ged and struggled on,
buoyantly floating on their summits. To save the ship was beyond human
power, but the wish of Uncle Boz was evidently to try and pilot her in
between two rocks, where her crew might perhaps reach the shore. Lives
are more generally lost when a ship drives on an open beach than when
among rocks. In one instance the people may cling to the rocks, but the
undertow from the beach sweeps them out as often as they struggle
towards it, till their strength fails, and they sink beneath the waves.
With a glass King had brought, we could see the people on the deck of
the hapless craft. King handed it to me. "What do you see now?" he
asked.

"Women as well as men, two or three at least," I exclaimed, almost
breathless. "Poor creatures! Oh, King, suppose there were children
among them!"

The ship rolled fearfully, while the seas meeting with the resistance of
her already water-logged hull broke over it in showers of foam, which
must have frozen as they fell on her deck. Her crew were huddled
together, some forward and some with the passengers aft. For her size
there appeared to be very few seamen. We told Hollis.

"When the masts went, many of them likely enough went also," was his
answer.

Hitherto they had not observed the boat. We saw Uncle Boz waving to
them. There was a movement among the men. They saw him; an attempt was
made to hoist a sail on the stump of the foremast. It was blown away in
an instant.

"No anchor would hold; yet it is their only chance," said Hollis. The
coastguard men agreed.

The attempt was made. We saw the crew cutting the stoppers. It was a
moment of breathless anxiety. "Yes, it holds," was shouted. The ship
brought up head to wind. The boat was making way towards her.

"It will never hold," cried Hollis.

Now was the opportunity for the boat to get alongside. Should the cable
part, three minutes would see the ship amid the cruel breakers. The
boat seemed almost stationary; the people on deck stretched out their
hands to her imploringly. Our eyes ached with gazing on her. We
thought not of the biting wind, the piercing cold.

"She is driving," cried Hollis. "But--but--see! see! Uncle Boz is
alongside. Heaven protect him!"

There was a rush to the side. Several persons were lowered into the
boat. We saw others descending by ropes: whether they all got in we
could not tell. Some remained on deck. The boat suddenly appeared at a
distance fr