Patrick O'Brian - Desolation island

"I doubt it may: look at the gleam to leeward, Mr Gray."

The carpenter looked, and pursed his lips; glanced aft to catch the Dutchman on the rise, and pursed them again, muttering, "What can you expect, when we got a witch aboard? Deadlights this minute, s1r."

"And hawse-bags, of course."

So they ran another glass, and at the striking of the bell Jack moved to the poop: there, crouching with his telescope behind the taffrail, he inspected the 11aakzaamileid. The moment he had it focused on her forecastle he had a curious shock, for there, full in his glass, was the Dutch captain, looking straight at him. There was no doubt about his tall, burly form, the distinctive carriage of his head: Jack was familiar with the enemy. But now, instead of his usual light blue, he had a black coat on. "I wonder," thought Jack, "whether it is just an odd chance, or whether we killed some relative of his? His boy, perhaps, dear God forbid."

The seventy-four was gaining slightly now, and in the strong remaining light - for the evening was much longer down here, and the two ships had run well clear of the

gloom of the north - Jack could make out the nature of those odd triangles. There was another at the foretopgallant now, and it was a storm-staysail, suspended by its tack.

"If you please, sir," said a 'midshipman, young Hillier, "the bosun says all is stretched along, and might he have a party."

A tidy party it would have to be, for Jack's plan was to supplement the backstays with hawsers, no less, so that the immensely strengthened masts might bear a great press of sail with a following wind, the strain being transferred to the hull; but to bowse the massive cordage so taut that it would serve its office called for a most uncommon force. Once, when he was third of the Theseus, they had set the mainsail in a hurry to claw off the Penmarks, and a south-wester blew so hard that two hundred men were needed to haul the sheet right aft: he did not have two hundred valid men, but he did have a little more time than the captain of the Theseus, with the breakers under his lee.

None to waste, however, with the seventy-four only three miles away, and running off the mile in Just five minutes: and above all, no time to make a mistake - a mast lost in this sea was sure destruction.

"A burton-tackle to the chess-tree," he called, loud and clear. "Lead aft to a snatch-block fast to the aftermost ring-bolts and forward free. Look alive, there, look alive. Light along that snatch-block, Craig.' Order came from apparent confusion in five minutes: the half-drowned bosun's Party scrambled in from the chess-trees; and the whole ship's company crowded into the waist and along the gangways, standing by the cablets that were to act as horizontal falls, working with a threefold power.

"Silence fore and aft,"cried Jack. "Starboard, tally on. At the word, now, and all together cheerly: like a bowline. Ho, one. Ho, two. Ho, belay. Larboard, clap on. Ho, one. Ho, two. Ho, belay."

So it went, on either side: short sharp pulls aft from the chess-trees, forward from the snatch-blocks, and the hawsers tightened evenly, tighter and tighter yet, a most careful balancing of forces, until the wind sung the same note in each, and each pair was iron-taut, supporting its mast with extraordinary strength.

" Belay," cried Jack for the last time. "Well fare ye, lads. Are you ready, Mr Lane?"

"Ready, aye ready, sir."

"Cast off all. Maintopgallantsail, there."

The yard rose up; the mast took the strain without a groan; the Leopard's bow-wave grew higher still with her increasing speed. Now the spritsail topsail followed, while to ease her plunging they hauled up the mainsail, giving all the wind to her forecourse: she saHed easier yet, with no slackening in her pace, clearly outrunning the Dutchman, although he had shaken out his foretopsail reef.

They raced furiously over the empty, heaving sea under a clear late evening sky, both ships driven very hard; and the first to lose an important spar or sail would lose the race that night. The sun was setting; in an hour and forty minutes the moon would rise, a little past her full. With the afterglow and then the strong moonlight, there would be small chance of jigging unperceived; yet half an hour before the moon he would bring the wind a point or so on the quarter, just so that the jibs and forward staysails would stand and give him another half knot or even more. And all things being considered, hammocks might be piped down: the larboard watch would turn in with all their clothes on in case of emergency, and there was no point in keeping them at quarters, shivering behind their tight-closed ports: the crisis, if it came to that, was some way off. Perhaps a great way to the east. He had chased forty-eight hours before this.

In the darkened cabin he found Stephen with his 'cello between his knees and a soup-tureen at his side. "Judas,"he said, lifting the lid and beholding emptiness.

"Not at all, my dear. More is on the brew; but I cannot recommend it. You would be better with a glass of water, tempered with a few drops of wine, a very few drops of wine, and a piece of biscuit."

"What did you cat it for, then? Why did you not leave a scrap, not a single scrap?"

"It was only that I felt my need was greater than thine, my business of greater importance than your business. For whereas yours is concerned with death, mine is the bringing forth of life. Mrs Boswell is in labour, and some time tonight or tomorrow I think I may promise you an addition to your crew."

"Ten to one another - woman," said Jack. "Killick! Killick, there!"

More soup appeared, chops hot and hot, a jug of coffee, and a wedge of solid duff.

"Will this last long, do you suppose?" asked Stephen, over the booming of his 'cello.

"A stern chase is a long chase," said Jack.

"And would you consider this a really stern one?"

"It could not well be more so. The Dutchman is in our wake. He is dead astern."

"So that is the significance of the term. I had always supposed it to mean an eager, a grim, a most determined pursuit, inspired by inveterate animosity. Well: and so this is a stern chase. Listen till I tell you something for my part: a breech -presentation is a long, long labour too. It looks to me that the both of us have an active night ahead: you will allow me to call for another pot."

Stephen's was active enough, with no proper forceps and no great experience of midwifery; but after Jack had gone on deck to alter course - southwards, since the Dutchman expected him to go north - and had stared at his pursuer for a while by the light of the risen moon, he stretched out on his cot and went straight to sleep. The outer jib and the foretopmast staysail were standing well, the Leopard was steering easy, and the seventy-four was

between four and five miles astern; she had not perceived Jack's smooth change of direction for some time and she had not set her own headsails until the Leopard was close on another mile ahead.

He woke refreshed: yet his sleeping mind had recorded the crash of water against the deadlights, and coming on deck he was not surprised to find that both wind and sea had increased. The cold, brilliant moon showed an even array of tall waves sweeping eastward, wide apart, with a deep trough between; and now their heads were curling over, streaming down the leeward side in a white cascade; and the general note of the wind in the rigging had risen half an octave.

If this grew worse, and from the look of the western sky, the feel of the air, it must grow worse, he would have to put the Leopard before the wind again; the ship could not stand a heavier sea upon her quarter without being thrown off her course. The Waakzaamheid was still at much the same distance, but that was not likely to last.

The graveyard watch wore on, bell by bell; and still they ran, starting neither sheet nor tack, an eager, grim, and most determined pursuit. At eight bells, with both watches on deck, he took in the,spritsail, got the yard fore and aft, set the inner jib, and bore up another point. It might be his last chance of doing so, for the air was now filled with flying water and the ship was tearing through the sea at a rate he never would have believed possible, a rate that in fact would have been impossible without those hawsers to the mastheads. But this was no longer the exhilarating pace of a few hours ago; now there was a nightmare, breakneck quality about it; and now the wind was blowing very hard indeed.