THE WRECK OF THE "MARTHA BROWN".

This last fatality had the rather curious result that of the entire crew

who left Baltimore in the _Martha Brown_ only the cook and the cabin boy

now survived, the remainder of the existing crew consisting of

Cunningham, myself, and the boatswain, carpenter, and sailmaker of the

_Zenobia_; it also resulted in the destinies of the ship and those

aboard her, and the interests of poor old Ephraim Brown's widow,

suddenly falling into my inexperienced hands. This being the case, I

decided to consult with Cunningham at once as to the proper steps to be

taken under the circumstances, although my own view of the matter was

perfectly clear and decided. And that view, stated briefly, amounted to

this: that my obvious duty was to do the very best I possibly could for

Mrs Brown, and that, knowing quite clearly what the skipper's

intentions were, I could not do better than carry them out in their

entirety. It was in this form that I laid the matter before Cunningham,

asking him to give me his opinion upon it, and requesting him to suggest

a better course if he could think of one; but he fully agreed with me

that, the schooner being practically full of sandalwood, and being also

within three weeks' sail of Canton, we could not do better than proceed

to our destination, dispose of our cargo, invest the proceeds in tea,

and then be guided by circumstances--or, rather, the state of the

market--as to whether we should take the tea to Europe or America,

ultimately returning to Baltimore, and there rendering an account of our

stewardship. And upon this understanding being arrived at, the voyage

to Canton was continued.

It was on the afternoon of the third day following the suicide of the

skipper that the Trade wind, which up to then had been blowing with its

usual steadiness, began to weaken, and upon consulting the barometer I

found that the mercury was falling rather rapidly. At the same time I

became aware that the aspect of the firmament was undergoing a subtle

change, the clear, brilliant blue of the sky gradually fading to a

colourless pallor, as though a succession of veils of white gauze was

being drawn across it, while the clouds, sailing up out of the

north-east, paused in their flight and began to bank up in the

south-west quarter. These changes continued throughout the afternoon,

the result being that the sun gradually became blotted out, and was

entirely obscured about an hour and a half before the time of sunset.

And with the disappearance of the sun the wind sank until it died away

altogether and the schooner lost steerage way, while the heavens assumed

a dark, lowering appearance, and the atmosphere became close,

suffocating, and so oppressively hot that even the thinnest and lightest

of clothing was an almost unendurable burden, and every article was

dispensed with that could be discarded without outraging decency. But

although the wind had completely died away, the swell did not diminish;

on the contrary, it seemed if anything to increase, for the schooner

rolled and plunged most outrageously, shipping water over her rails, her

bows, and even her taffrail, the water seeming to heap itself up

suddenly and fall aboard her in the most extraordinary and unexpected

manner. It was evident that a change of weather was impending, and, as

the mercury clearly indicated that the change would be for the worse, I

caused the schooner to be stripped just before darkness set in, leaving

only the reefed foresail and fore staysail set, under which short canvas

I believed she could not come to much harm, let the impending weather be

what it might.

A quarter of an hour after the time of sunset the darkness was so

intense that for all practical purposes we might as well have been

blind, for at a distance of ten or twelve feet from the illuminated

cabin skylight it was literally impossible to see one's hand when held

close before one's eyes; while between the darkness and the violently

uneasy motions of the little hooker it was positively dangerous to

attempt to move about the decks. As for staying below, it was out of

the question, for the cabins were like so many ovens; therefore, after

supper was over, Cunningham and I both returned to the deck, and,

seating ourselves on the wheel grating beside the lashed wheel, chatted

together while the engineer smoked pipe after pipe.

It happened to be my eight hours in, that night; therefore, since it was

hopeless to think of sleeping in my bunk on such a hot, breathless

night, I stretched myself out on the wheel grating, shortly after eight

bells of the second dog-watch, and was soon fast asleep, despite the

hardness of my bed, while Cunningham sat near me, keeping such a lookout

as was possible under the circumstances.

It was seven bells, or within half an hour of midnight, when Cunningham

awoke me.

"Sorry to disturb you before your time, old chap," he apologised. "I

have been hoping that it might not be necessary to awake you until eight

bells, but--just look at that sky! What on earth does it mean; and what

is going to happen?"

