"Yes; but there's only dark, and cold, and hurry, down here; and
how do I know whether the other plates are doing their duty?
Those bulwark-plates up above, I've heard, ain't more than
five-sixteenths of an inch thick - scandalous, I call it."

"I agree with you," said a huge web-frame, by the main cargo-hatch.
He was deeper and thicker than all the others, and curved half-way
across the ship in the shape of half an arch, to support the deck
where deck-beams would have been in the way of cargo coming up and
down. "I work entirely unsupported, and I observe that I am the
sole strength of this vessel, so far as my vision extends. The
responsibility, I assure you, is enormous. I believe the
money-value of the cargo is over one hundred and fifty thousand
pounds. Think of that!"

"And every pound of it is dependent on my personal exertions."
Here spoke a sea-valve that communicated directly with the water
outside, and was seated not very far from the garboard-strake.
"I rejoice to think that I am a Prince-Hyde Valve, with best Para
rubber facings. Five patents cover me - I mention this without
pride - five separate and several patents, each one finer than
the other. At present I am screwed fast. Should I open, you
would immediately be swamped. This is incontrovertible!"

Patent things always use the longest words they can. It is a
trick that they pick up from their inventors.

"That's news," said a big centrifugal bilge-pump. "I had an idea
that you were employed to clean decks and things with. At least,
I've used you for that more than once. I forget the precise number,