opgallant
studdingsail-boom snapped short off by the boom-iron; and there was
immediately a tremendous hullabaloo aloft of madly slatting canvas and
threshing boom, as the studdingsail flapped furiously in the freshening
breeze, momentarily threatening to spring the topgallant yard, if,
indeed, it did not whip the topgallant-mast out of the ship. Then
something fouled aloft, rendering it impossible to take in the sail;
and, the skipper being on deck and manifesting some impatience at what
he conceived to be the clumsiness of the men who had gone up on the
topsail yard, Mr Moore, the second mate, sprang into the main rigging
and went aloft to lend a hand. Just precisely what happened nobody ever
knew; one of the men aloft said that the broken boom, in its wild
threshing, struck the mate and knocked him off the yard; but, be that as
it may, one thing certain is, that the poor fellow suddenly went
whirling down, and, without a cry, fell into the boiling smother raised
by the bow wave, and was never seen again! I happened to be on the poop
at the moment, and, despite the darkness, saw the falling body of the
mate just as it flashed down into the water, and guessed what had
happened even before the thrilling cry of "Man overboard!" came pealing-
down from aloft. I therefore made a dash for one of the lifebuoys that
were stopped to the poop rail, cut it adrift, and hove it, as nearly as
I could guess, at the spot where the mate had disappeared, while one of
the men on the forecastle, anticipating the skipper's order, called all
hands to shorten sail. The whole ship was of course instantly in a
tremendous commotion, fore and aft. The rest of the studdingsails were
taken in as quickly as possible, the royals and topgallantsails were
clewed up, a reef was taken in the topsails, and the ship was brought to
the wind and worked back, as nearly as could be, to the spot where the
accident had happened, and a boat was lowered. Although the skipper had
displayed such nice judgment in determining the precise spot where the
search should begin, that the crew of the boat dispatched to search for
the mate actually found and recovered the lifebuoy that I had thrown, no
sign of the lost man was ever discovered. The assumption was that he
had been stunned by the blow that had knocked him overboard, and had
sunk at once. This occurrence cast a gloom over the ship for several
days; for poor Moore was probably the most popular man in the