The Story of John Ship, Mariner: a romance of the Faroe Isles

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NEW SIX SHIILING NOVELS At all Libraries. THE TWO CAPTAINS. By W. Clark Russell. With Title-page in red and black, and Four Full-page Illustrations. BARBARA BLOMBERG : A Romance of the Days of Charles V. By Dr. Georg Ebers. 2 vols. HERNANI THE JEW : A Story of Russian Oppression. By A. N. Homer. THE CARSTAIRS OF CASTLE CRAIG: A Chronicle, edited from the Notes of John Ffoulke Carstairs, Esq. By Hartley Carmichael, M.A. THE MASSARENES. By Ouida. Sixth Edition. "Ouida's latest novel, 'The Massarenes,' is, from every point of view, excellent." — Punch. THE TRACK OF MIDNIGHT. By G. Firth Scott. " A very rousing narrative." — Daily Chronicle. LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, AND COMPANY Limited St. Dunstan'6 Ibousc Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C. THE STORY OF JOHN SHIP, MARINER THE STORY OF JOHN SHIP, MARINER A ROMANCE OF THE FAROE ISLES BY KNARF ELIVAS LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, AND COMPANY LIMITED %it.

JOurtStarTg ipousse Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C. Printed by Ballantvne, Hanson d° Co. At the RalLintyne Press CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. MY HOME LEAVING I II. THE GUINEA VOYAGE 22 III WHAT BEFELL AT HABANA AND IN CADIZ 42 IV. IN THE INQUISITION 67 V. THE VOYAGE OF THE GALLEON 93 VI. HOW I CAME TO THE FAROE ISLES 124 VII. THE WHALE HUNT 1 46 VIII. THE FINDING OF THE TREASURE . . .176 IX. THE FIGHT IN THE GORGE .... 204 X. ALAMEDA'S TERRIBLE REVENGE . . . 230 XI. THE GETTING OF THE TREASURE. . . 257 XII. THE FINAL RECKONING 280 v THE STORY OF JOHN SHIP, MARINER

Chapter I My Home-leaving

In this the autumn of my life, my dear children have many times urged me to set down in such order as may be the relation of those adven tures, hardships, and mishaps through which it has pleased a gracious Providence to bring me scatheless. I know well that their love for me breeds this insistence, and that those to whom I am a stranger will bear me no such kindly tolerance ; but I here make shift to satisfy them. Most of these tales have they heard once and again, and the greater number have had far other chronicler than my humble self, for Pro vidence foreordained me to bear my lowly part in adventures that go to make proudest history in our fair land. Of these latter I shall say A IOHN SHIP, MARINER nothing, save as in them some purely private matter touched myself. Herein is therefore nothing but the plain tale of a herd's son turned mariner, more especially of those years of his life spent in the far Northern isles of Faroe, whither he was unresisting borne by the stress and accident of his calling, and whereat he found treasure untold, not merely the gross lucre of earthly gold, but prizes of true love and wifely affection, noblest spoil that can fall to any man's winning.

My father, dead these twenty years, was herd to Sir Arthur Courtland in the village of Glaster ton, three miles from the town of Bath. Three sons had he, of whom I was youngest, and two daughters. My dear mother, living yet as you know, though long past the allotted threescore years and ten, was daughter of a tradesman in the town. It was considered a hard thing to be borne that she should have found a mate in a common labourer on the land ; but pure and honest love can no man hinder, and my father's brave blue eyes and burly handsome frame won the day against many a dapper clerk and clothier. There was a great vein of romance in my mother, born, I believe, of her fondness for stage plays, to which she was often taken by her father. This, you would say, might make her like to wed some disbanded swashbuckler or spurious captain, never a herd.

