Show I J. J f Adventurers' Adventurers of Club Yh fr I In i 7 a Sea-Going Sea Death Trap By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter f I 1 DONT DON'T know what were we're going to do about Bill Clarke Bill is isa isa isa a sailor and he jumps around so fast that nobody but old Fa Fa- Father Father Fa- Fa Father ther Neptune could keep track of him Weve We've got forwarding addresses of Bills Bill's all the way from the Bronx to California but buttry buttry buttry I try and find him at any of them Bill came into the Adventurers club with the sad tale of how he lost bucks Bill BilI had saved up that seven fifty and had it in his pants pocket on August 15 1929 when he signed up for a trip to Canada Wales I j and Norway as a fireman on the S. S S S. S When he went aboard he gave his money to the captain for safekeeping safekeeping but but hed he'd have had a aI darned sight more fun out of that dough if hed he'd lost it in a crap game I The was an old shipping board hulk formerly called the Choctaw It had been laid up out of service for about eight years and Bill says the old tub was just about falling apart I Her engines had St. St Vitus dance Her ller boilers were asthmatic and rusty in the seams scams I Trouble From Fr m the First Day I Says Bill I sure had my misgivings when I got aboard and looked over that old collection of junk From the minute she got started we had our hands full keeping her afloat The second day d J out the dynamo conked out and we were without lights Can you imagine being down downin I in the bowels of that old death trap with nothing to see by but the flickering flicker flicker- flickering flickering ing light that came from the cracks in her fire doors Right then Bill began to wonder how hed he'd get out of the fire room if anything went wrong There were two exits from the One I was by the monkey ladder that the firemen always used It was just wide enough to accommodate one man at a time and when youre you're get get- getting getting getting ting out of a sinking or burning or exploding ship one man at a time isn't anywhere near fast enough The other way was through a door that led to the engine room The firemen were forbidden to use that one but Bill had an idea though that if the time ever came when he hei i wanted to hed he'd use that door and argue about it afterward The time came just came just a couple days later Four days out of I New York about 11 o'clock at night the fire room was rocked with a tremendous explosion The ship started to list IN TEN SECONDS THAT l WAS A RAGING FLOOD OF BOILING WATER W A WATER A HELL OF HISSING STEAM I. Bill Did Some Very Quick Thinking Bill Clarke was down there when it happened and he saw it coming He was on the other side of the room from the furnaces when scalding I I I I 1 L LI I I I I I I Ii II i I I Bill Caught a Steam Pipe ripe and Hauled His Legs Up I water started belching from a flue cover over the fireboxes As the i Ovate Ovate- spread over the floor of the Bill did the fastest bit of thinking ng he ever did in his life One quick glance around him told him how he stood Behind him was that monkey ladder that would accommodate one man at a time Two Mack coal dust covered humans were on that ladder already for their lives to scramble to the top before the water reached them Bills Bill's mind checked the ladder off the list The forbidden door was the only other possibility But that was across the room Between that door and Bill was the wall of or oiling Boiling water sweeping toward him It ekes ikes l a long time to tell them them all all these thoughts that were churning in Bills Bill's mind mind but but it didn't take anywhere near that long to think them Figure out how long it takes a wall of hot water to rush across a room A second second second-a a split second second second-at at the most But Bills Bill's brain brair heat beat eat even that time time time-by by a hair Only the Scalding Hot Steam Pipes As the scalding water came rolling down on him Bill leaped into the air Overhead were some pipes Steam pipes Just as hot as the water itself But it was one thing to get a couple of burned hands nd nd another to be engulfed bodily by that steaming water Bill caught a u steam pipe and hauled his legs leg up out of reach of the hot searing tide Bill says hell he'll never forget the hot bot scaring searing pain he lie felt as his palms wrapped themselves around the pipe But Cut he lie hung on and amI began to make malte his way along the pipe hand over hand toward the forbidden door the door the one leading into the engine room lie could feel HIS HANDS BEING BURNED RAW with every swing he took Below him the steaming water vater lapped the soles of his feet That was just another incentive to Bill to stick to that saving life-saving steam pipe even though his hands were burned to the bone Another swing and andI I another Somehow he made it to the room fire-room door I You know how those watertight doors are built on ships Theres There's a sort of a sill a foot high that you have to step over That kept the water from flooding into the engine room Bill swung through that door and he was safe But the minute he got there he fainted He woke up in inthe inthe I the sick bay with his hands hands' swathed in bandages and at the first port the old touched Bill sneaked off oft the ship leaving behind all his baggage and the thc bucks hed he'd left in the captains captain's care That's what Bill thought of that pill Jugger lugger j- j WN p-WN U Service |