But they undervalued the
keen-eyed vigilance of Wilder. He had certainly driven the Bristol
trader through the water at a rate she had never been known to go before;
but, thus far, the facts themselves gave evidence in his favour, since no
injury was the consequence of what they deemed temerity. At the quick
sudden order just given, however, the whole ship was in an uproar. A
dozen seamen called to each other, from different parts of the vessel,
each striving to lift his voice above the roaring ocean; and there was
every appearance of a general and inextricable confusion; but the same
authority which had so unexpectedly aroused them into activity, produced
order from their ill-directed though vigorous efforts.
Wilder had spoken, to awaken the drowsy and to excite the torpid. The
instant he found each man on the alert, he resumed his orders with a
calmness that gave a direction to the powers of all, and yet with an
energy that he well knew was called for by the occasion. The enormous
sheets of duck, which had looked like so many light clouds in the murky
and threatening heavens, were soon seen fluttering wildly, as they
descended from their high places, and, in a few minutes, the ship was
reduced to the action of her more secure and heavier canvas.
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