A great buss {xvi} she is, and worth nothing; but she will float, and maybe will be afloat now.

If we can sink her across the channel in a place that I know, not one of these ships will get away till she is raised." Then I called every man to me whom I could see, and we went quickly to the place where this buss was, and she was just afloat.

Thord knew where her tackle was kept, and he had the oars out--what there were of them at least, for they were old and rotten enough.

Then we had to shove her off and get her boat into the water, and the vessel itself floated up on the tide towards the narrow place where she might best be sunk to block the channel against ships that came from the town.
We had not gone far when there came a sound at which I started, for it was nothing more or less than the quick beat of oars coming down the river against the tide.

Thord and I and eight men of my own crew were in the buss, while I had maybe thirty men ashore who were keeping pace with us along the bank.