emed had at the
same moment presented itself to the carpenter, for he staggered toward
me and hoarsely shouted into my ear:

"The ship can't live ten minutes longer, sir. Better cut away the masts
so as to leave us something to cling to when she goes from under us."

"Yes," said I, "do it at once. Steady, men!" I continued, "out knives
every one of you and cut away every rope attached to the hull; as many
of you as can get at the lanyards of the rigging cut them; the masts are
our only chance."

The men understood me and at once set to work, most of them going
forward and attacking the foremast first, so as to get it down and out
of the way before commencing upon the mainmast. The back-stays were
first severed, then the lanyards of the shrouds, commencing at the
aftermost and working forward; and when the hands had cut through about
half of them the remainder suddenly parted and the foremast went over
the bows with a crash, being only prevented from going adrift altogether
and lost by the circumstance that the topsail sheets and other running
gear had not been let go or cut away. The foremast in falling brought
down the main-topmast with it; and I fancied that, as it crashed down on
the deck, I heard, above the hoarse shriek of the gale, a human cry
which led me to fear that some of the workers had been hurt. Leaving
Fidd with half a dozen hands to the somewhat delicate task of securing
the wreck of the mast sufficiently to prevent its prematurely breaking
adrift, whilst at the same time taking precautions against the danger of
its being dragged down by the ship when she should founder, the rest of
the crew came aft and at once commenced an attack upon the mainmast,
which it had now become necessary to get rid of with the utmost
expedition, as, owing to the fall of the foremast, the ship was in
momentary peril of broaching to and capsizing. The men had reached the
main rigging and were in the very act of commencing operations when a
huge sea swept unbroken under the schooner; and as the crest passed her
and she settled slopingly down on the back of it, I heard the water in
the hold come rushing aft, accompanied by a crashing sound below which
told me that the cabin bulkhead had given way, and the next instant the
water surged _up_ through the sky-light-hole in the deck, showing that
she was at that moment full to the beams abaft. Her stern settled
bodily down with the weight of water in that part of her, whils