Aurelie tries another escape route

Aurelie could hear the whipmaster's assistants coming for her. She had no time to figure out how to open the grate. Instead, she leapt from the ladder and rushed for the punishment row. There she climbed on the back of the two pour women who were toiling at their oar. With horror she realised that the one who was sitting against the gunwale had a ring pierced through her nose, which was chained to the oar. That was both ugly and cruel. This spurred her into action. She straddled the big oar, lied her chest against it and began to crawl along it. There might be just enough room to squeeze herself out of the oar port.

As she crawled, the front of her shirt was torn by the splinters on the top of the oar. She managed to push her head out, then her shoulders. The back of her shirt got torn against the port upper edge, ruining it to shreds. Half of her body, now mostly naked, was now out of the ship as she clung to the big oar.