I had started up, broad awake, the instant that Cunningham's hand

touched my shoulder, and had at once become conscious of the very

extraordinary and portentous aspect of the sky; it was therefore quite

unnecessary for me to ask what he meant. When, soon after the

expiration of the second dog-watch, I had stretched myself out and

fallen asleep on the wheel grating, the darkness had been as opaque as

that of Egypt when Moses stretched forth his hand and there was a thick

darkness in all the land for the space of three days, during which the

Egyptians saw not one another, neither rose any from his place; but now,

the moment that I opened my eyes, I saw that the plunging schooner, the

restless, heaving surface of the ocean, and the overarching dome of the

sky, packed with enormous masses of slowly working cloud, were all

suffused with ruddy light, such as might be emitted by a volcano in

furious eruption. Yet no flaming crater was anywhere visible, nor did

the light flicker or wax and wane, as it would have done had it issued

from such a source; it was perfectly steady, and after I had gazed upon

it for a time I could come to no other conclusion than that it emanated

from the clouds themselves, which glowed with the colour of iron heated

to a low red-heat. I had never before beheld such a weird,

awe-inspiring spectacle, but as I gazed upon it the memory came to me

that I had somewhere read of something similar, and I also remembered

that it had been described as the precursor of a hurricane, or some

similar atmospheric convulsion.

"I am afraid it means a heavy blow, a hurricane--or typhoon as they call

it in these seas," said I: "and I am very glad that you called me, for I

will take the hint and have the schooner battened down forthwith; also

this is the first time I have ever witnessed such a phenomenon, and I

would not have missed it on any account. You might as well turn in now,

if you care to do so," I added, "for I see it is not far off eight

bells, and I shall not attempt to sleep again."

"Thanks, no--not if I know it!" answered Cunningham. "Like yourself, I

have never seen anything of this kind before, and I intend to see all

that I can of it now that I have the opportunity. It began more than

half an hour ago, the ruddy glare growing out of the inky blackness so

subtly and imperceptibly that it is difficult to say precisely when it

began, but I became conscious of it when I got up to strike six bells.

Then it brightened so rapidly, and seemed so altogether unnatural, that

at length I began to feel jumpy about it, and decided that the time had

arrived when you ought to be called."

"Quite right," I agreed. "Well, if you won't turn in, perhaps you will

be good enough to keep a lookout here while I go for'ard and see to the

battening down. There is not much to be done, but the little that needs

doing might as well be done at once." And therewith I left him and

staggered along the squirming deck to the forecastle head, where Chips

and Sails were perched upon the windlass bitts, out of the way of the

water that was constantly slopping in over one bow or the other, talking

together in a low-pitched murmur, and staring awestruck at the

incandescent sky.

"Well, Chips," said I, "have you ever seen anything like this before?"

"Ay, sir, I seen the same thing once before, when I was in the

_Tenedos_, one of the China tea clippers," answered the carpenter. "We

was in the Injin Hocean at the time, homeward-bound. The skipper--Cap'n

Bowers, his name was--was down with dysentery at the time, and the mate

was one o' these here chaps that thinks they knows everything. He

'lowed that the weather signs didn't mean nothin' partic'lar, and

wouldn't so much as take in the skysails--because, d'ye see, we was

racin' home with another ship, and Mister Mate reckoned he wasn't goin'

to be scared into shortenin' down just because the weather looked a bit

unusual. Consequence was that we was on our beam-ends about a hour

a'terwards, with all three masts over the side and the ship threatenin'

to go down under us. A nice busy twenty-four hours we had of it a'ter

that, I can tell ye, Mr Temple, and it ended up in our crawlin' into

Table Bay under jury-masts, and lyin' there five solid months before the

new spars comed out to us and we re-rigged the old barkie!"

"How did it come down upon you then--in the shape of a sudden squall?"

I demanded.

"Well, no, not exactly that," answered the carpenter. "It began wi'

little whifflin' gusts that comed up from nowhere partic'lar, and was

gone again afore you could say Jack Robinson. They comed moanin' along,

filled the canvas with a smack, and--there was an end o' that one. Then

another'd come along same way, do the same thing, and go floatin' away

down to loo'ard. It happened 'bout half a dozen times, and then, afore

we knowed where we was, away come the hurricane, screamin' and yellin'

like Billy-oh. `Halyards and sheets let go, fore an' aft!' yells my

noble Mr Mate--Bryce his name was; but, Lor' bless you, sir, afore we

could cast off the turns from the belayin' pins the gale had hit us, and

there we was, on our beam-ends, wi! the deck standin' up like the side

of a 'ouse."

