over in the water,
at the risk of their lives, to get to the place and nail it up. One
night the captain's boat was attacked by a species of fish known as a
"killer" (Orca), and its bows were stove in. This also they managed to
patch up. On December 3rd, they ate the last of the spoiled salt
bread, and their relief when they began on the other was amazing.
Their thirst was terrible, especially as it became necessary to cut the
allowance of food and water in half. They tried from time to time to
catch rain water by means of the sails, but the canvas had been so
often drenched by the spray that the water they caught was as salt as
the sea.

One day they caught half a dozen flying fish, which they ate raw. Mr.
Chase remarks on the delicacy and daintiness of the mouthfuls which
these little fish afforded the starving mariners. They fished for
dolphins and porpoises, but they never caught any, perhaps because they
had nothing with which to bait the hooks. One day, seeking to
alleviate the pangs of thirst by wetting their bodies, three of the men
dropped into the water alongside and clung to the gunwale. One of them
discovered that the boat's bottom was covered with barnacles. They
were {239} ravenously devoured, but proved of little value as food.
The men in the water were so weak that had it not been for the efforts
of three who had remained in the boat, sceptical as to the utility of
the bath, they would never have been able to regain their positions.
During all these experiences, discipline was maintained--indeed, it was
maintained to the very last.

On the 15th of December, they reached Ducie Island, in Long. 124
degrees 40 minutes W., Lat. 24 degrees 40 minutes S., having come some
seventeen hundred miles in twenty-three days in these open boats. They
landed on the island and found a few shell-fish, birds, and a species
of pepper-grass, but no water. The famished men soon consumed
everything eatable they could come at on the island. They hunted high
and low, but it was not until the 22nd that they found a spring of
water. The island was almost desolate. Nothing was to be gained by
remaining there, so the majority concluded to sail for Easter Island,
some nine hundred miles southward. Three men decided to stay on the
island. They all spent a melancholy Christmas there, repairing their
boats and filling their water-breakers, and on the 27th the others took
their departure.

On the 14th of January, 1821