A NIGHT OF UNCERTAINTY
Bob sprang to the floor. He was joined immediately by Joe, who
shared the stateroom with him. As they hastily threw on a few
articles of clothing, they could hear shouts and cries on deck and
the rush and scurry of feet overhead and along the passageway
outside. Dominating everything, however, was a sullen roar of water
as it poured into the hold of the vessel.
“I guess the ship’s been badly hit,” said Joe, as they made for the
door. “See how she’s heeling over.”
“Yes, we’d better try to locate the others and get on deck as
quickly as possible,” replied Bob.
In spite of the shock and the danger, they were both cool and ready
to meet any emergency that might present itself.
Luckily, they met Herb and Jimmy and Mr. Strong in the passageway,
and with very few words they hurried up on deck.
Everywhere there was tremendous excitement and confusion. The heavy
fog still hung thickly over everything, and through it they could
see pale, terrified faces, with here and there an officer going
swiftly about his business with jaw grimly set.
All this the boys saw at the first glance. In the confusion it
seemed impossible to learn what had happened or how imminent was the
danger. Bob, as usual, came forward with the first practical
suggestion.
“Let’s go up to the wireless room,” he proposed. “They’ll know
what’s happened, and we can get the information first hand.”
“Good idea,” said Mr. Strong, briefly, and without further
discussion they made for the radio room. Progress was slow, as
people were rushing aimlessly about in every direction, and they had
many collisions before they finally reached the radio headquarters.
The boys’ acquaintance with the operator now stood them in good
stead, for otherwise they would not have been allowed to enter the
cabin at all. But the operator only nodded briefly and went on with
his business. His calm and collected actions were in striking
contrast to the terror and confusion reigning without. For a while
he was too busy with his instruments to answer questions, and the
boys had more sense than to ask any. At length, however, Pearsall,
the wireless man, took the headset from his ears and turned to them.
“Well, what’s the verdict?” asked Bob. “Are we bound straight for
Davy Jones’ locker, or have we got a chance of keeping afloat?”
“We don’t really know yet just how serious the damage is,” replied
Pearsall. “We rammed a lumber schooner, and tore away a good part of
our bow. The forward compartment of the hold is flooded, but the
bulkhead seems to be holding, and if it does, I don’t think we’re in
any immediate danger, provided a storm doesn’t come up before we can
get to the nearest port. We’ve sent out distress calls, just the
same, and will probably get an answer soon. I rather imagine we’ll
pull through all right, but a good deal depends on that water-tight
bulkhead. If that holds, all right, if not—well, all wrong, I
guess,” and he shrugged his shoulders.
“How about the ship that we collided with?” asked Mr. Strong. “That
must be damaged worse than we are.”
“She’s pretty well stove in,” answered the wireless man. “But the
ship is loaded with lumber, so she can’t very well sink. We’ll
probably stand by until daylight, anyway, and then it will be
possible to see just how much damage has been done to both vessels.”
“When the crash came, the first thought that entered my head was
that we must have hit an iceberg,” said Herb. “I’ve heard so much
lately about icebergs and the iceberg patrol that I naturally
thought that was what had happened now.”
“That might have been, easily enough,” said Pearsall. “Up in this
part of the world no ship is safe from that menace, even in
mid-summer. In fact, the danger, in a sense, is greater then,
because nobody is really expecting such a thing, and there aren’t as
many precautions taken as in the springtime. Just after the winter
ice has broken up is a ticklish time to navigate in northern waters,
I can tell you.
“The chances are,” he continued, after a moment, “that we can make
port without any outside assistance.”
“Yes, but there is also a chance that we can’t,” Mr. Strong pointed
out. “And that’s a chance we can’t afford to take. Safety first is a
good motto anywhere, but it’s especially good at sea.”
The fact was, that Pearsall had been so long at sea and was so used
to the dangers of a seafaring life that he perhaps underrated the
peril of the situation in which they were now placed. The Radio Boys
stayed with him a short while longer, and then returned to the deck.
The passengers had calmed down somewhat, under the reassuring
reports of the officers, though very few had returned to their
staterooms, but remained huddled in little groups about the deck,
trying vainly to pierce the enshrouding blanket of fog that curled
and eddied about the ship. Many anxious glances were directed toward
the lifeboats, which had been provisioned and were ready to be
lowered if necessary. Two or three sailors, with an officer in
charge, stood ready at the falls, and no precaution had been
neglected should worst come to worst and the ship have to be
abandoned.
“I don’t want to be a calamity howler,” said Joe to Bob, in a low
voice, that could not be overheard by the other passengers. “But it
seems to me that the ship is more down by the bow than it was when
we first came on deck after the crash. Maybe my imagination is only
playing tricks on me, though. How does it seem to you?”
“I don’t think your imagination has anything to do with it,” replied
Bob, grimly. “The ship _is_ further down at the bow. There’s no
doubt of it. If that wireless operator were down on deck here, he
might not feel quite so confident.”
“It can’t be so long until daybreak now,” said Joe. “If a boat
arrives by then, we’ll all be taken off, anyway.”
“Even if one doesn’t get here in time,” returned Jimmy, “we can take
to the small boats. The water is calm enough, and we’ll have all the
sensations of shipwrecked mariners, except that we can be pretty
sure we’ll be picked up soon.”
“I wish we knew just how matters stood,” said Herb. “I vote that we
do some scouting around and try to find out just what’s what. If we
could get down below decks I’ll bet we’d find out pretty soon.”
“That’s not a bad idea, Herb,” observed Bob. “Let’s go, fellows, and
see what we can dig up.”
He led the way to the entrance to the succession of iron ladders
that led down into the engine room. He knew that they would not be
allowed to go down if they were seen by any of the ship’s officers,
but he thought they might get by unobserved in the general
confusion.
There was an officer on guard at the door, but his back was turned
toward the boys as he stood lighting a pipe, shielding the flame of
the match from the wind. They slipped noiselessly through the door,
and were soon descending the steep iron ladders that led down into
the engine room. Soon they came to the last platform above the
engine room deck, and, peering through the grating, could plainly
see what was going on below them.
The floor of the engine room was under water, which swirled and
splashed about the bases of the main engines. At one side of the
room, three big reciprocating water pumps were working at top speed,
and the boys knew that they were pumping water out of the hold to
the limit of their capacity. But the water was coming in faster than
the big pumps could force it out. Even as the boys watched, a
sluggish roll of the vessel sent the water swirling around the
electric generator that supplied the ship’s lights. The whirling
flywheel sent a spray of water flying in all directions, and as some
of it landed on the armature and brushes, the lights flickered and
dimmed, almost going out.
As the water receded on the return roll, the lights went up again,
but the boys realized that this could not last long. The water was
steadily gaining, and before long the generator would be put out of
commission, and the ship would be in darkness. They knew, too, that
the water would eventually reach the fires under the boilers,
quenching them and causing the steam to die down. Then the pumps
would stop, and the water would gain rapidly, until the vessel
finally became waterlogged and sank.
“We’d better get up on deck while we’ve got light to see by,”
whispered Bob. “I guess we’ve found out what we came down to find
out and what we wanted to know, all right.”
“Yes, come on,” muttered Joe, a somber look in his eyes.
They climbed up on deck and rejoined Mr. Strong, to whom they
related what they had discovered. When they had finished he said
nothing, but looked with eager, straining eyes to the north.
“Oh, for the lights of a vessel!” he muttered finally.