e gale was still blowing as heavy as ever, when some
of us on the forecastle thought we heard another sound above the shriek
of the wind and the hiss of the sea; and, looking ahead, we presently
saw, stretching away on both bows, as far as we could see, an unbroken
line of wildly leaping breakers and flying spray. We at once hailed the
quarterdeck, shouting: `Breakers ahead and on both bows!' but it is
exceedingly doubtful whether or not we were heard, and if we had been,
it would have made no difference, for before anything could be done the
ship was among the breakers, and a second later she struck, not very
hard, but just sufficiently so to cant us broadside-on. Then she struck
again, and hung until a tremendous sea broke aboard, sweeping her decks
and doubtless washing all hands on deck overboard--at all events that
sea took me and swept me helplessly over the bows, as also Van Ryn and
another man, named Fleming. But I knew nothing about them until the
next morning.

"Being a swimmer, I instinctively struck out, and I had not made more
than a dozen strokes before my hands struck something that I at once
seized and clung to. It proved to be a bit of topgallant bulwark, about
six feet long, and it afforded me a most welcome support, especially as
the seas were still breaking over me so furiously that it was only with
the utmost difficulty I contrived to snatch a breath between whiles.
But the breaking seas that came near to smothering me were also sweeping
me away fast to leeward, and after a time I found myself in smoother
water, the seas no longer broke over me, and, the water being quite
warm, I experienced no discomfort, apart from the uncertainty as to what
was to eventually happen to me, and I just kept paddling along to
leeward, following the run of the seas.

"I might have been overboard about half an hour when, clearing the salt
water out of my eyes, I caught the loom of land ahead, through the
darkness, the sight of which greatly cheered me, for I had no doubt of
my ability to hold out until I could reach the shore, and I had the
comforting conviction that where there was land there was also safety.
About an hour later I found myself again among breakers; but they were a
mere trifle compared with those that I had already encountered, and
shortly afterward my feet touched bottom and, abandoning the fragment of
wreckage to which I had been clinging, I crawled up the beach to above
high-water mark, flung m