ut intermission for many hours, I threw myself down in
the bows of the boat, and locking my arms around one of the thwarts to
keep from being pitched about, I fell into an exhausted sleep. I don't
know how long I slept, but I was brought to my senses by a sea bursting
into the boat, and I found my legs wedged under the seat as I sat half
suffocated on the flooring with the water up to my armpits. Looking aft,
I could see by the phosporescent glow of the breaking seas that no
shapes of men were visible against the background of sky. My companions
were gone.

The gunwale of the boat was within a few inches of the water, and it
needed only the spume of another wave falling in the boat to sink her.
There was no time for indulging in grief over the loss of my
shipmates--there was time only for work, and very little for that, if I
was to save my life. Tearing off my cap, I used it as a bailer and
worked desperately.

At last another morning came, and with it the gale broke; but I allowed
the boat to remain hove to during that day and following night, so as to
give the seas a chance to go down.

The second morning dawned clear and beautiful, with the ocean subsided
into long even swells, and the wind settled down again to the regular
trades. Most of the provisions had been ruined by the sea that had
filled the boat, but I found two water-tight tins filled with
pilot-bread that promised to supply my needs for some time to come. The
fresh water in the boat-breakers had kept sweet owing to the bungs being
in place.

I had opened one of the tins, and was sitting on a thwart making a
breakfast from its contents, when, happening to look astern, I made out,
not more than a mile away, the wreck of a small vessel. Everything about
the foremast was standing below the cross-trees, but only the splintered
stumps of her main and mizzen masts were to be seen above the deck,
while the spars themselves, together with their gear, were hanging in a
wild confusion over the side. I got in my drag, restepped the mast, set
the sail, and bore down upon the wreck. As I drew close to her I
expected to see some signs of her crew, for the vessel sat fairly high
in the water, and looked seaworthy enough to be navigated into port by
making sail upon the fore, and rigging up jury-masts on the two stumps
abaft--plenty of material for such to be found in the raffle alongside.
No evidence, however, of life showed itself when I rounded under the
stern, re