aysail mounted in thunder, and the
slatting of its folds and the thrashing of its sheet was like the
rattling of heavy field-pieces whisked at full gallop over a stony road.

"High enough!" I bawled, guessing enough was shown, for I could not see.
"Get a drag upon the sheet, lads, and then aft with you for your lives!"

Scarce had I let forth my breath in this cry when I heard the blast as
of a gun, and knew by that the sail was gone; an instant after wash came
a mountainous sea sheer over the weather bulwarks fair betwixt the fore
and main rigging; but happily, standing near the fore shrouds, I was
holding on with both hands to the topsail halliards whilst calling to
the men, so that being under the rail, which broke the blow of the sea,
and holding on too, no mischief befell me, only that for about twenty
seconds I stood in a horrible fury and smother of frothing water,
hearing nothing, seeing nothing, with every faculty in me so numbed and
dulled by the wet, cold, and horror of our situation, that I knew not
whether in that space of time I was in the least degree sensible of what
had happened or what might befall.

The water leaving the deck, I rallied, though half-drowned, and
staggered aft, and found the helm deserted, nor could I see any signs of
my companions. I rushed to the tiller, and putting my whole weight and
force to it, drove it up to windward and secured it by a turn of its own
rope; for ice or no ice--and for the moment I was so blinded by the wet
that I could not see the berg--my madness now was to get the brig before
the sea and out of the trough, advised by every instinct in me that such
another surge as that which had rolled over her must send her to the
bottom in less time than it would take a man to cry "O God!"

A figure came out of the blackness on the lee side of the deck.

"Who is that?" said he. It was Captain Rosy.

I answered.

"What, Rodney! alive?" cried he. "I think I have been struck
insensible."

Two more figures came crawling aft. Then two more. They were the
carpenter and three seamen.

I cried out, "Who was at the helm when that sea was shipped?"

A man answered, "Me, Thomas Jobling."

"Where's your mate?" I asked; and it seemed to me that I was the only
man who had his senses full just then.

"He was washed forward along with me," he replied.

Now a fifth man joined us, but before I could question him as to the
others, the captain, with a scream like an epileptic's c