He went to shelter himself, behind the Hudson’s wheelhouse, from the radiated heat of the smoldering hulk, his mind busy with the affairs of the department. He heard a noise of hammering that seemed to come from the Sachsen, and he thought it was the sound of a pump set going by some crazy accident of the fire. At a shout from a fireman on the other side of the Hudson, he came out again to the bows wearily.
“I saw a light,” the man cried. “There!”
The spark of a lantern was swinging from side to side on the Sachsen high up, amidships.
They howled, “Hi! Hi! Hullo! All right! All right, boys! Hol’ on!”
“Turn the spray on the deck here,” Moran ordered. “Half speed ahead. There’s someone alive on her.... Good God!”
The heat, as the Hudson crept in, dried their eyes till they were half blinded by a blur of tears. Seen through these, the light swung big in the darkness. “Who is it? Who is it?” they called.
A weak hail answered them. The dripping fender of hemp on the nose of the Hudson touched the side of the Sachsen and steamed on the hot metal. Erect in the bows, drenched with the spray of the hose, Moran cried in a voice of suffocation, “Jump!”
Dotted line shows passage of Keighley’s men from forward cargo room to shaft tunnel
They finally escaped through bunkers amidships beside the boilers and stoke holes
From the coal port above him a naked figure squirmed out, hung kicking and fell into his arms. Another and another followed—Moran and his men catching them as they came, and shouting encouragement through the steam that rose on all sides with the smell of blistered paint. One man in the struggle at the narrow opening, was thrown into the water and had to be dragged out with a boat hook. Others fell on their feet, and, throwing themselves on the deck with hoarse cries, began to roll around in the spray. Lieutenant Moore came down unconscious, as if baked stiff, and lay crouched. Captain Keighley, falling beside him, crawled with his mouth open, to the nozzle of the spray. “All off!” he gasped. “Start—yer water.... Water!”