However, thus it was. She declared her intention of marrying my father and none else ; and though I believe my grandfather used more than words in his persuasions of her obstinacy, she persisted in the face of all argument and won her way. A happy thing it was for her, and one she never regretted, I believe, for a single instant of her married life. In poverty they lived, my parents, but never in debt, and brought up their children to be a credit to them, with one ex ception. This latter was myself. For though I may now with some surety call myself a man respected of my neighbours, it is but the good ness of God foreordained, for I gave my parents but little chance to direct my steps in life, leaving them, as I did, at the age of sixteen, and faring forth into the world masterless and unafraid.

Well, to all men come ups and downs, mis fortunes and joys. My life has been a stormy one, and that of my brothers and sisters un eventful. Yet I hold that joy and sorrow are pretty equally distributed among us all, and are IOHN SHIP, MARINER 4 but questions of degree and feeling. This I have heard gainsaid many a time, but I believe it ; and my experience, and that I may perchance claim to have, without pretension to the wisdom of my opponents, has but strengthened me in my opinion. But let me moralise no longer on abstract questions, but to my recollections. I was born, as I say, in the village of Glaster ton, and a sweeter, kindlier hamlet exists not in these realms. Snug under the sheltering comb, faced by the green down opposite, its grey stone buildings wrapped and bowered in roses and hanging hop vines, lapped by the clear swirl of the Avon — never in my wanderings on God's great earth have I met a spot that sang in my ears as does that one of rest, rest, rest.

Yet this home, and love, and kinsmanship did I fling behind me in one act of headstrong folly, and dearly did I pay my price. On the tenth day of May 1577 was I sixteen years old, and on that day I left my father's roof, and saw it not for thirteen weary years. 'Tis a slight thing gives the unalterable trend to our lives. That morning my father sent me to fetch up the milking herd, desiring me to take the ford across the stream, and bring them gently down to the pasture against our house, but the opposite side of the river. Now this was a duty always as yet given to my elder brother Frank, and, I am fain to say, most suitable to him ; for Frank was, and he will take it no wise amiss if I say is, of a contempla tive and calm disposition, and the long slow mile down the Warleigh meadows, driving the sleek kine, yet not so hurriedly but that they might get many a mouthful of sweet riverbank vernal grass on the road, drinking in the waking hum of the dragon-flies, soothed by the slow sleepy lap of the ripples on the stones — why, it was heaven to him, but to me it was purgatory.

Many a time have I got the bitter end of a stout willow rod, new plucked for the purpose, for bringing down the herd too hot to be milked, in my impetuous desire to finish the unwelcome task. This morning of all others did I feel it was not to be borne. Our birthdays were always to us in our youth days of privilege, not to say licence, gladdened by toothsome joys, and such small gifts from our parents as their poverty allowed. To be set to a hated task this day of all others sent my ever feverish temper up to blazing point, and I took a mean and pitiful revenge on the dumb animals I was sent to drive. For no sooner was I among the herd across the river, than I set loose our hound, old Oscar, and with word and blow turned him on the cattle. At first no persuasion of mine would get him to do my bidding, so well trained was he ; but as he warmed to the chase, the little snaps and half hearted snarls with which he rounded up the beasts became under my encouragement bites of undoubted vigour and growls of unfeigned fero city.

As he raced and ran, the fire and ardour of the hunt entered his old veins, and finally, leaping, barking, with fangs meeting once and again in more than one sleek and virgin hide, he swept the whole herd down the pastures to the homestead, in the tenth part of the time it had taken me to stride up the other side. I followed, laughing and pleased, but even then a trifle ashamed. As the whole mob of panting kine, with tails aloft, and staring eyes and quivering flanks, broke into the milking yard, my father appeared at our cottage door opposite. Six strides brought him to the river bank, and two strokes of the pole sent the little ferry-boat across. " Is this thy doing ? " he demanded in a voice of fury, and my downcast eyes and silence gave the answer. With a tit of ungovernable rage he raised his hand and struck me to the ground.

