To
crown all, we were allowed no light to find anything with, and I was
just beginning to feel strong symptoms of sea-sickness, and that
listlessness and inactivity which accompany it. Giving up all attempts
to collect my things together, I lay down upon the sails, expecting
every moment to hear the cry of "all hands ahoy," which the
approaching storm would soon make necessary. I shortly heard the
rain-drops falling on deck, thick and fast, and the watch evidently
had their hands full of work, for I could hear the loud and repeated
orders of the mate, the trampling of feet, the creaking of blocks, and
all the accompaniments of a coming storm. In a few minutes the slide
of the hatch was thrown back, which let down the noise and tumult of
the deck still louder, the loud cry of "All hands, ahoy! tumble up
here and take in sail," saluted our ears, and the hatch was quickly
shut again. When I got upon deck, a new scene and a new experience was
before me. The little brig was close hauled upon the wind, and lying
over, as it then seemed to me, nearly upon her beam ends. The heavy
head sea was beating against her bows with the noise and force
almost of a sledge hammer, and flying over the deck, drenching us
completely through.
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