The workmen looked steadfastly upon the writer, and turned
occasionally towards the vessel, still far to leeward. {122a} All
this passed in the most perfect silence, and the melancholy
solemnity of the group made an impression never to be effaced from
his mind.
The writer had all along been considering of various schemes--
providing the men could be kept under command--which might be put
in practice for the general safety, in hopes that the Smeaton might
be able to pick up the boats to leeward, when they were obliged to
leave the rock. He was, accordingly, about to address the
artificers on the perilous nature of their circumstances, and to
propose that all hands should unstrip their upper clothing when the
higher parts of the rock were laid under water; that the seamen
should remove every unnecessary weight and encumbrance from the
boats; that a specified number of men should go into each boat, and
that the remainder should hang by the gunwales, while the boats
were to be rowed gently towards the Smeaton, as the course to the
Pharos, or floating light, lay rather to windward of the rock. But
when he attempted to speak his mouth was so parched that his tongue
refused utterance, and he now learned by experience that the saliva
is as necessary as the tongue itself for speech. He turned to one
of the pools on the rock and lapped a little water, which produced
immediate relief.
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