THE WRECK OF THE GOLDEN MARY THE WRECK I was apprenticed to the Sea when I was twelve years old, and I haveencountered a great deal of rough weather, both literal and metaphorical. It has always been my opinion since I first possessed such a thing as anopinion, that the man who knows only one subject is next tiresome to theman who knows no subject. Therefore, in the course of my life I havetaught myself whatever I could, and although I am not an educated man, Iam able, I am thankful to say, to have an intelligent interest in mostthings. A person might suppose, from reading the above, that I am in the habit ofholding forth about number one. That is not the case. Just as if I wasto come into a room among strangers, and must either be introduced orintroduce myself, so I have taken the liberty of passing these fewremarks, simply and plainly that it may be known who and what I am. Iwill add no more of the sort than that my name is William GeorgeRavender, that I was born at Penrith half a year after my own father wasdrowned, and that I am on the second day of this present blessedChristmas week of one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, fifty-sixyears of age. When the rumour first went flying up and down that there was gold inCalifornia--which, as most people know, was before it was discovered inthe British colony of Australia--I was in the West Indies, trading amongthe Islands. Being in command and likewise part-owner of a smartschooner, I had my work cut out for me, and I was doing it. Consequently, gold in California was no business of mine. But, by the time when I came home to England again, the thing was asclear as your hand held up before you at noon-day. There was Californiangold in the museums and in the goldsmiths' shops, and the very first timeI went upon 'Change, I met a friend of mine (a seafaring man likemyself), with a Californian nugget hanging to his watch-chain. I handledit. It was as like a peeled walnut with bits unevenly broken off hereand there, and then electrotyped all over, as ever I saw anything in mylife. I am a single man (she was too good for this world and for me, and shedied six weeks before our marriage-day), so when I am ashore, I live inmy house at Poplar. My house at Poplar is taken care of and kept ship-shape by an old lady who was my mother's maid before I was born. She isas handsome and as upright as any old lady in the world. She is as fondof me as if she had ever had an only son, and I was he. Well do I knowwherever I sail that she never lays down her head at night without havingsaid, "Merciful Lord! bless and preserve William George Ravender, andsend him safe home, through Christ our Saviour!" I have thought of it inmany a dangerous moment, when it has done me no harm, I am sure. In my house at Poplar, along with this old lady, I lived quiet for bestpart of a year: having had a long spell of it among the Islands, andhaving (which was very uncommon in me) taken the fever rather badly. Atlast, being strong and hearty, and having read every book I could layhold of, right out, I was walking down Leadenhall Street in the City ofLondon, thinking of turning-to again, when I met what I call Smithick andWatersby of Liverpool. I chanced to lift up my eyes from looking in at aship's chronometer in a window, and I saw him bearing down upon me, headon. It is, personally, neither Smithick, nor Watersby, that I here mention, nor was I ever acquainted with any man of either of those names, nor do Ithink that there has been any one of either of those names in thatLiverpool House for years back. But, it is in reality the House itselfthat I refer to; and a wiser merchant or a truer gentleman never stepped. "My dear Captain Ravender, " says he. "Of all the men on earth, I wantedto see you most. I was on my way to you. " "Well!" says I. "That looks as if you _were_ to see me, don't it?" Withthat I put my arm in his, and we walked on towards the Royal Exchange, and when we got there, walked up and down at the back of it where theClock-Tower is. We walked an hour and more, for he had much to say tome. He had a scheme for chartering a new ship of their own to take outcargo to the diggers and emigrants in California, and to buy and bringback gold. Into the particulars of that scheme I will not enter, and Ihave no right to enter. All I say of it is, that it was a very originalone, a very fine one, a very sound one, and a very lucrative one beyonddoubt. He imparted it to me as freely as if I had been a part of himself. Afterdoing so, he made me the handsomest sharing offer that ever was made tome, boy or man--or I believe to any other captain in the MerchantNavy--and he took this round turn to finish with: "Ravender, you are well aware that the lawlessness of that coast andcountry at present, is as special as the circumstances in which it isplaced. Crews of vessels outward-bound, desert as soon as they make theland; crews of vessels homeward-bound, ship at enormous wages, with theexpress intention of murdering the captain and seizing the gold freight;no man can trust another, and the devil seems let loose. Now, " says he, "you know my opinion of you, and you know I am only expressing it, andwith no singularity, when I tell you that you are almost the only man onwhose integrity, discretion, and energy--" &c. , &c. For, I don't want torepeat what he said, though I was and am sensible of it. Notwithstanding my being, as I have mentioned, quite ready for a voyage, still I had some doubts of this voyage. Of course I knew, without beingtold, that there were peculiar difficulties and dangers in it, a long wayover and above those which attend all voyages. It must not be supposedthat I was afraid to face them; but, in my opinion a man has no manlymotive or sustainment in his own breast for facing dangers, unless he haswell considered what they are, and is able quietly to say to himself, "None of these perils can now take me by surprise; I shall know what todo for the best in any of them; all the rest lies in the higher andgreater hands to which I humbly commit myself. " On this principle I haveso attentively considered (regarding it as my duty) all the hazards Ihave ever been able to think of, in the ordinary way of storm, shipwreck, and fire at sea, that I hope I should be prepared to do, in any of thosecases, whatever could be done, to save the lives intrusted to my charge. As I was thoughtful, my good friend proposed that he should leave me towalk there as long as I liked, and that I should dine with him by-and-byat his club in Pall Mall. I accepted the invitation and I walked up anddown there, quarter-deck fashion, a matter of a couple of hours; now andthen looking up at the weathercock as I might have looked up aloft; andnow and then taking a look into Cornhill, as I might have taken a lookover the side. All dinner-time, and all after dinner-time, we talked it over again. Igave him my views of his plan, and he very much approved of the same. Itold him I had nearly decided, but not quite. "Well, well, " says he, "come down to Liverpool to-morrow with me, and see the Golden Mary. " Iliked the name (her name was Mary, and she was golden, if golden standsfor good), so I began to feel that it was almost done when I said I wouldgo to Liverpool. On the next morning but one we were on board the GoldenMary. I might have known, from his asking me to come down and see her, what she was. I declare her to have been the completest and mostexquisite Beauty that ever I set my eyes upon. We had inspected every timber in her, and had come back to the gangway togo ashore from the dock-basin, when I put out my hand to my friend. "Touch upon it, " says I, "and touch heartily. I take command of thisship, and I am hers and yours, if I can get John Steadiman for my chiefmate. " John Steadiman had sailed with me four voyages. The first voyage Johnwas third mate out to China, and came home second. The other threevoyages he was my first officer. At this time of chartering the GoldenMary, he was aged thirty-two. A brisk, bright, blue-eyed fellow, a veryneat figure and rather under the middle size, never out of the way andnever in it, a face that pleased