"Aye, aye, sir, here we be sure enough; but I've had many a shrewd doubtof this upshot. I tell you, sirs, when that beam amidships sprung andcracked Master Coppin here said we must give over--arms couldn't bringher through. Thou rememberest, Master Coppin?"

"That I do," said in reply Master Coppin, the first mate, a stocky, cheerysailor, with a face black and shining as a glazed bun. "I exclaimed then thatpraying might save her, perhaps, but nothing else would."

"Praying wouldn't have saved her," said Master Brown, the carpenter, "ifI had not put in that screw and worked the beam to her place again."