All the rest of the men went aloft, and remained there during the night.  Their clothing was soaked with water, and the weather was frosty and bitterly cold.  Just before daylight, when the tide had ebbed, and the sea had gone down, the two women and the baby were brought below from the foretop, and all hands descended to the deck.  They wanted to make a fire, but everything was wet, and they had to cut up some of the standing rigging which had been out of reach of the surf before they could find anything that would burn.  With that a fire was made in the galley, and the women and baby were put inside.  At sunrise it was found that the sea had washed up a ridge of sand near the ship, and, not wishing to pass another tide on board, all the crew and passengers went over the side, and waded through the shallow water until they came to a dry sand-pit.  They were eleven in number, including the women and baby, and they waited until the boat came over from Snake Island and took them to the port.  A little of the cargo was taken out of the ‘Isabella’, but in a few days she went to pieces.

Captain Taylor went to Hobarton, and bought from the insurers the schooner ‘Sylvanus’ which had belonged to him, and having been wrecked was then lying ashore on the coast.  He succeeded in floating her off without much damage, and he ran her in the cattle trade for some time.  He then sold her to Boys & Hall, of Hobarton, went to Sydney, bought the schooner ‘Alert’, and sailed her in the same trade until the discovery of gold.  All the white seamen went off to the diggings, and he hired four Kanakas to man his craft.

On his last trip to Port Albert the pilot was on board, waiting for the tide.  The pilot boat had been sent back to Sunday Island, the ship’s boat was in the water, and was supposed to have been made fast astern by the crew.  At break of day the pilot came on deck, and on taking a look round, he saw that the longboat had got away and was drifting towards Rabbit Island.  He roared down the companion to Captain Taylor, “Your longboat’s got adrift, and is off to Rabbit Island.”

In another minute Captain Taylor was on deck.  He gazed at his distant longboat and swore terribly.  Then he took a rope and went for his four Kanakas; but they did not wait for him; they all plunged into the sea and deserted.  The captain and pilot stood on deck watching them as they swam away, hand over hand, leaving foaming wakes behind like vessels in full sail.  They were making straight for the longboat, and Davy said, “They will go away in her and leave us here in the lurch.”  But the captain said, “I think not.”  He was right.  The Kanakas brought back the boat within hail of the schooner, and after being assured by the captain that he would not ropes-end them, they climbed aboard.

On returning to Hobarton Captain Taylor was seized with the gold fever.  He laid up the ‘Alert’, went with his four men to Bendigo, and was a lucky digger.  Then he went to New Zealand, bought a farm, and ploughed the waves no more.