ere both swept off our
feet and dashed to the deck, where I brought up against the cabin
companion with a crash that all but knocked the senses out of me, while
the gunner's mate disappeared in the direction of the lee scuppers. The
yelling and screaming of the wind was absolutely appalling, the volume
of sound being such that nothing else could be heard above it; and in
the midst of the din I became vaguely conscious that the ship was going
over until she lay upon her beam ends, with her deck almost
perpendicular, and the water up to the level of her hatchways.

For a few seconds I lay where I was, on the upturned side of the
companion, listening to the water pouring into the cabin with every lee
roll of the ship, and endeavouring to pull together my scattered
faculties; then, dimly realising that something must be done to relieve
the ship if we would not have her founder beneath us, I scrambled to my
feet and, seizing a rope's end that came lashing about me, dragged
myself up to the weather rail, clinging to which I slowly and painfully
worked my way forward, shouting for the carpenter as I did so. At
length, arrived at the fore rigging, I came upon a small group of men
who had somehow contrived to climb up to windward and out upon the
ship's upturned side, where they were now desperately hacking away with
their knives at the lanyards of the weather fore rigging.

"That's right, lads!" I exclaimed, whipping out my own knife and
lending a hand; "we must cut away the masts and get the ship upright
again, or she will go down under us. Where is the carpenter? Let him
bring along his axe. He will do more good in one minute than we can in
ten."

"I'm afraid, sir, as Chips has gone overboard with some more when the
ship was hove down. But I'll see if I can get into the fo'c's'le and
lay my hand upon his axe," answered one of the men.

"Do so by all means," I returned; "and be quick about it. I would go
myself, but you will know better than I where to find the axe; and even
moments are precious just now."

They were, indeed; for it was easy to tell, by the feel of the ship,
that she was becoming waterlogged, and every gallon of water that now
poured into her seriously decreased our chances of saving her. But it
was bad news to learn that the carpenter, "with some more" men, had been
lost overboard when the ship was thrown upon her beam-ends; yet, when I
came to recall the suddenness of the event, the surprising