REFLi:CTIONS OX MARITIME PURSUITS. 127 



equilibrium by their weight, are now exerting a force in a ver- 

 tical direction, in opposition to gravity, and the ship falls on her 

 side : the waves now make a clean breach over the vessel, tearing 

 away every thing about the decks, together with boats, bulwarks, 

 &c. The deck-load of timber breaks adrift, and floating to lee- 

 ward, gets entangled among the masts and yards, where some of 

 the men may still be clinging; these floating logs serve as anvils 

 on which the masts are at last broken : they give way ultimately, 

 and the ship, relieved from the superincumbent weight, rises and 

 resumes a position of equivocal stability. The ship is now no 

 longer manageable, she floats indeed, not by her own intrinsic 

 buoyancy ; the cargo she was intended to carry now bears her 

 above the foaming surge ! Tlie timber within may be compared 

 to a huge raft, and the surrounding hull of the vessel to a bundle 

 of old rotten and water soaken boards, suspended on the surface 

 of the water by the more buoyant materials composing the cargo. 



Let us now consider the condition of those unfortunate beings 

 that may yet be clinging to tlie wreck, and washed by every 

 wave : they stretch their eyes around the horizon and see nought 

 but a wild waste of turbulent waters. Their solitary floating 

 hulk only serves to prolong and augment their misery. The 

 waves have torn away all means of shelter, and every thing that 

 might have alleviated the gnawings of hunger; not even a drop 

 of fresh water can be obtained ! the hold may yet contain some 

 water or salt provisions, but the hold has been long filled, and 

 the floating timber within has broken up as well as broken down 

 every bulk-head fore and aft. Day after day this melancholy 

 picture receives darker shades. Man after man is washed from 

 the wrecks drops from the rigging, or departs this life in a state 

 of exhaustion, insanity, or delirium. Some may still be cling- 

 ing to the wreck in a most deplorable and pitiful condition; how 

 have they subsisted so long on a floating wreck ? We leave our 

 readers to their own surmises ! 



The bare recital of such horrors as we have been describing, 

 and the frequency of their occurrence make u^ shudder with 

 horror. A lively imagination may picture to itself, without much 

 exaggeration, a solitary wreck, floating on the waves of the At- 

 lantic, and deluged by every surge. The remains of a once 

 jovial crew cling to the wreck, living pictures of death and 

 starvation. The sea-mew skims the welken and hovers about 

 the wreck, while the voracious shark haunts the floating hulk ! 

 The miserable survivors again cast lots who shall be sacrificed to 



