Samuel did not repeat his gloomy prophecy but looked about the lugger to count the heads of his crew. Bartholomew had survived, thank God, and thank God his younger brothers Charles and Jack were lying abed at home recovering from the measles. Jeremy, Christopher and Josh King were on board. Only Jonathan King had been lost. But how many had survived from the smashed vessel?

Samuel shouted for silence, straining hard to listen for cries of survivors in the water. He was rewarded almost at once. A muffled cry was heard through the gloom.

‘Sounds like Paul!’ shouted Jeremy King. ‘Sounds like my cousin.’

The Young Maid was swept into the next gully and the upper half of Paul King, clinging desperately to a length of spar and canvas lugsail, bobbed into sight. Tears of relief joined the salty wetness on the young fisherman’s face and with renewed strength he kicked his long legs, characteristic of the tall King family, to bring himself up to the hull of the boat.

Samuel and Bartholomew leaned over the lugger side by side. They snatched at Paul’s hair, neck and shoulders and struggled to haul him in between them. Paul stretched out one free hand towards his rescuers but fear kept the other hand clamped to the wreckage.

‘Let go of the bloody spar!’ Bartholomew shouted.

The lugger, its crew and Paul King, still holding on precariously to the spar, were swept up the crest of another wave and the volume of water that smashed into Paul’s face and filled his gaping mouth tore the spar from his grasp. He panicked. Without realising it he fought against Bartholomew’s grip on his shoulder and Bartholomew would have toppled into the water with him if Christopher and Jeremy King had not grabbed his legs and thrown themselves on to the deck, battening themselves down hard. Bartholomew screamed in agony at the over-stretching of his body until the King brothers could scramble to their knees and hold on to him more gently.

Samuel had managed to get a painful grip on Paul’s hair and with his legs braced against the side of the boat he used his other hand to cuff Paul heavily on the face. It brought Paul to his senses; he stopped fighting them and made himself go limp, and Samuel and Bartholomew were able to get a better grip on his coat and shoulders. As they desperately dragged him towards them, Paul’s body was slammed against the hull of the boat. With loud grunts and straining muscles they hauled Paul up until his torso was slung over the gunwale. Christopher and Jeremy let go of Bartholomew’s legs and grabbed their cousin’s body, pulling him fully into the safety of the Young Maid.