Isles of the sea; or, Young America homeward bound : $b A story of travel and adventureOptic, Oliver
General
Isles of the sea; or, Young America homeward bound : $b A story of travel and adventure
Optic, Oliver
Seafaring life -- Juvenile fiction
On board of the Josephine and the Tritonia, the number sent away
rendered it necessary to re-organize the watches. While the
vice-principals were attending to this duty, the wind suddenly changed,
so that the vessels could not lay their course; and it had headed them
off till they were standing nearly to the southward. At the same time
the fog shut out the Ville d’Angers from view. For a time after the
course had been changed, the fog-signals of the steamer were heard; and
then they ceased.
As the steamer was not disturbed by the change of wind, Mr. Fluxion
feared she would run ahead of the little squadron, and lose sight of
her associates. He directed the captain to tack after the Josephine had
run some five miles to the southward, so as to keep somewhere on the
track of the steamer. The fog was very deep and dense, and he wondered
that the Ville had ceased to whistle. He was not prepared to believe
that the captain of the steamer would wilfully run away from her
consorts; and the situation puzzled him. The Tritonia was near enough
to hear the signals of the other schooner; and there was little danger
of losing sight of each other unless heavy weather came on, of which
there were some indications.
The captains had consulted their barometers as soon as the watches had
been re-arranged. Wainwright was astonished to observe a considerable
fall of the instrument; and he immediately reported the fact to Mr.
Pelham, and Capt. Vroome did the same to Mr. Fluxion. Every preparation
was at once made for heavy weather; and they had it before dark.
While the fog was still hanging over the ocean, the wind began to come
in heavy gusts, and all the light sails were hastily taken in. Just
after dark the fog lifted, or was driven to seaward by the strong
breeze. The vice-principals looked anxiously for the lights of the
Ville d’Angers; but nothing could be seen of them in any direction.
During the night the wind blew a fierce gale from the southward. At
daylight the gale had moderated, but the fog settled down on the water
again. Nothing was seen or heard of the steamer. For three days more,
in all sorts of weather, though the wind was generally contrary, the
schooners continued on their course, and then arrived safely at Funchal.
“There is the Prince at anchor off the Loo Rock!” exclaimed Mr. Pelham,
as the Tritonia approached the town of Funchal.
“That’s an odd-looking rock,” added Scott, who heard the remark. “It
looks like the head of the sea-serpent, with a fort built on the top of
his cranium.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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