Part 34 (1/2)
The Durande plunged forward. It was like the effort of a horse pierced through the entrails by the horns of a bull. All was over with her.
Tangrouille was sobered. n.o.body is drunk in the moment of a s.h.i.+pwreck.
He came down to the quarter-deck, went up again, and said:
”Captain, the water is gaining rapidly in the hold. In ten minutes it will be up to the scupper-holes.”
The pa.s.sengers ran about bewildered, wringing their hands, leaning over the bulwarks, looking down in the engine-room, and making every other sort of useless movement in their terror. The tourist had fainted.
Clubin made a sign with his hand, and they were silent. He questioned Imbrancam:
”How long will the engines work yet?”
”Five or six minutes, sir.”
Then he interrogated the Guernsey pa.s.senger:
”I was at the helm. You saw the rock. On which bank of the Hanways are we?”
”On the Mauve. Just now, in the opening in the fog, I saw it clearly.”
”If we're on the Mauve,” remarked Clubin, ”we have the Great Hanway on the port side, and the Little Hanway on the starboard bow; we are a mile from the sh.o.r.e.”
The crew and pa.s.sengers listened, fixing their eyes anxiously and attentively on the captain.
Lightening the s.h.i.+p would have been of no avail, and indeed would have been hardly possible. In order to throw the cargo overboard, they would have had to open the ports and increase the chance of the water entering. To cast anchor would have been equally useless: they were stuck fast. Besides, with such a bottom for the anchor to drag, the chain would probably have fouled. The engines not being injured, and being workable while the fires were not extinguished, that is to say, for a few minutes longer, they could have made an effort, by help of steam and her paddles, to turn her astern off the rocks; but if they had succeeded, they must have settled down immediately. The rock, indeed, in some degree stopped the breach and prevented the entrance of the water.
It was at least an obstacle; while the hole once freed, it would have been impossible to stop the leak or to work the pumps. To s.n.a.t.c.h a poniard from a wound in the heart is instant death to the victim. To free the vessel from the rock would have been simply to founder.
The cattle, on whom the water was gaining in the hold, were lowing piteously.
Clubin issued orders:
”Launch the long boat.”
Imbrancam and Tangrouille rushed to execute the order. The boat was eased from her fastenings. The rest of the crew looked on stupefied.
”All hands to a.s.sist,” cried Clubin.
This time all obeyed.
Clubin, self-possessed, continued to issue his orders in that old sea dialect, which French sailors of the present day would scarcely understand.
”Haul in a rope--Get a cable if the capstan does not work--Stop heaving--Keep the blocks clear--Lower away there--- Bring her down stern and bows--Now then, all together, lads--Take care she don't lower stern first--There's too much strain on there--Hold the laniard of the stock tackle--Stand by there!”
The long boat was launched.
At that instant the Durande's paddles stopped, and the smoke ceased--the fires were drowned.
The pa.s.sengers slipped down the ladder, and dropped hurriedly into the long boat. Imbrancam lifted the fainting tourist, carried him into the boat, and then boarded the vessel again.