Tom Cunliffe

Have you ever had ‘that sinking feeling’? Barring one or two lamentable incidents involving small craft I’ve never followed it to its awful conclusion and, God willing, I never shall, but I’ve had some near misses.

One of the more spectacular events was many years ago when I was a gash hand on a 90-ton trading ketch. The vessel was far from new and my shipmates and I had recently ballasted her with iron pigs set under a skim of concrete on the ceiling - or floor - of the hold. The surprisingly shallow bilge ran beneath this ceiling.

It was mid-winter and we were slugging down the Bay of Biscay in storm-force conditions. The running lamps had blown out and my watchmate and I had just avoided a freighter by far too close a margin. We were thanking the stars for our deliverance when the skipper came on