from thirty-six to
seventy feet at the base of the cliffs.

This cove was an extraordinarily difficult place to work in, there
being no beach and the ramparts of rock towering straight from the
water to heights of from one hundred to two hundred feet. Said Captain
Dickinson:

"On viewing this terrific place, with the knowledge that at the time of
the shipwreck the wind was from the southward, I was struck with
astonishment, and it appeared quite a mystery that so great a number of
lives could have been saved; and indeed it will never cease to be so,
for that part at which the crew landed is so difficult of access, that
(even in fine weather), after being placed by a boat on the rock at the
base, it required considerable strength and agility, with the
assistance of a man-rope, to climb the precipitous face of the cliff;
and I am certain that in the hour of extreme peril, when excess of
exertion was called forth, there must have been a most extraordinary
display of it by a few for the benefit of the whole."

Now, this make-shift diving bell of his had to be suspended from
something in order to be raised and lowered, but neither his own ship,
the Lightning, nor any of the other vessels of the salvage fleet could
be anchored in the cove to serve the purpose because of the grave
danger of being caught on a lee shore. At first Captain Dickinson
planned to stretch a cable between the cliffs on either side of the
cove but this was found to be impracticable. Thereupon he proceeded to
fashion a huge derrick from which the diving bell should hang like a
sinker at the end of a fishing-rod. There was no timber on the cape
that was fit to be worked up by the ship carpenters, but these
worthies, Mr. Batt of the _Warspite_ and Mr. Daniel Jones of the
_Lightning_, were not to be daunted by such a trifling matter as this.
If a derrick was needed, they were the men to make it out of nothing.

What they did was to assemble the broken masts and spars that had
drifted ashore from the wreck of the _Thetis_ and patch them together
into one immense derrick arm which with its gear weighed as much as
forty tons. It was a masterpiece of ingenuity and seamanship of the
old-fashioned school, such as can no longer be found in navies. This
breed of handy man at sea belonged with the vanished age of masts and
canvas and "wooden walls."

"Our encampment and the adjacent parts of the island now presented a
bustling, and, I flattered myself, a