tossing her huge hull wildly here and there, as if she
had been merely some small boat left helplessly to become their sport.

Now, for the first time, Paul Pringle and others bethought them of
looking for the _Thunderer_. So full of salt spray was the air that
they could scarcely make her out, near as she was to them; then on a
sudden they saw her dark hull surrounded by the seething foam, but her
stout masts were not visible. She, as they had been, was on her
beam-ends. Suddenly she, too, righted; up rose the masts, in all their
height and symmetry it seemed.

"She has come off scatheless!" cried one or two.

"No, no, mates!" cried Paul Pringle in a tone of anguish. "See! see!
heaven have mercy on their souls!"

Down, down, sank the big hull; gradually tier after tier disappeared;
the foaming waters leaped over the decks--the tall masts followed--
down--down--down--and in another instant the spot where the brave old
_Thunderer_ had floated was vacant, and seven hundred human beings were
hurried at once into eternity. In vain could the crew of the _Terrible_
hope to render them assistance--the same fate at any moment might be
theirs. No one had even time to mourn the loss of their countrymen and
friends. Every nerve must be strained to keep their own ship afloat.
Still the water rushed in.

The opinion became general that a butt had been started, (that is, the
end of a plank), and that the ship must go down. Even Captain Penrose
could no longer conceal from himself that such was too probably the
case. He, however, and his officers exerted themselves to the utmost to
maintain discipline--no easy task under such circumstances in those
days, when men who had braved death over and over again in battle with
the greatest coolness and intrepidity, have been known to break open the
spirit stores with the object of stupefying their minds with liquor to
avoid facing the king of terrors.

Fiercer and fiercer raged the hurricane, and now all hopes of saving the
ship, or of preserving their own lives, were almost abandoned. Paul
Pringle, with Abel Bush and Peter Ogle, were seen to be very busy. They
were collecting such shattered spars and small ropes, and casks and
other articles, as they could most easily lay hands on. These they
quickly converted into a small but very strong raft, with a sort of
bulwark all round it. In one of the casks they stowed a keg of water,
and some biscuits and beef; and in another th