which were expected every moment to go over the side.  A heavy sea struck us on the broadside, and it was some moments before the ship appeared to recover herself; she reeled, trembled, and stopped her way, as if it had stupefied her.  The first lieutenant looked at the captain, as if to say, “This will not do.”  “It is our only chance,” answered the captain to the appeal.  That the ship went faster through the water, and held a better wind, was certain; but just before we arrived at the point the gale increased in force.  “If anything starts we are lost, sir,” observed the first lieutenant again.

“I am perfectly well aware of it,” replied the captain, in a calm tone; “but, as I said before, and as you must now be aware, it is our only chance.  The consequence of any carelessness or neglect in the fitting and securing of the rigging will be felt now; and this danger, if we escape it, ought to remind us how much we have to answer for if we neglect our duty.  The lives of a whole ship’s company may be sacrificed by the neglect or incompetence of an officer when in harbor.  I will pay you the compliment, Falcon, to say, that I feel convinced that the masts of the ship are as secure as knowledge and attention can make them.”

The first lieutenant thanked the captain for his good opinion, and hoped that it would not be the last compliment which he paid him.

“I hope not, too; but a few minutes will decide the point.”

The ship was now within two cables’ lengths of the rocky point; some few of the men I observed to clasp their hands, but most of them were silently taking off their jackets, and kicking off their shoes, that they might not lose a chance of escape provided the ship struck.

“’Twill be touch and go, indeed, Falcon,” observed the captain (for I had clung to the belaying pins, close to them for the last half-hour that the mainsail had been set).  “Come aft, you and I must take the helm.  We shall want nerve there, and only there, now.”

The captain and first lieutenant went aft, and took the fore-spokes of the wheel, and O’Brien, at a sign made by the captain, laid hold of the spokes behind him.  An old quartermaster kept his station at the fourth.  The roaring of the seas on the rocks, with the howling of the wind, were dreadful; but the sight was more dreadful than the noise.  For a few minutes I shut my eyes, but anxiety forced me to open them again.  As near as I could judge, we were not twenty yards from the rocks, at the time that the ship passed abreast of them.  We were in the midst of the foam, which boiled around us; and as the ship was driven nearer to them, and careened with the wave, I thought that our main yard-arm would have touched the rock; and at this moment a gust of wind came on, which laid the ship on her beam-ends, and checked her progress through the water, while the accumulating noise was deafening.  A few moments more the ship dragged on, another wave dashed over