ho was as brave a man as ever trod a plank, stood at the
wheel, with three of the best seamen; but such were the rude shocks
which the rudder received from the sea, that it was with the utmost
difficulty they could prevent themselves being thrown over the ship's
side. The lee quarter-deck guns were under water; but it was proposed
to throw them overboard and as it was a matter of life and death, we
succeeded. Still she lay like a log, and would not right, and settled
down in a very alarming manner. The violence of the hurricane was
unabated, and the general feeling seemed to be, "To prayers!--to
prayers!--all lost!"

The fore and mainmasts still stood, supporting the weight of rigging and
wreck which hung to them, and which like a powerful lever, pressed the
labouring ship down on her side. To disengage this enormous top-hamper
was to us an object more to be desired than expected. Yet the case was
desperate, and a desperate effort was to be made, or in half an hour we
should have been past praying for, except by a Roman Catholic priest.
The danger of sending a man aloft was so imminent, that the captain
would not order one on this service; but calling the ship's company on
the quarter-deck, pointed to the impending wreck, and by signs and
gestures, and hard bawling, convinced them that unless the ship was
immediately eased of her burden, she must go down.

At this moment every wave seemed to make a deeper and more fatal
impression on her. She descended rapidly in the hollows of the sea, and
rose with dull and exhausted motion, as if she felt she could do no
more. She was worn out in the contest, and about to surrender, like a
noble and battered fortress, to the overwhelming power of her enemies.
The men seemed stupefied with the danger, and I have no doubt, could
they have got at the spirits, would have made themselves drunk, and in
that state, have met their inevitable fate. At every lurch, the
mainmast appeared as if making the most violent efforts to disengage
itself from the ship; the weather shrouds became like straight bars of
iron, while the lee shrouds hung over in a semicircle to leeward, or
with the weather-roll, banged against the mast, and threatened instant
destruction, each moment, from the convulsive jerks. We expected to see
the mast fall, and with it the side of the ship to be beaten in. No man
could be found daring enough, at the captain's request, to venture
aloft, and cut away the wreck of