vessel left the dock one
passenger at least had felt uneasily that something was wrong--that
there was an unusual commotion among officials and sailors. Still, no
alarm was given, and at dusk the vessel steamed prosperously down the
Humber.

The next day (Thursday, the 6th) the weather changed, the wind blowing
N.N.W., and increasing towards midnight to a perfect gale. On the
morning of Friday, the 7th, a sloop from Montrose, making for South
Shields, saw a small boat labouring hard in the trough of the sea. The
Montrose vessel bore down on it, and in spite of the state of the
weather managed to get the boat's crew on board.

They were nine men in all, the sole survivors, as they believed
themselves to be, of the crew and passengers of the 'Forfarshire,' which
was then lying a total wreck on Longstone, one of the outermost of the
Farne Islands.

It was a wretched story they had to tell of lives thrown away through
carelessness and negligence, unredeemed, as far as their story went, by
any heroism or unselfish courage.

While still in the Humber, and not twenty miles from Hull, it was found
that one of the boilers leaked, but the captain refused to put about.
The pumps were set to work to fill the boiler, and the vessel kept on
her way, though slowly, not passing between the Farne Islands and the
mainland till Thursday evening. It was eight o'clock when they entered
Berwick Bay; the wind freshened and was soon blowing hard from the
N.N.W. The motion of the vessel increased the leakage, and it was now
found that there were holes in all the three boilers. Two men were set
to work the pumps, one or two of the passengers also assisting, but as
fast as the water was pumped into the boilers it poured out again. The
bilge was so full of steam and boiling water that the firemen could not
get to the fires. Still the steamer struggled on, labouring heavily, for
the sea was running very high. At midnight they were off St. Abbs Head,
when the engineers reported that the case was hopeless; the engines had
entirely ceased to work. The ship rolled helplessly in the waves, and
the rocky coast was at no great distance. They ran up the sails fore and
aft to try and keep her off the rocks, and put her round so that she
might run before the wind, and as the tide was setting southward she
drifted fast with wind and tide. Torrents of rain were falling, and in
spite of the wind there was a thick fog. Some of the passengers were
below, ot