everybody and that all children took to, a habit of going about singing as cheerily as a blackbird, and a perfectsailor. We were in one of those Liverpool hackney-coaches in less than a minute, and we cruised about in her upwards of three hours, looking for John. John had come home from Van Diemen's Land barely a month before, and Ihad heard of him as taking a frisk in Liverpool. We asked after him, among many other places, at the two boarding-houses he was fondest of, and we found he had had a week's spell at each of them; but, he had gonehere and gone there, and had set off "to lay out on the main-to'-gallant-yard of the highest Welsh mountain" (so he had told the people of thehouse), and where he might be then, or when he might come back, nobodycould tell us. But it was surprising, to be sure, to see how every facebrightened the moment there was mention made of the name of Mr. Steadiman. We were taken aback at meeting with no better luck, and we had wore shipand put her head for my friends, when as we were jogging through thestreets, I clap my eyes on John himself coming out of a toyshop! He wascarrying a little boy, and conducting two uncommon pretty women to theircoach, and he told me afterwards that he had never in his life seen oneof the three before, but that he was so taken with them on looking in atthe toyshop while they were buying the child a cranky Noah's Ark, verymuch down by the head, that he had gone in and asked the ladies'permission to treat him to a tolerably correct Cutter there was in thewindow, in order that such a handsome boy might not grow up with alubberly idea of naval architecture. We stood off and on until the ladies' coachman began to give way, andthen we hailed John. On his coming aboard of us, I told him, verygravely, what I had said to my friend. It struck him, as he saidhimself, amidships. He was quite shaken by it. "Captain Ravender, " wereJohn Steadiman's words, "such an opinion from you is true commendation, and I'll sail round the world with you for twenty years if you hoist thesignal, and stand by you for ever!" And now indeed I felt that it wasdone, and that the Golden Mary was afloat. Grass never grew yet under the feet of Smithick and Watersby. Theriggers were out of that ship in a fortnight's time, and we had beguntaking in cargo. John was always aboard, seeing everything stowed withhis own eyes; and whenever I went aboard myself early or late, whether hewas below in the hold, or on deck at the hatchway, or overhauling hiscabin, nailing up pictures in it of the Blush Roses of England, the BlueBelles of Scotland, and the female Shamrock of Ireland: of a certainty Iheard John singing like a blackbird. We had room for twenty passengers. Our sailing advertisement was nosooner out, than we might have taken these twenty times over. Inentering our men, I and John (both together) picked them, and we enterednone but good hands--as good as were to be found in that port. And so, in a good ship of the best build, well owned, well arranged, wellofficered, well manned, well found in all respects, we parted with ourpilot at a quarter past four o'clock in the afternoon of the seventh ofMarch, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, and stood with a fairwind out to sea. It may be easily believed that up to that time I had had no leisure to beintimate with my passengers. The most of them were then in their berthssea-sick; however, in going among them, telling them what was good forthem, persuading them not to be there, but to come up on deck and feelthe breeze, and in rousing them with a joke, or a comfortable word, Imade acquaintance with them, perhaps, in a more friendly and confidentialway from the first, than I might have done at the cabin table. Of my passengers, I need only particularise, just at present, a bright-eyed blooming young wife who was going out to join her husband inCalifornia, taking with her their only child, a little girl of threeyears old, whom he had never seen; a sedate young woman in black, somefive years older (about thirty as I should say), who was going out tojoin a brother; and an old gentleman, a good deal like a hawk if his eyeshad been better and not so red, who was always talking, morning, noon, and night, about the gold discovery. But, whether he was making thevoyage, thinking his old arms could dig for gold, or whether hisspeculation was to buy it, or to barter for it, or to cheat for it, or tosnatch it anyhow from other people, was his secret. He kept his secret. These three and the child were the soonest well. The child was a mostengaging child, to be sure, and very fond of me: though I am bound toadmit that John Steadiman and I were borne on her pretty little books inreverse order, and that he was captain there, and I was mate. It wasbeautiful to watch her with John, and it was beautiful to watch John withher. Few would have thought it possible, to see John playing at bo-peepround the mast, that he was the man who had caught up an iron bar andstruck a Malay and a Maltese dead, as they were gliding with their knivesdown the cabin stair aboard the barque Old England, when the captain layill in his cot, off Saugar Point. But he was; and give him his backagainst a bulwark, he would have done the same by half a dozen of them. The name of the young mother was Mrs. Atherfield, the name of the younglady in black was Miss Coleshaw, and the name of the old gentleman wasMr. Rarx. As the child had a quantity of shining fair hair, clustering in curls allabout her face, and as her name was Lucy, Steadiman gave her the name ofthe Golden Lucy. So, we had the Golden Lucy and the Golden Mary; andJohn kept up the idea to that extent as he and the child went playingabout the decks, that I believe she used to think the ship was alivesomehow--a sister or companion, going to the same place as herself. Sheliked to be by the wheel, and in fine weather, I have often stood by theman whose trick it was at the wheel, only to hear her, sitting near myfeet, talking to the ship. Never had a child such a doll before, Isuppose; but she made a doll of the Golden Mary, and used to dress her upby tying ribbons and little bits of finery to the belaying-pins; andnobody ever moved them, unless it was to save them from being blown away. Of course I took charge of the two young women, and I called them "mydear, " and they never minded, knowing that whatever I said was said in afatherly and protecting spirit. I gave them their places on each side ofme at dinner, Mrs. Atherfield on my right and Miss Coleshaw on my left;and I directed the unmarried lady to serve out the breakfast, and themarried lady to serve out the tea. Likewise I said to my black stewardin their presence, "Tom Snow, these two ladies are equally the mistressesof this house, and do you obey their orders equally;" at which Tomlaughed, and they all laughed. Old Mr. Rarx was not a pleasant man to look at, nor yet to talk to, or tobe with, for no one could help seeing that he was a sordid and selfishcharacter, and that he had warped further and further out of the straightwith time. Not but what he was on his best behaviour with us, aseverybody was; for we had no bickering among us, for'ard or aft. I onlymean to say, he was not the man one would have chosen for a messmate. Ifchoice there had been, one might even have gone a few points out of one'scourse, to say, "No! Not him!" But, there was one curious inconsistencyin Mr. Rarx. That was, that he took an astonishing interest in thechild. He looked, and I may add, he was, one of the last of men to careat all for a child, or to care much for any human creature. Still, hewent so far as to be habitually uneasy, if the child was long on deck, out of his sight. He was always afraid of her falling overboard, orfalling down a hatchway, or of a block or what not coming down upon herfrom the rigging in the working of the ship, or of her getting some hurtor other. He used to look at her and touch her, as if she was somethingprecious to him. He was always solicitous about her not injuring herhealth, and constantly entreated her mother to be careful of it. Thiswas so much the more curious, because the child