Southtrap

I could scarcely wait while Persson tried to filter out Botany Bay's reply. Once or twice we thought we could distinguish the voice, but that was all.

I used the microphone again. 'Conserve your batteries, Kearnay. I'm making all possible speed. Contact Quest again every hour on the hour. Maybe we'll hear you better as we get closer. If you abandon ship, keep your key down until she sinks, will you? We'll be monitoring you all the time.'

I returned the instrument to Persson. 'Let me know any developments, will you? I'll be on the bridge…'

Then I remembered the banquet. I added, 'Between seven and nine I'll be in the saloon at dinner.'

'Aye, aye, sir.'

I headed for the bridge. Wegger was there. I said briefly to him as I hurried to the engine-room telegraph, 'I'll take the deck, Mr Wegger. Emergency. There's a Mayday out.'

I felt the thin electric thrill run through the men on watch. I pushed the telegraph over to 'full ahead'. At the same time as I reached for the intercom to MacFie I ordered the helmsman, 'New course. Steer southwest by souths 'South-west by south it is, sir.'

I hadn't had time to calculate an exact course; the sailing ship notation was good enough temporarily.

The intercom came alive. 'MacFie here.'

'Mac,' I said, aware that every ear on the bridge was strained to listen, 'I want everything those bloody engines of yours have got.'. The reply was slow and caustic. 'I've just seen the pointer go full ahead, laddie. Do you want to shake the screw out of her in this sea?'

'Sorry, Mac. I've just had a Mayday signal. A windjammer. She's tangled with the ice ahead. We've got to get to her, quick. Those engines of yours…'

'They're good, but they're old, never forget.'

'Can you get sixteen knots out of them — or more?'

'I can get sixteen knots out of anything — for a while.'

'For ten, twelve hours?'

'That's quite a while, as whiles go.'

'Mac, I need every horse you can coax out of them. No one can do it except you.'

'Aye, butter my backside while you blow my engines.'

'Listen, Mac. Those windjammer lads are really in trouble. I've got to get to them — quick. And you're the man to do it.'

'Feel that?' — I hadn't noticed the increased vibration. 'All of fifty-six hundred horse power. That's all these bluidy engines are meant to do. But I'll see what else I can manage. Don't blame me if they don't last.'

'They will, Mac, they will. Give them the gun.'

The Quest steadied on her new course. She gave a deep plunge as the run of the sea caught the bow and threw water all over the searchlight platform.

I turned from the phone. 'Mr Wegger…' I began. I stopped when I saw Wegger's face. He looked as if he had absorbed a right cross to the jaw. The expression was remote, the eyes were distant. At the same time, paradoxically, the face seemed to be filled with the intensity which had puzzled me before on several occasions. But now it looked as if there were a savage pressure behind that tension, as if it would explode at any moment. His damaged hand flexed and contracted as if by reflex.

My first thought was that he was afraid of the emergency.

I hoped the others hadn't noticed. I went close to him and hissed, 'Pull yourself together, man! Snap out of it!'

The moment his eyes came back into focus, I knew I was wrong. I drew back. I had never seen such naked hatred in anyone's face.

'Mr Wegger,' I said formally, 'have the searchlight team take up station immediately. I want lifelines rigged for'ard so that they can hang on when she takes it green. Double the look-outs — put four in the crow's nest. I want any floating object reported to me immediately. Understood? Tell 'em to keep their eyes skinned. There's ice ahead.'

He didn't react.

'Is that clear, Mr Wegger?'

There was another moment's hesitation, and then he asked thickly, 'You say a windjammer's in trouble?'

'Yes. The picture's pretty confused but it seems she's tangled with the ice. She's damaged — could be sinking.'

His Adam's apple jumped up and down as he swallowed. Finally he got a proper grip on his voice. 'How bad is the damage?'

I kept talking in order to defuse whatever crisis had boiled up inside him.

'It sounded as if the skipper said "bow split" but I'd guess it was "bowsprit", being a windjammer.'

The situation's not critical, then? She's still afloat?'

'For how long is another matter. We can only find out when we get closer and hear what she's saying — if her batteries last.'

He asked, with a strange inflexion in his voice, 'You know a lot about sailing-ships, don't you?'

'Yes. But at the moment that doesn't matter. I want the searchlight men…'

'You could sail one like Botany Bay?' Wegger persisted.

I eyed him curiously.'Yes, I suppose I could. But the need won't arise. She's got a perfectly good skipper and crew.'

The Quest gave a deep plunge, then rolled so far over to port with a corkscrewing motion that had her loading derricks been rigged outboard she would have put them under. Both Wegger and I tottered a couple of paces across the bridge.

'Get those lifelines rigged in the bows — quick,' I ordered Wegger. 'If anyone goes overboard in this sea we'll never find him again.'

Wegger stood for a moment, as if considering my order.

'Mr Wegger!'

'Aye, aye, sir!'

He moved quickly to the rear of the bridge, as if he had suddenly made up his mind about something. At the head of the companion-way he almost collided with Linn.

'What's happening?' she asked me. 'I was in the galley — half the crockery's smashed…'

'There's been a Mayday call…' I outlined the situation briefly, explaining how little I knew about the extent of the windjammer's damage.

'You're going to her rescue?' she asked when I had finished.

'Of course.'

'You're cutting it very fine if you're going to launch the drifter buoy on schedule, John.'

'I know. And it worries me. But when I think of a sailing-ship in the conditions which must lie ahead…'

'You'll abandon her once you've rescued the crew, will you?'

'I may have to.'

'You sound as if there is some doubt.'

'If there is any chance, I'll try and save her.'

'What! And endanger the launch?'

'Linn, I don't know what the conditions are like. But I do know that sailing-ships are as rare as fine gold in this day and age. I won't let her go unless I'm forced to.'

I picked up the crow's-nest phone. 'Captain here. Have the extra look-outs come on duty yet?'

The man sounded surprised. 'Not yet, sir. I don't know anything about it.'

'Hasn't Mr Wegger been in touch with you?'

'No, sir.'

I put down the instrument. A doubt nagged at my mind. Could I trust Wegger in a crisis? 'John,' asked Linn. 'Does this mean the banquet's off?'

I checked the bridge clock. 'We can't call it off now but it will have to come second.'

The Quest gave another one of her lurches.

'Nobody will be able to keep their food off their laps if this goes on,' she added.

What she said made sense. I also realized that by pushing the ship before I had lifelines rigged I might precipitate a delaying man-overboard tragedy.

I used the phone again. 'Searchlight crew? Captain here. Put Mr Wegger on the line, will you?'

'Mr Wegger, sir? Mr Wegger isn't here.'

'You mean…?' I stopped myself in time from giving away an officer. 'Haven't you had my new orders?'

'Only standing orders, sir, nothing new. Searchlight team to stand by in the foc's'le.'

'You mean you aren't manning the damn thing at this moment?'

'We've had no orders, sir. There's a lot of water coming over the bows.'

I choked back a command to send the men out on to the platform at the double. The ice was still hours away. But Wegger — where the hell was he? It was his job to get the crow's nest and searchlight manned immediately I ordered him.