When they jumped out they were in water up to their throats. Some held onto the boat and others went for water. They got the fresh water but it was very hard trying to get off the beach again. The sea came in over the stern and half-filled the boat. Finally, they got outside the reef.

When they got out, they discovered that they had left a man on shore. It was too dangerous to go in over the reef again. Third Officer Victor Harrison tied a rope around his waist and leaped into the foaming sea and swam ashore. He tied the rope around the man and they pulled him on board the boat. Victor swam back to the lifeboat.

They were off the Republic of Dominica. They rowed around to look for a harbour, when they saw a ship coming up behind them. She altered her course and came to their assistance. It was the S.S. Leif and they told them they were 45 miles from a harbour. They climbed up the side of the ship by the ladder, all feeling very much exhausted. Some of them fell on the deck and within minutes were asleep.

Captain Wilson and his men were very kind to father and the others. They fitted them all with dry clothes, and after a bath and a good stiff drink of whisky, they were feeling much refreshed. At the Leif's next port of call there were hundreds of people lined up on the pier to see them land. It was the 20th of July, seven days after they were set adrift.

They were taken to a fort that night. The next day they took father and the others to Long Beach, where it was very comfortable under the shades of big tropical trees. He always remembered the nice cool breeze blowing right in from the sea.

There, in Porto Plata, the British Consulate made plans to get father home to Newfoundland.