Day was breaking with more than the usual riot of variegated colour over a calm, glassy sea when I reached the boat deck, which I set to pace hurriedly in order to quieten the throbbings of my unrested brain. Scarcely had I thrice tramped the planks before I heard a sharp shrill call from the bridge, and casting my eyes in the direction of the sound, I observed the officer on watch staring intently at something high in the air on the port side of the vessel. Leaning over the taffrail I quickly espied an object in the sky at no great distance from the _Orissa_--an object which I can best compare in shape to a huge carp and of a silvery hue in the encroaching sunlight. Even as I gazed intently, I perceived the thing fall swiftly in a wavering course till it touched the sea, its actual collapse synchronising with the blast of the officer's whistle and the tinkle of two bells, for it was just five o'clock in the morning. All was now bustle, though without confusion; the steamer's reversed engines echoed with resounding thuds; the boat deck was peopled by bare-footed seamen who were disengaging one of the boats from its davits; there were calls for this person and that, including the ship's doctor, who I knew to be heavily sleeping off the potations of the previous night. All the hands required were quickly on the spot with the sole exception of the dissipated surgeon, whom a steward had hurried below to awaken. But the captain was too impatient to brook the least delay, and suddenly turning to myself, begged me to enter the waiting boat instead of the laggard absentee, a proposal I willingly accepted. Our boat was now lowered to the water; our swift strokes brought us closer and closer to the scene of the late mishap; we duly reached the spot. Not a sign of any wreckage, not a ripple on the surface, only the figure of a solitary survivor swimming or floating in the tepid crystalline sea.