Estudienate

Chapter 2 Thing get hotter
Once the Nan - Shan was out at sea, Captain MacWhirr looked at the barometer again. Yes, there is some really dirty weather out there, that is for sure, he said to himself

He was not worried by the way the weather was changing and he did not feel at all afraid at the idea of a typhoon. Spending most of his life at sea, he knew many different kinds of weather; and atyphoon was just another kind of bad weather for him. But perhaps Captain MacWhirr did not fully know the real

power of the sea. Of course he knew about typhoons, and he knew that they sometimes happened in the China Sea. Before becoming a captain, he read about typhoons in books, and he heard about them from other sailors. But to be in the middle of a very strong typhoon in which the seashowed all its fury and its terrible power - no, this was something that MacWhirr himself did not really know.

The swell was getting stronger, and the ship started rolling slowly and heavily from side to side. It was now late afternoon, and the sun was beginning to go down. It was very hot, there was no wind at all, and MacWhirr could feel it, because there was a heavy, angry feeling everywhere onthe ship. Most of the Chinese labourers were on deck, spending the time in different ways. Some were looking out to sea, bored. Some were smoking, and some had their shirts off and were pulling up buckets full of sea water from over the side of the ship to wash in because they were so hot. Three of them were talking angrily about money, thought MacWhirr. The rest of them were sleeping quietly.Below deck, it was worse. The temperature in the engine room was a hundred and seventeen degrees, and the air was full of angry voices and the loud noise of metal on metal. The second engineer, a big, strong man called Harry, was shouting as this men because there was not enough steam. Harry often shouted, and usually then men worked quietly under him; but today they were as angry as he was. Tomake more steam, they needed more air from the ventilators - and there was none. Harry came up on deck to see why was, and found Jukes.
How can my men give us enough steam if the ventilators are not catching the wind?
he shouted The ventilators are not the problem, said Jukes. There is no wind - that is the problem. Jukes knew that it was hard work in the engine room on a day like his, and so hedecided it would be a good idea to let Harry shout for a while. Perhaps after that, he would go back down below deck and do his job more quietly. But the second engineer did not listen to Jukes is words. Look it is just like I thought. This ventilator is pointing in the wrong direction. I do not know what your men do all day. Do they just lie around on their fat backs? He tried to change thedirection of the ventilator, but it was too heavy to move. Jukes stopped him: Harry, I told you before: there is nothing that we can do. There is no wind. But look, there is a storm coming, Harry looked at the

strong swell of the sea around them, and then at Jukes. This is a dog is life, he said angrily. And with that, he went back down to the engine room.
Jukes turned round, and was MacWhirrlooking at him. Why did you let him talk to you like that? the captain asked. You must not be soft with the crew. If he goes on like that, he Will have to find himself a new job on another ship very soon.
His men can not make enough steam. And it is not easy morking down there when it is so hot, I understand how he feels. Even up here on deck I feel like I Have a blanket round my head.
A blanketround your head, Jukes? What was that for? It is just a way of speaking, sir, said Jukes, thinking that Captain MacWhirr really had a very strange way of understanding things.

Well, if there is any more talk of that kind from the second engineer, he will have to go, said MacWhirr, and he walked away.

At eight o´ Clock it was dark. Jukes went to the chart - room to write the ship is log. As...