A Company of Heroes Book Three: The Princess Read Online Free PDF

That is, the ship is certainly going down eventually, but she’s sinking so gradually that, all things being equal, we can take some time thinking about what to do.”
    “And things not being equal?”
    “We ought to abandon ship as quickly as possible.”
    “What can we make a raft from?”
    “We can tear planks from the deckhouse. And there are plenty of spars; they should do if we can lash them together. Do you think you can help move them?”
    “I don’t know.”
    Bronwyn follows the man toward the wreckage that is piled in the middle of the deck. She looks with dismay at the destruction around her: the Sommer B. looks like an enormous dog has been worrying at it, like a bone that has been rolled around under the furniture until the saliva has picked up all sorts of forgotten fuzz and debris. It also has the same shaggy, disheveled look of a dead cockroach found under a sink.
    “Just look at your beautiful ship, captain!”
    “It doesn’t matter.”
    “It’s destroyed! Why, even if it weren’t on fire and sinking, it would be unsalvageable.”
    “It’s unfortunate but it doesn’t really matter because it isn’t my ship.”
    “What do you mean, it’s not your ship?”
    “I’m a pirate; why should I want my own ship when I can have someone else’s?”
    “But I thought that you always had the Sommer B .”
    “I’ve always have a ship called the Sommer B., I never said it was always the same ship. This was originally the Flying Phalander until I relieved her owner of the burden.”
    “I see.”
    “You know I was originally a smuggler and only got into piracy more or less by accident. It just seemed like a natural extension of what I’d always been doing.”
    “I can see where that can happen.”
    “I’ve no particular love for the sea, however, and I might as well admit now that I’d always pretty much left the actual operation of my ships up to my seconds-in-command. I’m more of an administrator, an idea man, you might say.”
    Bronwyn does not consider that a particularly encouraging confession.
    The construction of the raft takes a full day, during which time the Sommer B.’ s deck sinks further toward sea level; the ship rolls ever more sluggishly. Whatever equilibrium it had been enjoying has all too obviously been lost, and the almost imperceptible settling now becomes a noticeably steady sinking. Basseliniden and the princess manage to build a small, ungainly, unattractive but serviceable raft. It is securely constructed of a dozen spars cut to length and lashed together, crosswise, one above the other, by strong ropes. A platform made of planking torn from the deck house rises nearly two feet above the water. The captain has fixed a rough step near the aft end of the raft so that a mast can be erected there.
    It is late in the afternoon, nearly evening, before they have finished. They haven’t more than a moment’s time to appreciate their handiwork before there is a tremendous crash that jars the ship from one end to the other. The Sommer B. heels far over to port and Bronwyn just barely avoids being crushed by the raft as it slides rumbling across the deck, smashing the bulwarks into splinters .
    “What happened?”
    “We seem to have run aground.”
    “ Aground? We’re in the middle of the ocean! There’s nothing out here for hundreds of miles.”
    “You’re only seeing the top. We’ve probably run onto a shoal in the Grand Bank.”
    “Now what?”
    “It’s only an incident. Nothing’s really changed. We still need to get onto the raft as soon as we can.”
    “The ship won’t sink if it’s stuck on a shoal, will it?”
    “I don’t know. What if the tide’s out right now? If the water level rises, it can float us off and then we will sink.”
    “Well, is the tide in or out?”
    “How would I know?”
    The launching of the raft, they discover, has now become complicated by the angle of the deck and the fact that the raft is now wedged into the breach its corner