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The Castaways of Disappointment Island

Chapter VIII — Boat-Building Under Difficulties

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Chapter VIII
Boat-Building Under Difficulties.

I have been asked a question which I should like to answer before going on with my story. It is, "How big is a mollyhawk ?" By the way, the proper name should be" mollymawk," but we always call them mollyhawks.

Well, a young mollyhawk is about the size of a big duck. When it is older it is as large as a goose. It may make some people open their eyes to be told that we castaways could eat four or five birds of that size per man every day; but you must remember that we had nothing else until we began catching seals. Moreover, in that awful climate, and with the privations which we suffered, it was absolutely needful to eat as much as we could to ward off that dreadful weakness which had so nearly brought us to our deaths. Later, as I shall have occasion to tell you, when food failed us, we were brought to a dreadful state; but at this time that is the average number of birds which we each consumed.

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I have also found that the night birds are commonly called mutton birds. They are little fellows with hooked beaks and webbed feet, and the whole of Disappointment Island was honeycombed with their burrows, which extended for yards from the holes where they entered. As one walked the ground could be felt to give beneath the footfall, and sometimes our feet would break right in, so that we sank up to our knees.

It was about this time that we started catching the albatross, and sending them off with the messages round their necks. Catching them was by no means easy work, for an albatross is big and strong and fierce. A blow from their powerful wings will send a man reeling, whilst with their beaks they can almost rip the flesh from one's arm. I have seen our fellows torn, and get some very sharp blows when they have been catching them.

We could only manage it by waiting near their nests when they came to feed their young, which would be about once in two days; then we could make a rush at the old bird, who, instead of taking to flight, would show fight in defence of its nest.

Besides these, we had a lot of whale-birds on the island; but these are only little fellows, and were of no use to us at all.

The seals that we caught were not the furry seals of the Northern Seas, but what are known as hairy seals, and are much larger and fiercer.

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The males are called sea-lions, and the females sea-bears, and some of them grow to immense size. Later I saw some called sea-elephants, which were almost as large as their four-footed namesakes.

I must apologise for this interruption, but we sailors like to have our logs shipshape and in order, and now we will up anchor and continue our voyage.

We found the wood we wanted, though we had a long search to get it. Its proper name is Veronica elliptica. It is an iron-wood, and from growing in places where it was exposed to the blustering of every wind that blows, it had taken the most fantastic shapes. It curled and twisted and whirled. It was every and any shape, but it was not straight. I do not think that you could have found a straight piece two feet long in the whole island.

Well, we brought our supply back to the camp, and then examined each piece carefully. At the best it was frail stuff, and it behoved us to be careful, for a fault undetected might mean the losing of lives and the failure of all our hopes. We knew that, and such knowledge makes men particular.

It was in the middle of July that we started our first boat, and it took ten days to get her finished.

We got to work testing each piece that we were to use, getting rid of as much roughness as possible by scraping and burning. And we didn't work in a hurry. There was no page 144need for that, and "slow and sure" was our motto in this business.

And whilst this was done we carefully unstranded some of our precious rope. My word ! hen I see pieces of rope lying around here in England, and no one thinking them worth the picking up, I wonder if anyone can possibly imagine how precious that rope out there was to us. Old rope, and waste wood, and some old canvas. That was all we had to stand between our lives and lonely graves out on that dreary island.

When we were ready we started lashing the bent pieces two and two. One pair thus lashed formed the bow, and another pair the stern, and the others were the bulwarks between them, and every lashing and knot was tested and tested again, for we were taking no chances in this business, but meant to make sure in so far as we possibly could.

The work could not go on continuously, for food supplies had to be kept up, and both birds and seals took a lot more catching than they had done at first, and also as we used up the firewood near at hand, we had to go on longer tramps to get fresh supplies; and when a fellow had tramped off and torn up a big lot of wood, and brought it back, he didn't want to do very much more work that day.

Our fires, of course, were the most important consideration, and had to be treated carefully, and on more than one occasion those fires took it into their heads to' tend themselves by setting page 145our grass huts on fire. We had some bonfires then, for that grass and tussock blazed like anything, and then we would have to clear away the rubbish, and start building our house all over again.

I remember one occasion which might have ended seriously, but which had in it such a comical element that even to-day I feel that I must smile as I recall it.

I was occupying the same hut as the second mate and Harry Walters, for though we had paired off to do the building we did not always remain with our original mate. We got on the cross sometimes. And then changed round for a bit.

Well, I was with Mr. Maclaghlan and Walters, and we had banked our fire for the night, and built it in a sort of alley-way running down to the entrance to our abode—you will remember that the entrance was so small that a man could only just crawl through it on all fours—and then we turned in, and made ourselves comfortable for the night.

