'That's the sunrise gun, sir, from one of their forts, sir. Them Dagos be half an hour adrift, I'm blowed if they ain't,' O'Leary said.
The bridge was crowding up now, for the Skipper and the Commander and a host of mids. had come along to bring the ships to anchor.
'Pretty sight that,' the Skipper grunted, squinting through his eyeglass.
'Like pink icing on a wedding cake, sir,' the Commander added, thinking he'd said something funny.
'Yes, sir; beautiful, sir,' chipped in the navigator, really wondering what the Skipper was referring to, but very eager to agree with him—he would have licked his boots if he thought the Skipper would like it.
'Bring ship to an anchor,' snapped out the Skipper, and the boat's'n's mates piped, 'Watch, bring ship to an anchor—duty-men to their stations—away second barges.'
The anchoring pendants were run up to our masthead—the answering pendant on board the Hercules got to her masthead almost as soon—and we moved slower and slower in towards the breakwater.
The navigator reported, 'On our bearings, sir;' the Skipper nodded to the Commander, who bellowed down to the fo'c'stle, 'Let go;' the signalman hauled down the pendants; the starboard anchor splashed into the sea, and the cable began rattling out through the hawse-pipes.
Down went the pendant aboard the Hercules, and her anchor splashed behind us.
'Full speed astern both,' snapped the Skipper to the man at the engine-room telegraph and the water churned up under our stern.