He dived in under a great wave, and swam strongly towards the ship. In another moment he would have reached it, when a high green hill of water appeared, and the ship went down with a great crash. The people on the beach pulled on Ham's rope, and he arrived at my feet- dead. They carried him to the nearest house, and I called a doctor, but nothing could be done for him. He had been beaten to death by that great wave, and his generous heart had stopped for ever.
As I sat hopelessly by his bed, a fisherman who had know me when Emily and I were children, came to tell me he recognized the curly-haired sailor, whose body had been thrown out of the water by waves. I went to see. And there on the beach where she and I had played, I saw Steerforth lying, with his handsome face on his arm. He would never smile at me or Emily again.