round, and gotten fully under headway, although all hands on board
were making great exertions to take in sail. In despite of the danger
of the attempt, the mate clung to the main-chains as soon as they
came within his reach. Another huge lurch now brought the starboard
side of the vessel out of water nearly as far as her keel, when the
cause of his anxiety was rendered obvious enough. The body of a man
was seen to be affixed in the most singular manner to the smooth and
shining bottom (the Penguin was coppered and copper-fastened), and
beating violently against it with every movement of the hull. After
several ineffectual efforts, made during the lurches of the ship, and
at the imminent risk of swamping the boat I was finally disengaged
from my perilous situation and taken on board- for the body proved to
be my own. It appeared that one of the timber-bolts having started
and broken a passage through the copper, it had arrested my progress
as I passed under the ship, and fastened me in so extraordinary a
manner to her bottom. The head of the bolt had made its way through
the collar of the green baize jacket I had on, and through the back
part of my neck, forcing itself out between two sinews and just below
the right ear. I was immediately put to bed- although life seemed to
be totally extinct. There was no surgeon on board. The captain,
however, treated me with every attention- to make amends, I presume,
in the eyes of his crew, for his atrocious behaviour in the previous
portion of the adventure.

In the meantime, Henderson had again put off from the ship,
although the wind was now blowing almost a hurricane. He had not been
gone many minutes when he fell in with some fragments of our boat,
and shortly afterward one of the men with him asserted that he could
distinguish a cry for help at intervals amid the roaring of the
tempest. This induced the hardy seamen to persevere in their search