ut found nobody,
until at length I made my way to the stewardesses' quarters. There,
huddled up in the cabin which they shared between them, I discovered the
chief and assistant stewardess, quite unhurt but half-crazy with
terror--so frightened, indeed, that it was only with the greatest
difficulty I at length succeeded in persuading them that all danger was
over for the present, and induced them to join their mistress in the
drawing-room.

Then I proceeded to investigate the condition of the wreck. The yacht
had been constructed like a liner, with a double bottom; and the
conclusion at which I arrived was that the actual bottom of the ship was
so seriously damaged that she would never float again, but that the
inner skin was intact; and that the water in her interior, of which
there was a very considerable quantity, had all come in through the
hatchways and ports.

With regard to the loss of the crew, I believed I could understand
exactly how it had come about; for, wherever I went, whether to the
men's berthage in the 'tween decks or to the officers' cabins, the
indications were the same, and pointed to the conviction that when the
ship struck, every man below leaped out of his bunk or hammock and
dashed up on deck in something of a panic, where they were washed
overboard, with the watch already on deck, by the terrific seas that
must at once have swept the ship from stem to stern, their awful power
being sufficiently evidenced by the scene of destruction presented by
the decks.

Having completed my investigation below, I ascended to the poop,
shinning up by one of the port mizen shrouds, which trailed across the
deck and hung down over the face of the poop, both ladders being
missing; and when I got up there and was able to see all round the ship,
I thought I began to understand a little more clearly what had happened
during the darkness of the preceding night.

I found that the ship had piled herself up on a small atoll, some two
miles in diameter, only a very small portion of which--less than a
hundred yards in length--showed above water. This portion, consisting
of a low bank of sand, the highest point of which could not, I
estimated, be more than three feet above the level of the ocean's
surface, lay directly astern of the ship, distant about half a mile.
From the position which the wreck then occupied I surmised that in the
darkness of the preceding night we must have rushed headlong upon the
weathermos