Ulysses
shore in commotion petrified with horror. Then someone
said something about the case of the s. s. Lady Cairns of
Swansea run into by the Mona which was on an opposite
tack in rather muggyish weather and lost with all hands on
deck. No aid was given. Her master, the Mona’s, said he was
afraid his collision bulkhead would give way. She had no
water, it appears, in her hold.
At this stage an incident happened. It having become
necessary for him to unfurl a reef the sailor vacated his
seat.
—Let me cross your bows mate, he said to his neighbour
who was just gently dropping off into a peaceful doze.
He made tracks heavily, slowly with a dumpy sort of a
gait to the door, stepped heavily down the one step there
was out of the shelter and bore due left. While he was in the
act of getting his bearings Mr Bloom who noticed when he
stood up that he had two flasks of presumably ship’s rum
sticking one out of each pocket for the private consump-
tion of his burning interior, saw him produce a bottle and
uncork it or unscrew and, applying its nozz1e to his lips,
take a good old delectable swig out of it with a gurgling
noise. The irrepressible Bloom, who also had a shrewd sus-
picion that the old stager went out on a manoeuvre after
the counterattraction in the shape of a female who how-
ever had disappeared to all intents and purposes, could by
straining just perceive him, when duly refreshed by his rum
puncheon exploit, gaping up at the piers and girders of the
Loop line rather out of his depth as of course it was all radi-
cally altered since his last visit and greatly improved. Some