se-reefed main top-sail and fore-storm stay-sail. Then the bark was
hove to, head to wind. The wind roared and whistled through the rigging,
the waves commenced to rise rapidly and roll on deck, rain was pouring
down in torrents, and lightning seemed to be striking all around us. The
bark had a half deck extending to the main-mast. The after part was the
cabin, the rest was for storing freight. In there were several tons of
gunpowder. We did not know how soon the lightning might send us all
skyward. Partly for exercise and self-preservation, I was working with
the crew as one of them. The cook was with us also, since he had been
washed out of the galley by a heavy sea, and would take no more chances
among his pots and kettles. All hands kept aft on the vessel's
quarter-deck, no other place being safe from the heavy seas. The storm
kept increasing in violence, until finally the strain from the top-sails
bent the main-yard up and it snapped in two. All hands started aloft to
save the sails. I happened to be first, and went out to the weather
side, as is customary. When about half-way out the foot of the sail, it
flopped over the top-yard, struck me in the breast, and knocked me off
the yard. What a queer sensation I had while falling! So many thoughts
rushed through my brain in an instant, especially whether I would strike
on deck or go overboard! The vessel was heavily careened over to leeward
from the force of the wind, and luckily I struck in the lower rigging,
my arms going between the ratlins, where I hung on for life, the
pressure of the wind helping me considerably. My mishap was enough for
the other men--not one would venture on the yard. They just clung to the
rigging, and let the top-sail blow away in small pieces.

With the top-sail gone, the bark fell off into the trough of the sea.
Then the sea washed over the decks. For the first time on the ocean I
saw the experiment tried of dragging a vessel head on to sea. The end of
a large hawser was fastened to the vessel's head, the rest put
overboard, in hopes that in dragging through the water the strain would
swing us head on. It was not a success. The waves washed the hawser all
around the bark's bow and sides. If we could have once got it
straightened out, the plan might have worked. Many a shipwrecked sailor
has been saved by a similar plan, when compelled to abandon a ship and
take to a small boat, by fastening a rope to the middle of an oar and
throwing it int