All other waters have their time of peace.Calm, or the turn of tide or summer drought;But on these bars the tumults never cease,In violent death this river passes out.
Brimming she goes, a bloody-coloured rushHurrying her heaped disorder, rank on rank,Bubbleless speed so still that in the hushOne hears the mined earth dropping from the bank,
Slipping in little falls whose tingeings drown,Sunk by the waves for ever pressing on.Till with a stripping crash the tree goes down,Its washing branches flounder and are gone.
Then, roaring out aloud, her water spreads,Making a desolation where her wavesShriek and give battle, tossing up their heads,Tearing the shifting sandbanks into graves,
Changing the raddled ruin of her courseSo swiftly, that the pilgrim on the shoreHears the loud whirlpool laughing like a horseWhere the scurfed sand was parched an hour before.
And always underneath that heaving tideThe changing bottom runs, or piles, or quakesFlinging immense heaps up to wallow wide,Sucking the surface into whirls like snakes,
If anything should touch that shifting sand,All the blind bottom sucks it till it sinks;It takes the clipper ere she comes to land,It takes the thirsting tiger as he drinks.
And on the river pours -- it never tires;Blind, hungry, screaming, day and night the samePurposeless hurry of a million ires,Mad as the wind, as merciless as flame.
* * * * * * *
There was a full-rigged ship, the Travancore,Towing to port against that river's rage -ŻíA glittering ship made sparkling for the shore,Taut to the pins in all her equipage.
Clanging, she topped the tide; her sails were furled,Her men came loitering downwards from the yards;They who had brought her half across the world,Trampling so many billows into shards,
Now looking up, beheld their duty done,The ship approaching port, the great masts bare,Gaunt as three giants striding in the sun,Proud, with the colours tailing out like hair.
So, having coiled their gear, they left the deck;Within the fo'c's'le's gloom of banded steel,Mottled like wood with many a painted speck,They brought their plates and sat about a meal.
Then pushing back the tins, they lit their pipes,Or slept, or played at cards, or gently spoke,Light from the portholes shot in dusty stripesTranquilly moving, sometimes blue with smoke.
These sunbeams sidled when the vessel rolled,Their lazy dust-strips crossed the floor,Lighting a man-hole leading to the hold,A man-hole leaded down the day before.
Like gold the solder on the man-hole shone;A few flies threading in a drowsy danceSlept in their pattern, darted, and were gone.The river roared against the ship's advance.
And quietly sleep came upon the crew,Man by man drooped upon his arms and slept;Without, the tugboat dragged the vessel through,The rigging whined, the yelling water leapt,
Till blindly a careering wave's collapseRose from beneath her bows and spouted high,Spirting the fo'c'sle floor with noisy slaps;A sleeper at the table heaved a sigh,
And lurched, half-drunk with sleep, across the floor,Muttering and blinking like a man insane,Cursed at the river's tumult, shut the door,Blinked, and lurched back and fell asleep again.
Then there was greater silence in the room,Ship's creakings ran along the beams and died,The lazy sunbeams loitered up the gloom,Stretching and touching till they reached the side.
* * * * * * *
Yet something jerking in the vessel's courseTold that the tug was getting her in handAs, at a fence, one steadies down a horse,To rush the whirlpool on Magellan Sand;
And in the uneasy water just belowHer Mate inquired "if the men should stirAnd come on deck?" Her Captain answered "No,Let them alone, the tug can manage her."
Then, as she settled down and gathered speed,Her Mate inquired again "if they should comeJust to be ready there in case of need,Since, on such godless bars, there might be some."
But "No," the Captain said, "the men have beenBoxing about since midnight, let them be.The pilot's able and the ship's a queen,The hands can rest until we come to quay."
They ceased, they took their stations; right aheadThe whirlpool heaped and sucked; in tenor toneThe steady leadsman chanted at the lead,The ship crept forward trembling to the bone.
And just above the worst a passing waveBrought to the line such unexpected stressThat as she tossed her bows her towrope gave,Snapped at the collar like a stalk of cress.
Then, for a ghastly moment, she was loose,Blind in the whirlpool, groping for a guide,Swinging adrift without a moment's truce,She struck the sand and fell upon her side.
And instantly the sand beneath her gaveSo that she righted and again was flung,Grinding the quicksand open for a grave,Straining her masts until the steel was sprung.
The foremast broke; its mighty bulk of steelFell on the fo'c'sle door and jammed it tight;The sand-rush heaped her to an even keel,She settled down, resigned, she made no fight,
But, like an overladen beast, she layDumb in the mud with billows at her lips,Broken, where she had fallen in the way,Grinding her grave among the bones of ships.
