the boiling turmoil
the Cambria came dangerously near the heap of jettisoned iron on the
starboard side of the Mandalay. It will be plain that without the
presence of the lifeboat and her crew in case of disaster, all other
efforts to save the ship would have been paralysed, and indeed would
never have been attempted. Without the lifeboat, no tug-boat, or any
other boat, would have dared to venture into that fearful labyrinth of
sand and surf.

The hawser was got on board after an hour's struggle, and made fast to
the Mandalay's starboard bow; but though the Mandalay rolled and bumped
she was not moved from her sandy bed. It was almost impossible for
those on board to keep their feet as she struck the sand and as the
seas swept her decks. The position of the tug on the starboard side of
the Mandalay was so perilous that it was decided to bring her across
the bows of the vessel to her port side; and this was done with great
difficulty against the gale and sea continually becoming heavier.
Creeping round the bows of the Mandalay the tug-boat came, and in doing
so crossed the cable of the lifeboat with her hawser, and therefore the
lifeboat's cable had to be slipped at once, and she had to be made fast
to and ride alongside the Mandalay.

Still round came the tug, and getting into deeper water of about three
or three and a half fathoms, after a most hazardous and gallant passage
through the breakers round the vessel, set her engines going full speed
ahead. The seas now struck and bumped the Mandalay so heavily that, in
spite of all efforts to save her, she was in a most critical position,
and at the same time a great disaster nearly occurred. The great steel
hawser of the tug, as she strained all her powers, was now tautening
and slackening, and then, as steam strove for the mastery against the
storm, again tightening with enormous force till it became like a rigid
iron bar. It vibrated and swung alongside the lifeboat, which could
not get out of the way, and dared not leave the vessel--return to
which, had the lifeboat once slipped her anchor, against wind and tide
would have been impossible; and their comrades' lives, and those of
all, depended on their standing by the vessel. Though the gallant
coxswain did all that man could do to combat this new danger, still
with a terrific jerk the steel hawser got right under the lifeboat,
hoisting her, in spite of her great weight, clean out of the water.

Aided by an