We
      had experienced indescribable relief in bathing, and to have this
      resource cut off in so frightful a manner was more than we could
      bear. Nor, indeed, were we altogether free from the apprehension
      of immediate danger, for the least slip or false movement would
      have thrown us at once within reach of those voracious fish, who
      frequently thrust themselves directly upon us, swimming up to
      leeward. No shouts or exertions on our part seemed to alarm them. Even when one of the largest was struck with an axe by Peters and
      much wounded, he persisted in his attempts to push in where we
      were. A cloud came up at dusk, but, to our extreme anguish,
      passed over without discharging itself. It is quite impossible to
      conceive our sufferings from thirst at this period. We passed a
      sleepless night, both on this account and through dread of the
      sharks. August 3. No prospect of relief, and the brig lying still more
      and more along, so that now we could not maintain a footing upon
      deck at all. Busied ourselves in securing our wine and
      tortoise-meat, so that we might not lose them in the event of our
      rolling over. Got out two stout spikes from the forechains, and,
      by means of the axe, drove them into the hull to windward within
      a couple of feet of the water, this not being very far from the
      keel, as we were nearly upon our beam-ends. To these spikes we
      now lashed our provisions, as being more secure than their former
      position beneath the chains. Suffered great agony from thirst
      during the whole day—no chance of bathing on account of the
      sharks, which never left us for a moment. Found it impossible to
      sleep. August 4. A little before daybreak we perceived that the hulk was
      heeling over, and aroused ourselves to prevent being thrown off
      by the movement. At first the roll was slow and gradual, and we
      contrived to clamber over to windward very well, having taken the
      precaution to leave ropes hanging from the spikes we had driven
      in for the provision. But we had not calculated sufficiently upon
      the acceleration of the impetus; for, presently the heel became
      too violent to allow of our keeping pace with it; and, before
      either of us knew what was to happen, we found ourselves hurled
      furiously into the sea, and struggling several fathoms beneath
      the surface, with the huge hull immediately above us. In going under the water I had been obliged to let go my hold
      upon the rope; and finding that I was completely beneath the
      vessel, and my strength nearly exhausted, I scarcely made a
      struggle for life, and resigned myself, in a few seconds, to die. But here again I was deceived, not having taken into
      consideration the natural rebound of the hull to windward. The
      whirl of the water upward, which the vessel occasioned in rolling
      partially back, brought me to the surface still more violently
      than I had been plunged beneath. Upon coming up I found myself
      about twenty yards from the hulk, as near as I could judge. She
      was lying keel up, rocking furiously from side to side, and the
      sea in all directions around was much agitated, and full of
      strong whirlpools. I could see nothing of Peters. An oil-cask was
      floating within a few feet of me, and various other articles from
      the brig were scattered about. My principal terror was now on account of the sharks, which I
      knew to be in my vicinity. In order to deter these, if possible,
      from approaching me, I splashed the water vigorously with both
      hands and feet as I swam towards the hulk, creating a body of
      foam. I have no doubt that to this expedient, simple as it was, I
      was indebted for my preservation; for the sea all round the brig,
      just before her rolling over, was so crowded with these monsters,
      that I must have been, and really was, in actual contact with
      some of them during my progress. By great good fortune, however,
      I reached the side of the vessel in safety, although so utterly
      weakened by the violent exertion I had used that I should never
      have been able to get upon it but for the timely assistance of
      Peters, who, now, to my great joy, made his appearance (having
      scrambled up to the keel from the opposite side of the hull), and
      threw me the end of a rope—one of those which had been attached
      to the spikes. Having barely escaped this danger, our attention was now directed
      to the dreadful imminency of another—that of absolute starvation. Our whole stock of provision had been swept overboard in spite of
      all our care in securing it; and seeing no longer the remotest
      possibility of obtaining more, we gave way both of us to despair,
      weeping aloud like children, and neither of us attempting to
      offer consolation to the other. Such weakness can scarcely be
      conceived, and to those who have never been similarly situated
      will, no doubt, appear unnatural; but it must be remembered that
      our intellects were so entirely disordered by the long course of
      privation and terror to which we had been subjected, that we
      could not justly be considered, at that period, in the light of
      rational beings. In subsequent perils, nearly as great, if not
      greater, I bore up with fortitude against all the evils of my
      situation, and Peters, it will be seen, evinced a stoical
      philosophy nearly as incredible as his present childlike
      supineness and imbecility—the mental condition made the
      difference. The overturning of the brig, even with the consequent loss of the
      wine and turtle, would not, in fact, have rendered our situation
      more deplorable than before, except for the disappearance of the
      bedclothes by which we had been hitherto enabled to catch
      rainwater, and of the jug in which we had kept it when caught;
      for we found the whole bottom, from within two or three feet of
      the bends as far as the keel, together with the keel itself,
      thickly covered with large barnacles, which proved to be
      excellent and highly nutritious food. Thus, in two important
      respects, the accident we had so greatly dreaded proved to be a
      benefit rather than an injury; it had opened to us a supply of
      provisions which we could not have exhausted, using it
      moderately, in a month; and it had greatly contributed to our
      comfort as regards position, we being much more at ease, and in
      infinitely less danger, than before. The difficulty, however, of now obtaining water blinded us to all
      the benefits of the change in our condition.