I imagined that one or the other water-butts would give way, and that I
should be either crushed by its falling on me, or half-drowned by its
contents. Then I thought what would be my fate should the fearful
buffeting the ship was receiving cause her to start a plank. The water
would rush in, and before I could possibly make my escape to a higher
level I should be drowned, even should the ship herself keep above
water, and that I thought was not very likely.

I had read enough about shipwrecks and disasters at sea to be aware that
such a circumstance sometimes occurs. The end of a plank called a butt
occasionally starts away from the timber to which it has been secured,
and the water pressing its way in, opens the plank more and more, till
the sea comes in like a mill-sluice; and unless the damage is at once
discovered, and a thrummed sail is got over the spot, there is little
chance of a ship escaping from foundering. When a butt starts from the
fore end, and she is going rapidly through the water, her destruction is
almost certain, as a plank is rapidly ripped off, and no means the crew
possess can prevent it. Though I had heard crashing noises which had
made me fear that the masts had been carried overboard, yet I judged
from the movement of the ship that they were standing. She was seldom
on an even keel, but when she heeled over it was always on one side. As
yet all the strain to which she had been subjected had produced no
leaks, as far as I could judge from the small quantity of water in the
hold, and that was chiefly what had come out of the butt. Had I not put
the remnants of the olives and biscuits in my pockets I should have
starved. When hunger pressed, I took a small portion, sufficient to
stop its gnawings. I suffered chiefly from thirst, as I was afraid of
getting up to go to the water-butt, lest I should be thrown over to the
opposite side after I had drawn out the spile, before I could catch any
water as it spouted out, and that much of it would be lost. I felt the
necessity of economising my store, for I so mainly depended on it for
existence, as it enabled me to subsist on a much smaller quantity of
food than I could have done without it. At length I could bear my
tortures no longer, but getting up, cautiously crawled towards the butt,
stopping to hold on directly I felt the ship beginning to give a lurch.

I must again observe, that close down to the keel as I was, I felt this
much less