She had been acting in this way all of our forenoon watch below; as we
could tell by the washing of the water over our heads, and the heavy
breaking of the seas against her bows, (with a sound as though she
were striking against a rock,) only the thickness of the plank from
our heads, as we lay in our berths, which are directly against the
bows. At eight bells, the watch was called, and we came on deck, one
hand going aft to take the wheel, and another and another going to the
galley to get the grub for dinner. I stood on the forecastle,
looking at the seas, which were rolling high, as far as the eye
could reach, their tops white with foam, and the body of them of a
deep indigo blue, reflecting the bright rays of the sun. Our ship rose
slowly over a few of the largest of them, until one immense fellow
came rolling on, threatening to cover her, and which I was sailor
enough to know, by "the feeling of her" under my feet, she would not
rise over. I sprang upon the knight-heads, and seizing hold of the
fore-stay with my hands, drew myself upon it. My feet were just off
the stanchion, when she struck fairly into the middle of the sea,
and it washed her fore and aft, burying her in the water.
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