steamers ran gurgling through them to the upper deck. Loadlines and disks were not then in vogue to prevent overloading, and seamen, so long as they had a good forecastle, seldom troubled themselves about the depth of the clear side. However, she had two important points in her favour: the masts, sails, and rigging were new, and the officers splendid seamen. The boatswain was an old man-of-war's man; one of that type which made England famous; and one of those who, alas, too often deserted in early manhood, to repent in old age of the folly. By reason of some little hitch on a wages question, the ship had been seized, sheriff's officers put on board, and a notice put on the mainmast. By some arrangement with the lawyer the bailiffs were, however, induced to go on shore; but had not a ruse enabled the master to slip by the guard-ship, trouble would have ensued for lack of a clearance from the Customs.

on.

On reaching the Bar light-ship the pilot was discharged, with a small bundle of letters for the mail, it being evident that the steaming qualities of the were of a very indifferent character; still, every one felt confident, on looking up at the symmetrical brig-rigged masts, that, come what would, they might be depended An inspection of the motley crew somewhat damped the opinion formed, for it was doubtful if, with the exception of a seaman from a Cunard West Indian steamer, such a set were ever met with in an English ship. The war of secession was at its height, Washington had been threatened, Semmes had almost swept American commerce from the ocean, and the large bounty or the conscription had drawn all who were worth having into the ranks of the American Navy and Army. On choosing for watches it was found that only three could steer, the remaining portion being principally made up of deserters, or discharged soldiers, from Mead's army. One of these had lost three fingers of his right hand by the cut of a cavalry sabre, and was turned on the world to beg or starve, as chance should will it. Another was by profession a practitioner of homœopathy, a tall, gaunt creature who might have lived on his drugs for all the flesh that was on his angular bones.

Fortunately, the first six days of the passage were unusually

fine for the end of November; and on passing Cape Race the chief officer remarked, "If I were to tell some of my old shipmates that, when rounding Cape Race, I was painting ship at this time of the year, they would think I was romancing." However, on emerging from under the shelter of the land, it became evident that a change in the weather was at hand, and precautions were at once taken to make all snug before the gale came on. This took several hours, owing to the helplessness of the crew, some of whom had already gone on the sick list. By daylight on the following morning it was blowing hard; but the expenditure of nearly a week's fuel had made the steamer somewhat buoyant, enabling her, under close-reefed topsails and foresail, to keep fairly before the sea, so that no great quantities of water rolled inboard. Later on the wind drew to the northward, and with infinite trouble the foresail, after being hauled up by the aid of a steam winch, was secured, every one, captain included, going aloft. It was an anxious night for all on board, and towards morning the order was given to run dead before the sea. This course was adopted in preference to rounding to, it being the general impression that, if the vessel fell off, the sea would break on the bulwarks and swamp her. As night came on the scene was grand beyond description. The huge Atlantic waves, some 200 feet apart, came up a-stern, with their huge breaking crests glistening in the moonlight, and as they rolled along on either hand, it appeared that one could easily touch their green sides. The second officer said, “This reminds me of the time when I was a boy, looking from the cliffs on the Cornish coast at the gulls as they swam between the waves during a gale." Verily, the remark was not misplaced, the ship, with the full moon shining on the tiny sails, bore out the simile so aptly and poetically made.

All who follow the sea have noticed that some peculiar accidents on shipboard appear to be communicated to the crew in an unaccountable manner. A man falls from aloft, and the dull heavy thud is heard and recognised in the most remote places below, while the falling of a spar would not, under similar conditions, attract attention. The words of command, in shortening sail, pass unheeded, except to those concerned; but the cry of a man

overboard penetrates everywhere, and were the ship about to founder, the hands would not be quicker on deck.

