, and I seldom saw him speaking to any one else. We
had had particularly fine weather during the greater part of the
passage, when the ship was caught in a tremendous gale. During it the
masts were carried away, several of the hands--Lascars and Englishmen--
were lost overboard, while she sprung a leak, which kept all the crew
hard at work at the pumps.

"It became evident, indeed, before long, that unless the weather
moderated the ship would go down. We had four boats remaining, but as
they would not carry a third of the people on board, the captain ordered
all hands to turn to and build rafts. We were thus employed when night
came on; such a night I never before had seen. The thunder roared and
the lightning flashed around us, as if it would set the ship on fire.
Some hours passed away; we could get on but slowly with our work. I was
on the after-part of the deck, when I remember seeing the gentleman I
have spoken of come up and make an offer to the captain to lend a hand
at whatever might be required to be done. I observed at the time that
he had a small case hanging to his side. He did not seem to think that
there was any danger of the ship going down for many hours to come; nor
indeed did any one; for the leaks were gaining but little on the pumps,
although they were gaining. He seemed so well to understand what he was
about that I suspected he was a naval officer. We worked away hard, and
it was nearly morning, when a dreadful peal of thunder, such as I had
never heard before, broke over our heads, and it's my belief that a bolt
passed right through the ship. Be that as it may, a fearful cry arose
that she was going down. The people rushed to the boats. Discipline
was at an end. The gentleman I spoke of shouted to the men, trying to
bring them back to their duty. Then I saw him, when all hope of doing
so had gone, hurry into the cuddy. Directly afterwards he came out with
his wife and child, together with the nurse. Supposing, I fancy, that
the boats were already full, or would be swamped alongside, he secured
the nurse to the raft we had been building, and had given her the child
to hold, calling on me and others to assist in launching it overboard,
intending to take his place with his wife upon it. He was in the act of
securing her--so it seemed to me--when the ship gave a fearful plunge
forward, and a roaring sea swept over her. I at once saw that she would
never rise again. On came the foami