ed to slip through the ports, then
those on the other went plunging into the deep. The anchors were next
cut away from the bows, and now the attempt was made to get the thrummed
sail under the ship's bottom. It seemed well-nigh hopeless, with the
ship rolling and the heavy seas breaking over her. Murray and the other
officers laboured as hard as any one, setting an example, by their
energy and courage, to the men dispirited by the loss of so many of
their shipmates. Two hawsers were at length got under the ship's
bottom, when the sail filled with oakum was hauled over the part where
the worst leaks were supposed to exist. Still the water rushed in. The
efforts of the hands at the pumps were redoubled, and anxious eyes were
turned towards the frigate, which could still be dimly seen to leeward,
but too far off to render them any assistance should the sea overcome
all their efforts, and carry the ship to the bottom. That this would be
her fate before long seemed too probable; the bulwarks in many places
had been crushed in--the boats stove or carried away, scarcely a spare
spar remained--everything on deck had been swept off it; indeed, it
seemed a wonder that she should still be afloat.

A short jury-mast was got up, fixed to the stump of the fore-mast, and a
spare royal was bent to a yard and hoisted in the hopes of getting the
ship before the wind; but scarcely had the sail been sheeted home,
before it had produced the slightest effect, than away went the canvas,
mast, and spar to leeward. A second attempt to set a sail was made with
similar want of success, and now not an available spar remained on which
another could be hoisted.

"Spell, ho!" was cried more frequently than at first, as the exhausted
hands at the pumps summoned their shipmates to relieve them, when they
staggered to the stumps of the masts or the remaining stanchions and
bulwarks, to which they clung to save themselves from being borne away
by the wild surges as they broke on board. Thus the disastrous day wore
on, to be followed by a still more fearful night. Even the most hopeful
had no expectation of seeing another sunrise, as the increasing darkness
told them that it had sunk into the storm-tossed ocean.

Alick Murray had endeavoured to maintain that calmness of mind, one of
the characteristics for which he was noted. Thought, however, was busy.
He, like the rest, believed that ere long the fierce waves would sweep
over the foundering