“Vessel in distress. See her? Dead ahead, sir!” The skipper pointed a stubby finger. Pritt could see nothing, but presently a flare outlined the masts and shrouds of a small schooner. She was barely making headway. “Full speed ahead, Mr. Hansen! We’ll speak her!”
The mate executed the order, first repeating it.
When she was alongside the battered craft McNulty’s voice boomed a “On deck there?”
“Hello!” The answer came from a figure clinging to the schooner’s wheel. The wind carried half the man’s words away. Pritt caught, “—engineer—foot—in—’chinery—crushed—aid?”
“Engineer crushed his foot in the machinery,” McNulty explained. “Needs aid!” He turned to the mate. “Mr. Hansen we’ll take him aboard.”
McNulty did not say they would attempt to take him aboard the Crayton. He said they would take him. It was evident the schooner’s small crew had prepared for this. They carried a limp figure to a contrivance of wood and canvas secured to a midships deckhouse and lashed it. With few words being passed the two crews worked in unison.
Pritt gripped the bridge rail and held his breath as one of the Crayton’s cargo booms swung over the schooner’s deck. The steel block swung dangerously, caught and tore free some light gear on the smaller craft, then came banging against the steamer’s side. With infinite patience they maneuvered the restless craft and bided their time—knowing that in the end it would come.
Deft hands finally caught the block and hooked it into a network of lines as the schooner was on the crest of a wave. The next instant she had dropped beneath the improvised stretcher and the injured man swung into space. The sea leaped up furiously, as if denied its prey, then dropped sullenly away. The Crayton’s hoists whined, then slackened away on the falls as the stretcher came clear of the side. A dozen men rushed forward to stop the swinging burden. It knocked them down and crashed against steel walls of the deck houses. Pritt could feel his own flesh wince as the injured man’s bones snapped from the impact. The falls slacked away suddenly and their burden stopped soddenly in the water surging on the deck. Brief as was the pause it was sufficient for eager hands to snatch the man from the stretcher and carry him into a cabin. Drenched and battered, the men withdrew. The captain and the steward examined the victim.
The skipper’s thick fingers explored his ribs which had taken much of the impact. “Some broken,” he announced. “Arm broken, too! He’s unconscious, but coming ’round. Now for the foot!” The swollen, pulpy mass might have been a foot at one time, but now—— Pritt shuddered. It looked as if it had been fed into a rock crusher.
The skipper scribbled a brief message: