THE CLOUDS AND WAVES 115 



size of those craft and their utterly inadequate pro- 

 tection against the attack of seas which sufficiently 

 test splendidly marine structures of our day, we cannot 

 wonder that such stories were firmly believed in. There 

 can, indeed, be very little doubt but that those tiny 

 craft were often overwhelmed by the furious broken 

 seas in such a manner that they disappeared from view, 

 and only reappeared at some distant spot, generally in 

 pieces. What wonder, then, that they were credited 

 with having made a long journey through vast caverns 

 at the bottom of the sea ! 



Such dangerous congeries of waves are not, un- 

 happily, confined to narrow waters ; but where the great 

 ocean currents, such as the Gulf Stream or the Agulhas 

 current, glide along and are met or crossed by a gale, 

 the tumult of the distracted waves is fearful to behold. 

 There are few sailors experienced in Southern Seas who 

 would not prefer to meet the mighty but regular waves 

 off* Cape Horn rather than the shorter, less lofty, but 

 erratic seas of the Cape of Good Hope. And that for 

 the reason already given, the impossibility of placing 

 the ship so that she shall receive every wave where 

 she is best fitted to bear its blow. Let me explain. 

 Ships are built to breast the waves with their bows, so 

 that, whether they are driving into the sea, or the sea 

 is rushing on to them, the result is the same, the bows 

 rise to the sea. If, however, the ship does not ru** 

 away from a following sea fast enough, when it over- 

 takes her, instead of raising her stern, as it would her 

 bow, it depresses the after-end of her, rushes on board, 

 and does damage proportioned to its weight. The 

 same thing happens, of course, when a vessel tries to 

 go or is driven by the wind astern against a heavy sea. 



