Newton Forster Page 5

  Chapter V

  "Whate'er it be, 'Tis wondrous heavy. Wrench it open straight. If the sea's stomach be o'ercharged with gold, It is a good constraint of fortune, that It belches on us." SHAKESPEARE.

  About three weeks after the events narrated in the preceding chapter,Newton Forster sailed in his vessel with a cargo to be delivered at theseaport of Waterford. The master of her was immoderately addicted toliquor; and during the time that he remained in port, seldom was to befound in a state of perfect sobriety, even on a Sunday. But, to do himjustice, when his vessel was declared ready for sea, he abstained fromhis usual indulgence, that he might be enabled to take charge of theproperty committed to his care, and find his way to his destined port.It was a point on which his interest overcame, for a time, his darlingpropensity: and his rigid adherence to sobriety, when afloat, was sowell ascertained, that his character as a trustworthy seaman was notinjured by his continual intemperance when in harbour. Latterly,however, since Newton had sailed with him, he had not acted up to hisimportant resolution. He found that the vessel was as safe under thecharge of Forster as under his own; and having taken great pains toinstruct him in seamanship, and make him well acquainted with thedangers of the coast, he thought that, as Newton was fully equal to thecharge of the vessel, he might as well indulge himself with anoccasional glass or two, to while away the tedium of embarkation. Astone pitcher of liquor was now his constant attendant when he pulled onboard to weigh his anchor; which said pitcher, for fear of accidents, hecarried down into the cabin himself. As soon as sail was on the vessel,and her course shaped, he followed his darling companion down into thecabin, and until the contents were exhausted was never sufficientlysober to make his appearance on deck; so that Newton Forster was, infact, the _responsible_ master of the vessel.

  The wind, which had been favourable at the time of heaving up theanchor, changed, and blew directly in their teeth, before they were wellout of sight of the port of Overton. On the third day they werestretching off the land, to meet the first of the tide, under a lightbreeze and smooth water, when Newton perceived various objects floatingin the offing. A small thing is a good prize to a coaster; even an emptybeaker is not to be despised; and Newton kept away a point or two, thathe might close and discover what the objects were. He soon distinguishedone or two casks, swimming deeply, broken spars, and a variety of otherarticles. When the sloop was in the midst of them, Newton hove-to,tossed out the little skiff, and, in the course of an hour, unknown tohis captain, who was in bed sleeping off the effect of his lastpotations, brought alongside, and contrived to parbuckle in, the casks,and as many others of the floating articles as he could convenientlystow upon her decks. The boat was again hoisted in, by the unitedexertions of himself and his crew, consisting of _one_ man and _one_boy; and the sloop, wearing round, reached in for the land.

  It was evident to Newton that some large vessel had lately been wrecked,for the spars were fresh in the fracture, and clean--not like those longin the water, covered with sea-weed, and encircled by a shoal of fish,who finding sustenance from the animalculae collected, follow thefloating pieces of wood up and down, as their adopted parent, whereverthey may be swept by the inconstant winds and tides.

  Newton examined the heels of the spars, but they were not marked withthe name of the vessel to which they had belonged. The two casks hadonly initials branded upon their heads; but nothing could be found whichwould designate the owners of the property. A large trunk riveted hisattention; but he would not open it until the master of the vessel cameupon deck. Having ascertained by spiling that the contents of the caskswere _real Jamaica_, he went down into the cabin to announce what heknew would be most grateful intelligence.

  It was some time before Newton could rouse his stupefied senior.

  "Spars--wrecked!"

  "What spars? D--n the wreck!" growled old Thompson (for such was hisname), as he turned his back in no very ceremonious manner, andrecommenced his snore.

  "There's a trunk besides, sir--a large trunk; but I did not open it, asyou were not on deck. A large trunk, and rather heavy."

  "Trunk!--well, what then? Trunk!--oh, d--n the trunk!--let me go tosleep," muttered the master.

  "There's two large casks, too, sir; I've spiled them, and they prove tobe puncheons of rum," bawled Newton, who pertinaciously continued.

  "Eh; what?--casks! what casks?"

  "Two puncheons of rum."

  "Rum!--did you say rum?" cried old Thompson, lifting his head off thepillow, and staring stupidly at Newton; "where?"

  "On deck. Two casks: we picked them up as we were standing off theland."

  "Picked them up?--are they on board?" inquired the master, sittingupright in his bed and rubbing his eyes.

