In order to leave nothing to chance, since eight o'clock in the morning I had had men heaving the lead, so that we might know the moment we reached the outer edge of the bank.
By dead-reckoning—there had been no possibility of taking an observation for three days past—we ought to sight the rock, bearing east, about two miles away, at about 1 p.m. Allowance had, of course, been made for drift and leeway.
10 a.m.: Nothing to be seen.
Eleven o'clock! Always the same picture. Nothing but wild, raging sea. But it almost looked as if the troughs of the waves were deeper, the breakers fiercer, like the seas over a shallow bottom. Were we already?... No one dared to say it; only the constant use of the binoculars showed that every one shared the same thought. But neither rock, nor surf, nor birds were to be seen.
Twelve o'clock was already past. Soon, we must be there. 'No bottom!' comes, with monotonous iteration, the shouted report from aft, where, under the direction of the first-officer, the sounding machine is in constant use. More than once the men were caught by a sea and flung against the rail. I shouted to them to hang on, and gave the order for more oil to be poured from the bow. All orders had to be given, or rather yelled, through the megaphone. The wind seemed to bite off the words as they came out of one's mouth.
Then, just in the midst of a fierce squall came a wild shout from aft, 'Bottom! sixty-three fathoms.'
'Reduce speed!' 'Sharp look-out!'
Every one knew what was now at stake. Fifty fathoms!—fifty-six—sixty-two—seventy—twenty-eight.' Damnation! what is one to make of such a series? In the special chart, which lay under a glass cover on the bridge, depths of seventy, sixty, fifty fathoms were marked promiscuously, with the comforting annotation that they were unreliable.
Alter course? But, which way? It was too late now to lie to, unless I wanted to risk being driven slowly but with inexorable certainty on the reefs.
Every course was as good, or bad, as every other, until we had once sighted the rock. The visibility was now from 800 to 1000 yards, and at need that might serve.