Presently the last faint rays of daylight faded away, and night came down upon the awful scene. The storm was still raging with as much fury as at any time during the day. The poor creatures who had been clinging for hours to the rigging of the _Vandalia_ were bruised and bleeding; but they held on with the desperation of men who were hanging between life and death. The ropes had cut the flesh on their arms and legs, and their eyes were blinded by the salt spray which swept over them. Weak and exhausted as they were, they would be unable to stand the terrible strain much longer. The final hour seemed to be upon them. The great, black hull of the _Trenton_ was almost ready to crash into the stranded _Vandalia_ and grind her to atoms. Suddenly a shout was borne across the waters. The sound of four hundred and fifty voices was heard above the roar of the tempest. “Three cheers for the _Vandalia_!” was the cry that warmed the hearts of the dying men in the rigging. The shout died away upon the storm, and there arose from the quivering masts of the sunken ship a response so feeble it was scarcely heard upon the shore. Every heart was melted to pity. “God help them!” was passed from one man to another. The cheer had hardly ceased when the sound of music came across the water. The _Trenton’s_ band was playing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The thousand men on sea and shore had never before heard strains of music at such a time as that. An indescribable feeling came over the Americans on the beach who listened to the notes of the national song mingled with the howling of the storm. But the collision of the _Trenton_ and _Vandalia_, instead of crushing the latter vessel to pieces, proved to be the salvation of the men in the rigging. When the _Trenton’s_ stern finally struck the side of the _Vandalia_, there was no shock, and she swung around broadside to the sunken ship. This enabled the men on the _Vandalia_ to escape to the deck of the _Trenton_, and in a short time they were all taken off. The storm had abated at midnight, and when day dawned there was no further cause for alarm. The men were removed from the _Trenton_ and provided with quarters on shore. During the next few days the evidences of the great disaster could be seen on every side. In the harbor were the wrecks of four men-of-war: the _Trenton_, _Vandalia_, _Adler_, and _Eber_; and two others, the _Nipsic_ and _Olga_, were hard and fast on the beach and were hauled off with great difficulty. The wrecks of ten sailing-vessels also lay upon the reefs. On shore, houses and trees were blown down, and the beach was strewn with wreckage from one end of the town to the other.