Page:Left to Themselves (1891).djvu/147

 seaman, picked up at no later than two o'clock the next morning by the yacht Alicia while he was tossing in a state of almost perfect exhaustion in the sea (still running very rough). Hoyt says that the boat, under the command of Mr. Eversham, was proceeding, though with some difficulty, straight to Knoxport, when the leaping up of Mrs. Cassidy, to save her child, upset it. He remembers, too, that, in spite of the care taken before the Old Province was left, few of the emigrants with him had their life-preservers on. Mr. Eversham had been greatly alarmed when Hoyt pointed out that fact. Eversham was about to order all who could to don them. Just then the capsize came. Mr. Eversham had an old set himself, and Hoyt remembers his complaining of its straps being rotten. Hoyt says that the sea was so violent that, even with his life-preserver, it was a miracle he kept his head above water half an hour. An oar he grasped was of great service. He was almost gone when picked up. Some of the bodies found, however, wore life-preservers. In some cases the bruising from the rocks along the shore was disfiguring, and it is likely that many of those from the two