do, and we will all
help you to the utmost of our ability. I can sail and navigate a ship,
as you have seen, but there my seamanship ends. I have not the
knowledge, the skill, the experience, the intuitiveness and
imaginativeness to deal adequately with, such a matter as a shipwreck.
And when people are in such a plight as ourselves it is the man who must
take hold of the situation and handle it. I trust entirely to you to do
what you think best; and, as I said before, we women will help you all
we can."

I thanked her very heartily for her trust in me, and proposed that we
should forthwith set to work, our first task being to free the habitable
portions of the ship from water, so that they might become dry and
comfortable again with the least possible delay. And I suggested that
we should begin with her own sleeping cabin, to which she made no
objection.

"There is one other matter," I added, "which demands our immediate
attention. We must at once determine the exact position of the wreck,
and, having done so, must prepare a statement briefly setting forth our
plight and requesting assistance. This statement must be copied out
several times--as many times as you please, indeed--and the copies,
enclosed in sealed bottles, sent adrift at, say, daily intervals. It
will be strange indeed if, out of four or five dozen bottles, not one is
picked up."

The suggestion appealed to Mrs Vansittart. She pronounced the idea a
good one, and as the time and conditions were alike favourable we
forthwith proceeded to carry it out, she first taking a set of five
sights for the determination of the longitude while I noted the
chronometer times, and then, vice versa, I taking the sextant and she
the chronometer. Then we adjourned to the chart-room and worked out our
calculations independently, the results agreeing within ten seconds of
longitude, or a difference of only a few hundred feet. This, of course,
was quite near enough for all practical purposes, but it did not
completely satisfy either of us, Mrs Vansittart being, like myself,
something of a stickler for absolute accuracy. We therefore tried
again, this time working the problem of "equal altitudes", and before
the day was out we had arrived at identical results, both as to latitude
and longitude.

Then, while I tackled the task of clearing our living quarters of water,
Mrs Vansittart set to work to draft out a statement setting forth the
circumstances of the wr