“Destroyer a-comin’!” he yelled.
Instantly, all eyes were turned from the bark to where, half-hidden by the great bow-wave thrown up by her passage, and with black smoke belching from her four funnels, a lean, gray destroyer came tearing through the sea. Leaping to their feet, tossing hats in air, waving their ponderous oars, the men cheered wildly and then, realizing that the Hector was still afloat and that all danger from the submarine was over, they swung their craft about and pulled madly back to their ship. Even before they had gained the bark’s side they were tossing on the wake of the rushing destroyer, and, in rapid succession, came the heavy detonations of her depth-bombs.
Clambering over the Hector’s side, the boys and men gazed about in amazement, for the moment utterly at a loss to understand by what miracle the ship was still afloat. Then, rushing to the gangway, old Cap’n Pem gave one glance over the side and let out a lusty shout. “Well, I’ll be blowed!” he yelled. “I’ll everlastin’ly be keelhauled! Derned if that critter didn’t save the ship! They jes’ blowed the whale to smithereens!”
Every one hurried to his side and peered over. It was perfectly true. The torpedo had struck the whale, blowing it into a thousand fragments, scattering blubber, flesh and blood over decks, sails and sea, but leaving the bark uninjured. The mountain of meat and bone had saved the ship! As they stood speechless, awed into silence by the miraculous escape of the bark, no one noticed the destroyer, which had drawn near, until a hail from her bridge reached their ears.
“Bark ahoy!” shouted an officer. “Shall we stand by? Are you badly injured?”
Captain Edwards cupped his hands and was about to reply, but before he could speak old Pem sprang onto the rail, and grasping a backstay with one hand shook his fist at the spot where he had last seen the submarine. “No!” he roared. “No, by heck! We ain’t hurt none, but them sneakin’ thieves jes’ robbed us out o’ a hund’ed bar’ls o’ ’ile!”
The tension was broken, every one roared with laughter and even the destroyer’s officers shook with mirth at the old whaleman’s words.
“Did you get the sub?” shouted Captain Edwards when the merriment subsided.
“Can’t be sure,” came back the answer. “There’s so darned much whale oil on the water, there’s no way to tell. The sea’s slicked with grease for half a mile round. Want us to convoy you to Fayal?”
“Guess not,” yelled back the skipper. “Reckon you scared ’em off if you didn’t get ’em. Guess we’ll risk it.”