Fourteen human beings had been saved; and with our rescued freight on board we stood towards the harbour.  Scarcely had we got clear of the wreck than the remaining mast and the bowsprit went.  Had any delay occurred, all those fourteen of our fellow-creatures would have lost their lives.  How long we had been away I could not tell, but it appeared like a lifetime to me.  I saw that the day was waning, and it would be long still before we could get back safe to land.  The gale blew as fiercely as at first, and the seas which occasionally washed over us seemed to threaten our destruction.  We could dimly see the land; but the lifeboat crew knew well where they were going; and they now did what they could to relieve the sufferings of the shipwrecked seamen by handing them the flasks of restoratives, with which they had come provided.