Part 1 (1/2)
The Strange Adventures of Eric Blackburn
by Harry Collingwood
CHAPTER ONE
THE CATASTROPHE
It happened on our seventh night out from Cape Toe had accomplished about a third of the distance between that city and Melbourne
The shi+p was the _Saturn_, of the well-known Planet Line of co between London, Cape Town, and Melbourne; and I--Eric Blackburn, aged a trifle over twenty-three years--was her fourth officer
The _Saturn_ was a brand-new shi+p, this being her ister, 100 A1 at Lloyd's, steaers, of whoe; and every berth was occupied, the steerage crowd consisting mostly of miners attracted to Australia by the ruoldfield of fabulous richness The crew of the shi+p numbered, all told, 103; therefore, when the catastrophe occurred, the _Saturn_ was responsible for the lives of 535 people, of whom about 120 omen and children
I was officer of the watch, and was therefore on the bridge when it happened, the ti shortly after six bells in the middle watch, or say about a quarter past three o'clock in theThe weather was fine, with sothat the speed of the shi+p just balanced it, the sht up into the air when the fire westerly swell there was very little sea running The motion of the shi+p was therefore very easy, just a slow roll of four or five degrees to port and starboard, and an equally slow, gentle rise and fall of the shi+p over the swell that followed us
The moon was only four days old, consequently she had set hours earlier, but the sky was cloudless, the air was clear, and the stars, shi+ning brilliantly, afforded light enough to reveal a shi+p at a distance of quite three ine conditions of more apparently perfect safety than those at theaboard the _Saturn_ Yet destruction came upon us in a
I was pacing the bridge fro a sharp look-out ahead and all round the shi+p; and when, at the port end of n that but a few minutes intervened between us and eternity But as I approached the wheel-house I becaht in the sky behindthe entire shi+p in a radiance that increased with incredible rapidity, while at the sarew in volu sharply round, to ascertain the e phenoh the openof the wheel- house:
”Gosh!+ that's a big 'un, and no est I ever seen; and,”--on a note of sudden alaroin' to fall so very far away fro fireball, sir, headin' this way?”
As the ht of the object to which he referred--and horror chilled me to the marrow; for never before, I verily believe, had mortal eyes beheld so awful an apparition Broad over the port bow, at an elevation of soreat white-hot fla trail of brilliant sparks, _co in apparent size even as I gazed at it, dumb and paralysed with terror indescribable, while the sound of its passage through the air grew, in the course of a second or two, froht which it e that it nearly blindedtoward us it see as the shi+p herself; but that was, of course, an optical illusion, for when, a second or two later, it struck us, I saw that the fiercely incandescent hly spherical shape, was some twelve feet in diameter
It struck the shi+p aslant, on her port side, a few feet abaft the funnel and close to the water-line, passing through the engine-rooh her botto the blow, but the crash was terrific, while the s--which is not to be wondered at, since theso fiercely that it set the shi+p on fire h her
So intense was the heat of it that, as it passed through the shi+p's bottom into the water, we instantly became enveloped in a dense cloud of hot, stea up a cone of water that ca the shi+p
For a space of perhaps two seconds after the passage of the ht continued, and then, as though in response to a signal, there arose such a dreadful outcry as I hope never to hear again; while the cabin doors were dashed open, and out from the cabins and the companion-ways streamed crowds of distracted ear, just as they had leapt fro to knohat had happened, while the poor women and children rushed frantically hither and thither, jostling each other, wringing their hands, so to children who had beco crowd
The firstout of his cabin straight on to the bridge, exclai, as he clutched me by the arm:
”What is it? What has happened? For God's sake speak, man!”
”The shi+p,” I answered, ”has been struck by an enormous meteorite, sir, which has set her on fire, I believe, and has passed out through her bottom She has taken a perceptible list to starboard already”
At this ineer, who dashed up on the bridge, de breathlessly: ”Where is the captain?”
”I am here, Mr Kennedy What is the news? Out with it!” jerked the skipper
”My engines are wrecked, sir; utterly destroyed,” answered Kennedy; ”and the shi+p is holed through her bottoh to drive a coach through, and the roooes we shall sink like a stone!”
At this juncture ere joined by the chief, second, and third officers, who caentlemen,” remarked the skipper ”I was about to send for you I learn fro h her bottoine-rooine-rooo down quickly--in which opinion I agree with hi a strong list, and is very perceptibly deeper in the water; therefore I will ask you, Mr Hoskins,”