t
be maintained lest it should be blundered upon unawares.

These hints as to the necessity for exceptionally careful navigation
were supplemented by a further warning given in the directory to the
effect that not only were the positions of many of the dangers shown
upon the chart exceedingly doubtful, but also that the existence of
other dangers, not indicated at all upon the chart, was very strongly
suspected! The exhaustive study which I had given to both the chart and
the directory had so very effectually impressed upon me the vital
necessity for the exercise of the most extreme caution henceforward
that, being yet very young, and quite new to the heavy load of
responsibility imposed upon me, I was perhaps more anxious than there
was any actual need for. Under the pressure of this anxiety I went
below, again produced the chart, and very carefully laid down upon it
the course and distance, as indicated by the compass and log, which the
ship had travelled since noon. I did this chiefly because I had already
ascertained that there lay in the ship's path two known dangers, the
positions of which were doubtful; and what I had just done resulted in
the discovery that, should the wind freshen sufficiently during the
night to increase the speed of the ship to more than six knots, we were
likely enough to approach within perilous proximity of those dangers
before daylight of the next morning.

Accordingly I mentioned this fact to both Polson and Tudsbery,
cautioning them to shorten sail in good time, and to call me should the
wind freshen, as it seemed likely to do, during the hours of darkness.
As a matter of fact, not only did the wind freshen during the first
watch, but it also hauled round over the port quarter, increasing our
speed so greatly that at length, when the watch was called at midnight,
I--having kept the deck in my anxiety--took the precaution of shortening
sail to the three topsails and fore topmast staysail, thus ensuring, as
I confidently believed, that we should keep well clear of those
pestilent dangers while the darkness lasted. Then, to add further to my
anxieties, a drizzling rain came driving down upon us, thickening the
atmosphere to such an extent that it became impossible to see anything
beyond a ship's length distant; and, after driving along through this at
a speed of about five knots for the next four hours, my nervousness
became so great that I gave orders to bring the ship to the wind an