d, as
already stated, by Mr Dashwood and six picked hands; she was to act as
tender to the launch.

The second gig, of which the boatswain was given charge, carried the
remainder of the crew, five in number, or six including the boatswain.

Captain Staunton was of course the last man to leave the ship, and it
was not until the moment had actually arrived for him to do so that the
full force of the calamity appeared to burst upon him. Up to that
moment he had been working harder than any other man on board; and
whilst his body had been actively engaged, his mind was no less busy
devising expedients for the preservation of the noble ship with the
lives and cargo which she carried, and for the safety of all of which he
was responsible. But now all that was done with; the ship and cargo
were hopelessly lost, and the time had come when they must be abandoned
to their fate. It was true that many precious lives were still, as it
were, held in his hands; that upon his skill and courage depended to a
very large extent their preservation; but that was a matter for the
future--the _immediate_ future, no doubt, but at that supreme moment
Captain Staunton seemed unable to think of anything but _the present_--
that terrible present in which he must abandon to the devouring flames
the beautiful fabric which had borne them all so gallantly over so many
thousand leagues of the pathless ocean, through light and darkness,
through sunshine and tempest, battling successfully with the wind and
the wave in their most unbridled fury, to succumb helplessly at last
under the insidious attack of that terrible enemy _fire_.

The last of the crew had passed down over the side and had been received
into the boat to which he was appointed; the boats had all (excepting
the launch) shoved off from the ship's side and retired to a distance at
which the fierce heat of the victorious flames were no longer a
discomfort, and it was now high time that the skipper himself should
also leave. The flames were roaring and leaping below, above, and
around him; the scorching air was surging about him, torrents of sparks
were whirling around him, yet he seemed unable to tear himself away.
There he stood in the gangway, his head bare, with his cap in his hand,
and his eyes roving lingeringly and lovingly fore and aft, and then
aloft to the blazing spars and sails. At length the fore-mast was seen
to tremble and totter, it wavered for a moment, and then with a