No Safe Harbour by David Hill

Author:David Hill [Hill, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781743486795
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2013-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

I stayed sitting, feet wedged against the table. Another wave surged by; the Wahine rose, dipped till I had to push my back against the wall, then began lurching upright again.

Yes, the wind and waves were dying down very slowly. The curtain? I couldn’t be sure: maybe the angle it had hung at before was just a freak. I watched closely. It was…

The ship rolled before I could tell. It dipped to the left, then came upright and heeled over to the right. Further to the right, I felt sure. It stayed there for a second, then wallowed up.

But not all the way up. This time I saw. As the ferry paused at the top of its roll, the angle of the big curtain was clear. The Wahine was tilting over.

The tilt was towards the right. (What did sailors call it? The starboard?) For the next five minutes I watched the curtain. Sometimes its angle from the wall seemed less, sometimes more. But the ship was certainly leaning.

‘Sorry, Stuart mate. Took longer than I expected.’ I jumped as Dennis spoke. He held a big thermos in one hand, and a basin of cups under his other arm.

I scrambled up. 12.30 pm, my watch said. Should I tell Dennis what I’d seen? As I opened my mouth, the Wahine shuddered. It wasn’t a wave or the wind. It was a totally new feeling, as if something had given way, deep down inside the ship.

A wave charged past. The ferry rolled, began to come up, and stopped. Just like that. The stern lay lower in the water; the lean to starboard was more definite.

I looked at Dennis, and knew he’d felt it, too. ‘Shut up,’ he said, without raising his voice. ‘Just come on, and keep an eye on that sister of yours.’

While we picked our way towards the cafeteria exit, I glanced around at the people waiting there. I couldn’t tell if any of them had noticed the change.

We were moving out into the corridor when a bang came from behind us. A chair had toppled over.

Through the growing gaps between rain squalls, I could see the officers up on the bridge. They were gathered on the starboard side, staring down at the sea. They’d better not all stand there, or they’d make us tilt over faster!

I wondered what the captain and other officer had found down below. All the things the Deputy Harbourmaster knew weren’t going to be much use if we…if we sank.

I looked around the corridor. I couldn’t tell if anyone here had noticed that shudder, either. More people had removed their lifejackets. It was stuffy in the narrow space; some people had taken off cardigans and jerseys as well.

Sandra looked across at me. I pointed at my lifejacket, and at hers, lying on the floor near her. She watched me for a moment, then picked up the jacket, shrugged into it, tied the tapes. One of the students said something to her and laughed. Only half of them had their lifejackets on.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.