"Well," said I, "that can scarcely happen to us, I think, with the small

spread of canvas that we are showing. But it will be bad enough when it

comes, I doubt not; so go below and call Murdock, the cook, and the

cabin boy, and say I want them to come on deck, as I am about to batten

down the fore scuttle. And when eight bells comes, you will have to go

aft and stretch yourselves out on the cabin lockers, for the forecastle

will be closed until this breeze is over."

It took us but a few minutes to batten down the forecastle hatch

securely, for there was a good tarpaulin cover that had been specially

made to fit it; and when that was done I set our scanty crew to work--

myself lending a hand--to secure the galley and the boats with extra

lashings, so that they might not be washed away: and when we had

finished, the cook entered his galley and shut himself in, to finish the

night there.

As it happened, we were none too soon in the completion of our

preparations; for scarcely had we finished when the ruddy glow in the

sky began to die out again, and as it did so the first of those

scuffling puffs of which Chips had spoken came whining and moaning

across the surface of the ocean from the south-west, filling our scanty

spread of canvas with a resounding clap and then passing away toward the

north-east, its track across the glistening surface of the ocean being

marked by a dimming blur like a catspaw, which swept down toward us,

touched us for an instant, and was gone again. This occurred some seven

or eight times at decreasing intervals, each succeeding rush of air

being of a few seconds' longer duration than the preceding one, and

coming with greater strength and spite, thus enabling us at last to get

steerage way upon the schooner and partially turn her stern toward the

point from which we expected the outfly to come. And when presently it

came roaring and howling and screaming down upon us, with such a medley

of sound as might be expected from a legion of unchained furies, our

port quarter was turned towards it, with the schooner in motion and

paying off before it. Yet, even so, it swooped down upon us with such

appalling violence that the little vessel careened until her lee

sheer-poles were buried and the water was up to the coaming of the main

hatch. But with way on her, her helm hard up, no after canvas set, and

the hurricane dragging at her stout foresail, she could not help paying

off, and after a long minute of heart-racking suspense, during which we

momentarily expected her to keel-up with us, she suddenly righted and

went flying away dead before the wind, with the water boiling under her

bows up to the level of her head-boards.

One of the _Martha Brown's_ good points was that she steered as handily

as a little boat. I therefore had no difficulty in keeping her dead

before the wind without assistance, although Cunningham stood by to lend

me a hand should I chance to need any help. Also the water, apart from

the boiling foam into which its surface was scourged by the hurricane,

was perfectly smooth, the smallest suggestion of a wave crest being

instantly seized by the wind and swept away to leeward in the form of

fine, salt rain; indeed, the air was so full of spindrift and scudwater

that I believed, even had it been daylight, we could not have seen

farther than about two, or at most three, lengths from the ship. As it

was, with the outfly of the hurricane that weird, unnatural, ruddy light

of which I have spoken almost immediately died out from the sky, leaving

the night as pitch-dark as before, save for the ghostly gleam of

phosphorescent light which arose from the storm-swept ocean, and which

gave the water, as far as it could be seen, the appearance as if

moonlight were shining up through it.

When we had been scudding for a full quarter of an hour before that

raving, screaming, howling fury of wind I began momentarily to expect

and look for some indication that the worst was over, and to hope that

the wind would moderate sufficiently to allow us to heave the schooner

to before the sea should acquire height and weight enough to render the

operation dangerous, for now every mile that we ran was carrying us just

so much farther from our destination. But as time went on the gale,

instead of moderating, seemed to increase in strength, until I began to

wonder how much longer hemp and pine and canvas could endure the

terrific strain to which our foremast, its rigging, and the reefed

foresail were exposed. Still, although the mast was bowed forward in a

curve that seemed to have approached perilously near to breaking-point,

and although the shrouds and backstays were strained until they were

hard as iron bars, everything was, so far, holding splendidly, and the

schooner was rushing along at a speed which I was firmly persuaded she

had never before approached.

