R. M. Ballantyne
It was a bright, beautiful, warm
day when our ship spread her canvas to the breeze, and sailed for the regions
of the south. Oh, how my heart bounded with delight as I listened to the merry
chorus of the sailors, while they hauled at the ropes and got in the anchor!
The captain shouted—the men ran to obey—the noble ship bent over to the breeze,
and the shore gradually faded from my view. I stood
looking on with a kind of feeling
that the whole was a delightful dream.
Aboutthe author:
Robert Michael Ballantyne
(1825-1894) was a Scottish fiction writer famous
for his adventure story The Coral
Is/and. Most of his stories were written from
personal experience. The heroes of
his books are models of self-reliance and moral
uprightness. His most popular
stories include The Young Fur-Traders, The World
of Ice, Ungava: a Tale of Eskimo
Land etc. Ballantyne was also an accomplished
artist and exhibited some of his
water-colours at the Royal Scottish Academy. The
above text is an extract from
Ballantyne’s The Coral Island.
There were a number of boys in the ship, but two of them were my special
favourites . Jack Martin was a tall, strapping, broad-shouldered youth of
eighteen, with a handsome, good-humoured, firm face. My other companion was
Peterkin Gay. He was little, quick, funny, decidedly mischievous, and about
fourteen years old. But Peterkin's mischief was almost always harmless, else he
could not have been so much beloved as he was.
"Hello! Youngster," cried Jack Martin, giving me a slap on the
shoulder, the day I joined the ship, ”come below and I'll show you your berth.
You and I are to be mess- mates, and I think we shall be good friends, for I
like the look o’ you."
Jack was right. He and I and
Peterkin afterwards became the best and staunchest friends that ever tossed
together on the stormy waves.
I shall say little about the first
part of our voyage. We had the usual amount of rough weather and calm. When we
approached Cape Horn, at the southern extremity of America, the weather became
very cold and stormy, and the sailors began to tell stories about the furious
gales and the dangers ofthat terrible cape. Nevertheless, we passed the dreaded
cape without much rough weather, and, in
the course of a few weeks
afterwards, were sailing gently, before a warm tropical breeze, over the
Pacific Ocean. At last we came among the Coral Islands of the Pacific, and I
shall never forget the delight with which I gazed at the pure, white, dazzling
shores, and the verdant palm-trees, which looked bright and beautiful in the
sunshine.
One night, soon after we entered
the tropics, an awful storm burst upon our ship. The first squall of wind
carried away two of our masts; and left only the foremast standing. For five
days the tempest raged in all its fury. The captain said that he had no idea
where we were, as we had been blown far out of our course; and we feared much
that we might get among the dangerous coral reefs which
are so numerous in the Pacific. At
day-break on the sixth morning ofthe gale we saw land ahead. It was an island
encircled by a reef of coral on which the waves broke in fury. There was calm
water within this reef, but we could only see one narrow opening into it. For
this opening we steered, but, ere we reached it, a tremendous wave broke on our
stern, tore the rudder completely off, and left us
at the mercy of the winds and
waves. "lt’s all over with us now, lads," said the captain to the
men; ”get the boat ready to launch; we shall be on the rocks in less than
halfan hour."
The men obeyed in gloomy silence,
for they felt that there was little hope of so small a boat living in such a
sea.
"Come boys,” said Jack Martin,
in a grave tone, to me and Peterkin, as we stood on the quarterdeck awaiting
our fate— "| see through the telescope that the ship will strike at the
tail of the reef, where the waves break into the quiet water inside; so, if we
manage to cling to the oar till it is driven over the breakers, we may perhaps
gain the shore. What say you; will you join me?"
We gladly agreed to follow Jack,
for he inspired us with confidence, although I could perceive, by the sad tone
of his voice, that he had little hope; and, indeed, when I looked at the white
waves that lashed the reef and boiled against the rocks as if in fury, I felt
that there was but a step between us and death. My heart sank within me. The
ship was now very near the rocks. The men were ready with the boat, and the
captain beside them giving orders, when a tremendous wave came towards us. We
three ran towards the bow to lay hold of our oar, and had barely reached it
when the wave fell on the deck with a crash like thunder. At the same moment
the ship struck, the foremast broke off close to the deck and went over the
side, carrying the boat and men along with it. Our oar got entangled with the
wreck, and Jack seized an axe to cut it free. Another wave washed it clear of
the wreck. We all seized hold of it, and the next instant we were struggling in
the wild sea. The last thing I saw was the boat whirling in the surf, and all
the sailors tossed into the foaming waves. Then I became insensible.
On recovering from my swoon, l
found myself lying on a bank of soft grass, under the shelter of an overhanging
rock, with Peterkin on his knees by my side, tenderly bathing my temples with
water, and endeavouring to stop the blood that flowed from a wound in my
forehead.
WORD NEST :-
staunchest — strongest of opinion
verdant — fresh and green
foremast — a mast on the front part
of a ship
rudder — an instrument for
controlling the boat's direction
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