136 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



on the blue seas and all the sweet scenery hardly take away 

 the unpleasing taste of last night. The engine overhaul was 

 only finished last night, so we intended to up anchor this 

 morning at daylight. Henriksen and I went ashore and 

 waited for the Consul about some affairs at Robert's Cafe, 

 a large, quiet cafe, with wide-open doors facing the sea. As 

 we sat there rather silently, away in the velvety blue night, 

 out to sea beyond the breakwater, several rockets rose and 

 burst in a golden shower and we heard the continuous blast of 

 a ship's horn making signals of distress. We jumped ! so 

 did the other two or three cigarette-smoking habitues of the 

 cafe, and all got on to the sea-front, and the horn continued. 



" That's a wreck," said Henriksen. 



" Yes," said I. 



" Wat we do ? " said Henriksen. 



I paused for half-a-second I couldn't advise Henriksen 

 is in command. 



So I waited for this fraction of a second it felt like a 

 whole minute. 



He thought and must have thought hard ; for there are 

 many things to put together in such a moment owners' 

 risks, personal risk, honour, risk of fines or imprisonment 

 for leaving a Portuguese port without clearance, the chance 

 of saving lives ; and last and least salvage. 



" Yes," said Henriksen, " we goes help we's British ship ! " 

 and we turned and ran ; he blew on his whistle as we ran, 

 and our engineer and some of the crew, who had just come 

 on shore and were entering a cafe along the promenade, 

 recognised the whistle, and before we were up to them they 

 were back into our boat and we jumped in and pulled off. 

 We got on board, slipped our anchor and chain, marked with 

 line and lifebelt for a buoy, got out side lights and started 

 the engine, and were round the outer end of the breakwater 

 within thirty minutes from the moment we left the cafe ! 

 and I say we felt proud of St Ebba. The big town clock on 

 the church was striking eleven P.M. 



No other vessel in harbour was under steam so we con- 

 gratulated ourselves on having a motor-engine and so being 

 able to get under way so rapidly. 



