Convictions (15 page)

Jennie turned to see Meadows and Nate making their way on their hands and knees, dragging a rope and periodically tying it to the cleats along the bulwark – another provision for people to hang on to or guide them, if the weather turned ferocious again. When the men got to the jolly boat, they rose to inspect it, then moved to the long boat. Both crafts were intact. Jennie felt a surge of hope. Maybe they could get off the ship with those, but there were too many of them to all fit. They would have to make two trips if they were going to try to reach the rocks.

Jennie slumped back. What good would getting to the rocks and ledge do? There was nowhere to go from there, and they would soon perish with no food or water. She ran a tongue over her parched lips. She just wanted to lie down in a soft, warm bed and sleep.

Suddenly, Red Bull rose from the shadows of the shattered wheelhouse. He lumbered toward Meadows and Nate. Their shouts could be heard above the wind.

“No, we stick together!” Meadows yelled. “We’ll work out how to get everyone on the boats, but not until we’re properly prepared.”

“But it would be faster for me to go without any extra weight. I could bring back help,” insisted Red Bull.

Jennie felt a surge of anger. Trust him to try and save himself first. They’d never see him again if he left. He cared only for himself.

Meadows knew it too. “No! We need to find food and water to take with us. Anyway, you wouldn’t be able to row alone.”

“I’d manage. Besides, we already know there’s nothing here,” said Red Bull.

“We’ll have to find what we can below deck,” said Nate. “You can help with that.”

Red Bull snorted and whirled away. “I’ll check what’s left of the captain’s quarters.”

“There’ll be naught of significance there,” said Meadows. “The hurricane will have carried everything away.”

Red Bull took no heed, and scurried as fast as he could to the captain’s quarters before they could stop him.

“I’ll dive below deck to see if I can find water and food, sir,” Nate offered. “I’ll need a line around my waist and someone to pull me and whatever I can find up when I tug.”

“I’ll do it,” said Meadows, glancing over at Walt’s prone body. “Walt doesn’t look like he’s up for much. Coombs and Edwards can help too.”

“I can help,” said Jennie, untying herself. “I can swim…and hold my breath for a long time too.”

“You’re just a girl,” said Meadows.

“Let me at least see what I can salvage from the surgery. We may need it and I’ll know what to bring,” Jennie petitioned.

Reluctantly Meadows agreed. “We don’t have much time in any case,” he said. “There’s no telling how long the ship will stay afloat.”

Jennie had a sudden thought about what it would be like in the hold. There would be floating bodies and the thought of what she might touch made her feel queasy. Presumably the water pulsing in had carried the bodies toward the aft, but there was no telling what the currents had done. She’d try to stay in contact with the hull as much as she could.

She and Nate secured ropes around their middles. Nate went down first. He caught Jennie by the waist as she lowered herself into the hold. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and dove beneath the frigid water. She grabbed blindly for anything solid. Once or twice she felt something bulky and soft bump against her and she kicked it away, knowing that it might be a body, but she didn’t dare open her eyes to see. Finally she felt what she thought was the bulkhead and kept in touch with it until she’d reached what she hoped was the doorway of the surgery. She felt along the wall where the shelves of medicines should be. There was nothing! They had to have fallen to the floor, but she was almost out of air. She whirled and swam back to the opening, gasping for breath as she broke the surface.

“Anything?” Meadows asked. Coombs and Edwards stood by with grim faces.

“Not yet.” She took several deep breaths and plunged again. This time she reached the surgery quicker and felt along the floor until her hands touched a tin. It had to be the lard for salve. She tucked it under her arm, but found it difficult to swim back with it.

She thrust it at Meadows when she came up for another breath. “I need something to carry things in,” she panted.

Nate emerged beside her, puffing. “I think I’ve found a keg of drinking water, but we’ll need ropes or a harness of some kind. And lots of strength topside for hauling it up.”

“We’ll cut some pieces of rope,” said Meadows, withdrawing a pocketknife. “Coombs, get Chilcott to help us haul the barrel. Walt and Edwards, come with me.”

