' we says one
to another. In an hour more, mates, all the sky to windward was like a
big sheet of lead; with white clouds, like feathers, driving athwart
it--the clouds, as it were, whiter than the firmament. You know the
meaning, mates, of a sky like that; and accordingly, by nightfall, we
had it; and the _Lively Nan_, under close-reefed main-sail and
storm-jib, was groaning, and plunging, and diving in the seas--the
wind blowing, mates, as if it would have wrenched the mast out of the
keelson. Many a gale have I been in, before and since, but that was
the worst of all. Well, mates, we thought we were doomed, but we did
our work, silent and steady; and we kept the smack under a press of
canvas that none but such a boat could bear, to claw her off the
lee-shore--off them fearsome sands that lie all along Lincolnshire.
Captain Goss was as bold and cool as ever, and stood by the
tiller-tackle, and steered the ship as no hand but his could do.

It was the gloaming of the night, mates, when the gale came down,
heavier and heavier--a perfect blast, that tore up the very sea, and
drove sheets of water into the air. We were a'most blinded, and clung
to cleats and rigging--the sea tumbling over and over us; and the
poor, old smack at length smashed down on her beam-ends. All at once,
the mast went over the side; and as we righted and rose on the curl of
a seaway, Bartholomew sung out, loud and shrill: 'Sail, ho!' We
looked. Right to windward, mates, there was a sort of light opening in
the clouds; something of the colour of the ring round the moon in
dirty weather, and nigh as round; and in the middle of it was a smack,
driving right down on us, her bowsprit not a cable-length from our
broadside. She looked wondrous like the _Lively Nan_ herself, and some
of us saw our own faces clustered for'ard, looking at ourselves over
the bow!

As this notion was passed from one to another, we cried out aloud,
that our hour was come. Captain Goss was in the middle of us. 'Hold
your baby screeches,' says he. 'You'll be none the worse; it's me and
the smack she has to do with.' Even, as he spoke, she was on us. Some
fell on their knees, and others clenched their fists and their teeth;
but instead of the crash of meeting timber, we heard but a rustle, and
the shadow of her sails flitted, as it were, across us; and as they
passed, the wind was cold, cold, and struck us like frost; and the
next minute the _Lively Nan_ had sunk below our feet,