were collected all that remained of the ship's company, whose haggard
countenances and shivering forms were revealed to each other, from
time to time, by the glare of the blue lights, and by the fitful
moonbeams which streamed from beneath the dark clouds, and threw their
pale light upon the despairing group.

The sea-breached vessel can no longer bear
The floods that o'er her burst in dread career;
The labouring hull already seems half filled
With water, through an hundred leeks distilled;
Thus drenched by every wave, her even deck,
Stripped and defenceless, floats a naked wreck.
FALCONER.

Two boats only remained, one of which was useless, her side having
been knocked in by the falling of the masts; and the other, the
launch, was therefore the sole means of preservation left. She was
already filled with men, but it was found impossible to remove her
from her position on the booms; and even if she had floated, she could
not have contained above one-fourth of the crew. For about half an
hour she continued in the same position, (the men who were in her
expecting every moment that her bottom would be knocked out by the
waves dashing against the spars on which she rested,) when suddenly a
heavy sea lifted her off the bows clear of the ship. Three loud cheers
greeted her release, and the oars being ready, the men immediately
pulled from the wreck, with difficulty escaping the many dangers they
had to encounter from the floating spars and broken masts.

These gallant fellows, however, would not desert their companions in
misfortune, and although their boat already contained more than a