Throughout the whole of Monday the Agamemnon ran before the wind, which moderated so much that at 4 A.M. on Tuesday her head was again put about, and for the second time she commenced beating up for the rendezvous, then some 200 miles farther from us than when the storm was at its height on Sunday morning. So little was gained against this wind that Friday the 25th--sixteen days after leaving Plymouth--still found us some fifty miles from the rendezvous. So it was determined to get up steam and run down on it at once. As we approached the place of meeting the angry sea went down. The Valorous hove in sight at noon; in the afternoon the Niagara came in from the north; and at even the Gorgon from the south: and then, almost for the first time since starting, the squadron was reunited near the spot where the great work was to have commenced fifteen days previously--as tranquil in the middle of the Atlantic as if in Plymouth Sound. CHAPTER VII THE RENEWED EFFORT That evening the four vessels lay together side by side, and there was such a stillness in the sea and air as would have seemed remarkable even on an inland lake. On the Atlantic, and after what had been so lately experienced, it seemed almost unnatural. The boats were out, and the officers were passing from ship to ship, telling their experiences of the voyage, and forming plans for the morrow. The captain of the Agamemnon had a sorry tale to tell. The strain to which she had been subjected had opened her "waterways."[30] Then, again, one of the crew, a marine, had been literally frightened out of his wits, and remained crazy for some days. One man had his arm fractured in two places, and another his leg broken. The Niagara, on the other hand, had weathered the gale splendidly, though it had been a hard and anxious time with her, as well as with the smaller craft. She had lost her jib-boom, and the buoys she carried for suspending the cable had been washed from her sides--no man knew where. After taking stock of things generally, a start was made to repair the various damages; but the shifting of the upper part of the main coil on the Agamemnon into a hopeless tangle entailed recoiling a considerable length of cable, a no light task, occupying several days. On the morning of Saturday, June 26th, all the preparations were completed for making the splice and once more commencing the great undertaking. In the words of The Times representative: