Come with me, Hiram Jefferson." The seaman and the captain swung themselves down into the tossing boat, the latter with a lantern strapped to his waist.

Together they made their way until they were under her mangled bows.

The captain shook his head when he saw the extent of the damage.
"Cut away the foresail and pass it over," said he.
Tomlinson and Amos Green cut away the lashings with their knives and lowered the corner of the sail.

Captain Ephraim and the seaman seized it, and dragged it across the mouth of the huge gaping leak.

As he stooped to do it, however, the ship heaved up upon a swell, and the captain saw in the yellow light of his lantern sinuous black cracks which radiated away backwards from the central hole.
"How much in the well ?" he asked.
"Five and a half feet." "Then the ship is lost.