LABRADOR 21 



could be called the ship shuddered as she struck a rocky shoal. 

 The engines were stopped and put to full astern with no effect. 

 Abreast the bridge the ship was hard and fast, while at her bows 

 and stern soundings showed deep water ; truly this was a pinnacle 

 rock. 



This was indeed a serious predicament, the ship firmly aground 

 in a remote part of the Labrador coast with the nearest help over 

 a thousand miles away and the amount of damage done to the 

 ship's hull difficult to assess. Challenger must now rely entirely 

 on her own officers and men and they did not fail her. 



A boat having sounded round the ship it was decided to at- 

 tempt to get the ship ofiF stern first at high water, which was due 

 in about 4^ hours' time, and might give about two feet of water 

 more than when the ship grounded. Time was short and work 

 commenced at once. First the damage was inspected as far as this 

 was possible inside the ship, and then wooden shores were placed 

 against all the adjacent bulkheads, the damaged compartments 

 themselves being sealed off by their own watertight doors. It 

 appeared that all the forward oil fuel and fresh-water tanks were 

 leaking and that the large provision room and canteen store were 

 flooded with oil fuel and water, and further, that there was a 

 slight leak in the forward end of the boiler room which was 

 situated abaft the provision room. This damage must be localised 

 as far as possible so that when the ship floated off the reef the 

 minimum risk of further damage might be incurred. 



Meanwhile the two ship's anchors were lowered below the 

 water line and slung beneath boats ; this was no mean task as each 

 anchor weighed 28 hundredweight. These anchors were discon- 

 nected from their cables and when wire hawsers had been secured 

 to them they were laid out astern of the ship and the hawsers 

 brought to the steam trawl winch on the quarterdeck. An amus- 

 ing incident happened at this point, for when the huge anchors 

 were slipped from beneath the boats the latter regained their full 

 buoyancy with such force that a member of one of the crews was 

 catapulted into the icy water. A smaller kedge anchor was 

 similarly laid out ahead of the ship to steady her. 



Just before high water, the anchor cables, now without their 

 anchors, were lowered onto the sea-bed, 14 tons of fresh water 

 and I £ tons of fuel were pumped overboard from tanks in the 