“Who’s Chilcott?” Jennie asked Nate through chattering teeth.

“Your Red Bull,” he said. “That vile man, who somehow lives while others didn’t make it.” Nate’s words echoed Jennie’s thoughts.

A couple of minutes passed while Nate and Jennie stayed in the water, shivering. At last the men returned with several lengths of rope, fashioned into a rough harness for the keg with long ropes at either end for hauling.

“This is the best we could do,” Meadows said. “Chilcott refused to come, but Walt will do what he can to help. So will the women.” Meadows handed the makeshift carrier to Nate.

Eyes closed, Nate guided Jennie to the located barrel. Nate tipped the heavy keg while Jennie slipped the knot of ropes underneath. He took half the ropes, while she took the other three. As fast as they could, they swam to the top with all the rope ends, handing them to the waiting men above deck.

“Pull hard,” Nate ordered.

At first they only managed to budge the barrel. They all strained harder. At last it moved more easily and finally appeared at the opening. It took all of the men to lift it out of the water and onto the deck.

“I didn’t find much in the way of food, but I’ll check again,” Nate reported.

Jennie grappled in the water beside him. “I need to find more medicines, but I can’t carry them. Can we stick them in your pockets?”

Nate nodded. “Come on, just this one last time. We’ll look for both.”

Although Jennie and Nate searched, they only found a few containers of medicines and a leather pouch. There was no food that hadn’t been spoiled beyond use.

When they were topside again, the women clustered around Jennie, rubbing her arms and shoulders to warm her up. Jennie retrieved the leather pouch and medicines from Nate. She assessed the finds, tucked them into the pouch then joined Sarah to tend the gash on her forehead.

The men opened the keg of water and gave everyone a rationed drink. Jennie had never tasted anything so good. She savoured the trickle, moistening her lips and rolling it around her mouth before swallowing.

Finally, she joined Lizzie, who had opened the hatch cover and tied herself more securely to it. She helped as Jennie did the same. Jennie tied the medicine pouch around her waist, and they settled in to wait for whatever measures they would take next.

The fresh water revived them all for a short time. There wasn’t
nearly enough to quench their thirsts, and Jennie’s stomach ached from hunger. Worse, she was continually wet, and the cold had seeped into her bones. She wondered if she would ever be warm again.

In a fog, Jennie watched Nate and the other men secure the barrel of drinking water to a solid part of the ship and pile items by the jolly and long boats. Nate disappeared below deck again, fishing out anything he could find that might be useful, while Coombs and Edwards collected and sorted them.

The weather turned on them again in a fury. Jennie hunched against the onslaught of wind and rain as dark, swirling clouds loomed overhead. The gale increased, driving the salty spray in blinding sheets across the ship. Jennie’s heart pounded as she gulped ragged breaths. There was nowhere to take shelter, and all she could do was hang on.

She and Lizzie braced themselves as a towering wave crashed over the entire ship. Horrified, Jennie saw women and children, who were not securely tethered, being swept off the deck and into the churning ocean. As the wave receded, Jennie and Lizzie spluttered beside each other. Before they had time to recover, another massive wave knocked the ship sideways. The hatch lid tore from its hinges and ripped out of Jennie’s hands. She felt herself flying through the air with Lizzie still clinging to her. As the ship’s bow smashed down, Lizzie’s grip loosened.

When Jennie slammed onto the watery deck, a searing pain shot up her right side. She landed near Alice, Sarah and Kate, still bound to the capstan, bedraggled and sobbing. Lizzie had been flung against a railing; she grabbed onto the ropes the men had secured earlier. She fought to make it back to Jennie. Lizzie was almost there, when another fierce wave thundered over them. When it receded, the wave sucked at the stern, lifting the prow straight up out of the ocean. A terrible roar sounded around Jennie as the ship trembled. There was the sound of splintering wood. The vessel gave a violent shudder and the prow broke away from the stern, ripping apart at the gaping hole.

