A miserable figure the poor wreck looks, when she is hauled up on the slip-way for repairs. Her masts are out of her, her bow crushed, her stern twisted and broken, the oakum is streaming out of her seams, her timbers are started, her rudder is gone, she looks truly the very wreck she is. Indeed, it was nothing but the fact of her being timber laden that prevented her going down immediately after striking the first time upon the Margate Sands, or has kept her afloat during any one of the many terrible struggles with the seas, that she has had since to endure. The brig was ultimately repaired, and sent to sea; but to whatever extent the general average upon the insured cargo contributed to the bill, the balance required must have made a sad hole in the poor brave-hearted captain's savings.
The Margate and Ramsgate men got some few pounds each for salvage: the ship and cargo were not very valuable, and there were many to share the small amount awarded, so there was not much for each one. But the men were thankful, on account of the captain, as well as on their own account, to have saved the vessel through so much peril, and as a result, to have anything at all to share.
CHAPTER XXII. THE WRECK OF THE "PROVIDENTIA."
"What dangers press'd, when seas ran mountain high,
When tempests raved, and horrors veiled the sky;
When prudence fail'd, when courage grew dismayed,
When the strong fainted, and the wicked prayed;—
Then in the yawning gulf far down we drove,