THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS
difference what I'd ordered, for the 'moldie' was right under us before Nutley saw it. It struck us amidship and broke us fair in two. We never saw hide nor hair of the 'fish' thet did it. We just made an infernal noise and went down in about two minutes, like a match you'd broken in the middle. Most of the men were killed by the explosion, but there was Nutley and Grogan and me for'ard and out of it, for some reason. The bridge went half-way up to the signal pole, with me clinging to it, and came down in pieces. Nutley was cutting the lashings of the boat—we had only the one—and Grogan was tangled up in the wheel. I made a flying leap below, and I could see the water boiling up already where the bottom was ripped, and got the dear old Luff out. Another chap, Milton, an awfully decent fellow, bobbed up alongside and we five got into the boat. By that time the destroyer was signaling and trying to pick us up with her searchlight, but for some unknown reason she didn't come near us. You wait till I get the Admiralty's ear, rot her! We lay around for a long while and tried to find some more of our men, but they didn't come up. Finally, about two in the morning, we started to make Lundy Island, the nearest land. But the wind came up before we were half-way there and there
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