o had
savings had to help those who were poorer. When things got almost too
bad for bearing, Billy Armstrong said to one of his friends--

"Look here, you and me and Hob's Tommy will run round to the Tyne, and
get some mussels, or else the whole place will be starved when the fine
weather comes."

A big coble was got out, and ran down to the Tyne with a northerly wind
through the shrewd and vicious sea. The men got the cargo of mussels,
and at four in the afternoon prepared to beat their way northward. It
was then blowing half a gale, but the wind had shifted round from the
shore, so that very little tacking was required. As the shades fell
lower and lower, the wind rose higher and higher. The blasts galloped
down through the hollows, and struck the brown sail of the coble like
the sound of musketry. The boat lay hard over, and the water leaped in
spurts over her lee gunwale. They reached the point where the Cobbler's
Stone stood. Tommy was in a strange state of exaltation. He pointed to
the misty shore, then to the black stone round which the water was
seething. He said quietly, "Yonder, my lads!"

They rounded the point, and put the boat's head nearer to windward. A
harsh ripping sound was heard under the bottom. She lay hard over until
a blast came and tore her clear. Billy Armstrong said--

"You have taken her in a bit too near, my son. The bilge chocks is both
pulled off; look you, they're gone away astern." And, sure enough, two
long planks drifted away behind the boat. They had been torn off by the
force with which she rushed upon the outlying rock. Tommy said, "Let's
have another reef in, mates." But before the sail could be half lowered,
a storming gust swept out of the bay, and struck the boat with a roar.
The long rudder smashed; a green sea doubled up behind her, and she
turned over exactly as the coble had done when Tommy first prayed.

In the wild waves it was hard for the men to get hold. The bilge chocks
were gone, and thus all chance of a hand grip was lost. Half-way down
the square stern of the boat a hole had been bored, through which a
rope had been passed and knotted at both ends. This rope served the men
in hauling the boat down to the sea. Only one could hold on to this
short scrap, and Tommy, who was the first to think of it, seized it, and
held on with the strength of his despair. The boat lunged and struck the
faces of the two men who were holding on to her sides. Billy Armstrong
was bleed