As he seized the tiller ropes he shouted, "Now, then, give way! and a hundred dollars extra salvage to you four if this gig is the first boat to lay alongside of that wreck." At these words the long ash oars bent like willow wands in the grasp of the young Northern giants, and the gig sprang away like a startled bonito, leaving a long line of bubbles to mark her course.
The wreck was still three miles off; and, with the glass, small boats could be seen shooting away from several of the approaching wrecking vessels.
"It's a race between Conchs and Yankees," said Jan Jansen to Mark.
"What are Conchs ?" asked the boy.
"Why, those fellows in the other boats.

Most of them come from the Bahama Islands, and all Bahamians are called 'Conchs,' because they eat so many of the shell-fish of that name." "Well, I'll bet on the Yankees!" cried Mark.
"So will I," said the Swede.

"Yankee baked beans and brown bread make better muscle than fish, which is about all the fellows down this way get to live on." As seen from the deck of the schooner, the race had by this time become very exciting; for, as their boat approached the wreck on one side, another, manned by red-shirted wreckers, who were exhibiting a wonderful amount of pluck and endurance for "Conchs," as Jan called them, was rapidly coming up on the other.

It was hard to tell which was the nearer; and while Mark shouted in his excitement, Mrs.Elmer and Ruth waved their handkerchiefs, though their friends were too far away to be encouraged by either the shouts or wavings.
At last "Captain Li's" boat dashed up alongside the wreck, and almost at the same instant the wrecker's boat disappeared from view on the opposite side.
With their glasses, those on the schooner saw their captain go up the side of the ship, hand over hand, along a rope that had been thrown him, and disappear over the bulwarks.

They afterwards learned that he reached the deck of the ship, and thus made himself master of the wreck, just as the head of his rival appeared above the opposite side.
The wreck proved to be the ship Goodspeed, Captain Gillis, of and for Liverpool, with cotton from New Orleans.