FAST AGROUND
Sue Brown was very much startled by the strange and fearful sound,
and so was her brother Bunny. To the children it was truly a terrible
noise. It was, Sue said, “like a big bull bellowing in a field.”
“Do you think it’s a bull, Bunny?” she asked her brother, as she ran
along the corridor outside the stateroom.
“No, it isn’t a bull,” he said, as the strange noise sounded again,
seeming to shake the whole vessel. “How would they get a bull on a
ship?”
“Well, they have cows on ships,” Sue said. “One of the sailors told
me he milked a cow once. And if they have cows they can have bulls, I
guess.”
“But we haven’t seen any bull on this ship,” stated Bunny, “and we’ve
been all over.”
“Maybe they have him hidden down in the cellar where I was,”
suggested Sue. “Oh, Bunny, I don’t like a bull on a ship! One of
Elizabeth’s dresses is red, and maybe the bull will chase her!”
Sue was becoming more and more frightened and Bunny was very uneasy
over the strange sound. Again and again it echoed. The children were
hurrying up on deck to ask their father or mother what the noise was
when Mr. Brown came down to the staterooms. He had thought the two
little ones might be frightened and hurried to be with them.
“Oh, Daddy, where’s the bull?” cried Sue, running to him.
“There isn’t any bull,” he answered, with a smile.
“But what makes that terrible noise?”
“It’s the foghorn, or whistle,” replied Mr. Brown. “There is a thick
blanket of fog all around the _Beacon_. The captain and the man on
the lookout cannot see other ships coming near us, and the men on the
other ships cannot see us. So, in order that we may not run into
them, the foghorn is being blown. The other ships can hear it and
steer to one side. Collisions at sea are very dangerous.”
“Oh, if it’s only a foghorn!” exclaimed Bunny. “I’m not afraid of
that!”
“Well, I’m not afraid of a foghorn,” stated Sue. “But I thought it
was a bull bellowing. I thought at first that we were on shore. Then
when I felt the ship move I knew we were on water, and I thought the
bull was down in the coal cellar, where I got lost. But I’m glad it
isn’t a bull.”
“The foghorn has a very deep, low note to make the noise carry a long
distance,” explained Mr. Brown. “It does sound a little like the
bellowing of a bull. I don’t wonder you were frightened, Sue.”
“Bunny was scared, too,” declared the little girl.
“Not as much as you were,” stated Bunny, a bit crossly.
“If you are all dressed I’ll take you on deck and let you see the
fog,” said Mr. Brown. “It’s like being in a white cloud.”
“Just like going up in an airship!” said Bunny, though as he had
never gone up in one it is a question how he knew about it.
“Yes, I suppose it is like that,” agreed Mr. Brown.
When Bunny and Sue reached the deck and found the white, wet,
clinging mist all about them they were surprised. The fog was so
dense and thick that they could not see the bow or stern of the ship
when they stood in the middle, or “amidships,” as a sailor would call
it.
As for looking over the side and seeing any other vessels that might
be approaching or any land that the _Beacon_ might be nearing, this
was out of the question. A white curtain of mist seemed drawn all
about the steamer, and Bunny and Sue soon realized that they were
going very slowly. The _Beacon_ was under half speed.
“Why do we go so slow?” asked Bunny, just as the foghorn again boomed
out its deep note.
“That’s in case we should happen to bump into another ship,”
explained his father. “By going slowly less damage would be done.”
“Are other ships going slow, too?” Sue wanted to know.
“Oh, yes, indeed.”
“I don’t hear any of them whistling,” remarked Bunny.
“Probably they are too far off,” his father told him. “But you may
hear some tooting before the day is over.”
After remaining on deck for a while to look about them in the fog,
Bunny and Sue decided that it was time for them to go down to get
breakfast.
“It’s rather chilly up here,” said Mrs. Brown.
“Yes, though we’re quite a distance down south, much nearer the
equator than we were, damp and clammy fog makes it seem cooler than
it has been,” replied her husband.
“You can’t see anything up here,” stated Sue. “I like it better
downstairs where I can play with Elizabeth. She doesn’t like a fog, I
guess.”
“Neither do the sailors,” said Mr. Brown. “They would much rather go
through a storm at sea than a fog, for they never can tell what is
going to happen when they can’t see where they are going or what is
coming toward them out of the dim whiteness.”
As Sue had said, there was nothing to see from the deck of the
_Beacon_ except that white blanket. There was no wind to blow it
away, for only when there is no wind does a fog descend. Really, a
fog is a big cloud settling down on the earth, and as soon as the
wind begins to blow the fog scatters.
Sometimes, as the _Beacon_ steamed along through the mist, little
swirling particles of the fog moved about. But this was all. It was
as if the ship was all alone on a great, white sea.
“Listen!” exclaimed Bunny as they were about to go below. “I thought
I heard another ship’s foghorn.”
They all remained quiet, and then from somewhere out on the ocean
came a faint note—the sound of a far-off whistle.
“Yes, that’s another ship, I think,” said Mr. Brown.
Stationed in the bow, or very front part, of the _Beacon_, was a man
on the lookout. He, too, heard this faint and distant whistle and he
called out something to the officer on the bridge who was steering
the ship. This officer gave several blasts, one quickly after the
other, of the _Beacon’s_ powerful fog whistle. This was to let the
other ship know her signal had been heard.
Then, from somewhere out in that blanket of fog, came back some
answering toots.
“It’s like playing hide-and-seek, isn’t it?” asked Sue.
“A good bit like that game, only there isn’t so much fun in it,” her
father answered.
Down below in the snug cabin to which the fog could not penetrate
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue played nearly all the remainder of the
day. It was more enjoyable than being on deck, for up there nothing
was to be seen. Besides, toward noon the fog became so thick that
it was almost like rain, and Mr. Brown, who had gone on deck for a
moment, came down with drops of water on his face and clinging to his
eyebrows and eyelashes.
“Oh, Daddy, how funny you look!” laughed Sue.
Because of the fog, the _Beacon_ was making only half speed. But as
there was no special hurry in reaching the West Indies this did not
matter much. What worried the officers, crew and passengers was the
danger that in the fog a collision might happen. So the foghorn was
kept blowing, one blast every half minute, all day long.
“If they keep it up all night I don’t believe we’ll sleep,” said Mrs.
Brown.
“Maybe the fog will go away at night,” suggested Bunny.
But the white blanket of mist still enveloped the vessel when the
time for the evening meal came. Lights were set aglow, but, as you
know if you have ever been out in a fog, lights do not show very far.
So it was necessary to keep the whistle blowing.
It was about the time Bunny and Sue were thinking of getting ready
for bed that a sudden quiver ran through the ship. She trembled and
then came to a stop, while the fog whistle blew louder than ever.
“Somebody bumped into us!” exclaimed Sue.
“Oh, it’s a collision!” cried Bunny.
Mrs. Brown looked at her husband.
“Has anything happened?” she asked.
“I’m afraid so,” he answered. “We certainly struck something, and we
have stopped. But we didn’t strike very hard.”
There were confused shoutings and calls throughout the ship, and then
some one exclaimed:
“We’re fast aground! We’ve run on a sand-bar or on some island!”