Nindemann and Sweetman, meanwhile, didn’t stop working. Once they’d reduced the leak to a few hundred gallons per hour, they began constructing an extra-watertight bulkhead in the forward-most hold, the forepeak. All told, they worked for sixteen straight days, almost without stopping, sleeping in shifts of no more than a few hours, often skipping meals. When the new bulkhead was finished and thoroughly caulked, it stanched the leaks further. After the crisis was over and the ship had been saved, Nindemann and Sweetman collapsed in exhaustion. De Long made a special notation in his logs,
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