The Adventures of Radisson. Back to the New World

H
alfway across the Atlantic Ocean, the
Zeelhaen
, a three-master loaded up with wood and furs, continued its progress across raging seas, en route to Amsterdam. Since leaving Manhattan, where Radisson and Father Poncet boarded, the ship had endured several days of bad weather. Father Poncet had found the going tough, unlike Radisson, who had enjoyed watching the crew at work, until the threatening storm had broken. Now he could see from the sailors' faces that things were bad.

The bo's'n, Johan Heyn, had decided his experience might be needed and replaced the helmsman. He was posted on the poop deck, the ship's highest point, from where he could see the heavy waves that had the ship surrounded. With a confident hand, he steered the
Zeelhaen
through the stormy waters. The manoeuvres he ordered to secure the ship were almost over. The sailors were scurrying back down the masts, having furled all the sails, leaving only half the mainsail and mizzen unfurled to keep on course.

The men standing watch hurried to join the rest of the crew inside, in the dark, cramped quarters where they ate, slept, and rested below deck. Radisson wasn't sure whether to follow. He wanted to stay as long as possible with the four sailors who were busy attaching the yards and fixing in place anything that might be lost overboard. Crouching in his favourite corner, his back against the quarterdeck that shielded him from the spray, he felt perfectly safe, in spite of the waves that bombarded the little
Zeelhaen
, a ship that had seemed so big to him when he boarded it in Manhattan compared to the birch-bark canoes he was used to.

The sea swelled and rolled, collapsing with a roar, then picking itself up again in one unending movement that Radisson, fascinated, never tired of watching. Sometimes ice-cold water spurted over his head and ran down his back from the poop deck. It mattered little: water was now working its way into every nook and cranny on board and everyone was drenched.

As long as grayish daylight remained, with more light coming up off the sea than down from the cloud-choked sky, Radisson feared nothing. He trusted Johan. But he dared not think what might happen once nightfall complicated matters for the bo's'n, especially if the storm picked up.

He had never seen such foul conditions.

One of the sailors finished what he was doing and ran to take shelter inside. Passing by Radisson, he shouted over at him to come too. But the young man pretended not to understand and stayed where he was, even though he now had a decent grasp of the Dutch language after twenty-one days on board. Coming out the wrong way, an officer emerged from the quarterdeck at that very moment and struggled up onto the poop deck. Holding on tightly to the railing, Radisson took a few steps forward to see what he was up to. He went over to the bo's'n and both grabbed hold of the tiller, requiring all their might against the raging sea.

Furious waves rushed at them from all sides. The ship heaved back and forth between the frothing heights where they stood and the fearsome depths that threatened to keep them for all eternity. For a time, they looked down over the dazzling sea below as it spat up thick clouds of white foam. The
Zeelhaen
plunged into the unfathomable night, as into the belly of a dragon. It was then that the miracle happened. The ship righted itself, cleaved through the light-filled crest of a wave, and fell back down again. Radisson was captivated by the performance, a dance in equal parts spectacular and unsettling.

The storm again picked up in strength.

Tons of water crashed against the ship's stern, each time shaking the stern cabin, where the captain had his lodgings. Violent shocks reverberated across the ship. Radisson could feel the danger growing, unstoppably. He was about to go inside when the captain burst onto the deck. Radisson watched him clamber up the dripping-wet ladder to the poop deck and hurl abuse at Johan, waving his arms about madly. Radisson didn't know why. The two men argued. The two helmsmen then turned the ship slightly to meet the water at an angle. This spared the captain's cabin from the brunt of the waves, although the ship started to roll more. Radisson had trouble keeping his balance.

As he was getting ready to at last go back inside, two huge waves joined forces, coming together in an enormous pyramid that towered over the
Zeelhaen
. The pyramid rose to almost the full height of the masts, rolled towards the ship, and broke over it with a terrific crash. Radisson raced for shelter, but the wave outran him, bringing him down hard against the deck. The backwash flung him against something hard. Stunned, he lost his bearings. He was suffocating in the ocean as it engulfed him. Another wave threw him against the railing, which he clung to in despair. Time seemed to take an eternity to tick by. He was going to live with the fish. At last, his face resurfaced. He breathed in, dazed and in a stupor, lying on the deck, which was now almost vertical. The
Zeelhaen
pitched terribly. The waves continued their relentless assault. The ship had been thrown off course and was liable to be swallowed up at any moment.