did not like him, butused to shrink away from him, and would not even put out her hand to himwithout coaxing from others. I believe that every soul on boardfrequently noticed this, and not one of us understood it. However, itwas such a plain fact, that John Steadiman said more than once when oldMr. Rarx was not within earshot, that if the Golden Mary felt atenderness for the dear old gentleman she carried in her lap, she must bebitterly jealous of the Golden Lucy. Before I go any further with this narrative, I will state that our shipwas a barque of three hundred tons, carrying a crew of eighteen men, asecond mate in addition to John, a carpenter, an armourer or smith, andtwo apprentices (one a Scotch boy, poor little fellow). We had threeboats; the Long-boat, capable of carrying twenty-five men; the Cutter, capable of carrying fifteen; and the Surf-boat, capable of carrying ten. I put down the capacity of these boats according to the numbers they werereally meant to hold. We had tastes of bad weather and head-winds, of course; but, on the wholewe had as fine a run as any reasonable man could expect, for sixty days. I then began to enter two remarks in the ship's Log and in my Journal;first, that there was an unusual and amazing quantity of ice; second, that the nights were most wonderfully dark, in spite of the ice. For five days and a half, it seemed quite useless and hopeless to alterthe ship's course so as to stand out of the way of this ice. I made whatsouthing I could; but, all that time, we were beset by it. Mrs. Atherfield after standing by me on deck once, looking for some time in anawed manner at the great bergs that surrounded us, said in a whisper, "O!Captain Ravender, it looks as if the whole solid earth had changed intoice, and broken up!" I said to her, laughing, "I don't wonder that itdoes, to your inexperienced eyes, my dear. " But I had never seen atwentieth part of the quantity, and, in reality, I was pretty much of heropinion. However, at two p. M. On the afternoon of the sixth day, that is to say, when we were sixty-six days out, John Steadiman who had gone aloft, sangout from the top, that the sea was clear ahead. Before four p. M. Astrong breeze springing up right astern, we were in open water at sunset. The breeze then freshening into half a gale of wind, and the Golden Marybeing a very fast sailer, we went before the wind merrily, all night. I had thought it impossible that it could be darker than it had been, until the sun, moon, and stars should fall out of the Heavens, and Timeshould be destroyed; but, it had been next to light, in comparison withwhat it was now. The darkness was so profound, that looking into it waspainful and oppressive--like looking, without a ray of light, into adense black bandage put as close before the eyes as it could be, withouttouching them. I doubled the look-out, and John and I stood in the bowside-by-side, never leaving it all night. Yet I should no more haveknown that he was near me when he was silent, without putting out my armand touching him, than I should if he had turned in and been fast asleepbelow. We were not so much looking out, all of us, as listening to theutmost, both with our eyes and ears. Next day, I found that the mercury in the barometer, which had risensteadily since we cleared the ice, remained steady. I had had very goodobservations, with now and then the interruption of a day or so, sinceour departure. I got the sun at noon, and found that we were in Lat. 58degrees S. , Long. 60 degrees W. , off New South Shetland; in theneighbourhood of Cape Horn. We were sixty-seven days out, that day. Theship's reckoning was accurately worked and made up. The ship did herduty admirably, all on board were well, and all hands were as smart, efficient, and contented, as it was possible to be. When the night came on again as dark as before, it was the eighth night Ihad been on deck. Nor had I taken more than a very little sleep in theday-time, my station being always near the helm, and often at it, whilewe were among the ice. Few but those who have tried it can imagine thedifficulty and pain of only keeping the eyes open--physically open--undersuch circumstances, in such darkness. They get struck by the darkness, and blinded by the darkness. They make patterns in it, and they flash init, as if they had gone out of your head to look at you. On the turn ofmidnight, John Steadiman, who was alert and fresh (for I had always madehim turn in by day), said to me, "Captain Ravender, I entreat of you togo below. I am sure you can hardly stand, and your voice is gettingweak, sir. Go below, and take a little rest. I'll call you if a blockchafes. " I said to John in answer, "Well, well, John! Let us wait tillthe turn of one o'clock, before we talk about that. " I had just had oneof the ship's lanterns held up, that I might see how the night went by mywatch, and it was then twenty minutes after twelve. At five minutes before one, John sang out to the boy to bring the lanternagain, and when I told him once more what the time was, entreated andprayed of me to go below. "Captain Ravender, " says he, "all's well; wecan't afford to have you laid up for a single hour; and I respectfullyand earnestly beg of you to go below. " The end of it was, that I agreedto do so, on the understanding that if I failed to come up of my ownaccord within three hours, I was to be punctually called. Having settledthat, I left John in charge. But I called him to me once afterwards, toask him a question. I had been to look at the barometer, and had seenthe mercury still perfectly steady, and had come up the companion againto take a last look about me--if I can use such a word in reference tosuch darkness--when I thought that the waves, as the Golden Mary partedthem and shook them off, had a hollow sound in them; something that Ifancied was a rather unusual reverberation. I was standing by thequarter-deck rail on the starboard side, when I called John aft to me, and bade him listen. He did so with the greatest attention. Turning tome he then said, "Rely upon it, Captain Ravender, you have been withoutrest too long, and the novelty is only in the state of your sense ofhearing. " I thought so too by that time, and I think so now, though Ican never know for absolute certain in this world, whether it was or not. When I left John Steadiman in charge, the ship was still going at a greatrate through the water. The wind still blew right astern. Though shewas making great way, she was under shortened sail, and had no more thanshe could easily carry. All was snug, and nothing complained. There wasa pretty sea running, but not a very high sea neither, nor at all aconfused one. I turned in, as we seamen say, all standing. The meaning of that is, Idid not pull my clothes off--no, not even so much as my coat: though Idid my shoes, for my feet were badly swelled with the deck. There was alittle swing-lamp alight in my cabin. I thought, as I looked at itbefore shutting my eyes, that I was so tired of darkness, and troubled bydarkness, that I could have gone to sleep best in the midst of a millionof flaming gas-lights. That was the last thought I had before I wentoff, except the prevailing thought that I should not be able to get tosleep at all. I dreamed that I was back at Penrith again, and was trying to get roundthe church, which had altered its shape very much since I last saw it, and was cloven all down the middle of the steeple in a most singularmanner. Why I wanted to get round the church I don't know; but I was asanxious to do it as if my life depended on it. Indeed, I believe it didin the dream. For all that, I could not get round the church. I wasstill trying, when I came against it with a violent shock, and was flungout of my cot against the ship's side. Shrieks and a terrific outcrystruck me far harder than the bruising timbers, and amidst sounds ofgrinding and crashing, and a heavy rushing and breaking of water--soundsI understood too well--I made my way on deck. It was not an easy thingto do, for the ship heeled over frightfully, and was beating in a furiousmanner. I could not see the men as I went forward, but I could hear that theywere hauling in sail, in disorder. I had my trumpet in my hand, and, after directing and encouraging them in this till it was done, I hailedfirst John Steadiman, and then my second mate, Mr. William Rames. Bothanswered clearly and steadily. Now, I had practised them and all mycrew, as I have ever made it a custom to practise all who sail with me, to take certain stations and wait my orders, in case of any unexpectedcrisis. When my voice was heard hailing, and their voices were heardanswering, I was aware, through all the noises of the ship and sea, andall the crying of the passengers below, that there was a pause. "Are youready, Rames?"