Crane was traveling from the United States to Cuba as a newspaper reporter. One night, his ship hit a rock. It sank m the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Florida. Most of the people on board got into lifeboats. Crane was among the last to leave. There were three others with him: the ship's captain, the cook, and a sailor. These four men climbed into the only remaining lifeboat. The boat was so small that no one believed it could stay afloat for very long. None of the four men thought he would ever reach the shore. But the men fought the seas bravely, with all their strength. For two days, the four men had been struggling to reach land, but there was no land to be seen. All the men saw were violent waves which rose and came fiercely down on them. Hours passed. Then, as the boat was carried to the top of a great wave, the captain looked across the water. He said that he saw the lighthouse at Mosquito Inlet. The cook also said he saw it. The lighthouse had been slowly growing larger. At last, from the top of each wave the men in the boat could see the land. Slowly, the land seemed to rise from the sea. Soon, the men could see two lines, one black and one white. They knew that the black line was formed by trees, and the white line was the sand. At last, the captain saw a house on the shore. And the lighthouse became even larger. Slowly and beautifully, the land rose from the sea. The wind came again. Finally, the men heard a new sound -- the sound of waves breaking and crashing on the shore. The men watched the shore grow larger. They became hopeful. In an hour, perhaps, they would be on land. The men struggled to keep the boat from turning over. They were used to balancing in the boat. The reporter thought he was now wet to the skin. But he felt in the top pocket of his coat and found eight cigars. Four were wet, but four were still dry. One of the men found some dry matches. Each man lit a cigar. The four men sailed in their boat with the belief of a rescue shining in their eyes. What did the men think of their fate after climbing into the lifeboat"?
Promising. Miserable. Optimistic. Hopeless.