had also drifted to leeward while the
crew were replacing a close-reefed foretopsail, which had been blown
away. About ten o'clock I overheard the captain say to the chief mate,
“We must give her the reefed mainsail, Mr. Blocks.”
“She won't stand up to it, sir; and if we spring a spar just now, we are
done for, to a dead certainty,” replied the mate, who, by the bye, was an
older man than the captain.
“We'll try what she will do,” said the captain. “It does not blow so hard
as it did an hour ago. Lay aft, all hands, and set the main course,” he
added, in a stentorian voice, to his crew.
The sail was set with difficulty, and the spray flew over the ship from
stem to stern, as she plunged into the heavy head seas, under the
additional pressure of canvas, and at the same time heeled over to such