At length, after I had been at the wheel nearly three hours, Cunningham

insisted on relieving me: and, to speak truth, I was more than glad to

accept his offer, for notwithstanding that it was by that time blowing

harder than ever, and that the wind continued to scoop up the water in

such vast quantities that the air was thick with salt rain, a high and

unpleasantly steep sea had gradually risen, chasing the schooner and

constantly threatening to poop her, or broach her to, so that at length,

in order to escape the one fate or the other, it became necessary to

keep the wheel perpetually in motion, now to port and anon to starboard;

and a couple of hours of that kind of work, combined with the heavy

strain upon one's nerves, is enough pretty well to tire out the

strongest--moreover, I was drenched to the skin. Therefore I gladly

made way for Cunningham, and, having first gone forward and directed

Murdock to go aft and stand by the wheel, so that he might be at hand in

the event of Cunningham needing any assistance, I returned aft--finding

it necessary, by the way, to go down on my hands and knees and literally

crawl along the deck, in order to make headway against the buffeting of

the wind--and went below to my cabin, where I proceeded to strip off my

wet clothes and subject myself to a vigorous towelling preparatory to

donning a dry rig and my mackintosh.

Taking my time over the operation, I had proceeded so far as to have

donned a dry undervest and a pair of thin duck trousers; and, having

rolled the legs of these up to my knees, was in the act of unhooking my

long mackintosh coat from its peg, when a terrific shock hurled me

violently against the cabin bulkhead, and the next instant a deafening

medley of sounds, compounded chiefly of the crash of breaking spars, the

wild yells of Cunningham and Murdock, the seething smash of a perfect

mountain of water on the deck, the splintering of the glass in the cabin

skylight and the pouring of a deluge of water down into the cabin, smote

upon my ears.

Partially stunned by the violence with which I had been dashed against

the bulkhead, I made no immediate effort to rise, but remained passively

where I had fallen, stupidly striving to realise what had happened,

until a tremendous upheaval of the schooner's hull, by which she was

hove completely over on her beam-ends, and a rush of water that

half-filled my cabin awoke me to the consciousness that a catastrophe of

some sort had overtaken us, and I scrambled awkwardly and with

difficulty to my feet, pulling myself up by means of the knobs of the

drawers under my standing bedplace, when another furious shock again

upset me, and I fell squatting into the water violently surging to and

fro athwart my cabin. By this time, however, full consciousness of the

serious character of the situation had come to me, and as the schooner

was again hove up and almost on to her opposite beam-ends, I let go my

hold of the drawer-knobs and went swirling out through my stateroom

door, lifted fairly off my feet by the rush of water, and found myself

swimming for my life in the main cabin, in the midst of a squadron of

cushions that had floated or been flung off the top of the cabin

lockers. Then another mountainous sea swooped down upon and overwhelmed

the hapless schooner, another deluge poured into her cabin through the

smashed skylight and the companion, and had not a backwash of water just

then swept me into the companion way and stranded me on the ladder, so

that I could grasp the handrail, I should certainly have been drowned,

for that second downpour filled the cabin to the level of the beams.

As I pulled myself up and secured a footing on the companion ladder I

felt the hull of schooner again soaring aloft, up, up, until it seemed

to my excited imagination as though the little craft was being hove

right up among the clouds and at the same time being capsized. Then

came the thundering crash of another mountain of water upon her deck,

accompanied by the sound of rending woodwork as the companion cover

parted company and was swept away; a whole Niagara of water poured down

through the opening upon my devoted head, and as I clung to the handrail

with the grip of a drowning man the schooner struck a third time, with

such terrific violence that I fully expected the hull to go to pieces

about my ears. But no, the stanchly built little hooker still held

together, although I knew that her bottom must be stove in like a

cracked egg-shell; and presently, when I felt that I could not hold my

breath for another second, I found my head once more above water, and

saw dimly, close above me, the hole in the deck where the companion

cover had once been. Another moment and I had again found footing on

the ladder, and, bruised all over and aching in every joint of my body,

I crawled out on deck.

