There were other ships abroad on the vast ocean, which could not compare with her in strength and appointments, and which had not one third of her working power on board.  No ship can absolutely defy the elements, and there is no such thing as absolute safety in a voyage across the ocean; but there is far less peril than people who have had no experience generally suppose.  The Cunard steamers have been running more than a quarter of a century, with the loss of only one ship, and no lives in that one—­a triumphant result achieved by strong ships, with competent men to manage them.  Poorly built ships, short manned, with officers unfit for their positions, constitute the harvest of destruction on the ocean.

Mr. Lowington believed that the students of the Academy Ship would be as safe on board the Young America as they would on shore.  He had taken a great deal of pains to demonstrate his theory to parents, and though he often failed, he often succeeded.  The Young America had just passed through one of the severest gales of the year, and in cruising for the next three years, she would hardly encounter a more terrific storm.  She had safely weathered it; the boys had behaved splendidly, and not one of them had been lost, or even injured, by the trying exposure.  The principal’s theory was thus far vindicated.

The starboard watch piped to breakfast, when the sail was discovered, too far off to make her out.  The boys all manifested a deep interest in the distant wanderer on the tempestuous sea, mingled with a desire to know how the stranger had weathered the gale.  Many of them went up the shrouds into the tops, and the spy-glasses were in great demand.

“Do you make her out, Captain Gordon?” asked Mr. Fluxion, as he came up from his breakfast, and discovered the commander watching the stranger through the glass.

“Yes, sir; I can just make her out now.  Her foremast and mainmast have gone by the board, and she has the ensign, union down, hoisted at her mizzen,” replied the captain, with no little excitement in his manner.

“Indeed!” exclaimed the teacher of mathematics, as he took the glass.  “You are right, Captain Gordon, and you had better keep her away.”

“Shall I speak to Mr. Lowington first, sir?” asked the captain.

“I think there is no need of it in the present instance.  There can be no doubt what he will do when a ship is in distress.”

“Mr. Kendall, keep her away two points,” said the captain to the officer of the deck.  “What is the ship’s course now?”

“East-south-east, sir,” replied the second lieutenant, who had the deck.

“Make it south-east.”

“South-east, sir,” repeated Kendall.  “Quartermaster keep her away two points,” he added to the petty officer conning the wheel.

“Two points, sir,” said Bennington, the quartermaster

“Make the course south-east.”

“South-east, sir.”