, for
reasons best known to themselves, pitched upon Strangford Lough as
their harbour of refuge. Accordingly, we altered our course once more,
and went off before the wind. Day broke as we were still toiling ten
miles from the coast of Down. The grey dawn showed a black pile of
clouds overhead, gathering bulk from rugged masses which were driving
close and rapid from the east. By degrees the coast became distinct
from the lowering sky; and at last the sun rose lurid and large above
the weltering waters. It was ebb tide, and I represented that
Strangford bar at such a time was peculiarly dangerous in an eastern
gale; nevertheless the old sailor who was now at the helm insisted on
standing for it. When we were yet a mile distant, I could distinguish
the white horses running high through the black trembling strait, and
hear the tumult of the breakers over the dashing of our own bows.
Escape was impossible; we could never beat to sea in the teeth of such
a gale; over the bar we must go, or founder. We took in the last reef,
hauled down our jib, and, with ominous faces, saw ourselves in ten
minutes more among the cross seas and breakers.

The waters of a wide estuary running six miles an hour, and meeting
the long roll of the Channel, might well have been expected to produce
a dangerous swell; but a spring-tide, combining with a gale of wind,
had raised them at flood to an extraordinary height, and the violence
of their discharge exceeded our anticipations accordingly. We had
hardly encountered the first two or three breakers, when Ingram was
staggered from the forecastle by the buffet of a counter sea, which
struck us forward just as the regular swell caught us astern; the boat
heeled almost on her beam ends, and he fell over the cabin door into
the hold; the man at the helm was preparing for the tack as he saw his
messmate's danger, and started forward to save him: he was too late;
the poor fellow pitched upon his head and shoulders among the ballast;
at the same instant the mainsail caught the wind, the boom swung
across, and striking the helmsman on the back of the neck, swept him
half overboard, where he lay doubled across the gunnel, with his arms
and head dragging through the water, till I hauled him in. He was
stunned and nearly scalped by the blow. Ingram lay moaning and
motionless; the boat was at the mercy of the elements, while I
stretched the poor fellows side by side at our feet. I had now to take
the helm, f