Hopkins bobbed back up before I'd even managed to get myself back to the gunwale, but the other two were too waterlogged to do the same, and it was a long haul on the line before we got them safe aboard. We prised them loose of each other, got the water out of them and the wet clothes off of them, and then bundled them (and Hopkins too!) into blankets before stowing them like early Christmas parcels in a corner of the warm boiler room to sleep themselves out.

I knew they'd be all right when I heard the snoring.