When they had taken off his copper helmet and unfastened his canvas he leaned against the pump and breathed hard.
"Well ?" said Brown, after waiting a minute or two for the man to get back his normal breathing.
"She lies with a sharp list; sand's high up her starboard bilge.
Engine-room doors jambed, but I found the stokehold grating and got some way down the ladder.

Sand's washed down and buried the starboard bunkers.

To clear out the stuff will be a long job." "Packed hard ?" The diver nodded.

"Like cement! I reckon the pump won't move it." Lister understood the captain's frown.

Sometimes the sand that enters a sunken vessel solidifies, with the pressure of surf or tide, into a mass that one can hardly dig out.