in there on deck. The second mate spoke to the captain that it would
be best to start the steam pump. The smokestack and the rest of the
steam fittings were under the fo'c's'le head. It took a long time
to get them out, and then the steam pump would not work. The water
gained on us all the time now, and the captain ordered us to throw
the deck-load overboard. We were nearly dead, we were so tired and
sleepy and sore. This morning, the cook served coffee and bread when
daylight came at six o'clock. That was the last bit of food or drink
we had on the El Dorado.

"The taking off of the great chain was a murderous job. When we
loosened it, the huge seas would sweep over the logs and us while
we tried to get them overboard. It was touch and go. We had to use
capstanbars to pry the big logs over and over. We tried to push them
with the rolling of the ship. One wave would carry a mass of the
logs away, and the next wave would bring them back, crashing into
the vessel, catching in the rigging, and nearly pulling it down,
and the masts with it. Dodging those big logs was awful work, and
if you were hit by one, you were gone. They would come dancing over
the side on the tops of the waves and be left on the very spot from
which we had lifted them overboard. The old man should have thrown
the deck-load over two days before. The water now grew deeper all the
time, and the ship wallowed like a waterlogged raft. The fo'c's'le
was full of water. The El Dorado was drowning with us aboard.

"We were all on deck because we had nowhere else to go. There was
nothing in the cabin or the fo'c's'le but water. The sea was now
like mountains, but it stopped breaking, so that there was a chance
to get away. We were hanging on to stays and anything fixed.