These terrible scenes had detracted attention from the other two men-of-war still afloat; but about four o’clock in the afternoon the positions of the _Trenton_ and _Olga_ became most alarming. The flagship had been in a helpless condition for hours, being without rudder or propeller, while volumes of water poured in through her hawser-pipes. Men never fought against adverse circumstances with more desperation than the officers and men of the _Trenton_ displayed during those hours, yet the vessel was slowly forced over toward the eastern reef. Destruction seemed imminent, as the great vessel was pitching heavily, and her stern was but a few feet from the reef. This point was a quarter of a mile from shore, and if the _Trenton_ had struck the reef there, it is probable that not a life would have been saved. A skilful manœuver, suggested by Lieutenant Brown, saved the ship from destruction. Every man was ordered into the port rigging, and the compact mass of bodies was used as a sail. The wind struck against the men in the rigging and forced the vessel out into the bay again. She soon commenced to drift back against the _Olga_, which was still standing off the reef and holding up against the storm more successfully than any other vessel in the harbor had done, and in spite of every effort on the part of both ships a collision took place which severely damaged both. Fortunately, the vessels drifted apart, whereupon the _Olga_ steamed ahead toward the mud-flats in the eastern part of the bay, and was soon hard and fast on the bottom. Not a life was lost, and several weeks later the ship was hauled off and saved. The _Trenton_ was now about two hundred feet from the sunken _Vandalia_, and seemed sure to strike her and throw into the water the men still clinging to the rigging. It was now after five o’clock, and the daylight was beginning to fade away. In a half hour more, the _Trenton_ had drifted to within a few yards of the _Vandalia’s_ bow, and feelings hard to describe came to the hundreds who watched the vessels from the shore.