Shipwreck

Underwater, Luke calmly thinks that he is about to die when the rebounding gunwale flips him out of the ocean and back onto the broken deck, where J.J. is clinging to the wheel, terrified and sobbing. Radford is frantically throwing life jackets into the ocean, calling for “Skipper.” Radford shoves J.J. hard out of the way and tries to circle The Phoenix back to where the captain fell, but the schooner’s engine dies. He shouts to Luke to check the engine room. It is flooded, but fear freezes Luke’s ability to speak. J.J.—seeing Luke’s face—relays the message. Charla shouts that the main cabin is flooded. J.J. screams, “Captain! Captain!” (62) over and over.

Pumping water out of the engine room becomes a priority for the entire crew. After hours of pumping, no one asks about the captain.

The crew members share the upper bunks. J.J. wakes Luke to tell him about a nightmare. Luke reminds him that it was real. On the companionway, they see tangled rope and rigging, smashed equipment, and splintered masts. Radford angrily accuses Luke and J.J. of playing “WWF in a full gale” (65) that got the captain killed. Lyssa calms everyone down, and Radford explains the dire situation that they are in: They are 480 miles east-northeast of Guam, which is their nearest landfall; no SOS had been sent, and their radio is out; their Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) will only reach passing aircrafts, but they are not under any flightpaths; food is low; the engine is dead, and the sails are damaged.