The gale, at times the severest that I was ever in, lasted three days;
during which the ship drove something like eighty miles to the
northwest. The sea on the afternoon of the third day was appalling:
had the ship attempted to run, she would have been pooped and smothered
in a minute; but lying close, she rode fairly well, though there were
moments when I held my breath as she sunk in a hollow like a coal-mine,
filled with the astounding noise of boiling water,--really believing
that the immense waves which came hurtling towards us with solid,
sharp, transparent ridges, out of which the wind tore lumps of water
and flung them through the rigging of the ship, must overwhelm the
vessel before she could rise to it.
The fury of the tempest and the violence of the sea, which the boldest
could not contemplate without feeling that the ship was every moment in
more or less peril, kept the crew subdued; and they eat as best they
could the provisions, without complaint. However, it needed nothing
less than a storm to keep them quiet: for on the second day a sea
extinguished the galley fire, and until the gale abated no cooking
could be done; so that the men had to put up with cold water and
biscuit.
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