--"Ay, ay, sir!"--"Then light up, for God's sake!" In amoment he and another were burning blue-lights, and the ship and all onboard seemed to be enclosed in a mist of light, under a great black dome. The light shone up so high that I could see the huge Iceberg upon whichwe had struck, cloven at the top and down the middle, exactly likePenrith Church in my dream. At the same moment I could see the watchlast relieved, crowding up and down on deck; I could see Mrs. Atherfieldand Miss Coleshaw thrown about on the top of the companion as theystruggled to bring the child up from below; I could see that the mastswere going with the shock and the beating of the ship; I could see thefrightful breach stove in on the starboard side, half the length of thevessel, and the sheathing and timbers spirting up; I could see that theCutter was disabled, in a wreck of broken fragments; and I could seeevery eye turned upon me. It is my belief that if there had been tenthousand eyes there, I should have seen them all, with their differentlooks. And all this in a moment. But you must consider what a moment. I saw the men, as they looked at me, fall towards their appointedstations, like good men and true. If she had not righted, they couldhave done very little there or anywhere but die--not that it is littlefor a man to die at his post--I mean they could have done nothing to savethe passengers and themselves. Happily, however, the violence of theshock with which we had so determinedly borne down direct on that fatalIceberg, as if it had been our destination instead of our destruction, had so smashed and pounded the ship that she got off in this same instantand righted. I did not want the carpenter to tell me she was filling andgoing down; I could see and hear that. I gave Rames the word to lowerthe Long-boat and the Surf-boat, and I myself told off the men for eachduty. Not one hung back, or came before the other. I now whispered toJohn Steadiman, "John, I stand at the gangway here, to see every soul onboard safe over the side. You shall have the next post of honour, andshall be the last but one to leave the ship. Bring up the passengers, and range them behind me; and put what provision and water you can gotat, in the boats. Cast your eye for'ard, John, and you'll see you havenot a moment to lose. " My noble fellows got the boats over the side as orderly as I ever sawboats lowered with any sea running, and, when they were launched, two orthree of the nearest men in them as they held on, rising and falling withthe swell, called out, looking up at me, "Captain Ravender, if anythinggoes wrong with us, and you are saved, remember we stood by you!"--"We'llall stand by one another ashore, yet, please God, my lads!" says I. "Holdon bravely, and be tender with the women. " The women were an example to us. They trembled very much, but they werequiet and perfectly collected. "Kiss me, Captain Ravender, " says Mrs. Atherfield, "and God in heaven bless you, you good man!" "My dear, " saysI, "those words are better for me than a life-boat. " I held her child inmy arms till she was in the boat, and then kissed the child and handedher safe down. I now said to the people in her, "You have got yourfreight, my lads, all but me, and I am not coming yet awhile. Pull awayfrom the ship, and keep off!" That was the Long-boat. Old Mr. Rarx was one of her complement, and hewas the only passenger who had greatly misbehaved since the ship struck. Others had been a little wild, which was not to be wondered at, and notvery blamable; but, he had made a lamentation and uproar which it wasdangerous for the people to hear, as there is always contagion inweakness and selfishness. His incessant cry had been that he must not beseparated from the child, that he couldn't see the child, and that he andthe child must go together. He had even tried to wrest the child out ofmy arms, that he might keep her in his. "Mr. Rarx, " said I to him whenit came to that, "I have a loaded pistol in my pocket; and if you don'tstand out of the gangway, and keep perfectly quiet, I shall shoot youthrough the heart, if you have got one. " Says he, "You won't do murder, Captain Ravender!" "No, sir, " says I, "I won't murder forty-four peopleto humour you, but I'll shoot you to save them. " After that he wasquiet, and stood shivering a little way off, until I named him to go overthe side. The Long-boat being cast off, the Surf-boat was soon filled. There onlyremained aboard the Golden Mary, John Mullion the man who had kept onburning the blue-lights (and who had lighted every new one at every oldone before it went out, as quietly as if he had been at an illumination);John Steadiman; and myself. I hurried those two into the Surf-boat, called to them to keep off, and waited with a grateful and relieved heartfor the Long-boat to come and take me in, if she could. I looked at mywatch, and it showed me, by the blue-light, ten minutes past two. Theylost no time. As soon as she was near enough, I swung myself into her, and called to the men, "With a will, lads! She's reeling!" We were notan inch too far out of the inner vortex of her going down, when, by theblue-light which John Mullion still burnt in the bow of the Surf-boat, wesaw her lurch, and plunge to the bottom head-foremost. The child cried, weeping wildly, "O the dear Golden Mary! O look at her! Save her! Savethe poor Golden Mary!" And then the light burnt out, and the black domeseemed to come down upon us. I suppose if we had all stood a-top of a mountain, and seen the wholeremainder of the world sink away from under us, we could hardly have feltmore shocked and solitary than we did when we knew we were alone on thewide ocean, and that the beautiful ship in which most of us had beensecurely asleep within half an hour was gone for ever. There was anawful silence in our boat, and such a kind of palsy on the rowers and theman at the rudder, that I felt they were scarcely keeping her before thesea. I spoke out then, and said, "Let every one here thank the Lord forour preservation!" All the voices answered (even the child's), "We thankthe Lord!" I then said the Lord's Prayer, and all hands said it after mewith a solemn murmuring. Then I gave the word "Cheerily, O men, Cheerily!" and I felt that they were handling the boat again as a boatought to be handled. The Surf-boat now burnt another blue-light to show us where they were, and we made for her, and laid ourselves as nearly alongside of her as wedared. I had always kept my boats with a coil or two of good stout stuffin each of them, so both boats had a rope at hand. We made a shift, withmuch labour and trouble, to got near enough to one another to divide theblue-lights (they were no use after that night, for the sea-water soongot at them), and to get a tow-rope out between us. All night long wekept together, sometimes obliged to cast off the rope, and sometimesgetting it out again, and all of us wearying for the morning--whichappeared so long in coming that old Mr. Rarx screamed out, in spite ofhis fears of me, "The world is drawing to an end, and the sun will neverrise any more!" When the day broke, I found that we were all huddled together in amiserable manner. We were deep in the water; being, as I found onmustering, thirty-one in number, or at least six too many. In the Surf-boat they were fourteen in number, being at least four too many. Thefirst thing I did, was to get myself passed to the rudder--which I tookfrom that time--and to get Mrs. Atherfield, her child, and Miss Coleshaw, passed