276 THE BOY CAPTAIN.

“That is very true, and yet among the strange things
to be met with on the sea, such a case has occurred sev-
eral times, where a singular accident has happened on a
sound craft, causing her master to believe she was about
to founder, therefore has abandoned her without ascertain-
ing the true condition of affairs. Now if I had a full
crew, I would chase that ship until it was possible to
board her, and fancy what a salvage for a young captain !
Why it would set you and me up for life!”

“ But I never heard of a case of that kind,” Miss Dun-
ham said, musingly.

“Old Short could have told you of one which he had a
hand in picking up. He was a second officer on board a
small brig hailing from New Bedford, which was dismasted
and foundered. All hands took to the boats, and after
they had drifted around three or four days, there came a
dead calm just at nightfall.

“Tn the morning they saw, within a mile or so of them,
a ship under full sail, becalmed, as a matter of course.
They pulled toward her, hailed, and no one answered.
Short says some of the men, shipwrecked though they
were, and needing the planks of a vessel under their feet
as badly as any sailormen ever did need them, were so
frightened by the fact, that they tried to persuade the
others not to board the craft.

“All were not quite so superstitious luckily, and went
on board.

“Everything was in the most perfect order, ropes
neatly coiled, belaying pins in place, and no litter about