“I am sure I can do it, papa,” I said, at length. “Just fasten a line round me, and I shall be able to get hold of that oar. You can soon haul me back.”
Papa no longer refused my request, and having stripped, and fastened a rope round my waist, I plunged in, and struggled hard to make way through the hissing water. Sometimes I found myself carried onwards towards the stern of the vessel, but another sea brought me back again; and in a few minutes, greatly to my satisfaction, I clutched hold of the oar, when, securing the end of the rope which held me round it, I sung out to papa and the men to haul away. In a short time I was brought back close to the rock. My chief danger was in landing, as the sea at times beat violently against it; but papa, quickly seizing me, hauled me up.
“You have acted bravely, Harry,” he said. “Now put on your clothes, and we shall soon have a communication with the vessel.”
While I was dressing, the rope with the cradle was hauled up to the side of the vessel, and secured to a stanchion; when the crew, getting up a stouter warp, shouted out to us to haul it in, they having secured the cradle to it. We thus had a safe communication established with the wreck, and a stout line to draw the cradle backwards and forwards.
Greatly to our surprise, a female was the first person we drew ashore; she burst into tears as we lifted her out of the cradle. Another and another followed; two had infants in their arms; and then came two little boys secured to the cradle. Three men followed, each with a child.
“Have all the women and children landed?” asked papa.
“All who have escaped,” was the answer. “Several were washed away with the master and two mates.—”
Six more men now came, the sole survivors of the crew.
“Are all hands out of the ship?” asked papa.
“Every soul, sir,” answered one of the men.