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Page 98
"Ay, ay, sir!" responded the captain of the ship. "I have two women and
two children on board."
"You must lower them in slings," added Haven, prompted by Mr. Fluxion.
[Illustration: THE WRECK OF THE SYLVIA. page 254.]
The people on board the wreck went to work, and one of the women was
lowered into each boat at the same time. A long loop was made in the end
of the rope, and the woman sat down in the bight of it, holding on to
the line with her hands. At a moment when the sea favored the movement,
the boats were hauled up close to the ship's stern, the passenger caught
by two of the crew, and hauled on board. A boy and a girl were let down
in the same manner. The captain, mates, and seamen came down the rope
hand over hand.
Each boat now had nine passengers, who were stowed in the stern sheets
and on the bottom. The ropes from the ship were cast off, and the
oarsmen were ordered to give way. The barge and the gig rose and fell,
now leaping up on the huge billows, and then plunging down deep into the
trough of the sea; but they had been well trimmed, and though the comb
of the sea occasionally broke into them, drenching the boys with spray,
the return to the Young America was safely effected.
"How happens it that you are all boys?" asked the captain of the wrecked
ship, who was in Paul Kendall's boat.
"That's the Academy Ship," replied the second lieutenant.
"The what?" exclaimed the captain.
"It is the Young America. She is a school ship."
"O, ay!"
There was no disposition to talk much in the boats. The officers and
crews were fully employed in keeping the barge and gig right side up in
the tremendous sea, and though all hands were filled with curiosity to
know the particulars of the wreck, all questions were wisely deferred
until they were on the deck of the ship.
When the gig came up under the counter of the Young America, a line was
thrown down to the bowman who made it fast to the ring. The passengers
were then taken aboard in slings rigged on the spanker-boom, which was
swung over the lee quarter for the purpose. Part of the boat's crew were
taken on board in the same way, and then the gig was hoisted up to the
davits with the rest in her.
Before the barge was allowed to come up under the counter, the officer
of the deck wore ship, so as to bring the port quarter, on which the
boat was to be suspended, on the lee side. Her passengers were taken on
deck as those from the gig had been, and she was hoisted up.
"Mr. Kendall, I congratulate you upon the success of your labors," said
Mr. Lowington, when the second lieutenant reached the deck. "You have
handled your boat exceedingly well, and you deserve a great deal of
credit."
"That's a fact, sir," added Boatswain Peaks, touching his cap. "I hardly
spoke a word to him, and I've seen many a boat worse handled in a sea."
Paul blushed at the praise bestowed upon him, but he was proud and happy
to have done his duty faithfully on this important occasion. The same
commendation was given to the first lieutenant, after the barge had been
hauled up to the davits, and the order given for the ship to fill away
again.
The women and children were conducted to the professors' cabin as soon
as they came on board, and the seamen were taken into the steerage. All
of them were exhausted by the anxiety and the hardships they had
endured, and as soon as their safety was insured, they sank almost
helpless under the pressure of their physical weakness.
"This is a school ship, I'm told," said Captain Greely, the master of
the shipwrecked vessel, who had also been invited to the main cabin.
"Yes, sir; we call it the Academy Ship, and we have eighty-seven young
gentlemen on board," replied Mr. Lowington.
"They are smart boys, sir. I never saw boats better handled than those
which brought us off from the ship," added Captain Greely, warmly.
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