The Wreck of the South Pole and Other Strange Tales — page 225: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

218 ‘The Beacon Ship of Half Moon Bay. crew were veritable landlubbers when it came to danger. When the storm struck them they were near the shore, and there being no harbor the captain gave orders to put to sea. The men refused to obey, and several entered a boat and rowed for shore. Their fate my friend never learned. ‘The sloop, left half manned, blundered before the storm, drifted southward and at length lost her rud- der. For days they drifted, now here, now there, at the mercy of the sea, now inward with the tide, now out to sea again. Gradually, however, they floated southward. Once or twice they sighted outgoing ships, but so far away that their signals were not seen. On the sixth day the captain advised my friend to take one of the boats and, with two sailors, endeavor to reach land or some ship and send succor to the sloop. This was done, but the first night out the wind fresh- ened and the boat was swamped. From that time on until early in the morning my friend was unconscious. An hour before sunrise he found himself still in the boat, which was half full of water but still able to float. The Oars were gone and neither of the sailors could be seen. On to the southeast he saw a dark line which he knew was the coast, and after bailing out the boat he took the ' helm and steered as well as he could for it. Just before sunrise he was surprised and gladdened to see a schooner standing straight up out of the sea, half a mile to the south. He steered for it, and, the tide flowing in, was able to reach it. But when directly under the vessel, which was strangely Gomichbooks (E(o)