Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 23, 2025
Her masts had snapped off and gone overboard, her rudder-post had been shattered by falling wreckage, and she was rolling in the trough of the sea, with her floating masts and spars thumping and bumping her sides. The Castor was an American merchant-vessel, commanded by Captain Philip Horn, an experienced navigator of about thirty-five years of age.
This orifice was now carefully plugged and battened over; and when the pumps were again rigged and the vessel cleared it was found that she had ceased to make water to any appreciable extent. "Thank God for that!" said Captain Dinks heartily. "I own I was wrong, for I was certain that the rudder-post was the seat of mischief: the ship was bound to leak there!"
"There must be a big leak somewhere," said Mr Meldrum, "and the sooner we see about stopping it the better." "Yes," said the captain, "we might keep it down certainly by an hour's spell in each watch; but it tires out the men so. I think it is coming in somewhere astern; the rudder-post must have started some of the timbers when it got wrenched off."
When they had gone far enough, she tied one end of the cord to the rudder-post of her canal-boat. Then she turned the cunning little windlass, and slowly up went the mast to its full height. The next thing was to unfurl the sail, set it properly, and set the rudder, all of which she did deftly and correctly, making Will feel ashamed of what he had said about the ignorance of girls.
"Hello, bo!" he observed cheerfully. "Didn't see yer. Did yer pipe me chase wid de yelper? Dat stilt-legged son of a saw-toothed tyke has had his nose on me rudder-post fer more'n a mile." The Persian made no answer, and the arab continued, unabashed: "It's a hunch dat I could 'a' clawed de stuffin's outer him, but I didn't want fer to lose me lunch. Say! Wot's yer name?"
The run remained to be explored the after part, I mean, under the lazarette deck to the rudder-post but I had seen enough; crawling about that black interior was cold, lonesome, melancholy work, and it was rendered peculiarly arduous by the obligation of caution imposed by my having to bear a light amid a freight mainly formed of explosives and combustible matter.
Left alone now, Mr Gregory waited patiently till the rope came down again, when he caught it and secured it round his waist, after which he went to the bows of the gig, took the painter, and by pressing the stern of the ship managed to draw the prow close up to the hull, and then after a little search he discovered a ring-bolt upon the rudder-post, to which he drew the boat, running the painter right through and making it fast, so that the little vessel was well out of sight, unless seen by the crews of one of the praus.
"Have you any idea where it is coming in?" inquired Mr Meldrum. "Well, sir, the cap'en say it's by the rudder-post; but I myself thinks it's amidships or else forrud: I'd have looked, but I couldn't shift the cargo without help." "This must be seen to at once, Captain Dinks," said Mr Meldrum.
Then followed a sudden twist, which sent a thrill through both vessels; a crash; a backward jerk; the snapping of a chain; and in a moment the great rudder, with half of the rudder-post attached, was torn from the vessel, and as the forceps opened it dropped to leeward and hung dangling by one chain.
A stake was driven in the sand of the lake bottom, at either side the stern, and the rudder-post lashed between. This flimsy apparatus was designed to keep the boat from being driven broadside on the bar.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking