Free The Loss of the Jane Vosper by Freeman Wills Crofts Page B

didn’t seem as if a great deal of harm had been done.
    ‘Can you estimate how far the bulkhead curved in from its former plane?’ Mr Armitage asked.
    Mactavish thought about a foot. It was happily not enough to tear the bulkhead away from the sides of the ship, though it was enough to start the joints. Immediately the rivets down each side and along the bottom began to weep. The whole bulkhead had been shaken, and in his opinion it was only a question of time till it gave way altogether. He reported to this effect to the captain, who said he would come down to see the damage and discuss what was to be done.
    He, Mactavish, continued getting his beams and struts into place, but as they worked the flow from the bulkhead grew steadily stronger. At that time the pumps were easily able to cope with it, but he was aware that if it continued to gain on them, the ship was doomed. She was low enough in the water as it was, and she could not carry much more weight.
    The captain went away but returned after some time. The flow was then much stronger. He, Mactavish, was by now convinced that they could do nothing to stop it, and that they would be unable to save the ship. His pumps were still keeping the water down, but the increase in the flow was so rapid that they would not be able to do so long. He had tried to ease up the pressure with shores, but it took time to get the beams into position in the confined space of the stokehold, and he could not get a great deal of force to play. He admitted advising the captain to abandon ship. Under similar circumstances he would do it again. It had proved to be sound advice, for if they had delayed another half-hour they would all have gone to the bottom. The captain agreed after a short time, and he mustered his men and sent them on deck. He made them fire up the boilers before leaving, so that there would be steam for the pumps till the boats got away. He remained below himself till a call from the bridge told him that the boats were out. He and the captain were the last to leave the ship.
    ‘Now about the explosions,’ Armitage went on when the chief’s story had come to an end. ‘You say that the fourth shock was very much more severe than the other three. You mean that a bigger charge of whatever the substance was went off?’
    ‘No,’ Mactavish returned, ‘I didna say that. They might ha’ been the same as far as that was concerned.’
    ‘I don’t think I follow that. Would you please explain.’
    ‘Weel, the condeetions were no’ the same. In the case o’ the first three you had airr cushioning, the fourth occurred in water.’
    ‘You mean the water would carry the shock?’
    ‘Aye, but I mean more than that. If you explode against water, it’s nearly like a solid. The water would get driven outwards all round, but it wouldna compress like air would do. It couldna get out of the hole in the ship’s bottom, so it could only go outwards and upwards. And it couldna go very much upwards with the cargo.’
    ‘So it went outwards against the bulkheads?’
    ‘That’s so. And if the bulkheads hadna given in the centre by bulging, they would ha’ torn away, and she would ha’ gone straight down.’
    ‘How do you account for the first two explosions doing no apparent damage?’
    ‘I canna be sure, but I thought they had likely blown through the upper plating of her double bottom. If so, that would explain the third holing the lower plating.’
    ‘You mean that its protection would have been removed?’
    ‘That’s so.’
    ‘What space was there between the upper and lower plating?’
    ‘About three feet.’
    ‘Now, Mr Mactavish, from all you know of the affair, can you form any opinion as to the cause of the explosions?’
    This was one of the questions that had been asked of each of the witnesses. And now the chief gave the same answer as his predecessors. He had no idea. There was nothing that he knew of about the ship or cargo which could possibly account for