On this night the man at the wheel suddenly called out: "The rudder is broke." The cry, notwithstanding the roar of the gale and sea, reached the engineers in the engine-room, the solitary passenger in the saloon, and the seamen in their berths. In an incredibly short space of time, the whole were on the poop, and a hasty examination having proved that the rudder was still intact, the relieving tackles were manned by willing hands, and the ship kept on her course. By great good fortune she had, without human help, kept fairly before the sea. Had it been otherwise, broaching to in such a gale with sail set, would have brought the sea abeam and settled the question. Another ship would have been posted missing at Lloyd's, and conjecture busy with her fate. The chief engineer was a splendid specimen of his professioncool, determined, and, above ail, possessed that invaluable faculty of thinking quickly in times of danger. His practised eye immediately saw by the strong moonlight that the single key of the steering apparatus had worked loose on the stem of the rudder, and thrown the worm out of gear. "Carpenter," he called out, "knock the bottom out of that fire bucket," pointing to one hanging on the poop rail, "saw the staves into six-inch lengths, and bring us two or three capstan bars." The orders were carried out; and, by the aid of strong arms of willing men who were working for dear life, the heavy casting was raised and secured in position. At daylight it was discovered that the key, in lieu of being inserted from below, had, to save trouble, been driven from above. Concussion had loosened the rust which kept it in place, and the yoke dropped. Strange to relate, the spare tiller was also found to be nearly broken through by the pull of the relieving tackles, although they had only been a few minutes in use. The iron was of a very inferior quality, for a bar of good English oak of similar dimensions would probably have remained intact under the strain. It is on such trifles that the lives of a whole crew sometimes hang, but the sad story of their fate often remains untold, or can only rest on surmise, for there are but few witnesses to foundering ships.

The sea and wind had both risen during the night, the former hissing by in showers of spoondrift. Men held their breath as wave after wave came rolling up, and felt a relief as they surged beyond the forecastle. It was impossible that this could go on without mischief, and at last the crisis came-one heavier than usual broke over the poop, and for some seconds no one knew what had happened. The Cunard man was at the helm, and those who were forward alleged that the crest rose above the truck of the ensign-staff, forming a green back-ground to a picture that imagination fails to realize. When the water had cleared away he was still at his post, coolly moving the spokes, although no one ever expected to see wheel or steersman again emerge from that hill of water. Every boat was smashed, the skylight levelled with the deck, the waist full, and the hull fairly reeled under the additional weight. Another wave came on; the captain looked aft and said, audibly, "foundered at sea!" However, it broke short, and before the next came up the decks were clear. As a last resource the foresail was ordered to be loosed to increase the speed by sailpower. At this critical moment the chief engineer came aft, and with his accustomed coolness said, "The stoke-hole plates are washed up; the only two wooden washplates are gone; the pumps will not catch from incessant rolling, and if you cannot steady the ship she must founder. The firemen are scared, and were it not for my mates would long since have cleared out." This officer, at a time when hope was almost gone, and with not even the feeling that the world would know how manfully he had remained at his station under such trying circumstances, never blenched or ceased encouraging his scared crew to fulfil their duty. To run the ship in such a storm, with a quarterly sea and wind, was indeed a last and desperate resource; but the writer had, on a former occasion, seen it successfully carried out, under similar circumstances, off the Isle of France, in a sailing ship. The yards were therefore braced forward by the officers and a moiety of the crew-more than half had retreated to their berths and now all that could be done was to watch the sea, keep off when an unusual heavy roller was advancing, and trust to Providence for the result. We knew that our lives hung on a

thread, but so long as that thread remained intact a determined few worked on unceasingly. The engineer had not come up a minute too soon to save the ship. All the foremast plates were up, the fires low, the waters washing violently with the roll from side to side, by reason of the absence of wash-plates, until it sometimes cascaded over the head of the tallest man. It was a hard struggle, such as no one who has not been thus placed can comprehend. Just as a plate had nearly the last wedge inserted, a heavier lurch than usual would wash all up, or a chance sea, striking the quarter, make men pause, with mall in hand, as the hull shook under the blow. In the end, perseverance, as it often is, was crowned with success, and our hearts grew lighter on reaching the deck to perceive that the gale was breaking fast, the clouds hardening in the north-west, and that emblem of mercy, a brilliant rainbow, spanning the clearing horizon. If the designer and builder of the vessel could have been suddenly transported from their offices to the ship during this gale, how much they might have learned; but strong in self-confidence they take no heed of the counsel of experienced sailors and engineers. Our gallant neighbours, although failing to inherit that aptitude for the sea which stands out in such a marked manner in men of Saxon race, compel all naval architects in the Republican navy to serve a part of their time afloat. Is it too much to suggest that such a course of training for designers and builders of ships might possibly be of service to the Royal as well as the Mercantile Navy of this country?

It is no disparagement to the genius of one of the greatest of marine engineers of the age to say that had he had such experience, many ships which are now rotting idly at their moorings would never have been in frame, but these failures militate nothing against a fame so boldly and justly earned when other men stood aloof and hesitating.

During the winter of 1878-79 many grain-laden steamers disappeared, foundered at sea, and although the closing part of the latter year has not been marked by severe storms, Lloyd's books bear evidence that even under ordinary circumstances the list of the missing is increasing.