N. Francis Xavier
Part XIII, (Continued from last week)
The boom of the gun was followed by a terrible flash of lightning and earsplitting thunderclap. Hemraj understood that the lightning was right overhead as there was no delay in hearing the sound after the flash.
They were in no danger, but the tall ship was. Through the driving rain they saw what could be the Charlotte, the sailing ship that plied between Port Blair and Rangoon.
Charlotte was a three-master almost a hundred years old. However, it gave good service, in spite of being slow, as it was built entirely of wood, had no engines and needed simple maintenance. People who didn’t like the smoke and sound of the steam ships preferred to travel by Charlotte. It carried mostly cargo and a few convicts from Burma.
The tall masts of the Charlotte are vulnerable in a thunderstorm. If the lightning rods are not proper it may catch fire. The captain would not take the risk of pursuing them.
Hemraj knew that Charlotte would not be able to pursue them in the stormy seas. But it would certainly pass on the information to Port Blair. They must change course, but, they had come very far north. Their nearest landfall was Burma, where they would surely be caught as soon as they touch the shore. He must think quickly.
Even before he could make up his mind the storm broke out upon them with hurricane-like force. Waves rose like mountains. With reefed sails the men had to pull for their lives to scale the seas and plummet into the chasms on the other side. Hemraj took the tiller, knowing that he must turn the bows to face the waves as they come.
There was no knowing in which direction the boat was going. It was just survival.
In spite of all their mastery in handling the boat waves often broke over it. Two men baled out the water continuously with their lotas. Most of their supplies were lost. But Hemraj knew that the whaler was unsinkable, even if it gets filled up to the brim. The buoyancy compartments in the bows and stern kept her afloat. But if they are smashed against rocks it would crack like an eggshell.
By midnight the storm intensified further. Hemraj ordered the mainsail taken down. With the jib and the mizzen they could just manage to get some headway. The men were drenched to the bone and shivering. But the desire for freedom kept them at their stations.
‘It’s better to die smashed on the rocks than hang on the Viper gallows’, Hemraj yelled as he tried to maintain the boat on an even course.
The only way they could find their position would be when the sky clears or the sun breaks out.
Men frequently leaned over the side and threw up. Their stomachs were now empty. Even Hemraj was sea sick, for the first time in his life. He felt as if his insides would burst as waves of nausea hit him. But he kept telling the men to keep sipping water and chew on the dried venison. That would prevent dehydration. He didn’t want to bury anyone at sea.
Suddenly, as the boat rose with a rising wave, the men saw what appeared to be a light. Hemraj counted its revolutions. They didn’t correspond to the Great Coco or Table Island light houses.
What could it be? He heard of the Balatan lighthouse that disappeared altogether…and the story of a haunting tale.
Hemraj remembered what MrEales told him. Eales died soon after Hemraj’s arrival in the Islands. Poor man, he was buried on Ross Island. But it was he who taught him seamanship. How to handle a boat in a storm, under sail, with oars… it was all MrEales’ teachings that made Hemraj, the hillbilly from Nepal, into a seasoned sailor.
Eales was with Dr. FJ Mouat during the initial explorations of the Islands in 1858. He later came to Port Blair with the first batch of convicts, as a part of the Naval Brigade.
One eveningEales told Hemraj the story he heard from Dr. FJ Mouat, the story of David Barclay, the Glasgow boy.
David Barclay was a lighthouse keeper on Balatan Island lighthouse.
He was so disfigured by frostbiteon his face during a voyage that he never hoped to find a bride.
He shunned company due to his horrible face.
The job of a lighthouse keeper suited him best, without any visitors who would gasp the moment they looked at his face.
Being a good Christian, who believed in resurrection he made his native servants perform a strange ritual every month before he paid their wages.
He made them put him in a nice, silk lined, mahogany coffin he got made for himself, go round the place three times and then put him in a grave he prepared for himself for sometime. He never thought he would ever have a family.
However, “The Lower Female Orphan Asylum,” had many half-caste girls left behind by their English fathers who took the sons back to England but left their native wives and daughters in India.
DrMouat succeeded in finding a bride for good David, who was willing to go with him to the desolate rock and live with him, ‘the lily of the flock’ as David called her.
David’s life was full of bliss then onwards.
On a stormy night, as he kept the light alive to warn a passing ship, his wife gave birth to a bonny baby boy.
David sent his wife and child to Calcutta so that they could have a better life than that on a small island in the midst of the sea.
Then, on the Queen’s birthday, David decided he should fire a Royal Salute to Her Majesty. He loaded a rusty gun on the rock, and applied the match to the touchhole.
The rusty gun blew up in his face.
His servants, already trained in what to do in case of sudden death, collected the bits and pieces that were his body and buried them in the already prepared grave.
Eales told Hemraj that David’s ghost still haunts the area.
Whenever a ship is in danger of dashing against rocks he shines a light to warn them.
Could it be David warning them?
Hemraj pushed the tiller hard up to turn the boat around. Seconds later he heard the roar of waves smashing on rocks. They were very close to death.
As the boat slid away in the opposite direction, Hemraj turned round to see where the light was.
There was nothing in the darkness, except the crests of huge waves.
Hemraj said a silent prayer of thanks to David and held the tiller tightly.
They would have to wait till morning to find where they were. (To be continued….)
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