berths to seek repose
after the toils of the day, and to gain fresh strength for the
morrow--that morrow which many of them were destined never to behold.

One there was on board the Athenienne, to whose care the safety of the
vessel and the lives of her crew had been entrusted, who appeared to
have misgivings as to the course she was steering. The captain was
seated in his cabin, looking over the chart with one of his officers,
when he exclaimed, 'If the Esquerques do exist, we are now on them,'
Scarcely were the words out of his mouth when the ship struck.

For the information of our readers, we must state that the Esquerques,
or Shirki, are a reef of sunken rocks lying about eighty miles west
from Sicily, and about forty-eight from Cape Bon, on the coast of
Africa. In 1806, the charts were not as accurate as they are in the
present day, and the reef was not laid down in all of them; the very
existence, indeed, of these rocks was positively denied by some
navigators, though it was as positively asserted by others.

It would be vain to attempt to describe the scene that followed the
first shock, on the vessel's striking the rock. Upon the captain's
hastening on deck, he found the crew rushing up from their berths,
many of them in a state of nudity, and so stupified as to be utterly
incapable of making the least effort for their own preservation. Some
went below, and for the moment resigned themselves to despair, while
others rushed to the poop for safety.

In a few minutes, the officers had gathered round their captain. It
needed no words to point out to them the imminence of their danger,
and the necessity of their setting an example of steadiness and
intrepidity to the men. They suffered no signs of dismay to appear in
their demeanour, but immediately proceeded to consider what were the
best steps to be taken to meet the impending danger. The calmness and
courage thus displayed by the captain and his officers could not fail
of having the desired effect upon the ship's company, who recovered
from their panic, and seeing the necessity for instant exertion, held
themselves in readiness to execute each order as it was issued.

In order to prevent the ship falling on her broadside, the masts were
cut away; but she continued to beat so violently upon the rocks, that
in less than half-an-hour she filled with water up to the lower deck
ports, and then fell over to larboard on her beam ends. Captain
Raynsford, foreseein