The ship was listing frightfully to
starboard, rendering the port boats useless, while half the
starboard boats had been demolished by the explosion.
It was into a second-class cabin, on the
starboard side, that I was promptly thrust in irons, and the door locked upon me as though I were another Raffles.
Indeed, the Nautilus still held the same position to
starboard; doubtless it would right itself when the block stopped.
EARLY the next morning the
starboard watch were mustered upon the quarter-deck, and our worthy captain, standing in the cabin gangway, harangued us as follows:--
Even then I was still so much interested, waiting for the ship to touch, that I had quite forgot the peril that hung over my head and stood craning over the
starboard bulwarks and watching the ripples spreading wide before the bows.
Always, to
starboard or to port, at the bow or over the stern, when he stood up resting his fore-feet on the six-inch rail and gazing, he saw only the ocean, broken-faced and turbulent, yet orderly marching its white-crested seas before the drive of the trade.
A bullet glanced on the stern and sang off to
starboard like a spiteful bee.
This last had begun and ended in the same minute; in another we were at the
starboard gangway, tumbling helter-skelter aboard the lowered long-boat.
Somebody had to pay for the six quarts, which, multiplied by thirty, amounted to a tidy sum in the course of the month; and, since that man was Dag Daughtry, he found it necessary to pass Michael inboard on the Makambo through a
starboard port-hole.
Three points on the
starboard bow, sir, and bringing down her breeze to us!
My hands were full with the flying-jib, jib, and staysail; and by the time this part of my task was accomplished the Ghost was leaping into the south-west, the wind on her quarter and all her sheets to
starboard. Without pausing for breath, though my heart was beating like a trip-hammer from my exertions, I sprang to the topsails, and before the wind had become too strong we had them fairly set and were coiling down.
Duncan pulled shut the cover of the companion scuttle, and held on, waiting, the first drops of rain pelting his face, while the Samoset leaped violently ahead, at the same time heeling first to
starboard then to port as the gusty pressures caught her winged-out sails.