Now, Mr.Girdlestone had always had a weakness for petty savings, and in this instance he determined not to insure his new vessels.

If the crazy old tubs, for which he had paid fancy premiums for so many years with an eye to an ultimate profit, met with no disaster, surely those new powerful clippers were safe.

With their tonnage and horse-power they appeared to him to be superior to all the dangers of the deep.

It chanced, however, by that strange luck which would almost make one believe that matters nautical were at the mercy of some particularly malignant demon, that as the _Evening Star_ was steaming up Channel in a dense fog on her return from her second voyage, she ran right into the _Providence_, which had started that very morning from Liverpool upon her third outward trip.

The _Providence_ was almost cut in two, and sank within five minutes, taking down the captain and six of the crew, while the _Evening Star_ was so much damaged about the bows that she put into Falmouth in a sinking condition.