"Properly stowed, we could even submerge with them."
"Good idea," Lennox immediately agreed.
"Second, there's no way the boats will carry all that weight."
"Then we'll have to use the spares, too," Whittaker said.
"I meant using the spares," the chief of the boat said.
"The first time you flexed the boat in the surf, that weight'd rip the deck... or the bilge, whatever they call that sheet of rubberized canvas... free of the inflation chambers.
If it didn't rip through before you got to the surf."
"What do you suggest. Chief?" Lennox asked.
"We got a hundred and sixty percent of life jackets aboard," the chief said.
"I don't know what that means," Whittaker said.
"It means we got sixty percent more life jackets aboard than there is people," the chief said.
"And?
"Lennox asked, "They're rated at two hundred pounds, "the chief said.
"Which is just about what them 'film' boxes weigh."
"You mean put a life jacket around a film box," Whittaker asked, "in case the bottom lets go?"
"I mean wrap jackets around the boxes, tie lines to them, and tow them ashore," the chief said.
"And around them boxes with the weapons and the ammo, too."
"Could they be towed?"
"There's only one way to find out, Skipper," the chief of the boat said.
"Put people on it, Chief," Lennox ordered.
"Carefully, Chief," Whittaker said. Both the chief and Lennox looked at him in surprise and annoyance, but then smiled when Whittaker went on.
"If we were to lose just one of those 'film' boxes out here, your beloved captain and myself would spend the rest of our days in Alcatraz."
"I take your meaning, Sir," the chief said with a smile.
By midafternoon, each of the boats had been brought on deck, inflated, twin Bofors aft of the conning tower.
The top was cut from an empty fifty-five-gallon o
il drum, and then the drum three-quarters filled with seawater. Each outboard motor was test-run for five minutes, the noise incredible inside the hull.
The chief torpedoman was placed in charge of floating the "film" boxes. He cut the notation packets from life preservers and tied them around the 'wooden boxes. The available light line was soon exhausted, and two sailors made what was needed by first sawing through a length of four-inch manila hawser and then untwisting the strands.
After that, there was nothing to do but wait until dusk fell.
Commander Lennox waited until he was sure that Whittaker -was in the control room, and then he started the dry run.
"Close all hatches and watertight doors," he said, and the talker repeated the order.