Chapter 6 Summary

The crew remained by the wrecked ship through the night. Their obvious next step was to prepare to leave it but this was something that the men did not want to contemplate. Finally, the men began stripping the sails off the ship, and with needle and thread from Chase's trunk, they began sewing new sails for the whaleboats. Other men built masts from the ship's spars. The winds increased throughout the day and waves splashed up over the edges of the boat, making work difficult. The officers realized that they needed to modify the boats and had the men build up the sides of each boat.

The next morning, Chase rowed over to Pollard and told him it was time to leave. As their ships were only equipped with sails and could only travel with the wind, their options were few. Pollard deemed...