on to sit next me. As to old Mr. Rarx, I put him in the bow, asfar from us as I could. And I put some of the best men near us in orderthat if I should drop there might be a skilful hand ready to take thehelm. The sea moderating as the sun came up, though the sky was cloudy andwild, we spoke the other boat, to know what stores they had, and tooverhaul what we had. I had a compass in my pocket, a small telescope, adouble-barrelled pistol, a knife, and a fire-box and matches. Most of mymen had knives, and some had a little tobacco: some, a pipe as well. Wehad a mug among us, and an iron spoon. As to provisions, there were inmy boat two bags of biscuit, one piece of raw beef, one piece of rawpork, a bag of coffee, roasted but not ground (thrown in, I imagine, bymistake, for something else), two small casks of water, and about half-a-gallon of rum in a keg. The Surf-boat, having rather more rum than we, and fewer to drink it, gave us, as I estimated, another quart into ourkeg. In return, we gave them three double handfuls of coffee, tied up ina piece of a handkerchief; they reported that they had aboard besides, abag of biscuit, a piece of beef, a small cask of water, a small box oflemons, and a Dutch cheese. It took a long time to make these exchanges, and they were not made without risk to both parties; the sea runningquite high enough to make our approaching near to one another veryhazardous. In the bundle with the coffee, I conveyed to John Steadiman(who had a ship's compass with him), a paper written in pencil, and tornfrom my pocket-book, containing the course I meant to steer, in the hopeof making land, or being picked up by some vessel--I say in the hope, though I had little hope of either deliverance. I then sang out to him, so as all might hear, that if we two boats could live or die together, wewould; but, that if we should be parted by the weather, and join companyno more, they should have our prayers and blessings, and we asked fortheirs. We then gave them three cheers, which they returned, and I sawthe men's heads droop in both boats as they fell to their oars again. These arrangements had occupied the general attention advantageously forall, though (as I expressed in the last sentence) they ended in asorrowful feeling. I now said a few words to my fellow-voyagers on thesubject of the small stock of food on which our lives depended if theywere preserved from the great deep, and on the rigid necessity of oureking it out in the most frugal manner. One and all replied thatwhatever allowance I thought best to lay down should be strictly kept to. We made a pair of scales out of a thin scrap of iron-plating and sometwine, and I got together for weights such of the heaviest buttons amongus as I calculated made up some fraction over two ounces. This was theallowance of solid food served out once a-day to each, from that time tothe end; with the addition of a coffee-berry, or sometimes half a one, when the weather was very fair, for breakfast. We had nothing elsewhatever, but half a pint of water each per day, and sometimes, when wewere coldest and weakest, a teaspoonful of rum each, served out as adram. I know how learnedly it can be shown that rum is poison, but Ialso know that in this case, as in all similar cases I have ever readof--which are numerous--no words can express the comfort and supportderived from it. Nor have I the least doubt that it saved the lives offar more than half our number. Having mentioned half a pint of water asour daily allowance, I ought to observe that sometimes we had less, andsometimes we had more; for much rain fell, and we caught it in a canvasstretched for the purpose. Thus, at that tempestuous time of the year, and in that tempestuous partof the world, we shipwrecked people rose and fell with the waves. It isnot my intention to relate (if I can avoid it) such circumstancesappertaining to our doleful condition as have been better told in manyother narratives of the kind than I can be expected to tell them. I willonly note, in so many passing words, that day after day and night afternight, we received the sea upon our backs to prevent it from swamping theboat; that one party was always kept baling, and that every hat and capamong us soon got worn out, though patched up fifty times, as the onlyvessels we had for that service; that another party lay down in thebottom of the boat, while a third rowed; and that we were soon all inboils and blisters and rags. The other boat was a source of such anxious interest to all of us that Iused to wonder whether, if we were saved, the time could ever come whenthe survivors in this boat of ours could be at all indifferent to thefortunes of the survivors in that. We got out a tow-rope whenever theweather permitted, but that did not often happen, and how we two partieskept within the same horizon, as we did, He, who mercifully permitted itto be so for our consolation, only knows. I never shall forget the lookswith which, when the morning light came, we used to gaze about us overthe stormy waters, for the other boat. We once parted company forseventy-two hours, and we believed them to have gone down, as they didus. The joy on both sides when we came within view of one another again, had something in a manner Divine in it; each was so forgetful ofindividual suffering, in tears of delight and sympathy for the people inthe other boat. I have been wanting to get round to the individual or personal part of mysubject, as I call it, and the foregoing incident puts me in the rightway. The patience and good disposition aboard of us, was wonderful. Iwas not surprised by it in the women; for all men born of women know whatgreat qualities they will show when men will fail; but, I own I was alittle surprised by it in some of the men. Among one-and-thirty peopleassembled at the best of times, there will usually, I should say, be twoor three uncertain tempers. I knew that I had more than one rough temperwith me among my own people, for I had chosen those for the Long-boatthat I might have them under my eye. But, they softened under theirmisery, and were as considerate of the ladies, and as compassionate ofthe child, as the best among us, or among men--they could not have beenmore so. I heard scarcely any complaining. The party lying down wouldmoan a good deal in their sleep, and I would often notice a man--notalways the same man, it is to be understood, but nearly all of them atone time or other--sitting moaning at his oar, or in his place, as helooked mistily over the sea. When it happened to be long before I couldcatch his eye, he would go on moaning all the time in the dismallestmanner; but, when our looks met, he would brighten and leave off. Ialmost always got the impression that he did not know what sound he hadbeen making, but that he thought he had been humming a tune. Our sufferings from cold and wet were far greater than our sufferingsfrom hunger. We managed to keep the child warm; but, I doubt if any oneelse among us ever was warm for five minutes together; and the shivering, and the chattering of teeth, were sad to hear. The child cried a littleat first for her lost playfellow, the Golden Mary; but hardly everwhimpered afterwards; and when the state of the weather made it possible, she used now and then to be held up in the arms of some of us, to lookover the sea for John Steadiman's boat. I see the golden hair and theinnocent face now, between me and the driving clouds, like an angel goingto fly away. It had happened on the second day, towards night, that Mrs. Atherfield, in getting Little Lucy to sleep, sang her a song. She had a soft, melodious voice, and, when she had finished it, our people up and beggedfor another. She sang them another, and after it had fallen dark endedwith the Evening Hymn. From that time, whenever anything could be heardabove the sea and wind, and while she had any voice left, nothing wouldserve the people but that she should sing at sunset. She always did, andalways ended with the Evening Hymn. We mostly took up the last line, andshed tears when it was done, but not miserably. We had a prayer nightand morning, also, when the weather allowed of it. Twelve