He went first to one side of the cavern, and then to the other, so as to obtain as wide a prospect as possible.
“See! there’s a vessel trying to beat off shore,” he exclaimed; and just then a brig with her foretopmast gone came into view, the sail which she was still able to carry heeling her over till her yard-arms seemed almost to touch the foaming summits of the seas.
“She’ll not do it, I fear,” said Jack, after they had been watching her for some time. “It’s a wonder she doesn’t go right over. If the wind doesn’t fall, nothing can save her; and even then, unless she brings up and her anchors hold, she’s sure to be cast on shore.”
They watched the vessel for some time. Though carrying every stitch of canvas she could set, she appeared to be making little headway, and to be drifting bodily to leeward.
The lads uttered a cry of regret, for down came her mainmast, and immediately her head turned towards the shore.
In a few minutes she struck, though no rock was visible, and the sea swept over her deck, carrying her remaining mast, boats, caboose, and round-house overboard, with every person who could be seen. In an instant, several human forms were discernible struggling in the seething waters alongside, but they quickly disappeared.
“They are all gone,” cried Jack; “not one that I can see has escaped.”
“Perhaps some were below,” observed Bill. “If they were, it won’t much matter, for in a few minutes she will go to pieces.”
He was mistaken as to the latter point, for another sea rolling in, lifted the vessel, and driving over the ledge on which she had first struck, carried her between some dark rocks, till she stuck fast on the sandy shore. Had the people been able to cling to her till now, some might possibly have been saved, but they had apparently all been on deck when the vessel struck, and been swept away by the first sea which rolled over her. The seas still continued to sweep along her deck, but their force was partly broken by the rocks, and being evidently a stout vessel, she hung together.
It was at the time nearly high-water, and the lads longed for the tide to go down, that they might examine her nearer.