* * * * * * *
At the first crashing of the mast, the menSprang from their sleep to hurry to the deck;They found that Fate had caught them in a pen,The door that opened out was jammed with wreck.
Then, as, with shoulders down, their gathered strengthHove on the door, but could not make it stir,They felt the vessel tremble through her length;The tug, made fast again, was plucking her.
Plucking, and causing motion, till it seemedThat she would get her off; they heard her screwMumble the bubbled rip-rap as she steamed;"Please God, the tug will shift her!" said the crew.
"She's off!" the seamen said; they felt her glide,Scraping the bottom with her bilge, untilSomething collapsing clanged along her side;The scraping stopped, the tugboat's screw was still.
"She's holed!" a voice without cried; "holed and jammed -ŻíHoled on the old Magellan, sunk last June.I lose my ticket and the men are damned;They'll drown like rats unless we free them soon.
"My God, they shall not!" and the speaker beatBlows with a crow upon the foremast's wreck;Minute steel splinters fell about his feet,No tremour stirred the ruin on the deck.
And as their natures bade, the seamen learnedThat they were doomed within that buried door;Some cursed, some raved, but one among them turnedStraight to the manhole leaded in the floor,
And sitting down astride it, drew his knife,And staidly dug to pick away the lead,While at the ports his fellows cried for life:"Burst in the door, or we shall all be dead!"
For like a brook the leak below them clucked.They felt the vessel settling; they could feelHow the blind bog beneath her gripped and sucked.Their fingers beat their prison walls of steel.
And then the gurgling stopped -- the ship was still.She stayed; she sank no deeper -- an arrestFothered the pouring leak; she ceased to fill.She trod the mud, drowned only to the breast.
And probing at the well, the captain foundThe leak no longer rising, so he cried:"She is not sinking -- you will not be drowned;The shifting sand has silted up her side.
"Now there is time. The tug shall put ashoreAnd fetch explosives to us from the town;I'll burst the house or blow away the door(It will not kill you if you all lie down).
"Be easy in your minds, for you'll be freeAs soon as we've the blast." The seamen heardThe tug go townwards, butting at the sea;Some lit their pipes, the youngest of them cheered.
But still the digger bent above the lid,Gouging the solder from it as at first,Pecking the lead, intent on what he did;The other seamen mocked at him or cursed.
And some among them nudged him as he picked.He cursed them, grinning, but resumed his game;His knife-point sometimes struck the lid and clicked.The solder-pellets shone like silver flame.
And still his knife-blade clicked like ticking timeCounting the hour till the tug's return,And still the ship stood steady on the slime,While Fate above her fingered with her urn.
* * * * * * *
Then from the tug beside them came the hail:"They have none at the stores, nor at the dock,Nor at the quarry, so I tried the gaol.They thought they had, but it was out of stock.
"So then I telephoned to town; they sayThey've sent an engine with some to the pier;I did not leave till it was on its way,A tug is waiting there to bring it here:
"It can't be here, though, for an hour or more;I've lost an hour in trying, as it is.For want of thought commend me to the shore.You'd think they'd know their river's ways by this."
"So there is nothing for it but to wait,"The Captain answered, fuming. "Until then,We'd better go to dinner, Mr. Mate."The cook brought dinner forward to the men.
* * * * * * *
Another hour of prison loitered by;The strips of sunlight stiffened at the port,But still the digger made the pellets fly,Paying no heed to his companions' sport,
While they, about him, spooning at their tins,Asked if he dug because he found it cold,Or whether it was penance for his sins,Or hope of treasure in the forward hold.
He grinned and cursed, but did not cease to pick,His sweat dropped from him when he bent his head,His knife-blade quarried down, till with a clickIts grinded thinness snapped against the lead.
Then, dully rising, brushing back his sweat,He asked his fellows for another knife."Never," they said; "man, what d'ye hope to get?""Nothing," he said, "except a chance for life."
"Havers," they said, and one among them growled,"You'll get no knife from any here to break.You've dug the manhole since the door was fouled,And now your knife's broke, quit, for Jesus' sake."
But one, who smelt a bargain, changed his tone,Offering a sheath-knife for the task in handAt twenty times its value, as a loanTo be repaid him when they reached the land.
And there was jesting at the lender's greedAnd mockery at the digger's want of sense,Closing with such a bargain without need,Since in an hour the tug would take them thence.
But "Right," the digger said. The deal was madeHe took the borrowed knife, and sitting downGouged at the channelled solder with the blade,Saying, "Let be, it's better dig than drown."
And nothing happened for a while; the heatGrew in the stuffy room, the sunlight slid,Flies buzzed about and jostled at the meat,The knife-blade clicked upon the manhole lid:
And one man said, "She takes a hell of timeBringing the blaster," and another snorted;One, between pipe-puffs, hummed a smutty rhyme,One, who was weaving, thudded with his sword.
