The orator had just finished his harangue when one of the vessels, a brigantine, was crossing the bar.  The supreme moment had come.  All eyes and minds were fixed on the doomed vessel; men were seen clinging to the rigging, and one solitary figure stood at the wheel directing her course through a field of rushing whiteness.  She was supposed to have crossed the worst spot, when a terrific mountain of remorseless liquid was seen galloping with mad pace until it lashed over her and she became reduced to atoms.  Nothing but wreckage was seen afterwards.  The crew all perished.  It was a heartrending sight, which sent the onlookers into uncontrollable grief.  The sailor was right:  “It was a dirty business.”

The sporting instinct in the bona-fide British seaman was always very strong.  The white-washed Yankee—­that is to say, not a real American, but a Blue-nose, i.e., a Nova Scotiaman—­was never very popular, because of his traditional bullying and swaggering when all was going well, and his cowardice in times of danger.  Once a vessel was coming from ’Frisco, and when off Cape Horn she ran into an ice-berg which towered high above the sailors’ heads.  There was great commotion and imminent peril.  A Blue-nose was chief mate, and he became panic-stricken, flopped on to his knees, and piteously appealed for Divine interposition to save them from untimely death.  The second mate, who was a real John Bull, believed in work rather than prayer, at least so long as their position threatened sudden extinction.  He observed the petitioner in the undignified position of kneeling in prayer beside the mainmast.  It angered him so that he put a peremptory stop to his pleadings by bringing his foot violently in contact with the posterior portion of his body, simultaneously asking him, “Why the h—–­ he did not pray before?  It’s not a damned bit of good praying now the trouble has arisen!  Get on to your pins,” said the irate officer, “and do some useful work!  This is no time for snivelling lamentations.  Keep the men in heart!” There was pretty fair logic in this rugged outburst of enlightenment.  But while this striking flow of opposition to prayer under such circumstances was proceeding, the thought of peril was briefly obscured by the sight of a pretty little girl, a daughter of one of the passengers, frollicking with the ice which had tumbled on the deck, in innocent oblivion of the danger that encompassed her.  What a beautiful picture!  By skilful manoeuvring the vessel was extricated from an ugly position, and the unhappy first mate who had neglected to put himself into communication with the Deity before the accident happened, became the object of poignant dislike for having broken one of the most important articles of nautical faith by doing so afterwards!

CHAPTER XIV

RESOURCEFULNESS AND SHIPWRECK