Without another word he went into the shed, leaving me half stunned, but now unashamed. Then and there was my resolution taken. Many a time had my father corrected me, as fathers do and should do, but never before in the hot blood of irresistible rage. Strange as it may seem to you, nay to myself, when my own blood flows with calmer tide, that single cuff — and well I deserved it — was to me as the climax of cruelty and injustice. I rose silently, crossed the ferry, and reached my home. Sullenly I went about my work that day, nor spoke a word to any save as my duties required ; but my purpose was taken, and that night I carried it out. My brother and I shared a little closet in the roof, and thither we retired as soon as supper was over. We were wont to spend another hour in such converse as boys will, before we slept the sleep of healthy toil ; but this night so sour and glum was I to poor Frank, that he early left me to my black temper, and curled himself up on his side of the couch, wishing me better humour in the morning.

As soon as I was assured from his heavy snores that he was indeed asleep, I rose, and quickly and quietly gathered what I desired, for I had full intention that night to leave my father's roof, and shake from my feet the dust of his cruelty, as I, in my infatuation, called it. My worldly wealth was six groats — no more — and a change of clothing. These and a stout staff were all I took, and swung myself noiselessly from the little lattice (which would scarce permit my exit, so lusty for my age was I), and fell without disturbance on the yielding tilth of our herb bed. Thence I strode quickly to the main road, not a quarter of a mile away, and at the rising of the moon was far on my way to Bath. Black thoughts rankled in my heart, and a black rage filled my being ; but the last look I gave at our little home, softly white in the moon light, made me choke a sob, and as I thought of my mother I half hesitated.

But the hell born pride which is answerable for nine in every ten of man's misfortunes, rose and strangled my hesitation, and with a shamefaced curse I hurried on. Hardly to myself had I confessed my purpose, and in no wise had I realised its full meaning ; but that was the last look I had on my home for thirteen long years, and my father's face I saw again no more. God forgive me my sinful haughtiness of heart, and my rash tempting of His Providence. Did I not in full assurance know that in another and perfected home I shall meet my earthly father and find his full forgiveness in the presence of a heavenly one, my burden would be more than I could bear. Quickly I walked, and ere an hour was past was in the outskirts of the city. Fear lest the watch should inquire too particularly what led a boy of my age abroad at that time of night caused me to avoid the town, and by a short cut across the meadows I joined the Bristol road some mile or so beyond it.

By midnight I was passing through Kelston, and ere the sun rose I entered Bristol. Here I had never been before, and the strangeness of it half frightened me. Wearied by a night of unaccustomed exercise, I sought first a place where I might rest. Few were abroad at that hour, and those who were regarded me not. I strolled towards the river, and soon found myself upon the quays that bank the Avon. A shed behind the main wharf stood open, and I peered within. Casks, bales, and cut stone half filled it, but in the farther corner I spied some rolls of yarn, twisted but not sewn into bales. Here was soft couch enough, and dropping a couple of them between two bales of cloth, I made myself a lair that none could quarrel with. I laid me down, and weary but undaunted, soon lost myself in slumber. I was dreaming, I remember, that I was one of the people that Sir John Mandeville mentions in his travels, who have their heads beneath their shoulders, and that some varies had with a dig in the ribs nearly thrust out my eye, when I awoke, rubbing my head, and found my dream to come perilously near reality.

For sleeping, I had so tossed about in my restlessness, that my head had fallen from my pillow of yarn to the hard stone floor, while at the same time I had kicked over one of the bales, and it had fallen on my face. My first impression on waking was that I was buried alive, and that one of the devils, most righteously sent to torment me for my sins, was unearthing my vile body previous to ravishing my yet viler soul to the place of torment. But the earthly ring of the language he employed, coupled with the coarse system of torture he practised (mere kicks, unworthy of the delicate sense of persecution in a fiend), reassured me that I still held the breath of life, though I felt that the bombardment of my ribs, if continued, would scarcely aid a continuance of the same. I writhed upwards, and confronted my assaulter.

