of bald
fact. These communications were to be put into the orthodox bottle and
dropped into the sea in the hope that the sombre tidings would be
picked up and read at home. The stage of openly cursing the owner had
long since passed. Now and again they wondered if their spirits would
haunt him in the event of their having to succumb, but that was only a
passing mood. Their thoughts were mainly centred on charitable and
domestic matters, and what would be the end of all their sufferings. It
is a strange destiny which causes the agony of despair to be prolonged,
and then when life seems to be flickering out, suddenly the angel of
death is withdrawn and light and life burst forth with a radiance that
fills the sufferers with hope. The look-out man at the mast-head shouts
as loud as his strength will allow: "A sail! A sail on the starboard
bow, crossing our track! The vessel is hull down." Immediately the
whole crew except the man at the wheel are in the rigging scanning the
horizon, and a running flow of conflicting opinions are expressed as to
the exact course she is steering and whether she will discern our flag.
The captain gives peremptory orders to set every stitch of canvas and
ease the yards, so that his vessel might go quicker and meet the other
at an angle. Something like superhuman effort was made by enfeebled men
to get the canvas smartly set. The sight of the vessel impressed them
as a providential apparition. In less than an hour the hull came in
view. It was seen that the stranger was under a cloud of sail,
including royals, and topgallant studding sails on both sides. A fresh
wind blew right behind her, and the sea, though not rough, was showing
white feathers on the surface of the Atlantic rollers. The signal that
we were without any provisions was hoisted, but no notice was taken of
it. Night was drawing near, and the clipper was slipping fast away from
us. Our captain ordered his vessel to be hauled close to the wind again
in case the flags might be obscured by running free. It turned out that
this might have been the case, as we had no sooner manoeuvred in this
way than they began to take the other vessel's studding sails in and
haul to the wind. Our vessel's course was shaped towards her, and when
we had got fairly close to her both vessels had all small sail taken
in, courses hauled up, and their main yards laid aback. Our pinnace was
then hoisted out, and we proceeded to row alongside a beautiful tea