was that, when the gale struck the _Aurora_, her main-topsail,
which was a-shiver, was blown clean out of the bolt-ropes in an instant,
as also was the foresail and the partially-stowed main-sail; whilst the
fore-topsail was strongly filled at once, and being luckily a new sail,
and standing the strain upon it bravely, it quickly began to drag the
ship through the water. As soon as she gathered way, her bows began to
pay off, and presently she recovered her upright position with a jerk
which snapped both her topgallant-masts close off by the caps.

The wheel was now righted, and away the _Aurora_ went, scudding dead
before it, under her close-reefed fore-topsail only. The crew now made
the best of their way down on deck, the head-yards were squared, and an
effort was made to clear away the wreck, two of the men volunteering
for, and succeeding in, the dangerous task of going aloft to cut away
the fore and main-topgallant rigging.

George now had time to look about him a little, and observe the state of
affairs prevailing outside his own ship. On all sides were to be seen
ships--men-o'-war as well as merchantmen--scudding, like his own, before
the irresistible fury of the gale. Nearly every ship had suffered
damage of some sort, either to sails, spars, or rigging; and out of them
all, very few had come better out of the first buffet than the _Aurora_.
Here was to be seen a craft with topgallant-masts and jib-boom gone,
and her canvas hanging from her yards in long tattered streamers; there
another with nothing standing above her lower mastheads; here a barque
with her main-yard carried away; there a stately ship with her
mizzenmast and all attached still towing astern, and the _crew_ busy
cutting away at the rigging which held the shattered spar; here another
fine ship, totally dismasted; and there, now far astern, more than one
dark object lying low in the water, and but imperfectly seen through the
flying spindrift, which George Leicester knew only too well were the
hulls of ships which had capsized, and whose crews would be left to
perish miserably, since no human power could possibly save them in an
hour like that.

It soon became evident to the crew of the _Aurora_, that though they had
so far escaped with comparatively slight damage, they could certainly
not regard their ship as by any means free from peril so long as they
remained in the company of the rest of the fleet. So many ships
scudding together alm