This was no easy work, in the way the ship was pitching and tumbling about, and not without considerable risk; but on that point we did not very much trouble our heads.  Old Surley was always ready to fight for us; and had we thought about the matter, we should have been ready to go through any amount of danger for his sake.  Letting go our hold, therefore, away we crawled, grasping at anything we could reach, to prevent ourselves from being rolled away to leeward.  At last we reached the forecastle, where the men had all huddled together, but old Surley was not there.  This made us very anxious about him.  No one had seen him.  We began to fear that, as he had not hands to hold on by, he must have been washed overboard when the heavy sea struck the ship which had laid her on her beam ends.