صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

our first taste of bad weather -a two days' blow from the N.E., the worst quarter. The ship moved about as if she were at sea, and we spent two harassed and sleepless nights as we listened to her grinding and straining on the rocks. Whether as a result of this blow, or of the poor quality of the cement, subsequent pumping tests showed that the ship was far from tight, and that a good deal of water came through from under our bulkheads.

The 12-inch pump could dry out No. 2 in half an hour or so, but it had to be kept running if the hold were to remain dry. The two big steam pumps could pump out the pump out the engine-room and stokehold, but the donkey-boiler could not give them sufficient steam, and the Aleida Johanna, had to remain alongside and give the steam through a flexible steam pipe.

By shifting the suctions of one of the big steam pumps temporarily to No. 3, No. 3 and No. 4 could be pumped out and could be kept dry with the 4-inch Worthington.

This left no reserve pumping power, nothing for No. 1, and no tug available to get hold of the ship when she floated, and take her across to the other side of the bay where we had decided temporarily to repair her.

To add to our troubles, all local opinion was unanimous that we could expect little more fine weather, and that after the middle of August

strong winds would be increasingly common, and would develop into gales with the commencement of September.

It was now that I regretted bitterly all our pumps in England. But, like the Dutchman's anchor, they had been left behind and regret was useless. It seemed hopeless to look for any more pumps locally.

By a fortunate accident, however, the greater part of Soroka had recently been burnt down, and, a week or two after the fire, there arrived a handsome motor fire-pump for the captain of the port. It had two 4-inch suctions, but was intended to draw water from nearly its own level and throw it to a height.

was

However, it was a pump, and after prolonged negotiations, assisted by one or two bottles of whisky, it brought on board in triumph and placed down No. 1 hold on a special staging, Soroka being left to look after itself.

But it was now 28th August we had spent about £10,000, the ship was not yet afloat, England was more than two thousand miles away, and the evacuation of North Russia seemed every day more certain.

Already the summer was nearly over and darkness was setting in quite early in the evenings, while 2nd September was the last of the springtides.

Things looked black. I sent a despairing telegram to Dawes to despatch a big tug, if possible with a pump on board,

and Grey and I went off to Popoff in search of a pump we remembered to have seen there on the quay, after leaving striot injunctions with Captain G. that only ordinary routine work was to be carried out in our absence.

We found the pump where it had lain since it arrived brand new three years before. The harbour-master was only too glad to get rid of it. It appeared that he had indented for a small pump with which to pump out barges. The commission on such a pump would not, however, have been sufficiently large for the official whose business it was to buy it, and he had therefore ordered the one we saw. This weighed over six tons, and was of a type intended to distribute water over a whole town. It had with it no suction or discharge pipes. However, it was a ten-inch steampump, and we decided that we could make flanges for it and connect up our spare twelve-inch pipes to it. The additional pumping power thus gained would be invaluable.

Unfortunately the captain of Stewart's small tug, in which we had come round, was quite decided (and not without reason) that it could not be put on his decks without going through them.

A hurried telephone conversation with the A.Q.M.G. of General Maynard's force, and an explanation of our difficulties, produced an immediate order to the R.T.O., Popoff, to supply us with a special

engine and truck and the promise of a clear line to Soroka. My opinion of the staff went up with a bound.

But it was impossible to lift the pump on to the truck in one piece. The engine-room staff of a tug - boat alongside was enlisted, and after a strenuous couple of hours the pump was reduced to its main constituent parts, loaded and securely lashed by Grey, and we were off.

We were soon grateful for the lashings, for it was a hairraising journey. The track between Popoff and Soroka was very bad, and the single flat truck without sides swayed about in the most alarming manner in rear of the engine. We were afraid all the time that it would capsize, or that some piece of the pump would break loose and take charge. This, however, was not our only trouble.

The engine burned wood, and we travelled the whole way in a cloud of sparks which, falling on us faster than we could pick them off, burned innumerable holes in our clothes.

None the less we were in great spirits, for we had the feeling that we carried with us what might prove the deeiding factor in the operations.

We had sent the tug-boat off immediately we had been promised the special train, to give Captain G. orders for a barge and a working party to be alongside the pier to meet us and to get the pump aboard the wreck without delay.

It was eleven o'clock and pitch dark when we ran into the deserted station of Soroka. It was a mass of sidings and engine - shops, and we were faced with the necessity of complicated shunting to work our truck across the yards and down the pier, the single line of which was usually filled for its entire length with empty waggons. Leaving Grey to watch the engine-driver, who seemed anxious to uncouple the truck and return home, I proceeded to dig out of his bed the R.T.O., who was a friend of ours, and with his help to mobilise a party of Russians. They were not enthusiastic, but after

an

hour's hard work we were puffing slowly down the pier. Grey had walked on ahead and I was on the cab of the engine. I heard him shouting, but it was a minute or so before I understood him to be saying that there was no barge alongside and no sign of any one from the Ulidia.

The engine-driver took advantage of our agitation to make his escape, and we were left standing alone on the pier -in a state of mind which can be imagined.

There was no hope of any tug in Soroka at midnight, and we made our way disconsolately to the hut in which lived the marine corporal and half a dozen privates, who had relieved the A.S.C., and were now "Supplies, Soroka," with the idea of spending the night there.

