rd side. She implored me to help her, and I said
I would if I could. We could see boats putting off from the ships all
round us to our help, and here and there people swimming for their lives
who had leaped from the stern-ports, or had been on the lower-deck. I
could not help thinking of our fine old admiral, and wished that he
might be among them; but he was not, for he was writing in his cabin at
the time, and when the captain tried to let him know that the ship was
sinking, he found the door so jammed by her heeling over that he could
not open it, and was obliged to rush aft and make his escape through a
stern-port to save his life. This I afterwards heard.

As the ship had floated for some minutes, I began to hope that she would
continue in the same position, and that I and others around me on her
side might be saved. I hoped this for my own sake, and still more for
that of my dear wife. I had been thinking of her all the time, for I
knew that it would go well-nigh to break her heart if I was taken from
her, as it were, just before her eyes. Suddenly I found, to my horror,
that the ship was settling down; the shrieks of despair which rent the
air on every side, not only from women, but from many a man I had looked
upon as a stout fellow, rang in my ears. Knowing that if I went down
with the ship I should have a hard job to rise again, I seized the poor
woman by the dress, and leaped off with her into the sea; but, to my
horror, her dress tore, and before I could get hold of her again she was
swept from me. I had struck out for some distance, when I felt myself,
as it were, drawn back, and, on looking round, I saw the ship's upper
works disappear beneath the water, which was covered with a mass of
human beings, shrieking and lifting up their hands in despair.
Presently they all disappeared. Just then I felt myself drawn down by
someone getting hold of my foot under the water, but, managing to kick
off my shoe, I quickly rose again and struck out away from the spot,
impelled by instinct rather than anything else, for I had no time for
thought; then directly afterwards up came the masts almost with a bound,
as it were, and stood out of the water, with a slight list only to
starboard, with the fore, main, and mizzen tops all above water, as well
as part of the bowsprit and ensign-staff, with the flag still hoisted to
it. Many people were floating about, making for the tops and rigging,
several of them terrorst