The Mystery Grows Deeper
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hole in the hull. In practice, of course, the collision mattress was not actually lowered into the water, but it was brought to the side of the ship and balanced on the rail, ready to be dropped over. It required little vision to see how useful such an article would be after an actual collision. Unless the hole in the ship were too large, the mattress would be caught in it as it was drawn inward by the suction of the inrushing water, much as a cork might be drawn fast by suction down the neck of a bottle. The mattress, of course, was meant to act like a cork and keep the sea out.
The abandon-ship drill would have had more fascination for Henry had he not by this time been so familiar with the process of lowering a small boat. Nevertheless it was interesting to see the men prepare themselves, just as they would if they were really going to abandon the ship, with compasses and rifles, and provisions, and then line up opposite the boats while the roll was called and each man mustered. Of course the men did not actually get in the boats, though these were lowered even with the rail. Likewise this drill gave Henry a chance to examine the small boats better. Though these were new, they were much like those the Iroquois had lost. The quartermaster called his attention to the water-beakers and the boat-boxes that contained certain