VOYAGE TO ALGERIA. 109 
alarmed inquiries immediately followed. Amid the noises^) 
I heard one note of forced laughter; it sounded very 
ghastly. Men tramped through the saloon, and busy 
voices were heard aft, as if something there had gone wrong. 
I rose, and not without difficulty got into my clothes. 
In the after-cabin, under the superintendence of the able 
and energetic navigating lieutenant, Mr. Brown, a group 
of blue-jackets were working- at the tiller-ropes. These 
had become loose, and the helm refused to answer the 
wheel. High moral lessons might be gained on shipboard, 
by observing what steadfast adherence to an object can 
accomplish, and what large effects are heaped up by the 
addition of infinitesimals. The tiller-rope, as the blue- 
jackets strained in concert, seemed hardly to move; still it 
did move a little, until finally, by timing the pull to the 
lurching of the ship, the mastery of the rudder was ob- 
tained. I had previously gone on deck. Round the 
saloon-door were a few members of the eclipse party, who 
seemed in no mood for scientific observation. Nor did I; 
but I wished to see the storm. I climbed the steps to 
the poop, exchanged a word with Captain Toynbee, the 
only member of the party to be seen on the poop, and by 
his direction made toward a cleat not far from the wheel.* 
Round it I coiled my arms. With the exception of 
the men at the wheel, who stood as silent as corpses, I 
was alone. 
I had seen grandeur elsewhere, but this was a new form 
of grandeur to me. The Urgent is long and narrow, 
and during our expedition she lacked the steadying 
influence of sufficient ballast. She was for a time practi- 
cally rudderless, and lay in the trough of the sea. I could 
see the long ridges, with some hundreds of feet between 
their crests, rolling upon the ship perfectly parallel to her 
sides. As they approached, they so grew upon the eye as 
to render the expression " mountains high " intelligible. 
At all events, there was no mistaking their mechanical 
might, as they took the ship upon their shoulders, and ,/ 
swung her like a pendulum. The deck sloped sometimes 
at an angle which I estimated at over forty-five degrees; 
wanting my previous Alpine practice, I should have felt 
less confidence in my grip of the cleat. Here and there 
* The cleat is a T-shaped n^ 88 of metal employed for the fasten- 
ing of ropes. 
