The Morrissey was listing on her port side at an angle of forty-five degrees or worse, and everything was in a dreadful mess on board. You just couldn’t stand even on the dry deck and where it was slimy with oil, as most of it was, the only possible way to get around was to hang on to a rope. And at that, what with moving around the heavy oil drums there were plenty of bad spills. Cap’n Bob cut his hand badly and Doc bandaged it up right away. Down in the cabins everything was in a heap. It was funny to see the clothes hanging on hooks from the ceiling stand right out crazily at a wild angle from the walls, like drunken men.
The tide went down leaving the vessel high and dry, except for the bow which was in the water, tipped down at a bad angle and the stern up on the rocks. Cap’n Bob lashed ten empty oil drums on either side close to the keel at the stern, to help raise her when the water came in.
View from Shore of the Wrecked Morrissey.
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We just had to be ready for any emergency in case the Morrissey proved to be hurt so badly she couldn’t float, or especially if a storm came up which would have broken her to pieces quickly and made landing stuff very hard and perhaps impossible. And you must remember we were nearly one thousand miles from the nearest Danish settlement and more than 2000 miles from Sidney, the nearest big place.
One thing we put ashore at once and very carefully was the emergency low power radio set with which Ed Manley, our radio operator, could keep in touch with the world in case our big outfit on board was lost. That little set which might have been so awfully important was given us by the National Carbon Company who make the Eveready batteries.
And then the noon tide came and we were dreadfully disappointed. For the water didn’t rise to within about three feet of the midnight tide when we struck, so we were left with no [[77]]hope of getting off until the next tide. And that was pretty bad, because all that listing and pounding was dreadfully hard on a vessel, and would surely break one up less strong than the good old Morrissey, which is built of oak and is unusually sturdy.
But the water did get high enough to wash in over the deck on the low port side, even if the vessel couldn’t raise. There was a bad leak strained in her side and she leaked so badly we all had to help bail with pails lowered with ropes through the skylight into the mid-ships cabin. We couldn’t use the pumps because she had such a bad list, and tip forward, that they didn’t get at the water.
My bunk and two others filled up with water all mixed with oil, and my things, especially in the locker underneath, got pretty well spoiled. Luckily someone lifted out my bedclothes.