His order to turn to port was obeyed as speedily as possible.
He had seen the bed of the sea rising in the opposite direction and the movement came none too soon. A moment later the ground shot high up into the air, carrying huge rocks with it.
Had the Holland XI. been caught in that upheaval she would have been thrown two hundred feet above the surface of the Caribbean Sea, to fall back a broken and battered mass, with all on board lifeless.
The commotion under water was now growing rapidly, so that little could be seen, and they had to trust largely to luck as they moved on in an endeavor to get away from the ill-fated spot.
Once the Holland XI. struck a huge mass of mud which had just been raised by the earthquake.
It sent the mass flying in all directions and the lookout window was completely covered with the stuff, so that next to nothing could be seen.
"If we get out of this we can be thankful!" gasped Andy. "Hark to the roaring! And feel, the very sides of the boat are getting hot!"
The young lieutenant was right; the plates were so warm that they were positively painful to the touch.
And now came a greater explosion than before, and in a twinkle the new Holland was caught and turned around and around like a top in a strange current created by this new volcanic eruption. And, worst of all, the boat was sinking.
"We're going down into a hole!" shouted one of the ammunition men. "Nothing can save us now! We'll drop to the bowels of the earth and right into that volcano fire!"