Chapter 25 - Page 2

upon the rocks
beneath. Once already had one of these masses fallen on the wreck; and the
Oyster Pond men had been busy for a week digging into the pile, in order
to go to the rescue of the Vineyarders. There was much generosity and
charitable feeling displayed in this act; for, owing to the obstinate
adherence of Daggett and his people to what they deemed their rights,
Roswell had finally been compelled to cut to pieces the upper works of his
own schooner to obtain fuel that might prevent his own party from freezing
to death. The position of the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond was to be traced

only by a high mound of snow, which had been arrested by the obstacle she
presented to its drift; but her bulwarks, planks, deck, top-timbers,
stern-frame--in short, nearly all of the vessel above water, had actually
been taken to pieces, and carried within the covering of the verandah
mentioned, in readiness for the stoves!

To render the obstinacy of the other crew more apparent, Daggett had been
obliged to do the same! Much of his beloved craft had already disappeared
in the camboose, and more was likely to follow. This compelled
destruction, however, rather increased than lessened his pertinacity. He
clung to the last chip; and no terms of compromise would he now listen to
at all. The stranded wreck was his, and his people's; while the other
wreck belonged to the men from Oyster Pond. Let each party act for itself,
and take care of its own. Such were his expressed opinions, and on them he
acted.

This state of things had not been brought about in a day. Months had
passed; Roswell had seen his last billet of wood put in the camboose; had
tried various experiments for producing heat by means of oil, which so far
succeeded as to enable the ordinary boiling to be done, thereby saving
wood; but, when a cold turn set in, it was quickly found that the schooner
must go, or all hands perish. When this decree went forth, every one
understood that the final preservation of the party depended on that of
the boats. For one entire day the question had been up in general council,
whether or not the two whale-boats should be burnt, with their oars and
appurtenances, before the attack was made on the schooner itself. Stimson
settled this point, as he did so many others, Roswell listening to all he
said with a constantly increasing attention.

"If we burn the boats first," said the boat-steerer, "and then have to
come to the schooner a'ter all, how are we ever to get away from this
group? Them boats wouldn't last us a week, even in our best weather; but
they may answer to take us to some Christian land, when every rib and
splinter of the Sea Lion is turned into ashes. I would begin on the upper
works of the