The life-saving crew could see that one of the port boats was being hoisted out, and every man ashore knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that such a craft could not live five minutes in that boiling, yeasty swirl of waters. With a hope of yet persuading the wilful captain, Tom Downey ignited a Coston signal, and, waving it violently above his head, showed as plainly as man might by such means, that there was danger in the contemplated move. “It seems to me as if deep-water sailors lose their heads at such a time,” Joe Cushing cried, observing that the work went on aboard the steamer despite the keeper’s warnings. “The captain must have seen that we failed to keep the surf-boat on her bottom, but yet he expects to do with his cockleshell what we couldn’t with a craft built especially for the purpose!” Joe was not the only member of the crew who criticised harshly the methods of the steamer’s commander; every man gave words to the indignation in his heart, but yet the foolhardy work went on rapidly, as if those on board the stranded craft were eager to meet their doom. That they were anxious to leave their steamer seemed probable, even to Benny, for the waves were now rolling completely over her, and at every surge she was driven higher and higher up on the shoal until the surfmen began to fear she would be rolled completely over. The work of making ready to send out a line was begun as soon as the wagon had been placed in position, and the men labored none the less energetically and expeditiously because they glanced from time to time at the tiny boat swinging at the davits, in which the steamer’s crew were taking their stations. The gun was not yet loaded when the boat, with a crew of eight men, dropped into the water at a moment when the receding waves made such a manœuvre possible, and then, to the surprise of the life savers, all the sailors were seen working at the oars, while no one appeared to be steering. [Illustration: THE BOAT FROM THE STEAMER. _Page 195_] “It isn’t enough that they must attempt an impossibility!” Tom Downey cried angrily. “They’re bent on doing all within their power to provoke destruction. What kind of a sailor can he be who believes it possible to put a craft of any kind through the surf without a helmsman?” No one made reply to this outburst. The surfmen on shore understood that even though the oncoming craft had been a life-boat, it meant certain disaster to handle her in such manner. And that disaster came even sooner than they expected. Before the little craft had cleared more than a third of the distance from the steamer to the shore, she was overturned by a heavy breaker which raised the stern higher and higher until the bow was forced into the trough of the sea, and the boat disappeared entirely.