Vigo becomes the refuge and temporary stage for the crew of the Chemang after an explosion at sea leaves the ship taking on water. The town’s channel, consulate, bullring, and pro-Allied gathering place frame a brief shore interlude in which danger gives way to hospitality, political division, and the loss of the ship as a working vessel.

Setting and Arrival

After crossing the wake of a small ketch in a rising gale, the Chemang is rocked by a thud and a column of water. The crew suspects that the ketch may have dropped a mine, though the text does not establish the cause. The ship survives the initial damage, but water continues to rise: by the time it reaches the channel opposite Vigo, the pumps are losing ground and the engine room has flooded to a depth of four feet. The crew beaches the Chemang on hard-sand banks to the right of the town.

The danger at sea thus ends not with a safe arrival under the ship’s own power, but with the vessel deliberately run aground. Vigo is the nearest point of shelter in the episode, while the damaged ship remains behind as the sailors gather their bundles and go ashore.

Shelter and Reception

The crew waits outside the consul’s office for lodging. The Spanish consul speaks limited English, but treats the sailors well. Their reception soon expands beyond practical assistance: Vigo’s Liberal Party invites the officers and crew to a bullfight that afternoon.

At the bullring, some spectators cheer the Americans and voice support for the Allied Powers, while others answer with cheers for Maura. The opposing responses make the gathering’s political divisions audible; the sailors briefly think a fight may break out, but the bull enters and the crowd settles. The bullfight itself is bloody, and the crew drinks wine from small black skins and cognac passed around by spectators. Joe Williams spends much of the occasion keeping the men in order.

The Ship’s Fate and the Crew’s Evening

The welcome ashore does not restore the Chemang to the crew. While they are in Vigo, the skipper receives a cable instructing him to turn the ship over to the agents of Gomez and Ca. of Bilboa, who have bought it as it stands and are changing its registry. The ship’s damage and its transfer mark a decisive break in the voyage: the sailors are ashore again, this time without the vessel that brought them there.

That evening, a local pro-Allied society gives the officers a banquet. The speeches are fiery, though the Americans cannot understand them; the crew answers with songs, and the chief, an older sailor named McGillicudy, performs card tricks. The night is described as a success, but its festive mood is tempered by the ship’s loss and the crew’s continuing displacement. Joe Williams and Glen Hardwick share a hotel room, where a pretty maid refuses to indulge their advances. Before sleep, their exchange turns the day’s danger and hospitality into weary banter about the war.