[Gutenberg 25749] • A Tall Ship / On Other Naval Occasions

Excerpt from A Tall Ship: On Other Naval Occasions

The Surgeon, pyjama clad, a crimson streak running diagonally across the lather on his cheek, suddenly appeared crawling on all fours through the doorway of his shattered cabin. I always said those safety-razors were rotten things, he observed ruefully. I've just carved my initials on my face. And my ankle's broken. Have we been tor pedoed, or what, at all? An' what game is it you're playing under that bath, James? Are you pretending to be an oyster?

Thorogood pulled himself together and stood up. I think one of their submarines must have bagged us. He nodded across the flat to where, beyond the wrecked debris of three cabins, the cruiser's side gaped Open to a clear sky and a line of splashing waves. Overhead on deck the twelve-pounders were barking out a series of ear-splitting reports much as a terrier might yap defiance at a cobra over the stricken body of its master.