SHIP TAKES EIKE. 
393 
1852.] 
to plug the holes in the bottoms of the boats. Now 
no one knew where a rudder had been put away ; now 
the thowl-pins were missing. The oars had to be 
searched for, and spars to serve as masts, with propor- 
tionate sails, spare canvas, twine, cordage, tow-ropes, 
sail-needles, nails and tacks, carpenters’ tools, etc. The 
Captain was looking after his chronometer, sextant, ba- 
rometer, charts, compasses, and books of navigation; 
the seamen were getting their clothes into huge canvas 
bags ; all were lugging about pilot-coats, blankets, south- 
westers, and oilskin coats and trowsers; and I went 
down into the cabin, now suffocatingly hot and full of 
smoke, to see what was worth saving. I got my watch 
and a small tin box containing some shirts and a couple 
of old note-books, with some drawings of plants and 
animals, and scrambled up with them on deck. Many 
clothes and a large portfolio of drawings and sketches 
remained in my berth ; but I did not care to venture down 
again, and in fact felt a kind of apathy about saving 
anything, that I can now hardly account for. On deck 
the crew were still busy at the boats ; two barrels of 
bread were got in, a lot of raw pork, some ham and cases 
of preserved meats, some wine and a large cask of water. 
The cask had to be lowered into the boat empty, for 
fear of any accident, and after being securely fixed in its 
place, filled with buckets from those on board. 
The boats, having been so long drying in a tropical 
sun, were very leaky, and were now half full of water, 
and books, coats, blankets, shoes, pork, and cheese, in a 
confused mass, were soaking in them. It was necessary 
to put two men in each, to bale ; and everything neces- 
