Had the crew seen me disappear?
Had the Abraham Lincoln veered round?
Would the captain put out a boat?
Might I hope to be saved?
The darkness was intense.

I caught a glimpse of a black mass disappearing in the east, its beacon lights dying out in the distance.
It was the frigate! I was lost.
"Help, help!" I shouted, swimming towards the Abraham Lincoln in desperation.
My clothes encumbered me; they seemed glued to my body, and paralysed my movements.
I was sinking! I was suffocating! "Help!" This was my last cry.

My mouth filled with water; I struggled against being drawn down the abyss.

Suddenly my clothes were seized by a strong hand, and I felt myself quickly drawn up to the surface of the sea; and I heard, yes, I heard these words pronounced in my ear: "If master would be so good as to lean on my shoulder, master would swim with much greater ease." I seized with one hand my faithful Conseil's arm.
"Is it you ?" said I, "you ?" "Myself," answered Conseil; "and waiting master's orders." "That shock threw you as well as me into the sea ?" "No; but, being in my master's service, I followed him." The worthy fellow thought that was but natural.
"And the frigate ?" I asked.
"The frigate ?" replied Conseil, turning on his back; "I think that master had better not count too much on her." "You think so ?" "I say that, at the time I threw myself into the sea, I heard the men at the wheel say, `The screw and the rudder are broken.' "Broken ?" "Yes, broken by the monster's teeth.

It is the only injury the Abraham Lincoln has sustained.