With a deafening hiss, a heavy cloud of steam released from the now useless boilers escaped skywards. The overworked engine-room and stokehold staffs were at last at liberty to "stand easy".
Suddenly a beam of dazzling white light flashed through the darkness. Impinging upon the cloud of steam, its reflected glare illumined the scene on deck as clearly as if it had been broad daylight. Then, with a quick, decisive movement, the giant ray was depressed, until it played fairly upon the battered hull, throwing every object into strong relief, and literally blinding the men with its dazzling glare.
"What ship is that?" shouted a deep voice through a megaphone, the sound travelling distinctly across the intervening water.
A couple of cables' lengths from the stationary Calder was a large destroyer, with her search-light directed upon the object of her enquiry.
Sefton's reply was inaudible. The direction of the wind and the lack of a megaphone prevented his words from being understood. Again the challenge was repeated.
Standing erect in the full glare of the searchlight, and apart from his companions, a petty officer semaphored the desired information.
"Stand by to receive a hawser," commanded the lieutenant-commander of the unknown destroyer. "We'll take you in tow."
The vessel was T.B.D. Basher, one of the inner patrol of destroyers operating between St. Abb's Head and Spurn Point. Pelting along at 20 knots in the darkness, her first intimation of the proximity of the crippled Calder was the hiss of steam from her boilers. Prepared to open fire at an instant's notice, she trained her quick-firers abeam and switched on her search-lights, only to discover that she had fortunately fallen in with a "lame duck" from the Jutland battle--a craft whose absence was beginning to give rise to considerable apprehension on the part of the British Admiralty.
"You'll tow better stern-foremost, I fancy," shouted the Basher's skipper, as he noted the extent to which the Calder was down by the head.
"Yes, sir," agreed Sefton. "There will be less pressure upon the bulkhead for'ard. It has been giving us some anxiety."