discipline was gone, and no connected efforts were further made to
protect the ship or render her in any degree safer from the power of the
storm. To add still more to the critical condition on board, the ship
after straining and laboring so long, now began to leak and rapidly to
fill. In this desperate state of affairs several of the crew, whose
numbers were already thinned by being washed overboard, got into the
spirit room and in a condition of wild desperation became beastly
intoxicated, resolving to die insensible to danger! and at intervals
their crazy oaths and incoherent songs were heard above the gale.

At this crisis, as is generally the case, two or three sterling spirits
among the crew (and there is never a ship's company without some such
among its members), one, the second mate, and a couple of foremast
hands, came into the cabin and assured the widow and her daughter that
they would protect them to the last, and that they were even now
preparing the long boat with compass, water and food, so that should the
storm abate and the sea become less agitated before the ship should fill
and go down, they might launch it, and with the ladies and such of them
as desired, attempt to save themselves in this frail bark. With
heartfelt gratitude the mother and child accepted their protection and
awaited the crisis; but not without solemnly kneeling together upon the
cabin floor and committing themselves to the care of Divine Providence.

The second mate of the Bengal was the only officer left, but he was a
good sailor, a man of cool nerve and great personal strength. He now
went calmly to work, sounded the well and found four feet of water in
the ship, made his calculations how long it would require for the ship
to fill at the rate she then made water, and then set to work with his
two companions to rig a triangle with spars above the long boat, so as
to lift and launch it just when the proper moment should arrive, but