and Davy asked the captain to lend him a hand to steer the boat back to Sunday Island.  The second mate went in her, but she was capsized directly.  The ship’s boat was hanging on the weather davits, and it was no use letting her down to windward on account of the heavy sea.  Davy ran out to the end of the jibboom with a lead line.  He could see the second mate hanging on to the keel of the capsized boat, and his two men in the water.  The ebb sea kept washing them out, and the heavy sea threw them back again, and whenever they could get their heads above water they shouted for help.  Davy threw the lead towards them from the end of the jibboom, but they were too far away for the line to reach them.  At length the ship’s boat was launched to leeward, four men and the mate got into her, but by this time the two boatmen were drowned.  While the ship’s boat was running through the breakers past the pilot boat, the first mate grabbed the second mate by the collar, held on to him until they were in smooth water, and then hauled him in.  It was too dangerous for the seamen to face the breakers again, so the pilot sang out to them to go to Snake Island.

About two o’clock in the afternoon the vessel lay pretty quiet on the ebb tide; a fire was lighted in the galley, and all hands had something to eat.  There was not much water in the cabin; but, as darkness set in, and the flood tide made, the seas began to come aboard.  There was a heavy general cargo in the hold, six steerage passengers, four men and two women (one of whom had a baby), and one cabin passenger, who was going to manage Woodside Station in place of Long Mason, dismissed.

The sea began to roll over the bulwarks, and the brig was fast filling with water.  For some time the pumps were kept going, but the water gained on them, and all hands had to take to the rigging.  The two women and the baby were first helped up to the foretop; then the pilot, counting the men, found one missing.

“Captain,” he said, “what has become of the new manager?”

“Oh, he is lying in his bunk half-drunk.”

“Then,” replied Davy, “he’ll be drowned!”

He descended into the cabin and found the man asleep, with the water already on a level with his berth.

“Why the blazes don’t you get up and come out of this rat-hole?” he said.  “Don’t you see you are going to be drowned?”

The manager looked up and smiled.

“Please, don’t be so unkind, my dear man,” he replied.  “Let me sleep a little longer, and then I’ll go on deck.”

Davy standing with the water up to his belt, grew mad.

“Come out of that, you confounded fool,” he said.

He dragged him out of his bunk into the water, and hauled him up the companion ladder, and with the help of the men took him up the rigging, and lashed him there out of reach of the breakers.