The
Zeelhaen
righted itself, barely managing to keep afloat. Radisson wondered what had become of the captain, the bo's'n, his assistant, and the three sailors who had remained on deck. He glimpsed a survivor clinging to the foremast. But the others were nowhere to be seen. Everything around him was wet. The sea had washed over all of it. Only a heavy yard had broken free of the mainmast and was now swinging dangerously across the deck, dangling from a piece of rope. The mainsail had been torn off. Radisson realized how lucky he was not to have been washed overboard.

The ship righted itself again. Radisson seized the opportunity to dive into the staircase to the poop deck. From up there, he could see no one, nothing but empty space swept by the wind and the spray coming up off the sea. The mizzen sail was torn. He felt miserable, all alone in the world. He had to hold on to the nearest halyard to keep his feet. The ship was starting to list again dangerously. Almost every wave threatened to lay it on its side.

Radisson at last saw the captain caught up like a rag doll between the bars of the railing on the starboard side. A strange sound reached his ears, some sort of moan apparently human in origin, mixed in with the howling of the wind and the thunderous noise of the water. He looked around. Saw nothing. Then he made out two strong arms hooked around the railing that ran along the outside of the ship. It was Johan, hanging on for dear life and shouting for help. Radisson tried to reach him, but the ship was tilted too steeply against him. As the
Zeelhaen
began to swing back like a pendulum, he took his chance and dashed across. But the deck tipped again, propelling him towards the sea. He threw himself flat on his stomach and flew head first into the railing, the only thing keeping him in the land of the living.

With his face pressed against the roaring waves, he clutched the bo's'n's arms against his chest, waiting for the
Zeelhaen
to right itself again before he moved. Now! He grabbed the man with all his might and hauled him in. Both men lay side by side on the deck, out of breath and frightened as the ship listed again. As soon as the
Zeelhaen
returned to a horizontal position, Johan stood up and pointed at the whipstaff, shouting:

“Right the ship! Quick! We have to right the ship!”

Radisson understood the Dutch command. Both men raced over to the whipstaff and pulled as hard as they could, slipping and sliding on a deck that continued to buck every which way beneath them. The heavy sailing ship had taken on too much water and resisted their efforts. The bo's'n racked his brains for a solution. He grabbed a rope attached to the mast. Radisson cut it with his eagle-head knife and gave it to him. The bo's'n tied it tightly to the whipstaff then held on to the mizzen mast to keep his balance. They pulled together until it felt as though their hands might fall off, contorting their bodies until it felt their bones might break. But the heavy
Zeelhaen
only half gave in. The storm was still working furiously to lay the ship on its side. They might go under yet.

Miraculously, two sailors suddenly appeared on the poop deck. Hope was rekindled. From where they had taken shelter at the ship's bow, they had risked their lives to cover the distance between them and the quarterdeck. The four of them managed to right the ship, stabilizing it. The helm held firm. The worst was perhaps behind them.

The bo's'n sent a sailor to get the crew pumping as hard as they could and told him to bring back men to rescue the captain.

The sailor soon reappeared with three hardy-looking men. Two of them kept a firm grip on the whipstaff while the five others went over to the captain. His rescuers hung on to the rigging, to the railing, to each other's clothes, to their own lives, never once losing sight of the raging sea. They made slow progress over to the captain, who was in such a bad way that it was pitiful to see. One man freed his head, which bounced up and down about every time the boat moved. He managed to free his arm and his shattered leg too. But could these dislocated parts still be said to belong to the body? The captain was unrecognizable. The thing inside a uniform had to be brought inside. Radisson carried the lifeless legs, holding tight to keep his footing. The group staggered down the poop deck stairs and went inside through a door that opened only after they had banged on it with increasing urgency.