Jennie rolled toward her friends at the capstan, clutching the leather pouch, though it was tied around her waist. The broken halves of the ship heaved into the air. The stern and the bow each inclined steeply in opposite directions, one sliding into the seething sea with a mighty whoosh. The other crashed onto the rocks and broke apart.

Jennie was sluiced into the roiling ocean. The last thing she saw before being submerged was Kate and Sarah struggling to untie the ropes that bound
them to Alice and the cracked capstan.

Jennie was flailing in salt water. Her lungs burned; she had no idea which way was up. Surely this was the end.

All at once, a wave heaved her into the air. She snatched a quick breath, and then the frothing sea swallowed her again.

Below the surface of the bubbling water, she briefly saw a plank churn past her. She clawed her way toward it, but the waves pushed and pulled at her. Dizziness overwhelmed her. It was hopeless. A strange calm overcame her as Jenny gave up.

Suddenly something clamped onto her wrist and pulled her upwards. Jennie broke the surface and gasped, her lungs on fire. She paddled wildly, not sure which way to turn. Then a plank was pushed in front of her. Lizzie wrapped Jennie’s arms around the board and grabbed hold of the other end.

“Hang on tight!” Lizzie shouted, before another waved rolled over them.

Jennie dug her fingernails into the wood and sucked in a deep breath. When at last she resurfaced, she still clung to the board.

“Lizzie!” she yelled, looking frantically across the scattered debris and floating bodies that stretched as far as she could see.

“Lizzie!” she screamed again. But Lizzie was gone.

Jennie lost her hold on the board, and another wave took her under. When she came up again, she saw a piece of decking that was big enough to crawl up on. Instinctively Jennie kicked her way over. Several times she attempted to climb onto the decking, but slipped off its surface. Thoroughly exhausted, Jennie struggled hard one last time. Scrambling for purchase, she dragged herself up, and collapsed flat on her stomach. As her sodden raft dipped, she realized she had to centre herself on it. Cautiously, she inched her way to the middle, and the wreckage immediately levelled out, riding the waves more evenly. Only then did Jenny realize the leather pouch was still tied around her waist. Gripping it in her hands, she curled upon her side as great sobs racked her body. The last thing she saw was Lizzie reaching out to her before, utterly miserable and alone, Jennie drifted into darkness.

••••

For a moment,
Jennie thought she’d gone deaf.
The swirling of the sea, though choppy, had calmed considerably. The rain had diminished into huge drops pattering the surface of the agitated sea. The wind had ceased to howl. In its place a ghostly mist rose around her.

From some far-off place, she heard women crying and calling out names of the missing. Jennie rolled onto her belly, her fingers clenched around the end of the makeshift raft. Through the gloom she scanned the frothy sea littered with fragments of the demolished ship, animal carcasses and human bodies. She joined the voices calling for shipmates.

“Sarah, Alice, Kate!” she shouted over and over again. There was no answering call, only cries for help and distant weeping. Jennie kept a strong hold on to the edge of the boards, her head averted from the rain that continued to drench her.

When a stronger wave hit, the raft dipped precariously and Jennie slid into the water. She grabbed for the chunk of decking and held on, pushing and kicking to get as far away from death as possible. Her body was stiff, her progress was slow, but she knew she had to be with the living. Her brain willed her to climb back onto the raft, but she didn’t have the strength.

She rested for a few moments, but Lizzie’s voice screamed in her head. Jennie gave an involuntary start. Whether it was a dream or reality, Jennie couldn’t tell; the suddenness of it shocked her into action. She clawed at the boards with numb fingers, leaned on her elbows and heaved. Her frozen body wouldn’t obey her. She tried squirming onto the boards, inching up her chest, her belly, then dug her elbows in and pulled as hard as she could, using the top part of her body for leverage. Squirming and twisting, she at last made some progress. Another effort, and she made it farther. Inch by inch, she wriggled onto the boards. With one more push, she dragged herself entirely up.