Everyone, however, succeeded in catching their planks and getting on them again. After the capsize I found my raft in a very different condition to what it was previously. All the loose planks were gone and a number of the ones nailed to the crosspiece had also disappeared. All of my mates, when on top of their wreckage, knelt on the boards with their heads _facing the shore_, and held on in that position. The noise made by the wind and waves made it useless, at the distance I was off, for me to call to my companions, but I made signs, and tried to show them, by lying down flat on my raft, what I believed to be the surest way of holding and keeping on, with my head _facing the seas_. [Illustration: FOUNDERING OF THE S.S. ALERT, THREE MILES S.W. OF CAPE SCHANCK. DECEMBER 28, 1893.] As we drifted nearer the shore the seas got larger and more powerful still, so that in spite of all our precautions we could not retain our hold on the boards for any length of time. The frequent turning over of my raft knocked me sort of stupid every time I went under, and I have no doubt that the rest of my companions had similar experience. I reckon it must have been about 6 p. m. when I saw the steward washed away a great distance from the wreckage he had been on. After a long struggle he succeeded in getting back to his mates, but he evidently had completely exhausted himself in the effort, for he had hardly been a minute on the top of the boards till he fell from his kneeling position forward, with his head on the edge of the raft. He seemed to be smothering in the foam of the sea, so I shouted to his raft mates to hold his head up till I came to help him if I could. I knew poor Dodd was not strong, still I thought we might be able to keep him alive until the life-boat, or some other assistance, came from the shore. I left my raft and swam towards him as quickly as I could, but before reaching him a big sea buried me. When I got to the surface again I saw the steward had been washed off the boards and was floating some distance away in a position that told me he was dead. It greatly grieved me to see that my most intimate companion was the first to go out of our number, and for the time being I felt unnerved enough almost to give up hope myself. Then I thought it useless brooding over the matter, and determined to struggle on while I had any strength left. For a while I swam towards the raft on which were the captain, the chief officer and the two firemen. As I got near I saw a large breaker turning them clean over. They had their feet to the sea, and as their raft capsized I saw the legs of the whole four in the air at the same time. Finding it out of my power to help them, and thinking that matters might be made worse by crowding too close together, I started back to my boards again. Quite exhausted I reached my raft. As I lay on it I began to think it was time the life-boat was in sight. I could see a