The shock turned her over instantly, when she rolled bottom upwards over and over again.

The sea then hurled her with the force of a catapult upon the rocks that jutted out below the headland; and Fritz and Eric were at once pitched out into the seething surf that eddied around, battling for their lives.
How they managed it, neither could afterwards tell; but they must have struck out so vigorously with their arms and legs at this perilous moment, in the agony of desperation, that, somehow or other, they succeeded in getting beyond the downward suction of the undertow immediately under the overhanging headland.

Otherwise, they would have shared the fate of the boat, for their bodies would have been dashed to pieces against the cruel crags.
Providentially, however, the strength of the struggling strokes of both the young fellows just carried them, beyond the reach of the back-wash of the current, out amidst the rolling waves that swept into the bay from the open in regular succession; and so, first Eric and then Fritz found themselves washed up on the old familiar beach, which they had never expected to set foot on again alive.
Here, scrambling up on their hands and knees, they quickly gained the refuge of the shingle, where they were out of reach of the clutching billows that tried to pull them back.
As for the boat, it was smashed into matchwood on the jagged edges of the boulders, not a fragment of timber a foot long being to be seen.
The brothers had escaped by almost a miracle! "That was a narrow squeak," cried Eric, when he was able to speak and saw that Fritz was also safe.
"Yes, thank God for it!" replied the other.

"I had utterly given up hope." "So had I; but still, here we are." "Aye, but only through the merciful interposition of a watchful Hand," said Fritz; and then both silently made their way up the incline to their little hut by the waterfall, unspeakably grateful that they were allowed to behold it again.
Never had the cottage seemed to their tired eyes more homelike and welcome than now; and they were glad enough to throw themselves in bed and have some necessary rest:-- they were completely worn-out with all they had gone through since the previous morning, for the anxious night had passed by and it was broad daylight again before they reached shore.
Not a particle of the boat or anything that had been in her was ever washed up by the sea; consequently, they had to deplore the loss, not only of the little craft itself, the sole means they had of ever leaving the bay, but also of the carcase of the goat they were conveying home to supply them with fresh meat, as a change from their generally salt diet.
The sea, too, had taken from them their last haul of sealskins, which had cost them more pains to procure than the much larger lot they had pitched down from the plateau, and which fortunately were safe.
Nor was this the worst.
Their two rifles and the fowling piece--which Fritz had taken with him, as usual, in his last hunting expedition, for the benefit of the island hen and other small birds--as well as the harpoons, and many other articles, whose loss they would feel keenly, were irrevocably gone! But, on the other side of the account, as the brother crusoes devoutly remembered, they had saved their lives--a set-off against far greater evils than the destruction of all their implements and weapons! The first week or two of their return from this ill-fated expedition, Fritz and Eric had plenty to do in preparing the bundles of sealskins they had secured in their first foray, and which they found safe enough at the bottom of the gully where they had cast them down from above; although they little thought then of the peril they would subsequently undergo and the narrow chance of their ever wanting to make use of the pelts.
Still, there the skins were, and there being no reason why they should not now attend to them, they set to work in the old fashion of the previous year, scraping and drying and then salting them down in some fresh puncheons Captain Fuller of the _Jane_ had supplied them with, as well as a quantity of barrels to contain their oil, in exchange for the full ones he had taken on board.
After the skins were prepared, the blubber had to be "tried out" in the cauldron, with all the adjuncts of its oily smoke and fishy smell, spoiling everything within reach; and, when this was done, there was the garden to attend to, their early potatoes having to be dug up and vegetables gathered, besides the rest of the land having to be put in order.
They had no time to be idle! Christmas with them passed quietly enough this time.

The loss of the boat and the escape they had of their own lives just preceded the anniversary, so they felt in no great mood for rejoicing.