Their mess had become a

olub for us, and we were soon drinking hot tea and rum with them. This was very welcome, but it could not relieve our anxiety as to the state of affairs aboard the wreck in our absence. Perhaps, however, it stimulated us to make the deeision we did.

This was to row off to the ship in one of the small boats used for the ferry-a sufficiently mad idea, for they were hardly larger than canoes, and of much the same construction.

The Ulidia was over four miles out-six miles, including Soroka channel-in the open sea. No sign of her could be seen; the night was black, without moon or stars, and there was 8 fresh breeze blowing. Moreover, there were strong tide-rips in the bay.

Grey probably appreciated the risks much better than I did, but we pushed off, carrying a lantern in the stern.

Only one of us could row at a time, and changing seats in our oookle-shell of a boat was not easy.

While we were under the shelter of the land all went well, but when we were out in the open bay our chances of reaching the Ulidia seemed very problematical.

Once a tide-rip caught the boat and turned her completely round, and several times we shipped a good deal of water.

For what seemed hours we continued to row in the direotion of the wreck without

seeing any sign of her, and we were beginning to be seriously afraid that we had missed her and were rowing out into the White Sea.

We discussed the question of turning round, but the ebb tide was now running very strongly, and it was a question whether we should be able to pull back against it.

While we were discussing what to do, Grey, who was sitting in the stern - sheets, called out, and, turning round, I saw the black mass of the ship looming up broadside on ahead of us. Pulling with renewed vigour we were soon close up to her.

Both of us felt suddenly as though we must be living in some nightmare world remote from reality. The ship was there, and yet there was some extraordinary change in her which we could not understand. Then we realised what it was. She had turned completely round, and her bows were now, as near as we could see, where her stern had been before. Hurriedly we climbed over the side.

The first sound that we heard as we ran forward was the roar of the engine of the 12-inch pump. This showed that something unusual must be happening, for the pump was never run at night. Yet the ship seemed in almost the same position-except that she had turned round.

We almost fell down No. 2 hatch in our haste to get to Reay. He greeted us with a look of absolute dejection, the

only time that I ever saw him other than optimistic and confident.

"They've chucked her away," he said. "Captain G. told me to start the pump about three o'clock. I thought it was just for a trial, so I came down here and got her away. I never knew they'd started pumping all the other compartments as well.

"The first thing I knew, they came rushing to me as if they were mad.

"It seems that as soon as they got her pumped pretty well dry she floated-all except the stern of her, and that's still fast on the same rock-and swung right round with her bows in deep water.

"They can't take her away, because we haven't a tug. The Johanna has to stay alongside to give steam for the pumps through the flexible steam-pipe. In any case we couldn't go across this bay at night.

"She's leaking badly everywhere, and here in No. 2 hold I've got to keep the motorpump running full-bore to keep the water under.

"If it stops she'll fill up and go down in deep water.

"Old Captain G. has been here praying me to keep it going.

"But you can't run a motorpump like a steam-pump. She's been overheating and missing a lot-she's been running since four o'clock, and it's half-past two now-and I've had to nurse her all the time.

"If she stops, we've lost ing up suddenly, I saw a trail her." of smoke.

He concluded with his opinion of Russia and all Russians, and indeed it made one nearly despair to see all our work thrown away by their folly.

Reay was very tired, for he had been up night after night; but the only thing was to trust to his skill and determination, and beg him to keep the pump going, while we went up on deok-first, to relieve our feelings by talking to the Russians, and, secondly, as a forlorn hope to keep a look-out for the lights of the tug from Archangel which-if she had been sent - should soon be due,

Dawn found the position unchanged.

The big pump was still running, Reay standing alongside it, haggard and exhausted and almost asleep, but alive to the slightest alteration in its steady note. Grey and I, who had been pacing the deck together, and were nearly as tired, had scanned the horizon in vain for the first glimpse of smoke. As soon as it was a little more light, Grey roused out the unwilling crew of the launch and went off in the direction from which the tag should come. Soon the launch was a mere spot in the distance, and then she had disappeared altogether from sight.

I was sitting down on the bitts on the forecastle head, feeling as hopeless as I have ever done and almost asleep from exhaustion, when, look

Was it the launch returning, or was it the tug? I ran for my glasses, only to put them down again dejectedly. It was the launch. But looking up again a few minutes later, I saw more smoke astern of her, and it was not long before I could make out the shape of a big tug of the "Saint" class coming up at full speed. As she drew near, Grey went aboard her. It was evident that he had convinced those aboard of the urgency of the case.

Beautifully handled, she came alongside the Ulidia's port bow, her crew all on deck making her ropes ready, and unlashing the 6-inch motorpump she carried.

Within twenty minutes the pump was aboard and was down No. 2 hold, close to the 12-inch, with its suctions and discharge-pipes connected up, and the St Mellons was fast alongside.

to

The ship's own engineers could not get the pump away, being more accustomed steam; but Reay, leaving the 12-inch, pumping full-bore, to its own devices, put in a few minutes' strenuous work, and it was soon pouring a stream of water at the rate of 300400 tons an hour over the side of the Ulidia.

d

Thenceforward Reay diving, his time between the agreepumps, going from on free of other as either showe stopping.

d from the Grey took charg

bilities.

« السابقةمتابعة »