gruesome task, even
Gascoigne lending a hand, while I took the wheel. But the dead were out
of all proportion to the wounded, as we soon discovered, for when every
individual exhibiting the slightest sign of life had been found and
carried below, it proved that they numbered altogether only thirty-three
out of a total of one hundred and nineteen, which was the ship's
complement when she attempted to capture the transport. Deducting the
fourteen prisoners whom we had confined below, the remainder,
representing the killed, amounted to no less than seventy-two! These
the hard necessities of the case demanded that we should launch
overboard without delay, and this we did, getting rid of the whole of
them before closing with the convoy.

This done, and the wounded all conveyed below, we had time to think of
ourselves, and make arrangements for our own comfort during the coming
night. There was no difficulty about this, Gascoigne and I arranging to
sling our hammocks in the late captain's stateroom, which left the chief
and second mates' staterooms available for Simmons and Henderson. As
for the men, they simply screened off a portion of the mess-deck near
the main hatchway, and slung their hammocks there, the wounded being
accommodated in that portion of the mess-deck forward of the screen.
The ship had no hold, in the usual acceptation of the term; that is to
say, there was no space for the stowage of cargo, she having been built
as a fighting ship pure and simple, the space below the mess-deck being
only comfortably sufficient to accommodate the ballast, water-tanks,
provisions, and stores generally; thus, although so heavily manned,
there was ample room aboard her for the whole of her crew.

The captain's stateroom, wherein Gascoigne and I took up our quarters,
was an exceedingly comfortable apartment--a perfect palace, indeed,
compared with the midshipmen's berth aboard the _Europa_. It was
situated abaft the main cabin; was, like the latter, the full width of
the ship, and measured about twelve feet fore and aft. It was lighted
by windows reaching right athwart the stern, as well as by a small
skylight in the deck above, the combination of the two affording
admirable facilities for ventilation. It was very neatly and
comfortably, though not extravagantly, furnished--a standing bedplace,
with a commodious chest of drawers beneath it, on the starboard side,
being balanced by a book-case with drawers for charts o