econd lieutenant, at once went aloft to the foretopmast crosstrees
to have a look at it through his telescope. A single glance sufficed to
acquaint him with the fact that the object, which was about six miles
distant, was a raft with people upon it, who were making such signals as
it was in their power to make with the object of attracting our
attention. Upon the receipt of this news on deck Captain Vernon at once
ordered the ship's course to be altered to the direction of the raft, a
gun being fired and the ensign run up to the gaff-end at the same time.

It was a trifle past noon when the _Daphne_ rounded-to about a hundred
yards to windward of the raft, and sent away a boat to pick up those
upon it. It was a wretched make-shift structure, composed of a spar or
two, some half-burned hen-coops, and a few pieces of charred bulwark-
planking; and was so small that there was scarcely room on it for the
fourteen persons it sustained. It was a most fortunate circumstance for
them that the weather happened to be fine at the time; for had there
been any great amount of sea running, the crazy concern could not have
been kept together for half an hour. We concluded from the appearance
of the affair that the castaways had been burned out of their ship; and
so they had, but not in the manner we supposed. As we closed with the
raft it was seen that several sharks were cruising longingly round and
round it, and occasionally charging at it, evidently in the hope of
being able to drag off some of its occupants. So pertinacious were
these ravenous fish that the boat's crew had to fairly fight their way
through them, and even to beat them off with the oars and stretchers
when they had got alongside. However, the poor wretches were rescued
without accident; and in a quarter of an hour from the time of
despatching the boat she was once more swinging at the davits, with the
rescued men, most of whom were suffering more or less severely from
burns, safely below in charge of the doctor and his assistant. Later
on, when their injuries had been attended to and the cravings of their
hunger and thirst satisfied--they had neither eaten nor drunk during the
previous forty-two hours--Captain Vernon sent for the skipper of the
rescued crew, to learn from him an account of the mishap.

His story, as related to me by him during the second dog-watch, was to
the following effect:--

"My name is Richards, and my ship, which hailed from Liverpo