She appeared to be a vessel of about seven hundred tons. The falling
of her masts had crushed her port bulwarks level with the deck, and
part of her starboard bulwarks was also smashed to pieces. Her wheel
was gone, and the heavy seas that had swept her deck had carried away
capstans, binnacle, hatchway gratings, pumps--everything, in short, but
the deck-house and the remnants of the galley. I particularly noticed
a strong iron boat's-davit twisted up like a corkscrew. She was full
of water, and lay as deep as her main-chains; but her bows stood high,
and her fore-chains were out of the sea. It was miraculous to see her
keep afloat as the long swell rolled over her in a cruel, foaming
succession of waves.
Though these plain details impressed themselves upon my memory, I did
not seem to notice anything, in the anxiety that possessed me to rescue
the lonely creature in the deck-house. It would have been impossible
to keep a footing upon the main-deck without a life-line or something
to hold on by; and seeing this, and forming my resolutions rapidly, I
ordered the man in the bow of the boat to throw in his oar and exchange
places with me, and head the boat for the starboard port-chains.
Pages:
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349