Page:Floating City (1904).djvu/167

 their cases by the sea, danced on the summits of the waves, and under less serious circumstances the sight would have been truly ludicrous. In the meantime the inundation was gaining on us, large bodies of water were pouring in through the opened gaps, and according to the engineer, the "Great Eastern" shipped more than two thousand tons of water, enough to float a frigate of the largest size.

"Well!" exclaimed the Doctor, whose hat had been blown off in the hurricane, "to keep in this position is impossible; it is fool-hardy to hold on any longer; we ought to take flight, the steam-ship going with her battered stem ahead, is like a man swimming between two currents, with his mouth open."

This Captain Anderson understood at last, for I saw him run to the little wheel on the bridge which commanded the movement of the rudder, the steam immediately rushed into the cylinders at the stern, and the giant turning like a canoe made head towards the north, and fled before the storm.

At this moment, the Captain, generally so calm and self-possessed, cried angrily,—

"My ship is disgraced."