THE STORY THAT HANGS THEREBY. 
19 
this time, however, even the proverbial recklessness of 
the seamen of the port was daunted, and the hearts 
of two crews had already failed them at the last 
moment of starting, when my friend of the chain 
volunteered to take the command. At the outset of 
his voyage everything went well—a fair wind (her 
machinery was stowed away, and she sailed under 
canvas) carried the little craft in an incredible short 
time a thousand miles to the southward of the Cape, 
when one day, as she was running before the gale, the 
man at the wheel—startled at a- sea, which he thought 
was going to poop her, let go the helm,—the vessel 
broached to—and tons of water tumbled in on the top 
of the deck. As soon as the confusion of the moment 
had subsided, it became evident that the shock had 
broken some of the iron plates, and that the ship was 
in a fair way of foundering. So frightened were the 
crew, that after consultation with each other, they 
determined to take to the boats, and all hands came aft, 
to know whether there was anything the skipper would 
wish to carry off with him. Comprehending the madness 
of attempting to reach land in open boats at a distance 
of a thousand miles from any shore, Wyse pretended 
c 2 
