Early Morn in the North 147 



signs of being unequal to its weight. Long before midnight sundry- 

 other catastrophes had occurred. Mr. Jonas Lodge, shouting that he 

 too was a master mariner with many years' experience of northern 

 seas, had struck the first mate, ostensibly for insubordination. The 

 cargo in the after hold had shifted, causing an awkward list to port 

 that could only be counteracted by coming partially about and try- 

 ing to run across the wind. In maneuvering, the mizzen had blown 

 clean out of the deck, carrying away some of the mainstays, and 

 while effecting repairs in the total darkness, two men had been lost 

 overboard as the ship drifted athwart the sea. But much worse was 

 disclosed as soon as visibility returned. 



To port and starboard and all ahead, ragged islands and a cruelly 

 indented coast line appeared among a foaming line of storm-tossed 

 sea. At the first cry from the lookout, who had had to be lashed to 

 the samson-post to avoid being swept overboard, the captain him- 

 self flung the wheel hard over in an effort to come about and lay-to, 

 facing the oncoming sea, but without a mizzen the stem-heavy Mar- 

 tha Marguerite would respond only just so far, and there, rolling 

 like a log and to a dangerous angle on the leeside, she wallowed while 

 the pure force of the wind drove her broadside towards the rocks, 

 still only half seen in the first morning light. And so it was that 

 Captain Stanley Burkett found himself faced with two alternatives: 

 to founder either by default, because he could no longer make way 

 against the storm, or by design. He chose the latter course and him- 

 self staggered forward, shouting commands to set all canvas the 

 mainmast would carry. 



If they must run ashore in a raging storm, still it was better to try 

 to pick their own place to do so. Then again, nobody knew what 

 land this was that seemed to have risen suddenly out of what ought 

 to have been open sea, and there just might be a channel or a fjord 

 leading into it which could be navigated even with a crippled ship 

 at the mercy of the wind. And Captain Burkett was at first lucky, 

 because in the gray murk he soon espied a break in the coast to- 

 wards which he instantly gave directions to steer. This proved to be 

 a wide channel into which the waves rolled in orderly procession. 

 Deep water obviously led through the channel between the tower- 

 ing cliffs, and the battered ship drove rapidly towards this apparent 

 haven. But, alas, the captain's luck did not hold, for when they 



