Heart of Oak: A Three-Stranded Yarn, vol. 2

Heart of Oak: A Three-Stranded Yarn, vol. 2.

The sail shone like a peak of ice against a belly of soft snow-cloud right aheadthat is, ahead as the hull's bows lay. I should have supposed it ice, but for the captain, who stood close beside the companion holding the ship's glass: he said, 'There she is, miss.' 'I can't tell as yet. She's only just been sighted. Bear a hand with the first empty tar barrel you can get hold of,' he bawled, moving forwards, and he continued to shout,[Pg 2] but I could not gather the instructions he delivered. With the promptitude of seamen the crew collected a lot of stuff for making a smoke; they stacked a large heap of material near the gangway and set fire to it, and in about ten minutes a thick body of blue smoke was rolling over the rail, and clouding upwards with many a sparkling ruddy gleam shooting up tongue-shaped or arrow-like into the throat of the sooty pouring. It was wide daylight and the antarctic day young, but the clouds rimmed the horizon with the shadow of night, and the crimson[Pg 3] light of the flare promised as swift an intelligence of our forlorn condition as the smoke. The seamen continued to feed the fire; and all the while Captain Burke was stretching his telescope at the distant gleam; the men again and again turning their eyes from it to him with looks growing dark with impatience and consuming anxiety. Mr. Owen had fetched his binocular glass and strained his eyes through them without intermission. Mrs. Burke and I standing in the companion, which was the one sheltered part of that long stretch of frozen deck and smashed bulwarks, gazed without speech. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 62378
Author: Russell, William Clark
Release Date: Jun 12, 2020
Format: eBook
Language: English