side the
ship--bumping against the timbers and threatening a danger almost as bad
as the collision--had been cut adrift, the smaller spars being first
cast loose and hoisted on board in case of need for jury-masts. The
carpenter and some of the hands, meanwhile, had braced up the broken
bulkhead with stout beams placed across, so as to prevent it from giving
way under the strain and allowing the contents of the fore compartment
to flood the main hold; for, it was utterly impossible for the present
to clear it of water, although the pumps, which had been kept constantly
going, sufficed to keep the rest of the ship pretty free and avert the
danger of sinking for a time. It was only a question of time!

The captain was just then overhauling the longboat, which, with the
jolly-boat, that had been stowed inside of the former for safety and
convenience, were the only two boats that had been left, the others
having been washed off the beams at the time that the cook's caboose had
been carried away during the cyclone; and Mr Meldrum, going down on to
the main-deck, approached the skipper.

"We'll have to take to the boats soon," said the captain, turning round
as he came up, "that is, when the sea moderates a bit. I don't see
anything else that can be done--do you?"

"If I were you," suggested Mr Meldrum, "I would try and run her ashore
first and beach her. We're not far from Kerguelen Land, and though it
is now winter time on the island and desolate enough, it would be better
our stopping there than wandering about the ocean in the boats, trying
to get into the track of the Australian liners, or else making for the
Cape, the only place we could steer for."

"It's a bad look-out any way," said the captain despondently.

"Yes, I grant that," replied the other; "but, if we land there and
manage to hold out till September or October, only three months at the
outside, a lot of whaling craft generally put into Kerguelen for the
seal-fishery about that time, and I daresay we could get one of these to
take us to the Cape."

"Perhaps that would be the best," said Captain Dinks, reflecting a
moment--"but what would you advise now--how are we to get ashore, eh!"

"Why, rig up a jury-mast or two at once and make for the land!" answered
Mr Meldrum promptly. "The island must be close to us now to leeward;
and with this wind we ought to be able to reach the shore by daybreak,
when we would be able to look about us better. It is