Just how it happened I cannot say, but I expect that some of the hot ashes must have set the grass alight, and the wind, fanning the flame, it ran along until it came to our grass walls and roof, and then it started right away in earnest.

The second mate was sleeping nearest the entrance, and it woke him up; whilst from outside we heard the shouting of some of the other fellows, who had noticed what was going on.

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Half-smothered with the smoke, Mr. Maclaghlan aroused me, expecting, I suppose, that I should pass the signal on to Walters, who lay sleeping the sleep of the just at the farther end, and then out he crawled into the fresh air, and seizing a stout branch which lay ready to hand for our fire in the morning, he commenced beating at the roof with all his might to thrash the flames out and preserve our habitation.

It was my turn to clear next, and it did not take me long to get a move on me, for the place was getting unpleasantly hot, and sparks were beginning to fall upon me from above. Aroused thus suddenly from a deep sleep, and half stupefied with the smoke, I gave Walters a call, and managed to get to the door and crawl through, though I got singed a bit in the doing of it.

But once out, the fresh air soon made me recover my wits, and I joined the second mate in his endeavours to beat the fire out, fellows from the other huts coming to lend a hand.

Well, there was Walters left inside, and he woke to the fact that things were not all right; but, instead of creeping out as we had done, he got upon his feet and stood upright—or, at least, he tried to stand upright, with somewhat disastrous consequences to himself and to our home.

For you must remember that only at the extreme end could a man stand erect; and, consequently, when he shot up, his head came page 147into violent contact with the roof, already weakened by the fire and the blows. The strong back gave way, there was a rolling of burning tussock in all directions, and Walters' head shot clean through—that was what happened from his side. What happened from ours was as follows:

We were beating at the flames for all we were worth, and had not noticed in our excitement that our comrade was still inside, when all of a sudden the strong back gave, and the tussock went rolling; and up before our astonished eyes there appeared Walters' head, his eyes blinking his mouth opening and shutting, uttering words which were more forcible than polite.

Just for one moment that vision presented itself, and then it suddenly disappeared; for Mr. Maclaghlan had brought down his stick smash, bang on the unfortunate Walter's head and knocked him clean back into the interior of the burning hut.

For a moment we were staggered, thinking that our comrade must be seriously hurt; but then a roar from within removed our fears, and through the opening, sending burning tussock all over the shop, Harry Walters charged head first.

He got out, he paused, looking round, whilst we shouted with laughter; and then with another bellow he charged at Mr. Maclaghlan, who, throwing his stick away, promptly took to his heels, with Walters in close pursuit.

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I think that is one of the funniest things that I remember—Walters getting that smack on the head which knocked him back into the hut, and then, wild at what was really a pure accident, racing after the second mate uttering threats of vengeance.

Of course he was soon pacified, but it took quite a time for him to get over it, especially as again and again we would burst into a shout of laughter as we thought of it.

The hut had to be entirely rebuilt, though; nor was it the only one that suffered such a fate during our stay on the island.

When at last we had finished the framework of our boat, I must say that even the boldest of us felt some nervous qualms; it looked such a rough, crazy thing, and it wanted most careful handling; but we had made up our minds and we meant to go through with it.

The frame done, we got our canvas and examined that. It was sadly cut about, and great pieces were missing where we cut it up for clothes—mostly for trousers. However, we had more than enough; and, besides, we had the trousers, and the scraps—for we did not waste anything there—and if the worst came to the worst, we could undo our clothes and sew the pieces together again and, as a matter of fact, that is what we did do afterwards, as I shall show you.

But for this first boat we had plenty of canvas; and, carefully taking the best parts, we next began the difficult task of sewing it on to our page 149frame, a by no means easy job, I can assure you, but one demanding both care and patience.

Well, at last it was done, and a poor looking thing it was, that canvas-covered basket. There were no planks inside, no seats or anything of that sort. The fellows who were going in her would have to sit or kneel on that rough, thorny wood, and take great care that they did not knock holes through the bottom. They would have to stay in the places which they first took, for there was no room for shifting about in her.

We took her down to the one spot on Disappointment Island suitable for the purpose —a spot on the extreme left of our little isle, and right opposite the large one, and there on the 28th of July we launched her, and she proved to be all right. She floated, and she did not leak enough to endanger the lives of her crew, though she would want baling all the time.

Now, the boat finished, the next question was how were we going to propel her; for there was nothing growing on the island from which we could fashion oars or paddles, and we certainly could not put to sea without something of the sort.

But seamen learn to contrive many things out of seemingly very unpromising materials, and it was so in our case. We went back to the place from which we had obtained our veronica wood, and we searched until we found some pieces which were forked like a clothes-prop. They were not straight, but we could not help page 150that; if we could not get what we wanted, we were prepared to accept the nearest thing to it that could be procured. And so we brought our prizes back to camp, and proceeded to cover the prongs over by stretching a piece of canvas across them; and these we decided would serve for paddles, with which to take our boat over that six miles of sea to Auckland Island.

