overeign_ had started a
butt during the gale, and she was full of water by this time. They had
kept at the pumps all day, but had given it up when they saw we were
coming for them. The ship's cargo of oil and light woods from the
peninsula had kept her from going to the bottom. She was homeward bound
to Liverpool, and it was the captain's wife and daughter we were bringing
aboard. The hurricane had caught them aback and dismasted them during the
night, and after six hours of plunging helplessly into the sea without
anything but the mainmast and stump of the foremast above the deck, she
had sprung a leak and filled rapidly. The maintopsail they had bent in
the morning after extraordinary exertion, and with this they had managed
to keep her partly under control.

"She will never go to the bottom with all the soft wood she has in her,"
said a sailor who was old and grizzled and had the bearing of a
man-of-war's man. "She can't sink for months. The water is up to her
lower deck already."

"So that's the reason you were not getting your boats out in a
hurry?" I asked.

"Sure," said he; "I'd as soon stay in her a bit longer as in many a
bleedin' craft that you sees a-goin' in this trade."

"I noticed you were one of the first to leave her," said the young girl,
with some spirit.

"Ah, mum, when you gets along in life like me, hardships is not good for
the constitootion. A sailorman, 'e gets enough o' them without huntin'
any more. Howsumever, if I see any chance o' gettin' the bleedin' craft
in port 'way out here in this Hindian Ocean, I'd be the last to leave.
Bust me, mum, if that ain't the whole truth, an' a little more besides.
You ask your pa."

Here he gave a sigh, and drew his hand across his forehead as if in pain.
His large pop eyes blinked sadly for a few moments, and his mouth dropped
down at the corners. Then his mahogany-colored face became fixed and his
gaze was upon the craft he had just deserted. What was in the old
fellow's mind? I really felt sorry for him, as he sat there gazing sadly
after his deserted home. Captain Sackett would stay aboard until the
last, his wife informed us, but as there was no necessity of any one
staying now, if their boats could live in the sea that was still running,
it was probable that they would all be aboard us before night. Jenks, the
old sailor, gave it as his opinion that they would have the boats out in
half an hour.

We came up under the lee of the _Pirate_ and th