In Hazard by Richard Hughes Read Free Book Online Page A

on it must have been terrific. But decks, of course, are enormously strong. Hatches, on the other hand, are not. They are the most vulnerable part of a ship: and just as vulnerable on a big ship as a little one, because on almost every ship that ever sailed, from a liner to a coasting smack, they are made exactly the same. They are a set of oblong sections of wood, of standard size (each one no larger than can be conveniently shifted by two men), laid loosely upon beams, the whole secured by a covering of tarpaulin stretched tight and fastened round with wedges.
    This system can resist immense forces applied from above; it can stand up to the pounding of hundreds of tons of sea. But pressure from below is a different matter—it is not designed for that. You do not expect there to be a vacuum created on deck.
    Shortly after three o’clock, the wind, though it maintained its full force, and in gusts increased it, became more unsteady: thus there were rifts in the spray, through which an occasional view of the sea could be had. It was through one of these rifts Captain Edwardes saw some wreckage float by.
    â€œSomeone else is in trouble beside us,” he said.
    â€œThey aren’t,” said Mr. Buxton, who was familiar with every inch of the ship. “Those are our Number 2 hatches.”
III
    The spray had cut the tarpaulins, as with a knife: and the wind had sucked the hatches out like drawing a cork from a bottle. Though no heavy seas were coming on board, the spray was so nearly solid water that hundreds of tons would find their way below in a very short time.
    It was then Mr. Buxton recollected with foreboding how he had stowed the cargo. All those newspapers and that tobacco in the ’tween-decks—high up. All that water going below: it was bad enough if it cascaded to the ship’s bottom, gradually filling her: but even if that happened, it would take a long time, and could be pumped out fast enough with the steam-pumps, and at least it would not affect her stability. But newspapers, and tobacco, are absorbent. Soaked with water, they would be many times their usual weight: and such a weight, high up, might conceivably turn her right over. He looked at the clinometer: her list was increasing, she was heeled at 35° and rolling to 40.° Those hatches ought to be covered again, somehow, at whatever risk; at least till the water could find its way right down.
IV
    Dick’s door remained jammed. He was shut in a little iron cube, tilted up on one of its edges, and jerking about like a rook’s nest in a gale. Even without the motion, the thunderous yelling of the wind would alone have been intolerable.
    He tried to get into bed, but could not stay there: the bed flung him out. He tried to lie on the tilted floor, wedged against the wall: but even the floor flung him away; and small loose things fell on him: it was like being inside some joke-machine in an Amusement Park, worked by the Devil. The only way not to be flung about was to stand up, wedge his feet in two places and cling to something with both hands.
    But Dick Watchett was not the only one who had been imprisoned in his cabin. The door of the midshipmen’s room had also jammed. However, the same unsteadying of the wind which had revealed the floating hatches released them, though it did not release Dick: and the three boys burst out. Immediately they climbed to the bridge; though it was mad, going up stairs tilted on their sides, so that half your weight was on your elbow against the wall.
    The sight of the three boys bursting suddenly on to the bridge gave a feeling of warm pleasure to Captain Edwardes; for he felt as if he had been there for ever, alone with Mr. Buxton; as if there was no one else in the ship. Now they came crowding up—the tall one, the fat one, and the thin, dark-eyed one—looking at him with implicit confidence: and that filled him full with vigour and pride.
    Captain and Mate do not generally