ext half hour. We were encouraged by the appearances of the weather
too, the gale having broken, and promising to abate. The ship grew a
little easier, I thought, and we moved about with more confidence of not
being washed away by the seas that came on board us. After a time, we took
some refreshments, eating the remains of a former meal, and cheered our
hearts a little with a glass or two of good Sherry. Temperance may be very
useful, but so is a glass of good wine, when properly used. Then we went
at it, again, working with a will and with spirit. The wreck aft wanted
very little to carry it over the side, and going aloft with an axe, I
watched my opportunity, cut one or two of the shrouds and stays, just as
the ship lurched heavily to leeward, and got rid of the whole in the sea
handsomely, without further injury to the ship. This was a good
deliverance, the manner in which the spars had threshed about, having
menaced our lives, before. We now attacked the wreck forward, for the last
time, feeling certain we should get it adrift, could we sever the
connection formed by one or two of the larger ropes. The lee-shrouds, in
particular, gave us trouble, it being impossible to get at them, in-board,
the fore channels being half the time under water and the bulwarks in
their wake being all gone. It was, in fact, impossible to stand there to
work long enough to clear, or cut, all the lanyards. Marble was an
adventurous fellow aloft, on all occasions; and seeing good footing about
the top, without saying a word to me, he seized an axe, and literally ran
out on the mast, where he began to cut the collars of the rigging at the
mast-head. This was soon done; but the spars were no sooner clear, than,
impelled by a wave that nearly drowned the mate, the end of the foremast
slid off the forecastle into the sea, leaving the ship virtually clear of
the wreck, but my mate adrift on the last; I say virtually clear, for the
lee fore-top-sail-brace still remained fast to the ship, by some oversight
in clearing away the smaller ropes. The effect of this restraint was to
cause the whole body of the wreck to swing slowly round, until it rode by
this rope, alone.

Here was a new and a most serious state of things! I knew that my mate
would do all that man could perform, situated as he was, but what man
could swim against such a sea, even the short distance that interposed
between the, spars and the ship? The point of the wreck nearest the
ves