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Updated: June 11, 2025
"No," he said, "let the men go first." So, one by one, the men were safely hauled on shore. "Now, captain, it's your turn at last," said our hero, approaching him. He still hesitated. Then the stout Coastguardsman absolutely lifted him into the lifebuoy. "No time for ceremony," he said, with a smile, giving the signal with his lantern, "the brig's going fast.
Tell 'em to look sharp on shore, for I'm gettin' used up with all this work." Away went the captain, and in a few minutes back came the lifebuoy. Not a moment too soon. Blackbeard sprang in as the mizzen-mast snapped with a report like a cannon, and went over the side. The next wave broke up the wreck itself.
They both hung on securely to the lifebuoy, and felt little or no exhaustion. They kept their eyes fixed on the ship, believing to the last that she would stand down to them. At length she disappeared in the darkness, and Adair knew that his first lieutenant, despairing of finding them, had borne up.
"Had we not better keep this side of the river for a bit, father?" Ned asked. "No, my boy; we will cross here after dark, and make straight for Meerut. If we can't find a boat, we will each cut a large bundle of rushes, to act as a lifebuoy and carry your guns and ammunition, and so swim across after it is dark."
Adair, believing that he said this to prevent him from exhausting himself by making efforts to assist him, contented himself by treading water and throwing off his coat, that he might be able to swim to Tom's assistance, should he prove after all unable to reach the lifebuoy.
Ferrier fought hard, but he was clutched by the hand of the wind, and held against the mizen-mast; he could just clutch the rest in which a lifebuoy was hanging, and that alone saved him from being felled. The Lord is a Man of War! Surely His hosts were abroad now. No work of man's hands could endure the onset of the forces let loose on that bad night.
There is little tendency now to hesitation on the part of the women, and what remains is put to flight by certain ominous groans and creakings, that tell of the approaching dissolution of the ship. One after another they are lifted tenderly into the lifebuoy, and drawn to land in safety, amid the congratulations and thanksgivings of many of those who have assembled to witness their deliverance.
I therefore at once thrust my left arm through one of the beckets of the lifebuoy, and struck out with all my strength away from the ship, swimming athwart the sea, so that it might not break in our faces, and towing my companion after me.
"The other day, in Sydney harbour, one of my marines who couldn't swim went overboard and this boy soused in after him, and carried the lifebuoy to him, in spite of sharks. What do you think of that for a ten-year-old?" The boy's face flushed scarlet as the Captain passed on, and he held out his hand to Alice to say good-bye.
The officer stood with the falls in his hand ready to lower away. When opposite the lifebuoy, and about a furlong from Harold and Pearl, the Captain gave the signal 'Stop, and then a second later: 'Full speed astern. 'Ready, men! Steady! As the coming wave slipping under the ship began to rise up her side, the officer freed the falls and the boat sank softly into the lifting sea.
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