Destruction of the Derelict
85
hoped for, for presently the boat pulled around to leeward of the hulk and the dripping process was repeated.
“What are they doing?” asked Henry.
“Oiling the water,” said the executive officer, who stood near him. “That is to stop the waves from breaking.”
Henry had heard that oil would still the troubled waves, but it hardly seemed credible that little drops of oil could produce the effect he now witnessed, for slowly but surely the sea about the derelict grew calmer. To be sure, the water still rose and fell, but no longer did the wave crests break. Like a billowing sea of glass was the ocean, rather than a storm-torn sheet of water.
Now the small boat came close to the old hulk. A length of strong wire, with a mine attached, was fastened to the hulk, and the mine lowered so that it hung just below the bottom of it. Then the small boat rowed off to windward, paying out as it went the detonating wires attached to the mine. Three hundred yards away the boat was stopped. The lieutenant touched off his electric battery. There was a tremendous ex- plosion. The sea heaved upward like a water-spout, and great pieces of the shattered bottom of the derelict were blown aloft, shooting up and up and up until they were a thousand feet in air. Presently they came raining down again, some