The Loss of the Jane Vosper Read Online Free PDF Page A

hand pumps going as well as the steam, and I’ve been trying to clear a way to drop some more emergency suction pipes, but we can’t get the darned stuff moved.’
    ‘What is it down there that you’re up against?’
    ‘Crates. Big crates weighing the Lord knows what, and all jammed together. We could scarcely get them out if they were empty. We’d want the hatch open and the derrick on to them.’
    ‘You can’t get that.’
    ‘Have a look, sir, for yourself.’
    Hassell climbed down the sort of shaft which Arlow had succeeded in sinking against the face of the bulkhead. He had cleared about seven feet deep, and had come down to the crates he had spoken of. A glance showed Hassell that the mate had not exaggerated. Power would be required to shift those tightly packed crates.
    ‘We’ll try if the chief can’t get some more pumps on it,’ he said. ‘In the meantime can’t you get a beam across some of that cargo with a set of blocks that would lift the crates?’
    ‘I’m trying to do that, sir. Scholes and some men are getting a beam forward. But I doubt –’ He glanced quickly round. They were out of hearing of the men. ‘She’s pretty near her limit, James,’ he went on. ‘Another foot of water here, and I believe she’ll go.’ ‘You’ve a man at the well?’
    ‘Arkwright. He keeps on sounding and reporting.’
    ‘How quick is she making?’
    ‘Not very quickly. Couldn’t say exactly.’
    ‘Well, we’ve some time yet. Get your blocks on and try to get a sump down to the water and we’ll have some more hand pumps on. Don’t bother about the shoring in the meantime. I’ll go down again to Mac and see if he can help you.’
    Hassell was almost in despair as he retraced his way from the hold and climbed once more down the engine-room ladders. It was beginning to look as if he were going to lose his ship. Momentarily he glanced back over his life. He had been in command for eighteen years. Eighteen years without a serious mishap, and now at the end of his career – to lose his ship! That it wouldn’t be his fault scarcely mattered. It would be ruin in his old age just the same as if he had deliberately sunk her. For a moment his thoughts grew bitter and he felt that he had spent his years for nought. Then he saw that at the present time he must not harbour such ideas. Resolutely he pulled himself together. He forced thoughts of himself from his mind and became once more the captain, whose job it was to encourage and protect his men.
    Mactavish saw him as he emerged from between the boilers, and beckoned him once again into the corner between the bulkhead and the ship’s side.
    ‘See yon?’ he said again.
    Hassell looked in the angle. The water was flowing down – much more strongly. The stream which had been as thick as a walking stick was now as thick as a man’s arm. Instead of flowing silently, it was now making a gurgling, loud enough to be heard against the murmur of the boilers, the scrape of a coal shovel, the noise of the pumps and engines, and all the creaks and groans of the hull, still pitching sluggishly in the swell.
    ‘You may give it up. Captain Hassell,’ Mactavish said shortly. ‘The bulkhead’s giving. We can’t do anything.’
    ‘The water’s gaining in No. 1 hold. I came to see whether you could get more pumps on it.’
    ‘I’ll soon not be able to keep the water under here.’
    Hassell now wanted to abandon ship – desperately. He did not show it, but in his own private mind and heart he was afraid. Afraid not so much for his own skin, though even that was still precious to him. But afraid for his men. He couldn’t risk their lives too far.
    But he had to be sure – sure – that nothing could really be done. A master must not give up his ship while there is a chance of saving it. But here there was no chance. Neither Arlow nor Mactavish would give up while there was hope. And both, independently, had done so. And he, Hassell, himself was no fool about