re, and by and by stood back to
her. We were making distance fast. Had we held on we would have crossed
her wake almost under her stern on that tack. On our next tack we would
be crossing her bow, and it would then be on past the lightship in the
lead, and the race over; for neither of us was going to tack up the
channel, deep-loaded, against a tide which would soon be ebbing. Up at
the harbor entrance two tugs had already seen that and were racing out
to pick us up.

To more quickly get in tow of the tug nearest us, which was coming
hooked up for us, our captain put the _Sirius_ about earlier than he
had originally intended. As we tacked, so did the _Orion_. We stood in
toward the harbor. The _Orion_ stood in toward the harbor. We were
surely going to pass close to each other--very close. Altogether too
close.

I didn't like the looks of things. Being a passenger, I had a mind free
for other things than navigation. "In case of doubt who gives way--the
_Orion_ or the _Sirius_?" I asked Captain Norman. "Why, she does," he
said, surprised. "It has to be her--not us. Both of us close-hauled, but
we being starboard tack have the right of way. He'll have to come about
and give us the road."

"But suppose, captain, he will not give way?"

"What! not give way! That'd be foolish. He c'n go bulling his way on
shore all he pleases, but out here he'll only get what's due him. He'll
have to give way."

So Norman Sickles said, but he wasn't the man to lose his vessel or risk
men's lives. The _Orion_ was holding on. She was going to force us. When
Norman Sickles saw that, he motioned with his arm for the man at our
wheel to keep off. But the _Sirius_ wasn't keeping off. Norman Sickles
turned and yelled: "Keep her off--off--off, I say!" starting aft, at the
same time, to take the wheel himself.

He was too late. They seemed drawn together. We took a shoot. The
_Orion_ took a shoot. "Damned if she didn't get away from him!" I
remember hearing one of our fellows jerk out, but I remember also I was
left wondering whether he meant our vessel or the _Orion_.

They rushed together and g-g-h-h! Talk of a smash! Forty-five hundred
tons of coal, nine-tenths of it below the water-line, and a breeze of
wind! Either one would have sunk a battle-ship. It shook the spars out
of the _Orion_. Her after-mast came down, the next one came down, the
others were swaying. "The boat--the boat!" her crew yelled, but taking
another look up at those w