manoeuvre with the ADLER was impossible; the CALLIOPE was too

heavy. The one possibility of escape was to go out. If the
engines should stand, if they should have power to drive the ship

against wind and sea, if she should answer the helm, if the wheel,
rudder, and gear should hold out, and if they were favoured with a

clear blink of weather in which to see and avoid the outer reef -
there, and there only, were safety. Upon this catalogue of "ifs"

Kane staked his all. He signalled to the engineer for every pound
of steam - and at that moment (I am told) much of the machinery was

already red-hot. The ship was sheered well to starboard of the
VANDALIA, the last remaining cable slipped. For a time - and there

was no onlooker so cold-blooded as to offer a guess at its duration
- the CALLIOPE lay stationary; then gradually drew ahead. The

highest speed claimed for her that day is of one sea-mile an hour.
The question of times and seasons, throughout all this roaring

business, is obscured by a dozen contradictions; I have but chosen
what appeared to be the most consistent; but if I am to pay any

attention to the time named by Admiral Kimberley, the CALLIOPE, in
this first stage of her escape, must have taken more than two hours

to cover less than four cables. As she thus crept seaward, she
buried bow and stem alternately under the billows.

In the fairway of the entrance the flagship TRENTON still held on.
Her rudder was broken, her wheel carried away; within she was

flooded with water from the peccant hawse-pipes; she had just made
the signal "fires extinguished," and lay helpless, awaiting the

inevitable end. Between this melancholy hulk and the external reef
Kane must find a path. Steering within fifty yards of the reef

(for which she was actually headed) and her foreyard passing on the
other hand over the TRENTON'S quarter as she rolled, the CALLIOPE

sheered between the rival dangers, came to the wind triumphantly,
and was once more pointed for the sea and safety. Not often in

naval history was there a moment of more sickening peril, and it
was dignified by one of those incidents that reconcile the

chronicler with his otherwise abhorrent task. From the doomed
flagship the Americans hailed the success of the English with a

cheer. It was led by the old admiral in person, rang out over the
storm with holidayvigour, and was answered by the Calliopes with

an emotion easily conceived. This ship of their kinsfolk was
almost the last external object seen from the CALLIOPE for hours;

immediately after, the mists closed about her till the morrow. She
was safe at sea again - UNA DE MULTIS - with a damaged foreyard,

and a loss of all the ornamental work about her bow and stern,
three anchors, one kedge-anchor, fourteen lengths of chain, four

boats, the jib-boom, bobstay, and bands and fastenings of the
bowsprit.

Shortly after Kane had slipped his cable, Captain Schoonmaker,
despairing of the VANDALIA, succeeded in passing astern of the

OLGA, in the hope to beach his ship beside the NIPSIC. At a
quarter to eleven her stern took the reef, her hand swung to

starboard, and she began to fill and settle. Many lives of brave
men were sacrificed in the attempt to get a line ashore; the

captain, exhausted by his exertions, was swept from deck by a sea;
and the rail being soon awash, the survivors took refuge in the

tops.
Out of thirteen that had lain there the day before, there were now

but two ships afloat in Apia harbour, and one of these was doomed
to be the bane of the other. About 3 P.M. the TRENTON parted one

cable, and shortly after a second. It was sought to keep her head
to wind with storm-sails and by the ingeniousexpedient of filling

the rigging with seamen; but in the fury of the gale, and in that
sea, perturbed alike by the gigantic billows and the volleying

discharges of the rivers, the rudderless ship drove down stern
foremost into the inner basin; ranging, plunging, and striking like

a frightened horse; drifting on destruction for herself and
bringing it to others. Twice the OLGA (still well under command)

avoided her impact by the skilful use of helm and engines. But
about four the vigilance of the Germans was deceived, and the ships

collided; the OLGA cutting into the TRENTON'S quarters, first from
one side, then from the other, and losing at the same time two of

her own cables. Captain von Ehrhardt instantly slipped the
remainder of his moorings, and setting fore and aft canvas, and

going full steam ahead, succeeded in beaching his ship in Matautu;
whither Knappe, recalled by this new disaster, had returned. The

berth was perhaps the best in the harbour, and von Ehrhardt
signalled that ship and crew were in security.

The TRENTON, guided apparently by an under-tow or eddy from the
discharge of the Vaisingano, followed in the course of the NIPSIC

and VANDALIA, and skirted south-eastward along the front of the
shore reef, which her keel was at times almost touching. Hitherto

she had brought disaster to her foes; now she was bringing it to
friends. She had already proved the ruin of the OLGA, the one ship

that had rid out the hurricane in safety; now she beheld across her
course the submerged VANDALIA, the tops filled with exhausted

seamen. Happily the approach of the TRENTON was gradual, and the
time employed to advantage. Rockets and lines were thrown into the

tops of the friendly wreck; the approach of danger was transformed
into a means of safety; and before the ships struck, the men from

the VANDALIA'S main and mizzen masts, which went immediately by the
board in the collision, were already mustered on the TRENTON'S

decks. Those from the foremast were next rescued; and the flagship
settled gradually into a position alongside her neighbour, against

which she beat all night with violence. Out of the crew of the
VANDALIA forty-three had perished; of the four hundred and fifty on

board the TRENTON, only one.
The night of the 16th was still notable for a howling tempest and

extraordinary floods of rain. It was feared the wreck could scarce
continue to endure the breaching of the seas; among the Germans,

the fate of those on board the ADLER awoke keen anxiety; and
Knappe, on the beach of Matautu, and the other officers of his

consulate on that of Matafele, watched all night. The morning of
the 17th displayed a scene of devastation rarely equalled: the

ADLER high and dry, the OLGA and NIPSIC beached, the TRENTON partly
piled on the VANDALIA and herself sunk to the gun-deck; no sail

afloat; and the beach heaped high with the DEBRIS of ships and the
wreck of mountain forests. Already, before the day, Seumanu, the

chief of Apia, had gallantly ventured forth by boat through the
subsiding fury of the seas, and had succeeded in communicating with

the admiral; already, or as soon after as the dawn permitted,
rescue lines were rigged, and the survivors were with difficulty

and danger begun to be brought to shore. And soon the cheerful
spirit of the admiral added a new feature to the scene. Surrounded

as he was by the crews of two wrecked ships, he paraded the band of
the TRENTON, and the bay was suddenly enlivened with the strains of

"Hail Columbia."
During a great part of the day the work of rescue was continued,

with many instances of courage and devotion; and for a long time
succeeding, the almost inexhaustible harvest of the beach was to be

reaped. In the first employment, the Samoans earned the gratitude
of friend and foe; in the second, they surprised all by an

unexpected virtue, that of honesty. The greatness of the disaster,
and the magnitude of the treasure now rolling at their feet, may

perhaps have roused in their bosoms an emotion too serious for the
rule of greed, or perhaps that greed was for the moment satiated.

Sails that twelve strong Samoans could scarce drag from the water,
great guns (one of which was rolled by the sea on the body of a

man, the only native slain in all the hurricane), an infinite
wealth of rope and wood, of tools and weapons, tossed upon the

beach. Yet I have never heard that much was stolen; and beyond
question, much was very honestly returned. On both accounts, for

the saving of life and the restoration of property, the government
of the United States showed themselves generous in reward. A fine

boat was fitly presented to Seumanu; and rings, watches, and money
were lavished on all who had assisted. The Germans also gave money