“How can I go astarn when there’s nobody at the engines?” shouted the skipper, as he hung on to the wheel and brought the boat’s head sharply round. “Git a line ready.” The mate, with a coil of rope in his hand, rushed to the side, but his benevolent efforts were frustrated by the engineer, who, seeing the boat’s head making straight for him, saved his life by an opportune dive. The steamer rushed by. “Turn ’er agin!” screamed the mate. The captain was already doing so, and in a remarkably short space of time the boat, which had described a complete circle, was making again for the engineer. “Look out for the line!” shouted the mate warningly. “I don’t want your line,” yelled the engineer. “I’m going ashore.” “Come aboard!” shouted the captain imploringly, as they swept past again. “We can’t manage the engines.” “Put her round again,” said the mate. “I’ll go for him with the boat. Haul her in, boy.” The boat, which was dragging astern, was hauled close, and the mate tumbled into her, followed by the boy, just as the captain was in the middle of another circle—to the intense indignation of a crowd of shipping, large and small, which was trying to get by. “Ahoy!” yelled the master of a tug which was towing a large ship. “Take that steam roundabout out of the way. What the thunder are you doing?” “Picking up my engineer,” replied the captain, as he steamed right across the other’s bows, and nearly ran down a sailing-barge, the skipper of which, a Salvation Army man, was nobly fighting with his feelings. “Why don’t you stop?” he yelled. “’Cos I can’t,” wailed the skipper of the _Bulldog_, as he threaded his way between a huge steamer and a schooner, who, in avoiding him, were getting up a little collision on their own account. “Ahoy, _Bulldog!_ Ahoy!” called the mate. “Stand by to pick us up. We’ve got him.” The skipper smiled in an agonised fashion as he shot past, hotly pursued by his boat. The feeling on board the other craft as they got out of the way of the _Bulldog_, and nearly ran down her boat, and then, in avoiding that, nearly ran down something else, cannot be put into plain English, but several captains ventured into the domains of the ornamental with marked success. “Shut off steam!” yelled the engineer, as the _Bulldog_ went by again. “Draw the fires, then.” “Who’s going to steer while I do it?” bellowed the skipper, as he left the wheel for a few seconds to try and get a line to throw them.