“Well, the first officer of our ship had photographs of that brute hanging up in Karachi, where he said they had taken it, for exhibition. Of course, it might have been any big ray, hanging anywhere; I’m afraid most of us put it down as a sailor’s yarn, rather more circumstantial than usual. But this is where the queer part of my story comes in.”
The baby drummed happily on the table with the tobacco-box, and gurgled.
“The kiddie likes it, anyhow,” said Jim, laughing. “Go on, doctor.”
“That was about ten o’clock in the morning. We watched the rays as long as they remained in sight, and then forgot all about them. After lunch the skipper noticed that our speed was wrong; he had been suspicious for some time, and on testing it by the patent log he found we were doing only eleven knots instead of fifteen. That sort of thing annoys a skipper, especially when there is no reason for it. So he rang up the engine-room and asked what revolutions she was making, and was told that she was doing her fifteen knots. The captain argued the point with some warmth; the chief engineer defended his engines with equal vigour, and finally they came to the conclusion that something was wrong.”
“Not a leak?”
“Oh, no! I happened to stroll up to the bow about that time; it’s the quietest place on the ship, and I like it—and looking over, I saw something half in and half out of the sea, for all the world like a thick white sheet wrapped round the cutwater. It beat me for a few minutes—the foam from the waves partly concealed it—and then I saw that it was one of these huge rays. The ship had run into it and broken its back, just as the chief officer had described—and it had revenged itself by reducing our speed by four knots!”
“Well!” said Norah. “Did you all go and apologise to the chief officer?”
“It might have pained him to know we’d even doubted him,” said the doctor, laughing. “We made our apologies—mentally. The thing was exactly as he had described. We wanted the skipper to stop and get it aboard, but he was sufficiently disgusted with the delay it had already caused; and it would have taken a good while to rig up a derrick. So he had the engines reversed, and we backed slowly astern, and as soon as the pressure of the water against it was released, Mr. Ray dropped off. I think he was even bigger than the one the chief officer had measured.”
“Well, it would be a good deal of fish that you would need to wrap round the stern, to bring down the speed of a big ship,” said Jim. “I wish you’d got him on board, doctor.”
“So do I—there were batteries of cameras waiting for him; and the skipper was unpopular for fully twelve hours,” said the doctor. “Skippers, however, have to be stern men, and indifferent to questions of popularity—where the coal bill is concerned. Owners and coal bills remain long after passengers are a misty memory; and you can’t appease owners—not even with a fish story!” He patted the baby’s head, rescued his tobacco-box, and was gone.