“The mate came running on deck shouting, ‘All hands to the pumps, five feet of water in the hold.’ That was you, Susan,” said Nancy.
“Why not me?” said Peggy.
“You were the second mate. You were cutting the wreckage adrift and making a raft. No, you weren’t. We didn’t make a raft. I forgot. You were cutting the wreckage adrift to clear the decks, and seeing to the lowering of the boats.”
“One boat was called Swallow and the other was called Amazon ,” said Roger.
“And the waves were breaking over the ship,” said Titty, “and she was going down by the head with every soul on board. Someone had killed an albatross.”
“Pieces of eight, pieces of eight,” shouted the parrot.
“Yes. She was full of them,” said Titty. “That’s what made her sink so fast.”
“We launched the boats,” said Nancy, “and then the ship went down and we were alone on the deep.”
“Sometimes in the waves we could not see each other,” said John, “but sometimes we could.”
“We had no food in the boats but a biscuit each and a little water,” said Susan.
“Day after day we ran before the storm,” said Nancy. “Northwest by north was our course. We had decided it before we left the ship.”
“We ate the biscuits and drank the water,” said Peggy.