ile the masts had been
stepped and the shrouds set up hand-taut, I found, upon casting loose
the sails, that they had omitted to obey my instructions to close-reef
them, and since the wind was still blowing altogether too hard for the
boat to carry anything more than close-reefed canvas I lost quite ten
minutes in reefing and setting the mainsail and staysail--I dared not
attempt to set the foresail also, for I did not believe that the boat
could carry it. And when at length I had got the canvas set and the
boat fairly under way, I found, to my consternation, that I had driven a
good half-mile to leeward of the ship, by which time, their quarrel, I
suppose, being over, the men had left the forecastle and, finding that I
had gone adrift in the longboat, were making frantic signs to me to
return.

But I soon discovered that, even now, with the boat under canvas, to
beat back to the ship was an impossibility; for the boat had not been
built for sailing to windward in a strong breeze; she was the ordinary
type of ship's longboat, constructed to carry a heavy load in proportion
to her dimensions, with a long, flat floor, bluff bows, and with only
some three inches of exposed keel; and while she might possibly, with
skilful management, have been made to work to windward in very moderate
weather, she now, with so strong a wind and so heavy a sea to battle
with, drove to leeward almost as rapidly as she forged ahead. Nor did I
dare to press her with any more canvas, for she was already showing more
than was at all prudent, the stronger puffs careening her to her gunwale
and taxing my seamanship to the utmost to prevent her from filling.
Under such circumstances, with the boat demanding my utmost vigilance to
keep her afloat, it will be readily understood that I was only able at
intervals to cast a momentary glance toward the ship to see how she was
faring, and even then it was not always possible for me to catch a
glimpse of her because of the mountainous seas that interposed
themselves between her and me. At length, however, when I had been
adrift about half an hour, I got a chance to take a fairly long look to
windward at a moment when the longboat was hove up on the crest of an
unusually lofty wave; but the ship was nowhere to be seen; nor did I
again catch sight of her, or even of the raft; and the only conclusion
at which I could arrive was that she had gone down and taken all hands
with her.

But, in such a mountaino