In his confusion, when the right lateral plane series collapsed, Ned threw on every particle of power at his command, mindful that an increase of the vessel’s velocity would cause the disabled planes to fold away again automatically out of the wind and so lessen the imminent danger of overturning. The acceleration was only momentary though, and the Ocean Flyer seemed in danger of rolling over sidewise at any minute.
“Ned, shut off ‘juice’ on those main outside propellers and try to run on the interior auxiliary propeller!” yelled Buck up the speaking tube.
“That ought to give us a little extra speed while we are trying to cut away the plane wreckage which is dragging us over sidewise!”
Ned was rattled. He had not thought of that before, but he instantly did as he was bid. Despite the damaged mechanism, the Flyer responded to this new application of power and speeded up until a fifty mile an hour velocity was registered on the instruments.
Leaving Buck on his knees beside the half-incapacitated engines, Alan and Bob seized sharp axes and rushed out upon the exterior runways extending two-thirds of the way around the hull. A cry of astonishment burst from both boys simultaneously:
“The sea! We are passing out over the ocean!”
It was true. Dim in the distance behind them stretched the broken coast line of Germany, while beneath, to north, to east, to west, tossed the angry gray waters of the North Sea. The misty shape of the British Isles lay like a low-hanging cloud to the southwest. Almost directly below the airship a huge merchant vessel could be seen steaming grandly along.
“Say, I wish that we were all down there aboard that big ship instead of where we are,” said Allan.
“Not for me!” replied Bob, emphatically. “Don’t you remember hearing how both the English and Germans have declared an absolute embargo on all merchant ports and have mined the entire ocean to interrupt each other’s commerce? Dangerous as our position up here now is, I’d lots sooner be here in a crippled airship than down there.”
Even as he spoke, there came a terrific explosion far down below. Sparks and broken spars were hurled high. The big merchantman appeared suddenly to rise straight up on her beam’s ends. Immense funnels of ocean water spurted hundreds of feet in the air all around her and, as the vessel settled down again, she seemed to snap in the middle and to disintegrate as if the bolts and bars from every clinch and support had been suddenly removed. Her stern began slowly disappearing beneath the churning, white-crested waves. Fire broke out amidships and dense volumes of black smoke half obscured the terrible disaster from the horrified boys’ view.