"It isthe ship has already brought her scuppers to the water.

And modern scientific developments have turned a sporting chance of being scuppered into a mathematical certainty.

Her tall red funnel was inclined sharply, much of her side was above water, and muddy streams poured from the scuppers on the after deck, where men with long boots pulled a hose-pipe about.

"I'm up to my scuppers with business.