But some remained reluctant on the deck
Of that proud vessel, now a moral wreck—And
view'd their Captain's fate with piteous eyes;
While others scoff'd his augur'd miseries,
Sneer'd at the prospect of his pigmy sail,
And the slight bark so laden and so frail.
Christian had intended to send away his captain and associates in the cutter, and ordered that it should be hoisted out for that purpose, which was done—a small wretched boat, that could hold but eight or ten men at the most, with a very small additional weight; and, what was still worse, she was so worm-eaten and decayed, especially in the bottom planks, that the probability was, she would have gone down before she had proceeded a mile from the ship. In this 'rotten carcass of a boat,' not unlike that into which Prospero and his lovely daughter were 'hoist,'
not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively had quit it,