"Robertson, Morgan - Futility" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robertson Morgan)

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Chapter Three

W

HEN the watch turned out at midnight, they found a vicious half-gale blowing from the northeast, which, added to the speed of the steamship, made, so far
as effects on her deck went, a fairly uncomfortable whole gale of chilly wind. The head sea, choppy as compared with her great length, dealt the Titan
successive blows, each one attended by supplementary tremors to the continuous vibrations of the engines --- each one sending a cloud of thick spray aloft
that reached the crow's-nest on the foremast and battered the pilot-house windows on the bridge in a liquid bombardment that would have broken ordinary
glass. A fog-bank, into which the ship had plunged in the afternoon, still enveloped her --- damp and impenetrable; and into the gray, ever-receding wall
ahead, with two deck officers and three lookouts straining sight and hearing to the utmost, the great racer was charging with undiminished speed.

At a quarter past twelve, two men crawled in from the darkness at the ends of the eighty-foot bridge and shouted to the first officer, who had just
taken the deck, the names of the men who had relieved them. Backing up to the pilot-house, the officer repeated the names to a quartermaster within, who
entered them in the log-book. Then the men vanished --- to their coffee and "watch-below." In a few moments another dripping shape appeared on the bridge
and reported the crow's-nest relief.

"Rowland, you say?" bawled the officer above the howling of the wind." Is he the man who was lifted aboard, drunk, yesterday?"

"Yes, sir."

"Is he still drunk?"

"Yes, sir."

"All right --- that'll do. Enter Rowland in the crow's-nest, quartermaster," said the officer; then, making a funnel of his hands, he roared out: "Crow's-nest,
there."

"Sir," came the answer, shrill and clear on the gale.

"Keep your eyes open --- keep a sharp lookout."

"Very good, sir."

"Been a man-o'-war's-man, I judge, by his answer. They're no good," muttered the officer. He resumed his position at the forward side of the bridge
where the wooden railing afforded some shelter from the raw wind, and began the long vigil which would only end when the second officer relieved him, four
hours later. Conversation --- except in the line of duty --- was forbidden among the bridge officers of the Titan, and his watchmate, the third officer,
stood on the other side of the large bridge binnacle, only leaving this position occasionally to glance in at the compass --- which seemed to be his sole
duty at sea. Sheltered by one of the deck-houses below, the boatswain and the watch paced back and forth, enjoying the only two hours respite which steamship
rules afforded, for the day's work had ended with the going down of the other watch, and at two o'clock the washing of the 'tween-deck would begin, as