As he waited, with a true seaman's instinct, he glanced to windward. The approaching storm was not far off. Should it be necessary to take to the boats the chances of being saved were very remote. Nor did there seem any possibility of rescue from any other ship, for the explosion had dislocated the wireless apparatus. The only chances in that direction were that a passing vessel might detect the wail of the syren—as it sent forth its call for assistance in the long and short blasts that corresponded to the dot and dash of the Morse Code—or might sight the coloured star rockets that were being fired from the bridge.
Captain Ripponden deliberately delayed giving the order to take to the boats. Although the "Strongbow" was sorely hit she showed no immediate inclination to make her final plunge. The engine-room and stokeholds were clear, and the engine-room staff still remained at their posts below the water-line; nevertheless, the ship was making water freely and was already considerably down by the head.
Suddenly a short thick-set figure ran aft between the double line of seamen drawn up as calmly and as steadily as if mustered for Divisions. Terence could hear the man's laboured breathing as he hurried. It was the ship's carpenter, on the strength of whose report Captain Ripponden's orders for immediate action would be delivered.
Up the bridge ladder the warrant officer made his way, then drawing himself erect saluted his superior—a courtesy that the captain punctiliously returned. Even in the presence of fearful and imminent peril the regulation regarding the paying of proper compliments in the matter of saluting were carried out to the letter.
The eyes of every man on deck were directed upon the silhouetted figures of the captain and the carpenter on the bridge. Captain Ripponden's head was observed to nod slightly several times as he listened to his subordinate's report; then he stepped to the after-bridge rails.
"My men," he shouted in stentorian tones that were clearly audible amid the moaning of the wind and the hiss of escaping steam, "we'll save the old ship yet. Twenty men to assist carpenter's crew. The rest remain aft and stand easy."
Away doubled the working party, their task being to build a temporary coffer-dam in the after side of the for'ard transverse bulkhead. The "Strongbow" had bumped upon a drifting mine, the explosion of which, occurring right under the bows and close to the water-line, had flooded the bow compartments. The watertight bulkhead was dangerously strained. Water was entering in small jets under the terrific pressure in the flooded compartments; but although the pumps were quite capable of keeping the leak under control, the bulkhead, unless shored up, was in momentary danger of giving way.
Feverishly the carpenter and his men tackled the hazardous task. Bolts of canvas, rolled hammocks and tarpaulins were piled against the bulging steel bulkhead, and held in position by baulks of timber, braced and chocked till the coffer-dam was as strong and firmly set as human ingenuity could devise.
Meanwhile, the rest of the crew were allowed to smoke—a concession that was eagerly welcomed, and the quarter-deck glowered with the dull glare of lighted cigarettes and pipes. Those men who had turned up without adequate clothing were ordered to find additional garments to protect them from the numbing cold, while the cooks were told off to the galleys to make hot cocoa. Even in the midst of peril Captain Ripponden's thoughts were for the comfort of his devoted men.
As soon as the carpenter reported that in his opinion the strained bulkhead was properly shored up, orders were given to the engine-room for half-speed astern and a course shaped for Aberdeen. To drive the ship ahead with her bows seriously damaged would be placing a tremendous strain upon the coffer-dam, while when making sternway the pressure would be considerably reduced.