Valhalla Rising (Dirk Pitt 16)

e.

After this day she would become as famous as the Carpathia, the ship that had rescued the Titanic survivors.

The wind was approaching gale force and the waves became steeper, but they had little effect on the big containership. Nevins held little hope of rescuing any passengers or crew. Those who had escaped burning to death, he thought, had jumped overboard and had surely drowned in the turbulent waters by now. As the Earl of Wattlesfield slowly rounded the high, sloping bow, he stared up at the raised, green painted letters, Emerald Dolphin. He felt despondent as he remembered seeing the beautiful cruise ship as she'd left port in Sydney. Then, abruptly, he was staring disbelievingly at an entirely unexpected spectacle.

The Deep Encounter was rolling heavily in waters reflecting the orange flames, her hull sunk almost to the gunnels, her decks overflowing with huddled figures. No more than twenty yards behind her stern, two launches bobbed up and down, their interiors also filled with human bodies. The ship looked as if she was about to plunge under the sea at any moment.

"Good lord!" muttered Thorndyke. "She looks like she's sinking."

The radio operator leaned from the radio room. "Sir, I have someone on the American ship."

"Put them on the speaker."

Within seconds, a voice boomed through the amplifiers. "To the captain and crew of the containership, are we ever glad to see you."

"This is Captain Nevins. Am I speaking to the ship's captain?"

"No, Captain Burch is down in the engine room examining the water flooding the ship."

"Then who are you?"

"Dirk Pitt, Special Projects Director for the National Underwater and Marine Agency."

"What is your condition? You look like you are foundering."

"We're close to it," Pitt answered candidly. "We knocked in our hull plates when we tied to the cruise ship's stern to rescue her crew and passengers. We're taking on water faster than the pumps can handle it."

"How many survivors do you have on board?" asked Nevins, still astounded at the number of people struggling on the work deck to keep from being swept overboard.

"Somewhere in the neighborhood of nineteen hundred, with another hundred still in the boats."

"My word!" Nevin's voice was slow, stunned, almost a whisper. "Are you saying that you've rescued two thousand survivors?"

"Give or take fifty here and there."

"Where in the world have you put them?"

"You'd have to come over and see for yourself," said Pitt.

"No wonder you look like a goose who swallowed a barbell," Nevins muttered in wonderment.

"There are still close to five hundred crew and passengers waiting to be rescued on the forepeak of the cruise ship. We simply could not take them all without endangering everyone's life."

"Any chance they may be burned?"

"We're in contact with their ship's officers and they report that they're in no immediate peril," explained Pitt. "I respectfully suggest, Captain, that our first priority be to transport as many people as possible from our ship to yours while we're still afloat. We'd be grateful if you took those in our rescue boats on board first. They're having the worst of it."

"We will indeed. I'll lower my boats and begin ferrying the survivors on your vessel to mine. We certainly have more room for them over here. Once your boats are unloaded, that will leave them free to take on those still on the cruise ship's bow, who can lower themselves down on ropes."

"We have the routine down to a science by now."

"Then we had best get to it."

Then Pitt added, "Believe me, Captain Nevins, you'll never know what a blessing your timely arrival is."

"I'm thankful we were in the neighborhood."

Nevins turned to Thorndyke, his normally humorous expression incredulous.