Page:The Wireless Operator with the U.S. Coast Guard.djvu/302

 CHAPTER XXII

OR two weeks the Iroquois herded the floes of ice. Then the Oneida relieved her and the Iroquois sailed to Halifax, where she renewed her supplies and equipment preparatory to another two weeks of struggle with the army of the ice king. So it went for long months, but finally the last of the bergs disappeared. The Oneida had already gone back to Boston. Now the Iroquois bade farewell to the fogs and storms of the Grand Banks and gleefully headed for her home anchorage in the shelter of old St. George.

But ere she reached her longed-for haven, duty once more turned her prow away from home. The little cutter, driving as fast as steam and the eagerness of her crew could send her, was far off the New England coast when, shortly after evening mess one foggy day, Henry picked out of the air that ever-startling call, “QST—QST—QST—QRT—QRT—QRT—SOS—SOS—SOS—SOS—SOS: Steamers Wilmington and Hiawatha in collision. Position sixty-four ten west, forty-three north.”

It was the Wilmington’s operator who was sending. The instant he signed off, Henry’s key