The Watch Below Read Online Free

addition to the captains' notes regarding their officers and the operation

of the ship, a complete and detailed personality outline of each crew member.

The psychologists had not hesitated to make recommendations for the various

courses of action should anything go mentally amiss with the ships's

officers, but where Captain Gunt had added his data there were, of course,

no personal comments or advice, just the bare facts.

Concerning the ship's medic, whose file Deslann examined first after

completing his inspection, the bare facts were more than sufficient.

Reading it the captain for the first time began to appreciate the true

wisdom of the Board of Psychology's ruling that there be no personal

contact between the co-commanders of a ship. Had the situation been

different and had there been a chance for him to meet his colleague face

to face for a few minutes, Deslann knew that he would have spent all the

time available in telling his co-captain exactly what he thought of him.

Captain Gunt had presented him with a problem, and the more he read

the worse it grew.

III

When the first torpedo struck Gulf Trader, Wallis was at the top of the

ladder which connected the aft pump room with the floor of Number Twelve

tank, gripping the topmost rung with one hand while the other spun the

wheel sealing the watertight hatch set in the deck above his head. He was

doing this because it was part of his naval training to close watertight

doors when a ship was under threat of enemy attack and also because

the pump-room floor was level with the weather deck and there was

an appreciable quantity of water sloshing around the place. When the

injured were being moved to the base of the ladder, Wallis did not want

them to be soaked by an intermittent waterfall, or the rungs made more

slippery than they were at present. Moving the special patients up to

the pump room would be a tricky enough job without adding a wet ladder

to the difficulties.

The first hit was like a distant, discordant gong, heard clearly but not

felt except as a tingling vibration in the metal of the ladder. But when

the second torpedo struck the engine room, which was just thirty yards

aft of his position, the noise was like a physical blow and the ladder

seemed to jump away from him. As he fell backwards his right leg slipped

between two of the rungs and instinctively he hooked it over the lower

rung, gripping it tightly in the fold behind his knee. The result was

that his head described a wide arc which ended sharply on another rung

lower down. Wallis was unconscious during the remainder of the fall and

did not know that his left arm snagged another rung, which turned him

right side up again, and that when he landed at the bottom of the tank

twenty feet below it was roughly feet-first, and he was so relaxed due

to his unconsciousness that he did not break anything.

He came to with a pain in the back of his head and regular, stingng pains

which were much worse, affecting both sides of his face. The features of

Lieutenant Radford came gradually into focus as he opened his eyes and

a few seconds later he realized that the doctor was slapping his face,

hard and rapidly, with both hands. Wallis was so shocked that it was

several seconds before he could even speak.

"In-insubordination," he managed finally.

"Resuscitation," said Radford.

Some of the tension seemed to leave the doctor's face and he went on quickly,

"You've been out about twenty minutes, sir. We've been torpedoed --

one in the stern and I think one up for'ard. After the big bang there

were a couple of dull thumps. They sounded like steam explosions, so the

engine room must be holed. I'm telling you this in case you're still a

bit dazed, you may know about it already. Do you think you can stand up?"

"Yes," said Wallis.

With the help of the surgeon lieutenant on one side and the ladder

on the other he managed to stand up. While doing so he kept his eyes

tightly