I gave Marah a last sip of water, left a bucket of fresh water and a
pannikin close to him, in case he should recover (I never thought he
would), and then began to make up a little parcel of things to take
with me. I was wearing the clothes of a ship's boy, canvas trousers,
thick blucher shoes, a rough check shirt, and a straw hat. My own
clothes--the clothes which I had worn when I scrambled down the fox's
earth--were forward, under the half deck. I went to fetch them, and
got them safely, though the drunkards tried to stop me, and said that
they only wanted me to sing them a song to be as happy as
kings. However, I got away from them, and carried my belongings aft. I
then took the tarpaulin boat-rug, which covered our little Norwegian
pram or skiff, on its chocks between the masts. It was rather too
large for my purpose, so I cut it in two, using the one half as a
bundle-cover. The other half would make a sort of cape or cloak, I
thought, and to that end I folded it and slung it over my shoulder. I
gave my knife a few turns upon the grindstone, pocketed some twine
from one of the lockers, lashed my bundle in its tarpaulin as tightly
as I could, and then went aft to the provision lockers to get some
stores for the road. I took out a few ship's biscuits, a large hunk of
ham, some onions, and the half of a Dutch cheese.
It occurred to me that I ought to eat before
I started, as I did not know what might befall upon the road. When I
sat down upon the deck to begin my meal, I saw, to my horror, that we
were drifting out again. While I had been packing, we had been swept
off shore; by this time we were three hundred yards away, still
drawing further out to sea. Looking out, I saw that we were drifting
into a "jobble" or tide-race, which seemed to drift obliquely into the
shore. This made me feel less frightened, so I turned to my food, ate
heartily, and took a good swig at the scuttle-butt by way of a morning
draught. Then I undid my parcel, packed as much food into it as I
possibly could, and lashed it up again in its tarpaulin. I found a few
reins and straps in one of the lockers, so I made shoulder-straps of
them, and buckled my package to my shoulders. My last preparation was
to fill a half-pint glass flask (every man aboard carries one or two
of these). Just as I replaced its stopper, we swept into the jobble;
the lugger filled on one tack, and lay over, and the spray of a wave
came over us. Then we righted suddenly, came up into the wind with our
sails slatting, and made a stern-board.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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