The air had already lost the damp and
peculiar feeling of an easterly breeze; and little eddies were beginning
to flutter among the masts--precursors of the coming squall. Then, a
rushing, roaring sound was heard moaning along the ocean, whose surface
was first dimpled, next ruffled, and finally covered with a sheet of
clear, white, and spotless foam. At the next moment, the power of the
wind fell upon the inert and labouring Bristol trader.
While the gust was approaching, Wilder had seized the slight opportunity
afforded by the changeful puffs of air to get the ship as much as
possible before the wind; but the sluggish movement of the vessel met
neither the wishes of his own impatience nor the exigencies of the
moment. Her bows slowly and heavily fell off from the north, leaving her
precisely in a situation to receive the first shock on her broadside.
Happy it was, for all who had life at risk in that defenceless vessel,
that she was not fated to receive the whole weight of the tempest at a
blow. The sails fluttered and trembled on their massive yards, bellying
and collapsing alternately for a minute, and then the rushing wind swept
over them in a hurricane.
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