ter time with such good-will that in a few minutes her bows were
battered into a mere mass of torn and splintered timber. Somebody on
board her cried out that they had struck, but as her marines kept up
their fire upon us from the poop, while her main-deck guns continued to
blaze away whenever she swung sufficiently for any of them to bear, no
notice was taken of this intimation; and presently our skipper gave the
order to cut her adrift, so that her people might have no chance to
board--a proceeding that would have proved exceedingly awkward for us in
our then weakened condition.

But it presently became evident that they had no thought of boarding us;
on the contrary, their chief anxiety was clearly to escape from the warm
berth that they had thrust themselves into; for a few minutes later, the
fire on both sides having slackened somewhat, we observed that both
craft had their boats in the water and were doing their best to tow off
from us, and almost immediately afterwards the French ceased firing
altogether. I believe our skipper--fire-eater though he was--felt
unfeignedly thankful at this cessation of hostilities, for he
immediately followed suit, giving the order for the men to leave the
guns and proceed to repair damages. This was no light task, for not
only were we completely dismasted, but the hull of the ship was terribly
knocked about, the carpenter reporting five feet of water in the hold
and twenty-seven shot-holes between wind and water, apart from our other
damages, which were sufficiently serious. Moreover, our "butcher's
bill" was appallingly heavy, the list totalling up to no less than
thirty-eight killed and one hundred and six wounded, out of a total of
two hundred and eighty!

CHAPTER TWO.

THE ALTHEA FOUNDERS.

The French having ceased firing, and manifesting an unmistakable anxiety
to withdraw from our proximity, we bestowed but little further attention
on them, for it quickly became clear to us that our own condition was
quite sufficiently serious to tax our energies to the utmost. The first
task demanding the attention of the carpenter and his mates was of
course the stoppage of our leaks, and a very difficult task indeed it
proved to be, owing to the rapidity with which the water was rising in
the hold; by manning the pumps, however, and employing the entire
available remainder of the crew in baling, we succeeded in plugging all
the shot-holes and clearing the hold of water by noon