It was as though the ship were in a dream,Caught in a magic ocean, calm like death,Tranced, till a presence should arise and gleam,Making the waters conscious with her breath
It was so drowsy that the river's cries,Roaring aloud their ever-changing tune,Came to those sailors like a drone of flies,Filling with sleep the summer afternoon.
So that they slept, or, if they spoke, it wasOnly to worry lest the tug should come:Such power upon the body labour hasThat prison seemed a blessed rest to some,
Till one man leaning at the port-hole, stared,Checking his yawning at the widest stretch,Then blinked and swallowed, while he muttered, scared,"That blasting-cotton takes an age to fetch."
Then swiftly passing from the port he wentUp and then down the fo'c'sle till he stayed,Fixed at the port-hole with his eyes intent,Round-eyed and white, as if he were afraid,
And muttered as he stared, "My God! she is.She's deeper than she was, she's settling down,That palm-tree top was steady against this,And now I see the quay below the town.
"Look here at her. She's sinking in her tracks.She's going down by inches as she stands;The water's darker and it stinks like flax,Her going down is churning up the sands."
And instantly a panic took the crew,Even the digger blenched; his knife-blade's hasteCutting the solder witnessed that he knewTime on the brink with not a breath to waste.
While far away the tugboat at the quayUnder her drooping pennon waited stillFor that explosive which would set them free,Free, with the world a servant to their will.
Then from a boat beside them came a blare,Urging that tugboat to be quick; and menShouted to stir her from her waiting there,"Hurry the blast, and get us out of pen.
"She's going down. She's going down, man! Quick!"The tugboat did not stir, no answer came;They saw her tongue-like pennon idly lickClear for an instant, lettered with her name.
Then droop again. The engine had not come,The blast had not arrived. The prisoned handsSaw her still waiting though their time had come,Their ship was going down among the sands,
Going so swiftly now, that they could seeThe banks arising as she made her bed;Full of sick sound she settled deathward, sheGurgled and shook, the digger picked the lead.
And, as she paused to take a final plunge,Prone like a half-tide rock, the men on deckJumped to their boats and left, ere like a spongeThe river's rotten heart absorbed the wreck;
And on the perilous instant ere Time struckThe digger's work was done, the lead was cleared,He cast the manhole up; below it muckFloated, the hold was full, the water leered.
All of his labour had but made a holeBy which to leap to death; he saw black dustFloat on the bubbles of that brimming bowl,He drew a breath and took his life in trust,
And plunged head foremost into that black pit,Where floating cargo bumped against the beams.He groped a choking passage blind with grit,The roaring in his ears was shot with screams.
So, with a bursting heart and roaring earsHe floundered in that sunk ship's inky womb,Drowned in deep water for what seemed like years,Buried alive and groping through the tomb,
Till suddenly the beams against his backGave, and the water on his eyes was bright;He shot up through a hatchway foul with wrackInto clean air and life and dazzling light,
And striking out, he saw the fo'c'sle gone,Vanished, below the water, and the mastStanding columnar from the sea; it shoneProud, with its colours flying to the last.
And all about, a many-wrinkled tideSmoothed and erased its eddies, wandering chilled,Like glutted purpose, trying to decideIf its achievement had been what it willed.
And men in boats were there; they helped him in.He gulped for breath and watched that patch of smooth,Shaped like the vessel, wrinkle into grin,Furrow to waves and bare a yellow tooth.
Then the masts leaned until the shroud-screws gave.All disappeared -- her masts, her colours, all.He saw the yardarms tilting to the grave;He heard the siren of a tugboat call,
And saw her speeding, foaming at the bow,Bringing the blast-charge that had come too late.He heard one shout, "It isn't wanted now."Time's minute-hand had been the hand of Fate.
Then the boats turned; they brought him to the shore.Men crowded round him, touched him, and were kind;The Mate walked with him, silent, to the store.He said, "We've left the best of us behind."
Then, as he wrung his sodden clothes, the MateGave him a drink of rum, and talked awhileOf men and ships and unexpected Fate;And darkness came and cloaked the river's guile,
So that its huddled hurry was not seen,Only made louder, till the full moon climbedOver the forest, floated, and was queen.Within the town a temple-belfry chimed.
Then, upon silent pads, a tiger creptDown to the river-brink, and crouching thereWatched it intently, till you thought he sleptBut for his ghastly eye and stiffened hair.
Then, trembling at a lust more fell than his,He roared and bounded back to coverts lone,Where, among moonlit beauty, slaughter is,Filling the marvellous night with myriad groan.
