ut waiting to receive the man's report, he ordered such boats
as still remained in a condition to swim to be stocked with provisions
and water, and to be hoisted off the chocks ready for lowering in a
hurry, should necessity arise. These, it was soon discovered, amounted
only to three, not counting the steam-pinnace, which, Frobisher feared,
it would be impossible to get into the water under the circumstances;
and it was at once apparent that, notwithstanding the large number of
men who had been already swept overboard and drowned, there would not be
sufficient accommodation for half the remaining crew.

Meanwhile the seas, although they still continued to break heavily over
the ship's stern, were not nearly so violent as the great waves that had
swept the decks when she first struck; and the men were able to move
about in comparative safety by watching their opportunity. After the
first few moments of alarm and confusion, too, Frobisher's strong
personality and cool confidence soon restored the men's courage, and
discipline once more prevailed.

The carpenter returned after about five minutes' absence, and reported
that already there was more than ten feet of water in the fore end of
the ship, while in the engine-room it was almost up to the bedplates,
and that consequently the stokers were drawing the furnaces as quickly
as they could in order to avert an explosion. He also added that,
during the brief period while he had been sounding the well, the water
had risen almost a foot, and that therefore the vessel could not be
expected to float much longer. Indeed it was now evident that, although
the bows of the _Chih' Yuen_ were supported on a ridge or pinnacle of
rock, the after portion of the ship was in deep water, in which it was
quickly sinking lower and lower, so that it was almost a question of
minutes before she must either break in two or else slide backward off
the rock and founder.

By this time the light had become so much stronger that it was possible
to make out, in some small degree, the position in which they were
situated. The ship had apparently driven upon an outlying ridge of
rock, stretching a mile or more into the sea in a north-easterly
direction, from an array of black-looking, rugged cliffs, which towered
upward to a height of several hundred feet above the sea. The cliffs
themselves shut out the view to the south-westward, but toward the south
the shore line could be seen running away un