But now we had to wait for a couple of days, for the sea was so rough that there was no chance of success, had the voyage been undertaken. You see, when the boat had her crew in her, she was so deep in the water that she only had a few inches freeboard; and, consequently, it would have been madness to attempt the passage had anything of a sea been running, for she would have been swamped at once.

We passed our time in discussing the voyage, and what was to be done in the event of the voyagers succeeding in their mission and reaching the big island, where we believed that we should find all that we needed in the way of clothes and food.

First we settled that for the journey three hands would be enough. Indeed, the boat would not hold more with any safety at all. It would need two to paddle, and one to bale. Afterwards, as I shall tell you, we went four at a time; for, besides the men at the paddles, it required one in the stern to steer. But of that we will talk later. On this first trip only three men went.

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The next thing was who should go, and this led to a lot of discussion. In the first place there were some who did not want to go at all; they still thought the whole attempt little short of madness, and declared that they would rather take their chance where they were than go to certain death.

Then some who wanted to go were objected to by the rest, on the ground that they were not strong enough. Anyway, it was going to be a hard journey, and there was a lot depending upon its success, so we didn't want any to go who were likely to knock under on the way.

So we talked and discussed, and argued like a lot of sea lawyers for a long time, and at last we decided that Santiago Marino, Bob Ellis and Michael Pul should make the first attempt; and, as they were all eager about it, the thing was left at that.

Then we felt that these three must take Queerfelt's six vestas with them; for, whilst we fellows had fires on Disappointment Island, they would be without any until they found the depôt for which they were going to search. We impressed upon them to be very careful of these precious vestas, and not use a single one more than was absolutely needful; and they, knowing quite as well as we did how important it was, promised to follow out our advice.

The next thing was that as soon as they landed they were to make a big fire, putting on plenty of grass to cause a dense smoke, so page 152that we might know that they had arrived safely; and we agreed that as soon as we saw the signal we would make an answering one.

Food we considered there was no need to trouble about, more than to give them a little cooked mollyhawk to eat upon their journey, for since the birds were so plentiful here, they would be certain to be still more so there on the larger island, and water would surely be easily found.

So everything was settled, and all we had to do was to wait until the sea was calm enough to give some promise of success to the expedition—a state of things which occurred on the morning of July 31st.

There was no wind that morning. We were up as soon as dawn came, and glanced at the sea with anxious eyes and critical. It was as smooth as a millpond for the time, and as we did not know how soon the weather might change we lost no time in getting ready for the start.

One and all were astir, and we wended our way down to the landing-place, our three comrades in our midst, a hopeful and yet a solemn little company, for we knew that in parting from them we might be parting from men who were going to their death.

Down to the beach, and the canvas boat was run out. Pul got in, and Santiago and Ellis. We handed them our paddles, and we gave them a parting shake of the hand. There was a moment's pause, and then:

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"Shove off!"

She was away, that little frail craft—away on the ever-restless sea, and, half kneeling, half crouching, two of her crew worked their clumsy paddles. She was away—the distance between our comrades and ourselves widened. We gave them a hearty cheer, and shouted our best wishes for good luck, and then we stood watching in silence. A Chilian, a Finn, an Australian, but our brothers in distress— our brothers who were going to seek succour for us all.

I have heard the cry that British ships should be manned by British sailors, and perhaps there is much to be said in favour of that; but this much I know, that though the survivors of the Dundonald were drawn from many different lands, though some of them could hardly understand what the others said, yet for all that they were loyal and faithful one to the other, and they proved that beyond the brotherhood of country there is a stronger brotherhood still—that of common humanity.

We stood there and watched them until the boat rounded the head and was shut out from view, and then we went up to the top of the cliff and we watched them from there, as they grew less and less distinct, until they were but a speck floating on the waves.

"She seems to float all right," was the uniform comment; and our hopes rose high. Our brave little boat was doing her duty— page 154she was carrying our comrades to the Promised Land!

"They ought to make the land about mid-day," I said; and my estimate was agreed to.

About midday! We just mooned about doing nothing; we were too restless, too excited, to think of anything. We hardly took our eyes off that distant land from which we hoped soon to see a column of smoke arise to tell us of the successful ending of the voyage.

But midday came and went, and no signal was seen, and afternoon waned into evening, and still the signal smoke did not rise. And then anxiety got hold of us; and when at length the light died, and darkness came, and we had received no token of our comrades' safety, we sought our grass huts with sad hearts, feeling certain that some dreadful accident had befallen them, and that they must have perished in their attempt.

