SHIPWRECKED Afterwards the boys looked back on the ensuing five minutes as a dream rather than a reality.

The cruiser grounded with an impetus that set pans rattling in galley, lifted again and once more thumped her stern down, as she did so swinging her stern slowly around in a last frantic effort to pull clear.

Then the boat careened, a sea washed clean across the deck and, with her keel forward of the engine firmly imbedded in the sand, she lay still save for the tremors that shook her when the angry surf rushed in across her beam.
There was confusion enough, but on the whole the six alarmed boys behaved sensibly.

Steve, wet to his waist, turned off the engine and banged shut the chart-box even as he shouted his orders.

"Life preservers, fellows! Han, get the big cable from the locker.