CHAPTER XIVFAST AGROUND
Sue Brown was very much startled by the strange and fearful sound, and so was her brother Bunny. To the children it was truly a terrible noise. It was, Sue said, “like a big bull bellowing in a field.”
“Do you think it’s a bull, Bunny?” she asked her brother, as she ran along the corridor outside the stateroom.
“No, it isn’t a bull,” he said, as the strange noise sounded again, seeming to shake the whole vessel. “How would they get a bull on a ship?”
“Well, they have cows on ships,” Sue said. “One of the sailors told me he milked a cow once. And if they have cows they can have bulls, I guess.”
“But we haven’t seen any bull on this ship,” stated Bunny, “and we’ve been all over.”
“Maybe they have him hidden down in the cellar where I was,” suggested Sue. “Oh, Bunny, I don’t like a bull on a ship! One of Elizabeth’s dresses is red, and maybe the bull will chase her!”
Sue was becoming more and more frightened and Bunny was very uneasy over the strange sound. Again and again it echoed. The children were hurrying up on deck to ask their father or mother what the noise was when Mr. Brown came down to the staterooms. He had thought the two little ones might be frightened and hurried to be with them.
“Oh, Daddy, where’s the bull?” cried Sue, running to him.
“There isn’t any bull,” he answered, with a smile.
“But what makes that terrible noise?”
“It’s the foghorn, or whistle,” replied Mr. Brown. “There is a thick blanket of fog all around theBeacon. The captain and the man on the lookout cannot see other ships coming near us, and the men on the other ships cannot see us. So, in order that we may not runinto them, the foghorn is being blown. The other ships can hear it and steer to one side. Collisions at sea are very dangerous.”
“Oh, if it’s only a foghorn!” exclaimed Bunny. “I’m not afraid of that!”
“Well, I’m not afraid of a foghorn,” stated Sue. “But I thought it was a bull bellowing. I thought at first that we were on shore. Then when I felt the ship move I knew we were on water, and I thought the bull was down in the coal cellar, where I got lost. But I’m glad it isn’t a bull.”
“The foghorn has a very deep, low note to make the noise carry a long distance,” explained Mr. Brown. “It does sound a little like the bellowing of a bull. I don’t wonder you were frightened, Sue.”
“Bunny was scared, too,” declared the little girl.
“Not as much as you were,” stated Bunny, a bit crossly.
“If you are all dressed I’ll take you on deck and let you see the fog,” said Mr. Brown. “It’s like being in a white cloud.”
“Just like going up in an airship!” saidBunny, though as he had never gone up in one it is a question how he knew about it.
“Yes, I suppose it is like that,” agreed Mr. Brown.
When Bunny and Sue reached the deck and found the white, wet, clinging mist all about them they were surprised. The fog was so dense and thick that they could not see the bow or stern of the ship when they stood in the middle, or “amidships,” as a sailor would call it.
As for looking over the side and seeing any other vessels that might be approaching or any land that theBeaconmight be nearing, this was out of the question. A white curtain of mist seemed drawn all about the steamer, and Bunny and Sue soon realized that they were going very slowly. TheBeaconwas under half speed.
“Why do we go so slow?” asked Bunny, just as the foghorn again boomed out its deep note.
“That’s in case we should happen to bump into another ship,” explained his father. “By going slowly less damage would be done.”
“Are other ships going slow, too?” Sue wanted to know.
“Oh, yes, indeed.”
“I don’t hear any of them whistling,” remarked Bunny.
“Probably they are too far off,” his father told him. “But you may hear some tooting before the day is over.”
After remaining on deck for a while to look about them in the fog, Bunny and Sue decided that it was time for them to go down to get breakfast.
“It’s rather chilly up here,” said Mrs. Brown.
“Yes, though we’re quite a distance down south, much nearer the equator than we were, damp and clammy fog makes it seem cooler than it has been,” replied her husband.
“You can’t see anything up here,” stated Sue. “I like it better downstairs where I can play with Elizabeth. She doesn’t like a fog, I guess.”
“Neither do the sailors,” said Mr. Brown. “They would much rather go through a storm at sea than a fog, for they never can tell whatis going to happen when they can’t see where they are going or what is coming toward them out of the dim whiteness.”
As Sue had said, there was nothing to see from the deck of theBeaconexcept that white blanket. There was no wind to blow it away, for only when there is no wind does a fog descend. Really, a fog is a big cloud settling down on the earth, and as soon as the wind begins to blow the fog scatters.
Sometimes, as theBeaconsteamed along through the mist, little swirling particles of the fog moved about. But this was all. It was as if the ship was all alone on a great, white sea.
“Listen!” exclaimed Bunny as they were about to go below. “I thought I heard another ship’s foghorn.”
They all remained quiet, and then from somewhere out on the ocean came a faint note—the sound of a far-off whistle.
“Yes, that’s another ship, I think,” said Mr. Brown.
Stationed in the bow, or very front part, of theBeacon, was a man on the lookout. He,too, heard this faint and distant whistle and he called out something to the officer on the bridge who was steering the ship. This officer gave several blasts, one quickly after the other, of theBeacon’spowerful fog whistle. This was to let the other ship know her signal had been heard.
Then, from somewhere out in that blanket of fog, came back some answering toots.
“It’s like playing hide-and-seek, isn’t it?” asked Sue.
“A good bit like that game, only there isn’t so much fun in it,” her father answered.
Down below in the snug cabin to which the fog could not penetrate Bunny Brown and his sister Sue played nearly all the remainder of the day. It was more enjoyable than being on deck, for up there nothing was to be seen. Besides, toward noon the fog became so thick that it was almost like rain, and Mr. Brown, who had gone on deck for a moment, came down with drops of water on his face and clinging to his eyebrows and eyelashes.
“Oh, Daddy, how funny you look!” laughed Sue.
Because of the fog, theBeaconwas making only half speed. But as there was no special hurry in reaching the West Indies this did not matter much. What worried the officers, crew and passengers was the danger that in the fog a collision might happen. So the foghorn was kept blowing, one blast every half minute, all day long.
“If they keep it up all night I don’t believe we’ll sleep,” said Mrs. Brown.
“Maybe the fog will go away at night,” suggested Bunny.
But the white blanket of mist still enveloped the vessel when the time for the evening meal came. Lights were set aglow, but, as you know if you have ever been out in a fog, lights do not show very far. So it was necessary to keep the whistle blowing.
It was about the time Bunny and Sue were thinking of getting ready for bed that a sudden quiver ran through the ship. She trembled and then came to a stop, while the fog whistle blew louder than ever.
“Somebody bumped into us!” exclaimed Sue.
“Oh, it’s a collision!” cried Bunny.
Mrs. Brown looked at her husband.
“Has anything happened?” she asked.
“I’m afraid so,” he answered. “We certainly struck something, and we have stopped. But we didn’t strike very hard.”
There were confused shoutings and calls throughout the ship, and then some one exclaimed:
“We’re fast aground! We’ve run on a sand-bar or on some island!”