entered the forecastle, lanthorn in
hand, prized open the hatch and dropped into the hold. It needed an
experienced ear to detect the sobbing of internal waters amid the
yearning gushes, the long gurgling washings, the thunderous blows, and
shrewd rain-like hissings of the seas outside. I listened with strained
hearing for some minutes, but distinguished no sounds to alarm me with
assurance of water in the hold. I could not mistake. I hearkened with
all my might, but the noise was outside. I thanked God very heartily,
and got out of the hold and put the hatch on. There was no need to go
aft and listen. The schooner was by the head, and there could be no
water in the run that would not be forward too.

Being reassured in respect of the staunchness of the hull, I returned to
the fire and proceeded to equip myself for a prolonged watch on deck.
Whilst I was drawing on a great pair of boots I heard a knocking in the
after part of the vessel. I supposed she had drifted into a little field
of broken ice, and that she would go clear presently, and I finished
arming myself for the weather; but the knocking continuing, I went into
the cabin where I heard it very plain, and walked as far as the
lazarette hatch, where I stood listening. The noises were a kind of
irregular thumping accompanied by a peculiar grinding sound. In a moment
I guessed the truth, rushed on deck, and by the dim light in the air saw
the long tiller mowing to and fro! The beat of the beam seas had
unlocked the frozen bonds of the rudder, and there swung the tiller, as
though like a dog the ship was wagging her tail for joy!

The vessel lay along, rolling so as to bring her starboard rail to a
level with the sea; her main deck was full of water, and the froth of it
combined with the ice that glazed her made her look like a fabric of
marble as she swung on the black fold ere it broke into snow about her.
I seized the tiller and ran it over hard a-starboard, and I had not held
it in that posture half a minute when to my inexpressible delight I
observed that she was paying off. Her head fell slowly from the sea; she
lurched drunkenly, and some tons of black water rolled over the
bulwarks; she reeled consumedly to larboard, and rose squarely and
ponderously to the height of the surge that was now abaft the beam. In a
few moments she was dead before it, the helm amidships, the wind blowing
sheer over the stern with half its weight seemingly gone through the
vessel