that is, from midnight until four o'clock--the wind veered a
couple of points, but had gone back again only to blow harder; just as
though it had stepped out of its way a trifle to catch extra breath.

I was quite worn out by the time my turn came to go below; and though
the vessel was groaning like a live creature in its death agonies, and
the seas thumping against her with such shocks as kept me thinking that
she was striking hard ground, I fell asleep as soon as my head touched
the pillow, and never moved until routed out by Duckling four hours
afterward.

All this time the gale had not bated a jot of its violence, and the
ship labored so heavily that I had the utmost difficulty in getting out
of the cuddy on to the poop. When I say that the decks fore and aft
were streaming wet, I convey no notion of the truth: the main deck was
simply _afloat_, and every time the ship rolled, the water on her deck
rushed in a wave against the bulwarks and shot high in the air, to
mingle sometimes with fresh and heavy inroads of the sea, both falling
back upon the deck with the boom of a gun.

I had already ascertained from Duckling that the well had been sounded
and the ship found dry; and therefore, since we were tight below, it
mattered little what water was shipped above, as the hatches were
securely battened down fore and aft, and the mast-coats unwrung. But
still she labored under the serious disadvantage of being overloaded;
and the result was, her fore parts were being incessantly swept by seas
which at times completely hid her forecastle in spray.

Shortly after breakfast, Captain Coxon sent me forward to dispatch a
couple of hands on to the jib-boom to snug the inner jib, which looked
to be rather shakily stowed. I managed to dodge the water on the
main-deck by waiting until it rolled to the starboard scuppers and then
cutting ahead as fast as I could; but just as I got upon the
forecastle, I was saluted by a green sea which carried me off my legs,
and would have swept me down on the main-deck had I not held on stoutly
with both hands to one of the fore-shrouds. The water nearly drowned
me, and kept me sneezing and coughing for ten minutes afterward. But
it did me no further mischief; for I was incased in good oilskins and
sou'-wester, which kept me as dry as a bone inside.

Two ordinary seamen got upon the jib-boom, and I bade them keep a good
hold, for the ship sometimes danced her figurehead under water and
bu