Two of the seamen miserably
perished--the rest, including officers, passengers and crew, held on
about the head and bows--the struggle was for life!
At this moment, the Inaccessible Island, which till then had been veiled
in thick clouds and mist, appeared frowning above the haze. The wreck
was more than two miles from the frightful shore. The base of the
island was still buried in impenetrable gloom. In this perilous
extremity, one was for cutting away the anchor, which had been got up to
the cat-head in time of need; another was for cutting down the foremast
(the foretop-mast being already by the board.) The fog totally
disappeared, and the black rocky island stood in all its rugged
deformity before their eyes. Suddenly the sun broke out in full
splendor, as if to expose more clearly to the view of the sufferers
their dreadful predicament. Despair was in every bosom--death, arrayed
in all its terrors, seemed to hover over the wreck. But exertion was
required, and every thing that human energy could devise was effected.
The wreck, on which all eagerly clung, was fortunately drifted by the
tide and wind between ledges of sunken rocks and thundering breakers,
until, after the lapse of several hours, it entered the only spot on the
island where a landing was possibly practicable, for all the other parts
of the coast consisted of perpendicular cliffs of granite, rising from
amidst the deafening surf to the height of twenty, forty, and sixty
feet.
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