Leaving orders to keep her "steady before it" the captain went forward
to ascertain the extent of the damage they had sustained. It was now
intensely dark, the rain falling in torrents, and lightning bolts
striking the water all around them, accompanied by fearful and incessant
peals of thunder. A human voice could not have been heard five paces
away. The wind, which fairly roared through the shrouds, and the deluge
of water upon the deck, were enough of themselves to drown any voice. By
flashes of lightning, the captain soon ascertained that they were
comparatively unharmed, and their spars were safe. Gathering his
frightened crew and officers about him, he succeeded at length in
freeing the decks of water by knocking out the ports on either side.
They next sounded the pumps, and found three feet of water in the well.
Immediately double pumps were rigged, and the steady clinking of brakes
added to the noises and terror of the scene.
It was a fearful night, and Captain Lane prayed Heaven that he might
never see such another.
About half an hour after the squall first struck them--the captain of
the _Ocean Star_ was standing with his two officers on the quarter-deck,
"conning the vessel by the feel of the wind and rain," keeping her dead
before the gale--when there came a flash and a peal which made them
cower almost to the decks.
"My God!" was the simultaneous exclamation of all.
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