Ship of Dreams (27 page)

" ... rising again," he was saying. "Fourteen feet deep now in the engine room, up nearly to the second deck."

"Aye," Captain Herndon replied heavily. "I feared as much. If only—" but there he looked up and saw Della loitering within earshot. "But we won't give up hope, right, Mrs. Bradford?"

Della forced a brilliant smile. "Not for a moment, sir! I was born with more than my fair share of luck, I've often been told. I'll trust it to see me through this as well."

Herndon nodded. "That's the spirit, madam! Go along, then, and give those men another drink. They'll need it."

Honored that the captain trusted her with the truth, Della kept the grim news to herself as she dipped out water up and down the bailing lines. Men without hope wouldn't work as hard, she knew—and right now, their work was buying precious time.

Soon, however, the again-rising water became evident to all, as it began lapping at the stairwells, plain to see. And then, around noon, the clouds thickened again and the wind picked up. The waves, only just starting to subside, began once more to toss the ship and break across her decks.

Still, Della was amazed by the grim determination she saw on almost every face. As hope died, the men kept working and the women stoically encouraged them or comforted the children. Still, every now and then a man would fall out of the line, shaking his head in despair. Despite urging and even bullying by the crew and the other men, some refused to return.

Della watched Kent, his face drawn with fatigue and sorrow, mechanically passing bucket after bucket. Descending again to the once-elegant saloon, she listened to the mothers desperately trying to soothe their frightened children, not believing their own words. She wondered when the end would come. All too soon, she feared.

A shout came from above, but with the renewed wailing of the wind, she could not decipher the words. She heard the shout again, and then a loud
boom
that could only be the firing of the ship's signal guns. Incredulous, afraid to hope, Della ran back up the stairway. Could it be possible ...?

"Sail ho!" came the cry again, as she reached the deck. Staring hard in the direction everyone was pointing, she finally saw it—a tattered pair of sails, still more than a mile away, but moving perceptibly closer.

Another ship had spotted them.

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CHAPTER 17

A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist!

And still it neared and neared:

As if it dodged a water-sprite,

It plunged and tacked and veered.

—Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Della ran to Kent and he met her with arms outstretched. Grabbing her, he swung her around, laughing. "What did I tell you?" he shouted. "It paid off! We kept her afloat long enough for help to arrive."

Similar celebrations were taking place all over the deck, but after a few minutes of laughing and crying, the captain exhorted the men to keep bailing. "I don't know how many boats the other ship will have, but we have only a handful. It will take some time to get everyone off, and we must stay above water until then."

Reluctantly, Della left Kent to his work, but then remembered that the women still below might not have heard the news yet. Hurrying back down the stairs, she shouted it out to all who would listen. "A ship! A ship is coming, to take us all aboard!"

A similar scene of rejoicing occurred below, and women who had resolutely refused to shed a tear while hope waned now wept copiously with relief. "I knew it," Addie Easton declared over and over. "I knew our prayers would be answered!"

After making certain she wasn't urgently needed in the saloon, Della went back up onto deck to watch the approach of the other ship, which soon proved to be a two-masted brig. With dismay, Della realized it was less than half the size of the
Central America
. Would it be able to hold everyone? And how, in this still-raging sea, were they possibly to get to it?

The bailing had all but stopped again as the men crowded to the rails to watch the other ship's approach. At first Della could not find Kent, but then she saw him in close conference with Captain Herndon, Judge Monson and Captain Badger. They broke apart when she approached, but not before she saw the concern on all their faces.

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*

Kent quickly donned a smile when he saw Della coming toward him, but not quickly enough. He doubted he'd ever be able to fool her anyway, so it was useless to try.

"It won't be an easy task, transferring the passengers to that brig," he replied to her urgent query. "With so few boats, the captain wants to be certain there's not a panic, with everyone rushing them at once. He's enlisted my help, among others, to try to prevent that."

She bit her lip, and he thought her adorable even with her hair in tangled tendrils about her face and her dress soaked and stained. "I hadn't thought of that," she confessed. "Will the other ship hold all of us anyway? It looks so small."

"We don't know yet. The captain has been watching through his glass, and says that her sails are in tatters, making it difficult for her to tack against this wind. I only hope she can get close enough to launch her own boats to supplement the few we have."

"Few indeed!" she exclaimed indignantly. "What can the Vanderbilt Line have been thinking to supply only six, with six hundred passengers aboard? Nothing like a hundred people can fit on any of those boats."

"Forty, under ideal conditions, Captain Herndon said." Kent tried to keep his tone matter-of-fact. "But if the brig can maneuver close enough, we should be able to make several trips with each. Unfortunately, we're now down to five boats. Last night, the storm smashed one against the wheelhouse and destroyed it."

"Surely, though, the other ship will have at least as many? Not every shipping company can be so short sighted."

"Let's hope so." But Kent knew his own company's ships carried only two lifeboats apiece, as they shipped cargo rather than passengers. This brig might well be the same. "Look, she's nearly here."

Unfortunately, the brig now looked even smaller—and more crippled—than she had from a distance. Still, Kent thought, she seemed in no immediate danger of sinking, and thus offered far more hope than they'd had an hour ago.

The moment she was close enough to hail, Captain Herndon strode to the rail. "We are in a sinking condition," he shouted, his deep voice cutting through the wail of the wind. "You must lay by us as long as possible."

