midnight
it was blowing what is generally termed a fresh gale, that is, a breeze
strong enough to compel a ship of, say, a thousand tons to reduce canvas
to single-reefed topsails; and that, to us, in a small open boat, was
about equivalent to what a hurricane would be to the bigger craft.
There was no sleep for any of us, for we were in constant, imminent
danger, and it taxed the resources of all hands to their utmost limit
all through the night to keep the boat from being overwhelmed. The
chief danger to an open boat under such circumstances arises from the
fact that, lying so low in the water as she does, her sail becomes
becalmed every time that she settles into the trough of a sea, and she
gradually loses way. Then, as she is hove up on the breast of the next
following sea, her sail suddenly fills again, and those in her have to
be careful that, in filling, it does not jibe over, for if it did so it
would certainly capsize the boat. But in guarding against that danger
another of equal magnitude is incurred, for unless the boat is kept dead
stern-on to the sea the chances are that she will broach-to and be
filled by the breaking head of the sea when it overtakes her. When it
comes to be remembered that this twofold peril threatens an open boat
about twice a minute hour after hour, as long as the gale continues,
some faint idea may be gained of the anxiety and discomfort we were
called upon to endure on the occasion which I am now attempting to
describe. And while the anxiety of all is sufficiently acute, the man
who is most worried is the one who is at the helm, for the behaviour of
a craft under such circumstances is in one respect distinctly and
harassingly peculiar: at the most perilous moment of all, which is the
moment before she is actually overtaken by the breaking crest of the
wave, she is apt to refuse to answer her helm, and he who is steering
her loses all control over her; she seems to be seized with a perverse
determination to take a broad sheer one way or the other, with
disastrous results, despite a hard-over helm, and then the only thing to
be done to retrieve the situation is to effect a lightning shift of helm
against all your past experience and your better judgment. But
notwithstanding this, it generally has the desired effect, the reason
commonly assigned being that, contrary to what is usually supposed, the
body of water constituting the head of a sea actually has a quick
forward motion, a