The whisperings have already started amongst the crew, as rumours fly about what could have caused this kind of destruction. Sailors are by nature a superstitious lot, and 'witchcraft' is heard as often as 'pirates' or 'Spanish' in the muttered conversations. The Royal Navy build their ships to be hard-fighting and hard-wearing -- it takes a lot to destroy one ship, and the wreckage seems to suggest that more than one ship was lost here.

The longboat cuts through the water, picking up the half-drowned and the mostly-drowned. More than one body has to be pushed aside and left for the sea to claim it, but any man with a breath left in his lungs is hauled aboard the longboat. There is room enough for only a few more before the boat will have to go back and empty its precious cargo onto the Edinburgh's decks, and as the boat turns toward Norrington the young sailor in the prow calls out to him, and extends a hand:

"Sir! Over here, sir!"