AUSTRALIA 77 



went quietly to bed. A little before eleven, the 

 water shoaled suddenly from twenty to seventeen 

 fathoms, and before the lead could be heaved 

 again a sinister rending was heard. The vessel 

 had touched a reef. In a moment the crew were 

 on deck, having realised the horror of the situa- 

 tion. Cook, with his perfect control of men, 

 quelled the panic and with his usual energy and 

 coolness took measures to deal with the catas- 

 trophe which he considered inevitable. 



When the depth of the water round the ship 

 was taken, it was found that she had struck 

 below water on a coral reef, and that she was on 

 the summit of this rock, which showed a greatest 

 depth of four fathoms. By the light of the moon 

 they saw the planks of the sheathing as well as 

 those of the keel floating broken by the vessel's 

 side. ". . . Every moment was making way 

 for the sea to rush in which was to swallow us 

 up," wrote Hawkesworth. ^'We had now no 

 chance but to lighten her, and we had lost the 

 opportunity of doing that to the greatest ad- 

 vantage, for unhappily we went onshore just at 

 high water, and by this time it had considerably 

 fallen, so that after she should be lightened so 

 as to draw as much less water, as the water had 

 sunk, we should be but in the same situation as 

 at first, and the only alleviation of this circum- 

 stance was, that as the tide ebbed, the ship 



