Seagrave gravely returned the salute and began telling off the men for their various tasks, an extra pressure of work having necessitated an early ‘turn to.’
‘Stokers carry on with the chief E.R.A.; T.I. and an S.T. on topping up and wiping down. The water lighter’s alongside now and I’m coming down to test the water, so don’t begin till I let you know. We’ll charge afterwards. L.T.O. carry on with the volt-metre board. Remainder clean ship.’
The coxswain saluted.
‘T.’s crew. Carry on down to the boat. Jevons, you work with the T.I. Dismiss.’
The weary band broke away and trooped down the ladder and across the boats to where ‘123’ lay on the outside of the tier. The coxswain produced a key of large proportions, and, unlocking the padlock on the conning-tower hatch, disappeared below. Presently the other hatches were opened from inside the boat, over which canvas shelters were rigged to prevent the rain from ruining her internal complexion, and the day’s work commenced.
Overnight a long black lighter, filled with carboys of distilled water, had been towed alongside and made fast to the submarine, and now the tarpaulin cover was hauled back and a long, flexible rubber tube passed up out of the fore-hatch and its end dropped into one of the carboys.
Presently Seagrave appeared armed with a stick of nitrate of silver with which he tested in turn the contents of each of the water-holders. Two of them were found wanting, for they clouded under the operation, and were condemned as unfit for use in the sensitive internals of a battery, and when he had satisfied himself with the others he gave the order to ‘carry on.’
With much labour the T.I. and Jevons filled the tube with sterilised water and passed the free end across to the boat and down the conning-tower hatch, the S.T. firmly grasping its extremity for fear of wetting the sacred brasswork. The siphon thus formed was a labour-saver of a large order and did away with the necessity of passing the water below in buckets and perhaps rendering it dirty in the process. Down below a sound of rasping and hammering came from the engine-room where the E.R.A.s and stokers were effecting repairs, where there had been ‘a bit of a mess up aft, sir,’ and could be seen wielding spanners and lumps of waste in a masterly manner. The L.T.O. was gravely attending to the volt-metre board, whose vagaries had given trouble of late, and the second coxswain was oiling the bearings of the hydroplane and rudder shafts and generally making himself useful. The remaining seamen were cleaning brass as if their lives depended on it, a state of things that was liable to undergo a slight modification on Seagrave’s departure.
‘’Ere, Sam,’ called the T.I., ‘give us a ’and with this deck-cloth,’ as that worthy paused on his round to wipe an oily brow.
Together they rolled back the canvas carpet, disclosing a solid rubber covering bolted to the deck with iron battens, which on being raised exposed a series of hatches beneath which was the for’ard battery. One of these was then lifted and the operation of ‘topping up’ began.