Seas bursting over the lower planes were whirled up into the propellers and thrown back over the engines. They were white with the salt; but they kept running.
The tail was nearly full of water from a big leak, but a bulkhead held it out of the main body of the boat, although she was getting heavier and heavier, and was crashing through the seas instead of riding over the top of them. The sledge-hammer blows shook the whole structure.
Without its float the starboard wing-tip buried itself deep in the water each time the boat rolled, pulling itself out again with a shuddering wrench, which each time threatened to pull off the wing.
The two rescued men lay on the slatted deck of the boat and were given sips of brandy from time to time, and finally a little cocoa from the thermos flask.
So, gamely, the boat won on towards England.
Four hours after landing outside Gordon passed out of the fog belt and saw the Shipwash light-vessel, rolling and pitching, three miles north of him. It was a welcome sight. He was only a mile off his course.
He had travelled on the surface a distance of twenty-two sea miles--a not inconsiderable feat of seamanship and navigation in a fog, with the wind that was blowing, the sea that was running, and the condition of the boat.
Here they were in the shipping channel. They saw vessels. Very's lights were fired as distress signals, and a cargo-boat, the _Orient_ of Leith, bound for Yarmouth, saw them, came alongside, passed a line and took them in tow. Half an hour later they were under the shelter of the land and two armed drifters came alongside. The tow was transferred to _H.M.S. Maratina_, and Morris and the wireless observer were taken on board _H.M.S. White Lilac_, in order to get them ashore quickly for medical attention.
Gordon stood by his boat, which was now standing up on her tail, and she was brought safely into harbour, was repaired, and carried out many more patrols, being used, after she had done thirty-nine patrols in all, for school work.
Within two months Morris and his wireless observer, unbroken by their experiences, were again flying.
James the One was awakened before daybreak on June 14 by the ringing of his telephone bell.
The Duty Captain at the Admiralty informed him that the Little Woman at Borkum said _Anna_ was at the Dogger Bank going south.