The Boats of the Glen Carrig by William Hope Hodgson Read Free Book Online Page A

to set the little
foresail, and run off again before the wind.
    And so, presently, the night came down upon us, and the bo'sun made us
take turn and turn about to keep a look-out; for the boat was going some
knots through the water, and we were among strange seas; but
he
took no
sleep all that night, keeping always to the steering oar.
    I have memory, during my time of watching, of passing odd floating
masses, which I make no doubt were weed, and once we drove right atop of
one; but drew clear without much trouble. And all the while, through the
dark to starboard, I could make out the dim outline of that enormous weed
extent lying low upon the sea, and seeming without end. And so,
presently, my time to watch being at an end, I returned to my slumber,
and when next I waked it was morning.
    Now the morning discovered to me that there was no end to the weed upon
our starboard side; for it stretched away into the distance ahead of us
so far as we could see; while all about us the sea was full of floating
masses of the stuff. And then, suddenly, one of the men cried out that
there was a vessel in among the weed. At that, as may be imagined, we
were very greatly excited, and stood upon the thwarts that we might get
better view of her. Thus I saw her a great way in from the edge of the
weed, and I noted that her foremast was gone near to the deck, and she
had no main topmast; though, strangely enough, her mizzen stood unharmed.
And beyond this, I could make out but little, because of the distance;
though the sun, which was upon our larboard side, gave me some sight of
her hull, but not much, because of the weed in which she was deeply
embedded; yet it seemed to me that her sides were very weather-worn, and
in one place some glistening brown object, which may have been a fungus,
caught the rays of the sun, sending off a wet sheen.
    There we stood, all of us, upon the thwarts, staring and exchanging
opinions, and were like to have overset the boat; but that the bo'sun
ordered us down. And after this we made our breakfast, and had much
discussion regarding the stranger, as we ate.
    Later, towards midday, we were able to set our mizzen; for the storm had
greatly modified, and so, presently, we hauled away to the West, to
escape a great bank of the weed which ran out from the main body. Upon
rounding this, we let the boat off again, and set the main lug, and thus
made very good speed before the wind. Yet though we ran all that
afternoon parallel with the weed to starboard, we came not to its end.
And three separate times we saw the hulks of rotting vessels, some of
them having the appearance of a previous age, so ancient did they seem.
    Now, towards evening, the wind dropped to a very little breeze, so that
we made but slow way, and thus we had better chance to study the weed.
And now we saw that it was full of crabs; though for the most part so
very minute as to escape the casual glance; yet they were not all small,
for in a while I discovered a swaying among the weed, a little way in
from the edge, and immediately I saw the mandible of a very great crab
stir amid the weed. At that, hoping to obtain it for food, I pointed it
out to the bo'sun, suggesting that we should try and capture it. And so,
there being by now scarce any wind, he bade us get out a couple of the
oars, and back the boat up to the weed. This we did, after which he made
fast a piece of salt meat to a bit of spun yarn, and bent this on to the
boat hook. Then he made a running bowline, and slipped the loop on to the
shaft of the boat hook, after which he held out the boat hook, after the
fashion of a fishing rod, over the place where I had seen the crab.
Almost immediately, there swept up an enormous claw, and grasped the
meat, and at that, the bo'sun cried out to me to take an oar and slide
the bowline along the boat-hook, so that it should fall over the claw,
and this I did, and immediately some of us hauled upon the line,
taughtening it about the great claw. Then the