Then, come good wind or foul, I shall save my soul, and my honour as a captain. I am growing weaker, and the night is coming on. If He can look me in the face again, I may not have time to act.

If we are wrecked, maybe this bottle may be found, and those who find it may understand; if not, ... well, then all men shall know that I have been true to my trust. God and the Blessed Virgin and the saints help a poor ignorant soul trying to do his duty.'

Of course there was an open verdict. There is no evidence to examine; and whether or not the man himself committed the murders there is now no-one to say. The folk here hold almost universally that the captain is simply a hero, and he is to be given a public funeral. Already it is arranged that his body is to be taken with a train of boats up the river Eske and then brought back to Tate Hill Pier and up the abbey steps; for he is to be buried in the churchyard on the cliff.

Vocabulary:

Foul: Bad, unpleasant, or unfair
Wrecked: Destroyed in a crash
True to my trust: Meaning 'I have done what people trusted me to do'
Open verdict: When a court can't say how someone died
Folk: People
Hold: Think, have the opinion
Train: Things that follow
Abbey: A kind of church