Free The Survivors of the Chancellor by Jules Verne Page B

taking
our turn at the pumps, for the work is so extremely fatiguing
that the crew require some occasional respite; arms and back
soon become strained and weary with the incessant swing of
the handles, and I can well understand the dislike which
sailors always express to the labor.
    One thing there is which is much in our favor; the ship
lies on a firm and solid bottom, and we have the satisfaction
of knowing that we are not contending with a flood that
encroaches faster than it can be resisted. Heaven grant that
we may not be called to make like efforts, and to make them
hopelessly, for a foundering ship!

Chapter XX - Examination of the Hold
*
    NOVEMBER 15 to 20. — The examination of the hold has
at last been made. Among the first things that were found
was the case of picrate, perfectly intact, having neither been
injured by the water, nor of course reached by the flames.
Why it was not at once pitched into the sea I cannot say;
but it was merely conveyed to the extremity of the island,
and there it remains.
    While they were below, Curtis and Dowlas made themselves acquainted with the full extent of the mischief that
had been done by the conflagration. They found that the
deck and the cross-beams that supported it had been much
less injured than they expected, and the thick, heavy planks
had only been scorched very superficially. But the action
of the fire on the flanks of the ship had been of a much more
serious character; a long portion of the inside boarding had
been burned away, and the very ribs of the vessel were considerably damaged; the oakum caulkings had all started away
from the butt-ends and seams; so much so that it was little
short of a miracle that the whole ship had not long since
gaped completely open.
    The captain and the carpenter returned to the deck with
anxious faces. Curtis lost no time in assembling passengers and crew, and announcing to them the facts of the
case.
    "My friends," he said, "I am here to tell you that the
Chancellor has sustained far greater injuries than we suspected, and that her hull is very seriously damaged. If we
had been stranded anywhere else than on a barren reef, that
may at any time be overwhelmed by a tempestuous sea, I
should not have hesitated to take the ship to pieces, and construct a smaller vessel that might have carried us safely to
land; but I dare not run the risk of remaining here. We
are now 800 miles from the coast of Paramaribo, the nearest
portion of Dutch Guiana, and in ten or twelve days, if the
weather should be favorable, I believe we could reach the
shore. What I now propose to do is to stop the leak by
the best means we can command, and make at once for the
nearest port."
    As no better plan seemed to suggest itself, Curtis's proposal
was unanimously accepted. Dowlas and his assistants immediately set to work to repair the charred frame-work of
the ribs, and to stop the leak; they took care thoroughly to
calk from the outside all the seams that were above low
water mark; lower than that they were unable to work, and
had to content themselves with such repairs as they could
effect in the interior. But after all the pains there is no
doubt the Chancellor is not fit for a long voyage, and would
be condemned as unseaworthy at any port at which we might
put in.
    To-day the 20th, Curtis having done all that human power
could do to repair his ship, determined to put her to sea.
    Ever since the Chancellor had been relieved of her cargo,
and of the water in her hold, she had been able to float in
the little natural basin into which she had been driven. The
basin was enclosed on either hand by rocks that remained
uncovered even at high water, but was sufficiently wide to
allow the vessel to turn quite round at its broadest part, and
by means of hawsers fastened on the reef to be brought with
her bows towards the south; while, to prevent her being
carried back on to the reef, she has been anchored fore and
aft.
    To all appearance, then, it seemed as though it