Every once in a while a great hollow-bellied wave
would come rolling out of the hullabaloo and break thundering over us.
On all the boats the lookout on the bridge had to be lashed in place,
and every once in a while a couple of tons of water would come tumbling
past him. Nobody at the job stayed dry for more than three minutes; a
bathing-suit would have been more to the point than oilers.
[Sidenote: The boat registers a roll of seventy degrees.]
[Sidenote: The cook provides food after a fashion.]
"Shaken, you ask? No, not very bad: a few assorted bruises and a
wrenched thumb; though poor Jonesy on the _Z-3_ had a wave knock him up
against the rail and smash in a couple of ribs. But no being sick for
him; he kept to his feet and carried on in spite of the pain, in spite
of being in a boat which registered a roll of seventy degrees. I used to
watch the old hooker rolling under me. You've never been on a submarine
when she's rolling,--talk about rolling--oh, boy! We all say seventy
degrees, because that's as far as our instruments register. There were
times when I almost thought she was on her way to make a complete
revolution. You can imagine what it was like inside. To begin with, the
oily air was none too sweet, because every time we opened a hatch we
shipped enough water to make the old hooker look like a start at a
swimming tank; and then she was lurching so continuously and violently
that to move six feet was an expedition. The men were
wonderful--wonderful! Each man at his allotted task, and--what's that
English word?--carrying on.
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