r faces, and the vessel rolling so that sometimes they were
hanging on by the ropes only, when the deck went from under their feet.

Under the fresh weight of sail the vessel careened over, and shot
foaming forward with new life for a moment. The next, the topsail had
burst away from the bolt-ropes with a report as of a cannon-shot, and
she had fallen away into the trough of the sea. The mainstay-sail sheet
parted at the same time, and a deluge of water carried overboard, with
part of the bulwarks, a large portion of the deck cargo, which consisted
of heavy timber, leaving the remainder tossed about in the wildest
confusion, and much of it standing on end against the railings and
capstan.

It was some time before she could be brought up in the wind again, and
the old Juno had then to go through a trial such as her joints even in
her younger days had never been equal to. She was like many another
vessel that is a good sailor enough, a little broken-backed from the
weight of the cargo amidships; and as she gave to the strain, the ladder
that stood in the hold began to saw up and down in the coaming forward,
while the water came oozing in through the staring bow timbers, and the
pumps had to be kept continually going. The hatches were all battened
down, and many of the crew had lashed themselves to the lower rigging as
preferable now to the deck.

"Ready about!--tacks and sheets!" &c.; "luff now, and keep her close to
the wind!"--the same monotonous words of command all through the night
every time they lay over upon a new tack, while at the same time they
would generally ship a heavy sea, and the vessel would shake through all
her frame.

Day broke and passed in a fog, that left them in much the same
uncertainty as before about their position. For one moment it had
lifted, and they fancied they had seen "Homborgsund's Fald," a high
landmark up the country above Arendal, and from its lowness and dimness
on the horizon, they had been encouraged to hope that they had
appreciably increased their distance from the coast. About noon they
passed an English brig that had been through the same struggle as the
Juno was now engaged upon, whose signals of distress they had already
occasionally heard faintly upon the wind, and which now seemed on the
point of foundering. The crew had climbed into the after-rigging, which
was all that now remained standing, and they made despairing signs for
help; but it was impossible to render an