for some time
nothing further was seen.

Barely three miles of heaving sea separated the two ships when the
bright glare of a Very's light, fired from a pistol, soared into the
air. A cheer broke from the dark figures on the deck of the M.L., and a
message of hope was eagerly flashed back.

The last knot seemed a voyage in itself, but eventually the great dark
mass of the still floating envelope loomed up ahead, and almost
instantly the clang of the engine-room telegraph, shutting off the leaky
engine, gave relief to the plucky second engineer, who had retained
consciousness and control through that dreadful twenty minutes by
frequently filling his aching lungs above the hatchway.

The sea around was a mass of tangled wires, in which the mast and
rigging of the M.L. was the first to become entangled. Near approach was
impossible, so orders were given to lower away the boat. The sturdy
little steel-built life-boat splashed into the sea alongside, one minute
rising on a wave high above the deck-line and the next disappearing into
the dark void below. Figures slid down the miniature falls to man her
and the next minute were pulling through the tangled wreckage to where
the beam of the M.L.'s searchlight showed six airmen clinging to a
floating but upturned cupola.

Numbed with the cold, they fell rather than jumped into the boat as it
was pulled alongside. One was insensible and the others were too far
gone to utter a word. Nothing but the wonderful vitality necessary to
the airman as to the sailor had enabled them to hold on in that bitter
cold for over two hours after eight hours in the air.

The task of extricating the M.L. from the tangle of wire stays and other
wreckage was a difficult one. A propeller had entwined itself and become
useless (afterwards freed by going astern), the little signal topmast
and yard had been broken off by a loop of wire from the gigantic
envelope and the ensign staff carried away. After about twenty minutes
cutting and manoeuvring, however, she floated free, and a question was
raised as to the possibility of salving the airship.

By this time another M.L., sent out to assist in the work of rescue, had
arrived on the scene, and a conference between the air and sea officers
on the senior ship resulted in the attempt at salving being made. Wires
that were hanging from the nose of the airship were made fast to the
stern of the M.L.'s, and all wreckage was, where possible, cut adrift.
Th