nights and eleven days we had been driving in the boat, when oldMr. Rarx began to be delirious, and to cry out to me to throw the goldoverboard or it would sink us, and we should all be lost. For days pastthe child had been declining, and that was the great cause of hiswildness. He had been over and over again shrieking out to me to giveher all the remaining meat, to give her all the remaining rum, to saveher at any cost, or we should all be ruined. At this time, she lay inher mother's arms at my feet. One of her little hands was almost alwayscreeping about her mother's neck or chin. I had watched the wasting ofthe little hand, and I knew it was nearly over. The old man's cries were so discordant with the mother's love andsubmission, that I called out to him in an angry voice, unless he heldhis peace on the instant, I would order him to be knocked on the head andthrown overboard. He was mute then, until the child died, verypeacefully, an hour afterwards: which was known to all in the boat by themother's breaking out into lamentations for the first time since thewreck--for, she had great fortitude and constancy, though she was alittle gentle woman. Old Mr. Rarx then became quite ungovernable, tearing what rags he had on him, raging in imprecations, and calling tome that if I had thrown the gold overboard (always the gold with him!) Imight have saved the child. "And now, " says he, in a terrible voice, "weshall founder, and all go to the Devil, for our sins will sink us, whenwe have no innocent child to bear us up!" We so discovered withamazement, that this old wretch had only cared for the life of the prettylittle creature dear to all of us, because of the influence hesuperstitiously hoped she might have in preserving him! Altogether itwas too much for the smith or armourer, who was sitting next the old man, to bear. He took him by the throat and rolled him under the thwarts, where he lay still enough for hours afterwards. All that thirteenth night, Miss Coleshaw, lying across my knees as I keptthe helm, comforted and supported the poor mother. Her child, coveredwith a pea-jacket of mine, lay in her lap. It troubled me all night tothink that there was no Prayer-Book among us, and that I could rememberbut very few of the exact words of the burial service. When I stood upat broad day, all knew what was going to be done, and I noticed that mypoor fellows made the motion of uncovering their heads, though theirheads had been stark bare to the sky and sea for many a weary hour. Therewas a long heavy swell on, but otherwise it was a fair morning, and therewere broad fields of sunlight on the waves in the east. I said no morethan this: "I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord. Heraised the daughter of Jairus the ruler, and said she was not dead butslept. He raised the widow's son. He arose Himself, and was seen ofmany. He loved little children, saying, Suffer them to come unto Me andrebuke them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. In His name, myfriends, and committed to His merciful goodness!" With those words Ilaid my rough face softly on the placid little forehead, and buried theGolden Lucy in the grave of the Golden Mary. Having had it on my mind to relate the end of this dear little child, Ihave omitted something from its exact place, which I will supply here. Itwill come quite as well here as anywhere else. Foreseeing that if the boat lived through the stormy weather, the timemust come, and soon come, when we should have absolutely no morsel toeat, I had one momentous point often in my thoughts. Although I had, years before that, fully satisfied myself that the instances in whichhuman beings in the last distress have fed upon each other, areexceedingly few, and have very seldom indeed (if ever) occurred when thepeople in distress, however dreadful their extremity, have beenaccustomed to moderate forbearance and restraint; I say, though I hadlong before quite satisfied my mind on this topic, I felt doubtfulwhether there might not have been in former cases some harm and dangerfrom keeping it out of sight and pretending not to think of it. I feltdoubtful whether some minds, growing weak with fasting and exposure andhaving such a terrific idea to dwell upon in secret, might not magnify ituntil it got to have an awful attraction about it. This was not a newthought of mine, for it had grown out of my reading. However, it cameover me stronger than it had ever done before--as it had reason fordoing--in the boat, and on the fourth day I decided that I would bringout into the light that unformed fear which must have been more or lessdarkly in every brain among us. Therefore, as a means of beguiling thetime and inspiring hope, I gave them the best summary in my power ofBligh's voyage of more than three thousand miles, in an open boat, afterthe Mutiny of the Bounty, and of the wonderful preservation of thatboat's crew. They listened throughout with great interest, and Iconcluded by telling them, that, in my opinion, the happiest circumstancein the whole narrative was, that Bligh, who was no delicate man either, had solemnly placed it on record therein that he was sure and certainthat under no conceivable circumstances whatever would that emaciatedparty, who had gone through all the pains of famine, have preyed on oneanother. I cannot describe the visible relief which this spread throughthe boat, and how the tears stood in every eye. From that time I was aswell convinced as Bligh himself that there was no danger, and that thisphantom, at any rate, did not haunt us. Now, it was a part of Bligh's experience that when the people in his boatwere most cast down, nothing did them so much good as hearing a storytold by one of their number. When I mentioned that, I saw that it struckthe general attention as much as it did my own, for I had not thought ofit until I came to it in my summary. This was on the day after Mrs. Atherfield first sang to us. I proposed that, whenever the weather wouldpermit, we should have a story two hours after dinner (I always issuedthe allowance I have mentioned at one o'clock, and called it by thatname), as well as our song at sunset. The proposal was received with acheerful satisfaction that warmed my heart within me; and I do not saytoo much when I say that those two periods in the four-and-twenty hourswere expected with positive pleasure, and were really enjoyed by allhands. Spectres as we soon were in our bodily wasting, our imaginationsdid not perish like the gross flesh upon our bones. Music and Adventure, two of the great gifts of Providence to mankind, could charm us longafter that was lost. The wind was almost always against us after the second day; and for manydays together we could not nearly hold our own. We had all varieties ofbad weather. We had rain, hail, snow, wind, mist, thunder and lightning. Still the boats lived through the heavy seas, and still we perishingpeople rose and fell with the great waves. Sixteen nights and fifteen days, twenty nights and nineteen days, twenty-four nights and twenty-three days. So the time went on. Dishearteningas I knew that our progress, or want of progress, must be, I neverdeceived them as to my calculations of it. In the first place, I feltthat we were all too near eternity for deceit; in the second place, Iknew that if I failed, or died, the man who followed me must have aknowledge of the true state of things to begin upon. When I told them atnoon, what I reckoned we had made or lost, they generally received what Isaid in a tranquil and resigned manner, and always gratefully towards me. It was not unusual at any time of the day for some one to burst outweeping loudly without any new cause; and, when the burst was over, tocalm down a little better than before. I had seen exactly the same thingin a house of mourning. During the whole of this time, old Mr. Rarx had had his fits of callingout to me to throw the gold (always the gold!) overboard, and of heapingviolent reproaches upon me for not having saved the child; but now, thefood being all gone, and I having nothing left to serve out but a bit ofcoffee-berry now and then, he began to be too weak