The captain of the brig, which they could now see was named
Marine
, agreed, and rounded the stern of the
Central America
to get to her leeward side, the starboard. At once, Captain Herndon ordered all women and children below, to be fitted with life preservers.

"Only the women and children?" asked Della in dismay. "When you men have worked so hard for more than twenty-four hours?"

Kent guided her to the stairs. "It's always been customary to take the women and children off first. The men will follow, of course."

He had noted how poorly the brig maneuvered in the wind, and hoped she would be able to hold her position that long—but he was doubtful. His words seemed to reassure Della, however, and she accompanied the other women who had ventured on deck back below to the saloon.

"Launch the boats!" came the next order. Of the five remaining, four were of wood and one of metal. Two of the wooden ones were cleared first, to be lowered over the starboard side. Kent helped to operate the winch, so was able to see what a tricky operation this was.

The first boat was nearly swamped when it hit the water, and only heroic efforts by the oarsmen kept it from smashing into the hull of the
Central America
. The second went down a bit more easily, but the third launching was disastrous. A huge wave swept between the steamer and the brig, now lying about a hundred yards away, just as the third boat touched the water. Before they could release the lines, the sea flung it high, then hurled it against the side of the ship to shatter into pieces. The oarsmen escaped alive, but had to be hauled into one of the other boats.

"So now we're down to just four boats," Kent heard Ansel Easton mutter grimly from where he worked beside him.

"At least no passengers were in them, so no lives are yet lost," he replied. He had wondered at first at the launching of empty boats, but now he understood completely.

The next boat was successfully lowered, and then only the metal lifeboat remained. Ashby, the chief engineer, rode that one down, but it hit the water at a bad angle and was immediately swamped. It sank like a stone and Ashby disappeared beneath the waves, but only for a moment. Grabbing onto the now-useless lines that had lowered the boat, he was hauled back aboard.

The women began appearing back on deck now, clad in only their outer dresses and life preservers, the officers having instructed them to remove all petticoats to lessen the danger of drowning. Kent eagerly sought Della's face, so that he could read her expression.

While serious and concerned, she did not appear frightened, he was proud to note. Still, she had to know the truth. "We have lost two more boats," he told her. "But the three remaining appear to be sound."

She paled, but simply asked, "What can I do to help?"

The crewmen were herding the women, many of whom were unwilling to leave their husbands, toward the starboard rail. "See if you can keep them calm, and make sure none—especially the children—are left behind," he murmured.

She nodded, and went to speak with Mrs. Ellis, who was pleading for Dr. Ellis to be allowed to accompany her.

"I'm so weak," she was explaining plaintively, "and I have four little ones to care for. I need my husband to help me."

The crewmen, however, were adamant that no men should be allowed in the first boats. Kent understood their position, unfair as it must seem to Mrs. Ellis. If they let even one man board, a rush might ensue which could be the death of them all.

"It will be all right, Lynthia," Della assured her. "Here is Mary Patterson, and she will help you with the children—won't you, Mary?"

Mary had been nearly as prostrated by seasickness as Mrs. Ellis, but she quickly agreed. "Of course I will. Here, I'll take little Betsy." She lifted a girl of about four into her arms, then allowed herself to be fitted with a rope harness so that she could be lowered to the waiting boat.

Other women also stepped forward to help, and Mrs. Ellis was finally persuaded to go. Lowering the women to the boats turned out to be no easy feat, however. For all the efforts of the oarsmen, the boats could not be held in position, tossed about by the choppy sea as they were.

The men held Mary, clutching little Betsy in her arms, suspended by ropes over the boat until an opportunity came to lower her. She missed the boat, however, and ended up in the water. They hauled her back up, sputtering but still clutching the child, to try again. The second attempt was succesful, though it appeared that she landed hard enough in the bottom of the boat to have the wind knocked out of her. The moment she and the little girl were safe in the boat, the oarsmen unhitched the harness so that it could be pulled aloft for the next woman.

This process was repeated, with most women getting at least one dunking before landing safely in a lifeboat. Aunt Lucy, the black stewardess, was crushed between a lifeboat and the hull. When they hauled her into the boat, it was clear even from the deck that she had been badly injured.

Glancing up, Kent saw that the
Marine
had already drifted well away from them, and seemed incapable of tacking closer. Even getting all of the women and children to the brig would be a challenge, should the boats need to make more than one trip.

By the time the first boat was filled, it had a mile of open sea to cross, but the oarsmen pushed off at once and began rowing. The second boat began to fill, one woman at a time. Della and Addie Easton, both wearing their cork and tin life preservers, moved among the other women, comforting and encouraging and making certain all of the children had a hand to hold. As the third boat filled, Kent and Ansel left the rail to urge their wives to board.

Della shook her head firmly. "We're staying. We've decided it between ourselves. Once all the other women are off and they begin allowing men to leave the ship, we'll accompany you. We can do more good here."

Kent admired their fortitude, but Ansel grasped Addie by the shoulders. "You
must
go," he told her. "We will join you on the
Marine
before the day is out, but we'll be able to work here with much better heart if we know you are safe."

"Yes, you really must," Kent echoed, holding Della's worried green eyes with his own. "There goes the last of the children, and only a handful of women are left. By now, you'll be needed on the other ship to do the same outstanding job you've been doing here. Please, Della."