Logo
Prev
Bookmark
Rotate
Print
Next
Contents
All Pages
Related Articles
Browse Issues
Help
Search
Home
'
National Geographic : 1925 Oct
Contents
COLLARIN' CAPE COD Wide World Photos "TAKING A REEF" Men do many things at sea that they never did at home, including the mending of torn garments. This open-air tailor shop on the deck of a destroyer appears to be doing a "while you-wait" business. In a quick leap I reached the annuncia tors and rang up one-third speed, direct ing the helmsman to put on full left rud der. As we hauled around laboriously, I swallowed; my knees felt a trifle shaky. The safe, which was in the wardroom, had been lashed. Evidently the heavy roll had snapped the lashings. That must have been the shock of heavy weight I had felt so plainly. I bethought myself to inform the Cap tain; but the Captain was not in the emer gency cabin. I sent the scared and sea sick messenger to tell him, then turned the watch over to Atkins. Anxiously I hurried below. To have this ton-and-a-half juggernaut sliding and crashing against the steel sides of little better than eggshell thickness was threat ening, serious. In the passageway to the wardroom a big form crowded past me. It was Page. "Just about got her !" he shouted. On his arm was a coil of heavy line. As he stepped into the doorway the ship rolled heavily; a warning yell came from husky throats. I had a vision of a black object sliding and battering past the door, and then Page disappeared. A groan, a splin tering of wood, glass, and metal, and then a rush of men. I gained the doorway and saw a handful of burly men straining at the safe, hauling it away from the metal sideboard into which it had crashed. "Reilly!" Page yelled. "Lasso 'er! Lash it between the stanchions in the mid dle of the wardroom !" Struggling and gasping, the men car ried out Page's directions. I jumped in to help, and found the Captain and Page shoulder to shoulder with me. The line which Page had brought with him soon inclosed the safe, the mass of broken chairs, the twisted metal dining table, and the splintered victrola cabinet. 445
Links
Archive
1925 Nov
1925 Sep
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page