ea.
This is no uncommon game of Dame Nature's; she seemed to be only
mocking at the destruction which she had wrought.

Knowing that there must be many comrades in trouble, we were early
away, and dancing like a bubble, we ran north, keeping as close
inshore as we could, and watching the coast-line with our glasses. The
coast was littered with remains. Forty-one vessels had been lost; in
one uninhabited roadstead alone, some forty miles away from Indian
Harbour, lay sixteen wrecks. The shore here was lined with rude
shelters made from the wreckage of spars and sails, and the women were
busy cooking meals and "tidying up" the shacks as if they had lived
there always.

We soon set to work hauling off such vessels as would float. One, a
large hardwood, well-fastened hull, we determined to save. Her name
was Pendragon. The owner was aboard--a young man with no experience
who had never previously owned a vessel. He was so appalled at the
disaster that he decided to have her sold piecemeal and broken up. We
attended the auction on the beach and bought each piece as it came to
the hammer. Getting her off was the trouble. We adopted tactics of our
own invention. Mousing together the two mastheads with a bight of
rope, we put on it a large whoop traveller, and to that fastened our
stoutest and longest line. Then first backing down to her on the very
top of high water, we went "full speed ahead." Over she fell on her
side and bumped along on the mud and shingle for a few yards. By
repeated jerks she was eventually ours, but leaking so like a basket
that we feared we should yet lose her. Pumps inside fortunately kept
her free till we passed her topsail under her, and after dropping in
sods and peat, we let the pressure from the outside keep them in
place. When night fell I was played out, and told the crew they must
let her sink. My two volunteer helpers, Albert Gould, of Bowdoin, and
Paul Matheson, of Brown, however, volunteered to pump all night.

While hunting for a crew to take her South we came upon the wreck of a
brand-new boat, only launched two months previously. She had been the
pride of the skipper's life. He was an old friend of mine, and we felt
so sorry for him that we not only got him to take our vessel, but we
handed it over for him to work out at the cost which we had paid for
the pieces. He made a good living out of her for several years, but
later she was lost with all hands on some dangerous shoals near St.