مبارزه برای زنده ماندن

CHAPTER SIX

The fight to survive

When the worst part of the typhoon started, Jukes stood still, and just held strongly onto the railing in front of him. He tried not to think about what would happen, about the danger that they were in. As the typhoon got worse, he stopped feeling the water and the wind on his face.

He was cold and wet all over his body. His arms and legs began to feel numb, and his thoughts came slowly. In some ways it was a good feeling. He didn’t hope to survive, because hoping meant fighting for something. He couldn’t fight any more.

But now MacWhirr was waking him from this numb feeling, and asking him to do something dangerous. At first he felt angry - why should he fight his way through the typhoon down to the hold?

Because of some stupid story of the boatswain’s? Didn’t the captain understand that the boatswain had no idea what he was talking about? But when he heard MacWhirr’s words, he knew that he had to go to the hold. There was no way to avoid it.

Getting there was very difficult, because now there was no ladder from the bridge to the deck below. The boatswain held Jukes by the arms and helped him to climb down slowly onto the deck.

Enormous waves were still hitting the ship, and twice they nearly went overboard. At last they got to the hold. Just when Jukes started to open the heavy door, the boatswain grabbed him by the arm.

‘Be careful, sir. The wooden boxes are in pieces, and the money’s all over the place. If those Chinese men think that you’ve come to take their money, it can easily turn dangerous.’

Jukes looked inside, afraid of what he would see. The hold had a lot of water in it. Just as the boatswain said, the money was all over the place. The Chinese labourers were going from one side of the hold to the other with each wave. Some of them were trying to climb a ladder that went up to a hatch.

The ones at the top were hitting the hatch with their hands as hard as they could, but they couldn’t open it. The ship started rolling the other way, and all the men on the ladder fell off slowly, one by one. Each one screamed as he hit the deck below. Some fell on top of the others.

Then a really enormous wave lifted the ship right up, and all the men started rolling nearer the door of the hold, where the boatswain and Jukes were standing. A great wave of water, heads, legs and arms came their way. Jukes and the boatswain quickly ran out of the hold, and shut the door behind them. He looked at the boatswain, and saw the horror on his face. Was this how his face looked too? He had no idea what to do, or if there was anything that he could do. He just had to tell MacWhirr about it.

At the same time, MacWhirr decided to go to the wheelhouse. He had to see that everything was all right in this part of the ship. If there was a problem with the rudder, then there was no hope of surviving the typhoon. Like Jukes and the boatswain, he found it very difficult to move around the ship.

The wind pulled at everything that he was wearing, and when he got to the wheelhouse, he found that his rainhat was gone from off his head. This made him angry. It was worse for him than losing the lifeboats.

Inside the wheelhouse, he found the second mate sitting on the floor, his head in his hands. ‘What are you doing here?’ asked MacWhirr.

‘It was my turn below deck,’ cried the man. ‘So I came in here some time back. You can’t stop me!’

The captain looked up at the wheelhouse clock. It was half past one in the morning. ‘A new day.’ he said to himself.

‘You’ll never see the sun come up!’ cried the second mate.

The captain said nothing back to him, but turned now to the helmsman. He was a sailor by the name of Hackett. He stood at the wheel, fighting to make sure that the ship stayed on course.

‘He’s a good man, to be working like that in weather like this for hour after hour,’ thought MacWhirr.

‘Is the rudder still all right?’ asked the captain.

‘Yes, sir,’ answered Hackett.

‘I want you to stay at the wheel. I can’t send another man to take your place here. He won’t know how to control the ship as well as you. Do you think you can go on without any rest?’

‘Sir, I can steer her all day and all night if no one talks to me,’ answered the helmsman.

‘Erm. I see. yes, of course. Very good. Hackett,’ said MacWhirr. The helmsman’s answer surprised him.

The captain went to the speaking-tube that they used to talk with the engine room. He called into it: ‘Rout?’

He needed to see that the men in the engine room were making enough steam. This was another important part of trying to control the ship. He spoke loudly into the mouth of the speaking-tube again: ‘Rout! Are you there?’

By putting his ear very close to the speaking-tube, he could just hear Rout’s answer: ‘I hear you, sir. It’s not too good down here, but we’re doing what we can. One of the engineers is hurt, but we’re still making steam. How is it up above deck?’

‘This typhoon is really pushing us about,’ answered MacWhirr looking down at the second mate, who was still sitting on the floor. ‘Rout, just make sure that we have enough steam.’

‘Sir, we can’t give the ship too much power. We may send her down into the waves, instead of up and over them.’

‘I know, Rout, but we need enough power to steer. If we don’t have that, we’ll lose control of the ship - and then we’ll sink.’

‘So the wheelhouse is still all right?’ asked the chief engineer.

‘For now, yes. Rout, I need to speak to Jukes. Is he there? I want him to finish down in the hold and come up and help me. I’m alone here. The second mate has.’

‘Gone overboard?’

‘No. He’s lost his head.’

For some minutes the captain’s voice was silent, but Rout could hear the noise of a fight coming down the speaking tube. At last, the captain came back.

‘The second mate ran at me. He isn’t well. I had to knock him on the head. Did you hear?’

Rout went off to see to the engines, but as soon as Jukes arrived in the engine room, the chief engineer pushed him over to the speaking-tubes to talk to MacWhirr.

‘I went to look at the Chinese labourers, sir. And from what I saw, this is what happened: at first the typhoon made them afraid, and quiet. Then one of the boxes fell onto the floor of the hold and broke. When they saw the money on the floor, some tried to grab it. That started a fight.

With the rolling of the ship, they went from one side of the hold to the other, and the others joined the fight. Now the storm has broken all the boxes, and all of them are fighting over all of the money. I don’t see how we can stop it now, sir. I think that some are dead, and it seems that many are hurt.’

Jukes hoped that Captain MacWhirr wouldn’t give him any more to do in the hold. Then the captain’s answer came down the speaking-tube:

‘Get some men and go back to the hold. Pick up all the money and put it somewhere safe. Typhoon or no typhoon I don’t want any fighting on the Nan-Shan.’

‘I have to pick up the labourers’ money in the hold,’ said Jukes to Rout on his way out of the engine room.

‘What?!’ replied the chief engineer. ‘First the second mate goes and hits the captain, now you’re making the hold tidy. Haven’t you officers got anything better to do?’

Down in the engine room, in the deepest part of the ship, they couldn’t see the enormous wall of dark sea water that was just going to hit the Nan-Shan.