43 O HISTORY OF COHASSET. 



fear that in the spasm of drowning, one man might catch 

 another and both would perish ; so they floated in the cold 

 water, cheering up one another with what scanty hope 

 they had. They began to shout, thinking that possibly 

 a boat might have been lowered from the packet. Their 

 voices were weak in such a gale ; but when the wind would 

 lull they all would shout together the shout of the despair- 

 ing man. A half hour had gone by, another half hour ten 

 times as long as the first dragged on, and the hope of seeing 

 a boat from the packet was about given up ; and yet occa- 

 sionally they would raise their voices again to bear their 

 anguish across the black waters. 



Meanwhile the brave mate with his crew in the lifeboat 

 was rowing anxiously and then stopping betimes to shout 

 and to listen. The wind was their compass, and they 

 knew that if any shouting was done by the crew of fisher- 

 men, that shouting would come to them easier than theirs 

 to the fishermen. And it was so ; for presently a voice 

 was heard off in the darkness, and they bent to their oars 

 might and main for many minutes, then they shouted and 

 waited. No voice ! Would they miss it .'' Had they 

 gone in the wrong direction .'' 



After a while another voice came plainer than the first ; 

 and soon they were pulling into their boat the exhausted, 

 half-drowned crew of Cohasset fishermen. They searched 

 for others besides the five, but found none. 



They searched for the crushed schooner, but no sign of 

 it save the few bits of wreckage was ever seen. 



Back towards the steamer they rowed. One poor water- 

 soaked fisherman lay in the bottom of the boat chilled to 

 the very bones and too weak to recover circulation ; but 

 one of the men at the oars who saw the need of the 

 sufferer worked off his own shirt from his back while still 

 keeping stroke, and wrapped it around the poor man wbo 

 lay under his thwart. 



The brave men got their burdens aboard the big packet, 