to do this, andconsequently fell silent. Mrs. Atherfield and Miss Coleshaw generallylay, each with an arm across one of my knees, and her head upon it. Theynever complained at all. Up to the time of her child's death, Mrs. Atherfield had bound up her own beautiful hair every day; and I tookparticular notice that this was always before she sang her song at night, when everyone looked at her. But she never did it after the loss of herdarling; and it would have been now all tangled with dirt and wet, butthat Miss Coleshaw was careful of it long after she was herself, andwould sometimes smooth it down with her weak thin hands. We were past mustering a story now; but one day, at about this period, Ireverted to the superstition of old Mr. Rarx, concerning the Golden Lucy, and told them that nothing vanished from the eye of God, though muchmight pass away from the eyes of men. "We were all of us, " says I, "children once; and our baby feet have strolled in green woods ashore;and our baby hands have gathered flowers in gardens, where the birds weresinging. The children that we were, are not lost to the great knowledgeof our Creator. Those innocent creatures will appear with us before Him, and plead for us. What we were in the best time of our generous youthwill arise and go with us too. The purest part of our lives will notdesert us at the pass to which all of us here present are gliding. Whatwe were then, will be as much in existence before Him, as what we arenow. " They were no less comforted by this consideration, than I wasmyself; and Miss Coleshaw, drawing my ear nearer to her lips, said, "Captain Ravender, I was on my way to marry a disgraced and broken man, whom I dearly loved when he was honourable and good. Your words seem tohave come out of my own poor heart. " She pressed my hand upon it, smiling. Twenty-seven nights and twenty-six days. We were in no want ofrain-water, but we had nothing else. And yet, even now, I never turnedmy eyes upon a waking face but it tried to brighten before mine. O, whata thing it is, in a time of danger and in the presence of death, theshining of a face upon a face! I have heard it broached that ordersshould be given in great new ships by electric telegraph. I admiremachinery as much is any man, and am as thankful to it as any man can befor what it does for us. But it will never be a substitute for the faceof a man, with his soul in it, encouraging another man to be brave andtrue. Never try it for that. It will break down like a straw. I now began to remark certain changes in myself which I did not like. They caused me much disquiet. I often saw the Golden Lucy in the airabove the boat. I often saw her I have spoken of before, sitting besideme. I saw the Golden Mary go down, as she really had gone down, twentytimes in a day. And yet the sea was mostly, to my thinking, not seaneither, but moving country and extraordinary mountainous regions, thelike of which have never been beheld. I felt it time to leave my lastwords regarding John Steadiman, in case any lips should last out torepeat them to any living ears. I said that John had told me (as he hadon deck) that he had sung out "Breakers ahead!" the instant they wereaudible, and had tried to wear ship, but she struck before it could bedone. (His cry, I dare say, had made my dream. ) I said that thecircumstances were altogether without warning, and out of any course thatcould have been guarded against; that the same loss would have happenedif I had been in charge; and that John was not to blame, but from firstto last had done his duty nobly, like the man he was. I tried to writeit down in my pocket-book, but could make no words, though I knew whatthe words were that I wanted to make. When it had come to that, herhands--though she was dead so long--laid me down gently in the bottom ofthe boat, and she and the Golden Lucy swung me to sleep. * * * * * _All that follows, was written by John Steadiman, Chief Mate_: On the twenty-sixth day after the foundering of the Golden Mary at sea, I, John Steadiman, was sitting in my place in the stern-sheets of theSurf-boat, with just sense enough left in me to steer--that is to say, with my eyes strained, wide-awake, over the bows of the boat, and mybrains fast asleep and dreaming--when I was roused upon a sudden by oursecond mate, Mr. William Rames. "Let me take a spell in your place, " says he. "And look you out for theLong-boat astern. The last time she rose on the crest of a wave, Ithought I made out a signal flying aboard her. " We shifted our places, clumsily and slowly enough, for we were both of usweak and dazed with wet, cold, and hunger. I waited some time, watchingthe heavy rollers astern, before the Long-boat rose a-top of one of themat the same time with us. At last, she was heaved up for a moment wellin view, and there, sure enough, was the signal flying aboard of her--astrip of rag of some sort, rigged to an oar, and hoisted in her bows. "What does it mean?" says Rames to me in a quavering, trembling sort ofvoice. "Do they signal a sail in sight?" "Hush, for God's sake!" says I, clapping my hand over his mouth. "Don'tlet the people hear you. They'll all go mad together if we mislead themabout that signal. Wait a bit, till I have another look at it. " I held on by him, for he had set me all of a tremble with his notion of asail in sight, and watched for the Long-boat again. Up she rose on thetop of another roller. I made out the signal clearly, that second time, and saw that it was rigged half-mast high. "Rames, " says I, "it's a signal of distress. Pass the word forward tokeep her before the sea, and no more. We must get the Long-boat withinhailing distance of us, as soon as possible. " I dropped down into my old place at the tiller without another word--forthe thought went through me like a knife that something had happened toCaptain Ravender. I should consider myself unworthy to write anotherline of this statement, if I had not made up my mind to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth--and I must, therefore, confess plainly that now, for the first time, my heart sank within me. This weakness on my part was produced in some degree, as I take it, bythe exhausting effects of previous anxiety and grief. Our provisions--if I may give that name to what we had left--were reducedto the rind of one lemon and about a couple of handsfull ofcoffee-berries. Besides these great distresses, caused by the death, thedanger, and the suffering among my crew and passengers, I had had alittle distress of my own to shake me still more, in the death of thechild whom I had got to be very fond of on the voyage out--so fond that Iwas secretly a little jealous of her being taken in the Long-boat insteadof mine when the ship foundered. It used to be a great comfort to me, and I think to those with me also, after we had seen the last of theGolden Mary, to see the Golden Lucy, held up by the men in the Long-boat, when the weather allowed it, as the best and brightest sight they had toshow. She looked, at the distance we saw her from, almost like a littlewhite bird in the air. To miss her for the first time, when the weatherlulled a little again, and we all looked out for our white bird andlooked in vain, was a sore disappointment. To see the men's heads boweddown and the captain's hand pointing into the sea when we hailed the Long-boat, a few days after, gave me as heavy a shock and as sharp a pang ofheartache to bear as ever I remember suffering in all my life. I onlymention these things to show that if I did give way a little at first, under the dread that our captain was lost to us, it was not withouthaving been a good deal shaken beforehand by more trials of one sort oranother than often fall to one man's share. I had got over the choking in my throat with the help of a drop of water, and had steadied my mind again so as to be prepared against the worst, when I heard the hail (Lord help the poor fellows, how weak it sounded!)