d watched eagerly the result of their adventure.
This great mental activity, the profuse stores of knowledge
brought by every ship's crew, and distributed, together with
India shawls, blue china, and unheard-of curiosities from every
savage shore, gave the community a rare alertness of intellect."

The spirit in which young fellows, scarcely attained to years of maturity,
met and overcame the dangers of the deep is vividly depicted in Captain
George Coggeshall's narrative of his first face-to-face encounter with
death. He was in the schooner "Industry," off the Island of Teneriffe,
during a heavy gale.

"Captain K. told me I had better go below, and that he would keep an
outlook and take a little tea biscuit on deck. I had entered the cabin,
when I felt a terrible shock. I ran to the companion-way, when I saw a
ship athwart our bows. At that moment our foremast went by the board,
carrying with it our main topmast. In an instant the two vessels
separated, and we were left a perfect wreck. The ship showed a light for a
few moments and then disappeared, leaving us to our fate. When we came to
examine our situation, we found our bowsprit gone close to the
knight-heads." An investigation showed that the collision had left the
"Industry" in a grievous state, while the gale, ever increasing, blew
directly on shore. But the sailors fought sturdily for life. "To retard
the schooner's drift, we kept the wreck of the foremast, bowsprit, sails,
spars, etc., fast by the bowsprit shrouds and other ropes, so that we
drifted to leeward but about two miles the hour. To secure the mainmast
was now the first object. I therefore took with me one of the best of the
crew, and carried the end of a rope cable with us up to the mainmast
head, and clenched it round the mast, while it was badly springing. We
then took the cable to the windlass and hove taut, and thus effectually
secured the mast.... We were then drifting directly on shore, where the
cliffs were rocky, abrupt, and almost perpendicular, and were perhaps
almost 1,000 feet high. At each blast of lightning we could see the surf
break, whilst we heard the awful roar of the sea dashing and breaking
against the rocks and caverns of this iron-bound island.

[Illustration: A "PINK"]

"When I went below I found the captain in the act of going to bed; and as
near as I can recollect, the following dialogue took place:

"'Well, Captain K., what shall we do next? We have now