Inside the
Zeelhaen
, the sea's muffled roars hammered against the hull, replacing the commotion of the waves and the howling of the wind outside. A muddle of shouts rang out. The fear was palpable. In the dark depths of the boat, five or six men were pumping furiously, trying to stop the water from filling the hold. By the feeble light of a swaying lantern, men dashed in all directions, trying to secure objects that were rolling about dangerously. Chaos reigned. Other men, wild and terrorized, stood rooted to the spot. The five sailors carrying the captain reached his cabin. Stumbling, they set him down on his bunk. The mutilated man was barely breathing. Blood ran down his whole body and stained his dark clothes red. His rescuers didn't know what to say, convinced that their captain's hours were numbered.

“Get the surgeon,” Johan whispered to one of the sailors.

The bo's'n then turned to Father Poncet, who had shared the captain's cabin since Manhattan. Radisson hadn't seen him in days. The Jesuit was lying in a hammock, pale as death, struck down by a terrible seasickness that was regaining the upper hand. Poncet struggled to lift his head out of the hammock and made as if to vomit. But nothing came out of his empty stomach, only a disgusting grunt, a violent retch that left him wincing in pain. Johan Heyn grabbed his soutane and hauled him up off his back, showing him the captain:

“Bless him! He's going to die,” he said to him in Dutch.

He didn't care if the Jesuit priest was Catholic and not Protestant. He was a man of God and could help the dying man cross the great divide. Too bad for the skinflint captain if he'd been too stingy to pay for a Protestant chaplain aboard, settling for a passenger who happened to be a Christian priest. The surgeon arrived and stood there, speechless. Putting such a demolished man back together again was beyond him. There was only one thing for it: Johan dragged Father Poncet out of the hammock and stood him in front of the captain, holding him up by the armpits. Again he ordered him to bless him.

The Jesuit recognized the dying man as his cabinmate.

“May God forgive us our sins, may God forgive us,” he groaned in French, covering his face.

Unsatisfied, Johan shook him like a rag doll and raised his voice.

“BLESS HIM! I SAID. BLESS HIM!”

Poncet eventually understood what was expected of him and mumbled a prayer that he broke off from to be sick. He doubled up, moaning miserably. Johan looked away. The unfortunate ceremony came to an end when the Jesuit traced a cross with his fingers on the dying captain's chest, muttering a few words in Latin. Johan then handed the priest over to two sailors, who returned him to his hammock. He motioned for everyone to leave. Radisson was relieved to get out of there. The man he had grown to like among the Dutchmen who had freed both of them from the Iroquois had let him down terribly. What a pity to see him reduced to this. What a lack of dignity in the face of death.

* * *

The worst of the storm had passed. The wind had died down, although the waves were just as huge and continued to shake the
Zeelhaen
. The men, exhausted, had stopped pumping once the ship had regained close to its normal draft. It was faring rather well, and all risk of going under now appeared to be behind them. Johan took the captain's place. At first light, he ordered the staysails be raised between the two main masts. The crew was worn out. The fear had not yet left their addled minds and stiff bodies. The freezing water had flooded everything: clothes, trunks, hammocks, the deck, steerage, and the hold. The quartermaster who had come to help the bo's'n steer the ship had been less fortunate than his colleague: he was lost at sea. Another sailor had been lost overboard and the captain had left this world during the night. Radisson shivered with the other sailors until the galley stove was put back. The
Zeelhaen
's yawing had carried it off along with the sand from the box it had been standing in. The crew was looking forward to nothing more than a warm meal. After a night spent in hell, eating would be like ascending the stairway to heaven. In the meantime, the heavy cold cut through them like stone.

Johan came back down at last from his long watch, exhausted. Before going back to his small cabin on the quarterdeck, he stopped by steerage, where the sailors and Radisson bunked. He sat down on a crate and stared intently at the young Frenchman. After a moment, he stood up and walked over to him without saying a word, stooped over so as not to bump his head on the deck joists. Then he lifted Radisson up by his clothes and held him tight in his arms, without saying a word. Radisson felt a lump in his throat. He was happy to have saved the life of a man whose courage and know-how he admired, happy to have helped right the
Zeelhaen
, happy to be alive.