t,
and I did not dare quit the wheel to go forward, lest I should miss it
altogether. I had prepared a grapnel, by placing a small kedge in the
lee-waist, with a hawser bent, and, could I come within a few feet of the
floating hamper, I felt confident of being able to hook into something. It
appeared to me, now, as if the ship absolutely refused to move. Go ahead
she did, notwithstanding, though it was only her own length in five or six
minutes. My hasty glances told me that two more of these lengths would
effect my purpose. I scarce breathed, lest the vessel should not be
steered with sufficient accuracy. It was strange to me that Marble did not
hail, and, fancying him asleep, I shouted with all my energy, in order to
arouse him. 'What a joyful sound that will be in his ears,' I thought to
myself, though to me, my own voice seemed unearthly and alarming. No
answer came. Then I felt a slight shock, as if the cut-water had hit
something, and a low scraping sound against the copper announced that the
ship had hit the wreck. Quitting the wheel, I sprang into the waist,
raising the kedge in my arms. Then came the upper spars wheeling strongly
round, under the pressure of the vessel's bottom against the extremity of
the lower mast. I saw nothing but the great maze of hamper and wreck, and
could scarcely breathe in the anxiety not to miss my aim. There was much
reason to fear the whole mass would float off, leaving me no chance of
throwing the kedge, for the smaller masts no longer inclined in, and I
could see that the ship and wreck were slowly separating. A low thump on
the bottom, directly beneath me, drew my head over the side, and I found
the fore-yard, as it might be, a cock-bill, with one end actually scraping
along the ship's bottom. It was the only chance I had, or was likely to
have, and I threw the kedge athwart it. Luckily, the hawser as it
tautened, brought a fluke directly under the yard, within the Flemish
horse, the brace-block, and all the other ropes that are fitted to a lower
yard-arm. So slow was the motion of the ship, that my grapnel held, and
the entire body of the wreck began to yield to the pressure. I now jumped
to the jib-halyards and down-haul, getting that sail reduced; then I
half-brailed the spanker; this was done lest my hold on the yard
should give way.

I can say, that up to this instant, I had not even looked for Marble. So
intense had been my apprehensions of missing the wreck, that I though