loop on
one quarter and a schooner on the other, and in disengaging the rigging
which had caught in the spars. The sloop had the appearance of a wreck.
The laniards of the shrouds had been cut away on both sides, and the
tall and tapering mast was quivering and bending like a whipstock,
from the action of the wind and the waves. One of the cables, it was
supposed, had parted; the sails, not having been properly furled, were
fluttering and struggling, not altogether in vain, to get loose; and
the deck on both sides was filled with shingle ballast, which had been
brought from the shore early that morning, in the fear that the sloop
might be driven out to sea, and had not been thrown into the hold.

The captain, mate, and crew of the sloop, finding their vessel in such
a helpless condition, and entertaining wholesome fears for their own
safety, ABANDONED THE SLOOP TO HER FATE, and embarked, with all their
baggage, in the last boat that had brought off ballast. But with the
last boat there came from the shore a young man, who, as supercargo,
had charge of the vessel and cargo. Aware to some extent of the perilous
condition of the sloop, he had been actively engaged during the morning
in efforts to prepare his vessel to encounter the disasters incident
to a hurricane. As he stepped on the deck of the sloop, and before the
ballast had all been discharged from the boat, the officers and crew
were eager for their departure. The captain urged the supercargo to
accompany him on shore, and, when he refused, pointed out the desperate
condition of the sloop, assuring him that in a few minutes that vessel,
held by a single anchor, would break adrift and be wrecked on the rocks,
when probably no individual could be saved.

The name of the supercargo was Bohun, a native of the "Emerald Isle." He
peremptorily refused to quit the vessel, saying, as he stamped his foot
on the deck, "Here I stand, determined to sink or swim with the sloop."

"Shove off!" exclaimed the captain; "it is useless to parley with a
fool!"

At this moment the crew of the Gustavus were summoned aft to disengage
the brig from the sloop, and the captain was issuing orders in his
most effective style. "Bear off! Why don't you bear off! Cut away the
laniards of those shrouds, and clear the main chainwales! Bring an axe
here, and cut away that fore-stay which is foul of the main yard!"

Calling now to Bohun, who stood in the forward part of the sloop with a
most ru