f you
propose such a thing again, sir, I'll break your head as soon as I can
get loose from here. Keep the men in heart." At noon the second mate
came forward with a white face, saying: "The tarpaulin's gone off the
after-hold, sir." The captain was badly put out by hearing this, but he
shouted: "Lash the men how you can, and try to make fast again." While
the men (with ropes round their waists) were wrestling with the
tarpaulin, a wave doubled over the ship, making her shake; and, as the
captain afterwards said, "the fellows were swimming like black-beetles
in a basin of water." One poor "ordinary" went overboard in the wash of
this sea, and nothing could be done for him. At four o'clock the chief
engineer came up, and managed to tell the captain that two fires were
drowned out, and that the firemen would stay below no longer. The
captain asked, "Have you the middle fire?" and receiving an affirmative
answer, he said, "Give the men each half a tumbler of brandy to put some
pluck in them." A merry Irish fireman was so influenced by his dose of
spirit that he joked and coaxed his mates down below again, and once
more the fight was resumed. The sun drooped low, and threw long swords
of light through rifts in the dull grey veil. The captain knew it was
now or never, so he managed to get the men called where they could hear
him, and shouted: "Now, when that sun dips we'll have the warmest
half-hour of all. If she lives through that and the gale breaks, I can
save her. If she doesn't, you must die like men. You should say your
prayers." When the "warm half-hour" came it was something beyond belief.
The "Coquet" was as bare as a newly launched hull before it was over;
then came a kind of long sigh, and the wind relaxed its force. All night
the sea lessened; and at dawn there was but a light air of wind, with no
breaking waves at all. The captain then dared to run before the sea; he
got his vessel round, and she went comfortably away on the steady roll.
He had known all along that if he tried to fetch her round she would
assuredly share the fate of the "London." That steamer was smashed in by
a doubling sea that came over her stern while the captain was trying to
take her about.

The master of the "Coquet" had been seventy-two hours on the bridge, and
he was nearly asleep as he walked. In trying to get to his berth he fell
face foremost, and slept on the cabin-floor in his wet oilskin suit.
When he woke he had a nastier proble