  "Yes, they're on board. Won't you come on deck?"

  "To be sure I will. Two puncheons of rum, you said?"--and old Thompsongained his feet, and reeled to the companion ladder, holding on by _allfours_, as he climbed up without his shoes.

  When the master of the sloop had satisfied himself as to the contents ofthe casks, which he did by taking about half a tumbler of each, Newtonproposed that the trunk should be opened. "Yes," replied Thompson, whohad drawn off a mug of the spirits, with which he was about to descendto the cabin, "open if you like, my boy. You have made a _bon prize_to-day, and your share shall be the trunk; so you may keep it, and thethings that are stowed away in it, for your trouble; but don't forget tosecure the casks till we can stow them away below. We can't break bulknow; but the sooner they are down the better; or we shall have somequill-driving rascal on board, with his _flotsam_ and _jetsam_, for the_Lord knows who_;" and Thompson, to use his own expression, went downagain "to lay his soul in soak."

  Reader, do you know the meaning of _flotsam_ and _jetsam_? None but alawyer can, for it is old law language. Now, there is a slightdifference between language in general and law language. The first wasinvented to enable us to explain our own meaning, and comprehend theideas of others; whereas the second was invented with the view that weshould not be able to understand a word about it. In former times, whenall law, except _club_ law, was in its infancy, and practitioners not soerudite, or so thriving as at present, it was thought advisable torender it unintelligible by inventing a sort of _lingo_, compounded ofbad French, grafted upon worse Latin, forming a mongrel andincomprehensible race of words, with French heads and Latin tails, whichanswered the purpose intended--that of mystification.--_Flotsam_ and_jetsam_ are of this breed. _Flot_, derived from the French _flottant_,floating; and _jet_ from the verb _jeter_, to _throw up_; both used inseignoral rights, granted by kings to favourites, empowering them totake possession of the property of any man who might happen to beunfortunate, which was in those times tantamount to being guilty. Idaresay, if one could see the deed thus empowering them to confiscatethe goods and chattels of others for their own use, according to thewording of the learned clerks in those days, it would run thus:--"Omniumquod flotsam et jetsam, et everything else-um, quod findetes;" in plainEnglish, "Everything floating or thrown up, and everything else you maypick up." Now, the admiral of the coast had this piratical privilege:and as, in former days, sextants and chronometers were unknown,seafaring men incurred more risk than they do at present, and the wreckswhich strewed the coast were of very great value. I had a proof theother day that this right is still exacted; that is, as far as regardsproperty _unclaimed_. I had arrived at Plymouth from the WesternIslands. When we hove up our anchor at St Michael's, we found anotheranchor and cable hooked most lovingly to our own, to the great joy ofthe first lieutenant, who proposed buying silk handkerchiefs for everyman in the ship, and expending the residue in paint. But we had not beenat anchor in Plymouth Sound more than twenty-four hours, and he hardlyhad time to communicate with the gentlemen-dealers in marine stores,when I received a notification from some lynx-eyed agent of the presentadmiral of the coast (who is a lawyer, I believe), requesting theimmediate delivery of the anchor and cable, upon the plea of hisseignoral righ
ts of _flotsam_ and _jetsam._ Now, the idea was aspreposterous as the demand was impudent. We had picked up the anchor inthe roadside of a _foreign power,_ about fifteen hundred miles distantfrom the English coast.

  We are all lawyers, _now,_ on board ship; so I gave him one of my legalanswers, "that, in the first place, _flotsam_ meant floating, andanchors did not float; in the second place, that _jetsam_ meant thrownup, and anchors never were thrown up; in the third and last place, _I'dsee him d--d first!"_

  My arguments were unanswerable. Counsel for the plaintiff (I presume)threw up his brief, for we heard no more of _"Mr Flotsam and Jetsam."_

  But to proceed:--The man and boy, who, with Newton, composed the wholecrew, seemed perfectly to acquiesce in the distribution made by themaster of the sloop; taking it for granted that their silence, as to theliquor being on board, would be purchased by a share of it, as long asit lasted.

  They repaired forward with a pannikin from the cask, with which theyregaled themselves, while Newton stood at the helm. In half an hourNewton called the boy aft to steer the vessel, and lifted the trunk intothe cabin below, where he found that Thompson had finished the majorpart of the contents of the mug, and was lying in a state of drunkenstupefaction.

