and as dark as pitch. It might be about eight bells, and I and one
of the other hands had turned in, when father gave a sudden shout
down the hatch, 'All hands on deck.' I was next to the steps and
sprang up 'em. Just as I got to the top something grazed my face.
I caught at it, not knowing what it was, and the next moment there
was a crash, and the Dolphin went away from under my feet. I clung
for bare life, scarce awake yet nor knowing what had happened. The
next moment I was under water. I still held on to the rope and was
soon out again. By this time I was pretty well awake to what had
happened. A ship running down channel had walked clean over the
poor old Dolphin, and I had got hold of the bobstay. It took me some
time to climb up on to the bowsprit, for every time she pitched I
went under water. However, I got up at last and swarmed along the
bowsprit and got on board. There was a chap sitting down fast asleep
there. I walked aft to the helmsman. Two men were pacing up and
down in front of him. 'You're a nice lot, you are,' I said, 'to
go running down Channel at ten knots an hour without any watch,
a-walking over ships and a-drowning of seamen. I'll have the law
of ye, see if I don't.'

"'Jeerusalem!' said one, 'who have we here?'

"'My name is Jack Perkins,' says I, 'and I'm the sole survivor, as
far as I knows, of the smack, the Flying Dolphin, as has been run
down by this craft and lost with all hands.'

"'Darn the Flying Dolphin, and you too,' says the man, and he
begins to walk up and down the deck a-puffn' of a long cigar as if
nothing had happened.