f the tenth day the weather
cleared just a little, though the wind seemed as high as ever, and we
caught sight of some big bergs. The captain, who was as good a sort as
ever sailed, had done his best all along to keep up our spirits. The
cook had been washed overboard in his caboose; but the skipper had kept
his steward at work boiling water over a little spirit-stove he had aft,
and kept a supply of hot coffee there at all hours for us; and with that
and biscuits we had got on fairly well. Now he told us that he thought
the gale would soon blow itself out, and that as soon as it abated
enough to set a rag or two of sail he would try and bring us up under
the lee of a berg.

"But it wasn't to be. It had just struck four bells, and there was a
gleam of daylight; I was at the helm, with the captain, who had never
lain down for above an hour at a time since the gale began, beside me.
Suddenly I saw it become lighter ahead, just like a gray shadow against
the blackness. I had but just noticed it when the skipper cried out,
'Good God! there is a berg straight ahead, it is all over with us!' and
then he gave a shout, 'All hands on deck!'

"There was nothing to do. We could not have changed our course a point
if we had tried ever so much, and the berg, as we could see in another
minute, stretched right away on both sides of us.

"'You can leave the helm, Joe,' says the skipper; 'we have done all that
men could do, we are in God's hands now.' I went forward with the rest,
for I knew well that the only chance was to get on to the berg when she
struck. It did not seem much of a chance, but it is wonderful how one
clings to the hope of a few hours' more life.

"It was not five minutes from the time when we first saw the gray shadow
ahead that we struck. The crash was tremendous. The mast snapped off as
if it was a pipe-stem. The whole front of the ship seemed stove in, and
I believe that more than half of those gathered forward were killed,
either by the fall of the mast or by the breaking up of the bows. The
bowsprit was driven aft, through the bits against the stump of the
foremast, and did its share in the work. I was standing in the
fore-chains, having got over there to avoid the fall of the mast. Though
I was holding tight to the shrouds I was well-nigh wrenched from my
hold. There was one terrible cry, and then the ship seemed to break up
as if she were glass, and I was in the water. A great wave came
thundering down on