angerous as the shallow waters off the coast when the storm-fiend is
abroad.

Perhaps it may be news to some readers that the losses of this country
by shipwreck form a perennial drain of life and wealth as regular and
certain as the recurrence of the seasons. Nearly two thousand ships,
two millions sterling, and little short of a thousand lives are lost
each year on the shores of the United Kingdom--sometimes more, sometimes
less,--each and every year. We give round numbers, because they are
more easily remembered.

On the particular night of which we write, many a gallant ship was
driving over the sea, making for her port, nearing home and friends,
rushing to her doom! Passengers and crews alike had by that time,
doubtless, become so familiar with whistling gales and heaving seas,
that they had ceased to fear them; but some among them had yet to learn,
when too late, that the dangers of the deep are insignificant compared
with the perils of the shore.

Among these hapless ships was one to which we direct the reader's
particular attention. She was a large ship, with a crew of between
twenty and thirty men, bound from China to the Thames. She carried no
passengers, and was commanded by our friend, Captain Millet.

No captain in the mercantile navy of Britain was better qualified than
he to take his ship across the trackless main, and, if need be, carry
her safely into port; but seamanship and knowledge of channels and bars
and currents avail nothing when the sails and cordage of a ship are
unseaworthy and her timbers worn out.

The owners of the _North Star_ cared little for human lives. They were
economists of the strictest kind. Hence her condition was bad.

The gale overtook the _North Star_ when she was not far from the coast
where nestled her captain's native town of Cranby. A pilot had been
signalled for in vain, for the night was thick as well as stormy. At
last one was obtained, and all went fairly well until the vessel was off
the black rocks on which the eyes of Jeff Benson had been resting for
some time. Fearing that he was too near that point of danger, the pilot
gave orders to go about. While the vessel was in stays, one of the
ropes parted, and she missed. At the same moment a squall came down on
her, and carried away the main and fore-topmasts with the jib-boom.
Instantly the vessel was unmanageable, and drifted bodily towards the
rocks.

Captain Millet and his men toiled like heroes t