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of danger was transformed into a means of safety; and before the ships struck, the men from the _Vandalia's_ main and mizzen masts, which went immediately by the board in the collision, were already mustered on the _Trenton's_ decks. Those from the foremast were next rescued; and the flagship settled gradually into a position alongside her neighbour, against which she beat all night with violence. Out of the crew of the _Vandalia_ forty-three had perished; of the four hundred and fifty on board the _Trenton_, only one. The night of the 16th was still notable for a howling tempest and extraordinary floods of rain. It was feared the wreck could scarce continue to endure the breaching of the seas; among the Germans, the fate of those on board the _Adler_ awoke keen anxiety; and Knappe, on the beach of Matautu, and the other officers of his consulate on that of Matafele, watched all night. The morning of the 17th displayed a scene of devastation rarely equalled: the _Adler_ high and dry, the _Olga_ and _Nipsic_ beached, the _Trenton_ partly piled on the _Vandalia_ and herself sunk to the gun-deck; no sail afloat; and the beach heaped high with the _debris_ of ships and the wreck of mountain forests. Already, before the day, Seumanu, the chief of Apia, had gallantly ventured forth by boat through the subsiding fury of the seas, and had succeeded in communicating with the admiral; already, or as soon after as the dawn permitted, rescue lines were rigged, and the survivors were with difficulty and danger begun to be brought to shore. And soon the cheerful spirit of the admiral added a new feature to the scene. Surrounded as he was by the crews of two wrecked ships, he paraded the band of the _Trenton_, and the bay was suddenly enlivened with the strains of "Hail Columbia."