San Andreas by Alistair MacLean Page A

your head and your hat’s sticking to it. We’ll have you in hospital inside fifteen minutes. Plenty of doctors and nurses there for that sort of thing, sir.’
    â€˜Hospital.’ Warrington shook his head as if trying to clear it. ‘Ah, of course. The San Andreas . You must be from her.’
    â€˜Yes, sir. I’m the Bo’sun.’
    â€˜What happened, Bo’sun? The Andover , I mean.’ Warrington touched the side of his head. ‘I’m a bit foggy up here.’
    â€˜No bloody wonder. Three torpedoes, sir, almost simultaneously. You must have been blown off the bridge, or fell off it, or most likely been washed off it when your ship went down. She was on her beam ends then, sir, and it took only just over twenty seconds.’
    â€˜How many of us—well, how many have you found?’
    â€˜Just three, sir. I’m sorry.’
    â€˜God above. Just three. Are you sure, Bo’sun?’
    â€˜I’m afraid I’m quite sure, sir.’
    â€˜My yeoman of signals—’
    â€˜I’m here, sir.’
    â€˜Ah. Hedges. Thank heavens for that. Who’s the third?’
    â€˜Navigating officer, sir. He’s taken a pretty nasty clout on the head.’
    â€˜And the First Lieutenant?’ Hedges didn’t answer, he had his head buried in his hands and was shaking it from side to side.
    â€˜I’m afraid Hedges is a bit upset, Commander. Was the First Lieutenant wearing a red kapok jacket?’ Warrington nodded. ‘Then we found him, sir. I’m afraid he just froze to death.’
    â€˜He would, wouldn’t he? Freeze to death, I mean.’ Warrington smiled faintly. ‘Always used to laugh at us and our wet suits. Carried a rabbit’s foot around with him and used to say that was all the wet suit he’d ever need.’
    Dr Singh was the first man to meet the Bo’sun when he stepped out of the lifeboat. Patterson was with him, as were two orderlies and two stokers. The Bo’sun looked at the stokers and wondered briefly what they were doing on deck, but only very briefly: they were almost certainly doing a seaman’s job because there were very few seamen left to do it. Ferguson and his two fellow seamen had been in the for’ard fire-control party and might well be the only three left: all the other seamen had been in the superstructure at the time of the attack.
    â€˜Five,’ Dr Singh said. ‘Just five. From the frigate and the plane, just five.’
    â€˜Yes, Doctor. And even they had the devil’s own luck. Three of them are pretty wobbly. Commander looks all right but I think he’s in the worst condition. He seems to have gone blind and the back of his head has been damaged. There’s a connection, isn’t there, Doctor?’
    â€˜Oh dear. Yes, there’s a connection. We’ll do what we can.’
    Patterson said: ‘A moment, Bo’sun, if you will.’ He walked to one side and McKinnon followed him. They were half way towards the twisted superstructure when Patterson stopped.
    â€˜As bad as that is it, sir?’ the Bo’sun said. ‘No eavesdroppers. I mean, we have to trust someone.’
    â€˜I suppose.’ Patterson looked and sounded tired. ‘But damned few. Not after what I’ve seen inside that superstructure. Not after one or two things I’ve found out. First things first. The hull is still structurally sound. No leaks. I didn’t think there would be. We’re fixing up a temporary rudder control in the engine-room: we’ll probably be able to reconnect to the bridge which is the least damaged part of the superstructure. There was a small fire in the crew’s mess, but we got that under control.’ He nodded to the sadly twisted mass of metal ahead of them. ‘Let’s pray for calm weather to come. Jamieson says the structural supports are so weakened that the whole lot is liable to go over the side if we hit heavy