The line had broken.

The body of its suspended traveller had disappeared! And just then, strangely enough, for the first time for over an hour, the heavens opened in one great sheet of lightning, and they could see the figure of one man left on the ship, clinging desperately to the rigging.
"Tie the line around me," Jimmy shouted.

"Let her go.

Get the other end on the windlass." They paid out the rope through their hands.

Jimmy kicked off his boots and plunged into the cauldron.