Curly's Airships - CD2 - 10 - Hastings to Beauvais
CURLY:- Ploughing over the cliffs And crabbing out to sea, Flying half-sideways into the wind. Two hours to cross the Channel, And the yellow light From the Promenade Deck windows Shows the white tops of the breakers; They're very close. Too low and too slow! Then engine No. 5 gets going again, And the cold fist in my gut Relaxes just a bit, As I chat to the chaps in the Chart Room About football, jazz bands, girls and cars, Almost anything... Except India...
The French coast at last And the wind still rising, 40 miles an hour now; Crawling up the Valley of the Somme In the teeth of this mad, black, Force 8 gale. Painfully counting off Each small, dim town... St.Valery, Moyenneville, Oisement, Hornoy...
Before my Watch, I take a turn along the keel To see how things are inside...
In the echoing darkness above me, The bags are surging to and fro Against the frames, And they look too flabby; I'll bet they're leaking, And they slap unpleasantly as they tug And rattle their bridle chains. They're lined with skin From a bullock's intestines: The guts of a million dead cows Shipped from the stockyards of Chicago. There are ghost cattle up there, Moaning and squealing, Trying to stampede... She won't take this punishment for long. Hope to God we can get as far As Orly Aerodrome...
I saw him a long way off, Coming down the cat-walk, A young rigger. When he reached me we stood silently, Looking up at the billowing bladders. As the girders creaked and groaned And the rain beat against The soggy drum-skin Of the envelope. Suddenly he spoke.
THE RIGGER:- We're buggered, aren't we Sir.
CURLY;- "Good luck, Roberts", I said.
THE RIGGER:- Good luck yourself, Curly.
CURLY:- He replied, And passed on down the keel.
There's fifty miles And maybe two hours flying Before we can try an emergency landing at Orly. We're over Beauvais now, Two o'clock in the morning, Waking up the town. Thundering slowly over the chimney pots, A seventh of a mile Of spark-happy hydrogen Hanging above Beauvais cathedral Like the Angel of Death...
The wind still rising, 45 miles an hour now. Keep going, darling! Stay up, sweetheart! You can do it for me!..
Time to take over in the Control Car, And the O.O.W says...
OFFICER:- Watch her, Old Boy, she's behaving Like a perfect little 'B'.
CURLY:- You can say that again; The swine is heaving about, Only just under control. Sky Hunt at the elevators, thank God, Struggling to keep her nose up To get dynamic lift. Clear of the town, now and into the black, And down goes her damn nose once again...
The dip becomes a vicious little dive. Full power! Full up-elevator! I can't hold her! We're still diving! What the hell's going on?..
The rotten cover's blown in at the bow! The for'ard bags have broken loose! Dump all ballast! Sky, go and warn the rest! I'll try and turn her out of the wind. What's that? Oh God, it's the ground....