Men who spend their lives on salvage work are rather apt to lead the casual inquirer to imagine that it is the easiest job under the sun, whereas in reality the task is beset with difficulties and bristles with risks. But the sailormen in their matter-of-fact way forget to mention the ever-present danger. They are inured to it, just as people are habituated to living on the slopes of a volcano that may erupt and overwhelm them at any moment of the night or day. None the less the salvors never forget the risk, nor leave it out of their calculations, and for this reason fatal accidents among them are rare. They know the strength of the sea too well to attempt to take liberties with it, for they have seen it pick up great 10,000 ton ships and toss them on the rocks as though they were cockle-shells; they have seen the strength of 70,000 horses in the engines of a ship struggling in vain against the strength of the waves, and they know better than to pit their power against the power of the storm. Thus they have a wholesome respect for wind and wave. They use the strength of the sea to further their own ends so long as the sea permits. At other times they may stand by a wreck for weeks while the sea seethes and the wind howls about the ship they seek to save. A lull in the bad weather will set them working frantically, and more than one ship now afloat owes her existence to the accumulated labour of a number of short spells of work undertaken between the gales. The salvage man must thus be infinitely patient and possess a determination that will keep him at work when most other men would give up in despair. Above all must he be strong in hope. Without hope, no man need seek to become a salvage expert, for he would be foredoomed to failure. He must possess not only physical courage that enables him to face the dangers of his calling, but also that rarer mental courage that enables him to snatch victory out of the very jaws of defeat. It is the men who possess this mental as well as physical courage who perform the wonderful feats of salvage that will never be forgotten, such as the recovery off Gibraltar of the steamer _Hypatia_, which the salvors brought to the surface after an infinity of trouble. No sooner was she raised than she filled and sank like a stone. There was nothing for it but to do the work over again, which the salvors managed to do. For the second time the _Hypatia_ was brought to the surface, and once again she sank, seeming to mock the efforts of her would-be preservers. Still they were not beaten. With grim determination they made another effort, and after a great fight managed to raise the _Hypatia_ once more. All in vain! For the third time she sank.