Now all the sea was strewn with wreckage, but among it we found only one child living that had clung to an oar.

The rest, some two hundred souls, had been sucked down with the ship and perished miserably, or if there were any still living, we could not find them in that weltering sea over which the darkness was falling.
Indeed, it was well for our own safety that we failed in so doing, for the little boat had ten souls on board in all, which was as many as she could carry--the priest and I being the only men among them.

I have said that the darkness was falling, and as it chanced happily for us, so was the sea, or assuredly we must have been swamped.

All that we could do was to keep the boat's head straight to the waves, and this we did through the long night.

It was a strange thing to see, or rather to hear, that good man the priest my companion, confessing the women one by one as he laboured at his oar, and when all were shriven sending up prayers to God for the salvation of our souls, for of the safety of our bodies we despaired.