Page:The Wireless Operator with the U.S. Coast Guard.djvu/173

 To launch a boat seemed not humanly possible. No little craft could live in such a sea. But the captain called for volunteers, and as one man the crew sprang forward.

“Lower away the leeward lifeboat,” roared the captain.

Eager hands unbent the gripes, the falls were loosened, and the lifeboat dropped level with the rail. Into her leaped the chosen crew, with the executive officer in command. Down went the boat. For a moment it rode the waves in safety, and pulled out toward the struggling men in the sea. It had almost reached the nearest when a swirling comber rose beside it, towered a second above it, and then came crashing down on it, burying men and boat under tons of yeasty water.

For a moment, boat and men were completely lost to sight. Far down beneath the swirling seas the ill-fated crew of the lifeboat had been thrust by the towering comber. The moving searchlight showed no human form among the savage seas. Then suddenly the sea was full of struggling men. Some fought their way to the overturned boats and clung to them. Those whose grips had loosened were seized by their comrades and dragged back to the pitiful security of a hold on a floating boat. Some could not gain even this slender assistance.