326 TEE CRUISE OF TEE " CACEALOT." 



of course, the dead-weight strain ; but when it was nearly 

 aboard, her sudden lee wallow sometimes floated the 

 whole mass, which the next instant, on the return roll, 

 would be torn out of water, with all the force of the ship 

 suddenly rolling the other way. Every splinter, every 

 rope-yarn of her groaned again under this savage treat- 

 ment ; but so splendid was her construction that she 

 never made a drop of water more than just sufiQcient to 

 sweeten the limbers. 



It was with great and genuine satisfaction that we 

 saw it at last safely lowered on deck and secured. 

 But when we turned our attention to the case, which, 

 still attached to the skull, battered alongside, any 

 chance of saving it was at once seen to be hopeless. 

 Indeed, as the old man said, it was time for us to "up 

 stick" and run for shelter. We had been too fully 

 occupied to notice the gradual increase of the wind ; but 

 when we did, there was no gainsaying the fact that it 

 was blowing a very stiff breeze {Anglice, a violent gale). 

 Fortunately for us, it was from the westward, fair for 

 the harbour of Port William, on the Stewart's Island 

 side of the Straits, so that we were free from the appre- 

 hension of being blown out to sea or on a jagged lee 

 shore. 



While we were thus thinking during a brief pause to 

 take breath, the old packet herself solved our last 

 difficulty in emphatic fashion. She gave a tremendous 

 lee lurch, which would inevitably have destroyed the 

 cutting stage if we had not hoisted it, driving right over 

 the head, which actually rose to the surface to wind- 

 ward, having passed under her bottom. The weather 

 roll immediately following was swift and sudden. From 

 the nature of things, it was evident that something must 

 give way this time. It did. For the first and only 



