on, the vessel heeling over, and all of us knew that the Sands
were close aboard. The ship paid off, but at a critical moment the
spanker-boom sheet fouled the wheel; still, we managed to get the
vessel round, but scarcely were the braces belayed and the ship on the
starboard tack, when she struck the ground broadside on. She was a
soft-wood built ship, and she trembled, sir, as though she would go to
pieces at once like a pack of cards. Sheets and halliards were let go,
but no man durst venture aloft. Every moment threatened to bring the
spars crushing about us, and the thundering and beating of the canvas
made the masts buckle and jump like fishing-rods. We then kindled a
great flare and sent up rockets, and our signals were answered by the
Sunk Lightship and the Knock. We could see one another's faces in the
light of the big blaze, and sung out cheerily to keep our hearts up;
and, indeed, sir, although we all knew that our ship was hard and fast
and likely to leave her bones on that sand, we none of us reckoned upon
dying. The sky had cleared, the easterly wind made the stars sharp and
bright, and it was comforting to watch the lightships' rockets rushing
up and bursting into smoke and sparks over our heads, for they made us
see that our position was known, and they were as good as an assurance
that help would come along soon and that we need not lose heart. But
all this while the wind was gradually sweeping up into a gale--and oh,
the cold, good Lord! the bitter cold of that wind!

'It seemed as long as a month before the morning broke, and just before
the grey grew broad in the sky, one of the men yelled out something,
and then came sprawling and splashing aft to tell us that he had caught
sight of the sail of a lifeboat[1] dodging among the heavy seas. We
rushed to the side to look, half-blinded by the flying spray and the
wind, and clutching at whatever offered to our hands, and when at last
we caught sight of the lifeboat we cheered, and the leaping of my heart
made me feel sick and deathlike. As the dawn brightened we could see
more plainly, and it was frightful to notice how the men looked at her,
meeting the stinging spray borne upon the wind without a wink of the
eye, that they might not lose sight of the boat for an instant; the
salt whitening their faces all the while like a layer of flour as they
watched. She was a good distance away, and she stood on and off, on
and off, never coming closer, an