14 I N A G U A 



moment we rested, eased out the sheets— they were as taut as 

 iron bars— and tacked into the storm. We were in a nasty posi- 

 tion. A wind-swept shore behind us, we did not know how far, 

 and a maze of shoals ahead. If we could only pick up a light. 

 We beat on into the teeth of the gale for shelter. At last a light- 

 Sharp's Island at the mouth of the Choptank River. We came 

 about and drove for safety. 



Minute by minute the storm increased in intensity until we 

 were the center of a blinding screaming froth of water. If the 

 Chesapeake Bay could act like this how would the mighty 

 ocean behave? We voiced a hope that we would escape any- 

 thing similar at sea and drove on in the darkness. We beat on 

 and on, barely holding our own, until a faint glimmer crept 

 through the clouds and showed the river mouth ahead. Vainly 

 we tried to tack into it. Time and time again we were beaten 

 back only to try once more. Noon came and passed and the 

 storm grew in fervor. The hour arrived when we knew we had 

 best give it up while there was still light to see. 



We anchored that night only a few yards from shore in the 

 lee of a small island some miles away. We hoped the spare 

 anchor would hold. Three days we lay back of that island wait- 

 ing for the storm to break, three days of anxiety, for we had 

 much to do before setting out into the ocean. 



If ever we should have doubted our ability to sail the isles 

 of the Indies we should have doubted it then. But we didn't. 

 The mere fact that we had weathered the gale— larger boats 

 than ours were disabled in its path— gave us confidence. 



This was only the first of a series of happenings. We had still 

 half the length of the Chesapeake to go, a full hundred miles 

 before we would be at the ocean's edge. We had yet to repaint 

 our hull with copper at the shipyard in Oxford. It seemed that 

 everything conspired against us. When we arrived at the ship- 

 yard the tide was out— driven out by the gale. It was the lowest 



