would not make it. They were only two miles off the cliffs now, he
glanced again at the radar screen, and they would have to drag Golden
Adventurer at least half a mile across the wind to clear the land. They
just were not going to make it.
Helplessly, Nick stood and peered into the storm, waiting for the first
glimpse of black rock through the swirling eddies of snow and frozen
spray, and he had never felt more unmanned tired and in his entire life
as he moved to the shear button ready to cut Golden Adventurer loose and
let her go to her doom.
His officers were silent and tense around him, while under his feet
Warlock shuddered and buffeted wildly, driven to her mortal limits by
the sea and her own engines, but still the land sucked at them.
Look! David Allen shouted suddenly, and Nick spun to the urgency in his
voice.
For a moment he did not understand what was happening. He knew only
that the shape of Golden Adventurer's stern was altered subtly.
The rudder/ shouted David Allen again. And Nick saw it revolving slowly
on its stock as the ship lifted on another big sea.
Almost immediately, he felt Warlock making offing from under that lee
shore, and he swung her up another point into the wind, Golden
Adventurer answering her tow with a more docile air, and still the
rudder revolved slowly.
I've got power on the emergency steering gear now! said Baker.
Rudder amidships, Nick ordered.
Amidships it is/Baker repeated, and now he was pulling her out stern
first, almost at right angles across the wind.
Through the white inferno appeared the dim snow-blurred outline of the
rock sentinels, and the sea broke upon them like the thunder of the
heavens.
God, they are close/ whispered David Allen. So close that they could
feel the backlash of the gale as it rebounded from the tall rock walls,
moderating the tremendous force that was bearing them down - moderating
just enough to allow them to slide past the three hungry rocks, and
before them lay three thousand miles of wild and tumultuous water, all
of it open sea room.
We made it. This time we really made it! said Baker, as though he did
not believe it was true, and Nick pulled back the throttle controls
taking the intolerable strain off her engines before they tore
themselves to pieces.
Anchors and all/ Nick replied. It was a point of honour to retrieve
even the anchors. They had taken her off clean and intact - anchors and
all.
Chief, he said, instead of sitting there hugging yourself, how about
pumping her full of Tannerax? The anti-corrosive chemical would save
her engines and much of her vital equipment from further sea-water
damage, adding enormously to her salvaged value.
You just never let up, do you? Baker answered accusingly.
Don't you believe it/said Nick, he felt stupid and frivolous with
exhaustion and triumph. Even the storm that still roared about them
