They rowed up to it; it was a boat, but empty and floating bottom
upwards. Closer examination showed that it was the cutter, which, when
full of women and children, had been fastened to the vessel and dragged
down with her as she sank. At a certain depth the pressure of the water
had been too great and had torn the ring in the bow bodily out of her,
so that she returned to the surface. But those in her did not return—at
least, not yet. Once more, two or three days hence, they would arise
from the watery depths and look upon the skies with eyes that could not
see, and then vanish for ever.
Turning from this awful and most moving sight, they rowed slowly
through quantities of floating wreckage—barrels, hencoops (in one of
these they found two drowned fowls, which they secured), and many other
articles, such as oars and wicker deck-chairs—and began to shout
vigorously in the hope of attracting the attention of the survivors in
the other boat, which they imagined could not be far off. Their
efforts, however, proved fruitless, owing to the thickness of the fog;
and in the considerable sea which was running it was impossible to see
more than twenty yards or so. Also, what between the wind, and the wash
and turmoil of the water, the sound of their voices did not travel far.
The ocean is a large place, and a rowing-boat is easily lost sight of
upon its furrowed surface; therefore it is not wonderful that, although
the two boats were at the moment within half a mile of each other, they
never met, and each took its separate course in the hope of escaping
the fate of the vessel. The boat in which were Lady Holmhurst and some
twenty other passengers, together with the second officer and a crew of
six men, after seeing the Kangaroo sink and picking up one survivor,
shaped a course for Kerguelen Land, believing that they, and they
alone, remained to tell the tale of that awful shipwreck. And here it
may be convenient to state that before nightfall they were picked up by
a sealing-whaler, that sailed with them to Albany, on the coast of
Australia. Thence an account of the disaster, which, as the reader will
remember, created a deep impression, was telegraphed home, and thence,
in due course, the widowed Lady Holmhurst and most of the other women
who escaped were taken back to England.
To return to our heroine and Mr. Meeson.
The occupants of the little boat sat looking at each other with white
scared faces, till at last the man called Johnnie, who, by-the-way, was
not a tar of a very amiable cast of countenance, possibly owing to the
fact that his nose was knocked almost flat against the side of his
face, swore violently, and said “It was no good stopping there all the
etceteraed day.” Thereupon Bill, who was a more jovial-looking man,
remarked “that he, Johnnie, was etceteraed well right, so they had
better hoist the fore-sail.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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