When the “Sister Sue” failed to return the previous afternoon, and the storm came on, Mrs. Livingston, greatly alarmed, sent a party of girls with a guardian to the nearest telephone to send word to Portsmouth that the sloop and its passengers were missing.  A revenue cutter was sent out to look for them, first, however, having been in communication with the ocean liner the girls had passed by wireless, learning from the captain of the ship of their having sighted the “Sister Sue” and giving the latter’s position at the time.  This served as a guide for the revenue boat, which steamed through the great seas until daylight.

There were no signs of the missing sloop; but, reasoning that, if the boat was still afloat, it must have been blown down the coast, the revenue boat headed in that direction.  It was not until three o’clock in the afternoon, however, that the lookout reported seeing something floating in the far distance, off the starboard bow.  A study of this object through the glasses led the captain to turn his cutter in that direction.  An hour later he was close enough to see that it was a dismantled boat, and that there were people aboard it.

Full speed ahead was ordered and the revenue boat rapidly drew up.  A strange spectacle was revealed to the officers and men of the revenue cutter as she approached close enough to make out details.  The dismantled sloop was lying very low in the water, showing that she was in a bad way.  To the top of the stump of the mast a staple had been driven and through this a rope run.  This rope held a jib, the greater part of which was on the deck because there was not height enough to spread it all.  But what there was of the jib was pulling well in the fresh breeze and the sloop was wallowing through the seas, making fair headway toward land, which now was not more than fifteen miles away.

Harriet Burrell, still at the wheel, was giving her full attention to handling the boat, leaving to her companions the task of attracting the attention of the cutter, which, however, had seen the sloop long before the passengers on her had discovered the revenue boat.

The captain of the cutter lay to as close to the sloop as he dared go, then held a megaphone conversation with the survivors.  Harriet replied that she thought she would be able to get the boat to shore, but suggested that they take off the other girls.  The captain would not listen to Harriet’s first proposition.  After a perilous passage he finally succeeded in getting a boat’s crew aboard the sloop, the skipper himself accompanying the rescue party.

“And you brought this tub through the gale?” he questioned, turning to Harriet after hearing a brief account of the loss of Captain Billy and the consequent experiences of the “Sister Sue’s” passengers.

“It was purely good luck, sir,” answered Harriet modestly.

“It was something a great deal stronger than luck,” answered the captain.  “The sea is going down.  As soon as it is down enough to be safe I will put you all aboard the cutter.”