  The hasp of the lock was soon removed by a clawhammer, and the contentsof the trunk exposed to Newton's view. They consisted chiefly of femalewearing apparel and child's linen; but, with these articles, there was alarge packet of letters addressed to Madame Louise de Montmorenci, thecontents of which were a mystery to Newton, who did not understandFrench. There were also a red morocco case, containing a few diamondornaments, and three or four crosses of different orders of knighthood.All the wearing-apparel of the lady was marked with the initials L.M.,while those appertaining to the infant were marked with the letters J.F.

  After a careful examination, Newton spread out the clothes to dry, overthe cabin lockers and table; and depositing the articles of value in asafe place, he returned on deck. Although Thompson had presented himwith the trunk and its contents, he felt that they could not beconsidered as his property, and he determined to replace everything,and, upon his return, consult his father as to the proper measures whichshould be taken to discover who were the lawful owners.

  The sloop, under the direction of Newton, had continued her course fortwo days against the adverse, yet light breeze, when the weatherchanged. The wind still held to the same quarter: but the sky becameloaded with clouds, and the sun set with a dull red glare, whichprognosticated a gale from the N.W.; and before morning the vessel waspitching through a short chopping sea. By noon the gale was at itsheight; and Newton, perceiving that the sloop did not "hold her own,"went down to rouse the master, to inquire what steps should be taken, ashe considered it advisable to bear up; and the only port under their leefor many miles was one with the navigation of which he was himselfunacquainted.

  The vessel was under close-reefed mainsail and storm foresail, almostburied in the heavy sea, which washed over the deck from forward to thecompanion hatch, when Newton went down to rouse the besotted Thompson,who, having slept through the night without having had recourse toadditional stimulus, was more easy to awaken than before.

  "Eh! what?--blows hard--whew!--so it does. How's the wind?" said themaster, throwing his feet outside the standing bedplace, as he sat up.

  "N.W., veering to N.N.W. in the squalls. We have lost good ten milessince yesterday evening, and are close to Dudden Sands," replied Newton."I think we must bear up, for the gale shows no signs of breaking."

  "Well, I'll be on deck in a moment, my boy," rejoined Thompson, who wasnow quite himself again, and was busy putting on his shoes, the onlyarticles which had been removed when he turned in. "Go you up, and seethat they keep her clean, full and bye--and those casks wellsecured.--Dudden Sands--awkward place, too--but I've not been fortyyears a-boxing about this coast for nothing."

  In a minute Thompson made his appearance on deck, and steadying himselfby the weather topmast backstay, fixed his leaden eyes upon the land onthe quarter.--"All right, younker, that's the head, sure enough;" thenturning his face to the wind, which lifted up his grey curling locks,and bore them out horizontally from his fur cap, "and it's a devil of agale, sure enough.--It may last a month of Sundays for all I know.--Upwith the helm, Tom.--Ease off the main sheet, handsomely, my lad--nottoo much. Now, take in the slack, afore she jibes;" and the masterducked under the main boom and took his station on the other side of thedeck. "Steady as you go now.--Newton, take the helm.--D'ye see thatbluff?--keep her right for it. Tom, you and the boy rouse the cableup--get about ten fathoms on deck, and bend it.--You'll find a bit ofseizing and a marling-spike in the locker abaft." The sloop scuddledbefore the gale, and in less than two hours was close to the headlandpointed out by the master. "Now, Newton, we must hug the point or weshall not fetch--clap on the main sheet here, all of us. Luff, you may,handsomely.--That's all right; we are past the Sand-head and shall be insmooth water in a jiffy.--Steady, so-o.--Now for a drop of _swizzle,"_cried Thompson, who considered that he had kept sober quite long enough,and proceeded to the cask of rum lashed to leeward. As he knelt down topull out the spile, the sloop which had been brought to the wind, wasstruck on her broadside by a heavy sea, which careened her to hergunnel: the lashings of the weather cask gave way, and it flew acrossthe deck, jamming the unfortunate Thompson, who knelt against the one toleeward, and then bounding overboard. The old man gave a heavy groan,and fell upon his back; the man and boy ran to his assistance, and bythe directions of Newton, who could not quit the helm, carried himbelow, and placed him on his bed. In a few minutes the sloop was safe atanchor, in smooth water, and Newton ran down into the cabin. Thompson'shead had been crushed against the chime of the cask; for an hour or twohe breathed heavily; and then--he was no more!