As darkness came on, the
wind increased, blowing a strong gale, and it blew all night. As morning
dawned a dense fog settled down over the vessel and completely obscured
everything. Soundings were taken; but the captain, who had yielded to
the seductive punch of Terrence Malone, could not determine where they
were. When daylight came the sea had changed color, which proved that
they were in shallow water. On heaving the lead it was ascertained that
they were only in twelve fathoms water.
"Wear ship!" shouted Captain Bones in a tone of thunder. The vessel was
then under such small sail that she had not headway enough to stay her.
As she answered to her helm and payed off, bringing the wind aft, high
land was seen astern. Suddenly the fog lifted. At the same instant, the
wind changed to the southwest, blowing harder. A cloud of canvas flew
into the air, and, looking up, Fernando saw it was the jib. The vessel
lost what little headway she had and drifted heavily to leeward. As the
fog cleared toward the land, they looked early in that direction and to
their dismay and horror, they saw heavy breakers beating so close to
them, that there was no room to wear the ship round. The captain at once
gave orders to clear away the anchors. A seaman went forward with an axe
to cut the lashings of the one on the port side. As soon as the cable
had been cut, the starboard anchor was sent adrift and thirty fathoms of
cable ran out.
Pages:
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211