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Time after time have boats been stove-in or smashed into splinters by a whale, either by an accidental blow from his head or a sudden lateral sweep of his monstrous flukes, and the crew left struggling in the water or clinging to the oars and pieces of wreckage; and the killers have swum up to, looked at, and smelt them but never have they touched a man with intent to do him harm.
No getting off to-night, lads; they've shoved a hole in her bottom." "What!" cried Billy Waters, groping his way to the boat; and then, in a hoarse, angry voice, "and no mistake. She's stove-in!"
Ourn's stove-in, and we've got knocked about awful." "What! by the smugglers?" "Ay, my lad. They beat us off." "Then, now there's reinforcements, let's go and carry all afore us." "It's all very fine for you, coming fresh and ready, to talk," said the gunner; "but it ar'n't no use, my lad we're reg'lar beat out. They got away somehow, and you want daylight to find 'em."
I never did nothin' in the fracas, as ye know, except get hurt." In ten minutes we were close aboard the derelict, and her cabin was a mass of flame. The oil in the cargo, however, was too quick for them. It had become ignited aft and had cut off all retreat by the stove-in boat. Several explosions followed, and the flames roared high above the maintopsail.
A stove-in lifeboat mutely attested the failure of other efforts. The men worked busily, ramming home the powder sack, placing the projectile with the light line attached, attending that the reel ran freely. Their chief watched the seas and winds through his glasses. When the preparations were finished, he adjusted the mortar, and pulled the string. Carroll had seen this done in practice.
"We shall want a couple of doctors soon if we have any more of this cursed business," said Rawlings. "Here's the boatswain badly hurt; Billy Onotoa, who you say is a good man, with a couple of knife holes in his hide; Warner's head man with two stove-in ribs, and Warner himself with a bad head; and now there's three or four more of these black and brown devils cut about. Curse the whole thing!"
"Then you may go up the side of the cutter first, my lad, that's all I've got to say," said the boatswain. "You don't catch me facing the skipper to-night." It was a close pack to get all the men on board, but it was successfully accomplished, the stove-in boat taken in tow, and the side of the cutter reached at last, where, as the boatswain had vaguely hinted, there was a storm.
"I climbed upon this carcass of a ship by the lowest side; then, having reached the deck, I went below. The daylight, which entered by the stove-in hatches and the cracks in the sides, showed me dimly long dark cavities full of demolished woodwork. They contained nothing but sand, which served as foot-soil in this cavern of planks. "I began to take some notes about the condition of the ship.
They ran down to where Abishai's craft had vanished; found two or three trawl-tubs, a gin-bottle, and a stove-in dory, but nothing more. "Let 'em go," said Disko, though no one had hinted at picking them up. "I wouldn't hev a match that belonged to Abishai aboard. Guess she run clear under. Must ha' been spewin' her oakum fer a week, an' they never thought to pump her.
"When we land," whispered the lieutenant, "two men are to stop in the boats and keep off a dozen or so yards from the shore. No getting them stove-in, or " He did not finish his sentence, and in its mutilated form it was passed to the other boat, which was close behind.
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