ine; but
it was speedily broken; and all subsequent attempts proved unavailing,
the strongest adventurers being cast back again by the bursting seas.
Thenceforth, all through that day and night, the deafened survivors must
continue to endure their martyrdom and one officer died, it was supposed
from agony of mind, in his inverted cabin.

Three ships still hung on the next margin of destruction, steaming
desperately to their moorings, dashed helplessly together. The
_Calliope_ was the nearest in; she had the _Vandalia_ close on her port
side and a little ahead, the _Olga_ close a-starboard, the reef under
her heel; and steaming and veering on her cables, the unhappy ship
fenced with her three dangers. About a quarter to nine she carried away
the _Vandalia's_ quarter gallery with her jib-boom; a moment later, the
_Olga_ had near rammed her from the other side. By nine the _Vandalia_
dropped down on her too fast to be avoided, and clapped her stern under
the bowsprit of the English ship, the fastenings of which were burst
asunder as she rose. To avoid cutting her down, it was necessary for the
_Calliope_ to stop and even to reverse her engines; and her rudder was
at the moment--or it seemed so to the eyes of those on board--within ten
feet of the reef. "Between the _Vandalia_ and the reef" (writes Kane, in
his excellent report) "it was destruction." To repeat Fritze's
manoeuvre with the _Adler_ was impossible; the _Calliope_ was too
heavy. The one possibility of escape was to go out. If the engines
should stand, if they should have power to drive the ship against wind
and sea, if she should answer the helm, if the wheel, rudder, and gear
should hold out, and if they were favoured with a clear blink of weather
in which to see and avoid the outer reef--there, and there only, were
safety. Upon this catalogue of "ifs" Kane staked his all. He signalled
to the engineer for every pound of steam--and at that moment (I am told)
much of the machinery was already red-hot. The ship was sheered well to
starboard of the _Vandalia_, the last remaining cable slipped. For a
time--and there was no onlooker so cold-blooded as to offer a guess at
its duration--the _Calliope_ lay stationary; then gradually drew ahead.
The highest speed claimed for her that day is of one sea-mile an hour.
The question of times and seasons, throughout all this roaring business,
is obscured by a dozen contradictions; I have but chosen what appeared
to be the most