t leaning over so that her yardarms touched the water.
Nothing could live long on her deck, which was half under water and
swept by breakers.

In the main rigging were seen small objects, which were found to be the
crew, and in answer to the shouts of the lifeboatmen they came down and
crawled or clung along the sea-beaten weather rail. Half benumbed with
terror and despair and lashed by ceaseless waves, they slowly came
along towards the lifeboat, and the state of affairs at that moment was
described by one of the lifeboatmen as, 'Yes, bitter dark it were, and
rainin' heavens hard, with hurricane of wind all the time.'

The wreck lay with her head facing the mainland, from which she was
about a mile distant, and which bore by compass about W.N.W. The wind
and the strong tide were both in the same direction, and if the
lifeboat had anchored ahead of the vessel she would have swung
helplessly to leeward and been unable to reach the vessel at all. So,
also, had she gone under the wreck's stern to leeward, the same tide
would have swept her out of reach, to say nothing of the danger of
falling masts. It was impossible to have approached her to windward,
as one crash against the vessel's broadside in such a storm and sea
would have perhaps cost the lives of all the crew.

They therefore steered the lifeboat's head right at the stern of the
vessel, as well for the reasons given as also because the cowering
figures in the rigging could be got off no other way. They could not
be taken to windward nor to leeward, and therefore by the stern was the
only alternative.

By managing the cable of the lifeboat and by steering her, or by
setting a corner of her foresail, she would sheer up to the stern of
the wreck just as the fishing machine called an otter rides abreast of
the boat to which it is fast. The lifeboat's head was, therefore,
pointed at the stern of the wreck, which was leaning over hard to
starboard, and the lifeboatmen shouted to the crew, some in the rigging
and some clutching the weather toprail, to 'come on and take our line.'
But there was no response; only in the darkness they could see the men
in distress slowly working their way towards the stern of the wreck.

The position of the lifeboat was very dangerous. The sea was raging
right across her, and it was only the sacred flame of duty and of pity
in the hearts of the daring crew of the lifeboat that kept them to
their task. The swell of the sea was