t was
this hole, through which the constant burden of water on deck had
poured, that had caused the pumps to be mastered.

After some very hard work the leak was stopped, and the men began to
labour with new heart. The courage of the men had revived, and they
cheered each other on. For four hours the whole crew went at it with a
will; torn and bleeding hands were unheeded, and the thought of death
was put away. All the same the boat was kept ready for leaving the ship;
but just as the night came down and the white crests began to lighten on
the following seas, the pump sucked slightly, and the crew knew that
they might stand by the vessel. For six-and-twenty hours they had been
on deck without a spell; they had been working in an incessant flood of
water; their sleeves had been doubled up, and every man had ugly
salt-water boils on his arms. The little cabin-boy had stuck gallantly
to work with the rest, but both his feet were frost-bitten, and he could
not stand alone. A more deplorable ordeal was never undergone by men,
and nothing but indomitable hardihood could have kept them up. On the
17th of the month they had got so far north that there was scarcely any
daylight in each twenty-four hours. At noon on that day the poor fellows
saw a thing which was not calculated to cheer them. They were looking
gloomily out, when a little brig like their own seemed to start up amid
the driving haze. She laboured past them; and then they watched her
stagger, stop, and founder. Next day they ran into a comparative calm;
and when the "Wansbeck" reached latitude 65 degrees north, the sea fell
away, and the brig was safe. Then the men felt the misery of their
sores; for after they slept for a while the act of unclosing the hands
was terribly painful. The poor boy was very resigned and brave. He could
not be helped in any way, and both his feet had to be cut off when the
vessel reached Malmo.

A few days' fine weather enabled the crew to repair sails and broken
gear; then the "Wansbeck" clawed her way down the Norwegian coast and
got into the "Sleeve." What the men longed for most was tobacco; and
when at the end of some days' sailing they sighted a Dutch galliot they
boarded her, and the poor English scarecrows were helped liberally. That
night was passed in smoking and a blessed forgetfulness of pain. The
"Wansbeck" was given up at home, and some women had put on mourning
before she was heard of. Nothing could have saved her had not