-- "Surf-boat, ahoy!" I looked up, and there were our companions in misfortune tossing abreastof us; not so near that we could make out the features of any of them, but near enough, with some exertion for people in our condition, to maketheir voices heard in the intervals when the wind was weakest. I answered the hail, and waited a bit, and heard nothing, and then sungout the captain's name. The voice that replied did not sound like his;the words that reached us were: "Chief-mate wanted on board!" Every man of my crew knew what that meant as well as I did. As secondofficer in command, there could be but one reason for wanting me on boardthe Long-boat. A groan went all round us, and my men looked darkly ineach other's faces, and whispered under their breaths: "The captain is dead!" I commanded them to be silent, and not to make too sure of bad news, atsuch a pass as things had now come to with us. Then, hailing the Long-boat, I signified that I was ready to go on board when the weather wouldlet me--stopped a bit to draw a good long breath--and then called out asloud as I could the dreadful question: "Is the captain dead?" The black figures of three or four men in the after-part of the Long-boatall stooped down together as my voice reached them. They were lost toview for about a minute; then appeared again--one man among them was heldup on his feet by the rest, and he hailed back the blessed words (a veryfaint hope went a very long way with people in our desperate situation):"Not yet!" The relief felt by me, and by all with me, when we knew that our captain, though unfitted for duty, was not lost to us, it is not in words--atleast, not in such words as a man like me can command--to express. I didmy best to cheer the men by telling them what a good sign it was that wewere not as badly off yet as we had feared; and then communicated whatinstructions I had to give, to William Rames, who was to be left incommand in my place when I took charge of the Long-boat. After that, there was nothing to be done, but to wait for the chance of the winddropping at sunset, and the sea going down afterwards, so as to enableour weak crews to lay the two boats alongside of each other, withoutundue risk--or, to put it plainer, without saddling ourselves with thenecessity for any extraordinary exertion of strength or skill. Both theone and the other had now been starved out of us for days and daystogether. At sunset the wind suddenly dropped, but the sea, which had been runninghigh for so long a time past, took hours after that before it showed anysigns of getting to rest. The moon was shining, the sky was wonderfullyclear, and it could not have been, according to my calculations, far offmidnight, when the long, slow, regular swell of the calming ocean fairlyset in, and I took the responsibility of lessening the distance betweenthe Long-boat and ourselves. It was, I dare say, a delusion of mine; but I thought I had never seenthe moon shine so white and ghastly anywhere, either on sea or on land, as she shone that night while we were approaching our companions inmisery. When there was not much more than a boat's length between us, and the white light streamed cold and clear over all our faces, bothcrews rested on their oars with one great shudder, and stared over thegunwale of either boat, panic-stricken at the first sight of each other. "Any lives lost among you?" I asked, in the midst of that frightfulsilence. The men in the Long-bout huddled together like sheep at the sound of myvoice. "None yet, but the child, thanks be to God!" answered one among them. And at the sound of his voice, all my men shrank together like the men inthe Long-boat. I was afraid to let the horror produced by our firstmeeting at close quarters after the dreadful changes that wet, cold, andfamine had produced, last one moment longer than could be helped; so, without giving time for any more questions and answers, I commanded themen to lay the two boats close alongside of each other. When I rose upand committed the tiller to the hands of Rames, all my poor followsraised their white faces imploringly to mine. "Don't leave us, sir, "they said, "don't leave us. " "I leave you, " says I, "under the commandand the guidance of Mr. William Rames, as good a sailor as I am, and astrusty and kind a man as ever stepped. Do your duty by him, as you havedone it by me; and remember to the last, that while there is life thereis hope. God bless and help you all!" With those words I collected whatstrength I had left, and caught at two arms that were held out to me, andso got from the stern-sheets of one boat into the stern-sheets of theother. "Mind where you step, sir, " whispered one of the men who had helped meinto the Long-boat. I looked down as he spoke. Three figures werehuddled up below me, with the moonshine falling on them in ragged streaksthrough the gaps between the men standing or sitting above them. Thefirst face I made out was the face of Miss Coleshaw, her eyes were wideopen and fixed on me. She seemed still to keep her senses, and, by thealternate parting and closing of her lips, to be trying to speak, but Icould not hear that she uttered a single word. On her shoulder restedthe head of Mrs. Atherfield. The mother of our poor little Golden Lucymust, I think, have been dreaming of the child she had lost; for therewas a faint smile just ruffling the white stillness of her face, when Ifirst saw it turned upward, with peaceful closed eyes towards theheavens. From her, I looked down a little, and there, with his head onher lap, and with one of her hands resting tenderly on his cheek--therelay the Captain, to whose help and guidance, up to this miserable time, we had never looked in vain, --there, worn out at last in our service, andfor our sakes, lay the best and bravest man of all our company. I stolemy hand in gently through his clothes and laid it on his heart, and felta little feeble warmth over it, though my cold dulled touch could notdetect even the faintest beating. The two men in the stern-sheets withme, noticing what I was doing--knowing I loved him like a brother--andseeing, I suppose, more distress in my face than I myself was consciousof its showing, lost command over themselves altogether, and burst into apiteous moaning, sobbing lamentation over him. One of the two drew asidea jacket from his feet, and showed me that they were bare, except where awet, ragged strip of stocking still clung to one of them. When the shipstruck the Iceberg, he had run on deck leaving his shoes in his cabin. All through the voyage in the boat his feet had been unprotected; and nota soul had discovered it until he dropped! As long as he could keep hiseyes open, the very look of them had cheered the men, and comforted andupheld the women. Not one living creature in the boat, with any senseabout him, but had felt the good influence of that brave man in one wayor another. Not one but had heard him, over and over again, give thecredit to others which was due only to himself; praising this man forpatience, and thanking that man for help, when the patience and the helphad really and truly, as to the best part of both, come only from him. All this, and much more, I heard pouring confusedly from the men's lipswhile they crouched down, sobbing and crying over their commander, andwrapping the jacket as warmly and tenderly as they could over is coldfeet. It went to my heart to check them; but I knew that if thislamenting spirit spread any further, all chance of keeping alight anylast sparks of hope and resolution among the boat's company would be lostfor ever. Accordingly I sent them to their places, spoke a fewencouraging words to the men forward, promising to serve out, when themorning came, as much as I dared, of any eatable thing left in thelockers; called to Rames, in my old boat, to keep as near us as he safelycould; drew the garments and coverings of the two poor suffering womenmore closely about them; and, with a secret prayer to be directed for thebest in bearing the awful responsibility now laid on my shoulders, tookmy Captain's vacant place at the helm of the Long-boat. This, as well as I can tell it, is the full and true account of how Icame to be placed in charge of the lost passengers and crew of the GoldenMary, on the morning of the twenty-seventh day after the ship struck theIceberg, and foundered at sea.