arful
force against the ship, washed several of our poor fellows overboard
whose shrieks were heard as they were carried away to leeward. It threw
her on her beam ends, and drove her farther on the reef, and with a
crash all the masts fell together. Another and another sea followed and
lifted the ship over the reef, where the water was smoother.

"Out boats!" was the cry. "The ship is sinking."

Three of the boats were launched, not without great difficulty; the rest
were stove in by the falling masts. We had barely time to get into the
boats before the ship settled down till her weather bulwarks alone were
above water. We did not know if we were near land, and if near land
whether or not it was inhabited. We stayed in the boats near the
vessel, hoping that daylight would soon come to show us where we were,
and to enable us to get some provisions, if possible, out of her. It
came at last. No land was in sight; only reefs and coral rocks all
around, some above, some under the water.

We had no food in the boats, no water; our only hope was that the ship
would break up and things float out of her. Each sea which rolled in
shook her till it seemed that she must break to pieces. At last her
deck was burst up, and we thankfully picked up a cask of beef, another
of pork, and some flour and biscuit, and, what was of still more
consequence, three casks of water. These things were divided among the
boats. There was only one small boat-compass in the captain's boat. He
told us to keep close to him, and that he would soon take us to a land
where we should find all we wanted. With sad hearts the crew of the
whaler left the ship, and the product of their labours for so many
months. Bill and I were together with the second mate. We were
well-nigh ready to cry, for though we had not lost anything, we were
sorry for our shipmates, and we began to think that we should never get
home.

For three days the weather remained fine, but on the fourth, as the sun
went down, it came on to blow. The sea too got up, and it became very
dark. We kept the captain's boat in sight for some time, but she seemed
to be going ahead of us. On a sudden we lost sight of her. We pulled
on as hard as the heavy sea would let us to catch her up, but when
morning broke, neither of the other boats was to be seen. The sky was
overcast, we had no compass to steer by, the sea ran high, our stock of
provisions was low, our stock of water still