e blue haze, I found it difficult to remove my gaze, but
finally my thought concentrated on the work ahead, and I turned to
urge the oarsmen to a quicker stroke.

The distance was greater than I had supposed it to be from the deck of
the _Santa Marie_, nor did the dark cloud slowly poking up above the
sea to the southeast ease my anxiety to get this task over with,
before a storm broke. The _Namur_ proved to be a more complete wreck
than our distant view had revealed, and lying in a more precarious
position. While the sea was not high, or dangerous, beyond the
headland, the charging billows there broke in foam and were already
playing havoc with the stranded vessel, smashing great spars,
entangled amid canvas and cordage, about so as to render our approach
extremely perilous. We were some time seeking a place where we might
make fast, but finally nosed our way in behind the shelter of a huge
boom, held steady by a splinter of rock, until Harwood got the hank of
his boat hook in the after-chains, and hung on. It was no pleasant job
getting aboard, but ordering Haines to accompany me, and the others to
lie by in the lee of the boom, I made use of a dangling backstay, and
thus hauled myself up to a reasonably secure footing. The fellow
joined me breathless, and together we perched on the rail to gain
view of the deck.

It was a distressing, hopeless sight, the vessel rising before us like
the roof of a house, the deck planks stove in, a horrible jumble of
running rigging, booms and spars, blocking the way forward. Aft it was
clearer, the top-hamper of the after mast having fallen overboard,
smashing a small boat as it fell, but leaving the deck space free.
There were three bodies tangled in the wreckage within our sight,
crushed out of all human resemblance, and the face of a negro, caught
beneath the ruins of the galley, seemed to grin back at me in death.
Every timber groaned as the waves struck, and rocked the sodden mass,
and I had no doubt but that the vessel had already broken in two. I
heard Haines utter an oath.

"By God, sir, did you ever see the like! She can't hang on here."

"Not, long surely," I admitted. "A bit more sea, and she breaks into
kindling wood. If there is any salvage aboard, my man, it will be done
in the next twenty minutes."

"There is no hope o' gittin' forrard, sir--look at that damn litter,
an'--an' them dead men."

"It isn't forward we need to go, Haines; it's aft into the cabin, and