And what a situation for a young fellow of less than twenty years of age to be in!  The ship of which I had been placed in command lost-- foundered in mid-ocean, and, only too probably, all hands lost with her. Our fate would never be known; it would be concluded that one of the mysterious disasters that so frequently befall the seaman had overtaken us; we should be given up as lost; and there would be an end of us all, so far as our fellow-men were concerned.  For whatever hopes I might once have entertained of escaping from this accursed ship, I had none now.