me help the action. "And is this valuable cargo to be allowed to
sink to the bottom of the sea without anyone straining a muscle to save
it? That shall not be, and though every body else is afraid of
remaining on board, I'll undertake to stay by her and do my best to keep
her afloat."

"You'll make your offers to your own captain, sir," said the captain of
the Leviathan, who just then appeared on deck. "If he thinks fit to
accept them, he must be answerable for your life. My officers and I
have come to the decision that to remain on board is certain
destruction. No human power can keep the ship afloat."

To all this I of course said nothing. I had been too long a midshipman
not to know that the less a subordinate differs with his superior
officer the better. I therefore merely stated that the boats I
commanded were at the captain's disposal, to convey him and his people
on board the Charon, or any of the vessels in the convoy.

The captain, I thought, looked not a little sheepish, though he tried to
brazen it out by as pompous a manner as he could assume. For want of
sufficient courage and energy he was not only losing three thousand
pounds, which he would have received on arriving in England, but
allowing a number of other people to lose the hard-won wealth which
might have been theirs. It was a very bitter subject to think of, I
know. The captain had made up his mind to abandon the ship, and
accordingly every boat alongside as well as their own was filled with
the men and their bags, and the officers and their private effects.
Many preferred taking passages in the merchantmen rather than be crowded
up and subject to the discipline of a man-of-war. The captain of the
Leviathan resolved on going on board the Charon, and when he got there
it struck me that Captain Luttrell received him with an expression of
scorn on his countenance which I thought he fully deserved. The men who
had been in the boats declared that from what they saw of the old ship
she would, with a good crew on board, be able to swim for many a day to
come. I of course did not keep silence, but complained bitterly among
my shipmates of the cowardice which had caused so valuable a cargo to be
deserted. Finding that I could get plenty of support I resolved to ask
Commodore Luttrell to let me go on board and try and save the cargo.
When I expressed my intention the whole ship's company begged that they
might be allowed to go with me. I tol