On which they might repose, or even commence A jurymast or rudder, or could say The ship would swim an hour, which, by good luck, Still swam-though not exactly like a duck. XLI. The wind, in fact, perhaps was rather less, XLII. Again the weather threaten'd,—again blew XLIII. Then came the carpenter, at last, with tears And long had voyaged through many a stormy sea; XLIV. The ship was evidently settling now Fast by the head; and, all distinction gone, Some went to prayers again, and made a vow Of candles to their saints-but there were none To pay them with; and some look'd o'er the bow; Some hoisted out the boats: and there was one That begg'd Pedrillo for an absolution, Who told him to be damn'd-in his confusion. XLV. Some lash'd them in their hammocks; some put on Some cursed the day on which they saw the sun, And gnash'd their teeth, and, howling, tore their hair; And others went on as they had begun, Getting the boats out, being well aware That a tight boat will live in a rough sea, Unless with breakers close beneath her lee. XLVI. The worst of all was, that in their condition, Having been several days in great distress, 'Twas difficult to get out such provision As now might render their long suffering less: Men, even when dying, dislike inanition; Their stock was damaged by the weather's stress; Two casks of biscuit, and a keg of butter, Were all that could be thrown into the cutter. XLVII. But in the long-boat they contrived to stow Some pounds of bread, though injured by the wet; Water, a twenty-gallon cask or so, Six flasks of wine; and they contrived to get A portion of their beef up from below, And with a piece of pork, moreover, met, But scarce enough to serve them for a luncheonThen there was rum, eight gallons in a puncheon. XLVIII. The other boats, the yawl and pinnace, had Threw in by good luck over the ship's rail; And two boats could not hold, far less be stored, To save one half the people then on board. XLIX. 'Twas twilight, and the sunless day went down Which, if withdrawn, would but disclose the frown And the dim desolate deep: twelve days had Fear L. Some trial had been making at a raft, With little hope in such a rolling sea, A sort of thing at which one would have laugh'd, Unless with people who too much have quaff'd, Their preservation would have been a miracle. LI. At half-past eight o'clock, booms, hencoops, spars, For yet they strove, although of no great use: LII. Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell Then shriek'd the timid and stood still the brave— And the sea yawn'd around her like a hell, And down she suck'd with her the whirling wave, Like one who grapples with his enemy, And strives to strangle him before he die. LIII. And first one universal shriek there rush'd A solitary shriek, the bubbling cry LIV. The boats, as stated, had got off before,, There was slight chance of reaching any shore; And then they were too many, though so few— Nine in the cutter, thirty in the boat, Were counted in them when they got afloat. LV. All the rest perish'd: near two hundred souls Had left their bodies; and what's worse, alas! When over Catholics the ocean rolls, They must wait several weeks before a mass Takes off one peck of purgatorial coals, Because, till people know what's come to pass, They won't lay out their money on the deadIt costs three francs for every mass that's said. LVI. Juan got into the long-boat, and there Which courage gives, while poor Pedrillo's pair LVII. Pedro, his valet, too, he tried to save, But the same cause, conducive to his loss, Left him so drunk, he jump'd into the wave, As o'er the cutter's edge he tried to cross, And so he found a wine-and-watery grave; They could not rescue him, although so close, Because the sea ran higher every minute, And for the boat-the crew kept crowding in it. |