A deafening crash followed almost upon the command.
CHAPTER VIII
THE CRASH IN THE FOG
STEVE was thrown flat on his face on the bridge, while Bob Jarvis doubled up, wedged into the forepeak of the boat on the deck below.
"Full speed astern!" roared the captain.
The chains of the pilot-house telegraph rattled ominously and the propeller, nearly six hundred feet aft of the bridge, began whirling the other way at tremendous speed.
"Hey! What—what—what's happened?" shouted Bob Jarvis. "Have we hit the shore?"
"Close the water-tight bulkheads!" commanded Captain Simms. The mate threw over the electric switch that gave the signal for the closing of all water-tight doors and bulkheads.