“The bridge must have got on to it at once and noticed we were making headway again. The fact was we were now rounding the Cape called Martin’s Head. We knew they knew, for they again called us for still more steam—thinking we had got the top hand. It so happened that a long shoal known as the whale’s back was now the only barrier we had to weather. But till this spurt hope of doing it had almost gone. Well, all I know is that suddenly there was a scrape—a bumpety, bumpety, bump, and then a jump that made us think we were playing at being an aeroplane—and then on we went as before. She was making water more rapidly, but beyond that we knew nothing. It was rising now to our knees, nearly, and any moment might flood the fires. We had actually been washed right over the tail end of the whale-back reef, the tremendous ground sea having tipped us right over, almost without touching.
“They say it was only ten minutes or so more to the end—it seemed hours. The motion had changed and we knew we were before the sea. Then suddenly there was a heavy bump, that made us shiver from deck to keel on, then she seemed to stop, take another big jump, and then do the whole thing once more. We were on the beach and the water was flooding into the hold.
“Cyril had gone some time before, played out. I could see nothing for steam but waded towards the ‘alloway’ into the engine room. There also everything was pitch dark but I knew by feeling which way to go. It seemed a long while, but at last I found the ladder, and made a jump to hustle out of the rising water. My head butted into something soft as I did so. It was our second engineer—he had been at his post till the end.
“There was only one chance now for escape. It was the ventilator. I was proud I had learnt that in the night. It did not take me long to shin up through it and drop on the companion clinging onto the edge.
“The icy wind chilled me to the bone and sheets of spray were frozen over everything. A sea striking her at that moment washed right over me, but before the next came I was behind the funnel, hanging on for life to one of the stays. Another dive between seas landed me in the saloon and from there I dropped down, and climbed to the foc’sle to get some dry clothes.”
“That’s all you know, I suppose?”
“About all,” he answered, “except that I had to go some miles when I landed to get shelter, and got no food till next night.”
“Did anyone thank you for your work?”
“Not yet,” he answered with a smile.
“What steam had she when you struck the last time?” I asked.