Convictions by Judith Silverthorne

Author:Judith Silverthorne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: convict, boats, ships, sailing, slaves, criminals, women, girls, sailors, Australia, Britain, Historical
ISBN: 9781550508895
Publisher: Coteau Books

Chapter Thirteen

“Jennie!”

Thud! Splash!

“Jen-nie!”

Something hard struck Jennie’s arm with another splash. Groggily she opened her eyes to bright sunlight. She clasped a hand over her face, squinting from the glare. Water rushed around her as she tilted. She immediately recalled she was on a chunk of wood in the middle of the ocean. Shipwrecked.

Lifting her head carefully, she saw Alice and Sarah a few yards away, sitting on a portion of the bow. Alice had a short piece of wood in her hands, which was aimed Jennie’s way.

“We roused you, at last!”

Blinking in disbelief, Jennie croaked, “You’re alive! Thank God!” Her mouth was so dry, she couldn’t swallow.

Cautiously, Jennie sat up. The sun was warm, but she was chilled right through and couldn’t stop shivering. At least she wasn’t alone any more.

“We’re so happy we found you!” Sarah shouted.

“Are you both all right?” Jennie took in the dark gash that had opened up again down Sarah’s cheek.

“A few bumps and bruises, but fine,” Sarah shouted again. “We were afraid you were a goner. Good thing this young miss was persistent. She’s been whacking her stick and calling you for ever so long.”

“I prayed we’d find you safe and here you are,” called Alice, beaming.

“Safe as any of us are,” said Jennie wryly. She looked for some kind of debris to use as a paddle so she could draw nearer to them.

As if reading her thoughts, Sarah yelled, “Stay put for a bit, pet. We can’t have you falling in. We’ll wait for Nate to give us a hand.” She pointed to a tight group of makeshift rafts dotting the waves.

“Nate?” Jennie craned to see several odd-shaped chunks of ship joined together with bedraggled women balancing on them. Among them she made out a lone male figure in the jolly boat, lashing two chunks together with a rope. Happiness surged through Jennie.

“He’s tying us together to prevent us from tipping so easily,” Alice called out. “He found pieces of rope and sails among the bigger parts of the ship that got wedged in the rocks. We’re gathering whatever we find as we go too, but almost everything sank.”

Sarah added, “Nate is still rescuing people and then he’ll see about how to transport us all to the rocks.”

“Not many can fit on the jolly boat,” Jennie noted.

“No. He’ll have to take a few at a time. Right now, he needs to be sure he has found all the living,” said Sarah.

Jennie studied the small pile of rope on Sarah and Alice’s raft.

“Sarah, could you tie a few pieces of rope together and throw them to me?” yelled Jennie. “Maybe we can pull ourselves closer.”

Without a word, the pair quickly knotted a few segments together. Sarah coiled the rope in her hand.

“I can do this,” Alice said, taking it from the older woman. “I know you won’t admit it but your arm is badly banged up. Let me try.”

She threw with all her strength, tipping off balance. The rope fell a few feet short and trailed into the water.

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