17 Narrative Continued by the Doctor : The Jolly-boat 's Last Trip THIS fifth trip was quite different from any of the others . In the first place , the little gallipot of a boat that we were in was gravely overloaded . Five grown men , and three of them -- Trelawney , Redruth , and the captain -- over six feet high , was already more than she was meant to carry . Add to that the powder , pork , and bread-bags . The gunwale was lipping astern . Several times we shipped a little water , and my breeches and the tails of my coat were all soaking wet before we had gone a hundred yards . The captain made us trim the boat , and we got her to lie a little more evenly . All the same , we were afraid to breathe . In the second place , the ebb was now making -- a strong rippling current running westward through the basin , and then south ` ard and seaward down the straits by which we had entered in the morning . Even the ripples were a danger to our overloaded craft , but the worst of it was that we were swept out of our true course and away from our proper landing-place behind the point . If we let the current have its way we should come ashore beside the gigs , where the pirates might appear at any moment . `` I can not keep her head for the stockade , sir , '' said I to the captain . I was steering , while he and Redruth , two fresh men , were at the oars . `` The tide keeps washing her down . Could you pull a little stronger ? '' `` Not without swamping the boat , '' said he . `` You must bear up , sir , if you please -- bear up until you see you 're gaining . '' I tried and found by experiment that the tide kept sweeping us westward until I had laid her head due east , or just about right angles to the way we ought to go . `` We 'll never get ashore at this rate , '' said I. `` If it 's the only course that we can lie , sir , we must even lie it , '' returned the captain . `` We must keep upstream .
You see , sir , '' he went on , `` if once we dropped to leeward of the landing-place , it 's hard to say where we should get ashore , besides the chance of being boarded by the XXXXX ; whereas , the way we go the current must slacken , and then we can dodge back along the shore . ''
Jolly-boat Redruth ard astern first gigs morning right seaward second