“How do you want to go?” Martin shouted to Evans in the wheelhouse. Evans put his head out the window.
“Let everything go at once!”
Two seamen from one of the power barges stood by their lines on the dock.
“O.K.,” said Martin. “Cast off.” The crew began to pull in the lines. Bervick went aft and helped handle the stern. Martin waited while the men coiled the lines. Then he yelled to Evans, “All free!” He could see Evans nod and go to the telegraph.
The ship swung slowly away from the dock. The wind blew damply and gently in their faces. The sea gulls circled high overhead.
Bervick joined Martin on the forward deck. They watched the bow of the ship cut with increasing speed through the dark and rippled water.
“It looks awful quiet, don’t it, Martin?”
“Does look quiet. I hope it stays that way. The weather didn’t look too good in the report.”
“Didn’t look bad?”
“No.”