During her absence the ship's bell was kept tolling.

Then the fires were all out, the ship full of water, and gradually breaking up, wriggling with every swell like a willow basket--the sea all round us full of the floating fragments of her sheeting, twisted and torn into a spongy condition.

In less than an hour the boat returned, saying that the beach was quite near, not more than a mile away, and had a good place for landing.

All the boats were then carefully lowered, and manned by crews belonging to the ship; a piece of the gangway, on the leeward side, was cut away, and all the women, and a few of the worst-scared men, were lowered into the boats, which pulled for shore.

In a comparatively short time the boats returned, took new loads, and the debarkation was afterward carried on quietly and systematically.