How could the Goblin pull the anchor from the bottom of the harbour?
And then he remembered.when Jim had gone for petrol, the tide was out;the water was shallow.Now,six hours later,it was hiht tide again,and the water under the Goblin was much deeper.the anchor chain was now far too short to reach the bottom.
John felt terribly ashamed.Why hadn't he thought of that?Why hadn't he let out more chain a long time ago?He looked at the chain.it was kept in a box under the deck.it came out through a hole in the deck and went down into the water.All he had to do was pull more chain out of the box.He pulled,and nothing happened;he pulled again, and suddenly the chain came quickly,out of the box and over the side,into the water.there was nothing to stop it.John put his foot on the chain,but it was too heavy,and it was going too fast.John fell over,on to his back.Before he could get up again,he saw the end of the chain disappear over the side of the Goblin and fall into the water.then there was silence.
'Beu...eueueueu....'came the sound of the Cork lightship,but on the Goblin there was a frightened silence.the crew knew that something terrible had happened.Susan came hurrying along the deck.
'have you hurt yourself?'she asked.
'it's all gone! it's all gone!'was all that John could say.
'all his chain and anchor-I've lost it all!'
'but are you all right?'said Susan.