Page 339 - The Tigris Expedition

From Asia to Africa; from Mcluhha to Punt
spray. When the thick topmast broke and half the mainsail dragged
like a water-filled parachute in the sea, heavy as a small whale, we all
feared the worst that might have happened: that we could have lost
the rigging and been left adrift on a heavy raft-ship with only the
rowing-oars to propel us. The straddle-masts could have torn loose
from their lashings to the bundles, but we knew by now that the
twin-bundle ship was too broad and sturdy to turn bottom up.
Indeed, either half was too heavy to be lifted into the air and too
buoyant to be forced down under water; capsizing was no threat.
Unable to hear an order from stern to midship, each man filled his
place where most needed, and all hands together managed to empty
the sail and pull it on board. Neptune got nothing from our
deck.
All night the storm raged. The wind howled and whistled in the
empty rigging and the canvas-covered cabin. Like Noah we waited
inside cover for the weather to abate. The rudder-oars were aban­
doned, lashed on. There was nothing to do but wait. It was an
incredible comfort to all of us to know we were on a compact -
bundle-boat and not inside a fragile plank hull. No worry about the i
vessel springing a leak; no need for bailing. But without sail our !
elegantly raised tail was ofno avail, and the ungovernable vesseljust
turned side on to the weather, with breaking seas tumbling on
board by the tens of tons, up on the benches, everywhere. But next
ti
moment all the frothing water whirling around the cabins was
gone, dropping straight down through the sieve-like bottom. And
the bundle-boat rose from the sea like a surfacing submarine,
glitteringly wet in the lamp-light, and sparkling intensely with the
phosphorescent plankton trapped on board. No wonder that this :
simple kind of self-bailing craft was the first to give primitive
boat-builders the security to venture upon the waves, and the one
that paved the way for further progress in more sophisticated and
demanding maritime architecture.
By morning the storm abated. The wind turned to ese. Sporadic
rain-squalls continued, and the warm easterly wind again brought a

52. No lack of sea-food, as marine life was attracted to the silent and
broad-bottomed reed-ship. The ink of a squid tested by Detlef; Yuri
dries fish and savours a piece of dolphin; Asbjom with basket-full of
rainbow runners; flying-fish were picked up on deck; turtles were
caught at sea with remora-fishes attached to the breast plate; the red
grouper was a surprise gift from a passing trawler.
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