ioH THE ENGINE-ROOM FLOODED 13 
it did not need the addition of much water to get her 
waterlogged, in which condition anything might have 
happened.' The hand pump produced only a dribblr, 
and its suction could not be got at ; as the water crept 
higher it got in contact with the boiler and grew warmer 
— so hot at last that no one could work at the suctions. 
Williams had to confess he was beaten and must draw 
fires. What was to be done ? Things for the moment 
appeared very black. The sea seemed higher than ever; 
it came over lee rail and poop, a rush of green water ; 
the ship wallowed in it ; a great piece of the bulwark 
carried clean away. The bilge pump is dependent on the 
main engine. To use the pump it was necessary to go 
ahead. It was at such times that the heaviest seas swept 
in over the lee rail ; over and over [again] the rail, from 
the forerigging to the main, was covered by a solid sheet 
of curling water which swept aft and high on the poop. 
On one occasion I was waist deep when standing on the 
rail of the poop. 
The scene on deck was devastating, and in the engine- 
room the water, though really not great in quantity, 
rushed over the floor plates and frames in a fashion that 
gave it a fearful significance. 
The afterguard were organised in two parties br Evans 
to work buckets ; the men were kept steadily going on 
the choked hand-pumps — this seemed all that could be 
done for the moment, and what a measure to count as 
the sole safeguard of the ship from sinking, practically 
an attempt to bale her out ! Yet strange as it may seem 
the effort has not been wholly fruitless — the string of 
