We had gained about twenty feet, and were redoubling our efforts
when the ship grounded again.
And now no effort would avail; all was in vain; the tide began to
turn; and the "Chancellor" would not advance an inch. Was there
time to go back? She would inevitably go to pieces if left
balanced upon the ridge. In an instant the captain has ordered
the sails to be furled, and the anchor dropped from the stern.
One moment of terrible anxiety, and all is well.
The "Chancellor" tacks to stern, and glides back into the basin,
which is once more her prison.
"Well, captain," says the boatswain, "what's to be done now?"
"I don't know" said Curtis, "but we shall get across somehow."
CHAPTER XXI.
NOVEMBER 21st to 24th.--There was assuredly no time to be lost
before we ought to leave Ham Rock reef. The barometer had been
falling ever since the morning, the sea was getting rougher, and
there was every symptom that the weather, hitherto so favourable,
was on the point of breaking; and in the event of a gale the
"Chancellor" must inevitably be dashed to pieces on the rocks.
In the evening, when the tide was quite low, and the rocks
uncovered, Curtis, the boatswain, and Dowlas went to examine the
ridge which had proved so serious an obstruction, Falsten and I
accompanied them. We came to the conclusion that the only way of
effecting a passage was by cutting away the rocks with pikes over
a surface measuring ten feet by six.
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