“Why; the wheel goes round either way, just as you please, without any strain at all, as if the ropes were parted, or the rudder gone adrift!”
“Mercy on us! That would be a calamity!” exclaimed Captain Dinks; and, watching his opportunity, when the stern of the ship rose up in the air, he looked over the rail below. “It is really the case!” he said, in grave accents. “The rudder and rudder-post have both been carried away. What a blessing that they did not go before we got her about; if they had, nothing could have saved us.”
“True for you, sir,” responded Ben in acquiescence; while the Norwegian nodded his head and said, “Ja! ja!”
“Come away from there, my men,” presently said the captain after a long silence, as if he were thinking to himself what should be done; “it’s no use your stopping there any longer. But, stay, it is best not to alarm the crew too soon. You stop, Norwegee,” calling that sailor by the name the men had dubbed him; “and you, carpenter, go and sound the well to see what water we have taken in. Mind and do it quietly, now, so as not to be seen; and you need not tell any of the hands about the loss of the rudder, you know.”
“Aye, aye, sir, I twig,” said Ben, going forwards and then down the main hatchway, slipping off the cover for the purpose.
Presently he returned aft, looking very serious.
“There’s four feet water in the hold, sir,” said he.
“Only four feet?” replied Captain Dinks, pretending to treat the matter with great unconcern; “why, I thought she would have had ever so much more in her, with all the straining she has gone through in the last twenty-four hours, besides the lot of seas she took in before we had the hatches battened. Still we’d better get rid of it, carpenter, as there’s no use our carrying more cargo than we are obliged, eh?”
“No, sir,” said Ben somewhat dubiously, not taken in by the captain’s manner.
“Just what I think,” said Captain Dinks. “Here, McCarthy,” he cried out to the first mate, who, ever intent on duty, was busily engaged in trimming matters amidships, having the lashings of the longboat and spare spars overhauled in readiness for the next sea that might flood the decks—for nothing could be done about the wreck of the foremast till the gale moderated, as to loose it now would be to lose their sheet-anchor. “McCarthy, just have the chain-pumps rigged and pump out the hold to get rid of all that water we have taken on board.”