Whether it was that my eyes had at last adjusted themselves to the

darkness, or that the darkness was less profound than it had been, I

know not, but as I emerged from the companion way and secured a footing

on deck I became aware that I could dimly perceive my immediate

surroundings. The first object to catch my eye was the stump of the

mainmast within a few feet of the spot where I was standing, and the

instinct of self-preservation at once prompted me to make a dash at it

and fling my arms round it, in order that I might not be swept away by

the next sea which should break aboard. And as I stood there gasping

for breath and staring about me I discovered that I could not only dimly

perceive my immediate surroundings, but that the entire hull of the

schooner was visible as an all but shapeless black patch in the midst of

a madly leaping chaos of swirling foam, which gleamed ghostly white in

the light of its own phosphorescence. It was still blowing as furiously

as ever, and the air was thick with spindrift and scudwater, which

blotted out everything outside the radius of some thirty fathoms on

every side; but the schooner now seemed to be in comparatively smooth

water, and I was not long in guessing at the reason, for, glancing to

windward, I could dimly see, a few fathoms away, a great wall of

spouting, leaping white breakers, evidently marking the position of the

reef upon which we had struck so violently, and over which we now seemed

to have beaten, for there were no further shocks. But imperfectly as I

could distinguish objects in the darkness, I could still see enough to

convince me that the schooner was a complete wreck and full of water,

for both masts were over the starboard side, still attached to the hull

by the rigging, while every scrap of bulwark, boats, galley, in fact

everything above the level of the deck, was swept away.

A single glance sufficed me to grasp these details, and then I turned my

gaze inboard again, wondering whether any of the others had survived

that awful passage across the reef. And as I did so the sound of

someone vomiting close at hand reached my ears.

"Who is that?" I demanded, looking in the direction from which the

sound proceeded, and as I spoke a figure uphove itself from among the

raffle of the port main rigging, which lay athwart the deck, and a voice

which I recognised as Cunningham's responded.

"That you, Temple?" it asked. "Ugh! Ouch! Ow! By the Piper, this is

awful! I seem to have swallowed half the Pacific Ocean! Ow! Ugh! I--

Aw! I say, old chap--auch!--where the dickens are we, and what has

happened, eh?"

"Where we are I'll be hanged if I know," I responded, "for all about

here should be open water, according to the chart. But it isn't, for

we've just beaten over a reef and in all probability smashed the bottom

of the poor little hooker to matchwood in the process. And now the best

we can hope is that there is land of some sort close under our lee, for

if there isn't we are in a very pretty pickle. Have you seen anything

of the others?"

"Yes," answered Cunningham, "Murdock is here; but I'm afraid he is badly

hurt, poor chap, if not killed outright. When the schooner struck, he

and I were swept for'ard by the first sea that broke aboard, and the

next thing I knew, when the water had gone, was that I was clinging to

this rigging here with one hand, and that I had hold of somebody's leg

with the other, that somebody being Murdock. But he was--and still is--

insensible, and I am afraid he must have been violently dashed against

some of the wreckage, so I lost no time in making him fast to the first

loose rope's end I could find. But I say, if the schooner's bottom is

stove, as you say, I suppose she'll sink in a few minutes, won't she?"

"Sink! With her hold full of sandalwood? Not much!" I retorted.

"Still, I hope there is land not far away, for I have no fancy for

washing about the Pacific on a crazy, waterlogged hulk, and that is the

condition of the _Martha Brown_ at this moment. But where are Chips and

Sails and the boy? I'm afraid we shall never again set eyes upon poor

cooky, for he was in the galley, and that, I see, is gone, together with

everything else that was on deck."

"Yes," said Cunningham, "it went, I think, with the first sea that broke

aboard us when we struck the reef. And I don't know what has become of

the others. I seem to remember having seen two figures emerge from the

companion way while I was busy with Murdock here, but I don't know what

became of them. I wonder whether we could do anything for the

boatswain--the sea is no longer breaking aboard, and--"

"Yes, of course," said I. "Where is he? We can at least discover

whether or not he is alive."

"Here he is, among all this raffle," answered Cunningham. "The first

thing, I suppose, will be to get him clear of it, and then--"

"Well, I am afraid that is about all that we can do for him at present,"

said I, as I moved across the sluggishly rolling deck toward Cunningham.

I stooped beside him, and at his direction lifted the tangle of rigging

beneath which the boatswain was lying, while he proceeded to cast off

the lashings that had saved the inert body from being washed overboard.

Then between us we dragged the man out to a clear spot on the deck,

where Cunningham knelt, supporting the head and shoulders, while I tore

open the front of the thin vest and laid my hand upon the broad, hairy

chest. The heart was beating, although but feebly; yet as Cunningham

continued to support the man in a sitting position the beats gradually

became stronger, and presently, with a groan, consciousness returned,

and, heaving himself over on his side, with an ejaculation, poor Murdock

began to vomit violently, as Cunningham had done, having evidently, like

him, swallowed a great quantity of salt water. For perhaps five minutes

the paroxysm continued with severity; then, having rid himself of most

of the salt water, the man, between groans, began to ask where he was,

and then, as memory returned, informed us that he had received a violent

blow on the top of the head which had knocked the senses out of him.

