The Raft Could Take On All Of The Survivors

The boarding took place in good order. The raft could take on all the survivors.
They were nearly five hundred the day before.
Now they were only eighty-two.
Among those were the captain, the doctor, Simon Barigoule, the Parisian, Squirrel, the big Flandrin, Lavenette, Griffard and Robert-Robert.
It was time they left the deck of La Rapide. The transfer had barely ended when a bump engulfed the stern of the ship.
Everything disappeared.
This was even almost fatal to the raft, which was bound by a rope to the frigate’s rail. It was about to be dragged down into the bubbling abyss the ship had opened up.
Long screams of distress started to rise, without anyone suspecting the cause of this new disaster.
Finally, by an extraordinary strike of luck, Robert-Robert saw the fatal bound, he seized an axe, rushed forward, struck and broke it at one fell swoop.
 
Extract from Adventures of Robert-Robert, by L. Desnoyers, illustrated by F. de Courcy, 1839.