The wind blew steadily.
Suddenly toward three o'clock it began to rain.
Vandover, the engineer, all the five sailors, and two of the passengers were clothed.

The rest of the passengers were little better than naked.
Here and there a man had snatched a blanket from his berth, and one or two of them were wearing their trousers, but the rest were clothed for the most part only with their shirts and drawers.

There were eighteen women and five little girls in the boat.

The little girls were well looked after.

Two were wrapped in Vandover's travelling-rug and a couple of men had put their coats around the third.