Fortunately there was no wound; and after a while the boatswain was able

to sit up unassisted, with his back against the stump of the mainmast.

And then, having placed him in a tolerably comfortable position, we were

free again to take cognisance of things in general, when we became aware

of the fact that the schooner, although still rolling heavily with the

movement of the water about her, had taken the ground; and upon looking

away to leeward I thought I could perceive, through the flying spindrift

and against the darkness of the sky, a darker shadow which could

scarcely be anything else than land.

When next we turned to Murdock, to enquire whether there was anything

more that we could do for him, we found that he had fallen asleep, which

was perhaps the best thing that could have happened to him. We

therefore left him to finish his nap and fell to pacing the weather side

of the deck, between the main rigging and the taffrail, comparing notes

as to our experiences; and while we were still thus engaged we became

aware of two things. The first of these was that the gale was breaking,

while the second was that the dawn was at hand, for far away to leeward

of us the sky was paling, down to a certain point, beneath which the

shadow lay as dark as ever, but was assuming, even as we stood, a

certain definiteness of shape, ultimately resolving itself into the

outline of what seemed a distant hill, with deeper shadows between

ourselves and it, which, in turn, developed into a low, bush-crowned

cliff, out of the base of which a sandy beach presently grew as the

light gathered strength.

Then, quite suddenly, the clouds to windward and overhead broke up into

detached masses, between which a few stars twinkled transiently before

they vanished in the fast-growing light of the new day; and the cloud

masses drove away to leeward and disappeared, revealing a sky of the

deepest, richest ultramarine, softening away down in the eastern quarter

to a tone of the palest and most delicate primrose, against which the

outline of the distant hill stood out, sharp as though cut out of paper,

so deeply purple as to be almost black. Then, the light coming so

swiftly that the eye scarcely found time to note the multitudinous

changes of tint accompanying it, the sky behind the hill flushed from

palest primrose to rich, glowing amber; a few evanescent shreds of cloud

midway between horizon and zenith blushed rosy red at being caught

unawares by the sun's first rays, then vanished; a pencil dipped in

burning gold outlined the crest of the distant hill for a few seconds,

and then the upper edge of the sun's disk, palpitating with living

light, floated up into view beyond the ridge of the hill, and in an

instant the whole scene, save the beach, which still lay in the shadow

of the cliff, became a picture of brilliant, dazzling light and colour.

To seaward, about two miles distant, was the creaming surf, sparkling

diamond-like as it plunged down upon the reef over which we had driven

and then leaped and spouted thirty feet high into the clear air before

the wind caught it and tore it into mist; while shoreward there

stretched a line of curving sandy beach, about a mile in length, forming

part of the shore of a shallow bay into which we had driven and wherein

the schooner now lay stranded. The beach was distant about half a

cable's length from us, and was backed by a rocky cliff averaging about

fifty feet in height, crowned by a growth of low scrub, over the top of

which appeared what now seemed to be a low, flat-topped hill, distant

perhaps three miles inland.

The beach immediately to leeward of the schooner was strewed with

fragments of wreckage, among which we recognised the galley and some

fragments of the boats; but what gave us the greatest satisfaction of

all was to see two apparently inanimate figures--those of the carpenter

and the sailmaker--rise slowly to their feet, walk down to the water's

edge, stare intently in our direction under the sharp of their hands,

and then wave their hands frantically in response to our waving, as they

recognised the fact that we were aboard the wreck, and for the present,

at all events, safe. Then they put their hands trumpet-wise to their

mouths and evidently hailed us; but the roar and the crash of the surf

on the reef were so deafening that it was impossible for us to catch a

word of what they said, and, recognising this, they presently turned and

walked up the sand until they came to a dry spot, where they sat down,

with the obvious intention of awaiting events. As for Cunningham and

myself, we could do nothing but abide in patience where we were until

the surf upon the beach should moderate sufficiently to render it safe

for us to swim ashore, the wreck being swept so clean that, without

breaking up the deck, there was not a fragment of timber left out of

which to construct a raft.