I stood in the bows directing the steering as we ran through the kelp and made the passage of the reef.

The entrance was so narrow that we had to take in the oars, and the swell was piling itself right over the reef into the cove; but in a minute or two we were inside, and in the gathering darkness the 'James Caird' ran in on a swell and touched the beach.

I sprang ashore with the short painter and held on when the boat went out with the backward surge.

When the 'James Caird' came in again three of the men got ashore, and they held the painter while I climbed some rocks with another line.

A slip on the wet rocks twenty feet up nearly closed my part of the story just at the moment when we were achieving safety.