114 MEMOIR OP FLEEMING JENKIN 



in] efforts to pull the cable off through the sand 

 which has accumulated over it. By getting the 

 cable tight on to the boat, and letting the swell 

 pitch her about till it got slack, and then tightening 

 again with blocks and pulleys, we managed to get 

 out from the beach towards the ship at the rate 

 of about twenty yards an hour. When they had 

 got about 100 yards from shore, we ran round in 

 the Elba to try and help them, letting go the anchor 

 in the shallowest possible water ; this was about 

 sunset. Suddenly some one calls out he sees the 

 cable at the bottom : there it was sure enough, 

 apparently wriggling about as the waves rippled. 

 Great excitement ; still greater when we find our 

 own anchor is foul of it, and has been the means 

 of bringing it to light. We let go a grapnel, get 

 the cable clear of the anchor on to the grapnel — 

 the captain in an agony lest we should drift ashore 

 meanwhile — hand the grappling line into the big 

 boat, steam out far enough, and anchor again. 

 A little more work and one end of the cable is up 

 over the bows round my drum. I go to my engine 

 and we start hauling in. All goes pretty well, 

 but it is quite dark. Lamps are got at last, and 

 men arranged. We go on for a quarter of a mile 

 or so from shore, and then stop at about half -past 

 nine with orders to be up at three. Grand work 

 at last ! A number of the Saturday Review here ; 

 it reads so hot and feverish, so tomblike and un- 



