single word.
Above his head, there was a tearing screech of rending metal. Nicholas
dropped the microphone and staggered through on to the bridge.
There was another deafening banging and hammering and all of them stood
staring up at the metal roof of the bridge. It sagged and shook, there
was one more crash and then with a scraping, dragging rush, a confused
tangle of metal and wire and cable tumbled over the forward edge of the
bridge and flapped and swung wildly in the wind.
It took a moment for Nicholas to realize what it was.
The radar antennae! he shouted. He recognized the elongated dish of
the aerial, dangling on a thick coil of cable, then the wind tore that
loose also, and the entire mass of equipment flapped away like a giant
bat and was instantly lost in the teeming white curtains of the storm.
With two quick paces, he reached the radarscope, and one glance was
enough. The screen was black and dead.
They had lost their eyes now, and, unbelievably, the sound of the storm
was rising again.
It boomed against the square box of the bridge, and the men within it
cowered from its fury.
Then abruptly, Duncan was screaming something at Nicholas, and pointing
up at the master display of the control console. Nicholas, still
hanging on to the radarscope, roused himself with an effort and looked
up at the display. The speed across the ground had changed drastically.
It was now almost eight knots, and the depth was ninety-two fathoms,
Nicholas felt icy despair clutch and squeeze his guts.
The ship was moving differently under him, he could feel her now in
mortal distress; that same gust which had torn away the radar mast had
done other damage.
He knew what that damage was, and the thought of it made him want to
vomit, but he had to be sure. He had to be absolutely certain, and he
began to hand himself along the foul-weather rail towards the elevator
doors.
Across the bridge the others were watching him intently, but even from
twenty feet it was impossible to make himself heard above the clamorous
assault of the storm.
One of the seamen seemed suddenly to guess his intention, He left the
chart-table and groped his way along the bulkhead towards Nicholas.
Good man! Nicholas grabbed his arm to steady him, and they fell forward
into the elevator as Golden Dawn began another of those ponderous
wallowing rolls and the deck fell out from under their feet.
The ride down in the elevator car slammed them back and forth across the
little coffin-like box, and even here in the depths of the ship they had
to shout to hear each other.
The tow cable, Nicholas yelled in the man's ear. Check the tow cable.
From the elevator they went carefully aft along the central passageway,
and when they reached the double storm doors, Nicholas tried to push the
inner door open, but the pressure of the wind held it closed.
Help me, he shouted at the seaman, and they threw their combined weight
against it. The instant that they forced the jamb open a crack, the