A burly wharfinger was he, nor did I seem to merit his approval. " Flames of hell," he roared, " dost think I am paid my sweat-earned groats to be a man of the bed-chamber, and rouse thy fat and snoring carcass from thy litter ? Who gave thee leave to kennel in my master's yarn ? Get thee gone, for a lazy, masterless, gaol-begotten scum. What ! dost defy me ? " as I stared in half waked amazement. " Get thee gone, I say, ere I do thee a mischief." And seizing me by the collar, he shook me till I was fairly dizzy ; and dishevelled, shamefaced, and blinking, I fled forth as fast as my sleep-stiffened limbs would carry me. The wharf was in the full swing of daily business. For half a mile the banks of the Avon were alive with traffic of merchants, sailors, ship masters, buyers of wool and hemp, dealers in wine from Portugal, and timber from the North, traders in tin from Cornwall, and sea coals from Sunderland.

Everywhere was chaffering, shouting, rolling of casks and bales, driving of wains, and dragging of river-side sledges. Everywhere was life and bustle, and I in the midst of it lonely as a castaway. As I stood bewildered in the din, I espied some short distance away, on the quayside, a gathering together of the crowd, and heard the sound of a man's voice therein. Idle curiosity led me thither, and I worked my way with jostling to the centre. A sun-tanned, bearded man was addressing the assembly, inter larding his words with strange seafaring oaths, and swinging his long arms as if he hauled at a hawser. A group of sailors, ruddy as himself, stood round him, and testified with affirmative grunts and blasphemy of the coarsest to the truth of his assertions, more especially when these bordered on the miraculous, and generally supported him by speech and gesture, mingling with the crowd when any one seemed specially struck with his discourse, and adding private testimony thereto.

"Twenty pounds apiece every one of them," he was asserting as I arrived, " and to be bought for half-a-groat's worth of beads or brass wire, and no further expense but six weeks' rice and water, which can be had for the asking. Twenty of them for an old arquebuse, and half as many more for two pounds of powder. What did I say ? Riches ! By'r Lady's bones " (here the more respectable of the hearers groaned at his Papist oath), '"tis fortune, fortune, fortune, and that beyond compare. " Talk not to me of the gold, the silver, and the precious jewels of the Spaniards. Here is good red gold without the digging and without risk. Now I ask you," continued the man, " will you spend your miserable lives beating from Avonmouth to Penzance, or if ye be so bold, to Cadiz and Biscay, when here is his honour the great Captain Hawkins willing to take you to Guinea, the voyage whereto is sufficient repay ment, with the great palm forests, and the many magnifical sights of strange beasts and men there in ?

But and beside all this he offers to every good and efficient mariner who ships with him a share of the profits — wages, as I swear, none of you could earn in twice such lives as yours, and all for a single voyage to the land of perpetual sun and no head winds." So he ended his discourse, and at that the group of his lieutenants was yet more eager and persuasive among the crowd of sailors, affirming that their leader spoke but half the truth, and that here was wealth for all and no toil in the getting, not to mention many wicked hints and coarse allusions to the complacency of the Guinea ladies, and the strength of the native cordials ; but yet the mariners seemed not to be moved by these allurements, and any sign of yielding was to their wives and mistresses signal for such clamour of denial as made them scratch their heads and dally no further with devils' delusions.

There was a kindly faced yokel alongside of me in the press, and to him my curiosity addressed itself. "Who is this, master," I said, "and what is he talking of?" " Hur be a-talking of the Guinea trade of Captain Hawkins," he answered, grinning benig nantly, "and hur be a-persuadin' of our boys to goa along o' he to catch them negur slaaves. Pack o' loies, I reckon, and a-throwin' of their selves awaay. Not as their woives 'ull let un goa," he added with a bigger grin. As he sidled off, one of the listening mariners with his good woman on his arm came past, and on his other side, like a weasel running a rabbit, came one of the bronzed sea-dogs, speaking hurriedly of wealth beyond desire, grog in buckets, work of the lightest, seas of the sunniest, and other allurements which were visibly beginning to tell upon the pursued, and whereat the pursuer redoubled his attentions.

