reat,
indeed, was my anxiety that I found it impossible to quit the deck for a
moment, although my subordinates were thoroughly steady, trustworthy
men, and had far more experience than myself. With the men forward it
was totally different. Their minds were thoroughly imbued with the
seaman's maxim: "Let those look out who have the watch," and those whose
watch it was below turned in without the slightest hesitation or qualm
of anxiety, trusting implicitly to those in charge of the deck to do
everything that might be necessary to ensure the safety of the ship.

To me it seemed as though that terrible night would never end, and even
when at length the hour of dawn arrived there was no perceptible
amelioration in the conditions. The darkness remained as intense as it
had been at midnight, and it was not until eight bells--in this case
eight o'clock in the morning--that a feeble glimmer of daylight came
filtering through the opaque blackness of the firmament over our heads,
dimly revealing the shapeless masses of flying cloud and scud, and
permitting us to view our surroundings for a space of about a quarter of
a mile. But, contracted as was our view, it was more than sufficient to
impress us with a deep and overwhelming sense of the impotence of man in
the presence of God's power as manifested in this appalling
demonstration of elemental fury. Now, even more than during the hours
of darkness, did we appear to be constantly on the point of being lifted
out of the water by the terrific strength of the wind. As often as the
schooner was hove up on the summit of a sea, and thus exposed to the
full force of the hurricane, we could feel her tremble and perceptibly
lift when the wind struck her beneath her upturned bilge. As for the
sea, I had never seen anything like it before, nor have I since. When
people desire to convey the idea of an exceptionally heavy sea they
speak of it as running "mountains high". In the case of which I am now
speaking the expression appeared to be no exaggeration at all, for as
wave after wave came sweeping down upon us with uplifted, menacing
crest, looking up to that crest from the liquid valley in front of it
seemed like gazing up the side of a mountain which was threatening to
fall upon us and crush us to atoms. Indeed, the wild upward sweep of
the schooner, heeling almost to her beam ends as she was flung aloft
upon the breast of the onrushing wave, was an experience terrifying
enough