"They must have gone down," we whispered to each other fearfully. "The boat was not strong enough, and it has foundered."

The next morning as soon as the light came we cast anxious glances across to the place to which our comrades had sailed, but still the land lay there dim against the sky-line, and never a trace of smoke was to be seen. So we were almost positive that the worst had befallen them.

Well, they were gone, and had perished.

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The question was, what were we who remained to do?

Some of us were so far from being daunted that we determined to follow them, and we accordingly went for a supply of wood, and started making two more frames of boats, precisely upon the lines of the first one.

"I will never make the attempt," said one; and others backed him up. But we kept on, choosing our wood carefully, and lashing the parts together with the greatest care.

It was no good saying that we would not go. It became more and more evident that we should have to go, for the birds were beginning to get very scarce, and it was quite a difficult job to catch a seal, as they made off the moment they caught a glimpse of us. Ah, there were days when we did not get our two or three birds each—days when we did not even get one—and hunger makes men desperate!

We went on stolidly building, and never a sign did we have of the mates whom now, we supposed, must have perished; and on the seventh day of August we had both frames just on finished. And then for the first time we saw a great column of smoke rising from the big island towards which Ellis and the others had sailed.

We could not believe our eyes at first. We fancied that it must be some trick of the mist. But we soon saw that it was no mist; it was smoke—dense smoke, rising in great volumes page 156and rolling away to leeward. The fellows were alive, after all, and they were sending us the promised signal.

Away went our anxiety and doubt, and we hurried up and made a big fire in answer. We piled up a great heap of wood, and as soon as we had got it well alight we smothered it with grass and damped it, so that in place of flame it sent up a cloud of thick smoke. And then, eagerly discussing the situation, we turned our attention to the boats again.

For suppose that they were safe, and had found the depôt, they might not find a boat. We were very doubtful upon the latter point— indeed, some of the crowd declared that boats were not left at Government depôts. Well, then, the fellows would have to come back in their canvas boat, and we should be any length of time before we all got over, even if the weather kept good enough for the boat to make a number of passages. It would be far better to have more boats, so that a lot of us could go over together. So we decided, and to work we set.

And it was a task when it came to covering them, for the canvas had to be straightened out, and that which we had used for clothes had to be sewn back to where we had taken it from, even if it meant us going with very little clothing ourselves.

What mattered that, or anything ? It did not even matter that we were beginning to be more often hungry than not, and that we had to fall back upon our root for our chief food.

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I have not yet mentioned that root to you. Its name is Stilbocarpa polaris. We didn't know that; we just called it "root." It grew with great leaves, and the root itself was very big and fleshy, sometimes as long as a man's arm, and a good deal thicker. The white briony of England has a root somewhat like it in appearance.

We had come across it when we were very hungry—so hungry that we were quite ready to eat anything, indeed—and some of our fellows had started chewing these leaves. That led to the discovery that it had a big root, and someone started on that, though it was a bit of a job to get it up. However, we found that it did not do us any harm, though it was very hard. It tasted something like a turnip.

Then we went a step further and tried what cooking it would do—our cooking being just to throw it in the fire and leave it there for a good time. When we took it out and scraped all the ash and burnt parts off, the rest was quite soft, and it tasted a good deal more like turnip— boiled turnip. At any rate, we liked the root very much, and found it a good deal more appetizing than seaweed.

Well, we kept our signal fire going for all it was worth, and we worked away at our boats, so that we should have them all ready when the other fellows came back for us. But after that fire on August 7th we had no other sign for three days, and we began to get anxious again, not understanding what could be going page 158on, though we expected that the party were away from the shore, busily searching for the depôt.

"I wish that we were there wid them," was Mickey's comment when we were talking that over; and he was answered that we would soon be there now, for the fellows could not be much longer finding the depôt, and then they would come back to us at once.

We little thought how they would come back to us, and what a tale they would have to tell! And on August 10th once more we saw smoke rising from the other island; and though we did not know why the fellows should be signalling again like that, we took it to be a good omen, and we made another big fire in answer, and then awaited as calmly as we could for what was to follow.

We discussed that second fire, and the general opinion was that the chaps had made it to give us notice that they were on the return voyage.

On the return voyage ! How we stared out across the sea, how we strained our eyes, and how we wondered as to what fortune Ellis and his two companions had met with. And then, late in the afternoon—too late, indeed, if one considered the peril of being caught by night—one of the crowd noticed far, far away a tiny black spot rising and falling on the waves.

We rushed up the cliff, and we examined it carefully. Yes, something was there—something moving and coming towards us. It page 159did not take us long to make up our minds as to its nature. That black spot was our canvas boat, and our three companions were there. They were coming back. But what were the tidings which they would have to tell when they arrived?