But talk glibly as he would, the woman had some talisman to checkmate him, for she whispered in her man's ear, and he turned roughly on the other, and bid him begone, and weary him with his foreign devilments no more. Seeing the game to be at an end, the seaman could only forego his quest, and return swearing foul oaths, empty and repulsed. What prompted me I know not, but as he hustled by me I clutched his jerkin. "Master," I stammered, "hast a place for a youth lusty and willing, but with no knowledge of the sea?" He stopped and stared, and then burst into a loud laugh. " Ho ! ho ! Sir Bumpkin, wouldst have a look beyond thy mother's back yard then ? Wilt offer thyself to his honour as lieutenant, or dost think to farm the lower deck to keep us in salads ? Lusty and willing, quotha ! Lusty with thy victuals doubtless, and willing to go longshore man among the Quashies.

What wouldst do at sea, varies ? Suck thy thumb and sing to the cook's mate for more biscuit ? " " Nay, sir, I have just heard you describe it as a life of perfect bliss and no hardship, so what an' if I would experience the same ?" " Name o' Peter, thou hast a froward wit, boy, yet I like thy spirit." He stood meditating a moment, then — " Art fully determined to be a mariner, Master Clod?" Now my resolution was but two short minutes old, yet such is the assurance of youth that I swore it was the impulse and desire of my life, and that I asked nothing better. His grin became sardonic, but he spoke no further than to bid me follow him, which with beating heart I did. He took me straight to the man who had addressed the crowd. "Here, Captain," said he, "is a youth who would fain shame these longshore stay-at-homes.

What say you to take him for an example ? The youth is lusty and shows some spirit. Though no good mariner yet came out of Somerset or Gloucester either, as I've ever heard on." The other turned his keen grey eyes on me, and looked me up and down without speaking for some half-minute ; which supervision I bore with inward trembling, yet turned not my eyes from his. At last, "Thou young jackanapes," quoth he, " dost know what thou askest ? Thou at sea ! When hast done aught but suck thy fat fist, and munch fatter bacon ? Dost know the toil and hardship of a seaman's life ? The sting of the salt crack in thy sleek hide ; the cramp of the scurvy in thy tender bowels. Couldst swing out on the mainyard when she rolls half her main-deck under, or shot a seven pounder when the spray fills the porthole ?

Get thee to thy mammy. No man shall say I be guiled an innocent to his doom. Get thee gone, I say, and give thanks I would have none of thee." Whereat I would have turned away without more ado, but that something in his speech, or perchance a twinkle in his keen eye, held me back, not knowing why, but with a desire to be held no coward, or one that bragged and would not dare. So I answered him — " Nay, sir, of these hardships you told us no thing, affirming rather that those who ventured to be of your company should have naught but the lightest of toil and best of victual. But I care not to be pap-fed all my days, and if there are hardships to be overcome, I am strong ; if there are battles to be fought, English valour is my birthright ; and if after these there are re wards, behold my pockets" — and I showed him the gaping mouths in my small-clothes.

Now I knew not when I answered thus pertly if I should receive a broken head, or be hustled about my business without more ado. But it B IOHN SHIP, MARINER fell out otherwise ; for my master fell into a fit of laughter that fairly made the dockside re-echo. Then he smote me on the shoulder and roared again, "Well said, thou malapert. Thy breeches pockets, gadzooks ! Thou art the sea-wolf by nature and reasoning, though thou hast never yet sniffed the open main ; for that is just the man for Captain Hawkins. Boy, be thou cheerful in thy work, foremost when hard blows abound, and then with the eye of a hawk, after work or fighting, for good profit, and thou shalt rise to eminence such as these scurvy, longshore, befarthingaled sons of lobster-pots shall never dream of, and die, not like a cow in a kennel in the straw, but as a man should, sword in hand, breast to foe, the pride of all good women and valiant men."

