t was possible. On the 13th the wind rose to
a hurricane; and masses of water were flung bodily down on the vessel,
so that she was immersed most of the time and the sailors worked on up
to their waists in pouring water. As one of the crew said, "things was
no mistake dreadful." At the end of every watch the men who should have
gone below were forced to take a two hours' spell at the pump; they then
wrung their clothes, hung them up before the little fire in the
forecastle, and turned in naked. Then, after a brief snatch of sleep,
they jumped out, put on their steaming clothes, and went to the pumps
once more. At 6 a.m. on the 14th the handspike was thumped on the deck,
and a sailor said, "Turn out, boys; she's going down!" Worn out with
want of rest, their hands and feet half flayed, the men staggered out
and went desperately to work again. The brakes of the pumps hung far
above their heads, and after toiling for three hours one of the
standards broke and things looked hopeless. By six o'clock next day
there were four and a half feet of water in the hold, and still the
struggle was kept up with dogged resolution. At ten o'clock the water
had risen to six feet, and all the time the hurricane blew with unabated
force. The ship was plunging away northward, and not a sail could be
seen on all the grey waste of the sea.

Now the crew went aft and told the captain that they could not keep the
"Wansbeck" floating much longer; they thought the flag should be put in
the main rigging, "union down." The captain said, "All right, my lads.
There's but poor hopes for us, I know, whether we take to the boat or
stick to the ship. Take your own way and do what you think is best. Our
time will soon be over." So the flag was hoisted, and the men prepared
for the end--without fear, for sheer physical misery had made them dull
and silently reckless. The captain told a young hand to go into the
forepeak and see if the water had reached far up: the same hand was
ordered to clear away the longboat. Now the fore-trysail bad come down
on the boat; and when it was flung down the young seaman noticed that it
seemed to be sucked down into a kind of eddy. There had been so many
false alarms that the lad did not say anything until he had examined
this new phenomenon carefully. Wading forward, he felt cautiously with
his bare feet and found that his toes went into a large hole. He called
out, "Here's the big leak; our decks are stove in!" and indeed i