“Keep her steady, Mr. Barney!” commanded the captain.
I heard no response. I glanced aft as I worked my way up the backstays. Mr. Jim Barney still stood at our wheel. He hung to the spokes and held the ship steady. But a whiter face and a more miserable face I had never seen upon mortal man.
Chapter XXIV
In Which the Tragedy of the Racing Ship Is Completed
League upon league of the sea—across and again across two oceans—the sister ships had raced, to fall afoul of each other here almost within sight of port!
While we aboard the Gullwing were cutting adrift the wreckage for dear life, another mast—the mizzen—fell across the Seamew. She was down dreadfully by the head. We could hear the roar of the water pouring into the hole stove in her hull.
I knew Mr. Hollister’s voice, and he was shouting orders to the crew. But nobody heard Cap’n Si speaking; nor was he in sight. I knew as well then as I did afterward that, at the moment of the collision, the master of the Seamew went overboard, sank, and never came up again!
Down came the aftermast of the Seamew; the mainmast was swaying. I reckon the crew responded to Mr. Hollister’s orders not at all. I heard the wail of:
“Boats! boats! take to the boats!”
But when they took another look at the wabbling masts, they waited to launch no boat. With a few words but much action the crew went over her rail, now almost even with the sea, and one after the other began to claw out for the Gullwing which lay to not two cable’s lengths away from the sinking ship.