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Untitled Article
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Untitled Article
assail us ; and all hands were called on deck ,, in preparation for its burst . Each of the little vessels was hailed , with an order to shorten sail ,, and make all as snug as possible , and to keep the ship ' s lights in sight . All our smaller sails were taken in , the courses furled , and hands were stationed by the topsail sheets and halyards , ready to let go at the instant it should be necessary : clewlines and buntlines were manned ; and we lay for some minutes in a death-like and ominous calm ; not a breath of air moving ; even the feathers of the dog-vane hung stirless on flic staff ; while on came the mass of cloud in magnificent and terrible array , as it advanced swallowing every thing up in a
wide , dense , and impenetrable blackness ; till , sweeping , like one vast enveloping mantle , over the mast-heads , it descended compactly on the other side of the concave , and shut out every star and every patch of sky : then , as if the whole canopy were an ocean , the cataract torrents poured perpendicularly down , like millions and millions of steel rods shot from heaven , sparkling and glistening in the lightning ' s sharp and rapid flashes , which scathed the eyes , and plunged all our universe in palpable , thick , heavy , solid darkness , for one moment , and at another exhibited , all around , the sea one sheet of smoke , through which myriads ofupdashed spikes broke in sparkling bubble : the torrent cornea rattling down on the ship ' s decks , as if it were raining tons of pebbles ; yet all the sails lie sleeping , drenched , and dead , against the masts , for not a sigh of wind breathes into them . But now the black mass of mountain over head rolls slowly off ; and ,
between its jagged roots , a star or two appears in the grey sky , and the sails begin to nod . Hear the distant muttering : it comes , sharpening into a howl : —' tis here I ' Let fly the topsail sheets and halyards ! clew down the yards ! away aloft , men , and furl the sails ! ' and the ship rides in a cauldron of foam , though she heels to it as if she were close-hauled , and under a press of sail , in a stiff breeze ; while the fierce wind , catching at the white crests of the sea , mows them like a scythe in a grass-meadow , and scatters them , in showers of mist , as far as the eye can reach , into that blackness to leeward : but the very force of the wind
keeps the billows down ; they do not rise hi gher than the stubble in a reaped wheat-field . Oh , the poor unfortunate men in the prizes ! it is impossible such fragile and ill-found vessels can live in this furious howling and hurtling of the wind . And look around ; cast your piercing and anxious eyes every where : hundreds do so at once , with the word : —they are not to be seen Happily the fierce gale lasted but a very short time ; it Was but ii sudden and soon-spent squall ; for the clouds gathered up again in detached and smaller masses , and the descending rain subdued the wind . At length , when morning broke , three poor dismantled things were descried , far away to leeward . We bore up towards them , and found two fast sinking ; filled , literally , to the hatches
Untitled Article
Autobiography of Pel . Verjuice . £ 2 ft
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1834, page 223, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2631/page/67/
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