This outburst was delivered in the voice of a bull, and was meant to pour contempt on all the bystanding sailors whom his former efforts had left unmoved. Turning away, he took my hand in his and led me apart. " Boy," he said, " I did but try thee. Thou hast the proper English spirit. Tell me now : why hast left thy home, and where hast dwelt till now ? " Then I was taken all aback, not knowing how to answer him, with the truth or no. But the suddenness of it, and his steely eyes looking as if they would stab me if I lied, made me tell him the true story of my flight and add nothing thereto, taking nothing therefrom. He listened patiently, and as I finished, sighed — ■ " Boy, I know not what I should do for thy good ; for verily thou art of a blood — well, I know it by mine own case — that will not stay at home or suffer control.

Yet thou art young, that men will say, ' Behold the ravisher of inno cents, the betrayer of youths to ruin.' Wilt not go home and pray thy father's forgiveness ?" Then I answered him steadfastly, looking him in the eyes — " Nay, sir, I will not go." He faced me silently awhile, and then — " Lad, lad, visit not this on me afterwards. Were it not, as I say, that I see that no man will hold thee, I would pitch thee on to the mud bank there and buffet thee into better mind. But I verily believe thou art beyond shame or buffeting. Come then, and may God forgive me." So turning, to the town he went, and his following, to whom I joined myself, came after. We walked some half-mile to the farther side of the town, and entered an inn with the sign of JOHN SHIP, MARINER 20 the Three Anchors. Here I bestowed myself in a corner of the common room, wherein the sailors also sat calling for beer, being doubtless dry with much talk and unavailing sophistries.

The Captain went into a room beyond, nor did we see him for two hours or more. So I sat silent, knowing myself to be a fool, and perchance on the high-road to being a knave, but resolute in my stubbornness of heart to go through with this adventure, cost me what it might. Yet verily the foul talk and fouler oaths of the mariners around, well into their cups as they soon became, so sickened me, making me feel as one cast out for ever into the company of the accursed, that but for my haughty pride I would have fled back to my home, and taken I know not what punishment and humiliation with gladness. At mid-day came the Lieutenant back and bade us be stirring, for a tin trader sailed in half-an hour for Falmouth, where doubtless we could find passage on to Plymouth. So they all rose up and followed him, none too steadily, to the river-side.

A south-east wind blew down the river, and when we arrived opposite our ship she was in mid stream, getting sails aloft. A mud-besmeared youth, about mine own age, pulled us off in a little boat, and ere we had been on board ten minutes, we cast from our moorings, and with breeze and tide ran down stream. And now for the first time I saw the wonderful gorge of Avon, where the river, as ye know, runs between cliffs three hundred feet high, sheer as a house side, cold white as tropic moonbeams. Many a cliff have I seen in after life, some of the highest in this Old World and in that New World beyond the Atlantic, but never a one impressed me as did those great sandstone crags, overhanging the river as it seemed, and keeping a frowning janitorship on all who came or went. Soon the cliffs softened to a less rugged valley with green alluvial meadows sweeping up from the water-side, and finally we rounded a jutting corner into what my ignorance took to be the open sea.

But as yet it was only the mouth of the Severn, though the breeze flecked the ripples with little foam splashes, and we swung gently from side to side in a manner that lulled me sweetly, and overcome by the weariness of rapid exer cise and fore-shortened hours, I slept deep and dreamlessly.

Chapter II The Guinea Voyage

When I woke the sun was setting in a ruby glory over the far-off coast of Wales, and the motion that some six hours back had seemed the pleasantest thing in the world, was now in creased to an extent that made me believe that the scurvy of which the Lieutenant had spoken had me already in its grip. 'Twas but the sea sickness, from which I suffered afterwards once and again, and a healthy relief of nature I believe it to be ; but the utter misery and desolation of that night I may never forget. Of all foul afflic tions with which poor mariners are cursed, there is none to come near it. Nor do you get sympathy, but rather mocking, and are the butt of the hale and unafflicted. Yet what affliction merits more compassion ! Afterwards, when I had got the better of it, for it touched me not when we had been a week or more at sea, it was my lot to sail with many a fresh and ruddy lands man, who writhed as did I under that awful scourge, yet never would I permit myself to make a jest of their sufferings, remembering but too well my own.