“What’s happening down there again?”
“George called up about three minutes ago and started
talking about water in the bilges or something. That’s when I called you.”
“How much water is he talking about?”
"He never said. He killed the port engine and told me
something about a shaft seal and to get the crew up because he. . . “
“Wait, what!? The shaft seal, which one?” asked the
increasingly concerned Captain.
“It was the port shaft seal. That’s right the port.”
“We were running on the port engine right?” asked the
Captain as he quickly began to realize just how much the bridge was pitching
and rolling. “We are D.I.W. aren’t we?”
“um. . . “
"Dammit! You stay up here and keep shouting over the intercom
until someone tells you to stop!” Yelled the Captain as he rushed out the door
and down the ladder to the decks below.
George was
in the middle of trying to drag a bag full of oakum and some caulking irons
over to the port shaft seal in what would’ve been a vain attempt at stopping
the leak when help arrived. The water was now washing around just above the
grated deck plates on the lower level of the engine room when the new chief
engineer made his way into the empty control booth and Lawrence, one of the few
remaining engineers from the previous crew, found his way to George’s location.
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