THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 211 



the wishes expressed by passengers on their first 

 voyage, when a vessel is speaking at what they think 

 a most uncivil distance, that she would but come 

 nearer, particularly if the wind is light, as "there 

 can be no danger then." Little do they think that 

 when in a perfect calm the danger of contact is even 

 greatest, as, if there be wind enough to give the ves- 

 sel "steerage way," she is under control, and the 

 evil may be avoided. On this subject, and on the 

 motions of ships in calms, an unexceptionable autho- 

 rity, Captain Basil Hall, thus speaks : — 



" How it happens I do not know, but on occasions 

 of perfect calm, or such as appear to be perfect calm, 

 the ships of a fleet generally drift away from one 

 another, so that, at the end of a few hours, the whole 

 circle bounded by the horizon is speckled over with 

 these unmanageable hulks, as they may for the time 

 be considered. It will occasionally happen, indeed, 

 that two ships draw so near in a calm as to incur 

 some risk of falling on board one another. I need 

 scarcely mention that even in the smoothest water 

 ever found in the open sea, two large ships coming 

 into actual contact must prove a formidable encounter. 

 As long as they are apart, , their gentle and rather 

 graceful movements are fit subjects of admiration; 

 and I have often seen people gaze for an hour at a 

 time at the ships of a becalmed fleet, slowly twisting 

 round, changing their position, and rolling from side 

 to side as silently as if they had been in harbour, or 

 accompanied only by the faint rippling sound trip- 

 ping along the water-line, as the copper below the 

 bends alternately sunk into the sea, or rose out of it, 



