ellent seaman,
was temporarily given the post of second mate, until someone more suited
to the position could be found.

At ten o'clock in the morning following our brush with the Malays the
hands were mustered for church parade, as on Sundays, and Kennedy's body
was committed to the deep with all solemnity. Monroe read the burial
service so impressively that even the lad Julius was visibly affected,
while Mrs Vansittart and her daughter--both of them attired in black
for the occasion--wept freely. Three days later we arrived in
Singapore, and on the following day the yacht was docked for examination
and the fitting of the spare propeller.

Upon examination the hull was found to be quite undamaged, yet we must
have hit the wreckage, or whatever it was that we ran foul of, a pretty
severe blow, for not only was the weed completely scoured off the ship's
bottom where contact had occurred, but the anti-fouling composition had
also been removed as effectually as though a scraper had been employed.

We stayed at Singapore exactly a week, and then, with bottom scraped
clean, two fresh coats of anti-fouling composition applied, the outside
of the hull, up to the level of the rail, repainted, and our spare
propeller fitted, we sailed for Hong-Kong. It was Mrs Vansittart's
intention to ship a second and a third mate at Singapore; but she
forbore to do so, no suitable men happening to be available during our
stay. The temporary arrangement was therefore allowed to stand a little
longer, our lady skipper hoping to find what she required at Hong-Kong.

We went to sea in fine weather, and made excellent but uneventful
progress during the first four days of the trip. Then, on our fourth
night out, when we were in the neighbourhood of the Vanguard Bank, the
wind fell light, and finally died away, leaving us becalmed, very much
as had happened with us in the Strait of Malacca. This time, however,
there was neither land nor craft in sight, and we were therefore under
no apprehension of a repetition of our experiences on that occasion. I
ought, by the way, to have stated that upon our arrival at Singapore we
duly reported our adventure to the authorities, with the result that the
British gunboat _Cormorant_ was dispatched to the scene of the outrage.
But we were given to understand that it would probably prove exceedingly
difficult, if not impossible, to lay hands upon the guilty parties; and
as a matter of fact we afterwards l